Belong to God

    Today is the feast of Saint Lucy, the Virgin Martyr.  In today' culture the status of being a virgin is made out to be as rare as being a martyr.

     We live in a culture that sells and objectifies women until it seems as if we are a dime a dozen.  Take for instance, the new clothing line, shockling named "OMG."  It claims to be a delightful mix of faith and fun, but in actulity their campaign is riddled with teen girls portraying what they believe to be sexy Christians. 


     This occured when we forgot that we belong to Christ.  We don't belong to a boyfriend.  We don't belong to the task of working to look like a supermodel.  We belong to the King of Kings, the God of the universe! 

     We are given the amazing examples of saints such as St. Lucy, St. Maria Gorretti, and Saint Joan of Arc.  We are given a Heavenly mother: Mary ever virgin.  When did becoming a woman of God become shameful?

     This advent, let's strive to truly be women of God.  Project:  If you are blessed to have a true woman of God in your life, thank them for their example.

God bless you all!

Chloe M. 

    

Meet Allison
She is one year old and she lives in Mexico.  Although she is still very little, her parents say she is very smart and observant.  Her mother works as a housewife and her father makes shoes.  Struggling to pay the rent and save back for Allison's future schooling, her family applied to Christian Foundation for Children and Aging to set up a sponsorship for Allison.

     Today I adopted Allison.  Well, I can't bring her home to live with me, but I'm going to be able to sponsor her each month to make sure she gets the proper food, schooling, and learns about Christ.

     Do you sponsor a child?  What program do you go through?  Have you ever thought about sponsoring a child?  Let me know in the comments below!
God bless you all,

Chloe M.   

Straight Roads, Filled Valleys and Lowered Mountains




     Dear readers - yes.  I am alive.  Although my blog posting has said the exact opposite.  Over the past 48 hours I have been knocked out, had four wisdom teeth pulled, and have been either sick to my stomach or sleeping for the remainder of the time.  Yes, as in the words of a friend, "If wisdom teeth are so wise, why are they extra?"  I have yet to find an answer.

     So I return with vigor and victory to shower you with blog posts.  OK, just one.  Since I am on the last leg of my Tylenol dosage and my mouth is starting to hurt again. 

     Today I went to morning Mass and the Gospel today is about preparation.  (common theme in Advent, eh?) and Father Tom was talking about preparing ourselves for the Lord. 

      We all, I am sure, do a LOT of preparation for Christmas.  Your to-do list is full of house decorating, cookie baking, present buying, light hanging, Christmas partying, well wishing and gift wrapping.  But what about you to-do list for your soul?  After all, on Christmas morning we are to receive Christ into our hearts.  How is that path to your heart looking?

     The path to our heart that Christ enters in right now could be in pretty sad shape.  Perhaps there are some mountains of pride we've put in Christ's way.  Or some valleys of depression, despair and general gloom.  Even some winding roads of trying to convince ourselves of the morality of our bad actions could be hindering Christ.

     John the Baptist tells us to "Repent!" and make the valleys high, the mountains low and all roads straight so Jesus can have the easiest path to our hearts.

     How do we do this?  You can make a point to go to confession (penance services are probably starting up around your parishes), and sometimes simply stopping and thinking about the reason we are even celebrating Christmas can put things in a better perspective.  Christ came down as a helpless baby and then took upon all of humankind's sin and died for us.  We have so much to be thankful for and so much to prepare for.

     Christ's coming is worth some big preparation.  Thank goodness we still have sixteen days to get things in order - the things that really matter.

     Once again, sorry about the long break between posts! 

God bless!

Chloe M.

p.s. Grandpa is back home, they are thinking it was a small stroke.  He has follow up appointments soon.  Hopefully those can confirm some theories and see if we need to do anything else.  Thanks again for all the prayers! 


    

A Time for Laughing
     This weekend, I went on You Tube at the prompting of another fellow Catholic teen blogger and happened upon the following three videos.  Perhaps you can identify with some of them?  Let me know what you think in the comments below!



Catholic Pick-up Lines:

 

 

Things Catholic Girls Say

 

Things Catholic Guys Say

 

God bless!

Chloe M.  

Don't be perfect...be prepared

     Welcome to Advent 2012!  These next four weeks, we will be (hopefully) drawing even closer to Christ with anticipation of the celebration of His birth....right?

     Don't feel bad.  I love Christmas!  I don't love the getting, I love the giving!  Even though I know the Christmas focus should be on Christ's birth, I get wrapped up (no pun intended!) in the gift giving instead of the praise-giving to God.

     I think we fail to realize the sheer awesomeness of Christmas.    What other god in all human history or mythology has come down to earth to SAVE mankind?  What other Creator became the creation?  None but Christ.

     This Christmas will not be perfect.  Inevitably, something will go wrong.  We have to relax though, since Christmas isn't about how many people are happy with our gifts or how much we spend per person.  Christmas is about family, giving, joy and, most of all, a healthy dose of recognition for the love Christ shows us by His coming.

     The Gospel this weekend talks about being prepared for the second coming.  How about being truly prepared for Christmas?  Like the first reading says, we have become drowsy in the dealings of everyday life.  Let's all get our hearts and souls ready for the Lord.  Make sure to hit a confession near you in anticipation for a soul white as snow when you receive Christ into your heart on Christmas morning.

     You can't be perfect.  Be prepared.  

God bless you all!

Chloe M.

p.s.  Grandpa is back home as of yesterday night - the brains scans show that he is good to go and the heart scans show the same.  Thanks again to everyone for your prayers!