When I was a little kid, I didn’t seem to grasp the real meaning of Christmas. Christmas just seemed like a day to receive gifts.
On Christmas Eve I headed over to St. Margaret’s Church in Bel Air for their 4:00pm Christmas Eve celebration before going to a relative’s house for dinner. When I walked in to the church I noticed a few little angels sitting in the front pews and a little Mary and Joseph standing in the back. Everything came together when it was time for Msgr. Michael Schleupner to give the homily. Instead of him speaking to the congregation, he used the young kids to tell the story of Jesus’ birth. At the end of the performance, Father called all the children in the church to gather in the front of the altar and asked them questions about Christmas. Every answer was spot on. One kid even asked to say something into the microphone and said “I like getting presents but Jesus is more important.”
Needless to say, I was extremely impressed with the answers given to Father’s questions and the performance of Jesus’ birth.
December 26, 2012 11:53
By Evan Zimmer
Last Thursday, Catholics around the world celebrated the feast of All Saints.
As a school community, Calvert Hall gathered to reflect on sainthood and the call for each of us to be holy. As Ben Capone, a senior at Calvert Hall, shared with us at Mass, "The call to holiness begins with us first believing that God could choose us despite our weaknesses and our flaws … that we are that good and that holy that God would choose us to be among this saintly group of people."
As you can see in my photos, we covered the stage in different saints and were challenged by both Father Jerry Francik (Pastor of St. Mark in Fallston and a Calvert Hall alumni) and Ben to consider this call to holiness and to work toward saying yes to God much like so many others before us did.
November 07, 2012 01:50
By Evan Zimmer
One of the things I like most about Calvert Hall is that we get the opportunity to go on retreat each year as a student.
I am part of the peer ministry program and part of being a peer minister is helping lead junior retreat at the Trinitarian Spiritual Center in Pikesville. The peer ministers lead prayer, small groups and share our story with the juniors in something we call a “witness talk."
I really enjoy getting the opportunity to go with juniors on retreat and spend time with them. Another piece of retreat I enjoy is checking out the grounds of the spiritual center. On the first day of the junior retreat, I had the opportunity to venture down to the magnificent chapel at the retreat house. I didn’t have my camera but I snapped a few picture with my phone:
October 03, 2012 01:40
By Evan Zimmer
This past weekend at the O’Dwyer Retreat House in Sparks, I enjoyed a weekend long Calvert Hall peer ministry retreat. The agenda included reviewing what peer ministry is about, attributes of good peer ministers, practicing our “witness talks,” and how to lead junior retreat, small groups and prayer.
The retreat gave us a lot of hands-on learning opportunities such as simulated small group discussions and giving our witness talks to faculty members and other peer ministers. If you’re wondering what a witness talk is, it’s basically a talk centered on a designated topic that explains how we became who we are. The talks are given during junior retreats that peer ministers lead throughout the school year.
On Friday evening we started with ice-breaker activities followed by group discussions, small group demonstrations, and a guided meditation to end the night.
Saturday opened by learning how to lead things like prayers and guided meditations. We also took photos with frames around our heads with things we are involved in at Calvert Hall. Around mid-day we had a prayer service which was fueled by quotes that were distributed to us. We were asked to relate the quotes to leadership and our roles as peer ministers. My quote was by Ben Franklin: “He that cannot obey, cannot command.” To me, this quote means that to be leaders, we need to lead by example; if we want to preach God’s word, we need to live by it.
Sunday morning was predominantly reflections and group discussion. The morning closed with mass attended by all the peer ministers and some faculty members.
August 17, 2012 04:35
By Evan Zimmer