Hey y'all. It's Bryan, your friendly neighborhood YAM-NW Co-Chair. I have the honor today of writing about Venerable Pierre Toussaint. Born on June 27, 1766 in modern-day Haiti, Venerable Pierre Toussaint was brought to New York City as a slave. However, when he died on June 30, 1853, he was a free man, a renowned hairdresser, and one of New York City's most well-known Catholics. Without further ado, please allow me to introduce to you Venerable Pierre Toussaint, his story, and why he is a Saint-spiration.

Hello, it’s Elizabeth with a reaction to this week’s Winter Wine talk. This week, Dr. Lynne Boughton from the Liturgical Institute spoke to us about the historic Jewish origins of the Eucharist. While many Catholic authors and scholars focus on the analogies between the Eucharist and the Passover Seder, Dr. Boughton focused on the analogies between the Eucharist and the sacrificial rites described in Exodus. Dr. Boughton’s talk was packed full of information, so bear with me as I attempt to describe all of the incredible insights.

Hello dear readers! It’s Mike, back to talk to you about one of my favorite Saints: Saint Lawrence. Saint Lawrence was born in 225 AD and served in the early church as a deacon of Rome. He was friends with the man who would become Pope Sixtus II, and it was Pope Sixtus II himself who gave him his assignment. This vocation included the responsibilities of managing the material goods of the church as well as distributing alms to the poor.

Hey guys! It’s Mike again, back to talk to you about our second week of the Winter Wine series. On Wednesday, our own Bryan Fong shared his talk, “The Young Adult Field Medic,” about our role in the church as evangelists, and how to approach the sharing of our faith with those who have never experienced it, or those who have fallen away. In multiple addresses to the Catholic people—as well as the world—Pope Francis has likened the Catholic Church to a field hospital. A normal hospital is a large building where the sick and wounded are brought to receive care. Aside from the ambulances that roam the streets, normal hospitals don’t come find you: you have to actively seek out the care yourself. A field hospital, on the other hand, goes to the front line in order to care for those in the most desperate of situations. A guy who lost an arm in battle needs immediate help, and this is where the field hospital comes in. Sure, they might patch him up and send him off for more specialized care later. However, the field hospital is the first line of care.

Hello. It’s Elizabeth again, and this is the first in our Saint-spiration series--where we highlight the lives of Saints and how they resonate in our modern lives. Since this is our first post and it is Black History Month, we are talking today about Augustus Tolton: Servant of God and the first African-American priest. Fr. Tolton was born a slave and--even after his escape to freedom and fighting in the Civil War--encountered racism in his schooling, his quest to enter seminary and fulfill his vocation, and his life as a priest. So affected his life so greatly that he was forced to move to another diocese just to be able to act as a pastor. His story is one of perseverance in acts of service and the pursuit of holiness.