In an Atheist’s World

For a while now, I’ve been trying to wrap my mind around what Atheists believe, and why they believe it. Just trying to picture in my mind what a world would be like without God is almost impossible for me. Perhaps this is because I was raised in a religious household, but also perhaps because I fail to find the logic behind what the Atheists are claiming. Let’s take a step into the world that the Atheists are claiming they believe in for a moment.

To begin with, if there is no God then there would be no such thing as right or wrong. If God didn’t exist, why would we need to even think about what’s right or wrong? If there is no God, there is no other source telling us what is right or wrong. But yet, even the Atheists agree that there is such a thing as ‘right and wrong’. One might argue that it is up to the individual person to decide what is right and what is wrong, but even then my point still stands: Why bother with right and wrong if there is no such thing as God? Without God, there would be no such thing as morality. If you truly believe there is no God, then you also believe that anything you do in this world is not going to matter. You can do whatever you want, no penalty.

Without a God, there would be no such thing as human dignity. Humans would have no worth what so ever in this world. If you ask an Atheist if he would kill someone (if there were no laws against it.) he would most likely tell you that of course he wouldn’t. When you ask why he might say something like “because it’s wrong.” (Which goes back to my point about right and wrong...) But if there truly was no God, there would be no difference between human beings or a piece of trash. Burn a piece of trash, or kill a human, without a God, what would be the difference? Without a God, there wouldn’t be any. If we are really a product of evolution, without a creator, do we really have any worth?

If you really think about it, a world without God would be kind of pointless. Basically without God we were put here by chance, to live and then to die, and that is it. We have no purpose. The only person that would really matter to us would be ourselves, after all if there is no God, then the only ‘goal’ we could have in life would be to be as ‘successful’ as we can, nobody else would matter but ourselves. And if the only person anyone has worth to is themselves, do they really matter? Without a God, would anyone really matter? Think about that for a bit.

An Atheist's ideal world, the world would be full of hatred, full of pain, full of murder. Without God, there is no hope. There is no such thing as joy, and no such thing as love. You'd only be living for yourself, and nobody else. I'd be scared to live in such a world.

God Bless,
Catherine

In Suffering

Today, I have two options. I can choose to rejoice in being a beautiful daughter of the King of Kings, or I can choose to be weighed down by the little tests He’s given me to prove my love for Him. I can choose to love Him unconditionally, or I can falter and fall into thinking that what I’m going through is a result of Him not caring about me. I choose the former.

My Father, the King of Kings has breathed my very breath into me. He gave me everything I have, and will have. He would never give me anything that He knows I can’t handle, unless I let it take me down. My Lord has so much faith in me, who am I to give up on the beautiful trials he has placed before me on my path to eternal glory. He doesn’t need to prove His love for me, He already has already proven that on Calvary and continues to prove it to me daily in the Eucharist.

A couple weeks ago, there was a picture that was going around facebook with this quote on it: “When you are going through something hard, and wonder where God is, remember that the teacher is always quiet during a test.” This kind of hit me because it’s so true. Like a teacher, God isn’t trying to ignore us when we are going through a hard time, tests aren’t suppose to be easy. Instead, he is not responding because He has something that he wants us to learn, and sometimes the only way we are going to learn something is by experience. There are somethings that no matter how many times someone tells us about them, we are not going to believe them, or learn the lesson until we go through it ourselves.

Rejoicing in suffering is not easy, and it is tempting to go and blame God for what we are going through, but what’s the point? God knows the whole picture of our life story, and that there is a purpose for what you are going through in this moment in time. We only see a small snapshot of our life, someday everything will all click together and make sense, but until then all we can do is trust that the One who gave us our life; our very being, knows exactly what He’s doing.

Living in the Moment

"The clock is running. Make the most of today. Time waits for no man. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That's why it is called the present." -Author Unknown

Who doesn't spend large amounts of time dwelling on the past, or worrying about what is going to happen in the future? (I know I sure do!) It seems like it is human nature to be dwelling on time that has ether past, or has not come. What would the world be like if everyone just focused on the current moment?

Yesterday is over and done with. Yes, it might be nice to think about the beauties that unfolded in it, but why dwell on all the pain it might have brought you? The past has well... Been lived, and no matter how much you might want to change it, you cannot, and you never will be able to. The part of your life that has already past has shaped who you are today. If little details of your past had been changed, you would be a different person.

The future is not here yet. No matter how much time you spend thinking about it, (or freaking out about it.) It's not going to change anything until the future becomes the present. Leave it in God's hands as a mystery that will unfold in perfect time.

The only moment you are in control of is right now. Sure you might have to do a little planning for the future, but there is not real need to dwell on it. Jesus wants to tell you something in THIS moment. Something he might not be able to tell you at any other moment. Which is why we need to be attentive to His presence and His glory here and now, in this moment. If we don't live in this moment, we might miss something very significant.

God Bless,
Catherine

The Gift of Singleness

The gift of singleness is probably the most rejected gift ever. God graciously gave us such a beautiful gift, and more often than not we throw it back at him saying: "Thanks God, but no thanks. I need to be with someone else in order to be happy."  as if we knew what is best for us and what will make us 'happy' better than God himself knows.

Unfortunately for us, our society has turned us into thinking that if we are not dating and do not have a boyfriend/girlfriend hanging around us all the time, we are pretty much worthless and there must be something wrong with us! It breaks my heart to see both guys and girls who float from one relationship to another looking for love and acceptance from anyone who will give it to them.

If God had wanted to, he could have taken away our singleness all together and had us come into this world with another person who we'd be with for life.  Why might have God given us this gift of singleness in the first place? Let's consider...  First of all, our time of being single isn't meant to make us lonely. It is to help us realize that we are made to love one another. While we are still single, we are not tied to one person. We are allowed to love all people equally, to spread God's love to the world. Once you have been bound to one person, although you still are able to love others, you are not able to minister to them in the same way.

The period of singleness is meant to be the time when we find ourselves, and discover who we are as a person, BEFORE we tie ourselves to another person. We need to become complete human beings with God's love without another person, so that when we do meet the one that we are suppose to be with, we are ready for them, and not trying to find ourselves in them.

The period of singleness is also God's call to each and every one of us to love Him even more deeply. Being single doesn't mean that we aren't worth as much as those who aren't single. It simply means that we are in a very blessed stage of life that is preparing us for our future.

God Bless,
Catherine

For the Women

“It is always Christ who sends. But whom does He send? You, young people, are the ones He looks upon with love. Christ, who says, “Follow me,” wants you to live your lives with a sense of vocation. The search and discovery of God’s will for you is a deep and fascinating endeavor. Every vocation, every path to which Christ calls us, ultimately leads to fulfillment and happiness, because it leads to God, to sharing in God’s own life.” – Bl. Pope John Paul II

‎Since Paul covered the Man’s aspect of vocations on Wednesday, I am going to continue by writing about the woman’s point of view. Like all human beings, all woman are called to one common vocation; the vocation of love. Along with this vocation of love, we as woman are also called to be Spiritual Mothers for the world, no matter what way we choose to live out that vocation.

The first vocation, (and the most well known.) is the vocation of marriage. Woman called to marriage are called to give up certain freedoms, take on an earthly husband, then have children and raise those children in the faith to further the kingdom of heaven. Woman are called to bring love and tenderness to their families, and out of love, to be submissive to their husband’s authority.

Although our society doesn’t always promote it, another vocation that woman (and men.) may be called to is single life. Just like any other vocation, single life is a beautiful vocation. People who are called to single life do not take an earthly spouse, nor do they identify themselves with a religious order. Because of this they do not have to give up the certain freedoms that married or religious people do, allowing them to minister to God’s kingdom in a totally different way.

The next vocation a woman may be called to is Religious life. Religious life can be one of two things; Religious Sisters, and Nuns. Religious Sisters are the ones that are out in the world as teachers, nurses, etc. Nuns are the ones that are typically cloistered, meaning they stay in their convent their whole lives. This vocation calls woman to give up an earthly spouse and instead be united with a Divine spouse, Jesus Christ. They take vows of Chastity, (To be married to only Christ, and to love all those in the world equally.) Poverty, (To give up worldly desires and pleasures.) and Obedience (To follow Jesus their spouse where ever he may lead them, and to obey the authority of their superiors.)

You may ask, how is a woman who has consecrated her life to Jesus still a mother? Well, that answer is simple, they ‘adopt’ the people in the world as their spiritual children. Just as a Mother prays for her children, the Nuns in the convent devote their life to praying for the people of the world and their intentions. The Religious Sisters out in the world spread a tender motherly love to all they encounter. Religious life is probably the most difficult vocations for a woman to accept, simply because it goes against everything our society tries to tell us will make us ‘happy’.

Figuring out what vocation God may be calling you to is not an easy task. There is no written ‘test’ you can take to determine which vocation you should be in. God has a unique plan for each of us, so it is impossible to compare our lives to anyone else’s and expect to find an answer. Like Paul mentioned in his post, to of the key things to determine your vocation are prayer and patience. If you surrender yourself to God’s plan for your life, and continue to ask him for that plan to be shown to him, when the time is right, you will know what your vocation is.

God Bless you all!
Catherine

A Man's Perspective on Vocations

Hey Everyone, since it is vocations week, I have decided to invite a guest blogger to write a post on the Man’s point of view on vocations. So... I would like to introduce you to my friend Paul Lector. Paul is a friend of mine, and a brother in Christ. He’s pretty awesome, and is an inspiration to me. I’m very excited to share his post with you!
God Bless,
Catherine
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As this is Vocations Week, the subject is vocations. Catherine has decided to cover both bases by having me write a joint post with her, adequately going into vocations for both men and women. First, so you can better understand what I am going into, a small bit of background information. My name is Paul Lector, I am fourteen years of age and am also strongly Catholic. Please don’t exclude my writings on this matter because of my age; I have a strong interest in Catholic theology and (I hope) am well versed on this. There are three main topics I will be writing about; Priesthood, the Man’s side of Marriage, and Brotherhood. The first thing to remember is that each one of these are entirely equal. A very important thing to remember is that no vocations are holier over another.

I will start off with a general overview of them. The purpose for us humans summed up into a single phrase is: to be happy with God in this life, and in the next. To be happy with God might sound a little… strange. You might think that would require you to be one of the “frozen chosen”; one of those completely stoic but proclaiming that you are happy people, but that is absolutely not true. To be happy with God means that you are happy with God. You get as close to God as you can, and are made happy by it; I honestly cannot completely describe it. The goal of each vocation is to make you happy with God in this life and prepare you for the next.

First off with the Vocation of the Priesthood. This is a very important vocation since they tend to the Church. When you become a Priest, you become as a Father to the church, hence the title. A good Father would get to know his children well, so he would have the job to get close to them so he can guide them better. That is part of the reason that priests are not married since they can not look after two families at once, although they can be with special papal permission.

The next vocation on the list was marriage. This is probably the most popular vocation, since the most people end up in it. Lots of people think that marriage is a difficult life. That is definitely true. While you are not caring for the entire church as in priesthood, you need to care for your children financially, psychologically, and spiritually. Marriage (and all vocations included) are not about yourself, they are about you giving yourself to others. In fact, the purpose of manhood by definition is to know, love, serve, and protect the woman. The medieval code of chivalry is the same, with emphasis on “protect”. Marriage on the mans part is about giving yourself for your family. A man, if he is to live up to his manhood, must always be prepared to give his life for his family; “Greater love then this no man hath then to lay down his life for his friend.” I am only covering the man’s part in marriage; there is be another side, but I am afraid I am ignorant to it.

Lastly, the vocation of Brotherhood. I once had the privilege of staying a week with some Benedictine monks. The Benedictines are a contemplative order, meaning that, in addition to working, they focus themselves on prayer. Although they were not directly ministering to the church, they are also crucial. Due to the presence of Brothers (and Sisters) across the world, it means that no matter what time, someone is always praying. This keeps up a flow of grace to the whole world.

In order to discern what vocation you are called to, there are a few simple things you could do. Prayer is very important, in addition to patience. And when you think you have the right decision, take the leap of faith. You don’t know what running a marathon is like until you actually run it, so pray that you are making the right decision and jump in.

I hope that was an adequate overview of the three vocations. If you would like more on this topic, please ask Catherine, and I will do my best.
God Bless You,
Paul Lector

Vocation Awareness Week

‎"Vocation is simply a call to belong totally to Christ. With the conviction that nothing can separate me from his love. Vocation is an invitation to be in love with God, and to prove that love. How do I love God? How do I prove my love for God? By doing beautifully the work I have been given to do. By doing simply that in which God has entrusted to me, in whatever form it may take."
 - Bl. Mother Teresa 

This week (January 9th-14th.) is National Vocations awareness week. So this week the topic for my blog will be vocations. (And there will be three blog posts this week instead of two.)

God has a plan for each and every one of us to further his Kingdom here on earth. Each plan is as unique as the person who is given the plan. For a woman this plan could be married, single, or religious life.  For a man, this plan might include married, single, priesthood, or religious life. Our job here on earth is to be open to what God is calling us to do to serve him, and then to respond to that call. Not one of the vocation options is any less then holy the others. They all seek to serve God, just in different ways.  The world needs married people, but it also needs holy men for the priesthood. It needs holy women to dedicate their lives to God in Religious life. And it needs men and woman to be consecrated to living a single life.

No matter what vocation God has given to us, we have one common vocation. That vocation is the vocation of love. We are all called to be ministers of God’s love to the world. We are also all called to surrender something to God, not matter what vocation we choose. Married couples are called to give up certain freedoms to dedicate their lives to each other, and to their children. Priests and Religious are called to give up an earthly spouse to be totally united to Christ and the Church as their spouse. Singles are called to give up a spouse so that they can minister to other people in a different way, to be servants of God without giving up the freedoms that Married and religious people don’t have.

This week, we as Catholics and followers of Jesus Christ are called to do several things.
1.) Pray for an increase in vocations specifically to the priesthood and religious life.
2.) Open our own hearts to hear God’s voice in our own lives, and pray for God’s will to be known to us.
3.) Surrender our hearts and our lives to the holy will of God

Be not afraid of the plans that the Lord has for you, he knows what is going to bring you the most happiness.

God Bless,
Catherine

Messages of Love Written in the Sky

God is so great and wonderful. Last night he painted the most amazing sunset: (I apologize for the bad quality of these photos, I don't have a camera of my own, so I had to use my web cam on my laptop, and then take the picture through my window...) The pictures do not do justice to the beauty of the Creator's masterpiece.

While the sun was setting, I took some time of prayer and just thanking God for all the beauty that He was showing me in that moment. Who am I to deserve to see such beauty?  True there were houses and trees in the way of seeing the sunset to it's entirety, but just being able to see as much as I did, brought me great delight. This must be a little taste of heaven here on earth.  But I imagine that Heaven will be more beautiful then all the sunrises and sunsets God created, combined.

Sunrises and sunsets are God's messages of love to the world. Do you see the heart in this picture? (This is an unedited photo.)

How about now?

God Bless you all,
Catherine

You Are Loved

You are one person of the world, one person in a world of 7 billion.

You are one person on this planet, one planet of nine. 

Those nine planets make up our solar system.

One Solar system of many.

The solar systems making up one huge universe. 

One Universe ruled over by God in heaven. 

God controls every single little detail of the world,

He keeps the sun shining each day,

He controls all of his creation.

But among all of the things he controls,

He gave you your unique DNA,

He created you to be totally different 

from any one he has created,

and will create.

With all the possibilities He could have picked,

He chose to create YOU. 

He gives you air to breathe,

and the ability to breathe it.

He created the rhythm of your heart beat,

and continues to make it beat.

He gave you everything you have,

and everything you will receive. 

Long story short, 

You are VERY important.

You have a VERY significant role,

You were made for love,

with love,

by Love. 

YOU ARE LOVED.

God Bless,

Catherine

Wait Upon The Lord

Waiting for other people is something that I’ve never seemed to struggle with. I am a pretty patient person when it comes to other people and waiting for them. Waiting for events to happen is also another thing I do not seem to have a problem with. In fact, the days leading up to my Confirmation day, the anxious waiting of those days, was one of the most joyful times of my life.

But try as I may, one of the things I do struggle with is waiting on the Lord. “I’m calling you, but not just yet.” He seems to say. I can venture to guess that I am not the only one that struggles with this. I’m not going to lie, waiting on the Lord is hard. But the more He makes me wait, the more I learn to trust him and realize that I am impatient, and ungrateful for the many blessings that he has given me in the moment.

God’s timing is absolutely perfect. As I reflect back on things that I asked God for (and was slightly upset for my prayers not being answered right away...) I realize that there was a very specific reason that my prayer wasn’t answered at the exact moment which I prayed them. I’ve learned several things through waiting:

1.) God is making me wait not because he doesn’t care, but because he loves me so much and he wants to teach me something through my waiting.
2.) God doesn’t ignore my prayers, he hears them. He just knows a lot better then I do what the best for me and what will make me more happy then I can imagine.
3.) I have no reason to be angry with God while he is trying to make me happy.
4.) I should really stop being ungrateful for the beautiful gift he has given me in waiting.

God is so wonderful, He really is. That he would still love a sometimes ungrateful person like me, and claim me as his daughter, as his princess, as his beloved. For him to always welcome me with open arms no matter what I’ve done or where I’ve been. I can be in my lowest of lows, and he will just sit there quietly and patiently by my side until I call out to him for his help. Then he rejoices when I call out to him. I just need to learn how to surrender completely to Him and trust that he is leading me in my life’s dance.

God Bless,
Catherine

No Turning Back, No Turning Back

Since I did not post last Thursday, I feel that it will be okay to post something now, at the beginning of this beautiful new year that God has blessed us with. I would like to share with you the song that I pick for my theme song this year, and why I picked it. The song is called "I have decided to Follow Jesus" If you would like to listen to it, you can listen HERE

This song is such a beautiful song of surrender. I'm going to share a little bit now about what these lyrics mean to me.

"I have decided to follow Jesus"

Of course the decision I made to follow Jesus was decided a long time ago, but to follow Jesus is a daily commitment. At any time, we can be led astray. Therefor, we need to make a new commitment each and every day that yes, we are indeed following Jesus. It's a daily self denial and saying that "Yes, Jesus today I choose to follow you, and only you."

"The world behind me, the cross before me"

Nobody said that following Jesus was going to be easy. For me personally, this means taking a step away from the 'pleasures' that the world tells me are so great. make-up, boyfriends, clothing that is suppose to 'attract' guys, listening to certain music, etc. It hasn't been a smooth road for me.  But I can say that it gets much easier with time, and having the beautiful cross before me is a glorious comfort in times of trial and sorrow that I may encounter along the way. It reminds me that this way of living is going to be worth every moment.

"Though none go with me, still I will follow."

Sometimes we can feel like we are alone in this world and that following Jesus is not the 'cool' or 'accepted' thing to do.  Our secular world can tell us that we are only chasing a fairy tale, and that we are wasting are lives trying by following Jesus. (This is not exactly logical, because if there wasn't a God, there would be no such thing as 'wasting your life' but that is a topic for another day.) But even if the world stays behind, I choose to follow Jesus, because He does in fact exist.

Another thing about this verse for me personally, is that in the coming year I know that Jesus is going to send me to other places, which is going to mean leaving people behind, and having to go on my own. (Which is hard for me to do sometimes.) But still, I am going to trust him and follow him, even if I have to go on my own to do it.

"My cross I'll carry, till I see Jesus"

This verse is not in the version of the song I posted, but it is one of my favorites.  God has given us each our own little crosses to carry. They aren't meant to hurt us, or to make us run from him. In fact, they are there so that we might grow closer to Him. He gave us each little crosses to remind us that He is there. If there was no suffering, we would already be in Heaven. I must work on rejoicing in the little trials and sufferings that He gives me. They are really my greatest blessings. I will carry my cross until the day that I leave this life and am reborn into my eternal home where there will be no more suffering and Jesus will reward me greatly for carrying my cross so patiently.

"No turning back, no turning back."

We are entering into a new year. Every other year I've always carried something from the past year over into the new year. A hurt from a past relationship, something that happened in the past year that hurt me, or just bad things from my past in general. However, this year I am laying all that down at the foot of the cross and just moving forward. My past is not going to define me anymore. I am not going to turn back to what I used to be, and I'm not going to turn away from my Jesus. I am only going to move forward on my humble journey towards the glorious victory of Heaven.

 

May God Bless you all this New Year,

-Catherine