The Love of the Father be with you! Pax Christi vobiscum! Come Holy Spirit!
Twenty-three months ago today I arrived in Italy to begin an adventure the extent of which I could never have imagined. Twenty-three months ago, to the day. Wow. And tomorrow, God-willing everything goes alright (pray for safe travel!), I will set foot again on American soil for the first time in almost 2 full years. I will be literally kissing that American soil. I will then proceed to wash it down with real, good ole, unbeatable Tex-Mex. Thanks be to God!
The odd thing: it both has and has not felt like 2 years away from home. I mean, in one sense, so much has happened that it seems to have just flown by. In another more real sense, I realize that it has been a long time since I've been home.
It is beautiful, though, to look back and see how God has been working in and through every moment. There have been some amazingly beautiful moments, real gifts of grace. There have also been some difficult moments, those times when I really felt the weight of the cross. The beautiful thing is that the Lord was present in both. I mean, sometimes He invites us up the mountain of Tabor, to see Him transfigured in all His glory, and other times He invites us up the mountain of Calvary, asking us, like Simon of Cyrene, to help Him carry His cross. Either way, we are with Him, with Love Himself, and that is what makes it all possible.
I am eager now to see how He uses this summer to guide me on the road to priesthood. I have a parish assignment, and I will also get to be a part of a mission trip. All told, it should be a phenomenal summer.
And now for my Top Ten List of Things Most-Missed from Texas:
10. Driving places
9. Elevators built for more than 8 Italians (= 2 Americans)
8. Ice
7. 'merican Efficiency
6. Personal space (measured in acres)
5. Waiting in lines that do not become wider at the front as more people show up
4. Not almost-dying every time I cross a street
3. Steak, burgers, barbecue, brisket, real bacon, chicken enchiladas, beef tacos, ballpark hotdogs...catch my drift?
2. Texans
1. My family and friends...(collective "awwww")
Needless to say, I'm ready to be home. I look forward to all that God has in store for me there, and I hope to be blessed enough to catch up with y'all (yes, the "y'all" was intentional). I do plan to keep posting on the blog this summer, so keep an eye out for that. And thank you for reading thus far, and also for your prayerful support of the journey that God has me on. I pray for you all, and I pray He blesses you one-hundred-fold for all the prayers you have said for me.
Catch you back in Texas! God bless!
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Little Things, Great Love
The Love of the Father be with you! Pax Christi vobiscum! Come Holy Spirit!
So as you may be aware, exams are going on, and I have one tomorrow. Which means that of course I would spend my time writing a blog post. I've also cleaned my whole room (twice), washed my clothes, checked my email 15 times today, and offered to clean other guys' rooms. I decided I'd get right on top of procrastinating...didn't want to put it off.
But I did have a little reflection lately that I really wanted to share. It came in prayer, and it just seems like I've constantly been reminded of it since then. Just wanted it to put it out there. It comes from The Feeding of the Five Thousand in the Gospel of Matthew (14:13-21):
When Jesus heard of it, he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself. The crowds heard of this and followed him on foot from their towns. When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, and he cured their sick. When it was evening, the disciples approached him and said, "This is a deserted place and it is already late; dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves.(Jesus) said to them, "There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves." But they said to him, "Five loaves and two fish are all we have here." Then he said, "Bring them here to me," and he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds. They all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up the fragments left over--twelve wicker baskets full. Those who ate were about five thousand men, not counting women and children.
The following words of Jesus really jumped out at me: "There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves." (Emphasis mine)
I mean, what were the disciples thinking?
"I got it: let's solve the problem by sending them away from the God of the universe made man. That sounds like a good idea."
"Did you come up with that yourself?"
"Yep, thought of it myself just now." (Loose translation from the Aramaic.)
Now, in all fairness, they were still in the process of discovering who exactly Jesus was, and the miracle that was about to take place was intended to help them see that Jesus truly is God. But it hit me: you never solve a problem by sending someone away from Jesus. He wants to be God of our lives, and He's a lot better at it than we are. So why not let Him?
So what happens next? But they said to him, "Five loaves and two fish are all we have here." (Emphasis mine)
Right after I read these lines, it hit me: God does not want our achievements. God does not want our awards, our honors, our many friends, our business connections. I mean, He does want us to offer those things to Him as well, and He's not against them. But what He wants most of all is our poverty, our inability to do it ourselves, our weakness.
In other words, God is not waiting for us to become awesome so that He can use us. He's waiting for us to give Him our littleness, our nothingness, our weaknesses and failures so that He can work through them to bring about amazing results of staggering proportions. I mean, what happens in this passage? Five loaves and two fish, which is all they have, when placed in the hands of God, becomes food for over 5,000 people, with leftovers to spare.
Jesus was not waiting for them to do a fundraiser to feed the followers of Jesus. He was not waiting for them to "figure it out." He was only waiting for them to offer Him what they could, offering it in the faith and trust that He would make it work out for the rest.
That one small offering, given in love--indeed, placed in the hands of Love Himself--was able to reach thousands of other people, because it was God who worked in their weakness. Mother Teresa captured it best with her simple yet beautiful words:
"Do small things with great love. It's not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing; and it is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving. To God, nothing is small; the moment we have given it to God, it becomes infinite." (Emphasis mine)
Now, I think I'm going to offer the 5 loaves and 2 fish worth of studying I've done for my exam tomorrow and see if that's enough to get through it.... *Cough *Cough
God bless you all! See you soon!
So as you may be aware, exams are going on, and I have one tomorrow. Which means that of course I would spend my time writing a blog post. I've also cleaned my whole room (twice), washed my clothes, checked my email 15 times today, and offered to clean other guys' rooms. I decided I'd get right on top of procrastinating...didn't want to put it off.
But I did have a little reflection lately that I really wanted to share. It came in prayer, and it just seems like I've constantly been reminded of it since then. Just wanted it to put it out there. It comes from The Feeding of the Five Thousand in the Gospel of Matthew (14:13-21):
When Jesus heard of it, he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself. The crowds heard of this and followed him on foot from their towns. When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, and he cured their sick. When it was evening, the disciples approached him and said, "This is a deserted place and it is already late; dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves.(Jesus) said to them, "There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves." But they said to him, "Five loaves and two fish are all we have here." Then he said, "Bring them here to me," and he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds. They all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up the fragments left over--twelve wicker baskets full. Those who ate were about five thousand men, not counting women and children.
The following words of Jesus really jumped out at me: "There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves." (Emphasis mine)
I mean, what were the disciples thinking?
"I got it: let's solve the problem by sending them away from the God of the universe made man. That sounds like a good idea."
"Did you come up with that yourself?"
"Yep, thought of it myself just now." (Loose translation from the Aramaic.)
Now, in all fairness, they were still in the process of discovering who exactly Jesus was, and the miracle that was about to take place was intended to help them see that Jesus truly is God. But it hit me: you never solve a problem by sending someone away from Jesus. He wants to be God of our lives, and He's a lot better at it than we are. So why not let Him?
So what happens next? But they said to him, "Five loaves and two fish are all we have here." (Emphasis mine)
Right after I read these lines, it hit me: God does not want our achievements. God does not want our awards, our honors, our many friends, our business connections. I mean, He does want us to offer those things to Him as well, and He's not against them. But what He wants most of all is our poverty, our inability to do it ourselves, our weakness.
In other words, God is not waiting for us to become awesome so that He can use us. He's waiting for us to give Him our littleness, our nothingness, our weaknesses and failures so that He can work through them to bring about amazing results of staggering proportions. I mean, what happens in this passage? Five loaves and two fish, which is all they have, when placed in the hands of God, becomes food for over 5,000 people, with leftovers to spare.
Jesus was not waiting for them to do a fundraiser to feed the followers of Jesus. He was not waiting for them to "figure it out." He was only waiting for them to offer Him what they could, offering it in the faith and trust that He would make it work out for the rest.
That one small offering, given in love--indeed, placed in the hands of Love Himself--was able to reach thousands of other people, because it was God who worked in their weakness. Mother Teresa captured it best with her simple yet beautiful words:
"Do small things with great love. It's not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing; and it is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving. To God, nothing is small; the moment we have given it to God, it becomes infinite." (Emphasis mine)
Now, I think I'm going to offer the 5 loaves and 2 fish worth of studying I've done for my exam tomorrow and see if that's enough to get through it.... *Cough *Cough
God bless you all! See you soon!
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
But Who's Counting?
The Love of the Father be with you! Pax Christi vobiscum! Come Holy Spirit!
So I can't wait to be home. Lots of good going on here, but I must admit I'm looking forward to coming home soon. So in the interest of both subtlety and good taste, I decided to add this flagrantly obvious countdown button with scroll-over capabilities. Enjoy, and God bless!
So I can't wait to be home. Lots of good going on here, but I must admit I'm looking forward to coming home soon. So in the interest of both subtlety and good taste, I decided to add this flagrantly obvious countdown button with scroll-over capabilities. Enjoy, and God bless!
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