Wrecked

This morning I was thinking about how absolutely wrecked my life would be without the love of Jesus Christ. He holds it all together and I'm constantly in awe of His goodness! Praise be to the King of kings, who took on lowly flesh and became one of us in the form of an infant. He came to us then, so vulnerable, and He comes to us now, just as vulnerable, in the state of bread and wine. He partakes in our humanity so that we can share in His Divinity.

Today I saw this picture:

This is a beautiful picture of Cardinal Ratzinger giving the Precious Body of Christ to Pope John Paul II. (Since this picture was taken, their titles have changed to Pope Benedict XVI and BLESSED John Paul II!) As I was looking at this picture, I realized that the remarkable thing about it is that both of the men in this picture are just that: men. Sometimes we idealize them, sometimes we act as if they are celebrities, but in reality, they are just men. Saint Catherine of Sienna once said, "If you are who you were meant to be, you will set the world on fire." Isn't that the perfect way to describe these Holy Fathers? They were just who God intended them to be. Sure, they were sinners, just like me, but they persevered in the way of perfection and now, one of them is with the Father and is praying for us! 

Lately, I've been trying to cherish life: to etch into my mind the little things in which I find delight. I suppose this is due to the two fold meaning of the title of this post: two weeks ago I was in a pretty bad car accident. I'll tell you the story if you ask, but suffice it to say, the man who caused the accident and I should both be dead, but we both walked away without a scratch. God performed a HUGE miracle that day, and I've been noticing little miracles ever since. I think they've always been there, but now I'm taking the time to notice them.

Merry Christmas! Fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains repeat the sounding Joy! (Luke 19:40)

Holy Innocents, pray for us!

Answered Prayers

Welcome to my first blog post as a college graduate!!

I once again must apologize for the delay in posting, things have been absolutely hectic with finals and graduation and everything that goes with it. In the new year, I hope to update my blog at least a few times each month, and hopefully on a more consistent time schedule.

I hope each of you is enjoying the third translation of the Roman Missal. I, for one, am loving it, and I particularly enjoy the end of the new Creed where we say "I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins, and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come."

I've been praying about Christ's second coming, as we "wait in joyful hope" for Him to return. I've also been praying about the "one baptism" that we profess. Anyways, that is a whole other blog post.

I wanted to let you, my faithful blog readers, know that I am alive, just busy as ever! Also, last week I was informed that I will be serving FOCUS at Auburn University again during this coming semester. I am beyond thrilled that God has answered my prayer. I knew He would, and that His answer would be "right and just" (more from the new Mass!), but I still had a hard time trusting Him, especially as the days to my possible move drew nearer. I'm learning to trust God with some really big things right now, and I know that He will answer me.

What are you trusting God with?


Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!

Thankfulness and Praise

Happy Thanksgiving to my little blog readers (if you actually exist?, sometimes I think I'm the only one who reads what I write!). I hope you have had a day filled with family, friends, food, and football, and most importantly, I hope you set some time aside to offer thanks to the One who provides us with the many gifts with which we are blessed.

This week has been tough for me. I came home encouraged and ready to go, with lofty fundraising goals and a busy schedule set for the week. The first two meetings of my week (one on Saturday and one on Monday morning) were extremely fruitful, edified me so much, and reminded me why I am a Catholic Missionary. After those two appointments, it doesn't seem like much else went right. I think that God is telling me that I need to let go of my goals and form my desires to His. In addition, I need to rely much more heavily on prayer. I need my communication with the Trinity to be comparable to breathing.... just something I do... every single minute of every single day. I want my life to be a prayer.

I love the idea of repentance, and the fact that the Father offers us a clean slate any time we ask, by going to Him in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

 I heard this song on the radio today (which I just looked up, and coincidentally is a Matt Maher song), and one line particularly struck me. It said "if you're lost and you need to be found, if you're looking for a Savior, all you gotta do is turn around." I started thinking about how it might not apply to me, because I'm already seeking God, so if I turn around, wouldn't I be going the other way? I quickly dismissed those thoughts because it occurred to me that any time I screw up, or step off the path of righteousness, even just a little, I need to make a complete 180 in my soul. When I fall off, I start seeking myself, my desires, the things that make me happy. It is particularly in those moments when I need to turn around to find the Savior, and the best part is that He's always waiting there with open arms.

The world without the light of Christ is a dark place and being a Christian is so difficult. Eternal salvation will be worth it. Christ will win the battle against sin and death, in my heart and in the world.

Tomorrow I am headed back to Auburn to finish my last semester as a student and my first semester as a missionary. Please pray for me, as I am extremely busy over the next 2 weeks, finishing school, taking finals, team offsite, regional gathering, graduation, etc.

St. Michael, the Archangel, pray for us!

Nostalgia

As usual.

I'm home doing some fundraising and having a little break from the hustle and bustle of school and work, and this song is pretty descriptive of my feelings right now (about both Auburn and Southlake), so have a listen!

Saint Margaret of Scotland, pray for us!

Life Update

I think I want to start (occasionally) blogging about the ordinary occurrences of my every day life.

Today I had the worst case of the hiccups known to mankind. It was crazy. I think it is my body's way of officially saying "I'm done being sick!" (Or at least that is my interpretation.) The past week, I've been terribly sick, congested and feverish, with a bad cough. I'm learning to embrace suffering!
The weather is awesome (yesterday I wore shorts) and I am eagerly awaiting my trip home to Southlake!

After today, I have two more days of college left. Sometimes I still can't even believe that I'm IN college, and now I'm about to GRADUATE. I'm perpetually in a state of disbelief. This semester has flown by, even faster than the last, and I am SO excited to close this chapter of my life and dive fully into the next. I can't wait to see how much better I will be able to serve the Lord once I'm focusing all of my time and efforts on the mission.

Right now, I am reading Soul of the Apostolate with my teammates. It is forcing me to be radically introspective and helping me to examine my motives in prayer and the causes of my actions. I am praying that I will decrease and He will increase. I highly recommend this read, especially for those committed to the New Evangelization and for those who, by nature of their vocation, do many active works.

I'm also reading (and loving) Come Rack! Come Rope! which is a novel written about the Protestant Reformation in England in the sixteenth century. I have learned that I need fiction in my life. The works of fiction I read always speak so much about the human experience, which I appreciate because I am convinced that you can know God by knowing people to the core.


Saint Edmund Campion, pray for us!

Beautiful Letdown

I'm sorry for the delay in posting, I've been pretty busy!

I have a ton of ideas floating around in my head for blog posts, so hopefully I'll get some time to put my thoughts into words!

Last week, I meet this sweet man, Joe. Joe owns a t-shirt embroidery company here in Auburn and has been so helpful to FOCUS at Auburn. (Yes, we're getting t-shirts!)
Joe has worked on some things for us before (he did our polo shirts for free!), so when I said I was with FOCUS, he jokingly gave me a hard time. He said, "Oh, so you're with that Saint Michael's crowd, huh?" and I said, "Yes, sir!" And he said, "there are a bunch of crazy folks down there," and I said, "Yes, sir, a bunch of sinners," and he said, "that's why I go there! You know what happens when you get too good, don't you? They nail you to a cross."

I wish you could all meet sweet Joe. I pray that we all have his faith, and the ability to so seamlessly share it with others.

That conversation reminded me of a Switchfoot song that was popular when I was in High School. I always liked the song, but I never took the time to hear the words that I was singing in my car on the way to school, or on my iPod while cleaning my room. One day at a meeting for my youth group's Pure Love Club (sounds cheesy but is actually really cool), one of the girls printed out the lyrics for us and gave us time to think about its meaning.

When I first started thinking about it, I was confused. I thought about how it seemed strange that ANYTHING having to do with Christ could be a letdown. Then I heard the line that talks about the Church of the dropouts and losers and sinners and failures and fools. Isn't that amazing? God became man, took on flesh, and allows a sinner and a failure like me to serve Him. He doesn't ask us to be successful, only faithful, and His Church isn't full of holy people, it's full of sinners who have recognized a lacking in their own hearts that can ONLY be filled with His Presence.

Have a listen for yourself.

All you holy men and women, Angels and Saints of God, pray for us.
Holy souls in Purgatory, pray for us.

This Side of Heaven

Today, the most amazing thing happened.

Sweet Susan and I were having Discipleship together at Panera Bread. We were catching up on life and talking about our weekends, when whom did we see? None other than Father Jim Morrison.

I want to take a moment to tell you about Father Jim. He was ordained a priest in the summer of 2010, and it has been amazing to see these first few formative years of his priesthood. He comes to us from the Mississippi Gulf Coast, where he grew up, and he attended the University of South Alabama before entering the seminary. During his time in seminary, he spent a few years in Rome, and he speaks fluent Italian. He also knows how to ride a unicycle and juggle (and yes, he can do these things simultaneously.) He's in his late twenties, and we at Auburn+Catholic are SO BLESSED to have him celebrate masses, hear our confessions, play intramural soccer (he's really good) and even come camping with us! I think his complete surrender to Christ makes a huge impact on the men in AU+Catholic, and on Auburn's campus. (Heck, he even makes ME want to become a priest!) He often plays racquetball with the guys, and I think he occasionally makes an appearance at "Bread and Beer." (B&B, as it is affectionately known) is where the men who are over 21 get together once a week and discuss topics relating to living out the faith/theology/etc. and drink beer and eat bread. (I think... all of these things are speculative, not confirmed, because only men are allowed to go.) (It is also a sort of right of passage for the men in AU+Catholic, and I think the juniors get pretty excited when they turn 21 and get invited to B&B, even if they are too manly to admit it.) Anyways, Father Jim is a great priest.

Being a priest in a small town with an even smaller Catholic population means that everywhere Father Jim goes, he knows someone. (That logic doesn't make sense, but it's true somehow.) Today, he was just stopping in to grab a quick bite (priests are VERY busy people, in case you don't know)(this is not sarcastic, I'm serious... bringing God to His people and His people to God is hard work.) He mentioned that he was on his way to bring Communion to someone, and actually had the Blessed Sacrament with him.

TIMEOUT.

For those of you who don't know:
Catholics read John 6 in it's literal form. When Jesus said during the Last Supper, "This is my Body, which will be given up for you," He actually meant this IS my body. He wasn't speaking in symbolic terms, He was serious. He also said "do this in memory of me." And so, we do! Everyday we remember how much Christ loved us that He became man and died for us, and left us the Mass, so that we could receive the Eucharist (Jesus Christ, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity.) (Read Scott Hahn's "The Lamb's Supper, or talk to me if you have any questions about this... otherwise I will be here all night writing about how the Eucharist is the "source and summit" of our faith... it's THAT important!)

REPLAY.

So... as I mentioned, Father Jim had Jesus Christ, the Savior of the World, body, blood, soul, and divinity, with him as he spoke with us. Susan and I asked him if we should genuflect, but quickly decided against it because it would look weird to others who were unaware of the situation.
I think the reason that this event stands out to me is because the only place I usually see Jesus is in the Church or in the Chapel across from our office. Regardless, Susan and I were changed. That's the thing about Jesus: you can never encounter Him, really and truly encounter Him, without being forever changed. Each time we go to Mass, we exit INFINITELY better than we entered, whether we know it or not.

After Father (and Jesus) left, we continued our lunch. But now, we pondered the lives of those around us. What if none of them ever get the opportunity to attend Mass? What if that was the closest they will ever come (this side of Heaven) in contact with Christ? (Will Saint Peter meet them at the Pearly Gates and ask "Remember that time in Panera? That priest had God with him!")

This is why evangelization is the truest identity of the Church, and this is why I am a Catholic Missionary!

Please pray in thanksgiving for men who give their lives to Christ and His Church by discerning a vocation to the priesthood, and pray that Father Jim's priesthood may be blessed with the abundant graces of bringing Christ to places (like Panera) where He has never been before, and to people who have never met Him.

(Once again, my apologies for the obnoxious amount of parentheses.)

Saint Luke, the Evangelist, pray for us!