2020 - a year where I had (and I think we all had) many expectations of what was "supposed" to happen and many things I was "supposed" to do. In reality, many things were scheduled, but God knew in each moment we were all exactly where we needed to be. I was blessed to be able to finish school, spend great amounts of quality time with family, graduate, continue to work at an amazing job serving the people of the Church and move to Menasha to become part of another incredible family of faith. All my expectations vs. reality in 2020 were some of the biggest challenges and also some of the biggest blessings.
Have you ever done the icebreaker "highs and lows"? or "roses and thorns"? It is an opportunity for a group of people to take a look back on the past day or week and share some of the best and worst moments of the day/week. One of my friends and I became experts at "highs and lows" especially over quarantine. I reached many low points this year, but in the midst of them, friends, family, and coworkers picked me back up and helped me to see the goodness around me which have turned out to be some of the best high points of the year. There have been fearful moments and moments of great joy; the Holy Family has definitely been an inspiration for me and reminded me that life is filled with both. What have been some of your highs and lows of 2020? Throughout the year, I actually consecrated myself to all 3 members of the Holy Family in unique ways. What does this mean? It means that I spent about 15-30 minutes a day for a month intentionally reading about and praying through different a devotional book to learn more about a particular member of the Holy Family and on a particular feast day of the Church I consecrated myself to them. This means openly giving myself, all my intentions and desires to Jesus, to Mary, to Joseph. In doing that, I promise to rely more on them than myself so they can lead me in the best path of holiness. On Divine Mercy Sunday, I consecrated myself to Jesus and His Divine Mercy. On the feast of our Lady of Knock, I consecrated myself to St. Joseph. On the Feast of Mary the Mother of God, I consecrated myself to our Blessed Mother. I started to recognize and understand the Holy Family as more than just an image on a holy card. Don't misunderstand, these images of the Holy Family are indeed beautiful! However, they look so perfect and often seem too much to be aspired to.... "The trouble with pictures of the Holy Family is that they always look so holy. Even when they had the terrible experience of rushing off to Egypt as refugees, most illustrations give the impression that they're going off on holiday with Mary sitting side-saddle, sedately holding the baby. We pray that our family should be like the Holy Family and when you hear that, you may feel that with all the squabbling that goes on in our house we could never be like that. I think this may be due to the way the Holy Family at Nazareth is portrayed: as if everything was calm and neat and quiet and clean. A more realistic image of what it must have been like was when I got some nine-year-old's to act as the Holy Family. Joseph came in tired from work looking for something to eat and Mary said, "I haven't managed to get the dinner yet, this baby is driving me mad. I don't know what's wrong with him, he's probably teething or something." And Joseph picks up the baby and makes gooey noises at him. In the family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, there was a strong, powerful love of each other, so they must have been brought up in loving families themselves. But being a loving family doesn't mean to say that all is calm and sweet. We need to accept the worry and frustrations that Mary and Joseph suffered when they first had the child and even later on when he was growing up." ~A Reflection By Fr. Michael Barrow, SJ I encourage you this year to spend more time with the Holy Family and ask them to really be a part of your family life. If you feel so called, I encourage you to take up one of these consecrations books as a family and consecrate yourselves to Jesus, Mary, Joseph. Consecration to Jesus' Merciful Love Consecration to Mary Consecration to Joseph Maybe this is too much, maybe you can't possibly think of taking on ANOTHER thing in your life, or more "things to do". But I want to share this with you because if God is calling you to this, He will help you to make time for it. He wants you to come closer to Him, He wants you to be the best version of yourself. He knows you better than you know yourself, and He KNOWS you are capable of holiness - It is true what they say: YOU CAN BE A HOLY AND YOU CAN BE A SAINT!! (I've shared this video before, but I'm sharing it again :) ) Who Says You Can't Be A Saint? I'm going to throw one more idea out here for you: A few years ago, some friends of mine shared with me that they don’t partake in the whole idea of New Year’s Resolutions. Instead, they pray about and invest in “a word of the year”. What this means is that they would spend some time in prayer before or during the beginning of the new year, really take inventory of where they were at in their life, and how they could improve their mind, body and soul. They picked one or two words to envelop their entire life. When I heard about this, I tried it out – I prayed about it and chose the word “uncomfortable”. As I chose and continued to pray with that word throughout the year, it was a reminder to me that in order to grow, deepen my relationship with God and with others, and really be the best version of myself, I needed to not do what was easy and not do what was comfortable all the time, but to challenge myself. Now let me tell you, that was anything but easy. Each time I would go to prayer with any situation, that word was brought to my mind and I would feel this nudge to be “uncomfortable”; to reach out to someone new even though it was awkward, be nice to someone else even if they weren’t my favorite person, be completely honest to God in prayer, be more vulnerable and share more of myself with close friends… Now, “uncomfortable” might not be your “word of the year”, but what is? In this New Year, we have expectations that it is going to be different, but do we simply hope, pray, and sit back and watch? No! We need to do our part and continue living as the best versions of ourselves in the midst of whatever this year will throw at us. It may be a week past the start of the new year, but it is never too late to start. The expectations we have of this year may be great, and reality will often surprise us - perhaps with something worse, perhaps with something better. We need to remain grounded in our Lord so that we can lean on Him with EVERYTHING that comes our way. Personally, I thank God that my expectations have not all become reality because then I would have missed out on all the incredible graces He has given me through both the highs and the lows. You and I are exactly where we need to be at this moment. And if we are not, the power of our Father’s love pours forth on us at this time so we can turn back to Him.
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