We want to hang out with you!

7pm on Thursday February the 16th – Come to the Oval at the corner of Robie and Bell.
8:30pm – We’ll walk over to Emily’s (CCO Staff) for some hot chocolate and marshmallows!
Emily lives at 1743 Henry St, a 5 min walk from the Oval.

Invite your friends!

When I was 14 years old, however, while at a catholic conference I was given the opportunity to open my heart to Christ. I was invited to give my yes to God, and having never done this before decided that I might as well. Almost immediately after I took this small step toward Him, God made me extremely aware of His existence and of His love for me. I felt all emotions at once. I was happy, but it was more than that: I was alive. I was crying but I wasn’t sad, and I realized that I was experiencing God’s love, the same love I had always heard about but never really understood. Looking back, this was one of the most important moments in my life.

But the story didn’t end there. That was almost 7 years ago now, and was just the beginning of my relationship with God. After that moment, after realizing that God was real and more importantly that He loved me, I was able to begin what has become the most important relationship in my life. I’d love to say that every day since then has been perfect. In reality I’ve had quite a few good days, some really great days and my fair share of bad ones. But the constant in my life has been my relationship with God. He’s been my support when things are bad and my joy when things are great.

If you have never been able to relate to God on a personal level, I challenge you to ask him to be a part of your life and to spend some time with him. I promise you that He is waiting for your yes, just like he was waiting for mine, and that he will not disappoint you, just like he has never disappointed me. It is possible for you to have a personal relationship with God. All you have to do is take the first step.

Come spend Friday evening ( February 10) with our Lord in prayer at Nightfever Halifax at St. Mary’s Basilica. Hosted by CCO, the Chaplaincy, and the Canadian Catholic Students’ Association, this event Friday evening caps off Catholic Students’ Week, which is happening all across Canada.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmKBDzGahPo&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Nightfever is an event that started in Germany after World Youth Day in 2005. A downtown Church is opened up for prayer and Adoration, and people from the street are given a candle and invited to come in and light their candle and say a few prayers, or stay all evening if they like. This is a great opportunity to spend a evening in prayer with other young people from the Diocese, but it is also a great way to share your faith with the city of Halifax.

Invite your friends, it’s going to be a great night, and something you won’t want to miss!

Come join us at 5:15 for Mass at the Cathedral if you can make it. Feel free to grab a bite to eat or something afterwords, but be back at the Church at 6:30 for the event, which goes on until roughly 10pm.

Look forward to seeing you all there!

As I entered junior high my life took a bit a turn. I had experienced a lot of bullying and peer harassment through these few years which changed my perspective on life drastically. I left these two years feeling completely abandoned by God and very insecure about my identity. I told myself that if God was really merciful and loving like my parents had taught me, then he would have caused this pain and persecution to stop. At this point in my life I had come to the conclusion that God didn’t exist and if he did, he didn’t love me. I stopped praying all together and instead of asking God for help and strength I just felt self-pity and shame. Through the rest of high school I had many deep wounds inside of me which I didn’t know how to deal with.

When I graduated from high school I got accepted to a Catholic college. This college generally had a good influence on me. I witnessed what it was like to have friends who didn’t judge me, but loved me for who I am. About half way through the year a good friend of mine who I lived with died tragically when he was in a car that went through the ice in a lake. This was a devastating event for me! I didn’t understand why an innocent person like that would instantly have their life taken away. I was also in shock because earlier that day he had asked me to join him on the trip. If I had gone with him I would have died as well. This caused me to seriously rethink my life, since it could end in a flash. Before this experience I was living my life, but I took it for granted not realizing how precious and short it really is. I felt the need to take my life more seriously and make some changes for the better.

The following year two of my friends asked me to go to a Christmas conference with them in Toronto called Rise Up. I didn’t really know what it was all about but I decided to tag along with them anyway. While I was there I felt kind of out of place and I didn’t really know what to expect. For the first day and a bit I enjoyed listening to the upbeat music and hanging out with people downtown on our breaks. I thought the conference was pretty cool and I was kind of bought in. On day three I was sitting in the conference room listening to a talk by the founder of CCO, Andre Regnier, when all of a sudden he caught my attention. He asked us a very personal question, “Does your life revolve around Jesus or does it revolve around you?” I pondered on this question for a while. I had never really been challenged in my faith that way before. I eventually came the realization that my life did revolve around me and that Jesus was only an aspect in it. I felt really unsettled about this reality.   Then Andre asked us, “Would you like to make Jesus the center of your life?” At this point deep within me I really did want to say yes, but I was scared to make this kind of commitment. Following these questions Andre gave us the opportunity to give our lives to Christ and trust in His mercy. Finally I took a leap in faith and I said yes. For the first time in my life I made an adult decision to give my life to Christ and I made Him the center of it. Immediately I felt this overwhelming joy deep within my heart. I had never felt this way before. I knew that God loved me! I felt that He was revealing to me that my identity was in Him, and that I should always place my trust in His mercy.

Following this conference I had this yearning to learn more and more about what I believe in and to be around other people who shared this same belief. A few months later I went on a CCO summer mission called Impact where I really learned what it is like to be Catholic and witness to others about God’s love for us. Whenever I feel distant from God or guilty about my sinful actions I have to remind myself to place my trust in his mercy and forgiveness. I would like to challenge each one of you to also place your trust in the Lord. You are all His Children and He loves each one of you dearly.

Anita Neumann is a CCO student at Dal and shares about her profound experience at CCO’s National Conference “Rise Up” this past new year’s. Anita has recently been accepted to serve on CCO’s mission project Impact Canada taking place in Ottawa this summer.

During my Christmas holidays I decided to attenda national conference called Rise Up. This conference is put on annually by Catholic Christian Outreach, a university movement across Canada, and this past year’s conference was held in Montreal with around 600 university students in attendance. At first I was reluctant to go even though many of my friends were saying that it would be an amazing experience. I felt guilty about leaving my family for 5 days of my break, but I eventually agreed to go because I wanted to find a way to deepen my relationship with God and Rise Up seemed like the perfect opportunity to do just that. I had the pleasure of listening to many guest speakers and I learned something from each of them. I loved how Mass was bilingual and some of the guest speaker talks were in French.

There were several things that struck me at Rise Up:

* The idea that “We should be building bridges instead of walls”…I realized that over the years I have built many walls around myself in an attempt to avoid the pain my close ones and people have inflicted on me in the past. A picture of a turtle was shown during one of the talks…perhaps it is simple to recognize, but when a turtle is being safe to the world it reveals a cold, hard, and uninviting shell. I realized that I had allowed myself to become a turtle and that I no longer want to be one. This year I’m going to focus on building bridges and breaking down my walls. I know this will be a difficult feat, but with God anything is possible.

* The question: How can I let my doing for God be motivated out of trust in Him and love for Him and not out of impressing Him? I sometimes still have the tendency to be building a spiritual resume for God to read once I reach heaven, and that’s NOT what I want to do. It’s important to realize that God loves me and you, my friendly reader, and that this love is completely unconditional, so we do not need to impress Him in our doing for Him.

*The idea that ”We should accept our suffering and examine our cross”…I need to work on this as well. It’s much easier to complain about my cross and suffering, or attempt to ignore it,  instead of looking at it as a learning opportunity.

* I want to start focusing on what God wants and not what I want. In my humble opinion, the material world has no meaning compared to the greatness of the spiritual world.

* It’s not what we know, but WHO we know and what we’re concerned about. For example: A doctor of theology (the study of religion) could study long and hard and know everything about Catholicism, but still not know God personally.

* The truth in the idea “To know but not to do is really not to know”… This is inspirational  as I want to reach out to more people around me. I know God and I long to serve Him, but if I do nothing about it then what does that really say? With this said, I plan on leading another faith study this semester and saying “yes” to wherever He needs me to be.

* The Fear of Man can be consuming when it comes to sharing one’s faith. What will people think? What will people do if they know I love God and want to serve Him? Rise Up helped me realize that maybe people will WANT to hear what I say. Besides when people reject the message I’m sharing, they aren’t rejecting me, but rejecting the One who sent me.

* I want to see people as privileges and not as problems. I believe this will go hand-in-hand with my breaking down walls and building bridges.

As you can see, I’ve learned a lot from attending Rise Up 2010 in Montreal. I received a lot of answers to questions I’ve had. Among spending time with close friends, going to St. Joseph’s Oratory for mass, seeing St. Brother Andre Bessette’s tomb (the first Canadian-born Saint), and wandering around Old Montreal, the highlight of my experience was the complete surrender of my heart to God. Before, I had been hesitant to place complete trust in Him…I was afraid that maybe He didn’t know what He was doing with certain aspects of my life…funny, right? I know that the willing surrender of my heart was received by Him from the overwhelming sense of peace I received immediately afterwards. I now know, both in my mind and heart, that He loves me and only wants the best for me, but can only give me that if I open the door of my heart to Him all the way. Well, the door has been opened and I’ve added a welcome mat

Good evening everybody. For those who may not know me, my name is Roberto Forte. I was born and raised in Panama, a small country in Central America. I am a doing my masters in Resources and Environmental Management at Dalhousie. Today I would like to share with you how God has worked in my life.

I was baptized when I was a kid and I attended a Christian Catholic School. I was technically Christian and Catholic my whole life, but my faith was never relevant until 2009 when I encountered God in a powerful way.

Before 2009 I thought that I had a contract with Jesus. The contract said that if I was a good man and never hurt anybody I would have the key to heaven and eternal life. I never considered the fact that only my signature was on the contract.  I started what I thought was the pursuit of my happiness, which at the moment was a big mountain far away in the horizon. I decided to get there my own way. However, my way was a country road, full of pot holes. I was too proud and I wanted to do it all on my own.  My pride would not let me see beyond my own road.  I now realize that Jesus was inviting me to try his way.  His road was much smoother and a road that I could travel without anxiety.  I ended up lost on my bumpy road.

October 2009 was the conclusion of 10 years of hard work learning English, saving money and, fulfilling requirements to be accepted into one of the most recognized universities in Canada.  I thought to myself, “I did it, I am here in Canada, I am finally living my dream, I knew you could do it Roberto, you always do it. I have reached the summit of the mountain.”  As I ran that last thought through my mind, I had a sudden realization; “I am completely empty.” Something was missing. I broke to pieces as I realized the sad truth of my life; I had everything on the outside- family, friends, a girlfriend – I was living my dream. I had everything I wanted and at the same time I had nothing. I believed family, friends, work, gifts, parties, alcohol, and girlfriends would fulfill the emptiness I felt. In that moment I understood that I could get everything that I wanted in a material world but not real happiness.  In that moment I was standing alone in my kitchen, crying like I had never cried before in my life.  I cried out to God “I surrender to you Lord, take my life, it has always been yours, I put the rest of my life in your hands.”

Just by doing that, I felt that a huge weight was taken from my shoulders. I felt free and lighter. For the first time I knew somebody was watching over me, over my future and decisions. It was one of the most relaxing feelings that I had ever experienced. I knew then that I needed help to better understand my Catholic faith. I remembered that for two years I had been receiving weekly emails about CCO events.  God seemed to tell me it was time to stop playing the game on my own. I have been able to strengthen my relationship with God through Christian fellowship, going to Mass, prayer and reading the bible.

Since my decision to follow Jesus, I am no longer alone, the whole world is amazing.  It does not matter where I am going to be for the rest of my life.  I no longer fear death and I have confidence in Eternity. I want to focus the next years of my life on doing what He expects me to do during my time on Earth. There is no fear of moving forward to a new place.  The world is the same everywhere when you have Christ in your life. People, places, friends and everything change; but God is steadfast and he is always with you. I think the greatest thing that God did in my life was take away my anxiety and give me a peace that the world cannot give. Those anxieties that make you worry every single day in your life. The thoughts that bully you with question such as; “Am I going to fail? Am I doing right? Is this the life that I want? Is this the right thing to do? Is this the pursuit to happiness? Am I happy?” I finally can say that I understand happiness because I believe in Jesus and I know that He is with me every single second of my life.

I was accepted to the mission, and in early May 2009, I flew to Saskatoon. Inside of me, however, was this lingering doubt that I could really be an effective missionary of Jesus, especially on a one-on-one basis. I felt like I lacked the gifts I needed to proclaim the Gospel to one person at a time. I could even remember asking my Parish Team on Impact to pray for me regarding this doubt, on the very first Sunday at Holy Spirit Parish in Saskatoon.

But things changed when I met Colin, a parishioner that I had heard a bit about. He was coming out of a rough stage in his life, with a lot of problems that I had never even imagined dealing with. A friend told me that all he needed was a good role model, but I remember thinking, Yeah, but that’s not me. How could I help Colin know Christ? I didn’t think much of it, but I began to see Colin often. He was coming to all the Cornerstone youth events that Impact organized, and he participated in the Discovery faith study I lead at my parish. Colin’s honesty surprised me, and his earnest search to know God in a deeper and more personal way was made very clear to me. Slowly I realized that through our weekly study, Cornerstone, and impromptu spiritual conversations, Colin was beginning to know God in a way much more profound than I could imagine. I remember wondering if I ever had the depth of faith that Colin had!

As I left Saskatoon at the end of Impact, I could rest assured in two things; first, that Colin was in a very different and very secure place than when I arrived in Saskatchewan, and second, that I could be used to effect change in someone’s life, and have them turn to God and grow closer to him.

Matt Vaughan is a fourth year political science student at Dalhousie University. He currently serves as President of the CCO Halifax Student Leadership Team. He is leading a CCO faith study on campus.