The Holy Father Issues an Invitation

Our beloved Pope Benedict XVI summarizes in his own words the invitation and challenge he issued to the young people he met in Brazil, and indeed, to young Catholics throughout the world:

"I invited the young people to be apostles of their peers; and to therefore take great care of their own human and spiritual formation; to have great esteem for marriage and the way that leads to marriage, in chastity and responsibility; to be open to the call to consecrated life for God's kingdom. . .To summarize, I encouraged them to take advantage of the great 'riches' of their youth, to be the young face of the Church."

Dear Holy Father, we will do our best to respond faithfully, and trusting in Jesus, to this challenge you have set before us.

If all goes well, she may never return. . .

Last night I went out for a "stagette" (?!?!?! hahaha. . . I don't know if that's quite the right word. . .) party for my friend who is entering the Poor Clares in a week and a half! There were over a dozen of us at the party and we ate cheese and chocolate fondu, drank tea, and had an all round good time.

We also were quite entertained by an article on my friend's decision to enter the cloiter in a local newspaper. . . the first paragraph sounds like an obituary and the second like a personal ad. . .

Donné‚ Davidson's days in the outside world are numbered. She has until April 26 to say goodbye to friends, spend time with her family, and get "things in order". She will leave behind this world of cellphones, boyfriends and suicide bombers before heading off to a place in the hills - and if all goes well, she may never return. At 23, Davidson has decided to be a nun.

Davidson has got small, hazel eyes and curly blonde hair pulled back from her freckled face. She wears little makeup if any, her shoulders are broad, her posture is straight, and her demeanor is calm. There's a thick chain around her neck with a cross partly hidden beneath her white blouse. In less than two weeks, she's off to St. Clare's monastery just outside Mission, to join a group of eight Franciscan nuns whose lives are completely devoted to prayer.

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