Running Shorts and Chapel Veils

As many of you already know, yesterday turned from being one of the best days of our family's life to one of the worst. My cousin Raychel got the call yesterday that her double lung transplant was finally going to happen. Surgery was scheduled, family was ready, our prayer networks were set in motion. Then the surgeon noticed something was wrong with the donor lungs, and he made the tough call to not proceed. While we are all thankful that Raychel didn't receive broken lungs, it was crushing. So of course, we all kept praying. But for me, my prayers were a little bit different. This was the closest I have ever come to being outright angry with God. I told Him I didn't understand what the point of this was. We were okay waiting for the call. We didn't have lungs yet, but we were hopeful they were coming in God's time. Why did He have to get our hopes up only to crush them and then let us all wait in a new kind of agony? It felt like someone I loved had died, and I ...

Happy New Year! Liturgical new year, that is. Advent is upon us and it's time for wreaths and purple to adorn churches everywhere. Advent is a time of preparation and hope, and it's also a time of waiting. However, the waiting God calls us to in Advent is not the same waiting we often do in daily life. The waiting of Advent is not passive, but an active waiting that asks something of us. What is active waiting? Active waiting is intentional. It's purposeful. It's disciplined. It's a waiting that hopes for the end, but in the meantime it is an experience of growth and learning. Active waiting is not impatient. It is not the kid who wakes up every morning asking if it is Christmas yet and if it's time to open presents. But it is also not the mindless waiting of someone watching the commercials waiting for the game to come back on. Advent is a time of active waiting. We are to prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ, especially at the end of time. Advent isn...

I just read an article that claims it can undermine the entire pro-life movement with a single hypothetical situation. I happen to disagree. To start, here's the apparently fatal question posted by someone on Twitter. It starts with you in a fertility clinic that's on fire. You hear a child crying behind a door. You open the door. There's a three year old boy standing in front of 1,000 viable embryos. You have to chose one. Not both. Choose one or you all die. The individual claims that you have to choose the three year old, and since the right answer is the three year old that proves that an embryo is not alive and it's not human. Aside from the fact that this hypothetical situation is so unlikely it's absurd, there's a very simple way to understand this situation and "save" the pro-life movement. This situation is just like saying that you can either save the person you love most in the world or 1,000 people you don't know. Instinctively, it ...

In light of the protests that are consuming Saint Louis, I thought I'd add my collected thoughts to the mix. I'm also going to try to do the impossible, and leave politics out of it. That's right, I'm not going to disclose what I think about the trial itself or what I think about the message the protestors are trying to get across. I'm just going to use my Catholic faith to view the events that have unfolded since the verdict. Although I will refrain from sharing my political views, I will say that this trial and the protests surrounding it appear to be more about politics than justice in the courtroom. Maybe that does sound political, but I've tried to look at this situation  as objectively as possible and this is the conclusion I've come too: it seems to matter more that Officer Stockley was white and that Mr. Smith was black than the fact that a human life was lost. It really hurts my heart that this seems to be the case. Instead of responding out of co...

In a complete reversal from the 20th century, more people today identify themselves as "spiritual but not religious." An increasing group of people, especially young people, are rejecting traditional religious institutions and opting for a more personalized approach to theism. Is this something we should be concerned about? Absolutely. If people separate themselves from the Church not only do they lose access to the sacraments, but they also lack the tools they need to improve their character. While setting off on your own customized spiritual journey may sound like a good idea at first, it's really like choosing a life raft instead of a cruise ship. First, I'd like to dispute the premise that "spiritual but not religious" implies. It sounds like people have two choices; you can either be spiritual or religious, but not both. We've attached a negative connotation to the term religious, which makes it undesirable for people who claim to be free thinkers...

One of the main players in the Incarnation story is Mary, Mother of God. Despite the key roll she played in bringing Jesus to us, devotion to the Blessed Mother is a contested subject between Protestants and Catholics. Protestants often see devotion to Mary as a form of worship and accuse Catholics of idolatry. Catholics would certainly be guilty of idolatry if devotion to Mary was in fact worship, but the truth is devotions to Our Lady are not acts of worship but acts of respect towards the woman who allowed herself to be used in God's plan for the salvation of the world. It might be confusing and difficult to separate worship of God and devotion to Mary, so I hope to bring some light to the conversation that might foster understanding between Christians. Let's start with devotion to saints in general. What's the deal with Catholics always asking different saints for their intercession about different things? First, we have to understand who a saint is, and then we can b...

As we were leaving the pool the other day, my fiance turned to me and told me that he thought my new swimsuit looked good. When I asked him why, he explained that it's modest and "modest looks good on you." This conversation was not only a reminder of what an incredible man God sent me, but it also got me thinking about the attitude girls have towards modest clothing. Unfortunately, I think most girls would see dressing modestly as a concession to someone else, especially boys or parents. It's time to change that. Dressing modestly doesn't have to start with an exterior motivation; I'll posit that it should start with an interior one. I don't dress the way I do because I'm thinking of how others will look at me; I dress the way I do because I have a level of respect for myself and the body God has given me. With that in mind, an alternate title to this post might be "Dress Yourself to Respect Yourself." One of the first things I hear from f...