Author: Danielle Lape

This Thanksgiving I am extremely grateful to God for all the blessings He’s bestowed upon in my life. As a sign of gratitude I made this prayer for Him.

Thank You, Lord for loving me through and through and for allowing me to witness first-hand what life is like with You in the centre of it.

Almighty Father,

Thank you. Thank you for the gift of life. For giving me another day to live, to love, and to experience your never-ending mercy and grace. Thank you for blessing me with a great family; people who continuously makes sacrifices for me and who is willing to take care of me no matter what.
Thank You for the blessing of friendship(s). For journey partners who are accountable to me and for friends who care about my sanctity and in bringing me to Heaven with them.
Thank You for the blessing of employment. I am so grateful to have a job so that I can earn and make a living for myself. Most especially in paying for my student loans (haha).
I also thank You for my health. For my beating heart, working arms, legs, hands and feet. Thank You for the ability to hear, to see, to smell, to taste and to speak. Not everyone has the opportunity to do these things which is why it is a great blessing to do just that.
Thank You God for the community of CFC, Couples for Christ. Through this community I have been able to learn how important the family is and and how essential it is to building a happier, more joyful and whole world.
And lastly, thank You Father for the gift of faith. Thank You for always meeting me where I am and for fighting for my salvation. 

Amen.

For the past several weeks I have come to realize how amazing adoration is and can be.

Growing up, my parents always encouraged my siblings and I to have a stable and consistent prayer life. They’d bring us to mass every Sunday, would lead us into praying the rosary before we went to bed, and would often bring us to a chapel whenever they could. Unfortunately I did not appreciate these efforts enough or as much as I should have. In fact, I often protested from doing any of these things. Looking back now, I am ashamed that I even felt this towards prayer because of how much I have fallen in love with prayer now and that is all thanks to my weekly #dateswithJesus in adoration.

Every week I now make it a point to go to adoration. It amazes me that its taken me so long to finally have a consistent time with God scheduled in this way but nonetheless, I am happy that I am finally doing it.

If I were describe how I feel before I step into a chapel I would say that I feel joyful. Joyful because I know that I get to spend the next few minutes or hours with the Lord in such an intimate way. In this time, the Lord and I are able to spend time together away from any distractions or from the chaos of the world. As someone who gets distracted easy and has a hard time sitting still, I love how calm ANY chapel is. Whether you go to a small chapel that can sit only a handful of people or in a space that is able to sit hundreds of individuals , the stillness is all the same. It definitely makes my time with God more peaceful.

I love how at home my heart feels whenever I sit in front of the Blessed Sacrament too. It’s as if when I stare at Him, He is staring back at me with eyes full of love and is welcoming me with His arms stretched wide, waiting to give me a hug. I also feel like I can be 100% me and be vulnerable with God as well. This in turn allows me to feel so safe. There are not many places where I am able to feel this way which is why I appreciate the chapel so much. Lastly, I know that I can be fully open with God. That I can have a simple conversation with Him, telling Him how my day was or the struggles I have been going through the past week. Whatever our conversation may be, I am affirmed that God wants nothing more than my presence in the room. He does not demand anything from me or expects me to say much. It’s surely an overwhelming but beautiful experience every time I step into a chapel.

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With all this said and done, in some crazy but wonderful way, going to adoration weekly has allowed me to fall in love with God more. Maybe it’s because of the beauty of the chapels or the peace I feel when I’m there in the quiet space, or simply the intimate time I get to spend with God alone. Whatever it may be I can definitely say that adoration has slowly changed my mind on prayer and has calmed my heart so that it can be more in tune with His.

I pray that whomever is reading this, that you go to adoration. Go NOW! Go see for yourself the exact beauty I am talking about. I promise you that will not be disappointed. Please experience the wonders of it all for yourself. It will be a great gift you can give to yourself.

“If we but paused for a moment to consider attentively what takes place in this Sacrament, I am sure that the thought of Christ’s love for us would transform the coldness of our hearts into a fire of love and gratitude.” – St. Angela of Foligno

During my sisters household, our topic for this month was centred on the question: “What does it mean to be a woman of God?”

As someone who is surrounded by wonderful Catholic women, I struggled to find an answer. Not because I do not have any but because I believe that you can’t summarize what a woman of God is in just one word or in one sentence. It seems impossible! And so, I began to reflect on this question deeper.

Here are some of the things I believe a woman of God is. Note: There are many more things I could write, but here are some of the first ones that come to mind.

She is strong, but she is not afraid to show her weaknesses because she is comfortable being vulnerable with God and with others.
She is obedient because she trusts in God her Saviour.
She is compassionate, as she is capable to empathize and connect with others.
She is joyful in the good times, as well as in her sufferings.
She is patient because she is always hopeful for the future.
And she is beautiful just the way she is, because God made her so.

As these answers came to mind I thought of someone who I think mirrors these things best. She has slowly but surely become one of my greatest friends! – MAMA MARY. 

Thank you, mama for inspiring me every day and for allowing me to witness such a great example of what it means to be a woman of God through the life you lived.

Positional. Progressive. Perfect holiness.

Last Sunday, I had an unexpected conversation with a priest that I have never met before. I went to visit a new church to complete my weekly prayers and as I walked inside, a Father greeted me with a warm smile and said “hello.” After some small talk for a few minutes, I eventually mustered up the courage to ask Father to receive the sacrament of reconciliation as I was not able to go the week before. I thought that it was at least worth me asking and I mean, what did I have to lose from asking him anyways?

To my luck, Father was available. I’d like to think that God planned this whole situation out. As I walked into the confessional I did something that I don’t normally do. I sat in front of Father, face to face. For some people this may be easy for them but for me I find the experience to be very intimidating. However after I confessed my sins, I found that being in front of the priest was actually quite liberating. It was as if I was sitting face to face with Jesus!

What really stuck out to me though was something Father said before He absolved me from my sins. The words he said really touched my heart and I know that God was using Fr. Sebastian to speak directly to me and the concerns of my heart at the time.

He said three things. (Note: I have paraphrased the next few points as I tried to remember as much of what he said but of course, I forgot a few.)

1. When we are brought into this world we are born with original sin. However, we have the wonderful opportunity to receive the sacrament of Baptism to wash away these sins. This stage is what we call “Positional Holiness.” Since we are too young to make a conscious decision to say yes to Christ and to choose to grow deeper in our relationship with Him, we remain positionary in our journey towards holiness. Yes, the desire to be holy is still there but we may not know how to get to on that path just yet.
2. Eventually we grow up. And as we grow up, we are faced with many distractions that keeps our gaze away from Jesus’ face. However, that does not mean that we stop trying in our faith journey and give up completely. This is what we call “Progressive Holiness.” This means that we must continously work towards becoming holier people of Christ. Our progress may not show right away and we may stumble some times but that is alright! The path towards holiness is a day to day process that we must work towards. Keep walking onwards and upwards to Jesus!
3. The last stage is called “Perfect Holiness.” This is where God is. Even though we may not be perfect people, we must try our best to follow Christ’s example in our lives every day. It is possible to achieve but we will not know if we reached this goal until we enter Heaven.

To summarize these points up, Father concluded our conversation by saying these next few words. This is what really spoke to my heart.

“God may be present every where, yes, but there is one place He needs to ask permission to, before He can enter. Do you know where that place is? It is in your heart. God may be every where around us, freely and He does not need to ask to be there, but your heart is a different story. You must give Him your “yes” before He can enter inside. So be open; fully open so He can be present in your life and most especially, your heart.”

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Thank you God for speaking through Fr. Sebastian today! I will cherish our conversation dearly.

Praise be to God!

This week, I struggled to hear God’s voice and to feel His presence during my reflection time. I knew in my heart that the Lord was still there and so I wrote this prayer to get me through this frustrating time.

For the times when I find it difficult to trust, help me to surrender to You.
For the times when I feel weak, may I seek You for strength.
For the times when I feel lost, may You become my compass.
For the times I cannot forgive, may I be reminded of Your merciful love.
And for when I feel like giving up, turn my gaze towards You on the cross so I may be reminded that You fought for me and my heart until the very end.

Amen.

Today, I started my first day of my first “adult” job.

As a new graduate, hearing the words ” We want you to join our team. You’re hired!” was quite the exciting experience. I constantly heard stories throughout my undergraduate career that finding a full-time job right after graduation was next to impossible. So, when I had my interview and received a call for employment the day after, I could not help but feel so overjoyed. I’ve been praying for an opportunity like this to open up and with God’s grace, He helped me to achieve this goal.

However, my first day was not at all what I expected –
Students were not listening, the toddlers were constantly crying, and I was doing work that I did not originally sign up for. My first day of work was definitely not the way I had planned and after my shift, I really questioned if this place was the right workplace for me.

“I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.” – Psalm 9:1

Later that evening I felt restless. I was so happy when I got the job but after what I experienced, I felt really discouraged. Was this really where God wanted me to be? As I continued to reflect on the day, I remembered a dear friend’s wise words. They told me that whenever you feel sad or discouraged, count your blessings; there will always be one and more often then not, even more!
As I remembered those words, I tried my hardest to count the blessings in my life. To be honest doing this exercise was difficult at first because of how negative I was feeling but this quickly changed right after when I changed my mindset. I started to think about my family, my household, my friends, the state of my health, this job, and realized: Wow, there is so much to be grateful for.

Although my first day of work may not have been the smoothest of rides, I am still blessed because I have a job. I’m employed and that in itself is a blessing enough. God has granted me with this opportunity to grow in my career and so I must continue to strive to be the best that I can be at my work; even if that means having to do the dirty work, like changing diapers (pun intended).

And so, to whomever is reading this, whether you’re having a great day or a difficult one, have you stopped to count your blessings? Have you thanked God for all the good He’s placed in your life rather than complaining of what you don’t have? If not, try to take some time to do it right now. It might turn your day around.

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Let us pray for the grace to see the brighter side of things and remember to have an attitude of gratitude always. God has blessed us with so much and so we too, must do our part and give the glory back to Him. Amen.