Catholic Faith Space
|
|
|
Last Thursday at work, I was sitting in the breakroom at work for lunch and there was only one other person in there. There are over 100 employees who work for the company and there are a few different locations, so there are many people that I don’t know. The coworker in the breakroom was one of these people- he was someone who normally works at a different office, in a different department but I had maybe seen him a handful of times at our quarterly all-staff meetings. A few minutes after I had sat down and started eating, he asked, “Are you Catholic?” The question caught me off guard at first but then I remembered I was wearing the crucifix necklace that I wear every day. We proceeded to talk about our faith for the next 20 minutes. This conversation was a consolation from God and a reminder that faith is not to be kept in a box separate from the rest of our lives, but something that needs to be ingrained into who we are, no matter where we are.
As adults, we spend a large portion of the week at work. The people we work with are people who we spend a lot of time with. While I work with great people, it can sometimes feel kind of lonely when you have beliefs that are opposite of most of them. And it can be easy to let this take a toll on your faith when you work next to and with these people day in and day out. This conversation in the breakroom at work, while a small moment in my day, was easily the highlight. My coworker told me that he had gone through RCIA in 2017 and we talked about everything from Catholic prayer apps, faith formation, to the Bible and Catechism in a Year podcasts. The breakroom at work seemed like the most unlikely place to have this conversation and I almost forgot I was at work during that time. It was the spiritual boost I needed and it was God who provided it in the most unexpected and unlikely place. We may sometimes feel lonely, but we are never alone. Whether in the workplace, at school, or in any other setting, we need to persevere and keep the faith. And God may place people in front of us at just the right moments. We need to be open to these moments and these encounters, ready and willing to share our faith. As you go through this week, be open and ready- you may just have a conversation you weren’t expecting.
0 Comments
Do you ever think about what it was like for the disciples to walk with Jesus, about how amazing and life-changing it would have been? Today, 2,000 years later, we too are called to walk with Him. Thinking about our lives as disciples today, we must ask ourselves, are we walking with Jesus? Yesterday, June 17th, I had the opportunity to reflect on this question for 7 ½ miles, as I physically walked with Jesus as part of the Marian Route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage. As we walked with Jesus, present in the Eucharist, I thought about what it means to really walk with Jesus and if I am actually doing so in my life.
I think walking with Jesus means asking Him to be with us and calling upon Him to lead us through each day, whatever we may face. It is a desire to hear and listen to His voice, rather than the voices of the world, trying to lead us astray. It is to keep praying and to keep moving forward with trust in Him. It is to lift each foot, one step at a time when our crosses feel too heavy and asking Him to help us carry them. It’s easy to walk with Jesus when it’s convenient, easy, and when we feel close to Him. But a true test of our faith is whether we walk with him when people criticize us, when we face challenges, or when we feel far from Him. Are we committed to walking with Jesus at all times and through all circumstances, to live as disciples in every moment of our days? Yesterday, I was reminded that walking with Jesus is to live in a continued awareness of His presence and to know that He is with us always. And once we got to the church for the second Holy Hour of the day, one of the songs that was sung struck me as a powerful prayer that I need to be praying every day. As we sang the song “Jesus, My Lord, My God, My All, the refrain was, “O, make us love Thee more and more.” The more we love Jesus, the more closely we will walk with Him. May we all strive to love Jesus more and more, always aware of His presence, so that we will walk with Him through each day, living as disciples. It will be life-changing! Friday night, my brother and I were on a walk and as we were waiting for a car to turn so we could cross the street, something really weird happened. The guy driving the car, who looked to be in his 30s, rolled down his window, stuck his head out the window, turned to look at us and screamed really loudly. Neither of us knew who this man was and we were confused as to what had just happened and why. We continued on with walking our normal route and were a few steps past our church when we decided to go back, pause our walk, and stop in for eucharistic adoration that was taking place that evening. We stayed only for about 10 minutes, but those 10 minutes of sitting before Jesus in the blessed sacrament were filled with quiet and peace. Going to adoration provides a quiet and peace that the world does not offer.
As I kneeled in the church, I could not help but think about what had happened a few minutes before, as we were waiting to turn onto the street. The man who screamed was a perfect representation of the world. The world around us is screaming and yelling- telling us what to believe or not to believe, telling us what we should fill our time with, and showing us what is supposed to make us happy. The world around us is oftentimes angry and mad. And if we let our minds be consumed by everything in the world, we will never find peace or experience the stillness and quietness. Stepping into a church or chapel for adoration is by far the best place to encounter this peace that the world does not know. It is the best place because we get to sit before Jesus who is truly present and who is peace Himself. It is an opportunity to step away from the outside noise and spend time speaking to Jesus, but also listening. Aside from mass, eucharistic adoration is the best way we can spend our time. St. Alphonsus Mary Liguori summed it up well saying, “know that perhaps you will gain more in a quarter of an hour of adoration in the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament than in all the other spiritual exercises of the day.” Any time spent with Jesus is time that makes a difference in our relationship with Him, even if just for 10-15 minutes. Find time to go to eucharistic adoration. It will not only fill you with peace and help you escape from the noise of life, but it will also change your heart. It will help you to know Jesus better so that you can love Him more deeply. The world is screaming because it does not know Jesus and the peace He gives. May you take time to leave the noise behind for a while and sit before Jesus in the blessed sacrament, even if just for 10 minutes at a time. A few days ago, I listened to a podcast episode from a show called “Pints with Aquinas” about how we are living in a post-Christian era and as we go forward, will be entering into an era that is more explicitly post-Christian. In the over two hour podcast, one thing the host and guest said that really stood out is that we are in a cultural battle, and “there is no politician or political movement that is going to reverse what we’re describing here. The only thing that will reverse it is a restoration and a revival of lived Christianity, of an active and bold and emboldened Christian faith” (Neo-Paganism, Abortion, and the Fall of the West w/ John Daniel Davidson). Are we living with an active, bold, and emboldened faith?
We cannot look to other people to change the culture we are living in. As the podcast mentioned, politicians, leaders, and groups part of any political movement cannot restore Christian influence in the country. It is only through Christians living out a bold and authentic faith that we will be able to persevere and stand up to a culture that wants to silence Christians and the beliefs we have. A lot of Catholics and other Christians right now are falling into the culture’s lure of complacency. People tell themselves things like, “I’m a good and nice person and I believe in God.” They believe they’ve done their part and that it’s all that really matters. The culture does not want to see Christians who take their faith seriously and who live it out boldly. But Christ calls us to give Him everything, to follow Him, to take up our cross, and to rid ourselves of whatever prevents us from doing this. It WILL cost us. Christ promised us that it would not be easy, but that He will be with us every step of the way. We must rise out of complacency, in hopes of bringing others with us, and helping others find their way back to Christ. The only way this can be done is with an active, bold, and emboldened Christian faith. Jesus, help us to follow you and live our faith well. |
AuthorStriving to share hope, joy, God's love, and all of the good stuff, one blog post at a time. Categories |
RSS Feed