His Resurrection

What a nice Easter celebration I had. My dad made his "famous" Swedish pancakes (like crepes) for breakfast this morning, and my mom (*ahem* the Easter Bunny) hid our Easter baskets. I felt like a little kid searching for mine, so that was fun. :) We had my mom's side of the family over for dinner, so it was really nice to see everyone. I think one of the highlights of the meal was the edible (jelly bean) napkin holders. Nice job, mom! :)

I'd like to share something that my pastor said at the Easter Vigil last night. It's something that I'd like to keep in mind this week as we continue to celebrate Easter. He said that Jesus is continuously knocking on the door of our hearts, asking us to let Him in. No matter how many times we've let Him in in the past, He keeps asking if we want more. Letting Him in just once is not enough, I've learned. We need to respond to every knock on the door of our hearts. He wants to keep giving us more of Him. More of His grace, love, joy, peace, strength, mercy, and every other blessing He has to offer. I recognize that I need more of all of those things...I can never have enough.

What a special day this is in the church. Christ has conquered death and sin. He has risen from the dead! He has done this because of His limitless love for me. For you. For all of His children. Let's not forget the wonderful miracle of His resurrection! Praise Him! :)

CHRIST IS RISEN!

Christ is risen from the dead, trampled over death by death!

Hear the bells ringing, they're singing "Christ is risen from the dead!"

Behold the lamb, our sacrifice. Once bound in death, now stands alive!


I just got back from the Easter Vigil at Christ the King, and once again, my mind is completely blown. I am always amazed by how much grace God pours out and how much the Holy Spirit blesses us every year, and this year was no different. Everything about the Easter Vigil is wonderful...the 7 readings, the wonderful music, the litany of the saints, the baptisms, the renewal of all of our baptismal vows, the reception of the new Catholics into the Church, the confirmations, the Eucharist (of course!)...all of it. One of the moments I really love is the Gloria (Glory to God in the highest...) after the 7 readings. The room slowly lights back up (both literally and spiritually), and the music gets louder and more upbeat. I really felt the Lord's presence as we sang that tonight. The church was just so alive! I also really love the Gospel Acclamation, which tonight was taken from Psalm 118. It's wonderful to say "Alleluia" so many times after not saying it all throughout Lent. :)

This is such an exciting time of year, and I really felt like I was able to grasp the true meaning of Easter. It's not about jelly beans (although I do love them), it's not about the Easter Bunny, and it's not about Easter egg hunts. It's about Jesus Christ, the savior of the world who lived and died for us. It's about His resurrection on the third day. It's about His revelation to His people and the resulting eradication of our sins. Praise Him, the One who has conquered death and sin! He has risen from the dead!

I hope you all have a blessed Easter tomorrow and enjoy spending time with your families. Though you may be surrounded with candy, eggs, and other Easter treats, I pray that you keep in mind the true meaning of this special day. THE RESURRECTION! JESUS CHRIST HAS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED!

Lord, thank You for revealing Yourself to me in such a special way at the Easter Vigil tonight. I pray that You keep my mind fixed on You tomorrow and every day thereafter.

The Passion and Death

I suggest that you listen to this as you read: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQmGs3L1bvs&feature=related. I'm sorry I can't figure out how to post links here, but copy and paste that URL into your browser. It is a piece called "Crucifixion" from the Passion of the Christ soundtrack.

Today is Good Friday, and the church celebrates the passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Appropriately, my parents and I watched The Passion of the Christ before we went to the Good Friday mass at Christ the King this afternoon. This has been a tradition in my family for the past several years now. The movie is very emotionally draining and intense, but it is a good reminder of what Jesus went through for us. It's really sad to think that the movie is just a glimpse of what He went through and that it is nowhere near close to the pain that He endured for our salvation. I cringe every time I see the scene in the movie where Jesus is scourged. My eyes flood with tears every single time. How could someone love me that much that He would endure that much pain? And coming from a different perspective, how could those men scourge Jesus so much...and laugh about it? How could they use those horrible weapons? How could they spit in His eye? How could they drive that crown of thorns into His head? Ugh...it makes my stomach twist every time. Another scene that really gets me is when Jesus is walking with His cross and his mother Mary sees Him fall. We immediately see a flashback to a time when Jesus is a young boy. He is playing and falls down, and Mary comes rushing after Him calling out His name. She has a look of motherly panic on her face as she rushes to Jesus' side and then says, "I'm here." When it flashes back to Jesus carrying His cross, Mary does the same thing...she rushes over to Him and says, "I'm here." It's really a beautiful scene and captures the love between Jesus and His mother Mary.

Mass this afternoon at Christ the King was really beautiful. There was a lot of time for reflection, and I really appreciated the fact that the imagery of The Passion of the Christ was still fresh in my mind from just having watched it. This allowed me to really visualize the Gospel as it was read aloud during mass.

Lord, thank You for what You did for us on the cross. No words, no actions, no thing could ever show You how much I appreciate what You did. Thank You for the opportunities You gave me today to reflect on your passion and death. I pray that You open my heart to receive more of You during the Easter vigil mass tomorrow evening. Amen.

A Big Strong Arm

I went to bed a little stressed out last night. My mind was just racing and I couldn't relax and go to sleep. I was thinking about quite a few things...but today was the main focus. My mom is planning a graduation party for me in May, and she wanted to mail out the invitations as soon as possible. I designed them on my computer this week, but I guess I didn't realize there was a rush to mail them out. My mom wanted me to get them printed and have them mailed by either today or tomorrow. And this weekend my schedule is super crazy because of the way my work shifts merge with the Easter Triduum masses. To make a long story short, I got up an hour early this morning and went to Kinkos to print the invitations and they turned out beautifully. :) The man that worked with me was very helpful and knowledgeable. Yeah, he was just doing his job, but he was much more "in the know" than the guy I tried to work with last night at Kinkos. So I printed the invitations, found envelopes, stuffed all the invites into the envelopes, and then dropped them off at my mom's work...plus I made it to work at about 11:23 (7 minutes early!). Praise God for perfect timing. He really blessed me with a productive morning and I am so thankful for that. Needless to say, I was much less stressed out today than I was last night. :)

Work went pretty darn well today. I think the sunshine had a good effect on everyone...my coworkers, my supervisors & managers, AND the Costco members. Praise God for THAT! :) Also, when I walked in to work I noticed that there was a part time position available in our Hearing Aid Center. Even though it would only be for the summer (since I leave at the end of August), I'm pretty sure I'm going to put in for the position. Not only did I take an Audiology class as part of my undergrad at Eastern, but speech pathology and hearing (audiology) go hand-in-hand. I think it'll look good on my future resume if I work in a hearing aid center. I would really appreciate it if you could all pray that everything with that goes well.

We had our UCO Good Friday Vigil tonight, and it was greater than I had anticipated. I guess I don't really know what I was expecting, but not this. There was a pretty great turnout, and I really felt the Lord's presence. Because I am part of the UCO Worship Team, a partner (Angela) and I had to come up with a meditation for the group. We picked "The Messiah will be beaten, mocked, and spat upon" from the Messianic Prophecies and talked about how this is kind of opposite the way we typically view Jesus. We worship Him. We don't think about the way people spat on Him. We praise His name, not think about how people mocked Him. And we embrace Him. We don't think about the fact that He was beaten. Jesus suffered so much for us and truly was an example of what it means to endure all trials and just place everything in the hands of the Father. The other members of the Worship Team came up with other meditations based on some of the other Messianic Prophecies and they were all so awesome. It was great to have the little choir singing after every meditation, too. We have such talented singers in UCO! Good job to everyone who sang! Thank you for using your talents to serve God and us in UCO. :) The night ended with praise and worship on the diag in Ann Arbor, and we had two random students join us, which was pretty awesome.

I'm so happy that God is my deliverer and my strength. He carries me out of a crazy world and a racing mind and just lets me rest in His presence. He puts His big strong arm around me and lets me lay my head on His shoulder. Then He tells me, "Just rest your pretty little head, my daughter. Everything will be just fine." And that--is true bliss.

Lord, help me to know that You really are the source of all peace and rest. Keep reminding me every day that I can live stress-free and worry-free if I just abandon this life and aim for Your plan. Amen.

Defend Us in Battle

Tonight was a lot of fun. A group of our friends got together at the Blue Tractor to come watch Lina and me perform at Open Mic night, and I was happily overwhelmed by how many showed up. It was nice to eat with everyone and to just hang out and have a good time. Patti and Ralph, who are pretty much our second parents here in Ypsi, came out too! And Patti brought some of her amazing cookies with her. Bless her heart. :)

Tomorrow starts the Easter Triduum masses (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil) at Christ the King, and I'm very much looking forward to them. It's always a really great time in the church and I love spending it with my family. I look forward to learning more about the Lord's passion and about how much He loves me. And then I really love celebrating His resurrection. Can't wait!

I pray tonight that God would give me peace as I head into this weekend. Usually around awesome times like these is when I experience a lot of spiritual warfare. The devil starts deceiving my heart and mind and giving me a negative attitude and a lot of apathy toward my prayer times. I pray that with God's strength I will be able to fight off any ways that the devil tries to steal my joy. Come Holy Spirit, come with Your fire! Allow my mind to focus only on You and on nothing else. Remove any distractions from my heart and my mind that may be taking my attention away from You. With that, I pray for St. Michael's intercession.

"St. Michael, the archangel, defend us in battle.
Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray.
And do Thou, O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God,
cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world
seeking the ruin of souls. Amen."

In the Spirit

Today was a really great day. I woke up at a relatively decent time and had a pretty relaxing morning. Then I got down to business and started cleaning out my room and throwing stuff away. I'm moving out of my apartment next week, so I'm trying to get a bit of a head start. So far so good...I've thrown away a couple bags of trash and I have the whole top shelf of my closet cleared off! :) After a while of cleaning, I had a second interview on Skype with one of the GAP program directors in Dublin. It was a bit (okay, a lot) more intense than the last interview, as the questions were way more in-depth, but it went well. I guess I'm a little bit more nervous now for how the year will go. Judging by the questions, I can tell I'm going to be in for a lot of stretching and personal boundary-pushing. But I know that will be a good thing. I need to get out of this comfy rut I'm in.

After my interview I hung around the apartment and watched Moulin Rouge with Lina. Well, I watched the movie, she took a nap. :) It's a weird movie, to say the least, but I really love the music. That's about all I watch it for. Oh...and Ewan McGregor. ;) Jennifer came over a bit later and went to UCO with me, so that was fun. This was the last prayer meeting of the semester, and it was awesome. Seriously, the Holy Spirit was so present and alive in us tonight. Claire gave a really great talk about what it means to truly abide in the Lord and just be in His presence. She talked about wreckless abandon for the Lord and what that looks like...basically abandoning our will and living His. I can definitely apply that to my fears about my GAP year next year. Who cares what I think or what's comfortable to me? I need to do what the Lord wants for me. Claire also said this, which was inspiring to me: "If I don't follow the Lord's will for my life, I'm the one that's losing." I liked that. Thanks Claire for your wisdom!

The worship time after Claire's talk was phenomenal. There was lots of singing in the Spirit, which is one of my favorite parts of the worship times at UCO. If you're not familiar with singing in the Spirit, it's basically singing out an inspired song from the Lord. It can be a Bible verse that you sing, or maybe just some words from or to the Lord. It's really beautiful though...when you have a whole room full of people just singing out inspired songs and they all blend together. I really feel so much joy and peace when I'm singing in the Spirit. Tonight I wrote down some of what I felt the Lord was placing on my heart, and I want to share it with you.

"O Lord, You make me sing for joy,
You make me dance in Your presence.
I will lift Your name up,
I will give You all the glory due Your name.
You are the king of my heart
and the joy of my life.
You set my spirit on fire
You set my life ablaze for You.
Come and be the Lord of all my plans.
Take me and make me more like You."

Towards the end of the worship time, someone prayed out something along the lines of "Look forward to what the Lord has for you--cast out all fears." I really heard that as a direct confirmation from the Lord that fear is natural before I go on my GAP year. There will be challenges and hard times. But He wants me to look forward to what He has planned for me. He wants me to face my trials with boldness and courage, and He will help me through them.

Lord thank You for being so present at UCO tonight! I really enjoyed praising You with my brothers and sisters. You are so worthy of all of our time and all of our praise. Help me to continue praising You and seeking Your will for my life this summer. I want my life to truly be on fire for You. Amen.

Untying the Knots

I would like to share with you all a little inspiring story from the Max Lucado book I've been reading (Next Door Savior: Near Enough to Touch, Strong Enough to Trust).

"Most of us had a hard time learning to tie our shoes. Squirting toothpaste on a brush was tough enough, but tightening shoes by wrapping strings together? Nothing easy about that. Besides, who needs them? Wear loafers. Go barefoot. Who came up with the idea for shoes anyhow? And knees don't help. Always in your face. leaning around them, pushing them away--a person can't concentrate. And, oh, the advice! Everyone had a different approach. 'Make a tree with the loop, and let the squirrel run around it into the hole.' 'Shape a rabbit ear, and then wrap it with a ribbon.' Dad said, 'Go fast.' Your uncle said to take your time. Can't anyone agree? Only on one thing. You need to know how.

Learning to tie your shoes is a rite of passage. Right in there with first grade and first bike is first shoe tying. But, oh, how dreadful is the process. Just when you think you've made the loops and circled the tree...you get a knot. Unbeknownst to you, you've just been inducted into reality.

My friend Roy used to sit in a park bench for a few minutes each morning. He liked to watch the kids gather and play at the bus stop. One day he noticed a little fellow, maybe five or six years of age, struggling to board the bus. While others were climbing on, he was leaning down, frantically trying to disentangle a knotted shoestring. He grew more anxious by the moment, frantic eyes darting back and forth between the shoe and the ride. All of a sudden it was too late. The door closed. The boy fell back on his haunches and sighed.

That's when he saw Roy. With tear-filled eyes he looked at the man on the bench and asked, 'Do you untie knots?' Jesus loves that request. Life gets tangled. People mess up. You never outgrow the urge to look up and say, 'Help!' Jesus had a way of appearing at such moments. Peter's empty boat. Nicodemus's empty heart. Matthew has a friend issue. A woman has a health issue. Look who shows up.

Jesus, our next door Savior.
'Do you untie knots?'
'Yes.' "

I just love that. I love how it's a simple story about a child being unable to untie the knots in his shoe laces, but it is so applicable to our lives. We get into "knotted" situations all the time. We say the wrong thing, talk when we need to listen, make the wrong choice instead of the right one, and there we are...in a knotted situation. Let's ask Jesus to identify the knots in our lives and untie them. I know I could definitely benefit from a less-knotted life...could you?