Europe

Category Archives: Europe

Seeing Jesus through Mary

By | January 7, 2011

In November, our community of Life Teen Missionaries committed to praying a special set of prayers each day, for a month, in preparation to consecrate ourselves to Jesus Christ through the Blessed Virgin Mary. I know this might sound a little odd; I myself had trouble with this at first. Mary is the mother of Jesus, but what does that have to do with me? Everything! It took me until the day before the consecration to fully understand that we are not making the Blessed Virgin Mary an idol but that

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The Lord is My Shepherd

By | January 7, 2011

A few Sundays ago, I was sick, in bed, and unable to attend Mass. Thankfully, a priest came over after Mass to bring me Communion. Not only did this priest go out of his way to bring me the Eucharist, but he also took the time to hear my confession and bless me. I don’t know if you’ve ever had a shortened Communion Service but it’s basically a mini version of the Liturgy of the Eucharist. Since the Eucharist is already consecrated, it’s pretty quick. It still includes the key prayers and

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Life’s Tough, Get A Helmet!

By | January 6, 2011

Back in November, I had the opportunity to go on the Life Teen retreat for our area with Melanie, Amanda, and Alyssa. A religious community called the Community of the Beatitudes ran the retreat. I have been working in youth ministry for the past five years as a core member, and I have always had some sort of responsibility. Well, that wasn’t the case on this retreat. We were called to simply be there and dive into the retreat with the teens. That sounded great at first; but, alas I still didn’t

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Being a Christian is NOT safe!

By | January 4, 2011

I’m afraid of very few things in this world; but, the one thing that I seem to fear above all else is becoming the person who God is calling me to be. I fear this so much because I have no idea what God will call me to do next. Becoming this person isn’t safe, it’s dangerous, and it scares me. St. Ignatius of Loyola once said “Few souls understand what God would accomplish in them if they were to abandon themselves unreservedly to Him and if they were to allow His grace to mold them accordingly.”

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What’s your Rembrandt?

By | January 4, 2011

For first year missionaries, our main focus is the formation of our hearts so that we can grow into a deeper relationship with Christ. We are intentional about setting aside specific time during the week for spiritual reading and discussions. The second book we read during formation was Fr. Henri Nouwen’s, The Return of the Prodigal Son. In his book, he describes how Rembrandt’s painting, The Return of the Prodigal Son, changed his entire spiritual journey. It was God’s way of pursuing him

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Fröhliches Weihnachten…Merry Christmas!

By | December 25, 2010

We baked Chocolate Chip Christmas cookies (an unfamiliar rarity in Germany) with some of the youth who live close to our home. It was a cold Friday night when we decided to go Christmas Caroling (another unfamiliar rarity) to bring joy and homemade cookies to the villagers.Walking through the streets, singing old favorite Christmas tunes, a little variety was added  to our English renditions. To inculturate on a deeper level, we sang some songs in German; such as, O Tannenbaum (O Christmas Tree)

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Family Ties

By | December 20, 2010

The most recent subject of our formation has been the autobiography of St. Therese, Story of a Soul. At first, I was afraid this would be over my head, since I am a little girl from Georgia and St. Therese was an over-scrupulous Carmelite nun who knew her vocation since the age of two. But little did I know how much I would learn from the “Little Flower.” Not soon after I started reading the autobiography, I received and email from both of my aunts. They told me about how my grandmother, who

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Attitude of Gratitude

By | December 20, 2010

While reading the Gospel during Morning Prayer on December 2nd, I scrambled to find my Bible. I began to read Matthew 15:32 – 39, The Multiplication of the fishes and loaves. I got about half way through the passage when I figured out that I wasn’t reading the right gospel for that day. Despite this, I continued to read. While we pray The Liturgy of the Hours, we take a few moments to share how the Lord is speaking to our hearts. When we began our time of sharing, I recognized how God was clearly

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Emma

By | December 13, 2010

Feeling the warm love of the people who have been interceding for me and our mission community for many months was what my heart needed to thaw from the snow that was falling on the cold streets of Holland. As I entered the chapel in the Church of St. Tomas in Roermond, I saw pews filled with our prayer warriors that I had never met before. It was the first time that I got to receive the Eucharist with those who were committed to praying for me here for such a long period of time.   After Mass,

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The Father Who Delights

By | December 13, 2010

A few summers ago, I was given a scripture to pray through. It was from Psalm 37:4, “Take delight in the Lord who will give you the desires of your heart.” This was very foreign to me. I thought, “What does that mean?” I remember sitting in adoration after that and trying really hard to delight in the Lord. I sat there looking at Him intently and saying, “Lord, I delight in you.” As you can imagine, though, it felt a little weird, and it didn’t seem to be working. Around that same time,

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