Youth Program
The Endow Youth Program is growing!
The Endow Youth Program is growing!
The Endow Youth Program only came into being a few short years ago, yet in those years Endow Youth Coordinator Brigid DeMoor has been taking the country by storm. The program is sought after in schools nation wide, has been featured numerous times on EWTN and is in the process of developing a number of new studies to add to its arsenal of truth. Recently, Brigid DeMoor led aGirl Genius: Dignity Defined day retreat for middle school girls in Wake Forest, North Carolina. To read some comments from the girls who attended, click here.
World Youth Day with Brigid DeMoor
Letter from Brigid
I’m a little jet-lagged and my blisters are killing me but I wouldn’t trade these “souvenirs” of World Youth Day for anything!
I had the great pleasure of being in Madrid, Spain with 2 million other young people from all over the world. What a tremendous gift! What an incredible experience!
Every street and subway was filled with bright young faces all waving flags and singing songs from their native lands. What was it about all these beaming pairs of eyes? Young people from six different continents although all very unique and unrepeatable had the same spark in their eyes.
Here is what struck me: Our generation is hungry for truth, beauty, and goodness. People in our generation are aching to be a part of something bigger than themselves. Our generation is demanding a life filled with meaning. And our generation knows exactly where to find the answer to all of these longings: In Christ, truly present in the Eucharist. In fact, they are willing to fly across oceans, to sleep outside in dusty fields, and to fit five times the normal amount of people in a subway car in order to seek out Christ.
WYD in Madrid was an incredible explosion of joy rooted in Christ, rooted in Truth, rooted in the Eucharist! Christ is Truth, Beauty, and Goodness Himself. Christ is the one who has brought us into His story of salvation which spans from the beginning of time. Christ is worthy of our trust and only He makes our life worth living. In his closing homily, Pope Benedict XVI, our Vicar of Christ on earth, said,
Dear young people, today Christ is asking you the same question which he asked the Apostles: ‘Who do you say that I am?’ Respond to him with generosity and courage, as befits young hearts like your own. Say to him: ‘Jesus, I know that you are the Son of God, who has given your life for me. I want to follow you faithfully and to be led by your word. You know me and you love me. I place my trust in you and I put my whole life into your hands. I want you to be the power that strengthens me and the joy which never leaves me.’
Now that we are home and back into the swing of our regular lives we can still respond to Christ with generosity and courage. The invitation put out to young people has no expiration date and the challenge is still very real. You can seek out a deeper friendship with Christ, right here in your own hometown. He provides opportunities every day, every minute, for us to know Him better.
I have so much more I want to share with you in person.
Here’s the plan: grab a friend and join Endow at our annual Retreat this September 9th and 10th. Learn about developing the courage to love – really love – and get ready to change your corner of the world!
Love, Brigid
To see photos of World Youth Day 2011, click here.
Brigid DeMoor speaks at the Knights of Columbus Ladies Lunch
On Tuesday August 2, 2011 the Knights of Columbus held their 129th Annual Supreme Convention in Denver. Our own Brigid DeMoor was honored with an invitation to speak to the wives of the Knights of Columbus about the mission of Endow.
While attending the event Brigid was interviewed by Father Robert Reed and Kevin for Catholic TV. Brigid spoke about the mission of Endow and the importance of our message for the youth of today.
To watch the interview, click here.
“Detoxing the Dorm” the act of restoring dignity on college campuses
“Detoxing the Dorm”
In her article for National Review Online, reporter Kathryn Jean Lopez states that, ” Sometimes the most radical ideas are the most sensible (and vice versa). That’s certainly the case with the recent decision by John Garvey, president of the Catholic University of America (CUA) in Washington, D.C., to phase out co-ed dorms and return to single-sex residence halls.”
The article sites Christopher Kaczor, a professor of philosophy at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, a 2009 study in The Journal of American College Health and Mark Regnerus, co-author of the book Premarital Sex in America . Each statement works to expose the growing need for change in America’s collegiate system and the general outlook on dignity in todays youth. Click here to read the full article.
True Beauty Revealed in the Saints…
The Endow Youth Study Guide, True Beauty Revealed provides teen girls with the challenge to strengthen their prayer lives and grow in their understanding and love for the sacraments of our Church. In order to do this the study guide explores the lives of young saintly women who witness to the pursuit of holiness in a world of temptation. Here are a few examples…
(Click on an image to learn more about each Saint)
St. Gemma
St. Maria Goretti
St. Therese
Mother Mary
St. Bernadette
St. Gianna
St. Agnes
Moral Media
The Endow Youth Study Guide True Beauty Revealed is written for teen girls. It is designed to give them the opportunity to reflect on their personal development and character formation, as well as examine their relationships with peers and the opposite sex. In today’s society one of the largest influences on developing teens is the media…and holsome, positive media is hard to find. Here are a few examples of moral media.
(Click on the photos below)
Letter to the Youth from JP II
Carmen Marcoux: “Arms of Love”
Ascension Press: Catholic Publisher
Regina Doman: “Shadow of the Bear”
Lifehouse “Everything” Skit
Dove: “Evolution”
Dove: “Amy?”
Dove: “Onslaught”
Matt Maher
Danielle Rose
Bella: A Pro-Life movie
Pope Calls us to seek our vocation
Courtshipnow.com presentsTRUE BEAUTY
Brigid’s Letter to Young Girls
Dear Friends,
Did you hear I’m getting married?! We became engaged over Christmas and as I write this, our wedding is 22 days from right now. I’ve never been happier and I am so grateful to God for laying out this path for my life with the man I love. My true love didn’t just appear on my doorstep one day, but I prayed he would find me and I waited as patiently as I could. Because my Endow friends are truly my family, and each of you is so important to me, I’d like to share some wisdom I’ve learned about dating and finding real love.
First of all: my guy. Seth DeMoor is a man of integrity, prayer, intelligence, and leadership. (He also happens to have the bluest eyes you’ve ever seen!) He is rooted in Truth and is a committed servant of Our Lord Jesus Christ. His love and devotion to the Catholic Church comprise the ordering principal of his life.
As I reflect on this tremendous gift, I have found no other response than an abundance of gratitude to the God who loved me into existence and with that same love holds me in existence in each moment. Thanks must be given to this Divine Friend for the extreme happiness I am living right now.
When I was your age, some simple tips and guidelines were offered to me and now I’d like to pass them on to you. I want to encourage and challenge you to spend some quality time with the Big Guy in prayer considering these points as you step into the world of dating. Contrary to popular belief, dating does not have to be a battlefield. It can be and is meant to be a time of great grace that allows you and the young man you choose to date to grow in virtue, maturity, and love.
Before you begin dating: Form a habit of seeking, knowing, and embracing God’s Will. Pray, study, reflect, and beg God to help you understand with great depth your authentic identity. You must know who you are, where you come from, and where you are going before you could possibly offer yourself as a gift to another. The more you truly know yourself as a child of God, the more you will have to offer your beloved. Trust in God. Do not look to your suitor or anyone else for that matter to define your dignity. Place your securities vertically from Creator to creature and not horizontally from creature to creature.
Deciding who to date:
Be Patient (both with God’s timing and your suitor). Let your suitor pursue you. Let him fight to win your heart. (You’re worth it!) Establish a solid friendship with your suitor. (This does not include text conversations. You must actually have real life conversations.) Seth and I hung out in big groups before we began dating. When he asked me to marry him he presented me with an Irish Claddagh ring as my engagement ring. This ring has great meaning. There are two hands holding a heart that has a beautiful crown. The hands symbolize friendship, the heart, love, and the crown, loyalty. Tradition holds that if you find a love based on friendship you’ll be crowned with loyalty your whole life long.
While you are dating: Continue to work on your prayer and sacramental life. Pray for each other. Pray together. Real love desires what is good for the other and real love makes a sincere gift of self for the sake of the other.
Purity, purity, purity. Practice modesty in dress and speech and let your real beauty shine through in this way. Don’t believe the portrayals of dating that are shown in TV and movies. Too often by our own decisions we can take away the level of happiness God has in store for us. Do not ask the question, “How far is too far?” Strive, through the grace of God, to live heroic purity. Set guidelines and boundaries. Find a dear friend to serve as your purity partner. Use your intellect. Impure acts are incredibly selfish acts. They take Christ out of the heart of the relationship and put self in the center.
Form great habits from the very beginning. It is important to build a solid base that is rooted in truth. With this strong foundation, the sky is the limit! Christ said that he came so that we might have life and have life to the full (Jn 10:10). Trust in God by making daily acts of faith, hope, and love. Accept the graces He offers to grow in virtue. Spend quality time with Christ in the Eucharist and then receive with gratitude His joy, happiness, and peace that will last a lifetime.
This is only a brief sketch of all I’d like to share with you…but all these convictions I hold and share with you are based on my Christian faith. You can learn more by spending time in church and of course, by participating in Endow. Watch this space next month when we post some wedding photos! And please keep Seth and me in prayer these next days and I promise to remember all of you in my prayers too!
In His love,
Brigid
Technology in the Church
Pope Benedict XVI
As Catholics we are called to look to the P
Pope Benedict XVI talks about technology
Pope Benedict XVI is latest YouTube Star!
Rave Reviews for Brigid Sweeney!
The Endow youth program has been taking schools by storm, thanks to the tireless efforts and enthusiasm of Brigid Sweeney. Whether it’s speaking 1,500 teens at a youth conference or leading a class on True Beauty Revealed to a group of High School girls, Brigid’s passion for the Endow mission is clearly shown in her work.
“My favorite thing about inviting Brigid to give a talk is she not only engages the teens while she is presenting to them, but she is also radically available to them on a personal level. At our retreat, she sat and talked with our teens during meals and in small groups and between sessions, engaging them in discussion about their favorite movies and books they had read recently. It’s so exciting to have a speaker who is willing to connect with her audience in every single way that presents itself!” –Youth Minister
“When I asked my high school girls if they liked the talk Brigid gave at our recent retreat, their eyes lit up and they began nodding enthusiastically! They loved how passionately she shared her faith and how she wove stories into her talk.” – Youth Minister
These below comments reflect the original spellings and punctuation from the participant.
Outstanding! I loved hearing her speak, particularly the second talk she gave. I learned so much from her and now hold her as a model for my own work as a youth minister. Brigid is genuine and real and really loves those she serves. I spoke a couple of times with her personally, and she was so welcoming and approachable and giving towards me. Thanks, Brigid! -Youth Minister
A girl from a national youth conference told her youth minister after a chastity talk that it was the first time she had ever heard that you could wait until you are married to have sex. She loved the talk so much, she bought the tapes and gave them to all of her friends…this girl was one of the “popular” girls — imagine the effect!! Appreciated that Brigid also spoke truth and was not afraid of getting the Church’s teaching across to esp. the girls during the women’s session! Kids need to hear this message!! -Youth Minister
Brigid was able to get the girls to open up and share with one another their feelings about being a female today. The girls prayed together and said they felt like God was moving through the room, loving on each one of them. -Youth Minister
I liked Brigid’s speeches. The thing that she said that impacted me the most was that we need to wage a war against sin. This has already encouraged me to take a more active role in avoiding sin and denying satan. – Teen
YOU ARE AWESOME! First off, every story you told, it made me think in a diffrent way. It was a way to spread my faith by just listening to you speak. Second, you motivated me enough to think that as a future career, I want to be a motivational speaker. I’m in forensics and was thinking about everything you said, and then I realized that a proffesion like yours would be amazing! So all in all, Thanks for motivating me! You truly are one of my 3 heros now (besides Jesus and God, and all the Saints/Angels in Heaven). – Teen
Brigid was very relatable and seemed genuine in all that she was saying. Her utilization of metaphorical stories really made you think about your own life in a whole new way. She was my favorite speaker of the weekend and she really helped by instructing us on how to keep our faith going strong outside of the conference. – Teen
She made the most profound impact on my life, talking first about opening your heart to Jesus. I’ve said this several times on the survey, but I need to reiterate the fact that if she hadn’t spoken what she did when she did (Friday night) my weekend would not have been meaningful at all. Her little stories all meant a ton to me, especially the analogy with the stadium, and filling it with souls you’ve saved. Her second talk gave me so much ammunition to wage a war against sin. I actually took notes as she was speaking so I could remember all the valuable tips and tricks to defeat temptation and darkness. I would give a lot to hear her speak again, and to tell her how much her down-to-earth wisdom has dramatically impacted who I am now, as I type this survey. – Teen
Brigid was an amazing speaker during Women’s Session. I loved how she talked about Dignity and put into a different light how we think about our Dignity. I also loved how she said that we always say we are looking for the right guy and yet many of us do not accept Jesus. Yet He has done so much for us that we do not give Him credit for. He is the perfect man because He is all that we look for. I never really thought about Jesus’ sacrifice for us like that.
I loved what Brigid had to say! I really identified with the things she said about femininity and chastity. She just made me think for the first time that being chaste was realistic. Her story gave me hope for my own life, and now i know i can wait for my husband. – Teen
Date with Dignity
As ENDOW continues to grow across the US and Canada, we find that our message is for all women of all time. But in a particular way, the message of the authentic origin, identity, and mission of women is needed very much on college campuses. The St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Center, the Catholic center for the University of Colorado at Boulder, responded to this need by hosting a special evening for the students. Titled “Date with Dignity” the evening consisted in several presentations, group discussions, and desserts. Christine McAdam began the evening, sharing about the issues that women face today. Following Christine, Eileen Love, MTS presented the message of the “New Feminism” as is understood through the teachings of John Paul II. Concluding the evening, Suzie LaVelle, an ENDOW facilitator, shared her personal testimony, an amazing story of her feminine genius in action for others. One student, Cheryl, shares her experience of the evening here:
“Two weeks ago my roommates and I attended the Date with Dignity co-hosted by the Catholic Center and ENDOW (Educating on the Nature and Dignity Of Women). Before the event, I had heard of ENDOW and been to an ENDOW luncheon earlier in the semester with a few other students, but I don’t think that I realized how rich and inspiring their message is for young women like myself. The more I learn about ENDOW the more I see how much good it does in the lives of so many women. At the Date with Dignity we had the opportunity to listen to four incredible women speak on the nature and dignity of women, much of which was taken directly from Pope John Paul II. We also were given the opportunity to share in small groups our own experiences and perspectives on what it means to be a woman. I was very encouraged and inspired by the conversation I had with the other young women at my table. It was truly a refreshing and educational break from my busy life as a college student. I am looking forward to the opportunity to participate in an ENDOW study here at CU on a weekly basis.”
–Cheryl Woods, CU student