Entering in

Holy Week has very quickly become my favorite week of the whole year. Past the fact that it means Easter is coming VERY soon, the services themselves, and every part that they portray are the most beautiful mysteries that I've ever known. The Story of our Salvation is brought before our eyes during this week, beginning last Sunday on Palm Sunday.

Sitting in Church before the Chrism Mass the other day, I was praying and asking Jesus why of all people did He choose me for a certain thing. His response that He gave me in the quiet of my heart went something like this: "Daughter, to me, you are the only one." This response puzzled me for just a moment, but then the response slowly began making more sense to me.

Each person that God creates He looks at as if they are the only person He has ever created in the History of the world. And that's the way He loves us, like we are the only person He ever made. He looks at us like we are the only one. But yet He loves each one of us equally. This, at least for me anyways is something that is a little difficult to wrap my limited human mind around. How could anyone love me so much like there is nobody else in existence, but yet love each and every person just as much as He loves me? It seems like a contradiction, but of course God is God, and I am not. And God is capable of anything. (After all, He is love itself!)

We are entering into the week of the year that we as Catholics call Holy. It began this last Sunday with the Celebration of Palm Sunday, the celebration of Jesus entering Jerusalem, and then also the commemoration of Jesus' Passion on the cross. This is the first time in the year that we are reminded of that great love that took place so long ago. That's what this week is about. Love. In the purest form imaginable. And sometimes, love isn't all beautiful and painless. Sometimes love hurts, sometimes it is just painful.

The love we reflect on this week is the greatest form of love ever given to humans. Ever given to us. Ever give to YOU. You see, even if you were the only person in the world, and nobody else existed, Jesus still would have outstretched His arms and died for you. Remember, Jesus looks at each one of us as if we are the only one ever created.

So let us enter into these Holy Week mysteries with an open heart. Let us reflect on and embrace this beautiful gift of self that the Lord has bestowed on us.

I hope you all have a blessed Holy Week and a joyous Easter!
Peace to you,
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