Advent has come and gone, and now the Christmas season is here! As another semester on mission has come to a close, I've been reflecting on what the Lord has been speaking to me over the past few months. Two words continually stick out to me: freedom and rest. These have manifested themselves in a lot of different ways in the second half of this past semester! Staff Retreat"God rested on the seventh day not because He was tired, but because rest tells us something about who God is and, therefore, who we are: the one who rests is the one who is free. Slaves do not rest. They do not have the option. And if we do not rest, we have enslaved ourselves to something." This quote from a blog post by FOCUS has shaped the rest of my semester, and my perspecitve on the work that I do, in so many ways. It's really easy for me (and probably most missionaries) to get caught up in the work that I do and forget to take care of myself. Our Mission Directors recognized the need for us to get away, and they cleared a week of our schedule to drive four hours up north to a cabin in Cook, Minnesota. With my phone on airplane mode the entire time, I was able to really be present with my coworkers and take some time to rest with the Lord. Some of my favorite memories from this semester came from this week, and I'm grateful to be working for an organization that cares for its employees so well! Household PicturesWe had a house photoshoot in the middle of November and it was so much fun! Often our life in Household gets really busy and we can get caught up in just going through the motions of meals together, prayer, and all the other Newman center events that we go to. It was nice to spend some time together outside of that and have fun frolicking around campus. We even sent out house Christmas cards using one of these pictures! Women's NightAll semester during our Women's Nights we've been talking about claiming our identities as God's beloved daughters, and learning how to live that out. We have had really great content, but I think the most impactful night for me was our last night of the semester. There was no talk, no discussions, no content, just a hot chocolate bar, karaoke, and some minute-to-win-it games. For me, this night was such a consolation that the Lord is working: karaoke, of all things, was the proof. Something I've noticed in myself and in my time as a missionary is that women will not thrive where they feel uncomfortable. You'll never really get to know a woman if there isn't trust built there, if she doesn't feel comfortable around you. We're all searching for authenticity, for a place and people we can be ourselves around. Once we've found it, we thrive. Let me tell you, nothing says "freedom in the Lord" quite like a bunch of women with their arms around each other singing along to Bing Crosby's rendition of "White Christmas." The women all felt free to sign up and perform melodramatic duets, from Celine Dion to High School Musical. The joy in our living room was tangible, and the laughter was contagious. Our Women's Night planning team (a group of about six students) has done an amazing job all semester, and their hard work paid off in big ways during this night. Slowing DownA big theme in my spiritual life, along with freedom and rest, has been slowing down. The Lord has shown me, especially in the past month, that I tend to rush through life: I multitask whenever I can and I try to get things done as fast as possible without stopping to process or really think about what's happening. However, I've realized that this does not serve me, or the people around me, very well at all. As I rush through life, my actions are saying that whatever is in front of me doesn't matter nearly as much as whatever I have coming next. I've been learning a lot from the example of our Blessed Mother, as she "kept all these things, pondering them in her heart." (Luke 2:19) I'm halfway through my second year of missionary life, and as of late, I haven't been very good at taking things in. I don't want to look back on this season of my life and not be able to remember anything. I definitely don't want to look back on this season of my life and know that I could have given way more than I actually did. As a second-year Mission Leader, there are many more "what's next"s on the horizon for me than there were last year. It's all too easy for me to get hung up on the black hole of possibilities, on trying to shift the lens of my life to focus on the blurriness in the distance, instead of the sharp foreground of my current life. It's a balance that I'm learning how to strike each day. Even though the liturgical season of Advent is over, there is an advent in my heart that is continuing on. And just as there is joy to be found in the waiting for the Christmas season to once again come, there is a joy to be found in this period of waiting in my life, as well. God is ever renewing my trust in Him, and I am learning how to receive the gift of faith on a daily basis. I've had a restful (and warm) Christmas break back in Texas with my family, but I am ready to take on another semester of loving the Lord and making Him known. What a great, great gift. To close, here's a picture of Dallas, because I love this city, and also because the Dallas Cowboys won against the Detriot Lions last night. Bring on the playoffs! And so the adventure continues. May God bless you and your families in this Christmas season!
To Jesus Through Mary, Rebecca
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It has been far too long since I've posted on here! I'm finding myself much busier this year as a returning Mission Leader, but I am loving being back on-campus at the U of M. August and September have come and gone, and now the temperature is beginning to drop and the leaves are changing. Fall is upon us, so I wanted to take a look back on warmer days and all that happened at the beginning of the year... Fall Leadership DayCatholic Students United Leadership Day occurs at St. Lawrence at the start of every semester, and this year it was once again a success! It was the first time that all of the student leaders had been together since school let out for the summer, so it was great to see everyone again. We are very blessed to have such dedicated, committed students working with us to bring their peers closer to Christ. Our day was featured in The Catholic Spirit, the news publication of the Archdiocese of St. Paul & Minneapolis. You can read more about it here! Household LifeHousehold life has been an absolute joy this semester! Going into this year I was a little nervous about leading a Household, but the Lord has continually equipped me with grace and has blessed our life together. This picture is from our women's Household retreat in New Auburn, Wisconsin. It was a great two and a half days of building sisterhood, praying together, and generally just goofing off. These women are really such a gift. I could brag about them all day. They're just the best! CRUSH WeekIt's hard to believe that such a crucial part of the year is now just a month-old memory! This year's Catholic Rush Week was filled with fun activities like tailgating, a Labor Day barbecue, handing out ice pops on-campus, and the grand finale: a USA-themed house party, featuring a mechanical bull in the driveway! We met a ton of students in those first couple of weeks and have been working to build relationships with them ever since. Please enjoy this picture of my awesome team from the house party. When we first saw this picture we couldn't stop talking about how good-looking we are. #humbleandblessed Women's Nights BeginWe had our first Women's Night of the year last weekend! It was a luau theme complete with a tiki bar full of fun tropical drinks, Hawaiian leis for all, and a limbo contest that made me realize how little I have stretched in the past few years. We also had mini terra-cotta pots for women to paint, complete with a free succulent to take home! The night was a lot of fun, and our core women really stepped up to welcome the newer students into our environment. As women, we are often taught to be distrustful and competitive towards other women instead of viewing them as sisters who can be on our side. Our Women's Nights provide a refreshing alternative to this negative mindset, and that's what I love so much about them! First (and Second) Day of School!There's not much story here; I just think these pictures are hilarious. An SPO Mission Leader trend that has emerged in the past couple of years is taking 'first day of school' pictures of your household. Obviously, because I'm me, I made our house participate in this newfound tradition. Eventually, most of their moms asked to be sent the pictures! The next day, our house decided it would be fun to take a second day of school picture to capture the reality of collegiate living. I laugh every time I see these pictures! Patroness for the YearHow could I not bring up St. Teresa of Calcutta?! Her canonization was such a happy day. We bought flowers in my house to celebrate! I firmly believe that she's been interceding for nearly every part of this year; not just in my own life, but in the lives of the students. She was picked as the patron Saint of Catholic Students United this year, and we often ask for her intercession at the end of Gopher Catholic Night. Her prayers are blessing everything that we've got going on this year.
At the start of this year, in honor of her canonization, I started re-reading "Come Be My Light," which is a collection of letters from Mother Teresa in correspondence with her spiritual director. It chronicles her later life, from the moment she first heard the 'call within a call' to the start the Missionaries of Charity, to the deep spiritual desolation that she felt for most of her apostolate. The author who compiled the letters speaks of her commitment to being "'an apostle of joy,' even when, humanly speaking, she might have felt at the brink of despair." I see this call in my own life and in the lives of the students I am walking with. Life is crazy. There's always something to do, there's always another appointment on the calendar, and there's always someone who needs to be served. However, in spite of all of all the business, we have a call to joy that is greater than our earthly circumstances - a joy that lasts, because it's rooted in the Source of all joy. If St. Teresa can serve the people of Calcutta with so much joy and happiness, even though internally she faced a deep spiritual darkness, I can gladly do whatever the Lord may ask of me in a given day - no matter what I'm feeling. We've got a lot of exciting things coming up in the next couple of weeks: the Catholic Students United Fall Retreat is coming up, and after that, our staff is taking a few days to be on retreat as well. Please pray for both of these occasions: for the students who will be on the fall retreat, the leadership team, and the small group leaders; and for our team as well, that we get some much-needed rest and quality time together. May God bless you abundantly until next time! To Jesus Through Mary, Rebecca It's a pretty cool thing to be able to say I was one of the 500(ish) people at the last national School of the New Evangelization; especially considering I would have never planned to have been there while I was in college. I remember the first time I went to SNE in 2012. I was going into my junior year at Texas State, I was going into my first year of living in Household as a student (and it would turn out to be my only), and I had just finished my third summer as a camp counselor at The Pines Catholic Camp. I was really tan (those were the days), really happy to be back with all of my college friends on a crazy road trip from Texas to Minnesota, but really really wiped out. Long story short: I came, I saw, anddddddd I didn't really have the best time. In fact, I have distinct memories of coming back from SNE that year and telling people, "Yeah, it was really cool and I learned a lot, but I just don't think that I'm called to be a missionary."
God has a sense of humor and I was lying to myself. Looking back, I think that week is when the Lord first invited me to a life on mission with Him. But I wasn't open, or ready, or confident; I was terrified. I didn't believe in a good and merciful Father back then; I believed in an angry and disappointed Father whose love was conditional and merit-based - and that I'd never be able to 'earn' it. So the thought of following a Father like that, what I falsely thought He was, was terrifying. Therefore I shut the thought out and away and tried not to think about it, and I think that had an effect on how the rest of SNE went for me. I could have had a better time, I think, had I been more open to the Lord and to what He wanted for me. But the Lord is good and He redeems all. Here I am, four years later, still going to SNE's, living a life that is way more exciting, joyful, and richer than I ever could have planned out for myself. As a missionary - the very thing I said I never wanted to be! Because He isn't limited by my weaknesses and He isn't satisfied by the mediocre plans I have for my own life. THANK GOODNESS. All of this to say that I am so grateful that the School of the New Evangelization is still in my life, and that I now get to watch lives change from the other side of things, as a staff member. I remember telling my best friend four years ago that after college I'd hoped to be a photographer, and maybe a missionary, too. This year at SNE, the Lord let me do both at once! What a gift. Photographing an entire week-long conference by yourself (minus all of the men's sessions #thankgoodness) is no easy task; but I really enjoyed taking on this challenge that was unlike any photography job I'd ever had before. I was pushed creatively (and physically, let's be real, I was on my feet a lot and I am not a very strong gal) each day, figuring out new ways to capture old moments over and over again. I'm pretty proud of the final products. With the start of two SNE's a year happening next summer (you can read more about that here), it was truly an honor to get to capture all of the moments of this final SNE of its kind. All of the photos I took can be found on SPO's Flickr page, but in the gallery below you can find some of my favorite shots. Another year of mission kicks into high gear this week, with Newman Center Leadership Day tomorrow and our Household move-in/retreat starting on Wednesday and extending into the weekend. Please pray for all of us, as the adventure of this year begins! To Jesus Through Mary, Rebecca ...and just like that, another year of mission has begun! Woohoo! Mission Leader Training (MLT) ended a few days ago. Since then I have been fighting a cold and exhaustion while at the same time getting myself back into gear for another season of mission partner development (MPD, formerly known as PSR) before Mission Team Training (MTT), the School of the New Evangelization (SNE), and all of the other Three Letter Acronyms (TLAs) that come with being a missionary for Saint Paul's Outreach (SPO). Before we get any further, here is our new team for the year! Please keep us in your prayers! Training was pretty surreal for me this time around. It was hard for me to really enter into the first few days; I think my mind was still processing how fast the year really ended. It's hard to believe that I've been serving with SPO for just over a year now. Crazy! I thought I would feel older and wiser by now, but I don't think that's entirely true. Sure, I'm more comfortable with my surroundings, I have a better grasp on what I'm doing and what my unique role is, and I have a strong foundation of relationships built up here in Minnesota. Praise God, for I am so grateful for all of those things. However, I have found a lot of humility in the fact that, as far as what the Lord is going to do this year, I am just as clueless as I was when MLT ended last year. The Lord has never fully clued me in on what He was trying to accomplish in my life at the time; and, truthfully, I have grown to appreciate this fact. I have found a lot of freedom in taking a step back, throwing up my hands in surrender, and knowing confidently that the Lord would do His thing as long as I do mine. In the summer, that thing is to pray and to work, or as St. Benedict puts it, "Ora et Labora."
To those readers who may be unfamiliar with what serving with SPO entails, my primary duty during the summer months while students are not on campus is to build up and cultivate my team of mission partners. This team is made up of those whom I have had the great opportunity to meet with and share stories about the incredible year I've had on mission, and who believe in this mission of SPO so much that they want to make sure that I am able to go on campus to build up the Kingdom of God as best as I can. Their generosity has blessed me immensely and I am so grateful. The Lord has given me a lot of grace in this area of mission. At MLT this year, the female missionaries had our own separate talk on fundraising by two incredible women who work in development for Chesterton Academy (chestertonacademy.org). Going into the summer this year, I was not exactly optimistic. However, this talk ignited a fire in me and changed my perspective once again! The women who spoke with us reminded me about the basics of why I serve: because the work is important, generosity has the power to change people's lives, and because "The world is a hot mess. We're changing it." God has placed a beautiful call on my life, one that honors, humbles, and challenges me daily. I am so excited to see what this next year of mission will hold. Until then, I'm doing my best to pray, to work, and to share about this great mission with boldness and certainty. And so the wonderful adventure continues, into year 2! To Jesus through Mary, Rebecca What do you get when you take 3 first-year Mission Leaders and 16 college students, put them on a plane to Anchorage, Alaska, and have them serve the poor in a city and culture that is completely unknown to them?
You get a lot of grace is what happens, because that is a crazy idea, Rebecca, goodness gracious. Well, that's exactly what we did. And it was crazy. But there was a lot of grace, and the trip was definitely a game-changer. I mean, there's no way you can go on a trip like this and not have your life changed in some way. When you step 3,161 miles out of your comfort zone, life-changing things are bound to happen. I've spent a majority of the past month recounting this trip to people, sharing so many different stories about our adventures, the poor we encountered, and how the Lord so very clearly had His hand on us the entire time. I've done a lot of talking and I truthfully don't know what to say anymore. If you'd like to know more about the trip, I'd be happy to share in person. For now, however, please enjoy my feeble attempts at capturing the Lord's beauty that surrounded us throughout the week. If you're itching for more words, check out this awesome student post on the SPO Minnesota blog that highlights a lot of the trip! |
WELCOME!My name is Rebecca. This blog is a documentation of my life as a missionary with Saint Paul's Outreach - in Minnesota, Florida, and everywhere in-between. Thanks for stopping by! Categories
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