Tolerance...What is it Really?

    Right now there seems to be this crazy belief that tolerance means to agree. #SpoilerAlert, it's not! In order to tolerate something, you have to disagree. You don't tolerate when your team wins, you tolerate when you lose. You don't tolerate a healthy body, you tolerate an injury. Just because someone doesn't agree with you doesn't mean they hate you.

    The definition of tolerate is to allow the existence, occurrence, or practice of. Another way of defining tolerance is being Christ in a given situation. It's knowing what you believe and not being hurt by someone else's beliefs.

    I think so many of us struggle with tolerance because we are lacking confidence. We need the recognition to know we're not wrong. As a result, things become vague such as "Happy Holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Hanukkah." Things like "Happy Holidays" show's zero diversity and culture. It makes things very bland rather than allowing people to show their true colors. A tolerant person is able to walk down a street and see a menorah on one house and a nativity scene on another house and think "God is awesome!"

    There's no need to get upset for what someone else believes. Be confident in who you are and what you believe. Share your beliefs with others, not to convert them, but to learn more about different points of view in order to sharpen yours...let's face it, no matter how much we think we know it all, we don't. There is always a chance to learn.

The Holy Spirit...Who Dat?

    The Holy Spirit is the least recognized of the Trinity. God the Father is popular in the Old Testament. We learn about God the son through the Gospels. But what about God the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is now. The Holy Spirit is giving gifts of wisdom, patience, courage, hope, prophecy, teaching, tongues, and more. The Holy Spirit is who gave Stephen, the first martyr, the wisdom and courage to shout "Lord, do not hold this sin against them" as he was being stoned to death. The Holy Spirit was the one who gave Maximilian Kolbe the courage to step forward and give up his life for a Jewish father during the Holocaust. The Holy Spirit was the one who lead me to seminary so I could grow much deeper in my faith and understanding of it. This prepared me to enjoy the last Summer of my dad's life as well as having the grace to move forward after his passing in October.
    The Holy Spirit gives us life. Think about it. John 20:22 says "Jesus breathed on them and said receive the Holy Spirit.'" The only other time God breathed on humans was Genesis 2:7 "...And blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." Later, sin came into the world. Sin is death. Romans 6:23 states "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." The  Holy Spirit is the fuel we all need to live. Those who don't have the Holy Spirit within them are not living, but merely surviving.

We Don't Celebrate as We Ought

    Ain't no party like a Catholic party cuz a Catholic party don't stop! Well...that's the idea at least. In the scriptures, they would have wedding receptions that lasted for over a week. One of the weddings Jesus attended needed more wine, so Jesus created 150 gallons of it (John 2). God know's how to throw a party. But today, we're lucky if a party goes for 6 hours. What happened? Who stuck the dagger into celebrations? Maybe it's that we just don't know how to celebrate.
    Easter is a big celebration in the Church. So big that we can't limit it to a day. We actually celebrate Easter for 8 days. It's known as the Easter Octave. These 8 days we are called to feast and celebrate that Christ is with us. The 40 days of Lent was just preparation for these 8 days, in order to be able to enjoy them properly. If you gave up pop, celebrate by having pop. If you worked out all of Lent, use this week as a recovery week. This is not a time to be in pain, but to rejoice.
    The Easter season continues for another 42 days after the Octave (until Pentecost). It's a time to reflect that Jesus rose from the dead and is asking for each of us to do the same. To rise up from bad habits in order to fully live. God knows that we are happier when we celebrate. When we are happier, we share Christ's love for one an other. So don't skip Easter. Don't settle for just one day. The Church is asking, begging you to celebrate the resurrection for all 8 days and share Christ's love with others. Who can say no to that?

Remembering Who God Loves

    "God loves you." You've heard this throughout your life. But what about the bully who picked on you yesterday? Or the girl that taunts others by flaunting her body? Or the family member who you can't stand? Does God love them? Then why can't we?

    If you're dating someone and that person really likes the movie The Sandlot, you're going to at least try to like it. Being a disciple of Christ means loving what God loves. God created each of us in his own image because he loves all of us (Genesis 1:27). He gave us the freedom to love or not to love.

    What's a girl who "sleeps around" a lot often called? Does God love her less because she's misusing her body? No, so why should we? Sin pulls us away from God, not God away from us. So even if that girl can only see value in her body, it doesn't mean she isn't more. She's a child of God and deserves love and respect. It doesn't mean encouraging her to live a sinful life because that's all she is, loving her means treating her like a person with feelings rather than an object.

    How can God love the family member who has brought so much pain into my life? The fact is that God does love that family member. The question we need to ask is "How can I love this person who brought so much pain in my life more?" That's what Christianity is all about, loving those who hurt us the most. Christ was begging God the Father to forgive the men who were spitting on him at his crucifixion.

    Loving those who hurt us isn't easy, but God is asking us, pleading with us, to love them anyway. The way to love is to focus on the positives rather than the negatives. Trust me, it can change your life if you let it.

Live in the Moment

    Freedom is the ability to live your life with excellence. No one wakes up in the morning and thinks “Wow, I hope I have a bad day.” God didn’t give each of us life to spend it in front of a screen. He wants us to actually live life. So when we say “live a life with excellence,” what does it mean?

    To live a life with excellence means the ability to choose the good. You may not want to wake up in the morning for school, I know I didn’t, but you choose to go to school because it will be more beneficial to you. Choosing to go play soccer with friends rather than sit in the room playing Xbox shows that you’re valuing your relationships over material things.

    In short, freedom is living in the moment. When you’re in Mass, with friends, at school, or with your family, can you enjoy the company without worrying about what’s going on after, what’s on Twitter/Instagram, or if someone has texted you in the last 20 seconds. We have a tendency to want to live in comfort, but freedom is about living in the moment…are you living in the moment or hiding from it?

Sainthood #Achieved

    St. John Paul the Great encouraged us to “Dare to be saints!” We see saints such as Mother Teresa, St. John Paul, St. Maximilian Kolbe, St. Joseph, St. Faustina, etc and can get overwhelmed with the task asked of us. We think “I can’t start an orphanage like Mother Teresa or be Pope like St. John Paul. So why even try.” That’s like a 4 year old saying “I can’t paint like Leonardo da Vinci, so what’s the point.” God is calling us to be saints, not to be Mother Teresa.

    Saints are known for listening to God and doing his will. What does “doing God’s will” mean? It sounds complicated, but it’s ridiculously simple…just really, really  challenging. Doing God’s will starts with doing what God puts on your heart. If you see someone sitting alone in the cafeteria and you have this almost nagging feeling to go sit with that person and strike up a conversation, that’s God calling you to care for that person. But what if you don’t hear God? Even when you can’t hear God, you have an idea of what he wants of you. Any guesses? It’s doing what you’re supposed to do each day. These tasks could be (but not limited to): paying attention at school, finishing your homework on time, doing your chores without being told, talking to your family, etc. Sainthood isn’t this mysterious thing for a select few; sainthood is within all of our grasps.

    God gives each of us many opportunities to work on our sainthood each day. From helping your parents out with the dishes to not beating up your younger siblings (or anyone for that matter). Becoming a saint is a process. It takes patience and perseverance to be a saint. Don’t expect to change overnight. God is calling you to be a better version of yourself each day…are you ready to answer his call?

Why Is There Suffering?

    Suffering can be the deepest form of prayer. By taking your physical or emotional suffering, and uniting it to Christ, you're living for more than yourself. If you get a paper cut, rather than complaining and annoying everyone around you, use the stings as a reminder to focus on Christ. You're then turning a negative into a positive.

    A crucifixion was reserved for major criminals. These criminals were hung on crosses, naked, to be stripped of their humanity. Christ took the ugliness of the cross, and turned it into the greatest symbol of love the world has ever seen.

    Because the act was so beautiful, Catholics have been displaying crucifixes in churches, in homes, and even on jewelry ever since. We don't have a God who abandons us. But rather, he became flesh and showed us how to suffer first hand.

    The greater our suffering, the more we can be an example of Christ to others. "What if I fall?" If you never fall, it means you have a light cross, or you're in denial. When Jesus carried his cross, it was about a half mile. In that time, he fell three times and needed Simon of Cyrene to help him carry the cross beam. God doesn't care that you fall, he cares about whether you get back up. You follow a crucified Lord, be ready to suffer!