The hands and feet of Jesus

When I was at NCYC, I was given a poster with the following quote by Teresa of Avila:

"Christ has no body but yours, 

No hands, no feet on earth but yours, 

Yours are the eyes with which He looks Compassion on this world, 

Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good, 

Yours are the hands, with which He blesses all the world. 

Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, Yours are the eyes, 

You are His body."

I came across this quote again a little while back. People often say "Let Christ shine through you," most of us when we hear that think "don't do this, don't do that, be a good little Christian, What would Jesus do?, etc." And most of us cut off after "don't do..." cause nobody likes to be told not to do something or being told what to do in general.

About a week ago I was on a mission trip in Hastings, Michigan. Before my group left, we had our hands and feet blessed with holy water and were told to be the hands and feet of Jesus. While we were there, it was powerful how much of an impact our actions made on the town and on the residents whose homes we were repairing.

I was working on a home with six other people and we scraped and repainted a house. Our resident and her family were so grateful and it was so great to be able to help them! This was my 3rd mission trip, but I will never get tired of seeing the smiles that come from sharing God's love. :) It is is so great to know that you're making an impact on someone's life and the you are able to share God in the process. :)

God bless you all! Never be afraid to show Jesus to someone. You never know who may need Him right at that moment<3

Steubie Changed my life once again

Hi everyone. :) I hope your summer has been going well. Mine has been pretty crazy so far! The last weekend in June, my youth group and I went to a Steubenville Youth Conference, it was AWESOME!!! It's pretty awesome seeing 2,300 teens praising the Lord with all their hearts! there's just so much passion and love and faith in the air that you just wanna sing! Praise and worship is absolutely incredible! I love the music they play and the energy is just amazing! Our speakers this year were really great too! Father Dave Pivonka, Deacon Ralph Poyo, Sarah Swafford, Bob Rice, Chris Padgett and the Awesome LEAD people who gave their witness. Fr. Dave talked about how Jesus comes to Us, He died on that cross for Us, that Jesus loves Us. Deacon Ralph talked about our chains that weigh us down and keep us from God and how confession takes away those chains, that there is healing in God. Sarah Swafford talked about the crowds on Palm Sunday that shouted "Hosanna!" were the same crowd that shouted "Barabbas" on Good Friday and that during the conference, it's like Palm Sunday, are we going to go with the crowd or against it after the conference? One of the LEAD witnesses I really remember and really hit me was by a guy name Daniel. Daniel talked about how he'd never really felt anything during prayer and so he prayed about it and the number 100 came to him. He realized that God wanted him to give 100% in prayer, not 99.9%, but 100%. His witness really spoke to me and really inspired me to work harder to give God my 100%.

During the conference we also spent a lot of time in adoration. Adoration is my favorite way to pray because Jesus is right there, physically in front of us! It's a very powerful experience.
Every time I spend time in Adoration, something in me changes. On Saturday night, The priest (Fr. Dave) brought the monstrance around the field house. He brought Jesus up every isle. It is absolutely amazing, you can literally feel His presence! During that time I did some major praying and contemplating. Lately my prayer life has been, well, pitiful. I lacked the devotion I felt empty and I was upset. Ever since I left Steubenville, I've wanted to fix my prayer life, or, more like create a prayer life. I decided to do that by opening The book, The Bible. I just kinda opened it, letting God turn the pages for me, And I found this: Psalm 13:1-6

"How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

How long must I take counsel in my soul

and have sorrow in my heart all the day?

How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

  Consider and answer me, O Lord my God;

light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,

  lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”

lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

But I have trusted in your steadfast love;

my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

I will sing to the Lord,

because he has dealt bountifully with me."

God is good! He took how I had been feeling and was able to give me peace. I'm not perfect, I make mistakes, but He's still there, walking me through the day, step by step. 

God bless! Thank you for reading!