Category Archives: Critical Mass

My First Baseball Game!

August 4, 2015Critical Mass, Sporting Events, St. AnastasiaBaseball Game, Comerica Park, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, young adultsCadyLy

There are still quite a few “first” experiences for me to have, but tonight, I was able to cross “Go to a Tiger’s Baseball Game” off the list!

Fr. Jim invited me to an event for young adults from St. Anastasia where we would all meet at the rectory at 5 pm for a barbecue, then carpool to Comerica Park to see the Detroit Tigers play against the Kansas City Royals.

It was beautiful weather for both a barbecue and a ball game! We had grilled hot dogs and hamburgers, chips, soda, and cookies.

Our Grill Master

We had a really good turn-out; I didn’t get a count of how many of us were there, but somewhere around 30 young adults. For a Tuesday evening, that’s pretty good!

There was another tiny Tigers fan present, but unfortunately she wasn’t able to come see the game with us.

HERE IT IS!

My First View of Comerica Park

Seventh Inning Stretch – Where we all got to dance and sing!

Pam and I, upon seeing that we were losing and unlikely to be able to recover

We ended up losing to the Royals 5-1, but I enjoyed watching the game. 🙂

Our group shot! If you count, there’s about FIFTY of us here!

It was such a fun night! You couldn’t ask for better weather, or better friends with which to watch the game!

2nd Day of Advent

December 1, 2014Advent, Critical MassCadyLy

I know it’s already day 2 of Advent, but I’m still planning out how I will spend this time. I came across a good idea on a website, so starting today, I will be praying for the intentions of any person who sends me a Christmas card. Because we can all use prayer, right? 🙂 Join me in sending greetings to friends and loved ones and keeping them in prayer!

You Know How Weak I Am!

October 13, 2014Critical Mass, Of Vice and Virtue, Saints and People of Note, Spiritual ReadingCadyLy

I was reading in St. Faustina’s Diary last night and was struck by this passage:

O inexhaustible treasure of purity of intention which makes all our actions perfect and so pleasing to God! O Jesus, You know how weak I am; be then ever with me; guide my actions and my whole being, You who are my very best Teacher! Truly, Jesus, I become frightened when I look at my own misery, but at the same time I am reassured by Your unfathomable mercy, which exceeds my misery by the measure of all eternity. This disposition of soul clothes me in Your power. O joy that flows from the knowledge of one’s self! O unchanging Truth, Your constancy is everlasting! — St. Faustina, Pp. 66

I have been asking Jesus to help me transform my heart into something which more closely resembles His. I am aware of and saddened by my failings, but I truly believe Him when praying the Centurion’s prayer during Mass — if He but say the words, my soul shall be healed.

I am weak in so many ways and am working on my self-discipline. I got a planner (I know, totally old school!) and wrote this passage in it for me to reflect upon during the month of October:

We seldom succeed in overcoming as much as a single fault, and we are not wholly on fire with the desire to make daily spiritual progress. The result is that we remain negligent and tepid.

Lord Jesus, please help me to be on fire for You and ever cognizant of Your love and mercy. Amen!

Being Present

May 9, 2014Critical Mass, God to GoCadyLy

There’s something about this time of year that makes me restless. I want to DO STUFF. I want to re-evaluate my life and make it shiny, and new, and fruitful. I want to REALLY live instead of going through the motions.

We are still in the Easter season and everything is greening up and the weather is getting warmer. If you know me, you know that I tend to be optimistic already, but these things only elevate my enthusiasm. I get ambitious.

While I have been busy at work lately, I still think that there is a hole in my life. We are all called to serve God in some way. We are all called to evangelize. And, to be honest, this hasn’t really been something that I was overly eager to do. What does it mean to evangelize anyway? I’m not really the type of person who would walk up to people and ask them if they had a relationship with Jesus. I’m not a preachy person. But proclaiming the Gospel is important. If it’s real and if it’s true, it’s the most important thing we could do with our lives, right?

With a combination of listening to Catholic Answers Live, following Fr. John and the Alpha team as they attend the Alpha conference in London this week, and thinking of different ways in which I can positively affect other peoples lives in light of the particular gifts God has given me, I came up with the idea of being available.

See, I love people and meeting new people and seeing new places. I like to help people and listen to their stories and pray for them and socialize. So, wouldn’t it be great to be able to hang out places and meet people and talk to them about things that are important and listen to them and pray with them and maybe answer some questions that they might have about the Catholic faith? It sounds great to me!

Without consulting anyone or letting them know what I’m up to (because maybe I’m a little impulsive like that), I set up a Facebook page for the project and decided that I’d start first thing in the morning.

God to Go #1

I didn’t have to be to work until a little later in the morning, so I planned on going to a local Starbucks for my first God to Go session. Let me just say, this Starbucks is really busy! There were 8 baristas on staff and there was still a continual line! I had grabbed a book by Dr. John Wood, “Ordinary Lives, Extraordinary Mission,” to read in case no one stopped by my table. I hadn’t read it before, but it sounded like it might be speaking about what I am trying to accomplish with this project. I ordered a mocha (and forgot to order my scone) and took a table for 4 right by the front entrance. I did read some of the book, but most of my time was spent smiling at people coming and going. Most people were so intent on getting their coffee that they didn’t acknowledge that anyone else was present. There was a pair of women talking and the two tables on my wall were occupied with individual men absorbed in their electronics.

Sitting here this time really changed my perspective about other people. I have been guilty of seeing other people in places like Starbucks merely as obstacles to me getting what I want in a timely manner, and getting frustrated at them, merely by their presence. Being here *for* people makes me see them as fellow humans. They have hopes, dreams, and struggles just as I do. And my heart softened towards them. In my book, I read, “I want to love as God loves.” And I really do.

It also says that, “Not having ‘Catholic careers’ does not excuse us from being teachers of the faith.” I am not professionally Catholic. I am not consecrated to the religious life. (I *am* a grad student working on my Master’s in Theology, but I haven’t graduated yet…) My daily work doesn’t have anything to do with the Church. And yet it does. Just because I am dealing with other people.

Whatever I am doing, it is not enough. I don’t want to live an “adequate” life. I don’t want to live a “little” life. I want to make an impact. I want to know that I tried, I lived, and I loved. I want to live fully and passionately. And I want to serve others.

Perhaps my being present in this God to Go project isn’t a big thing. But maybe it will be. I trust that God will lead me if I let him. 🙂

So, please stop by! I’d love to see you!

God to Go

May 8, 2014Critical Mass, God to GoCadyLy

I have a new project in the works. It’s called God to Go. I will be making myself available in various places and communities for people to drop by to say “Hi”, talk about the faith, ask questions, request intercession, or just be encouraged in whatever they may be going through. I’ll post up times and places where I’ll be on the FB page, and post entries on my blog about the interesting places around town that I find and experiences that I encounter (as appropriate). I hope you can join me!

My Papa in Heaven

April 27, 2014Critical Mass, Pope John Paul IICadyLy

Today is a blessed day for a lot of reasons. First, it is Divine Mercy Sunday. Second, we are celebrating the canonization of Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II. Make that Saint Pope John XXIII and Saint Pope John Paul II.

Myself, instead of being able to pray for much of the day, I will be working a 15 hour shift. A long day. But Saint JPII spoke quite a bit during his papacy about the dignity of human work, so perhaps this is appropriate.

On their Facebook page, Our Lady of Good Counsel asked, “What sort of impact did (Saint) John Paul have on your life before he entered into Heaven?”

I joined the Catholic Church under Pope Benedict XVI, in 2007, so Pope John Paul II was not “my” pope, but in a way he was.

He was the Pope for most of my life.
I clearly remember watching the days surrounding his death, funeral and the conclave electing Cardinal Ratzinger.
And I consider him as family.

The third point is kind of an interesting story. Growing up, we spent a lot of time visiting with my Memere (great-grandmother). She would always have tomato-rice soup simmering on the stove, mincemeat pies in the freezer, and had a toaster oven in her kitchen, which I thought was rather unique and “old-fashioned” as we had a regular toaster. In the entryway, she had a display cabinet filled with pairs of salt and pepper shakers — souvenirs. And in the living room, there were two large photographs on the wall in matching oval frames.

The twist comes from the fact that she was from Quebec and grew up speaking French. So, when I was young and visiting, I’d ask, “Who’s that?” for each of the photos. And she would reply, “Pepe,” which is similar to saying “Papa”. I assumed that both pictures were of her husband, my great-grandfather, who had passed away when I was only about a week old. They were black and white photos, which — to me — meant that they were taken A LONG TIME AGO. In both of the pictures, the man’s clothing seemed a little odd, but I just figured that people wore odd clothes way back then.

However, only one of the photos was of my Pepe. The other was a photo of Pope John Paul II.

I grew up thinking that Pope John Paul II was my great-grandfather. He was a part of my family. And, I suppose, when I was baptized, he *did* become my family. Who knows what kind of influence this happy mistake may have had on me? Perhaps it was something as little and seemingly coincidental as this which led to me becoming Catholic later in life. You never know all the subtle ways the Holy Spirit may be guiding you.

I love you, Papa. Please pray for me and those whom I love.

Give Everything to God

April 15, 2014Critical Mass, Lent, Neat Things I Didn't AuthorOLGCBlogCadyLy

I admit it freely; I have fallen behind on many things that I wanted to do for Lent, but somehow, this is okay. It is okay because I realized that it isn’t a race to the finish. None of this is “over” once Easter Sunday dawns. Until God calls me home, I will always need work. I will always need to keep striving toward conforming my heart to Jesus’s heart.

This morning, I worked on reading the backlog of things in my e-mail inbox, including the messages from Saints in the Making University. The story, “The Pearl Necklace” really struck me today.

There once was a young girl who was in the check out line with her mother. It was then that she saw it; a beautiful plastic pearl necklace! She begged her mother to buy it for her, but her mother told her that if she really wanted it she would have to earn the $1.47 herself. Her mother told her that she could help with some chores around the house to earn a few bright shiny pennies, and reminded her that her birthday was coming up soon and she would surely get a new crisp dollar bill in the birthday card from her grandmother.

So the little girl worked very hard over the next few weeks and saved up all her earnings. She asked her neighbors if she could rake their leaves for ten cents and she did extra chores around the house. One day, she finally had enough money to buy the treasured necklace. She was so happy when her mom took her to the store to buy her necklace and she got to pay the woman at the check out with her very own hard earned money. The small girl wore her necklace everywhere. It made her feel so beautiful and grown up!

Now every night the little girl’s Daddy would read her a bedtime story, say nighttime prayers with her, and put her to sleep. But one night when the little girl’s Daddy was putting her to sleep he asked her a question. He asked, “Do you love me?” She replied, “Daddy, you know I love you more than anything!” Then he asked her if he could have her pearl necklace. “Oh Daddy,” said the little girl. “I can’t give you my necklace. I love it so much and it is so beautiful. But you can have my pink unicorn, the one I got for my birthday.” “That’s ok,” He said. “Daddy loves you, darling. Goodnight.” And he kissed her gently on the forehead as he left. Every night the loving father would patiently ask his daughter for the dime store necklace and every night she would refuse, offering one of her many other toys. But her father would always say it was ok, tell her how much he loved her and give her a good night kiss ever so gently on the forehead before leaving.

Then one night when her Daddy came in to put her to sleep he noticed that his little girl was crying. “What is wrong, honey?” He asked. With tears streaming down her cheeks she held out her tiny hand, and dropped her deeply treasured necklace into her father’s hand. “Here, Daddy.” She said, her voice shaking. “You can have my necklace.” To her surprise, her Father pulled out a beautiful velvet box and gave it to her. When she opened it, a beautiful genuine pearl necklace was revealed. You see, her father was just waiting for his daughter to let go of the plastic necklace, so he could reveal the real treasure he had in store for her.

What is your pearl necklace? What in this world are you so afraid to let go of? Your Father’s gifts for you are so much better. Let go of the counterfeits so your Father can give you the real thing. –Author Unknown (Reprinted with permission)

I think, especially for me, it is these things which are really hard to stop clinging to. It’s easy to give up sinful things. (Okay, no, it is not, but at least rationally, you can see *why* you should give them up.) It’s much harder to give up something which is good and not apparently causing you to sin. Our vision is narrow, and we can’t see beyond the good to the potential greater good which God is offering to us. Instead of trusting that God is good and wants the best for us, we question why. “Why would God want to take this good thing away from me?” We don’t understand and so we hold back from God. We don’t freely give everything that we have and that we are back to Him.

I have a couple things that I cling to like this. God may not be calling me to give them up, but I have to prepare my heart and my will for the possibility that He might at some time in the future. I have to be willing to completely abandon myself to His will. And this is a struggle — at least it is for me.

In his book, “The Gift of Faith,” Fr. Dajczer also speaks of the necessity of abandoning ourselves to God’s will. Do you *really* have faith in the goodness and generosity of God? We must trust Him in all things, great and small. This is a radical kind of faith and trust, and it is not come by easily. But, then, faith is not meant to be easy. It is wrung from us, drop by drop, collected and offered back to the Father as a complete gift of self. It is the very difficulty and completeness of the offering which makes it such a beautiful and precious gift. The best image that I have for this is the blood that Jesus sweat during His agony in the garden of Gethsemane. He was perfectly obedient to the Father and had perfect trust in Him, yet clearly it cost Him a great deal to endure what He endured for our sake. And this is why His gift to us — of His entire self, being poured out drop by drop in the garden, at the pillar, and on the cross — is such an incredible gift. And also why our response needs to be so great in return.

Cross-posted to OLGCBlog.com.

Palm Sunday

April 13, 2014Critical Mass, Holy Week, LentCadyLy

Holy week. Probably my favorite week of the year. I love the excitement and celebration surrounding Jesus’s triumphant return to Jerusalem. I love the promise of life that those green branches hold, especially after a long, cold winter. I love the bright red color on the altar and in the priests’ vestments. I love the procession in. In past years, I have celebrated Palm Sunday at St. Anastasia, where the procession includes kids and catechumens with loud clappers and everyone in the church waving their palm fronds. This Palm Sunday, I celebrated right after work at OLGC, at the 5 pm Mass. No one in church had any palms, and the only procession was made by the altar servers, Deacon Chris, and Fr. Clement. It felt like I was waiting for the Kings of Kings to pass me by.

But this week isn’t a week of all happy feelings. And this liturgy wasn’t all about being joyful. It was an emotional rollercoaster, to tell you the truth. Fr. Clement told us to pay particular attention to the Gospel today, lengthy though it was, and see what aspects of the story spoke to you. They wanted the parish to speak the part of the crowd during the reading of the Gospel.

I didn’t want to.

I didn’t want to choose Barabbas over Jesus. I didn’t want to call for his crucifixion. But I am obedient, and so I participate. But in my heart, as I was saying, “Crucify Him!” I was also saying, “Please, don’t!”

But then, I thought of how I do this all the time. I am constantly choosing something evil over Him. I am constantly scourging Him and putting Him on the cross, and then asking Him to forgive me my sins. It was such a poignantly sad moment, being a part of this Gospel reading and realizing how very much a part of the crowd I was… am.

There was no music for the recessional. The altar servers, deacon, and priest left quietly. Many people, perhaps unaware that they were supposed to wait for the recessional, began leaving while they were still gathering at the foot of the sanctuary. Not quite realizing the full import of what was occurring. How often do *I* realize the full import of the Mass or what Jesus did for me? Not nearly as often as I’d like to think.

So, quietly, I stood and watched as the procession passed by, reflecting on the joy, the sorrow, and the sober realization of my own failings, but with the hope and knowledge that something incredible is going to happen in a few short days.

Spiritually Pregnant!

April 9, 2014Critical Mass, Prayer/Prayer RequestsCadyLy

If you are observant, you might have seen a tiny change to my site today.

I got an e-mail this morning letting me know that I’m expecting! 🙂 Spiritually, that is. I have adopted a baby that may be in danger of being aborted (or some other disaster), so I will be praying during these next 9 months for the life and safe delivery of this baby.

Since today I found out about the baby and will begin praying, I’m counting this as my date of conception. I looked up when my due date would be, and that is December 31, 2014. What a perfect day! A New Year’s Eve baby! Just in time for the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God!

Please support me during my “pregnancy” and help me pray for my little one. I’ll keep you updated on how we’re doing!

Walking While Catholic

April 8, 2014Critical Mass, LentCadyLy

I had training at work this morning and we let out a little early. I stopped at Subway for a quick lunch, then decided to spend some of my “lunch time” taking a walk in Gallup Park along the Huron River. I confess, most of my motivation comes from the fact that I got a new Fitbit on Sunday (it’s a glorified pedometer, but I find it very useful), which challenges me to take 10,000 steps every day. It was sunny out and finally warm enough to go without a jacket — Thanks be to God!

I got all set for the walk: I had my Fitbit on, I started the Runkeeper app on my phone, and started my walk. Just a few steps in, I decided that it was a great opportunity to pray the Rosary. I dedicated my Rosary to my dad (today’s his birthday!), Fr. Anonymous, and J (my “Lent person”). I walked until I was half-way through the Rosary, then turned around to return to the car. There was only one area where the walkway was flooded and I had to tiptoe through squishy grass — (Eeew! Mud!) — but was otherwise an enjoyable walk. I ended up walking past the part of Gallup Park where our ROTC group met semi-annually for our PFTs. It seems both so long ago, and not long ago at all.

Towards the end of my walk, a guy was walking past me. He thought I was waving to him, but I had just finished my Rosary and was making the Sign of the Cross. Sorry, Random Guy.

Perhaps, if he were charitable, he would decide that I was blessing him, instead of ignoring his presence. And, perhaps if I were a more Christ-like person, that scenario would have been the case…. Ah, well, Lent continues. There is still time for me to grow in conformity to Jesus!