I am in your midst as one who serves...

A little bit about me: I am a fresh graduate from college beginning my first year in parish ministry.  Youth ministry and faith formation to be exact.  As I've started to collect my thoughts about how to effectively preach our Catholic faith to young people, these words of Jesus keep coming to mind.  "I am in your midst as one who serves."

This statement takes place just before Jesus' Passion as the disciples are discussing what it means to be great, and who is the greatest.  Jesus tells them to ignore the common way of achieving greatness.  "But it is not this way with you, but the one who is the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like the servant." (Luke 22)

This rings true to all of those life-changing moments I've experienced in my own life, through the work of youth ministers, family, friends and countless people of faith.  The most profound "preaching" of our faith comes through radically living the way Jesus did: among us and as a servant.

It's those people who took the time to get to know me and my life, who served me in humility and charity, and who cared more for my growth in holiness than their own comfort or prestige...these are the people that change lives!

So as I begin my newest vocation of helping others embrace the movement of the Spirit in their lives, I pray that these words will be justly spoken through my own life, that others may be changed by Christ who lives within me.