Division I (Grades 6–8) Runner Ups

Second Place Winner
Third Place Winner

Second Place Winner: Julia Pelletier
Click the Button, Spread the News

Spread the Good News. As a 13-year-old, when I hear that phrase, I associate it with literally standing on the side of a road or street and reading the sacred word of Jesus. I am sure many of my peers think of the same stereotype. But spreading the Good Mews comes in so many shapes, forms and sizes; and teenagers take advantage of each and every form and spread the Good News in so may ways, without even realizing it.

As I sit at my laptop, staring at my flashing cursor, I am pondering my religion teacher’s latest assignment. “How am I to spread the Good News?” I think to myself. I am Julia Pelletier, a teenager who doesn’t have the slightest idea of how to spread the Good News.  I have called three friends, text messaged five, and posted on my Facebook wall for ideas.  Not one person knows the answer to my dilemma!  As I check if anyone responded to my post on Facebook, the popular communication site, I see that once again, there are no ideas on how to spread the Good News. Now I am frustrated, so I decide to take a little break from school work and talk to some of my friends on Facebook. While typing messages back and forth with my best friend, Katie, I notice an ad at the side of the web browser that catches my attention.  The words, “ Stop Bullying” dominates the small ad space and under the message, there is a small button that says “Like.” For all of those non-Facebook users out there, to “Like” something means to support it. From the moment I saw that little ad, I knew exactly how I could spread the Good News, through Facebook!

By now, most people might be thinking that I am crazy and Facebook is nothing but a dangerous website.  Although Facebook can be dangerous, if you use it responsibly it is safe,  fun, and a way to spread the Good News.  On my own account, I “Like” Stop bullying, Autism Speaks, the National Downs Syndrome Society, and curing cancer. To me, “spreading the Good News” varies for every individual. All Catholics believe God is powerful, forgiving, and almighty, but everyone sees God in a different way. I see God and Jesus within helping people. To me, to spread the Good News is to help all people, everywhere. So, through Facebook, I am able to support various systems of helping people and help my friends to do so as well. My friends and I all support Stop Bullying on Facebook. Therefore, we don’t bully people and we try to help those who do get bullied.  I have helped spread the Good News by asking my friends to support causes that help people and then act upon them.  To me, a way of spreading the Good News as a teenager is through Facebook.

As I turn around to look at my clock, I realize I have been typing for half an hour.  I feel a lot lighter now that I got all of my ideas out on paper. Suddenly, the term “Spreading the Good News” doesn’t seem so scary anymore. Spreading the Good News is so much more than reading the Bible, it is to act upon what you believe in and to read in between every line in our Sacred Book and to really try and understand what Jesus is calling you to do.

Julia Pelletier, an eighth grader at St. Agatha School in Milton, Mass., wins the $300 second-place award for Division I.

Third Place Winner: Oscar Rubio
I am an iMissionary

To evangelize and transmit the Sunday Mass by radio, I am a missionary.  My friend and I came up with this idea.  We asked the manager of a radio station called Radio Felicidad in Acuña, Coahuila, Mexico, if he could help us transmit the Mass via radio and he agreed. The first two weeks we transmitted the Mass the manager sent us with a technical assistant, who helped us set up everything we needed.  After the first two weeks we were responsible for setting up everything. Since we started transmitting the Mass, people who are terribly ill and can’t go to Mass can hear the Word of God through radio.  People who live in ranches who are not able to come to church can now hear the Word of God through the radio. You can also hear the Mass through the Internet.  This is one way I show that I am a missionary.

I have friends who don’t believe in God, but I talk with them and teach them about God.  I sometimes take my friends to Mass. I always try to answer their questions about God, but I always tell them that we have to have faith. One day I invited my friends to join the catechism class. I told them that you could learn about God and Jesus in the catechism class. I always them that no matter what you do, what you think, God will always love you.

Once a year the parish in Acuña holds a trip where my dad and I and other members of the community go to some villages and preach the Gospel. Sometimes we go to a small community near Acuña called San Carlos Coahuila. After visiting San Carlos, we go to a ranch called El Bonito. There the priest from Acuña offers Mass with all the ranchers and their families. We go from the ranches near Acuña all the way to the villages near Matamoros Tamaulipas. Then, we return to Acuña for Sunday Mass in the parish with Father Sabino Gamez. Sometimes we are called to go and be altar servers at Masses in Acuña, most of the times in Guadalupe Church in Acuña, Mexico. Some of the time I serve a Saturday Mass with Father Sabino Gamez.  This is a good way to serve your church and your community. Our family also collects money through the year. At Christmas time whatever we collect we give to the Church. We also help the Church to preach the Gospel over the Internet.  We copy the Gospel from the Bible to the parish Facebook page each week. We also have phone service that we send to everyone who wants to hear the Good News. Some members of my family, like my mom, like to see the Gospel on her phone, so each week I send her a message with the entire Gospel.  This is how I am an iMissionary.

Oscar Rubio, a seventh grader at Sacred  Heart Catholic School in Del Rio , Texas, wins the third-place award of $150 for Division I.