Believe in WHAT?!

Courage.

Such a noble virtue.

A virtue that we attach to brave, strong men, warriors, protectors, defenders of Faith and Family.
A virtue we also attach to strong, resilient women. Those women that many times go it alone. Those women that sacrifice it all for their children and homes. Those that do it all.

Courage is also a virtue which is quite needed today to practice our Faith.

Being called a bigot, racist, narrow-minded, old-fashioned, intolerant, a hater, and a whole slew of not-so-nice words are par for the course for active, practicing Christians. Yes, Catholics are Christian, let’s just get that out of the way 😉

Besides the obvious reasons one needs to be courageous to practice our Faith, e.g. giving a voice to the voiceless, defending the sanctity of marriage, and loving our brothers and sisters enough to not follow the bullying beliefs that are leaving us all so confused about our identities, there is the ever glaring courage to believe in that which one cannot see!

Most of us, when asked why we are Catholic, respond with a long pause, then we go into an explanation of how are family is Catholic therefore we are as well.
OR, those of you that are better versed may say because we believe in God, or that we have faith in God, or any number of explanations about divinity, beauty and truth.

But how many of us will say, point blank, that we Believe in a God that is Invisible? That we cannot see Him, we cannot touch Him, we cannot hear Him, but that He is there…

An explanation like that may make us sound a bit loony, I will be the first to admit it, but it does not change the Fact that it is True!

God knows everything, He knows everyone, for He created everything and everyone. There is not one single solitary thing that He does not know or see. Scary, huh?
And just because our finite minds are unable to grasp that which seems impossible, like I said, does not change the fact that it is true.
We have to be willing to accept the “challenge of belief [… and] step outside the confines of our senses and […] grasp, on some level, this truth that we cannot see or hear or hold” (Mother Angelica).

How? How do we obtain this belief? Well, Mother Angelica would at this point congratulate you and say that the mere fact that you are asking questions and seeking knowledge demonstrates that you possess that which you are seeking…Faith.

You see, faith is a gift. A gift from God which we can choose to accept or reject.

It is a scary gift. Terrifying, really, therefore we must ask for the courage to accept it. The courage to live with faith. The best part is, you get to be a rebel, completely counter-cultural!

I want to share with you an awesome quote from Mother Angelica:

Our understanding of youth is broadened when we see teenage rebellion as the raw, unbridled search for the extraordinary amid the ordinary.

When I think of rebellious, I tend to think of teens. They, for some reason, seem to go hand in hand 😉
And this quote made me stop and smile. It gave me the reason for my love of working with youth. I was barely past my teens when I began working in Youth Ministry and every since then, working with our youth has been my passion. One that I sadly am not able to always enjoy, but nevertheless, my passion.
Having read the above made it clear to me why. Our youth dream. Our youth visualize the impossible. They reach out for the unattainable. They are unstoppable.
And why are they so restless?

You know where I am going with the whole restless thing, don’t you…

That restlessness, that thirst, these are signs of God’s existence and His love for you, for you and for me!

For as St. Augustine said: