New Year....Last Year

"so...do you have a favorite ancient theologian?"
*spoken right in front of the switchboard desk by two nerdy Frannies*
oooooohhhhhhhh Franciscan.....

Do you ever need to just write all your crap down...not giving a hoot whether or not someone reads it...you just need to let it out? Yeah...that's me...all the time. I get into this writing mode (which usually involves some alone time and cup of tea...in this case some iced tea) and it somehow cleanses my soul regardless if it visibly changes/helps things or not.

So thus begins my 6th (yes, 6th) and final year at Franciscan University of Steubenville. Love this place...yet hate this place. I don't know, I'm in this mindset where I can't wait to just live my faith out there in the world. I know, I know, the age old question: "Is Franciscan a bubble or not?" Well, I'm sorry, but it is. I'm so thankful for this place...I've been formed and changed so much for the better. But this place has jaded me in so many ways. There comes a point where spiritually, you just need to be challenged and molded beyond what you've been doing for the past couple years. It's time to start slowly saying goodbye.

I'm reading this book called "The New Faithful: Why Young Adults are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy." It is absolutely AMAZING. It has given me a whole new look at the Church and my faith and what I'm being called to. It's written by a Catholic journalist (who works in the secular realm) who dedicated over a year of her life to investigating and researching Christianity (especially Catholicism) and how it's being lived out in America in the lives of young adults. It especially looks at how young adults are bringing their faith into the battlefields of the world where relativism and a pluralistic viewpoint reigns. We've all heard "live in the world but not of it." But the interviews of the people contained in this book show that people are actually DOING it...living the faith but not being preachy...doing little things with great love.

I have always felt like I have a missionary heart...and I have thus tried to make these big plans for myself: move to some 3rd world country and save souls. Well, I've been to third world countries and have been astounded by people's love and faith. We, my friends, are the ones who are hurting. America needs missionaries too. So that's the life I feel called to...being a missionary in one of the most (if not the most) spiritually poor place in the world: my own backyard.

Everyone needs a community...a support system. But let's face it: you can't live in a place where you only live, eat, and breathe with Catholics 24/7. That's just not healthy. And besides, is that what we're really called to do anyway?

"Conservative Catholics, besieged by fellow Catholics and the culture at large, tend toward defensiveness and isolation...many others spend so much time with like-minded friends that they fail to realize how others perceive them. If they do not guard against that tendency toward rigidity, they could render their orthodosx revolution irrelevant."
--The New Faithful