We are Monstrances

            What does it mean to have an encounter with someone? Pope Francis has been calling everyone to reach out and build a culture of encounter. But what does this mean? As I was sitting and listening to Bishop Ricken give a homily at the Leadership Convocation Conference, I was struck again with the thought of what my temporary vocation is here at SPIRITUS. Our mission is simply this: to be that encounter with Christ to all we minister to, whether it is the students, their teachers, our families, the staff or each other. I then wondered: how do we do this? How can I understand what this should look like? How do I ask for the grace to fulfill this call?

As I received the Eucharist and gave thanks, Christ gently whispered the way that He wants us to be His instruments of encounter: we are called to be His monstrance! A monstrance is a gold casing that holds the consecrated Host to be displayed for all to see. The name monstrance comes from the Latin word monstrare, which means “to show.” The monstrance’s job is not to be impressive or to cause one to get lost in its own beauty, but to focus the viewers on its center who is Christ. Its very existence and vocation is to show Christ to all and to be lost in the background as the adorer has that encounter with the One it displays. The monstrance is a necessary instrument for the Exposition of Christ because it is what holds Christ up for all to see and it is beautiful because of its closeness to Christ and to point to the Beauty that it holds.

We are called to be these display cases for Christ. As a monstrance, we are called to bring others close to Christ and bring Him to all we meet; and then, when they have had the encounter with Christ we fade into the background and Christ becomes the center of their attention and love. We also must reflect the love of Christ and that is where our beauty comes from, from the closeness we have to Christ. Whenever one pictures a great saint, they picture someone who has a surreal beauty that shines forth from him or her But this beauty comes only from the proximity that he or she has to Christ, who polishes and brightens all of our lives and makes us into His instruments of love. This is the vocation of all of us on SPIRITUS and for all Christians: to be the instruments of an encounter with Christ and to recognize Christ in others. To be His monstrance! 

Elizabeth Verges

The Father's Love

My heart longs for you, my Father. I have been developing an amazing relationship with all Three Persons of the Trinity for the past year now, but to experience the Father's Love had been a rare occurrence if I even noticed it at all. But on SPIRITUS I have had the privilege and pleasure to go exploring around in the State Parks in Wisconsin. And its there in the wilderness and danger of climbing the bluffs that I feel the thrill of the Father's Love pounding through my vanes and in my heart. My very being comes alive when I connect with the beauty, danger, and adventure that the Father is so excited to share.

God the Father has been the most mysterious for me to get to know. The love He has shown me has been fierce, intense, and at the same time, soft, comforting and gentle. Slowly He has revealed to me His ideals for masculinity and femininity that He Himself instilled in us when He created us in His image and likeness. And then helped me to grow in my own manhood by guiding me and pushing me. In the community here at SPIRITUS I have been able to see Him at work, and revealing Himself to me through my team mates, who are now my adopted family! I hear Him say to me in Mass or at other times of prayer, "These, these are My daughters! They are My delight!" and "My son! Look! Here are your brothers! They are My pride!"

Community Life in Green Bay

Many times I have wondered what it would be like to live in a faith based community. Sure, I contemplated it as a part of religious life and how it would be a sacrifice and a challenge to be in community in order to experience this, but I didn’t think I would have the opportunity or that it would happen like it has. The experience of faith based community has been something I have longed for. Sometimes this yearning wasn’t evident to me, but I think it has been growing and rising in me ever since high school started and now I am living the experience I had thought about but not really given much hope for! I can assuredly say, even after two months, that faith community is a blessing, challenging, and yet, oh so beautiful.

We don’t know what we are made of until we challenge ourselves and are given the opportunity to live in a faith-based environment. We can learn about our spirituality and understand where and who we are with through this positive and uplifting environment. The worlds is so quick to tear at us and try to bring us down through personal doubts and peer pressure and now I know how important a like-minded community is to help with those challenges and can hold you accountable to the goals you set.  I have learned more about myself in two months then I did in the past two years! Crazy?! Yes, but so awesome! God sure has a plan for each of us and just looking at how I ended up here is almost a coincidence. J I didn’t and don’t always see how God is working in my life, but just ask me about how I ended up on Spiritus sometime!

I challenge and encourage you to look into your life and see how God has been moving in your lives! It is incredible to look even just a month back and see what God is trying to do. If there isn’t something that comes to mind, maybe ask yourself how you could change that. God is always there but He won’t come unless invited. Invite Him and live!

That Others May be Chosen and We Set Aside

Everyone on the team came here almost two months ago with their own unique prayer routines. Since then we’ve all taught each other new prayers, some of which have been tremendously helpful to us in our spiritual journeys. The most helpful prayer I’ve learned since joining SPIRITUS has been the Litany of Humility. I had never heard this prayer until the team prayed it together on the way to our very first retreat of the year. In case you’ve never heard it, the Litany of Humility is a prayer in which we ask Jesus to free us from the desires to be honored and praised, from the fears of being humiliated and wronged, and to help us want others to be more favored than us in all aspects of life.

I find it so challenging to pray the Litany of Humility and sincerely believe the words as I say them because rejection has caused me so much suffering throughout my life. When we pray the Litany of Humility, we ask Jesus to have us experience and embrace rejection from the world so that His love may be our only consolation. As much as I strive to be a saint, I struggle to desire that kind of humility with all my heart because of my memories of suffering from rejection.

My greatest growth in humility over the last few years has come from the realization that what other people think of me isn’t anywhere near as important as I once thought it was. But I still struggle to have a humble outlook regarding rejection by employers and other institutions because I worry so much about my professional and financial future. Before I got accepted to SPIRITUS this past spring, I spent so much time worrying I’d be rejected, but I kept telling myself it’d be OK if it happened because it would have been part of God’s plan for me. From the moment I decided to apply, I knew SPIRITUS would be a great opportunity for me to serve God in a bigger way than I ever had before and to launch what I hope will be a lifelong career in Catholic ministry. Satan tempted me to believe that if SPIRITUS rejected me, so did God.

It’s easier to say in hindsight, but I know I would have been just fine even if SPIRITUS had rejected me. No matter what I would have ended up doing instead, I’d still be glorifying God by offering my life to Him. Faith assures me that maintaining this humble outlook will only yield abundant grace.

The Giver

Yesterday I went to the Confession, and like most people I was nervous, especially because I didn't know this priest very well.

“Father, forgive me for I have sinned…” and I started going through my laundry list. Suddenly, Father stopped me: “Sam. Say what you just said one more time.”

“I was on my day off, and I used my time by watching my TV shows for six hours on my computer in my room.”

My day off. My time. My TV shows. My computer. My room.

"Pay attention to that word 'my,'" he said. "It seems like you might feel like you have a sense of entitlement – like you think you deserve some time away from doing God’s will; as if the rest of the week is for God, and this portion here is just yours to do with it as you like.”

He was absolutely right. I had separated myself from God for those hours. I had claimed that time for myself, and said, “God, stay out. This is mine.”

Upon further reflection, I realize that I do this all the time. I give this much time to God, and once I’ve checked that obligation off my list, I can go back to “me time”... Don't we all do this? We all say, “Alright God, I went to Mass. I gave you your hour. The rest of Sunday afternoon is mine.” Or… “I prayed grace over my meal, checked that off my list.”

God wants more. God wants everything.

You know, I used to think when I heard this that God is stingy. “God, I can’t give you all my time – What will be left for me!?  I can’t give you all my energy – What will be left for me!?  I can’t give you my whole life – What will be left for me!?”

But God doesn’t want to take away or withhold from us; he wants to give. God's nature is total gift, and that's what he loves to do more than anything else! God doesn’t take our time away from us – he multiplies it! When we give our time to God, he makes it holy, productive, beautiful, glorious. He makes it NEW.

Now, to give our time to God doesn’t mean we need to spend every waking moment in front of the Eucharist (but props to the nuns who do that!) … It means that everything that we do, every conversation we speak, every thought in our mind,… We can give these to God, simply by saying “God, this is for you.” We can give him our joy and our pain. Our health and our sickness.

And when we “offer it up” – when we say, “God, this is for you,” God gives it back to us, and makes it better than before. Because “God will not let himself be outdone in generosity.” (St. Josemaría Escrivá) The more we offer ourselves to him, the more he will give back to us!

I'm as bad as the next guy at "offering it up" – especially when I'm having a bad day. But I find that when I do, God absolutely transforms it and makes it NEW. I invite you – join me in my attempts to give everything I have to God, and constantly offer myself: “Everything I have is for you.”

After all, wouldn't he do the same for us?

Yes. Yes he would.

- Sam
@TheAfroSam
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spiritussam@gmail.com