Prayer for a "rose" -- interpreting God's message

Most people think that summer is a time for relaxing (especially when you have a job where about 90% of your work occurs working crazy hours during the academic year), but the past few weeks have been a little slice of chaos. Strangely enough thought, in the midst of the mayhem, I've also had some awesome prayer time - which has been beautiful, because usually the crazier I'm feeling, the less likely I am to take time out for just me and God in my schedule.

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to be on team for an amazing youth ministry program offered by the diocese I used to work for (they can't get rid of me just yet ;)  ), called CLI (Catholic Leadership Institute). I was excited to meet my kids, the new team members, and be reunited with the returning team members, who have become my family over the past five years or so. I also knew that I'd have a lot more time for prayer, Mass, and Adoration than I usually do in my schedule, and I was pumped for a little spiritual refresher.

One of my favorite priests gave a talk about prayer at CLI, and one of the things he spoke about was interpreting our prayers to find the real message from God. Some of the ways he said we can use to see the difference between our own thoughts and God speaking to us is if what we're hearing is something that we're not expecting, or something we would have picked for ourselves, and if the message challenges us to grow, and makes us a little uncomfortable. Little did I know how much I would need that spiritual refresher for the weeks following CLI, or those particular words.

The week brought some circumstances that left me having to make a big decision about something, a thing that involved other people and could potentially have a major impact on someone else's life. My post-CLI, sleep-deprived, super-emotional mind was telling me to act one way, but my friends and the logical side of my mind were telling me I was being a little bit crazy.

I knew I needed to take it to prayer and offer the whole situation up, but I was struggling with determining what I thought I was hearing in prayer was my own thoughts and desires, or what was actually the will of God. I was so confused, and knew I needed more help figuring things out, but the people I would normally go to seemed too close to me and the situation to be truly objective. I needed to know which direction I was going to head in, without someone worrying about me getting my hopes crushed, or judging the situation as impossible altogether.

God put it on my heart to pray the Novena to St. Therese of Liseaux, The Little Flower - something that I've done before, but only like to do in when I really need it so I can really put my heart into it, as opposed to praying it to find out what kind of cereal I should have for breakfast in nine days. If you're not familiar with the novena, there's a few different versions of it, but the one I use you can find here (http://www.ewtn.com/therese/novena.htm#1), and here's the basics - it's a 9-day series of prayers and reflections, where you pray for the same specific intention every day, and when you're done, St. Therese will find a way to send you a rose as a sign to answer your prayers. I never tell anyone I'm doing this particular novena until after I'm done and have gotten my answer, in fear of someone sending me a rose because of their own will, not God's. Like this "overly attached Catholic girlfriend" meme, courtesy of the fantastic Catholic Memes Facebook page...

I'm sure St. Therese was laughing at me a little bit in heaven with how specific I was in asking for a sign. I didn't just ask for any rose, but for a white rose only if my emotions were pure and the thing that I wanted to come from the situation would be holy and good for everyone involved - if it wouldn't be, and I should shop being emotional and follow the logic, I asked St. Therese for a rose of any other color.

The more I prayed, the more I started to feel like the logic was taking over, I was stupid for being so emotional about the situation, and I needed to let go of my feelings and move on. I journaled a lot, and started to honestly feel like I would be okay with either outcome, even if I didn't get the answer that I originally wanted. By the eighth day, I almost stopped praying the novena, because I was feeling so sure that I had been irrational, and praying the novena was just a way to help me let go emotionally so that when I didn't get the white rose I had originally hoped for, I'd be more okay with God's "this isn't what I have planned for you."

I finished the last day's prayers anyway, right before getting on the road for a weekend trip to Erie, PA to see some friends. It was getting pretty late, and I had driven that 6-7 hour route many, many times during college to get back to Gannon from New Jersey, so it was easy to space out (I'm literally on Route 80 for 5 hours, so I don't even have to worry about missing a turn until I'm almost to Ohio).

Shortly after midnight (so technically the day after I finished the novena), a song we sang a lot at CLI came on my iPod, and I started to mentally wake up more and pay more attention to things besides the highway in front of me. Near the end of the song, I looked to the side of the road, and saw a small sign I had never seen before on my many treks across PA...

(I GPS-ed Rose Township on my way back from Erie on Sunday, and took this photo of the eastbound-side's sign because I needed to prove to myself that I hadn't made up the name of the town in my late-night zoning-out-ness) 

After freaking out just a little bit in my car, and talking to a good friend of mine the next day who I consider to be my resident expert on the Little Flower Novena from all the answers she's gotten from it herself, we determined that yes, this does count as a rose, and occasionally God does quite literally send you signs for your direction in life.

This was not A) the way I expected St. Therese to send me a flower, or B) the color I was expecting. I also wasn't really sure if this was the answer I wanted anymore - I had just spent nine days offering my desires up to God, and preparing myself for a big ol' "girl, ain't nobody got time fo dat" response.

I'm still figuring out where exactly I'm going to head from here - after all, it's been about 2 days since I got this surprising literal road sign. The little "doubting Thomas" voice in me wants to pray the novena again and see if I get the same results, but I know that a huge part of praying for an answer is having faith that a response will come, and trusting in that message when it does. The situation as a whole also doesn't rely on my decisions alone, so I've got some waiting (and more praying) to do about it, and trusting that other people will follow God's plans for them, too. But it is nice to know that someone up there is listening, and that God absolutely has plans in store for me, even if I really don't know His long-term visions for me right now. Who knows - maybe there are even more roses for me in my future - but in any case, it's all at least a reminder to never stop praying.

You are not alone in your struggles, or your desires

If you haven't already read my previous blog post, please do so before reading this one. After getting some fallout from my last post about gay marriage, I realized that the compassion I had intended wasn't fully communicated. For that I apologize - but I still stand by what I wrote and believe. Hopefully this explains things a little more... 

Every single person that has ever walked this earth has struggled with something. Some people struggle with little things, some with big things, some struggle more early in their life and some struggle more at the end. Some people worry most about money and success, some with education, some with self-confidence and identity, some with relationships and sexuality, some with all of the above. But regardless of how or when a person struggles, he or she is never alone in those feelings of anger, confusion, sadness, regret, worry, despair, hopelessness, loneliness, or wanting to love and be loved in return.

(Bear with me as I make a point through this example that I know is on a very different level than gay relationships, but I swear I have a point). When I was in high school, my life was all about volleyball. I played on 3 different teams year-round, and didn't have an off-season. Being on the court made me happy, and it was my dream to play in college. I was starting the recruitment process when I partially tore my right rotator cuff. I was terrified that if I told someone about how much pain I was in, they would tell me I couldn't play. So I toughed it out and pretended I was fine. Eventually, I got hurt again, and that time my physical therapist gave me an ultimatum - give up my dream of playing competitively ever again and let my body rest and heal on its own, or have surgery, go through a year or more of PT, be gentle with my shoulder for the rest of my volleyball career, and take a gamble on if I'd be good enough to play after I healed. After some long discussions with my parents and my coaches, we all decided it would be best if I gave up my dreams on the court.

Volleyball was not my identity. Volleyball was not my true source of happiness. Life was not really all about volleyball. But I was so angry at not being allowed to play, questioning why this thing that I loved was being taken away from me, instead of accepting the fact that I couldn't do it any more, and figuring out what I was going to do moving forward. I struggled with wanting to know why God would give me the skills to play and the love of the game, but tell me that I couldn't do it without hurting myself. Little did I know then that taking volleyball out of my life would give me the opportunity to do so much more - getting involved in campus ministry, volunteering, joining a sorority, writing for my college paper, and so many other life-changing experiences I wouldn't have had time for if I was playing a sport. Years later, I still have my love of the game, and I'm back on the court - but on the sidelines, as a coach. I would not be who I am today if I had kept playing volleyball. I also would not have found my love for coaching volleyball, and expressing my excitement about the sport in that new way - a way that has turned out to be a better fit for me in the end, and a way that makes me happier to see my kids ace a serve than I ever felt when I aced one myself.

When God gives you the desire for something, we're not always supposed to fill that need with what we expect or want to. Sometimes, it feels like something precious to us, something we want more than anything, is being taken away or make impossible. No matter what that precious thing is - a sport to an athlete, the perfect job to a great businessman, the fertility of a mother that desperately wants to have children, the desire of a person to love through a marriage recognized by the Church -- the feelings are similar when it's "taken away" from us, or we're told we can't have it. That anger, disappointment, hurt, sadness, confusion, loneliness, hopelessness, questioning who you are and what you're good at - we've all felt it over something, or will at some point in our lives.

God is not trying to make us miserable. We are His children, and He wants us to be happy and to live fulfilling lives. God doesn't give us things we can't handle - and he gives the strongest people the biggest burdens to bear. We don't always understand why we're given those burdens at the time, or we may never understand them at all - but that doesn't mean they don't have a purpose. We might not understand other people's struggles, know why they happen, or be able to completely empathize with how they're feeling, but that doesn't mean that we're all in this life together. We all know what a struggle is, and we've all felt some sort of pain before.

I have friends that are gay, and I know that I will never fully be able to know what it's like to be in their shoes and be told they can't get married in the church, just like they will never fully know what it was like for me to have my dream taken away from me in high school. That yearning for a loving relationship is something that they will always have - but the game-changing difference between wallowing in the inability to get married, and celebrating the ability to experience love in different ways, is perspective.

No one said that gay people can't love each other, or people in general. No one said that gay people can't experience the self-sacrificing friendship and support that a husband and wife have for each other.

I like the way this LifeTeen article puts it:

"True love means to will the good of the beloved. What is the good of the beloved? It is to always act with our ultimate end in mind — eternal happiness in heaven. We have to look out for each other’s souls since we are all brothers and sisters.

Both heterosexual and homosexual people are called to live a life of virtue, a life of chastity, because we’re all called to be saints. Contrary to what many believe, the highest expression of love for someone is not to have sex with them (CCC 2359).

In a document from the Catholic Bishops about homosexuality, they say:

“It would not be wise for persons with a homosexual inclination to seek friendship exclusively among persons with the same inclination. They should seek to form stable friendships among both homosexuals and heterosexuals . . . A homosexual person can have an abiding relationship with another homosexual without genital sexual expression. Indeed the deeper need of any human is for friendship rather than genital expression.”

(Read here for the full article: http://lifeteen.com/catholics-care-about-gays-the-myth-debunked/)


The desire that God gave you to want to love, and be loved, is a beautiful thing that God gave you when He created you. Finding out how you can best fulfill that desire may not be in ways you expect - for some people, the answer to that desire is easy to find, through the sacrament of marriage. For some, that desire is filled through religious life, or choosing to be single. For others, the answer might be harder to see, but it's still an answer, a way to love and be loved, in a way that's both nourishing and good for your soul.

Discovering how you as an individual, no matter your sexual preference, are called to love and be loved is something that you can't find out from a blog post, an article, or even the Catechism or the Bible. The Church or the people in your life can tell you what they think, or tell you the boundaries that you should stick by. But as for the exact way that you fulfill your God-given desires, you need to find that out through prayer - and a lot of it.

I know I'm still figuring out how I'm called to fulfill my own desire to love and be loved. I know I have a strong desire to be a mother - but how I'm called to do that is something I haven't found out yet. For today, it's enough for me to be single and sometimes be like a mom to the students in my ministry. In the future, maybe I'll be called to be a mom by actually having kids of my own, or adopting. Or maybe I'll be called to be a mother in the spiritual sense of the word by joining religious life. Who knows where I'll find my true sense of fulfilling that desire? Only God.

Maybe a person is satisfied with just friendships and a strong community, and doesn't feel a strong need for one special person to love them in a special way. Maybe another person feels satisfied by having a stronger, self-sacrificing, supporting friendship with one person, without the sexual component that's reserved for marriage. Maybe another person fulfills their desire to love and be loved by dedicating their life to service, and has a different kind of family in the people they serve. Each of these lifestyles are beautiful options, and there are infinite possibilities for any person to fulfill their need for love outside of the traditional idea of marriage.

Let's not be so close-minded about the opportunities God has given us to fulfill the desires we have in a way that's good for our souls, and supports our purpose in life, and each other. When life gives you lemons, don't sit around sucking on them and complaining about how sour they are. Make lemonade - or lemon cake, lemon chicken, lemon poppyseed muffins.... Make something beautiful.

The argument for marriage - More than your profile picture

In a sea of red equal signs, crosses, X's, and more flooding my news feed today, I chose not to change my profile picture.

Why? Not because I don't have very strong beliefs about the general topic of human sexuality and marriage, and not because I didn't want to offend anyone - I'm not apologizing for my beliefs. But I do think that how I feel about the topic cannot be accurately described in a small profile picture, or with one particular symbol. And I think it deserves more of a conversation, and more attention, than just a day of Facebook profile pictures. More than just angry comments on different pictures about how intolerant or hateful everyone is. More than what I can cover in a single blog post, but at least this is a start.

The majority of people that care about this debate know that the Catholic Church does not support gay marriage (they do support gay people, and teach us to love and respect all humans regardless of sexual orientation) -- but they don't truly understand the reason WHY, which is the most important part. In reality, the misunderstanding is not about gay marriage - it's about misunderstanding human sexuality and the meaning of relationships as a big picture.

The world we live in today puts sex on a pedestal. While, in the appropriate context, sex can be a beautiful, God-given gift, we are not put on earth for the sole reason of having sex, and to say that we are only to be used for that is demeaning to the whole value of human life and purpose. To say that my value as a person, as a woman, is based on my sexuality, is offensive - because I am more than just my body.

Guess what? I'm a 24-year-old woman, I'm not married, I'm not having sex, and I'm alive. Maybe one day I'll get married, and will have sex. Maybe I will be single for the rest of my life, and I'll never have sex. Either way, it's not at the top of my priority list. It doesn't make me sad to think about the possibility of not having sex, or not getting married. Because I know that I'm worth more than what I can do with my body.

The idea that a human being is more than just sexual organs is crucial to the Church's teachings on sexuality, marriage, and relationships in general. The most important part of a human being is his or her soul -- so that's what we have to care for in our relationships. Catholicism teaches that ALL people are called to live by the same "rules" -- to respect, love, and care for other souls. To uphold the true purpose of sex - a free, total, faithful, and live-giving act of love in the context of marriage. To respect the sacrament of marriage - between a man and a woman.

Just because I'm not married doesn't mean I can't love people. I just can't express that love to people through having sex with them. If people with same-sex attractions can't get married, that doesn't mean they can't love people, either - they just can't express that love through sex in a moral way, just like me. Same standards. And neither I, nor gay couples, will die from, or have an awful life because of a lack of extra-marital sex. In fact, if people stop putting bodies, sex, and society's twisted idea of self-worth so high on their priority list, they would be happier in the long run.

It's not that I don't understand or have compassion for people with same-sex attractions. Some of my best friends, and some people that I consider to be family, are gay, and I don't love them any less because of that. Hearing stories they tell me about having sex outside of marriage makes me sad in the same way that it does to hear about heterosexual friends having sex outside of marriage - and when I say sad, I don't mean :( , I mean feeling sad for their souls, and sad that they don't see the value of their souls and themselves as more than just a physical body. A familiar kind of sadness that comes from knowing in your heart that you deserve more and can be happier. On the other side, hearing from the friends that are gay, but choosing to live chastely and be celibate instead of pursuing sexual homosexual relationships, makes me respect and admire them even more. (Check out this awesome blog post: http://mattfradd.com/2012/06/14/catholic-gay-and-feeling-fine/)

Is it a struggle to live out these high standards of chastity? Absolutely. No one said it would be easy - after all, our bodies are made the way they are so that they are able to have sexual relationships, and we all have hormones. I've been in that struggle - let's just say there was a time in my life where my beliefs weren't as strong as they are today. But I can speak from experience in saying that I've found SO much more joy in my life from discovering the real value in who I am, and what my body and soul were made for. To understand that better, I encourage everyone to look into Theology of the Body (Never heard of it? Start with either of these books: http://www.amazon.com/Theology-Body-Beginners-Introduction-Revolution/dp/1934217859/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1364347661&sr=8-2&keywords=theology+of+the+body  or http://www.amazon.com/Theology-Body-Teens-Student-Workbook/dp/1932927867/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1364347661&sr=8-6&keywords=theology+of+the+body). Be ready for it to change your life.

Why do I feel like I need to "force" these beliefs on other people by staying out of the fight on the political level? Because I care about people's souls - which is saying much more than caring about people's feelings of who they can love. We are not supposed to judge people, or souls - but we do need to judge people's actions, hold each other accountable for actions that hurt our souls, and help guide each other closer to God and heaven.  (You should also check out this blog post, which explains more about the arguments over gay marriage: http://mattfradd.com/2013/03/26/gay-marriage-our-agreements-solve-our-disagreement/).

We also live in a country founded on the freedom of religion - not just the freedom of worship. My religious freedom is already being attacked right now by our government, because the government is forcing religious people to go against their beliefs (like by paying for healthcare that violates what the Church teaches about abortion, among other things). If we make gay marriage legal, how long will it be before they start forcing churches to uphold governmental standards of what marriage is? That's not far from what our country is coming to. I know that I can't go around and physically force people to live chastely, but I can't sit by and watch as people disregard the meaning and value of marriage and sexuality. I have an obligation, and we all do, to show people the truth about who they are, who they are made to be, and what they can do to get there.

The value of a soul is worth fighting for.


*Above is the original version of this blog post. However, after talking to a few people about this post, I decided that a few things were missing from it. Please check out the next post on this blog by clicking here: http://alwaysletyourlightshine.blogspot.com/2013/03/you-are-not-alone-in-your-struggles-or.html  or clicking on the link to "You are not alone in your struggles..." located in the sidebar on the right side of this page. Thanks for reading! 

Don't get tired of asking for forgiveness

“Don't forget this, the Lord never gets tired of forgiving, it is we that get tired of asking forgiveness... Have you thought about how much patience he has with you? Let's not forget that God never gets tired of forgiving so let's never get tired of asking for forgiveness”  -- Pope Francis 
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God's forgiveness is something that I've been reflecting on a lot lately, partially because I've been talking to a few people that have been struggling to grasp it, and partially because it just makes me smile.

We tend to try and fit God into the limitations of human beings because it's easier for us to understand things when they're relative to something familiar. We know what it's like to forgive a little sibling for taking the last cookie, to let it go when your friends forget to invite you to a movie. We know it's possible, in time, for some  to forgive others for cheating on a husband or wife. We hear stories about a mother forgiving the man that killed her son in a drunk driving accident. While some of those are easier for us to relate to than others, they're all situations we're familiar with.

But God is not human, an no matter how hard we try, He can't fit in the confined space that we are limited to as humans. His forgiveness is so beyond what we can comprehend, and it's unlike anything we're familiar with or can compare it to completely. Many of us struggle with beginning to understand that forgiveness and love, so we try to reject it and tell ourselves we're not worthy, we're not good enough, we're too stupid or ugly or stubborn or some other things that would make us unloveable.

It's times like these where we have to stop trying so hard to understand why God loves us so much, and just accept the fact that He does. That's never going to change. No matter what. God loves us unconditionally because that's who God is. And you were made to be loved by God, and to love Him in return. Quit trying so hard to wrap your mind around the thought, accept that it's never going to fit it in the little box that defines human love, and just let yourself be enveloped in it. There's so much peace that comes from that, and knowing that He will always love you, and that will never change.

Does that mean that we can do whatever we want because God will love and forgive us anyway? No. We still have to try our best to not sin. That forgiveness is meant to be one within a loving, two-way relationship - not a one-way relationship where we use God for His forgiveness and do nothing in return. It's like when parents trust their kids to go out with their friends for the first time - they hope that because they love and trust their child, the child will do the right thing and do what they tell him/her to do. The child might be a rebellious teenager, refuse to listen, break the rules, etc. but the parents will still love them anyway, and eventually, the kid will grow up, mature, and realize that their parents only want the best for them. That's the relationship with God that we should strive for - understanding that His commandments are coming from a loving God that only wants the best for us, and we follow them because we know He knows best, and love Him for loving us.

Like Pope Francis said, God never gets tired of forgiving us - but sometimes we get tired of asking for forgiveness because we feel like we're not worthy. But guess what - you are a son or daughter of God. You are worthy of being loved unconditionally. Feel like you can't accept any of that? Spend some time doing a good examination of conscience. Make the best confession of your life. Learn from your mistakes, and let go of whatever is holding you back from accepting God's love and forgiveness. Make another mistake, or start to feel unworthy again? As for forgiveness. Go to confession. Learn, let go, repeat. Never stop asking for God's forgiveness, and He will never stop asking for it. But you have to keep letting that love in - face it. You are loved. And that's never going to change.

Pope Francis, the business world, and a lesson in humility

It’s got to be hard to be humble when you’re the Pope. You were only just elected to lead 1.2 billion people. No big deal, right? You’re only on every form of news and social media all over the world.

Yesterday was all about stories of Pope Francis riding the bus instead of the papal car, or showing pictures of him washing AIDs victims feet on social media. Today, things seemed to take a quick turn as people started digging into the past of Cardinal Bergoglio, looking for some dirt to show the world, and debating about which Church problems he had to fix first – sex abuse scandals, or Catholicism’s close-mindedness over issues like abortion and gay marriage.

When people are praising you for your humility, it’s hard to stay humble. When they are accusing you or your faith, it’s even harder to stay humble, and not whip out the list of accomplishments and good things the Church has done over the years to explain or contrast the bad actions, misunderstandings, or negativity in the media.

My marketing/public relations background (the field I worked in and studied before I realized God has other plans for my life) has always made me struggle with this. Why doesn’t the church hire some snazzy, expensive marketing firm to pitch to the world how many good things members of the Catholic Church do every day, how many people we feed, serve, educate,  heal, house, and support? Why don’t we get some good branding going, with some catchy slogans that explain our faith in simple ways, push the goodwill factor and advertise more what we’re doing to fix the problems we do have?

If we were all about positive marketing strategies and showing off, sharing our Catholic faith would be so much easier. But, that’s not what our faith is all about. We are not a corporation trying to increase sales, or even a non-profit trying to promote a cause. We are Catholic, and our mission is to save souls by proclaiming and living out the Gospel. We are taught to be humble, to serve in the spirit of compassion and humility, to pray in secret, to put money in the collection basket with our right hand quietly so our left hand doesn’t know what we’re doing. Most Catholics follow a quieter style of evangelism, focused more on living as a great example.

None of the stories in the Bible end with “… and Jesus asked his disciples if they thought people agreed with his message and would post good things about him on Facebook.” Instead, Jesus called his followers to live in a radical way, spreading the Truth even when they were persecuted.

Let’s be real – even if the Church did invest resources and spend more time worrying about their public image, it probably wouldn’t make a significant dent in the number of people that don’t understand, or just dislike, the Catholic Church. Pope Francis has done some pretty amazing and holy things in his life, and two days after his election, the media is already searching for ways to make him look bad, or remind the Church of how awful Catholics are.

Despite all of this, I think what we need is a good dose of Pope Francis’ humility and reminder to get back to the basics of our faith. Being humble Catholics that do the best they can to live out the faith may not be as direct of a message as sending a press release or calling a press conference, but it’s certainly more memorable and more in line with the message we’re trying to send the world.  In a swarm of online news stories and social media posts, we need to do something different to be recognized. Jesus changed the world when he started with 12 apostles that lived by example and stood by their beliefs through persecution (I bet his Twitter account would have looked pretty lame at the beginning of his ministry with only 12 followers and some radical teachings). Imagine what a Church of 1.2 billion could do if we all returned to those same basic, humble beginnings of our faith, and remembered that we are Catholic because our Church is rooted in the Truth, a Gospel of love, and filled with holy people that truly care about our souls.

That’s why I’m so excited to see, and be a part of, what Pope Francis’ leadership will do with our Church. The more I read about him, what he’s done in his ministry, and his vision for the future, the more I love him and want to know more about how we can all grow in our faith. In a world that focuses on public image and making people like you, we have to be the most counter-cultural of all and live in humility. News anchors sharing poll info about how many people dislike Church teachings won’t change the Church, and Catholic newspapers sharing happy stories won’t change hearts and save souls. But doing what we can to humbly show others the love behind Church teachings and the beauty in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ will change hearts. That will show the world what’s most important in life, and that’s the first thing we can learn from our new Holy Father.  

Ash Wednesday reflection

I had a few people ask, so here's the reflection I gave at our Ash Wednesday prayer service last night on campus... 

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Why do you go to church on Ash Wednesday?

Take a second to think about it.

I think some of us would answer with varying degrees of “Because I’m supposed to.” Either your family told you you’re supposed to, the Church told you you’re supposed to, or you feel obligated to be here because of your faith. But what’s the real reason why we’re here? What’s the real reason we’ll leave here tonight with ashes on our foreheads for everyone to see?

Sister Mary Ann Walsh, media relations director of the USCCB, blogs for the Washington Post and I think she describes it best. "We can feel a little funny with ashes on our foreheads, but for Catholics, that’s how we mark the start of Lent. Ashes don’t say we’re holy. They say we’re sinners. They don’t say we’re perfect, only that we’re willing to try. They don’t say we’re models of religiosity, but they do say we belong. In today’s world of loners and isolates, that says a lot."

We hear a lot about three of the pillars of the Church that Lent focuses on - prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. We know that we should pray every day, not eat meat on Fridays, and give to the poor. But each of these things are about much more than that surface definition. One of the devotionals we have to give you all tonight has a quote that I love – “Our culture models us for self-indulgence. We eat and drink more than we need; we think our wants are needs; we fail to distinguish between what is essential and what is unnecessary. By paring back, space is created for the invasion of grace." 

Lent is a time where we are challenged to go be uncomfortable, to make space for the invasion of grace, to be better Christians than the people that we are every day. I don’t mean uncomfortable in the sense of your butt falling asleep in these plastic chairs. I mean uncomfortable in the way that it makes us feel when we really think about how much God has done for us, and how little we have done for Him in comparison.

That thought shouldn’t necessarily make us feel like awful people – but it should challenge us to see how much more we can do for God, our Church, and our faith, especially over the next 40 days. It should challenge you to not only pray every day, but get to Mass every Sunday and Holy Day, and pay attention -- try to really get something out of it while you’re there. It should challenge us to fast from meat on Fridays, and also fast from the things that hurt your soul that we do every day – like gossip, lie, get jealous, or have lustful thoughts. It should challenge us to not only give a few extra dollars to some charity or the collection basket, but also to give our time, or whatever gifts or skills we have to offer, to a worthy cause.

Lent is a challenge to really focus on building a stronger relationship with God. Not because He wants us to do certain things during Lent and check them off our list of things to do -- He wants to build a stronger relationship with you this Lent because He loves you. He loves YOU.

Don't have a relationship with God? Wish you had a stronger faith in God to get you through this crazy time of your life? This is the place to start. Do something these next few weeks to change your perspective, and deepen your faith in God. There are so many retreat opportunities, chances to get to Mass, to go to a Bible study, a Newman Club meeting, a service project, a men’s or women’s group, etc. that there's really no excuse to NOT do something to grow closer to God this Lent. Think your schedule is really too busy to fit anything in, or can’t find anything you’re interested in? Come talk to me, and I will do everything I can to find an opportunity that works for you, it’s my full time job to make opportunities for you guys to grow in your faith.

A lot of people picture Lent as a sad time of the year where priests wear purple, we sing mopey songs about forgiveness and Jesus dying at church, and when it's over we get rewarded with chocolate bunnies and Peeps.

But let’s be real -- the son of God didn't die for us so we could eat chocolate bunnies. I totally understand how when you're in college, or working, or taking over campus via 19 clubs, it's easy to go through the motions of your faith, put everything else before your relationship with God, and just coast. But God didn't make us so that we could coast through life. He made us so that we could love, and be loved by Him. He made us in His image, so that we could at least have a shot at trying to live our lives like He did, and be full of compassion, mercy, and selfless service to others.

Living like Jesus did is hard though, especially if you're weighed down by things like stress with school, pressure to be successful, wanting to be in a loving relationship. Things like depression, loneliness, suicidal thoughts, lustful feelings, being used or abused, feeling unwanted or alone. But God didn't create just one person, to live alone. He made billions of us - because we are meant to be a part of a community.

That's a big part of why it's so important for us to get to Church. It's easy to say that you're a Christian and you live out these ideals and read the Bible. It's another thing to actually do it. We weren't given this daunting task of living like Christ so that we could go at it alone and fail miserably. We're supposed to do it together so that we can succeed at living that way. It's why programs like Alcoholics Anonymous are successful at getting people back on their feet - because people in AA don't do it alone. They don’t give alcoholics a book and say, “Here, figure it out on your own and have fun!” We might not be alcoholics, but we are all sinners to some degree or another. No one is perfect. We need that support.

Being a part of a community of college students that are trying to live a Christian life is crucial to you growing in your faith. I totally speak from experience when I say that without the people that supported me when I was in college, my faith would be in the toilet right now. We need people around us that understand exactly what we’re going through, because they’re in the same boat. We need that accountability check, a friend to tell us that we're heading in the wrong direction when we might not be paying attention to what's going on around us. We need that reminder every Sunday that someone loved each one of us enough to die for us. We need to know that we have a purpose. We are wanted. Someone has a plan for us, and He wants us to be successful in achieving our goals. We are loved, we are not alone, and we are forgiven.

There's an awesome song that's recently come out in the Christian music scene - which, by the way, if you've never heard of Christian rock music, Google it, turn on the radio, or stop by the Campus Ministry office and borrow a CD or two – it’s called Who You Are, by a band called Unspoken. The basic message is in the chorus – “You can never fall too hard, so fast, so far that you can’t get back when you’re lost, where you are is never too late, so bad, so much that you can’t change who you are. You can change who you are.”

We wear ashes on our foreheads as a reminder that we are sinners, but like those lyrics say, we’ve been forgiven, we can change the direction we’ve been going in, we can lay all the crazy things going on in our lives down and turn to God. We celebrate Lent as a reminder that we love God, He loves us, and we are not perfect. But we can try, and that says a lot. We can make changes in our lives and step it up, grow closer to God, get involved in our faith, pray more, give more, be more aware of God in our lives. Ash Wednesday is like a reality check – don’t miss it. Don’t miss it. Take some time to really think about what God wants you to do to have a stronger relationship with Him, and don’t try to do it alone. God loves you too much to make you try and live like Christ all by yourself. 

"Who You Are" -- Unspoken 

 

Life lessons from God, through my dog's eyes

Meet Bailey.

Cute, right? I think she might be the most adorable Goldendoodle puppy in the world. Not like I'm biased or anything.

Bailey is currently 5 months old. In puppy land, that's almost equivalent to the "terrible two's" of children - old enough to know the basics of what you should and shouldn't do, but not totally able to physically stop herself from chewing on your shoe while she looks at you with those adorable puppy eyes, saying "You love me, right?"

I mean, how can anything that sleeps like this wreak havoc on your house between approximately 9-10 p.m. daily? We affectionately call this time of day puppy zoomie time. If you've ever seen a dog go crazy over nothing, you know what the zoomies are - running in circles with no destination, with a crazy look in their eyes, running into furniture and barking at nothing, because they just have so much ENERGY and don't know how to handle it. But when the zoomies have passed, we go out for her last walk of the night. Bailey loves being outside, but she doesn't love the dark. We had her for at least 6 weeks before we could get her to cross the road and walk out of sight of the house, and you'd think that our safe suburban cul-de-sec was crawling with the aliens from Signs with how she spooks when the neighbors take their garbage out. Even though it's easy to get irritated with her when she's trying to nip the backs of your knees while you walk, trying to get you to play, it's impossible to be mad when wants you to protect her from the evil trash cans every Tuesday night. 

Sometimes Bailey's relationship with me reminds me of my relationship with God. I am thankfully more potty trained than Bailey, but in God's eyes, I'm still a young'un with a lot to learn. As a human, I tend to make mistakes, and sometimes do things that I know are bad, without realizing until after the fact that I even did them. I'm not fully "trained" yet - and I think that my "training" to follow God's will for me will be something I'll be working on for the rest of my life. But even so, God still loves me, in his always-and-forever, perfect, selfless loving way that only He can do; He protects me when I'm scared, feeds my soul, and shows me how to love.

 With puppies, like so many things, patience is a virtue, and a struggle. Bailey's current favorite toy is a stuffed hippo (well, it's supposed to be a hippo... it looks more like a worm) with not one, but two squeakers in it. Now that her mouth is big enough, she's been blessed with the talent of making both of them squeak at once, the sound of which is probably equivalent to a dying duck jumping on a small accordion. When you sit down on the couch after a long day and the first thing that lands in your lap is that hippo toy, it's hard to be patient. But I try to be patient with her, out of love, like God is patient with me when he's trying to teach me a lesson or get me to focus on something. And in turn, she is (relatively) patient with me when I make her wear a little something festive.

Bailey is happy with the basics. She's perfectly content with her kibble, water, and the occasional ice cube or bacon-flavored treat. Despite the 26374846 dog toys that are always strewn all over the floor, she's happy with just her hippo toy, a bone, and one of my dad's old golf towels (we're still not sure why it's so appealing to her, but whatever works). She has more fun snuggling with her family or playing catch with you than chewing on a toy alone in the corner - unlike what many of us tend to do when we watch TV by ourselves or sit around playing video games instead of board games with our family. For dogs, life is simple, it's not based on success or how much cool stuff you have -- it's about being around the people you love, being joyful, and enjoying the little things, like feeling the wind in your hair or getting to say hi to a neighbor.

But God isn't always the owner, and we're not always the puppy - sometimes it's the other way around.

Puppies are so joyful. When there's leaves on the ground and the wind is blowing them around the yard, Bailey is just as happy chasing them in circles as she would be if she won the lottery and got paid in bacon. I wish it was that easy for people to feel and express that kind of joy, especially over the simple things. Sure, she looks a little silly standing at the end of the driveway with her eyes closed and the wind blowing through her shaggy fur (picture the Titanic scene at the front of the boat, but with dogs) - but you can tell she's happy just being in that moment and appreciating God's gift of nature. In her own way, she's teaching me to pay more attention to the world and be thankful for the little blessings that we get every day, or life's small accomplishments (like finding the perfect puppy-sized hiding spot on our kitchen's cookbook shelf). God tries to teach us to be more joyful in these little things too

Bailey is forgiving, and loyal. Some people think that dogs are like this because they're "stupid" or have short attention spans (these people have never witnessed a puppy manage to find a way through the bars on a baby gate). But dog owners know that they are like this because of their ability to love unconditionally. Yes, it hurts them when you accidentally step on their tail, but they don't run and hide in the corner for the rest of the day if it happens - they keep loving you anyway. God's love for us is like that, and so, so much more. He wants to be close to you, for you to love Him back, to be your best friend, and to show you joy in the world. Let Him.