Desire for Lifelong Community

With the end of the semester approaching, there are lots of “what’s next?” questions coming up in the SPO community, the graduated young adults that are around, and in my personal life as well.

There has been a growing want for community life after graduation. While in college and affiliated with SPO these students learn and actually live out what it means to live in community. This past weekend we had a Lord’s Day Celebration where we come together to pray, welcome the coming of the Lord’s Day and have a meal together to celebrate this great day! At this celebration, there were 77 students who came to celebrate and pray together! If that’s not a sense of community, I’m not sure what is! After these students graduate we’ve started  to see that they end up moving back home where, chances are, there is no vibrant, young, Catholic community for them. The discipline and support we learn and receive in the collegiate level SPO community is vital to hold on to for the rest of our lives. The only problem is the missing piece of community around us. When thinking about your own life, who do you learn from or  imitate the actions/style of? Usually we imitate those around us which can help us or hurt us.Christ created us with this essence of community in mind. With that being said, we need others around us with that same vision so they can call us out on things and help us to become holier men and women.

Hanging out having conversations after Lord’s Day.

Living in community means there’s always people to have dinner with!

With the growing amount of recent graduates who are staying in the area of San Marcos, the Lord has been showing us the need for a young adult and eventually a more permanent community here for people to live out their lives in! Since I will be at the end of my 2 year commitment with SPO in May, I have decided to move on to the next stage of my life and pursue a career in my job field! This is a very daunting task but I know this is where the Lord wants me as I will be able to stay in this area and help to form this community for these recent graduates who are searching for more after graduation. With this vision, there is a group of us going to Kansas City this weekend to see the community that is growing there and hopefully be able to take away some tangible guidelines of which direction to take with it. It’s very easy to look at my life and pick out the areas where I was not living in the midst of community, my spiritual willingness was lacking and I just wasn’t motivated.

Having this knowledge and wisdom about my life is one of the main driving forces behind this next move in my life and the lives of those striving for the same thing. As baptized Christians, we are called to live a life of discipleship for the Lord, even in our workplaces. Without the help of community around us that makes this very difficult, sometimes non-existent. Needless to say, I’m SO EXCITED for this next step of my life and for all of us “older (outside of college)” people here to take this next step for the future of our lives together!

Please pray for my job search, for this community being formed that we would have committed young adults who want to live their life in this way, and for our little road trip to Kansas today that the Lord will be very clear with us and show us the necessary steps to take when we return! Oh, and also for us young adults to find a house we will be able to live in together for next year!

Talk to y’all soon!

Peace and Blessings,

Courtni

Authentic Divine Love Shares Itself

It’s the beginning of a new semester and a new (old) chapter in my life! As most of you know, I’m officially on staff here in San Marcos, TX at Texas State University, where I attended and graduated from in 2013. The Lord has done so many great things in not only my life but the lives of all of the students and staff here at Texas State! It’s amazing how he ends up tying all the loose ends together. I am working on my next newsletter that will update you all on the actual things happening here at Texas State! For now, this is just an update on what the Lord is doing!

 

The entire time I was at home, from June-December, I was constantly thinking about “whats next for me..” With this mentality I constantly shoved the real underlying things I needed to be focusing on and praying about to the side. With this reality and no community around me to encourage my faith journey, it  was very easy to be lonely. I was constantly thinking this feeling of loneliness was not good. One day towards the end of this time, my mom and I went to the Grotto at the  Oblate School of Theology to spend some time in prayer. We went into the gift shop just to look around. Well, everyone knows when you walk into a Catholic gift shop, its very hard to “just look around.” I stumbled upon this book called “The Restless Heart” which is all about  finding our Spiritual home in times of loneliness. At the time I wasn’t exactly aware of this loneliness I was experiencing, the Lord just drew me to this book and it was absolutely perfect! Now, being on the other side of it all my appreciation for community has immensely increased and I can’t ever imagine life without it again.

“There never was a rainbow without there first having been rain.”

This period of desolation and dryness is a serious testament to the fact that the Lord truly works through all things! Through reading this book, I’ve been able to see the beauty of the time of loneliness, as human beings we will always be lonely. Our hearts were designed to be in total communion with God, and will always be longing for more of Him since we obviously  can’t 100% be with Him until we’re joined in heaven.

“Only a total-all encompassing consummate union with all sincere persons, the world, and the divine life itself will finally put to rest our last lonely impulse.”

He did so much in my heart during that time without me even being aware! There’s so many things He’s done but I’d like to touch on a few specific things.

• Love
• Compassion

These two reaallyy  broad areas are areas that very often get separated and diminished. The love I am referring to is love for really every single person. This means seeing them as a soul and child of God rather than just another person walking by. And the compassion of knowing that everyone has their own set of struggles; to be able to walk in their shoes with them and show them the love they need to overcome these things.

The Mission Center director for Texas, Brother Ken with the Brotherhood of Hope, came into town this past week for our annual Fan into Flame retreat. While he was here, he gave a talk to all of the students involved with us about “Real Evangelism.” This talk just brought us to reality of the mission we are called to as Christians and disciples of Christ. He posed the idea of being deployed to war- its not taken personally unless someone close to us, or even ourselves are deployed. The world is a war zone and our souls are deployed out into the midst of the turmoil each and everyday. The Lord is always personally affected by this, since we are his sons and daughters and those around us are our brothers and sisters through the same Father, how can we not be affected?

“We are not passionate until it becomes personal.”

This doesn’t just apply to being on mission on the college campus but in our everyday lives! If we all started living in this way and just seeing others around us as our brothers and sisters and understanding them, how much better would the world we live in be? I’m so thankful for the time of loneliness and dryness that I experienced because during that time I was able to have this understanding of the Lords heart. I am still praying for all of you and ask of your prayers for clarity for the next step in my life!

 

Peace and love to you all!

Courtni

Period of Transition and Waiting

Hi all!

I’m sorry I haven’t been in touch with you all as much as I should have or wanted to have been this summer. As most of you may know, there has been a lot going on! Before I get into that, I hope you all are doing well and I want you to know of my prayers for each of you! My hope is to be in touch with most of you in the next few weeks/months whether it be over the phone or in person! But here’s a quick update on whats going on with my life and the mission of Saint Paul’s Outreach within my life!

About 6 weeks ago I had a pretty intensive surgery on the back of my neck. The purpose of the surgery was to relieve a complication that arose from previous surgeries in the past, which was to create more room near my brainstem for my spinal fluid to flow correctly (which was the main complication). The surgery itself went well, but my neurosurgeon had to be a bit more aggressive than he anticipated to get all of the scar tissue out since there was more than he thought originally.  The original plan was for me to take about two weeks to recover then hit the ground somewhat running with my personal support raising for the year. But all of that, and more, changed as soon as I woke up from surgery. I no longer had feeling or function of my right arm. So many thoughts started to race through my head. But then I slowly started to realize “this must be part of the Lord’s plan for me.”

As I started to become more alert, we realized that the reason was nerve damage. The doctors and nurses started talking to me about the timeline to retrain my brain to use the muscles and to get the feeling back. The more I heard this, the more the reality settled that I wouldn’t be returning to West Virginia for some time. I spent about a week in the hospital then moved to an inpatient rehab facility for about 10 days. While I was there, I had therapy for 3 hours each day. Most of the therapy was focused on getting each person back to being able to perform daily activities on their own. When I left there, I started outpatient therapy soon after which I will be doing for quite some time until I’m able to hold things, write, and control the movement of my arm. Its a long, slow process that can be frustrating at times so I ask of prayers from all of you! As for the actual surgery, we won’t know if it did its “job” until 6 months out so I’ll keep you all posted.

Since I will have to attend rehab for a few months, I won’t be able to return to WVU which throws a curve ball into things. I will be staying in Texas for a few months to raise my support for the year as well as help out with the mission of Saint Paul’s Outreach wherever I can in the San Marcos chapter. After therapy is done and I’m able to use my arm again, the plan it to be sent out to a new chapter. The news of this was a very big heartbreak and shock to me sine there are so many people that I have such a great relationship with in WV! This time of transition and waiting is a definite true test of my faith and love for the Lord. But I have full faith that his plan is the only thing that will fulfill me & make me the happiest in the end. Right now, I just returned to Texas from St. Paul, MN for the second round of Mission Leader training, we were there for 8 days prepping to be on campus, then there is an 8 day conference for students to attend to learn how to be on mission on their various campuses from around the nation (I won’t be able to attend this since I have therapy). My goal is to have my support raising done in the next 6 weeks so I will be in contact with most of you very soon! thank you all so much for your endless amount of love & prayers.

I want to leave you with a piece from scripture that has been my anchor through all of this. It’s Matthew 6:26-28. “Can any of you add a single hour to your life by worrying?” This passage just helped me realize how much worrying about things actually does nothing for us. Changing your mind changes everything about your attitude & outlook which is exactly what I need in this time.

Couldn’t pass up the opportunity for this beautiful picture during my prayer time 🙂

Talk to all of you soon!

Quick update on the end of the year!

Hi friends and family!

I’m sorry I haven’t written in a while, it’s been a bit crazy finishing up the year here in Morgantown! I’m currently moving out of my house and moving into a new one! So my new address next year will be: 371 Kingwood Ave. Morgantown, WV 26501.

I had the opportunity to go home last week which was a great time spent with family and friends! I’m back in Morgantown now, like I said to move. And next week I will be in Minnesota for the first Mission Leader training of the summer! I can’t wait to be back with my community of mission leaders and SPO staff! After training I will be heading back to Texas for 5 weeks this summer! I’m hoping that I will be able to see most of you then!

As the end of the school year approached, we started to do lots of planning and vision casting for next year. We’re so excited to have a select few students on board with the mission we are about! We have three students already signed up to attend the School of the new Evangelization in Minnesota this summer! Our hope is to have a core group of students next year to be on mission with us and continue to foster the community we’ve started to build here.

I’ll share a few pictures with you from the end of the semester. This is of my teammates and I after the Easter Vigil mass!

This is a picture of our last Mountaineer Catholic night! We had adoration and mass followed by a fire and fellowship!

Graduations came faster than expected and I was able to see my three closest friends graduate!

Thank you all again for your prayers and support! Please continue to pray for this mission, as well as my health and well being! I hope to see you all soon!

Peace and blessings,
Courtni

Blessed are the Poor in Spirit

Get ready, this is going to be a long blog- there’s way too much to share about my experience to shorten it 🙂

As most of you know, I was presented with an amazing opportunity to attend a mission trip to Kingston, Jamaica for Spring Break. Going into this trip, I knew there would be different aspects of my life that would be changed but I really thought I would be helping the poor more than I would be helping myself. We were so blessed to be able to have a very inexpensive cost for the trip which made it more feasible for 32 students and staff to attend from the WVU Newman center. Most days started around 6 with mass at 7 then breakfast and we were out of the retreat center on our way to each service site by 8:30.

When we arrived in Jamaica I quickly noticed how different things were. I knew Kingston was a very poverty stricken area but I wasn’t expecting to see that as soon as I left the airport. The first major thing I noticed was that the cars were opposite from the US- the steering wheel was on the right side and they drive on the left side of the road. We were all a bit on edge about it at first since we’re so used to being on the right side of the road, especially when turning. We drove through the city to get to the retreat center in South Kingston where we would be staying and I just remember seeing people out on the streets trying to keep busy. I saw a few women who looked like they were prostitutes and I couldn’t get past it. I just wanted to van to stop so I could get out and talk with them but I knew Kingston is way too dangerous for that. The entire bus ride to the retreat center (about 40 minutes) I was just silent and staring out the window taking in everything I was seeing. I knew the trip would be very emotionally hard but I definitely wasn’t expecting it to hit me until I was working hands on with the poor.

The next day, we had our first day of service. Since there were so many of us, we broke up into three groups which went to different service areas. The first area was with the Missionaries of the Poor- these are brothers who dedicate their lives to working with disabled children and elderly people who can’t take care of themselves. This is the work site I went to and was so privileged to work with and serve these children. I knew this would be a difficult site to go to since these children are so disabled and the only way they receive the proper love and attention they need is through the volunteers that come to work with them. When I walked into the Bethlehem house, I just wanted to break down into tears. The building (which is no where near what we would envision an orphanage looking) smelled like a barn and there were cribs everywhere I looked. The brothers split us up into different rooms within the orphanage to make sure we’re evenly distributed. I was put in the young boys room, when we got in there the few workers asked us to give each boy a bottle of water then feed them. I was feeding a boy named Steven and when I was handed the bowl of soup to feed to him, I thought to myself “there’s no way he’s going to eat all of this” but sure enough, he did. It dawned on me later that this was the only meal he would get all day. After I fed him, I asked if any other children needed to be fed and the lady directed me over to a crib with a boy in it. His body looked about the size of a 1 year old, maybe a 2 year old. So I took him out of the crib to bottle feed him and saw his name and birthday on the crib- it read: March 19, 2000. I was so shocked to see that this boy was 14 years old! While I was feeding this child, I remember being so selfish with my thoughts and being frustrated that I couldn’t play with children and have fun. Then I realized all of the love and affection that I was pouring out on this child but since the child was so disabled he couldn’t respond at all so this made me think of the ways that Christ pours out so much love and mercy on our lives but yet we don’t even respond. Needless to say, I continued to feed this child and gazed into his eyes the way that Christ gazes upon our lives. After realizing that Kyle couldn’t respond to me, I just started singing him praise and worship songs- it was such a joyful moment for me to put my own ego and worries aside and care about the entire being of this little boy. (He’s pictured on the left.)

On Sunday, we had a day of rest. We went to mass with the Missionaries of the Poor- this mass was phenomenal!! The congregation was entirely full and on fire for the Lord! The mass was so lively and upbeat, I absolutely loved it! Not to mention the mass went for 2 1/2 hours because Father Hayden preached for a while. Even though the mass went that long, it felt like a normal length mass because I was so plugged into the mass and didn’t zone out at all.I wish the masses in America were that lively! After mass, we went to a Jamaican fast food place for lunch, Juici Patti’s. Then after lunch we drove to the University of the West Indies where we had ice cream! After ice cream, we drove around a bit more and saw more of the city then went back to retreat center to relax and play a bit of soccer!

Monday was our first full day of work and service. The group I was in went to the Riverton community to work at the school there. I heard a lot about these children and the community they live in so I was somewhat prepared for it. This school serves about 75 children with only three classrooms, the age group of the children was 3-5 years old. Going into the school, I was very surprised that the children looked so well taken care of and they had uniforms on. We played with the kids and just showed them the love they needed. After they had lunch, the principal allowed them to go home early since there was construction being done on the school. The principal took us on a tour of the community where the students live after they went home. This was so hard to see since I was just with the children and saw them so well put together then I see them running around with hardly any clothes or shoes on. The “houses” the people of the Riverton community live in are pretty much wooden 8ft x 8ft shacks. The roof is just pieces of tin and bags held up by rocks so anytime it rains, the roof leaks. One woman invited us into her house which was completely falling down and the beds were falling apart and moldy. She shared her story with us and I couldn’t even fathom some of the things she was telling me. After telling us her story, she went on to tell us that the Lutheran group that was there is in the process of building her a new house! Before even hearing that I was so convicted to buy her new beds since hers were moldy and her 6 children can’t sleep comfortably on them. Our entire group came together to purchase Nadine two new beds for her new house. I can’t even put into words the joy I had in my heart for this woman to start over in a new house!

We went back to the school and I met a little 10 year old girl that was there. She immediately glued herself to me and just started playing with me. She told me that she lives in the community with 9 other people in her house. I really just wanted to bring this girl back home with me because she was so smart and could have so many more opportunities in the US than she would there. When it was time for me to leave, she begged me to stay which broke my heart. It just showed me that she doesn’t receive the love she needs outside of volunteers coming to play with her.

Tuesday was our second day of service and my group went to work with the Missionaries of Charity- which is the order that Mother Theresa founded. The sisters in Kingston have a home for the elderly and homeless in the downtown Kingston area. I was so nervous to go here because I get super awkward with older people. But as soon as I started talking with them, I couldn’t stop! They had so much wisdom to offer. I had so many fruitful conversations with different residents. We prayed the rosary with the women, helped them eat lunch, and really just spent time with them to let them know they’re loved. Some of the women just made me laugh so much because they were so sassy to each other. I was working with the Missionaries of Poor on Wednesday as well so I was able to spend time with the women on Tuesday and on Wednesday I spent some time with the men after we finished all of the things the sisters had for us to do. There is one woman in particular who really touched my heart, as well as the rest of the group. Her name is Camisha, some of the sisters found her on the street a while back. She is dying from HIV and is only 33 years old. This woman had such an amazing heart and her outlook on the rest of her life was joyful. Even though she couldn’t get out of bed or even talk as much as she wanted to, she was still happy to see all of us and asked us to pray with her.

After our work was done on Wednesday, we went back to the retreat center to shower then went out for seafood! We went to a restaurant across Kingston near the bay. We had seafood and a Red Stripe- since it’s brewed right there in Kingston! Since there were 32 of us, it took a while for us to get our food and eat so it was a good time to reflect and just be in community with one another.

Thursday we had a beach day! Since Thursday was our last day in Kingston, we had a somewhat free day. We took a boat out to a private island that was the size of a football field! The ocean was absolutely beautiful! A thousand times better than the beach in Texas! We spent about 6 hours out at the beach, and most people got sunburnt. We walked around the island, swam, and played a bit of soccer. It was a wonderful end to the week!

Thursday night we had a time of reflection to digest all that we experienced throughout the week. We also were encouraged to set goals for our lives so that when we got back to the States we wouldn’t throw out all of the convictions we had and return to our normal life. A big part of our reflection was about the essence of community. Since the Jamaicans rely so much on the community around them to keep positive and build each other up its important for us in America to remember how essential community is. Friday morning we left for the airport at 6 am and returned to the US!

I’m so grateful for the ability to go to this trip and experience the way of life of the residents of Kingston. Leaving Jamaica was a bit tough for me knowing that the kids are still living in the terrible conditions and I’m going back to what would seem luxurious to them. The people I worked with affected my life way more than I affected theirs, the Lord is truly using them as a tool for the rest of us who get caught up in our own desires and ego. I can’t even begin to express some of the convictions I had in my heart while working in Kingston. There is such a need for generosity and resources for the residents to excel. I am so moved by the drive some of the people have to want to move their lives forward but yet there isn’t anywhere for them to go or any resources to be able to move forward. So I ask all of you to please continue to keep the Jamaican government, the residents of Kingston and all of the children of the city in your prayers! It’s so easy for us to forget about the poor and continue our daily routines without thinking about them. I, personally am going to make it a point to give my leftover food, or any extra money I have to a homeless person I see on the street. There are minor sacrifices we can all make in our lives to remember the poor and pray for them. Thank you so much for all of your support and for reading about my Mission in Jamaica!

Love and Blessings to all of you!

Peace mon!

Courtni

Beginning of Spring 2014

The start of this semester has already been so amazing!

We kicked off the beginning of the semester with our first Mountaineer Catholic night being Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament! What better way than that?! At the end of the week we had a potluck dinner at the Men’s SPO household. We had each student we invited bring a dish of some sort and just got to hang out and have fellowship with one another. It was so good to hang out with the students again and catch up from Christmas break! Saturday, me and a friend went to Pittsburgh to go see Lone Survivor at the movies since I had a gift card. It was an absolutely phenomenal movie, it left me speechless for a good while afterward. When I say Pittsburgh at night is absolutely amazing, I mean it! As you’re driving you pretty much see nothing, then you go through a tunnel and all of a sudden see a huge lit up city! It’s so gorgeous!! We had our first student mass on Sunday and that really got things kicked off!

Students praying before the Blessed Sacrament

The next week we were in the full swing of things and back to meeting one on one with students. This is probably my favorite part of this ministry because you actually get to insert yourself into the students lives and build a genuine relationship with them. I started my women’s group that first Monday. This was such a relief to me because I had students reaching out to me who actually wanted to grow in sisterhood with other sisters around them. We meet once a week (when weather permits) at a coffee shop and just talk about the real life issues we struggle with. Being in this society it’s so easy to justify our actions to meet what the society tells us to do when in reality it goes against all of our beliefs as Catholics. So this group helps us as Catholic women to hold each other accountable in our walk with Christ.

This semester we’re starting something new called “Saint Paul’s Street Evangelization” its where we go out on campus and engage in conversation with random students that are passing by in the Free Speech zone. Not gonna lie, I was terrified of this the first time I did it and even the second time. But while I was out there Mike, one of my teammates, said to me “just tell them you’re doing a survey and ask them a faith based question.” Because I was so scared to transition from small talk into deep questions about their faith. I haven’t actually figured out why I was scared, I think cause I get super awkward when I meet new people haha oh well. So I took Mike’s advice and started asking students walking by

“Do you believe God created the world? And if so, why did he create it?”

This got some interesting responses! I was so surprised at how open students were to talk about this sort of thing- even students who didn’t believe there was a God. I had conversation with one girl who was raised Catholic but now claims atheism- it was just so amazing how vulnerable she was with me and shared her life with me because I approached her with love. A couple of other people came up to see our Pope Francis cut out and tell us how much they like him, come to find out two of them I talked to were also atheists. It’s just so amazing to see that the Pope is convicting the hearts of even non believers!

Our first Women’s night of the semester was the Thursday of the second week of school (1/16). Camille and I decided to kick off the Women’s nights of the semester with something fun so we decided to do Zumba! One of the students here is actually a Zumba instructor so it worked out perfectly! I gave a bit of an exhortation about how we should take care of our soul just as much as we take care of our body. And just brought to mind the fact that we always think about taking care of our bodies but our souls often get neglected. Doing Zumba with these ladies was the funnest thing I’ve done in a while!!

The winter weather started to get a bit crazy here around the middle of January. We got snowed in a few days out of each week for three weeks. I thought I was going to lose my mind. But a plus side of being snowed in, I learned to crochet and had a great time learning something new! I’ve made a scarf, two ear warmers and a beanie! I realized quickly how much more of use it is here to crochet than it would be in Texas.

On January 22, a group of students traveled up to Washington, DC for the March for Life. As most of you know, I’m very passionate about the Pro-Life movement so it was such an amazing experience to be part of the nations stand for life! I’m not exactly sure how many people attended the march but I do know that there were thousands and thousands of people there from all different denominations, backgrounds, and races. It was so heart-warming to see all different types of people come together to stand for the voiceless humans of our nation.

Two weeks later, Camille, Chloe and I traveled to Ohio to visit the Franciscan Sisters. We attended a discernment retreat for a weekend which is for all women who are in the midst of figuring out what their vocation (marriage, religious life, or single life) is. This retreat was such a blessing to get away from Morgantown- to be able to turn off my phone and be on a set out schedule. I’m the type of person who likes to have  a schedule and plan for each and every day so waking up and knowing I will be spending the next two hours in prayer was such a relief to know that its in my daily schedule and there’s nothing else to do at that time. It’s amazing how much having a strict schedule affects your mood! At the end of the weekend, I didn’t really want to go back to the “somewhat normal” life. I knew that the distractions of the world would discourage me from prayer and I wanted to continue the prayer life I had while at the convent. Once I got back I quickly realized how that it’s feasible. The Lord really spoke to me and reminded me that he called me to this mission for a reason and he knew that I wouldn’t be able to pray and dedicate over two hours of prayer a day to him. He also reminded me how vital relational ministry is to the work I’m doing, which is easy to forget when you want to stay in the chapel all day and pray.

We had our Two Kingdoms retreat the week before spring break. This is a retreat based on St. Ignatius teachings of the two kingdoms that are in our everyday lives. The Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of the World and the retreat poses the idea of these two Kingdoms and really allows the students to look into their lives and make a commitment to chose the Kingdom of God. This retreat was very freeing for some of the students to renounce  the lies that the evil one feeds them. It was a very vital retreat for these student leaders to come on and realize that there is constantly a war around us.

The students at the Two Kingdoms retreat

My next blog post will be coming soon and it’ll be all about the Mission trip to Jamaica I just returned from!  Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support!! I’ll be praying for all of you during this lenten season!

Such an awesome, crazy adventure!

The love our Father has for us is so unbelievable! Sometimes I begin reflecting on that and just can’t even fathom the possibility of His love! During this Advent season, I reflected on this aspect almost daily and was constantly directed to the fact that the Lord chose to create himself in the form of a human so that He’d be able to relate to us! Being able to wrap my head around this concept is crazy! It’s so amazing that we grow up and most of us live our lives hearing and knowing all of these things but they never really resonate and sit with us until we chose to believe and know with our own hearts.

It’s been quite some time since I’ve posted so I’ll be separating into two different posts so you’re not overwhelmed 🙂 But, these past few weeks have been very busy but so amazing! When I returned from Thanksgiving break, we only had about two weeks left of the semester here at WVU so things were a whirlwind! There was lots of planning and evaluating to be done and meeting with students to have one last time to talk before we went on break. Although it was a stressful time of trying to wrap things up, the Lord poured out so much grace! I can honestly say that the relationships that I’ve been forming here are a huge blessing from the Lord and I can clearly see that He is working through all of them! After we left Morgantown, we went up to Columbus for some staff meetings and made Christmas candy for our benefactors, we used 100 pounds of chocolate in the process! Having all of the Mission Leaders together for this made it so much fun, after we made the candy we were split into teams to deliver it to each person. This was so great because we actually got to talk with some of the donors and see a bit into their lives as well as share what we do.

After our meetings in Ohio, I was able to head home for the Christmas break! Although I was just home, I was so ready for it since this time I would be able to hang out with friends and family without having to worry about doctor appointments. Once I got into town, there was already so many things planned for me to do which meant I wouldn’t be bored so I was super excited! The day after I got in town, all of the women in my family went to a painting session where you drink wine and follow the instructor to paint a picture! We were painting a rendition of Van Gogh’s Starry Night, it was a bit difficult but so much fun to be there with my family!

Our final products!

Among the other various things I did, I went to a country concert with my best friend and parents and went to see How the Grinch Stole Christmas on Broadway! Seeing the play was wonderful since that’s my favorite Christmas movie of all time, it was a surprise Christmas gift from my Mom so it was wonderful! Celebrating Christmas with my family was so wonderful! I have a pretty small family so it was wonderful to be able to spend time with them! New Years Eve, I had some friends come over to my house to celebrate and hang out. We all hung out by a bonfire that my dad lit and had a good time! It was so great to ring in the New Year with the wonderful friends I made in college.

My mom, best friend, and I at the concert!

After the break was over, I was so excited to get back on mission in Morgantown! The Lord really showed me, all over again, the importance of community and how needed it is to sustain our journey of faith. It made me so happy to know that the students I was outreaching to had the same realization while on their breaks. I had a few students send me texts and phone calls saying how much they missed having sisters and brothers around who strive for the same thing, you have no idea how ecstatic I was to know that these girls strive for the aspect of community and recognize the need for it!

On January 2nd, all of the SPO mission leaders and staff had a staff retreat in Kansas City so that was my last day in Texas. I was very sad to leave my family again but so very excited to get to Missouri to see and pray with all of the mission leaders from across the nation! Not only that, but I got to fly with some of my best friends in SPO! The trip to Missouri was a little crazy, there were a bit of flight delays due to the snow storm but on our second flight, we had to land in Oklahoma City to take “precautionary measures” with the plane. I’m still not sure what that meant, but we landed and had to board a new plane. In the meantime, there were 7 Texas SPO mission leaders in the airport, so of course, we just made friends! When we were making our “precautionary” landing I was freaking out a little bit then I looked out the window and saw this absolutely beautiful sunset!!

After all of the confusion and mishap, we finally made it to Kansas City around 8:45 pm! It was such an adventurous day! When we got there, we had dinner and had some time of fellowship with the other mission leaders! It was so great to see everyone!! Our staff retreat was based around the essence of joy. We looked at Evangelii Gaudium by Pope Francis which blows my mind every time I read it! We read two sections of the apostolic exhortation which talked about evangelizing and how to be joyful. One of my favorite lines in the exhortation is, “Consequently, an evangelizer must never look like someone who has just come back from a funeral!” This is so important when working in relational evangelization, I mean who wants to approach someone who looks like they’re super gloomy and doesn’t appreciate life?This is an excerpt from Pope Francis apostolic exhortation, it just really struck me and really put things into perspective about the abundant love the Lord has for us!

“Lord, I have let myself be deceived; in a thousand ways I have shunned your love, yet here I am once more, to renew my covenant with you. I need you. Save me once again, Lord, take me once more into your redeeming embrace”.

This retreat was so wonderful to take my mind off of everything going on in life and focus on the joy that the Lord brings into my life! After the short but such needed retreat, we started our journey back to Ohio! This was rather difficult since there was a snow storm that was in our exact path we would be taking. We left super early on Sunday to try to avoid the storm but didn’t quite make it. We had a 12 passenger van and a car. The first hour of the trip went well but then the car fell behind a bit and got caught in the eye of the storm. I felt so bad because there was nothing any of us could do for them since they were so far behind us, they ended up having to get out of their car and push it countless times. The last time, they ended up running over a piece of metal that popped their tire. After getting word about this, we pulled over at a McDonalds to wait and hear what we were going to have to do. So of course, my teammate and I plated in the PlayPlace.. what else is there to do when you’re stuck inside McDonalds in the middle of a blizzard?!

Making the best of the situation!

The other car ended up having to sit on the side of the road for about two hours until a tow truck came to pick them up. We ended up staying at two separate hotels in Illinois to wait for the storm to pass. The next morning we got back on the road and finished our adventure to Ohio. We finally got back to West Virginia on the 7th and had one short day to prep before classes began on the 8th.

I’ll be posting more in the next week about how the beginning of the semester has gone so far 🙂

Praying for all of you!!

Put on the Armor of Light!

Hello everyone! I want to apologize for the length of time it’s been since I wrote to you all! I did send out a newsletter since my last post so if any of you that are reading this didn’t get it, I attached a copy of it here!

I just got back from Thanksgiving break that I was able to spend in Texas for 10 days! The main reason I went home was to take care of a bit of medical things. Please pray for my health, that the Lord will heal me in every way so I will be able to continue the work he has put before me for His Kingdom! I was able to spend a few days in San Marcos with my SPO family there and was able to catch up with some friends from college, that was such a blessing!

The wonderful women I lived with last year!

We had a jam session while I was visiting! So much fun!

The rest of the week, I spent at home with my parents and was able to just relax a bit with them which was very needed! All in all, the break was so wonderful and fruitful! I was sad to have to leave Texas again but then once I started to think about Morgantown and the students here, my heart wanted to be back in WV. It was weird to say that I missed Morgantown while I was in Texas but I’ve built so many relationships here that it’s hard to not miss the students and the work that I’ve been doing here!

I’m back in Morgantown now preparing for the end of the semester. I can’t believe I’ve already been here for an entire semester. The students have this week of classes and finals start next week. We have a women’s night this Thursday night and we plan to make Christmas cards for each other and for the soldiers over seas! It’s such a blessing for most of us to have our families around us during the holidays, so I think it’s very important that we take a little time to recognize the sacrifice these soldiers are making for all of us here.

The community here is slowing growing! It has been a bit difficult to stay motivated when we can’t actually see everything going on since the beginning of a community is in the hearts of the people. These students have come so far since the beginning of the semester and we’re pointing out those key students who will be crucial in helping us continue to build and lead the community next semester. I’m so excited to get back and hit the ground running next semester, I think the Lord has a lot in store for these students he’s already been forming in small ways this semester. Please keep our Household program in your prayers, we are still working on finding students who want to live in the Households for next year.

My favorite time of year is here! It’s Advent!! I love having time set aside to prepare our hearts for the coming of Christ all over again! It’s so easy for us to get caught up in the business of the holiday season but it’s so much more important to keep our focus on the reality of what the holidays are about. We need to prepare our hearts but more importantly show Christ to those people who don’t know him at all. The prayer at the end of the meditation for the first day of Advent in the Magnificat Advent Companion says this, “Loving Father, may I not spend these weeks of Advent preparing for an event. May I be prepared each day to reveal your Son to those who wonder where he is.”  This is such a beautiful, yet simple prayer! I plan to pray this prayer every day of Advent to keep my mind focused on what is most important. Join with me this Advent season to wake up each and everyday and direct our attention to the reason for the season! I also challenge each of you to give up something you’re attached to or struggle with (kind of like during Lent) so that we can detach from worldly things and put our focus on the Lord.

 

I will be praying for all of you during this time and will be back in Texas so soon!! Continue to pray for this campus and the mission of SPO being here. Love you all!!

Through Christ,

Courtni

Adventures in the City!

It’s been a bit of time since I last wrote! Not too many crazy things have been going on here in WV but there’s a few bigger things that have happened that I’m sure y’all want to read about 🙂

The regular flow of things has been great, I’ve been having some amazing relationships being built with women here ! It brings me so much joy to see a woman who hasn’t attended church in over a year come to daily mass and just be completely captivated by the Eucharist! It’s those types of things that make me absolutely love my job!

There was a Pro-Life Convention that was put on by West Virginians for Life that a few of us were able to attend on October 5th. It was such an amazing conference to hear true stories of people who struggled with various situations pertaining to life. It was such a wonderful and eye-opening experience to be apart of.

Our Households are going really well! Its so awesome to see the women’s house so united and serving towards one another. We recently changed our meal schedule since it was getting so crazy in the evenings so we now have one morning where we sit down and have breakfast instead of having a dinner, its so much fun! We are already in the process of figuring out households for next year (I know, so soon!). So keep the 2014-2015 WVU household program in your prayers, please!

The Newman club here at WVU hosts a mission trip to Kingston, Jamaica every Spring Break so we had our first meeting about the trip last week. It’s a trip to stay with the Missionaries of the Poor and help with their ministry. We would be working with the physically disabled and poor, and helping the Missionaries with various tasks around their community. It’s such a wonderful opportunity for these students to be able to attend and truly see the reality of the poor and disabled. We are so blessed to be able to attend this trip for a very cheap price and will be fundraising to offset the cost as well. I am just so excited to be presented with an opportunity like this and to be able to go help the poor in ways that they need it most.

On Wednesday, October 9, we had a group come to the WVU campus through Students for Life called Project Planned Parenthood. It is a presentation that lays out all of the truths about Planned Parenthood that not many people know about. All of the facts that we presented were facts from their annual report that is on their website so none of the things were made up or incorrect. Camille and I helped out at the table in the free speech zone from 9-4 (long day) but it was so worth it! I had some amazing conversations with students who were pro choice and completely supported PP but after they read the facts, they were re-thinking their choice to support PP. It was just a great day of being able to educate students on the reality of the company that provides them with these things. PP provides free condoms and birth control to people who come in but consumer reports ranked them the lowest quality on the market, so it just goes to show that their main “money-maker” is the abortions they commit. Since our signs we had up said “Project Planned Parenthood” a lot of students were coming up and thinking we were wanting Planned Parenthood to come to West Virginia. It caught lots of people off guard and sparked some good conversations! We had pink crosses around the area we were in which signifies the babies that would have been aborted that day. The picture below shows what our presentation looked like.

On Thursday, we had another Women’s night. We watched a video of a younger man that affirms women and lets them know how beautiful and worthy they are! Afterwards we made cards to affirm women in our lives. It was such a fun time to bond with women and be creative 🙂

Friday morning I left to go to New York City with my friend Julian to visit his dad! So we drove to New York and stayed there. It was such a fun trip since I had already been to New York, there wasn’t things that I absolutely had to see or do. I just enjoyed being there and doing things as they came up. We spent some time in Times Square people watching, which is my favorite thing to do, and we walked a lot to the different areas of Manhattan. We also happened to walk by the NYU Newman center so we stopped in there and talked with some of the FOCUS missionaries. It was pretty cool to see their Newman center and talk with the students there. Sunday, we went to Mass then went to the Central Park area with Julian’s dad then we went to the High Line and walked around. It’s an old subway track in Manhattan that was converted into a walkway with flowers on the sides. Sunday night Julian and I tried to go to Coney Island but it was closed so we went back to Manhattan and went to a comedy club which was really fun! Monday, we slept in and walked around the Queens borough area where Julian grew up. We saw the China town of Flushing which was pretty interesting and went to a few parks in the neighborhood. We went to the Flushing Meadow Park on the way back to Corona where the World Fair was held in 1939. The next day we left New York and made a trip down the east coast through Trenton NJ, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and a few other major cities on our way to Washington, DC. We were able to stop there and see the White House, Washington Monument and walk around the city. While we were in DC, we happened to walk by the George Washington University Newman center. It was a little house looking center that was really homey feeling! We talked with some of the FOCUS missionaries there as well and made a few connections, it was just good to connect with other college aged Catholics. We stayed the night there at Julian’s friends at American University. The next morning we headed back to Morgantown WV. I was so Blessed to be offered this opportunity to experience all of these things and to be surrounded by such generous friends!

The Freedom tower at Ground zero.

A Texas patch on the top of the pile of patches from the dispatchers that helped with 9/11.

Times Square!

The George Washington University Newman Center!

The White House!

The rest of the pictures from my trip can be found on my Facebook if you’re interested!

Tomorrow, we are heading to Columbus, Ohio for staff days and we will be back on Saturday. Can’t wait to see what else the Lord has to offer to us here at WVU!

Hope in His Promise

Hi!!

It’s been quite a while since I last wrote so this post is going to be pretty lengthy so get ready! Lots has been going on here in the past few weeks!

The week of September 2nd (the last time I wrote) was a pretty normal week of outreach on campus! We were still working on getting everything kicked off that week and focused on being on campus to reach those students who don’t usually come to the Newman center. The Friday of that week (the 6th) a couple of us from the Newman center decided  that we wanted to go out and see what the culture is actually like here in Morgantown. Surprisingly, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I just really enjoy being a witness out in the bars, especially when people ask questions like “why aren’t you doing this or that..” It just bring so much joy to my life to be able to speak truth into the peoples lives about the reality of each of the various situations. On the 8th, Mary and my Dad’s birthday, the film “Light of Love” premiered so Camille and I watched it at our house. It is a film about the lives of sisters and how their love for Christ is reflected on their daily lives. It really grabbed at the first Sister they interviewed, she was with the Sisters of St. Francis and the Martyr St. George. She was a cardiologist nurse which is the main reason I was so interested, but it was just so beautiful to see how she loves these patients through the love that she has for Christ. Anyway, I could go on about the film forever.. y’all should watch it! http://www.lightoflovefilm.com

September 10th was our first Love, Sex, Dating group. This is a video series put on by Andy Stanley which is called “The New Rules for Love, Sex, and Dating.” It goes through different “rules” that our society throws at us about these three topics and Andy really goes through the realities of each of them. It’s a great series for students to go through because they don’t know how they should be acting in college especially toward relationships, since the norm is to “recreationally” date. This series is four different videos that we will be showing until October 8th. We had our second women’s night on September 12th, the topic was relationships! We focused it on relating to our brothers in Christ and what that looks like in context. I shared a bit of my story with relationships and how the Lord has worked through all of them in different ways. We had our very first Lord’s Day Celebration on September 14th, this is a Jewish tradition that welcomes in the Lord’s day (Sunday) on Saturday evening. We have a series of prayers giving thanks to the Lord for all He’s done in our lives and our community, a little bit of worship, and and exhortation of the Gospel for Sunday. Afterward, we have a delicious dinner! It was so great to actually have our community together, we had about 25 people attend! So we all sat out on our lovely porch and ate dinner and had some great fellowship!

September 17th was our second Love, Sex, and Dating group. Tuesday’s are probably my most favorite day here at Newman because we have candlelit adoration and Mass at night! It’s the most intimate thing I’ve ever experienced and look forward to it ever week! The next day, Wednesday,  we had our first Morning Prayer at St. John’s (the church that Newman operates out of). It wasn’t a huge turnout, but it was good to get students familiar with us having morning prayer at the Newman center, which we will do once a month. At Mountaineer Catholic this week, we watched a video called “180” about abortion. A man interviewed people about the Holocaust and ended up relating it to the Abortion industry. It was a truly moving video. Afterward, we made pro-life posters for the next week.

The sign I made, pretty bold but it’s the truth.

Newman students making signs for the Rally!

Saturday, September 22nd, Camille and I participated in a walk to raise money for Chiari Malformation Awareness and research. Chiari Malformation is a malformation of the brain which affects 1 in every 1,000 people. I was diagnosed with this condition in 2005 so I think it’s very important for people to be educated on it.

Camille and I before the walk.

After the walk, the West Virginia team started our drive to Ohio. We had a staff retreat from Saturday thru Wednesday. It was a time for the West Virginia and Ohio teams to relax and come together as a team. We went out to a house of one of our benefactors in Logan, Ohio. The house had a pool and hot tub and also a tank that we went fishing in! It was so much fun!

We played LOTS of Settlers of Catan at our Retreat!

A baby fish I caught! 🙂

Although, being there I missed Morgantown so much! It was weird to build up the community then to leave it, I found myself wondering what everyone was doing while I was gone, it’s weird to say but Morgantown is my home for the next year and it really felt that way when I was gone. I was beginning to feel overwhelmed with how many students we are trying to reach and form but the retreat really helped calm that. We talked a bit about how Jesus invested in 12 people when He knew the entire world needed to know the truth. And out of those 12 people, he really invested more intimately with 3 of them. It’s so easy to forget about this so I’m so grateful that it was brought up at the retreat, WVU is still working on having student ownership in their faith and that’s what we’re here for! This verse really resonates with me and gives me Hope!

“Ordering the people to sit own on the grass, He took the five loaves and the two fist, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food, and breaking the loaves He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.” Matthew 14:19

This verse gives me the image of the Lord preparing me for this mission and providing me with the few people who I should truly invest in, then those few people go out and invest in more people just like Christ’s disciples did. It really got me pumped up to come back to Morgantown and continue the mission.

We returned to Morgantown, on Wednesday in just enough time for daily mass! I can’t even begin to express how wonderful daily mass is here! We have Benedictine Monks here and they crush it every day with their Homilies! I don’t think I’ve ever been so engaged in every single daily mass! And now we’re at today! It’s Thursday and we’re getting ready to go stand for Life! There is a pro-choice group coming into Morgantown this evening that is going to be protesting against Morgantown cutting taxpayers money from paying for abortion services. I am so excited to be apart of this because it’s so needed in our culture of death. If any of you have a chance, watch the 180 video on youtube. It really puts the abortion industry into perspective for all of us!

 

All in all, things here at WVU have been great! We’ve had a great response to our call to students. Now we’re focusing on forming these students into disciples for the Lord. This is definitely a process which begins with the students response. Pray for all of us here at WVU to keep our sights set on the Lord and His promise for us! It’s so easy to get lost in the worries of the world and everything the evil one throws our way. It’s such an honor to be on Mission and essentially working for the Lord in this time of my life!

A theme in my prayer for the past few months has been HOPE so my prayer is that all of you may continue to have hope in the Lord’s promise for our future and His promise to provide all that we need to get through each and every situation in our lives.  I’m praying for all of you!

 

Peace,

Courtni