A fantastic BBQ took place outside the school with a slip n’ slide, intense water balloon fight, and car washing derby. Many thanks to our gourmet BBQuing “chefs” and student government who cooked up for us hamburgers, hotdogs and provided other delicious all-American food fare.

Certainly a much needed refreshment before finals week coming up very, very soon! Summer is FINALLY HERE!

When: Thursday, May 27th at 7pm.

Synopsis: A budding romance between a ballet master and a tap dancer becomes complicated when rumors surface that they’re already married.

Time: 6-8pm

Bring those dance shoes and waltz right over…do bop debop…shoo be do bop!

Impacting Culture for Christ…what exactly does that mean?

Let’s start one word at a time. First, IMPACT. Impact is a pretty powerful word. Sometimes, we think that in order to impact culture we have to take it over.  It may elude to imagery such as all the Christians owning all of the television stations in America, or a swift force led by bibles and fanfare, causing drug lords to give up their deals and begin attending church. On the other hand, we may also see incredible, God-fearing individuals such as Mother Theresa or Pope John Paul II doing extraordinary acts of mercy and saying the most eloquent things.

So, how does one get their ideas and words of wisdom printed on bumper stickers, written about in books, and filmed for the big screen? Perhaps, we should take a lesson from one of the biggest cultural icons of the 20th century, Mother Teresa. She once said,  “It takes humility to recognize the greatness of God shining through us…Great humility arises when we recognize that it is God’s kindness and His greatness that shows through our hands, our work, and our love because that is the simple truth. Jesus is the Truth that must be shared.”

The word impact may sound daunting at first, but it is not a head on force. It is gradual change that may take years or centuries to accomplish. It doesn’t start on a massive scale, but within your own circle of friends, family, co-workers, professors, and even the person you meet in the grocery store line. Impacting culture is a mutual relationship where the giver and receiver are sharing something of value.  Take for example, Jesus, who made quite a bit of a stir in the history of humanity. Rather than raising the dead to life in his youth and distancing himself from the community as someone special, Jesus instead went about a normal life.  He met friends for dinner, worshiped in the temple, built quality furniture for customers, fished for dinner, hiked in hills, and shopped at the market place.  If you notice from Scripture, Jesus enjoyed parties and people loved to invite him to their homes, weddings, and other gatherings.

Thus, CULTURE starts right in our own homes and families. When we impact culture, we are  sharing our gifts, our minds, our love, our kind words, our laughter, our jokes with others around us. Until relationships are built, we have not created the environment for our ideas to germinate and take root. Trust and genuineness  are probably among the most important tools one should carry with them at all times AND keep sharpened.  Until we have built up relationships that matter, no one will listen to what we have to say or express interest in what we have created. People have to accept us before they will accept what we have to offer.

Culture is complex, full of various spheres, created by people over thousands and thousands of years. As Jesus’ example so clearly taught us, the most lasting impact on culture does not happen overnight. He lived life normally for thirty years and then for  three years finally worked miracles.  We can’t expect to do anything different. The grand ideas come later, but first we must ask, what impact are we making right now in our classrooms, homes, cubicles, gyms, military bases and other places where we gather and communicate with one another?

Creative Rhetoric is an advertising firm that creates influence through a combination of high-caliber graphics design and strong storytelling.  Our emphasis is on web-based motion graphics video, slide presentations, and print/web campaigns.  The company is run by Dominic Iocco, Justin Wilga and Matt Salisbury.  We’re looking for talented, motivated account reps to bring our service to the worlds of business, politics, and social activism.

Reps earn 15% bonus on the first job they bring in, plus an added 10% for the first job from each new client.  We just completed a $3,800 job – if you’d brought it to us, your cut would have been $950!

Fundraising and high-value networking are among the most valuable skills in entertainment producing and the business world.

Submit resumes with a cover letter outlining your approach to marketing an innovative design firm like Creative Rhetoric.  Top applicants will be interviewed in person.

Respond to: justin@creativerhetoric.com

When: Monday, May 24th, 2010

Time: 7pm

Topic: Dr. Patrick Lappert’s incredible spiritual journey from Atheism, to Judaism, to Catholicism and how he lives out the Catholic Faith in his professional life.

Confessions, Adoration, and Benediction to follow.

Time: 8pm

Where: The Perch

Plot: Regina is about to divorce her husband when she finds that he has been murdered after converting every penny they owned to cash, which is also missing. She meets Cary Grant who changes his name every 15 minutes or so and is interested in her husband’s money, which seems to have come from a WWII payroll he stole. His partners in crime are also very interested in where the money is, as he stole it from them as well. Everyone assumes Regina MUST know where the money is. The situation becomes more tense when the searchers begin turning up dead.

Hello All!

I am very excited to announce the Ruth Institute 2010 National Student Leadership Conference: It Takes a Family to Raise a Village.

The conference provides college students with an intense weekend with top scholars discussing the social significance of marriage and the family. By the end of the conference students will understand the urgency of defending natural marriage and be motivated to take the message of lifelong married love back to their campus. The attached flyer gives all the details, as well as a photo of some of the students from last year. (For more details from last year, go here. ) The conference will be held near San Diego, CA August 12-15, 2010. The conference applications and more information can be found here.  A limited number of travel grants and conference scholarships are available to qualified students. The application deadline is May 21, 2010.

Your friend,

Contact Jamie Gruber a.s.a.p for more details:  jgruber.ruthinstitute@gmail.com

Time: 8-9pm

Location: St. Jude

Hey JP Catholic Students,

Some of you may already know but for those of you who don’t:

Our school is hosting a youth rally that will take place in San Francisco after the Walk for Life in 2011. This is to be organized by the students of JP Catholic, and is underneath the Diocese of San Francisco, and Walk for Life. We are in the process of receiving major funding for this event, and it is going to be a huge deal!

The San Francisco Diocese along with Walk for Life are extremely excited for this event and have been hoping for such an event to take place for years now, but haven’t had to team to organize it. Through connections they have asked me to organize this event with the help of the students of JP Catholic.

I would like anyone who is interested in helping from editing video material from the walk, making fliers, making phone calls, and brain storming ideas, and many other tasks to please come to this meeting. This is an amazing opportunity for us students and great publicity for our school.

I will fill everyone in on details of what exactly the rally is all about when we meet. Feel free to email me with any questions.

timmeriemillington@gmail.com