Is Christ Your Cellphone App?

    I have a lot of great apps on my phone that I'm always using. Messenger, Sports Alerts, ESPN, Music, Mail, Maps, and FitBit are my heavily used apps. But I also  have some that go unused such as Tips, Wordpress, Stocks, Compass, and more. It got me thinking...if Christ was an app, how much would I click on him? How long would I stay in the app?
    Sometimes it seems that if Christ was an app, I would use him throughout the day. I'd open him before every meal, before bed, and when I felt scared. But someone told me that Christ wants more. So I'd pray more, and try to have the Christ app run in the background. It seemed like I had a low battery in my life with always dragging Jesus around. I prayed and asked God "how can I live like this? I don't want to be dragging you around like this?" Christ's response was "Don't, let me run your life."
    Christ can't just be an app on your phone; you need him to be the operating system. It is the only way to have Christ at the center of your life. You may be thinking "But if I have God as the center of my life, I'll have to change." If following God doesn't force you to change your life, then you're making yourself God. Without your operating system, you couldn't function. Without Christ, we don't function very well. A lot of people think that more success and money will mean more happiness, but it doesn't. Letting Christ take control of your life brings us the ultimate form of happiness. How much control have you given Christ in your life? How can you give it all to him?

Freedom of Choice

    We all have the ability to choose God or not. It's called "free-will." When we don't choose God, it is called "sin." Is living a sinful life freedom? Sin is a freedom killer. Let me explain...
    When we sin, we choose our desires over God's desires. Have you ever watched a TV show on DVD? When one episode ends, the next one begins. 8 episodes in, you realize that you've wasted half the day, but you just want that one more episode. You get a text to go play volleyball, but you can't muster up the strength to get off the couch. That TV show owns and controls you. You are a slave to a DVD. It could be sleeping in, going on the internet, swearing, falling to lust, etc. that has it's chains on us that guide us further away from God.
    The Devil uses these sins to beat us down with fear and shame. We think, "How can someone love me when I've failed this much?" And we will try to hide from God. We sweep our imperfections under the rug thinking that will fix us. It's like ignoring a flat tire. If you ignore it, the tire doesn't magically get filled with air. In order to not cause greater damage, the tire has to get fixed before the car is used again. God knows we get flat tires in our lives, so he gave us the sacrament of Reconciliation to "fix our spiritual flat tires." There are only two things holding us back from Confession, fear and shame; both we know are from the Devil. He will use shame and fear all the time because it works on us. BREAK THE CHAINS!!!! Live free again by not letting the Devil control you with fear and shame and get to Confession as needed. Christ is waiting there with open arms.

God's Love

    "Jesus loves me. This I know. For the Bible tells me so..." We are told this from our youth. But I don't think we actually realize it. This is because people use the word "love" to describe their feelings towards anything from parents to a burger. Celebrities constantly say "I love my fans!" But God isn't Selena Gomez. When God says he loves you, it is with more passion and love than anyone could imagine.
     "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life." - John 3:16. Christ died for you. Yes, he would have died for the others if you didn't exist, but he also would have gone through that death if you were the only person who needed to be saved. That's the difference with God's love. There is no one on Earth that God loves more than you! He is painting the most beautiful aspects of your life right now, all you have to do is trust him.
    God's fingerprints are in our lives. Years ago I was helping a lady change a tire on the side of the freeway. Some friends saw it was me, and pulled over to help. The jack began to tip towards me. My friends steadied the car so it didn't fall. Another fingerprint is just last week I was too sick to play soccer. That turned out to be a good thing because I would have played on a twisted ankle and could have hurt it more.
    God is sculpting you into the best version of yourself. The version that will be the most rewarding. The version that will change the world. All you and I have to do is let God work through us and trust that his idea of our lives is much more awesome and rewarding than what we would accomplish by picking what we like in the moment (which is probably Netflix, video games, naps, procrastinating, etc). Are you ready to let God's love for you change your life?

Divine Mercy

    This Sunday is Mercy Sunday...wait, that doesn't seem right...oh yeah, this Sunday we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday. Divine means "of God." So this Sunday is a time to celebrate God's endless mercy towards us. So how can we fully enter into this Divine Mercy Sunday? Simple, by celebrating the sacrament of Reconciliation, and accepting God's forgiveness.
    Reconciliation was never meant to be a shame thing. The priest doesn't torture a confession out of you. It's more like cleaning your room. It feels overwhelming at first, but once you start it's not as bad, and by the end you enjoy the results of a clean room. Reconciliation cleans the soul. It is humbling yourself to reconnect with Christ.
    Christ knows what you've done, and is ready to forgive you, but he wants you to accept his forgiveness. Remember apologizing to your parents? It's terrifying at first, but after the apology and your parents' instant forgiveness, you feel a weight lifted off of your shoulders, even if you get grounded. This is because you know that the relationship between you and your parents has began it's healing process. In the confessional, we are laying down our pride so that we have the grace to accept God's forgiveness and move on in our lives. Does God's mercy stop after so many confessions? No.
    Divine Mercy is like Niagara Falls. You'd think with all the water that falls, eventually all the water will be at the bottom and it will no longer be a waterfall, but the flow is endless. God will always forgive you. No matter what you've done. He would forgive the Devil himself if Lucifer were humble enough to ask for it. With that kind of mercy ready to be given, who wouldn't want to go to Reconciliation?

Who Would Easter Thank?

    Easter is the time to celebrate Christ's resurrection. But if Easter were to win a Grammy, Easter would have to thank the events of Good Friday for making the Resurrection possible. Think about it, Jesus had to die before he could rise from the dead. How weird would it be celebrating Jesus rolling out of bed on Sunday? We wouldn't. We'd still be waiting for a savior.
    Suffering happens throughout our entire lives. It doesn't mean that you're an evil person, or that God is punishing you. Christ, God's only son, lived in poverty, was hated by many, and died a criminal's death. And because of that, "God greatly exalted him and gave him the name above every name (Philippians 2:9)." Christ stuck it out through the hard times because he knew what was awaiting him at the end.
    When we're suffering, we have the opportunity to suffer with Christ. Because of Christ, when we die, we know that it is not the end and that we will rise with Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:55 says "Death has lost its sting." It doesn't mean that we throw a party for those who die or get sick, but we take comfort that God loves us and wants us to be with him. So use the suffering as a time to grow closer with Christ as he suffers right next to you saying "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me (Matt 27:46, Psalm 22)."
    Next time you have an accomplishment, make sure to thank the suffering that made it possible. Good grades are the result of good study habits. Each soccer goal is brought to you through the practices and conditioning that proceeded it. Suffering now is so that something greater can happen. Sometimes it's in this lifetime, but rest assured that it will have a profound effect in eternity.

- For gold is tested in fire. Sirach 2:5

Ways To Love

    Love isn't a feeling like joy, sadness, or anger; it is an action. In fact, there are 5 different ways to give and receive love. Acts of service, quality time, words of affirmation, physical touch, and gifts. Every act can be categorized into at least one of these groups (or languages). Each of us respond differently to these types of love languages. Typically, the way we give love is the way we like to receive it. So if I like when people affirm me, I'm going to compliment others to express my love. But why is this useful?
    We enjoy receiving many types of love, but some are more effective than others. For example, my mom's love language is acts of service. When I want to show her love, the most affective way is to do an act of service like wash the dishes, get her oil changed, check her tire pressure, etc. She receives this act of love better than if I gave her a gift or complimented her. That doesn't mean that she doesn't feel loved when receiving gifts or compliments, just that acts of service is the most effective.
    If you want to date someone, find out their love language. If it's physical touch, you can pat them on the back, nudge, high five, or hug him/her and as long as they're not repulsed by you, they will enjoy your presence because they experience love around you. If they like words of affirmation, compliment their attire, hair, ideas, smile, etc.
    Knowing your love language and those around you can really assist you when building relationships. It's like having a cheat code in life. Even Christ has primary love languages...what do you think they are? Read the Gospels to find the answer.

Made For Mission

    You are not an accident. God created you for a purpose. “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment,” Matthew 22:37-38. The Catholic Church interchanges the words “love” and “charity.” So what does doing charity for God mean? It means taking part in the Catholic Church…what does that entail you ask?

    It means feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, visiting those in prison, caring for those society has tossed in the gutter, and showing mercy to those who don’t deserve it. Don’t believe me that the Church is so giving? We (the Catholic Church) started the first Aids clinic in the 80s, we started the university system so people could get educated, we are the largest social service provider by giving food, clothes, and shelter to more people on the planet than any other organization. This is the Church’s mission. To treat every human life with dignity from conception to death.

    Thousands of people have helped this mission with such passion that they have been canonized Saints. These were not wildly successful people…Mother Teresa summed up how to do the Church’s mission by saying that “there are no great things to accomplish in this world, only small things done with great love.”

    Sometimes we have a tendency to get overwhelmed with all that must be done. It starts with you and me right now. It starts with paying attention in class, getting homework done on time, respecting others, and doing our chores just to name a few. Doing the little things each day will have a profound impact on those around you.



So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.