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C'YA Happy Hour at Don Pablo's

C'YA Happy Hours
By Nick Baric

The cuisine included a delicious spiral ham, plenty of side dishes, and scrumptious desserts. The tradition of a gag gift exchange continued, leading to much merriment and mirth. Among the gifts some lucky guests received were a toy parrot (part of a costume from a prior C'YA Halloween party) and the "clapper." Sadly, there were no Chia pets this year. All party-goers had a great time. Special thanks go to Ted Zogakis for coordinating the party and Dan Marsh for arranging for us to use his building's party room.

It is amazing how the Lord touches our lives. After 16 years of silence, I was brought back for a confession with help of a non-practicing Catholic co-worker. Besides my gratitude in her moral support by accompanying me, that confession was an amazing experience of unconditional love, forgiveness, acceptance, and guidance which clarified my confusions that no other person or words could have done (thanks to Father Creedon and God).

Preparing for the Sacrament of Reconciliation can be a daunting experience to many of us, but there is magic to it if we can open our hearts.

"Sacraments, though, are no ordinary celebrations. They are special occasions for experiencing God's saving presence. Reconciliation reminds us of Jesus' invitation to forgive one another, and of the way he forgave those who put him to death." Catholic Update - What are Sacraments? By Joseph Martos.

Despite our efforts in talking to the Lord ourselves, sometimes our very human nature makes it hard to believe or allow ourselves that we can be forgiven. It frees us and meets our human nature to hear from another human being that we are forgiven or can forgive ourselves to go in peace. It can be uncomfortable and scary to have to think about what we did wrong, or simply state our sins, but you know the tears rushing as you think about what you can tell God, everything that you have been holding in, denying, or neglecting, are the tears of relief and feelings of love as we come running into the arms of the loving father. It's a blessing that we can experience this in a humanly way because of our limits.

We are forgiven no matter how grave or little our sins are. God allows us to talk about, shed tears on, feel truly sorry for our sins, so we can move on to the next happy and free chapters of our lives. Or sometimes a good advice if we don't know what others or we have done is right or wrong. But more than anything, God frees us from our sins when we are confused or hurt, to give tremendous freedom and heal us where we cannot do otherwise.

If you think you have not sinned much in your life, you would be amazed how sorry you feel as you begin the process. If you think going through a confession simply makes you feel guiltier even after the confession, give it some time. You would be amazed how free and embraced you feel after a few months. The Lord heals us in so many amazing ways. The celebration of reconciliation can be one of them.

Kelly Moon is one of C'YA's new Spiritual Activities Co-Coordinators.

Social events always draw the most people. Our Sunday Night Socials (SNS), held have become the quick and easy way to find out about the group and to meet new people within the parish. These are usually held the third Sunday evening of the month. This year we had another Town Hall meeting and an Open House, to introduce the group to new members and get new ideas for the ministry. This year we also combined social and service for a couple of our SNS's. At one SNS, we made Valentines for homebound parishioners while singing Karaoke, and at another we made cookies after dinner and socializing.

Some of our biggest events have been our parties. This year we had ones for Mardi Gras, Halloween, and, most recently, Christmas. Our parties have created a comfortable environment in which to socialize with other young Catholic adults, and we plan to continue those in the next year. We've participated in other parish and school events, such as the Polka Party. Since Mary Frances is from Northeastern Ohio, (Cleveland claims to be the polka capital of America), she led the group in the basics and even invented Group Polka! Events such as this are a great way to get involved with the parish and the school. And it's a "ridiculously fun" time (Evelyn Aswad)!

Service events have grown in number and participation. One popular activity is adopting homebound parishioners. Members of C'YA have been visiting these parishioners and delivering items to them during the holidays, such as poinsettias at Christmas and lilies at Easter. We've done other events that are less time consuming but just as beneficial, like collecting women's suits and donating them to Dress for Success, a charity that provides job interview suits for low-income women. It's helping out while cleaning out your closet!

Spiritual events have really taken off this year. For the first time, C'YA participated in small groups that began meeting during Lent. One of the groups continues to meet twice a month. Now that we're in the midst of Advent, small groups again formed to share in the weekly readings. New small groups will likely be forming in 2004, so check the Web site for more details. Other events included retreats, which were so popular there are plans for more in the coming year.

It is through these events and the support of the parish that C'YA has become the burgeoning ministry that it is today. The only way C'YA can sustain this level of activity is by our current members staying involved and new members joining us. C'YA is open to all young adults (singles and married couples) in their 20's and 30's, regardless of your home parish. Please visit our section of the parish Web site and view all the goings-on, the calendar of events, and sign up for our e-mail list to get the latest information. If you have any questions, email us at cya@stcharleschurch.org. We look forward to seeing you at our next event!

God bless, Stacy Lucas and Mary Frances Russ C'YA Co-Chairs

As the hobbits journey deeper into danger and to the very epicenter of evil, Mount Doom, the lembas play an increasingly significant role. Sam and Frodo are following their path of self-sacrifice even to the possible end of laying down their lives for the love of their friends, for which, in Christian terms, "there is no greater love." They are analogously on their way of the Cross. On the contrary, the evil characters find the lembas repulsive. Tolkien describes the Orcs' reactions saying, "But I guess they disliked the very look and smell of the lembas, worse than Gollum did. It's scattered about and some of it is trampled and broken, but I've gathered it together." When the two hobbits reached the point when there was "no hope anymore" came Tolkien's most poignant description of the lembas: "The lembas had a virtue without which they would long ago have lain down to die. It did not satisfy desire, and at times Sam's mind was filled with the memories of food, and the longing for simple bread and meats. And yet this waybread of the Elves had a potency that increased as travelers relied on it alone and did not mingle it with other foods. It fed the will, and it gave strength to endure, and to master sinew and limb beyond the measure of mortal kind." The lembas sustained the two hobbit sojourners in their darkest hour, not by feeding them necessarily physically but by feeding their will. The waybread is meant to evoke thoughts of the Catholic viaticum, that is, the communion given to people on their death bed. From the Latin, it means literally "a provision for the journey." It is the eucharist for the journey, or the "waybread," home towards one's death. There are differences however. For one, lembas are not described as having any divine qualities, whereas the eucharist is the divine sacrament of the body and blood, soul and divinity of Christ. Plus, the eucharist is not just meant for times when all else fails as lembas are described, but rather for our daily journeys. Still, it is clear that Tolkien's lembas mirror at once both subtly and strikingly the Christian eucharist. The two hobbits on their way fraught with death and destruction now rely completely and solely upon the waybread.

We, too, are all on our journeys to our inevitable deaths. Christ has left us His body and blood in the heavenly sacrament of the eucharist. Like Sam and Frodo, we must "be not afraid" as Aragorn, the Christ-King archetype, repeatedly declares, and rely on the eucharist to sustain us throughout our lives and to our deaths. It is our waybread. Like the humble and seemingly weak hobbits, we must take our waybread in order to heroically, and against all odds, ascend the Mount Dooms in all our lives and complete our "missions." As Tolkien confessed, he at first unconsciously and later consciously, wove Catholic ideas and themes into the story. Tolkien was not out to re-create a Christian world or myth. Rather, he tried to create a literary myth to point towards the truths of the real world. The primary thrust of the story, as Tolkien said in one of his letters, is "about death and the desire for deathlessness," two notions central to mythology and Christianity. As G.K. Chesterton spoke of Christianity as the fulfillment of myth, "The Catholic faith is the reconciliation because it is the realization both of mythology and philosophy. It is a story and in that sense one of a hundred stories; only it is a true story." We are the real-life Sams and Frodos taking up our Crosses and following Christ all the way through our trials and tribulations. Though we are "weak" and "ordinary" people (hobbits if you will), we can achieve great and heroic ends by accepting and living out our vocations. Our lembas, the eucharist, strengthens our wills and spirits and presses us on up the mountain even when we should rather turn back and give up. As Tolkien's literary myth spells out the lucid choice each one of us is to make of our own free will between life and death and good and evil. We have the choice to give up or to not give up; to seek our own selfish ambition or to humbly serve others; to not follow Christ or to follow Christ. As Frodo laments the fact that the evil ring has come into his possession and the apparent hopelessness of the situation, Gandalf says to him: "So do I, and so do all, who live to see such times. But that is not for us to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us." And so it is with each one of us to decide. But even if, as Frodo, we should fight the good fight and give every ounce of our strength and our courage and our will, yet that be not enough; and we come to a place, a moment of truth, where we may seemingly "fail," God's grace can still save us.

• all who suffer from violence and injustice
• the ending of abortion and the culture of death the souls in Purgatory
• those who have rejected God
• wisdom and energy for the leadership team
• and all others in need of God's grace

C'YA LEADERSHIP TEAM

Have something to contribute to the next Scroll? If you have something to contribute to the next issue, get it to Laura Ciampa at cyascroll@stcharleschurch.org.

C'YA e-mail distribution list: Would you like to receive email reminders of special C'YA events and news? Go to http://www.topica.com/lists/cyalist. To join, send a blank e-mail to cyalist-subscribe@topica.com Contact Tita Ponce with questions or for membership information at aponce98@yahoo.com.

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