Learning the Little Way Part 1

Have you ever heard that saints will follow us? If someone had told me this a year ago I would have given them my infamous skeptic look and thought that they were just crazy. Saints are best friends with Jesus, they are in heaven, why would they spend their time following us, when it is we who should be following their ways to be closer to God? That's just it, that is why certain saints will follow us around, giving us little signs here and there because they want us to learn about them, to see just how they strengthened their relationship with God and how they can help us to strength ours. So I have been followed or as I've been told "stalked" by several saints lately, on which you will hear of more and more as this blog goes on, but one that has majorly been a part of my lfie for the entire school year has been St. Therese of Lisieux. St. Therese was this beautiful young girl who grew up in France and became a Carmelite Nun, one who is cloistered, can't go out in the real world, when she was but a teenager. She became famous for what is known as "the little way". You may have heard her also refered to as St. Therese the Little Flower. I remember my grandma always loved to talk about her when I was a little girl, but I never really stopped to learn much about her, until this year.

For Christmas, my one friend Katie gave me the book, The Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux. I was so excited to finally be able to learn more about this beautiful saint whom I've heard of since I was a little girl, whom has been following me around for the past few months, but whom I don't know very much about. St. Therese was the youngest of 5 daughters and was a young child when her mother passed away from cancer. St. Therese, along with all of her sisters all became Religious Sisters. Pauline, the second oldest, whom also became a mother figure during Therese's youth, asked Therese to write her about her childhood and how she remembers it, since she was blessed to have remember very vividly much of her youth. The first section of the book, Therese writes to her older sister, who is Mother Superior of the Carmlilite Order where both her andTherese are, all about her childhood; her relationship with her sisters, with her father and mother (before her mother died), and with God.

I have only just begun reading this beautiful book by St. Therese about how she was as a child, and God truly watched over her and blessed her at a very young age. While a very holy person, she speaks very simply as so all can understand. For example when she is talking about people, she compares their souls to flowers in a garden; "Jesus willed to create great souls comparable to Lilies and roses, but He has created smaller ones and these must be content to be dasies or violets." Some peoples souls are bigger, some are smaller, but she also states, that "Perfection consists in doing His will, in being what He wills us to be." God gives us what we can handle; some souls are able to handle more while others may handle less, but God loves each and every one of us as His own. How beautiful that a four year old little girl could compare God's graces bestowed on His people to a garden of beautiful flowers?

As I continue to read this beautiful story of a soul, I am learning so many things to apply to my life and to teach others. Saint Therese is truly a beautiful soul, one who suffered much, but who loved God till the day she took her last breathe, a true and devote love which we all should aspire to have.

Saint Therese of Lisieux, pray for us!

Welcome Home

So I have been sick with the flu for the past couple of days, which means staying in bed, doing pretty much nothing. Now for those of you who know me, this isn't something I tend to do often, if at all. I'm a person who loves to constantly be doing things; organizing events, being with friends, doing things for others, so if someone tells me I'm sick, I'm gonna go crazy! Tonight I went over to my Catholic Campus Ministry on campus to have my weekly bible study with my amazing group of girls. I was still run down from having the flu so I hadn't been over there all day. When I walked in the door, all my friends greeted me with open arms (well as open as you want to embrace a sick person) and asked how I was doing, if I needed anything, and so on. I was greeted with notes, letters, and soup from some of my best friends. I had only been gone for a couple of days, yet I was received with such love and open arms, I wondered, why would I ever want to leave?

My bible study tonight looked over one of my all time favorite paraboles, the prodigial son (Luke 15:11-32). One of my greatest and funniest memories of this parabole goes back to when I was a junior in high school at my third workcamp. We went to North Carolina and the theme for the week was based on the story of the prodigial son. Every night at workcamp we had what was called program where we would all get together as a camp, do praise and worship and then listen to what the theme of the day was based on what the theme of the week was. So before we would listen to the Emcee talk about the theme, the camp would show videos to get all the workcampers excited to hear about the theme. This year they decided to have a fake reailty show called, "Meet the Prodigials" where they would have interviews with all the family members and follower them around and see what their reactions were. As cheesy as it was, it put the story in a way that we could physicaly see what was happening and really start to feel the impact of how the father loved his younger son, no matter how far he strayed.
When we read Luke 15:11-32 we find that Jesus is telling this story to the Phariesses, because they have asked Him why is He associating himself with sinners all the time. Jesus tells the parabole; a younger son goes to his father askes for his inheritance and then leaves to live a life of lavish sin. He then looses everything and lives with the pigs. The son finally comes to his senses and returns home to ask forgiveness of his father. The father sees his son in the distance and runs out to meet him. He greets him and welcomes him back with open arms, slaughters the best calf for him, and throws him a party because he was lost and know has been found. Meanwhile, the older son is jealous because in his eyes he has been nothing but a loyal servant to his father, having never once disobeyed him. The father then tells him that all that he has is his, but we must celebrate the return of the younger son. Then the parabole just ends.

I never thought of the ending before, how it just ends right there, nothing more. It's like one of our favorite tv shows that they leave you with a cliff hanger right as the seasons takes a break and the next episode won't be back for another two months. So why the ending? Think about who Jesus was comparing the the characters to in His story: the younger son is the sinner/tax collecters, the older son is the Pharisees, and the father is God/Jesus. While the younger son went off an sinned, he "came to his senese" and returned back to his father, who saw him in the distance, ran to him, and welcomed him home with a party. No matter how much we sin, when we finally cometo our senese, God will always be waiting for us with open arms to welcome us back to his kingdom. As for the older son, he was already in his father's good graces, having not disobeyed, but only saw himself as a servant, never as a son. The Pharisees let pride get in their way, that they know so much that they will never do wrong and are eagarly searching for their reward now. The father then addresses the older son as "My son" to emphasize that he is first and foremost his son, not his servant. Jesus then leaves the parabole ending open so the Pharisees will write their own ending to the story, so that they may grow closer to God, but on their own means.

What character are we in this story? Are we the younger son; one who has strayed from the church and are starting to realize that we are in the wrong, are we coming to our senses and are starting to come back whether it be by going to mass every week, giving 10 minutes a day to prayer, or saying the rosary more? Are we the older son; where we have a good relationship with God but we forget that we aren't servants, that we are brothers and sisters, sons and daughters and to not search for a reward, but to be selfless in our actions? Or are we the father; has someone we known gone astray from the church and we have to stand and wait to see them in the distance, and when they do will we open our arms and our hearts to openly and lovingly accept them into our lives and our faith?

I know I was so blessed to be welcomed back home into the ministry tonight by my bible study and my friends (who are also one in the same), and I hadn't even done anything wrong to them. While the story of the prodigial son is always focusing on the son, it's focus is really on the father, how God not only welcomes us back home with open arms when we sin, but we need to do as well when one of our own brothers or sisers comes home as well.

Just as God always welcomes us home, let us welcome each other home, from sin, sickness, and everything inbetween.

A Cross to Bear

"If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me" -Luke 9:23

These were the words in the Gospel yesterday that had me sitting in mass thinking and praying for a while. We've probably heard the saying before, 'to take up our cross' but what does that even mean? Do we have to carry the big wooden cross just like Jesus did on the day of His death? While it may seem it at times, that's not quite what Jesus had in mind when He told us these words in Luke 9:23.

We were all given some sort of cross to bear; it may be physical with a sickness, emotional with a suffering, or anything inbetween. Each one of us was given a specific cross to bear, but like both my mom and my grandma used to always say, God doesn't give us anything more than we can handle.

A couple of months ago I discovered that I have a gluten intolerance, which means that I can't eat anything with wheat, grains, or gluten in it. While it isn't an uncommon thing for people to have today, it doesn't make the frustration any less. At first I was mad and even scared; not only would I have to completely change my diet, but I didn't think that I would be able to handle this new-found cross that God had given me. I was troubled for a good month about this, when I finally when to St. Marys Church down the road from school to go and talk to the priest there. Father told me that indeed God doesn't give us a cross that we can't handle, but that doesn't mean that they won't be tough. He then told me something that will stay with me for the rest of my life.

He said to think of the saints, especially Maria Goretti. (She was 12 years old when she was stabbed to death by her neighbor because she wouldn't committ sin with him.) Her cross that God gave her to bear was her early death, and she never hesitated when the time came to go against God in order to save her life. Her act of martyrdom was not for her, but for others. Father then told me to take the cross that I was given, and offer it up for others, specifically someone who maybe isn't able to fully understand or handle their own cross because it is so much bigger than my own. Have my cross take a part of someone else's cross off of their shoulders, so they can better bear their own.

My cross may be big to me, but in the grand scheme of things, it isn't the worst cross that I would have to bear. God knows why He gave me this cross, and while I don't know now, or may not ever know, I still need to bear it, but I need to bear it in the name of Jesus. So if you are having a hard time bearing your own cross there are a couple of things that you can do about it:

1. Pray about it: Anything that we do, whether it is making a decision, giving thanks, or asking for help, we should always pray about it by interceding with our Blessed Mother and the saints, or even straight to God and Jesus.
2. Offer it up: This may seem hard, especially because when we are miserable, we like to focus on ourselves and how miserable we are, or that we think we are. Take a moment every day, or when it gets really hard to bear the cross and think about your cross in perspective to the world. Then, offer it up for someone, whether you know someone specifically or not, who does have a much more difficult cross to bear. Have your cross take part of theirs off of them.
3. Talk to a priest: If you are still really struggling with the thought of bearing your cross, go and talk to someone, especially a priest. They are always willing to be there and listen and will give some great advice.

In order to follow Christ, we must take up our cross daily and follow Him. It may be hard at times, and most days we won't want to face our cross head on, but Christ bore the biggest cross of them all, where He died on the actual cross in order to save us from our sin. If Jesus had the ultimate cross to bear, what's not to say that we can't bear our own personal cross everyday?

Luke 9:23

I'm Just a Little Missionary

I go to college. I'm going to graduate early. I major in geography. I read, play lacrosse, bake, run, travel, and chill with friends. I'm a twenty something who does all these things and more, but who am I?

I'm just a small missionary of Christ.

I guess you could say that I had my second "reversion" (or re-introduction into the Catholic faith) when I was a freshmen in college. Even then, it took me until my second year to really begin to realize that I'm not just a Catholic, I'm proud to be Catholic. It then took me another year to figure out that, I'm not just a Catholic, I'm called to be a missionary of Jesus. Now before jumping to conclusions, no I am not an actual missionary whereit is my job, like    in FOCUS (although they are very cool people). What I mean by missionary of Jesus is that we as Catholics are called to love others and share God's love and message to others. When we have something valuable and beautiful, such as a new iphone or a new car, we WANT to show it off to others, we want to tell everyone what we just got. It`s the same with the word of God.

So what does that mean then? It starts by being a geniue person; saying hello to everyone, holding doors open, inviting people to lunch or going to get coffee. It then grows into not being afraid to ask those questions; what do you believe, what excites you about the faith, what do you think God has in store for you? It means inviting everyone, both new and old friends to come to mass, adoration, liturgy or the hours, or bible study with you. It doesn`t have to always be a dramatic gesture; even Jesus started with the simple fishermen by asking them just to come and follow Him. He didn`t give all these details, He didn't start with the deep questions, He started with a simple invititation.

If we are to be like Christ, we must first listen and follow Him. I know, this is way easier said than done. For me, it feels like God is just dumping everything imaginable on me ranging from schoolwork to new eating habits, to relationships with friends and family. At times I want to scream "I can't take this anymore'" because at times it feels like I`m left alone. But that`s the beauty, we are never alone; it may not always feel that way, but even though we don:t always deserve it, Godis always with us and always loves us. In order for us to share His message as missionaries, we need to listen to it and live it first.

I'm been Catholic my entire life, and I'm just beginning on this journey now. It will be tough, it will ge frustrating, and we will want to give up, but with Mary, Jesus, and all the saints cheering us on, how can we loose? Pray everyday; both in need and thanksgiving, share love in both big and small ways, and always keep God`s love and word in your own heart.

I'm just a little missionary, but I have a big message to share.