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Recently, my husband had to go on a work trip to Los Angeles. When he got back, he told me about how near Santa Monica, there’s this plane that social media influencers can rent out to make videos, pretending like they are traveling to some exotic place.
They get in it, video a fake scenario and tell everyone, “Heading to Bali!” or somewhere else. They never actually go, yet they create this illusion that they have this crazy, adventurous life.
People watch these and sit around wondering why their life is so boring and they grow bitter over the “normal” life they lead.
Since I’ve just finished reading, “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” I’ve been thinking about it a lot. One of the characters—Lord Henry—believes that the purpose of life is to move from one sensation to the next. Never commit to anything because that’s boring. Never learn to be satisfied with routine, stability, or normalcy. Life is only exciting and worthwhile if you move from one pleasurable experience to another.
What’s funny is, he is the most boring guy ever and he can’t see it. He lounges around all day, doing nothing productive, smokes incessantly, gossips, and is just a lazy loser.
There is nothing wrong with leading a normal, simple life. As much as I love to travel and explore, you don’t need to do that in order to make your life seem valuable.
Most of us get up, eat, work, do mundane errands and chores, take care of things, and go to sleep. Most of us have simple routines that keep life humming and not only is that fine, it’s good.
There are plenty of people out there trying to create the illusion that they have a “bigger-than-life” lifestyle. After hearing what my husband told me about the rent-o-plane and with AI everywhere, well, a lot of it is fake. Even if it wasn’t, that doesn’t mean your life is less than because you don’t live a life like that.
Be content in the life you lead. Millions of people have lived, do live, and will live lives that don’t make the history books and that’s okay.
Live your vocation to the best of your ability, Catholic Pilgrims. Thank God for the blessings He has given you and enjoy each day as it comes—you’ll never get it again.
Be blessed this Friday.
It took me years into my conversion to Catholicism to invite Mary into my faith life. After converting, it wasn’t that I was against her, it’s just that having a relationship with the Saints felt foreign. Growing up Protestant, I was never taught to have relationships with the Saints. Mary is really only mentioned at Christmas. You are taught that you don’t “talk” to people in Heaven because that’s “talking to the dead.” Well, except your grandparent who is now “an angel” and who you ask to watch over you. That’s fine. So, I just didn’t know how to invite Mary into my life. My early attempted conversations with her went something like this: “Hey, Mary. How are you? Good? Cool. So…thanks for being Jesus mom. K-bye.” Through the years, I’ve learned to naturally bring Mary and other Saints into my faith life. As baptized believers, we make up the Body of Christ. A body’s parts are connected. To cut off body parts from other body parts means to sever a once working relationship. Then, the body doesn’t work properly anymore. The Saints are still a part of the Body of Christ and they are the healthiest parts of the Body. It makes no sense that God would cut us off from each other. My conversations with Mary go more like this, these days: “Mary, I’m struggling right now. I feel impatient and grumpy. Would you please pray for me?” Today, we honor Our Lady of Fatima, Catholic Pilgrims. Here is the beautiful church at Fatima. Like a good mother, Mary often comes to warn us and encourage us to draw closer to her Son. That’s what she wants more than anything—a world united in love for Jesus. Live the faith boldly and travel well this Tuesday.
Continue ReadingThe priest at Mission San Diego said something interesting yesterday in his homily. “The early church had to work out fully who Jesus was. How crazy was it that God would become one of us? Or vice verse, it’s crazy that a human was also God. Many couldn’t get this and so Jesus was merely an amazing man. But, if you only ever know Jesus as a great guy, nothing much will change in your life. However, if you fully embrace Jesus as the God-man, everything changes in your life.” He concluded that people still try to do this with Jesus today: “He was a wise sage.” “He was a social justice champion.” “Jesus didn’t resurrect actually.” “Much of what Jesus did was symbolic.” “Yes, He resurrected, but He definitely didn’t come up with the Eucharist. That’s a bit much.” In all these ways, people are trying to make Jesus simply human, because Jesus being human is easier to get our minds around. We try to limit God. The more people try to do that, the less and less Jesus transforms their lives, until, He fades and nothing changes. Jesus is fully God, fully man. When you trust in that and fully embrace ALL His Divine teachings and ALL His miracles, well, everything changes for the better. Life the Faith boldly and travel well, Catholic Pilgrims. *Mission San Diego
Continue ReadingI was watching a video yesterday where a Christian conservative was debating a college student who was an atheist. They were supposed to be debating whether college was scam these days or not. The atheist couldn’t stay on topic and kept throwing out non sequiturs. His reasoning was that college wasn’t a scam because Jesus was a scam. One doesn’t have anything to do with the other. He kept asking the Christian questions about Christianity and whenever the Christian would try to answer, he’d get out maybe three words before being interrupted. The college guy sat there smirking, shaking, and interrupting. The whole conversation was utterly fruitless. Today, in our first reading from Acts 8, we hear about the eunuch who was reading Isaiah. Philip comes up to him and asks him if he understands it and the eunuch responds with, “How can I, unless someone instructs me?” What a truly humble response. I’ve always been so impressed with the humility of the Ethiopian eunuch in realizing he doesn’t know everything. It’s refreshing because we see so little of it these days. Everyone thinks they are an expert in everything. Few people listen to understand. And when it comes to Scripture, far too many think they are Biblical scholars and have all the answers. The atheist in the video kept throwing out questions about Christianity but he wasn’t willing to listen to the answers from a Christian. His snobbish pride left him looking like a fool. Back when I was arguing with my husband about Catholicism, I’d frequently throw out challenges to him. As he’d begin to answer, I’d cut him off and tell him what Catholics believed. He finally got fed up and calmly said, “Amy, don’t ask me a question and then cut me off. You aren’t Catholic, so don’t tell me what we believe. Either listen to me or don’t ask your questions.” I felt like such a fool and I shut my mouth. The eunuch’s approach is one of humility and it is a good lesson for us all, Catholic Pilgrims. Have a blessed Thursday.
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