Europe

Category Archives: Europe

Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?

By | February 17, 2011

Before I began this Mission year in September, a common question I was asked was, “Stephen, what are you most excited about for this year?”  I answered in the same way to every single person, “To grow in Christian brotherhood.” I thought that it would be easy to do since I was going to be living with five other guys at Covecrest. This desire actually seemed like it would be granted to me rather easily and I wouldn’t even have to work hard at it. Well, the Lord had different plans. Now,

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Trains to Jesus: Part 3

By | February 10, 2011

The rest of our weekend in Haarlem was blessed and taught me so much. We even had the chance to visit the chapel of Our Lady of All Nations on December 12, which was Our Lady of Guadalupe’s memorial. I felt so honored that we were able to visit on one of Mary’s special days! It was especially powerful for me since Our Lady of All Nations played a huge role in my discernment process of becoming a European missionary.   Sunday’s Life Night quickly came and went, and then, it was time for us

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Lord, I’m Not Worthy to Receive You

By | February 4, 2011

Over the past few years, I’ve dealt with a lot of interior struggle when it comes to receiving the Eucharist. There’s been many a Mass where I’ve spent a good majority of the liturgy fighting an inner battle over whether or not I should receive when it came time for Holy Communion. The drill usually goes something like this: I start to think of all of the sins I’ve committed and then think, “Wow, maybe I shouldn’t receive; I’ve really failed in a lot of ways.” Then, that voice goes

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It Was Out of Self-Defense!

By | January 31, 2011

Last week, I was at a morning gathering held by one of the parishes we serve. It was quaint little coffee talk after Mass and Adoration. However, for me it turned out to be one of the most troubling experiences in my faith walk. A man sat down next to me about five minutes into the gathering, pulled out his Bible, and promptly began telling me how he was not Catholic, doesn’t agree with the Catholic Church, and that all Catholics don’t read the Bible. I responded with, “On the contrary sir,

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A Gift?

By | January 17, 2011

One thing I’ve learned to appreciate over these past couple months is the gift of detachment. A gift? Yes, I did mean to use that term because God gives us the opportunity to choose the graces of detachment. So what does that mean? This means to rid yourself of anything that you might unintentionally be idolizing and to free yourself in order to be in the posture of “receiving.” These idols may include the ipod, cell phone, internet, and T.V. This doesn’t mean these items can’t be used

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Stop, Drop and Pray

By | January 14, 2011

A few weeks ago, a couple of us were sitting around the kitchen table doing language homework. Our teacher was supposed to be arriving soon and we were getting some last minute practice in. She was running late and as we sat there, we began to wonder what was up. Then, we got a phone call; it was her–her dad had passed away. I asked her if there was anything we could do for her and she said, “Yes, pray for my mother.” It was so simple, yet, so beautiful. She was saying, “Yes, you can do something.”

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Be still? Ben jij gek?

By | January 14, 2011

I have never really been a person who handles stillness very well. I was probably one of the busiest people at my college. I am a Musical Theater major and I had a heavy schedule filled with core classes, clubs, and rehearsals. I was always busy and had little time for things outside of my schedule. Ever since I become a missionary, I have had to learn one of the toughest phrases I have ever had to implement into my vocabulary: I am learning how to be still. While we do have a schedule for the mission

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Trains to Jesus: Part 2

By | January 14, 2011

We planned to meet one of the parishioners, who is very active in the parish in Haarlem, at the train station.  Once we got off of the train, Ashley and I suddenly felt very alone as we found ourselves in one of the largest train stations in Holland; it was also during rush hour on a Friday night. There were literally hundreds of people passing by us and we had no idea which direction we were supposed to walk towards. We ended up outside and on the across the street from the train station at

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Trains to Jesus: Part 1

By | January 14, 2011

Three weekends out of the month, some of us travel to different places in Holland. Recently, we were scheduled to do outreach in Haarlem. Haarlem is quite far from our village; thus, our optimal choice for travel is by train. Since we would have to travel across the whole country of Holland, we needed to take more than one train to get to our destination. During this particular trip, Ashley and I were the only ones from our community who were able to travel. We have never traveled by train before,

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The Power of an Invitation

By | January 10, 2011

Over the last few months, Jesus has been revealing to me more and more the power in an invitation.  In November, we read the Gospel story about Simon and Andrew dropping their nets to follow Jesus.  Jesus just invited them to come with Him and they did.  The Power of an Invitation. We experienced this power at Thanksgiving when we invited many people from the community to celebrate an important American holiday with us.  People were thrilled that we thought of them to invite.  During our Thanksgiving

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