NJ State Youth Rally at Six Flags!

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The NJ State Youth Rally is a day long event that gathers teens from across the state of NJ for a day of fun, sharing, mass and more held at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, NJ. The day kicks off with a dynamic opening ceremony. Teens then get the day to enjoy the park and all the rides. The day concludes in the Northern Star Arena with a mass, celebrated by the Bishops of the State.

This year the date of the NJ Rally is Sunday May 20th and we will be traveling together with Our Lady of Lourdes in Mountainside! The Archdiocese of Newark is also helping to coordinate the Mass and Bishop Cruz will be joining us to say the mass!

Download the Permission Form here and be sure to contact Jen ASAP (jdrager@lfbhnj.org) if you plan to come! Can’t wait to see you all there! :)

Beauty according to Beyonce

By Christina Mead | MAY 15, 2012

A couple of weeks ago Beyonce was given the title of “World’s Most Beautiful Woman” from People Magazine. I feel like once you’ve got that award in your back pocket you can either:

  • A) Finally allow yourself to wear sweatpants all the time (at which point you wouldn’tactually have a back pocket), or
  • B) Gaze at yourself in the mirror for endless hours and let your pride shoot up like jack’s beanstalk.

No really, congrats Beyonce, you are gorgeous and have cleared up any confusion about how far I have to go to reach the plane you exist on.

. . . If I were trying to reach that level of beauty. But honestly, I can think of a lot titles I’d rather have than “World’s Most Beautiful.” (Like “Patron Saint of gluten free people.”) Beauty is just so fleeting. Continue reading

Danielle Rose: Falling in Love With Jesus, Through Mary

Editor’s Note: Danielle Rose is a Catholic musician who has dedicated her life to being a music missionary, spreading the Gospel through her music. She has a strong devotion to Mary and wrote a whole album on the mysteries of the rosary, so we asked her if she’d be willing to share one of those songs with us and tell us about why she wrote it.

Click here to download “A Mother’s Song” by Danielle Rose, from the Mysteries CD, courtesy of World Library Publications, wlpmusic.com

WHY DO YOU HAVE A STRONG RELATIONSHIP WITH MARY?
When I was 19, I realized that although I knew a lot about Jesus, I did not know Him the way that I wanted to – to hear Him, see Him, touch Him, and be truly intimate with Him. I realized that there was someone who knew Him that way – Mary.

For the first time in my life, I spoke to Mary from my heart, and I asked her to please teach me and show me how she loved Him and knew Him. Our Mother Mary is very gentle; she waits for us to come to her and ask her for assistance.

I didn’t have any visions or hear any voices. A greater miracle happened. Mary quietly entered my heart and began to plant seeds of desire for prayer. I began to long to go to Daily Mass, confession, dates with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, and to pray the rosary. Instead of fitting prayer “into” my busy schedule, prayer became the #1 priority that everything else was ordered around. Through Mary’s heart, I fell in love with Jesus.

She knew that the intimacy I longed to find with Him was waiting for me in the Sacraments of the Catholic Church. Through her invitation, I began to know that Jesus was truly present in the Eucharist – and that I could receive Him each day and know Him, hear Him, touch Him, see Him – the way that Mary did. And once I knew Him as Mary knows Him – to hold and receive His Body and Blood just as she held Him in her womb, her arms, and her heart – then my relationship with Jesus was forever transformed.

CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THIS SONG?
I didn’t pray the rosary growing up. It wasn’t until college that I discovered the creative wonders and joys of praying with Mary to ponder the life of Jesus. Praying the rosary is like having a bible study with Mary. We look through her eyes, and she walks with us to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. Mary helps us cooperate with the Holy Spirit to take up our cross daily and to say “Yes” to God in all the joys and sorrows of our lives.

The mysteries of the rosary are living, and when we ask Mary to help us turn to Jesus, we begin to see and experience these mysteries in the events of our own lives. In order to share with others what Mary has shared with me, I wanted to write a meditation song for each of the 20 mysteries of the rosary, so that others (especially young people) could receive the gift of this prayer coming alive in their hearts anew.

This particular song is the meditation for the 5th sorrowful mystery: the Crucifixion. The song is from the perspective of Mary at the foot of the cross, as she recalls her the story of loving Jesus from the cradle to the grave.

What memories will you make at Prom and Graduation?

By Alison Griswold | MAY 12, 2012

The next few weeks hold some of the most quintessential social events of high school: proms, graduations, and the last days with your friends from high school. Built up as the pinnacle of the year, they say these are the days you’ll remember forever and the make-or-break moment of high school. Stepping back, it’s a lot of pressure crammed into a few weeks.

At eighth grade sleepovers, in between freezing underwear and playing “truth or dare,” we’d steal prom magazines from the bedrooms of our older sisters and imagine what high school would be like.

We predicted that the boys would be tall, dark and handsome — ready to sweep us off our feet (instead of shorter than us, and trying to snap our bra straps like they did every day in middle school) and we would be thin, tan and glamorous in dresses imported from Paris (or at least bought new and not a hand-me-down). We would finally be adults and we’d remember it forever. Continue reading