OK, I'm sold. I went into World Youth Days at the Shrine with mixed feelings -- kinda feeling like I would miss out on Crossroads and I surely did.

But there is no doubt this is where I was meant to be and what a blessing this weekend turned out to be. The Holy Spirit moved powerfully and I went along for the ride.

Part of it was the band.. the Big House Band of Fran, Theo, John/Ryan, Lisa and Bridget totally cooked all weekend. They kept me going all weekend. Their love, their support, their energy -- no joke -- was there all day both days.

Major props to Aaron Thompson and his band, especially Rebecca who sang at the Masses. They were stellar -- Aaron's voice and trumpet -- ohmigosh --heavenly. Awesome talent, humble man of God.

To Mike Patin from New Orleans, who has firy passion for the Lord, and is pretty funny too :).

But what stood out...

It was Mass! As cool as Eucharistic Adoration is (and it IS), Mass was AMAZING, INCREDIBLE both nights, especially Sunday night. Mass is supposed to be high point of our celebrations. To be sure, this one was. Part of it was I could say see teens from so many parishes I have played with/at before: St. Paul in Highland, St. Bruno's in Pinckneyville, St. Joe's in Farmington MO, St. Mary's in Chester, Holy Childhood in Mascoutah, St. Sabina's in North County -- just to name a few. I knew these teens, some of them before they were teens. Part of it was seeing them raising their hands during the Alleluia. Their voices and hands literally shook the Church on Blessed Be Your Name on Sunday night -- well, shucks, it was kinda emotional :'-). Praise God.

Pictures to come...

XLT was awesome last night! Smaller than normal crowd, but very prayerful, amen. Fr. Dan led, Lynn Vessel shared her story, pretty amazing.
World Youth Day in Belleville tomorrow! Lots of last minute stuff -- we'll have a great time in the Lord -- even while praying for the folks in Texas/Louisiana. DaveCo told me he has a house full of people who had to evacuate because of Hurricane Rita.

OK, I felt compelled to post the pic of the Big House Band since we're playing at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows next weekend -- playing with these guys is amazing. If you have never heard Theo Harden, he is a phenominal bass player. He can do his "one-man" concert where he loops his music and plays melodies over his rhythmic grooves. He respects the song -- if its country, he sits in the pocket playing 1 and 5. I am not just saying this -- its worth seeing the BHB just to hear (and watch) Theo.

Fran - what can I say.. besides being a great friend, you won't find a more rippin' R&B guitar player anywhere. As one of my music friends said, "he plays guitar like a black man" -- is that ok to say? Because it was meant as the highest compliment.

Bridge has good "band" chops -- she plays well with a band, leaves space for other instruments, knows the songs, plays nice fills. She can lead tunes too, has a nice feel for the worship stuff and is a great soul.

John is a metronome. The best story I can tell you is when we were mixing during the GlennonSongs projects and it sounded like the drums were late on a certain accent. But no, when you looked at the ProTools waveform, the BAND was early, John was on time. Typical.

Lisa is an awesome vocalist, and plays the hand percussion -- shaker and tambourine -- with great time -- she doesn't mind stepping out of her zone and leading hand motions for hundreds of crazy teens.

So there ya go -- the Big House Band -- playing at the Shrine World Youth Days September 24 and 25! God - we ask for your blessing and anointing as we play and pray, to lead your people closer to our Lord Jesus Christ!

Theo, Lisa, John (behind the drums), me and Fran -- The Big House Band! 

Caroline and Bridge my carge girl buddies 

The entire youth ministry community in St. Louis is excited about Crossroads on Sept 23-25 in Steelville MO. I am too.

I was at the first one in 2003 where the attendance was kinda small and intimate -- and then last year I led the "house band" during the adoration time. It was an awesome night -- I'll never forget the bright moon that night reflecting the sun's light and Brian Niebrugge talking about how the blessed Mother Mary reflects the light of Christ in much the same way.

Except this year, I won't be there. I have prayed about it and instead, I am being called to a different place -- I'll be the host MC for the Shrine World Youth Days:
http://www.snowsyouthministry.org/worldyouthday.htm

It's two days of music and celebrating our faith with about 750 Jr High teens (Saturday) and 900 HS teens (Sunday). It's not quite as "intense" as some events I do like XLT or Life Really Matters or Steubenville -- its more like "hey isn't it cool, we're all Catholic, lets celebrate our faith, let's have fun" Somehow this is where I need to be this weekend -- I am getting excited -- though not quite all pumped. I will get there haha.

I am working on several new tunes -- its kinda funny it seems like i have about 7 or 8 half written songs and i just have to flesh some stuff out. Stay tuned...

We had a prayer night at St. Catherine's tonight for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. I go to New Orleans often enough that I recognize some of the scenes -- the Superdome, Canal Street, Lake Ponchartrain, the Convention Center...

It just felt good to pray. Tonight we prayed the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. It's a powerful prayer that focuses on the mercy of God and the Passion of Christ, the ultimate sacrifice. Anyway, we had about 10 or 12 teens, not a huge crowd, but like I said, after the news reports, finger pointing between government agencies and politicians, and just a gloomy outlook all around, it is good to be reminded of God's presence and the hope the Lord brings. Whew...

NC, me and bridge after one too many chocolate chip cookies. 

This is SCL's youth group pulling up weeds outside the parish center on our Service Night