Hey there! Peace be with you!

I have some very exciting updates this week! Last Friday, the College of St. Mary's missionaries hosted a Barn Dance out in Wahoo, Nebraska. We combined schools, and even got students and missionaries from Benedictine College and UNL. There were about 100 people there and it was a wonderful night of swing dancing, line dancing, and just good old fashion fun.
My heart was personally touched that night by one particular student who came with us. She met us during freshman move-in and still had no idea we were all Catholic missionaries! She finally had the chance to come and spend some time with us, so she carpooled out with myself, another missionary and another student. As we're driving and talking, she comes to find out that we are Catholic missionaries and that this is a FOCUS event (probably because all of my stories start with "so the other day at daily mass"). We had no idea what her faith background was, but she was so open to chatting with us about what we do, and about different things in life. It was so beautiful to see a young person be so open to such a radically different way of life and belief from the rest of society!
We as the missionaries came to find out that she doesn't even listen to country music OR know how to dance, but she said yes anyway! How beautiful that God put a small whisper in her heart to just say yes to put herself in a situation she would NEVER have imagined she would be in! This young woman had an AMAZING time with us that night, and she even opened up and shared more about herself throughout the night. I praise God for this blessed opportunity to get to know a student that He just placed in our laps to minister to in a rare and beautiful way! She is so excited about knowing us and has expressed interest in spending more time together. Praise the LORD!

Also, this week bible studies are all kicking off! I personally had my first one on Tuesday and it was a great success. God really blessed our time together and the Holy Spirit was moving! The girls took a night to really get to know each other and began to open up in friendship. I can't wait to see the fruits God brings in these girls lives!

Finally, I would like to share a beautiful meditation I heard the other day from Fr. Mike Schmitz on his online podcasts. He was talking about the saints, and how the biggest virtue the saints had across the board was unfailing trust in God. So much of the time, we want to know the entire plan for our lives RIGHT NOW!! I mean, how much easier would it be to plan, make decisions, act in one way or another, if only we KNEW what was going to happen!!! Right?? Why won't God just TELL us!
Well! Who are YOU that you're so special that God should tell you His whole plan?? :) Okay just kidding, that was harsh. But seriously. Let's go to His Word to look at how God reveals his plan to some of the Big Bosses in the bible!
First, Mary. What a beautiful story when the angel comes to Mary, he presents the amazing mission God has for her, and once Gabriel has received Mary's YES and has presented to her the next step in her mission, guess what. HE LEAVES! WHAT?! He just disappears!!! That's it. Mary is left to just trust in the Lord and the rest of His plan! She doesn't get a whole plan from Gabriel that says "OK, Joseph is going to freak out, but don't worry God's got it, OH! and Herod is going to try to kill your baby, but don't worry, God's got your back, oh, and you'll lose Jesus when he's a little older, but you can find him in the temple teaching the older dudes." NO! Mary received her mission, she received her next step (carrying Christ in her womb), and then BOOM, the guy's gone. This is the MOTHER OF GOD we're talking about here, and she got next to NOTHING in what the entire, detailed plan was! She, in her great humility and love for God, trusted the plan and mission she had been given and didn't push God to give her anymore. She lived day to day, encounter to encounter, but it says she "pondered these things in her heart" which means she held this promise from God in her heart. Even when I'm sure Mary experienced stress or desolation, she REMEMBERED what the angel had told her, and then she just held on to that gift she'd been given!
Let's move briefly on to Paul! He went through the exact same thing. He was knocked off his horse, given a reprimanding, a MISSION, and then the next step! Paul was told to go to Damascus and find someone, and that's IT! He was even blinded and God never said "Don't worry, I will heal that." Nope, Paul just had to trust, and follow the mission and the next step. He accepted it in his heart, and then went out to fulfill it.

So many times, when things are tough and we feel like we're swimming in the darkness, we tend to forget that which we were convinced of in the light. We forget God's love, his promise, and our own conviction that we believed these things to be true! We start to doubt, and it becomes harder to stick to what we had once resolved to do or change because we don't hold in our hearts those times that God has pulled us close to his heart and allowed us to radically feel his love and mercy. What would happen if we constantly, on a daily basis, kept that in our hearts! Oh how our lives would be transformed and our world would be transformed if only we could trust God, and ALWAYS believe in the darkness that which we were convinced of in the light!

God Bless and Agape friends,
Monica! :)

Hello!

I am so sorry that I have not updated in a couple of weeks! We've had so much going on but finally we are starting to wind down into a less crazy schedule!

I wanted to share just a bit of what we're doing. The team has met a lot of people. At the clubs and organizations fair during welcome week, we had a booth. We came with 500 free cups, stuffed them full of MAVCatholic info (campus ministry) and we also had about 1000 freezie pops. Within an hour, they were all GONE! How amazing is that?! We got all this information into so many hands and we got so many numbers and emails of young adults who are interested in getting involved! Even Fr. Taphorn made his way out onto campus and was handing out freezie pops and cups with "living water" in them!!! ;)

I'd like to tell a specific story that has personally touched my heart. We got an email of a student from our community college who wanted to get involved. I contacted her and we met up for coffee. This student was so sweet and amazingly open and excited to get involved and to learn! She shared with me a lot about where she was in life and I felt so blessed to be able to listen to her and offer her a place to go! We even got into a beautiful discussion about emotional chastity, and how women tend to waste a lot of time daydreaming about men who they aren't even having a relationship with. She looked at me stunned and said "Monica, my mind is blown!" She was just soaking up the info like a sponge! I was so excited to see how much she is seeking truth in her life and how she knows she can find it through Jesus.

She is going to be starting in my new bible study of freshman girls and I am so excited to see her progress throughout this year! This particular girl was such a blessing that week and I praise God that she found our group and is getting involved! :)

The team is doing great, we're getting a little worn out so please keep us in your prayers! We're trying to re-gear up for this next stage of the semester!



I would like to leave you with a small thing to meditate on in your own spiritual lives and prayer times. I've been reading St. Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologica. In his argument about the existence of God, he defends why there is evil in the world, if in fact God is all Good and infinite.
 He says this:
"As Augustine says: 'Since God is the highest good, He would not allow any evil to exist in His works, unless His omnipotence and goodness were such as to bring good even out of evil.'  This is part of the infinate goodness of God, that He should allow evil to exist, and out of it produce good."

Chew on THAT one for a while! I love it!

Agape and you're all in my prayers!
Monica