Witnessing Truth

When I was a wee little thing, I was as shy as could be!  (I still can be incredibly shy at times).  One way in which my shyness would manifest itself was in a great dislike of talking on the phone (mainly because there was no way I could hide behind my mother's leg on the phone and have her talk for me). It was simply me and the other person on the other end of the line...no barrier, no blockade, just the two of us. (No Will Smith reference intended). As I grew out of my shyness, I still clung onto this dislike of speaking on the telephone.  In high school over the summer months, friends would celebrate when they held me on the line for more than a half hour!  One day, a friend was actually able to keep me on the phone for a whole hour!  That hour long conversation remained my record for longest phone conversation until this year actually. Despite this aversion to phone conversations, I have found myself practically with one ear glued to my dumb phone (opp...

"Do you know the song 'Firework' by Katy Perry?  Do you know the first few lines of it?" Believe it or not that was a line that my teammate Ashley and I used a handful of times when we went out "evangelizing"/"barehand evangelizing"/"meeting people" at MIT last year.  (Okay, so we only used it twice).  The point of these "evangelizing" sessions was to go and talk to random people and just talk to them about their faith.  Get them to begin to think about things beyond themselves.  And then maybe share a little bit about our own faith.  I thought it would be great to use this line, because it meant we would then have to awkwardly and goofily sing or recite the first line of the song ("Do you ever feel like a plastic bag, drifting through the wind, wanting to start again?") and then we could ask if they ever felt that way.  Or if they ever felt "so paper thin, like a house of cards, one blow from caving in."  ...

Through Ann Brashares' series entitled The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Ken Kwapis' film of the same title, many young women have been learning what it means to be a "sister" to one another.  From learning about what it means to trust your friends to learning how to continue to invest in each other from across the country, Tibby, Lena, Bridget, and Carmen grow in friendship and sisterhood over the course of the series.  I grew up with these characters and admired their camaraderie; however, I have been learning more and more what their friendship was actually missing.  Their friendship was missing the solid foundation of Jesus Christ. At FOCUS' New Staff Training (NST), we are divided into groups of about eight women or men, called colleges.  This year I was blessed to live and pray alongside seven other women in the College of Saint Catherine of Siena (pictured below).  And it was here that my definition and understanding of sisterhood began to deepe...

Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, I would like to present to you Team Ramapo! From left to right: Kevin Shutrop, Steven Piorkowski, Danielle LaPointe, and Ann Gennaro This fun little photo was taken the first night we all came together as a team!  One of the most exciting nights at FOCUS's Summer Training (more fondly referred to as New Staff Training or NST).  All of the first years are asked to gather somewhere--in the cafeteria, or Lewis Lounge, or some other room--for something.  They don't know what until they arrive, but the rumors sure do fly and everyone is asking the older staff members, "What's going on?"  "Are they making placements tonight?"  "Where do you think I'm going?"  The buzz is ceaseless.  The anticipation is amazing!  Finally all of the first years come together and their names are read off and they receive an envelope...in which rests their campus placement for the next year...  Some rip it open immediately...

Ever since I could read or even just imagine things I loved mysteries and crime stories!  From the Hardy Boys to Encyclopedia Brown, from Alfred Hitchcock's To Catch A Thief to the WB's Veronica Mars , from the classic Sherlock Holmes to Law and Order episodes.  I love them all.  My grandmother once got me a book of "Whodunnits," which was essentially a book of crimes and mysteries you needed to solve, and I would sit for hours on end going through mysteries.  Putting together the puzzle pieces and pinpointing the culprit of a crime is like a high for me.  The rush of quickly putting together clues.  The brainteaser of taking note of everything around you.  The constant search for motives and methods.  I delight in it! However, last week I found myself experiencing this first hand.  On Thursday afternoon, my laptop was stolen from a Starbucks near my apartment in Cambridge.  I had spent most of the day there writing my Newsletter and...

I am a sucker for the Litany of Saints. Period.  Every time I hear it sung, my heart melts.  Needless to say, at the Easter Vigil two weeks ago my heart turned into mush.  Not only because the Litany of Saints was sung, but also because of the graces being poured out that evening.  I was just basically overwhelmed by Jesus. The celebration started out in darkness, or as close to darkness as the Saarinen (architect) chapel can be, and eventually the lit Easter candle was carried into the darkness.  This small tiny detail of the celebration truly brought to light (pun intended) the transition from Lent to Easter.  My entire life the transition from Holy Saturday to Easter Sunday has been a harsh one--happening over night, during my sleep.  One day you're supposed to be sad, the next happy!  Sometimes, I felt a little bipolar.  But this year, the Easter Vigil truly walked me through this process of realizing the Resurrection and the process ...

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...