Opening Prayer A Summer Blessing

Theme One Finding Your Path in Life

Ice Breaker What do you find most challenging about planning what you’ll do after high school? Why? What do you find most scary about facing the future after you graduate from high school? If you could ask your older-wiser future self one specific question in the next 5 years, what would you like to know about your future? What would you not want to know about it, even if you could? Why?

“I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. Plans of fullness, not of harm, to give you a future and a hope…”

Only love lasts forever! Pope John Paul II Meaning in life –Your main purpose and mission –Why you are here Vocation –Your calling and commitment to a specific way of life Ministry –Your occupation and the other ways you regularly reach out to help others Lifestyle –How you structure your life according to your values and priorities

Why am I here? God Our beginning Gives our life meaning our destiny Makes possible Human relationships and achievements

What’s love got to do with it? Tina Turner Nothing is so important and powerful as love. Love is a basic human need. Being loved energizes us to love. Love is the most powerful, creative force. Love is why we are here!

Group sharing When have you felt unloved? –How did you feel? –What caused you to feel that way? –What helped you to get over that feeling? How have you seen someone change for the better in a good love relationship? Why does love give people physical strength, as well as emotional and psychological courage? How does lack of love affect our society and world?

You never walk alone!

Vocation – our call to love Vocation is our calling in life. The essence of everyone’s basic vocation is love. God calls each of us to a particular vocation.

Some important terms… Commitment Deacon layperson Dedication to fulfilling a responsibility or obligation; a promise or pledge to do something A person ordained to perform certain clerical functions A member of the Church community who is not an ordained minister

Loving yourself You bring who you are as a person to your relationships and to all you do in life. –Can we really love another person if we don’t love ourselves? What does loving yourself really mean? –Caring responsibly about your physical, psychological, social, and spiritual welfare.

Healthy self-love Believe in yourself and your unique value as a person. Accept and respect yourself. Care about your total welfare, but don’t worry about it constantly.

Make a choice….today! To accept myself more, I will… To be more honest, I will… To be less superficial, I will…

Where there is not love, put love, and you will find love. St. John of the Cross

Believe in God…Believe, too, in yourself! Belief in oneself; Self-respect Belief in one’s abilities; Self-assurance

What’s the opposite? Self-centeredness; Conceit; Distorted or exaggerated sense of one’s own importance, abilities, appearances, etc.

Examples… Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady The prostitute Aldonza in Don Quixote The hooker Vivian in Pretty Woman

How? Focus on your pluses. See yourself as confident. Reach out. Remember how God and others love you!

Self-Esteem Self Test ss_page/index.htm?idRegTest=720

Loving God We learn human loving from the way God has first loved us. How do we return God’s love? How can we love someone we can’t see? How can someone vow themselves to a lover they can’t see?

Wherever you give and experience genuine love, you meet God.

To love another person is to see the face of God. - Jean Valjean, Les Miserables “Broadway wisdom”

Find/download/print out “Footprints”. “Prayer on My Dossier”