Just Shine On

Posts Tagged ‘vocations’

As I write this post, it is August 15, 2018.

Today is the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Mother. Today was a Holy Day of Obligation, and I went to the 8 AM Mass, just minutes after reading the report from the Pennsylvania Grand Jury and the reactions of people, Catholic and not, from across the globe.

This report, which covers the heinous crimes by the clergy, (of which an estimated 90% were from prior to the 1990’s) comes on the tail of the scandals in Argentina and Australia. A bit more personal to me, an investigation has also been launched against the major seminary in my own diocese, after an extremely damning piece on the conduct of some who have attended, was published by an ex-seminarian whom was one of my first JSO Instagram followers.

Considering everything that has been going on, and all the attention the Church has been getting from the major news media, it is safe to say that I, among many others, are beside ourselves, with a storm of incredibly difficult emotions.

I feel sick about the children who have been failed, their innocence destroyed and lost. I am angry about the coverups done to save face. I feel powerless to help clean up any of this mess and promote healing. I feel betrayed because the Church that I have fought for and defended for so long, is now being smeared by the hundreds of men who were unfaithful to the vows that they made. This goes beyond the breaking of promises though. This is pure evil, and it is unfathomable to me that this is the current face of the Catholic Church, especially since we know that our teachings hold us to the highest of standards when it comes to sexual conduct.

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Back in December, as I was sitting in the Abbey Church one night, I wrote this poem titled “All That I Am”. I was feeling an incredible sense of peace in that moment. Whenever I feel like I need to recenter my focus for my life, I read my poem to get myself back into that mindset and remember the most important purpose for my life.

All That I Am

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Every Christian hopes for one thing when they die: life eternal with God. We all want God to look at us, describe the ways in which we pleased Him, and say to us, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”

 I wrote this poem as a reflection of just that. Read the rest of this entry »

Be a real rebel. Be in it, not of it.

I think this is a very important concept that we all need to understand. Have you ever felt like you just don’t belong anywhere? Maybe, like me, you have a few different circles of friends that you drift in and out of. We enjoy the company of all of them, but we just don’t fit in. That’s OK, because none of us were made to fit in! We can only find the perfect love and acceptance that we want so much, when we turn to God. He put us on this earth, not to blend in with the crowd, but to stand out and point others to Him. We live in this world. But we don’t belong here. We need to be rebels and prove we are in it, not of it.

Enter the college scene. I have experienced my first semester of college. Within that first semester, I have been exposed to many trends Read the rest of this entry »

It was just over 2 years ago, that I created my blog here, Just Shine On.  Naturally, it was time to update my About Page, so I just did that. My life has changed in some big ways! One of those big changes has been moving to college. I applied and was accepted to six Catholic colleges, and submitted the below essay, to each of them.   I recently found this essay on my computer, and thought sharing it with you all, might be a great post.  The essay prompt was: “Describe a place or environment where you are perfectly content. What do you do or experience there, and why is it meaningful to you?” 

I hope you enjoy reading it. Read the rest of this entry »

Last month I celebrated my 18th birthday. But turning the big one-eight wasn’t the only thing that made this past birthday so special. It was also the fact that my birthday landed on a Sunday this year. I spent a good amount of time thinking about this one night last month, as I held one of our hens and watched fireflies glow in the dusk, on a perfect early July night.

Celebrating my birthday on a Sunday might not seem like much. But for me, it means the world. You see, Read the rest of this entry »

A couple weekends ago, I went on my last high school retreat with my youth group. My youth minister and the CORE members did an awesome job running it, but I think one of my favorite parts (besides Adoration, which is always a great experience,) was the witness talk that was given. Our witness speaker happened to be a seminarian, which I thought was awesome! If you’ve been following my blog from the beginning, or if you know me personally, then you probably know I have a lot of admiration and respect for priests, and the vocation to religious life in general. So you can imagine how excited I was about this witness talk! The seminarian gave a really great testimony about his call to the priesthood, and the different things that happened throughout his life, that he now realized was God trying to speak to him.

The discussion guided by my CORE member, again led me to the conclusion that I often come to when I think about what the priesthood means to me: Read the rest of this entry »

Brother Philip MacNeil

I met Brother Philip through my parish, during the process of getting our new church building ready for its’ Dedication. He and others from his community Read the rest of this entry »

**NOTE: This post is the second and last of a two-part series. This one is for the guys, but if you’re a girl, I encourage you to read it anyway!
It may help you better understand how a guy of Christ should act.**

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Titus 1. It’s not as popular as it’s female counterpart, but it’s important just the same!

Also, Titus 1 is very Read the rest of this entry »

**NOTE: This post is the first of a two-part series. This one is for the girls, but if you’re a guy, I encourage you to read it anyway!
It may help you better understand how a girl of God should act.**

~

The ‘Proverbs 31 girl’…I don’t think I’ve ever heard that term until I joined Twitter’s vast Christian Anon community.

Everywhere I looked, I saw comments such as these from girls:

“I want to be a Proverbs 31 girl!”

“Trying to be the girl I was created to be. #Proverbs31” 

“I thought I was grown up enough, but looks like I have more growing to do. #Proverbs31Girl”

Or comments such as these from the guys: Read the rest of this entry »