Evangelization: A Journey in Love

“Daddy, why don’t you go to church with us?”

Every Sunday I would head to church with my mom, but my dad always stayed home. I was only six, but it had taken me all six years to work up the courage to ask why my father abstained from our tradition.

“I believe in God, but I’m not Catholic,” he replied.

Seven years later, I would watch as my dad received his First Communion and Confirmation at the Easter Vigil. It was a beautifully joyful moment. It was a uniting of my family with the church community. The tiny, old priest beamed with happiness seeing my father join the church and insisted he come up and talk. My mom, who was the RCIA coordinator at our church, made jokes about how she ran out of people to sign up and had to “scrape the bottom of the barrel,” but we all knew how happy it made her to have our dad at church with us at last.

Perhaps I wasn’t old enough to appreciate the beauty behind the decision at the time. Deciding to join the Catholic faith is huge choice to make. Reflecting on this, I decided to have a conversation with my dad that’d I never had before. In the same way I mustered up my courage as a six-year-old, I decided I needed to find the same courage to ask my dad about his decision to become Catholic. Having never talked to him about anything faith related before, this was a huge step, but very rewarding.

I learned my father decided to join the Catholic Church for two reasons. The first was our parish priest. Our church is very lucky to have Monseigneur Peter Lentine as our pastor, though we lovingly call him “Father Pete.” He is a tiny man, currently 95 years old. For several years, the only appearance my dad made at church was for the Christmas Pageant and the Easter Egg Hunt. Despite my dad’s seldom appearances in our parish community, Father Pete didn’t hesitate to make my dad feel welcome each time he visited. “He was also so respectful, even though I wasn’t Catholic,” my dad told me. Father Pete’s welcoming attitude helped my dad decide to start coming to Mass with our family and determine if this was something he was ready for.

My father contributes the other part of his decision to our family. Being able to participate in Mass with my mom, my sister, and I was something important to him. He wanted our family united together in our faith. “It was something I had been thinking about doing for a long time. It was a decision I was ready to make and it seemed the right time to make it,” he told me.

This was probably one of the most personal conversations I’ve had with my dad. Though my mom and I often discuss faith together, it’s a rare topic of discussion with my dad, as our father/daughter relationship consists mostly of us making jokes. Despite being initially uncomfortable, it was a really important conversation to have, because it showed the real impact evangelization had on his life. A huge part of my dad’s journey to becoming Catholic came from Father Pete and my mom.  Through Father Pete’s welcoming and respectful attitude and my family’s love and need for unity, it slowly changed his heart.

It’s easy to shrink from evangelization. It’s a scary word, but it doesn’t always mean preaching on street corners or passing out bibles. It can simply mean loving and accepting people for where they are in their journey and reaching out to show them the love that you’ve experienced in your own faith. I look to Father Pete and my mom as examples of evangelization in its simplest and truest form. And I hope that one day I can evangelize as they do, with respect, and with love.

Discernment Advice from the Pope

Discernment is a word we hear again and again as Catholics. We hear it tucked into the homilies at Mass. We hear it in small groups during retreats. We see it on the brochures pushed into our hands by smiling priests and nuns. It’s whispered by the stones in the grotto, our academic textbooks, and in our late night conversations with friends, when we sigh and say, “I don’t know what I want to do with the rest of my life.”

For better or worse, discernment isn’t just a college thing. In the same way that discernment doesn’t necessarily mean deciding between married life or a religious vocation or what career to pursue. Discernment can mean deciding if you want to pursue a relationship, if you want to try out for a musical, or apply to spring break in Appalachia. It can mean small decisions, big decisions, and everything in between.

Pope Francis recently said, “Discernment takes time. For example, many think that changes and reforms can take place in a short time. I believe that we always need time to lay the foundations for real, effective change. And this is the time of discernment. Sometimes discernment instead urges us to do precisely what you had at first thought you would do later. And that is what has happened to me in recent months. Discernment is always done in the presence of the Lord, looking at the signs, listening to the things that happen, the feeling of the people, especially the poor. My choices, including those related to the day-to-day aspects of life, like the use of a modest car, are related to a spiritual discernment that responds to a need that arises from looking at things, at people and from reading the signs of the times. Discernment in the Lord guides me in my way of governing.”

We all want fast answers, quick fixes. We want our lives to make sense easily. The Pope tells us though, that making good decisions through true discernment takes time. It means taking time to reflect on all we experience and seeing, then listening to God’s voice in it. I often tell the kids in my catechism class, that God has many voices. Sometimes it is a loud voice telling us exactly what to do. Other times God speaks in whispers, giving us little hints, signs, and feelings that help us decide.

I was recently with another Domer at a job interview. When discussing why he decided to apply he said that he had been reflecting on this quote from the Pope: “Do precisely what you had at first thought you would do later.” He had always assumed he would apply for this job later on in his life. Hearing this quote though helped him realize that this job wasn’t something to put off, but do right now.

Our lives are constant practices in discernment. Just as we must approach prayer in different ways, we all must approach our own discernment in different ways as naturally we are all called to different vocations.

A New Way to Pray

My Monday evenings for as long as I can remember mean one thing: catechism. Growing up and still today, it means a quick dinner, then jumping in the car and driving to spend an hour and fifteen minutes in classroom. As I’ve grown up, my role has changed from student to teacher. Teaching catechism is one of the highlights of my week. Thanks to the Institute of Church Life, I’ve been able to continue teaching catechism while in college as a part of their Catechist Program. This is my second year teaching 5^th/6^th Grade at Holy Family Paris. I look forward to watching my students discover their faith learn more God’s love for us.

            

One particular activity that I always look forward to sharing with my class is called “prayer stations.”  It is one of the most fun, but also most important lessons that I teach. I arrange several stations around the room- one for journaling, one with prayer books, candles, and rosaries for silent prayer, one tucked into a corner for partner prayers and faith sharing, and one in the hallway for meditative walking. After giving kids an overview of each station and how to use it, I put on some peaceful music and let them try each station for 5 or 10 minutes before rotating. It’s a chance to see a different side of many of students. It’s a chance to watch the boy that struggles with answers in class smile thoughtfully into his journal. It’s a chance to see the troubled student walking peacefully through the hallway. It’s a chance to overhear a conversation from the faith-sharing corner where two students are praying for one’s grandfather in the hospital or discussing how they learned about their faith. As often our catechism curriculum is tied down to textbooks and curriculum standards, it’s one of my favorite opportunities to see my own students take their faith in their own hands and explore prayer.

            

A few weeks ago, while on Sophomore Road Trip, the tables were turned. Our first on the road trip, we were presented with a “prayer buffet.” I’m not going to lie, the SRT leaders did a much better job than I did at creating prayer stations. They had stations for drawing and using clay, some for reading the Bible, prayer books, and sacred readings, some for writing intentions, some for silent meditation, some for praying before the cross… there were honestly so many different opportunities to pray there. I loved it! It felt like a wonderful gift to escape the business of life and spend an hour exploring prayer. By the end, I realized different forms of prayer that I never would have tried or thought worked for me, ended up being wonderful chances to escape in God’s love.

It also made me realized what a great gift I give to my students. As they often come from families where faith isn’t important or they rarely attend mass, giving them tools to form a prayer life is such an important ministry I can offer them. At the same time, I realized that in order to be a good catechist, I need to continue to explore my own prayer life. I can only help my students grow in faith, when I make the commitment to do the same thing myself.

The Road to Sainthood: Father Solanus Casey

Detroit, Michigan tends to get a bad rap. Crime, drugs, and violence haunt its burned out houses and abandoned factories. Growing up in the suburbs of Detroit, I’ve seen two sides of the city: a rough, threatening place and a place where small bits of hope peak through. These small bits of hope are seen in Detroit’s many gems like the Detroit Institute of Art, Eastern Market on a Saturday morning, Belle Isle andTigers Stadium.  Each of these places serve as a reminder that hope is on the horizon,  and one place where I really feel this sense of hope is at the Father Solanus Casey Center.

            

Father Solanus grew up in Appleton, Wisconsin in the late 1800s. He worked as a logger, prison guard, and streetcar operator.  After praying a novena for direction, he  discerned his vocation to join the Capuchin priests and heard Mary tell him to “go to Detroit.” He struggled with the coursework and his superiors determined that he was not fit to fulfill the duties of a priest. He was ordained a simplex priest and was given the job of porter. That was where the miracles began. He would listen to people’s problems as they approached the door to the church and tell them to start thanking God because their prayers were already being answered. As time went on he grew very famous for his miracles and people came from all over to meet him and ask for miracles. His intercessions continued throughout his life and he continues to work them today. Even St. Andre Besset, who has a special connection to Notre Dame and the Holy Cross Order, asked for a blessing from Father Solanus while visiting Detroit in 1935.

           

The church and monastery where he lived, St. Bonaventure on Mount Elliot road in Detroit, has since been turned into a museum and pilgrimage center. With a prayer sculpture garden (based on St. Francis’s Canticle of the Sun), a museum of Father Solanus’s life, and Father Solanus’s tomb to pray beside, the center is a place of peace in one of Detroit’s rougher neighborhoods. It has become a place where people flock still for answers to their prayers and deepen their relationship with God through learning about the life of this very holy man.

           

The greater goal of the Father Solanus Casey Center is to work to help him become a saint. Recent years have brought forth the stories of many miracles worked by Father Solanus. One miracle involves a child without bones in her legs suddenly gaining them when she was placed on his tomb. Another is of a woman with a severe skin condition that was suddenly cured. Unfortunately, however, miracles are not always enough for sainthood. The process of becoming a saint is difficult. The miracles must  stand up to doctors in the Vatican who determine whether there is no scientific explanation for the miracle. It is a thorough process, but the people who work at the center remain determined to help him become a saint. Father Solanus is currently Venerable. More miracles are being examined in order for him to become Blessed and Beatified.

            

To learn more about the center and Father Solanus, please click here [ LINK TO http://www.solanuscenter.org/]. And if you are looking for a weekend getaway or a convenient pilgrimage, turn your eyes to Detroit. You’ll find a place filled with hope, particularly at the Father Solanus Casey Center, where you can join Father Solanus on his road to sainthood and your own.

SRT: Saying Yes to Adventure

“What is your vocation right now?” Asked my retreat leader this past weekend.
After careful consideration, I replied, “Saying yes to adventures.”

Getting on a bus full of mostly strangers headed to a mystery location, to do a weekend full of activities of what you don’t really know- is a daunting prospect. And yet, that was exactly what I found myself doing. With a nearly exploding backpack, a cliché retreat nametag, and my pillow (stuffed full of the stuff that wouldn’t fit in my backpack)- I boarded my bus and awaited my adventure.

Welcome to Sophomore Road Trip. Each fall Campus Ministry loads up buses with students, each bus going to a different location, calling students to put the stress and uncertainties of college life behind them and embrace the unknown. As the kind of person who loves schedules and planning, the idea of not knowing where we were going, what we were doing was initially really uncomfortable.

Luckily the retreat leaders didn’t give us a chance to panic. From the moment the bus left Notre Dame Avenue, it was a constant stream of icebreakers as the bus full of strangers turned into new friendships. By the time we arrived at our first stop (a delicious old school pizza parlor), we found ourselves sitting at tables of half new friends and half old ones.

Over the course of the weekend I would continue to accept adventure over and over: canoeing to an unknown island with a group of friends, doing a trust fall, and even climbing up a high ropes course! I went exploring through the woods. I tried new forms of prayer. I participated in an impromptu dance party. But more than that, I accepted the risk of telling people about my struggles and discuss our mutual struggles to discern what God is calling us to do.

The wonderful thing about retreat is that it lets you do exactly that- “retreat.” Take a break from studying, dorm life, and extracurricular to focus on what is really important. It gives you a chance to revive your spiritual side and reignite your fire for God. Sophomore Road Trip is especially unique because it forces you to let go of worries and hesitations and embrace the unknown. In the same way, we must embrace the unknown in our lives.

Last week, I discussed taking a pilgrimage: the idea of taking a faith journey, but letting God take the steering wheel. Sophomore Road Trip is the perfect way to take a mini pilgrimage. Putting your focus and trust in the Lord and the journey. It’s often easy, we discussed this weekend, to spend all our time stressed about the future. Wondering if we have the right major, if we are applying to the right study abroad program, or even knowing if we’ve picked the best future career path. Instead, I learned that it is far more beneficial to look at now and take things one-step at a time. “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” reads Jeremiah 29:11. The vocation God has for all of us right now is just to trust in the moment and leave the future to the Lord’s plan for us. In a way, we are all on this road trip of life, where we must get on and take part in the journey, enjoying each moment for what it is and not just for the destination.

As for me, I am choosing to do this by saying yes to adventure. Saying yes to going to midnight Glee club concerts with my roommate. Saying yes to going on a trip to France. Saying yes to exploring the new forms of prayer I learned during retreat. Saying yes to playing sports that I am terrible at. Saying yes to making new friends and creating deeper friendships with old ones. But most importantly, saying yes to the unknown. When you are God’s journey, God’s road trip, there are no wrong turns.

A Dance for the Pilgrimage

The people of Brittany, France have special dances they do before pilgrimages and along the way. The dances are laden with symbolism- movements and numbers representing a connection to God and to the entire celestial universe. In just a few weeks, I will dance the same dances myself as I take my own pilgrimage.

It was just six months ago that I found myself staring at a rejection e-mail. I had applied to spend a month of my summer studying creative writing in Nottingham, UK. It was a program for Freshman and Sophomores offered through the Fulbright Commission. I had spent months working on my application: working with advisors to perfect my essays, trying harder than ever in my classes to improve my GPA. Even though it was one of the most competitive programs in the country, I was still heartbroken when I didn’t receive an invitation.

I had spent my entire life dreaming of going to Europe. My family had never been able to afford a trip there. Here I was, a French major who had never seen France, an English major who had never seen England! I felt this restless frustration for never setting food in Europe. I decided to turn my disappointment into determination. I made the resolution that I would go to Europe within the year and offered my prayer up to God, asking that if God willed it, my plans would find a way.

It was not long after that I partook in a series of conversations that shaped the direction I took in deciding how to fulfill this dream. A discussion with another student in the waiting room of the Romance Language office that encouraged me to write to my professor and ask if I could do research for their class; A conversation with the girl that sat next to me in English class who I discovered did research in France over Spring Break and offered to help me; A meeting with my future professor where I expressed my wish to study folk dancing in France; An exchange with another professor where my loose ideas and thoughts became a plan of action. As the summer progressed, my plans continued to fall into place. Surely, God must share the same dream for me, I thought, as I received e-mails from Breton Folk Dancing groups offering to let me interview them and to teach me dance.

In early September, I finished my grant proposal. I had spent lots of time drafting, reading sample proposals, working with CUSE office to edit it, and sending to everyone I knew to read it over. My professor lauded it, telling me that I was a shoe-in for a grant. I had planned on just submitting the proposal to the Nanovic Institute to ask for funding, but ended up checking off the box for CUSE as well, though I had been warned they were much harder to receive.

I continued to wait and pray. The idea of traveling to Europe alone to do research was beginning to seem a little daunting. I put it in God’s hands. I asked God to keep me safe. If the trip would end up putting me danger or a scary situation, I prayed that God would not allow it to happen. I reminded myself that the most important part of a pilgrimage was to put your entire trust in God and have God lead you where you were supposed to be.

I got my reply from Nanovic during one of my classes. They weren’t funding my trip. I fought my tears through the class and tried to throw into activities to distract myself, my inside I felt like the plan I had was crumbling. I felt angry. I had trusted the people editing, my professor, and God- I had thought this was going to happen. I had thought that finally my dream of Europe was going to come true.

When I returned from dance rehearsal on Friday, I was greeted by an e-mail from CUSE regarding the grant. I took a deep breath and told myself I didn’t get it, determined not to be too heartbroken. But surprisingly, when I opened it up, I found they had offered me funding. And that was when I realized how God had really been present the entire time.

The grant was smaller than I had planned, but at the same time, it encouraged me to reach out to ND alumni living in France, asking them for help with housing. Now instead of being alone, which was what had made me wary of the trip, I’ll be staying with other young Americans abroad. I realized that each failure and complication of the trip had shaped it to be exactly what God wanted it to be. The entire point of pilgrimage is to let God take the steering wheel and guide you on your journey. And in typical God-like fashion, the result was better than I could have created myself.

As I go to take my pilgrimage, stepping into the shoes of the Bretons before me who used dance and movement to represent their connection to God and their trust in him for the journey- I look forward for the chance to better my French, to diversify myself a dance, but most importantly, to continue to place my entire trust in God and let him to continue to have the steering wheel.

Finding Fellowship

Halfway through the summer before my freshman year, e-mails about potential activities for fall began trickling in, each one capturing my attention and interest. Four:7, Freshman Retreat, ISI, Catechist Program, FIDES, choir auditions- the list of things that I was invited to participate in went on and on. And the list of the things in which I wanted to participate was identical. And that was just Campus Ministry! I still wanted to do dance, quiz bowl, and other activities too!

As the start of the year approached I realized that as much I wanted to participate in spiritually nourishing activities every day of the week, I needed to narrow down my fellowship options. Even though I couldn’t participate in everything, I decided I might as well try everything.

So I started going to meetings for everything I could. I tried out for different choirs. I went to meetings for each fellowship group. I pretty much went “faith group shopping,” and here are some of my tips for finding your place.

1.     Find Your Comfort Zone- Some groups like ISI and Four:7 have praise and worship, which might be a really invigorating faith experience and really uncomfortable for others. Give it a try and decide for yourself. In FIDES, you are asked to share personally with a small group. Some people love getting close to their group, whereas other people might prefer to be part of a crowd in the larger group meetings of ISI and Four:7. Going outside your comfort zone and trying new things is always great, but it’s also nice to feel safe especially in sharing something as personal as your faith. Visiting each group will help you figure out where you are more comfortable.

2.    Decide What Experiences Are Important to You- Each group has different events that make them unique. Four:7 has group adoration and a group bible study. ISI has special groups for men, women, and freshman, as well as extra worship time and a prayer team. Both groups also have retreats. FIDES provides a program specifically for freshman to introduce them to the different opportunities for faith development at Notre Dame. Members receive lectures from great speakers from across the country and a chance to experience your faith in different ways.

3.    Know that you can jump in at any time- If you didn’t go to the first meeting, that doesn’t mean you can’t be a part of the group! All groups are welcoming to anyone who wants to join, whenever they want to! Don’t miss out on a great opportunity to share your faith just because you haven’t gone yet. Just take the risk and go!

4.    Don’t be afraid to go it alone- There is a huge fear of showing up places without a posse of friends. Forget that! If you want to try a faith sharing group- go for it! Each group is incredibly welcoming and will make you feel at home. It’s also a great chance to put your trust in God and invite the opportunity to meet new people!

5.    Make it Up- If you find that out of all these fellowship groups on campus nothing is fitting your style you don’t have to give up. There are lots of ways people share their faith on campus outside of formal groups. Whether you go to Lucernarium at Moreau Seminary or the student run rosary at the Grotto, if you attend Mass in your residence hall or find a new friend on a retreat or pilgrimage, or - your faith sharing experience isn’t limited to just faith sharing groups. It’s most important that you connect with a group of people that help you grow deeper in your relationship with God, while also reveling in wonder and adoration for Christ.

Figuring out how to live your faith life at Notre Dame is a difficult task, purely because there are so many options and not enough time. It’s fortunate to go to a school where there are so many choices for people to find their fit. Developing a relationship with God and other Christians is one of the richest experiences you can have in college, so definitely don’t pass up this opportunity!

Four:7 Catholic Fellowship meets Tuesdays nights at 8:15. Iron Sharpens Iron (ISI) Interdenominational Fellowship meets Thursday nights at 10. FIDES small groups begin meeting next week, so contact Bree Haler (bhaler@nd.edu) for more information or to join. Other opportunities for faith formation include: Lucernarium at Moreau Seminary on Thursday nights. Student led rosary takes place at the Grotto every night at 11. Visit the Notre Dame Campus Ministry website for upcoming retreats such as Freshman Retreat, Silent Retreat, and Preached Retreat.