As I begin, I seem to be drawn into the past when I was growing up on a farm in Kit Carson, Colo.

My mother, brother and I lived with my grandparents. Living on the farm, our family — as with many families — were very creative in finding things to do for entertainment, and simply sharing time together as family. One such thing we did was to work on jigsaw puzzles. Jigsaw puzzles were something that my grandmother truly enjoyed, and her skill for working on them is one of her many gifts she passed on to me.

Now, for anyone who has ever worked on a puzzle, you know the frustration of looking for a piece to bring a segment together, or coming to the end of the puzzle and simply missing that last piece. You look high and low for that missing piece.

Strange, isn’t it? Sort of leads us right to the Parable of the Lost Sheep:

If my ultimate goal is to lead our youth to a deeper appreciation of the Eucharist so that through the Body and Blood of Christ the eyes of our young people will light up, then this parable has to be an important part of my ministry.

Our young people growing up in today’s society are much busier than I was growing up. They are involved in many activities. How many of us know of young people who, because of their busy schedules, have to carry a day planner?

As involved as they are, we can remind ourselves that everything they have, each of the qualities they posses, are gifts from God. My hope then would be that every young person could find and take the time to come before our risen Lord offering Him thanks for all they have been given.

For the diocese, we continue to offer opportunities for this by providing rallies for our junior high and senior high youth. (The junior high rally was held last weekend.) We also provide summer camps for junior high youth, and different retreats, especially, TEC (Teens Encounter Christ) retreats for our juniors and seniors.

Each of these events provide an opportunity for our youth to enter more deeply into their personal relationship with Christ, offering him thanks for all they have been given and learning to know of his presence in the midst of all their business.

In many ways, my grandmother had a huge impact on my life, and she is one of the reasons why my eyes light up through the Eucharist.

I will share more on this in the next issue. But for now I ask, how can we together enter more deeply into the Parable of the Lost Sheep? Do we know of anyone, who has yet to take full advantage of parish youth activities and the diocesan events?

Can we better reach out to all people, helping their eyes light up?