Would you like to make this site your homepage? It's fast and easy...
Yes, Please make this my home page!
Providence:
God Provides!
The following are some stories of how God has provided
for me in my life.
JEHOVAH JIRAH, BABY!!! (translation: GOD PROVIDES,
BABY!!!)
AUSTRIA:
"AH...WOW!"
10 day break: Nevers, Lourdes, Fatima, &
Ars
Went with Rachel Morin, Wendy Filer, Katie Wallen,
Katie Mohler, and Robin Whelen
Ten day break was chock full of Divine Providence.
This trip was planned out mostly by the ultimate
travel-planner, God Himself. No human being could have
done as good a job as God did in planning our trip.
Things worked out so amazingly well, that I feel like
I might be in for some serious hardships soon! We
first visited Nevers. Why? I'm Nevers gonna tell you, ha.
Just Jokin! Nevers, France, is the home of the convent
where Bernadette Soubirous lived, and where her incorrupt
body resides. It was an awesome experience to view the
body of a saint, and to pray and walk where she prayed and
walked.
Our next destination was Lourdes, France, where
Bernadette was born, ate, slept, tended sheep, and
waited tables. Oh yeah, its also where she saw 18
apparitions of Our Lady. At the Eucaristic procession
that concluded with a Blessing of the Sick, it was touching
to see many sick people in wheelchairs being pushed by
volunteers. They have reason for hope, since 1. God is
omnipotent, and 2. He has healed many, many people at
Lourdes since the apparitions, via the waters from the
spring that Our Lady revealed to Bernadette.
IMPORTANT:
Lourdes should not be thought of as a miracle-factory,
for God does not heal everybody there. It is not the
water that heals, but God, when He sees fit. I bathed in the
waters, but since I was not sick, God did not heal me.
(Well maybe he did spiritually) During the stations of the
cross, which in Lourdes are amazingly beautiful, I
noticed that in the first station, "Jesus is condemned to death,"
Jesus is facing the viewer, and no Pontious Pilate is
present! I was surprised by this at first, but then realized that
it makes perfect sense: Humanity as a whole is both
directly and indirectly responsible for Christ's death, for he died
to bear the punishment of our sin, and rose to conquer
death and purchase for us the rewards of eternal life.
Finally in Lourdes, some of our group toured the
castle that was once occupied by Charlesmagne.
The train ride to Fatima was horribly uncomfortable,
since we had to sleep sitting up with barely any leg
room. But I'm glad that it was difficult, because
what's a pilgrimage without a little suffering? Before
modern transportation, people had to walk for months to get
there! During the long overnight trip, one of my
group-mates accidentally spilled peanut M&Ms all over the 2
sleeping Russians who were sitting next to us!
Immediately, we all began to convulse with embarrassed laughter, doing
our darndest to stifle it. The one Russian who
recieved the bulk of the projectiles woke up, gave us a slightly
amused look, picked the candy off himself, gave it to
us, then went back to sleep. We calmed down and ate the remnant
of the M&Ms, a definite minority of what had been
there originally. When we arrived in Fatima, Portugal, we
took taxis into the city, and then began our search
for a nice hotel. The second place we checked out, the "Solar da
Marta," was easy to decide upon because the manager of
the place was so amazingly kind! He gave us discounts on
both the rooms and the food, which was truly
scrumptious. His name is Armando, and if you're ever in Fatima,
he'll be overjoyed to serve you. What a saint! Besides
being hotel manager, he was our tour guide, taxi-caller,
trip planner, teacher, and most of all our friend. His
wife was equally helpful, and cooked us some excellent grub.
She had a GREAT sense of humor! Armando gave us free
tours to the sites where an angel and Our Lady
appeared to the three young shepherds back in early
1900, Francisco, Jacinta, and Lucia. I heard that some tour
guides, as they are giving the Fatima tour, actually
mention, "Here's what some people believe, I personally don't
believe it." I'm really glad we didn't get a guide
like that! Armando even gave us his personal testimony of how he
came close to suicide but was saved by God. During the
testimony he began to cry, increasing the poignancy of
his tale. Armando's grandparents were witnesses of the
miracle of the sun, the miracle that Our Lady promised
to the three visionaries wherein the sun danced
unnaturally and seemed to approach the earth on October 13, 1917,
in Fatima. This miracle was witnessed by over 70, 000
people, included some who lived many miles away! Why
has this miracle been forgotten? I doubt that very
many Americans have even heard of it. A highlight of the
trip for me was the kneel walk in the sanctuary. Why
would any sane, freedom-loving person willingly engage in
such a painful endevour? For the sake of penance and
sacrifice. No wonder people think that Catholicism is
masochistic. I think the difference is in the ends of
the activities: We offer up pain to God for the sake of
others, not for our own selfish pleasure, as
masochists do. It's called "Redemptive Suffering," and I don't fully
understand it myself! Christ allowed himself to be
tortured and killed to save us; this is an example of redemptive
suffering.
If you don't think that God provides for those who
trust in Him, then fine, go ahead and call it a lucky
"coincidence." If you ever meet this Mr. Coincidence,
call me up cuz I'd really like to meet him too. More
likely than not, he's God in disguise. Our group split up
after Fatima; the two Katies went home early and the
rest of us visited Ars, France. When we entered the bus that was
to take us part of the way to Ars, a few minutes AFTER
it was supposed to leave, we discovered that we had just
enough money among the four of us to buy fares for
all. On the bus, we began to pray the rosary. Unbeknownst to
me until later, the girls were praying that God would
show us how to get to the shrine after the bus dropped us
off. After the rosary, Wendy asked this French guy
sitting near us if he spoke English, since he had repeatedly looked
at us while we were praying. The dialogue went like
this:
Wendy: Do you speak English?
French Man: A little. Where are you going?
W: to Ars.
F: Why? To pray?
W: Yes.
F: Have you called a taxi to take you there?
W: No!
F: Have you reserved a place to stay there?
W: No! We don't have any money either!
F: I'll help you, OK?
W: GREAT!
Once we stepped off the bus, the man told us how to
get to the ATM, then whipped out his cell phone and
spent a good 20 minutes finding us a cheap place to
stay and ordering us a taxi. As soon as he hung up, 3
taxis arrived; we speculated in symbolized the Trinity. When
we arrived at the hotel run by nuns, we were amused to
discover its name: "La Providence"!! It was
established by the Cure of Ars himself, St. John
Vianney, originally as a school for girls! The joke was that this french guy
who helped us was Armando in disguise, cuz while in
Fatima we noticed that he seemed to have the ability to
bi-locate, like Padre Pio!
Our stay in Ars was filled with praying and learning
about the life of this great saint. We even saw the
bed that the Devil had set on fire in order to discourage
St. John Vianney! The Divine Providence was happenin'
for Katie and Katie also on their trip home. The had not
reserved a couchette for sleeping, and so they found
themselves with some really weird people sitting near
them. Eventually, they got up and discovered there was
an empty first class couchette available!! Amazing, if
you ask me.
Oh, Austria. "Ah...Wow!" is a commonly heard phrase
around here. These ain't trivial "wow"s either,
they're WOW wows, filled with meaning and conviction.
Just looking out the window evokes this expression
from my lips, as I view in awe the local tree-covered
mountains. I just returned from an absolutely
invigorating jog. "How was it invigorating?" you may wonder, knowing
that jogs usually tire humans out. Yes, the sights,
sounds and smells of Gaming in glorious combination are
enough to make a tiresome jog invigorating. Exploring
this small city is a blast, because of the many forest
trails everywhere!
Next weekend I'll be in Medugorje, Bosnia, with about
30 other students. I have come across a few people
who have heard of or witnessed miracles there, and
this encourages me to believe in the authenticity of
the apparitions that occur there. So many people have been
healed, converted, and/or strengthened in this amazing
city, and this fact makes me zealfully look forward to
our visit there. I do not expect to see any miracles,
but I do expect Mary to appear, which is indeed miraculous, but
I personally do not expect to see her. I do expect my
faith to grow, as has been the result of every trip I've
taken thus far.
At the semester's beginning, our whole school, all
150 of us, including 7ish LCI (Language and
Catechetical Institute for Eastern European students
who study English at the Kartause Monastery with us)
took a tour of Vienna. The Highlight for me was the massive
art museum we visited, containing tons of Catholic
paintings. The Church has a glorious history and
heritage in the arts, including phenomenal amounts of
sacred music, sculpture, and paintings. I ate lunch with some
friends, during which Christin Ronzello pointed out
that we were Americans in a Greek restaurant eating Turkish
Pizza in Austria while Latino music was playing in the
background and the waiters spoke English, German, and
Italian. We were veritably swamped in cultural
diversity.
The bus ride back to campus was a cacophonic clash,
the front of the bus competing with the back for
loudest singing volume; it was riotous but fun!
For anyone who will be heading to Austria for a
while, one piece of advice is to KNOW YOUR
GEOGRAPHY. I was thoroughly embarrassed in front of 4
LCI girls here because I did not know my geography.
One said "I'm from Belarus" and my reaction was "Oh
that's a city in Russia isn't it?" I learned quickly
and permanently that no, it’s an entire country along the
west coast of Russia. After that episode I hurried to
purge my geographical ignorance by studying a map.
The local bar here called "Urs" is always a fun
hangout. I sat down with some friends one time, and
smiled to myself when I noticed 2 unexpected things:
First, they were discussing Theology, and Second,
there is a big Crucifix on the wall. A household brother later
ordered a Long Island Ice Tea for me, and before
handing it over, the bartender, Urs himself, asked, "Do you have
school tomorrow?" I said no, he gave me the drink and
then made the sign of the cross over me saying, "God help
you!!" much to my friends' great amusement. He's quite
a character.
A very important lesson I painfully learned during
the school trip to the Danube River Valley can be
summed up in the words of Weezer, "I don't care what
the say about us anyway, I don't care bout that."
Acquiring this attitude is one of my goals in life. Anyway, the
mistake I made was to take off my money-belt pouch
because my friends were making fun of it, implying it looked
gay, with its pink zipper. I put it in my pocket, and
then a few hours later when I needed cash, it wasn't there! I
realized with horror that it quite possibly could be
at the bottom of the Danube! I went back to the bus, and searched it
meticulously, but to no avail. Later, the same friends
who taunted me about the pouch recommended that I ask the
famous Paduan miracle-worker for help, good ol' St.
Anthony. So I did, amazed that I had waited so long to
do so. Eventually, I went back and re-searched the
bus, just in case, since my passport, licence and money are
rather important to me. This time, I found it lodged
between a seat and the wall. I thanked St. Tony, and vowed to
never take the thing off again, no matter what
immature comments I hear about it.
"WAKE UP!!!" screamed my God-forsaken alarm clock at
5:50 AM. I slung my not-too-tired body outta
bed, not knowing how difficult it would be to simply
lay back down in bed later that evening. Ariel, one of
my roommates, alerted me that the pro-life pilgrimage to
Mariazell was cancelled because of a swollen river,
but that he was going to go anyway. I joined him and a large
group of other determined students, and about 10
minutes into the hike, thoughts of regret filled my head. 20 miles
later, my legs were complaining like a couple of
bratty kids. Our group made it to Mariazell, Austria, after hiking
rough, rocky, muddy, slippery trails for a total of 26
miles. As soon as our destination appeared before us, we
knelt down and cried for joy. Just kidding, it wasn't
that bad! Talk about witnessing the Glory of God! Waterfalls,
forests, mountains aplenty, Austrian beauty molded by
the Master artist Himself, kept the hike interesting.
That night, a bunch of guys ran out of the Kartause,
set for a night swim in the frigid stream across the
street known as the "Gaming-bach." Being that the
night was cold and rainy, I didn't instantly join
them. Nonetheless, on second thought, or maybe it was the
third or fourth, I sprang into action, donning some
shorts, and sprinting after the brave but insane guys, oblivious
of the sharp rocks under my whirling feet. Upon
arrival, I saw that most of the guys were buck naked, jumping from a
rock in the middle of the stream into the rapids. My
roommate and I kept our shorts on for the paralyzingly
cold plunge. Remember, we were near the center of
Gaming, right by the main highway! One of the guys
kept a lookout, ready to cry "duck!" upon sight of
females approaching. It was too much fun!
Budapest!
Went with Ariel Doucette, Nick Moragas
Located on the north western side of Hungary of which
it is the capital, is a glorious city of fascinating
history, laden with beautiful churches and fantastic
architecture. Since I am not aiming to write a paper
on this lovely city, I will sink into the vernacular. Dude,
this place was, like, too cool! (Well, maybe that was
too much of a regression, since "Punk Vernacular" doesn't allow
for much detail in description.) However, the term
"cool", which my Hungarian roommate Norbert has picked up and
loves to say, can certainly be used for Budapest. It
is cool in many ways, but it isn't the "City of God" that
Augustine dreamed up. We saw a few adult shops and a
strip club, and people selling sex on the streets, and some
pornographic advertisement. This is unfortunately
found all over Europe, even in very holy cities.
God, I thank you for such an amazingly hassle-free
trip. A rep from a hostel approached us on the train,
and we reserved a spot, later to discover that it was
exactly as good as he described it! Imagine that!
Throughout the weekend, the three of us ate really well. The
Hungarians seem to enjoy buffet restaurants, at which
we stuffed ourselves until we reached our "thanksgiving limits,"
for cheap! The best place we ate at was the Fatal
Restaurant. The servings here are twice normal size; they serve
you more food than any human, or animal for that
matter, could hope to eat in a day. Nick Moragas and I ordered
the "Fatal Platter", a huge wooden platter
(fatal=wooden platter in Hungarian) heaped with potatoes, rice, and
meat, and we couldn't finish it! It was a bonified
mountain of grub! I was ashamed or myself, because both Nick and I
are known as "human garbage disposals." At night, we
went to an inexpensive Mozart concert in gorgeous St.
Mathias Church. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw
the sign for the concert, because Mozart's Requiem, my
fav. Classical piece, is usually only performed during
Lent/funerals! When we entered, the usher led us up to
the very front of the church, right past a bunch of
other people, who were certainly more worthy of the front
row than we were. Why? Cuz we weren't dressed up, in
fact Nick and I were wearing T-shirts! Outrageous! If I had
stuck my arm out I would have punched the first
violinist. It was glorious; even if you don't normally enjoy
classical, you should check out the Requiem all the
same, its so awesome.
Fussen & Munich!
Went with Lindsay Hymel, Chris Webber, Marek____, and
Veronica Macias
This weekend, I went with a really fun group to see a
Eucharistic Miracle in Innsbruck, the castle in
Fussen, and Octoberfest in Munich. The miracle is one
of the 60 Eucharistic Miracles approved by the church,
and it was mind-blowing to see, as well as faith-building.
In Fussen, we rode up to the Neustchwanstein castle
in a horse-drawn carriage, and it was hilarious to watch
their reactions, especially Lindsay's, each time the
horses farted in our faces. Before the tour, I was expecting
the inside castle to be rather dark, damp, and maybe
containing some bats, but my guess couldn't have been farther
from the truth. Every inch of the interior was
decorated with extreme care; there were large gorgeous paintings of
scenes from the German composer Richard Wagner's
operas lining almost every room of the castle, as well as
mosaics, wood carvings, etc, resulting in a dazzling
of the eyes and mind wherever we happened to glance. The throne
room had paintings of the apostles with the King of
Kings at the top of the dome above the throne. There was one
painting of a mystical forest called...ummm...oh yeah,
"The Mystical Forest." This painting transports the
observer instantly to a mystical land of fantasy and
evokes a deep feeling of mystery and faint, almost surreal nostalgia
for a world never visited except in the pages of an
epic work, such as the Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. Well,
this is how I saw the painting.
Oktoberfest was our destination when the sun went
down. What did we do there? We...hey, no we did
NOT get smashed. You were thinking that weren't you!
We were not the typical Octoberfest visitors because
we stayed sober. The first thing we did was to ride the
life-threatening bumper cars. These weren't no
American bumper cars. There was no line, you just had to run
and run FAST in order to: 1. find an empty car to use
by beating other people to it, and 2. get out of the rink
if you weren't able to get a car so as to avoid
getting run down. It was funny watching drunk-looking guys purposely get
in the way of the bumper cars. It was not so funny
when later that night we witnessed drunk guys walk right
out into 35 mph traffic, forcing REAL cars to slam on
their brakes.
Once as I was just walking straight, minding my own
bees-wax, a mean-looking guy just slammed right
into me. Then he turned around and started yelling at
me, as if it was my fault! I just kept walking and my
heart-rate quickened when I realized that he was
following me. I think he wanted to pick a fight, so I
turned around and slugged him Hollywood style in the jaw. He
spun around and fell over, knocked unconscious by my
lethal fist. Just Kidding! In truth, I just kept
walking, and eventually he stopped following me.
Overall, I really do not recommend the Oktoberfest to anyone.
Padua & Venice!
Went with Nick Moragas, Angela Brown, Ruth Burns, and
Merissa Newton
One of the most hilarious aspects of our visit to
Padua is only funny in retrospect. When we arrived, we
did not know where Saint Anthony's Basilica was, so we
assumed it was the massive church that we came across.
We entered, and began our quest to find St. Anthony's
tongue. Why not his ears, or his eyes, you might
ponder?
Well because only his tongue and vocal chords are
incorrupt! (meaning that they have miraculously not
broken down as human flesh normally does) Whey these organs?
I've heard that it has something to do with the way
St. Anthony used these organs, for he had a God-given gift
for speaking. I can only assume that God preserves the
bodies/ body parts of certain people in order to
inspire us to strive for holiness in their example.
Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, so we looked for the tongue, but with
no success, because we were in the wrong church! A
priest there told us the directions to the REAL St.
Anthony's, for we were in St. John's. Why is this
story funny? Because we forgot to pray to St. Anthony, the very saint who
is known for helping people find lost things! When we
got to the Basilica, I was blown away by how beautiful the
place is. I really cannot do it justice with words.
You just hafta see it for yourself!
In Venice the first thing we did was to check out the
Beach on a seperate island, Lido. After a nice long
jog, the Adriatic Sea felt so amazing! On our jog we
had discovered that the lighthouse is an awesome place
to hang out! It is surrounded by hundreds of huge
jack-shaped concrete pieces, piled 15 feet high, which
were a blast to climb on.
10 day break: Nevers, Lourdes, Fatima, & Ars
Went with Rachel Morin, Wendy Filer, Katie Wallen,
Katie Mohler, and Robin Whelen
Ten day break was chock full of Divine Providence.
This trip was planned out mostly by the ultimate
travel-planner, God Himself. No human being could have
done as good a job as God did in planning our trip.
Things worked out so amazingly well, that I feel like
I might be in for some serious hardships soon! We
first visited Nevers. Why? I'm Nevers gonna tell you, ha.
Just Jokin! Nevers, France, is the home of the convent
where Bernadette Soubirous lived, and where her incorrupt
body resides. It was an awesome experience to view the
body of a saint, and to pray and walk where she prayed and
walked.
Our next destination was Lourdes, France, where
Bernadette was born, ate, slept, tended sheep, and
waited tables. Oh yeah, its also where she saw 18
apparitions of Our Lady. At the Eucaristic procession
that concluded with a Blessing of the Sick, it was touching
to see many sick people in wheelchairs being pushed by
volunteers. They have reason for hope, since 1. God is
omnipotent, and 2. He has healed many, many people at
Lourdes since the apparitions, via the waters from the
spring that Our Lady revealed to Bernadette.
IMPORTANT:
Lourdes should not be thought of as a miracle-factory,
for God does not heal everybody there. It is not the
water that heals, but God, when He sees fit. I bathed in the
waters, but since I was not sick, God did not heal me.
(Well maybe he did spiritually) During the stations of the
cross, which in Lourdes are amazingly beautiful, I
noticed that in the first station, "Jesus is condemned to death,"
Jesus is facing the viewer, and no Pontious Pilate is
present! I was surprised by this at first, but then realized that
it makes perfect sense: Humanity as a whole is both
directly and indirectly responsible for Christ's death, for he died
to bear the punishment of our sin, and rose to conquer
death and purchase for us the rewards of eternal life.
Finally in Lourdes, some of our group toured the
castle that was once occupied by Charlesmagne.
The train ride to Fatima was horribly uncomfortable,
since we had to sleep sitting up with barely any leg
room. But I'm glad that it was difficult, because
what's a pilgrimage without a little suffering? Before
modern transportation, people had to walk for months to get
there! During the long overnight trip, one of my
group-mates accidentally spilled peanut M&Ms all over the 2
sleeping Russians who were sitting next to us!
Immediately, we all began to convulse with embarrassed laughter, doing
our darndest to stifle it. The one Russian who
recieved the bulk of the projectiles woke up, gave us a slightly
amused look, picked the candy off himself, gave it to
us, then went back to sleep. We calmed down and ate the remnant
of the M&Ms, a definite minority of what had been
there originally. When we arrived in Fatima, Portugal, we
took taxis into the city, and then began our search
for a nice hotel. The second place we checked out, the "Solar da
Marta," was easy to decide upon because the manager of
the place was so amazingly kind! He gave us discounts on
both the rooms and the food, which was truly
scrumptious. His name is Armando, and if you're ever in Fatima,
he'll be overjoyed to serve you. What a saint! Besides
being hotel manager, he was our tour guide, taxi-caller,
trip planner, teacher, and most of all our friend. His
wife was equally helpful, and cooked us some excellent grub.
She had a GREAT sense of humor! Armando gave us free
tours to the sites where an angel and Our Lady
appeared to the three young shepherds back in early
1900, Francisco, Jacinta, and Lucia. I heard that some tour
guides, as they are giving the Fatima tour, actually
mention, "Here's what some people believe, I personally don't
believe it." I'm really glad we didn't get a guide
like that! Armando even gave us his personal testimony of how he
came close to suicide but was saved by God. During the
testimony he began to cry, increasing the poignancy of
his tale. Armando's grandparents were witnesses of the
miracle of the sun, the miracle that Our Lady promised
to the three visionaries wherein the sun danced
unnaturally and seemed to approach the earth on October 13, 1917,
in Fatima. This miracle was witnessed by over 70, 000
people, included some who lived many miles away! Why
has this miracle been forgotten? I doubt that very
many Americans have even heard of it. A highlight of the
trip for me was the kneel walk in the sanctuary. Why
would any sane, freedom-loving person willingly engage in
such a painful endevour? For the sake of penance and
sacrifice. No wonder people think that Catholicism is
masochistic. I think the difference is in the ends of
the activities: We offer up pain to God for the sake of
others, not for our own selfish pleasure, as
masochists do. It's called "Redemptive Suffering," and I don't fully
understand it myself! Christ allowed himself to be
tortured and killed to save us; this is an example of redemptive
suffering.
If you don't think that God provides for those who
trust in Him, then fine, go ahead and call it a lucky
"coincidence." If you ever meet this Mr. Coincidence,
call me up cuz I'd really like to meet him too. More
likely than not, he's God in disguise. Our group split up
after Fatima; the two Katies went home early and the
rest of us visited Ars, France. When we entered the bus that was
to take us part of the way to Ars, a few minutes AFTER
it was supposed to leave, we discovered that we had just
enough money among the four of us to buy fares for
all. On the bus, we began to pray the rosary. Unbeknownst to
me until later, the girls were praying that God would
show us how to get to the shrine after the bus dropped us
off. After the rosary, Wendy asked this French guy
sitting near us if he spoke English, since he had repeatedly looked
at us while we were praying. The dialogue went like
this:
Wendy: Do you speak English?
French Man: A little. Where are you going?
W: to Ars.
F: Why? To pray?
W: Yes.
F: Have you called a taxi to take you there?
W: No!
F: Have you reserved a place to stay there?
W: No! We don't have any money either!
F: I'll help you, OK?
W: GREAT!
Once we stepped off the bus, the man told us how to
get to the ATM, then whipped out his cell phone and
spent a good 20 minutes finding us a cheap place to
stay and ordering us a taxi. As soon as he hung up, 3
taxis arrived; we speculated in symbolized the Trinity. When
we arrived at the hotel run by nuns, we were amused to
discover its name: "La Providence"!! It was
established by the Cure of Ars himself, St. John
Vianney, originally as a school for girls! The joke was that this french guy
who helped us was Armando in disguise, cuz while in
Fatima we noticed that he seemed to have the ability to
bi-locate, like Padre Pio!
Our stay in Ars was filled with praying and learning
about the life of this great saint. We even saw the
bed that the Devil had set on fire in order to discourage
St. John Vianney! The Divine Providence was happenin'
for Katie and Katie also on their trip home. The had not
reserved a couchette for sleeping, and so they found
themselves with some really weird people sitting near
them. Eventually, they got up and discovered there was
an empty first class couchette available!! Amazing, if
you ask me.
Lisieux!
Went with Wendy Filer, Rachel Morin
Lisieux, France, is utterly beautiful. And it was the
home of an utterly beautiful Saint, who is not living
there anymore because she is currently hanging out
with the source of all beauty. I say this with
complete confidence because of the fact, the FACT that many
utterly beautiful miracles have occurred because of
her intercession. Thousands have prayed to Saint Therese
for things that only mind-boggling miracles can
realize, and later experienced "mind-bogglement" and intense joy as
a result of their faith and prayer. Thousands continue
to pray to her, myself included in that countless number,
because of the great devotion that "The Little Flower"
has to the Church militant, or the people still on earth. "I
want to spend my heaven doing good on earth," she
said, andobviously, miraculously, and joyfully her dream is
being realized and fulfilled. Through her writings,
most especially "The story of a soul," multitudes have been
and continue to be inspired to strive for holiness.
"The little way," which Therese herself developed and practiced, a
way which brought her to sanctitiy and sainthood, does
the same for people today. How ironic it is that such a
one who desired total humility and who lived an
"insignificant" and "useless" life in a convent eventually was
declared to be on of the greatest saints of modern
times. How strange it is that one who only received a third grade
education is now the bearer of the title "Doctor of
the Church." Only 40 years after her death a Massive Basilica was
erected in her honor in Lisieux. Like many of the
greatest artists and composers of music, Schubert for example, Therese
was almost totally unknown and unappreciated by the
world during her life, but incredibly famous after her
death! St. Therese of the Infant Jesus and of the Holy
Face is leading many others to holiness and health, ultimately
through her intercession to the King, who desires all
of this children to be like children. One of Therese's main
messages, which she reaped from the Gospels, is that
God is our Father and we are His children.
As you can tell, this saint has genuinely inspired
me. We stayed at the hermitage next to the Carmel,
which is the convent where she lived. We met this
French speaking Vietnamese man who was absolutely
hilarious! He wanted us to sing a song for him and his French
friends, so in the kitchen area of the hermitage we
all sang "America the Beautiful!" I was really surprised when
some of our European audience joined in! This little
funny man was really nice, he even showed us around town.
The basilica of St. Therese was one mind-blowing
wonder of a building. It was covered from head to foot
in gorgeous and intricate mosaics. I find it
fascinated that this saint is venerated all over the
world, even by members of other religions, such as Islam! On Sat.
Night we went to the "Shower of Roses" celebration in
the crypt, and discovered it to be basically, a "French
FOP!" (Festival of Praise) I guess the charismatic
movement is worldwide. God really hooked us up big time on the
train trip back to Austria. In Paris, we had only
thirty minutes to make it from one Paris station to another via
metro. If we were to miss our train to Munich we
woulda had to spend the night in Paris. We made it with-get this-
ONE minute to spare, only by running most of the way!!
As I predicted, this whole Austria Experience has
taught me, more than anything else, to TRUST in the
Big Guy in the Sky even more. I recommend that you do
to.
Part 2 (If you’re beginning to yawn, I won’t be
offended if you stop reading. In fact, I won’t have a
clue if you do or not!)
Every semester, our school spends a week in Rome and
Assisi. Before the trip, my roommate Ariel and I
visited a string of five towns along the North Western
coast of Italy called Cinque Terra. I never planned
to go there; my roomie persuaded me to go with mentionings
of great hiking along the coast. The Mediterranean, I
discovered, is an awesome, breathtaking sight. We
arrived at the first of the five small towns, had a
delish lunch of raw tuna, pickles, apples and bread whilst gazing at
the sunlit sea with its waves crashing up against the
rocks. One of the rocks looked fun to climb, so we did. What
a feeling to be standing on top of a huge stone with
the waves smashing all around you and the old people
watching you from the shore! After carefully climbing
down, we began our hike. The hike from the first town to
the second was the most beautiful and exciting to me.
There were thousands (it seemed) of stone steps to climb, as
well as bridges to cross and narrow ledges without
railings to brave: you could call it an adventure. In the first
town we visited a Franciscan monastery at the top of
the mountain and prayed a little. When we finally reached
the fifth town, we went to mass and it was wierd cuz
we were the only guys there! (Besides the priest, of
course) Following a dinner of fresh seafood from the
deli, including tentacles, we headed up to a castle where we
were planning to snooze. It was locked, so we decided
to sleep on the ground near the castle, out of sight to
prevent botherment during our sleep. However, there
were many other unforseen botherments: a barking dog, a
light the flashed on and off, the hourly bell ringing
from the Church, the dirt flying into our faces, the hard
ground; most annoying was the freezing wind that blew
right through my sleeping bag and coat and 3 layers. Being
a Scout, I didn’t let these things completely destroy
my sleep. It was the second coldest nite of my life; the
first was at Scout camp in a soaking wet sleeping bag.
I’m shocked that I didn’t get hypothermia!
When we awoke, we spent a few minutes cleaning the
dirt from our faces, then chugged some vino for
breakfast and said morning prayer. Ariel discovered
why we were dirt-covered: our heads were right next to
a big planter, filled with dirt that blew onto us as we
slept! Amusingly, my roommate had the misfortune of
sleeping with his mouth open. :) Cinque Terra was one of the
funnest hikes of my life: the view all along the trail
was spectacular, it was a great workout, most of the 5
towns had GELATI (simply the greatest edible substance
known to man, in a multitude of scrumptious flavors) and God
gave us gorgeous weather! I give it...5 stars!
I’ve been to Rome before, but that didn’t hinder my
enjoyment of the city in the miniscule least. You
must understand that rome is a city with so
unfathomably much to visit that even after living
there for years, there would still be more to see. And of course, everything
in Rome deserves more than one visit. The grandeur
and splendour of places like St. Peter’s Basilica is
so...grand and splendid! It is called the "eternal"
city, maybe because it is the head of the Church, through which
eternal life is acquired. Or maybe it’s eternal in
the sense of timeless. Or maybe because you could spend your whole
life there...or maybe it’s called "eternal" because
people like me spend eternity trying to discover the reason
behind its name!
All 150 of us from Franciscan stayed at a hotel in a
small town outside of Rome called Vittinia, sharing
the hotel with Duquesne students. No hot water, but
good food. Every morning we got up early, hopped on
the train or bus, and toured Rome with Dr. Colosi and Mr.
Seidel, who were great guides. I missed a couple of
tours in order to visit friends; first I had a grand time
visiting Heather and Nick who’re studying in Rome with
Loyola Chicago. I got there easily and quickly, but getting
back was another matter. I accidently got off at the
wrong end of the bus line, since I thought the buses ran in
loops! I thought I was getting off near the subway by
St. Peters, cuz when I asked the bus drive "Is this St. Peter’s?" he
replied "qui," which I thought meant "here." It
didn’t. When I eventually made it back to St. Peter’s, the subway was
closed, and I had no idea how to use the night buses.
Only with divine help did I finally get on the bus that led
back to the hotel. To top off the night, the driver
forgot to drop me off after I hit the stop button! I had to
walk home at least two miles on a dark highway,
stepping into mud in order to avoid getting vehicularly smacked. On
another day, things went much better...I went with HOF
and AGAPE (two great Franciscan U. Households) friends to
visit their household brothers who are studying in
Rome, Pat Trauma and John Love. We had pizza, and then the
action evolved into a full blown FOP (Festival of
Praise) HOF and AGAPE style!
Throughout the week, our school gathered in various
churches in Rome for mass. I had the privilege of
singing with music ministry for mass in...St. John
Lateran’s Basilica!! The Pope’s official parish!
Later, our school was a part of the blessed 6000 people who got
to attend the Papal Audience on Wednesday the 14th.
We arrived early, and grabbed seats next to the aisle,
allowing many of us two touch the Pope and see him up
close. The Vicar of Christ acknowledged many of the groups
present, and, quote by JPII, "expecially the students
from Franciscan University." You should have heard the
screams from our girls when he said that! Many people
were touched; it was the highlight of our visit. The man
is awe-inspiring yet so humble.
After Rome we visited Fonte Columbo where St. Francis
lived. Here he had an operation to cure his
blindness: the doctor took a glowing red-hot metal rod
and scraped it along Francis’ head. Anesthetics?
Probably not. But I’ll bet Francis was happy to offer it up.
Next we drove to Greccio and saw the dormitory where
Francis prayed, and slept on cold jagged rocks without
blankets during winter. Finally we arrived in the
birthplace and conversionplace of our patron saint: Assisi. Boy oh
Boy did we grub good there! We saw many groovy
sights: St. Clare’s where the original San Damiano cross that
spoke to Francis is kept, St. Francis Basilica, and
the hermitage where he prayed. The hermitage was as peaceful as a
soul right with the Lord. In the nearby woods Francis
and his Brothers would chill in the quiet of Nature. We
also toured the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli,
which contains the original chapel Francis rebuilt with his
bare hands, the Portziuncola. We have a "working
copy" of it back in Steubenville! At this church exist two
miracles: two white doves are ALWAYS on or near the
statue of Francis, and thornless rosebushes. You see, one day
Francis was rolling in the roses for self-mortification when
the thorns all suddenly disappeared!
What was the craziest thing we did in Assisi? In
my
opinion, the FOP outside of Minerva Church in the
public square. Some non-students, maybe locals, even
joined in the praise! The Holy Spirit was certainly
moving.
After Assisi, some friends and I planned on a visit
to San Giovanni Rotundo, where Padre Pio had his
parish. This man was amazing in so many ways. I
guess our plan wasn’t God’s, because our train was 30
minutes late, making us miss our connection and stranding us
at 1am at a wierd train station. Three of us found a
ride back to our hotels in Assisi, leaving the other 2 to try
hitchhiking. Back in the Assisi, we discovered that
the girls’ hotel was locked. Being that their window was right above
the main entrance, Shana stood on my shoulders and
banged on the window until blue in the face, unsuccessfully
waking her roommates, while Melissa looked on with
mirth. I then remembered that I had just so happened to have
forgotten to return my hotel key, it was still in my
pocket!! I brought them to my hotel where there was a spare open
room with three beds. I couldn’t sleep, knowing that
our 2 friends might encounter locked hotels also. I went
back outside to the locked hotel, and there was Mary
Beth, having just arrived! She told me that Eddie had
already gone to his other hotel, and that she was
locked out, so I brought her back to my hotel to stay with the other 2
girls. I love how God hooked everything up so
smoothly! God’s the best "connection" or "hookup" you could ever
hope for.
Did I ever think that I would visit Bosnia Herzgovina
in my lifetime? Not in the least. Am I glad that I
made the visit? You better believe it, it was one of
the best weekends of my life. By "best," do I mean
"the most fun"? No, I say best meaning...well, the only way I
can convey my meaning is by describing what happened
there WHILE WE WERE THERE. Our lady appeared there on
November 2, and our group was a matter of FEET away
from the apparition. I’m not kidding! She appeared
to Marijana, and only to Marijana, one of the six
Bosnian people that are blessed with the heavenly opportunity
to see the Virgin Mary the Mother of God in the flesh
with their physical eyes. I was too far away to see
Marijana during her apparition, but a friend of mine
who had managed to climb up high enough to watch her said that
her face became radiant and shining with joy, and that
she began to cry during her heavenly ecstasy as she
was speaking to what looked like thin air. Reason and
faith tell me that it was most certainly NOT simply thin
air. In his talk a Bosnian priest said that if the
apparition is really the devil, then the greatest miracle of
Medugorje is that the devil has converted! You see,
Mary urges humanity to pray and fast and go to the sacraments in
her appearances to the Bosnian visionaries, as she has
in the many places she has already appeared in the course of
history. Would the devil encourage us to pray the
rosary to end abortion?
Before I visited Medugorje, I had heard of many
miracles and conversions of heart that had taken place
there. I realized that I might witness a miracle! I
was NOT expecting one, however, because I already
believe in God. In the end, I did not see any miracles, but I
was able to be close to one, because of the once in a
lifetime opportunity God gave us. Oh, and Mary blessed all of
our religious articles while we were at the
apparition!!!!
Much prayer, especially the Rosary, flew from our
hearts to God and to Mary as we explored this small,
poor village in the middle of a barren mountainous
wasteland. We prayed the Rosary on apparition hill,
the site of the first apparition, which happened in 1981. I was
shocked to hear that over 20 million pilgrims have
climbed this hill, and I was glad to be the 20,000,001st
pilgrim to have this opportunity. Medugorje, like
Fatima, is a very rocky place, and it was amazing to see the effects of
40 million feet on one path. All vegetation was gone,
the rock was worn down and polished. However, the path was
still pointy enough to make barefeet uncomfy. Many
pilgrims, for penance, walk up both apparition hill
and Cross mountain without shoes! As you approach the
beautiful statue of Mary that marks the spot of her
first visible appearance in Medugorje, there are iron
reliefs of each of the joyful and sorrowful mysteries. The
glorious are still being completed.
One night, some friends and I climbed up this stony
hill to pray the rosary. Since we had no flashlights,
I was worried that we might trip on the rocks of the
path. We discovered that the incredibly bright moon
provided enough light to guide us! As we prayed, it occurred
to me that it was remarkable that the moon was helping
us, because Mary has been compared to the moon, as the one
who reflects the Son! Staring up at the shining moon,
we noticed with growing amazement that thick dark
clouds kept trying to smother the moon, but quite
unsuccessfully! The clouds just disappeared as they
began to overtake the moon; it was bizarre, and some
of us pondered the significance of this weird phenomenon.
Did the clouds represent something? When we reached
the top of the hill, the view of the city was phenomenal,
the bright city lights glowing in the moonlit
darkness. This was one of the most special Rosaries I've ever prayed!
During one glorious and bright afternoon, we did the
stations of the cross, which are positioned on the
path that leads up Cross Mountain. Climbing this
steep path is no easy task, with or without shoes; the
difficulty of the journey is fitting for meditation of our Lord's
Passion on the way of the Cross. The path is nothing
but stone: jagged, craggy, and eager to twist your ankle.
Beautiful iron reliefs mark each of the 14th stations.
It was touching to see young people helping the old climb the
treacherous road. Reaching the Cross at the top is a
glorious experience, with a breathtaking view of the
mountainous terrain of Medugorje on all sides. After
our group of 25 reached the top, we convened at the cross
for a picture. Mine was the last of the 15 or so
cameras, and it would not take the picture! Everyone was sick of
hold faux-grins for 5 minutes, and naturally did not
have the patience to wait to find out why my camera wouldn't
work. Just my luck, I chuckled to myself. Well,
Captain Haddock has it much worse! They assured me of a
double.
On the first day we went to a talk by Jakov one of
the 6 visionaries. Afterwards people asked him
questions concerning Mary and God, and he answered
frankly and honestly. Jakov is one of the 3
visionaries who have already received all 10 secrets, so he only sees
Mary once a year. The other 3 still see her everyday,
no matter where they go, because they've only received 9 of the
10. Mary said that once she has revealed the last
secret to all of the them, she will never appear on earth again, for
there will be no need for it. What does this mean?
Some think it means that the great Chastisement of God will
happen after the final secret has been given to the
last 3 visionaries. Don't ask me!
Its just mind-boggling what a huge weapon against
Satan we Christians have: The ROSARY. Its like an
atomic bomb against evil. God has granted many
miracles through this wonderful prayer, which is, by
the way, the Pope's favorite. For example, when Austria was
occupied by the Soviets, the Austrians began a
national Rosary Crusade, praying everyday for the deliverance of their
country. After a little while, the Soviets just UP
and LEFT, for no apparent reason! The crusade is continued to
this day. The list of promises Mary has for those who
pray the Rosary is simply incredible.
The following weekend, I explored Innsbruck and
Salzburg with some household brothers, Roland Millare
and Jordan Miller, and another friend, Matt Tremblay.
We wandered around, went shopping, and hit some
historical attractions. Innsbruck is gorgeous in the
wintertime, chock full of Christmas decorations. We
visited a little town outside of Innsbruck called Seefeld, where
a Eucharistic miracle occurred. We were about to
leave the church of the miracle when a holy hour began, which
was perfect because our household’s ministry is to
spread devotion to our Lord in adoration! On Sunday, we went
to the "Dom" Church, and I was super delighted to see
a full choir and some instruments! They sang one
Mozart's masses, it was of course nothing less than
glorious. I was slightly bummed at not being able to visit the
castle in Salzburg, but God hooked me up with my
desire the next weekend.
The following weekend something incredible
happened...I procrastinated too long in watching a
movie, and when I finally tore myself away I realized that in
order to catch my train I would need to run, and run
fast, the 2 miles to the train station! As I was about to
leave, I noticed Jason Markowski and Rolando leaving
the front entrance. I asked them where they were headed, and
they said the train station. They had to catch the
same train! They told me their friend Darius was driving them, and
excitedly I asked them for a ride, and... they said
"sure!" Deo Gratias. I caught my train, and arrived in
Salzburg on Thursday nite. I had to catch a plane
from Salzburg the next morning early, to get myself to England to
visit my friend Ann Benton. Having a few hours till
bedtime, I began to walk around town. This was Salzburg, a city
steeped in tradition, once having been the music
capital of Europe. Why not explore? I happened upon an outdoor
ice skating rink in Mozartplatz, (Mozart Square) and
recalling how fantastically fun skating is I rented
some skates and joined the fun. Most of the skaters
spoke English; I found out later they were American Students
from the University of Salzburg. Next, I found a
hostel, and slept great cuz there was only one other person in
the dormitory. This hostel, "Institute San
Sebastian," was blatantly Catholic, with statues of St. Sebastian and
Christ on the Cross. The only downside to this hostel
was that the hallway smelt of tuna fish. (?!?)
In the morning, I hopped on the cheap Ryanair flight
to London and arrived in 2 hours. From the airport,
I took a 3 hour coach (bus) ride to Oxford where I met
my friend Ann. I didn't mind the long bus ride, for
gazing out the window at British landscapes and cities was a
new experience. The towns were all remarkably simple
compared to other places I'd seen in Europe, such as
Budapest and Austria. However, the English towns were
pretty despite their plain-ness.
After I met Ann at the coach station, she gave me a
quick walking tour of Oxford on the way to her
apartment. Oxford is gorgeous with architecture far
from plain. Many of the churches connected to the
colleges were in extravagant gothic style. Besides being
knowledgeable about the many buildings of Oxford, Ann
was full of interesting stories about various traditions that
occur there. For example, every year on "Mallard day"
the Fellows, or the old professors and scholars, release
live mallard ducks into a room, and then proceed to
chase them down! Afterwards, they shoot off firecrackers. This
is just one of many fascinating traditions of the many
colleges that make up Oxford. I also learned that many big
names have studied or taught at Oxford, such as J.R.R.
Tolkien and C.S. Lewis who were teachers; you may have heard
of them. If you haven’t, I suggest you move, isn’t it
uncomfortable under that rock anyway? I noticed that
many of the Churches were once Catholic and now
Anglican. Without tabernacles with Our Lord, they
felt empty to me. After hanging out in Ann’s
apartment for a little while, we went and fetched some great grub at a
popular pub. I had my first real hamburger in three
months. It was excellent, and Ann assured me that it was safe.
London was a fast-paced adventure. Having only a
day
there, I told Ann that I wanted to see the big stuff,
you know, like Big Ben. We did exactly that! We
started by the Marble Arch, then walked to Buckingham
Palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Towerbridge, and the tower
of London, all in a few hours. The insides of these
places we did not see, but I was satisfied with the
glorious exteriors, and the fairly nice-weathery day.
My fav part of the tour was moseying along the Thames River on the
Queen's mile, absorbing the sounds, smells, and sights
of downtown London, like the beauty of the city lights
reflected on the water. Ann was a great guide, ever
so tolerant of my random urges to take pictures of bizarre things.
That night, back in Oxford, we had a drink in the
"Eagle and Child" pub. So what? you may be thinking.
I'll tell you what. The inklings, a group consisting
of Tolkien, Lewis and Williams, met there on a regular
basis to discuss their works!! Lewis actually told Tolkien
that he thought "The Hobbit" wouldn't be very popular.
I wonder how his words tasted when he ate them later? :)
Having just seen "The Lord of the Rings", this visit
is even more special to me now. You MUST see this movie, no ifs,
ands or buts. We headed back to her apartment, where
we hung out with her British boyfriend who is hilarious
in that typical dry British way. I began laughing
minutes after I met him! At 2am, I said farewell and hopped on a
coach back to the airport, grateful for such a great
friend as Ann.
Back in Salzburg on Sunday morning, I had a few hours
to explore. First, I walked through Mirabel
Gardens at the Mirabel palace; this is where the "Do
Re Mi" song was filmed for the sound of music.
Beautiful highly maintained hedges, plants, and statues were a
joy to goggle at. Then I took an interesting
high-tech tour of the Mozart family's other house, with my own
computerized tour guide. I ate lunch at a type of
fast food place called "Kebab." Kebab sandwiches consist of freshly
roasted mutton, sauce, and fixin’s like lettuce. They
are cheap and good and they make me happy. I then visited
another place supposedly used in the movie, the
Peterskirch cemetery. Finally, I saw the huge awesome
castle. I rushed to the castle tour office as soon as
I got inside the castle walls, and was able to catch a tour
that had just started. If I had not caught this one,
I wouldn't have had time to see the whole tour! Thanks God. As
I was leaving the castle, I walked through a mob of
people...and monsters! There were about 10 demonic
looking monsters moving throughout the crowds, trying
to scare people! They did scare young children, I saw
some crying, probably having had the crap literally
scared out of them. This disturbed me to see the frightened
kids, and made me angry at the beasts. I was
discombobulated. Who were these freaky terrors? Later I learned
that
they are "Krumpies" whose job is to beat the evil
spirits out of people with sticks before Christmas. It was a pagan
tradition, but it has since been Christianized, don't
ask me how. They were supposed to visit the Kartause on a
certain night, but they didn't show...I think because
in the past, Franciscan students had shown them that they
were not skeered, and proved it to them by beating
THEM. He he he. Don't worry, they have pads under their fur.
As I was saying, I hurried out of the castle, and
when I reached the low-ground I realized that in order
to catch my train and make mass that night, I would need
to run to the train station. Being out of shape, the
prospect didn't please me, but it was my only choice. As I was
running past a bus stop, I thought to myself, "Gee,
wouldn't it be great if a bus pulled up right here right now?"
Providence must have read my mind, cuz there it came,
and I hopped on it. At the Bahnhof, I hopped off and barely
caught my train. Phew.
The final weekend of the astounding, amazing,
life-changing, glorious, demanding, exhausting,
exciting, faith-building, friendship-filled, faith-testing,
groovy semester, almost everyone stayed in Gaming.
Lotsa folks went skiing/boarding at a mountain 1/2 an hour from
our campus, for God had supplied the area with about
1-2 feet of fresh snow just before the weekend. Losing my
ticket during my first run down the mountain, I was
slightly worried. I asked friends to look for it, ate a hearty
meal of goulash soup, and then asked those friends if
they had found it, but nope was their reply. Then my friend
Erica Kerg generously gave me her ticket, saying she
was done skiing for the day. St. Anthony did however answer my
prayer, cuz Noel Igot did find my ticket later, but I
didn't need it then. There was a ton of new powder, and its
a miracle that the ticket didn't get covered.
I had a couple unexpected adventures in these
glorious Alps. There was a weird kind of lift that I
had never encountered before, called a T-bar. It drags
you up the mountain kinda like a ropetow does. I did
not sit on it correctly, and got a cramp and fell off. I thought I
was maybe near the top, so I took off my board and
began to climb up the steep slope. In less than 2 minutes, I
was exhausted, panting like a dawg, so I boarded back
down to the bottom. I didn't want to try the T-bar again, cuz
they're retarded, so I began to snowboard back to the
main lodge down a street that's used for cars. I pick up a
little too much speed, and in trying to slow myself, I
tripped and flopped forward painfully. Just around the corner
was a snow removal machine with rotating metal blades.
If I had not fallen, I might have perished in a most
unpleasant manner. Thanks God!
The desire and excitement to go home to the US (where
we are now, finally...ahhhhh, tis great to be back)
became so fierce for us Americans, you could almost
feel it in the air. It was rough to say goodbye to
our Eastern European Friends who had studied and lived with us,
knowing that we'd probly never see each other again,
at least in this life. As C.S. Lewis put it, "Christians never
say goodbye for good," for we'll meet again as long as
we put God first. This is so crazily bizarre to contemplate:
One day, we'll all be toast, dead, pushing up daisies,
but only bodily. We'll be more alive than ever before in
Paradise.
Overall, the most important, paramount thing I
learned in Europe was to never let up on that TRUST.
Let go, and LET GOD. Its the secret to happiness, ain't
it! I found myself at peace in many situations that
would call for worry and anxiety if it were not for God, who
assures us that there is never a need for anxiety, it
you trust in him. "Peace" is what he wants us to have; it can only
be found in Him. "Be Not Afraid" is a message spoken
by Jesus all over the Gospel! As someone else wisely
pointed out, "Fools live in fear, and wise men live in
Strength."
Nate’s
GRACE Journals
A record of significantly GRACE filled days
Why?
To recall the
OMNISCIENCE
OMNIPOTENCE
&
OMNIPRESENCE
of GOD!!
9/6/2000
Wowwie...is the word that pops into my mind as I reminisce about
today. The conclusion of the main predicament has not been reached yet, but
that matters not as I place my trust in the One who wants us to place our
trust in Him...no, not that chevy salesman! I’m talking about GOD! JESUS!
THE HOLY SPIRIT!
(9/8/2000)
I am returning to this document as soon as I could so as to avoid
forgetting the wonderful details of the story! Naturally, obviously,
and of course, God has seen me through this ordeal, by granting me what I
was praying for. I trusted, he shared. Although, even if the ordeal had
not been resolved in my preferred way, I would still place my trust in him
unreservedly. Come to think of it, when God answers my prayers its
usually in a way I never could have foreseen (unless God had granted me the
gift of prophecy) Anyhoo, (what’s up with that saying?) I could ramble on
even more about the wonders of the Lord until kingdom come...but then I
would eventually forget the story...so here goes.
I woke up, grumpy. If you had told me the day was gonna be awesome, I
probably would have raised my eyebrows and said "umm...could you move
out of my way?" or something to that effect. I went to breakfast, had the
opportunity to practice my newly thought-up plan: to sit with anyone
who was sitting by themselves. Why? Because I think its S.J.W.D
(Something Jesus would do) and I’ve been in that situation before. I made
friends with a person, and ate a delicious ham, cheese and tomatoe omelete.
First instance of God’s love. I went to class, and discovered that I would
be assistant teaching at the same school as my friend Rachel, who had
offered me a ride if we were assigned same schools. Second instance. I’m
gonna stop pointing out God’s love, because every good thing comes from Him,
and this day was chock full of good things. As I was walking back to the
dorm, I ran into my friend Mel, who invited me to come to Taco Bell with her
and some friends. Taco Bell OUT OF THE BLUE! I was truly amazed. Having
no car this semester, I figured I would rarely visit this favorite joint
of mine. We had a great time, and then Mel dropped us off back at
school, after telling us that she was going back home to Pittsburgh to drop
her car off...she would not be bringing it back. We said goodbye, and she
left...with my backpack, sitting ever so innocently on the floor of
the backseat. I had a very brief moment of shock, realizing that my bag
had a book which I had to read by tommorow, and all my notes. Consulting my
friends, they wisely suggested getting this tome, A Passage to India,
from the library. What a concept! After stumbling upon the cliffnotes for
the book by chance and then finding the last copy of the title left, I
went back to my room very thankful. But my backpack-with all my notes! I
needed to contact Mel ASAP so she could bring it back with her! It
was a race against time, as she was going to return that nite. Where was
her phone number? Whilst wondering this, I just so happened to run into
John, who led me to his friend Chris who I don’t know well, and Chris had
the number. Now, where to dial it? I had no phone card and no distance
plan. I decided I would try the pay phone. After unsuccessfully trying to
change my $5 bill at two seperate change machines, I finally got change at
the bookstore. I dialed her number, confident that you could long
distance from a pay phone. But not this pay phone, for some reason. Time was
running short. (here, imagine mission impossible music) I scrambled
back to the dorm, in search of somebody willing to let me borrow their
phone card. No luck...but, my friend Don generously offered me his cell
phone, with which I discovered that Mel’s number had been disconnected. I
went online to search for another number, but no luck...just kept finding
the same disconnected number. I remembered that she had probably moved
recently, and here was the problem. Growing desperate, I called her
roomate hoping to find a current number...no luck. I called the
resident director of her dorm...she didnt have it. She recommended I try
Student Life, and upon attempt, they kindly let me know they weren’t allowed
to give it out. It was here that I kissed some serious brickwall, and
put my trust in Jesus. I didn’t know what else to do, so I offered my prob
to the BIG Guy in the Sky. An hour later, moseying up to class, I happened
to run into Lisa, a good friend of Mel’s. She had the number!
Unfortunately, I had to get to class, and couldn’t call her for three hours.
Three
hours later, I called and...got her machine! Had she already left? Did she
have my bag? Would I ever finish the 200 pages due the next morning for
the QUIZ?
(Commercial break)
"Use MONKEYZ-brand laundry detergent! The only brand with the
patented sea-monkey technology! Thousands of tiny, hardworking sea-monkeys,
specially trained to scrub clothes clean, are hibernating in every
scoop! The minute they hit the water, they engage in a search-and-destroy
mission for dirt and stains!! (If not completely satisfied, please call them
lazy or worthless or slackers as you are pouring in the soap - this
taunting will get their tiny butts moving, and you’re clothes will shine like
never, ever before!)
(warning: do not use this soap to clean hair...lice ain’t nothin
compared to what you’ll experience!)"
Now we return to your regularly scheduled programming...
ZZZZZZZ...(imagine a power saw cutting steel) ZZZZZ...snort snort..
where am I? What...What’s going on? Oh wow, this book (a Passage to India)
is a sedative! (even though my english teacher says its one of the greatest
books of the century. Great books are sometimes great sleeping aids,
know what I mean! :) ) The next day, I caught my backpack in the corner of
my eye as I was getting up, but thought nothing of it...my unconscious
mind regarded it as an impossibility. After going to class, I bumped into
John, and he asked me if I had seen my bag! I said no, did Mel bring it
back? John, with a shocked look on his face, said "Yes I put it in your room
early this morning!" Thank the Lord, huh! Hallelujah! As of now, I
have not talked to Mel, so I don’t know if she got the message on her
machine, or if she just happened to notice my bag in her car or what...the
point is, "ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE FOR THE PERSON WHO TRUSTS!!!" Thanx so much
Lord, and Happy Birthday, Mary! (today is Our Lady’s birthday!)
Later...
I talked to Mel, and she had returned my bag not cuz of the message I
left,which she did not know about. She just happened to see it on the
floor of her backseat, Thank God.
This semester, I feel as though I do not have as much of a social life
as last year, and sometimes this makes me lonely. As I was thinking
about this, I thought of all the extra work I have to do this semester,
almost twice the amount as last, and therefore I am blessed to NOT have such
a big social life. I thank God for letting me see this, and for the great
people that I am so lucky to call friends here.
At this point in time, I am trying to discern as to whether or not I
should do SENT, the only major extracuricular I signed up for this sem. If
God reveals to me that its not his will, I will try to accept it and think
of all the blessings I still have. But I feel as though with all this
work I am missing out on all that Steubenville has to offer! I even feel
like I have to cut short time with God because of all my work...but yesterday
a friend told me its the quality that counts, not the quantity...I never
thought of that before, and I believe it to be true. Even if I can
only make one mass besides Sunday, I will thank the Lord for that
opportunity. Or even just Sunday. He knows what’s best for me. My vocation
is a
student, and sometimes books even come before rosaries, as Father Dave
said. This is a very good point...prayer should not be a tool for
procrastination.
I managed to salvage this word processing document from my
computer-another divine favor- which is not booting up to windows right now
for some
reason...virus?
To conclude, I would like to share with you a verse, which a good
friend of mine shared with me: Phillipians 4:6,7:
"Do not worry about anything; instead, pray about everything: tell God
your needs, and do not forget to thank Him for His answers. If you do this
you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the
human mind can understand. His peace will keep your thoughts and your
hearts quiet and at rest as you trust in Christ Jesus."
Nate’s GRACE Journal Issue #2
Now as word of warning, these are some of the most memorable
experiences of God's love and generosity that I’ve had in the last
three months, so this is not a short email. Hopefully it will be more
interesting to you than one of those "license & terms of use" messages
that they make you agree to when you're installing computer software. I
also hope that these stories encourage you to trust in God.
As I sat down at 7ish to write my Shakespeare paper, I had no idea
that I would not be able to start it again until 10:30. Why? My computer
did not feel like booting up. Fortunately, I "just so happen" to live
across the hall from a computer genius, who kindly spent over half an hour
hacking and patiently plugging away at the problem until...waala, I’m able
to
use it again!!! May God be THANKED! Now, Shakespeare calls (in a rather
loud and annoying voice, too :) )
As I was sitting here trying to get started on my
"Shake-a-ma-speare,"
I got the hunger pangs somethin’ fierce. I immediately thought about
how I wouldn’t be surprised if someone randomly brought some food into my
room and offered it to me. An hour later, my good friend Dave "just so
happened" to walk into my room, and I heard money jangling. This lead
me to wonder if maybe he could lend me $, since I only had 15 cents. I
asked him, and he looked at me funny, then handed me 50 cents. I realized
that his reason for coming in the room was to ask to borrom money from ME,
and so I said "here you go" but he would’t accept it, and he said he’ll
borrow from someone else, leaving me with 65 cents- the perfect amount for
a
nice treat from the life-saving vending machine!! I headed over to this
much-loved machine in awe of my friend’s generosity. I decided on Pop
Tarts, but realized that these are 75 cents. . . I was short a dime.
Almost immediately, another Dave walked into the lounge where the
snack machine is, and I asked him "Brother, can you spare a dime?" and he
did. I returned to my Billy-Bob Quiverlance (Shakespeare), holding FOOD.
Heavenly food, if you ask me, provided by Providence Himself through the
kindness of guys named "Dave."
In my last grace journal, I shared my distress at not knowing
whether or not I should be a part of the SENT retreat team, because my
semester looked to be filled with unbelievably lofty Mt. Everest-size piles
of
brainwork. Well, Here’s what ended up happening, thank GOD.
I was walking back to the dorm from work, when I glanced at the
J.C. Williams center, and suddenly thoughts popped into my mind in the
following order:
I don’t know if God wants me to do SENT!
The first SENT team meeting is coming up soon!
The first SENT team meeting is tonight!
The first SENT team meeting "just so happens" to start in a few
minutes!
The first SENT team meeting is in the J.C.!
I "just so happen" to be walking by the J.C.!
Should I go in or not?
Aw, what the heck- here goes nothing!
I walked into the J.C., and the rest is history. Or should I say
"His Story"? SENT this semester turned out to be an amazing,
faith-building experience for all of us, retreat team members AND retreatants.
The
small group session I lead was astonishing, because the retreatants asked
so
many questions about faith and morals to the point where it became
necessary for me to say "now one at a time, please!" This was drastically
different
from other small groups I’ve lead on previous SENT retreats, in which the
retreatants were hardly responsive whatsoever. I thank God that he
reminded me about the very first team meeting, for if I had missed it, I
probablywouldn’t have done SENT, in which I was a tool in spreading the
AWESOME news of Jesus Christ to over a hundred eighth graders in Columbus
Ohio.
One day, I said a very rude, crude, and zude (zude?) thing to a
friend of mine, that brought immediate feelings of guilt raining down upon
my
head like golf ball sized hail. I didn’t apologize for it at that moment,
because I did not think about it. I knew I had to apologize to God
and her ASAP. I tried calling her, but nobody knew her phone number. I
looked for her around campus, but didn’t see her and I realized I wouldn’t
until
the next time we had class together. . . in 4 days. That would be too
long, I was desperate to talk to her ASAHP (As soon as humanly possible) for
I
wanted to apologize and did not want her thinking I said uncouth
things like that on a regular basis.
About a day later, I called the switchboard to call a friend, and
realized that the switchboard operator "just so happened" to be none other
than
the girl I had been discourteous to. I told her I was sorry then and
there, and that the rude thing I said was really out of character for me to
say. She forgave me, and I thanked God for hookin’ me up with what I
needed- like he always does.
I went to study at the Cafeteria, and I was kinda bummed because
we weren’t allowed to eat/drink there for study hall. OUT OF THE BLUE, a
friend named Kareem walked in and "just so happened" to offer my
friend and I a ride to Eaton Barf (Eat’n Park) –his treat!! While we chowed
down
the food he insisted on paying for (and not only that he kept asking us to
order more) Kareem spilled his vast knowledge of fascinating topics
such as women and God and the Eastern rite. Whilst feeding our faces, Kareem
fed our brains with valuable info- he’s quite a talker. Ya know, God
really does "give us this day our daily bread".
For PARENT’S WEEKEND, I was sorrow to discover that my family
would not be able to visit. However, my Dad "just so happened" to call at
the
last minute, and shared the joyful info that he and my brother were coming
to visit after all. They came and thankfully we were able to attend a
FOP (Festival Of Praise) together as well as the parent’s weekend dance.
My Pop can be absent-minded at times, just like the rest of the
human race, and he left his ever-so-paramount daily planner somewhere on
campus during parent’s weekend. He called me and explained his mistake, and
told me that his work id card, which he needed for entrance to prison where
he works as a psychologist, was in his planner. Then we discussed
possible locations where he might have left it. After praying to St. Anthony,
the planner "just so happened" to show up on the floor of our room the
next day. Steve and I to this day consider this a mystery, for I had
thoroughly searched for the planner in the room immediately after talking
with my
Dad, and I had found it - in plain sight - on the floor.
One week I was truly in need of a ride to KROGERS (pronounced
crow-shiay in French, btw). I called my friend Sean, and left a
message asking for a ride. Only a few hours later, after leaving the
adoration chapel, I ran into Sean- who "just so happened" to be at the chapel
the same time I was. Normally I hardly ever see Sean on campus, because
he lives off-campus, and so I was surprised to run into him at the
chapel.
I was laying in bed, trying to gather up the willpower to go pray
before going to sleep. After ten minutes of hesitation, I forced
myself to get out of bed and headed to the dorm chapel- and two guys "just
so
happened" to have recently begun the rosary out loud- at 2:30 am -
which I was then able to join. Had I not hesistated, I would have been able
to
start at the very beginning of the prayer.
One night I found myself in a somewhat stressful
procrastination-caused dilemma: 2 PAPERS due the next day, and it was almost
midnite. My friendJohn walked into the room, and I shared my intense anxiety
with him.
He genuinely encouraged me by saying something like "I’m sure you’ll
finish Nate, I’ve got confidence that you will because you trust God". I was
seriously considering giving up and going to bed when John "just so
happened" to enter the room and offer support- this acted as a motive
for me to persevere, and I finished BOTH paperz, and didn’t do too poorly
on them either!!!
This semester I participated in TOASTMASTERS club, a club that
meets in a business meeting-type format for practice in public speaking. I
gave a speech on sleep deprivation, and hilariously enough did not get hardly
enough sleep the nite before- but the Lord pulled me through it. I
also gave a speech on Alzhemer’s disease, and "just so happened" to forget
my introduction halfway through it, which I had "memorized" earlier that
day. Pretty dern pertinent, huh? But despite the mistakes, God still gave
me the courage to finish the speech.
Mere hours after talkin’ to my Ma about coming home for b-day, I
"just so happened" to run into THREE different people from my area, in an
almost consecutive fashion, and TWO of them told me they were pretty sure
I
could get a ride back to Michigan with them! SWEET!
This semester, our household, the Apostles of the Holy Eucharist,
went on a retreat. At this retreat, get this: 1) there were 11 apostles,
2) the retreat house was named "The Upper Room", and 3) the owner of the
house, who gave us a tour of it, is named Maria-coicidence? I think not! If
you are puzzled as to how this is anything special, recall Pentecost- when
in the "Upper Room", the Holy Spirit decended on 11 Apostles and Mary.
Also at the retreat, just as a bizarre side note, we had a night
activity where everyone grabbed a piece of firewood and spent a half
an hour in the woods by themselves thinking of things they would like to
remove from their lives, such as tendencies to sin or bad habits.
After the quiet time, we all gathered at the bonfire and tossed our firelogs
in, symbolically burning away our vices. Well, during my quiet time in
the forest, I was staring at the overcast, dark sky, when I noticed a
small pinpoint of light appear. Slowly but surely the light grew bigger and
brighter, and then it began to take shape! Suddenly, my heart began
to beat wildly upon the supposition that this was the second coming of
Christ! I stared at the bright spot in the sky, which now seemed to
be
closing in on the earth, and taking the shape of a man on a cloud! After about
30 seconds of mixed feelings of terror and doubt, during which I
sincerely prayed my act of contrition, I abruptly realized that the mystery
UFO
was actually the moon shining through as the clouds parted. That was the
brightest moon I ever did see! I shared this story with my household
brothers at the bonfire, and they told me to stop eating the fungus on
the firewood. This was utterly hilarious to me, and I laughed not only
because of this joke but also out of relief that the end of the world hadn’t
really happened. This episode certainly reminded me of the verse that says
Christ will come like a thief in the night, or when we least expect it.
After the firewood activity, we reflected on the importance of
daily reflection. Interestingly enough, when we went back to the retreat
house I flipped open a book by Zig Ziglar called "The Power of Positive
Thinking" and the first sentence I laid eyes on was about. . . the importance
of
daily reflection! Again, later on I "just so happened" to open up to
another idea in this book that we had just recently been discussing.
I couldn’t believe it happened twice.
One dandy day at the caf, some friends and I were discussing the
Catholic belief of the resurrection of the body, which none of us
really understood very concretely. That nite, I was astounded to discover
that Corinthians 15 – the chapter I "just so happened" to be on - explains
. . .
yep, you guessed it - the resurrection of the body! One of my
favorite quotes is "If you want to hear God speak to you, open up a bible".
Once again, I found myself with 2 papers due the next day. Joe
Clark walked in and told me of a way to keep myself awake for the writing
marathon. He said if you find yourself dozing, set your alarm for 10
minutes, and then when it goes off start working immediately. . . this
will kick in the ADRENALINE!!!
I didn’t need to try the method, because I went to bed early knowing
that I would never finish the literature paper, having spent most of the
night on the other paper. I told my teacher that I didn’t finish, & he
"just
so happened" to give me a WEEK EXTENSION, saying he should mark me down,
but probably won’t cuz he’s a nice guy!!!
I finally found my 2 month overdue library book, which I could not
seem to locate! I thank St. Anthony for his intercession, for if I had not
found the book, I would probably have been forced to pay the $115 (one hundred
and fifteen US dollars) fine for losing a library book. One day I "just
sohappened" to look under the bed, and there it was – unexpectly cuz the
space under the bed is very small.
I don’t have a car here this semester, and so I asked a friend Joe
if I could borrow his to take my date to the formal. He told me that most
likely the answer would be yes, but he had to ask his sister first.
The night of the formal, I found Joe, who shared with me the unfortunate
info that he couldn’t lend me his car. It was two hours before the formal,
you can imagine my reaction to this news. I got a little nervous, but not
too much, because I was trying my darndest to trust in The Big Guy In The
Sky. I frantically roamed the dorm, searching to either borrow a car or get
a ride with someone else. An hour before formal, I "just so happened"
to ask a guy who I hardly knew, and he lent me his car as if I were an old
trusted friend! This reminds me of High School Prom, where my tuxedo didn’t
arrive in the shop until an hour before the prom, and I was given a discount
for the delay.
Once again, my computer decided that it wanted to sleep in or
something, because it would not boot up. I was about 90 percent done
with a paper so naturally I became worried, thinking with horror that maybe
the 5 year old hard-drive was hard-boiled. I called Lee, who fixed my
computer before, and he "just so happened" to be coming up to the dorm in
a few
minutes - he lives in lower campus - and he "just so happened" to have
recently bought a new video card, and gave me his old one after
determining that mine was probably toast. He fixed it in about 5 minutes.
What a
nice guy. He even gave me his old 3d accelerator.
Well, those are some of the most memorable experiences of God’s
love and generosity in my life over that past three months here at
Franciscan University. Just to remind you, my problems don't always work out
this nice and dandy, for God gives me my share of challenges and misery
also. I’m sure you’ve noticed that I used the phrase "just so happened"
inevery one of my stories. If you replace that phrase with the
following one: "happened because of God’s love", then the true reality and
meaning of the stories will shine forth.
Nate’s GRACE Journal Issue #3
A record of significantly GRACE filled days
Now as word of warning, these are some of the most memorable
experiences of God's love and generosity that I’ve had in the last two
months, so this is not a short email. I hope it won't bore you to
death, because then I'd be guilty of murder, which is naughty. My PARAMOUNT
hope is that these stories will encourage you to trust in God, and to trust
that He will answer your prayers in HIS time and in HIS ways, because he
knows whats BEST for us.
I lost a very dear friend (but sometimes mortal enemy, whom I would
trash-talk like its nobody's business) last semester...my lemon-ish
car, affectionately known as the "ghetto-cruiser". (Its gonna be hard for
me to control my emotions, I really miss him/her/it and its broken door,
broken horn, broken lock, and Taco Bell Dog-decoration!!! sniff sniff) Much
to my initial horror but eventual glee, it was hit in a freak accident when
a car's entire wheel just plain fell off, leaving the driver with no
control. My car happened to be in its path, FORTUNATELY for me! Why
fortunately, you may ask? Well, I had recently pumped a grand into this jem
of a
vehicle to repair its stalling problem, but the top mechanics at two
different auto-shops were stumped! They did their best, which
included replacing dozens of expensive parts- but the stalling continued,
usually at convenient times like when I was pulling into the middles of a
hellishly busy intersections, or once the light turned green and there was
about
a mile of cars behind me, having impatiently waited for 2 whole minutes
(no exageration- that darn Maple/Jackson by my house). Getting honked at
by irate drivers during rush hour is utterly humiliating, and sometimes
enough to make a non-swearing man curse!
Still, you are probably asking "why fortunately? He hasn't
answered the question yet! geez!" Sorry about the delay- it was fortunate
that my
car got shmacked into, because it severely damaged it, racking up around a
thousand in repair costs! After a long and frustrating struggle with
the insurance agency, they agreed to pay me for the cost of the car, to
total it out. They don't usually do this, unless your car has been damaged
beyond repair, but in this case, they made an exception as an
_expression of their apology for the extreme hassle they had given me. SO,
I got a
whopping 1100 dollars for it...JUST ENOUGH to pay for a sudden and
unexpected TUITION bill from Franciscan! The F.U.S. accounting
offices had "made a mistake" previously, when they had sent me a notice saying
I
was all paid up. OOOPS!!! So I thank the Lord for that unexpected crash
which led to the unexpected cash (hey that rhymes!) which TRIPLY acted as
1.) a tuition-bill lifesaver, 2.) a repayment for the futile, worthless
$1000 car repairs, and 3.) a nice bit of extra pizza-cash left over from the
tuition payment! GOD YOU RULE, AND YOU ROCK MY WORLD! THANKS AGAIN!
On the morning of the first day of classes here at good ol'
Franciscan University, I reached for my toiletry bag, being that I needed
to
brush my teeth so as to de-toxify my breath. You know how it is...first day
of
classes, you wanna make a good impression...and killing strangers that
you meet, with your fatal morning breath of death, certainly doesn't
qualify as a good impression. So, back to the story...I reached for the bag
and
grabbed thin air to my utter horror, simultaneously realizing that I
had forgotten it at home over winter break. I was helpless, my breath
would have to remain deadly, and my teeth dirty. BUT as I was tying my
shoes, my eye caught a small piece of candy lying on the ground. I looked
closer, and realized with glee that it was a piece of TRIDENT!!! It CLEANS
TEETH AND FRESHENS BREATH SIMULTANEOUSLY! It was the first heaven-sent
piece of candy I'd ever encountered. Now you germophobes, don't worry, it
was
still in its wrapper. :)
Later on, as I was telling friends about my forgotten toiletry bag,
they started just GIVING me stuff...I got a toothbrush, bottle of
toothpaste, and a razor! Nobody gave me deoderant though, but that's beside
the
point. The point is that GOD hooked me up with what I needed most! (you're
probably saying, "deoderant WASN'T something that he needed most? Ha!
I disagree.")
One day as I was walking back to the dorm, and as I was thinking
about how hungry I was, I bumped into two friends from my hall, who invited
me to walk to Damon's (a local restaurant) with them, and I said "wow!!
sure!!", and so I went with them, and we proceeded to the restaurant, where
we
had a grand time eating wings and discussing anything and everything under
the sun, but nothing beyond that, because we don't know much about planets
and stuff like that, and this sentence has become outrageously run-on, so
I'll stop here. So, this was a marvelous experience of God's love, out of
the blue. In fact, I think that chicken wings, especially from Damon's,
are proof enough of the fact that God loves us very very VERY much.
This semester I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the March
for life. I wasn't planning on it, and figured that since I hadn't signed
up on time I couldn't go, but some friends encouraged me to call the
head-honcho of the operation. I called, really not expecting to be
able to sign up, and found out that there were only 4 spots left on the bus!
I signed up, and had a fantastic experience standing up for my unborn
brothers and sisters through prayer with thousands of others who
realize the reality of abortion: that it is murder.
At the end of last semester, I had an opportunity to sell back my
books, but I forgot to sell a few at the bookstore's book buy-back week. I
knew I would never set eyes on these couple books again, at least
voluntarily.
One night in class this semester, I overheard someone complaining
about how expensive her computer books were. I inquired as to what books,
and
she told me, and they were exactly the ones I had forgotten to sell! I
offered to sell them to her cheap, suggesting that she return the new ones
she
had bought. She saved a BUNCH of money, and I earned money, money I never
thought I would see! Many times God gives me stuff that I don't even
pray for, out of the blue. Every good thing comes from God, can I get an
"Amen" ?
I was fortunate to get another job as a computer lab assitant,
because this job forces me to get homework done, and I'm making $ to pay off
tuition AT THE VERY SAME TIME! What an excellent job.
Yesterday, after talking God's head off (so to speak) in the
Portiuncula Chapel, I remembered that conversation with God should be like
conversation with humans: 2-way. I also recalled how I've heard that it is
in the
silence that God speaks to us, and so I sat there, trying to shut my
mind up, but it just wouldn't hushup! I struggled with quieting my heart
for 5 minutes, my subconscious mind assaulting me with supposed "messages
from God", you know, those messages that you're fairly sure you just made
up in your head. THEN, I asked God for some help, praying that he would
help to clear my mind of distrations. A few minutes later, I glanced down
at
the book-holder attached to the pew in front of me, and noticed a flyer
entitled something like "Contemplative Prayer: how to do it". I began
to read it, and upon learning from the flyer that contemplative prayer
was exactly what I was struggling with, I laughed out loud, knowing full
well that this flyer was heaven-sent. I read the flyer, and am excited
about practicing and getting better at contemplative prayer, which according
to St. Teresa of Avila "is nothing else than a close sharing between
friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know
loves
us."
If you want to learn more about this amazing form of prayer, check
out these sites:
http://www.catholicity.com/commentary/macfarlane/givinggod20.html
http://www.ssw.upenn.edu/~prentice/chi_rhobody.html
This past weekend my mom, Bro Aaron and Sis Steph came up to visit
me and the campus. God really blessed them, because they were able to
experience some of the highlights of "steubenvillian life". They got
to go to all these things: talks, the Pittsburgh Abortion mill for prayerful
protest, my households' Lord's day, a rugby game in which my roomie
Steve Jiencke scored a touchdown, a powerful F.O.P., latin mass on Sunday,
and last but not least OUR CAFETERIA, which they thought was absolutely
scrumdidlyumtious (much to my utter amusement). Also, my bro and sis
recorded a hilarious video here on campus with the camera they brought
up. So I think they had a good time. I know I did!
Well Folks, Thats about it this time! Remember, these are only the
accounts of God's love that I remember; there are dozens more that I
probly forgot like the chronically and sometimes devastatingly absent-minded
person that I am.
