I love the universality of Catholicism. On my trip to Korea, I found familiarity and rest inside any Catholic church. This trip, I was surprised to find that this universality wasn’t limited to the Church. I found God’s presence in something else: capoeira martial arts. Unfamiliar words I can’t make out fill the church, but I don’t feel out of place. Everyone’s hands go to their foreheads, then their chest, then to each shoulder. I follow the gesture... Read more
“Misa…misa…misa…” I muttered to myself under my breath as I scrolled through a pageful of unfamiliar characters. As someone who travels out-of-state often, I am accustomed to the struggle of deciphering church websites (when there is a website at all). Mass times are hidden on the third or fourth menu option, and often confession times aren’t on the same page at all! Now, imagine all of these problems in a different language…and a different alphabet. This was my experience finding... Read more
This past Sunday, I was sitting in Mass, daydreaming. The calming music, the repetitive responses, the often boring homilies…it’s natural and human to get distracted. Usually, I dismiss the distractions and direct my attention back to the Mass. This time though, the daydream caught my attention. It caught my attention, because it seemed like a pious daydream. What could be wrong about that? I was daydreaming about martyrdom. Of how my heroic death would lead to the conversion of thousands,... Read more
Recently, I wrote a post on why God might ask us to do something we don’t want to do. After all, our desires are important to God and even play a key role in discernment. But the truth of the matter is that our desires are not the most primordial thing in life and God sometimes asks us to give them. In a society where we are unlikely to be subjected to martyrdom in its strictest sense, giving up your... Read more
Recently, I was at a pool party with several non-Catholic friends. I was having a lot of fun, but needed to leave early to go to Confession. As I left, everyone asked me “where are you going?” And I answered, to meet my sister. Even though these are people I trust and love, the lie slipped out immediately. As I walked to my car, I couldn’t believe myself. After years of working on courage in witnessing my faith, I had... Read more
The most innocent soul I have ever met. This is what one of my friends said about me at a pool party recently. The most innocent soul I have ever met. It’s one of the best compliments I have ever been given. Especially at a time when I am struggling with a sin that makes me feel decidedly not innocent. But what is innocence exactly? And why is it so good? What is innocence? Innocence is one of those things that... Read more
The new live-action Little Mermaid is amazing. I’ve slipped back in time to when I was five years old, ejecting the VCR only to rewind it and start the movie all over again. Halle Bailey did such a great job and the entire movie was magical (for my full review of the movie click here). Not only that, but the movie teaches us important truths about our desires! I’ve watched the movie 3 times and the joyful, dance-filled scenes of... Read more
This month on the Catholic Bird Lover we’ve been reflecting on discernment. In particular we’ve focused on the importance of our desires in discernment. God desires our happiness more than we desire our own happiness. Thus, our desires aren’t something to be squashed, but something to be pursued. Yet, we all know that sometimes God’s will doesn’t line up with our own will. If our desires are so important to God, then why does he sometimes ask us to go... Read more
And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good (Gn 1:31) Happy World Environment Day! As I’ve recently shared, I am a writer. But writing isn’t my only calling. By trade, I am an ecologist. Today I want to lean into my ecology background to share one concrete step faith-based organizations should take to become greener: native plants. Catholic Perspective on the Environment The Catholic faith is necessarily implicated with environmentalism. The earth was... Read more
These past weeks on the Catholic Bird Lover, we’ve been talking about discernment and the importance of our desires, our dreams. But have you ever struggled to know what exactly your desires are? For many reasons (long story short: original sin), our hearts are mysteries to ourselves. Perhaps deep down we consider our desires not good or we fear failure if we pursue them. But to quote a priest’s homily, desires are promises from God. God gave us these desires... Read more
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