Beloved Lily

So today.

Lately, I have been asking myself “what is love?”  I have asked myself this question many times before and I thought I had it figured it out.

Love is sacrifice. It’s putting another before yourself. That was my “simple” answer whenever others would ask me what I thought love was, something that happens quite a bit when you’re involved in Bible studies.

Yesterday, I had a powerful experience with Jesus and then I had this mini-revelation: love is a response to Jesus. True, real love is a response to Jesus.

I watched a priest officiate a wedding and it was like I could feel his “yes” to God radiating graces to everyone in the pews. It was so powerful! In love, God called to him to follow Him. The priest said “yes”, he is responding to Jesus. That’s love. And love begets grace and more love.

I watched two young, beautiful, Catholic people enter the sacrament of holy matrimony. Their love was bringing forth fruits from the second they became unified in the eyes of God.  They both responded to Jesus in a different way than the priest. They responded to Jesus through another person. Jesus shows Himself to each of them through the other person. They responded to Jesus and said “yes” to His offer of marriage with each other.

I stared at the face of the Blessed Mother in the church. My heart lept with a great devotion to her. Talk about someone who knows about responding to Jesus. This response, this “yes”, brings forth beauty and grace. It is love, in its fullness.

Jesus loved in its perfect form. He said “yes” to God’s will. He responded to God and willingly laid down His very life for us. If we seriously pause to think about the magnitude of that we are hit with a whole wave of love. And that wave of love is us responding to Jesus. We love because He first loved us.

We love because He first loved us. Love is a response to Jesus.

I had a conversation with a friend last night about how we are nearly ignorant of how much Jesus loves us. Most of the time, we just don’t get it. We have no idea how loved we are.

One of the best pieces of advice I have ever received was being told to go before Jesus in Adoration or in the sanctuary and say “Jesus, love me”.  This is something I do all the time and it has made a huge difference in my life.

He desires to love us. He does love us. The more we are able to recognize His love, the more we can respond to it, which in itself is love.

I know it seems beneath me, but sometimes it’s not so easy.

Not being able to post on facebook today was seriously a penance (first world probs, right?) Anywho, I was surprised by some of the hatin going on from protestant friends of mine. Y’all mad? Our Papa is a humble servant, don’t be hatin’.

He is your Papa too, whether you claim him or not. Annnnd, just a newsflash for the media— the Pope is always Catholic and so why in all the earth you thought there was a possibility of the next Pope supporting homosexuality, abortion, contraceptives, and the likes is beyond me. Do you know anything about Catholicism?

Pope Francis does not make up Church teaching, he defends what the Church has been teaching for thousands of years.

Also, please stop putting the I at the end of his name. He is not Francis I until there is a Frances II. He is Pope Francis. Period.

He is neither from the right or left. The Church is always at the center because the center is what is truth. Center, not as in moderate. The Holy Spirit chose Papa Paco (nickname for Francis). He was born for such  a time as this.

I love Jesus! I love His Church! I love the Roman Pontiff. he chose. The Pope is a servant to Christ’s servants. We serve God, and the Pope serves the people of God. Double win, Your Popeness. 

I had fun running around my room and dancing when sweet Papa Francis addressed us from the balcony and I liked that he asked us to pray for him (which I did).

WE HAVE A POPE!

(via myheartisyearningforyou)

Your job interview gets rescheduled because the interviewer is also Catholic and said she’s too excited to focus on talking.

WE HAVE A POPE!!!

I used to tease one of my girl friends who spent a considerable amount of her free time hanging out with different guys by telling her “be careful, you might just get interested”.

Of course, she would swear up and down that nothing would happen— that there was no way she would ever have interest in any of these men. However, we know how us human beings can blindly believe we are immune to such possibilities.

So, naturally, she occasionally developed interest in some of these men. She couldn’t hep it. They were good guys whom she surrounded herself by and familiarity breeds liking (ever heard that before, hah).

Well, if you will allow me to make this leap, I daresay we could learn something from her. Now, what we can learn has nothing to do with friendships or dating (the disappointment, I know).

What I mean, is, we could learn about surrounding ourselves in good things in which we at first believe we have no inclination towards. For example, I never was a huge “Jesus music” fan. Until I started hanging out with it, though I swore I’d never be interested. Now, it is what I mostly listen to. See my point?

Never thought I would enjoy reading the Bible as much as a “regular” book, until I spent time with it. What do you know? Became interested. We’re in a steady relationship now.

I never was one for listening to lectures, but just the other day I sat through an hours long lecture on the book of Leviticus. I was sad when it ended.

We often begin to like that which we have placed in our lives, those things which we dedicate time and attention to. If we sit around bemoaning about how we wish we enjoyed reading the Bible more, then we accomplish nothing.

If we surround ourselves with things we know we should desire or we wish to desire, the desire will eventually come. God will find a way to capture our hearts with these ways of knowing Him.

Pick one thing and give it a try! Might seem boring at first, might seem a lot like my friend said “impossible to be interested”, but it IS possible and can be totally rewarding/amazing/all good adjectives and adverbs here.

One of my favorite saints. She is the patron of many things, including: the Americas, bodily ills, loss of parents, those rejected by religious orders, and the patroness of Ecuador.

One of my favorite songs of all time— so so so beautiful.

(Source: joecatholic)

Well, my silence has now hit the Facebook phase. I shall be giving it up for the next week. Not entirely sure I will be strong enough because I might be more addicted to it than I think. Suppose I will find out.

I reckon my blog posts will get more frequent now that I am unable to update on Facebook. Which, in all actuality, is sad. How have we become so dependent on the internet?

This week will probably be refreshing though at the moment it seems a tad daunting. Silence is a deep concept though a simple practice.

Don’t get me wrong, getting older has some serious perks. But, it also comes with a lot of responsibilities.

Lately, I’ve had a semi mini life crisis as I begin to make bigger decisions that are for FOREVER. 

Once you choose who to marry or to have a child or anything like that, it’s forever. You can’t take it back. It’s your’s forever. Scary in a sense.

Yes, there is abundant freedom in such choices. There is true love because true love begets responsibility. And that is something worth celebrating.

But, it comes with the stark reality of facing our choice each day. This is no easy task when days can be hard. When your spouse gained 300 pounds unexpectedly and looks like a beached whale, or your kid draws all over your walls with permanent marker. Or when you just feel depleted and run down and you have chores to do and people to take care of.

I am learning so much about promises and vows. Once I make a huge life decision, it’s mine forever. Even practicing those choices before I make them has been difficult. There are days when I wake up and utterly feel like doing the opposite of what I chose weeks before.

That is why love is certainly a decision, much more than a feeling. A bunch of sacrificing and pain is in store, albeit joy as well, in order to achieve foreverness. God help me.

Once during confession the confessor gave me a card that had a phrase on it that I was to say every time I couldn’t get up the gumption to do my homework (that happens a lot).

The phrase? “Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me a poor sinner”. I was instructed to repeat that phrase over and over and over again until my procrastination lifted.

It actually works, and for all sorts of other situations too. Whenever I feel like I totally cannot do something…as in, the whole world might explode first or pigs could actually grow wings and fly before it was possible….I just say this phrase over and over until it lifts. And it works.

So, I feel obligated to share this with the world! Enjoy the benefits.