Witnessing Truth

There seems to be a theme in my life...particularly when it comes to living out my mission at MIT.  Some might think, oh well, duh, Jesus!  Or others might suggestion Catholicism.  Or even the simple idea of discipleship.  While these are all very good guesses and quite possibly should be the theme of my life (and I do strive to make sure they are), but there is one theme that has been popping up, if you will.  Sidewalk Chalk!  On Wednesday, March 21st, my teammates and I unleashed our creative talents on the paths and walkways of Kresge Oval!  Handing out sidewalk chalk to my teammates, I suggested we write anything and everything on these pathways to remind MIT students that there is more to life than just academics!  There is a whole (new) world out there and we hope they open their eyes to it!  Each of us manifested our creativity in different ways, some of us quoting saints, others just writing messages of love.  Levi even ventured...

The sun has popped out here in Cambridge, MA, and the effects it has been having on students is very, very, very apparent!  Kresge Oval (one of the quad-like areas on MIT's campus) has been filled with loungers, pick-up-soccer players, frisbee extraordinaires, and slack-liners (I didn't know what this was until I stepped foot on a campus that actually had green space in it--sorry, I went to NYU).  (And in case you don't know what that is:  Check it out! )  The change you see in students makes me almost want to spend an entire month's salary on buying a giant heat lamp for the campus so they can soak up the Vitamin D all year round. I've found myself simply sitting in the midst of all this activity, prepping Bible Studies, preparing for discipleships, and just reading.  The number of students who just stopped to talk to me was amazing and so heart-warming!  Vanya and Megan stopped on their way to class.  Emily stopped to talk about our upcoming Studen...

A number of times governmental figures have claimed to speak for all women in terms of their decisions dealing with the HHS Mandate (who's effects I think are well laid out in the Sisters of Life's article regarding their future if the mandate takes hold).  However, a large number of women's voices have been unheard in this debate, mine included.  While I was in New York this weekend, I sat down with my good friend Brittany and we discussed our own personal and educated views of the Mandate.  We both have graduated from NYU and have multiple degrees to our names, we are not the uneducated masses most people assume are the only women who could possibly not support this plan.  So why haven't we been heard?  Why haven't we been included in the debate?  Recently, two powerful and educated women (Helen M. Alvare JD and Kim Daniels JD) drafted a letter that succinctly captures these unheard voices and touches on our leading arguments against the "contraceptio...

Some celebrated President's Day by sleeping in and enjoying the day off, but us missionaries, we're different people.  We capitalized on this rare day off and invited all of the student missionaries at MIT over to our apartment for a student missionary event.  This was the first of a four part series, in which we will be talking about the topics of prayer, evangelization, discipleship, and life-long Catholic mission.  Not only will we be addressing these topics, but we will also be pairing each of these with a saint who exemplified the discussed pillar. Tom, Natalia, Margaret, Megan, and Maita discuss their prayer lives. On Monday, after feeding the students sandwiches and chips, Levi spoke about Mother Teresa's devotion to prayer and her ongoing love and work for the Lord despite years and years of darkness and desolation in her prayer life.  She was a force to be reckoned with!  Levi made reference to Pope John Paul II's homily about her upon her beatific...

Natalia, a Sophomore in Course 8 (Physics), also wrote a short note about her experiences at Summit!  Natalia has been in a Bible Study lead by one of our student missionaries (Maita) for more than a year.  She is also being discipled by Maita and will be beginning a Bible Study of her own this semester! (She made her first invitation just yesterday!) Here's what she had to say about the Summit and the March:  " I came back from Summit and the March for Life renewed in my faith and newly committed to serving Christ, but I didn’t fully realize how much Summit had changed me until about a week after we had returned to MIT. I found myself sitting across from one of my friends at the dinner table, sharing with him a gospel presentation. It occurred to me that before going to Baltimore, I had known everything that I told him that evening, but it was at Summit that I took the leap from knowing my faith to sharing my faith. I said yes to a question I had hesitated to answer b...

I asked one of the students who attended FOCUS's Student Leader Summit to write up a little blurb about their experiences.  Rachel, who is a Junior in Course 2 (Mechanical Engineering), has an affinity for writing and it brings her to life so she joyously accepted the task.  Rachel is currently leading a Bible Study during IAP on the Gospel of Luke and she is discipling Nahomy, a Sophomore in Course 16 (Aerospace Engineering).  And this is what she has to say: " I can't say that Summit changed my life.  But I can say that God brought me to the people who DID change my life.  When 1200 college students and FOCUS missionaries who are on fire for Christ are in a single place, how can you NOT be moved?  These are people who are going out on their campuses and sharing God's infinite love with those who need to hear it!  And Summit brought them together and gave them new tools to go out and move the world?!  Again I ask, how can you NOT BE MOVED? ...

IAP. SLS. MFL.  Okay, so I truly made up that last acronym, but the other two are actual abbreviations that I have been using over the past month.  The first is IAP or Independent Activities Period.  The second, SLS, is Student Leader Summit.  The third (the fictitious one) is March for Life.  But why this scramble of letters?  Why this not-so-tasty version of alphabet soup?  Let me tell you... Beginning January 9th, MIT began IAP, which is a fusion of a Winter Session, a time for epic amounts of research, and a hang out session if MIT ever did see one.  Arriving on campus a few days after the commencement of IAP, I had the pleasure of experiencing MIT students when they actually have "free time."  I got back to campus and without a moment to spare students were wanting to hang out with me, just talk, and go to Mass with me.  I had the pleasure of spending time with students from Spanish House for more than just the 45 minute long Stud...