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Yesterday, my family went to the movies to watch “You Gotta Believe.” It’s a baseball movie based off a true story.
One of the coaches of the team comes down with brain cancer and it’s serious. He has to step back from coaching while he does chemo.
At one point in the story, this coach’s son, devastated that his father isn’t getting better, runs out on the ballfield at night and yells out to the sky, “I hate you! I hate you!”
That was enough to make the tears flow hot on my face because I once did just about the same thing, except it was a football field and I was 17.
After my night on the football field, I went on to “wrestle with God,” much like Jacob in the Bible for years.
Yesterday, after I got home from the movie, I read a comment on my post from the other day that was wildly misunderstood. So many people missed the point of my post on burdensome rules.
Anyway, a woman, still missing the point, commented that respecting Christ in the Eucharist means that we dress up for church and women cover their heads. Boom. End of discussion.
Part of me wanted to defend my deep love of Christ, but the Holy Spirit kept saying, “Stay. Just stay. Don’t do it.”
While I was standing there at the stove with tears in my eyes, I asked, “Why not? Why not let me defend my love for You?”
What I heard was, “Because for some, it will never be enough what you do. Let me handle it. I know your heart.”
I realized how true that is. Because we humans are always trying to one up each other and prove we are better, sometimes, it will never be enough for many.
I have been to the depths with God and fought my way back to a relationship that I never thought possible after that night on the football field. Nobody but God truly understands my love and respect and nobody ever will.
There are a million and one ways, Catholic Pilgrims, that we can practice our Faith. And even if we did all those ways, there would still be someone who comes along and says, “Not enough.”
Of course with God, we can never give Him enough, but the only one we need to prove anything to is Him. He knows our hearts and His understanding of our hearts is all that really matters.
Live the Faith boldly and travel well this Tuesday.
*Picture is from the synagogue in Capernaum from our Gospel reading today.
Over a month ago I made a short 9-second video on why Catholics have crucifixes. It literally took me all of two minutes to make it. For the video, I wrote, "Why do Catholics have crucifixes instead of bare crosses? Because we need to be reminded of what nailed Our Lord to the cross." It has been one of the most controversial videos I have ever made with thousands of views, shares, and hundreds of comments. Loads of comments were the typical nonsense, straw-man arguments. "Stop worshipping statues." "Jesus isn't on the cross anymore. He hasn't been on the cross for 2000 years." The most snarky of comments was this: "So, basically Catholics aren't as impacted as the rest of the world and for some reason they need to be reminded constantly because they have poor memory." Poor St. Paul, I guess he wasn't as impacted as modern day Christians seeing as he wrote that "we preach Christ crucified." First, we don't worship statues. Just because we have a depiction of someone doesn't mean we worship the representation. We don't think the statues are literally that person. Second, no Catholic believes that Jesus is still on the cross. Not a single one. We are an Easter people, as St. John Paul II proclaimed. But, you cannot talk about Easter without understanding the impact of Good Friday. To the snarky man, I wrote back, "Well, seeing as we humans continue to sin, even though we, as Christians, know what Our Lord did, yeah, I'd say we all have poor memories and need to be reminded. Unless, of course, you somehow are the one person here on earth that doesn't sin anymore because you have been so impacted. If so, congratulations." St. Paul says in our second reading today from Romans, "But God proves His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us." It is gazing upon a crucifix that I see the totality of Jesus' love for me. The cross is where He atoned for the sins that I could never atone for, it is where He saved me. I have a few empty crosses in my house, but they don't impact me the way a crucifix does. Yes, my Lord is risen, indeed, but I will always need to remember why He had to rise in the first place. Have a blessed Sunday, Catholic Pilgrims.
Continue ReadingDay Nine of US landmarks and Catholic connections in our lead up to America's 250th Birthday. Today's Location: US NAVAL ACADEMY I've realized that I'm a mid-sized town gal and Annapolis definitely appealed to me. Annapolis is home to the Naval Academy, which I got to visit in 2022. We have two Catholic connections. 1. This gate that you see here is named after Commodore John Barry who was a devout Irish Catholic. He died long before the Academy came around, but he was personally chosen by George Washington to be the very first commissioned officer and first flag officer of the permanent U.S. Navy. 2. If you visit the Naval Academy Chapel there is a basement where you will find a Blessed Sacrament room. It is in honor of Servant of God Father Capodonna, the "Grunt" padre that was killed in Vietnam on September 4, 1967. Every September there is a Mass said in his honor in the chapel. Even though my hubby is an Airman, I am the granddaughter of a WWII Navy vet. While my grandfather did not attend here, it was still special for me to visit. I highly recommend Annapolis, Catholic Pilgrims, and if you are able to be cleared onto the Academy, I would encourage you visit. The grounds are beautiful. Live the Faith boldly and travel well!
Continue ReadingDay Seven of US landmarks and Catholic connections in our lead up to America's 250th Birthday. Our feature for today: NIAGRA FALLS Anybody wanna hop back and forth between borders? The Falls are nearly almost divided in half between Canada and the US. Now, I've never been, so this isn't my photo, but I'm guessing this was taken from the Canadian side. Maybe? But what, Amy, is the Catholic connection, you ask? Well, these Falls were first documented in the 17th century by a Belgium monk named Father Louis Hennepin. He was a Franciscan missionary and his documentation really was his claim to fame. He explored lots of other territory in what would become the United States, but he often embellished his stories and this got him into some trouble. However, he did make an "engraving of the Falls of Niagara. It is out of proportion, but its general features give an accurate idea of the appearance of the Falls at his time." I do hope to go to the Falls someday and apparently in the surrounding area, both in Canada and Buffalo, NY, there are some excellent Catholic Churches to visit. Live the Faith boldly and travel well, Catholic Pilgrims!
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