The Elect

I am not always the most optimistic of people in life. I often times find the glass half empty instead of half full, but recently I experienced an event where my glass and the glass of those around me was overflowing.

I have the amazing opportunity to journey to the Easter Vigil with a young man who has not yet been baptized. This month in the Diocese of Dallas was the "Right of Election" a time that catechumens(non baptized) are acknowledged before their own Church and later that day in front of Bishop for their preparation towards entering the Church. 

What an experience it was to be next to this young man when he stood before the Bishop at the Cathedral. He was beaming with excitement and joy throughout the entire process. I often take being baptized as a baby for granted. Most things I grew up with in the Church are foreign to these Catechumens. It makes me sit back and reflect upon the gift of faith. It makes me love my faith even more. 

Although the journey for this young man who was elected into the Church on Sunday has just begun, we pray that the good work that began in him and the good work that is happening in us continues in all our lives. For now we keep on waiting with joyful expectation as we journey through the desert with Christ, towards the light of the Resurrection at Easter. 

What Is Lent Really About?

I love my job as a youth minister! I especially love the insights that teens give me on different subjects because teenagers are so real and don't hold back anything or any thought! I recently had a conversation with some teens about Lent and what it really means.

While talking about Lent, one teen commented and said, "Well I guess it is that time of year for me to give up my chocolate." This comment caught me off guard at first. I thought to myself surely these teens don't think that Lent is simply about giving up chocolate! 

The more I talked with other teens the more I realized, that is exactly what they think Lent is about. All of them talked about how Lent is the time where you give up things that you like to eat or do, but didn't know anything about the season.

Thank goodness for the Church which tells us what Lent is truly about. Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving. 

Prayer- 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says, "pray without ceasing." We see Jesus in the Gospel praying all the time. He would go to a remote place and pray. We see in Jesus a man who was praying so intently before he was going to give us his life for all us that he sweat blood! This inspires me this Lent to step up my prayer. Lent is about spending more time in prayer centering ourselves on Christ and surrendering our lives to him. If you don't have a regular prayer life take this Lent to start one. I recently did a P90X workout, which helps you to strengthen your body. 

This Lent I encourage to do P40X(Prayer for 40 days). Strengthen your spiritual lives. Maybe you dont know where to start? Start by setting aside a time each day to pray. Read Scripture, journal, pray the Rosary, go to Mass, or spend time in silence. The important thing, in the words of Nike, is to "Just Do It," - go out and pray.

Fasting- We take our lead once again from Christ. He entered into the desert for 40 days and fasted. Fasting not only helps us become more self disciplined, but also gives us self control. Fasting is always a tough thing for us, but isn't it so comforting that around the world on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday in Lent I am joined by over 1 billion other Catholics fasting! Image if we all take this opportunity to allow this fasting to strengthen us and help us build our spiritual lives. The same is true from abstaining from meats on Friday. Lets take the opportunity to let these things transform us for the better. So there is nothing bad about giving up chocolate, just make sure that this is something that is going to draw you closer to Christ and not some mindless choice you do every year. 

Almsgiving- I believe we forget about this aspect of Lent the most! I know the last thing that you want to hear is that you have to give more money out of your pocket! Well there is good news and bad news here. Yes, we do need to give financially to the Church, it is one of the precepts of the Church, (if you dont know the 5 precepts, stop and look them up now!) but we can also give in our time that we can donate to the Church. As my mom always says, "there is one thing that we can't get back in life and that is our time." The great news is that if there is one place that I would love to spend my time it is for the Church. Another great thing to do during Lent is to donate your skills to the Church. The Church is always in need of help so if you have a skill set offer it to the Church!

The great thing about these three aspects of Lent is that these things do not have to stop at the end of Lent. This is a way we can live and unite our lives to Christ every day. Now go be holy. Happy Lent!

Does Your Baby Have A Twitter?

My wife is not very surprised when I do absolutely crazy things in my life. I have always lived on the edge and that is one of the reasons she loves me. Since the birth of our first child, Dominic Peter Scancella 8 lbs. 11 ounces born on November 6th 2012, otherwise known as "Election Day" things have definitely changed. Let me first say, they have changed for the better, there are definitely challenging times, but I would not trade my son for the world! I love him with all my heart.

I think my wife realized just how crazy I was when I told her about a week before the birth that I thought it would be cool to live tweet the birth of our first child. Her response was laughing and shaking her head at me. When the time came the birth was live tweeted and I do have to say, went awesome! Here are a few gems from the birth:

You now see what my wife has to put up with on a daily basis. She is a saint and I take credit for making her one through my personality!

The other thing that my wife just shook her had at is when I told her that I made a twitter for our one month old son. All judging aside. This has been our way to share the joy our child brings to us everyday. I know if I could speak baby talk my son would be saying the same things that I am tweeting! We can use media for good to build up one another, to bring joy, or we can tear down one another with media. I hope on this day we all use media for good! So to close out this blog here are a few gems from my son on twitter. Follow him at @babydominicpete

Wishing, and hoping, and thinking, and praying!

 I heard this Dusty Springfield song this morning called,"Wishing & Hoping", which starts off with the lyrics, "Wishing and hoping and thinking and praying." I was shocked at how the first line of that song struck me to the core. Why you may ask.....well let me tell you.

Wishing~ As kids we wish upon shooting stars, and we make many birthday wishes, but what happens when we make it to adulthood? I know for a good part of my adulthood I stopped wishing and did more doing. As a a kid you believe that miracles can happen to you and somehow as we grow up we lose a lot of belief that miracles can happen. Take a moment to be a kid again. I don't mean close your eyes and wish for a pony, but I do mean believe in the fact that we can have dreams and they do come true! Case and point I married the love of my life and we are about to have our first child!

Hoping~ My wife will tell you, I am not a very hopeful person all the time. She says the glass is half full and I say half empty. She says the sun will come up tomorrow(or maybe that was Annie) and I say no it will rain on our parade forever. But, one line of Scripture changed my life. Romans 5:5, "...Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the holy Spirit that has been given to us." It does not disappoint! God does not disappoint! It may not turn out the way we thought, but we all must have is hope!

Thinking~ I think way too much! I know a lot of us do, but I really do. When my wife felt her first braxton-hix contraction, I freaked out! I was thinking at 100 mph. I was packing the bag, pulling up the car....heck I was ready to steal some older persons wheelchair plop my wife into it and go to the hospital, and that is why I shouldn't think. Well maybe that is overdoing it but that is why I should think about things that matter and not waste all my time thinking about things that I can't change!

Praying~ I talk a lot about prayer and in my job I am constantly telling people to pray, but how often do I stop and actually pray? The truth- not as often as I should! I should take some of my own advice and realize that you should never talk more about Jesus than you do to Jesus!

All that said I really wish, hope, think, and pray that our baby comes into the world very soon! Please join me in doing the same.

John Paul II

In 1995 I was 10 years old, and I remember to this day watching the Holy Father on TV say Mass at Giant Stadium in New Jersey. I thought it was cool on many levels. Not only was the Pope in the visiting the best state, New Jersey, but he was celebrating Mass in a PACKED FOOTBALL STADIUM! What an amazing man Blessed John Paul II was! I knew someone that attend that Mass at Giant stadium who sat at the very top in the nosebleed section. That person told me that although they sat at the furtherest point from the Holy Father they said they felt like they knew him, they felt like he was their best friend. He just had that type of personality.

October 22nd was the Feast day of Blessed John Paul II. Not only was he an inspiration to me in youth ministry, he is an inspiration to me and many others as a man of God. So let us all ask for the intercession of Blessed John Paul II!

Faithfullness

Four years go I spent a semester in Austria for school. It was the most amazing semester of my life. I met new people, my future wife, and was able to travel to tons of places. A truly amazing semester.

When I  share with people that I traveled for an entire semester, their first question I always get is where was your favorite place that you traveled to? It is a tough questions, I went so many places, and loved all of them. I loved going to Assisi and seeing Francis home,  beautiful Split, Croatia, or even going to the Guinness factory in Ireland, but without a doubt if I could go to one place and just spend all day there would be St. Peters Basilica.

Now I know that seems like a very Catholic thing to say, you get to see the tombs of the Pope's, The Sistine Chapel, or St. Peters square, but the one place I could sit at for hours is at the back of St.Peters Basilica is a statue of a woman, holding a man in her arms. The, woman in that statue is Mary, and the man is Jesus, and the name of the statue is the "Pieta." The Pieta is a gorgeous statue, and the word Pieta is translated in English means "faithfulness."

I have been a youth minister for a few years now, and I always thought being a youth minister faithfulness would be easy. This was not the case for many of us. Sometimes God places you somewhere in life that is not easy to be. Like right now for me, it is not easy for me to wait for the birth of our first child. All the questions that go through my head each second of everyday. Will I be a good dad? Will my child like me? Will my child think Im as funny as I know I am? Hopefully my child will answer yes to them all!

Still, through all this, God reminds me to be faithful. To be like our Mother Mary, who was faithful from the very beginning to very end. I remember standing in front of the pieta statue years ago and asking for the grace to have faith like Our Blessed Virgin Mary showed throughout her life. I realize now, that I will always pray for the "faithfulness" to live my life for Christ and His Church! I pray for you, and for us all that we can be faithful to whatever God may call us to in life!

Easter Baby!

Recently my wife and I found out that we are having a baby. Besides, the day I got married it has been one of the greatest days of my life . The whole process of having a baby is so surreal. You are no longer responsible for just your decisions, but now an entire other life.

Now we celebrate as a Church the Resurrection of Christ, and I cannot help but unite this to the entire experience of pregnancy. Just as Christ suffered, I see at times my wife suffering. Just as a Church we waited on Holy Saturday for Christ's glorious Resurrection, my wife and I wait for the birth of our first child. And just as we joined as a Church on Saturday night in darkness but finished in the glorious light of Christ, my wife and I cannot wait for the light of the birth of our first Child.

In todays society our Catholic faith is under attack. The rights to our Catholic faith are becoming harder live out in todays society. I see that first hand in the OBGYN field, where doctors are forced to compromise their morals everyday. So, what hope do we have? Why should we keep going? Why should I have my child enter into this messed up world? St. Augustine answers these questions by saying, "We are an Easter people and Hallelujah is our song." Hallelujah is a noun meaning "God be praised", or used to express praise and joy! We must be an Easter people who express our joy and praise in all situations and all times.

October 31st is my wife due date, and we wait in joyful expectation of the birth of our child, a child which I pray knows the love of Christ, and that Hallelujah is all of our songs!

Happy Easter & Hallelujah!