Pilgrim's Feet

My apologies for not posting in so long, but with school now in full swing, between classes, homework, meetings and events, I have hardly had time to eat and sleep, let alone write! However, it  is exactly this busyness that I would like to talk about, or rather its counterpart - rest. While I knew that this semester would be hard, I didn't think that it would be this hard, or that I would tire out so easily. But today it happened. As I ran about, not only did I feel just tired, I felt utterly exhausted. I don't think I have ever felt this weary before. And on top of my weariness, I felt out of sorts. And so, when I went to my campus ministry's praise and worship service that they hold every Wednesday night, I was looking forward to the time that I could spend praying and praising God, two things that I knew would help me to feel better. What I didn't expect, though, was that the topic for the night would be exactly what I needed! Our topic was "oasis" and in...

One of my best friends in Heaven is Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati. Last Fall, I grew very close to him and after receiving his biography for Christmas, I knew that in him I had found a very dear friend and companion. One of my absolute favorite things about Bl. Pier Giorgio is the boldness and courage with which he lived out and defended the Faith. Whether it was standing up against the facism that threatened, during his short life, to take over Italy, and which eventually did, or visiting the poor and the sick in the slums of his city of Turin, Bl. Pier Giorgio showed no signs of fear, for as he said, "When God is with us we need not be afraid."  As I talked about in my post yesterday, greatness requires that we not settle to remain comfortable, and as I was reminded today, this choice not to settle for comfort takes courage. And not only courage to make the choice initially, but the virtue of fortitude to persevere in that choice. Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati is a great exam...

There are a lot of changes coming up this year for me at college. To be honest, I'm anxious and scared about the road that is now fast approaching me as summer comes to an end and classes start back. But it is in moments such as these that I remember and pray with all my heart those consoling words: "Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in You." It is also in these moments that God provides, showing me that it is safe to trust Him and that He will not abandon me, especially when it gets hard. One such way that God did this was by giving me a new perspective on one of my favorite quotes by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI: "The world offers you comfort, but you were not made for comfort. You were made for greatness." While I had always thought of this in terms of "luxury-comfort," Trey Shields, from Coffee with the Saints , offered this perspective: "...How many of us have achieved something great by just staying comfortable? Greatness is achieved through...

It was April 28 th, a Sunday. But not just any Sunday, Divine Mercy Sunday. Since the feast of the Annunciation I had been preparing for my consecration to Merciful Love - Saint Therese of Lisieux’s own consecration and little way of trust and surrender to Divine Mercy - using Father Michael Gaitley’s 33 Days to Merciful Love, (a book I highly recommend to everyone). After Mass, I came back to my dorm room and started weeping. My heart broke that night. But through its breaking, it was able to open itself to a torrent of Jesus’ Merciful Love. Through its breaking, and the acceptance of God’s Will, my heart was able to make the consecration, I feel, with little to no reservation. After that – that same day actually – I started preparing for my Marian consecration that was to take place on the feast of the Visitation – the feast day I had originally chosen before I thought that I wasn’t going to make it after all. (For years Jesus has been trying to get me to consecrate myself to Mary...

Back in June, on the feast of the Ascension, I had the idea to start this blog, and the name that came to me then was "Pilgrim's Feet." I had just finished watching a video by Fr. Emmanuel from Ascension Presents where he talked about walking the Camino de Santiago (The Way of Saint James), which is a pilgrimage that ends in Compostella, Spain. After finishing the video, I googled the Camino, and something that I read on one of the websites I visited struck me. It said: all routes lead to Compostella. Reading that, I was reminded of what one of my parish priests said in their homily for the feast day, namely that everything we do needs to be ordered to one end: Heaven. Heaven is our Compostella. It is the end of our earthly pilgrimage, the destination toward which we are heading. Upon realizing this, I thought of my favorite passage in the Bible - Isaiah 49:1-13 - but more specifically verse 11 that reads: "...I will make all my mountains a way, and my paths shall ...