Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Frolicking with Franciscan Joy!!

May God's blessings be upon you, my brothers and sisters!

Well, this post is a bit late, but hey-better late than never, right? :)

October 4 was the glorious feast of our Holy Father Francis!! I experienced so many blessings, so much joy. It was glorious! To start off, I went to Psychology class, where I found out that I got a B- on my very first test in there!! While I typically am not too stoked about a B-, I was overjoyed! It was a very tough test, over a bunch of information, and several people in my class did a lot worse than I did. So I'm waiting to get my test back, as people around me are getting Cs and below, and I'm growing nervous. What a blessing from St. Francis! After that class, I went back to Tommy, and ran into a couple of my wonderful sisters, and talked. Then, I briefly worked on homework. My sisters and I met up, and we went to the Mass for the Solemnity (yes, we are a "Franciscan" university, so his feast day is a Solemnity!!), which was so beautiful!! There was a gorgeous sequence before the Gospel reading, all about the beauty and life of St. Francis!

After Mass, I decided to fully embrace the glory of the Solemnity. See, Mass ended at 12:30 p.m. I totally had Intro to Geology at 12:45 p.m. Now, to go from Mass (in the fieldhouse) to Tommy, get my books, and go ALL the way to the basement of Egan in 15 minutes (going both uphill AND downhill) in my Solemnity Hat seemed a bit unrealistic. So what did I do? I went over to Marian with a couple of my sisters who live there. One of them is from Louisiana, and she had been craving her Cajun food. So we made a delicious lunch of red beans, rice, and beignets. Beignets are awesome!! We made them by dropping bits of flattened biscuit dough into oil, until it was golden brown. Then, I covered it in powdered sugar. Then, I put EXTRA powdered sugar on top when I ate it!! Spending time with those dear girls over Cajun food was spectacular!! I loved it! Then I skipped over to Trinity.
I love Trinity for various reasons.
1. Everyone is VERY chill there; the RAs are awesome and laid back.
2. They have a very sketch kitchen, but its in the hubbub of activity, so its really fun to cook in.
3. There is such a community! So many times, men will be playing ping pong in the front lobby!
4. Most importantly, my brothers are there!! The men there are all so weird, and so strangely nerdy in their own special ways. And I love them for it.
5. It is like home. Honestly, I can kick back and be myself. I was washing dishes for my twin on Monday, and one of the men jumped in and started helping me out. Another man started stacking up clean dishes to put them away. I am their sister, and I always feel so at home there!

Well, I go to Trinity and I borrow my twin's St. Jerome Commentary. I honestly didn't feel like taking it (its a gigantic book) back to Tommy, so I sat there, reading and taking notes. One of the men started playing the piano, then started just talking to me about life. Another guy comes in and sits with me, and we're talking. My twin came around, and we start talking. Before you know it, I'm sitting at the kitchen table with about 5 or so guys, and we're passing around the Bible, finding some of our favorite Bible verses (2 Kings 2:23-25 is one of my favorites), which was great. And then I headed to homeless ministry.

I also completely LOVE homeless ministry! We go to downtown Steubenville, to a homeless shelter. And we chill out there for a couple of hours. It is such a wonderful time to bring Christ's love to others!!!! After homeless ministry, I was going to eat dinner at the Caf, then head to Praise and Worship (which started at 9 p.m.). Well....God had other plans! I was enjoying my dinner in the Caf, and various men came up to eat at the table. My wonderful brothers from Trinity! I felt called NOT to go to P & W that night, and I was (still am) so glad! I always love spending time with my brothers, and I got to learn more about men. Seriously, within the past month and a half, I have learned SO MUCH about men, it's crazy! But interesting....anyway.....

I guess here's the main tangent of this post: I love my brothers. And I love the friendship that we share. See, I can't just walk up to any man and suddenly find myself having a heart-to-heart with him at 10:30 at night. But I did just that with one of my brothers on Tuesday. I have only known this man for a few weeks (mainly from our crazy shenanigans at Trinity), but on Tuesday I grew to know him so much better. God really puts people in our lives for a reason, and they are ALL important! Every person who God places in our lives is meant to somehow draw us BOTH closer to Him! This particular man and I had an epic conversation, then prayed the Rosary with two other people. Then our small group sat around and talked until about midnight. And then my "crazy Canadian brother" mentioned Adoration (which I had been meaning to go to, but hadn't gotten around to yet). So I spent some glorious time in Adoration, before going to bed. And the 3 1/2 hours of sleep that followed were glorious! Yes....3 1/2 hours. So my one brother who I had been having such a great conversation with? He convinced me to go to 6:30 a.m. Mass with him the following morning. And it was awesome!

Honestly, as I have gone through various adventures in life, I have grown sad--and continued to be saddened--by people who just don't take the time to actually get to know each other. Ladies will group together in their "safety nets," and never put forth the effort to know other women. Or to know their brothers. I honestly don't even know what I would do without my beloved brothers; my biological brothers, my brothers from high school, and my brothers here with me at Steubenville. They are all amazing men! I believe that God will put these men in the lives of women, but the women will not always see their brothers. I encourage y'all to take the time and actually get to know those men who God has placed in your lives! You never know how God will use these brothers to impact you.

Holy Father Francis and his dear sister, Clare--pray for us!!!

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