Set Apart

A lot of the time, we just want normality in our lives. We don't want to have to do things that no one else has to do. We just want to "fit in." As Christians, however, we aren't called to normality. We're called to be in the world, but not of the world. We're called to do everything we can for God and for our brothers and sisters, not just the bare minimum. We have greater standards for ourselves because we are set apart, and we ought to act that way.

Sometimes normality is tempting. It seems easier, carefree, and fun, but the reality is that normality has NEVER accomplished ANYTHING. The Apostles didn't convert three-thousand men on Pentecost by trying to be normal. None of the saints became saints by trying to "fit in." If you tried to name one great man who became great by striving to be normal, you could not do it, because no such man has ever existed.

Fact is, normality stops us from doing great things. It puts limits on us and stops us from fulfilling the purpose for which we were created. It keeps us from being who God created us to be for the sake of being who the world wants us to be. When we choose normality, we choose the world's standards over God's standards.

We need to choose God's standards in every aspect of our lives, from the way we dress to the way we act and speak. We really need to try to dress beautifully and modestly. That doesn't just mean having slightly longer skirts or slightly less tight pants than most people have, it means dressing according to the Catholic standard of modesty, which is visibly different from the world's. We need to talk in a way that really glorifies God. If you don't swear, people will notice, and they might ask you why you don't. This gives you a chance to share your faith with them. 

I'm not writing this to tell you to be really weird or act like a freak. I'm writing this to challenge you to be bold. I'm encouraging you to go out of your comfort zone and share your faith or take that next step you need in your faith life. I'm going to borrow a friend's analogy and compare faith to trying to run up an escalator that's going down. If you keep pushing and challenging yourself, you'll make it to the top, but if you stop, you go backwards. 

Nuns being abnormal :)

Also, on a completely unrelated note, my brother wanted me to include something about how he lost his tooth because he kept picking at it in school today. Keep him in your prayers because it's his first communion on Sunday! :)

Spring!

Hello everybody! 

I had a bit of a rough Sunday so this morning, I decided to put a bit of effort into what I wore to school and wear some springy prints/colors.

Usually when I'm not feeling that great about myself I just want to hide away in big, baggy clothes. But when I push myself to put in the effort, I'm reminding myself that I am His creation.

 

 It always ends up cheering me up but it starts as just a little sacrifice to show my Lord I trust in Him. He has said that I have a value in Him; no matter how I feel, I can still choose to trust.

Skirt&Earrings - Francesca's Collections, Shirt - Plato's Closet, Sweater - H&M, Shoes - DSW,     

(unseen)Necklace - Renee Shumay , Scapular - my boyfriend, Matthew 

:D haha it doesn't matter where they came from; I just wanted to give those two credit.

"What do I do with my hands? They're so awkward!"

God bless! Have a wonderful day =)

Smoothie!

This was my first attempt at smoothie making; I wanted to keep it simple and healthy. I thought it turned out pretty well.
 Ingredients:
- Strawberries
- Juice
- Ice
- Yogurt
Directions:
1.)Take your strawberries (I only had 8 smallish ones), wash them and cut off the leafy top part. Throw 'em in the blender.

2.)Pour 1 cup of the juice of your choice :

put in the blender with the strawberries. Now blend...blend like the wind! :D

3.) Add some ice cubes (mine were pre-crushed) until it's the way you'd like it.
4.)Take some yogurt (I used plain greek)

,put in about 2 spoonfuls and blend. This will mainly serve to make your smoothie thicker. You can add more if so desired but, greek yogurt is thick and slightly bitter so I only used a little. 
5.) Pour your smoothie into a glass and proceed to take artsy photos of it. This step is absolutely necessary.

  

You may substitute ice cream for the yogurt and milk for juice if you'd like. This recipe can be changed up a lot - hope you enjoy :]

"You have made us for yourself, Oh God, and our heart is restless until it rests in you."

"The human heart is not shaped like a valentine heart, perfect and regular in contour; it is slightly irregular in shape as if a small piece of it were missing out of its side. That missing part may very well symbolize a piece that a spear tore out of the Universal Heart of Humanity on the Cross, but it probably symbolizes something more. It may very well mean that when God created each human heart, He kept a small sample of it in heaven, and sent the rest of it into the world of time, where it would each day learn the lesson that it could never be really happy, that it could never be really wholly in love, that it could never be really whole-hearted until it rested with the Risen Christ in an eternal Easter, until it went back to the Timeless to recover the sample which God had kept for it from all eternity." -Archbishop Sheen

All Dressed Up!

Last week was our school's annual fundraiser; it's really the only event we have as a school where people get to dress up.
Helen:

Suzie ( our new blogger here!) :

And myself:

"I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?"

-John 3:12

Our faith tells us a lot about earthly things that we struggle to believe. For instance, some girls don't believe it when they're told that they're beautiful merely because they are a child of God and He made them in His image because they're too caught up in how society sees them. Another example is when someone annoys us, we're really stressed out, or are disappointed, we get caught up in the little details and get angry. We forget that everything is part of God's plan for us.  

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

So basically, we lose trust in God pretty often even over the littlest things. This is really dangerous and we need to try our hardest to stay away from it, because, if we don't, we can start to lose trust about the big things. All of our fretting about the little things that go wrong might lead us to get angry at God or to lose trust in His love. 

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. This school year has been really rough and stressful for me, and it's been hard to trust God about all the little things that go wrong. Earlier today, I started to get really frustrated during one of my classes, but I stopped myself before I got too caught up in my frustration. I could feel myself getting angry, and I knew that if I didn't stop right then, I would be like that for the rest of the day. So, instead of focusing on the negatives, I made a list of "simple joys." This list included Phineas and Ferb fruit snacks, Frosted Flakes, food (I was really hungry),  and even things like being able to talk and laugh. It really helped me to put everything back into perspective and realize that even when things seem to be going wrong, to God they're going really right. 

A Good Start

I woke up early this morning, threw on a long, warm skirt and a thick sweater, ran down stairs, made some tea, then curled up with a blanket to pray my rosary. It felt so wonderful; I just know my Mother will help me all the more when I am faithful in praying the rosary. It was also really cold and windy this morning which always makes me feel so safe and thinking more of My God is my ever present shelter in all things :)
I then had time to make myself a real breakfast of scrambled eggs (as opposed to my usual chuck-cereal-in-a-bowl-because-I-have-5-mins routine) while listening to music. I then made more tea to take to school and even had time for this blogpost! What a nice, refreshing morning to help me reunite myself to my God after a bit of a shaky weekend.

F Y I

- 'Who you are' is not defined by other people.
- 'How much you're worth' is not affected by talents or abilities.
- 'How much you're loved' is not determined by others. You are loved infinitely by God; and the last time I checked, the infinite trumps the finite. 'Infinite' is sooo undefinably vast that the finite really can't affect it.
- 'What others think of you' is irrelevant! Christ was mocked and hated on this earth, so were many saints. Their glory was in staying faithful to the will of God no matter what the world said. You should not, however, hide your goodness; that would be uncharitable towards others who could be greatly helped by you. Humility cannot contradict charity. If it does, well, you're doing it wrong.
- 'Feeling ugly in the mirror' is painful, however, you are more than your body. You are body and soul. A beautiful soul will earn you eternal bliss with your Savior and peace on this earth; a toned, skinny, "perfect" body will earn you..uh....(see my point?) BUT you must take care of your body! Binging and starving are awful, addictive, consuming problems. A healthy respect of your body will come naturally from a good soul aiming for perfection. When we have internal problems of the soul, they are often shown on the outside. e.x. binging, starving, too much make up, too little care for appearance, cutting..etc.


When you feel discouraged and unloved, offer it up to your Savior and remind yourself of the faithful, never ending, purely selfless, marvelous love He has for you. Look at the cross, there you shall find that Love you're searching for.

The Simple Joys

...sitting in my favorite coffee shop drinking a big ol' iced coffee (black. no cream or sugar, thank you very much), eating a delicious chocolate chip scone, writing the introduction to my thesis and feeling pretty proud of it, too :)

Dustin Kensrue - Of Crows and Crowns

My best friend showed me this song and I just had to share it. This guy has talent :]

Fun Facts about Priests' Garments

I was reading a book called The Blessed Eucharist by Fr. Michael Muller, which I highly recommend, if you can find it anywhere. At the end of the book, Fr. Muller talks about the garments the priest wears and what they represent, which I found very interesting. They all mean something! It's fascinating how nothing in a traditional Catholic Church is meaningless; nothing is there just for the sake of extravagance. The architecture, the way the building is facing, and apparently, even clothes, are all full of beautiful significance. The priest, who is the representative of Christ, is dressed like Him:

The amice, a white cloth worn around the neck, which is no longer required in the Catholic Church unless the alb does not cover the priest's ordinary clothing, represents the handkerchief with which the men who seized Him blindfolded Our Lord when they were "covering His head and asking him: Which one hit you? Prophesy!" (Luke 22:64)

The alb "signifies the white robe which Herod put on our Savior in mockery." (The Blessed Eucharist, p. 255) "And Herod despised Him and put shining clothes on Him and sent Him back with his guards to Pilate. And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other on that same day, after having been at enmity before." (Luke 23:11-12)

The cincture, which is the rope around the waist of the priest in the picture of the alb, the maniple on the left arm, which you may not see very often because since Vatican II it is not used much, though the Church has never said not to use it, and the stole, the scarf-like garment a priest wears during Confession, which hangs around the neck and during Mass is crossed in the front, "represent the cords and strings with which Our Lord was bound, and by which He was dragged through the streets of Jerusalem." (The Blessed Eucharist)

"The chasuble, worn over all the others, signifies the scarlet robe in which He was arrayed when Pilate showed him to the people, saying, 'Behold the man!' " "Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus to the residence and drew up all their battalion around him. And they stripped him and put a red mantle about him, and wove a wreath of thorns and put it on his head, and put a reed in its right hand, and knelt before him and mocked him, saying: Hail, King of the Jews." (Matthew 27: 27-29) "And they slapped him. And Pilate came out again and said to them: See, I am bringing him out to you, so that you may know that I find no fault in him. So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple cloak. And Pilate said to them: Behold the man." (John 19:3-5)

I hope you found this as interesting as I did! It really is the "holy sacrifice" of the Mass. And just for kicks (the links go to pictures of the objects): "The altar, with its crucifix, represents Mount Calvary; the chalice signifies the Saviour's tomb; the paten, His tombstone; and the purifier (I have always heard this called a purificator, insert mine), with the pall and corporal, the linen cloths in which His Sacred Body was wrapped when it was laid in the tomb." 

God bless! 

Helen

Beloved

"Love of My life
Look deep in My eyes
There you will find what you need
Give Me your life
The lust and the lies
The past you're afraid I might see
You've been running away from Me (yeah now)

You're My beloved
Lover I'm yours
Death shall not part us
It's you I died for
For better or worse
Forever we'll be
My Love it unites us
And it binds you to Me
It's a mystery."

True Devotion to Mary: 1

For a blog that is called All for Jesus, through Mary, with a Smile, we've talked far too little about Our Lady. So here are a few basic points about true devotion to Mary. I suppose I'll post them in installments.

1. The purpose of true devotion to Mary is to lead us to Jesus. That, says St. Louis de Montfort, is the very characteristic of Mary. 

"You never think of Mary without Mary's thinking of God for you. You never praise or honor Mary without Mary's praising and honoring God with you. Mary is altogether relative to God; and indeed I may well call her the relation to God. She only exists with reference to God. She is the echo of God that says nothing, repeats nothing, but God. If you say, 'Mary,' she says, 'God.' St. Elizabeth praised Mary and called her blessed, because she had believed. Mary, the faithful echo of God, at once intoned: 'My soul magnifies the Lord.' (Lk. 1:46). 

That which Mary did then, she does daily now. When we praise her, love her, honor her or give anything to her, it is God who is praised, God who is loved, God who is glorified, and it is to God that we give, through Mary and in Mary." (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, paragraph 225)

Some Easter Photos

Happy Easter, everybody! Hannah (who is also a blogger) and I took some photos today when her family came over to celebrate Easter. Here's just a few - go over to her blog to see the rest!

My dress is from ModCloth.com, sweater - Target, boots - Nordstrom Rack, belt - Target

Hannah is wearing: jeans- Ann Taylor Loft, shirt- Target, sweater - Hollister, shoes - Payless

I hope you all had a very blessed and joyful Easter =)

**click!!**

"To awaken chivalry we must return to femininity.

We must stop doing the masculine things and become the gentle, tender, dependent women we were designed to be."

-Helen Andelin