Rock your beads.

When in doubt; Rock the beads. 

Seriously you guys. We need to make the rosary popular again, we must! A priceless gem for the road to holiness, it's more precious than your grandmother's locket, more important than prime time television, and more dangerous than a whip against the wickedness and snares of the devil. 

Think of the rosary as your own personal journey through the life of Christ, meditating on his works, all while walking arm in arm with his mother - your mother. It's Mary taking you gently by the hand, (or maybe in some cases gently by the earlobe,) to her son. I mean, think about it. What mother doesn't love to show off her child? What if her child is, well...God? You had better believe that she is ready and waiting for our cooperation to show us the blessed fruit of her womb, Jesus. 

Have you ever wondered why the rosary is shaped like it is? Well, Mary didn't intend for it to be a necklace, we know that. So what kind of design is that? Impractical, let me tell you! But maybe, maybe, we need to broaden the horizons here a little. I like to think of the rosary as a lasso. Mary's an outlaw cowgirl, running from the law of this world, taking with her those who she can get under her beaded lasso and heading west to gold country, Heaven. 

If you aren't really into westerns, how about a fisherman's tale? Many of the apostles were fisherman, after all, Jesus called them to be fishers of men, and Mary is often referred to as Star of the Sea, so I find this intriguingly relevant! The rosary isn't just a superstitious and pious decoration on deck of the fishing boats - NO, SCURVY LASS, NO! It be the very floats on the fishing nets cast out in blue waters, yeh see? First Mate Mary be fishing for souls out of the deep abyss. 

Practical Details:

1. Don't own a rosary? Seriously, email me and I will personally see to it that you obain one. Otherwise, you have ten fingers. You can figure it out. 
2. Don't know how to pray it? Here ya go! 
3. Don't know the mysteries of the rosary by heart? Join the club. 

Aaaannnd as if I could make it any more convenient for you, there are tons of free rosary apps out there that include meditations for each mystery of the rosary, all of those prayers we never actually memorized, and bunches of other great things worth downloading!

      So there you go, sons and daughters of Mary, cowgirls and cowboys, runaways and outlaws, pirates and fishermen, PRAY!

Battery Life for the Journey

I have something on my mind. I don't know how it's going to look written out in Times New Roman (or whatever font this is, for that matter), but you win some you lose some I suppose! So here goes; I'm sick of going to mass and adoration and seeing heaps and heaps of people who so seem to have got it together. There, I said it. Maybe it's pride, envy, some other deadly sin that I don't know of, but it irks me like nobody's business.

I think Abigail Van Buren said it better than I ever could:

"The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints." Bam. 

Bllleeeeeeerggggghhh

What I want to see more of are the strugglers, stragglers, and confused. The WHAT IS THE MEANING OF LIFE-ers and the Where do I go from here-ers. I want to see people groveling on their hands and knees, dragging themselves on their stomachs to the front steps of the church as if their very lives depended on it. As if they were recently lost in the desert for a month, dying of thirst and covered in festering sun blisters, and the church had a big flashing sign that read: COMPLIMENTARY FRESH WATER & ALOE VERA OINTMENT! Now that's what I'm talking about. 

This isn't to say that my dear brothers and sisters who are in mass every Sunday or faithfully skipping into mass as a part of their daily routine aren't struggling through life. The devout and consistent Christian is a weary traveler too. But maybe the difference between the weary Christians and the rest of the whole wide weary world is that we Jesus-Freaks just can't handle the desert. Not alone, at least. We thirst, and the water among the miles of sand is scarce and fleeting, quick to evaporate into vapor. We can't stay in the desert for too long, we are so weak and we need our strength. There are people out in the desert both crying for help and clinging to the sand, scoffing at those who try to save them from their so called "home". We can't just leave them there, and we certainly cannot deny them our life-giving water. To put it into modern language; We are sad, cracked, broken little ipods and the Church is our IHome, charging us up with vitality! And battery life! And Jesus! Amen! 

So I ask this, When is the last time you met somebody that really needs a home? A good home-cooked meal? Not just in a literal sense, but in a good cold water, aloe vera ointment, and IHomes kind of way! Point to the neighborhood church, invite them along, say a prayer for them, tell them how important they are to you. Christ can use us as water for the journey to those around us in many ways. In my experience, I've never physically stumbled into a church, limping in from the battlefield that lies outside. But! I do frequently, (as in every single day), sigh deeply as I sink back into the pew, knowing that I get my steak and potatoes, my daily bread, my daily Jesus. 

FIAT: Not just an Italian Automobile Manufacturer.

Fiat: (fee-aht) Latin; let it be done. 

Happy Feast of the Annunciation, everybody! Praise be Jesus Christ! Today is the day on which the Annunciation is traditionally celebrated since March 25 is 9 months before December 25, pretty cool eh?


On this day the angel Gabriel appeared to a teen aged girl named Mary and told her something that would change her life, as well as the course of history from that moment forward. So, I don't know about you guys, but when I find out that somebody I know is expecting, I flip out. I can't wait to see their pregnancy pictures and I knit them baby hats and I get so excited! Well, today I'm extra excited, because this is the day that Mary found out she was going to have a baby, and he would be the son of God.
(It's kind of a really big deal.)


As if finding out the savior of the world is on his way isn't enough for one day, I'm going to slam even more Marian goodness your way. Mary is some woman, let me tell you. Like...she's awesome. Engaged to Joseph, with many plans I'm sure, this wasn't exactly the ideal time for a baby, let alone a baby that Joseph would know with upmost certainty wasn't his. She would definitely lose her marital arrangement. The community as well, whether they thought the child was Joseph's or not, would most likely stone Mary to death for becoming pregnant out of wedlock, and she would greatly dishonor her betrothed as well as her family. What a good situation to be in.

But what did Mary do? She didn't ask what would become of her plans, her relationship, her family, nor her very life. She says;

Behold, the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done unto me according to your word. 

She said YES!!! And not just yes, but a beautiful, classy, faith-filled fiat! How much more lovely she is as compared to I, who maybe, maybe, and I repeat - maybe, would have had the courage to whimper out a small and pathetic, "Okay...If you say so". It can even be hard to mutter that small and measly OK in the face of what is known, such as what is expected of us in our responsibilities and what is asked of those who walk in the footsteps of Christ. How much more difficult is it to give that wholehearted YES to that what is yet unknown? What faith and humility our mother did show on this day! 

What happened next? Luke's Gospel tells us that immediately "the angel departed from her" (38). No "Congratulations!",  no pat on the back, no "She said yes! Oh boy, Oh boy! She said YES!". Nope. She was given that little promise from God, and she trusted him in faith, as horribly inconvenient as it may have been.

The fruit of Mary's fiat? The word became flesh and dwelt among us. Worth it? You know it was. Then, now, and forever.

Get Out of my Conscience!

If you attended, heard about, prayed for, or are even just now learning about today's festivities of over 140 Rallies for Religious Freedom across the United States, PAT YOURSELF ON THE BACK! Today I had the marvelous privilege of taking part in the Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN Rally for Religious Freedom to STOP the HHS Mandate. There were over 2,000 peace loving, freedom loving Catholics, Christians, Jews, Muslims, and other flag flyin' Americans present at this rally alone, and with rallies taking place simultaneously from sea to shining sea, that makes today's event the largest national rally in defense of the First Amendment in the history of this country. Jinkies!!!

Look! I even took some pictures for you guys! Somebody let me stand on a bench in front of them because I'm so puny! SCORE!!!!

The fight, however, is far from over. With many a popular and well worded yet oh-so-cliche opposition to the Catholic (and, well...sane) side of the fight, we've got sleeves to roll up and hands to get dirty. So here I go:

One of my favorites that I will attempt to address with poise and grace is the whole "98% of Catholic women use contraception" statement. Oh boy, it's list time: 

1. First of all, this is an extremely misleading and overgeneralized statistic that should quite honestly be disregarded and done away with...but don't take my word for it.
2. Even if  100% of Catholic women truthfully used some form of birth control, it's irrelevant to the reasons for opposing the mandate. Truth is truth even if nobody believes it. 
3. If a survey found that 98% of people lied, cheated on their taxes, or had sex outside of marriage, can the government claim it can force everybody to do so? HA. Hogwash. 
4. We realize that a good number of Catholic couples do use some form of contraception. The Church, unlike the government, respects the freedom of conscience of its persons to choose. Hey government, take a hint, why don't ya? 

And that's only one of the opposing arguments! One measly statistic among a few other measly arguments for the mandate. Ha, the Catholic Church has outlived every major empire since its birth, bring it Health and Human Services! 

I also managed to get a picture of a beautiful lady I met, she was so gracious to let me photograph her, (right). Though I do believe that she spelled charnel wrong, it really struck me as beautiful and very brave. Which has been eating away at me all day. We need to be brave, courageous men and women-NO - sons and daughters of God (King of the Universe nbd), especially in the face of moral issues such as this one, as well as the fight for human life in our nation. I can't wait for the day, and Lord Jesus I hope it is coming, that we can truly call our nation one of LIFE, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

We CAN do this guys, for if God is with us who can be against us? 

The Lampstands

Today as I was reading a favorite and familiar scripture verse, I was reminded of both a past experience and my last post, Feminine Genius. Check out Revelation (WHOOOAAAAA APOLCALYSPE!!!!???!!) 1:12-20 below!

A Vision of Christ

I turned to see whose voice it was that spoke to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands I saw one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash across his chest. His head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; his eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp, two edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining with full force. 
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he placed his right hand on me,  saying, "Do not be afraid, I am the first and the last, the living one. I was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever; and I hold the keys of Death and of Hades. 


Pretty cool, huh? Well...yea, if you're into that sort of creepy dramatic fiery end-of-the-ages thing. But if you're a good normal Catholic Christian you'd be all like:

I'm kidding, I'm kidding! Glowing risen Jesus is perfectly normal! If you consider the fact that he's, well, God, no biggie. But I digress, this isn't the point. To make some sense of the inner workings of my mind and the Holy Spirit pertaining to the above Revelation passage, I'm going to have to share with yall a beautiful experience I recently had at a retreat.

I was being prayed over by six of my beautiful sisters in Christ. They all had their hands on me, asking Jesus to give me his Holy Spirit in a deeper way. I remember feeling so warm, but it wasn't on my skin. It was coming from inside of me, similar to the feeling of an adrenaline high, but BETTER! I heard Jesus tell me I was warm because he was holding me in his arms like a little child, and then the tears came. One of my sisters began to have a vision of me. A bright light was coming out of me like the sun, as she described it. I knew it was his spirit inside of me, I knew he wanted to shine through me.

Later, the same woman who had the vision shared Revelation 1:12-20 with our small group. The Lord had placed it in her heart and she needed to share it with us. Instantly upon hearing it I was overwhelmed. This was the might and the warmth and strength of Jesus that I felt! The most beautiful part is that about the lampstands, though. There were seven women in my small group, myself included, just as there were seven golden lampstands. We were all on fire for Christ, gleaming like gold for him, but I noticed that lampstands themselves aren't lamps. This is why Jesus wanted me to hear this, he was speaking to me, and to everyone reading this as well. The light that shone out of me wasn't actually me, it was him. He wants us to hold him up like a lampstand holds a light up so that all of the darkness will be lit with his brilliant, shining light.

It gets even better! Jesus goes on to tell John in Revelation 1 that the seven lampstands represent the seven churches. The mission of the church is to bring the light to all corners of darkness in this world, to continue the kingdom on earth. In my last post I wrote about how us woman are called in a special way to be little churches to the world, offering ourselves as sanctuaries of life-giving love, sharing the graces of the sacraments to all, and holding up this very same light that is burning inside of us.
(Men, you guys are called to be lampstands too, but maybe less pretty shiny ones). ;)

 So bros and sistas, let him shine through you. Be the light of the world because he is the light of the world and you can't contain his joy and love. For you prepare a feast before me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me and anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. (Psalm 23) Let's let our cups overflow with his love. Imagine the possibilities if we let the eternal and infinitive Lord Jesus Christ do his thing, bubbling over out of our lives and into the world like red hot lava - but way hotter and more dangerous than lava - but in a good kind of dangerous, world-changing, soul-changing way. Ya know? I am nothing but his lampstand, though crooked and tarnished I am, and that's all I desire. Anyone with me?

Feminine Genius

GIRL POWER!

I have come to find, as have many other ladies young and old,  that it can often be quite difficult as a woman to discover one's role in the church, home, and, well, the world. Maybe it's because  femininity is powerful stuff, it has the potential to inspire. Or is it the fear of extremes, since anything bursting at the seams, even with a good thing, tends to scare us off. 

See, as women striving to bring about the kingdom, we don't want our femininity to look like this,

And we CERTAINLY do not want it to resemble in any way this:

So where's the balance, what does it mean to be a woman of God? Pope John Paul called it our feminine genius....take a look:

"At this moment when the human race is undergoing so deep a transformation, women imbued with the spirit of the Gospel can do so much to aid humanity in not falling."

~JPII

In short form: Women are the Church's stealth weapon of the 21st Century. In fact, I'm going to be so bold as to say that women are called to be mini-churches in the world. Sounds a little weird, right? Yea, but hear me out! A church is a sanctuary, a beautiful dwelling place that gives life. Sounds kind of like the role of a wife and mother, either in a physical sense or a spiritual one! Well that's pretty neat....BUT WAIT! It get's even cooler!

What happens in a church? The sacraments happen! Let's start from the beginning. Baptism. A new child of God is welcomed to the family that is the church. This should ring a bell, for a woman does this same thing in the home and community, what with bringing new life into the world, as well as being hospitable and welcoming to her family.  

Confirmation. This continues the work of baptism, if you will. It supports and encourages as well as affirms. It is a seemingly normal and calm event as the Holy Spirit is received in the faithful, but Oh it is not ordinary and optional. It makes Christians into adults, in the good sense. Sounds an awful lot like the role of a gentle mother, sister, or friend to a loved one, doesn't it?

The Eucharist. We are fed by God with bread from heaven, the precious body and blood of his son, Jesus Christ. UNION WITH GOD. It's quite literally a kiss from heaven. We are nourished and sustained by him, and we find comfort and strength in his embrace. This reminds me so much of my mother. I couldn't have grown up happy and strong to go out into the world if she didn't spend all of those years feeding me and loving me with hugs! 

Reconciliation. Our sins are taken away and we are purified. We are wiped clean. It's like God goes at our souls with some rubber gloves and a nice bottle of Clorox. That's funny, is God suggesting that I, as a woman, should like cleaning? Well, not necessarily. He hasn't stamped my heart with the sole desires and purposes of cooking and cleaning. I imagine the care and importance that the Virgin Mary would have had in her heart as she wiped food off of the face of her son, bathed him, and cleaned the dirt out of his scrapes. That is what God wants from us as women. How beautiful would it be if we, as women, were sources of this comfort and healing?

I don't write this to silence anybody and I don't intend to tell a single woman to always use soft, cheerful tones and cross her ankles. This isn't what God had in mind when he gave us our feminine nature. His plan for women has never depended simply on how polite, charming, or lovely a woman was. Rahab was a harlot, Martha was flustered, Leah was ugly, Hagar slept with Sarah's husband, Sarah was kind of a diva about it, and Mary Magdalene was a horrible sinner who had 7 demons cast out of her. Yikes. And the lord used these ladies as crucial persons in preparing the way of salvation, of Jesus. I'm pretty sure he can/will use us too continue his work. 

Ladies, we aren't men. We are different than men. This should be a joyful and wonderful thing, not an oppressive one!  For this is not the will of God, that his daughters be enslaved by their femininity, but set free by it, and setting others free along with us. He wants us to embrace our beauty and our femininity so that his beauty can shine through us. Amen? 

Owned by Grace.

This morning it was brought to my attention by one of my lovely roommates that;

"Bridget, today we are as fertile as we are ever going to be. I mean really, people in their 40's and 50's are struggling to have babies and we could do it no problem! Isn't that weird?!" 

That's some good morning wisdom right there. But in all seriousness it got me thinking. Today I am the youngest I will ever be again, DUH, and I'm on a one way train towards certain wrinkles, disease, and death. It's a happy thought. 

There is so much we can't control that it can be quite frightening. I can't control the fact that my time on earth is limited, nor too many details about my life here. What I can control is who ultimately gets my life, who I belong to. 

See, upon the long and often confusing process of discerning that the Catholic church is actually right about everything, I decided that the dumbest thing I could ever do here in these vibrant youthful years of mine would be to own my own life. How BORING! Life is much too short to settle for my life being run by me, I can't imagine a lonelier and more selfish ordeal! Quite frankly, if I followed through on many of the plans and desires I have in this life I know that I would be both bored to death and always hungry for something slightly out of reach. Sounds fun, eh?

Which brings me to ask this delightfully simplistic question; Do you realize that God owns the universe? He has everything in the whole world, seen and unseen, but the one thing that he wants and desires as the treasure of all treasures is something that he doesn't always have. The human heart, YOUR HEART! Personally I'm so flattered that God sees my heart as such a treasure. He guards it with a jealous love that cannot be the result of anything I have done to make myself worthy. It's such a gift! 

When we give the Lord our entire beings; our hearts and our wills, we are giving him the one thing that can be withheld from him. And he wants it so badly. Let him pursue you, he's very charming.