Cool idea I found on Tumblr:



Start the year with an empty jar and fill it with notes about good things that happen. on New Years Eve, empty it and see what awesome stuff happened that year.

I'm praying for you!

:)

Today, I spent a lot of time on Tumblr, talking to a girl suffering from depression and self-harm, trying to help her get help.

And I realized something: EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW HOW BEAUTIFUL THEY ARE.

How did we get to this point, where so many teenagers think they are completely unlovable? But the scary thing is, I know the answer.

People think they are unlovable because we do not love them. People do not know God's love because we do not show it to them.

Lord, teach us how to love. Amen.

I'm praying for you!

:)

So, in biology class the other day, the prof was talking about how DNA transcription in prokaryotes, like bacteria, is really highly controlled because one mistake can mess everything up really easily, but in our own DNA, there's a lot more "junk" that doesn't really matter, so transcription isn't as highly controlled.

My professor was asking, "Are we really more evolutionary advanced than bacteria? We have all this junk in our DNA that we don't need and we waste all this energy on our poorly-controlled transcription."

But, you know, God could have made us very highly-controlled, every piece of our DNA and of our lives absolutely essential to our salvation. One wrong step and we're dead, game over, to hell with us.

If we worked the same as bacteria and then we damaged our very nature by our actions, we would have no chance to redeem our physical selves. DNA transcription would cease, as would our existence.

Instead, He provided Himself as a sacrifice for us.

What if all that "junk" is actually God's love for us, poured into our DNA in every cell of our bodies, as a safety net, protecting us from the errors in our DNA brought about by our sinful nature?

What if the way our DNA is formed is a representation of the free will that God has bestowed on us, of the freedom He allows us, of the forgiveness He provides us when we make mistakes?

What if efficient means of survival and reproduction aren't the point of evolution?

Just some musings, hope they make sense.

I'm praying for you!

:)

Happy Feast of St. John Berchmans!



I'm praying for you!

:)

Under thy patronage, dear Mother, and calling on the mystery of thine Immaculate Conception, I desire to pursue my studies and my literary labors: I hereby solemnly declare that I am giving myself to these studies chiefly to the following end: that I may the better contribute to the glory of God and to the promotion of thy veneration among men. I pray thee, therefore, most loving Mother, who art the Seat of Wisdom, to bless my labors in thy loving-kindness. Moreover I promise with true affection and a willing spirit, as it is right that I should do, to ascribe all the good that shall come to me therefrom, wholly to thine intercession for me in God's holy presence. Amen.

I'm praying for you!

:)

Almighty and Eternal God, Give me, I beseech You, the great gift of inward peace. Command the winds and storms of my unruly passions. Subdue, by Your grace, my proneness to love created things too much. Give me a love of suffering for Your sake. make me forbearing and kind to others, that I may avoid quarrels and contentions. And teach me constantly to seek after and to acquire that perfect resignation to Your Holy Will which alone brings interior peace.
Amen.

I'm praying for you!

:)

I'm praying for you!

:)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thank you, Father, for having created us and given us to each other in the human family. Thank you for being with us in all our joys and sorrows, for your comfort in our sadness, your companionship in our loneliness. Thank you for yesterday, today, tomorrow and for the whole of our lives. Thank you for friends, for health and for grace. May we live this and every day conscious of all that has been given to us.

Amen.

I'm praying for you!

:)

Happy Feast of the Presentation of Mary!



I'm praying for you!

:)

I accidentally posted this on the wrong blog yesterday...

Novena to St. Peter

O Holy Apostle, because you are the Rock upon which Almighty God has built His Church, obtain for me I pray you: lively faith, firm hope, and burning love, complete detachment from myself, contempt of the world, patience in adversity, humility in prosperity, recollection in prayer, purity of heart, a right intention in all my works, diligence in fulfilling the duties of my state of life, constancy in my resolutions, resignation to the will of God and perseverance in the grace of God even unto death; that so, by means of your intercession and your glorious merits, I may be made worthy to appear before the Chief and Eternal Shepherd of Souls, Jesus Christ, Who with the Father and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns forever. Amen.

I'm praying for you!

:)

The Commodores beat the Vols 41-18.

I am now entirely off my crutches.

Thanksgiving break is this week!

God is good, all the time.

I'm praying for you!

:)

Found this on the Vatican website!

ACT OF ENTRUSTMENT AND CONSECRATION
OF PRIESTS TO THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY

PRAYER OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

Church of the Most Holy Trinity - Fátima
Wednesday, 12 May 2010

Immaculate Mother,
in this place of grace,
called together by the love of your Son Jesus
the Eternal High Priest, we,
sons in the Son and his priests,
consecrate ourselves to your maternal Heart,
in order to carry out faithfully the Father’s Will.

We are mindful that, without Jesus,
we can do nothing good (cf. Jn 15:5)
and that only through him, with him and in him,
will we be instruments of salvation
for the world.

Bride of the Holy Spirit,
obtain for us the inestimable gift
of transformation in Christ.
Through the same power of the Spirit that
overshadowed you,
making you the Mother of the Saviour,
help us to bring Christ your Son
to birth in ourselves too.
May the Church
be thus renewed by priests who are holy,
priests transfigured by the grace of him
who makes all things new.

Mother of Mercy,
it was your Son Jesus who called us
to become like him:
light of the world and salt of the earth
(cf. Mt 5:13-14).

Help us,
through your powerful intercession,
never to fall short of this sublime vocation,
nor to give way to our selfishness,
to the allurements of the world
and to the wiles of the Evil One.

Preserve us with your purity,
guard us with your humility
and enfold us with your maternal love
that is reflected in so many souls
consecrated to you,
who have become for us
true spiritual mothers.

Mother of the Church,
we priests want to be pastors
who do not feed themselves
but rather give themselves to God for their brethren,
finding their happiness in this.
Not only with words, but with our lives,
we want to repeat humbly,
day after day,
Our “here I am”.

Guided by you,
we want to be Apostles
of Divine Mercy,
glad to celebrate every day
the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar
and to offer to those who request it
the sacrament of Reconciliation.

Advocate and Mediatrix of grace,
you who are fully immersed
in the one universal mediation of Christ,
invoke upon us, from God,
a heart completely renewed
that loves God with all its strength
and serves mankind as you did.

Repeat to the Lord
your efficacious word:
“They have no wine” (Jn 2:3),
so that the Father and the Son will send upon us
a new outpouring of
the Holy Spirit.
Full of wonder and gratitude
at your continuing presence in our midst,
in the name of all priests
I too want to cry out:
“Why is this granted me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Lk 1:43).

Our Mother for all time,
do not tire of “visiting us”,
consoling us, sustaining us.
Come to our aid
and deliver us from every danger
that threatens us.
With this act of entrustment and consecration,
we wish to welcome you
more deeply, more radically,
for ever and totally
into our human and priestly lives.

Let your presence cause new blooms to burst forth
in the desert of our loneliness,
let it cause the sun to shine on our darkness,
let it restore calm after the tempest,
so that all mankind shall see the salvation
of the Lord,
who has the name and the face of Jesus,
who is reflected in our hearts,
for ever united to yours!

Amen!

I'm praying for you!

:)

Happy Feast of St. Margaret of Scotland!

She's pretty epic

I'm praying for you!

:)

“Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.” - Hebrews 11:1

“Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” - Romans 5:5

“Love never fails.” - 1 Corinthians 13:8

“So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” - 1 Corinthians 13:13”

I'm praying for you!

:)

I'm praying for you!

:)

Jake's R+C talk this weekend laid out a game-plan for running the good race:

1. Take water breaks. You need to take time every day to pray and be alone with God.

2. Use your teammates. You can't do this alone. You need to have other Christians supporting you and running with you.

3. Accept that you are going to fail sometimes. You are human, and you're going to sin sometimes. Rather than beating yourself up about it, accept God's grace and keep moving. Jesus has already won, so all you have to do is play as best as you can so can be part of the victory celebration.

I'm praying for you!

:)

Sorry I didn't post anything before I left for Awakening. It was amazing, by the way.

The theme for this weekend was Romans 5:5 - Hope does not disappoint.

Although the unofficial theme appeared to be Jeremiah 29:11 - For I know well the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for woe, to give you a future of hope.

Fr. Baker said he thinks the speakers were just Googling "hope."

I'm praying for you!

:)

Nashville Awakening XI is this weekend :)

Also, I miss you and pray that you are having a great time in seminary.

I'm praying for you!

:)

Stole this from Kayla's blog:

 

Which is also where I found this:

I'm praying for you!

:)

I'm praying for you!

:)

Therefore, he is always able to save those who approach God through him, since he lives forever to make intercession for them. - Hebrews 7:25

JESUS is praying for you!!!!

And so am I!

:)

This week has been pretty awesome. I spent most of the time studying, but I did well on all my tests and I learned how to walk. I gave the Survivor speech at Relay for Life last night, and the last two days, I've walked a bunch without my crutches.

God is good. All the time.

I'm praying for you!

:)

In the Region of Murcia in Spain, they have a festival called "El Entierro de las Sardinas," in which they set giant sardine scupltures on fire!

I'm praying for you!

:)

‎"All of us must be saints in this world. Holiness is a duty for you and me. So let's be saints and so give glory to the Father." -Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Happy All Saint's Day!

I'm praying for you!

:)