Witnessing Truth

You know the Missionaries are coming when you see four cars with out-of-state plates parked in a row!  Watch out, we might be coming for you next! My car (PA Plates), Steven's car (Arizona plates), Danielle's car (New Hampshire plates), Kevin's car (Minnesota plates)

While those five little words--"seek and ye shall find"--should probably draw to mind the Bible verse Matthew 7:7 (Ask, and it will be given you, seek, and you will find, etc.), the first thing that comes to mind is Ella Fitzgerald's "Someone to Watch Over Me."  If someone simply says, "Seek and ye shall find" automatically I hear the soft piano and the soothing pulsation of Ella's voice flowing between the words.  I hear her emphasize "seek" and "ye" and I begin to drift into the following lyrics, "So I'm going to seek a certain lad I've had in mind."  And the song continues to play in my head... Needless to say, every time someone at FOCUS's recent SEEK Conference in Orlando, FL, mentioned Matthew 7:7, and began to read, "seek and ye shall find," my mind had gone down the river of musical lyrics, not stopping until the song had ended.  (At which time I was completely lost as to what the actual...

This, my dear friends, is the parable that came to mind when I was discerning joining FOCUS Staff.  Now here I am jumping into holes with students...

Two and a half weeks ago, I embarked on one of the craziest adventures of my life.  I boarded a plane with a fellow FOCUS Team Director, Laura Scharmer, as we made our way to Rome, Italy, via Moscow, Russia.  No, this was not simply a pleasure trip, or what Southwest Airlines calls "Wanna Get Away" sojourn.  Rather, Curtis Martin, founder and president of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students, invited the Team Directors from across the country to join him for the last week of the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization at the Vatican, to pray, to fast, and to witness an important meeting of Bishops. Though we did not get to actually play in the game (metaphorically), we had amazing seats!  Sitting practically front row, we had the distinct honor and privilege of meeting with, dining with, and talking to a number of Bishops, Archbishops, and Cardinals.  They shared with us their insights on the Synod. Their thoughts on the state of the Church. ...

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...