Since we began serving as CLCYYA Representatives last year, we have been placing the most emphasis on forming new CLCs and increasing awareness of CLC throughout the nation. We have done this by attending and presenting at various conferences, including:

• Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice (IFTJ): November 18-20, 2005 in Columbus, Georgia. The IFTJ is an annual event held to commemorate the Jesuits and laywomen who were martyred in El Salvador in 1989, to call for an end to unjust institutions, and to reflect on the Jesuit commitment to justice.

• Jesuit Secondary Education Association (JSEA) Campus Ministry Directors’ Meeting: March 16-19, 2006 in Baltimore, Maryland.  Campus Ministers at Jesuit high schools and prep schools around the nation gather every four years to discuss topics of interest that impact their campus ministry programs. We presented a workshop on CLC and put together materials that would be suitable for high school campus ministers to start age-appropriate CLCs at their schools.

• Cura Personalis National Leadership Formation for Young Adult CLCs: May 31-June 4 2006 at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, California. The yearly conference includes a silent Ignatian retreat and focuses on developing practical skills to lead college/young adult CLC groups and foster partnerships with other CLCs around the country.

• Encuentro Nacional de Pastoral Juvenil Hispana (First National Encounter for Hispanic Youth & Young Adult Ministry): June 8-11, 2006, at the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana. More than 2,000 Hispanic youth and young adults gathered to make their voices heard in the U.S. Catholic Church.

• Association for Student Affairs at Catholic Colleges and Universities Conference (ASACCU): July 26-29, 2006 at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey. The conference’s theme was “Thinking Globally and Acting Locally: Living Our Catholic Identity on Campus and in the World” and a workshop on CLC was presented by Ann Marie Brennan and Fr. Dan Fitzpatrick, S.J., who are both involved in CLC’s United Nations working group.

• Catholics on Call Partners’ Conference: September 21-22, 2006 at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, Illinois. Every fall, Catholics On Call offers the Partners Conference where representatives of religious communities, college and university campus ministry and vocational ministry programs, young adult programs, volunteer programs and others come together to learn and discuss the best practices for supporting young adults in their vocational discernment.

• We have also made contact with a handful of Jesuit parishes in the U.S. and Canada, have met with campus ministers at numerous Jesuit high schools, at Seattle University, Marquette University and Loyola College in Maryland, and have spoken to representatives of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. In an effort to promote CLC at the aforementioned events, we created and printed promotional brochures, bracelets, notepads and pens which we can make available to you if you contact us.

In the coming months, we will be at the following conferences and events:

• Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice (IFTJ): November 17-19, 2006 in Columbus, Georgia.

• National Conference on Catholic Youth Ministry (NCCYM): November 30-December 3, 2006 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Presented by National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry (NFCYM), this annual event will feature a keynote address by Fr. Allan Figueroa Deck, S.J., executive director of the Loyola Institute for Spirituality.

In the coming year, we will focus more on encouraging and supporting existing CLCs by planning/coordinating next year’s Cura Personalis Leadership Formation with dual tracks: one for college students and their campus ministers, and one for alumni/young adults. The location and date for Cura Personalis 2007 will be announced soon so check the website for more information and updates.

We are also in the process of creating a manual with formation materials and meeting topics geared toward young adults for dissemination at Cura Personalis. Loyola Marymount University is also working on a four-year formation manual for college students and their campus ministers.

For your reading: http://clcyya.org/docs/DaisyMeditationnewsletter.doc

For your reading: Newsletter Jubilarians 2

Evangelize and promote the growth of youth, college and young adult CLCs in your region through the Youth and Young Adult Christian Life Community DVD. This professional 10 minute DVD features young people, school administrators and National ExCo members describing, in their own words, the benefits and fruits of belonging to a CLC. To obtain a video, contact Angelique at 305-598-9302 or email: aruhilopez@clcyya.org

Did you plan a successful CLC gathering recently? Have a great meeting idea you’d like to share? Not sure how to incorporate Ignatian spirituality into your meetings? Want to ask other communities what they’re doing to attract new members?

Let us know what’s on your mind regarding CLC – be it what has or hasn’t worked for you in CLC, any questions you may have that you’d like other members to answer, or fun ideas you’d like to share in our Community Forum. Just email us at aruhilopez@clcyya.org or csantamaria@clcyya.org and let us know:

• your name
• the name of your community
• the name of your school (if applicable)
• and whatever information you’d like to share

and we’ll consider your news, ideas or questions for publication in the next installment of the CLCYYA Newsletter.

Christian Life Community USA wants to redesign its national logo and would like YOUR help! Because of our increasingly multi-ethnic and multi-age richness in CLC-USA, a new logo is needed that will be appealing, dynamic and inspiring, and that reflects the beauty of CLC-USA in an effort to help us develop branding an identity.

The CLC-USA Communications Committee has requested that the logo have the following two requirements:

1. key elements of the CLC charism, (see documents at http://www.clcyya.org/about.htm)
2. CLC tradition (the Chi Rho symbol, which is found at the top left corner of every page of the CLC YYA website, at www.clcyya.org). The Chi Rho is a sacred monogram that has been adapted for CLC. “XP” stands for the Greek word for Christ. In signifying the word “Christ” rather than “Jesus,” the emphasis is on Jesus’ position as the Son of God, the Messiah. The X in the Chi Rho can be used artistically as a reminder of the cross. CLC has also incorporated an “M” into the Chi Rho to symbolize Mary as “the model of collaboration in Christ’s mission.” (CLC General Principle 9).

We encourage contestants to research our charism and the CLC logos used worldwide, which can be found via the world CLC website: www.cvx-clc.net/links.html

A $300 cash prize will be awarded to the winner of the design contest. Logo submissions are due by December 31, 2006. Please email them to aruhilopez@clcyya.org or csantamaria@clcyya.org

Want some song ideas for your CLC meetings? Or just want some new songs to download to your iPod? Here are some suggested pop songs and contemporary Christian songs classified by Ignatian themes:

Prayer and the Spiritual Exercises (general)
The Invitation – Steven Curtis Chapman
Just to Know You – Mark Schultz
The Noise – Jessie Daniels

Discernment
Word of God, Speak – Mercy Me
Hold it Up to the Light – Smalltown Poets
Voice of Truth – Casting Crowns

Principle & Foundation
Legacy – Nichole Nordeman
Declaration of Dependence – Steven Curtis Chapman
So Long Self – Mercy Me

Examen
You Are All I Need – Bethany Dillon
How Is it Between Us – Sara Groves
Be Still And Know – Steven Curtis Chapman

Sin
What if I Stumble – DC Talk
Go and Sin No More – Rebecca St. James
Worlds Apart – Jars of Clay

By Ann Marie Brennan
CLC-USA President-Elect

Hope is strong and alive in this world, though it is not always easy to see it. The number of people who suffer in our world is staggering. For example:

• Every week, over 200,000 children under five die of disease

• Every week, 10,000 women die giving birth

• Every year, two million die of AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa

• More than 115 million children in developing countries are not in school

• More than 2 billion people around the world do not have access to clean water

The Department of Public Information at the UN organizes an annual conference in New York City in September for representatives from Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) around the world. In this setting, people can share stories, network, and advocate for changes to improve the lives of those who suffer worldwide. CLC is an NGO that has attended these conferences for over 25 years. The theme of this year’s conference was about strengthening and forging effective partnerships between the UN, governments, businesses, and civil society—including the poor and vulnerable—which work for human security and sustainable development. These collaborations accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs are a set of “achievable” goals to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS and other diseases, and ensure environmental sustainability—by 2015! More on these MDGs and actions you can take to work toward them can be found at: www.milleniumpromise.org

Here at the UN you can find stories of hope. One example is the Millennium Villages Project which is “based on a single powerful idea: impoverished villages can transform themselves …if they are empowered with proven, powerful, practical technologies. It is simply a ‘bottom up’ approach.” In a village in Mbola, Tanzania, the project supplied wells that the people learned to install themselves, improved technologies for growing more productive harvests, plus built a health clinic and a school which the town staffed themselves. By becoming more self-sufficient, the people can make their own way out of poverty and their children are able to stay in the village. Businessman George Soros just contributed $50 million dollars to this project. Other similar stories can be found at: www.milleniumpromise.org

After attending three days of panel and roundtable discussions, the CLC UN working group came away with these main reflections:

• We must have effective partnerships with government, business and civil society to reach these goals. We have a responsibility to hold our governments accountable for the commitments they made to achieve the MDG’s.

• Identify and publish any CLC efforts toward achieving the MDG’s.

• Poverty can be reduced dramatically if we have the political will.

• “Our governments find the funds to finance wars but not to feed our children.” We have enough food and funds.

• We do live in a religious world. “We are all sparks from the same divine flame.”

• “Be the change you seek.” –Gandhi

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

1. Raise awareness within your CLC on water scarcity in your area and around the world. A resource for information on this can be found at: www.un.org/temp/waterforlifedecade. This site gives water facts, resource information, as well as videos on water.
2. Hold your governmental representatives accountable to our country’s commitment to reaching the Millennium Development goals, especially financially. Ways to do this include:

• Bread for the World’s Offering of Letter at www.bread.org (On this site is a message from Bono supporting these efforts!)

• STAND UP on October 15-16, 2006 to set the first Guinness World Record for the largest number of people to STAND UP Against Poverty and for the Millennium Development Goals. See www.milleniumcampaign.org

The CLC working group would be interested in hearing your stories and actions—and how you discerned, sent, and supported one another in these actions. Send to: new-yorkwg@cvx-clc.net

“Membership has its privileges.” So says the now infamous slogan of American Express. So, too, should all CLC members say. Today, more than ever, our culture bombards us with too many choices, ranging from the different varieties of coffee at Starbucks to the new choices at fast food restaurants, and even the myriad of majors at a university.

Our membership in CLC affords us the gift of Ignatian spirituality. Our charism is rich and bountiful, and it has a special plus for young people – discernment. We have to find ways to tune in to God and leave behind all that clogs our airways. Ignatian spirituality answers our constant need for more. Magis, the counter-cultural Ignatian response to greed, channels our energy toward and helps us find the constant good we all seek. As we celebrate the Jubilee of Ignatius, Faber, and Francis let us revel in the spirituality that unites us and affords us so many privileges.

AMDG,
Angelique & Carmen