Like When We Were a Lot Younger

Yesterday's Gospel reading came from Mark 10:13-16. While only three verses, the reading says a huge amount about how we should view and live our Catholic faith. In the reading, Christ tells his disciples, "whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it." And as I sat there in mass listening to the reading, and even throughout the rest of the mass, I kept thinking, "what exactly does this mean?"

Pointing Us in the Right Direction

If you know me, you'll notice that I can get pretty excited about certain things. Spider-man, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Lost, and Matt Maher's music are a few of the things that, although the years may pass, if you mention them, I'll start to go crazy. I'll analyze bass lines, re-enact scenes ("The Hobbits are going to Isengard!"), and pretend that I have a lightsaber. But another thing that I get all gung-ho for is my faith. Over the years, I have grown to become more emmersed in the beauty of the Catholic Church, and I try to bombard myself with this beauty as often I can.

Settling For Less

Jesus said many things about Himself while He dwelt among us as a human being. One statement in particular stands out to me: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). It's such a powerful statement. Christ is telling us that we will find eternal life through His way, which is truth. And He set up His one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church on earth to show us the truth, guided by the Holy Spirit.

But the fact of the matter is...as Catholic Christians, while the Truth leads us home, it also sets us apart from the world.

Rise Up: It's Kinda Rhetorical

I just had the best New Years ever by attending CCO's Rise Up Conference, this year held in Montreal. The days from Tuesday Dec. 28th to Saturday Jan. 1st proved to be such a beautiful example of how we, the young people in the Church, are challenging ourselves. Through talks, prayer, mass, praise and worship, workshops, exploring Montreal and ushering in the new year with a banquet and dance, the 600+ young adults, CCO staff, nuns, priests and bishops in attendance came to better understand how they are meant to more fully live and spread the Catholic faith. It was such a humbling, exciting and hopeful experience.

It's Christmas Everywhere!

One of my favourite Christmas CDs is Relient K's Let It Snow Baby...Let it Reindeer. One of the tracks on it is a cover of Silver Bells. Relient K does a great job of creating some more sophisticated sounds for the classic, including a sweet piano riff. But in true Relient K fashion, they also wrote a bridge:

Christmas time is almost here
Take the time to breathe the air
The bells ring out, tell us about
How Love was born this day

As the song transitions from this bridge back into the final chorus, I can't help but think of the song with a new perspective; one that is more Christ-centered. It's a beautiful piece of music. Here, in the middle of a "Christmas" song is a little bridge that reminds me that I can find the beauty and wonder of Jesus in many places during Christmas, not just by participating in mass or by looking at nativity scenes. I can find Him in the hearts of mall santas, in the hearts of children laughing, in the streetlights blinking red and green, and yes, in the sound of silver bells.

Let us rejoice! Our Saviour has been born to show us how to live and how to love. Look for that love everywhere.

Here's a link to Relient K's Silver Bells:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmtBtksPqD4

Merry Christmas everybody!

Mary and Joseph's Christmas Wish

I'm young. I'm only 21. And so, I am not going to say that I have a lot of life experience, nor will I assume that I will ever know what everyone is going to go through during their lifetimes. But I can say with confidence that no one, NO ONE, is going to experience anything that will top having an archangel appear to you and tell you that you will give birth to God.

BAM.

Mind blown.

The Consequence of Prayer

There are the times when we really get into a state of prayer...and we don't ask, we don't plead, we don't try to reason with God - we may not even be consciously thanking Him - we just are. We sit. We kneel. We revel in His power and in His presence. And then something happens within our hearts and minds. Something that, having myself experienced far too infrequently (especially during exam time), begs me to ask this question of the Church and her historical heroes: why is it that the greatest saints have all thought of themselves to be the greatest sinners?

The saints are saints because they were constantly striving, during their lives on earth, to seek God. I think a major part of this authentic drive is humility.