"Some people to discover God, read books. But there is a great book: the very appearance of created things. Look above you! Look below you! Note it. Read it. God, whom you want to discover, never wrote that book with ink. Instead, He set before your eyes the things that He has made. Can you ask for a louder voice than that?" - St. Augustine
I invite you to read about my friend Keeley. She is a freshman at Penn State and has a joyful and loving heart. I asked her to he lives out her faith through the gift of her everyday life. I want to start by asking if there are misconceptions she has seen?
"I think there are a lot of misconceptions about young people in the church that come from people of all ages. A lot of my high school classmates just thought I was brainwashed and spitting back everything I had learned in CCD. A lot of people who are older than me, no matter what age, also feel that way about young Catholics. Not as much in the brainwashing sense but more in the sense that young Catholics who are “practicing” are just that, practicing. It’s as if we are just preparing for faith like we prepare for sports. I think a lot of people don’t realize how real our faith is. You can’t practice knowing or loving God. No matter how old you are, you can Truly come to know God, and no matter where you are in life, you should always be striving to grow closer to God and bring along those around you. "
Amen! We should always been striving to bring ourselves and others closer to Christ. When I asked her why she chose to live out Catholicism in college, she blessed me with this beautiful testimony.
"I was blessed enough to be raised in a large Irish Catholic Family. I grew up going to 6:30am Mass every Sunday with my parents, brothers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. My parents and their siblings(6 siblings each) attended Catholic school together. I attended public school but was fortunate enough to have great CCD teachers. Although all of these things led me to the Catholic faith, what made me decide to live as a Catholic can be divided into two parts. The first was my parents. Even though they were raised Catholic, in college my mom looked into other religions and Chrisitan denominations. When my parents started dating and became engaged, they went through the RCIA classes (even though they were both had completed confirmation) so that they would grow as Catholics together and have a firm understanding of their faith so that they could raise their children as Catholics.
Knowing that my parents had actively made that decision despite having already chosen to be Catholic helped me to decide and understand that I must always be living actively as a Catholic. If you are not growing in your faith and in the Church then you are distancing yourself from Christ. A more concrete event that encouraged me to decide to live as a Catholic was a retreat I attended in February 2016 held by Fr. Larry Richards. He had been the priest at Penn State Behrend where my dad had studied. He and Fr. Larry Richards had been great friends and he had a great influence in my dad’s spiritual life.
"Knowing that my parents had actively made that decision despite having already chosen to be Catholic helped me to decide and understand that I must always be living actively as a Catholic. "
Fr. Larry is a very direct, witty, funny, and intense speaker and priest. He tells it as it is and can seem very hard. But the Truth, capital T Jesus is the Truth kind of Truth, was never meant to be easy. In CCD, we were always taught that Jesus loves us. This is the most Truth we have, but our understanding of it changes as we are older. Fr. Larry spent the three evenings discussing how he came to the faith and the Truth in God’s love for us. I had never been hit with such Truth, suffering, and love before. The last night of the retreat, parents were asked not to bring smaller children, so my brothers stayed at home with my grandparents but I was deemed old enough and responsible enough to attend. Fr. Larry went through Jesus’ Passion in such graphic, painful, and historically accurate descriptions to try to convey how Jesus suffered for us. Not only did he suffer for us on the cross, he continuously gives us his body and blood in the Eucharist.
"Not only did he suffer for us on the cross, he continuously gives us his body and blood in the Eucharist."
I had learned to robotically repeat the definition of transubstantiation in CCD, but never really believed that it was Jesus’ body until Fr. Larry explained it. How could that be happening? On the altar? Every day? YES! Jesus loves us so much and it is so much of a mystery that I couldn’t accept it until I recognized the mystery in His love! By the end, Fr. Larry was weeping and I fully recognized that I can NEVER fully recognize or understand how Jesus, who was fully God and fully man, loves us so deeply, immensely, and intensely. I realized that Jesus loves us so much and that I don’t deserve any of it. I realized that Jesus established the Catholic Church and that I need Him. I desire Him. And He desires me! So much so that he wants me to accept His Body and Blood! How could I deny Our Lord? Jesus fully gives Himself to us in the Eucharist.
"I realized that Jesus established the Catholic Church and that I need Him. I desire Him. And He desires me! So much so that he wants me to accept His Body and Blood! How could I deny Our Lord? Jesus fully gives Himself to us in the Eucharist."
I decided to be Catholic because God loves us so much that he sent his only Son to suffer for us and to give Himself fully in the Eucharist. I am a Catholic because I need and love and desire Jesus. Not a symbol, not an image, not a feeling, but the flesh and blood of our Lord."
With a powerful testimony like that I asked her how she is living out the universal call to holiness. Her response is so relatable and has so many little nuggets in it that will be helpful for everyone.
"In high school I struggled to live the call to Holiness because I felt alone. I was the only practicing Catholic among my friends and didn’t want to engage in any of the drinking, socially manipulative, or sexual behavior that now seems stereotypical of high schoolers.
"Now as a college Freshman, I have been blessed to find the Newman Catholic Club at Penn State. I have made such amazing virtuous friends that challenge me in order to sprint towards Christ with me. They have helped me grow closer to God in prayer. I said my first rosary on the feast Day of Our Lady of Guadeloupe and have attended Mass regularly. One of my friends, West, put it like this 'The people who go to daily mass do it because they have nothing better to do...because there IS nothing better to do.'
"One of my friends, West, put it like this 'The people who go to daily mass do it because they have nothing better to do...because there IS nothing better to do.' "
"I am living the call to Holiness by always trying to grow closer to Christ. Through prayer, through works, and through my relationships around me. Most importantly, I have found role models in the Church. The upperclassmen in Newman have challenged me to go out of my comfort zone and really face Christ. Before coming to college, I had been in Eucharistic Adoration twice, and didn’t understand what was going on. Most of my prayers were lists of petitions with a few thanksgivings. Coming to Penn State, I realized that I need to fully ADORE Christ. 'God made me to know him, to love him, to serve him, and to one day be happy with him in Heaven' was a statement I had to memorize in Kindergarten. Little did I know that that simple statement is the best guideline for striving to live a call to Holiness."
" 'God made me to know him, to love him, to serve him, and to one day be happy with him in Heaven' was a statement I had to memorize in Kindergarten. Little did I know that that simple statement is the best guideline for striving to live a call to Holiness."
Keeley's dedication to growing in her faith is something we all can take from. Her joy, that practically radiates off the page, is an inspiration that we can take to break us out of the dormancy we may be in with our relationship with God. How are you growing in your faith?
I asked Keeley if she has experience the excitement and joy that Mother Mary experienced as a result of her Fiat. Does her soul want to rejoice and spread God's message?
"I have had so many blessings and joys in my life. God’s love is almost unbelievable, but he asks us to BELIEVE! I have known so many wonderful people whose souls rejoice always and lead others to God’s love and peace. Sometimes this love shows itself in the world around us. I love hiking the National Parks with my family and have had amazing opportunities to sit in awe at pitch black skies full of stars, towering rock arches, majestic mountains (Sierra, Rocky, and Appalachian and everything in between). God has given us such great examples of His love and power in His creation! As beautiful as these creations are, the most beautiful thing we have in the world is God! True God and true man in the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ! God sent His son to suffer in order that I may know full joy in Heaven! How could I not rejoice! “How can I keep from singing?!”
"As beautiful as these creations are, the most beautiful thing we have in the world is God!"
"God has shown me His Greatness in so many ways, especially through the love people show me and the love God instills in me for them. "I found a note on my phone from back in November when I was reflecting on the friendships I made in my first 3 months in college(see below).
"He expresses his love in so many ways by giving us the blessings of the beatitudes, the Ten Commandments, the sacraments, miracles, lifting us above our sorrows, forgiving us, offering us the invitation to Heaven and Holiness, and by sending his only son Jesus Christ to die on this earth for our sins, and by continuing the give us his body and shedding his blood. God sends us the spirit to work in us and to gift us with virtues and strengths. God has shown us his passionate love is so many deep and wonderful ways that even though we can recognize some of these ways we can never fully understand the richness and passion and nuances of these expressions of love."
"God has shown us his passionate love is so many deep and wonderful ways that even though we can recognize some of these ways we can never fully understand the richness and passion and nuances of these expressions of love."
God's love is a big and wonderful mystery! How are you seeing God in the little things? Are you striving to know Christ more? This is a long journey toward Sainthood and Keeley leaves us with this encouragement.
"Life is good… because God gave us life and God is good!
(I’m currently wearing a Life is Good shirt and just felt inspired)"
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