CHRISTpower Manifesto

This summer I went on my third CHRISTpower retreat, a week-long service retreat for high school students in our diocese. We stay at the local high school and each day we attend a different service site, reflect on a different theme, and look for Christ in sometimes unexpected places. This year’s overall theme was Mercy in Action, in conjunction with the Year of Mercy. Each day at Mass while on the retreat one member from each group would describe where they saw Christ that day. As a tribute to everyone I have met through this amazing experience these past few years, especially those I met this year, I have written a manifesto of sorts:

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The Mark of a Mountain

“The mountains are calling and I must go,” a quote from John Muir, has always held a special place in my heart. This summer my family was fortunate to be able to visit my cousin and her family in Colorado Springs, Colorado. There I began to learn what it is about mountains that captivates my heart the way it does-a connection to God. Mont Sainte-Victoire, an impressionistic painting by Paul Cézanne captures this feeling in the most beautiful way.

Courtesy of http://www.wikiart.org.

When God Lowers the Kneeler

I don’t know about you, but I am fully prepared to petition that the month of February be officially removed from the calendar (sorry those of you with February birthdays!). One needs a lot of endurance to make it through February sanely. Though teachers can get a lot of work done during the month, students are struggling to stay with the program-even the ones who agreed to it in the first place. For me, one crazy thing happened after another, and though most things in my life were in place, it felt like anything but. 

Catholic Education Appreciation Post!

What a wonderful liberty it is to be able to write such a title! In a world that still struggles so greatly with religious persecution, I feel so blessed to have not only grown up within a huge community of faithful, but to have received a formal education within that community as well. 

The Cotton Ball of Sin

If you’re looking for a sign, this is it. Growing up at a Catholic grade school and then attending a Catholic high school, I have seen many, many signs for vocations awareness. I have heard talks from priests and religious sisters alike, and have been encouraged by many to pursue a future in vocations. What was never really explained to me, or any of us really, was that matrimony is a holy vocation as well. We heard a couple of talks later on in our education from beautiful people who were following the vocation to marriage, but is always seemed emphasized that to live a truly holy life, you must give everything to God, and that didn’t seem to be possible in marriage.

With all of the emphasis that the Church must put on vocations to the religious life, I found myself lost in what God actually wanted me to be.

New Year, New Saint

New Year, New You: ten common New Year’s resolutions and five things you can do to make sure you keep them!

Everywhere we look at the beginning of a new year tells us how we can make ourselves, our lives, or our careers better and more successful. Exercise more, eat healthier, be kinder, make more money, find yourself, be the person you’ve always wanted to be. As Catholics we are called to always be looking at ways that we can improve ourselves, mold ourselves into the people God has always intended us to be. We must never be satisfied with the temptations and apathy of human nature.