From Krakow to Prague: An Unexpected Juxtaposition

Have you ever had a hard time sharing your faith?  If you’re anything like me, sometimes you just get so passionate about being Catholic that it can be difficult to see the world from another perspective.  I mean, the Catholic Church is amazing!  But if we’re called to “go out to all the nations” and proclaim the Good News, that requires us interacting with people who are not like me, people who have a different background and viewpoint and might challenge me with things I’ve never even considered or cared about and yet are still created in God’s very own image and likeness.  It can feel impossible, pushing me out of my own little world into a bigger reality – one that I don’t fully understand and don’t have control over, which makes it scary.  But it’s the challenge of being a believer!

One of my favorite memories from my World Youth Day pilgrimage was an encounter I had with a cashier.  World Youth Day was over, and our diocesan group headed to Prague for a couple of days before flying back to the United States.  I had only heard great things about Prague – how beautiful the city is, how interesting the history is, how much more impressive it would be after the Polish cities.  But what struck me most about my 48-hour experience in Prague was just how much it lacks faith – and even more so, how much the city doesn’t seem to even desire it!  People are inspired more by John Lennon than by any religious figure.  Beautiful gothic cathedrals have renovated interiors so that they can function as office buildings.  Tourists take gleeful family photos under life-sized versions of the crucified Christ and a mourning Mary Magdalene and Mary His mother.  The tour guide pushed us away from churches and into shopping districts.  And almost everyone we talked to seemed to see faith as something below them, as if their culture had outgrown it and moved on to something better that more directly fulfills their personal needs and desires.  Why believe in anything if you don’t have to? 

This was striking after having a week immersed in Poland, one of the most actively Catholic countries in the entire world.  I mean, there were busy churches on every street corner, offering 6 Masses a weekend and having confession for hours and hours every day of the week.  And then to be surrounded by a million excited young Catholics at every moment of the day and night?  You can always create a reason to doubt, but you’d be hard-pressed to do so in that environment.  You could see the Holy Spirit moving with enthusiasm and passion!  So to go from what could be described as a week-long faith-based pep rally to a culture that prides itself on that fact that it is without faith was…a shock.  A statistic we heard from our tour guide (that I’ve looked into a little since and seems pretty accurate) was that 80% of the Czech Republic identifies as either atheist or agnostic.  What a difference from its next-door neighbor!

Do they know what they are missing out on?  Do they care?  Don’t they want to at least ask the question of “what if”?  Walking through the streets, I felt a serious sadness and a longing that I had never recognized before – a longing for a whole country of lost people.  It was definitely a place that could have led me right where the evil one wants us to go:  into a state of hopelessness.

We got back from the tour and I ventured into the gift shop of the hotel, looking for a couple of last-minute gifts for my godchildren.  All of the “religious” items looked cheap or ridiculous, but eventually I found a couple of cute marionettes (including one that as dressed like Pinocchio!) and headed to the cashier.  The teens in front of me couldn’t make up their mind what they wanted and took longer than necessary, eventually deciding not purchase anything.  I smiled at the cashier and made some sort of passing joke about teenagers and their great decision-making skills.  As she rung up my items, she asked if I was part of the group who had just come from Poland.  I said yes, and then she asked if I had gotten to see the pope.  I shared a quick story about how yes, we had on multiple occasions, including when we were walking early in the morning to our Jeweler’s Shop dress rehearsal and he drove by in a car that was no more than 15 feet away from us!  She finished wrapping up my purchased, paused, and looked at me.  She then said “My family and I aren’t religious, but I love Pope Francis.  He gives me hope that there’s something bigger out there after all, helping us and protecting us.”

I mean… how cool?!  No, we didn’t get to have some sort of big theological discussion, but there was something even better expressed in that short conversation:  HOPE.  It doesn’t matter if you’re Pope Francis’s absolute biggest fan or if you are someone who often gets frustrated with the way the media takes his words out of context all the time.  The fact that the pope, the main person in the Catholic Church, who is a priest and celebrates Mass in persona Christi, who is a part of the apostolic succession right from Jesus Himself, could inspire hope in someone who claims to be agnostic at best and make them even a little tiny bit more open to the concept of a God who intimately cares about them, is awesome!  Isn’t that what World Youth Day is all about, to inspire people to live & love the Gospel message, to let the Holy Spirit move them in ways that they might not even realize but lead to the conversion of hearts?

Every once in a while, I think about that lady, and about her family, and about the city of Prague.  And I pray fervently for them.  There is a longing there, a desire for something bigger than them, someone that gives them hope.  We know that desire is faith, and that someone is Christ.  I pray that the people of the Czech Republic come to realize that Truth one day – and that they come to realize that the hope they have is real and true and worth it in every way imaginable!  Who knows, maybe the next person who inspires them to have hope will be you.

To Be Like Teresa

I want to be like Teresa.

Who is Teresa?  Teresa is one of seven characters in “The Jeweler’s Shop:  A Meditation on the Sacrament of Matrimony, Passing on Occasion into a Drama,” a play written by St. John Paul the Great when he was still known as Karol Wojtyla, Auxiliary Bishop of Krakow.  Teresa starts off the play in Act 1 with the announcement that she just got engaged to Andrew on the right side of the market square, and by the end of the act, she and Andrew see how their marriage will reflect Heaven’s Love within the world.  Most importantly, Teresa is the character I was lucky enough to be when we performed this play in Poland during World Youth Day.

Backing it up…  World Youth Day.  I still can’t believe it happened!  In the two weeks that I’ve been back in Richmond, tons of people have asked me “how was it?” and “what was your favorite part?”  Honestly, I don’t even know where to begin!  Do I share goofy stories of bus ride games and delicious (and cheap!) pierogi meals?  Should I tell them about the cramped tram rides and the long walks home to our hotel?  Should I start with the fact that there is a Catholic Church on every block of central Krakow and that we got to visit the relics of three saints within a mile of each other?  Do I tell them about the spiritual high of celebrating a Mass with 2 million people, waving their flags in a way that I imagine is similar to John’s Revelation when all of the nations are gathered at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb?  Do I tell them how the things I thought I’d pray about ended up being put to the side for other things that God wanted to work on in my heart?

When Christine asked me to consider being in the play, I was really hesitant… but she’s persistent and enthusiastic and basically impossible to say no to (and thank the Lord for that!).  I said yes and put on a brave face, but I had a ton of reservations about it – I almost backed out a couple of times before we started practicing.  When I started reading through the script, I still wasn’t convinced I could do a good job.  I’m a youth minister and musician, so you’d think that I’m used to having all eyes on me and having people rely on me…  but acting is something very different, and it stretched me far outside of my comfort zone.  Plus, it was hard for me to connect to my character of Teresa.  She’s so deeply in love with her new fiancé Andrew, she quickly gets caught up in sentiment and reminiscences, and she makes jokes about things like high heeled shoes!  None of these were things I could relate to, and I quickly found myself wishing I either had similar experiences in the past to pull from or that my introverted self would ease up so that I could let myself go and have fun with it.  Acting was a struggle, and I wasn’t sure what to make of the fact that we had* to perform twice during the trip that I had originally signed up for with the intention of NOT having any commitments to worry about during it.

*Christine would often say “we get to perform twice!” with excitement; I would often repeat it in my head as “twice… yikes.”

Once we got to Poland and our World Youth Day adventures started, it was easier to let myself experience the pilgrimage and not be consumed with concern for the play.  Plus, there were a ton of quick opportunities to pray throughout the days – every time we stepped into a church (which was quite often!), I could let the world fall away for a few minutes, breathe, and refocus myself on Christ.  But when we’d talk about practicing late at night or look at our Thursday and Friday schedules, my nerves would kick in again.

Finally, the performance days were upon us.  We got to do a final run-through on Thursday morning, and Act 1 (where Teresa and Andrew are engaged) went smoother than I expected.  And once we got all the way through Act 3 (where Christopher, their son, is getting married to Monica), I was feeling better about the whole thing.  At least I had a general sense of where to stand!  Thursday night’s performance came, and at the end of it, I was relieved and happy… but honestly, I walked away from that performance knowing I could do better.  So when we got to Friday, my prayer throughout our morning World Youth Day catechesis sessions was that God would give me the grace and courage to be His instrument so that I could convey His Love through the performance.  I needed His help to allow myself to become one with my character Teresa rather than focusing on the ways that I am different from her and getting frustrated with those differences.  And that Friday performance was awesome!  I know for a fact that Adam (who played Andrew, my fiancé/husband) and I both had a lot of fun on the stage that night, and I wasn’t worried anymore about exactly where to stand or how to deliver my lines – I simply lived it, and it was glorious.  I was Teresa!

After the Friday performance, we went to the Stations of the Cross event with Pope Francis and 800,000 fellow pilgrims.  I tried to connect to the reflections that were shared, but I was distracted by other thoughts.  I mean, why was it so hard for me to let myself go during the play and have fun with it?  As I prayed, my thoughts led me back to feelings I experienced a couple of months back while talking about an upcoming wedding within my family.  Now, it’s well-known in my family that I don’t really date, and I’ve never had a boyfriend.  I’m not against dating by any means, it just hasn’t been the right situation for me yet.  As my family talked about this particular wedding, the question of plus ones was brought up, as a number of the siblings and friends coming to the wedding are not yet married, including me.  Since the wedding was still 6 months out at the time, I light-heartedly asked “well, what if I’m dating someone when the wedding comes around,” which quickly received the response of “you’ve never dated, and you’re probably going to be a nun anyway and never have a significant other, so why would we give you a plus one to our wedding and waste money on an extra seat that won’t get used.” 

Yeah…  Talk about a crushing blow.  I shrugged it off at the time, but it is something that has really been coming back to haunt me.  Don’t get me wrong, religious sisterhood is beautiful!  And if God calls me to that vocation, I will receive it with my arms and heart wide open.  (Honestly, sometimes I wish and pray for that vocation, nuns are such an amazing gift to the Church and to the world!)  However, I am very sure that God is calling me to discern and pursue the vocation of being a wife and mother.  I love that this is my call!  After a solid year of discernment, I feel very blessed to know this in my heart and be comfortable with it.  BUT that doesn’t make the idea of marriage very easy for me…  Part of that has to do with my history of a mental illness tearing my family apart, and it scares me to think that either my future husband or I could repeat that situation.  But even more than that, I sometimes deal with my own spiritual battles.  Just like many other women, I struggle with the way I look, overanalyzing relationships, and feeling stuck in the present rather than hopeful for the future.  At times, it’s hard to believe that there’s some man out there who will ever desire my wellbeing enough to give their life for the sake of mine.  I know that’s really harsh, but I struggle with that lie.  And the conversation about the wedding a few months ago made this wound even bigger – but I chose to ignore the pain.

So, coming into World Youth Day, I thought I knew what prayer intentions would be on my heart – for my family, for my mission partners’ intentions, and for my career path.  Halfway through the pilgrimage, after “The Jeweler’s Shop” performances, it was painfully clear that God had other ideas for where He was going to be working on my heart.  And just as I was starting to wrestle with the fact that God wanted to heal me in a way I hadn’t even acknowledged needed healing…  I fell.  Literally.  I was walking back from the Stations of the Cross and had just forced my way through the huge crowds, and as I sped up to walk the last 3 blocks to our hotel, I got pushed as someone passed behind me, lost my balance, and face-planted on the cobblestone sidewalk. 

At first, it seemed like I was fine and I made it back to the hotel – where it soon became clear that the area under my right toe was swollen.  Falling and hurting my foot changed everything.  All of a sudden, I went from being independent and doing my own thing to having to continually ask people for help.  We went out for celebratory drinks with the cast and documentary team, but Adam had to help me home, Ria had to give me an ice pack, and Richard had to seriously support me as I made my way to my hotel room for the night.  And then there was all of the walking to look forward to the next day as we hiked 9 miles out to Campus Misericordiae for the big World Youth Day vigil, and the needing help to stand, and then the walking again…  Since grad school, I’ve really come to keep my guard up with most people and be self-sufficient.  I don’t want to rely on other people or expect anything extra from them, because that requires having faith that they’ll be okay with you being so attached to them – and that kind of trust is scary.  But being independent is not really what our faith is about at all, is it?  Or what it means to be human?  You have to be able to trust without being able to see every detail of the future.  You most definitely can’t reflect, as Teresa puts it, the absolute Existence and Love by yourself.

We left the closing Mass of World Youth Day in the blazing heat, part of a sea of 2 million people all walking in the same direction, with me clinging to Adam’s arm for miles.  All I could do was keep walking – I couldn’t look up to see where I was going for fear that I would step on something that would make me stumble again.  I had to rely on Adam, who was looking ahead at the road before us, keeping us on track as we journeyed from Campus Misericordiae (a glimpse of Heaven) back into the world.

What struck me most was that Adam didn’t complain about me needing his help, as much as I apologized for making the experience more difficult for him.  And at that moment, it was in my miserable broken body that I realized how broken I was in my heart.  When we started our World Youth Day experience, I kept trying to figure out why I was there, what God wanted from me during this pilgrimage… and in this moment, I realized that all He wanted was me.  The real me.  The me who was buried under fears and excuses.  The me who has hope of being like Teresa.  The me who trusts other people, who wants to say “Jesus, I trust in You” and mean it about EVERYTHING, including my future.  You know, God could very well put a person in my life like Andrew who puts aside his own plans, feels me as a persistence inside his soul, and throws me a bridge.  Heck, on this trip, he gave me wonderful men like Adam (and Richard, and Dillon, and a number of others) to literally lean on when I couldn’t support myself.  If I can have a friend who’s willing to do that for me, why can’t I believe that my future husband is really out there and will really do that and more for me?  Why don’t I trust God as much as I trusted Adam in that situation? 

That is my hope and prayer now.  I want to trust.  I want to be able to say the phrase “Jesus, I trust in you” and mean it with my full heart.  World Youth Day and this play have made me realize that I haven’t been trusting Jesus with everything… but I need to let Him heal me, even in the places that I’ve been ignoring for fear of finding out just how broken I am.  I need to give Him all of my reservations and fears so that I can stop holding back and start believing and living in freedom.  And I’m working on it, slowly but surely.  The future is still unknown, but I can accept it without anxiety.  Love has overcome anxiety.  I have hope that, one day, I will be like Teresa, standing hand in hand with my husband on the steps of the Jeweler’s shop, reflecting the absolute Existence and Love within the world as we gaze upon Christ through Heaven’s windows.

One Woman's Yes

Today, Heaven touches Earth.

A woman says yes to the God of all creation.  Yes, I will receive You into my life.  I will let You fill me up to a point where I can't help but overflow with Your Love.  I will care for You above all other things.  I will hold You in my arms.  I will be Your perfect lover and adorer.  I will carry You into the world for all to see.  I will labor in Your vineyard and prepare a place for You.  I will open myself to You completely, never hiding from Your eyes, never desiring anything apart from Your will.  I will join my heart to Yours.  Yes, I will be who You've always intended me to be, the Theotokos, God-Bearer.

Today, Heaven touches Earth.

A woman says yes to the God of all creation.  Yes, I will always be with You, united in Your suffering, never leaving Your side.  I will go to the foot of the cross where You, the Heavenly Bridegroom, are waiting for me.  I will unite myself to You in a new way, a way that changes everything.  I will suffer with You, die with You, and one day rise with You, as we are one.  I will open myself to Your mystery, my thirst only being satisfied by Your everlasting presence, living for You and You alone.  Yes, I will be both Bride and Mother, the one who gathers Your children and leads them into Your arms.

"Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord." Luke 1:38

"Woman, behold, your son." John 19:26

Today, Heaven touches Earth.

Beautiful Is NOT Bad

Have you ever had that moment of almost liking something and then immediately hating it?  I can't be the only one who has found themselves scrolling through their Facebook news feed (let's be honest, this happens way too often, especially with "snowmageddon"), and stumbling upon a post that looks solid...so you click on it.  I look at the picture, read through the post, and somewhere between the opening line and the end I've gone from interest to distaste to being concerned with our society.  Today, I saw a post that peaked my curiosity...  but by the end I was perturbed.  Here's some excerpts:

How to talk to your daughter about her body, step one:  Don't talk to your daughter about her body, except to teach her how it works.  Don't say anything if she's lost weight.  Don't say anything if she's gained weight. 

If you think your daughter's body looks amazing, don't say that.  Here are some things you can say instead:  "You look so healthy!" is a great one.  Or how about "You're looking so strong."  "I can see how happy you are - you're glowing."

Better yet, compliment her on something that has nothing to do with her body.  Don't compliment on other women's bodies either.  Nope.  Not a single comment, not a nice one or a mean one.

Teach her about kindness towards others, but also kindness towards yourself.

[...] 

 Remind your daughter that the best thing she can do with her body is to use it to mobilize her beautiful soul. 

From "Love What Matters" on Facebook

So here's the deal.  I get what the point of the post is - something to the effect of "you are not defined by your body, you are lovable just the way you are, don't pass on the problems you have with your own body to your daughter, live a balanced life, etc."  And it's not that this is bad...  but right from the beginning, it's already saying that anything you can say about the body is negative.  It's fighting the societal norm of over-valuing the body to the point of under-valuing the soul by reversing it.  "Don't talk to your daughter about her body."  Don't say that the princess dress she is wearing makes her look pretty, don't say that she's lucky to be tall enough to ride Space Mountain, and don't say that her dimples are so cute they make you want to smile.

But wait...  Aren't those good things?  In fact, our bodies are supposed to be good, right?  We've all heard it a billion times before, that God looked upon everything He made, including man and woman, and said it was very good.  It says it right there in Genesis 1:27, that:

"God created mankind in His image; in the image of God He created them, male and female He created them."

Why are we so quick to throw the baby out with the bathwater?  Just because we're in a twisted world that has taken our clean, beautiful sheets of paper and wrinkled them up to make them look like trash, that doesn't mean we should throw them away as if they are bad mistakes.  As Christopher West says, we are called to unfold the paper.  The paper is a gift and has a wonderful message inscribed on it that the whole world is meant to see.  Instead of tossing our bodies aside as being less important, let's take our bodies and the desires that come with them and bring them to God so that He can unfurl the creases and restore us to our original beauty.  We are human beings.  We aren't simply souls that have a body while we're on earth, we are both body AND soul.  Let's not limit how God can speak through both parts of our nature.

2 of the best compliments I've ever been lucky enough to receive encapsulate this for me.  One was from a friend in my college campus ministry who said "Katie, you have the prettiest smile."  The second was from a music minister after I played and sung during adoration who said "you are a gift to the Church."  One spoke to outward features of which I have very little control, and one spoke to inward talents of which I have a significant amount of control - but both spoke to my entire being, both body and soul.  And both helped me see myself as a daughter of God.  If we're going to change the kind of compliments we give, let's focus them less on what we are and more on whose we are.  Let beauty shine forth from our bodies and our souls so that we become the like the moon, reflecting the beautiful light of the Son back onto the Earth.  Your body is a gift, just like His body was, is, and will always be a gift.  Help everyone else see them for what they are - an image of God.

Are You Blind?

Today was World Youth Sunday (the U.S. Celebration according to the NFCYM). For St. Edward, that means I get the amazing opportunity to give a reflection after the homily at all 5 of our Masses. I thought I'd share with my blog friends, so here it goes!


Are you blind?

We’ve all heard the story before.  There’s a blind man and the people around the town typically ignore him, asking him to be quiet.  They don’t want to deal with him, he is just a nuisance.  But then Jesus comes and things change.  The people do what Jesus tells them to and take the time to interact with the man, and by the end of the story, the blind man is miraculously cured and can live an easier life now.  (Luckily for this blind man, the story in Mark Chapter 10 doesn’t include any saliva – if that doesn’t ring a bell, go back a couple of chapters to a different blind man’s story and you’ll see what I mean.)  It’s such a fairytale-esque ending with the “happily ever after” feel, and I think many of us look at it as a classic Jesus miracle.

Why does this story matter to us?  Well, are you blind?  Can you see everything clearly?  If Jesus was literally in your presence, right in front of your face, would you be able to sense that He was there?  As much as I hope that the answer is yes, I know that there have been many times in my life where I could not see clearly.  And the truth of the matter is that Jesus is always right in front of our faces.

As the youth minister, this is a story I witness all the time within the context of youth ministry.  Every teen, just like every adult, goes through a time where they cannot see.  They have questions, they have doubts, they have complicated family situations that they have to deal with every day.  I’ve had teens come in my office who are on fire for God, but for every teen that’s passionate about their faith, there are another 5 who are just going through the motions.  They are blind to their need for Christ!  And who are we to blame them?  If we don’t recognize our own need for Christ and actively seek Him, how can we expect our teens to see the beauty of God in their own lives?

Are you blind?

Last year on World Youth Sunday, I hinted at a time in my life where God became a reality for me, when I experienced Him in a profound way.  When I was sixteen, my life looked good on the outside.  I was the perfect kid:  I was in the top 10 of my class, I was involved in Key Club and coordinated service projects, I liked broccoli and other vegetables, I was the first chair flute in symphonic band, I was the section leader in marching band, I got my driver’s permit on the first try, I cantored in our youth choir at church, and somehow I still had time to hang out with my best friends and my siblings.  But inside, my life was twisted up.  My parents were fighting, with my dad sometimes not sleeping at home because of the arguments they were having, and I was throwing myself into everything I could to get out of the house.  Sure, I enjoyed all of the activities I was doing, and I had always been self-motivated to do my best at everything, but life was hard.  It wasn’t peaceful.  I went to church every Sunday without complaint, but I was blind.  I believed in God’s existence, but I didn’t see God working in my life, and I definitely didn’t see Him as a father or a friend.

That summer, I went to on a week-long mission trip to Nashville, Tennessee, painting houses and building wheelchair ramps during the day and staying at a local Catholic school in the evening.  It wasn’t my first mission trip, and I had always liked helping people, so the aspect of working hard and serving others wasn’t something that took me out of comfort zone.  However, the evening programming was a different story.  On Tuesday night, we were scheduled to have Eucharistic Adoration.  Now let me tell you, I used to really and truly despise adoration!  When my parents would take me to adoration on Holy Thursday as a kid, I remember going in with a backpack full of Catholic activities:  a Bible, coloring pages from Veggie Tales, a glow-in-the-dark rosary.  I’d even start reading the Gather hymnal out of sheer desperation to not slowly die from boredom.  It’s not that I hated Jesus, as I definitely believed that Jesus was somehow there in the Eucharist, but I had never experienced Him in a way that made sitting in His presence something I wanted to do.  So when I was told we’d all be participating in adoration that evening, my sixteen-year-old self was a little nervous.  Would I get bored?  Would I fall asleep?  Would people notice that I wasn’t as into it as I thought I should be?

Later on in the evening, I found myself walking with the group towards the church, being led along candle-lined hallways.  I considered what I would pray about, and of course my family flashed through my brain.  I sat down in a pew, spread out from the girls next to me, and looked at my lap.  A musician played guitar and sung something about God being here or Jesus being everything we need, but I didn’t pay attention.  I got stuck thinking about my family.  Why were we so messed up?  Why couldn’t my dad just pull it together?  Why were things falling apart?  Why couldn’t we just get along like we used to?  God, why is life so hard?  I was blind to Jesus being right in front of me as the thoughts turned over in my head, trying to figure out if I should be doing something differently or if there was something I could do to protect my younger siblings from feeling as hurt as I did.  It was too much.  I couldn’t do it on my own, and my tears welled up as my fears bubbled to the surface.  I needed help.

I was blind.

I don’t know what changed – maybe the musician paused between songs or someone sitting on my pew shifted around – but something pulled me out of my thoughts, and I looked up.  Do you know who was in front of me?  Jesus.  The Savior of the world.  The One who loves each and every one of us.  The One who did something different and died for you.  The One who died for me.  All of a sudden, I wasn’t blind anymore.  I could see.  No, the host didn’t jump out of the monstrance.  No, I didn’t hear God’s voice thunder across the church or whisper in my ear.  But I knew.  God was present right in front of me.  And all of my questions, all of my fears and all of my rambling thoughts, could be given to Him.  I wanted a real father to be present in my life?  God could be my Father, because He is my Father.  I felt His love encompass me, hugging my heart in a way that I still can’t find words for.  It changed everything.

I could see.

This is why I do what I do.  This is what I want for each and every one of our teens.  I want them to be able to see God in their families, in their friends, in the kids that they don’t get along with, in the pictures they post on Instagram and SnapChat, in their own perfectly-created bodies, in their desires.  And I want them to see God when He’s right in front of them in the Eucharist, because it has the ability to change everything.

Can you see?

The blind man in the Gospel couldn’t see Jesus.  But he knew that he needed Jesus, and when he heard that Jesus was nearby, he continued to cry out until he found himself in Christ’s presence.  And when he was finally with Jesus, he asked Him for the one thing that his heart so desperately wanted – he asked to be able to see, and Jesus opened his eyes.  It’s scary to me to think of how many of us, teens and adults alike, forget our need for Jesus.  We rely on our own thoughts and abilities, thinking that we can get ourselves through.  But in the end, try as we might, we can’t save ourselves.  We need our Creator, our Savior, our Father.  We need to want Him in order to see Him for Who He is truly is.  And once we see Him, everything can change.

Look around at the people around you.  Can they see?

Hopefully, you are someone who’s been lucky enough to recognize your need for God, realizing you can’t do it on your own.  But you need other people to help you open your eyes to God.  When I was blind, I didn’t see the people who were around me, ready to help me up.  It was only after the fact that I thought about my youth minister who had encouraged me to go on the trip, or the musician and mission trip coordinators who created the environment in which I experienced God.  It wasn’t until the day after adoration that I confided in one of the chaperones on the trip, a dad who was close to my family and knew what I was struggling with.  Each of these adults already had heard and seen God, and they brought me and many other teens into His presence.  They couldn’t force us to open our eyes, but they knew that if we asked God to do it, amazing things would happen.  And because of their belief and hope, I can see.


This is what youth ministry is about.  And really, this is what being Catholic is about.  God is already looking at you, all you have to do is want to look back at Him.  Start by gazing upon Jesus as Father lifts Him up in a few minutes.  If you desire more time in God’s presence, join our teens as we kick off our monthly EXALT Adoration this Wednesday night and ask Jesus to open your eyes and see Him for who He truly is.  And once you’ve seen God’s face and heard his voice, don’t be like the townspeople who wait to be told to bring the blind man to the Lord; instead, go out of your way to help bring those who are blind into the Lord’s presence!  The world is filled with teens, with families, and with countless others who need to have their eyes opened in order for the Kingdom of God to reign on Earth.  You’ve seen His face, you’ve heard His voice, you’ve gotten a taste of Heaven.  What has God done for you?  Where can you find joy but in Christ?  The world needs your witness and your involvement.  Let’s grab as many people as we can and bring them on our journey towards Heaven.  Get up, the Lord is calling!

The Devil Is Real

The devil is real.  Spiritual battles are constantly happening all around us.  Are you ready to fight and be victorious with God?

The full reality of the devil is a recent realization in my life.  I've always known about the evil that Satan is capable of, but did you know how personal his attacks can be?  He revels in twisting the Truth, sneaking doubts into your blessings, making your nerves seem more important than your excitement and joy and hope.  When something good happens, something that's leading people to see even a small glimpse of God's coming glory, the devil tends to be waiting in the corner, ready to pounce.  And do you know why?  Because he has nothing to lose.  He already lost everything when he turned away from God.  All he has is personal gain and revenge and an insatiable desire to be the object of our worship.

God is so much bigger than vengeful plots, so much more than an earthly king!  God didn't have personal gain in mind when He loved us, when He created us, when He gave us freedom, when He died for us, when He humbles Himself in that amazing gift of life we call the Eucharist.  He can't gain anything that would make Him better - He's already God, the Uncreated One.  But He has something to lose:  us.

Don't let the devil take you away from God.  Remember the One who loves you through it all.  Remember who you are and Whose you are.

I was lucky enough to be invited to a worship night at fellow youth minister's house, where we sung our praises to God.  As he played the guitar, his 2 year old son played his own instrument, a ukelele.  All that kid wanted was to be himself, modeling his own behavior after that of his dad and making his dad proud of what he was doing.  It came so naturally to him!  His dad would strum louder, and he'd strum louder.  His dad would keep time with his foot, and he'd stomp his own foot.  His dad used a pick, so he used a pick.  Could he play the ukelele?  No.  Could he tune his ukelele like his dad tuned the guitar?  Not at all.  Could he sing all the words or understand them?  Nope.  But was his dad proud of him, this child who is slowly becoming the person he was created to be?  Absolutely!

This summer, I'm reminded of two things.  One, God has already won the war between good and evil - it's not all up to me.  And two, all God wants for us is to be ourselves, modeled after the One who created us, learning to desire unending life with Him.  How can we possibly remember this in the midst of everything, within all the pain and stress and desperation?  We have to look to Him, so that "through it all my eyes are on You."  He is bigger, He has conquered, He has dominion over everything, so much so that "the waves and wind still know His name."  If the waves of the ocean can be calmed with God's voice, if the wind that brushes the mountain can destroy it with one Word, who am I, one of His prized creations, to do anything BUT let go and trust in Him?

Let's stop being afraid to tell the world of God's glory.  Let's stop using the excuses that the devil puts on our minds, the ones that make us nervous or doubt ourselves or think that God doesn't love us or that God requires too much of us, as reasons why we aren't the ones who are supposed to be shouting the proclamation of the Kingdom from the mountains.  The Kingdom of God is at hand!  The victor has already won!  Let's spread that Truth in it's fullness to the masses - "that He is God!"  Don't keep it to yourself, don't gloss over it and settle for less than the full Truth, and don't get discouraged when each battle you enter into doesn't turn out the way you intended.  Just keep playing your ukelele, keep shouting from the mountains, keep your eyes on God.  Through it all.  Through it ALL.

Pray for your friends, pray for your enemies, and don't lose sight of the victory that's already been won.

Quotes are from 2 songs:  "It Is Well" by Bethel Music and "All the Poor & Powerless" by All Sons & Daughters.

The Joy of the Gospel Hits the Road

Last week, I got to spend 7 days and 6 nights at our Diocesan Work Camp, a mission trip where 200 teens and adults serve the Lord in the day by building wheelchair ramps and fixing bathrooms and in the morning & evening by attending daily Mass, listening to inspirational talks, and basically making the most joyful ruckus you've ever seen or heard.  Normally, it's one of those trips that I look forward to and enjoy a lot but totally drains me - but this year was different.

When we left the camp's homebase on Sunday, I had 4 girls in the van with me.  We were cruising through C'Ville on our way to the highway when we saw a homeless man on the side of the road, holding a sign next to the left turn lane.  This is a pretty typical sight for us as people who live in Richmond, and I always say a quick prayer for the guys I see and will normally give them some change if I get the chance to pull up next to them.  However, this time I had teens in the car with me, and the second they saw him, they immediately started screaming "WHO HAS MONEY?  WE NEED TO GIVE HIM SOMETHING!  KATIE, ROLL DOWN THE WINDOW AND WAVE HIM OVER AND GIVE THIS TO HIM!"  Their enthusiasm was astounding, and as much as I agreed with them, our light changed just as I rolled down the window and we would have to make him cross a lane of moving traffic in order to give him the $5 one of the girls had in her pocket.  But as I rolled the window back up, I promised that we would turn around and get over to his side of the street so that they could help him out.

When we got back to that same corner a couple minutes later, I rolled down the middle window so that the girls could be the ones to hand the man their money.  When he came up to us, he had a tear in his eye as he put down his sign that said "Please help, God bless you."  He thanked the girls for the generosity and then knocked on my window.  When I rolled it down, he asked if he had just seen us turn a minute before, which I said yes.  He was blown away that we would come back for him, and I told him truthfully that it was all because of the girls' persistence.  He gave all of us high fives and told us that God loves us just as the light changed and "Living on a Prayer" got to the chorus (which one of the girls had pumped up the volume on, making the whole encounter more ridiculous and amazing).  As we turned, I could see him smiling at us with a smile that lit up his entire face.

I think what stands out to me most is that this is exactly what we are called to do!  Whatever those girls heard in their ears and in their hearts that week, it had come alive in them in a new way.  It wasn't a big plan, and heck, it was only five bucks, but they did it with such a fiery, passionate love!  We had an encounter with Christ that day, and it was joy-filled and fun.  To see that man smile, to get to touch him and see their joy overflow and spread to him - THAT is what the mission of the Church is all about.  That's what Pope Francis is talking about when he says to spread the Gospel with joy!  Who cares if we had to try a second time in order to be close enough, or if he was a little dirty, or if we were awkwardly wearing matching t-shirts and listening to Bon Jovi?  God wants to meet us right here, right now - the amount of time or the way we look is irrelevant, because it's all about us being present with Him and Him being present with us.  Get out on that road of life and start proclaiming the Good News with the exuberant and persistent joy that it brings to you!

And the money the girls gave to that man? We realized later on during the ride home that it was the $5 one of them had won for memorizing the Bible verse the work camp's theme of Chosen was based on and being able to recite it in front of the whole camp.  She didn't even think twice when one of the other girls was screaming about who had money to give him - she just handed it over without a second thought.  Talk about embracing that whole idea of being chosen by God and letting Him work through you to glorify His name!

"It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you."  -John 15:16