Faith & Life

Hurry Up and Wait

On chaos, silence, and the rhythm I did not know I needed.

Personal Reflection

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I am a busy person. I hate admitting that. But I have a big, beautiful family, a demanding and fulfilling job, and more opportunities than I can always manage gracefully. Lately I have been feeling overwhelmed and exhausted in a way that is hard to explain to anyone who is not living it.

Recently I had out-of-town guests for the night and we had planned to attend an event together, only for me to realize I had another commitment the same evening. Naturally I finagled a way to do both. And although it was not ideal, it worked. But life just feels rushed lately. Relentlessly, predictably rushed.

And then, suddenly, it doesn't.

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I came home this afternoon feeling guilty for abandoning my family to the pressures of work, only to find that everyone else had moved on without me. My daughter had a friend over and they were happily painting outside. My son and husband were helping my mother-in-law get settled into a rehabilitation center. My youngest was upstairs cleaning her room and preparing for a big tennis tournament tomorrow.

Everyone was fine. Everyone was occupied. Everyone was exactly where they needed to be.

And I was alone.

I had 97 minutes with nothing on my schedule, and I sat there in the strange discomfort of it, realizing I did not quite know what to do with stillness. Five hours ago, three different people had been texting me simultaneously. Someone needed advice. Someone needed a ride to the airport. I had been barely holding on. And now, nothing. Just quiet.

And the questions started coming.

Why does God, the creator of the universe, not have more order in the chaos?

Why does the rush of responsibilities come like waves crashing on the sand one day, and then feel like water still as ice the next?

Am I causing this? Am I the enemy of my own schedule, or is this just life?

And how do I make it better?

I sat with those questions for a while and did not come up with satisfying answers. But somewhere underneath the asking, I felt something quieter than an answer.

Lord, what are you saying to me in this silence?

I am here. Be with me.

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Not a dramatic response. Not a five-point plan for better time management. Just a presence, patient and unhurried, waiting for me to stop moving long enough to notice it.

And I started to think that maybe this is actually what balance looks like. Not a perfectly managed schedule where everything gets equal time and attention. Maybe balance is not a structure at all. Maybe it is a rhythm. Everything at once, and then nothing at all. Waves crashing, and then water still as glass. Chaos, and then silence. And through both of them, if I am paying attention, God is there.

I can cope with chaos knowing that silence will come.
And I can sit in silence knowing it is making me ready
for the next wave.
That may be the whole thing. That may be enough.

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I am not proud of how I handled the earlier part of today. I was rushed when I should have been present. I was distracted when people needed me to be still. But I am here now, and He is here now, and somehow in this quiet afternoon with 97 minutes and nowhere to be, that is more than enough.

Thank you, Lord.

Pray for me. I will pray for you. 🙏

A Personal Blog on Faith, Life & the Journey

Faith & Life

Nag Me

On persistent prayer, the widow who would not quit,
and what it means when God says: keep asking.

Personal Reflection  ·  Luke 18  ·  Exodus 17  ·  Psalm 121

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The readings today are giving me strong "be persistent" vibes — almost like God is saying, "Nag Me!"

Did you get that too?

Whenever I sit down to write one of these reflections, I usually read the readings weeks in advance and let them soak in. I try to discern what the Lord is saying to me and what He might be asking me to share. Sometimes that takes a while. Other times — like today — it feels like God is speaking from just a few feet away with a megaphone.

The message seems clear: keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking.

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At first, I hesitated. Really, God? You want us to nag You?

As a parent, I do not exactly appreciate being nagged by my own kids. There is a particular kind of exhaustion that sets in around the fourteenth time someone asks you the same thing in the same afternoon. So my first instinct was to push back a little on this reading.

But the more I prayed with it, the more I realized that is exactly the point.

Persistent prayer means we are not ignoring God.
We are acknowledging that He is the One in control,
the One with the power to change our situation.

And when we persist — rather than pulling a Sarah and taking matters into our own hands — we are actually obeying God's command to come to Him again and again. Call it nagging, call it persistence, but in the end it is an act of faith and trust.

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That thread runs through every one of today's readings:

Exodus 17

Moses raises his hands until Israel prevails. The moment his arms drop, the battle turns. Aaron and Hur hold them up for him. Persistence — even when it requires help — is the posture that brings victory.

Psalm 121

The psalmist lifts his eyes to the hills and looks constantly to the Lord for help. Not once. Not occasionally. Constantly.

2 Timothy

Paul urges Timothy to remain steadfast in the truth, to be persistent in season and out of season — whether it is convenient or not, whether anyone is listening or not.

Luke 18

The persistent widow who will not give up, who keeps coming back to the judge day after day until he grants her justice. Jesus holds her up not as an annoyance, but as a model of faith.

Each one is a reminder that God honors perseverance. Not because He needs to be worn down — He is not like the unjust judge who eventually gives in just to get some peace. He honors persistence because persistence is a declaration. It says: I believe You are listening. I believe You are able. I believe this is worth bringing to You one more time.

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So go ahead. Nag God. Bring Him the same prayer for the hundredth time. Lift your arms even when they are tired. Keep knocking on that door.

He is not annoyed. He is waiting.

Pray for me. I will pray for you. 🙏

A Personal Blog on Faith, Life & the Journey

Faith & Life

He Only Has Good Plans

What my son's college journey taught me about trusting
a Father who already knows.

Personal Reflection  ·  Matthew 6:8

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"For your Father knows what you need before you ask him."

Matthew 6:8

This was a tough few weeks.

My son has been working incredibly hard toward a dream: earning an appointment to the United States Naval Academy. Our whole family had been quietly picturing it — him in that white uniform, being whisked away on Induction Day for Plebe Summer, beginning something extraordinary.

When he found out he had been waitlisted, the disappointment was real. It felt, in that moment, like everything he had worked for had come to nothing. As his mother, watching that was hard in a way I did not have words for.

So I did what I do. I prayed. And the words I used were not particularly elegant:

"God, can't You help come up with a good plan for my son?"

The answer came back immediately, clearly, and with just a little bit of humor.

"I only have Good Plans."

Wow. Okay, Lord. I hear that.

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A few weeks later, something appeared that had not even been on our radar.

My son received an acceptance to the University of Georgia.

If you know our family, you know what this means. My husband attended UGA and has been a devoted fan ever since. Our entire family has been born and bred Bulldogs, cheering for this school through championships and heartbreaks alike. And here was UGA, showing up not as a consolation prize, but as something that made extraordinary sense. Housing guaranteed for freshmen. An Air Force ROTC program. In-state tuition.

It was not the plan we had been picturing. It was better than the plan we had been picturing.

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This is what Matthew 6:8 looks like in real life. Our Father already knows what is best for us. He already knows what will bring us closer to Him, what will shape us, what will open the right doors at exactly the right time. He is not scrambling to come up with a plan after ours falls apart. He had a plan the whole time.

He does not sometimes have good plans,
or usually have good plans.
He only has Good Plans.

Why do we ever worry, when we have a Father like Him?

Pray for me. I will pray for you. 🙏

A Personal Blog on Faith, Life & the Journey

Seeing God through other people...

Faith & Life  ·  Personal Reflection

I Want to Ooze

I want to be one of those people that when you see them,
or talk to them, or listen to them —
the Spirit of God just oozes out of them.

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I was praying about some things recently, and in the middle of that prayer, God started revealing a new truth to me about myself.

I struggle with vanity.

Oh, for sure. Case in point:

Exhibit One

I am completely obsessed with losing ten pounds, and have been for approximately ten years. Unfortunately I love food too much, and so every time I lose five pounds, I reward myself by immediately gaining five pounds back. It is an extremely efficient system.

Exhibit Two

I am extremely irritated when people do not notice some big accomplishment I have worked hard for. I suspect most people feel this way, but here is the thing — it is actually a form of vanity. We should want people to see God through our accomplishments, not ourselves.

Exhibit Three

The minute this realization came to me, I started writing this blog post — because I want everyone to be so amazed at how amazing I am that I am honest enough to admit I struggle with vanity. I know. I know. I have some serious issues.

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But for real. I am genuinely, sincerely interested in growing in love with Christ. I am truly exhausted by all the noise and clutter of this world, and I am ready to let go of the stupid stuff.

(I say all that while holding tightly to all my gadgets, accessories, and La La Land.)

I want to be one of those people who really shines with the Holy Spirit.
One of those people that after you speak with them,
you feel lighter and more joyful.
One of those people who does not care what the world thinks —
only what God thinks.

That is the person I want to become.

I am going to have to spend some more time praying about this. I can already tell it is going to take a very long time to make even an inch of progress. But I suppose acknowledging the problem is where it starts.

I will get back to you on this.

Pray for me. I will pray for you. 🙏

A Personal Blog on Faith, Life & the Journey

 Faith & Life

Do You Still Have Dreams?

A conversation with my daughter reminded me that dreaming is not just for the young. It is for the living.

Personal Reflection

I am 48 years old. And I still have dreams for when I grow up.

I know how that sounds. But recently I shared some of those dreams with my 15-year-old daughter, and her reaction confused me. She looked genuinely surprised. Not dismissive, not unkind, just truly caught off guard. As if she had never considered that someone my age would still be sitting around dreaming about what life could look like someday.

And that got me thinking.

For the record, here are some of those dreams: I want to study in Rome, earning a Master's in Theology, living and breathing the Eternal City. I want to travel the world, not just visit it. I want to book one of those year-long cruises that sails everywhere, slowly, with no agenda. I want to step away from my career and try something entirely different. Maybe work in the travel industry, or give VIP tours at a theme park. Something low-stress, full of joy, and completely new. Something that makes people smile.

I am happy where I am right now. Deeply happy. But contentment and dreaming are not opposites. In fact, I think the most contented people are often the biggest dreamers.

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I do not blame my daughter for her reaction. She is fifteen. In her world, adulthood probably looks like something you arrive at, a fixed destination where the dreaming stops and the living-it-out begins. She has not yet learned that the destination keeps moving. That is part of the gift.

But I want her, and all of my kids, to know something important: dreaming is not a young person's game. It is a human thing. A God-given thing. Scripture is full of people who received their biggest callings later in life. Abraham was seventy-five when God told him to pick up and go. Moses was eighty when he stood before the burning bush. Anna the prophetess was well into her eighties when she finally laid eyes on the Messiah she had spent her whole life waiting for.

God does not retire His plans for us at a certain age. So why would we retire ours?

"Life with God is a great adventure."

Pope St. John Paul II

That phrase has lived in my heart for years. A great adventure. Not a safe, predictable march from point A to point B, but an adventure full of surprises, plot twists, and chapters you never saw coming. And the beautiful thing about adventures is that they do not end just because you have already lived through some good ones.

I think of Jeremiah 29:11: "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." That was spoken to a people in exile. People who thought their best days were behind them. God's response? I am not done with you yet.

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Here is what I want to teach my children: Stay curious. Stay hungry. Keep dreaming and dream big.

Not because dreaming guarantees you get everything you want. Not because life owes you a Roman adventure or a world cruise. But because the posture of dreaming, the openness, the hope, the willingness to imagine something beyond what you can currently see, is itself an act of faith. It is saying to God: I trust that there is more. I trust that You are not finished. I trust that this life is worth showing up for, all the way to the end.

My daughter surprised me with her reaction. But honestly? I am glad she did. Because now we are having a better conversation. Now she knows her mother still has big, wild, beautiful dreams. And maybe, just maybe, that gives her permission to hold onto hers too, for the rest of her life, no matter how old she gets.

Life is an adventure. Say yes to it.

What are YOUR dreams, the ones you have tucked away for someday? I would love to hear them. And if you have stopped dreaming, maybe today is the day to start again. Pray for me! I will pray for you. 🙏

In His Time

Faith & Life

He Makes All Things Beautiful

A childhood song I grew up with has been reminding me of something I really needed to hear.

Personal Reflection

Have y'all ever heard of Psalty the Singing Songbook?

I was basically raised on music from this Kids Christian program. Catchy songs, entertaining plots, and a main character who was essentially a youth minister. Except — and this is the part that still makes me smile — the youth minister was an actual hymnal. A living, talking, singing hymnal. Yes. And he was awesome.

One of the songs sung by the group from Kid's Praise was called "In His Time." It is a simple little song, but it carries a truth so big that Scripture backs it up directly: He makes all things beautiful in His time.

Purchase the music here

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"He makes all things beautiful in His time."

Ecclesiastes 3:11

Think about what that really means. He makes marriages that have been broken, beautiful. He makes friendships that have gone completely sideways, beautiful. I honestly believe He can even make bank accounts that have disappeared, beautiful again — if we turn everything over to Him.

That is the trick, though, isn't it? We cannot hold onto our problems with both hands and expect Him to make them beautiful at the same time. We have to let go. We have to give it all to Him.

And that is so much harder than it sounds. Letting go feels like losing control. But maybe that is exactly the point. Maybe surrender is not the end of the story. Maybe it is where the beautiful part begins.

What are you holding onto today that you need to hand over to Him? Whatever it is, I believe He can make it beautiful. In His time. Pray for me! I will pray for you. 🙏

A Personal Blog on Faith, Life & the Journey

Recognizing Jesus

Were We Not
Fools on the Road?

Placing myself on the road to Emmaus — and realizing I might have walked right past Him too.

Personal Reflection

"Oh, how foolish you are!"

Luke 24:25

If I could travel back to any moment in the New Testament, it would be this one.

I would have wanted to be right there on the road to Emmaus, walking alongside Cleophas and his companion as they approached a stranger and essentially said, "What is wrong with you? Have you not heard everything that happened in Jerusalem?" (That is my interpretation, but I feel confident about it.)

And honestly? I would like to think my female intuition would have kicked in at some point. I imagine nudging one of them and whispering, "Yoo-hoo — I think this guy looks familiar." But the reality is, I might not be that great at recognizing Jesus either. Not always. I have much more to learn than I have yet learned, and I am often too busy, too distracted, too proud, too lazy, or just honestly too slow to figure it out. I need my eyes opened. I need my heart opened. I need to be able to see all that the Lord is doing right in front of me.

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What I love most is pondering that moment at the end of the journey, when Jesus broke bread in front of them — and then, just like that, He was gone. Vanished. And in that instant, everything clicked.

Can you imagine? Every word they had spoken to this stranger on the road suddenly came rushing back. Every response He gave them. Every time He opened the Scriptures and their hearts burned within them — and they had not even known why. They must have stood there in complete disbelief, replaying the entire conversation, slowly realizing they had been pouring out their grief and confusion to Jesus Himself.

I love that image. The shock. The laughter, maybe. The pure, overwhelming joy of it. And then — they raced back to Jerusalem. Of course they did. You cannot keep something like that to yourself.

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Reflecting on this moment is one of the great joys of my faith life. It is joyous, humorous, and deeply enlightening all at once. It reminds me to pay attention. To slow down. To look at the stranger walking beside me and ask whether Jesus might be trying to say something through them, or to me, that I keep missing.

Because He is risen. He is out there on the road. And He is still walking with fools like us. What joy!

Have you ever had a moment where you looked back and realized Jesus had been right there the whole time, and you almost missed it? I would love to hear your story. Pray for me! I will pray for you. 🙏

A Personal Blog on Faith, Life &

Holy Week from the INSIDE!

Hi Everyone!

In case you didn't know. I work at a church, and it is a big church. Remember this blog post a few years ago?  Yeah, well I guess a contractual position wasn't enough, I ended up going FULL TIME.  (I know I am CRAY CRAY)

So Holy Week at our church is AMAZING.  It is like a stay-retreat.  (You know instead of a vacation -we call it a stay-cation.).  Holy Week is like a series of wonderful beautiful meaningful liturgies, and then you sleep in your own bed at night.  I love it.  I really really do.  And the cool thing about being Catholic is that pretty much all of us are doing the same thing at EVERY Catholic Church.  So consider this post my way of encouraging you all to participate in all of the things.

It all starts with Palm Sunday.  This is the day we actually hear the entire story of the Passion of Christ from Palm Sunday to Crucifixion.   The whole Mass starts with all of us waving palm branches shouting "Hosanna!", and then we hear about how those same people yelled, "Crucify Him" only a few days later.   Not that much different from me, when I am praising God for being awesome one minute, then the next I am complaining and whining about how some prayer hasn't been answered.  

Tuesday, in our diocese there is a Chrism Mass. (Some Diocese may do this on the morning of Holy Thursday.) This is for all the priests to gather in one location and the Bishop blesses the Holy Oils they will use for the year in their parish.  The priests receive the Chrism Oil, which is used for Baptism,  the oil of the sick which is used for in the sacrament of the Anointing of the sick, and the oil of the Catechumens which is used to anoint those who will be Confirmed that year. 

Holy Thursday we have our Traditional Holy Thursday celebration of the Lord's Supper.  Our priests all participate and each one washes the feet of our parishioners.  This is always such a humbling experience even to watch.  OUR PASTOR, WASHES THE FEET OF OUR PARISHIONERS.  Not symbolically.  He actually does it.  What a message.  What an impression.  What other religion do you know where their God bends down and washes the feet of his people?  What other denomination do you know where your Pastor washes the feet of his congregation.  It is powerful.  It gets me every time.

Good Friday is our Holiest of Holy Days.  My kids are always asking me, "Is Good Friday a Holy Day of Obligation?" Well, actually it is not.  But where else should we be when our Lord and Savior is dying on a cross for me?  At the mall?  At the Beach?  At work?  It just doesn't seem right.  I like to be as close to the cross as possible.  Not because I am some totally awesome perfect person.  Because of the exact opposite. I need to be there.

Good Friday looks different at a lot of Catholic Churches.  At our church we have stations of the cross at 12:00 PM.  Then we have the Liturgy of the Lords Passion at 3 PM.  This is the hour that Christ Died.  During this liturgy, we hear the Gospel of the Lords passion once again, and we venerate the cross.  Obviously it isn't the REAL cross, but it still has the same impact.  This is a powerful experience to come up to the front of the church and kiss a wooden cross.  It is humbling, scary, and downright uncomfortable.  This is exactly what I want to do for my Lord. I want to step into his suffering by getting out of my comfort zone and offering this getsure up to him as my holy sacrifice.    This is the almost the climax of all of lent.  We are climbing up the steep steep climb to Calvary and we are about to wait for the Lord.  

Lastly at our parish we end good Friday with a Tenebre service where we remember the Lords entombment.   Not everyone goes to all of three of these services, but participating in all of them can be a way to place yourself in the scene.  You can really feel all the despair and hope that must have been tasted by the apostles at the time of Jesus.

Holy Saturday is a day of waiting. This is the day in my family that we will decorate Easter Eggs, we will get ready for Easter Sunday, by figuring out our meal, and even begin cooking and preparing our favorite dishes.  We are still not celebrating just yet, it is not time.  But we are excited because we know the desert time is coming to an end.  WE WILL SOON BE CELEBRATING!!!

See next post for my description of the Easter Vigil Mass and Easter Sunday.

Blessed Carlo Acutis Pray for my Teenagers!

I wonder all the time what Blessed Carlo Acutis's Parents might have done to help him become such a young man of faith!?!?!   But then I also think, NOTHING they did absolutely nothing.  He became who he was because of GOD not because of his parents.  So then I beg GOD to do the same to my kids.  The only thing I think I want more than to be a Saint, would be for my kids to become Saints.  For those of you parents out there - you know what I mean.  

 Maybe you are looking for some practical ways to pray for your kids?  I mean we all pray for our kids, at least I am certain we mean too, but we may not always know the best way to pray for our kids.  

Here is a link to a pinterest page with practical prayers for kids!

Faith & Life

Car Seat Theology

A conversation about car seat safety gave me a whole new way of seeing God's commandments.

Personal Reflection  ·  Ezekiel 18:21–28

I recently had a conversation with a friend about car seats. And somehow, it changed the way I think about God's law.

My friend takes car seat safety extremely seriously. She is not casual about it, not approximate about it. She follows the rules because she understands something important: not following them can result in a fatal accident. There is no gray area there. The rules exist to keep her child alive.

And right in the middle of that conversation, something clicked for me. It is the same with God.

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He has given us certain commands. We are completely free to choose to obey them or ignore them. But if we ignore them, not following those rules may result in a serious accident — not on the highway, but in the state of our soul.

The first reading from Ezekiel speaks directly to this truth:

"If he keeps all my statutes and does what is right and just, he shall surely live, he shall not die."

Ezekiel 18:21

This is not a threat. God is not sitting up in heaven waiting to come get us if we step out of line. This is an admission of love. God loves us, and He wants what is good for us. He gives us His statutes to keep us alive — just like a car seat.

Sure, some of God's law can feel restrictive at times. Uncomfortable, even. But would we rather be safe, or sorry? Either way, the truth is this: God's law is love. And if we keep His commands and do what is right and just, we shall surely live.

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Reflect

How can I see God's commands for my life as life-giving instead of restricting?

Prayer

Heavenly Father, You are so good. Your law and statutes are goodness and love. Help me to always strive to do what is right and just, so that I may truly live. Amen.

I would love to know — has there ever been a moment where one of God's commands suddenly made complete sense to you in a new way? Share it with me. Pray for me! I will pray for you. 🙏

A Personal Blog on Faith, Life & the Journey

Confirmation Season is upon us! Need Saintly Gifts? Check out my Red Bubble Store

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Are we ready for the workout?

 

Lent starts this week on February 14th with Ash Wednesday and if you are an active Catholic your email inbox might look like mine; flooded with ways to make this year’s Lent the MOST AMAZING LENT EVER.   There is no shortage of publications, email subscription lists, and prayer meditations for you to subscribe to make your journey through lent a powerful one.   But will you?

As Catholics, our Lenten experience is supposed to be a bit of a workout.  It is 40 days of spiritual weightlifting.    Sacrifice, Prayer, and Charitable works. This is the trifecta for your Lenten Exercises.   However you decide to spend your Lent, just like with a workout regime, it’s best to come up with a plan BEFORE you begin.  Think about your Lenten Goals. Think about what ways God is calling you to grow.  Take time to discern and listen to the will of God, and then pray for God to reveal himself to you in a powerful way!  Decide now, which resources will be best for you.

Prayer Resources: There is something for everyone.   Are you into podcasts? Listening to prayer? Know the basics of how to use a smartphone?  Then the Catholic App HALLOW is amazing!  There is a free version with access to wonderful prayer resources and talks or a paid subscription that unlocks content to keep you listening and praying through the day.  This is one of my favorites to use with my family and has wonderful content for children as well. If you sit in front of a computer all day long, then perhaps filling your inbox with prayer spam isn’t a bad idea.  The Catholic Company sends a daily reflection that only takes a few minutes to read each morning. 

Ideas for Fasting: I recently heard a wonderful teaching on fasting that reminded me that fasting without a purpose or a goal is called dieting.  When we fast, we should be fasting for a reason. During Lent, our reason can be to unite our suffering to Christ to be more like him and to grow in our relationship with him.  Fast from something that will make you uncomfortable.  I once fasted from Coffee for Lent, this became a sacrifice for my entire family.

Suggestions for Charity:  We are very blessed here at Christ the King in all different ways.  Whether your almsgiving is time or money - give freely during Lent.  Every good gift we have comes from God, so when we give it away, we are glorifying our heavenly Father.  Be generous with what God gives us!  He is the great provider and will always surpass us in generosity.

Our Lenten Parish Mission this year is on Monday, February 26^th, Tuesday, February 27^th, and Wednesday, February 28^th from 7 PM to 8:30 PM.  This parish mission is going to be spectacular and everyone needs to be there.  Clear your calendars and invite the entire world to come hear the message.  The speakers are engaging, entertaining, and inspiring as they speak about the call to Missionary Discipleship, the complete gift of oneself, and the 7 pillars of Evangelization.  They will equip all of us to go out and make Disciples.  Which is exactly what Jesus calls all of us to do.  Please spread the word and start talking about this!  

No matter what you decide for Lent decide SOMETHING.  Your extra sacrifices might end come Easter, but hopefully, your charitable acts and prayer time will continue into life-long habits. 

June is dedicated to the Sacred Heart Of Jesus!!!

This is going to be a beautiful month!

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