Straight Up

Hey Zeteo community,

So apparently I kind of suck at getting this blog up every Thursday, so I am thinking I am going to cut it down to every two weeks and see how that goes. And even though today is actually Friday, I still feel like I made it for this week so...

I hope everyone is doing fantastic. We are finally getting rain here, so hopefully that means the fireban will be lifted for Drayton Valley and we can have some campfires next week.

Zeteo is next week! Mark it on your calendars (if it isn't already there) and tell your friends! Its a little out of the city, but I hear that the Chesterton House is beautiful.

( I just spent over an hour watching flashmobs on Youtube. Oh boy. To see the one I finally chose, read the blog and find it - ooh scavenger hunt.)

This Weeks Theme: Straight Up

In the Bible, meekness is mentioned many times:

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Matthew 5:5

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, Colossians 3:12

There is a stress on meekness, because as humans, we need to be submissive to the Will of God. It is hard for us to sacrifice what we see as our control, our strength, our own will.

The problem is, we have such a misconception about what God is asking of us when He asks us to be meek. The Greek word for meek, is praus, which has been difficult to translate to English because it has such a rich meaning.

According to William Barclay's study guide (or simplified here), praus is the regular word for a [horse] which has been domesticated, which has been trained to obey the word of command, which has learned to answer to the reins. It is the word for an animal which has learned to accept control.

I guess we are all meant to be like that horse - to retain our strength but to learn how to have this strength lead, guided, wielded in the most valuable way.

However, Father Marc mentioned at the last Zeteo, that we should also have boldness. God desires us to be open, receptive to His will, but at the same time, to be bold. The example given by Father Marc, was that of Mary when the angel appeared to her. Though Mary was perfectly obedient to the Will of God, she was also no pushover:

But Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I have no relations with a man." And the angel said to her in reply, "The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child born will be called holy, the Son of God." [...] Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done unto me according to thy word." Luke 1: 34-38

We see the boldness of Mary, followed by Her meekness. In her profound example, we are shown an authentic relationship with God.

I came to the realization a few months ago, that I did not have a real relationship with God. Tina was praying over me and she kept saying, "you are stomping your foot at God, you are so frustrated with Him." To say the least, it was strange to hear. I never thought of a relationship with God as being one where I could openly be frustrated with Him. I mean sure, in the past I was aware of being frustrated with God, but I would never have admitted it to Him.

Logically, I know how foolish that is. After all, He knows everything:

MY travels and my rest you mark; with all my ways you are familiar. Even before a word is on my tongue, Lord you know it all. Behind and before you encircle me. Such knowledge is beyond me, far too lofty for my reach. Psalm 139: 3-6

But it was a big moment for me to realize that sometimes God just wants us to be real with Him. He can take it.

So I went home that night, and  I straight up told Him, "You know what? I'm frustrated." And for the first time in my life, I felt like we were so perfectly on the same page. Not that His voice suddenly came booming from the heavens. It was more like a laughter that filled my soul - He loved me for that frustration, He found so much joy in my candid conversation with Him because He found so much joy in me. 

God wants to hear what you have to say, even if it is just to express frustration, sorrow, or doubt. Do not be afraid to tell Him if something is hard for you, if you are afraid of not knowing your future, or not being in control. Let Him have all of you; there is no part of you He messed up on. Believe that if you give it all to Him, He is able to take even the things that seem like your greatest weaknesses and turn them into strengths. 

If this concept of a bold relationship is hard to grasp, like I wrote about in the last blog, join hands with Mary, or a patron saint and ask for their intercession. With their help, your prayer is more like a flashmob instead of a single guy dancing in the street. Because, according to Father Marc, praying with the body of Christ is like a flashmob.

A Hand to Hold

Happy Thursday everyone, (atleast it is for another hour)

I was just about to head off to sleep, and put this post off for tomorrow. But here I am anyway. I will make it short and sweet, as usual.

Hope you all are having a terrific week and have even more terrific plans for the long weekend. We are headed down to see my grandparents in Regina, the first time my Gramma will meet Jerome, so we are pretty excited.

Week Two: A Hand to Hold

At the last Zeteo event, Father Marc talked about how much more powerful prayer is when we pray together. He explained that praying together diminishes the lines that keep us away from each other, and allows for a deeper, more intimate prayer experience.

It seems reasonable to question why we limit this intimate and powerful prayer experience to the Church family on Earth. The Church is all of us joined together in Christ, those on Earth as well as in Heaven.

This opens up the door to an intensely powerful roster of people we have the opportunity to pray with. Imagine being able to pray with St. Therese, with Thomas Aquinas, with Maximilian Kolbe, with Mother Theresa. This is what the devotions of the Church offer us - the possibility of holding hands with great saints and having them share their wisdom and strength with us.

As a cradle Catholic, I grew up praying the rosary. I remember it being such a huge inconvenience when we were forced to sit with the family and pray the rosary. I wish I could say that as I grew up, family prayer time became less of a chore for me, but unfortunately, it was only after I left home that I realized how special that ability to pray together was.

Father Marc explained that praying the rosary gives us the opportunity to actually sit down with Mary and have a family prayer time. As we recite those prayers, and hold those beads, we are spending time with our spiritual mother and joining our prayers to hers - which is kind of a huge deal.

The other night I was having trouble falling asleep because I was feeling very alone. My faith life has been less than ideal lately, and I know that was a huge contributing factor. I remembered Father Marc saying that holding a rosary is like holding the hand of Mary, and at the moment I knew I just needed to hold my Mama's hand. We were not at home, but strangely enough, I had noticed a rosary in the drawer beside me earlier that day.

I was immediately filled with the comfort of knowing I was not alone as I took the rosary in my hand. In the past I have struggled with knowing Mary. I am so afraid of praying inappropriately to her, that I shy away from having a relationship with her at all. That night I was so consoled by her maternal presence, and I know that from now on, my relationship with her is different.

I have so much to learn from her, and she has such a strong desire to bring me closer to her son.

It is times like these, when a layer of the Catholic onion that is my childhood faith is peeled back, that I am astounded by how intricate and incredibly beautiful it really is. As children, we begin to pray by following the example of our parents, of our grandparents, of the people around us. As adults, we can still benefit by the example of those who have gone before us, those who have discovered deeper layers of that onion. This is why it is so powerful, so intimate, to join our prayers to the saints, to ask for their intercession and to give them special devotions.

Devotions to the saints and to Mary are a mystery to those outside of our faith, and to many of us within the Catholic faith as well. Are you willing to reach out and take the hand of a great saint?

Peace,
Olivia Fischer

Behold, Your Mother

Happy Friday Zeteo Community!

Hope your past month has been great. We spent almost an entire month without internet, so I have to say, this whole internet thing is lovely.

Have a great weekend, enjoy the beautiful weather we are finally having. I know Jerome and I are going to be spending as much of the weekend as we can outside.

God bless,
Olivia

Week One: Behold, Your Mother

Father Marc Cramer spoke last week on having a relationship with the Mother of Jesus. Through the sacraments, he explained, we enter into relationship with Jesus, and through this relationship, we also inherit a relationship with His Mother.

First of all, we know that Christ had a devotion to His mother. We know that He was obedient to her (Luke 2: 51) and at the wedding feast of Cana. We also know that He is without sin, and so would have been perfectly obedient to the Fourth Commandment.

Therefore, as Father Marc stated, by having a respect and devotion for Mary, we are being like Christ.

At the foot of the cross, Jesus gave His Mother to mankind as a second Mother when he told John, "Behold, your Mother." The significance behind this interaction is revealed in the next phrase: "Jesus, knowing that all was now finished..." (Jn 19:28) It seems as though Jesus has completed his sacrifice by entrusting His Mother to John.

There is significance to this spiritual motherhood of Mary.

Just as Mary brings the needs of the people to Jesus' attention at the wedding feast of Cana, and teaches the people to obey Him, so we can see that Mary, in her maternal love for us, brings our needs to her son. Through her example of obedience to God's Will at the Annunciation, we can learn to be obedient to God's Will in our own lives.

We all have different relationships with our mother's, and will relate to Jesus' Mother differently. However, we know that Jesus placed a great significance on giving His Mother to us, and should therefore see the importance in developing a relationship with Mary, whatever it may look like.

Just take time to sit with her, hold her hand through the Holy Rosary, ask her to help us contemplate Jesus through Her eyes. I know that my relationship with Mary is definitely something that I need to work on, to have her in my life in a real way I still have such a long way to go. But I know that through imitating Christ's love and devotion for His Mother, She will in turn deepen my relationship with Her Son.

 Friars, Franciscan. "Why Devotion to Mary?" Www.ewtn.com. Web. 8 May 2015.

John Paul II, Pope. "TO THE DISCIPLE HE SAID, BEHOLD YOUR MOTHER." Www.ewtn.com. 30 Apr. 1997. Web. 8 May 2015.