The Close of Year 1.0 of Sandusky Life Teen!
By Caitlin Dudenhoefer

May 17th

Wow! A whole year has come and gone! It is hard to believe that Sandusky Life Teen has been around for a whole year now! Last Sunday was the last Life Teen until next fall. Awards were presented at Mass to all of the Core Team members and adults who made this first amazing year of Sandusky Life Teen possible. All of us teens are grateful for all y'all have done and the ways y'all have helped each one of us grow in our faith and closer to God. Life Night was a bitter-sweet celebration as we watched a slide show of all the Life Teen events that occurred throughout the year. For dinner, we enjoyed delicious hamburgers, hotdogs, cheesy potatoes, and a whole array of other mouth- watering foods and sweets graciously provided by Mr. B., or "Chef B.", and his co-chefs. Everyone talked about the wonderful times we had this year with Sandusky Life Teen and discussed summer plans with friends as we ate. Have a great summer everyone! See y'all next fall for year two of Sandusky Life Teen!

Dis-stress
By Alyssa Puckrin

May 3rd

Tonight's Life Night was called Dis-Stress. We played fun games like hot potato and musical chairs. We even had a bubble-wrap popping contest! After that, Kara Goff gave a talk about different ways to de-stress our lives, especially with prayer. To demonstrate different ways we are stressed in life, the Core Team members hung up posters with various causes of stress written on them. The boys were each given 5 green stickers, the girls pink, and the Core Team members yellow. It was a good way to see who was stressed out more by what. After that, we had a discussion of the more "popular" stressers and ways to de-stress. We had a sandwich bar for dinner, and ice cream for dessert.

Don't forget to send pictures of your mom for next week's special Mother's Day Mass! There will not be a Life Night on Mother's Day. The 17th will be the last Lifeteen Mass and Life Night, so be sure to join in!!!

Nailed
By Caitlin Dudenhoefer

April 26th

Life Teen on Sunday, April 26 opened up with a fun poking game, in which you and a partner locked hands and tried to poke each other. Chad Edwards won the game and after many laughs and giggled we settled down to hear his talk. Chad talked about suffering; how it came about and what its purpose is. He began with a skit on Adam and Eve and the Fall of Man. This skit illustrated that before Adam and Eve sinned, there was no suffering. Everything was perfect and Adam and Eve had everything they needed. After the Fall, suffering entered the world. Chad went on to say that before Jesus died on the Cross for our sins, people would suffer, but it would have no meaning. By dying on the Cross, Jesus gave our suffering meaning: to unite ourselves to Him and His suffering so as to draw closer to Him and obtain eternal life in Heaven. After Chad's talk, we broke off into four small groups. In our small groups, we discussed ways that we as teenagers suffer. We also wrote prayers to say to ourselves during those times we are suffering. Then, we took pieces from the prayers of every member of the small group and put it together in a big prayer for our whole small group, which Heather Gerber kindly typed and printed off for us. After small groups, we joined together to see an awesome music video by Fr. Stan Fortuna and said our closing prayer.

Prove It!
By Alyssa Puckrin

April 19th

Rachel Polinski led tonight’s life night. The life night was called “Prove It”, and we looked into proving the existence of God. We watched a video on three ways to prove God's existence, through desire, intelligence, and contingency. We later broke into small groups to discuss our own ways of God proving His existence. My personal way for proving God's existence is love, because God is love, and Jesus died as the greatest act of love. If people agree that love exists, it is reasonable to then say God exists as well. We sang "Yahweh" by U2, and then had a fun dinner of baked potatoes.

Don't forget, no life night on Mother's Day, but join in for the special
Mother's Day Mass on May 10!

Holy Week
By Caitlin Dudenhoefer

April 5th

Since it was the beginning of Holy Week, the focus of this Sunday's Life Teen was the Tritium: Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. We went around to different stations and heard talks about different aspects of Holy week, said prayers, sang songs, and participated in Adoration and Veneration of the Cross. One thing we learned is that Good Friday is the only day of the year that Mass is not said in the Catholic Church. We were encouraged to make Holy Week different than any other week. That way, we can share in the same Easter joys that the Apostles and first friends of Jesus felt when Jesus rose on the First Easter!

Social Night
By Alyssa Puckrin

March 29th

Tonight’s LifeTeen was a social night. We played fun games and had a yummy make-your-own-sandwich dinner. Since about 30 teens arrived back from the LifeTeen retreat in Carey last week, we had a picture slideshow (with some really amazing pictures, whoever took them did a really good job!!!!!!), and some of the people who went on retreat shared their experiences. The social night was a fun time to hang out with friends and get to know new ones, too! Please come to the Living Stations of the Cross on Good Friday!

Unstoppable - Spring Retreat
By Caitlin Dudenhoefer

March 21-21

The first ever LifeTeen retreat was a sensation! Teens heard awesome talks from the leaders about parts of their spiritual journeys and how they compared to St. Paul's spiritual journey. We also participated in the sacrament of Reconciliation, Adoration, praying the Rosary, and Mass. The teens broke off into small groups as well during the day and participated in awesome discussions and fun activities, like building tents with handicaps ( for example; being unable to use your arms). In between the sessions each day, we were able to play games, talk, go to the gift shop near the Basilica, and take time to go off on our own and spend time with God. Many lasting friendships and memories were made. No one will forget singing and dancing to "Jesus is a Friend of Mine", staying up until two in the morning trying to figure out Chad's traveling game, or the wonderful and deep small group discussions. Every teen came out of this retreat healed in some way and closer to God than they were when they first arrived. Thank you to all who were praying for us during the retreat as well as those who coordinated the retreat and made it not only possible, but a wonderful experience for all involved.

Know Your Momma
By Alyssa Puckrin

March 15th

Tonight's LifeTeen was really cool! We had a live telecast via Skype with Philip Smith, a seminarian in Rome. He gave us a talk about Mary, and afterwards we were able to ask questions! We could even hear the bells ringing from St. Peter's Basilica in Rome...the same bells the Pope hears every day! Phil talked to us about the importance of praying the Rosary and how it is not just repeating prayers over and over. We ended our night with a chicken and pasta dinner. Hope to see you at the next LifeTeen (March 29) or at the UNSOPPABLE retreat this weekend! Remember, due to the retreat, no LifeTeen this Sunday.

Who Are You?
By Caitlin Dudenhoefer

March 8th

The theme for this Life Night was identity. Chad Edwards and Rachel Polinski began the night with an Oprah skit. The main message of the skit was that most people are searching for who they are and what their purpose in life is. After the skit, we watched a short film clip in which a priest spoke about our identity in relation to God, our Heavenly Father. The priest emphasized the fact that we are children of God created in his image and likeness. When the clip was over, Chad and Rachel elaborated a bit more on what the priest said. Thy ten divided us teens into a boys group and a girls group for small group discussion. The girls had an awesome discussion on what the world tried to tell us our identities should be and how society pressures us to be "perfect". We also prayed for each other's needs; asking God to help us with the things occurring in our lives and that he would give us the strength to follow his plan for our lives and empower us to become the women he wants us to be. When we finished our small group discussions, the boys and girls joined up again to end the night with a powerful adoration experience.

Social Night
By Alyssa Puckrin

March 1st

Tonight’s Life Night was a social night. After Mass, many teens gathered in the gym to play games, have fun, and eat. There was a Wii and various other video games, foosball, cornhole, board games, and card games. I was even able to learn a new card game called Mow (it was really fun, and also quite hilarious, but I am not very good at it!) We ate yummy Mexican food prepared by Mrs. London and Mrs. Puckrin. There was also a create-your-own sundae bar! It was fun to be able to socialize with so many people who share the same faith!

True Love
By Caitlin Dudenhoefer

February 22nd

Tonight we were joined from the youth group from St. Peters in Huron. It was a lot of fun spending the evening with them! We kicked off the night with a fun (and funny) game of telephone. After a few laughs and giggles, everyone calmed down to hear Rachel Polinski's talk. Rachel talked with us about the Catholic Church's views on sex and the true definitions of love, chastity, and abstinence. The Catholic church teaches that sex is a gift exchanged between a man and woman in which they give themselves completely to each other. Their love for each other is so powerful and great that another life is formed. I found Rachel's way of phrasing this beautiful! Rachel also said that the Catholic Church teaches that sex should be kept within a marriage not because they want to impose a lot of rules on us or because sex is bad, but because otherwise it is selfish. If sex is not kept between a man and woman who have made the decision to be with each other and love each other for the rest of their lives and if the man and woman involved do not plan to work together to raise any children that will be born as a result of their actions, then they are not truly giving themselves completely to each other and they are actually abusing and taking advantage of one another because they are not using this beautiful gift the way God intended. As Rachel phrased it, true love is complete and unselfish giving of oneself for the good of another. One way of expressing this love is chastity, or the practice of limited sex. This shows just as much love as sex because it makes the times you do have sex more meaningful if you are able to say no other times. Chastity is often confused with abstinence, or the practice of not having sex at all. For unmarried men and women, abstinence is the best way to show someone you love them because it shows that you love them enough to not abuse them and that you respect them and their body. After Rachel's speech, we broke off into small groups. In our small groups, we looked at some questions regarding our relationships with members of the opposite sex. The questions were thought provoking and raised good discussion in my small group. We ended the night by pledging to respect, honor, and protect the chastity of members of the opposite sex. We also received medals as a reminder of this pledge.

TRI
By Alyssa Puckrin

February 15th

Tonight we learned about the Holy Trinity. We learned two fun Greek words, ousia, meaning nature, and hypostasis, meaning person. The Trinity is one ousia, three hypostasis. Chad Edwards was the speaker for the night, and he did a fabulous job. We played a fun 6-legged race (with three people, for the Trinity!). I was one of the volunteers for the race. It was really fun, and we had to hobble, jump, hop, etc. around the tables and at three separate points sing a song (I love you, you love me; I'm a little teapot; and Itsy bitsy spider). After a further in-depth lesson about the Trinity, we played a game of This or That to get into our small groups. In our small groups, we discussed our favorite Person in the Trinity, as well as the Person we have the hardest time understanding. When we were all back in the gym, we sang some Trinity-inspired songs and said a prayer to the People of the Trinity. Afterwards, we had a delicious dinner and some of us stayed around talking for a while before we went home. It was a wonderful life night!

Got Faith?
By Caitlin Dudenhoefer

February 8th

This week, the topic for Life Teen was faith. Once all the teens were gathered, we were split into teams. Our mission was to build a boat using newspaper, pipe cleaners, clothespins, straws and other odd materials provided. After the boats were made, we put them in water and the teams raced them against each other. This part was tricky because we were not allowed to use our hands. It was very neat to see all the creative boats that the different teams made and very funny to watch the different teams try to make their boats move across the water. Once the races were finished, Chad Edwards talked with the teens about faith. He compared faith to a river because both faith and rivers flow in one direction (our faith flows towards God) and both have a beginning and a final destination (Our final destination in faith is Heaven). Chad said that the rocks that we find in rives are like sins that slow us down and harm us along our faith journey and the forks that we find in rivers are like temptations and distractions that lead us in the wrong direction in our faith. After Chad's awesome talk, we renewed our Baptismal vows with Father Dave and received our own containers of Holy Water. Then, we split into small groups and discussed where we are in our own faith life, who the people are that inspire us in our faith, and what we do, or can do, to share our faith with others. After our small group discussions, the teens gathered back together and we closed the night with a beautiful song lead by Heather Gerber. Everyone had an awesome time! Hope you can join us next week! Invite a friend!

Right to Life
By Caitlin Dudenhoefer

January 25th

At Life Teen, we discussed the Right to Life March in Washington D.C, which had occurred that past Thursday, and about respecting life from conception until natural death. Bella London, Marty Burns, and Olivia Cundiff talked about their experiences at the Right to Life March. They talked about the powerful experiences they had at the Holocaust Museum and the powerful witness of the hundreds of thousands of people who marched to support life and protest the evils of abortion and the Roe Vs. Wade Supreme Court decision to legalize it in the United States. I also went on the Right to Life March and can testify to what a wonderful experience it was. My group went to Mass and saw a few memorials and the outside of the White House. Mass was powerful because we got to receive Jesus and have Him within us as we marched to protest abortion.

After the discussion, all the teens went to the Holy Angels gathering space and watched the movie "Bella". This movie is about a woman who becomes pregnant, loses her job, and is considering having an abortion, but her friend helps her and tries to convince her not to have an abortion by showing her what having a loving family is like. The evening was fun and I hope you can join us next Sunday! Don't forget to bring a friend!

Lectio Divina
By Alyssa Puckrin

January 11th

This week’s Life Night was fun and helped everyone to grow spiritually. To start off the night, we played a movie line trivia game, moderated by Chad Edwards and Rachel Polinski. Chad did a great job with the voices! We split into two teams, and seniors and sophomores won! Afterwards, we learned about Lectio Divina (Divine Reading). Colleen Wellington, Fr. Dave, and Morgan Linden all shared on how to use Lecito Divina to read the Bible and grow closer to Christ. After that, we were given some papers with Bible verses, and we spread out to practice Lectio Divina on our own. It was a wonderful spiritual experience!

Forgiven
By Alyssa Puckrin

December 14th

This week’s life night was all about the Sacrament of Reconciliation. First, we split into 3 groups and played a game with a hula-hoop where the hula-hoop had to go around the circle without the circle being broken! After that, each group had to alphabetize themselves by middle names. After we played that game, core team member Chad Edwards gave a talk relating sin to vampires. Now, that may sound strange, but really it was a good analogy. Basically, sin is like vampires, and going to Reconciliation gets rid of them! If we keep the vampires in the dark, they will stay alive. But what happens to vampires in the light? (For Twilight readers, the correct answer is not sparkle!) They correct answer is they explode. So by "putting our sins in the light" through Reconciliation, our sins will be gone and we are forgiven! After this, we went into church and heard a short talk given by Jacob Schwerer about the Sacrament of Reconciliation and it's importance. We then reviewed the Examination of Conscience and after that we had an opportunity to receive the Sacrament. After Reconciliation, we all went back to the gym to enjoy a lovely dinner prepared by Mrs. London and Mrs. Puckrin. We even got a visit from Santa, telling us we were good boys and girls because he saw we went to Life Teen!

Can I Get a Witness?
By Alyssa Puckrin

December 7th

At Life Night, we learned about the Epistles and the Acts of the Apostles. A group of teens and Core Team members acted out a skit called St. Paul's Trial. As a person who was in the skit, it was a lot of fun to do, and I hope everyone enjoyed watching it as much as I enjoyed being in it! In the trial, Paul was found "not guilty" because even though he had killed Christians in the past, he had converted to the ways of God, and God changed his name from Saul to Paul, as we learned in the skit. After the skit, we played a "mingle game" to get in a small group. In our small groups, we talked about which letter of Paul would help us at different times in our life. Personally, my favorite Epistle is St. Paul's Letter to the Corinthians. My favorite is the "Love Chapter." After small groups, we ate pizza and salad to conclude our fun Life Night!

What’s Love Got to Do With It Anyway?
By Caitlin Dudenhoefer

November 23rd

At LIfe Night, Jeremy Miller and Meghan Blake talked to the teens about the four loves, based on the book by C.S. Lewis.  The four loves are Storge, Philia, Eros, and Agape.  Storge is the love family members have for each other, no matter how mad they may make each other sometimes.  The downside to this love is that you must be careful not to take it for granted and abuse it by doing things that hurt your family, with the automatic assumption that they will love you no matter how much we hurt them.  Philia is the love that friends or members of a group have for each other.  This includes people who come together in a group and do not know each other, but are united by a common goal.  The downside to this kind of love is that we must be careful not to become exclusive to those outside of the group.  Eros is erotic or romantic love, like between a girlfriend and boyfriend.  This kind of love is not necessarily sexual, but focuses on what you can give each other instead of get from each other.  The downside of this kind of love is that you must be careful that it does not become a "god" and the focus of your life.  Finally, Agape is unconditional love, loving someone who has seemingly no lovable qualities, and being willing to lay down your life for that person.  This is the greatest type of love and Jeremy used Christ on the Cross as the perfect example of Agape love. In order to achieve this kind of love, you must perfect the other three types of love. The downside to this love is you must be careful about becoming prideful. 

    After Jeremy spoke about the four types of love, Meghan Blake shared some quotes about true love and what it means.  My favorite was the quote by Mother Theresa: "Intense love does not measure, it just gives." After that, the teens and core team members broke off into small groups and prepared skits and songs illustrating one of the four types of love. The skits ad songs were well done and funny!  We even got to see Rachel Polinski rap!

    We hope you join us for the next Life Night! Please bring a friend and invite others to come to Life Teen too!