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First Segment: All Things Pentecost:

This past weekend we celebrated the fantastic Solemnity of Pentecost. (This also happens to be the official end of the Easter Season.) Kent, off the top of your head, what exactly is Pentecost? To start off, “penta” usually means five, so Pentecost happens fifty days after Easter. What happens? Pentecost is the when the Holy Spirit descended upon the 12 Apostles when they were in the Upper Room. Pentecost is one of the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary. The Apostles who received the Holy Spirit went on to become the first Bishops.
The Holy Gospel readings for last weekend tell us that the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles as tongues of fire, this is where we get the gift of holy zeal from. Zeal is the fire that we get from God that empowers us to live for Him, and spread His love and light to the nations around us. (We’ll be talking more about setting the world on fire for love of God later in the show.)
If you remember, after Jesus’ death, He said that He would be sending the Apostles an advocate. What’s an advocate? Well, an advocate is someone who intercedes on someone else’s behalf, and helps them through things. The promised advocate is the Holy Spirit, who will guide us through life and help us to get closer to Christ.
Jesus sent us the Holy Spirit out of love for us, because He wanted us to have a guide to walk with us through life. When you love someone, you like to give them things, right Kent? Jesus loves us so much, so aside from the gift of Himself, the next greatest thing He could give us is the Holy Spirit.
The nice thing about all of this is that Jesus gave the Holy Spirit to everyone – not just those who are smart, pretty, and handsome, etc.  There’s the saying “God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called.” God gives us everything that we need to serve Him; we don’t have to go to the store in order to serve Him. As someone once told me, God puts His call upon our hearts and then gives us the tools to carry it out. We aren’t going be perfect at it, or always follow it, but we were given the call from God and it is our job to carry it out.
Kent, has there ever been a time in your life that you were really able to see the Holy Spirit at work – or when the Holy Spirit really helped you get through something? Commercial Break:

Second Segment: How to Explain the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit to Youth:

At the time of our baptism, we are given seven gifts, and then when we are confirmed, these gifts receive their fullness, or are completed and then it is up to us to use them. These gifts cover all of our bases, and are the superpowers for every day living. We can’t just leave them wrapped up in our soul’s closet; we have to use them. But it can be hard to use something we don’t understand. The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit can be difficult to understand, and it can also be hard to explain. As a youth minister, especially one who deals with youth who are going to be confirmed, it is an important topic to talk about. (Or am I the only parish whose bishop used to quiz candidates?) How do you explain to youth the special gifts that they have within their possession? Do you ever find that trying to figure out the gifts of the Holy Spirit can be a bit confusing?
Tonight we’re going to look at each of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and help you explain them simply to your youth and teens. (Shout out to my lil’ sis for drawing the graphics for me! Keep it up!)
Wisdom – Helps us to put our Faith in action, and show our love for God by the things that we do.
Knowledge – Helps us to see what God’s will for us and our life is. We’ve talked about this a lot; it can be difficult to see what God’s will is for us, right?
Understanding – Helps us to try and know more about the mysteries of our Faith. What are some mysteries of our Catholic Faith? (God is eternal, Real Presence)
Counsel – Helps to protect us from wandering astray and disobeying God.
Piety – Causes us to follow God’s laws simply out of love, rather than the fear of going to Hell. When we go to confession there are two types of contrition, perfect and imperfect. Perfect is when we are sorry for our sins because we know we have hurt God, and imperfect contrition is when we are sorry because we don’t want to go to hell. God forgive us in both circumstances, but ultimately, we want to be sorry because we don’t want to hurt God.
Fortitude – Helps us to be courageous and strong in every circumstance.
Fear of the Lord – This is a bit similar to Piety, because we are scared to sin against God, but only because we love Him and wouldn’t want to hurt Him by our actions.

Third Segment: How to Set the World on Fire as a Teen:

So those of you who follow me on social media know that I was at my Diocesan Youth retreat this past weekend – and it was awesome. Our theme was to “Set the World on Fire,” so I thought that I would talk a bit about that – how can we as teenagers set the world on fire with the love of Christ. My Bishop gave an excellent homily about how the earth needs to be renewed, and that us youth are just the people to do it. Do you agree Kent that the world can use some renewing? How can we as Catholics help contribute to a renewal of the Earth in terms of drawing back closer to God. I’m not meaning like a renewal like “I have to go find myself on a year long trip to Europe.” You don’t need a trip, go to Adoration twice and you’ll find yourself there. I believe his exact statement was, “There’s something amazing happening in the Church, and you’re a part of it.” (Props to Bishop Gary)
A lot of the time, we might think that since we are still young, there is nothing that we can do to spread the love of Christ to others and set the world on fire, but that’s not true. In fact, to quote my bishop one more time, “Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you are too young to serve God.” How can we encourage teens to want to spread the love of God, Kent? <Image#12> There are plenty of ways to spread the love of God as a teenager, so let us show you how:
Don’t ever be afraid to share your Faith with your friends.
Make prayer a part of your morning and evening routine.
Encourage someone to go to Mass with you.
Go to confession so you receive grace and zeal.
Don’t be afraid to say grace in public.
Follow what you think you might be called for; God gives us the call to our vocation, it doesn’t come by accident. Don’t be afraid to pursue something because there’s a chance you might not be called to it, go and make sure.