A Gift?

One thing I’ve learned to appreciate over these past couple months is the gift of detachment. A gift? Yes, I did mean to use that term because God gives us the opportunity to choose the graces of detachment. So what does that mean? This means to rid yourself of anything that you might unintentionally be idolizing and to free yourself in order to be in the posture of “receiving.” These idols may include the ipod, cell phone, internet, and T.V. This doesn’t mean these items can’t be used at all; rather, we need to be intentional with the allotted amount of time we spend using them. I recently realized that over the past few years, when I was living on my own, I was living more deeply into the culture and felt enslaved by the things around me. I felt true freedom when I started to really live into detachment from the world and obedience to God. Warning:  Living your Life to glorify Christ is counter-cultural! But it’s so worth it knowing that I don’t have to worry about what’s going to happen next as long as I’m living each moment to always glorify God. For it was once told to me that the small joys and laughters in life are glimpses of the true happiness received in Heaven.

Each day I wake up and thank God for choosing me to spend a year as a missionary through Life Teen. He just never ceases to amaze me at all the things He’s already done and all the souls that He plans to transform. Praise God! Please let me know how I can be praying for you.

“Rejoice in hope, be patient under trail, persevere in prayer!” Romans 12:12

Christmas In Roma

Christmas In Roma Newsletter

Winter Newsletter 2010

Before Winter break the Europe Mission Community got together and wrote how God moved in our heart during November and December. May God Bless you through this Holy Season of  
Christmas. Enjoy :)

https://docs.google.com/WinterNewsletter2010

Seeing Jesus through Mary

For the past month, as a community of Life Teen Missionaries, we have been saying a special set of prayers every day in preparation to consecrate ourselves to Jesus Christ through the Blessed Virgin Mary. I know this might sound a little odd; I myself had trouble with this at first. Mary is the mother of Jesus, but what does that have to do with me?—everything. It took me until the day before the consecration to fully understand that we are not making the Blessed Virgin Mary an idol but that she is our Mother. She is there to help guide us along our faith journey.  

On December 7th, we woke up early for a special candlelight Mass. The whole church was solely lit by small candles, which sat on the pews in front of each person. While mediating during the offertory, I closed my eyes and saw the image of the Blessed Virgin walking down the candlelit aisle towards the front of the altar, hand-in-hand with a little girl. As I looked closely, I began to realize that it was me. As we approached the altar, Jesus was welcoming his mother with open arms. Mary gave the little girl's hand to him and they all hugged. Instead of fighting and wasting energy over why I don't understand or why I need Mary to be closer to Jesus, I understood that I needed to approach it with faith like a child. To be led in reckless abandonment by my Sacred Mother to the arms of the King of Kings, her most precious Son, Jesus Christ.

Attitude of Gratitude

While reading the Gospel during Morning Prayer on December 2^nd, I scrambled to find my Bible. I began to read Matthew 15:32 – 39, The Multiplication of the fishes and loaves. I got about half way through the passage when I figured out that I wasn’t reading the right gospel for that day. Despite this, I continued to read.

While we pray The Liturgy of the Hours, we take a few moments to share how the Lord is speaking to our hearts. When we began our time of sharing, I recognized how God was clearly putting a theme in my life, that of being grateful. The reason why that passage was so fresh in my mind was because a good friend of mine had sent me a religious article on The Divine Gift of Gratitude the day before. It really placed the great value of being thankful for all the things God has already been providing for each and every day. It’s too easy to sometimes focus on the negatives and complain about the things we don’t have.

Let us follow the example of Jesus when He was faced with the challenge of feeding over four thousand of His followers with only seven loaves of bread and a few fish. Instead of complaining, like His disciples, Jesus took the bread and “gave thanks” to His Heavenly Father for what He already provided for Him. It has made me truly think about how much God has been providing for me recently in this mission year: a wonderful community, a home, a bed, warm clothes, food, and even a place to worship Him at my leisure. So instead of saying, “If only I had (Put Complaint Here) ” or “Things would get better if (Put Complaint Here),” we must try to give thanks without complaining. This is not something that will just happen overnight, but it is a choice.

Let us pray together to continually receive the grace of the Divine gift of gratitude.

Community Newsletter Oct/Nov 2010

Check out the 1st Newsletter from the Europe Mission Base Community:
https://docs.google.com/newsletter

Team Europe Sing-a-Long

LT Missions: Team Europe Sing-a-Long from JDamin Productions on Vimeo.

Since moving to Germany, we have been sending music videos back and forth with our missionary brothers and sisters at Covecrest. But this video is our latest master piece which has taken about 3 weeks to make with the little down time we have. It gives me great joy to post this on my blog and to introduce you guys to the Europe Base. Sit back and enjoy.