Oddwalk Ministries

Category: video

Jesus, JesusJusticeJoy, ministry, reflection, retreat, video

Seeing the World as God Sees

Hello from Orin… Shannon and I had the privilege of presenting a couple days of retreats for the sophomores of St. Dominic High School in O’Fallon, MO (“Mofallon,” as there’s also an O’Fallon relatively nearby in Illinois), yesterday and earlier today. We were challenged to create a whole new retreat for the days, as some of the students there have also been on other retreats we’ve given (parish confirmation retreats for instance). I’m grateful to Shannon who took on nearly 100% of the work in crafting our new content, tracing a path of “how we see ourselves” to “how others see us” to “how God sees us” to “trying to see others as God might.” Then of course, a final piece on how to live that in day to day life. The days seemed to be successful, and we look forward to presenting this retreat again on other occasions.

It’s a bit corny, and we’re open to other suggestions if anyone knows of a similar-but-better-produced video, but part of the day was spent watching and discussing this brief clip. Perhaps you’ll be able to glean some with of spiritual growth from it too. Enjoy!

catholicism, Jesus, JesusJusticeJoy, Judaism, Justice, ministry, music, prayer, reflection, video, Welcome

We Are Welcome, We Are Love

As a sort-of follow up to last week’s Jesus-Justice-Joy post from Shannon, Orin writes this week to share a new lyric video of a song he recently wrote which has also been published.

The song has two Hebrew words as its title and part of the refrain: Hachnasat Orchim. This most simply translates to “hospitality,” but in the world of the Jewish faith, it’s more specifically about the welcoming of the stranger.  This song is included in a book of music for the Reform Judaism movement (you may recall a few times a month Orin plays for services at Temple Shaare Emeth) titled, in English, “Jewish Songs of Protest and Hope.”  While writen for Judaism, I think it’s also not hard to hear in the lyrics Jesus’s similar teachings of welcome and love – He was, of course, himself a Rabbi and teacher during his earthly ministries.

I hope the music inspires singers and listeners to prayer, and then to action: bringing hope into the world, and making that hope real by action and change.

catholicism, good news, NCYC, oddwalkia, prayer, scripture, video, website

Oddwalk on the 2017 NCYC MainStage – Video

Late last year, Shannon and Orin had the privilege of “doing what we do” as Oddwalk Ministries on the MainStage of NCYC (the National Catholic Youth Conference). We had a chance to share (with the like 25,000 folks in Lucas Oil Stadium) a bit of humor as we introduced the new “Music and Message Stage” (which we then also emceed) and led a bit of prayer and song as a blessing over the NCYC Youth Ambassadors.

Hopefully, as you watch this video (below), you’ll appreciate some slightly embarrassing pictures of Orin’s youth, and not be able to tell at all just how desperately hard he had to work and concentrate just to say “Wabash West” correctly two times in a row. Enjoy!