Category Archive for "Lessons Learned" | LifeTeen.com for Catholic Youth

You Can’t Make Me Be Catholic: When Faith is Forced on You

I’m kind of a quitter, guys… I think, in my childhood, I tried almost everything once, and then quit almost everything. There was soccer, in 2nd and 3rd grade. I was the goalie because I hate running… Turns out, even the goalie has to run at practice. That was about […]

What Makes You Awesome

by Kelly Colangelo

I’m not good enough. I’m not strong enough. I’m not cool enough. Nobody loves me. These little voices use to mull around in my brain on a daily basis. Am I enough? I remember hanging out with my friends and watching how their awesomeness shined through them. This was a […]

The God of Sticky Notes

by Emily Pellarin

Two weeks ago, I woke up to no less than nine sticky notes posted in the bathroom. Each of them, brightly colored, framed the mirror above my sink. It took me a moment to realize they were even there (I am not a morning person) and another couple of minutes […]

The Year I Stopped Stealing

by Alison Blanchet

In college, I learned I had been stealing. Not shoplifting. Not downloading music illegally (that wasn’t even really possible with our dial-up internet.) Not even neglecting to claim my tips as a waitress (the computer made us to it.) My senior year of college, I realized I was stealing from the poor.

Rest Here.

by Kelly Colangelo

Have you ever had a day where you felt like it would never stop? Test after test, friendship and relationship struggles, projects, practices, games… you get the point. I’ve experienced days like that and they are insanely busy, tiring, and just kind of annoying. Often times I wondered, “What if I just ran from all of it?”

You’ve God Your Dad’s Eyes

by Ray Bosch

The good we see in each other is the evidence that we are God’s creation. If we fail to see that in one another then it’s a simple lack of clarity, not gift. What I notice more than anything even as I write this, is what a necessity it is for us to understand who we are and therefore who were called to be.

A Masked Mess

by Joseph Schlueter

We put on this tough exterior in order to try and hide what is really going on. We try to broadcast something completely different from what’s going on in the inside. We think that if someone knew what we really felt, what we really experienced, what we’ve really done, then we would be cast out. That no one could possibly love us.

I’m Imperfect. And That’s Okay.

by Mark Bocinsky

This false life of never enough permeates every aspect of our culture. When we pick out what to wear to school we ask, “Will others notice me?” When we step into the locker room to change out for sports we compare our body with that of others. When we get report cards… sports awards… drama or music evaluations… We are never enough. And when we do excel, there’s always some way we can (and “should”) improve.

This never enough culture consumes us with shame. We feel that we are never enough and so we believe that we are not enough.

Jesus Ruined My Senior Year

by Mark Hart

It was a Saturday night and I was completely alone. I had cash in my pocket and gas in my truck but I had no friends anymore. The phone was not ringing. The silence was a deafening reminder to how ‘sad’ my social life had become in a very short amount of time. This had never happened to me in my previous three years of high school. My senior year was supposed to be epic! Instead it was growing increasingly lonely and there was only one person to blame: Jesus.

4 Things I Learned When I Saw Pope Francis

by Maddy Bernero

This summer I had the opportunity to go to Campobasso, Italy as the youth ambassador and representative for the United States, to meeting of Italian immigrant descendants from the Italian region of Molise. I was excited to learn about my heritage, but I became ecstatic when I learned Pope Francis […]

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