Personal Spirituality
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Learning to Pray: Eucharistic Adoration
When I was 14, my heart was touched in a totally new way by an encounter with Jesus. It was night two of the Steubenville Conference. There were 2,000 teens kneeling and in awe of Jesus at Eucharistic Adoration. Despite the crowd and the music, I experienced his personal love for me. It was as though everything else around me fell away for a moment. I suddenly became aware that Jesus’ love for me was real. His presence, the freedom I experienced, the weight that lifted from my shoulders was real. It changed everything. I went home and saw the world with new eyes. I loved going to mass, I…
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Learning to Pray with Scripture: Ignatian Prayer
Here’s post three in a series that will include instructions, tips, and ideas on how to pray in different ways. If you didn’t read the intro post, check it out here. Today, the name of the game is Ignatian Prayer. This is an imaginative type of prayer established by St. Ignatius of Loyola. Before I dive into how to pray in this manner with scriptures, I want to share a bit about St. Ignatius and how his spirituality came about. St. Ignatius and the Imagination St. Ignatius, in his earlier days, had a severe leg injury from his days in the military. The ensuing days and months left him laid…
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Mary’s Poverty
We all have areas of poverty in our lives. These are areas where we seem to lack something. Areas of deep emptiness and deep suffering. If you need help identifying these areas in your life, consider one where you feel as though you have no control. If you feel out of control, you are likely suffering deeply in this area. This is an area of poverty for you. This is also an area of great promise and potential. Why? Because God works most fully in and through our nothingness. Being in a position of need reminds us of who we are before God – beggars. It reminds me of a…
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When Prayer Doesn’t Work
Before you begin, read Mark 5:21-43 I have been thinking about prayer a lot lately. Not necessarily how do I pray or what should I pray, but rather what is prayer, really? How does prayer work? Why doesn’t prayer work better? I mean, let’s be honest, I feel like most people (myself included) have wondered why God isn’t answering their prayers. Now, this is such an incredibly broad topic I won’t be able to talk about it from every aspect. So today, I’m addressing the “big” stuff. Why did I have a miscarriage even though I lifted up desperate, incessant prayers that it wouldn’t happen? Why did my daughter/son/mother/father not recover…
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Showered With Roses
“I will spend my heaven doing good upon earth. I will let fall from heaven a shower of roses.” St. Thérèse of Lisieux My love for St. Thérèse of Lisieux goes back to middle school. I heard a cool story about her in the 6th grade and immediately decided she was my girl. I chose her as my confirmation saint and the rest is history! I read tons about her, prayed novenas, and placed in her hands so many different intentions over the years. Since today is her feast day, I just wanted to share a quick story about a powerful role she has played in my vocation. I spent…
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New Beginnings
See, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? Isaiah 43:19 I can vividly remember the anticipation of the first day of school each year. Even in grade school I can remember the excitement of seeing friends and classmates after a long absence. I can remember the desire to look a little different than the year before. Since I grew up going to school in polos and plaids, looking fresh meant a new haircut, fun shoes, a cool backpack, or the most awesome Lisa Frank folder (do they still make those?!), or maybe if you were lucky, growing an inch or two over the…
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10 Reasons You Need to do a Marian Consecration
Happy Solemnity of the Annunciation! This is the day I have done a consecration to Mary for the past several years. But what exactly is Marian consecration? It starts with Mary’s special mission. When Jesus gave us the gift of Mary as our mother when he was on the cross, she also received a special mission to lead and form us, her spiritual children, into saints. So when you consecrate yourself to Mary, you give yourself to her in order to help her lead you closer to her son, Jesus, and thus in holiness. Fr. Michael Gaitley, author of the “33 Days to Morning Glory,” which is one version of…
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Seen. Known. Loved.
The desire to be seen and known and loved is a basic longing of the human heart. We all long for this, whether or not we know it. We seek it from our parents, peers, coworkers, friends, bosses, teachers, professors, siblings… you can add whoever you’d like to this list. We seek to be seen and known and loved because we were created to be seen and known and loved by our Creator, the only one who can fill these infinite desires. The truth is, though, people fall short and disappoint us. There will be people in our lives who we give too much power, such that when they fail…
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Empty Tombs
Before you begin: Read John 20:11-18 I think we can all relate to that feeling of emptiness. We all have those sources of pain and anguish – loss, grief, sadness. I’ve had my own lately. Between dealing with job loss and miscarriage, Lent was tough this year. I felt as though I had been stripped of so many things that were so important to me, and in a way that I didn’t really have a choice in the matter. I know I’m not alone in this. I’ve seen so much suffering around me lately, miscarriage, death of young children, cancer, financial hardship, divorce. I don’t think anyone needs reminding that…