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Back in 2005, our middle daughter decided to come early. My water broke while I was cooking lunch and I thought to myself, "Oh, no. It's too soon." Upon arrival at the hospital, the doctor calmly came in to check me and within seconds she was yelling for surgery. I was flown down the hall on my bed, nurses came out of nowhere, I was crying and shaking, my husband was fighting off nurses to get to me. Thanks to amazing doctors and nurses, she was out within 10 minutes. I had been put under and didn't wake up until later only to look desperately into my husband's eyes to read whether she was okay or not. He smiled. I knew she was okay. Because she was born early, she had to stay at the hospital in this little plastic box, hooked up to wires. Once I was released from the hospital, I cried the whole way home. It was so hard to leave without my child. But, my husband was an absolute superhuman man those days in the hospital. He took care of me, took care of our oldest. At night, he would go to the hospital to hold our daughter so she wouldn't be alone. I would pump milk for him to take and he would rock her and feed her. He didn't sleep for nine days. During those days in the hospital, our daughter was doing okay, but she was losing weight and not really getting any better. My husband decided it was time for her to come home. We had a meeting with the doctors and they were adamant that she stay. We understood their caution, but my husband ultimately said, "I'm her father. I know that she needs to be home with us and I'm taking her home." The second we walked in the house, my daughter fell asleep on my chest and my husband, exhausted, collapsed into sleep. Immediately, my daughter began to gain weight and improve. People have asked me, "Why Christianity?" In the way my husband cared for our daughter and our family lies the answer. Relationship. God loves us so incredibly that we can't even fathom. He goes to the extreme--death on a Cross--to save us. He is always trying to find ways to draw us to Him and to love us. He will go the distance to be in a relationship with us. My husband mirrored the love of God in the way he strove to love our daughter. She didn't even have any idea the lengths he was going through, but that didn't matter to him. He gave completely of himself, barely eating and sleeping all to show that there wasn't anything he wouldn't do for her. Christianity is about relationship, communion, and love, Catholic Pilgrims. God wants a relationship with His children and that is amazing. When someone asks, "Why Christianity?" this is one of the main reasons why. Have a blessed Thursday.
Continue ReadingWhen I was working, my boss asked me to go out and collect donations for an upcoming fundraiser. I would rather clean toilets than ask for donations. I would literally rather cut the lawn with scissors than ask for donations. But...I went. I would walk into a store, slink around to try and get a feel for the person I would have to confront, hide behind some column or product display and talk myself up to emerge from hiding to go ask. Once in front of the person, I'd awkwardly explain my cause, who I was, and ask for a donation. I'd always try to give them an out. Midwesterners do not like to obligate anyone to anything. Basically, it went something like this, "We'd appreciate it if you'd be willing to donate to our fundraiser, but if you don't want to, I understand. If you do, that would be great, but I feel like I'm annoying you, so I'll just leave, bye." I went back to work completely defeated. Some people gave me like a pack of gum and some just flat out rejected me and that's what I had feared all along. I hate rejection. Back at work, I went into my breakroom with a deflated self-worth and one of my co-workers asked how it went. Sliding out of my chair like a pile of goop, I explained that I had basically gotten nothing. She laughed and was like, "Did you act like this? Come with me, I'm going to show you how to do this." So, we went back and I followed her into the stores, hiding behind her shoulder like a small child. I watched her walk in confident, smiling, sure of her cause that she was asking for donations for, and engaging. In nearly every store, we got something. Some rejected us and when they did, she just smiled and said, "That's alright. You have a blessed day." I was in awe. I asked her how she handled the rejection. She said, "Girl, it's not personal. You take it too personal." Jesus experiences rejection in our Gospel reading today and while He doesn't take it personal, his Apostles do. Rejection is hard and it can crush our self-worth IF we allow it to. We all will experience rejection in this life, but we have to learn to "shake the dust off our feet," Catholic Pilgrims. While we will experience rejection from others, we will never experience it from God. That's the important thing to hold on to. Have a blessed Tuesday.
Continue ReadingYesterday at the Bible study my husband goes to while I teach OCIA, the group was talking about suffering. One of the older guys said, “We understand that in order to be good at sports, you have to suffer and sacrifice. We also understand that if you want to be good in school, you have to suffer and sacrifice. It’s not the same bodily suffering that you get with sports, but you still will to some degree. But, with the spiritual life, so many think it must be suffer-free. We are willing to suffer for sports because we know the end goal. We want to be good in order to win a certain game or event. We are willing to suffer for learning because we know the end goal. We want to earn a degree or learn a trade. But, it’s like we don’t know what the end goal is for the spiritual life and because we don’t really get the end goal, we don’t think we should suffer or sacrifice for it.” Reading through my Magnificat this morning, I was reading about Job. Job had it all and God permitted Satan to cause him to suffer greatly. Job lost nearly everything. Satan says something that I think gets to the heart of what the guy was saying at the Bible study: “Is it nothing that Job is God-fearing? Have you not surrounded him and his family and all that he has with your protection?” In essence, Satan is saying, “Job’s faith is easy to have because he hasn’t suffered or sacrificed. His love for God is just a product of feeling good. Could it possible be real?” Your love for something will be measured by your willingness to suffer and sacrifice for it, Catholic Pilgrims. May we take all our trials, sufferings, and crosses and unite them to Christ on the Cross in order to give us strength to bear them. Live the Faith boldly and travel well this Monday.
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