The Gift of Gab

I am now blessed with the gift of gab!!!!!!!!!!  I can now be counted among the thousands who have perilously hung from the top of Blarney Castle to kiss the infamous Blarney Stone.  It was a slightly terrifying experience but it was so much fun and totally worth the minor heart attack. 

This week was a crazy busy week culminating with our adventures in Cork.  We had a lot of ministry this week which was great but definitely kept us busy. We had our weekly jam session on Tuesday which was a ton of fun.  We have a group of about 5 youth who come each week and we just sit around and play guitar and have fun.  Jam sessions are definitely something I look forward to each week.  On Wednesday we were back in Clonmellon for another 4 week series with them.  We didn’t have a big a turn out this time because many of them forgot or were busy but we still had a lot of fun. We ate a massive amount of pizza and played some really fun games.  We had an early morning Thursday because we had an all-day retreat with all the 5^th class students in Delvin.  It was our first retreat since training and it was a blast!  It was definitely crazy with so many all the 5^th class students in Delvin.  It was our first retreat since training and it was a blast!  It was definitely crazy with so many kids running around but it was great.  That night we had our senior youth group as usual.  Our group was extremely small this week because all the 3^rd year students and 6^th year students have mocks coming up.  In 3^rd year and 6^th year in Ireland students must take a sort of exit exam calling junior and leaving cert.  A couple months before the students have mocks which are a sort of pretest that help them prepare for the real thing at the end of the year.  Those are coming up in just a few weeks so our students are busy studying away for those.  It was still a nice night despite the small numbers.  We talked about Jesus and how he works in our lives.  I gave a talk and talked about my relationship with Jesus.  I think it went really well despite the small numbers.  After and exhausting week we still got up early to start our weekend.

Early in the week Fr. Seamus told us about a daylong conference on the YouCat in Cork on Saturday.  Because it started early Saturday morning and it’s about a 3 ½ hour drive down to Cork we decided to head down Friday.  And since we were already going down early we decided to just make a weekend out of it.  We left around noon Friday and drove down to Cork Co. Tim and Becca were planning the team time and took us to Blarney to kiss the Blarney Stone as I said earlier.  Blarney Castle was amazing. We had so much fun exploring the grounds and castle.  

A lot has been done with the grounds so that they are beautiful and a joy to spend time exploring.  The castle is  also super cool. It sits on top of this massive wall of bed rock that make for an impressive sight when walking up to it.  We crawled around some caves under the castle that were the old dungeons.  We climbed up a serious set of spiral stairs to get to the top to kiss the stone and witness the amazing view at the top.  We got to see a beautiful sunset and spent some time in a poison garden.  It was just like Harry Potter, complete with Mandrake! 

The NET team that is normally stationed in Co. Cavan is spending a couple of weeks down in Cork because they didn’t have any retreats booked in Cavan. So, we spent the night with them at a camp in Knockadoon right on the coast.  The camp owned by the Benedictines and is absolutely beautiful.  There was a gorgeous sunrise Saturday morning! 

We spent Saturday in Cork city.  We spent a large portion of the day at the YouCat conference. For those of you who are unaware of what the YouCat is let me explain.  The YouCat is a book put out by Pope Benedict XVI at the World Youth Day in Spain 2011.  This book is a resource for youth to be able to better understand the teachings of the church.  This book was written to take the teachings of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and break them down and explain them in ways youth could understand.  It is a great resource written in question/answer format that really is youth friendly.   Little promotion for the YouCat, if you are a youth minister or just a young Catholic I would highly recommend you purchase one.  They are a wonderful resource.  After the conference we spent a few hours exploring Cork city and then headed home. 

Yesterday we had our first AWAKE, our junior youth group, since we’ve been back in Delvin.  We only had a few kids come out, the theme of our week apparently, but it was still good.  There was some sort of quiz happening last night that kept many of our youth away.  We were going to do a survivor night with the youth but with so few we had to change our plans a little bit.  Instead of doing the survivor thing we just played some games and spent time getting to know the youth better.  It was a nice time despite the small numbers.  We have a retreat with the 6^th class this week that will hopefully encourage more youth to come out this week. 

Overall it was a busy but fabulous week.  I am still thoroughly enjoying my time here in Ireland and am so happy to have so many amazing experiences.  I was thinking about my week and how crazy it is that I can just go see the Blarney Castle over the weekend like it’s no big deal.  I am seriously blessed and am so thankful to God for bringing me here and all of you who support me in this journey.   Know that I am still praying for you and if you have any specific prayer requests please let me know!  Also, check out facebook for more photos and a video of me kissing the stone!

God Bless,

Amy