And not from Eleanor Roosevelt.

Boy, I’m tired. Getting to sleep is usually a challenge for me, even on a normal night. Add stress to that, and the challenge mounts. It’s a reality show, and I lose every time. Add to that the haunting awareness that I must arise at 5:30 am to drive to Indianapolis, and I’m kicked off the island.

So. I finally fell asleep around 3, I think, after a night of wandering around the house, trying to find a comfortable place to sleep. I awoke on time, dreaming, for some reason, of having to catch a flight on United Airlines to Chicago. For some reason.

Drove down in a fog, but survived, found the school, met everyone, hauled the books in, gave the talk, went to Mass, and left.

Oh, it wasn’t that simple, never fear. I was preceded at this “youth rally” – 500+ middle school students from several Catholic schools – by a fairly-newly-ordained popular priest, and then it was my turn, for 45 minutes.

What did I say? Well, I had three main points and several trinkets (coin-like saints’ medals) to give out to victims of my queries. My points were (I was supposed to center my words on Prove It! Church kind of themes) that:

1) When we think of Church, we should think of Jesus first, before all else. Make him our focus, understanding that the Church is his Body, does his work on earth. When we go to Mass, make Jesus your focus, pointed out various aspects of Mass and how they match what we need to be and where we need to be, asked how many had seen TPOTC (about a third raised their hands), asked them to remember the visual connections between the Last Supper and Jesus’ suffering…..when we turn our backs on the Mass, when we refuse to enter into it with prayer and act as critics only…we are turning our back on Jesus.

(only guilt moment of the day, I think)

2) Do a mind experiment and, for the moment, don’t think of Church in terms of obligations. Think of it in terms of gift, which it is. Wondering where God is and how to be in His presence? Eucharist is the gift to answer that question. Burdened by sin? Reconciliation is the gift of healing – a pure, generous gift of Jesus to us. Wondering how to figure out how to be happy? Listen to Jesus and look at the lives of the saints.

Went through a few saints and other holy folk, pointing out that in my opinion what binds them together is their fearlessness. Fearless loving, fearless devotion. No cost is counted, what other people thought didn’t matter, even physical life doesn’t matter when the love of God is at stake. Talked about Pier Giorgio Frassatti and Virginia Cyr. The latter is a young woman you should know about too. Born in Indianapolis, afflicted with cerebral palsy, abandoned by her mother, institutionalized, died in Kokomo but 20+ years later, she was a deeply spiritual person who kept journals, in the forms of letters to Mary, excerpts of which have just been collected and published in this recently published book.

Ended up trying to tie it all together – each of them created on purpose by God, no one is an accident, each one loved more deeply than they could imagine. In Jesus, we find all of our questions about God answered, in Jesus we find our hearts and yearnings completed. This is what Church is all about – not group loyalty, not social convention – but the presence of Jesus. See it as gift. Be fearless in living it. Amen.

They laughed, they cried (well, maybe not), they tired me out, they even bought some books.

Also in attendance was the intrepid Critereon reporter, Sean Gallagher, whom I hope all of you remember as one of the earlier Catholic bloggers. Sean covered the event, and then took me on a brief visit to the Archdiocesan offices, gave me lunch, and interviewed me for an article. I think this was the first time I’ve met a fellow blogger in person – hope it’s not the last. Nice to put a face with a blog. A perfectly incomprehensible statement even as recently as five years ago, eh?

So, a decent day, although the night before was insomnia madness squared.