An Encouraging Note

Dear Friends,

Amidst all this chaos, it's important to remember who we are, and who we're called to be. Please take this time of isolation to draw nearer to God---He wants to help you :)

A friend of mine recently sent a letter out to our Newman Club at Penn State; his words are so true and uplifting, I knew I had to share them (with his permission, of course!).

I hope these words give you peace:

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"Hello everyone!

It’s hard to believe that I won’t see all of you in the same place again. As the reality of this was hitting me I was overwhelmed with gratitude for the great gift that you all have been to me. This community has revealed the Body of Christ to me in amazing ways and I’m so grateful that each of you have been a part of my life. As I was praying about this new situation we find ourselves in and the large amount of restrictions we now face, I was flooded with many different thoughts, fears, frustrations, disappointments and even anger. Thankfully, God graced me with 4 things that I wanted to share with you all as we embark on this new journey of lent like never before.

The first grace came as I was praying and reading 'Interior Freedom' by Fr. Jaques Philippe. While reading I was allowing myself to get upset about the quarantine that I obviously didn’t choose. All the plans I had were getting cancelled, all the things I wanted to do and people I wanted to see were being made impossible and on top of it all I could no longer receive Jesus in the Eucharist! In that moment of frustration God graced me with a peace and realization. That even though this time of Lenten suffering can be scary, upsetting, boring, frustrating, disappointing or sad, we are still able to be at peace if we choose it. We are really left with 3 options.

1. We can choose to ignore the reality of this virus and the suffering that it's causing us and others pretending that “it’s all ok” and the hurt or pain isn’t real. (This was what I have been constantly tempted to do)

2. We can choose to wallow in the suffering, live in fear allowing ourselves to get more and more frustrated as we try to control the circumstances around us or get more and more frustrated thinking about all that we are losing or missing out on.

3. But there’s a third option that lies in the middle! We can choose to acknowledge the suffering, frustration, loss and/or boredom and CHOOSE it. Not just accept it but actively CHOOSE this quarantine.

How do we do that? Simply by trusting that despite what it looks like, Christ is in control. We can share in the attitude of Christ in the Agony of the garden and Pray “Lord, I don’t like this and I’m upset but I know that your ways are greater than my ways so I choose to not just accept this suffering but actively choose it as your will. Let not my will but your will be done Lord!” This is much easier said than done but by doing so we gain the freedom to live in the reality of where we are and the ability to be present to everyone around us with joy and peace. The alternatives of ignoring or wallowing in the pain only lead to more suffering. In choosing we find joy in the suffering, peace in the chaos, and purpose in the pain. We can rest in the knowledge that even suffering is a grace from God and all that happens is him actively drawing us closer to himself. Only once we actively CHOOSE this quarantine or suffering can we learn how to listen to what Christ is saying to us and see how he is drawing us to himself.

Please know that I am praying for you all and doing everything I can to make sure that we can all still grow closer to Christ and each other in this time. We will not let the devil win but instead we will actively choose this suffering as a GIFT living by faith and not by sight as we look for more and more ways to bring God into all of our lives.

God Bless you and your families!"