Out of the Mouth of Babes

  I would like to share a conversation I had with my youngest daughter.  I told her I needed to write a post for the blog, and I asked her, "What do you think I should write about?"
  She thought for a minute as she wiggled her loose tooth and said, "I think you should write about how faith can be like a loose tooth."
  "Really?  How so?"  I asked.
  "Well you know how sometimes people can lose their faith?  Even though they think they lost it, it's not really gone.  They just need to wait for their adult faith to grow up and break through the surface.  Do you think that's a good idea?"
  "You know, I think that's a great idea.  You are so smart."

   I guess we all have moments when we wonder if God is listening because He hasn't answered our prayers the way we would desire.  There comes a time when we have to just trust God and let go of this immature or "baby faith".  We may experience a time of loss or feel like something is missing.  It is sometimes during these moments of doubt and confusion that God is actually calling us closer to Him.  Our faith needs to trust in God's timing and in God's Will.  When we abandon ourselves to His Will,  God, Himself, will come fill the emptiness and nurture our faith to grow stronger and more mature.  It may take a while before we feel like smiling again, but when we do, our new stronger faith will shine brightly for all to see.

Susan & Maria

My Confirmation -Guest Writer Theresa

Yesterday was the big day, I finally made my Confirmation!!!
I have been waiting for my Confirmation my whole Catholic life, and now that I have finally made it, I feel like I am truly in charge of my faith, and the possibilities are endless.

When I walked into the church yesterday I remember being so nervous. I looked around at my peers and I saw how nervous they were, too. We were all dressed to impress and eager to get into the worship space to begin mass.  When mass did get started, I felt as if nothing else in the world mattered at the moment, and I think my fellow candidates felt the same way. It didn't matter what happened at school that day, what we were wearing, or anything else- we were all about to receive the Holy Spirit, and we were as excited and eager as ever. The mass went by surprisingly quickly,  but I made sure to soak in every word and every song.  When the Bishop anointed me with chrism on my head, I took a deep breathe in and realized that today was the first day of my adult Catholic life and I was excited as ever. After the inspiring service, I was overwhelmed with happiness for the rest of the night. I was truly an amazing day.

I would like to take a minute to give some thanks where thanks is due. First off, I would like to thank my Mom, Susan.  She has always inspired me to be a better Catholic through all the years she has taught me catechism, in writing this blog together, and all the in-depth talks we have had about our faith. I would would also like to thank my sponsor, Brandy, for helping me through this whole process and being an amazing sister. And last but not least, I would most definitely like to thank all of you. This blog stated out as a random crazy thought during the summer, but has turned into so much more. I would like to thank you for following my Confirmation journey, and I am very excited for what is to come with the future of this blog.  Please stay tuned in, My Confirmation was not the end but only the beginning!

God bless,
Theresa


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Gift of Understanding- Guest Writer Cathy McInerney

Too many questions.  Sometimes I drive the people around me crazy with too many questions.  I’m curious and I’m driven to understand, take in, discern, reflect and keep or let go.  Sometimes I envy those who immediately see everything in black and white, right or wrong; I see shades of gray a lot. So I am constantly searching to understand the truths of our faith, my relation to God and my role in the world around me.  Understanding is so much more than intellectual knowledge.  It is about combining the intellectual with the spiritual and, with the help of the Holy Spirit, the gift of understanding helps me order my life toward God.  

(Cathy McInerney)

Gift of Courage-Guest writer Pio

A True Story of Courage

It was an icy day in December.  I awoke to the pre-recorded message that stated school was cancelled.  Yes!!  This is going to be an awesome day!  Or so I thought.  While eating breakfast, I found out my Dad was having some numbness in his face and had to go to the emergency room.  It wasn’t until late that night that I found out my Dad needed to have brain surgery.  The tests showed a bleed in his brain and the doctors didn’t know why.  My dad was totally healthy.  He rarely ever got sick.  What was going on?  I couldn’t make sense of it.  Surgery was scheduled in three days.

I went to visit my Dad in the hospital with my brother and sisters every day.  We laughed and joked around like always.  My Dad seemed totally fine.  He told me not to worry.  He also told me that his head needed to be shaved.  I was a little freaked out about this.  I’m not the type of person that likes change.  My Dad didn’t want us kids to get upset so he decided to make a “party” out of it. Surprisingly, my Dad handed over the razor and let us kids help shave his head.  We joked around the whole time.  When it was all done, my Dad definitely looked different.  We told him he looked tougher and should join a motorcycle gang.  I gave my Dad a hug before I left and added “I will see you tomorrow after surgery.”

My Mom stayed with my Dad, and my oldest sister drove us kids home.  It seemed like a very long ride home.  I thought about my Dad the whole time.  I worried about the surgery.  I wondered if my Dad was going to be okay.  I thought my Dad was being pretty brave about the whole thing.  I wished there was something I could do to help him.  But I was in the fifth grade, what could I do?  My brother and I started talking about my Dad shaving his head when the idea hit us.  What if we shaved our heads too to show him our love and support.  “That’s crazy!” I announced.  I mean I like my hair.  My sister heard us talking and replied, “Yes!  You should totally do it.”  When we got home she then shaved both me and my brother’s heads!  Yikes!

The next day my Dad went to surgery and my brother and I went to school. Unfortunately, none of us had a very good day.  Our classmates just didn’t understand.  I felt really proud of my decision to support my Dad, but my classmates made fun of me.  I got a lot of really awkward stares.  Nobody seemed to understand.  It was worse for my brother in junior high.  Junior high kids really didn’t get it.

After my Dad left the ICU I was able to visit him.  I’ll never forget the smile across his face when he saw my brother and I walk into his room.  He couldn’t believe it.  He told me, “That is the coolest thing you have ever done for me!”  And then he gave me a bear hug.  This was just the beginning of a series of life lessons my Dad’s brain cancer was going to teach me. Supporting the people you love is the coolest thing you could do. It didn’t matter that a lot of my friends made fun of me and thought it was stupid.  Sometimes you just have to take a stand in what and who you believe in no matter the cost.  I took a stand against cancer.  Cancer may have taken my dad’s hair, but it didn’t touch his sense of humor or the way he loved me.  Shaving my head didn’t make sense to my friends, but it made more sense to my Dad than anything else I could have done.

-Pio

Pope Francis' Influence on Youth - Guest Writer Theresa

    A common problem today's churches face is how to get their youth more involved.  When I ask my teenage peers why they aren't very interested/involved with the church more, I often get responses like church is boring or church is for old people. I completely disagree with them.  One reason I disagree is because of how much the church is growing and changing. A lot of this growth and change we owe to Pope Francis.

One of the most influential things Pope Francis has done is to get youth interested in their faith again. Pope Francis has done many things to interest today's youth such as taking selfies, making a twitter, and always making sure to make youth a priority.  He truly is an inspiration to youth all over the world because of his willingness to try and understand young people and how they see the world. One of my favorite Pope Francis quotes is;

"We must restore hope to young people, help the old, be open to the future, spread love. Be poor among the poor. We need to include the excluded and preach peace."

As America prepares for the arrival of Pope Francis, I know there will be thousands of teens and young adults dying to see him (including me) because of the influence he has made on not only just youth but the whole world.

-Theresa

Evangelization Mission - Guest Writer Theresa

  Hi my name is Theresa, and I am about to make my Confirmation. In order to prepare for the sacrament of Confirmation we have all been asked to do a service project, because a big part of Confirmation is being called to use our talents to help build up the church. For my service project I have taken on the task of helping my Mom start a spiritual blog.  You’ll find inspiration stories, meditations, and short prayers that we hope help people realize the presence of God in their own lives. My role in the blog is being a guest writer, manager, and creator of the blog. Since this is the year of evangelization, I want to spread the word of God by getting our blog 1,000 page views by my Confirmation in November. My hope for this blog is that it can inspire others to become more acquainted with their relationship with God, and continue to spread the word of the gospel. Help us on our evangelization mission by checking our blog; www.dwellingwiththespirit.blogspot.com . And if you share the blog with others we can all evangelize together.

-Theresa