WYD Moment #1

Through most of our fundraising and prep we were expecting to see Pope John Paul II at World Youth Day, and we were so very excited. As you know, in April 2005 Pope John Paul II rose into eternal life and we were left a bunch of sad pilgrims. We were going to WYD for many reasons, one main one being to see him. However when Pope Benedict XVI was elected Pope, we knew seeing him, He is the successor of Peter and the vicar of Christ after all, would be just as amazing. We were right. 

On Day two of WYD in 2005 we woke up super early to get front row grass along the Rhine River for our Holy Father, Pope Benedict's arrival. We spent at least 6 hrs meeting other young Catholics, playing hacki sack, watching priests from all over the world play soccer in their cassocks, and praying. Finally the moment arrived.

Can you see him??

How about now??

And there he goes.

 

 I know it may not seem like much, especially looking at the pictures, but it was simply...breathtaking. I was suprised how truly overwhelmed I was, and it is a feeling I will never ever forget. I got to see the Pope! He gave us many blessings on his ride up the river. Tears whelled in my eyes and streamed down my face. This is the man God chose to lead his Church during a very trying time and he has took time out of his very busy schedule to spend with us young people. What a blessing.

Pope Benedict arrives in Madrid in 7.5 hrs. I'm so excited for the youth that are waiting right now to see him.

WYD

Today, August 16th began World Youth Day 2011. This is a big deal. Our Holy Father called young people from all over the world to journey to Madrid for the week. Even more importantly, he is calling all of us to be "planted and built in Jesus Christ, firm in the faith." 

In 2005, I went to Cologne, Germany on my own WYD pilgrimage. I was blessed enough to go as a chaperone at the age of 22. This was certainly a turning point in my life. I had already realized that I wanted to spend my life serving God and doing something for the Church, I just didn't know what that "something" was. Pope John Paul II said as we were preparing for the pilgrimage "turn to Christ and He won't let you down." Okay, that is a challenge I can take. I went on the pilgrimage with a open heart and listening to what direction God had for my life. Instead of the loud voices and lightning strikes I was expecting, God instead worked on me interiorly. He spent the trip making me painfully aware of my many vices and where I lacked of virtue. Throughout the week He tested me over and over again, and called me to significant spiritual growth. It honestly wasn't what I expected. I was was ready to serve, to do, to rock things out, but God didn't agree. He knew I needed work and lots of it; a continuing proccess to be sure.

As the week went on, my desire for Him grew. My love of His bride, the Church grew. The call to put Him first, something which I thought I had been doing, also was ringing in my heart. I returned home with a renewed faith and firm resolve to advance in holiness; to root out my many vices and increase in virtue. Like I said before, a continuing proccess.

I received so many graces on that pilgrimage and consider myself so very blessed to have gone. Please pray for the young people now on their own WYD pilgrimage from the 16th-21st. Throughout this week I'm going to share some of my favorite WYD moments and memories. I hope you join me!

A pic I took at the Cologne Cathedral right after we arrived at WYD. So many young Catholics. So awesome!



7 Quick Takes Friday: Vacation Edition

**1**
Sorry for the absence lately. Last week was crazy busy due to me preparing for two trips. One I was going on and one I wasn't. 10 pilgrims (8 youth, Fr. L. and 1 adult) left on Tuesday to a wonderful pilgrimage which consists of Fatima, Lourdes, and WYD in Madrid. Yes, I am trying hard not to be jealous. We have been preparing spiritually and doing fundraising for over a year and finally the time has come! I made this blog for them if you are interested in following and sharing in their pilgrimage over the next two weeks.

**2**
I am however as we speak on my own much needed Vacation on Table Rock Lake in Missouri. It has been awesome! I came here with my family when I was 5 and finally my family decided to come back. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the birthday present!! The week has been full of firsts for Dominic and lots of swimming, tubing, boats, fishing, laughing, grilling, and sleeping in for all of us.

**3**
Despite the fun time I am having, I am a bit devastated. You see for my last birthday my sweet loving husband got me a smart phone. I love the thing. I use it way too much and for every little thing. Other than my phone it is my camera, clock, voice recorder, gaming device, blog tool, interwebs, news agency, alarm, stopwatch, MP3 player, radio, piano, weather man, yada yada, I could go on and on. Well yesterday Doc and I were enjoying some time on the dock with some wonderful cousins and, well I guess you know where this is going...it started to pour cats and dogs so I took the phone out of my backpack to check the radar. It confirmed for me that yep, it was raining, boy I'm sure glad I figured that out. Anyway I knocked my phone through the dock and into the water. Under the dock it went sinking into it's new 35 ft deep watery tomb. No hope of retrieval. Gone. Sigh. Boy do I feel dumb. What an expensive mishap.

**4**
The worst part is now I'm going to have to beat Plants vs Zombies all over again!!!

**5**
This morning when I woke up, I didn't know what to do. I had no idea what time it was. I tried to gently look at my still sleeping husband's watch, which he was wearing to get an idea. And then I needed to get kid and I dressed, but I didn't know what was the temperature like outside!!? But then I remembered in the olden days, like 5 months ago pre-smart phone, when I used to open the door and go outside to see what it was like and sure enough that still worked.

**6**
Listen to your guardian angel people! Mine totally rocks. She (Gertrude) is always such a big help and I try to constantly ask for it. I kid you not RIGHT BEFORE I dropped my phone I heard "you are going to drop your phone in the lake". I said to myself, well I'm just gonna do this one thing and I'll be really careful. *CLUNK* *SPLASH* *Sigh* Well hopefuly I learned my lesson. Gertrude, you always protect me and guide me, I will try and listen to you better!

**7**
Yes I realize it was just a material good. Even though I am upset about it, and will probably be even more upset when I find out how much I need to pay to get a new one, it was just a phone. It is replaciable and many things in life aren't. Like my wonderful husband and my dear sweet little Dominic who are both safe, healthy, and happy. It hasn't spoiled a wonderful vacation and I'm not ready to leave in two days. Will share pictures, from our actual camera which has not yet been thrown in the lake, when I get home.

Thanks Jen for hosting. Have a great weekend everyone!



7 Quick Takes Friday: Revival

**1**
I am laying in bed next to my little guy who is having a restless night. The few times I've tried to get up to go shoot some zombies with my husband (don't worry, there isn't an outbreak just playing some left4dead2), Dominic senses that I am thinking about getting up and lays on my head, wraps his leg around my torso, and puts his hand on my mouth. Thus I am still laying here.

**2**
So I thought to myself, why not quick take? It only been a bajillion months since I have and I love Jen's, and everyone else's. So here it is, the I can't get out of bed with a kid wrapped around me revival edition.

**3**
Today was good day. Doc and I spent the morning and early afternoon at work. He loves nothing more than to bug my co-workers and try to ninja their cell phones when they aren't looking (sorry Irene). But I was able to get everything done I needed to so I declare win! My co-workers, well I hope they can say the same.

**4**
It was beautiful and sunny today. I was down at our garden (which is at my in-laws a few blocks away) when the tornado sirens started going off. I repeat, it was beautiful and sunny so I wasn't too worried. I quickly grabbed some stuff I needed for dinner from the garden and was on my way home in the car. My husband then called and said to quick look outside and see funnel. Wah!?! I look west down a side street as I was driving a sure enough, there it was. All the neighbors were standing outside taking pics so I went up to a neighbor with Doc in my arms and said, is it touching down? It wasn't , but then I thought I saw it start to really rotate and I said to myself that I wasn't going to be one of those ppl who doesn't take it seriously so we went into the basement. A few mins later my husband called again and said it was gone. Fffew. It was so weird because the radar was clear. Ah well, I again declare win because I got to see a funnel without any harm coming to anyone. The high schooler in me that wanted to be a storm chaser was jumping for joy.

**5**
Today was also my dear MILs birthday. I invited my husbands fam over for dinner and being that it is also the very important holiday of National Lasagna Day, I made lasagna. One with Italian sausage and the other meat-free with spinach (since I abstain from eat meat on Fridays). Both were loaded with tons of fresh parsley and basil from our garden. YUM! My MIL said it was better than the lasagna she got at some fancy restaurant so I'm sorry but I think I need to declare WIN again.

**6**
Just because I WIN doesn't mean you lose.

**7**
I think I might try and sneak out of bed to kill some zombies now. Have a great weekend! Made it just in time to still be Friday!

The Real Feminist Revolution

It's NFP (Natural Family Planning) Awareness Week

so how I could I resist talking about it just a little.

I've talked before about why we don't use birth control.

You know, the carcinogens.

NFP has liberated many women from the chains of the pill,

but there are many like me, who through no grace of my own,

thankfully never started.

I am so grateful to be Catholic and have a Church who in Her wisdom spoke about this topic way before it was ever a widespread issue.

Because the Church says so, is really why I used NFP to start.

It was the only reason I needed.

The cost and the safety, though no small thing, were just happy side effects.

One thing I really didn't anticipate though, was how aware of my body I became.

For a culture that is all about the women's body, we are so clueless.

When I started learning how to use NFP I couldn't believe that I hadn't heard all this stuff before.

I mean, I attended public high school where we spent a whole semester in health class.

Sex ed at it's best right?

Why hadn't I learned about the fertility cycle and its signs?

Seems pretty basic.

We certainly learned about artificial contraception.

My only conclusion is the teachers and/or the people who make the curriculum either simply don't know, or don't care and are trying to push their agenda.

But I fear the problem is worse than this.

People in the medical field don't even know this stuff.

I will never forget when I realized I was pregnant (the second time).

I called the  women's clinic I was going to, to schedule an appointment.

 The conversation with the nurse went something like this:

"Hi I would like to make an appointment. I am pregnant!"

Nurse: "Okay when did you take your pregnancy test?"

Me: "I haven't taken one."

Nurse: "Well then how do you know you are pregnant?"

Me: "Well we practice NFP and after my fertile time my temperature stayed elevated for two weeks which of course means I am pregnant and also I am never late, actually my cycles are always 28 days and..."

Nurse: "Um, perhaps you should go get a pregnancy test."

Me: "No thanks, I know my body and I know I'm pregnant."

Nurse: "Okay I guess we can just do a pregnancy test when you come in."

Really?

Have we really come so far in medicine and technology that the most basic human functions and instincts don't matter any more? It's the same with childbirth (stay on topic Dacia, that's a rant for another day).

The truth of the matter is, the women's body is AWESOME.

The way everything works, the fertility cycle, hormones, labor and childbirth, breastfeeding, etc simply make me marvel

at the magnificence of the Divine Creator.

So my question is, why don't know people know about NFP?

If our society's teachers and doctors don't know (or care)

how are people going to learn?

For me, it was a Church crying out in the wilderness.

For others, it is an effort to "go green"

and remove harmful chemicals from their lives.

But one thing I do know, is that those of us who NFP need to speak about it.

Yes it is personal, but it is literally a matter of life and death here.

If you haven't heard of NFP before, look it up.

It may seem daunting, but it really is quite easy if you are dedicated.

Trust me, there is even an app for it.