Being Intentional

I like to set goals. I love having a to-do list to check off. I like having a schedule and doing my best to stick to it. But this year there has been just so much that sometimes I feel like I'm all over the place without going anywhere. Not for long though... I'm getting intentional. 

A few different events have sparked this awareness of my need to be more intentional. First, I renewed my Consecration to Mary last weekend (little did I know that Pope Francis consecrated the whole world to Mary's Immaculate Heart on the same day I re-committed myself to her guidance). After once again entrusting my life into Mary's hands on October 13, something changed. I've done the consecration before... but never been so committed and intentional about it. This time was different, and I noticed! My rosary the next week was amazing... I truly felt like I was walking with Mary during the different moments of Jesus' life (which was helped by the fact that I went for a run as I prayed, so I was literally moving). The difference was that I was intentional and I wanted to be changed. 

Next, this past weekend. I helped interview potential missionaries for FOCUS. It was a great opportunity to be reminded of my own discernment of FOCUS and hearing God's call. Yesterday, Paul (one of our regional leaders) shared how evangelization is a command..... how intentional have I been in sharing? We profess at Mass that God saves... am I intentional in my conversations and time on-campus and off about trying to share God's love with others?

As my teammate Joe and I brought the gifts up at Mass last night, we had contact cards for students at mass who were interested in bible study in the collection basket. As Joe handed it to Fr. Mike, I felt a rush of grace. We were truly giving the students to God at His altar. Wow. As we sang the song "mighty to save" I realized... I have given my life for what I believe... Jesus and His Church. 

Fr. Mike mentioned in his homily that we should come to Mass and prayer with a desire to leave changed for the better by God. This is going to be my new mentality. So this morning, I woke up. I reviewed my goals and campus plan. I asked Mary to help me. And I set more serious goals for the week than I have yet this year. 

It's time to be a little more intentional. To wake up each morning and intentionally live my life for Christ and the mission He has invited me to. I love talking about Jesus, but I want to intentionally invite others to love Him more. To be bold in my invitation and to pour out my life for the souls on this campus and in my life. And week 8 seems like a great time to start doing this. 

Sorry for the short post... but mass starts in 15 minutes and I have to pack up and leave my cozy spot at Caribou. I hope to share more later this week! 

God is Big

God is doing big things. Well, He always is.... but now that we are a little ways into the school year, it's crystal clear to me. God is doing big things, on-campus and also in my heart. Some days, I get really caught up in the tasks, meetings, and responsibilities of my day. And then I sit back, and I look at my life, my mission, and I just am in awe.

What big things is God doing you might ask. Well, let's start with campus. Here at UMD, we have 35 bible studies on-campus. 35 Catholic bible studies. And they aren't just led by myself and my teammates, 26 of them are led by students, amazing student missionaries who have such a heart for Jesus and His Church that they're willing to invest some of their precious time and energy into spreading His love to their peers. And these aren't just small groups either. My own bible studies have grown so much: my athlete's study doubling in size to 8 and my other group growing to a dozen. As I sat down with each of the student missionaries in my discipleship chain at the start of the semester, they so impressed me. 10 women. That's the common goal for pretty much each of these 5 leaders. That would by 70 women in bible study just in my "chain of command" alone. God is doing big things. He's taking this campus over by planting a desire to encounter Him and share Him in many students' hearts.

my bible study last Thursday

As if blessing my mission at UMD wasn't enough, God is doing big things in my life. Each day, He asks me to let Him love me in new and incredible ways, through my team, family, friends, and boyfriend. He calls me to love others for Him, to just pour myself out in ways I never thought possible. Sometimes it feels like so much, but then He blesses me with a great conversation, a needed cup of coffee, a gorgeous fall day, whatever. He always knows just what I need and can time it so perfectly that I can keep letting His light shine through me. I am learning that the more I let God love me and fill me, the larger my capacity for loving Him and others becomes. My heart literally expands. 

I have wanted to be a saint all my life, wanting to get to Heaven. I always kind of thought I knew what that might look like. What I never thought about until now was how big God's plan for my holiness really is. For example, He doesn't just want me to be a saint. He really desires for me to be a saint. So every time I start to get even the slightest bit content with where my life and virtue is at, He instantly shakes me out of it and begins to give me new opportunities to grow. Not because He doesn't want me to be happy, but because He desperately wants me to experience the deep joy that comes from pursuing the path of holiness He has laid out uniquely for me!

Back when I was a student missionary, one of our missionaries at NDSU used to ask us: "How big is your God?" What Amanda meant was, when you pray, do you pray with confidence in an all-powerful God, or do you shrink your request because you don't actually expect much in answer to your prayer? Well, I'm seeing this year that I need to start praying even bigger. Because God is big... bigger and more powerful than I ever really grasped (and probably still don't). So as we continue reaching out, building up bible studies, investing in students, planning for our first ever bulldogCatholic week, preparing for retreats and conferences, I'm going to start encouraging my team and student missionaries to really pray big. And not just for these different aspects of our mission on-campus, but in our personal paths of holiness too. To pray that God would make us bigger saints than we might even dare to dream of being.

Happy feast of St. Therese of Liseux, patroness of missionaries!