Ooops

I've been really bad about posting here the last few days. I've got a new blog I've just set up and that's taking up a huge amount of my time at the moment. Luckily it's not a solo project otherwise I'd be swamped with it all. I've got a long post in the running, it's just taking me a while to complete it. So for now I want to share a beautiful song with you. It's called 'The Call' by the group Celtic Woman, who I'm a huge fan of. I find this song really relatable, it speaks to me about discernment and the call to religious life. Probably not the intended subject of the song but that's part of the joy of music, that is speaks to so many different people in different ways.

Our New Blog

I've started up a new blog with my friend Kim. The Vocation Operation is our compiling of vocation resources and religious communities to help other discerners. We're still setting it up but there are still some resources already up. Keep an eye on it and if you have any suggestions of resources or communities you think deserve to be up there then please message either me or Kim, or just comment on the blog. We're including communities from all over the world so wherever you are, send us any communities you know of.

Funny Coincidences

There was a topic on Phatmass about the sacrament of Confirmation and it made me wonder what the exact date of my confirmation is because I couldn't remember the exact date. So I looked up my old emails and realised it was on the 7th of December. Curiosity led me to look up what saint's feast day that was. Much to my excitement, I discovered that it is the feast day of Saint Ambrose. Some of you may remember I posted a while ago on the religious names I want to submit to the Mother Abbess. And one of the names I want to submit is Mary Ambrose, both for my old parish priest and for the great saint. It's just such a strange coincidence that I would choose that name and unknowingly was confirmed on his feast day. Even stranger, that wasn't the day my parish celebrated Confirmation. They celebrated sometime in October but I was on a trip with my school at the time so I couldn't attend that one. My priest found another parish where I would take the Sacrament at another time and that is how I ended up at the 7th of December, the feast day of Saint Ambrose of Milan. Sometimes I think nothing is really a coincidence, that it's all God working somehow.

Saint Ambrose of Milan, Confessor and Doctor of the Church, pray for us.

Sex

So the past couple of days I've been watching the show 'How I Met Your Mother'. Now I've always loved this show and don't get me wrong, as mindless TV goes it's a good show. But I've been watching it again and I can't help but feel disillusioned. There's this one episode where one character asks another how long it's been since they had sex. The reply is like 57 days or something. That's less than two months. And this is treated like this is something really awful and terrible, some great torture that poor Ted has to endure. It just kind of speaks to this wider attitude that we are constantly bombarded with nowadays. It's like if you're not having as much sex as possible with as many partners as possible then you're doing something wrong and your life is just being wasted. Which is really, really sad. It makes me so sad to see the world like this. I get it, I've been there. I understand the lure of the false promises the world offers. It's enticing and for those who are in spiritual darkness like I was it is very difficult to resist. The world tells us that sex is essential to our happiness and our entire culture seems to revolve around it. I'm not entirely sure what the point of this rant is, it's just been annoying me. 

And it's not just in media. It's people around us as well. Now I will confess I've been there. I feel into that trap and it made me miserable. I've never felt so awful in my entire life. Luckily I realised my mistakes after not too long and came back to the grace of God. There are others who are not so lucky. But I digress. I live with two friends, both guys. Neither are religious, though one is 'technically' Catholic. They both have girlfriends and in our society we all know what that means. I just stay out of it, they know my faith and in the end it's not my place to judge. But they've both said things that illustrate my point. One asked me how long it had been. So I told her, it's just over a year. And she looked at me like I was deprived of something, that I was some poor thing that deserved all this pity. It saddened me that this was the attitude, that it was so incomprehensible that I could be happy living as I am now. Because that's what people really think, they think you can't be happy or fulfilled without sex. The other, she also made a comment once that she couldn't live without sex. Is that not really sad, that people feel that their entire happiness is based on how much sex you have? Does no-one else see a serious problem with that? We depend so much on all these things we think will make us happy, not just sex but money, power, possessions, popularity. Yes, the media is a part of telling us these things but it comes from a wider societal attitude that comes from real people and real attitudes that we face in real, everyday life. 

This is a slight departure from my usual postings but this is something that has been bugging me recently. On a similar note, I was reading on the website for St Cecilia's they've got a section at the moment on the profession of vows since they had a solemn profession just last month of Sr Elizabeth, who is just 25 and entered at 19. So incredible, I really hope I can meet her some day. Nuns are just so amazing. Anyway I digress. There is a quote that struck me from the part of the profession where the nun receives her ring: "He has placed a sign upon my face that I may receive no lover but Him." I long to stand before God and say those words. The traps of the world have no hold on me, for I am betrothed to my Beloved. 

Leaving University

Though apologetics isn't usually what I do around here, I was reading an awesome blog post and just had to share it: What The Catholic Church Teaches About Contraception And Why. I thoroughly recommend giving it a proper read, especially with the the health insurance/contraception/etc. stuff going on in the USA at the moment.

Digression from my usual rambling over. I haven't posted much recently because I guess I haven't felt like I had anything to say. I'm kind of feeling at a standstill and I'm not really sure where to go next. I might be leaving university, well not leaving fully but postponing my studies and re-starting the academic year in September. Which would obviously delay any potential entrance until 2013 but I don't want to waste my education and I feel that taking the suspension would be in the best interest of my education. I'm not sure if it'll go through, I need to speak to someone about it, but it would give me time to discern and reflect more before returning to my studies in the autumn. It would also let me start some kind of work in my parish, I've been feeling recently I want to be more active in my new parish. Ideally I'd love to work with some kind of discernment or vocations ministry, helping other young people to be open to God's call for their lives. But I'll take anything if I'm totally honest, I just want to feel connected to the parish more. Because of all the university stuff I've been in kind of a funk lately so hopefully once I sort that out things will become clearer.

Dreams

Dreams by emilyannscorner on polyvore.com

Saint Scholastica

Saint Scholastica, nun and twin sister of Saint Benedict, pray for us.

Longing

Whenever I read about the religious life, watch videos of solemn professions I feel the deepest longing in my heart to lead that life. It is beyond any other passion or longing and I cannot even describe the feeling that takes over me. I find myself weeping, partly with joy, partly with longing and partly for the days I must wait until I can be fully and totally consecrated to my Beloved and be able to say to the whole world "I am a bride of Christ, I belong fully and only to Him."

Saint Apollonia, martyr for the faith, pray for us. 

Balance

The last few times I've been to Mass I noticed something that kind of makes me giggle. Inwardly of course, I was embarrassed enough being the girl with the constant coughing fits - it was so bad that during the Confiteor I was almost sick. Which is always fantastic (not). And of course, it would happen on the one day of the year that they had the Blessing of Throats (since it is the feast day of Saint Blaise). It's been one of those days. Anyway, digression over and back to the giggling. I was at Mass at my new parish and at the dismissal the priest says (as usual) "go forth, the Mass is ended" and the people all respond "thanks be to God". I just kind of had thing thought that is was such a funny way to have it, it's like we're all thanking God that the Mass is finally over! I'm such a child sometimes. 


I hadn't really been going to Daily Mass recently. I can't really go when I'm at home and then the first few weeks back at university were so busy I just never made it in. So I went today for the first time in ages and I was so excited when I remembered it was Friday so I got to go to Adoration as well before Mass. I had been hoping to speak to Father Philip but I didn't get the chance so hopefully I'll get a moment after Mass some day next week.


Discernment-wise, I've been praying and I'm still feeling that St. Cecilia's is the right place for me. I need to figure out how I'm going to go about everything, that's still a big thing for me. I'm  trying to find that right balance between active discernment and still paying enough attention to my university work. I don't want the discernment to totally take over but I also don't want it to fade to the background either. 

Saint Blaise, pray for us.

Girls Just Wanna Be Nuns

I decided today that I would share some light-hearted amusement with you, my lovely readers. So I present to you three videos which I quite like. 

"Girls just wanna be nuns" 

Stuff Catholic Girls Say

Things Catholic Girls Say

Hope you enjoy them and get a laugh out of them.