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I'm back from Dayton after attending the wedding of my best friend's daughter, a young woman who I have known since she was three. It was truly a beautiful, special day to celebrate the Sacrament of Marriage. During the priest's homily, he said something very important to the couple and really to all listening. He said, "Your married life is not to be just for yourselves. You aren't to collapse in on yourselves and only live for yourselves. You are meant to be a light to the world." So very true. A husband and wife are never meant to just live for themselves. The love my husband and I have for each other is meant to be an example of Christ's sacrificial love. We are called to be not just husband and wife, but mother and father in some capacity given the circumstances of our situation. Our married life is not about traveling, comfort, material gain, or the ability to do whatever we want, whenever we want free of any responsibility to anyone but ourselves. Quite the contrary, the married couple is called to sacrifice, give, and help be a light to their children and to those in their communities, so that others might know the joy of Christ's love. Have a blessed Monday, Catholic Pilgrims.
I absolutely love this picture of St. William's in teeny tiny Paoli, Wisconsin for this Tuesday's small town church showcase. Remember back two weeks ago when I showed you the picture of the church from Iowa? Our Lady of Good Counsel in Fonda? Well, I talked about a family vacation I took where we stopped at the Field of Dreams movie set in Iowa. The goal of that family vacation was to get to Wisconsin to the House on the Rock and the Dells. The House on the Rock is something else, I tell you. It's too hard to describe without sounding crazy, so just go see it. "See, there's this huge house with a ginormous carousel in it (yes, in the house), and a street of Yesteryear, and an enormous room with organs hanging from the ceiling." Anyway, southeast of the House on the Rock and not too far away is this church. It was the Germans and Irish (imagine those two groups working together!) that organized this church. Before having a church, families had to celebrate Mass in their homes. The first church was built in 1869, but as time went on, a new church was needed for a growing congregation. Well, that church burnt down in a fire on the day of the 25th anniversary celebration, which is wildly unfortunate. A new church was built and, if I'm reading things right, it's the church that you see in this picture. Because of the small population of the surrounding town, Mass is celebrated at St. Williams's only at 7:30am on Sunday. I haven't been able to find pictures of the inside, but I saw online that the stained-glass windows are really good. It just might be tricky finding a time to come visit other than Mass on Sunday. But, if you are ever in Wisconsin, go visit the House on the Rock and then maybe stop by and see this House of God--St. William's. And maybe find some good cheese to eat. Live the Faith boldly and travel well, Catholic Pilgrims. *The address for this church has it in Belleville, Wisconsin, but it sits in Paoli. I'll leave that for the Cheeseheads, excuse me...Wisconsinites to explain.
Since Easter, I think I've read through the journey to Emmaus story three times now. The second time, something really caught my eye. I'm sure I'm not the first to see this. At the very end of the Gospel reading for today, Luke wrote, "Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how He was made known to them in the breaking of the bread." I realized that these disciples were not at the Last Supper, they would not have heard Jesus say to the Apostles, "This is My Body; This is My Blood." The Apostles hadn't yet gone out and celebrated a Mass, because they had thought Jesus was dead, then they were scared, then they were amazed, but still fearful and probably a bit bewildered, to say the least. Nobody had gone out to the disciples and talked about the Eucharist yet. These disciples did not recognize Jesus until He "took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and give it to them." Then they saw Him. I find this such a fascinating, significant clue that we will find Jesus right when the Priest says, "When supper had ended, He took the bread, said the blessing, broke it and gave it to His disciples saying, 'TAKE THIS, ALL OF YOU, AND EAT OF IT, FOR THIS IS MY BODY, WHICH WILL BE GIVEN UP FOR YOU.'" You and I were not at the Last Supper, just like the two disciples on the way to Emmaus. Like them, we will find Jesus, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, at the Consecration when, by the power of the Holy Spirit, ordinary bread is changed into Our Lord. That's where we look for Him. That's where He keeps His promise to always be with us, not just spiritually, but physically in the continual offering of His Body to the Father for our eternal benefit. Have a blessed third Sunday of Easter, Catholic Pilgrims.
About a month ago when I was in Phoenix, my family went out to eat at a sushi restaurant. Our waitress was a young, college-aged looking woman, very sweet and slightly shy. Right as we were about to leave, I noticed her Miraculous Medal necklace and asked her about it. She touched it and shyly said, "Oh, yes, I'm Catholic." I smiled back and said, "Me, too. Look, I have on a Miraculous Medal ring." That completely broke the ice with her and, in like five seconds, she relaxed, almost as if she was around family. As we got up to go, she even said, "God bless." This is one of the reasons why I love our sacramentals. They allow conversations to happen. When people come into my home, I have lots of sacramentals and they always, always start a conversation. People travel around my house like it's a museum. I love it, because it gives me a chance to talk about our faith. "What's this glass bottle of water?" "It's water from the Jordan River where Jesus was baptized." "Where did you get this statue of Jesus and Mary? It looks old." "I found it in a box at a flea market in Turkey and bought it for like $2.00." Often the religious jewelry I wear catches eyes and people will ask about it. It gives me chance to talk about Jesus, Mary, or one of the Saints. I've never had a bad conversation--only opportunities to plant seeds and share the faith in a way that feels unobtrusive. I find, too, that it helps make a connection with other Catholics, just like the waitress. I'm not one to stand on a street corner with a bullhorn shouting about Jesus. I'll probably never hold signs asking people if they are saved. You won't catch me going door-to-door to evangelize. But, I will use sacramentals to my advantage and allow them to naturally draw people in. Live the Faith boldly and travel well this Thursday, Catholic Pilgrims. *Church is St. Mary's in Izmir, Turkey
"OKLAHOMA, WHERE THE WIND COMES SWEEPIN' DOWN THE PLAIN." (sang in burly man voice) As much as Kansans get bombarded with "Wizard of Oz" jokes, I imagine Oklahomans get bombarded with this song from the musical "Oklahoma." 😅 It's a great musical, btw. Carrying on, though, my wayward sons, today's small town church showcase is St. Anthony of Padua in Okeene, Oklahoma. (Picture sent in by one of you.) Okeene is a tiny little town with a population of 1,040 and it sits northwest of Oklahoma City. This church was built in 1922. It was built to replace the wooden church before it. That one had been damaged in a tornado and the congregation realized that it was time for brick, instead of wood. Hopefully, a tornado wouldn't be able to blow and blow their brick house down. My husband and I stopped in Oklahoma City on our epic road trip last year and I've been bragging about that city ever since. The downtown was clean, interesting, and felt safe and my husband and I had a great time in The Bricks area. We, also, visited the amazing Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine there which is a must-see. A great day trip would be to go see St. Anthony's in Okeene and then head into Oklahoma City to see the Shrine and enjoy an evening downtown on the riverwalk. The outside of this church is lovely and, looking online, the inside is just what we like to see, too. So, if ever you find yourself sweeping across the plains of Oklahoma and have time to stop, go see St. Anthony's in Okeene, Catholic Pilgrims. Have a blessed Tuesday! St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church
I heard someone say the other day, "Catholics try to bring people to everything other than Christ first. They try to bring them to the Eucharist, to Mary..." Stop right there. Eucharist = Christ Usually we get dissenters who try to tell us that the Eucharist isn't Christ, but they at least know that we believe that It is Him. This guy was so off the mark that He didn't even realize that we believe the Eucharist is Christ. He thinks that we think we are just bringing people to round wafers. Yes, all day, everyday, I wanna bring people to Christ in the Eucharist. Guilty as charged. Christ did not leave us a mere symbol to help us to symbolically reenact the Last Supper every once in a while. He offers us His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in the perpetual Sacrifice offered every day at every Mass, which "re-presents (makes present) the sacrifice of the Cross." "For His Flesh is true food, and His blood is true drink." John 6:55 It is the single most incredible, most miraculous way to get the Divine Life within you, Catholic Pilgrims. Yes, we want to bring people to Our Lord. Live the Faith boldly and travel well this Monday. *Jesus in the monstrance for Adoration at St. Mary of Sorrows in Fairfax, VA
I heard someone say not too long ago, "As you go through your marriage, and as long as you strive to love your spouse well, you will realize, as you look back, that your wedding day was when you loved your spouse the least." The point of this quote is that on your wedding day, you can't possibly imagine how much more in love you will grow with your spouse. But, that's how love works. There isn't a finite amount and it gets tapped out. I'm not a perfect spouse by any stretch of the imagination, but I have learned how to love Dustin better through the decades. At the beginning of our marriage, I was definitely more selfish, more nitpicky, less patient. The Sacrament of Marriage will, if you let the graces from it work as they should, weed out obstacles to love. I'm reading "The Brothers Karamazov" right now and yesterday I read a great passage. It's from an old priest-monk who is imparting wisdom right before he dies. "Love is a teacher, but a hard one to obtain: learning to love is hard and we pay dearly for it. It takes hard work and a long apprenticeship, for it is not just for a moment that we must learn to love, but forever." I think one of the greatest things I've learned as a wife, is that to properly love my husband, I need to focus on how I can be a better woman. So often, especially early in a marriage, both spouses are trying to change the other person, to mold them into who they want the other to be. I have learned and, I'm still learning, that when I become a better me, I love Dustin better and that, in turn, frees him to be a better him. And I don't want to become better just so that Dustin will fix his faults. I want to become better so that I can love him better. I want him to know that it is my desire to love him more and more as the years go by. Learning to love well does take hard work, because it necessarily requires that you face yourself and see that parts of you need to be changed and nobody likes to think that they are the ones that need to change. I would do anything for love of this man and that includes purging negative parts of me so that I can love him better. That is what we are all called to do as spouses, Catholic Pilgrims. So, love your spouse well, because they are yours to love. *And before any feminist has to ask, yes, he does the same for me.
I watched a video the other day of a young woman who had completely altered her appearance to such a degree that it was impossible to "see" her. As a former counselor, I'm always a little compelled to watch these videos, because I know that some deep hurt causes people to do this to themselves. It's a type of self-loathing. Anyway, she was so covered with piercings, weird makeup, oddly chopped hair, and attention-seeking clothing that you could barely see the woman underneath. In her words, she was "alt-goth." She was getting ready to do a transformation back to a more normal look for her dad. Her look was hard on him, and apparently, before his mind is gone, she wanted to gift him with looking more like how he remembered her. Which was very good of her. Her transformation actually helped you to see her and she was such a pretty young woman. Tragically, she didn't like the way she looked. One comment, though, deserved my response. A lady said, "As long as you are happy and not hurting anyone." I hate this way of thinking. Clearly, the father is hurting by seeing his daughter disfigure herself. And, it was very clear, that she wasn't happy. There was no joy to be found. It, also, is so damaging to say to people that it's okay if you hurt yourself, as long as you don't hurt anyone else. That's never true. Never, ever, ever. So, I commented. To which someone had to come and tell me that "I'm boring and mentally ill for believing in a magic god" and blah, blah. That's neither here nor there. That kind of weak attempt at trying to offend me doesn't at all. The only thing to say to this is that the least boring people are the Saints. What incredible lives they led and do lead for those that are among us. Exterior bodily modifications don't make a person less boring. In fact, all it does is hide and mask the real person that God created you to be. Holiness is not boring. Our pilgrimage to Heaven is a wonderful adventure if we cooperate with God's grace and strive to live out His will for our lives. I've never read a Saint's story and thought to myself, "Wow. They are super boring." Quite the opposite; I wonder if I have what it takes to be like them. Pray for those people, Catholic Pilgrims, who don't yet know that they were made in the image and likeness of God. Have a blessed Thursday.
Yesterday, a picture with snow; today, a picture of Spring. For the last couple of weeks, the comments have been lively. Very lively. Lots of our brothers and sisters in Christ of the Protestant Revolution came over to have a chat. Some were nice, some were not. It comes with the territory. There was lots of encouragement for us Catholics "to read our Bibles." Accusations were made that we don't and people making assumptions. Yesterday was my first day back at daily Mass on base since the start of Lent. Our priest is finally back from training. Usually, there is another lady in there with me and my son. She's a friend of mine and nearly every day she comes in carrying one of her religious books that she's reading. She has it tabbed and highlighted. All her books look so worn and loved. Hours of her life spent pouring over reading about Jesus, Mary, and the Saints. I saw her today clutching her book and my heart just swelled with love for her and for all of you who inspire me so much with your devotion to Our Lord. I have a friend who couldn't get into the Blessed Sacrament room here on base one day and so he sat outside the door just to be close to Our Lord. I have friends whose Bibles are marked up, highlighted, and look so very worn, but the time spent in reading through the pages is just immense. There are so many of you who travel to churches just to see the beauty and spend time with Jesus. I find that incredible and beautiful. Some of you pray the Rosary several times a day and that's just--wow--amazing. The point of all this is that so often we hear the negative about Catholics. "They aren't filling the pews." "They don't read their Bibles." "They just go through the motions." God love you all, though, because what I see on here is different. So very different. So many of you show up to read my thoughts and to talk about Jesus and His mother and our shared love of our Catholic Faith and it all helps us grow closer to God. Last week, when people were attacking and only choosing to see the negative, I was so grieved because they don't know all of you. Sure, we are imperfect people, but I see people that really and truly love Our Lord and I'm so inspired by you all and grateful that you give such good witness to the beauty of our Catholic Faith. So, anyway, I just want to say that and to say keep living the faith boldly and traveling well, my fellow Pilgrims.
I'm sorry to show snow, but I figured I better get this picture in before Spring is full-blown everywhere. We are back to our small town church showcase and today's church is Our Lady of Good Counsel from Fonda, Iowa. When I was, I wanna say, 14-years old, my family took a vacation up to Wisconsin to the Dells and The House on the Rock. As we drove through Iowa, we stopped at the movie set for "Field of Dreams." That is one of my top five favorite movies. Oh! Just thinking about it right now gives me chills. The acting, the score, the message, the fact that it's centered on baseball makes it one of those magical 80s movies. You know, back when movies were good. Anyway, we went to the field, I thought it was awesome and I wanna go back. That is my one and only real experience of being in Iowa. I went to see if this church was close to the "Field of Dreams" movie set, but, alas, it is not. This church is more on the western side of the state and the cornfield is on the very eastern edge. One thing that I do know is that "if you build" pretty Catholic Churches "people will come." And when you go, you can ease Jesus' pain that He experienced in the Garden of Gethsemane. Most importantly, you can partake of the Eucharist, so that you can be filled with Divine Grace in order to "go the distance" for Christ. Seeing all the farmland, you may think to yourself, "Is this Heaven?" "No, it's Iowa," but God's creation can definitely give us a hint of what is to come. So, if ever in western Iowa, stop by Fonda, population 636, and see this lovely Catholic Church. Live the Faith boldly and travel well, Catholic Pilgrims.
One of my jobs in high school was a shift manager for Mr. Goodcents, a sandwich shop. As I was getting ready to start my freshman year at K-State, the owner of the Mr. Goodcents in Manhattan, reached out to my boss in my hometown, to see if he knew anyone that could be a manager for his store. His had just quit. My boss explained that he had this gal that was getting ready to go to K-State and that I was experienced as a shift manager. My boss asked me if I wanted the job and, in my naivety, I agreed to take it. That was a terrible decision. With a full course load and marching band obligations, I did not have the time or energy to run a store with a MUCH higher volume than my hometown store. One day, I was standing at the register and had been there for hours, just ringing people up that came through in the steady, continuous line. I was exhausted and stressed over when I was going to do my homework and memorize my band songs, so I had completely checked out. I rang up this one girl and her boyfriend and looked to move to the next person when the girl said, "Amy. Amy!" I looked at her and there in front of me was my friend who lived across the hall from me in the dorms. Through my stress and exhaustion, I had not see her standing right in front of me. It took her calling my name to wake me up. So, I get why Mary Magdalene didn't see Jesus standing in front of her. She was worn and weary from what had happened on Good Friday, her sorrow drowned her, now her Lord's body was missing. She's so wrapped up in her emotions and thoughts that she can't even see Jesus. It takes Him calling her name to pull her out of it. We all do this: We get so overwhelmed by anxiety, confusion, sadness, anger, and busyness that we collapse in on ourselves and think we are all alone. We must listen for Jesus speaking our name to pull us out of these downward spirals and remind us that we are loved, He is with us, and we don't have to do go it all alone. Have a very blessed Monday in the Octave of Easter, Catholic Pilgrims. P.S. I didn't stay at the sandwich shop much longer after that incident with my friend. I realized that I couldn't do it all.
Holy Thursday. The day that Christ instituted the Eucharist. I've had a lot of back and forth conversations this week. It's definitely made for lively discussions. A lady on Instagram was trying to tell me that, as Catholics, we are wrong in thinking that the Eucharist is really Jesus. What was interesting to me is her reasonings. First, she thought that we believe it's the power of the priest that changes the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. "No," I told her, "It's the power of the Holy Spirit working through the priest." Then, she said, "You believe Jesus dwells in the bread and wine." "No, He doesn't dwell there. The bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of Jesus. The Eucharist is Him." One of her last attempts at refuting the Eucharist was a new one for me. She didn't think it was possible for Jesus to be in Heaven, yet pieces of His Body be here on our altars. So interesting. It's like she thinks that Jesus places a little bit of His shoulder matter on one altar and then a little bit of His forearm matter on another altar. Do this enough times for a few millennia and how could you not run out of His Body? For her, it's subtraction--Jesus is going to run out. For Catholics, it's more like multiplication. Like the loaves and fishes. God has the ability to multiply and whatever He multiplies, He never runs out of. The Consecration is a miracle, meaning, we won't fully understand it in this life. But, when I was Protestant, what finally clicked with me, was when I realized that nothing that Jesus did could be less than or equal to anything in the Old Testament. It had to be better. The Passover was wonderful and miraculous; Christ took it to the next level. Nothing about what Christ did on Holy Thursday could be symbolic because that would be less than or equal to the Passover meal. He elevated it to a degree that is infinitely staggering. Once, I realized this, I knew that I had to become Catholic. Jesus said, "This is My Body and this is My Blood," and I was done arguing with the Son of God over what He said. Thank God, our souls are nourished by the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, Catholic Pilgrims. Have a blessed Holy Thursday.
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