Author Archives: Danielle Rzepka

I don’t even know how to start this blog. I feel like I have SO MANY thoughts from the last few weeks, I can’t even begin to string them into coherent sentences (which I could use as an excuse for my only blogging once a month, instead of the promised once a week…but that’s just a lame excuse). So I’ll just jump right in and talk about something that I think is rather essential in understanding me, and how God speaks to me. I have a lot of what have come to be known as “revelations.” Last

We just got back from our 8-day silent retreat in the Netherlands (with all the deacons who will be ordained as priests TOMORROW!! Awesome. Please pray for Br. Ignas, Elroy, Patrick, and Hans as they are ordained!)—and let me tell you, it was phenomenal, powerful, and exactly what I needed. That being said, look for lots of blogs coming up about different things God revealed to my heart on retreat and that I’ll be praying about for some time to come (I mean, 8 days of silence are a LOT for me,

“We are a Resurrection people, and Alleluia is our song” –Pope Benedict XVI. A lot of my prayer lately has consisted of me wrestling with and trying to figure out the seemingly duplicitous nature of Christian life—the fact that when you live with Christ, there is always both joy and sorrow, suffering and blessing, death and new life (working on the blog for that one…stay tuned). For the last few days though, as is fitting for the season, I’ve been praying/thinking/reflecting about the

I think I am dying. Not a typical way to start a blog, so let me qualify:  as I’ve been reflecting lately and going over what God continues to speak to me in prayer (the need to wait and trust in the Lord, imagery of a refining/purifying fire, various lessons on how to love, the realization that the “mission” is first and foremost ME…), I’m realizing that one of the underlying messages is that I am really being asked to die—as in, dying to self, to pride, to knowledge, to being comfortable,

Yesterday, I was challenged to ask this question: “Lord, what do I desire you to work in and through me?” Below is how I answered Him in prayer this morning. For this one, I’m not going to explain…it’s just all me, straight from the journal: I want to be changed—ultimately and permanently, but also every day. I want to be convicted of the truth of your love—with a passionate, burning conviction that settles down into the very core of my being. I want to be confident and bold in that love—to

Lately, I feel like my prayer has sounded something like the beginning of Psalm 13: How long, Lord? Will you utterly forget me? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I carry sorrow in my soul, grief in my heart day after day? How long will my enemy triumph over me? Look upon me, answer me, Lord, my God! (**side note: I love the Psalms. The more I read and pray with them, the more I am drawn to the honesty in their poetry—the beauty of sheer humanity crying out to God, in all

Recently, the question, “Well, what did you expect from God?” has settled in and taken up residence in my prayer. God is beginning to reveal to me that my life, as a Christian, is full of expectancy—waiting on the Lord to fulfill His promises, always wondering to a certain extent what He’s about, hoping that He will reveal to me more of Himself. BUT, when I let that expectancy turn into expectation—when I have my heart set on something and begin to demand that God fulfill it the way I want

I always thought Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael (also known as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego) were a little un-relatable—if not downright crazy. Every time Sunday Week One comes up in Liturgy of the Hours (or any major feast day, or the season of Christmas) and we pray through the canticle that starts, “Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord, praise and exalt him above all forever,” I shake my head in wonder and disbelief; not because “you dolphins and all water creatures” are specifically

Today, Amanda and Danielle ended up sitting around the breakfast table for hours sharing different things God’s been revealing to them—turns out, God had a lot to say to each one of them through the other. Here’s a peek into their conversation: Danielle: So I’ve been praying lately about the idea of being pursued…and I think I came to kind of a revelation today. Amanda: Do tell. D: OK. So this is going to be “Danielle pouring her heart out time.” Get. Ready. A: Hold on a second (pause.