Matthew 2

Today's reflection is Mother Teresa's daily prayer, I like it a lot, so I think I'll share it with you:

"Dear Jesus, help me to spread your fragrance everywhere I go. Flood my should with your spirit and love. Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly that all my life may only be a radiance of yours. Shine through me, and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel your presence in my soul. Let them look up and see no longer me, but only Jesus. Stay with me, and then I shall begin to shine as you shine, so to shine as a light to others; the light O Jesus, will be all yours; none of it will be mine; it will be you, shining on others through me. Let me thus praise you in the way you love best, by shining on those around me. Let me preach you without preaching, not by words but by my example, by the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what I do; the evident fullness of the love my heart bears to you. Amen."

I especially like the part that says: "Let me preach you without preaching, not by words but by my example." I think this is so vital for all of us to understand. Like yesterday, where you don't have to do anything extravagant to love your neighbor; in order to share the good news with everyone, we don't have to stand on soap boxes on street corners! By simply living our lives as God wants us to, by setting that example, we will save more souls than by walking around quoting bible verses. Don't get me wrong, when one can spout off bible verses that relate to a conversation, I am VERY impressed, but we preach best when it is just through our witness. As St. Francis of Assisi said, "Preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words."

Today's challenge was to be purposefully cheerful. This seemed eerily appropriate because ever since I came home this past Thursday for the summer, I haven't been feeling like myself. I don't really know what it is, but I think it's a mixture of being away from my friends and feeling like I don;t really have anything to do because neither of my jobs have started yet. So I haven't been feeling very happy or cheerful and so when I saw this challenge for today, I tried it. And lo and behold, it worked! Today has been a much better day...I'm trying to just not let anything little get on my nerves as I have been....and I'm trying to plan things with friends so that I don't just sit around the house all day on Facebook haha

Matthew 1

Today's reading was by G.K. Chesterton and it's about loving our neighbors because they, like us are of God. A couple of things that pop out to me is the phrase "The duty towards humanity may often take the form of some choice which is personal or even pleasurable." I think when most people think of 'loving your neighbor', theres somewhat of a negative connotation. But in actuality, you can love your neighbor in simple acts that you enjoy. As Chesterton says later, "[Your neighbor] is the sample of humanity which is actually given to us." So many of us say we want to go out and change the world...but not many of us will actually be able to go out and make large changes in the world; but what we can do is right here in front of us. It's kind of like the random acts of kindness concept, or paying it forward. If we are kind, respectful, and friendly to our neighbors, they will likely remember that and change how they behave. And imagine what could happen if we were kind, respectful, and friendly to them everyday! The results would just get better and better! I think many of us don't think about the little things that we do or say in passing. Just a simple smile or holding the door for someone can change someones day. By showing them the same love that the Lord shows us, we can start a revolution! [as a side note, I've been really big on revolutions lately...women's empowerment revolutions, church revolutions, etc.] The bible passage to read today was Matthew 1. Matt1:1-17 are all geneology, and I usually dont read these because they tend to be redundant and boring, but this one is the geneology of Jesus. It tells us of how Jesus is a decendent of not only the house of Abraham, but also a descendent of the house of King David. This shows that He is not only King of Heaven, but also an earthly King. I just thought that that was kind of cool, because when Jesus was being crucified, they taunted him by calling him "King of the Jews", but what they didn't know is that he really was descendent of an earthly King that they all recognized and obeyed. The rest of Matt1 is about Joseph and his obedience to God in taking Mary as his wife and mother of our Savior.

Hello friends!

Hello!

I don't really expect anyone to be reading this regularly, but if you do, thank you and welcome! I mainly started this blog because I am on summer break from college, and need something to do! Also, I am involved with the organization, FOCUS (Fellowship Of Catholic University Students) and all student leaders have been given daily reflections, bible verses, and challenges, and my "discipleship chain" and I decided that this would be a good way to share with one another our reflections and just to keep in touch!

Most of my posts will be about these reflections, but I might also share bits and pieces of myself, I'm not sure yet! I guess we'll just have to wait and see!

God Bless
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