Thoughts on Thanksgiving

I have a huge problem with getting stuck in the stereotype category of "senioritis" since I happen to be in my senior year of high school. I believe the biggest mistake young people make is trying too hard to "find themselves." Our culture tells us that we need to take a year off of college, or travel the world to find out who we really are. If there is anything I can say that I've learned this year, it's that staying where you are and diving into Christ is the best place to find everything you're looking for.
I've been so blessed to have great events that have assisted me with my journey. I'm still attending Bible Study with some home schoolers, and it's been even more of a blessing to be able to take Reid along with me this year. We're using the Focus on the Family's "Truth Project" videos for this year, and they have been extremely interesting. We've studied different world views, and ways to live in society.
I'm learning every day that I have so much more to learn. Tim had a great way of explaining this. He held his arms shoulder length apart, thus making two sides of a box. He said to imagine that this box contains all the knowledge that anyone in the world has ever learned, or ever will learn. Now imagine how much of this knowledge you will learn in your life. Makes you feel pretty small, right? People have dedicated their lives to a single topic, learning everything they can about it. But maybe a few years later another person will find a missing piece of information that makes the old information meaningless. Scientists are constantly discovering new cures and medicines. Remember in Jane Austen's day when they thought bleeding would cure people of their illness? Now we know that this in fact makes it worse!
I find myself disturbingly immersed in college applications. As my dad likes to remind me, when he went to college he just told Kansas State he was coming and sent them a check! My how the times have changed... The University of Dallas requires four short essays, one long essay, a letter from my teacher, AND a letter from an outside influence! This was the first of my undertakings, and the process still hasn't ended. I'm flying down to Dallas on Wednesday for an interview with the French Department. I know it's a lot of work, and at 11pm, I'm wondering if I should be spending more time on other schools, but right now this is where God wants me to be. I think the people who regret their college experience didn't include God in their decision. Just like in some marriages, we make the decisions and then ask God to bless them. Oh how great the world's joy would be if we reversed this process!
We we're blessed enough to have the National Catholic Youth Conference come to Kansas City last weekend. My mom took a group of six boys and girls down for the Thursday through Saturday events. Jason Evert and his wife were two of the main speakers, and I was moved by their talks. Anyone who knows me knows that the subject of Love is one of my favorites. I would love to give chastity talks in the future. After waiting in line for about an hour, I finally got a signed copy of their book "If You Really Loved Me." I'm still reading it, so I'll post more when I finish it.
French class is still going good, and I've decided to continue taking it in the spring. There are some really great people in my class, and we have a great coffee study group started.
Finally, I'd like to share my thoughts on Thanksgiving. Before this week I've only told this story to one person, but I felt like my Blog was a fitting place to share it. I'm against most holidays. In fact Halloween is about the only one that I fully understand. If you need a day to tell the people in your life how much you love them, you don't deserve to tell them. If you need a day to be thankful, you don't deserve to say the words! Understand what I mean? So for everyone that reads this, I am just as thankful for you all today as I was yesterday, and as I will be tomorrow. You are all wonderful people, and I've been so blessed to have you in my life.
I hope this catches everyone up on what's been going on in my life, and that you had a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving!

Gifts

- A homily by Fr. Anthony Ouellette

Imagine making a gift for someone and pouring your blood, sweat, tears, time, your very self into this gift. It becomes a representation of you. You give this gift to the person you made it for, and they take the gift and walk away, without so much as a thank you. They are so enthralled with the gift that they forget the giver.

God gives people to us, friends and family. They greatest gifts receive in our lives. Sometimes we come to love them and forget their Maker, we appreciate them without appreciating Him Who gave them to us. And sometimes, God takes them away from us, because He loves us so much, so that we will remember Him.

The Cracked Pot

An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which she carried across her neck.

One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water.

At the end of the long walks from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water..

Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments.

But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own
imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do.

After two years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the woman one day by the stream.

"I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house.'

The old woman smiled, 'Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side?'

'That's because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them.'

For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table.

Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house.'

Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding.

You've just got to take each person for what they are and look for the good in them.

SO, to all of my cracked pot friends, have a great day and remember to smell the flowers on your side of the path!

Starbucks VIA Challenge

Drop by a participating Starbucks from October 2nd-5th to take the Starbucks VIA Challenge and they'll give you a free tall brewed coffee for your time!
Another reason why I hope it smells like Starbucks in Heaven :)

Visiting the Shrine at Lourdes

Today, we went to Lourdes --very early! It is 2-hour's drive away, and the whole family went. We visited all three churches and the grotto, despite the crowds and the heat. The grounds are the size of Worlds of Fun! I prayed for everyone, bought holy water bottles, and spent my last Euro...

Quote for the Day

"Joy is often found behind little things and is reached by followingone's proper daily duty with a spirit of devotion." -Pope Benedict XVI

Faith, Hope, and Love

Love is patient, love is kind.

It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

It is not rude, it is not self seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes always perseveres. Love never fails.

But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will come to pass away.
For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.

When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.

Now we see but a poor reflection; then we shall see face to face.

Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am full known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
(I CORINTHIANS 13: 4-13)

I read a quote once that said "You can't fully love a person until you have stopped hating the rest of the world."

Hate is so easy to feel. It can come upon you faster than you know how to stop it.

Which do you think is more powerful, hate or love? If Hitler could cause so much uproar with his hate, how much uproar do you think Christians could cause with their love?

Show someone your love for them today. It doesn't have to be a big thing. But show it. See how much better your day will go when you spread the love!

So Where Do We Stand?

As most of you know, I have been reading St. Augustine's "Confessions." At first I found his writings tiresome, but now I am enjoying it very much. You also know that I have been attending a logic class, and the thoughts of St. Augustine go very well with this. A few weeks ago we were talking about objective beauty. Deciding what is beautiful, and how you decide or reason your conclusion.
There are many abroad who talk of their own fantasies and lead men's minds astray. They assert that because they have observed that there are two wills at odds with each other when we try to reach a decision, we must therefore have two minds of different natures, one good, the other evil. Let them vanish at God's presence as the smoke vanishes. As long as they hold these evil beliefs they are evil themselves, but even they will be good if they see the truth and accept it, so that your apostle may say to them 'Once you were all darkness; now, in the Lord, you are all daylight.'(Eph. 5:8) These people want to be light, not in the Lord, but in themselves, because they think that the nature of the soul is the same as God. In this way their darkness becomes denser still, because in their abominable arrogance they have separated themselves still further from you, who are the true Light which enlightens every soul born into the world. I say to them 'Take care what you say, and blush for shame. Enter God's presence, and find there enlightenment; here is no room for downcast looks.' (Ps. 33:6)

I think this is a big problem with the world today. We want to be the light, not in the Lord, but in ourselves. Movie stars give credit to their talent, but not to the one who gave it to them. We our proud of what we have accomplished with our lives, but how many times do we forget to thank God for helping us get there?

Don't you just love it when Catholics are funny?!

We have been talking about the Presidential Election.

While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75 year old PA farmer, whose hand was caught in a gate while working the garden , the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man. Eventually the topic got around to Obama and his bid to be our President.
The old farmer said, 'Well, ya know, Obama is a 'post turtle'.' Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a 'post turtle' was. The old rancher said, 'When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a 'post turtle'.'
The old farmer saw a puzzled look on the doctor's face, so he continued to explain. 'You know he didn't get up there by himself, he doesn't belong up there, he doesn't know what to do while he is up there, and you just wonder what kind of a dumb ass put him up there!.'

St. Augustine- Confessions

"Is this what you prescribed when from the heights of heaven to the depths of earth, from the first beginnings to the end of time, from the angel to the worm, from the first movement to the last, you allotted a proper place and a proper time to good things of every kind and to all your just works? How can I hope to understand the height and the depth of you, from the greatest to the most lowly of your works? You never depart from us, yet it is hard for us to return to you."

(St. Augustine's Confessions pg.167)

Why is it so hard to come back to God after we have sinned? Luke 15:7 says "I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance."

Why then is it so hard to come back. We know God loves us. And that he will always receive us with open arms. But we still find it hard to turn away from sin and come back to God.

The truth is, that deep inside us we have a yearning to do what is good. It's true that sin causes that yearning to not be as strong. But it is always there. We just have to find it.

Call upon the Holy Spirit in times of need. He will help you obtain the graces needed to come back to God.

I have been praying about this question a lot lately, and thinking about what it means to have true repentance. God's love is so great, that He loves us even when we sin. Even when we don't choose Him, He still chooses us!

Come Holy Spirit
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.

V. Send forth your Spirit, and they shall be created.

R. And You shall renew the face of the earth.

Let us pray.
O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

Henry Pool Is Here

Two weeks ago, my wonderful mother set up a evening for some friends from youth group to go see this movie together.
After the movie, I was talking to Hannah, Hannah, and Nicole about what we would say if someone asked us what the movie was about. Yes, I liked it. Yes, it was good. Yes, you should go see it. But there is not a whole lot more I can say. So I decided that I would reach out for this one. I looked up the review on Plugged In Online, and this is what I found:
What's eating Henry Poole?
No one knows, and he'd rather not say. He'd rather not talk to anyone if he can help it. He buys a nice little house in the Los Angeles suburbs, telling his real estate agent to not dicker over price. When she says she could at least get the owners to slap on a new coat of stucco, he cryptically says he won't live there long enough to care.
His diet consists of pizza, doughnuts and vodka. He spends his days sprawled on his couch, all the curtains drawn. If he's feeling really adventurous, he lounges on a plastic lawn chair in his bare backyard, his only entertainment listening to his beard grow.
"So, where are you from?" asks neighbor Esperanza, after taking him a plate of welcome-to-the-neighborhood tamales. "Not here," he says, closing the door.
Yeah, Henry is Eeyore without a tail, a morose sad sack who just wants to be left alone.
Too bad, then, that Henry's Realtor ignores his wishes and has the house restuccoed. Too bad the stucco guy botches the job and leaves behind a curious discoloration on one wall. Henry, naturally, thinks it's a water stain. Esperanza thinks it's a miracle—the face of Christ stamped on the side of Henry's nondescript dwelling. Soon, folks start making pilgrimages to Henry's home to touch the face and pay their respects.
And then the miracles begin. The mute talk. The blind (or, at least, the visually impaired) see (better). It's a wonder neighbors don't dig up dead loved ones and cart them to Henry's house in wheelbarrows.
Henry's not having any of it, though.
"I don't see anything," he tells Esperanza, peering at the wall.
"You're not looking," she answers.

Very good movie. Only PG so you can take all the "little" kids of the family. I found at the end a great need and desire to go out and do something good with my life. Or at least give a granola bar to the homeless man in Kansas City.