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This past Friday, our bishop was on base for the Sacrament of Confirmation. His words in his homily really made me reflect on my path to my own confirmation. As many of you know, at age 17, I left God behind. This happened because of a series of devastating events and I thought the logical solution was to abandon God since I thought He had abandoned me. So, I stopped going to church, my Bible was shelved completely, not that I got it out much before my great self-inflicted exile. I didn't pray. I did participate in a Bible study with my friends in college, but I was a big hypocrite. I lived how I wanted, yet thought of myself as a good person. I still called myself a Christian and defended Christianity in my college classes, but I was not following Jesus at all. Then, I started dating a lukewarm cradle Catholic, we fell in love, gave no thought to our religious differences, got married and began the great tug-of-war to decide if we were going to be Protestant or Catholic. After the birth of our firstborn, all of a sudden, religion mattered. During this time, I fought with my husband as he explained Catholicism, but it was more of a wrestling with God--much like Jacob wrestles. After eight years of wrestling, I desired more than anything to become Catholic. The bishop this past Friday said, "When you receive the Holy Spirit in Confirmation, if you have received Him in the right disposition, the transformation in you will be so great that you will not be able to contain the love you have for God. You will most necessarily have to spread the message of Jesus to the world." Of course, because I'm a big weeper, this made me cry. I think back to who I was before my confirmation and who I am now and it is a night and day difference. I'm not a perfect follower of Christ, but I want to be and I want others to know Him and love Him. It's why I write here nearly everyday. I'm truly sustained by the Holy Spirit. I have known life apart from God where I was just wandering around aimlessly. I know it is a shallow, sad life. The best way to live is to take Jesus up on His words to "follow Me." Follow Him fully, follow Him faithfully, and your life will bear much fruit. Have a blessed day, Catholic Pilgrims. St. Theresa, pray for us!
Continue ReadingHEY!!! (said in loud infomercial voice) Are you looking to improve your evangelism skills? Well, folks, you've come to the right place!! Listen, I've got a book called, "Tips and Secrets of Online Evangelism: Ways To Be Wildly Ineffective" that is gonna help you take your skills to a lower level. Just a few topics covered are: 1. Learning how to use all CAPS!!!! You may not have a bullhorn, but using all CAPS says, "THIS IS IMPORTANT!" and "IF I SAY THIS IN ALL CAPS, IT MEANS THAT I AM RIGHT!" 2. Repetition. This is where you learn to just repeat the same thing, no matter what your interlocutor says. For instance, no matter what they say back to you, just type "IDOL WORSHIPPER!" Do this over and over again and you'll have people on your side in no time, or not, but it requires little effort on your part. Don't forget the CAPS! Pro-tip: Sending a slew of links to videos that no one is going to watch is super ingenious, as well. 3. Refuse to stay on topic. The goal here is to not really engage in meaningful debate, but, instead, have the person you are trying to evangelize run around collecting red fish, if you catch my drift. With these and other great tips, you will be on your way to evangelizing no one, but instead just being massively annoying and getting yourself blocked. So, order now, by calling 1-800-BEA-GONG and get started on going no where TODAY! A little Friday sarcasm, Catholic Pilgrims, but with the intended purpose to remind us all that we are meant to be salt and light. When we seek to evangelize, let us be intelligent, mindful, clear-headed, sincere, and, above all, not annoying. Live the Faith boldly and travel well this Friday!
Continue ReadingThere have been two people in my life who I have hated. I wanted them to burn in hell and be tortured by the demons for all eternity. Oh, how the thought of them suffering immensely consumed my thoughts. I would daydream of one day being in Heaven and looking down gleefully at them burning and be filled with satisfaction. And this, Catholic Pilgrims, is what hatred of others does to us. We even imagine ourselves relishing destruction of others in Heaven. Heaven--a place of perfection, all-consuming love, and joy. It is wild to me that at one time I thought hating people would 1. still allow me entrance into Heaven and 2. be an activity I would carry with me into Heaven. Overtime this hatred distorted me and made me ugly. I lashed out and raged against people--even people I claimed to love. I became more selfish. Even though I assumed I was going to Heaven, I dropped my relationship with God. Because really, how can you have a relationship with God when you are fantasizing about the eternal destruction of people? I'll be the first to tell you, you can't. Once the burden of this hatred became more than I could bear, I knew I needed help. It started with converting to Catholicism and going through my First Confession. That moved into learning from my patron saint, St. Maria Goretti. I was strengthened with the Eucharist and when you receive Love Himself, you can't help but surrender to His Will. His Will for me was to drop the hatred and pray for the two guys that had caused me so much pain. I had to will their good which was repentance and to find a relationship with Jesus. And...I had to desire that they find their way to Heaven. That was the toughest thing to surrender to, but with God's grace, I have been able to do that. If left to me, I would still be seething with rage and hatred for them. If we want to find true satisfaction in this life, if we want to be joyfully exhilarated by life, and if we want to be warmed with God's love, we cannot hate people, Catholic Pilgrims. As we read in the Book of the Prophet Haggai, "Consider your ways." Live the Faith boldly and travel well this Thursday. *The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in Santa Fe, NM
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