We Need Saints

We Need Saints

"We need saints without cassocks, without veils. We need saints with jeans and tennis shoes. We need saints that go to the movies, that listen to music, that hang out with friends. We need saints who put God in first place, ahead of succeeding in any career. We need saints who look for time to pray every day and who know how to be in love with purity, chastity, and all good things. We need saints, Saints of the 21st century with a spirituality appropriate to our new time. We need saints that have a commitment to helping the poor and to make the needed social change. We need saints to live in the world, to sanctify the world and to not be afraid of living in the world by their presence in it. We need saints that drink Coca-Cola, that eat hot dogs, that surf the internet and that listen to their iPods. We need saints that love the Eucharist, that are not afraid or embarrassed to eat a pizza or drink a beer with their friends.. We need saints who love the movies, dance, sports, theater. We need saints that are open, sociable, normal, happy companions. We need saints who are in this world and who know how to enjoy the best in this world without being callous or mundane. We need saints."

–Pope Francis, World Youth Day 2013, Rio

"To a great extent the level of any civilization is the level of its womanhood. When a man loves a woman, he has to become worthy of her. The higher her virtue, the more her character, the more devoted she is to truth, justice, goodness, the more a man has to aspire to be worthy of her. The history of civilization could actually be written in terms of the level of its women."

Archbishop Fulton Sheen

YOUCATholic

I teach 6th graders in a Catholic elementary school that is made up mostly of non-Catholics.
Yes, it seems extremely strange, but in the area I teach in Catholic schools are the safer alternative to public schools. Though the faith element is nice, a lot of parents choose to educate their students in these schools because they feel like they are protected and taught a better system of morals. Now, majority of my students (90%+) are practicing Christians, many of whom are strong Protestants.
This makes for an extremely interesting discourse during Religion lessons, and many of my students can quote stories from the Bible left and right. The challenge comes, however, when we have in-depth discussions about specific Catholic doctrines, like the saints, the importance of the Mass and transubstantiation, and the solemnity of Mary. While I do my best in apologetics, and try to clear things up for them (no, Catholics do NOT worship Mary....I think I've taught that one about 100 times this year), I am not well versed in every inch of the Church. I try to use a lot of resources, especially ones designed for youth like Lifeteen and Edge ministry, but I am SOO excited about a new resource coming out!!

Introducing YOUCATholic.com!

I was reading an article on Ignitum Today about a new website that is being launched for Catholic Youth, YOUCATholic.com, penned after the YOUCAT, or the Youth version of the Catechism. According to the article, the website which launches on June 10, 2013, is going to be an interactive website with Q&A columns, discussion boards, social media interaction and formation courses. From what I've heard, it looks like it is going to be an incredible resource for an age group who has a lot of questions and who is going through a lot of exploration in their faith life. I can't wait to be able to incorporate it into my religion curriculum for next year!!!

Somewhere between the altar and the door

Even though I already put in two random postings, I title this the official inaugural post!


The title of my blog, Reckless Abandon Wrapped in Common Sense, comes from a line in the Casting Crowns song "Somewhere in the Middle" which is all about how as Christians, we often find ourselves struggling in that middle ground, somewhere between the things we know are wrong and the things we know are right, somewhere between ignoring God and complete devotion. The chorus goes as such:

Fearless warriors in a picket fence

Reckless abandon wrapped in common sense

Deep water faith in the shallow end

and we are caught in the middle

With eyes wide open to the differences

The God we want and the God who is

But would we trade our dreams for His

or are we caught in the middle?

And when it comes to my faith journey, that’s generally how I feel, caught in the middle of completely and utter submission to God’s will while still trying to maintain that I know best, “somewhere between my faith and my plans”. 
One of my favorite lines is “Just how close can I get Lord, to my surrender, without losing all control.” So much of my life I try to control, and really, none of it is in my control. Through high school, I practiced my faith out of obedience. In college, I fell in love with the community of believers the Church brought, learned about the faith, fell in love with Adoration and the Eucharist, and knew my life was changed. Post-grad, the journey has been one of independence, falling in love with the teachings of the Church (#theologyofthebody), and seeing love lived out in service. 
I’ve always felt I’ve put up a front, trying to disguise the fact that most of the time I was confused with what people were talking about or that my prayer life wasn’t where it should be. Now don’t get me wrong, I have had some serious moments of pure joy with God, feeling so incredibly alive, like during Adorations, experiencing the "post-retreat" high, and profound moments of prayer. But I need Jesus more, need God more, need the Church more, but I'm never quite sure how to get there. Right now I’m caught in the middle, sitting in that pew close enough to the front to be present with God, but far enough back to run if it starts getting too real, too hard. The challenge is to keep moving up, until I’m lying on the altar. 

St. Maria Goretti and the Cardinal Virtues

I’ve been watching a lot of videos from last year’s Steubenville conferences, and a few of them have been from the women’s sessions, focusing on the four cardinal virtues: Prudence (Wisdom), Justice, Fortitude (Courage), and Temperance (Self-Control or Chastity). Incredible women of God have been speaking to these young women (Jackie Francois, Mary Bielski, Leah Darrow) about coming to God, and what special creatures they are, creating as the climax of creation, as the perfection of God’s beauty on Earth. They have talked a lot about what it means to be a women in today’s society, what real love means, and what is worth waiting for. A few of the talks have brought up the story of St. Maria Goretti, a virgin and martyr who died at the young age of 11. She lived in Italy, and one day a neighbor, Alessandro, tried to sexually assault her. She fought off his advances, trying to get him to see the light, to save his soul from committing a mortal sin. He ended up stabbing her 14 times, and she died the next day. Before she died, she forgave him. He spent 30 years in jail for murder (not a lifetime because he was a minor), and had a major conversion experience. She became a saint within his lifetime. Before he died, he wrote this incredible letter:

       I’m nearly 80 years old. I’m about to depart. Looking back at my past, I can see that in my early youth, I chose a bad path which led me to ruin myself. My behavior was influenced by print, mass-media and bad examples which are followed by the majority of young people without even thinking. And I did the same.

I was not worried.

There were a lot of generous and devoted people who surrounded me, but I paid no attention to them because a violent force blinded me and pushed me toward a wrong way of life.

When I was 20 years old, I committed a crime of passion. Now, that memory represents something horrible for me. Maria Goretti, now a Saint, was my good Angel, sent to me through Providence to guide and save me.

I still have impressed upon my heart her words of rebuke and of pardon. She prayed for me, she interceded for her murderer.

Thirty years of prison followed. If I had been of age, I would have spent all my life in prison. I accepted to be condemned because it was my own fault.

Little Maria was really my light, my protectress; with her help, I behaved well during the 27 years of prison and tried to live honestly when I was again accepted among the members of society.

The Brothers of St. Francis, Capuchins from Marche, welcomed me with angelic charity into their monastery as a brother, not as a servant. I’ve been living with their community for 24 years, and now I am serenely waiting to witness the vision of God, to hug my loved ones again, and to be next to my Guardian Angel and her dear mother, Assunta.

I hope this letter that I wrote can teach others the happy lesson of avoiding evil and of always following the right path, like little children. I feel that religion with its precepts is not something we can live without, but rather it is the real comfort, the real strength in life and the only safe way in every circumstance, even the most painful ones of life.”

Signed, Alessandro Serenelli

How incredible of a change of heart, where God could take a moment of shear vice and pain, and turn it into something so beautiful and full of love, self-sacraficing love. How incredible was and still is little Maria Goretti that not only was she able to forgive someone of a crime they committed against HER, but that she also wanted to stop him in the act to save his soul. And she was 11. So many of the saints were young and not experienced in the world when they died. Yet their young lives ran after Christ with a passion, and their influence has still stayed in the world. They dealt with sin and temptation just like any other human, yet they had such faith and conviction in the love of God that they could fight past that, could fight the Devil, and they TERRIFIED HIM.

We all have the ability to be those saints.

 It takes work, but that should be our goal. 

We strive for heaven. We strive for sainthood. 

And we strive to get those we love into heaven, to take up their crosses and help them on their road to sainthood, too. 

What is right is not always what is popular

"Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect...Let love be sincere; hate what is evil, hold on to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; anticipate one another in showing honor.Do not grow slack in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.Rejoice in hope, endure in affliction, persevere in prayer."

Romans 12:2;9-12