Religious Sentiments

"The greatest love story of all time is contained in a tiny white host." - Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen I recently returned from the Florida Eucharistic Congress with a group from my parish. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the event, the Florida Eucharistic Congress is an annual gathering of Catholics which is hosted by the Diocese of St. Augustine. Each year's Congress is focused around the Eucharist, which Catholics believe is Jesus (you can read more about the Eucharist  here ). There are also many great guest speakers featured at each conference. A notable speaker at this year's conference was Fr. Robert Spitzer SJ from EWTN. This was my first time attending the Florida Eucharistic Congress. Over the course of the Congress, Christ touched an area of my heart that was in desperate need of healing. One of the personal sufferings I have struggled with lately is self-hatred. Like many, I can lend an ear to that overly critical inner voice. I had grown to...

"Lent is a time of going very deeply into ourselves...What is it that stands between us and God? Between us and our brothers and sisters? Between us and life, the life of the Spirit? Whatever it is, let us relentlessly tear it out, without a moment's hesitation." - Catherine Doherty With Ash Wednesday occurring on March 6th this year, Lent is fast approaching. Have you started to think about what you are doing for Lent this year? Instead of the stereotypical Lenten sacrifice of simply giving up chocolate, I invite you to do something that will truly change your spiritual life this year. I would like to invite you to take a deep and prayerful look over your life throughout the next week or so before Ash Wednesday. Take some time to prayerfully sit down and really reflect on your current life. Ask God for the grace to see the things in your life which are obstacles on your spiritual journey. For some of us, our main spiritual obstacle could be noise. Perhaps we ...

"Ponder the fact that God has made you a gardener, to root out vice and plant virtue." - St. Catherine of Sienna I hope that all of you have had a very happy New Year! There are many people who make resolutions for the New Year, and there are many people who fail to fulfill those resolutions they had made. For the rest of 2019, I would like to personally challenge you to make one specific resolution, and to keep it. That resolution is to grow in virtue! A common photo caption you may see on your Instagram or Twitter feeds is "living my best life." I believe that we can work towards that goal if we become the best versions of ourselves! One of the most important aspects of a serious life change is growing in virtue. One way we can grow in specific virtues is by looking to a role model for an example of how to live our lives. From a Catholic perspective, there are many Saints whom we can look to as role models. The Saints were human, and struggled just like w...

"Prayer is to our soul what rain is to the soil. Fertilize the soil ever so richly, it will remain barren unless fed by frequent rains." - St. John Vianney Over a year ago, my spiritual life changed drastically. While I was a devout and practicing Catholic, my prayer life was lacking. I would talk to God throughout the day, but I failed to set a scheduled time specially devoted to prayer. I lacked real discipline in my spiritual life. That all changed one night when I went to my young adult group. We had a speaker named Joseph Warren who shared his testimony, and how he became closer to God through daily prayer. He decided to sit in a chapel in prayer for an hour, and repeated this for thirty days. Thirty days became sixty days, and so on. His daily holy hour is what changed his relationship with God. After the Joseph finished his talk that night, I had a little chat with him. This resulted in him personally challenging me to take "the Holy Hour Challenge",...

One of my close friends, Alaina Burke, is currently a student at the University of North Florida. This past summer, Alaina returned from a Catholic mission trip to Panama. I decided to interview her about the experience! 1. What made you decide to go on a mission trip? Honestly, I don’t really know. I guess growing up in a big Christian/Catholic community it was something that I’d always heard of and kind of thought I might do when I was older. For this specific trip though, my brother was going and invited me to come too. I honestly didn’t really want to go but I felt like it was something God was calling me to, so I went anyway. 2. Who did you go on the trip with, and was it your first time doing a mission?   I went with a group from St. Paul’s Church, including my brother. I actually didn’t know anyone else going, besides my brother until pretty much right up to when we got on the plane together. And yes, it was my first mission. 3. How was the trip to ...

"And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand." - Mark 3:25 It's no surprise that there is division within the Catholic Church. A quick scroll through the Catholic social media world will reveal as much. On blogs, forums, and social media posts, there are regular arguments among Catholics. This is the world of "church politics", which is not unlike the secular politics of which we are all accustomed. There are many different flavors and factions in the spectrum of church politics. Allow me to use the Orthodoxy Spectrum analogy (not to be confused with Eastern Orthodoxy) to show what I'm talking about. In the middle of the spectrum, you have simple and pure Catholic orthodoxy. Catholics who fall into the middle of the spectrum believe and accept 100% of the Church's teachings, and they live joyful and positive Christian lives. They receive the Sacraments regularly, have many prayer devotions, have a healthy appreci...

As many of you have probably heard, this week a report was released detailing some of the sexual abuse which has been committed by Catholic priests. As a Catholic, I want to publicly denounce what these men have done. I cannot, and will not, attempt to defend the abominable actions of these men. By being priests, these men are supposed to be spiritual fathers, but they failed exponentially in this task. Instead of representing Jesus and living in His love, these men preyed up on and manipulated many innocent victims. To make matters worse, their evil actions were swept under the rug. I know that many people are furious, and rightly so. The disgust, anger, and horror many of us feel is justified. However, while I am deeply disappointed by the evil actions of these priests, I will not leave the Catholic Church. This statement may offend my non-Catholic friends and family members, however, I cannot in good conscience abandon the Church which Jesus founded. I am Catholic not beca...