Subtlety of Conversion

Media is a great method of communication and so then conversion. The obvious tactics of refuting lies and promoting your owns beliefs. I’d argue that it is almost more important to show the day-to-day life of somebody with the Catholic faith. This is accomplished by blogs, vlogs, and any other kind of media.

Blogs and YouTube channels allow people across the world to connect and get to know each other on a personal level. This makes it a great conversion platform. In daily life one of the best ways to convert is to befriend others and simply live life who they are – a Catholic. By blogging, the author allows people a look into his or her life and daily activities. As a vlogger or making YouTube videos, people are again let into this person’s world and allowed to know their personality, abilities and beliefs. YouTube channels and blogs that center around a certain topic or interest unite people of all different walks of life based on a common interest. Trust and likeability are gained by a respect for the blogger or YouTuber’s knowledge of a particular subject and so because of this common ground is created before the topic of faith is even brought up.

St. Francis is attributed with the famed quote, “Preach the Gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.” This is exactly what is accomplished by blogs and YouTube channels. These forms of social communication allow readers or viewers a look in to the author’s life and daily activities. This can be an even more powerful testament to the Faith than rants or long posts about religion. Showing the simple day-to-day activities – showing the humanity of the person – is a wonderful way to show the pillars and truths the author has built his life upon. 

Rain :)

It really is those little things, those simple pleasures that can turn your whole day, week, month or year around. 
Let me tell you a little about my night/morning:

11pm: Alright, I'm going to bed nice and early!
1am: Nope. Still not asleep.
3am: "Ugghh I'm not gonna get any sleep...bleeehhhh"
Randomly after that: "Nope, don't look at the clock just fall back asleep."
5:45 (alarm goes off) : "NOOO!"
5:50am : *notices it's raining*
5:51am: *leaps out of bed, makes a quick breakfast, throws on a hoodie and goes out to the porch to watch the thunderstorm*

The beautiful thing for me (especially having been in a dry prayer slump for awhile now...) was that as soon as I noticed the rain my heart was stirred to prayer. I was just so happy and so thankful the words couldn't help but tumble out of my mouth. He really is in the whisper...

Sunny with a High of 75*

 Allo! 

So let it be know that I really dislike summer. It's too hot, sweaty, nasty..bbllecchhh..

The past few days, however, have been nice and cool :D

Skirt - Target 

 Button Down - Target

 Shirt - H&M

You can't see but I'm wearing my green Toms, too.

 # creepin on my cat

 Abby!

God Bless,
Liz

I simply remember my favorite things...

...and then I don't feel so bad.

Thank You for...

thunderstorms. coffee. healthy eating & exercise kicks. wonderful wonderful people. beauty. love. patience. forgiveness. ability. possibility. wonder. passion. depth. the intellect. and will. music. words. metroparks. nature. sunflowers. baking. biscotti and espresso. tote bags. old books. candles. beautiful photography. art. pretty clothes. this font. notebooks & pens. trees - i like trees. You. Mamma Mary. different perspectives. variety. tea. kittens. fireplaces. hope. so much hope. Latin Masses. Tradition. tradition. dandelions. marriage. rain. sunshine. autumn. snow. freedom. popes. poetry. Shakespeare. singing. cuteness. typewriters. bookends. cozy rugs. fireplaces. aaaalll the saints. angles. writers. painters. laptop decals. da interwebz. adoration. the Eucharist. quiet. calm. peace. silence...

Love. Be Tender.

Thesis Night -- but not mine!

 Hello! This is what I wore to listen to the seniors of my highschool present their theses.

 I wore Toms to make the outfit a bit more casual -- I hate being over-dressed :P

 I've been wearing headbands everyday lately because, well, last semester I was really stressed. When I'm stressed I have a bad habit of pulling at my hair: Hello, bald spot!

It's not too bad since it's summer time :) lucky me.

And I just wanted to give a shout-out to Helen (one of the contributors to this blog) for a great job on her thesis presentation and the fielding of the questions. Erin and Anna did a wonderful job too! What an awesome alma mater...

God bless!

Beauty is Pain...?

{I found this post sitting in my drafts from a year or two ago. I thought it was worthwhile posting so here ya go!}

Beauty is pain. How many times have you heard that? It almost seems to be common knowledge - if you want to be "beautiful" you have to go through pain for it whether it's uncomfortable shoes and clothes or diets. I remember when my friend and I were younger, she used to straighten my hair. When she'd accidentally burn me and I would complain she'd jokingly answer "beauty is pain!" Later in my life I thought beauty and thinness were the same thing - you couldn't have one without the other. You had to work for it and it was painful so again I heard the saying "beauty is pain!"

For me, it's been less than a year since I realized that's a lie. I had always known inner beauty was more important and I agreed but I didn't believe I had anything that would make me be "innerly beautiful" so I had to struggle for better outer beauty.  Now, I greatly admired those who you could tell had inner beauty - they were just different. I had many Facebook friends who went to Steubenville and I (the creep that I am) would look through their photos and see how beautiful they and their friends were. I would look through some of their friends photos (I know, I know..creepy) because they just had that "something different" and it draws people to them. That type of beauty does not come from pain. It comes from Joy and Love. They were people who are trying to live their live for God and become more like He who is Beauty, Goodness, Truth, Love and all these other qualities people strive for. A peaceful heart as result from a deep relationship with God is probably one of the most attractive qualities out there.

Promo

Hello! I just wanted to share my friend Melissa's blogs with you all. She's talented and could really use the support. One is a fashion blog: The Young Fashionist, the other more of a thoughts and musings blog: Fighting the Good Fight of Faith. If you have the time, check them out and share them if you enjoyed.
Love and prayers,
Liz

the cause

This morning I woke up on time, got ready quickly, ate breakfast and still had time to spare. My first reaction was "Yes! I have time to chill with my iced coffee, read some blogs, listen to music..." but I felt a pull to spend that time in the chapel instead. 
While I am one who greatly enjoys the little joys like my iced-coffee-internet-surfing-time I know they are meant to supplement, add to my joy, not be the basis. So I chose to spend time with the cause of all joy, peace and happiness and the whole rest of the day fell into place.

artsy Catholic kids

Fancy camera + mini flashlight =

photo credit: Carissa Knowd

:)

Summer Weather

Beautiful weather,

 iced coffee,

poetry,

 and writing it down.

What a nice break from stress and papers :)

God bless!

4 Little Things

1.) Blog post writing!
I was on Tumblr and decided to take my frustration out by writing a post on it. What comes to me when I write helps me so much.
2.) Running! and stairs!
I went outside for a run for the first time this semester. It was hard, man! Junk food and laziness really makes a difference -- but getting back in to healthy habits helps my mood immensely. 
3.) Paper Getting-Done-ing!
I had a rough draft due Friday which I didn't get done because I stress and worried and deemed the paper impossible. I finally sat down in the library,wrote and then ran to his office to turn it in. Whheeeww. It feels good to get that off my shoulders.
4.) Signatures Gotten!
I've been stressing over the summer classes I'm going to take... I needed the 3 chairs of the departments of the classes I'm going to take and have transfer and then my academic advisor sign. I finally got all the signatures and am going to turn in the form first thing in the morning. Form gets faxed and I can register for classes.

He always provides. Everything gets done in the end. He's taking care of us. Look at the birds of the air....[Matthew 6:26]

"A Fairy Tale Easter"

Hey! I just wanted to share my friend Ben's post with ya'll. He's a wonderful writer with a heart of gold. Enjoy!

The Odyssey of a Boy Pilgrim: A Fairy Tale Easter: If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.  G.K. Chesterton has said that one of his favorite sensations was the moment when you ...

A True Friend

"A true friend will fight with you

against the foe,

against your enemies he will be your

shield-bearer."

-Sirach 37:5

Mary Mug

You know when somebody gives you a gift that fits you perfectly? Yea, that happened today.

I'm always stressed, I love tea, coffee and mugs and so...

perfection.

Our Lady Queen of Peace...

 As if tea and coffee wasn't calming enough =P

Love&Prayers,

Liz

with Feathers

(314)

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.

~Emily Dickinson

Warm & Cozy

Hey! So I just got back from spring training in Florida --- needless to say, its a big weather change coming back to good ol' Ohio. I wanted to be warm and comfy so this is what I wore today:

While in Florida I bought the skirt I'm wearing at Target. It's surprisingly thick and warm. Perfect.

Have a wonderful day and God bless!

Nature, God & Spring Break

My spring break has consisted of a road trip down to Florida for a softball tournament. I wasn't too excited but actually was a bit was annoyed I wasn't getting a relaxing break but the beauty I've found here is so refreshing. 
On the drive down, we went through hilly West Virginia and Virginia. I don't see alot of mountains where I'm from and I was just stunned by the beauty of an open plain of mountain peek behind mountain peek, stretching as far as the eye could see. I tried to capture it via camera but nothing did it justice. 

We stopped overnight in Hilton Head, South Carolina. The first thing we did after dropping our bags at the hotel was to run over to the beach. Now, I'm not usually a beach person but this was gorgeous. The sun was setting, waves crashing, beautiful clean sand -- my heart, guys, my heart. I was taking pictures left and right, trying to capture this beauty. 

 

 

 

As I write this post I'm sitting on a patio watching the rain fall causing the pool to ripple and move, the trees to wave in the breeze and just allow a refreshing break from the sunny Florida weather. I love rain so much. I am so thankful :)

I've always felt close to God through nature. Peter J. Kreeft once wrote: "It is beautiful. 'The beauty of creation explains the infinite beauty of the Creator.' (CCC 341) The doctrine of creation explains why we find nature so beautiful and satisfying, why it moves us so and makes us happy." I do however think there can be a misunderstanding about Catholics and their nature lovin'. Often when I think of those who really love nature my mind jumps to hippies: "be free, hate society and be one with nature, man. Ooh, and there's no God. Mamma Earth is in charge." 

>.< A'ight. 

People often go to nature as a God replacement, which in a way makes sense. He created all this beauty, they long for Him but won't admit it, and so go to creation but won't admit the Creator. They think they're winning and avoiding the "God problem" but they are really missing out. As Catholics and adoring the Creator Himself, we can fully embrace His beauty through creation. 

God is a friggin' genius ( to say the least ). Look at all the millions of different animals He made with all their little quirks and funny habits. Look all the variety in the earth: mountains, lakes, rivers, trees, oceans, rain, snow, sunsets and sunrises... and each is as beautiful as the next. Anybody who thinks God is boring clearly hasn't accepted Him as the source of all this crazy beautiful awesomeness.

A Totally Serious Post With a Random Mustache

For being a blog for young Catholic women, we hardly talk about one of the most commonly discussed subjects among young women: boys! (Well, except Matthew, whom some of us talk about quite a bit ;).) 

Today I spent the day at the Ohio Right to Life Bringing America Back to Life Symposium. (Note to self: contact the Ohio Right to Life about finding a shorter name for the event :P) As well as being informative and inspiring, this symposium, without meaning to, really showed me the difference between real men and, well, lame men. There were so many examples of really great men, from the sixty-something year old man who talked about why we need to accept suffering, to Brian Kemper, the middle-aged man with the tattoos and piercings who talked about the harsh reality of what abortion really is, to this guy named Peter, a high school age guy who started a group for pro-life youth called Minute Men, so that high school age kids could be a bigger part of the pro-life movement. These as well as other men there are truly an example of following the call to be not afraid, particularly in regards to the pro-life movement.


The fact is that the world needs more real men like these guys. I'm blessed to know a lot of really great guys, but there are too many young men who are angry, afraid, or apathetic. There are so many young men who are angry at authority, and so they rebel, or they do the wrong thing because they're afraid of the consequences of doing the right thing, or they don't really care about the right thing so they just do whatever they want and wind up doing stupid stuff and regretting it for the rest of their lives. 

Real men have mustaches. (Just kidding, mustaches are ugly.)

And it's all society's fault. We live in a society that has no standards for young men to live up to. We're so focused on empowering women, that we've kind of forgotten about the special place in the world that God has for men, which is to be leaders in their families, their communities, and the world. Now here's the part where the feminists get all mad because "women should be leaders!" and I have to say that the feminists have a point. Women should in fact be leaders, but it should not just be the women. The men need to take a stand and the women need to uphold them in that and vice versa. But neither one of them should be doing it alone. 

Real men take initiative. Real men try to fix the problem instead of waiting for someone else to do it. Real men take into account that their life has importance and value, and act as such. Real men take into account that women have importance and value, and treat them as such. That's the kind of men that women are looking for, and the lack of that kind of men is honestly disheartening. 

I'm pretty sure the guys who are gonna be reading this, if any, all fit these standards pretty darn well. Keep it up guys :) But if perchance you are a guy who randomly happened upon this post and thought to yourself that maybe you need some work in some of those areas, go for it! Don't be afraid :)

And obviously, girls, don't settle for any less than a real man. Not that you haven't heard that 10,562,879 times in your life. 

Iced Mocha, 

a blueberry scone & 

time with my guy 

on a sunny March afternoon =)

Thank You for the little things!

Just a lazy day...

drinking coffee,

 watching Frasier,

"Morning has broken... Coffee can fix it."

and just chilling.

Love&Prayers,

Liz

Roomie&Me

I put red streaks in my hair, guys :D

"You're such a freaking girl, Liz." was my friend Joe's reaction to this outfit:

My roommate Becca let me style her last Sunday for Mass.

Our styles are very very different -- you'll never ever catch her in a floor length skirt. 

I don't think she's ever owned one... but she liked what I picked out!

*fist pump*

She's so gorgeous =)

Roomie love!

Love&Prayers,

Liz