Rejoice Always

 “Rejoice in the Lord always.  I will say it again: Rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4).  This Scripture passage, which inspired the theme “Rejoice in the Light of Christ” for the recent Diocesan Catholic Youth Convention, is perhaps one of the most challenging exhortations in Scripture.  It certainly isn’t easy to rejoice always.  It’s not easy to rejoice when a loved one is taken from you tragically and unexpectedly.  It’s not easy to rejoice when times are tough and money is tight.  It’s not easy to rejoice when you watch your son or daughter walk away from the Lord.  It’s not easy to rejoice while burying your newborn child.  It’s not easy to rejoice when depression sets in.  It’s not easy to rejoice in suffering.  Yet St. Paul exhorts us to “rejoice always”! 

I think the key here is that we are called to rejoice in the Lord.  Only God Himself can be the true and lasting cause of our joy.  Why?  Because He never changes.  He is the same today, yesterday, and forever.  St. Alphonsus de Liguori speaks about this.  He says,

“The fool, that is, the sinner, is as changeable as the moon, which today waxes and tomorrow wanes; today he laughs, tomorrow he cries; today he is meek as a lamb, tomorrow cross as a bear.  Why? Because his peace of mind depends on the prosperity or the adversity he meets; he changes with the changes in the things that happen to him.  The just man is like the sun, constant in his serenity, no matter what betides him.  His calmness of soul is founded on his union with the will of God; hence he enjoys unruffled peace.”

If our joy and our peace are dependent upon the things that happen to us, then of course it will be impossible to rejoice always.  If, however, we allow the source of our joy to be God Himself – and the gift of relationship with Him that he offers us – then we can succeed in rejoicing always.

Look at what St. Paul goes on to say: “The Lord is near.” (Philippians 4:5).  We are able to rejoice always precisely because the Lord is near.  We have a God who suffers with us, who makes himself present to us in the midst of the suffering.  This is why we can rejoice at all times.  When we seek God at our darkest time – in the pain of laying in the grave a life cut too short, in the hopelessness of a lost job and bills to pay, in the heartache that results from bad choices, in the dark tunnel of despair – he reveals His face to us.  Our God is a God of life and light.  The hope that we have in the light of the Resurrection is cause for rejoicing!  So let us this Easter season, be reminded of the truth that the power of the Resurrection always wins out over the darkness of sin and death and suffering, and remembering that, let us be encouraged to rejoice always!  “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7).


By Sarah Houde

A Hidden Gift

This season of Advent is really so epic.  All the readings lately (mostly from the prophet Isaiah) speak of this great thing that God is about to do.  It’s like all of creation lies in wait.  The nation has been waiting and longing and you can almost feel the anticipation.  Something huge is about to happen!  And we know that something huge indeed does happen.  But it is hidden – a tiny baby, born in a lowly stable, to two young and inexperienced parents.  Many people missed it.  They didn’t see.  They failed to recognize.  They expected something different.  And yet, this hidden, humble child is God.  He comes down to the earth he created and is the answer that all of creation was waiting for, longing for!

On my recent trip to the Holy Lands, I found myself reflecting on this great mystery of the Incarnation.  Of course, in preparing for the trip, I expected I would ponder such things in Bethlehem – the site of the manger and the shepherd’s fields, the place where God became man.  But I was surprised to find myself awestruck a bit earlier in the trip during our visit to Nazareth.  While celebrating Mass at the site of Mary’s home in Nazareth in the crypt of the huge Basilica of the Annunciation, I was struck by the profound reality that it is not in fact at Bethlehem where God touches down to earth.  It is in Nazareth.  We think of the circumstances of the birth of the Christ-child and we are struck by the humility, by the poverty, by the hidden way in which he chooses to come.  But the Incarnation actually happened in Nazareth – in an even more hidden, more humble way.  God touched down to earth in the womb of the Virgin Mary and no one else even knew!  God became man and there was no visible change.  No one could see the tiny baby growing in Mary’s womb.  No one – not even a shepherd or a magi – bowed down to give him the homage he was due.

God could have chosen to come to earth in power and might, displaying his majesty for all the world to see.  And yet he didn’t.  He chose to come as a baby, first veiled in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and then born in the little town of Bethlehem.  He comes in weakness, in vulnerability.  And this same God who came hidden in the womb of Mary comes to us each and every day in the hidden, humble gift of the Eucharist.  In the Eucharist we have truly present the Body, Blood, Soul, & Divinity of our God!  He humbles himself that we might physically hold him within us!  The humility and vulnerability of our God is astounding!  And yet, so often we go before him clothed with whatever it is we feel we must cover ourselves with – our pride, acts of piety, sense of self-sufficiency.  Our God comes to us in the most vulnerable of ways and yet we refuse to be vulnerable before him.  Let us in these final weeks of Advent allow ourselves to be stripped of the clothing we hold so dear and appear before our God in humility, in poverty, in complete vulnerability that He might love us as we are!

By Sarah Houde

Breaking into the Ordinary

I just returned from ten amazing days in the Holy Land.  What an incredible blessing to walk in the places where Jesus Himself walked and pray in the places where He and his apostles prayed and kneel at the site where Redemption was won for the entire world.  It certainly makes the mysteries of our faith such as the Incarnation, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection come to life in a whole new way!  I’m overwhelmed with gratitude when I reflect upon all that I was blessed to experience.  A verse from the Gospel of Matthew has continued to resonate in the few weeks I’ve been back.   “Many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it and hear what you hear but did not hear it” (Matthew 13:17).  My life will never be the same because of all that I was blessed to see, hear, and experience in those ten days.

I was struck by so many things during my time in Israel that I think it’s going to take my whole life to contemplate and process all that I saw and experienced, but one of the very first things that struck me most was the ordinary-ness of the region of Galilee.  During the first half of our trip we stayed in Tiberias, literally right on western shore of the Sea of Galilee.  As I gazed across the sea in the days we were there, I was so struck by the fact that God entered human time and history in a very real, very tangible, very ordinary place.  There’s really nothing too astounding about the region of Galilee in Israel.  The Sea is certainly beautiful and surrounded by very unique desert-like mountains, but it is a very real place.  Standing there, I could just see Peter and the other apostles going about their daily work.  Seeing the physical places where Jesus worked miracles and called his disciples to follow him caused me to imagine what that would have been like for them.  What was it about Jesus that drew them to him?  What caused them to abandon all else to follow him?  How was it that he rocked their world?  Did they recognize that something was different about him?  Did they know that God was walking in their midst? 

There’s something so beautiful about this reality that God chose to enter time and history in a very simple, ordinary place.  It certainly shows the humility of our God and the simplicity with which he comes.  But it doesn’t stop there.  It points to the intimacy of the relationship he desires to have with each one of us.  Just as God touched down to human history in the womb of a virgin in a little place called Nazareth in the region of Galilee, so too does he desire to touch down into our lives in the ordinary circumstances we find ourselves in day after day.  He wants to break into human history each and every day by breaking into our hearts, by breaking into our lives.  And He often does so in very real, very ordinary ways.  I’m sure that there were many people living in Galilee at the time who did not let Jesus affect their lives, many who were either too busy to notice, or too cautious to care.  And some who simply did not recognize that God was walking in their midst.  How often do we fail to recognize the very simple, very ordinary ways that God comes to us, that he touches down to earth, hoping to break into our lives and into our hearts?  Let us not be like those who failed to notice, but rather let us be like the apostles whose lives became radically different when God broke into their lives, who in the midst of their ordinary lives were so drawn to him and to his presence in their midst that they abandoned all to follow him!



By Sarah Houde

Slow Down!

The past several months I’ve found myself in a crazy whirlwind of activity.  A summer of transition, a big move for my family, a very blessed trip to World Youth Day, a great evening of worship with Jackie Francois and Patrick Coffin, and now I find myself busily preparing for more wonderful upcoming retreats including Journey 2011, the first ever Catholic Women’s Conference, and the annual March for Life Trip as well as a personal pilgrimage to the Holy Lands and my college roommate’s wedding.  It seems like there’s just been so much going on in all dimensions of my life that I’ve barely had time to breathe, sleep, or even think!  Don’t get me wrong…they’re all very good things – just a lot all at once. 

I was recently sharing with a friend all the great things I’ve been up to lately and made a comment that I just need to slow down so I can enjoy it!  His response: “No, you need to slow down so you can pray.”  Touché.  Without realizing it, in the midst of life’s busyness, my life and mentality shifted to the very thing that Jesus rebukes Martha for in the passage we recently heard in the Gospel at Mass.  “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.  Only one thing is needed.  Mary has chosen the better part.”  Everything going on in my life had begun to become a burden and cause for anxiousness and worry rather than a cause for rejoicing and celebration of the good things that God is doing in my life and through my work.  I had become so busy doing the works of the Lord that I forgot about the Lord of the works!

These words that Jesus speaks to Mary penetrated straight to my heart.  “Mary has chosen the better part.”  What is it that we find Mary doing?  Sitting at the feet of Jesus.  If we are to be effective evangelizers in and through the work that we do, whether we work directly in ministry or answer the call to evangelize in the midst of our secular jobs and temporal affairs, we absolutely must spend time sitting at the feet of Jesus!  Soaking in His love, letting His gaze penetrate ours, and listening to His promptings so that the many things we find ourselves anxious and worried about can become instead causes for joy and opportunities for love.  Sitting at the feet of Jesus reminds us what is truly important and gives us strength to continue doing the work of bringing others to Him.

And so, if you find yourself like me, caught up in the craziness of the fall and a new school year, I challenge you to take some time to slow down…and pray.

By Sarah Houde

God Thirsts for Us

In preparing a recent presentation on prayer, I was struck by the Catechism’s definition of prayer.  “Prayer is the encounter of God’s thirst with ours.  God thirsts that we may thirst for him” (CCC 2560).  I find that imagery of thirsting just so beautiful.  Think about that for a minute – the living God thirsts for us to come to Him in prayer, to thirst for Him!  Thirsting implies this sense of desperation and longing.  David cries out with this longing for God numerous times in the Psalms.  “My soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1).  “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.  When can I go and meet with God?” (Psalm 42:1-2).  The reality is that just as water is the one thing which we physically can’t live without, God is the one thing our hearts cannot live without.  Because they were created for Him!  “The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself.  Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for” (CCC 27).  It is God alone who can fill the longings of our hearts, those things for which our heart thirsts!  It’s similar to standing at the base of a waterfall.  At the base of a waterfall, there is more water than you could ever drink.  All your thirst is satisfied.  This same thing happens in prayer, in relationship with God!  All of our thirst is satisfied.  Additionally, while standing at the base of that waterfall, the power of the water pouring over you washes off any dirt, any impurities, and you are completely cleansed.  The same thing happens in prayer when we allow the power of God’s love and mercy to pour over us and cleanse us.  He is thirsting for us to come to Him that he might satisfy all of our longings and desires. 

What I find to be so profound about this whole notion is that it is God who first thirsts for us.  “The wonder of prayer is revealed beside the well where we come seeking water: there, Christ comes to meet every human being.  It is he who first seeks us and asks us for a drink.  Jesus thirsts; his asking arises from the depths of God’s desires for us” (CCC 2560).  Prayers itself is a gift because it is God who first thirsts for us to thirst for him!  “God calls man first…the living and true God tirelessly calls each person to that mysterious encounter known as prayer…our own step is always a response” (CCC 2567).  We see this clearly if we look at salvation history.  It’s the story of God pursuing his people, extending himself in relationship and covenant with them, over and over again so that he can be with them.  And what do we find at the culmination of salvation history?  We find a God who thirsts for us so much that He sent His dearly beloved son, Jesus, to die for us.  The crucifix is a reminder of God’s thirst for us.  As He is hanging on the cross dying, Jesus cries out, “I thirst.” (John 19:28).  He thirsts for our love in prayer.  His thirst led him to the cross.  Will our thirst lead us to prayer?

by Sarah Houde

The Fullness of Life

“I have come that you might have life and have it to the full” (John 10:10).  These words of Jesus have always stirred something deep inside of me – a dissatisfaction with living a mediocre life, a desire to live radically, to have a full and abundant life.  With the arrival of spring and new life all around us, I’ve found myself reflecting on these words more frequently once again.  How often I find myself falling into the monotonous routine of life.  A lot of days it certainly doesn’t feel like I’m living this “life to the full” that Jesus spoke about.

Our beloved Blessed Pope John Paul II who was just beatified this past weekend had something to say about living the fullness of life.  “You are young and you want to live. But you have to live life to the fullest and with a specific goal. You have to live for God, for others. And no one can live his life for himself. The future is yours, but the future is above all a call and a challenge to find your life by surrendering it, losing it, sharing it through a loving surrender to others.”  The fullness of life that Jesus promised comes in losing it, in laying it down for others.  Living a radical and abundant life means that we will refuse to settle for mediocrity when it comes to love.  St. Therese of Lisieux and Blessed Teresa of Calcutta lived such abundant lives because they lived each day doing small things with great love.  We find purpose and meaning in our lives and break free from the dull monotony that limits our existence when we decide to make self-giving love our primary goal and motivation.  In our society this is crazy!  To think that living for someone else, not putting ourselves first, is what leads to a full and abundant life?  That’s a radical thing.  Is it easy?  Certainly not.  But is it worth it?  Absolutely.  Why?  Because it is in doing so that we find the fullness of life.  As we are reminded in this Easter season, the Resurrection is only possible after the Crucifixion.  The new life that Jesus promises can only come after we die to our selves.  We have as our model Christ Himself who showed the fullest extent of his love by his radical death on the cross.  But who then proved the fullness of life that this brings by his powerful rising from the dead.  Let us choose to live this fullness of life!  Christ is Risen!  Alleluia!

By Sarah Houde

Met in Our Weakness

The fifth week of Lent is upon us.  Already?  Yep.  Can you believe it?  I feel like it was just a few days ago that I was gearing up for 40 days of prayer & penance.  The beginning of Lent is always a great opportunity to take a good look at ourselves, examine the areas we need to change, and then go about making commitments to do so.  And here we are 5 weeks later.  Is anyone else finding themselves frustrated at the ways they’ve failed to remain faithful to the Lenten commitments made?  Wishing the last four weeks of Lent had resulted in perfect sanctity rather than a reminder of our weakness?  The perfectionist in me certainly is.  But as I took a few minutes to reflect on this, I realized that this is in fact what Lent is all about.  Recognizing that we cannot become holy on our own.  Admitting that we need a Savior.  And the good news is this: It is precisely in our weakness that Christ meets us!

How many times do we go to prayer attempting to have it all together?  Trying to present ourselves to God as worthy and pious?  This isn’t what He desires.  He desires our honesty, our vulnerability.  The reality is that we don’t deserve his love and we will never have it all together without his grace.  Certainly we are called to strive for virtue and proactively receive grace into our lives.  But we cannot achieve perfection on our own.  The woman at the well couldn’t quench her own thirst.  The man born blind couldn’t make himself see.  Lazarus couldn’t raise himself from the dead.  Neither can we make ourselves holy.  As we enter into this last week of Lent and approach the Triduum, let us come before Christ stripped of everything and allow Him to meet us in our weakness.

By Sarah Houde

The Feast of the Annunciation

Today’s feast is my favorite feast day in the entire Church year!  Today we celebrate the moment that God entered history, the moment that the Word became Flesh and dwelt among us, the moment that our salvation begun.  What an awe-inspiring moment to contemplate!  And while this certainly is grand and reason to rejoice, I’ve always loved the Feast of the Annunciation particularly because of the very real, very tangible role a lowly young woman played in the salvation of the world.  Mary’s humble acceptance of what God was asking of her enabled salvation to be won for all mankind!  Her simple “yes” caused her womb to become the very first tabernacle where God’s dearly beloved Son took up residence and was nurtured and protected.  When I contemplate Mary and her role in the Incarnation, I am reminded of the irreplaceable role that God has called each and every one of us to in his plan of salvation.  I, a lowly young woman, have an irreplaceable role to play in God’s plan.  And I live this role by a simple, humble “yes” to him each day by waking up and being faithful to the duties he has called me to right here, right now.  I’m sure Mary had no clue when she said “yes” to the angel Gabriel what the result of her “yes” would be.  In a similar way, I’m sure that God uses each of us in many more ways than we can see as we humbly say “yes” to Him each day.

This year in particular I’ve been struck by the role of St. Joseph in all of this.  Not only did God have an irreplaceable role for Mary to play; he also had an irreplaceable role for St. Joseph.  St. Joseph’s humble “yes” to the role of Protector and Provider that God was asking of him enabled Mary to live the vocation God was asking of her.  St. Joseph took a huge leap of faith when he embraced God’s will for him to take Mary as his wife into his home when he knew he was not the father of her child – a cause for utter public humiliation!  And yet, his immediate and unquestioning obedience to God in all things is what ultimately protected this lowly virgin and her child.  His role was so different than that of Mary’s, yet equally important!  St. Joseph, pray for us that we might say “yes” to the Lord and live the irreplaceable role he has called us to!


Sarah Houde

Singleness: A Grace-Filled Season

For as long as I can remember, I’ve known that marriage is my vocation.  It’s tough to explain – just a deep-rooted, heart knowledge that this is how God is calling me to love.  So there are days (sometimes many days) when I ask myself: Why am I still single?!?  My plan for my life was to go to college, meet a good Catholic man, fall in love, and marry upon graduating.  Not only did that not happen, but here I find myself two years out of college, still not even dating, and yet still very much feeling called to marriage.  So, why am I blogging about this in the midst of National Catholic Marriage Week?  Allow me to explain.

Being a young adult, single Catholic can definitely be a challenge at times.  But what I’ve come to see in the past few years is that this season of singleness is a grace-filled opportunity.  If only I will open myself up to the graces available in it.  The Lord has revealed a lot to me in my quest for an answer to the ever-pressing question, “God, if you’re calling me to marriage, then how come you haven’t provided the necessary components (a.k.a. a man to pursue me!)?”  He has shown me that this season of singleness holds so much opportunity to enrich my life and the lives of those around me.  When I decided to stop living in a state of longing for the future and the fulfillment of my vocation to marriage and instead began to focus on the place where God has me right now, my life became so much more life-giving and fulfilling.  For whatever reason, this state of singleness is exactly where God has me, and as I began to seek His face in the midst of it rather than kick and scream through it, I found that this season of my life is not a cross to run from, but rather a gift to embrace.

It’s a gift for so many reasons.  I have the ability to pour myself completely into serving God by serving His Church, right now in full-time ministry.  I have the time to pursue hobbies and interests that I probably won’t have time for when raising a family.  I can invest myself in rich and lasting friendships with other women who find themselves in a similar situation.  The list goes on, but, I think perhaps the greatest aspect of this season of singleness is that it is a unique time to focus on my own personal formation so that I might have a more beautiful gift of self to offer my husband and children someday.  Now is the time to allow God to form me into the woman He has created me to be.  Now is the time to create habits of daily personal prayer and frequent reception of the sacraments that will strengthen me to live my vocation of marriage when the time comes.  Now is the time to truly learn that Christ and Christ alone is the only One who will ever fulfill me.  Now – this time of singleness – is truly a grace-filled time.  And so, to all those of you out there who find yourself in a similar situation, let me challenge you to use this time of singleness to prepare for marriage through a deeper commitment to your own personal formation so that you might more fully live the abundant life Christ desires for each one of us.

By Sarah Houde

Silent Beauty, Beautiful Silence

That’s what I get to look at every single morning.  Yep, pretty much amazing!  Every morning when I wake up I am seriously blown away by the awesome-ness of a God who created such beauty.  My life has been so full of peace since I moved here and I believe a lot of it has to do with the fact that I am surrounded by two things: beauty and silence.  Living alone in such a beautiful place has really turned into a personal retreat for me.  I wake up every morning to this breath-taking beauty and in the silence cannot help but enter into conversation with the God who made such beauty.

I’ve been reflecting on these two elements of silence and beauty.  In our culture today, we are surrounded by so much noise that silence often makes us uncomfortable.  We have developed an aversion to it.  With ever-increasing technology where people can get a hold of us whenever and however they wish, we rarely take time to separate ourselves from the noise surrounding us.  Interiorly, silence can be frightening because it is in the silence that we are often led to face those things inside of us that are not pretty to look at.  John Paul II spoke of man “deafening himself with noise” and being “unable to be silent for fear of meeting himself, of feeling the emptiness that asks itself about meaning” (Orientale Lumen, 16).  Compare this aversion to silence with the typical reaction we have to beauty.  Beauty is attractive, draws us in, captivates us.  We have a natural inclination to beauty.  A gorgeous sunset, snow-capped mountain peak, Mozart concerto, or a baby’s smile all leave us longing for more.  

I find the link between silence and beauty to be profound.  Beauty calls for silence.  A beautiful mountain vista leaves the viewer speechless.  Speaking in the presence of great beauty somehow seems out of place.  At the same time, silence is necessary to notice and truly appreciate beauty in the first place.  Beauty is often bypassed because of a lack of silence.  Silence allows us to truly immerse ourselves in beauty.  I believe there is an integral connection between silence, beauty, and conversion.  It is in silence that we are able to encounter God, who is Beauty itself, and that is where our hearts experience true and lasting conversion.

During this Advent season and what all too often becomes a hectic time of year, I encourage you to make time for silence in your life.  Sit for awhile and in the silence contemplate the beauty of our God become man in the person of Baby Jesus.  You may not have the vast expanse of ocean to look at out your front window, but if you take a moment to be silent, you’ll be able to see the greatest beauty of all: a loving God who humbled Himself and became man for us!  Let your heart be captivated by that beauty!

Sarah Houde

Preparing a Place

I’ve recently moved into a seasonal rental right on the ocean and have been doing quite a bit of work to make this little beach cottage my own.  Rearranging furniture,sewing new curtains, decorating with my own style, finding rugs I like, new couch pillows, bedding to match, etc. has been filling the bulk of my spare time.  I want my home to be a place where people will feel welcome and comfortable upon entering.  I’m finding it is a lot of work to prepare such a place!  But knowing the purpose behind the work makes it totally worth it.

All of this house remodeling I’ve been doing got me thinking about the passage from John 14:1-3 where Jesus says to his disciples, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” (italics mine)  I started pondering this in light of my recent undertakings.  What does it mean that Jesus is preparing a place for me in His Father’s house?  It seems to me that He is preparing a place where my heart can be at rest in the heart of the Father, where I will enter and immediately know that this is where I belong, that I am home.  So often I allow my heart to become troubled by the things of this world, by the daily obstacles that come my way, by unfulfilled desires and unanswered questions.  I find great comfort and hope in knowing that Jesus has promised to prepare a place where my heart will rest in being home.

Sarah Houde

Waiting on the Lord

 Let’s be honest…how many of us like waiting?  Doctor’s visits where you sit in the waiting room for close to an hour before even being seen, DMV lines that run out the door, and those 5 minute red lights when you’re running late are some of the most frustrating times known to man!  Then there are the bigger things we find ourselves waiting for: potential employers to call back, the healing of a loved one, children to return to the Church, a future spouse.

I’ve been apartment hunting lately and having a difficult time waiting for the Lord to provide in His timing and in His way.  Last week, on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, the first reading described my current state rather well, “With their patience worn out by the journey, the people complained against God and Moses” (Numbers 21:4).  How easy it is for us to immediately start complaining when we are waiting for the Lord to provide something we feel we need!  We get so worn out by the journey that we fail to recognize all the ways that He has provided and trust in His proven faithfulness that He will continue to provide.  God had freed the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt, sent a pillar of fire to guide them by night and a cloud by day, provided the daily nourishment of manna, and so much more, yet their only response is to grumble and complain against Him!  Did you know that the Israelites could have made the desert crossing in as short as a few months if they had gone straight across the desert from Egypt to Canaan?  Yet, God allowed them to wander through the desert for 40 whole years!  Why?  Perhaps so they could learn to trust Him, so they could learn to rejoice in His provision for them, so they could learn the lesson of waiting on Him.  Their choice to grumble and complain against God instead of trust Him caused more suffering and a longer journey through the desert.  It certainly makes me think twice about complaining when waiting on God’s provision!  Let’s resolve to stay focused on all that we have to be grateful for, especially in those tough times of waiting on the Lord!

Sarah Houde

Changing of Seasons

As the summer comes to a close and the new school year begins, I find myself reflecting on the changing of seasons.  I’ve always loved living in Maine because, unlike other places in the country where the climate is less changing, we are blessed to experience the fullness of all four seasons (perhaps some to a greater extreme than others!)  Summer allows for Maine’s beauty to shine in all its splendor with the sparkling harbors dotted with fishing vessels, the late night BBQs which permeate the whole neighborhood with the smell of summer, and the tranquil sunsets which cast a golden glow on everything.  And yet, as all this comes to a close, there’s something just as exciting about the sounds and smells and sights of fall.  I can’t wait for apple picking followed by the smells of freshly baked apple pie, the crisp, refreshing feel of a beautiful fall day, and the trees bursting with bold colors of orange, red, and yellow as the leaves rustle in the wind.  Besides just the excitement of the new season, I can’t fail to mention another significant benefit of the season change: variety in my wardrobe once again as by summer’s end my warm weather clothes are becoming repetitive and boring!

While I love the carefree-ness of summer, by its end I find myself longing for the discipline of routine and a steady rhythm of life once again.  Oftentimes my prayer life suffers in the summer due to my own laziness and lack of routine.  You would think that the summer and vacation time would bring more time for prayer with less demands on my schedule, but somehow I always find myself struggling to remain faithful to prayer commitments and daily Mass due to the changing nature of each day in the summer.  I find the season change an ideal time to check myself and re-establish daily prayer routines or make new prayer commitments to strengthen my spiritual life and relationship with God.  It’s a chance to clean the slate and start over in a way, evaluating what changes I need to make in any areas of my life and then implementing them as I settle into the new routine this season change naturally provides.

Sarah Houde