“Look for yourself and you will find loneliness and despair. But look for Christ and you will find Him and everything else.”

—	C.S. Lewis

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:)

“Too much of our time is spent trying to chart God on a grid, and too little is spent allowing our hearts to feel awe. By reducing Christian spirituality to formula, we deprive our hearts of wonder.”

—	Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz

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:)

I'm praying for you!

:)

“Do not allow yourselves to be robbed of hope, and carry on! On the contrary, sow hope.”

—	Pope Francis, September 22, 2013

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:)

Words of wisdom from Blessed Mother Teresa:

Who are we to accuse anybody? It is possible that we see them doing something we think is not right, but we do not know why they are doing it. Jesus encouraged us not to judge anyone. Maybe we are the ones responsible for others doing things we think are not right. Let us not forget that we are dealing with our brothers and sisters. That leper, that sick person, that drunk, are all our brothers and sisters. They, too, have been created by a greater love. This is something we should never forget. That sick person, that alcoholic, that thief, are my brothers and sisters. It is possible that they find themselves abandoned in the street because no one gave them love and understanding. You and I could be in their place if we had not received love and understanding from other human beings. I will never forget the alcoholic man who told me his story. He was a man who had surrendered to alcohol to forget the fact that no one loved him. Before we judge the poor, we have the duty to look inside ourselves.

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:)

“The world’s thy ship and not thy home.”

― St. Thérèse de Lisieux
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:)

“The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.” - Mark Twain

Btw, this is an excellent video (and one that I really needed today):

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:)

“Fill yourselves first, then only will you be able to give to others.”

—	Saint Augustine

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:)

I love this photo. It looks like a painting, but it's real (true, I changed the contrast slightly on shutterfly, but it's still a photo). It's a picture I took out the window of a train in Italy. It's not a picture of any incredible must-see sight or amazing feat of architecture or human art. There will never be crowds gathered to stare at this exact location, but it is so beautiful. The buildings, houses and whatever else they are, are nestled among the hills which roll on, seemingly forever. It's nothing out of the ordinary. In fact, it's beautiful because it is ordinary. This is what ordinary life looks like, small people dwelling together, nestled in God's loving creation. He made the rolling hills and flowers and birds and trees and everything else we take for granted to show us His love and proclaim Himself to us. Beauty is not some unattainable wonder we need to travel around the world to find. Beauty is the manifestation of God, living and present in all things and all people. He is everywhere, and the whole Earth is full of His beauty and love. So we go on living our small, ordinary lives, and God keeps on loving us and drawing us closer to Him. That's reality, and it's beautiful.

I'm praying for you!

:)

May it please the supreme and divine Goodness
to give us all abundant grace
ever to know his most holy will
and perfectly to fulfill it.

-St. Ignatius of Loyola

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:)

I'm praying for you!

:)

Babies experiencing things for the first time.

Got these from: http://beben-eleben.tumblr.com/post/57970020395/babies-experiencing-things-for-the-first-time

First time watching fireworks:

 First time being dunked into water that’s way too cold:

First time getting caught in a bubble shower:

First time driving through a dark tunnel:

First time chatting with a puppet:

First time finding a new recipe in a cooking magazine:

First time forgetting how spoons work:

First time seeing ice cream:

First time meeting a puppy:

First time having their toes licked by a cat:

First time watching New Year’s fireworks:

First time living in a hollowed-out fruit:

 First time “drinking” out of a hose:

First time forgetting how glass windows work:

First time being forced to smell someone’s foot:

First time opening a present:

First time experiencing the sweet, sweet glory of television:

And finally, the first time experiencing the taste of sour:






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:)

Ok, so I just heard this ad for Adidas, and I've heard it 5 million times, but the words just now hit me.

"What better way to define yourself than through music?"

To which my response, "What worse way to define yourself than through music?!"

First of all, music, even though it may come from within people and be wonderful and unique and expressive, is an external phenomena. Music expresses; it does not define. Using music as a personal definition is no better than using a book character as your definition, or a rock (okay, so maybe it's a little better than a rock).

Secondly, unless you are personally a composer, music is created by other people. That means that defining yourself through music is simply picking things other people have made and claiming that as your identity - even if you're choosing which music defines you, you're still not truly defining yourself. You're allowing other people to define you.

Defining yourself by music takes the beautiful, unique subjective human soul you ARE and turns it into a mass-produced, easily swayed object. It turns identity into a comparison, when really, a human identity exists in being unique.

And finally, music can describe feelings. It can describe actions. It can describe looks. But a human soul is not feelings, actions, looks, or a sum of the three. Your identity rests in the fact that you are created and loved by God, in the fact that you are loved and capable of love. That's why we can say we love the sinner but hate the sin. You are not your hobbies, the sports you excelled at in school, or your favorite music. Really, you are a beautiful, unrepeatable mystery, undefinable to all except God (and possibly yourself). To reduce that mystery, the human soul in the image of the divine, to a collection of songs, no matter how beautifully written, is utterly demeaning.

Of course, music is beautiful. It can allow us to express ourselves, to communicate the deepest yearnings of our souls. We can sing in joy to God or in despair. We can create beautiful compositions (well, some people can, at least) that demonstrate the beauty and love of God and of humanity. But it can't define us. Nothing of this world can.

But of course you already know all this...

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:)

I joined Victory A Capella this year, and we're singing this song (except we're switching words like girl and baby to Jesus and Lord):

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:)

Sorry for the rant; here is a cute kitten:



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:)

So apparently, the secretary of state (technically, future secretary of state) of the Vatican (why would you choose him for an interview about celibacy, anyway?) said in an interview that celibacy for priests was not a matter of dogma and could be changed.

OH MY GOODNESS, THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IS OBVIOUSLY CHANGING. THERE ARE RULES THAT AREN'T DOGMA?!! WHAT IS THIS MADNESS?

Oh, and of course, they found some old interview with Cardinal Bergoglio before he changed his name in which he said that celibacy rules could be changed. (And they completely ignored the part where he said he didn't think they should be).

THE POPE SAID SOMETHING IS POSSIBLE. THAT'S CODE FOR "WILL HAPPEN." ALSO IF PRIESTS CAN MARRY, THEN THEY CAN MARRY MEN OR BE WOMEN. YAY, NO MORE RULES!

Basically, I'm face-palming right now over the idea that

1. Differentiating between dogma and non-dogmatic tradition is a completely new concept in the Church.

2. Stating that the Church has the ability to change something means she will change it.

3. Statements from anyone in a place of authority in the Church (at any point in their lives) can magically change any and every Catholic belief and tradition.

4. Allowing priests to marry would produce a "modernization" of the Church that would result in things like gay marriage and female priests and abortion and contraception.

5. The people posting these "articles" are getting paid for being "professional reporters" and/or "professional journalists."

Although, if celibacy got thrown out the window, you could be a priest and marry Stephanie ;)

I'm praying for you!

:)

“There would never be vaccination unless there were germs, there would never have been Prohibition unless there were something to prohibit, and there would never be atheism unless there was a God to atheate.”

—	Archbishop Fulton Sheen

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Gossip

I killed him with words
With my tongue, my mouth
sunk my teeth into His
flesh and ripped until
blood flowed, but I did
not know He chose to
die. When my mouth
was full of His flesh,
He said, "Take and eat."
As His blood dripped
down my chin, He
said "Take and drink."
I tried to destroy
Him, but He destroyed
my sin. I wanted to
enslave Him, so He set
me free.

 I wrote this poem a few weeks ago after Mass, because I was just hit with a really vivid understanding of how we crucify Christ with our sins. He chose to die, but we still killed Him. In fact, we continue to kill him every time we sin. And when we use our hands to sin, we are killing Him with our hands. When we use our mouths to sin, we are killing Him with our mouths. I can't speak for everyone, but I think I sin with my words much more than with my actions. And during the Consecration a few weeks ago, I had an image in my head of me tearing into Christ's flesh with my teeth every time I ever uttered a sinful word (or failed to say necessary words). It's as if I think that I can destroy Him, destroy truth, by my words. If I repeat the same lies over and over, maybe I could convince myself that I wasn't even sinning, that there was no such thing as sin. And so I go to Jesus ready to tear Him apart, ready to try to devour Him. But He sees me coming. He knows how each of will injure Him, and He allows it. Because Jesus sacrifices Himself willingly, His death, which we have caused, brings about our redemption. I tear Him apart with my words, and He pours Himself, body and blood, soul and divinity, into my open mouth, and when His blood and flesh fill my mouth, my eyes are opened to the truth. He uses our sins to save us. He uses His death, caused by all human sin, as our salvation. He doesn't just wipe away or ignore our sins and then impose grace and salvation separately. He takes all of our failings, all of our hatred and malice and jealousy and anger, and he turns them around, using their results to glorify Him and to save our souls. So I don't think it's weird at all that God would tell me to eat His body and drink His blood, because it's not random. I was already trying to devour Him.

Sorry if none of that makes sense or if any of that is weird and/or completely wrong.

I'm praying for you!

:)

I'm praying for you!

:)

I wrote this poem a while back (Warning: It's pretty dark):

Crush.

I could crush

this skull, bone is

nothing more than

gathered dust, and

it could be dispersed

again, ashes to ashes.

I could dig my nails

into this flesh, dig a

grave deep into this

living coffin.

Blood would flow, dark

as my thoughts, and the

pain might just drown

me before it ran out.

But he mourns before

I start, so I just hang

my head in shame, for

the body on which I’ve

tried to inflict all this

is His, not my own.

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:)

"I don’t wonder anymore what I’ll tell God when I go to heaven, when we sit in the chairs under the tree, outside the city…….. I’ll tell these things to God, and he’ll laugh, I think, and he’ll remind me of the parts I forgot, the parts that were his favorite. We’ll sit and remember my story together, and then he’ll stand and put his arms around me and say, “well done,” and that he liked my story. And my soul won’t be thirsty anymore."

—	Donald Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years

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:)

Some of my photos from Lourdes

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“He longs for you. He thirsts for you… Once you have experienced the thirst, the love of Jesus for you, you will never need, you will never thirst for these things which can only lead you away from Jesus, the true and living fountain… The closer you come to Jesus the better you will know his thirst.”

—	Blessed Mother Teresa

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“God has made himself a beggar by reason of his concern for us…suffering mystically through his tenderness to the end of time according to the measure of each one’s suffering.”

—	St Maximus the Confessor, Mystagogia 24

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You wish to reform the world: reform yourself, otherwise your efforts will be in vain. — Saint Ignatius

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I wrote this in my journal last night, inspired by a homily by Fr. Baker:

To practice humility is to recognize that you, like all human beings on this planet, are a sinner, but it is also to recognize that you, a tiny speck in the cosmos, have been fearfully and wonderfully made and are infinitely loved by God. If we are nothing, how great must be the love of God! He humbled Himself by becoming man, but also by creating man. What sort of all-powerful being would form bits of nothing into infinitely beautiful images of His own self? Only an infinitely humble God. Rejoice in the fact that you are not your own, that you have been created by a humble God who died for your sins.

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:)

“Why marvel at the stars, when you are eternal? They were not made in the image and likeness of God. You were.”

—	Saint Gregory of Nyssa

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:)