JMJ

Question: Do you know what excites high schoolers more than anything else?

Gutters.

Yes, you read that right, and no, I’m not kidding.

Gutters.

At least, this was the case for the two thousand students at the Steubenville Conference in Ohio this past weekend. In typical High School student fashion, an inside joke was made, and for the rest of the weekend, whenever some said the word “gutters” the entire gymnasium would burst into applause. By the end of the weekend, I passed many students who had even taken the liberty of writing “GUTTERS!!!” in Sharpie on the front of their t-shirts. Needless to say, it was an interesting weekend.

As a youth minister, I took a group of five kids and one other chaperone with me to Steubenville this year. The conference is always a crazy weekend, one filled with sleep deprivation, inside jokes, and powerful encounters with the Lord, and usually in that order. I never got to attend one as a student, but this was my third year taking students as a youth minister, and it continues to be a blessing to watch my kids grow throughout the weekend. I usually have a wide variety of students who either have yet to take their first voluntary step toward Jesus, have been taking active steps toward Him for a while, or are somewhere in between. No matter where each student falls on that scale, they usually grow in some capacity, and it’s a great privilege to be part of that and witness that change in their hearts.

Another one of my favorite parts about taking students on a trip like this is watching them be kids. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a pretty big advocate for getting off the phones and devices and spending time outside and in community, and I go by that philosophy even more when I’m with my youth ministry students. That meant that, during the conference, they weren’t allowed to be on their phones most of the day. In the car, I even took all their phones and put them in the center console so they would have to be interacting with each other. They usually grumble about this at first, but it always ends up with a lot of fun being had. It’s a joy to watch the kids laugh and find joy in the simple things with each other. It never fails to remind me of the joy and simplicity in childhood and how we are called to have that same joy and simplicity in being the children of God.

The speaker who unintentionally created the gutter joke was making a comparison with confession - just like gutters have to be cleaned, so do our souls, which is what confession does for us. As we continued throughout our weekend, however, and I continued to witness these kids enter into childlike joy, I couldn’t help but think about how it can also represent what happens when we try to define or identify ourselves as something other than children of God. The other identities we try to define ourselves by can distract us from our true selves, hurt us when we fail to live up to those self-imposed identities, and detract from our ability to live in the freedom of being God’s sons and daughters.

Just as gutters need to be cleaned out from time to time in order to do what they were created to do, so should we continue to clean out our hearts of the things that are preventing us from living fully in the freedom that the Lord invites us to. Psalm 114:6-7 says, “The Lord is the keeper of little ones: I was little and he delivered me. Turn, O my soul, into thy rest: for the Lord hath been bountiful to thee.” I love this verse because it redirects us to our spiritual childhood. Our littleness is something that we can lean into, because it allows God to work in us. When we remember our humility in being His children, as opposed to thinking and trying to do things all on our own, we leave room for the Lord to show up. “I was little and he delivered me.”

Verse 7 embodies well the childlike joy I got to witness in my kids this past weekend. “Turn, O my soul, into thy rest: for the Lord hath been bountiful to thee.” When we believe, trust, and live from our identity as God’s children, we can truly turn to Him in complete faith and confidence and find rest there. This can, of course, look like rest in the literal sense, but I think it can also refer to a rest from being occupied or worried about what the rest of the world will think. We can rest from trying to please the world, as we know that there is nothing in this world that could take away our adoption in Christ. This is a beautiful example of how the Lord has been bountiful to us.

If you haven’t done so lately, I would encourage you to spend some time in prayer asking the Lord to reveal the things in your life that are covering up your true identity as His child. Ask Him to reveal those things to you, and then ask Him to remind you just how much He loves you and of the freedom He wants you to experience in Him. Allow yourself to be childlike, find joy in the simple things around you, and remember that it is in our littleness that the Lord longs to work.

Turn into your rest, for the Lord is bountiful.

Stay close to Him and have faith!

-Brandy

Scripture quotations in this post are taken from the Douay-Rheims translation unless otherwise noted.

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JMJ

“Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole: go in peace, and be thou whole of thy disease.” -Mark 5:34

The story of the hemorrhaging woman is one of my favorite stories from Scripture, because it gives us a great example of what faith can do. Mark 5:25-34 tells the story of a woman who was bleeding for twelve years. She had spent all she had on doctors and physicians, but no one had been able to heal her. Because of her ailment, she was deemed “unclean” and was therefore a bit of an outcast in society and couldn’t touch others without making them unclean as well. For twelve years she suffered this way, until she encountered Jesus.

When she comes across Jesus in the crowd, the woman says, “If I shall touch but his garment, I shall be whole” (Mark 5:28). This is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful moments of faith we see in Scripture. This woman has been looking for answers, for healing, for hope, for the past twelve years. Most people wouldn’t blame her for giving up hope that a life without this affliction is possible. And yet, aside from how many times she has been disappointed and let down, she comes with what some might call a “radical” amount of faith in Jesus. She has so much faith that she knows that even touching His garment is enough to heal her. When she does get close enough to reach His garment, she is instantaneously healed from her disease. What twelve years of doctors and physicians couldn’t do, Jesus accomplished in one small act of faith.

If you haven’t already, you should watch this clip from The Chosen of this story. It’s beautifully done, and paints a good picture of the faith of the hemorrhaging woman and her determination to get to Jesus. The crowd she pushes through to get to Him is important, because it shows how big of a role our faith plays. Jesus was getting pushed and touched and reached after by the whole multitude around Him - even His disciples are surprised when Jesus stops and asks who touched His garments, but Jesus could feel the power leave Him as this woman was healed. This is a beautiful illustration that how we approach Jesus matters. When we approach Him with great faith, we are inviting Him to do great things. This is exactly the childlike faith we are called to have.

Jesus responds to the woman, “Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole: go in peace, and be thou whole of thy disease.” (Mark 5:34) Her faith was an integral part of her healing. Some may have laughed at her or called her crazy for thinking that Jesus could heal her when she had been trying to get help from physicians for years. Some even tried to stop her from touching Jesus because she was unclean. But she still chose to have faith that Jesus could help her. Persevering in her faith, even when others tried to stop her from doing so, is what allowed Jesus to work the miracle of healing her.

As I’ve been praying with this passage over the past few months, one of the things that has come to mind is how much Jesus desires us to have a radical faith in Him. This term can often get misconstrued as something that’s too big or crazy, but the Latin root of the word is “radix” which means “rooted” (thank you to the priest who talked about this in homily earlier this week). It relates to the origin or very core of something. When Jesus extends that invitation to us to have a radical faith, He is inviting us to have faith all the way down to our roots, our core, to have faith in all things instead of just where it’s easy or convenient for us to trust Him. Imagine having a faith rooted all the way to the core of who we are that nobody or anything could prevent us from believing that Jesus will take care of every aspect of our lives. We get a glimpse of that in this miracle account, and it’s an eye opener to the type of faith Jesus wants us to have.

A lack of faith opens the door to worry, anxiety, and feeling the stress of trying to control as much as we can. We’re human, and we’re fallen, so we are inevitably going to fail at having perfect faith in our lives. But I hope and pray that each one of us is able to take one step further in faith in each day of our lives. Have faith, and have it radically. Let it spread all the way down to your roots. Don’t let the world tell you otherwise - put your faith in the Lord, trust in His promises, and live your life in the freedom He longs for you to have.

Stay close to Him and have faith!

-Brandy

Scripture quotations in this post are taken from the Douay-Rheims translation, unless otherwise noted.

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JMJ

“What do you seek?”

These are the first words of Jesus in the Gospel according to John:

“Jesus turned, and saw them following, and said to them, “What do you seek?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” ³⁹ He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where he was staying; and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.” -John 1:38-39 (RSVCE)

If you’ve never meditated or thought about what your answer would be if Jesus asked you what you are seeking, I highly recommend doing so. It’s a good way to examine where our hearts are at and where we’re heading, and can help us get back on track when we’ve lost our way. But the thing I like most about this passage is the response of the disciples and how Jesus answers them. He asks them what they’re seeking, and they respond by asking where Jesus is staying. This is very early on in the start of Jesus’ public ministry, so the disciples don’t know Jesus all that well yet. But their answer is still one full of depth - “where are you staying?”

I’m amazed by the disciples here. They want to know where the Lamb of God is dwelling. They want to be with Him, to stay with Him. And what follows is an invitation from Jesus that is extended to all of us: “Come and see.”

One thing I’ve learned about the Lord is that He never forces His way into our lives. He is always there, extending an invitation of some kind, but it’s up to us if we’re going to say yes or no. And whatever our answer is, He lets us make that choice, even if He wishes it were a different one. This invitation, this “Come and see,” is something we can say yes to everyday, no matter where we are in our relationship with the Lord or what our daily life looks like.

This life is not one full of sunshine and rainbows, but it’s also not meant to be nothing but storms and uphill battles, either. The reality is that we will face a lot of things in our lives, good and bad, and that nothing is as permanent as we would like it to be. The one thing that is constant, however, is Jesus and His love for us. He will always be there, and we know that the invitation to eternal life is awaiting us as well. As Catholics, we have (or should have) a desire to get to Heaven and to glorify the Lord as much as we can while here on this Earth. That might seem like a hard, big, or intimidating task, but I’m convinced that the answer is much simpler than we think it is: Come and see.

The disciples ask where Jesus is dwelling, and He invites them to stay with Him. He says the same to us. Maybe we don’t need to ask the question in the same way the disciples did - we know that Jesus is present in the Eucharist in the tabernacle. But when it comes to where God is leading us and how we can find and follow Him in the everyday, we can ask the same question and be led to the same answer: an invitation to stay close to Him and see what He can and will do in our lives.

I’ve adopted a saying lately, one that I’ve started signing off with on notes, emails, blog posts, and so on: “Stay close to Him and have faith.” I talked last week about how faith isn’t just believing that God exists, but that it’s having a radical belief and trust in Who God is and that He longs to show up for us. I’ll dive into that a bit more next week with one of my favorite Bible passages, but for now I want to focus on what it means to stay with Him. Our fallen nature makes it nearly impossible to have perfect faith all the time. I’m sure we can all think of at least one time in our lives when we didn’t have enough faith in the Lord. But one thing we can control, especially as Catholics who have access to the Eucharist, is if we continue to stay with Jesus. The closer we stay to Jesus, the harder it is for us to go astray.

For a few years now, I’ve made it a priority to go to Mass and pray a Holy Hour in front of the tabernacle everyday. There have been days where I’ve felt so in tune with the Lord I was basically floating on a cloud, and there have been days where I simply did not want to be there and couldn’t focus to save my life. What it has taught me, however, is that the most important thing I can do is continue to show up. Even if I don’t feel like attending Mass or praying a holy hour was effective, time with the Lord, especially in front of the Eucharist, is never wasted. He can work on our hearts even when we can’t (which is good, because if it were up to us to fix our own hearts, we’d be doomed). But if we aren’t showing up, if we aren’t staying close to Him, He can’t (or rather, won’t) barge into our lives and take over. He’s waiting for us to say yes to His invitation to come and see.

I’ve shown up to Mass and holy hour very angry at God. I’ve shown up confused. I’m shown up anxious, depressed, exhausted, you name it. I’ve also not shown up because of all those same reasons. I’m not proud to admit that my stubborn and prideful self thought I knew better than the Lord and that those thoughts led me to turn away from Him. This is my Heavenly Father Who has gone through incomprehensible ends to call me His daughter and prepare a place for me in Eternity, and I’ve still fallen into the trap of turning my back on Him out of anger, hurt, or despair. I’m also painfully aware that there will most likely be more times in my life where I don’t stay as close to Him as I should. However, I can confidently say that in the times I chose to stay, to show up with my emotions instead of running away, the Lord made beautiful things out of ashes. Life was never easier after running from God - oftentimes, it was harder. It took me a long time to realize that the best way to go through life, to say yes to His invitation, is to stay close to Him no matter what our circumstances are. He doesn’t want us to hide our feelings from Him, and nothing on our hearts is too small to bring to Him. He wants us to stay with Him, to dwell with Him, with everything we’re experiencing, be it good or bad. He cares about it all.

There’s a scene from The Chosen that I think illustrates this point really well. It’s a scene with Jesus and Thomas, and it’s a beautiful illustration of how Jesus responds to our confusion, anger, and hurt (you can watch it here). My favorite line is from Jesus towards the end of the clip: “Please stay with me, Thomas, and you’ll understand in time.” Jesus is so compassionate in our sufferings. The things that break our hearts break His too. But He isn’t finished. He hasn’t abandoned us. He isn’t done writing the story yet. He can and will complete our joy, even if it’s not in the way we might want or expect. Until we get there, the best thing we can do is stay as close to Him as possible and hold on to our hope that Jesus keeps His word. He tells the Apostles before He ascends into Heaven, “ …wait for the promise of the Father, which you have heard (saith he) by my mouth” -Acts 1:4 (DR). Wait for His promises, but wait with Him. Stay close to Him. Continue in prayer, especially by putting yourself in the presence of the Eucharist, both by attending Mass and adoring Him in Adoration as much as you can.

He will not lead you astray, and He won’t abandon you. You are His child, whom He loves more than you could ever fathom. When in doubt, hold fast to Him. Trust Him. Come and see what He has in store for you.

Stay close to Him and have faith!

-Brandy

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JMJ

Faith is a central theme of the Gospel and of our lives as Catholics. Yet, its importance in the life of a Christian is something that often gets overlooked, forgotten, or, as I would argue, misunderstood. Faith isn’t just a general, underlying belief that God exists. That’s definitely part of it, but the invitation of faith extends even further. The invitation of faith, that many of us struggle to say yes to, is that of a radical confidence in God.

We’ve created a pretty great life for ourselves in today’s world. It’s a comfortable life filled with things like online shopping that delivers in two days or less, streaming services that allow us to binge watch tv shows and movies, apps that will deliver any fast food we desire, and instant answers to any question we could possibly ask thanks to the Internet. Some look at these so-called “advances” in our world today and think, “Wow, look at us go. We’ve come a long way.” Which is true - our society has come a really long way in a short amount of time. We now live in a world of instant gratification, and for someone whose main goal in life is to be happy, that’s a pretty great world to live in. However, as Catholics, we have the goal of getting to Heaven and bringing as many people as we can with us. Of course we want to be happy, but our holiness has to come first. As much good as these technological advances can be, they also bring some new challenges to someone who is striving for sainthood.

Our world has never been this loud. The comfortability of the modern world has brought upon us this idea or feeling that we are self-sufficient. If we want or need something, we just find the right app or show or online store to get what we need. Add to that this idea of the “American Dream”, where anything is possible if only we work hard enough, stay focused, and be what we need to be, and it’s no wonder why we carry this weight around on our shoulders thinking that if we don’t get it right, we’ll fail and miss out on what could have been. We’ve forgotten what it’s like when what we want or need is beyond our own abilities.

Here’s the truth: The weight of having to figure it all out on our own is never something that God asked us to carry on our shoulders. He has a plan for each of our lives, and a way to make something even more beautiful out of the ashes when we mess up His plan. We don’t have to map out our own lives or find the source of our own joy. God has extended an invitation of faith to each one of us, and it is in saying yes to this radical faith that we find the radical joy that we all desire and are made for.

The quiet, cunning changes we’ve gone through as a society have greatly affected our faith. Instead of turning to God with our problems, we turn to the things that bring us mind-numbing comfort so we don’t have to face the hard things. We’ve become a society that can function so well on our own, we’ve forgotten how much we need God. We’ve forgotten our faith. Why would we need to believe that the Lord will provide for us if we can already provide everything for ourselves?

Some of the most joyful, faith filled people I’ve met are the ones who have very little by the world’s standards. And while there are most definitely basics that everyone should have access to (shelter, food, etc), once things go beyond the scope of what’s necessary to take care of our physical needs, we run the risk of being distracted by all the extra things. We start to find joy in the material items we have rather than the Lord. Then we get depressed when they don’t fill the hole in our hearts that only God can fill, but most of us continue under the illusion that we just need more to be happy. I’m going to argue the opposite: we need less. Less distractions, less creativity-stifling gadgets and gizmos, less self-reliance. The less we can do for ourselves, the more we get to see God work in our lives.

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I’ve talked with many people who are homeless, who don’t know where their next meal is coming from, who can’t afford the medication they need, and so on. Something I’ve heard more from them than anyone else is, “The Lord will provide.” I’ve also seen a lot of those people’s faith be rewarded by God supplying exactly what it is they needed. We have so many things in our world today that we’ve stopped asking God to provide for us. We’ve stopped bringing to Him what we need, and by extension, we’ve forgotten what it’s like to have faith that He not only is able to do those things, but that He wants to do those things and that He will do those things.

It’s in those moments where we have nothing left of ourselves and have no choice but to give everything to God where we see Him work the most. There’s something very transformative about the way God is able to work in our lives when we let go of our agendas and give Him permission to do whatever He wants. God is a gentleman - He doesn’t force His way in our lives without our permission. He waits to be invited in. The abandonment to Him is what He’s waiting for. It’s what He can do the most with. It takes faith to enter into such abandonment, because if we don’t believe He can or will do it, why would we give it over to Him? But He’s there, arms open, waiting for us to say yes. Waiting for us to invite Him in. Waiting to show us just what He can do in the life of somebody who has faith in Him.

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In the story of the hemorrhaging woman from Mark 5, which I’ll write more about in the weeks to come, Jesus tells her at the very end of their interaction, “Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole: go in peace, and be thou whole of thy disease.” It was her faith that made her whole, that healed her of her disease. We live in a world that is plagued with the disease of self-reliance and self-sufficiency. A radical, childlike, and confident faith is the antidote for this. Those striving for holiness and sainthood are called to completely trust that He will provide for our every need. We are called to have a childlike confidence in Who God is and who we are as His Children. He invites us to have a “Cor Fidei”, which literally means “Heart of Faith”. This does not mean that our hearts should have a “part” made of faith - rather, it should be its very substance. It should be central to who we are as a person. It should guide everything we do, what we believe, and how we respond to the things we see and face in this world. This kind of faith won’t make sense to many, and that’s okay. Take courage. We aren’t made for this world. We are made for Him Who loves us beyond comprehension.

Stay close to Him and have faith!

-Brandy

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