Wednesday night was night one of the 10th National Eucharistic Congress.  50,000 Catholics were gathered together in Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.  A brief video was played, ending with the words, “And He is Here.”  And in that moment Jesus in the Eucharist was processed in from the corner of the stadium by Bishop Cozzens.  50,000 Catholics got on their knees to honor and adore Jesus.  During this time of prayer, there were periods of silence where a stadium full of people was completely quiet and focused on Jesus.  There were other periods of music that helped to draw us deeper into the experience.  We were led in a deep and beautiful prayer by Bishop Cozzens.  At the end of benediction, 50,000 Catholics joined together in singing “Holy God, We Praise Thy Name.”  As we sang, I was struck by the beauty of thousands of people worshiping and praising God in this way and I thought, wow, there is a stadium full of people doing what we were made to do.  It was one of the most beautiful and amazing experiences I have ever had.

This first night at the opening session was just the beginning of an amazing, powerful, and moving week.  To gather thousands of Catholics together to focus on Jesus’ real presence in the eucharist was unlike anything I have ever been a part of.  We know that the eucharist is the source and summit of our faith, but so often our Church doesn’t live like it.  This much-needed revival brought together members of the Body of Christ in a way that hasn’t been seen in years.  And I think it will bear great fruit in our churches and in our country that will change people.
​
Jesus set hearts on fire in a real way this past week.  The week was filled with tears, laughter, great joy, and so much more throughout the week.  Because Jesus was there and we were there for Jesus.  And when hearts are open and willing to receive His love, we are changed a little more each time.

At the closing mass on Sunday, as the orchestra was about to start the song for communion, the first lyrics came up on the screen, “Jesus, my Lord, my God, my All” and tears filled my eyes.  This song was like a prayer being answered not just for myself, but I’m sure for thousands of others.  The refrain of the song says, “Oh, make us love thee more and more.”  And that’s what Jesus did this week.  We have come to love Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament more than the week before.

There is so much to unpack from the past week and these words don’t even begin to cover it.  There will be a lot more to process and reflect on for a long, long time to come and there will be many more posts.  But my prayer  is that all of us who had the blessing of attending the National Eucharistic Congress will go out into the world with hearts that have been changed and set more on fire and share the power and beauty of Jesus, truly present in the eucharist. 

Every July, memories pop up from the Colorado Leadership Retreat, a 10 day Catholic retreat in the mountains that I participated in three times.  And throughout the month, I spend extra time thinking about and reflecting on those experiences and thanking God.  The Colorado Leadership Retreats had a huge impact on my faith.  It was on my first CLR when I was 15 that I realized that my Catholic faith could not just be a part of my life, but rather was something that needed to be a way of life, a lifestyle.  And it was at that time that I recognized my faith not just as something that was my parents’ or other adults in my life, but as something that was truly my own because I wanted it to be.  I decided I wanted to commit, to be all in.  I think at some point, most of us can look at our lives up to this point and recognize a specific experience, moment, encounter, or period of time where we wanted to commit and be all in for Christ.

What does it mean to be all in for Christ?  I think we can get an idea by looking at today’s (Monday 7/15) gospel.  In Matthew 10:38-39 Jesus says, “whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.  Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”  To be all in is to be willing to give up our comfort, our desire to be liked, our desire to fit in with the world.  It is to embrace the sufferings that will accompany us on the journey and to carry the crosses as we strive to walk with Jesus.  It is to acknowledge that our lives need to look different because of our Catholic faith and our relationship with Jesus.  We must be willing to lose our lives by recognizing that our lives are not our own, and only then, will we find full, meaningful lives in Christ.

What Jesus calls us to is hard.  It would be much easier to follow the way of the world.  But if we are committed to Him, we will keep making the effort to be all in.  Back on my first CLR, I became excited about my faith and wanted to live it out.  By no means did I master my faith, know everything there was to know, or perfect what it looks like to live it out from that point forward.  I am far, far from that and fail more times than not.  But that experience in high school when I wanted to be all in is when my heart was opened and changed.  These experiences that we have are when our faith becomes no longer just an obligation but a desire.
​
Reflect back on your faith journey up to this point.  Thank Jesus for where you were and where He has led you to in this moment.  Think about when you opened up your heart and recognized that you wanted to live for Jesus and make your Catholic faith a way of life.  When did you decide that you wanted to commit and be all in?  I would love to hear about your own experiences of when you had a desire to be all in- when it was, where it was, who was involved, what it looked like, so feel free to share!  My prayer today is that Jesus would help each one of us to continue our desire to live for Him, fully commit and be all in!

In the past few years, several different companies have released a variety of stainless steel water bottles and cups.  As people have gone out to collect the latest brand, I have continued to use my bottle that is over five years old.  It has several dents and scratches, but it still works perfectly, keeping the water cold for hours on end.  As people, we are kind of like this water bottle.  We all have some dents and scratches- wounds and weaknesses, but God can still use us in spite of this.

It’s easy to feel unqualified.  We can often feel unqualified to carry out a certain mission, to complete a certain task, and to make a difference.  But God knows what He is doing.  And if we rely on Him, He will give us what we need, when we need it, to do whatever it is He is asking of us.

If we open our hearts, place our trust in God, and allow Him to work in us,  He will be glorified.  And this is our mission- to glorify God in what we say and do in our daily lives so that others might come to know Him, or to enter into a deeper relationship with Him.  God wants to use us to share His love, mercy, and goodness with the world around us.  Are we cooperating?

One of my favorite quotes from St. Teresa of Calcutta is, “Give yourself fully to God.  He will use you to accomplish great things on the condition that you believe much more in His love than in your own weakness.”  Do we believe that His love is more powerful than our weaknesses?  If we rely on ourselves, we will not be able to do what God wants us to.  But if we rely on His love, we cannot begin to know all the ways God will use us.
​
Every day, I pray that I am open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and that I would allow God to use me as He wills.  I fail at this often, but always come back to this simple prayer.  Throughout your week, may you remember that although you are like a dented and scratched water bottle, you can still be used.  May you allow God to work in you to glorify His name today and always!

My grandma is 98 years old and oftentimes, people are amazed not only at her age but at how good of a condition she is in.  At the end of May, we were at her church picnic with her and as different people came over to say hi and ask her how she was doing, she answered with one of her typical responses.  As she was asked this question, she responded with, “well, I’m still here.”  No matter what age we are, I think we should have this mindset.  No day is guaranteed and every day that we are here is a gift. ​

Sunday afternoon, I was driving to my grandma’s house to pick her up so that we could head up north for the week.  The unincorporated town she lives in has a sign at the side of the road as you enter the town.  It says , “Welcome to Tisch Mills.  No mayor-no city council. Life is good!”  I’ve seen this sign hundreds of times over the years.  But this time as I passed it, it really stood out to me. Not the part about the mayor or city council, but the last line.  Life IS good.  And it is good because God is good and we are blessed. 

Every day we are given is truly a gift.  Every day is an opportunity to try to glorify God, to love and serve others like Christ and to grow deeper in our relationship with Him.  In our interactions with family members, friends, coworkers, and strangers, we will fall short. This is also the case in our relationship with God.  But, we must use each moment God gives us to lean on Him and ask Him to work in and through us.

Life is good.  We are loved deeply by God and many people around us and we have so many blessings in our lives. And because of this, it is good that we are here, with another day set before us. Another chance to know, love, and serve Him.

Every day, may we all wake up and think to ourselves, “I’m still here, praise God for that!” 

Last Thursday at work, I was sitting in the breakroom at work for lunch and there was only one other person in there.  There are over 100 employees who work for the company and there are a few different locations, so there are many people that I don’t know.  The coworker in the breakroom was one of these people- he was someone who normally works at a different office, in a different department but I had maybe seen him a handful of times at our quarterly all-staff meetings.  A few minutes after I had sat down and started eating, he asked, “Are you Catholic?”  The question caught me off guard at first but then I remembered I was wearing the crucifix necklace that I wear every day.  We proceeded to talk about our faith for the next 20 minutes.  This conversation was a consolation from God and a reminder that faith is not to be kept in a box separate from the rest of our lives, but something that needs to be ingrained into who we are, no matter where we are.

As adults, we spend a large portion of the week at work.  The people we work with are people who we spend a lot of time with.  While I work with great people, it can sometimes feel kind of lonely when you have beliefs that are opposite of most of them.  And it can be easy to let this take a toll on your faith when you work next to and with these people day in and day out.

This conversation in the breakroom at work, while a small moment in my day, was easily the highlight.  My coworker told me that he had gone through RCIA in 2017 and we talked about everything from Catholic prayer apps, faith formation, to the Bible and Catechism in a Year podcasts.  The breakroom at work seemed like the most unlikely place to have this conversation and I almost forgot I was at work during that time.  It was the spiritual boost I needed and it was God who provided it in the most unexpected and unlikely place.
​
We may sometimes feel lonely, but we are never alone.  Whether in the workplace, at school, or in any other setting, we need to persevere and keep the faith.  And God may place people in front of us at just the right moments.  We need to be open to these moments and these encounters, ready and willing to share our faith.  As you go through this week, be open and ready- you may just have a conversation you weren’t expecting.

Do you ever think about what it was like for the disciples to walk with Jesus, about how amazing and life-changing it would have been?  Today, 2,000 years later, we too are called to walk with Him.  Thinking about our lives as disciples today, we must ask ourselves, are we walking with Jesus?  Yesterday, June 17th, I had the opportunity to reflect on this question for 7 ½ miles, as I physically walked with Jesus as part of the Marian Route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage.  As we walked with Jesus, present in the Eucharist, I thought about what it means to really walk with Jesus and if I am actually doing so in my life.

I think walking with Jesus means asking Him to be with us and calling upon Him to lead us through each day, whatever we may face.  It is a desire to hear and listen to His voice, rather than the voices of the world, trying to lead us astray.  It is to keep praying and to keep moving forward with trust in Him.  It is to lift each foot, one step at a time when our crosses feel too heavy and asking Him to help us carry them.

It’s easy to walk with Jesus when it’s convenient, easy, and when we feel close to Him.  But a true test of our faith is whether we walk with him when people criticize us, when we face challenges, or when we feel far from Him.  Are we committed to walking with Jesus at all times and through all circumstances, to live as disciples in every moment of our days?

Yesterday, I was reminded that walking with Jesus is to live in a continued awareness of His presence and to know that He is with us always.  And once we got to the church for the second Holy Hour of the day, one of the songs that was sung struck me as a powerful prayer that I need to be praying every day.  As we sang the song “Jesus, My Lord, My God, My All, the refrain was, “O, make us love Thee more and more.”  The more we love Jesus, the more closely we will walk with Him.

May we all strive to love Jesus more and more, always aware of His presence, so that we will walk with Him through each day, living as disciples.  It will be life-changing!

Friday night, my brother and I were on a walk and as we were waiting for a car to turn so we could cross the street, something really weird happened.  The guy driving the car, who looked to be in his 30s, rolled down his window, stuck his head out the window, turned to look at us and screamed really loudly.  Neither of us knew who this man was and we were confused as to what had just happened and why.  We continued on with walking our normal route and were a few steps past our church when we decided to go back, pause our walk, and stop in for eucharistic adoration that was taking place that evening.  We stayed only for about 10 minutes, but those 10 minutes of sitting before Jesus in the blessed sacrament were filled with quiet and peace.  Going to adoration provides a quiet and peace that the world does not offer.

As I kneeled in the church, I could not help but think about what had happened a few minutes before, as we were waiting to turn onto the street.  The man who screamed was a perfect representation of the world.  The world around us is screaming and yelling- telling us what to believe or not to believe, telling us what we should fill our time with, and showing us what is supposed to make us happy.  The world around us is oftentimes angry and mad.  And if we let our minds be consumed by everything in the world, we will never find peace or experience the stillness and quietness.

Stepping into a church or chapel for adoration is by far the best place to encounter this peace that the world does not know.  It is the best place because we get to sit before Jesus who is truly present and who is peace Himself.  It is an opportunity to step away from the outside noise and spend time speaking to Jesus, but also listening.

Aside from mass, eucharistic adoration is the best way we can spend our time.  St. Alphonsus Mary Liguori summed it up well saying, “know that perhaps you will gain more in a quarter of an hour of adoration in the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament than in all the other spiritual exercises of the day.”  Any time spent with Jesus is time that makes a difference in our relationship with Him, even if just for 10-15 minutes.
​
Find time to go to eucharistic adoration.  It will not only fill you with peace and help you escape from the noise of life, but it will also change your heart.  It will help you to know Jesus better so that you can love Him more deeply.  The world is screaming because it does not know Jesus and the peace He gives.  May you take time to leave the noise behind for a while and sit before Jesus in the blessed sacrament, even if just for 10 minutes at a time.

A few days ago, I listened to a podcast episode from a show called “Pints with Aquinas” about how we are living in a post-Christian era and as we go forward, will be entering into an era that is more explicitly post-Christian.  In the over two hour podcast, one thing the host and guest said that really stood out is that we are in a cultural battle, and “there is no politician or political movement that is going to reverse what we’re describing here.  The only thing that will reverse it is a restoration and a revival of lived Christianity, of an active and bold and emboldened Christian faith” (Neo-Paganism, Abortion, and the Fall of the West w/ John Daniel Davidson).  Are we living with an active, bold, and emboldened faith?

We cannot look to other people to change the culture we are living in.  As the podcast mentioned, politicians, leaders, and groups part of any political movement cannot restore Christian influence in the country.  It is only through Christians living out a bold and authentic faith that we will be able to persevere and stand up to a culture that wants to silence Christians and the beliefs we have.

A lot of Catholics and other Christians right now are falling into the culture’s lure of complacency.  People tell themselves things like, “I’m a good and nice person and I believe in God.”  They believe they’ve done their part and that it’s all that really matters.  The culture does not want to see Christians who take their faith seriously and who live it out boldly.

But Christ calls us to give Him everything, to follow Him, to take up our cross, and to rid ourselves of whatever prevents us from doing this.  It WILL cost us.  Christ promised us that it would not be easy, but that He will be with us every step of the way.
​
We must rise out of complacency, in hopes of bringing others with us, and helping others find their way back to Christ.  The only way this can be done is with an active, bold, and emboldened Christian faith.  Jesus, help us to follow you and live our faith well.

A few days ago, the Church celebrated the feast day of St. Philip Neri.  I came across these words from him, “there is nothing the devil fears so much, or so much tries to hinder, as prayer.”  I know I have experienced this reality in my own life.  Prayer itself is simple, but it is not easy.

When it comes to prayer, we can often feel inadequate.  We feel like we don’t know how to pray.  We can feel unmotivated and would rather do a million other things than pray.  We can be distracted, feeling like we got nothing out of our time in prayer.  We think it has to look a certain way and that we aren’t doing it right.  All of these thoughts and feelings we experience when it comes to prayer are not from God.

If you are a parent, you have probably experienced receiving artwork from your kids when they were little (or you were probably that kid giving artwork to your parents).  That artwork was messy, the colors weren’t all in the lines, and maybe it was hard to tell exactly what the artwork was supposed to be.  Yet, you appreciated it, cherished it, and loved it, because it was from your child.  It is like this with God.  No matter what our prayers look like, how messy they are, or how uninterpretable they seem to us, God doesn’t care.  We are his children and He loves that we are coming to Him.  He wants to receive whatever it is we are giving to Him.

The only way we can know God is if we spend time with Him in prayer.  We will face obstacles in this, but we must push past them and keep making an effort.  There are many ways to pray and many forms it can take, so what really matters is that it is part of our daily routine.
​
We tend to make prayer more complicated than it actually is.  If we have sat down with the intention to pray, we are off to a good start.  God wants nothing more than for you to spend time with Him sharing your heart and listening.  When you feel tempted to give up, ask God to help you to begin again.

A few weekends ago, the Gospel at mass was John 15:1-8, a passage known as “the vine and the branches” and three days later, the daily gospel was this same passage.   Last week, I was reading a book when I came across a part that reflected on some of the ideas from this scripture passage.  Then, last Thursday I was at a banquet for Vida, a pregnancy resource center in Appleton, and Bishop Ricken gave a reflection on John 15.  John 15:5 says, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.”  As this scripture passage kept popping up over the last few weeks, I realized that God was clearly reminding me that without Him, I can do nothing and will not bear any fruit.  In everything we do, we must remain in Him.

In the book I was reading, This Present Paradise: A Spiritual Journey with St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, by Claire Dwyer, she talked about how we have all been given a mission and wrote, “we have to believe that the measure of our call is undoubtedly higher than we are and then get out of the way enough for Christ to glorify the Father through our transparent souls” (Dwyer, 207).  If we try to do things on our own, we are not going to be able to do this.  If we let pride take over our lives, we will doubt the mission God has given us and we will feel as if we cannot do what He calls us to each day because we will be relying on our own abilities.  She continues on, “so yes, we must be humble and know that without Christ, we really cannot bear any lasting fruit- but with Him, there will absolutely be basketfuls left over” (Dwyer, 207).  For me, this is a work in progress and I recognize I have a long way to go.  Maybe that is the case for you too.  In the mission He gives us, not only for our whole lives, but in each day, we must get out of the way so that when we do what He asks of us, God will be glorified and we will bear good fruit.  To imagine basketfuls of fruit that would come from our reliance on Christ is a powerful image that can help us remain in Him.

In Bishop Ricken’s reflection at the banquet, He reminded us that the work that we do will not produce any good fruit unless we remain in Christ and His love.  He talked about how it is easy to let the lies from Satan convince us that we cannot do what Jesus asks of us, but we must not be discouraged.  We must let Jesus’ voice be louder so that we can continue doing whatever work that He asks of us.
​
It’s easy to think that we are not capable and that we do not have what it takes to do what Jesus asks of us.  But if He asks us to do something, He never abandons us and leaves us to do it on our own.  We cannot do what He asks if we rely on ourselves.  But if we rely on Him, we can do whatever it is He is calling us to.  If you are worried about saying “yes” to anything in your life, big or small, just remember that without Him, we can do nothing.  But if we remain in Him, we will bear good fruit.  May we always remain in Jesus and produce basketfuls of fruit