A Not-So Heavenly Melody — UFFT #28

Christ is truly present among us. How blessed are we to be able to experience that?

Imagine this; you walk into a darkened room, empty except for a few people spaced out around. As your eyes begin to adjust to the extremely dim lighting, you see that there are about a hundred chairs, maybe more, placed around the room in a square pattern surrounding a small, raised table with a clean, white cloth draped over top. On top of the raised table, you see a few gently flickering candles casting their light about the room and sending sparkles onto a beautiful golden vessel. As you investigate more closely, you realize that this is just no ordinary vessel, this is a monstrance, and inside the monstrance is Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. You can’t take your eyes off of Him; everything else spectacular about the room seems to fade away as you focus more and more on the beauty that is the Eucharist. Suddenly, you begin to get this feeling within you, a feeling of utter disbelief that Christ would come to spend time with you. You begin to wonder, how could you ever give back during this time? How could you honor Him with all that you are during this time? What could you possibly do that would be worthy of having Him witness it?

This is exactly how I felt in this same situation this past summer. I was working at a summer camp for my Diocese and we were in the middle of an amazing Adoration time, but there were only a handful of people left in the room; the adult staff and the Behind the Scenes staff. I was in absolute awe over the fact that Christ was present in that room, which was kind of weird for me because it’s not the first time that I had been to Adoration by any means, but nevertheless I found my mind wandering in that direction. As I continued to pray and meditate and just BE in God’s presence, I kept getting this nagging voice in the back of my head. It said something very simple to me, something so simple that I just kept dismissing it without taking any time to consider it. The voice kept saying “There is an opportunity here. Don’t be afraid.”

The Yoke and The Burden

Looking for something to do with all your extra summer time? Something exciting with lots of adventure, something that is fulfilling and will leave you wanting more? Something that help you to experience life with a deeper new meaning? Then try going to daily Mass! I know that my parish offers an 8:30 Mass (which I personally prefer because it’s a great start to the day), or a 12:00 mass, if you feel like sleeping in.  Some parishes even offer daily masses at night. But seriously, if you don’t do it already, try to make it a habit to go spend a little extra time during the week to grow your faith life by going to mass if you can. Even if that means you have to sacrifice sleep, or you’re the youngest person there:) Or,   read the daily readings to help yourself on your journey of faith with God (which there are also convenient apps for!)

The Gospel reading for Thursday was one of my new favorites Mt 11:28-30, which says “Jesus said: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.””

I love that saying, “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light. ” But I never fully understood it until it was explained to me last week. A yoke is a big wooden cross that harnesses two animals together which allows them to plow fields and work together. Yokes have to be created specifically for every individual animal because each animals statue varies a little bit. If an animal is too big or too small for the yoke it will be harnessed into, it could seriously injure the animal.

After knowing that and really being able to unwrap the whole meaning of the scripture verse, I find it very comforting. When I read the verse I in vision Christ who has created a yoke specifically fit for me  on one side, and for Him on the other. Christ created a yoke that is perfectly shaped to fit myself comfortably, but also to fit Christ with me. An animal cannot plow a field by himself in a yoke designed for 2 animals. Neither can we pull our crosses and our burdens by ourselves. If we accept Christ into our lives fully and trust Him and allow Him to help us with our burdens and our struggles, then we can see that He will protect us and help carry us when we can no longer stand. He will be by our side showing us that the Yoke, or the life and the plan He created for us is perfect if we follow His will. But, our life can be  best lived when we allow Christ to work within it. Then He can carry our burden, wipe our tears, help us to balance and stand and keep going with a strong trust and faith in Him.

Who Are You Living For?

Today we live in a society that tells us we should focus on ourselves. We should focus on doing everything we can to make ourselves look better, feel better, be better, be more accomplished, more achieved, be richer, and to have more things. And it tells us that if we do these things, we will be truly happy. Now not all of this is bad, trying to better ourselves in the correct way and having healthy goals is a very good thing! However, society tells us we should do these things all for our own glory. When in reality, if we ever really achieve these things, have we really even done it all on our own? Do we really deserve all the glory? Imagine how our world would change if everyone instead changed their outlook to looking outside themselves, and looking to work for the betterment of others!

Oxymoron

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Author Note:

Wassup my brothers and sisters? My name is MC. Yes, I do rap. And that’s what this post is about: rapping. But not just any rapping. Catholic rapping. YESSSS! So anyways, the point of this little author note is to give you a heads up on the blog/piece/whatever. I was able to interview the 2Pac of Catholic rap: C2Six for this article I did in English class. The man is a true inspiration. Anyway, I’m showing ya’ll my article/whatever because to me, Catholic Hip-Hop was a major step in my Faith life. It’s a great evangelization tool to reach the youth. Like 65% of youth listen to rap. Imagine if we replaced all the negativity in this music with positive messages… Catholic rap has helped me sooo much. But sadly it’s often overlooked. If anyone is interested, I’ve posted some links at the bottom. Some of the sites have cool Catholic apparel shops (Check out JMJCat3.com for dope hats.) Anyways, I’d love to work with Unleavened Ministries in the again in the future if ya’ll will have me…You guys are awesome. Now to all the readers: You guys are awesome and God loves you! Keep the faith alive! May Mary watch over you! God bless! Viva Christo Rey and AMDG!!

 

Life is Good

I don’t have a picture for this so here’s a pretty flower.

Earlier this week I became an uncle. I know this makes me sound old but I’m not really, I’m still only 18. But my older sister just had her first baby and my niece is beautiful.

Life is good.

If you look in the book of Genesis you see that that is how God describes everything that he made, including life. He saw it and he said that it was good. And it is good.

Sometimes it can be hard to see that life is good, especially when we’re going through rough spots.

But life is always good. Because God made it and he gave it to us!!

When I saw the first picture of my niece I knew that life was good. And that made me happy.

Be happy because no matter what happens life is good. God is good.

Theology of the Wet Towel

I believe that, God having made everything, everything can be used to show God. So when a friend of mine challenged me to write a piece called “Theology of the wet towel” how could I do anything but say yes?
So that what I’m going to do and I’m going to use a method of writing that I’m quite familiar with. It’s called: Wing it and see what happens! Because my friend hadn’t thought any farther than the name of the piece…
So let’s see, how do I tie in wet towels with God…
I’ll start with the characteristics of a wet towel.
1) It’s wet.
2) It’s a towel.
2) When hot it’s awesome and when cold it’s horrid. Bingo!
Have you ever put a steaming hot towel on your face or on your back? It’s amazing! It relaxes you, sooths and all in all feels fantastic.
But then it gets cold.
The cold towel is nothing like the warm one. It sucks the heat out of you. It feels uncomfortable; it has none of the good things that the warm towel had.
Well our faith is very much like that wet towel. When it’s hot and active you feel great and you’re happy. But the colder it get’s the less you like it and the unhappier you become.
Sometimes people view faith as a thing that once attained becomes permanent and never needs renewal. But just like a wet towel we need to keep it warm for it to be something we can use and appreciate. And thankfully Jesus gave us exactly what we need to keep our faith warm. The sacraments.
I could spend ages talking about how awesome the sacraments are but I’m just going to say that they are what keep a faith warm. Through Reconciliation we free ourselves from the burdens of our guilt and sins. In the Eucharist we become close physically and spiritually. In baptism, confirmation, marriage, holy orders and anointing of the sick we live not just on our own but constantly with God at our side helping us, granting us grace and keeping our faith warm.
When we ignore the sacraments we’re letting our towel of faith become cold and unpleasant so we have to keep up with the sacraments. We have to keep our faiths, like our wet towels, very warm.

Red, thick, muddy dirt.

I can still smell the dirt. The red, thick, and muddy dirt that always seemed to get into EVERYTHING and never ever come off. I used to curse that dirt. Day in and out I would walk on that dirt and I would curse it. But, boy do I miss that dirt. That distinct earthy smell that you never seemed to get away from. I remember the smells of the city. The burning rubber, clothes, DIRT, food, and trash. That distinct smell always takes me back to a time and place where my soul was awakened. Sometimes I go weeks without smelling it and then all of a sudden something triggers it and I can smell it as though I am standing on those red, dirty, busy, noisy streets of Kenya.

After Lent

So if I were to ask the question “What comes after Lent?” the obvious answer would be: Easter!! Lent ends this weekend and the Easter season begins! A season for celebration. A season where we get to go back to all the foods and privileges that we’ve given up. A season that bring to an end all that we’ve been doing to prepare ourselves for Easter. All in all a great season.

But there is a bit of a problem.

We spend all of Lent trying to better ourselves and making sacrifices but when Easter comes we stop and forget all about it until next year.

That’s not how it should work.

Lent is a special time for prayer, fasting and sacrificing but it’s not the only time. A relationship with God can only work if we maintain it year round.   Lent isn’t a time to make up for the rest of the year. It’s a time to improve ourselves so that each year we become closer to God. This doesn’t mean that we have to keep up our sacrifices (I for one am looking forward to having sugar in my tea again) but our efforts to grow closer to God need to continue.

So this Easter season and beyond try to take what you’ve accomplished spiritually this Lent and incorporate it into your life.

And don’t get sick easting to much Easter candy. That’s important too.

The Eight Beatitudes

This is a piece that I finished just the other week that is written using the Eight Beatitudes. It was a good piece for me to do for several reasons. First it was fun and it came out well, second I learned how to spell “Beatitudes” (sort of) and finally it gave me a chance to reflect on how my lent is going so far.

Lent’s coming to a close with Easter a little over a week away and it’s about now that I start getting exited. Easter is a time of celebration and my family celebrates it well. We have Easter candy (of course) an Easter breakfast made by Mom, who can make the most fantastic pastries ever, and an all out dinner cooked by Dad who (if I may say so myself) is an awesome chef.   For mass everyone get’s dressed up and the whole day is a celebration of Christ’s resurrection.

But it’s not Easter yet.

There’s still time for us to reflect on our own behavior. Looking at the Eight Beatitudes is a perfect way to do that. Look at each one and think, have you improved at all in this beatitude since Lent started?

That’s the goal of Lent. Not to put aside thing you like so that the Easter celebration makes them seem special again. It’s a time to improve ourselves and Jesus gave us instructions for how y telling us what sort of characteristics we need to cultivate.

 

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.

Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

I want to be like Mary.

The second solemnity of Lent was yesterday! The solemnity of the Annunciation. And once again I cast aside my Lenten sacrifices happily.

But even though the solemnity is a time to celebrate it’s also a time for reflection so I did a little bit of that as well.

What I found myself thinking about was Mary’s response to the Angel when he told her God’s will. Her first thought is that what God wants is impossible. She has never slept with a man so how can she become pregnant? The Angle responds with something both amazing and rather terrifying. That God can do anything. Nothing is impossible to God. Mary’s response to that is equally amazing and terrifying. “Let it be done unto me according to God’s will.”

Now I don’t know about you but when God tells me to do something that’s even remotely difficult, let alone impossible, I object rather strongly. I’m like “Look God, I know you’re all powerful but I can’t do that! That can’t be done by me! Get someone else to do it!”

God usually ignores me and makes me do it anyway (rather like my parents).

God tells me all the time that he can do great things with me but so often I get stuck on the fact that I don’t think it can happen. I argue with God until he has to hit me on the head with his truth. And that’s really rather stupid of me. God’s God after all. For me that makes the Annunciation all the more special. That Mary didn’t do the thing I do all the time. The angel said that God could do it and she said okay with no struggle whatsoever.

I want to be like Mary. I want to say yes to God’s impossible requests immediately, not after ages of struggles and attempts at negotiation on my part.

Happy solemnity.

(Nine months till Christmas!)