“Actions speak louder than words; let your words teach and your actions speak.”
– St. Anthony of Padua
Today I want to introduce you to my good friend, Lauren. Lauren is completely on fire with the love of God. She is only a freshman at Penn State and as already been making impacts on the community there. Her love and drive of the weak and vulnerable, whether the unborn, the poor, or her classmates is why I asked her to interview for this blog. There are very few people who are as free and funny as Lauren. Check out below my conversation with Lauren.
** and of course our good friend Saint Pope John Paul II! **
It is appropriate for us to start off with any misconceptions that are in the Church or that people have about the Church. When I asked Lauren her thoughts on it she said,
“ I think there is a tendency to assume that those who are serious about their faith are usually elderly or ‘not with the times,' but not only have I met so many young adults who hold such a passion for the Lord, but I have witnessed their willingness to defend the Catholic Church to peers and to continue to be the presence of Catholicism among college students despite the risk of scrutiny or social outcast. It is this tenacity for the Lord modeled in the upperclassmen that encourages myself and so many other new students at Penn State to be the voice of the Lord among our peers”.
"...Not only have I met so many young adults who hold such a passion for the Lord, but I have witnessed their willingness to defend the Catholic Church to peers and to continue to be the presence of Catholicism among college students despite the risk of scrutiny or social outcast".
Older friends were an inspiration for me as a freshman as well. How crazy is it that the gift of someone's life can impact us? I then asked her how she is living out the Call to Holiness as a young member of the Church, and she gave this amazingly authentic response.
“It’s still hard for me to grasp that even though I do not yet know my vocation, I am still called to holiness in the midst of this waiting period. While this may sound surprising, I found it relatively easy to pursue a call to holiness at Penn State due to its active Newman center, which provides small groups, adoration, daily mass and rosary, and socials as a way to pursue Christ through a faith-based community. Now that I am away from campus, it is much harder to continue in these habits without the resources and accountability the presence of my friends provided, but continuing to view my circumstances as a challenge to be overcome through God’s love and companionship has allowed me to continue to pursue Him and His call to holiness”.
"...continuing to view my circumstances as a challenge to be overcome through God’s love and companionship has allowed me to continue to pursue Him and His call to holiness".
Amen! Living in a community makes pursuing a faithful life easier, but what is our response when the community is separated? Are we able to still pursue God and keep in contact with others? Are we viewing our circumstances through the lens of the love of God? Even in a community, it is every individual's decision to live our lives for Christ and let Him pursue us. Lauren shares a little bit of her story on how she decided to live out Catholicism.
“I went to Catholic school my whole life, and while I grew up a practicing Catholic, I never had a real passion for Christ or an understanding of His love for me and desire to fulfill the deep yearnings He placed in my heart until I traveled to Kingston, Jamaica my junior year of high school for a mission trip. It was on this trip that I encountered the Lord in such a raw and clear manner - where the suffering of those I encountered was made immaculate and beautiful in their love and worship of the Father, where their earthly poverty was viewed as an opportunity for spiritual wealth, and for their total abandon of society’s demands and expectations in favor of a simple yet all-encompassing and demanding mission to live as Jesus had. This revelation - that our Savior was an unimaginably active and all-loving presence in our lives - utterly rocked my world and allowed me to better see the work of our Father in creation and to feel His presence closer than I ever have in my life. To this day, I view my life as before and after my mission trip to Kingston, and this life-changing trip gave me no other option than to live my life completely for Christ”.
"It was on this trip that I encountered the Lord in such a raw and clear manner - where the suffering of those I encountered was made immaculate and beautiful in their love and worship of the Father, where their earthly poverty was viewed as an opportunity for spiritual wealth, and for their total abandon of society’s demands and expectations in favor of a simple yet all-encompassing and demanding mission to live as Jesus had".
Have you found Christ through the poor? Lauren’s story reminds me of a quote from St. Augustine that says,
“What does love look like?
It has the hands to help others.
It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy.
It has eyes to see the misery and want.
It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men.
That is what love looks like".
Truly, Lauren found Love Himself through being the hands and feet of Christ. I asked her if she has found Mary’s Magnificat through this and her response is breathtaking.
“The first time I truly felt and understood what Mary proclaimed was on my mission trip to Kingston, Jamaica. It was in this mission work, this opportunity to live as Jesus had, that I came to the realization that every desire in my heart is there because our Father meticulously placed it there and He would place nothing in our hearts that He had no intention of fulfilling. In the midst of my mission work, I realized that this opportunity to serve and to emulate Jesus’ life is an opportunity to grow in intimacy with our Father. It is in this intimacy with our Creator that we truly find ourselves and discover the deep and meaningful yearnings of our soul that our Father placed there and wants to bring to fruition. This understanding - that the pursuit of the Father is a pursuit of our truest self, a self that we would want to be if we fully knew His plan for us - is why Mary’s proclamation of her soul, her very essence, rejoicing in the Lord is such an accurate description of how we feel when we grow in intimacy with the Father.”
"It is in this intimacy with our Creator that we truly find ourselves and discover the deep and meaningful yearnings of our soul that our Father placed there and wants to bring to fruition.”
Do you want that? Do you want to be your truest self? Even if it means changing some action, some habit, and/or some ideal?
I pray we all find this intimacy that Christ wants to give us.
Jesus, fill me with your love. Help me abandon my ideals and replace them with Your own. Help me replace the world's expectations with Your own. Help me to lay at your feet all of my desires, sorrows, wants, burdens, and expectations so I may be filled with Your love instead. Show me who I am supposed to be, so I may become everything You made me to be. I ask this through my Blessed Mother, who never fails to love and guide me. Amen.
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