I came into this year at SPO a little nervous. A lot of my life was going to be different. I was going to live with six other women – more people than I have ever lived with! I was going to be serving as a Student Missionary. I was going to have to step up.

Kara (center) with her housemates at the 2013 Fan into Flame retreat

God made it clear from the start that choosing Him wasn’t always going to be easy or fun, but it was going to be worth it 100%. He didn’t let me down. Yes, of course there were days that I didn’t want to wake up for morning prayer or when I was losing patience with my housemates, but those were the days that I knew I had to lift it up. I knew that if I prayed, if I had patience, God would work.

I look back at the last year knowing that I have grown and how I have been blessed to see others grow in leaps and bounds! One of the biggest blessings bestowed upon me this year was being able to emcee our Fan Into Flame retreat. I had an amazing vantage point to see a hundred students dive into their faith. I have never been more convicted that God works, even in the coldest heart.

This year has made me a more patient, humble woman. A woman that depends completely on God. A woman that is not afraid to chase after God. All of this because He simply asked me to live one year for Him. He simply asked me to take a chance. I am ready to do it again!

The even better news is that, though we have one life, we have infinite chances to make it good. We may regret things we didn’t try or missed opportunities to love, but our God is loving and forgiving, and gives us second, third, fourth, and seventy-fifth chances. But, we need to keep our eyes open for these chances. They can be big, in your face opportunities like helping someone repair a flat tire on the side of the road, or they can be small, almost miss-able opportunities like taking out the trash without your parents having to ask.

And God provides these opportunities for love and service for our benefit. We hear it over and over in the Gospel stories: love one another as I have loved you. God gives us these chances so that we can get a small taste of life with God. What a gift! God is asking us to be a part of heaven on earth.

THAT’S what the real YOLO is – to not miss out on the chance to spread God’s kingdom of love here on earth. So maybe we should change up the mantra a bit. How about YALA – You Always Love All? Well, even if the acronym doesn’t catch on, the sentiment still can. And this is one trend that will never die out.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI recently had something to say on this topic in his message on World Communications Day on Jan. 24^th. He spoke of the need to share more than funny memes and life hacks on social media, but to also use it as an important tool for evangelization. 

But, Benedict cautioned the faithful about the many pitfalls evangelization through social media can bring. For one, as we have all experienced, even the most seemingly harmless online post can be attacked with negative and combative comments. This may make us wary of sharing our faith, but the Pope encourages us not to shrink back due to potential backlash. Just think: the apostles had some pretty serious backlash and it didn’t stop them, right?

Another potential problem that comes from online evangelization is our own egos. Due to our own pride and desire for self-promotion, we may find ourselves as the combative commenter responding to a post directly opposing our beliefs as Catholics. This is something we must guard against as this knee jerk reaction has become so commonplace, and can very easily do the opposite of evangelization: turn someone away.

And, Benedict reminds us, it is ultimately God who converts hearts. No matter how many times you debate and throw zingers back and forth with that kid you went to high school with, you’re not going to change his mind. God will.

A few rules of thumb can help us to effectively use online tools to spread the Good News.

1)      Social networks are not a place to complain, but a place to proclaim! Stay positive in your comments

2)      Do not be ashamed! Stay what you know is true and good, and don’t be afraid to share it

3)      Keep the goal is mind: God. Post only things that will remind people of God and inspire them to love God

4)      And above all, Love. Speak with Love and towards Love!

Taking all of this in to consideration, know that though social media is a great way to spread the Gospel, it is far from the only way. The best and most effective way to spread God’s love is to be there in person, representing our Living God! So, log out of Facebook and get out there, proclaiming God’s saving love with your life!

Kara Shockey – Junior, English and Renaissance Studies, OSU

Kara became involved with Saint Paul’s Outreach her sophomore year through attending events and growing in relationship with some of the SPO women. Ever since, Kara has been giving of her time and talent to help this ministry she loves grow. This school year, Kara moved in to one of the two SPO Women’s Households, fully embracing a life of service to her Household members and peers. Mission Leader Terry Cahalan shared about Kara’s conviction when presenting her with this award:

“Kara serves generously. She’s always stepping in to fill in where help is needed…(and) Kara has a heart for relationships. She loves others so well and uses her relationships as a vessel to share the Lord with others. Kara is always spending time with people, getting to know them, having coffee with them. I have seen her relationships impact others and draw them nearer to Christ, and now many of them are out impacting the lives of others and drawing them nearer to Christ.”

David Bethel – Senior, Soil Science, OSU

 David was all-in for SPO since his first encounter his sophomore year of college. Despite not officially being a Household member, David was a permanent fixture at the Men’s Household and was fully participating in community life. So great was his devotion to the SPO community and its mission, that David moved in to Household mid-year his junior year, even if that did mean sleeping on the floor for a semester. David’s energy and love for his fellow men is contagious. And his will to serve is undeniable.

Mission Leader Brent Diller had this is share about David:

“(After attending SNE)… David knew he had to respond to what God had been doing in his life and the next step was to move into Household to be supported and make a larger investment in the mission at Ohio State. We didn’t have any open beds for the rest of the quarter but David was willing to bunk in a room with three other guys and sleep on the floor until a bed opened up the next quarter. His willingness to make sacrifices to carry out what God is calling him to do is really what allows him to be so effective as a student missionary.

SPO wished many blessings upon Kara and David, and we are so thankful to have them as part of the SPO community!

The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,

it is beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a fraction

of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.

Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of

saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said.

No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession

brings perfection, no pastoral visit brings wholeness.

No program accomplishes the Church’s mission.

No set of goals and objectives include everything.

This is what we are about. We plant the seeds that one

day will grow. We water the seeds already planted

knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.

We provide yeast that produces effects

far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of

liberation in realizing this.

This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.

It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning,

a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s

grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the

difference between the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not

messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own.

It has almost been one year since I found out that I would be serving Saint Paul’s outreach as the male mission leader for its newest chapter at West Virginia University.  I approached the year like it was going to be some kind of epic adventure.  Nothing had yet been established down here and I would be laying the groundwork.  I recalled stories of great missionaries and saints like St. Xavier and the North American martyrs.  I wanted to have an opportunity to rise to the call of going out and preaching the gospel to those who have not heard it, and those who have not heard it fully.  As far as SPO goes, I was entering into uncharted territory. I had no idea what to expect from this year at the #1 party school in the country.  Anything was possible, and to put it as succinctly as possible, I was pumped!

I had no idea what to expect and began the year praying for God to give me vision.  I headed into darkness to see how God might use me to build his Kingdom.  I didn’t know what to expect, but I trusted that God would reveal His master plan about how I was to build His kingdom sometime soon.  At least I hoped so.

I started out meeting, talking to and building relationships with guys that I would meet in mass and around campus, and one young fella who told me his life story in the lobby of one of the freshman dorms.  I was inviting them to join men’s small groups and bible studies.  In both my small groups and in my one on one meetings with the men, I started to see the powerful desire that man has for God and God has for man be fulfilled in small communities and relationships.  In small, yet powerful, ways I was able to see how beautifully God was crashing my life, the lives of WVU students and the life of His Son Jesus together.  Whatever God’s plan was, it seemed to start making a lot of sense even though at times His tools didn’t seem like they would fit the task.  I even saw my personal weakness and struggles become strengths as God used me to heal young men who could relate to my story.

Over the year, I have seen God bring about magnificent fruit in the ministry down here at WVU.  I have had over 25 men attend one of my men’s groups at least once, and had 9 men committed to weekly Dangerous Men’s sessions this semester. I have been witnessing to gospel to many others in whatever way I can. The Dangerous Men’s sessions especially have shown themselves to be a very powerful vehicle for God to work on the men and their relationships.  The men who committed have responded in ways I never saw coming.

I have also seen fruit in the lives of men that I never expected to be involved in Saint Paul’s Outreach.  Ryan, a soccer player from New

Matt (top left) with fellow WVU SPO students

Zealand said of the men’s small group he is a part of : “It offers a strong sense of community and openness.  Every guy in that group is comfortable talking about his faith and the things that you can only say around those you trust.  Almost like a family.”  Even though this is his first experience of Catholicism, Ryan has had such a powerful experience of faith this year that he has shown interest in being baptized into the Catholic Church next year.  Of all the things I expected from God’s plan, I almost certainly didn’t see an unbaptized soccer player from New Zealand as a part of it.

In spite of some serious discernment about what it is that God has planned for my future I have decided to not stay for another year here at WVU.  God has put a strong call on my heart to pursue an even more epic adventure and to seek after him in a vocation to religious life.  I am currently waiting to hear back on my acceptance to the Society of Jesus and am planning on joining the Chicago-Detroit province of the Jesuits at their novitiate in St. Paul this upcoming August.  I have a strong sense of peace that God’s hand surrounds this path. (And it’s not just because our new pope is a Jesuit…although that doesn’t hurt!)

I also don’t know what to expect from SPO WVU.  I am leaving with a small pain in my heart.  Everything just seems so incomplete.  There seems to be so much unfinished business.  We have started both men’s and women’s Households. I have seen incredible leaps of faith from so many men.  I have seen men turn away from the sins and trappings that a party school provides. I have seen God perform miracles and cast out inner demons in the lives of students.  Why would I leave when things are just getting cooking down here?

But, isn’t that the nature of the work that we do as missionaries and as Christians? The one thing I have learned about providence and following God’s will this year is that God wants us to learn to trust Him before we begin to trust “The Plan”.  We have to be comfortable with mystery.  Jesus never said, “Come enact my formula for salvation,” he said, “Come follow me”.  I trust in God for my own life and for the lives of the men here at WVU, even though I don’t see the end product just yet.  I may be swept off to another adventure, but I know the seeds planted here this year will bear fruit because it is God Himself who will cultivate them.  I don’t need to see the kingdom to believe in it.

For years, our SPO Ohio Missionaries have been dreaming about having a base for evangelization closer to OSU’s campus, closer to the freshmen and sophomores in the south campus dorms, and closer to the fraternities and sororities. Our dream is to bring the light of Christ to these places that – now more than ever – need voices to bring the most important truth and vision for life found in Jesus Christ. This dream is now a reality – and it is even better than we first imagined – as SPO will be sending missionaries to live and evangelize in the heart of the social culture of OSU.

SPO Ohio’s new home at 65 E. 13th Ave!

The actual house is almost 5000 square feet, has 11 bedrooms and plenty of space for prayer gatherings, Bible Studies, parties and barbeques to invite students to “come and see” the abundant life in Christ! And the location couldn’t be more perfect! At 65 East 13th Avenue, this house is 5 houses from the brand new Ohio Union and is flanked by the heavily freshmen populated south campus dorms to the south and Fraternity Row to the north. With our official program from this house launching in August 2014, we are in the midst of developing exciting plans for renovations, remodeling and programming that will maximize the effectiveness of this opportunity for the future of SPO’s mission at OSU.
We know this will not only impact the Ohio mission, but that the excitement and the fruit of this initiative will impact our mission to bring the Catholic Faith Alive on Campus nationwide!

Find out more about our plans for SPO’s future at OSU by contacting us at 614-352-2440 or ohio@spoweb.org!

Without your prayers, financial support and help in spreading the word about SPO, our mission would not be possible! Thank you for all that you do to partner and invest in the SPO Missionaries on campuses across the United States!

Lilvia (bottom center) with the other members of her SPO Household

As a former student of Texas A&M University, I had the great blessing of being part of St. Mary’s Catholic Student Center and all the great formation that comes with it.  When I applied to give a year of my life as a Saint Paul’s Outreach (SPO) missionary,  I did it because I knew that I wanted to do ministry and that I wanted it to be with college students, since that’s where I great so much in my faith.  I didn’t know what to expect since I had no previous experience with SPO and came in cold turkey to training at the end of May 2012.  I quickly realized that the work I was beginning was very different from what I had experienced in Texas.  I had met the SPO Texas missionaries beforehand, so I knew a couple of people, but mostly was submerged into a completely new Catholic world.

Saint Paul’s Outreach holds many treasures that the Church has to offer, although I had never had very much experience with them.  There are many gifts of the Holy Spirit that I have gotten to experience since my time with SPO and I feel as though it has helped me to grow in knowledge of what the Holy Spirit is and how he guides us.  Admitting, my first semester as a missionary was very difficult in many ways.  I was very homesick, I was working with people I had never known before. I was all the sudden charge of things I didn’t know anything about – it was truly on the job training! But, the girls in my house and the staff were so welcoming and I am so grateful for the way they worked extra hard to make me feel at home.  I suppose I had expected to know exactly what I was supposed to be doing and when I was not sure, it really rocked me and I realized I had much to learn.

Reflecting on this second semester, I realize how much I grew during that first difficult semester and how God really worked through that to help make me more confident the second time around.  I have been able to enter into mission much more now that I understand it better and I am more comfortable and established here in Columbus.  I firmly believe that God asks us to suffer to show us something greater – that’s what life is all about: reaching that something greater! Even though this year has had its ups and downs, I am truly grateful for what the Lord has done for me and would not have it any other way. Like all good things in life, this year has been one big learning process, and I cannot wait to see what the Lord has in store for my second year with Saint Paul’s Outreach!

-Submitted by Lilvia Gomez, Saint Paul’s Outreach missionary

Hopefully, through this Lenten season you’ve had the chance to stop having Jesus wait – going to Him and seeking Him instead.  If you haven’t taken advantage of this Lenten season to the full, I want to encourage you to not give up yet; the best is yet to come!  We are in the richest week of the year (in my humble opinion), the week leading up to the celebration of our salvation, aptly named Holy Week.   In this great week, we are presented with the unique opportunity to literally walk through the week with Jesus.

We began our walk with Christ on Palm Sunday, celebrating his goodness and victory with palms.  Reflect on how bittersweet this day is.  Keep walking through the week with the Lord, feeling the anticipation the next few days bring.  On Holy Thursday, taste and see as Jesus lays down his life for us in the Eucharist.   Keep watch with the Lord for Good Friday, for his agony, his passion, and his death.  On Saturday, reflect on the Lord’s goodness for all he endured, especially through the Holy Week, for our sake, to save us and show His love for us.   And rejoice of course on Easter Sunday!  How beautiful is our faith and the Church that the very set up of this week invites us in to walk with Jesus through his final days and set aside our busy lives for the greatest drama the world has ever known.

Let us set aside our business, at least for this week, and stop asking the Lord to wait for us, but instead walk with Him.

-Sara Huggett, SPO Missionary Corps and Household Member

O God, Shepherd and ruler of all the faithful,
Look favorably on your servant Francis,
whom you have set at the head of your Church as her shepherd;
grant, we pray, that, by word and example,
he may be of service to those over whom he presides
so that, together with the flock entrusted to his care,
he may come to everlasting life.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever. Amen.

Prayer from http://www.cathdal.org/pages/chairofpeter-prayers