My vocation is Love

As I sit and prepare for my 5 day retreat, I am bombarded with emotion. My final retreat prior to becoming a postulant starts tomorrow. I have sat and reread my journal entries for over an hour. They cover everything since I have embarked on this journey in January 2016. I cried when I read the sweet note my sister wrote at the beginning of each of the journals and laughed at the short and sweet one my little brother wrote. What I realize is I am truly blessed. My family and friends have touched and impacted my life greatly. I relived the loss of a dear cousin's son, the fear of starting a job teaching, and the joy of each convent visit. I read with deep sorrow, again, of the loss felt by family, friends, students, and my self after Hurricane Harvey, experienced the overwhelming gratitude I felt for friends and family after I entered the affiliate last year, and I relived each and every "normal" day recorded. Today I said goodbye to my 2 goofy pups. I cried and Alex...

Today's readings have some pretty strong words and Father talked about our prejudices can hinder us. This struck me quite strongly so here is a bit of what he said along with some of my words of continued reflection.  The first reading today was from the 1st letter of John and had this killer line... "Those who hate his brother is a murderer and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining." (1 Jn 15). This was followed by the Gospel from St. John with another tough one to hear, "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" (Jn 1:46). It may be good to back up and explain what is going on around that 2nd one. If you are unfamiliar with this line- as I was till reflecting on the Gospel reading this morning, Jesus had just called Philip. Philip then turned and tried to recruit Nathanael. Well Nathanael, along with many other people felt that Nazareth was too small and too insignificant (backwoods or boondocks if you will) for the savior of the world to come ...

Does your mind ever wander after communion? You know you should be meditating and praying in thanksgiving for what you have just received, but you end up people watching instead? If you say no- I am willing to bet that was a lie. It is human nature- our curiosity gets the best of us. And sometimes- the beauty you can observe during communion is a gift all on its own.  It was one of these mind wanderings and people watching that brought me a little gift to be thankful for during Mass tonight. Do you remember the story of the poor widow's contribution in Mark's Gospel? If not here it is as a quick refresher:  He sat down opposite the treasury and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury. Many rich people put in Large sums. A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents. Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them, “Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For they have all contr...

Its funny, we never think about the way things look from the outside when we talk about our faith. We cannot understand why others are confused or don't understand. We just say it is right because we know our faith is the right one. We can't explain it, it just is right. Well, God recently blessed me with a wonderful opportunity. I was able to look and observe a beautiful ritual in the Catholic Church- Reconciliation and Penance Service. If you have received the sacrament of Reconciliation- you know that this experience alone can be quite moving and freeing. The Catechism calls this sacrament one of conversion. The act of confession and penance literally converts our soul and brings us closer to the Beloved. It tears down the wall we as humans, full of sin, have built between us and God and allows him into our hearts. I get super emotional even thinking about it. The experience of the service was different than anything I had ever experienced before. As a volunteer at the r...

Well folks, it’s been a while. Much has changed and much has stayed the same. I have been writing, but keeping it private and using this space as mostly a private journal. However, over the past week or so, so much has happened I feel I need to share and publicly put my thoughts out there .  Unless you live under a rock, you know that a category 4 hurricane, affectionately called Harvey, tore into the Coastal Bend of Texas and continued to devastate the Gulf Coast for several days. As I watched the events unfold on television, I began to have flashbacks and fears that arose during Ike in 2008 and in Rita in 2005. Both times (now all 3 times), family and friends lost so much and I just saw the similarities. As the days dragged on, the stories of rescues and heroics were shown on TV from all over the region. I am sure you have seen them. What got to me though, was the pleas for help on social media. “My family is on our roof, Please someone save us.” And amazingly, people di...

Welp... my old blog appears to have been deleted when the blog.com website went kaput. So I am starting over! I have several journal entries I have been meaning to post recently and will get those typed out and posted over the next few weeks.  I will also try to find copies of my old posts to put here so the new readers can catch up and old readers can refresh! First- just a few updates on my vocation journey... If you are just joining us for the first time- hopefIully I can get you caught up soon, but basically I am a 31 year old woman discerning her call from God. I believe the Lord is calling me to be a religious sister and bride of Christ. I have been visiting communities and trying to decide what community God is calling me to be a part of.  Throughout this journey I have met some wonderful women, some of them already sisters and some on their journey. Now for the new news- I seemed to be closing my eyes to the grace God put right in front of me. I squeezed them shu...