7QTs on Camp Reunions, Running into People on the El, and Cats on Ottomans

--one--

I've lived in Chicago for 6 1/2 weeks now. Can you believe it!? I hardly can. This has been such a great move for me. It has been so great to be in the city for so many reasons. The weather is getting nice here (it's going to be 60 today!!) and in a very short amount of time it will be nice enough to play on the lake! 

--two--

Tuesday was an AWESOME day for mail. I finally gave in and ordered an Erin Condren Planner and it showed arrived in bright and shining colors along with Shauna Niequist's new devotional!! I am loving the blank spaces in the planner to organize what I need to get done each day and just how colorful and fun it is! I can hardly wait to crack open Shauna's book. I'm waiting to start until I turn 25 next week. 

--three--

When Maggie and I met up when I first moved to Chicago, she said "my favorite thing about camp is that you constantly have friends around no matter where life takes you." Adding truth to her comment, I ran into these two wonderful girls on my way to work on Wednesday. I was lucky enough to have Pria as a camper for three weeks in 2010. I got to know her sister Shreya those three weeks two. It was the perfect start to my Wednesday.

--four--

Wednesday was a day full of CT love. Maggie and the Evoy's organized a CT Chicago alumni reunion. What's great about camp people is that even though I didn't know a lot of the girls that were at the reunion, by the end of the night we were all old friends. We played a game where you won fake points for each phrase from a camp cheer you could work in to normal conversation. Costigan won by a landslide - my favorite was when she exclaimed "Oh a day lay!!!!"

I'm so excited to stay close and connected with these friends I already knew, and even more excited to continue to get to know these new camp friends. We're going to make these reunions a monthly thing. It's going to be so great.

Pathfinders & Braves are best friends. 

--five--

My new boss, Danielle, had a birthday last week and mine is this coming Tuesday. We got out of a staff meeting yesterday, and I made a comment that I was hungry and wanted a snack. Lupe said she thought our Event Service Workers might have had a snack downstairs, so she was going to go check. She came up with a cake! Moral of the story: if you say you want a snack, someone just might show up with a cake. 

--six--

I have this little blue ottoman in my apartment that Kateri has claimed for herself. Doesn't it look like her Cat Throne?

--seven--

I'm really excited about where this project is going and the enthusiasm I've received from readers. Thank you so much to everyone who has responded to the survey with suggestions and to everyone who has shared the initiative. The survey and raffle entry are open through the end of the weekend, so you still have time to make suggestions and share the launch of the project. Check it out here. 

For more Quick Takes, visit This Ain't the Lyceum.

A Great Cloud of Witnesses: A New Project

I truly believe one of the greatest gifts Christ gave us in the Church are the saints. I know I struggle when I try to run after Him alone, but when I have someone cheering alongside me I am encouraged, motivated, and propelled deeper into the Heart of Christ. 

This is definitely one of the reasons why I'm so big on community. This is also one of the reasons why I love Hebrews 12:1 so much:

Since then we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

Man, was I surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses in FOCUS. These incredible people gave up so much to pursue Jesus wholeheartedly. 

FOCUS' mission is on the college campus, but it's real mission is to launch people into lifelong Catholic mission. But now that I'm working in the "real world" (as real as a college campus can be), I really have to ask - what does that even mean? 

I know what it looks like in a Parish, and thanks to the many Catholic mom's that I stalk whose blogs I follow, I think I have an idea of how to do it once I start a family.

But what does life long Catholic mission mean for me as a single 20-something professional young adult? Heck, what does being Catholic even look like as a single-20 something professional young adult?

Honestly, I don't know. I don't have much experience with it, and my cloud of witnesses is looking small.

I know you're out there. You are the warriors, the white martyrs, the saints of tomorrow. You love Jesus with your whole heart, and you inspire your co-workers and your friends to be better people. I want to talk to you, to learn from you, to add you to my cloud. 

And so today, I am very excited to announce my new project: A Great Cloud of Witnesses. 

I will be talking to professional Catholic women that you and I know, and asking them about their faith. After we chat, I will be sharing what I learned here so that we can unite as the one body of Christ and be strengthened in our faith.

This project is meant for us to lift one another up, to inspire one another in our journey towards heaven. It is to remind us that we are not alone as we try to pray and figure out how to honor Jesus in our work. Most of all, it is meant for us to learn from our sisters who are running after Christ.

Before I start, I need your help! What do you want to know from these women? If you could sit down with them for coffee, what would you ask them? What about being a professional Catholic is hard for you?

Who do you know that you admire as a professional, Catholic or Christian woman? I have a list started, but I want our cloud to grow. 

Tell me what you know or who I should talk to by filling out this survey. As a thank you for your assistance, you'll be entered into a raffle to win Shauna Niequist's new devotional, Savor, and a $25 Amazon Gift Card. You can enter the Raffle by tweeting this link to share this project with your friends, and by filling out the survey. 

Please pray for me and for everyone that will be involved as I venture out on this journey. I'm so excited to begin and I pray that together, we will be inspired to run the race that is set out for us.

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The Farewell Colorado Bucket List

The Task: Visit all my favorite Denver/Colorado spots before I move.

The Challenge: I move on Friday and most of my time will be spent wrapping things up at the office and packing up.

Also, I care more about saying goodbye to people than I do saying goodbye to these places. So I'm sure most, if not all, of these places will not be visited. But I'm up for the challenge!

Farewell Colorado Bucket List

Eat at Trattoria Stella. Best. Restaurant. Ever. It's in an adorable old house and it has the best food ever. If you haven't been here, you need to go now!

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Completed 1/8 with my Camp Tecumseh friends.

Appreciate the Mountains. I'd hypothetically like to do something in the mountains, but I don't really know what I want to do in the mountains...so, I just want to appreciate the mountains before I can no longer see them out my window and on my drive to work every day.

As excited as I am for the the train, it won't look as good as this.

Buy Colorado things on 16th Street Mall. The cheesier, the better.

What even is this thing?
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Go to Celestial Seasonings. Definitely got to stock up on the tea's that they don't sell in stores: AKA the extra caffeinated black team. #caffinefordays

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Completed 1/10.

Pray at the Mother Cabrini Shrine. I've actually only been here once, right after I graduated college. But overlooking the mountains and the city with the Sacred Heart of Jesus seems like a good way to end my time here.

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Drink Coffee, Buy a Book, and Write a little at The Book Bar. I'm obsessed with this little place; it's a coffee shop, bar, restaurant, and bookstore all mixed into one.

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Completed 1/12.

Eat with my team at Beau Thai. Delicious Thai food, but more importantly, this place is filled with memories of my team bonding. I'm hoping we'll grab lunch here on Wednesday...actually I'm going to set us a meeting for this now.

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Get take out from Swing Thai. Mary & I recently discovered this thai place around the corner from us and it is so good!

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Completed 1/7 with my roommates.

Eat Beau Jo's Pizza. I mean, just look at that pizza.

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Go to Mass and pray at Basilica Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.

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Completed 1/12 with Lindsay and Sophia.

Bonus Item: Go Skiing. This probably will not happen. But, I've never been, and I'd love to go before I move.

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Well, there it is! What else would you visit before you moved away from Denver?

My Favorite Moments from SLS14

Gosh, what a whirlwind. From Tuesday, December 31 to Wednesday, January 8 I was living the dream as an event planner. SLS14 was incredible and I can hardly believe it's over. Since arriving home on Wednesday I have rested up and I think I finally know what day it is. 

So many incredible things happened at SLS. It's hard to pick just 10. But here's a quick list of moments I wrote down on the plane.

My 10 Favorite SLS Moments

1. The crux of SLS was what we called "Power Sessions." Students were randomly sorted into small groups and were supposed to teach each other the basic tools for evanglization that they learned earlier that day. It could have fallen a part so easily. So watching the Power Session begin to  actually work on Friday night was awesome. Everyone filed in, got into their groups, and figured out who was going to do what for the rest of the week.

2. Okay, great. They got into their groups...but would they actually teach each other? After all of my things were settled Saturday afternoon, I headed down to Marsalis Hall to see how the Power Sessions were going. I was not prepared for what I was about to walk in on. There in that exhibit hall were 1500 students teaching each other how to share and teach the gospel message with others. I was so overwhelmed. I could feel the grace pumping through the room. I teared up and thanked Jesus for these students who were open to learning how to share His love with others.

Image via John Paul Rudolph.

3. Did you know that Pat Lencioni and Matt Maher are good friends? Well, now you do. During the closing session, Pat was talking about Matt, and Curtis interrupted by saying, "Pope Benedict told me never to name drop." Quite the hilarious moment.

Image via EideCom.

4. Christine, Carol, and I went to see the beginning of Dr. Sri's keynote on Saturday. I was unable to sit in on the opening keynote on Friday night, so this was my first time in the main ballroom with all of our attendees. Steve Pries, our emcee, introduced Dr. Sri and the crowd went crazy! The students were standing and cheering - before he gave his talk! It was cool to be in there for that moment knowing I had helped make that happen in my own small way. Carol, who does our speakers and entertainers, loved that moment a lot.

Image via John Paul Rudolph.

5. John Paul let me listen in on the production com and watch production on Monday night during the keynote. It was crazy and fun to hear them count down the keynote and call different camera shots. 

6. While on com, I got to help our emcee, Steve Pries, and Matt Maher sneak into the audience to do an in-house interview before the keynote. It was so fun and the crowd went crazy. 

7. After Curtis keynote Monday night (a lot of these top moments happened Monday...), we launched SEEK 2015. The student's reactions were so great - one jumped up and yelled, "I'M REGISTERING RIGHT NOW!" Christina verified it over the walkie.

8. We ended SLS with series of short talks on what it means to be a Catholic Leader in the world. Pat Lencioni talked about what it actually means to be successful. He told the room full of students that if he had the choice, he would rather his kids grow up to be FOCUS leaders than anything else. It was pretty powerful.

Image via EideCom.

9. The high of SLS: Adoration/Confession night. I loved adoring Jesus from the balcony Sunday night and realizing just what was happening all around us. The incense, the spot lights, the worship band, the procession - it was all beautiful. I was overwhelmed each time the spots would hit Jesus and I would see students weeping. Walking through the ballrooms there were students being prayed over, a packed confession line was overwhelming. In this moment I felt so grateful to be called to this mission with FOCUS. I am so humbled that Jesus has asked me to bring others to Him through these events.

Image via John Paul Rudolph.  

Image via John Paul Rudolph.

10. As SLS drew to a close, all FOCUS leadership starting say that this event is a game changer for FOCUS. My favorite quote came from Jim, my team director from last year. Jim said,

"We will be talking about what FOCUS was like pre-SLS14 and post-SLS14. FOCUS will never be the same after this weekend."

Thank you to everyone who helped make this event possible!

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Thoughts on Receptivity

I've been thinking a lot about the difference between being passive and being receptive lately. 

I'm all about feminism - True feminism, that is. None of this "let's turn women into men" stuff. But I love JPII and theology of the body and religious sisters and women like Helen Alvare who all inspire me to fully embrace my feminine genius.

One of the more basic teachings of femininity, from a TOB standpoint, is that the man is giver and the woman is receiver. It's expressed in our sexuality, it is expressed in Adam's call to shamar, and woman's desire to be pursued. 

Yet the bold, assertive part of me shutters a little bit at this teaching. I don't want to be receptive...the connotation I hear equates receptivity with being passive. I get this image of a helpless woman sitting around for a man to come find her and rescue her on his perfect white horse. And oh gosh, that just makes me want to gag a little bit. I think this shutter and gag reflex is a reflection that this idea of passivity is not what it means to be receptive. 

I looked up the definition of passive because, well it can be confusing when we throw around abstract concepts. So, according to my friend dictionary.com, here we go:

Passive:  [pas-iv] adjective

1. Not participating readily or actively; 

2. Influenced, acted upon, or affected by some external force, cause, or agency

The definition of being passive hits my thoughts right on the head - this implies that we simply sit and do not respond or react to God or others acting upon us in this life. And God does not want this for us at all! He wants us to actively participate in our lives. That is why he gave us free will. If we sit and react (or worse, don't react), we are not growing or becoming who God wants us to be. 

Receptivity, on the other hand, is so opposite of this. There are similarities between the two, sure. But the difference is that receptivity is all about action. Sometimes this action is more subtle and interior, other times this action is big and bold. 

When I think of subtle and interior receptivity, I think of Mary pondering things in her heart. She did not passively allow things to happen to her. She received each moment and thing that her son said to her with grace, and she spent time thinking about it from there. 

About two months ago I went on a retreat with the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. One of the mornings, we ate breakfast with some of the elderly sisters. One of the old nuns sitting by me kept asking me the same questions and telling me the same story over and over again. The receptive response to this sister was to stay engaged with her, actively listen to what she was saying, and to respond with equal enthusiasm. This type of receptivity shows a deep love for the other, as we put ourselves second and respond graciously to their needs and desire to be known. 

When I think of being actively receptive, I think of the Sisters of Life in New York City, receiving pregnant women into their homes and providing for their needs. I think of my teammate from UNL, Martha, and how she cares for and loves on people with her popcorn and good questions about their lives. 

St. Therese of Lisieux received a call from The Lord to be a religious sister at a very young age. She was deeply convicted of this and knew she wanted to give her whole life to Jesus. Yet, she was too young to enter the convent. So instead of sitting around and waiting (which would have been acceptable in this situation), she took what she had received from God and asked her bishop to make an exception so she could enter Carmel in her young age. Mother Teresa of Calcutta did the same when starting the Missionaries of Charity. She had to push and actively work to get permission to get her new religious order started. Without this perseverance and active response to God, these two holy women might not have had the effect on the spirituality of so many people.

The more I ponder the idea of being receptive, the more I realize that that is the kind of woman I want to be. I want to be present to the lives of others. I want to actively listen and show that I care. I want to sit with Jesus each day and take in what He wants me to know. I want to make my decisions and movements based on what he reveals to my heart. I want to humble myself to allow space for others to grow. 

Being receptive means acting and making decisions to follow God. So let's be bold. Let's listen to the Lord and ponder what He says to us in our hearts. Let's respond with grace to the people He has put in our lives. Let's love loudly and actively. Let's be receptive to Christ and to the world around us. 

Read the Gospels or Catechism in a Year

Last year, the good people at Lighthouse Catholic Media, Ignatius Press, and Flocknote put together a project to help Catholics learn more about their faith during the year of faith. This project broke up the Catechism (a book that explains the Catholic Church's teachings) into daily readings and sent them straight to your email inbox each day throughout the year. It was wildly successful.

They're doing it again this year, and adding a study of the gospels. You can join 100k+ people this year in learning about their faith. The new cycle of readings start Sunday, December 8. Sign up, learn more about the faith, and grow in your relationship with Jesus this year.

flocknote.com/gospel

flocknote.com/catechism

I love this project because it is a simple, hassle free tool that can help you achieve a goal and grow spiritually in the process. I want to read the Catechism because, well it's a requirement for FOCUS, but mainly because I want to continue learning about my Catholic faith. If this book, along with the Bible, outlines the basis for everything, why wouldn't I want to read!? If you've ever wanted to know why the Church believes what she does, sign up for the catechism reading. If you want to spend the year learning about Jesus' life, sign up for the gospels. I'm doing the catechism one. Join me in reading?

Pope Francis' First Apostolic Exhortation

It's crunch time here at the FOCUS Events Office. SLS registration ends ONE WEEK FROM TODAY! So things are getting crazy up here in the mountains.

In the meantime, pop on over to the FOCUS Blog & check out Pope Francis' first apostolic exhortation! I will be reading this on my plane ride to KC tomorrow. Look for some of my reflections later in the week!



Pray for our team over the holiday as we wrap of SLS registration!

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How to Pray Like Pope Francis: The examen prayer

When you enter a religious community, you commit to saying certain prayers every day. For the Jesuits, one of those prayers is the Examen Prayer. They pray it twice a day - once at noon and once at the end of the day. And sine Papa F is an every day Jesuit, we know that he prays the examen each day!

Lucky for us, the examen is a very simple prayer. It is all about reflecting on our lives and looking back through our day to see where God was. It teaches us to be more present to God in our every day lives, and it helps us grow in self awareness. Since I started praying an (almost) daily examen, I have had an incredible gift of clarity of how God is working in my life.

St. Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuits, thought the examen was so important that he said if you could only pray one type of prayer in your whole day, this would be it. The examen is a gift of self-awareness, and self-awareness is one of the two basic foundations we need to grow in holiness.

One last great thing about the examen prayer: it only takes about 5 minutes to pray! So go ahead, try it out!

How to Pray the Examen Prayer: Walking Around Your Day

1. Gratitude: I thank God

I tend to make this a litany: Thank You for coffee, the beautiful mountains, my hilarious team, my cat, my roommates, that nice text from my friend, etc.

A litany of thanks works, or you could find a few things and go into greater detail as to why you're thankful for those things. This method of gratitude inclines our hearts towards God and allows us to see why we are grateful for things. This is the one I choose when I'm not being super lazy.

2. Ask For Light: For the grace to see myself as God sees me

Here I simply ask God for the grace to see myself as I truly am; to see myself as His beloved daughter.

3. Look for God in my life: Lord, where have I been for you? What did I do for love? This can be done in feelings or re-experiencing events.

Where did I experience love? When did I choose to love when I could have chosen to be selfish? When did I speak up for Jesus? When was I aware of God during this day?

4. Contrition: Honestly facing what's wrong

Where did I choose selfishness? Where did I ignore God? Where could I have handled a confrontation better? How could I have been more present to The Lord?

5. Resolve: Determine what to do now

After seeing what went well and what didn't go so well, I take a few minutes to talk to Jesus and ask Him what I can do tomorrow to be closer to Him. Sometimes it's as simple as just keep on keepin' on, while other times I make a very concrete resolution on something to do or not to do.

6. Look to the Next Day: Pray through the next 24 hours

I pull out my iPhone, open my calendar app, and pray through all of my meetings and my appointments for that day. I ask God to be with me and ask Him to bless all that is on my plate for the next day.

7. Close: With a Hail Mary or an Our Father

I typically close with Night Prayer, unless it's really late.

So tonight, take five minutes and ask Jesus to walk through your day with you. You'll be joining the ranks of St. Ignatius, St. Francis Xavier, and Pope Francis if you do.

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7 Quick Takes: Delight, Fall, & Christmas Music in October [4]

--- 1 ---

Last Saturday my friend Holly and I went to the Colorado Ballet to see their performance of Giselle. The dancers were beautiful and so impressive, even though the story was a little weird. My favorite part of the whole experience was the old man sitting a seat away from us. He stinkin' loved the ballet. When the dancers would do something particularly impressive he would cry out, "bravo!" We would hear him say things like, "beautiful!" "oh wow!" and "wonderful, just wonderful!" My personal favorite was when he exclaimed, "Ah! I'll be damned!!" after a particularly impressive lift (seriously - Giselle was 100% above the man's head and completely flat. They did this like 3 times). 

Although this man's exclamations were cute, I really appreciated how much he delighted in the whole experience. He was not afraid to show his appreciation for the art and he was real in how he expressed it. It made me think deeper about the concept of delighting in something beautiful and how God delights in us.

--- 2 ---

On Wednesday, I mentioned that I really like The Walking Dead and other things about Zombies. And that's weird for me. But...I find it fascinating to think about. Maybe my brain is weird, but when I watch/read things about post-apocalyptic societies (like The Hunger Games or The Walking Dead or even Harry Potter), I always think about where would God or the Catholic Church be if this was reality. Like, what if you really had to live on the run in fear that Zombies would attack you!? And that was your everyday reality? How would that effect your view of Jesus? Hard for me to fathom...but I always think about it. Last year when I first encountered the Walking Dead we would have some sweet conversations about the morality of killing Zombies and what the Church would teach. I think those conversations were what got me hooked on the show.

--- 3 ---

October has been all about birthdays and celebrations in our office. Carol and Christina both had birthday, and Oct. 16 was boss' day. Our team does celebrations right...Thai Food, drinks, pink sparkly crowns, baked goods, and decorations. Maybe because we're all event planners.

--- 4 ---

Last weekend, Carol and I hosted the first of our (hopefully monthly) parties: FALL DAY. This day was just so much fun! We started at the pumpkin patch, came home for dinner (Carol & I made butternut squash mac & cheese), played a riveting round of Things, and ended the night with a great discussion about the first time we all said "I love you" back to Jesus.

--- 5 ---

UNL had fall break this week and a few of the missionaries and students came out to Colorado. While the group went up into the mountains on Monday, I snagged my good friend Emily for the day. Emily is my mentee on staff and oh my gosh I just love her. She has an incredible story about how she ended up as an affiliate missionary at UNL for the year. It was so great to be with her in person and just be friends. We talked for hours about the things that are going on in our lives, and had our formal mentorship in person for the first time. I am so honored that she has asked me to guide her in her journey as a missionary.

Emily came into the office with me so she could see FOCUS Headquarters and talk to her Regional Director for a bit. We were asked by almost everyone that we met, "Are you two sisters!?" A few even did double takes because they thought she was me.

Last year my teammate Logan insisted that I was identical twins with Caitlin (a student at UNL last year and now a FOCUS intern at UNL).

We didn't see it. However, at the beginning of this year I received this text:

Logan had finally figured it out. My roommate, Melissa, confirmed this assumption when she told me Emily & I had the exact same mannerisms. We'll just have to get a picture of the three of us and see what happens.

--- 6 ---

Next week Carol & I are going to a Christian Conference Planners Conference to meet with vendors, learn more professional skills, and hang out in Florida. I'm excited to get a deeper look into what it means to be a professional event planner and to bring back everything I learn to further the mission of FOCUS through events.

I will say, these vendors are insane. Look at this invitation to dinner that I got yesterday:

SO FUN, right!? But I want to know how many people they sent these to and was it really worth the $8.75 shipping cost!?

--- 7 ---

So I may or may not have listened to Christmas music in the office on Wednesday. I had Let It Snow! stuck in my head, so I decided that was fine because it's not technically a Christmas song. Then the Glee Christmas Album showed up on Spotify and it was all over from there...People had some fierce opinions on the matter:

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Zombies, Community, and Stuff

Monday night I went to my first Denver Catholic Young Adult Event. I had been interested in going, but for some reason, I just hadn't made the effort to go out. However, when I heard that two of my favorite podcasters would be speaking at Theology on Tap about ZOMBIES, I knew I had to go. Why?

1. Fr. John & Deacon Nathan are hilarious. They are the main podcasters of Catholic Stuff You Should Know. Basically a podcast where they just chat about random, sweet, Catholic stuff. It's usually very insightful and they typically blow my mind with all the things they tell us.

2. ZOMBIES. I never, ever, in a million years, thought I would be into Zombie things....like Zombieland and The Walking Dead. But oh my gosh what a great movie and a great show.

3. The talk was titled "Zombies and the Thirst For Communion," so I assumed it was about the Eucharist. Which...I was wrong.

4. Jesus & zombie shows have been the base of some of my new friendships out here in Colorado (weird, I know). So we all just knew we had to go together. And obviously end the night with some Walking Dead.

In typical CSYSK fashion, this was not what I was expecting. The basic gist of the talk was that Deacon Nathan was watching The Walking Dead and after he went outside and realized how alone you would feel if your whole life was simply about survival. You would feel alone because you wouldn't have anyone to really communicate yourself to. They then talked about true friendship and how we are made for communion with God and communion with others.

We have a desire to know and be known. This can only be fulfilled by Jesus, and Jesus was all about being incarnate, in the flesh (can anyone say Eucharist!?). He created us for community with others so that we can be known and really understood. Community is about getting deep and real into the lives of others so you can support each other and build one another up.

One of my favorite things that Fr. John said was that this so called Young Adult Community is not a community. We don't have the capacity to be in true communion with the hundreds of fellow believers that are around us. But we do have the capacity to know and be known by a few. We need to invest ourselves in a few people and very intentional with them.

If you feel alone in your pursuit of Christ and you feel as if you are not really being known, there is hope. We can look to Jesus and model what he did with community. He was open and available to all, but He closely invested in 12, and then built up 3 even more within that 12. He had a core community that He was intentional with, He connected them to each other, and He worked to build them up so when He was gone they could be sent out. He did this by praying with them and living His ordinary, every day life with them for three years.

We can do this too. 

We can be intentional, like getting together with a friend or a small group each week and share where we are at with Jesus and our faith. If you don't have friends in your area that can support you in this, you have the ability to build. Gather some peers, open the Bible, and dive into who Jesus is to each of you. Be intentional about fostering and maintaining the relationships that you do have - especially the ones that lead you closer to Jesus.

I love that FOCUS does this each day on the college campus. Missionaries and students are being intentional about having a community that builds them up - people who they can be known with. At the same time they are being intentional about being that for someone else in their lives. This model of close, connected living is changing lives, changing The Church, and changing the world. It is so beautiful because it is so simple.

Fr. John ended the night by saying, "We have to change the way we're living if we want to become saints. Otherwise we'll just become zombies."

This week, I'm being intentional about being open with my friends about where I really am at with Jesus. I am grateful for my friends here in Colorado and all across the country who help me connect to Jesus, and for those I can be an agent of communion to.