The Loveliness of Lent

So I haven’t blogged in a while. While there are millions (okay more like 3 or 4) excuses I could give, I don’t want to. Regardless of my excuse, the truth of the matter is that I haven’t been making as much time for Adoration (I write these posts there) this year as I did last year. Fortunately, Lent starts tomorrow. Yes, read that last sentence again, I said fortunately.  I know this is what you’re thinking:

(Yes I am pretty sure I have used this clip before)

Here are a few reasons why I like Lent:

     1)The end results in great joy! (Easter)

      2)It brings awareness to spiritual dryness.

      3)It allows for the opportunity to exercise and improve self-discipline.

In this post, I would like to focus on the last two reasons. Lent has been a good time for me to realize where I am dry spiritually. Am I going to Mass every week? Am I praying every day? Am I studying Scripture? These are some of the questions I ask myself. Some of my answers are a resounding YES! Others are a meh I am lacking in that department. Lent is also super structured, which makes it somewhat easier to self-discipline. It’s easier to try and change your life for 40 days rather than forever. 40 days, however, is a great amount of time for keeping habits that promote spiritual growth.  I know you’re thinking yay spiritual growth, but how do I utilize Lent for this? It helps to think of Lent in three tiers:

      1) Prayer

      2) Fasting

      3) Almsgiving

So let’s start with the first one: prayer. How can I pray more? Do I pray? How often? After examining where you need improvement, make a detailed plan (Example to follow). Point numero dos: fasting. This is the popular one. The question is not to be or not to be, but rather, what to give up? Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the wants and cravings of decadent chocolate, or to take arms against a sailor’s mouth? But I digress. I posed this question to my third graders, and of course the initial response was school. I can’t really blame them, that was my answer when I was their age. There is some criteria that should be applied when choosing a sacrifice:

    1) It must be meaningful. Example: Do not give up Xbox when you have never played one.

    2) It should inspire prayer. Will giving this up be noticeable to me?

    3) It should NOT hinder your vocation. Now, we could choose to give up all food and water, but that would end poorly and you probably wouldn’t last 40 days. It may fit the other two criteria, but if it doesn’t fit this one, don’t do it. God has a mission for all of us, but when you CHOOSE to starve yourself to deterioration, that hinders your ability to fulfil the mission. Sacrifices are hard, but either look at what BAD habits you have (swearing perhaps?) or what will inconvenience you, but not hinder you ( chocolate perhaps?).

Now for the third point. Almsgiving! This is just a fancy word for charity. We are called to have servant hearts. How can we serve? Who needs our help? This could be a wide range of things. From donating to volunteering, from neighbors to a big organization, anything counts.

                Now I have covered each point! Yay! As promised, I will do an example of what I am doing. It would be quite hypocritical to suggest all these things, and not do them myself! How silly!

    1) Prayer: I lack in formal DAILY prayer. Thus, I will begin the day with Divine Mercy Chaplet and end the day with the Rosary.

      2) Fasting: I love chocolate and cheese, so I will eat a vegan diet (I am already vegetarian)

    3) I will volunteer where I haven’t before (I know, not very detailed, but I will have a detailed plan once I finish troubleshooting class hours with organizations).

Side goal! Go to Adoration every week again!

There you have it! The loveliness of Lent! Lent is such a great time for spiritual growth because we are in what is a somewhat chosen hardship. We choose what we want to sacrifice, and we grow closer to God. This helps us to be more willing to grow closer to God when we are in an unchosen hardship, such as the death of a loved one. Jesus endured 40 days in the desert, and then went on later to die for all of our sins. Meaning, He understands how difficult Lent and suffering can be, since He went through the ultimate versions of each Himself. So trust Him. Grow closer to Him. Embrace Lent as an opportunity.

                Keep loving Lent!

Your Sister In Christ,

Dani  

Blessed By The Best: 13 Lessons God Taught Me in 2013

2013. Golly, what a year! This year has been packed with trials, which have given me some serious questions to think about and pray about. This is a huge reason in why I haven’t blogged in so long. While they were difficult at the time, they were truly a blessing since they provided me the opportunity to grow spiritually. I would love to share thirteen of the lessons I learned in 2013 from the best guy ever, God! They are as follows:

1                   1) Seek holiness, NOT perfection

-We are called to be saints, but that does not translate into perfection. Saints were not perfect, but they strived for holiness. St. Nicholas (the actual saint, not the commercial version) was said to have punched someone. That was not the perfect thing to do, but St. Nicholas continued to strive for holiness and eventually became a saint! A priest once explained that a saint is a sinner who with the grace of God, did not give up. We can become saints, but in order to do that we must seek holiness not perfection. I used to think they were similar, until I realized I had become making a false idol out of the concept of perfection. I focused so hard on being perfect that I begun taking time away from my prayer time to further my quest to be perfect, which was ONE OF MY WORST IDEAS EVER. Being called to be a saint does not entail perfection, as St. Nicholas can attest to. When we focus on seeking holiness rather than perfection we are able to be who we are called to be. 

    2)  Prayer is essential

-St. Padre Pio once said, “Prayer is the oxygen of the soul”, and I couldn’t agree more. We should always turn to prayer, not only when we need something, but in gratitude as well. When we are making a decision, especially really important ones, why wouldn’t we consult God? He knows everything, and He has the best plan! Why wouldn’t we want to talk to Him, when He loves us so much that He sent His only Son to die for our sins? Prayer is a way we communicate with God, and is thus essential in our lives.

                3) Love is painful

-Love is not meant to be easy, and it does hurt sometimes. One thing that makes love so hard is that we are called to love despite imperfections. This can cause pain because sometimes our imperfections hurt a relationship. Love is about allowing vulnerability to pain. It is about being patient and loving a person through their trials, by trying to see the person through God’s eyes, as His beloved child.  Love is about sacrifice, and we cannot possibly make a bigger sacrifice than the one already made for us by Jesus Christ. As Jesus said to His disciples,”No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:11).

    4) Forgiveness is liberating

This was a very powerful lesson for me this year. I was blessed to be on the receiving end, as well as with the grace of God able to forgive someone else. Receiving it was amazing, and giving it was liberating. When we seek forgiveness and when we seek to forgive, we are able to love more deeply, as we are called to do.

                5) God’s plan is the best plan

-I am totally that person who thinks she knows the answer before all the information is given and then is completely wrong. This happened to me quite a bit this year. It is a delicate balance, knowing when to wait and when to take action. Sometimes this balance gets upset because we either we wait too long or not long enough. In some mysteriously awesome way, this is all okay because God knows everything that is going happen, and has a plan for each and every one of us. As it is written in the Book of Jeremiah, "For I know well the plans I have in mind for you—oracle of the LORD—plans for your welfare and not for woe, so as to give you a future of hope.”(Jeremiah 29:11).  God’s plan is the best, and is way better than the one we could possibly imagine for ourselves. It is hard to see sometimes, since I think I have it all figured out sometimes. I end up not having it all figured out, but that is okay. God’s plan is best, always has been and always will be. The best thing to do is to accept His plan, and pray for the guidance and grace to follow it.

                6) Letting go is the way to go

-Back to blogging means back to metaphors so here we go! Imagine every relationship we have in life as a stone we carry. Each one adds its own weight, and there gets to be a point where we cannot carry anymore. Some are heavier than others for whatever reason, and others we have held on for so long that we are reluctant to put the down, even if it is time to let go.  Friendships don’t always last, and that’s okay. There is a time and place for everything, and it is important to accept that may not be now and here. So let it go, it will all be okay and work out the way it is meant to someday. 

                7) Discernment involves action

-I read an awesome article (which you can read here) about discernment. Discernment involves action. It is like those creepy dolls within dolls (Oh hey I’m changing it up with a simile!).  Discernment within discernment within discernment within discernment within- STOP IT. Yes pray before you take action, always! Don’t, however, neglect action. If you’re discerning about someone being a future spouse for example, pray about it but then take action. Then keep praying about it!

 

(See? CREEPY)

                8) The presence of a past does not translate into an absence of a future

-The past already happened, you can’t change it. The future is God’s to decide, so don’t worry about it. What has happened does not have to control what will happen. God has so got this, so live for today. Take each day one at a time, since there is not a more important time than the present. I tend to get WAY ahead of myself, and before I know it I am making plans for my future without consulting God. When I make plans, I impose limits based on what has happened to me previously. This is not the right thing to do, since with God anything is possible. Therefore, my self-created limits are meaningless. My future is not limited because of my past, because I have an awesome and loving God who is limitless and can make all things possible.

                9) In order to love, start with loving God

-If you love someone, you treat their loved ones with love and respect. If we strive to love God, then we must love others because they are beloved children of God. We are also children of God, which I think is easy to forget. Due to this, we must also love ourselves, which sometimes seems impossible. It will never be easy, but if we strive to love God, who is love, then love will come. We just have to trust Him, and focus on loving Him. When we do, everything else falls into place.

                10) Sin shapes us, but does not define us

-We are all sinners, but we are not made for sin. Sin broke us, and the love of Jesus Christ saved us. We were made for love. Often, these sins shape our future decisions, about a variety of factors such as lifestyle.  They do not define us because we have so much more we can give with the grace of God. Sin is enticing, and we all get snared in its trap, but we can be free. When we repent, we are made free from our sins. We will all continue to fall into sin at times, but when we strive to love rather than to sin, we will be free to be who we are called to be, loving children of God. 

                11) Vocations are beautiful

-I have been so blessed to watch three of my friends embrace vocation, and take giant leaps of faith in their discernment. One of my friends has entered the seminary, where he is discerning the priesthood. He has always been joyful and faithful, but he seems to have grown in both areas since he started seminary. It is beautiful to watch him grow in faith and increase in joy. I was also blessed to watch two of my friends become engaged to each other. They mean the world to me, and are both role models in faith. There is something really beautiful about the vocation of marriage, where two souls come together to love and serve as one. I cannot quite find the right words to describe it, but it brings me such a joy to see my friends taking these leaps in their vocations. They are not at their vocations yet, as a priest and as married, but they all have taken a tremendous leap of faith in their discernment of their vocations, which is truly beautiful and inspiring to see.

                12) If you want to be good, fill yourself with good

-There is a priest I know who loves to talk about the importance of filling ourselves with good and holy things. We should not only avoid filling ourselves with bad, but we should also make the effort to fill ourselves with good. When we don’t fill ourselves with good, and just empty ourselves of bad, we are not growing spiritually. We are neutral and empty. Thus, Christian study is important! It is important to learn about the faith, and to fill ourselves with good, such as further knowledge of Scriptures. 

                13) Life is a gift

-God is so amazing, to give us life. It is a true gift from God, but our lives are also meant to be given. They are meant to be given to God. When we live our lives as a gift for God, they also become an even greater gift from God. It is an amazing concept, and the gift of life is the best we can ever receive.   

So there you have it. 13 lessons from 2013, that through God's grace I was given the opportunity to learn.

Keep learning!

Your Sister In Christ,

Dani 

P.S. I am back to blogging on a regular basis :)

Hello My Name Is...Child of God

Hello friends!!!!!!!!!
I am back on the big (YouTube) screen with a BRAND NEW VIDEO SERIES! I am even more on fire for my faith, but am still just as awkward on camera as I was before! The first video is below, or on YouTube! Watch this one to see where I will be going with this series on identity!

WARNING: I am a bit tired in this video, so just a heads up! I do stay awake (ish) during the whole thing though!!!!!!!

Enjoy!!!!
Your Sister In Christ,
Dani

Your Grace Is Enough

When I was teaching my third graders on Sunday, I asked them what the greatest gift they had ever received was. I was very impressed with their genuine answers such as family, friends, and life (what wonderful students I have!) Then I told them what the greatest gift I had ever received was: God’s grace.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines grace as “God’s free, loving gift to us…God devotes himself entirely to us and communicates himself to us in grace. Grace is everything God grants us, without our deserving it in the least” (CCC 1996-1998,2005,2021). Wow, just wow! God loves us so much that He gives us grace, a beautiful gift we don’t even deserve! Grace is so beautiful, and is so visible in our lives. As Pope Benedict XVI describes it, “Grace is being looked upon by God, our being touched by His love”.  I have definitely seen this in my own life, as well as others. Back in high school, I was a member of the peer ministry team. We had a phrase we used to describe when we saw God’s grace very visibly working in a situation: GRACE BOMB. That describes it perfectly. Sometimes, I feel so inundated with God’s grace that I could explode with joy. I experience this often after receiving the sacraments, such as confession or the Eucharist. The joy I experience is a grace from God, a grace known as sacramental grace that comes from the sacraments. There is other forms of grace, such as actual and habitual, which I highly encourage all of you to delve into and study! I recommend the YouCat as a great starting point!

                While I am joyful most of the time, there have been really dark times of trial in my life. We all go through these times, but that does not mean God is not with us! (Different blog post on this with a great cartoons here). God is always with us, and will get us through anything. I recently experienced His carrying power during a half marathon I recently ran on a collapsing arch. I went to the race knowing I had a foot injury, but was confident I could get through it. By mile two, my foot was in more pain than it had ever been before. During miles two through four, I was very unhappy and very negative. That negativity did not help at all though. Around mile five, it finally dawned on me that I should start praying, so I did. As I prayed, many memories came into my mind of various trials that I had been through that God had carried me through. Those trials had seemed impossible at the time, but God got me through each and every one of them. The thing about these trials is that they were also harder than running a half marathon on a messed up foot. Upon finishing, I was quite dazed and hobbled over to the aid station. It was quickly revealed that my foot was purple, and thus very swollen. The EMTs could hardly believe I had been able to run 13.1 miles on that foot. As the saying goes, I was only able to do that by the grace of God. That is more than just a saying to me though, it is a reality. Nothing I have ever accomplished has been done without God’s grace. I could never have had ran that race on my own, nor could I have ever gotten through any of the other trials in my life. While those trials were more emotional and this one was more physical, all the same I could not have done it without God’s grace. God’s grace is so beautiful and awesome, and despite my valiant efforts, there is no words that can describe it. Matt Maher, a Catholic singer, has a very famous song about grace, which is one of my go-to happy songs. I saw him perform at a Steubenville Youth Conference, and he said he had actually written this song during a hard time in his life. The song, as many of you may have guessed, is called “Your Grace Is Enough”, and there are a few lines at the end that I particularly enjoy:

"Your grace is enough
Heaven reaches out to us
Your grace is enough for me
God I see Your grace is enough
I'm covered in Your love
Your grace is enough for me, for me
It's enough for me"

God’s grace is enough to get us through any trial. As Jesus told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Grace will always get you through, no matter what you may be struggling with. It is always enough. In fact, it is so much more; it is the greatest gift we have ever received. I pray that you all will cherish this gift and live in this gift. If there ever was a “saving grace” is the grace given to us by God.

Keep finding strength in His grace!

Your Sister In Christ,

Dani