You have dirt on your forehead....

Today is the official beginning of the Lenten season. We, as Catholics, are called to receive ashes on our forehead on this day to signify the beginning of Lent.

So I went to 11 am mass at the Cathedral this morning and it was pretty awesome. I started the Lenten season off with confession so I was able to receive Communion completely free of sin. (Uhm, how loving is our God?!)

Anyways, I was sitting in Starbucks before class today and I saw a guy from one of my classes. He came over to me and we started talking about our group project and other stuff. He noticed that I had ashes on my forehead and goes "Oh, is today Ash Wednesday? Are you Catholic?"

I was like yep, I am! Are you? And he basically told me that he had gone to Catholic school his whole life but kind of stopped as he's grown older. It was a really awesome conversation about Lent and stuff.

I don't know, I guess the reason I was so filled with joy is because sometimes it is really hard to wear ashes because it is such an outward symbol. Over the years I have gotten a lot of different responses to the wearing of ashes on Ash Wednesday, everything from "you have dirt on your forehead" to "what is Lent?".

Sometimes it's easier for us to just wipe off the ashes right after mass to avoid any awkward conversations that may come up.

But, remember that this is a simple way to Evangelize. As 90.5 spirit fm says "If you were baptized, you're a missionary". Be a missionary today and this Lent and wear your ashes proud!

I hope this Lent really brings you deeper into the Sacrifice that is our Lord and Savior.

Remember, no meat today or on Fridays!

xoxox

This Lent I'm giving up...

So about 3 Lent's ago I really started to feel the effect of the Lord's love.

Now, that doesn't mean I'm perfect, deserving, or without fault. In fact, I am with fault more times than not. I struggle a lot.

Anyways, I started to look into myself and the question of "What are you giving up for Lent" was constantly coming up.

Thats the year I decided that I would never give anything up for lent again.

Let's be REAL here. How does not eating chocolate or not drinking soda bring you closer to God? If it doesn't bring you any closer to Him than what is the point of it?

Jesus went into the desert for 40 days and 40 nights as a sacrifice to God. If your sacrifice isn't for God in order for you to get closer to Him than what is the point?

I just feel like so many people use Lent as a "diet" scheme.  So many people use Lent as an excuse to not eat something, so that when they want to their head instantly goes back to "No, I'm giving it up for Lent. I can't.".

That doesn't make any sense.

Lent is about sacrifice, trying to make yourself ready for the outpouring of God's love that IS Good Friday. If it's anything less than I challenge you to rethink your Lenten sacrifice.


xo.

P.S. in case you are wondering, this Lent I'm going focus more on the power of prayer. This past few weeks I've been struggling a lot with the devil and such. I went to confession today and feel a lot better. Anyways the priest talked to me a lot about prayer and the power of it. So I'm really going to spend my days in silence, praying and trying to go deeper.

I cannot boast about my love for God because I fail Him daily, but I can boast about His love for me because it never fails.

Do you ever get lost in your struggles? Do you ever feel dejected in your weakness?

I'm feeling it today.


"For though He was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you." 2 Corinthians  13:4


"And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me." 2 Corinthians 12:9

But... what do girls want?

I feel like every article you find that is entitled "What girls want in a guy" and "What guys want in a girl" don't ever get to the point. They are all like, ooh I want a boy how gives me flowers and calls me baby (bleh). I want a girl who rubs my feet and cooks my dinner. Uh no. FYI Girls don't want to rub your feet, no offense. Anyways, all of these articles just get to the surface. They never speak about the HEART. There is so much more to a relationship than flowers and cooking. Its about sacrifice. It's about finding the one.

But when a girl looks for "the one" what do they find?

Let me tell you a story...

I was recently told about a conversation between a few friends.
One man was talking about his recent venture to the strip club.
When asked about the girls, he said they were "sexy" and "hot", but that the woman he wanted to marry he wanted to find at church.

Yep. You read that correctly, someone who goes to strip clubs wants to meet his wife at a church.

Now, I don't know about you, but this makes absolutely no sense to me. Lemme tell you, the type of man I want to marry isn't one that you find in a strip club on Fridays and church on Sundays.

Don't get me wrong, I understand that we all have our struggles, but if we don't admit to them, when will they be faced? If we continue to justify our actions, when will they get better? Will the switch automatically turn off with the "I do"?

You see, it is so often in this day and age (for men and for women) that we justify our actions. We justify them because one day we'll find something better and on the tip of a hat we'll change.

Think about it, though. The desires of our HEART are for a perfect man. If we skew the desires of our heart to artificial love of things like sex, pornography, strip clubs, ect. we will never truly find the one we love, the one that our heart truly likes. Society has taught us that we should look for our Prince Charming, our Perfect man.  Until we realize, however, that there is only one perfect man (aka GOD) we will only pick the wrong ones.

So what do women want in a man? Women (and not all women, but those at church who you want to marry) want the Lord. Plain and simple. If you find the Lord, you find your love. Remember, God is love.


xoxo