Be nice. Work Hard.

My friends Ryan and Sarah O'Connor are two of the most inspiring people that I know-- they are both dedicated teachers at St. Rose of Lima school in Denver, and constant reminders to me of what is truly important in life. I just read their latest blog about their students and their dreams for them, and had to share it.

In this latest blog Ryan and Sarah write about one of their biggest heroes, Rafe Esquith. I've just spent some time on his website & all I can say is that you have to check out this man and his students' website. If you have ever wondered if one person can change the world, just check out this story. It is truly amazing.

Year after year, The Hobart Shakespeareans excel. They read passionately, far above their grade level; tackle algebra, and stage Shakespeare so professionally that they often wow the great Shakespearean actor himself, Sir Ian McKellen.

Yet this takes place in Room 56, at a large urban public elementary school. All of the children at Hobart Elementary School qualify for free breakfast and lunch, and few speak English as a first language. Many are from poor or troubled families.

What's the winning recipe? A diet of intensive learning mixed with a lot of kindness and fun. These children come to school at 6:30 a.m. and often stay until it is dark. They come during vacation. They take field trips all over the world. They play rock and roll music. Mediocrity has no place in their classroom. And the results follow them for life, as they go on to outstanding colleges.

It is not easy, but these children dare to defy society's expectations. These kids are hungry, and they want out. They work their way out. After all, there are no shortcuts.

major league

This week is my dad's "dream come true/60th birthday gift week" at the Cleveland Indians Fantasy Camp in Winterhaven, Florida. My mom reports that he is having the time of his life!!
We've been having fun following his team (under 'smoke signals') and hope they get a win soon :-)

Have fun Dad!!!!!!!!!

the authority of love

I had a day today that I will not forget for a long time. God's grace was so abundant, and the message was so clear-- our God is a God of life. It's hard to capture all of the joy of this day in words, but I do want to share a few glimpses of how God has been moving in my heart today.

Maggie's Place is a home for expectant mothers who are in need of all of the support that's needed to give birth to and raise a child. Maggie's Place was started by a few young women in their early 20's who felt God placing the invitation on their hearts. Tonight as I watched their Christmas video I was so overwhelmed with joy to see the faces of many, many beautiful children and mothers whose lives have been forever shaped by the "yes" of these women. This is true joy!

"How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love and we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts. Jesus gave even His life to love us. So, the mother who is thinking of abortion, should be helped to love, that is, to give until it hurts her plans, or her free time, to respect the life of her child. The father of that child, whoever he is, must also give until it hurts." -Mother Teresa

Another Maggie that is close to my heart is my blogging friend Gwen's baby Maggie, who was recently adopted from China. Pray for this little angel, and for her beautiful family! Gwen is truly a saint, and remains in my prayers each day. I am so inspired by her heroic love for her children, and by her great faith. Although we've never met, she is a sister in Christ and I just encourage you to stop by her blog (especially to watch the video "Maggie's Journey" on the right.) This is love-- the sacrifice of one's life for another. It doesn't get more beautiful than this.

"I will tell you something beautiful. We are fighting abortion by adoption - by care of the mother and adoption for her baby. We have saved thousands of lives. We have sent word to the clinics, to the hospitals and police stations: "Please don't destroy the child; we will take the child." So we always have someone tell the mothers in trouble: "Come, we will take care of you, we will get a home for your child." ... Jesus said. "Anyone who receives a child in my name, receives me." By adopting a child, these couples receive Jesus..." - Mother Teresa

Another gift from God today was learning about the John Paul II Life Center that is a Catholic-based health care center serving the women and children of Austin, Texas. I am so excited to learn of such a place, if it's God's will, I hope to be able to spend some time there maybe even this summer. God is so good.

"The child is God's gift to the family. Each child is created in the special image and likeness of God for greater things - to love and to be loved. In this year of the family we must bring the child back to the center of our care and concern. This is the only way that our world can survive because our children are the only hope for the future." -Mother Teresa

Next, God worked in an amazing way on a retreat in December, and I learned of a man named Fr. Rick Frechette who is a missionary priest and doctor in Haiti. You have to check out the link. Fr. Rick has led the building of an orphanage and children's hospital in Haiti, and I am so inspired by this man. I haven't had the chance to share this yet, but over spring break a group of 7 of us from Pitt med school will be going to Haiti & are planning to spend time with Fr. Rick. Please pray for us, that God will change, open and grow our hearts during this time, and that we would be open to His will.

"We are touching the body of Christ and we are always in his presence. You too must bring that presence of God into your family, for the family that prays together, stays together. There is so much hatred, so much misery, and we with our prayer, with our sacrifice, are beginning at home. Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do, but how much love we put into what we do." - Mother Teresa

Today I received a return phone call from Sr. Bernadette, who is a Sister of Life. The Sisters of Life are a religious community dedicated to the protection and enhancement of the sacredness of all human life. The sisters have such a beautiful and vital ministry, and I am so excited that they invite lay men and women to consider joining them as co-workers who "share their talents, time and their very self in service to pregnant women in need."

What can co-workers do? "Women with the “Heart of Mary” offer friendship and availability to pregnant women in need while families and single women open their homes as Holy Respites. Men put their gifts towards projects like moving furniture and building cribs or in mentoring the father of the baby in learning to support the mother of his child. Spiritual Leaders, Business Professionals, Medical Doctors, Counselors and Lawyers assist with their services, while throughout the country, College and University contacts help with placement and transfer credits for vulnerable pregnant women." If you are interested in learning more, just check out their website & be prepared to be inspired!

Today I also received an e-mail from Dr. Jim Withers who in the early 90's started an outreach program here in Pittsburgh for people who are homeless called Operation Safety Net. Dr. Withers is someone I greatly admire, and he also let me know of a new free health clinic recently opened here by Catholic Charities. I've been praying for good and holy mentors, and look forward to meeting and learning from this man. God is so good.

"I want you to find the poor here, right in your own home first. And begin love there. Be that good news to your own people first. And find out about your next door neighbors. Do you know who they are? "- Mother Teresa

Just as I was wondering how one day could be full of so much grace, I talked to my best friend Katie who told me a sweet story. Last night before bedtime Katie asked her two year old daughter Abby if there was anyone she wanted to pray for and Abby said, "Cole." It's so fitting to me that the prayers of a little child would bring such tremendous blessings.

Tuesday is the 35th anniversary of the legalization of abortion in our country. To prepare for this day I invite you all to read Mother Teresa's speech given at the National Prayer Breakfast on February 3rd, 1994. (The above quotes from her on this post come from that speech.) This is not political-- this is her life's testimony. She, the one who loved until it hurt, speaks with authority not because she asks for it, but because she never asked a person to do something that she was not willing to do herself. That is why this is not a lecture-- this is a woman speaking the Truth in love. Consider carefully these testimonies for true authority (in my opinion) is directly proportional to such sacrifices made with unconditional love. (Hence, the cross.)

"America needs no words from me to see how your decision in Roe v. Wade has deformed a great nation. The so-called right to abortion has pitted mothers against their children and women against men. It has sown violence and discord at the heart of the most intimate human relationships. It has aggravated the derogation of the father's role in an increasingly fatherless society. It has portrayed the greatest of gifts -- a child -- as a competitor, an intrusion, and an inconvenience...

Human rights are not a privilege conferred by government. They are every human being's entitlement by virtue of his humanity. The right to life does not depend, and must not be declared to be contingent, on the pleasure of anyone else, not even a parent or a sovereign." -- Mother Teresa

God bless you all,

love,
nicole

ordinary time

After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: "This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel." As he passed by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea; they were fishermen. Jesus said to them, "Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men." Then they abandoned their nets and followed him. He walked along a little farther and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They too were in a boat mending their nets. Then he called them. So they left their father Zebedee in the boat along with the hired men and followed him. - Mark 1: 15-21

Today (the day after the feast of the baptism of Jesus) begins the Church's season of "ordinary time". I am excited because this, for me, is when the rubber hits the road. Christmas has passed, and now we're called to live into the day-to-day reality of the miracle that we have just celebrated: God is with us-- and calls us to holiness within, not despite, our humanity.

The Gospel today says it so clearly... the time is now to follow Him. Andrew and Simon (Peter), James and John are living their ordinary lives doing their ordinary day to day things when Jesus walks towards them on the Sea of Galilee. No angels announce his arrival, no star lights the way overhead. Jesus simply comes to them, right where they are in the midst of their lives, with the simple, life-altering invitation that is anything but ordinary... 'Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.'

A reflection I read today by Eileen Burke Sullivan (I definitely recommend reading the whole thing) explains it so well--

"One of the earliest and most persistent heresies within Christianity is the exclusive focus on Jesus’ divinity. It is precisely within his human nature that Jesus is able to save the created order. It is the human Jesus that the fishermen are called to follow... Not in some ideal future, rather we are called now, in the midst of fishing, or teaching, or at the market, or in the operating or board room to become the disciple who assists in disclosing the reign of God already unleashed within humanity. ... (If) we take up the Gospel and hear the human Jesus ask us to drop everything to follow him now in our current situation, today is the first day of... God’s reign in our ordinary life in this New Year."

God calls the most ordinary people doing the most ordinary things to a life that's anything but ordinary. Why? Perhaps it's in the ordinary moments of our lives when we are most real, and most likely to give Him an honest answer.

One last thought-- I also just learned that the term ordinary in this case does not mean common or plain, but is derived from the term ordinal or "numbered." So happy ordinary time. Let's not just count the days, but make the days count...

should have been a cowboy...

My brother Ryan was in Nashville for New Year's, and started off the year with a few purchases he's been waiting a long time for...

"You don't find the right cowboy hat... it finds you." -Ryan

"... disguised as our life..."

I read a quote in my mom's most recent copy of St. Anthony Messenger the other day that I has stuck with me since I read it~

"God comes to us disguised as our life" -Paula D'Arcy

Tomorrow, January 2nd, is the birthday of Saint Therese, and tonight I read something about her that reminds me so much of this quote. The story is about her Christmas conversion at age 14 after she realizes that she will no longer be receiving gifts in her shoe on Christmas Eve. The point of the article isn't the magnitude of the conversion (it changed her whole life and as a result the life of the Church), but that the incident that sparks this conversion seems so insignificant and small. As the author of the article writes:

Thérèse would probably have agreed that the whole incident seemed small. For her that was the big deal. All the events recounted in her life were small. They were middle class, and seemingly insignificant. They were a “big deal” because Thérèse realized God himself was working his miracle of grace through the little everyday events of a very ordinary life. Thérèse recognized that in the midst of a 14-year-old girl making a step toward maturity, God’s grace was thundering through.

This enlightenment, and the spiritual theology that flowed from it, transformed the Catholic Church and brought Thérèse the status not only of being the greatest saint of her time, but eventually being named a Doctor of the Church.

If God was working out his purpose in the midst of an ordinary girl’s family life and growth, then God’s work was just as constant and ubiquitous in the lives of all those who simply trusted him and obeyed the promptings of his love.

That Thérèse’s conversion was a “Christmas conversion” is not simply a sentimental touch weaving in Christmas and presents and children. That it was a “Christmas conversion” has a deeper meaning, for Thérèse’s lesson that the grace of God is constantly at work within the nitty gritty of everyday life is the lesson at the heart of Christmas itself.

The poet Henry Vaughn wrote, “Here in dust and dirt, O here, the lilies of his Love appear.”

The realization that God is working his purpose out within the dust and dirt of ordinary life is the message of Thérèse.

It is also the message at the heart of the Christmas story, for there in the ordinary, warm earthiness of a stable God is born. There within the most ordinary event — a mother and a birth — new life comes to earth.

It's also interesting to me that I found this reflection tonight because it resonates with many thoughts and feelings I had as I was able to spend the past two days with my good friends Candace and Nate, and their young daughters Grace and Gemma. It's hard to capture in words the beauty of these two as they live out their vocation of marriage and family life, but as I spend time with them, and with their neighbors and good friends Matt and Mary, I witness the joy that Jesus speaks of in the beatitudes. My own heart grows as God comes to me through the lives of these beautiful people!

Candace and Mary are both pregnant with their third child & it was especially meaningful to welcome the new year with them because my saint for the year ahead is Angela Merici, and my intention is to pray for mothers. Candace and Mary, you are both such loving mothers and examples of true beauty. Your hearts are a gift to this world, and I can't tell you how grateful I am for your example in my life! I love also that today is the feast of Mary, the Mother of God, the mother who GK Chesterton said "grows more beautiful as new generations rise up and call her blessed." As I pray for you and for all moms this year I will pray that she will always be your guide for mothering the little ones that God entrusts to you. Thank you again, and God bless you all in this new year!

candace, mary, nate and matt
it was an honor to celebrate the new year year with such amazing people!

our yummy new year's eve fondue