Our Lady of Sorrows, Pray for us!

Ok, so as an officially registered member of the Militia of the Immaculata, I get an email every so often offering a short reflection from the rector of the National Shrine of St. Maximilian Kolbe. I got this one about a week ago and after taking time to read it, defintely appreciated it. What with the sufferings of the summer and how they carry into the school year, Fr. McKinley's words seem especially appropriate. Enjoy!

 

"Greetings from the National Shrine of St. Maximilian Kolbe

Dear Friends of St. Maximilian,

Summer comes to an end this month with Labor Day parades, barbeques, and the windup of vacation revelry.  I remember the carefree summers of my youth as some of the best days of my young life.   Unfortunately, for many people this year, it has been a summer of struggle, hurt and anxiety.   Here and abroad, too many of our brothers and sisters have borne the weight of a difficult economy, hurricanes and other natural disasters, hunger and hardship.   We enter the month of September with deep concern for those who are struggling.

In our concern, we remember that September is the month in which we honor Mary under the title Our Lady of Sorrows.   We honor her, who at the foot of the cross looks up at her beloved Son.  She in essence suffers a spiritual martyrdom in the passion and death of Christ.  She cannot take away the cross, only share in it.  He is not alone. Mary is with him at the foot of the cross. (John 19:25)

St. Maximilian wrote  “ … the poor, the weary, those who are bent under the burden of their worries, of their tribulations and crosses, are reassured in their certainty of not being orphans, of having a Mother who is aware of their suffering, who sympathizes with them, consoles them and helps them.  They know they will still have to suffer for a while, but that their reward will follow … [and] a comforting balsam descends upon the hearts, a ray of hope appears again in desperate souls...”

 It is never easy to suffer.  Yet, we can have courage and hope because we are not alone.  This month, make it a point to offer your prayers from the foot of the cross in solidarity with Our Lady of Sorrows and those who are alone, suffering or afraid.  In doing so, you will bear –if even just a little – the crosses of others.

Peace to you.

Fr. Stephen McKinley, OFM Conv.
Rector of Marytown – The National Shrine of St. Maximilian Kolbe"

St. Maximilian Kolbe, pray for us!

And, on the feast of Her birth, Mama Mary, pray for us!

A Sense of Purpose

The last two nights in a row here at school, during the first week of classes have not been filled with homework, but with fellowship. If this is the meat and potatoes of being an RA, I love it. I live in a residence hall, on a floor with a group of young women who are not strangers to me, but I won't presume to call them friends yet, because I'm not positive how they feel about me. However, I think they are all great! Its really neat that mine is the room where folks come in to sit down and chat, whether its because they need help with a rodent problem (not that that's happened, **cough, cough**), they're waiting on a friend to get ready, they need advice, or because they genuinely like me. Basically? My job is to be available to love and serve others. How much closer to the job description of a Christian can ya get?
I've spent the last few weeks becoming really aware of how I feel about what I'm doing. My classes, my job as an RA, the opportunities to grab meals with friends and chat, or better yet, listen. All these things bring me a sense of peace, longing and purpose. Its like I'm getting chances to discover my calling, my vocation. Its very cool. :)

In the last year I've noticed that I have a good capacity for listening to people, for trying to understand them and their stories. I have a knack for reading people and taking meaning from what they say, even if they struggle to communicate it. Being present to others, honestly communicating with them, building relationships based on trust and mutual respect? Its what I love. Its what I do. I'm relational to the core. God is showing me my talents, my gifts...and with those, my calling. I think these talents would be well-used in the field of psychology and likely, counseling. That's where I'm headed. Hopefully, if I'm wrong, He'll steer me in the direction of His choice. In the meantime, I'm following my passion with the sense of purpose in tow.

What do you love? What do you well? What brings you sense of purpose and longing? It is through those things that God is calling you. Chase after Him.

Grace to you, and peace.

I'm sick!

While he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat with Jesus and his disciples. The Pharisees saw this and said to His disciples,
"Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"
He heard this and said,
"Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. Go and learn the meaning of the words 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.'
I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.
~Matthew 9:10-13

All humans carry the stain of Original Sin. We all live in our brokenness, and often fall to temptation.
The different thing about Christians though, is that when we realize our sickness, our brokenness, we are willing to ask the Doctor for help. And He, in His infinite mercy, allows us to heal, and to dine with Him. :)

Grace to you, and peace. :)

Fight another day

I've been on campus for almost 3 weeks. Life has been a pleasant rate of busy. I have had very little free time, and what free time I have had remains full of tasks to be completed, in preparation for returning students (Yikes! They're gonna be here tomorrow!). Bulletin boards, door decorations, room condition cards, crisis management and conflict mediation training sessions...being semi-responsible for the safety and comfort of a group of college students requies much of me. But the Resident Assistant job I am preparing for really excites me. I mean, I'm essentially earning a free place to live while doing the things I love: building relationships and cultivating and enjoying community. God be praised for the opportunity to fully live and develop my passions, especially as they pertain to the career path I want to follow some day. Better said by a psychologist who spoke at one of our sessions at leadership camp:

"You will make the greatest impact [on your organization] with your strengths, your passions fully developed and fully lived, rather than your weaknesses marginally improved."

This really stuck out to me. We all know that we're our own worst critics. Even as I'm discovering passion for this job, the last two weeks have been pretty tough. My prayer life is nowhere near where it used to be, and I'm struggling to be open to God's will in my weaknesses, which have manifested themselves very clearly in the last 2 months. There have been times when I remember how hard this summer was, when I think about how lonely I am, and I get overwhelmed with how weak I feel. During one of my low moments at camp, I retreated to my room so I could be upset for a moment and collect myself before going back into the conference room. As is typical of these moments, I chewed God out, telling Him I didn't feel like I could do this. As is typical of Him and His goodness lately, He didn't really answer. As I continued to complain about my lack of spiritual consolation, I heard Him say something to the effect of "Suck it up, and deal with it."  This would have been much less comforting and much more damaging to my psyche, if it hadn't been said in a tone that sounded strangely like my mother's voice, when she's gently scolding me to get over myself.

Sometimes, its all I can do to remember to focus on my passion for what I'm doing, to play to my strengths, as they say. And I think thats what the quote above, (which I heard promptly after returning to the conference room that day) means. I can try as hard as possible to fix myself so I'm good enough/well enough to be an RA. OR, I can chase after the opportunity God has given me anyway, to live the passion I have, even if I don't feel capable of living it out. A few days later, I heard a song that communicates such a theme well.

"Do you feel the fire when the flame gets hot?
Are you living every day like its the last you've got?
Do you step aside when it all falls down, and watch it burn away?
Have a little faith when the walls cave in,
Pray for strength to fly against the wind.
Will you walk away when the fire gets hot, or fight another day?"

Addison Road-Fight another day
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvT74QsGwOU

"My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness." ~2 Corinthians 12:9

May you chase your passions anyway, and gain strength from God to fight another day.
Grace to you, and peace.

Framily

Just a reflection on something that's been a daily part of my life for the last 2 1/2 years, something that has completely overhauled and remodeled my spiritual journey with Christ, and something I am pretty sure I cannot live without anymore. Thanks, God, for promising me such a beautiful gift. :)
I became a part of the TEC family on March 7, 2009. That meant I joined a community of people that started loving me right from the very beginnings of our friendships. They were kids that, along with me, realized we could truly live our Catholic faith with each other. We didn't have to hide it, or be embarrassed about it, and we could bring up God in a sentence without traumatizing anyone. In fact, bringing up God and being in relationship with Him and each other was what made our time together so fun and enjoyable and...life-giving. I made a group of friends with a real purpose: to get each other and the rest of the world to Heaven. Wow.
As some of my friendships through TEC really started to develop, I became part of a pretty tight-knit group that called itself "framily". The explanation behind the new slang term was "friends so close they've become like family." This group could easily have become a clique or something silly like that, but God's too smart and too good. The word slowly leaked out to include all of us who have joined the TEC family in the last couple of years, as well as those who were encountering Christ on the retreats long before the word ever surfaced. It is so amazing to hear people who are little more than strangers to me, say to new candidates: "Welcome to what we call the framily." Though I may not know the person using or receiving the title, it doesn't matter. What matters is that all of us know what it means.
Framily is more than just a big group of people who know and like each other. Framily is a group of people who have all had the change to encounter Christ in a similar way, and who have bonded with others through that experience. Framily is not exclusive membership into some private club, and those who might think so kid themselves in thinking that they even know what framily means. The people that framily is all about are not the originators of the slang term; they are three in One. They/He is/are completely in love with each of us. They/He has/have a bond with each one of us, and thats what makes us all family.

To share a little of my experience with the framily, I said 3 things: 1) its a daily part of my life, 2) its completely overhauled and remodeled my journey with Christ, and 3) I cannot live without it.

1) I do not go a day without thinking about and praising God for framily. They, their intentions and daily struggles are a daily part of my prayer life. I talk with many of them, I think about some of them a lot, and I am very often remembering and telling stories about past TECs, and preparing for future ones.

2) I've always known my faith was important, but my candidate TEC showed me that living my faith daily, passionately, obviously was possible. And I'm finding out that not only is it possible, its required, to get through this life, and to get to Heaven. Also, in this journey of life, these good people direct me on my path. They set excellent examples, they laugh and cry with me, and they always challenge me to become a fuller version of myself, to embrace a fuller and more perfect version of God's plan for me.

3) I say I cannot live without it. And that used to be the case. I (somewhat foolishly) used to think that, since I encountered Christ on TEC so powerfully, that was the only way for me to continue encountering Him. What a surprise to me, to be called out by a good friend (who is ironically not a TECer ;)) and shown that I can encounter Christ in ways that are not TEC. And I can share my faith through other things and avenues than forcing them to go on TEC (If I've overdone it in encouraging you to make a TEC in the past, I apologize. TEC is great, but I understand now that it may not be God's plan for you.). TEC has been the starting blocks for the race of my witness to Christ and faith journey, but this path will take many turns, some of them not TEC-related, and thats ok. :)
Having said all that, I will also say that I have a lot of passion for the TEC program. I have learned so much from it, I see a lot of good fruit being born from it, and I see that TEC is a huge opportunity for God to put people into my life that He wants me to love and serve.  I see that vision and part of the plan God has for me, and I will continue to enthusiastically share my joy for it with others. I said that I cannot live without it. But I amend that statement, and instead choose to say that I will not live without it.

I could talk for days on end about my personal journey with the framily. But I challenge you as well as myself to something better than just talking about the people with whom you've become good friends. Talk instead, about the Person who brought you to your own "framily". Whether you've been on a TEC or not, Who's face do you really see in your best friends? What/Who keeps you together, and blesses you endlessly, loves you perfectly, and is waiting breathlessly for you to be with Him in Heaven forever?
May you find yourself a group of friends so close, they've become family, if you don't have one. If you do, may your rejoice in God's goodness!
Grace to you, and peace.

More on Hope

"Lord, grant me the grace to Hope. To know in my heart that You have not only good, but the BEST in store for me. Help me to realize that, while counting my blessings is the joy of a grateful heart, assuming these blessings are as good as it gets is the sign of a prideful heart, and it means that I claim to know You and Your ways, and that I doubt Your promise that better things are coming. Give me the grace to always trust in that promise, and to know that You are Almighty God.
 Have mercy on me, Lord, and hear my prayer. Amen."

Back to the Future

One of my favorite movie trilogies…and the title is so appropriate. J

As people looking toward Eternal life, we understand that the gift of salvation is priceless: worth more than anything and everything we could offer God while here on earth. Our response to such a gift is zeal and passion for God’s life-giving love. We Catholics do not do good works to earn our Heaven, as so many mistakenly believe. We do good works in response to and thanksgiving for Jesus Christ’s having opened the gates to us freely. And one cannot be thankful for a gift one has not accepted. If we do not accept that God, and God only, can and will sweep us off our feet and carry us off to Heaven, our good works of thanksgiving are meaningless.

God is already waving free tickets to Heaven in our faces. We accept as graciously as our weak humanity can, and then we celebrate (Mass, prayers, good works…all the good stuff. J)

My point here being that Christians look to the future; our whole lives on Earth are caught up in the reality that we will someday be experiencing God fully among His angels and Saints. What an amazing reality to live and die for!

 And thus, the future is where evil tries to deter us.

“Be not afraid.”

I've been saying that lot these days. Hearing it a lot too. From friends, family members, from God Himself. And I've definitely needed to hear it and say it. Lots of stuff has happened in my life recently. Not stuff I'm either willing or yet able to bear my soul about on the internet; stuff that goes arm in arm with that paralyzing fear that knocks the wind out of me when I lay down to sleep at night. And I know for a fact that others are getting the wind knocked out of them too. I tell people and myself to trust God all the time, but when all I knew seemed to be literally falling apart about a week ago, I gained some new perspective on fear, and no longer dismiss how real and crippling it can be.
The thing about fear is that the things we fear are a very real part of our human condition. Evil exists all around us. We live in this world and are a fallen race. Many things that hurt and scare us are the difficulties we have created for ourselves as a result of our sin; other things have other-worldly influence behind them. It is not wrong or unnatural that we be alert to these things. We understand that they might pose a distraction, an obstacle to the future reality of Heaven, should we give them our undue attention. And that undue attention is fear. On the road to sainthood, these evils and distractions give us pause. We dig in our heels and stop to ponder. And fear takes over. We become consumed by how easily these things might stop us. From gaining peace, from joy, from eternal life in the future…and we forget that we’ve already stopped. We forget that we’re already holding the ticket to Heaven in our hands, because we worry about what should happen if something were to take that ticket away.

Stupid Satan. What a head trip. It doesn’t even make sense. Faulty logic!

The opposite of fear is hope. Like fear, hope looks to the future. But hope is when we barely give evil and distraction a head nod, and keep on trucking toward those pearly gates. Hope is realizing that none of the troubles of this world deserve undue attention, because that ticket to Heaven is in our hands, and that ticket is the sacrifice of Christ’s death on the Cross and His Resurrection and victory over death. Hope says to those distractions as we pass them by: “You don’t matter all that much. My future is bright, and nothing can stop me from getting there.” In other words, Philippians 4:13. Or Romans 8:38-39.

So the trick is to be not afraid. When we pause on the road to Sainthood, when we allow fear to bamboozle us, we make the decision to stop chasing God, many times without realizing it. The trick is to keep on trucking. Keep our eyes on the prize-Heaven. Keep on keepin’ on. Or, in other, more eloquent and less clichéd words,

“Be ever engaged, so that whenever the devil calls, he may find you occupied.” –St. Jerome.

I’m ready to get moving again, get past this fear. I’m ready to keep loving my friends, my family, strangers God brings into my life. These struggles I’m going through? Doesn’t matter what they are. They don’t matter in the grand scheme of things. I have hope, because I’m on my way to a bigger, brighter, greater reality than I can imagine. I’m ready to get back to the Future. ;)

May you be fearless, and hopeful on this journey to Sainthood. Grace to you, and peace.