BBQ!

This evening holds in store probably my last barbeque of the summer, the annual Newman-Stein Fellowship BBQ. We serve freshmen lots of free food, and hope that they like us enough to come to the meeting on Sunday night. Lizzy and I are leaders (along with one of the seminarians) of a small-group this year, so we'll try and make lots of new friends and try and sift out who might end up in our group.
NSF is the ultra-super-Catholic student group on campus, and we currently have whole-group meetings every other week, and small-group meetings the weeks in between. The small groups are for discussion. Currently there is the advanced group (run by us this year!), the women's group, the men's group, the charismatic group, a "faith-sharing" group (no clue what that's supposed to be), and the faith-inquiry group. That last was formed for students who have not been well-educated in their faith or are questioning their faith.
This year, we're going to be reading "We're on a Mission from God" by Mary Beth Bonacci, donated by Ignatius Press (this is why I advertize them so much--I've had a lot of free books). Our "advanced" discussion group will hopefully be supplementing this text (which should be an easy read, if it lives up to Ms. Bonacci's other efforts) with Church documents and other selections.

A footnote of warning about Ignatius Press orders: They have to get the money for all these books that they give away from somewhere. That somewhere is by selling your address and probably your email address when you order from them. My family has started getting Catholic junkmail. I was reminded of this when my sweetheart divulged to me that his household had received a solicitation for money to further the cause of the canonization of Padre Pio, from a priest who came across as, well, fanatical. Since my sweetheart's mother is not well-disposed toward Catholicism, this set back the peace talks a bit. So, if you are ordering things from Ignatius Press and would prefer that other people not get hold of your Catholic junkmail, get a P.O. box.