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

   

The Value in Vulnerability

Whenever I open up a magazine, I feel like I am inundated with messages like these: Don’t go out without pounds of makeup, you need to mask your imperfections. Don’t let them know you like that, or they will not be your friend. Don’t tell that person how you really feel, because you will only get hurt. This is what society has been telling us lately. In other words, if you want to be loved, don’t make yourself vulnerable. Wow. How backwards is that? The question I would pose to society is then how can you TRULY love someone, if you don’t even know who they TRULY are or they don’t know who you TRULY are? The answer is you don’t. Vulnerability is a huge part of love. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “Love is the free self-giving of the heart” (CCC 2346). In order to give someone your heart, you first have to have it open. This heart, open and exposed, is vulnerability at its finest. As children, it is easy for us to give our hearts, and to let ourselves be vulnerable in our love. Once we experience that initial heartbreak, however, this becomes one of the hardest things to do. Believe me, I have been there and am there; I am just as terrified as all of you. The thought of being vulnerable terrifies us beyond belief because we do not want to get hurt again, yet that does not stop us from feeling that desire to love. We still feel this desire because we are called to love like children, as we are children of God. This fear of being hurt, however, makes vulnerability and therefore love very difficult. Good thing we have God, who is so awesome and loving! God loves you perfectly, and He will NEVER stop loving you. If God even stopped thinking about you for even a millisecond, you would cease to exist. He loves you so much that He gave you this beautiful gift of life, a life called to love. God wants us to go to Him in our brokenness. He wants us to open our hearts to Him and be vulnerable to Him so that He can heal the pain and the brokenness. If we first open our hearts to God, we can then open our hearts to others. When we open our hearts to others, this act of vulnerability allows us to TRULY love them and allow them to TRULY love us. We just have to gather the courage to be vulnerable. If you don’t have that courage, don’t worry, God will provide it for you.  I think this cartoon depiction of an amazing C.S. Lewis quote sums up this post very well (sorry about all the weird sizing things!):

 Be vulnerable. When you make yourself vulnerable, you are able to freely give your heart. You are able to love. It is terrifying, but there is such a deep and profound value in vulnerability. Gather your courage and open your heart. Above all, make yourself vulnerable to the Lord. Go to the Cross, and lay down your heart. No matter how broken it may seem, God’s love will heal all the wounds and give you the courage to love as you are called to do.

Keep being vulnerable!

Your Sister In Christ,

Dani