A Girl and Her Glitter

So for the past month I have been seeing glitter, everywhere! No parties, no make-up or shiny clothes, and no Kesha, but lots of glitter. Where is it all coming from and why does it matter? Our Lady of Guadalupe loves glitter.

Let me explain. On February 10th, a Tuesday, I walked into CCM at UMW to prepare for daily mass and then prepare for my weekly bible study later that night. I had just put my backpack down when my FOCUS discipler, Vicki, comes walking in with the biggest smile on her face. She said that she had just gotten back from St. Marys, the local Catholic Church down the road, and had just seen Mary, our dear Mother. At first I was very confused, but then she explained that there was a replica of the Tilma of Our Lady of Guadalupe that was being shown at the church until 9pm that night. Not only was it being shown, but you can go right up to the tilma and touch it too! Now I have a very special devotion to Mary, so I was really excited that I would be able to go and visit her, especially so close that I could actually touch her, so I decided to go with my friend Katie.

Now for those of you who don't know the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe; in 1531 a man named Juan Diego was a poor Aztec indian who had converted to Catholocism. He was walking to a place known as Tepayac when he then encountered a beautiful woman, who was speaking in his native tongue. She identified herself as the Virgin Mary and asked him to build a church where she was speaking to him. Juan then went to the bishop and told him what had happened, but the bishop wanted the lady to appear to him again before he would say whether he would build thiss church or not. He went back and Mary appeared to him again, saying the same thing. Juan then went back to the bishop who said he would only meet Juan's request if this lady gave him a sign. When Juan finally returned to see Mary, she told him to go to the top of the hill, cut the flowers, and bring them to her, which was amazing since it was freezing outside. He gathered the roses in his tilma, took them back to the Virigin Mary, who then told him to take them to the bishop. Juan then went to the bishop, opened his tilma to drop the roses in front of him, when he found that on his tilma, there was an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The bishop then requested for the church to be built where Juan had meet with Mary.

While the actual tilma is still shown on display today at the orginial site in Guadalupe, Mexico in the church, it is also displayed high above the ground, since many years ago someone had tried to bomb the image. However, there are replicas that will travel around with a group of missionaries to many different churches so that many more people may experience the graces bestowed by the Virgin Mary. The amazing thing of the replica tilma is that it has been approved by the pope and has been shown to perform miracles. Many of the signs that are shown from this replica are; touching the hands of Mary they feel warm, touching her heart you can feel her heart beat, touching the heart of baby Jesus in her womb you can feel his heart beat, shine a light in her eyes and the pupils will dialate, and she will also cry oil. She has performed several miracles, such as recoveries being shortened from major surgeries, and being able to have a child after having been barren for many years. One other thing that the missionaries who travel with her noticed is that she will leave glitter in places. There are different colors, and they have different meanings:

Silver-I show magniminity of my heart. Ask what you want
Gold-I incline toward the weak. I will heal you spiritually, physically, psycologically, and morally.
Blue-i announce that I am nearby. I am with you
Green-These open you to hope in God, acting in His favor.
Red-In time of trial you offer me a sacrifice, remember that I love you.

So after hearing all this from the missionaries when I was in the church, I stood in line waiting my chance to see her, feeling like a child on Christmas morning, where I just can't wait. Finally, I went up, I felt her hands first, but I didn't feel anything. I began to get discouraged, wondering if my mother wasn't there with me. Next, I felt her heart, and there was the strongest heartbeat I have ever felt. I was feeling my Mother's heartbeat, and I almost burst into tears of joy. My Mother was with me, and oh so close she was! I then felt her stomach and sure enough, there was a faint little baby Jesus heartbeat as well. It was so beautiful to be that close to both my Mother and my Savoir.

So after we prayed, Katie and I then went back to CCM to tell everyone of what we saw and experienced. I then sat down with my friends, getting ready to do some work on my bible study, when I found some gold glitter on my hand. I felt so loved, so gratified that she chose to show me glitter already, to show me that she is always with me. I was blessed with the opportunity to go back that same night to see her once again, and this time I brought more people to experience the same love and affection from her as I had earlier that day. This time, I was able to feel the warmth in her hands, like she was taking my hand and holding it, leading me closer to her son.

Since that beautiful that when I got to see my Mother not once, but twice, I have seen glitter in many different places, with all sorts of colors. I even have some of my friends who went with me or know how close I hold Mary to my heart come up to me and share with me how they show or found glitter and what color it was so I can tell them what it means. My favorite time was when my friend Melanie was getting ready to take a very hard test in one of her classes. She asked me to pray for her, so during the time when she was getting ready to take her test, I was walking along campus and said a Hail Mary for her to do well on her test. Later that day she came up to me adn exclaimed that she had gotten to her classroom, sat down at her usual desk to get ready to take her test, and behold there was glitter all over her desk. I asked what time she found this and the time she said was just about the time that I had prayed to Mary for her intercession on Melanie's test. It was a beautiful prayer experience for sure!

Whether you see glitter or not, know that our Blessed Mother is always with us; she loves us very much, and is our most direct way to be closer to her son, Jesus. Ask her to intercede for you, for a son can never refuse his mother, Jesus can never refuse a prayer request from Mary.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!

Read more about Our Lady of Guadalupe here.

Climbing Oak Trees

So for those of you who don't know me that well, I am Roman Catholic. A year ago, I would have just said that  I was Catholic, but then I learned this past year that there are multiple rites in the Catholic Church; 22 to be exact! So what is a rite then? A rite represents a church tradition about how the sacraments are to be celebrated. So the sacraments are all maintained in all these different rites, but how did there come to be so many rites in the Catholic Church? When Jesus ascended into Heaven, the Holy Spirit then came down upon the Apostles in the form of tongues of fire, where they were then able to speak in many different languages. (Acts 2: 1-6) This allowed them to go out into the world so that they may proclaim God's love and word to everyone that they would meet. Peter did this when he traveled to Rome to established the western church, or the Roman Catholic Church, in which he became the first pope. Before he established the church in Rome, he evanglized the people of Antioch, and founded the Melkite rite of the Catholic Church, also known as the Greek Orthodox. Therefore, Roman and Melkite Catholics are from the same patriarch!

So how did I come to learn about all this? My one good friend from school, Melanie, is Melkite Catholic, and she began to teach me some of the prayers and chants that they do for the liturgy of the hours, which is one of my favorite prayers to do every single day. Finally, a few weeks ago, she invited me up to her home parish which is a Melkite church to join her for a service. I was both nervous and excited; I barely knew anything about the Melkite rite, but at the same time I was excited to learn everything about them; traditions, similiarities, differences, and everything inbetween.

When we got to the church I was blown away by how beautiful it was; it was decorated all around with icons of everything; saints, apostles, Mary, Jesus, prophets, angels, and Bibical events (the Annuniciation, Transfiguration, Last Supper). As soon as we entered the church, I began learning some differences between the two rites. For example, while the Romans genuflect whenever they are in the presence of Jesus, the Melkites do a metany, which is bowing and touching the floor. They touch the floor out of a sign of humility, for we are not worthy to be in the presence of the Lord, for we are lowly sinners. They bow instead of genuflect because the people of Antioch believed that genuflecting was for servants and slaves, while we are sons and daughters of God should not at as servants and slaves do. To make the sign of the cross, you take your tumb and first  two fingers and put them together, for this represents the Holy Trinity. You then make the sign of the cross going from right to left instead of left to right. This has several meanings; one is that Jesus is to come from the east (the right) when He comes again, so the sign of the cross is made as if Jesus were coming to Earth again from the east (the right) across the Earth (over to the left). The other meaning is just that at one point the direction of the sign of the cross was all the same, but when the priest would turn to the crowd and bless them with the sign of the cross, the people were confused of how to copy him, which is why there is a division in the direction of the sign of the cross.

What I loved about the actual service was how everything is chanted; readings, the Gospel, the sacraments,everything except for the homily. There are also no books to follow along, which allowed for me to really listen and enjoy the mass. While the way of receiving the Eurcharist was different, the sacrament itself was the same. Finally, one of my favorite parts of the service was actually at the very end where they will serve the people blessed bread. This is because they believe that after receiving communion,the first thing that should be eaten should be blessed.

I could go on and on about how beautiful everything was, what the similarities and the differences were, but you all would be reading for hours on end.

So what do I say when people ask me about the different rites of the Catholic Church? I say that Catholocism is like an oak tree; it has roots and a sturdy trunk of which is the basis of the tree and holds everything together. You then have your branches which all differ; heights, lengths, leaves, no leaves, and so on. The trunks/roots is God; it's Jesus, Mary, the Holy Spirit, the sacraments, everything that we believe all together as Catholics, what holds us together. The branches are the different rites; while we are all connected to the same trunk, the sacraments, we have different traditions that we follow. These branches, these rites, give us a new perspective on our faith, on how beautiful the work of God really is, bringing together many cultures and traditions by having and keeping the sacrements pure.

So what do I say to those people who ask me about the different rites? I tell them to go and climb the oak tree and have a new view. Go and experience and learn about the different rites. I have been blessed to experience both the Roman and Melkite rites and there are aspects from both of them that I love very much; from the Roman I love all of our saints, the rosary, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, and the liturgy of the hours, while from the Melkite I love the chants, the chocki prayer rope, the Jesus prayer, and the prayers in the Horologian (their version of liturgy of the hours).

Go climb the tree, get a new perspective on our beautiful faith, and discover something that you never knew was there.

Learn more about the different rites here.