The Secret to Love

Happy Valentine's Day! A holiday that is so hated yet loved, but in reality the feast day of a great martyr. Despite being single, I personally enjoy Valentine's Day because I'm all for love. Authentic love, that is. Although I am not even remotely close to getting married, I'm already feeling bad for my future spouse because Valentine's Day and my birthday are nearly back to back. Sorry buddy, wherever you are. You'll get extra prayers today. Anyway, in the meanwhile, I have been busy living my community life, watching season 4 of Downton Abbey (I'll miss Matthew forever) and discerning life in general. I also gave a chastity/purity talk to middle schoolers, which was a pretty cool and fruitful experience. Now where were we? 
Oh yes, Valentine's Day.

Love is something that we all long for, whether we admit it or not. Today I'm not going to go on and on about how great chastity and purity are, even though they are pretty awesome and forge the strongest and best relationships. Instead, let's just talk about love. I've said it before, and I'll say it a million times over a million more: love is sacrifice. Where there is no sacrifice, there is no love. When selfishness enters, everything begins to turn to dust. Really. Let's take St. Valentine himself for example, since today is his feast day. He loved God so much, that he sacrificed his life by being brutally beaten with clubs and beheaded, rather than renounce his faith. If that's not love, I don't know what is. So when you see the day plastered in pink and red tones, cheesy bears, pretty flowers and cheap chocolates, forget about the commercialism and remember the day originally bloomed from one man's wholehearted love for God. Major Catholic win for the world.

From the heroic example of St. Valentine and many others, we will never understand or experience true love, until we learn to sacrifice. Yes, it can be painful and it hurts, but love is worth it. This we have learned from Our Lord, Who so willingly sacrificed Himself for love of us. Hence why I state the crucifix is the image of authentic love. So if you want true, selfless and everlasting love, go to Christ crucified. There's no greater love than His. As St. Clare of Assisi said, "Totally love Him, Who gave Himself totally for your love."

Until next time, single or not, I hope all of your hearts remain between the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, because there's where true love endlessly resounds. 

St. Valentine, ora pro nobis!

Later, Today and Forever

New Year, new blog look. Pink is cute but the eye can only take so much of the obnoxiously adorable color, so voila, I present to you dear readers, the new look. There’s also a few new extra tidbits around, but I’ll leave you to explore for yourself. I hope you all had a holy and blessed Christmas, and also a happy New Year. I personally didn’t make any resolutions, because I believe in making firm resolutions to improve oneself throughout the whole year, even every day if needed. I think of it this way; hell is forever and full of people who said, “Later”. The saints didn’t become saints by saying, “Later”. They turned that later into today. That’s where confession comes in handy, because we cannot change ourselves without first cleaning up our souls. That’s like having one foot on the brake pedal but still expecting the car to go. It doesn’t exactly work out very well. Remember that a state of grace equals a happy place.

So now that the season of Advent has passed, we’ll move into ordinary time, and then dive into the Lenten season. Before I get too ahead of myself, one of the many things I love about the Church is the changing of liturgical seasons. It allows us to walk with Christ from His birth to His death, thus forging a stronger relationship with Him, year in and year out, today and forever. Think about it; in just one year, we can meditate upon the Annunciation, the birth of Christ, His hidden life, His public ministry, His Passion, Death and glorious Resurrection. That’s not even mentioning the other subjects of meditation in between, like St. Joseph’s perfect obedience, the adoration of the Magi, the sorrows of our Blessed Mother, the miracles by Jesus and so, so much more that hasn’t even scratched the surface. So much meditation, so little time. Yet it’s all the better reason to not allow our minds to be idle, as idleness is the Enemy’s playground. In his book, “An Introduction to the Devout Life”, St. Francis de Sales mentions that the more we meditate upon the life of Christ, the more we’ll come to know and imitate Him in His perfection. St. Francis compares to it to a child learning to speak, sweetly lisping the words he emulates from his mother. You gotta love St. Francis de Sales and his analogies. 

Meditation can be difficult because of distractions, but it’s not impossible. For help, look to Our Lady, the Mystical Rose, who never denies to help any of her children. That title has to be my personal favorite, and one day I was wondering what it meant, and some time later the answer popped up on right on my very Catholic Facebook newsfeed. The Lord provides. She is the Mystical Rose because as seen in Scripture, she often kept things in her heart to ponder, and through her perfection, she is the highest mystic. The Rose part comes in as the rose is the queen of all flowers, and Our Lady is Queen of Heaven and Earth. Another legitimate answer can be found here. 

One of the many reasons I embraced more Traditional Catholicism was because of the silence. Especially when it comes to Catholic youth ministries, silence is nearly impossible to be found. It’s almost taboo. In the end of my experimentation with the modern Catholic youth ministry, which is usually loud and consists of Protestant influenced notions and happy-feel-good-but-watered-down teachings and ideas, I was aching for silence. It’s like the youth are being force-fed all this clanging noise in an attempt to be modern and “speak” to them, because allowing the silence of Christ to do that is apparently just too much to ask for. Anyway, after that ship sailed, the new harbor was very quiet. However, docked in that stillness, my soul wasn’t emptied and it didn’t disappear. Rather, I was able to embrace Christ in a whole new way, through simple meditation, and He completely flooded my soul with Himself and His mother. Silence isn’t only golden, it’s sacred. Through sacred silence we learn to quiet ourselves, to focus more fully on the Divine Mysteries and meditations. Holy Mother Church is so rich in subjects of meditation, not a moment of our lives should be wasted on idle or silly thoughts. 

We are all called to holiness. No one is exempt. Take a look at the great saints like St. Teresa of Avila, St. John the Cross, St. Gemma Galgani, St. Padre Pio and so many more. They all had one thing in common; they silently contemplated divine mysteries. My challenge for you this year is to take time to be silent and meditate. Meditate on the courage of the martyrs, the conviction of the Apostles, or even on the glories of Heaven. Especially when we meditate on Heaven, we’re contemplating an eternal joy with God, which doesn’t last a fleeting moment or a few hours, but forever. Ven. Fulton Sheen could not have put it more beautifully, 

“We become like that which we love: If one loves the material, one becomes like the material; if one loves the spiritual, one is converted into it in his outlook, his ideals, and his aspirations. Given this relationship between love and prayer, it is easy to understand why some souls say: “I have no time to pray." A higher form of prayer than petition and a potent remedy against the externalization of life-is meditation. Meditation is a little like a daydream or a reverie, but with two important differences: In meditation we do not think about the world or ourselves, but about God; and instead of using the imagination to build idle castles in Spain, we use the will to make resolutions that will draw us nearer to one of the Father's mansions. Meditation is a more advanced spiritual act than “saying prayers”; it may be likened to the attitude of a child who breaks into the presence of a mother saying: “I’ll not say a word, if you will just let me stay here and watch you.” -Ven. Fulton Sheen

6 Ways to Prepare for a baby Jesus Christmas

With Christmas being right around the corner, it’s crunch time to prepare. While you also might prepare last minute gifts (guilty), toss around some tinsel and hoard eggnog, let's take a moment or two to talk about spiritual preparation, not laying out cookies for a man in red who doesn't exist. Seriously, who needs Santa Claus (with the exception of St. Nicholas, ora pro nobis), when we have the birth of Jesus Christ? Christ, Who is the Son of the almighty and eternal God, humbled Himself to become man, more specifically, a little child, to save us from everlasting death through His infinite love, and that's only the tip of the iceberg. Yet instead we tell our children about an imaginary man who delivers toys once a year depending on their behavior... there's no comparison. To elevate Santa higher than Christ is like glorifying a chintzy pebble over all of the treasures in the world, magnified by a million times over, and that still doesn't compare to the greatness of God! If marriage is my vocation, my future spouse better be prepared to not teach our children about Santa, when we have Jesus Christ. Some may not agree with me, but I am staunchly Catholic in an increasingly secular world, after all. For an even more wonderfully controversial view of this topic, check out Matt Walsh's own blog post, click here to have your mind blown.

It's the season of Advent, which in Latin is adventus, which means arrival, so let's get ready for baby Jesus! I say specifically a baby Jesus Christmas, because it's a lost cause to try to turn Christmas into anything else. Take Christ out of Christmas and you have yourself something like a cheap knock-off that just isn't the same. These are only a few suggested ways to prepare, but before we move along, let's take a moment to appreciate just how sweet the child Jesus is portrayed here. Aww. 

1) Go to confession
I mentioned this in the my last post. Cleaning out your heart and soul is the best way to prepare to welcome baby Jesus into the manger of your heart, through Holy Communion on Christmas Day. There's nothing like a good, sacramental confession to open your heart to the graces waiting for you. Also, what's better than being united to Christ on His birthday?

2) Pray the Joyful Mysteries
The Joyful Mysteries of the rosary are the Annunciation, the Visitation, the birth of our Lord, the Presentation, and the finding of the child Jesus in the temple. These mysteries all rotate around joy, hence being the Joyful Mysteries. They are the joys of discovering, knowing, finding, meeting and having Christ near to us. There's no one who knows these joys better than His own Blessed Mother. With her intercession, meditate upon these mysteries to better know the joy Christ brings, especially during the season of Advent.

3) Go to adoration
Spend some quality time with the King Himself, He waits for you.

4) Read Sacred Scripture
Dust off that Bible, turn to Luke 2:1-20, and get that Lectio Divina rolling.

5) Go to mass
Daily, if possible. The more Jesus in our lives, the better. 

6) Be silent
Take some time to distance yourself from the noisiness of the consumerism, stress and even jingle bells. Silence is not only golden, but also simple. God has a way of speaking to us in the silence of our hearts, and remaining silent is our opportunity to listen. In the quiet, time could be taken to deeply examine the conscience for a good confession, to enter into mental prayer while praying the rosary, quiet time with Christ in adoration, stillness in reflecting on the account of Christ's birth, and reverent silence during mass, where He is truly made present. Virtues, beautiful mediations and prayers can be born through silence, just like the great saints before us.

Once more, I pray you all have a blessed remaining season of Advent, until next time, pax.

It's Rose, Not Pink

One minute I'm prancing around in my Lady of Mount Carmel costume, the next I'm panicking over black widows hiding behind the Christmas decoration boxes. True story. Unlike most of America, I didn't forget good ole' Thanksgiving, but the transition from October to December was fast. A little too fast, but we all say that every single year, don't we? Anywho, in my blogging absence* I've been busy with homework (aka penance), being continuously sick, and somehow hanging out with lots of brothers and seminarians. Cue the #CatholicGirlProblems. God truly does have the greatest sense of humor, praise be to Him. But in all seriousness, continue to pray for an increase in vocations... not to forget holy matrimony, because that's where religious vocations are fostered. Priests, brothers, sisters and nuns don't pop out of thin air, you know. Don't get me wrong, it's great that so many young men and women are courageously answering the call, but holy marriage is also a very important vocation that isn't to be forgotten. However, in the end of it all, whether or not these men and women become religious or not, the Church still gains a more faithful and stronger Catholic; win-win situation.

Moving along, we're all aware that it's Advent! Deo gratias, baby Jesus is on His way. On the third Sunday of Advent, we wear pink. I mean rose. In all honesty, at the Latin mass I went to this past Sunday, I was interiorly geeking out over the rose colored chasuble. So. Cool. With Christmas season comes the Christmas trees, Nativity Scenes, assortment of treats and pretending that empty wrapping paper tubes are didgeridoos. Aside from the preparation for the festivities, are we really ready for Christmas? I'm not talking about it in a material or decorative way. 

Are you really and truly ready to welcome baby Jesus into your heart? 

On Christmas Day we're remembering how Christ came to us in the utmost innocence and vulnerability; as a newborn baby. The little King of kings, lying in a manger wrapped up nice and snug by the Blessed Mother, with dear St. Joseph protecting the both of them. This is the analogy I gave my confirmation class: if you were to invite Christ into your home, would you want it to be spic and span or dirty and cluttered? Chances are, you'd want it to be immaculately clean. With that in mind, the best way to prepare for the coming of Christ is a good, sacramental confession. It might be scary or daunting, but by confessing all of your deepest and darkest sins, you're only opening up your soul to the love and mercy of Christ. You can either shut Him out like the inkeepers of Bethlehem, or make room from Him in the manger of your heart. 

I pray you all have a blessed Christmas season, filled with love and peace of Christ. Not happy holidays, or happy Festivus for the rest of us, but merry Christmas to each and every one of you, from the bottom of my heart.

* Just as a side note, since I'm not able to blog as much as I would like, you can follow me on Twitter, @AlwaysYvonne , to keep up with my Catholic shenanigans and whatnot.