Modesty Practicals

here are many questions about practically living out true modesty.
To list a few:

• Why do all the immodest girls get all the attention?
• I’ve heard guys are “visual,” how does that work with modesty?
• Can I dress modestly and attractively? 
• I don’t have the perfect body/personality/interests/abilities/etc. - how will I attract a guy?

Before I jump into these questions, let’s quickly recap what living modesty is: (1) respecting and protecting yourself and others, (2) revealing your God-given feminine beauty (3) inspiring love

I found this article tonight and really loved it, and wanted to share it with others. I posted the beginning of the article, click here and it will take you to read the rest. 

Break my Heart for What Breaks Yours

Break my heart for what breaks yours. Sitting at work today my heart broke for my patient. Talking to your people who are trying to find their path in life and don't know what to do sometimes breaks my heart. Young children in poor homes breaks my heart. For so many things in this world my heart aches, and y only response can be to pray. The RN told me my patients story this afternoon and my heart broke for her. I wanted to ease her suffering, take away her pain and for her to be filled with peace. A young girl sought my advice in relationships and others hard topics last night and it broke my heart to hear her struggles. I love her so much and am so grateful she sought me out, but none the less my heart broke for her, for her confusion. 

Today I prayed the sorrowful mysteries and as I was praying I could only think break my heart for what breaks yours. Jesus gives us hearts filled with empathy, compassion, mercy and love. He fills us with these things, so as we see and experience the suffering of the world we can pour out these things to those who suffer, and when we run dry he fills us again. 

Jesus, breaks heart for what breaks yours. Open my heart and my eyes to the sufferings of the world, and I can help, how I can serve, how I can love. 

Today I learned a valuable lesson. As I sit with patient tonight i was watching the RN's do their job and longing for the day I do that, but I also realize Jesus has placed me in my current position right now to help make me a better nurse, to open my eyes to the suffering, and to being compassionate with my patients. He is giving me opportunity to love and grow where I'm at. He's teaching me the importance of beig present and attentive to my patient and using my spare time to love those who maybe have no family coming to visit them or who might be in an unsafe or unloved situation. 

Break my heart for what breaks yours, O Lord, and help me to shine your light wherever I may go. 

How to Win the Culture War: Peter Kreeft

To win any war, the three most necessary things to know are: (1) that you are at war, (2) who your enemy is, and (3) what weapons or strategies can defeat him.

You cannot win a war (1) if you simply sew peace banners on a battlefield, (2) if you fight civil wars against your allies, or (3) if you use the wrong weapons.

Here is a three point checklist for the culture wars.

read more here

Beauty Flows From a Heart at Rest

"Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of good jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit." 1 Peter 3:3-4

Beauty comes from the inner parts of us, a heart at rest. None of us are perfect, and most of us are still searching and striving for this beauty, we have yet to learn, to realize that a woman who is truly beautiful has he heart at rest in Chrjst, and she is confidant in her identity as daughter of God.

This is a direct quote from captivating, a book discussing the heart and soul of a woman. "To have a gentle and quiet spirit is to have a heart of faith, a heart that trusts in God, a spirit that has been quieted by his love and filled with his peace. Not a heart that is striving and restless. A woman in her glory, a woman of beauty, is a woman who is not striving to become beautiful or worthy or enough. She knows in her quiet center where God dwells that he finds her beautiful, has deemed her worthy, and in him, she is enough. In fact, the only thing getting in the way of being fully captivating and enjoyed is our striving." 

 Now this is beautiful - to know that we are God's and to have a heart at rest in him is what makes us most beautiful. My dear sisters, I encourage you to seek our God, to seek a deeper relationship with him, and to learn your identity is in him, and have confidence in that identity as his daughter. 

The Lord has recently revealed to me that I was lacking confidence - confidence in my identity as his daughter. In my circle of friends, in my community I was confident in my identity, but step outside that safe zone and I was terrified. I am terrified to be judged for who i am. That people may not like me if they know I'm Christian. This weekend I was on a retreat and we talked about womanhood and being a woman, perfectly lining up with this realization that I lack this confidence that is so crucial to being a Christian. A friend shared a beautiful image of Mary with me - Mary's fearlessness. She went into a world, pregnant knowing she would be ridiculed for being with child before she wed, but she fearlessly carried Jesus in her womb, and gave her yes. Be it done unto me according to thy word. Lk 1:38

Mary, intercede for me, intercede for all women that we may emulate your virtue of fearlessness in our identity as daughters of God. Help to us say yes to the will Christ, and to tespond with joy and gratitude to the promptings of Christ in our hearts. 

Imperfectly Content

I had such a good conversation with one of my good friends this morning that I just had to share it - we were discussing the subject of contentment. One of our points was that you're ready to begin your vocation until you are content where you are presently in your life. By content we meant that Jesus satisfies you. One of my dear friends and mentors amber has said to me repeatedly "I love my husband, but he is not the one who satisfies me. It is Jesus who satisfies the desires of my heart." So when I say that we need to be content with our present lives, that is the contentment I am referring to. 

Now what was so good about our conversation? The idea of being imperfectly content. In our 20 somethings it tends to feel like dating and relationships are just constantly plaguing us and eaceh week it seems the news is which friend got engaged this week.. Which is wonderful and I am so happy for all of my friends, but there are also plenty of us who are single - so what are we supposed to do? 

Love Jesus - obviously. But also ensure that Jesus is our satisfaction - he is the only one who satisfies each and every desire of my heart. But that's not to say that we should never long for a relationship. That is normal. That is good. I would be concerned if someone isn't desiring a relationship. It says in the catechism that we desire to love and be loved - thus a desire for a relationship is normal. 

So what do we do when we have this desire for a relationship? We offer it to Jesus. Let's say 95% of the time I love being single. I love having my free time, and the ability to do what I want with my time, without having to seriously consider another person and fitting them into the equation. But what a of the 5% of the time that I long for a relationship - that's okay, and perfectly normal, so in those moments I need to give that discontentment to my Lord. We won't always be perfectly content exactly where we are in our lives, but if we don't learn to be content we will always be left longing for more. And if we don't learn to seek Jesus in those moments of discontentment then we will find ourselves dwelling in those moments - and that's where we need to accept our imperfection caused by our human nature and imperfection. 

So here's to embracing our imperfections and trusting the Lord and having confidence in his plan for us!

#Respect4Selfie

One of my friends joined a community that made an event and on Thursday this past week people were encouraged to post photos of themselves - natural, beautiful photos - meant to reveal and show our natural, God-given beauty.

This sparked a thought for me, and I was inspired, all for it.

In this world we are constantly plagued with images of women who are too skinny to be healthy, have flawless skin, perfect hair, etc. Women compare. We compare ourselves and our lives to everyone and everything. One of our greatest faults, I think, is how we compare - and our response to our comparison.

24 million people in the U.S. suffer from an eating disorder of some form.The sad fact is, that most people are so concerned with what others will think, they will do anything.

We are constantly disrespecting our bodies. We eat bad food, and then exercise for hours on end. We starve ourselves out of the fear of getting fat, or because we think we're fat and need to lose weight - when really a size 0 falls of our waist.

The fact of the matter is we no longer respect ourselves. We no longer see our self-worth, or our dignity. We are plagued by images and ideas of what we should look like and what we should wear. Now, I am not discrediting the eating disorders are in fact a mental illness and need to be treated as any other disease, but I am saying that we are seeing more and more of this disease because of what society and media is teaching us. Look at how the clothing has changed - clothes are much more revealing than ever before. How would this not make you insecure?

So why do I support #Respect4Selfie so much? Because of the word respect. Respect yourself. Respect your body, and recognize your God-given beauty, and worth.

You are beautiful. You are loved. You are perfect the way you are.

You are all beautiful my beloved, and there is no blemish within you. -Song of songs 4:7

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own. For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body.
-1 Corinithians 6:19-20

Sisters, and brothers who may be reading this too - I implore you - respect your body. Eat a healthy balanced diet, exercise regularly, get enough sleep (at least 6-7 hours), and make time for yourself. Take time to rest, to be. Give your body what it needs - so you can most fully live out your life, and serve our God and our King in all that you do throughout all your life!

Here are a few natural photos -

Our Desire to be Filled

Then the master of the house in a rage commanded his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in here the poor and the crippled,  the blind and the lame.’ The servant reported, ‘Sir, your orders have been carried out and still there is room.’ The master then ordered the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedgerows and make people come in that my home may be filled. Lk 14:21-23


The man, in a rage, commanded the servants to go find people, people of any sort to fill his house. He originally invited people who he wanted to come, to fill his home. Those people rejected him, they declined his invitation. Therefore, he was angry, he was hurt, he was rejected and lonely, and desperately desired to fill his home. Therefore, he sends servants out to find people to fill his home. 

We desperately desire to be filled. Day in and day out we are searching and trying to fill ourselves up, turning anywhere but to God - yet does it not say in scripture "come to me and I will give you life."

Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Jn 4:13-14

I'm currently reading a book called captivating and it talks about women hiding, in these places we hide, we are searching. We are searching for God, we are searching for answers, we are searching for fulfillment. 

I know I turn to many places to try and be fulfilled: social media, friends, ministry, work, school, exercise. Some people turn to drugs, alcohol, pornography, sex, food, endless dating relationships, etc. But when we turn to these things, when we fill our lives with them it is because we are desperately trying to find fulfillment. We are trying to satisfy the craving we have to love and be loved in return. 

My dear friends, the man in the gospel today desperately wanted his house to be full, and just as he wanted to be full, so do we. I encourage all of us to turn to Christ in our desire to be fulfilled. Seek him in your day to day life. When you see yourself checking social media, eating food, desiring a drink, longing for your phone to buzz, reaching out to others, first ask yourself - am I doing this because I am desiring Jesus? Am I trying to fulfill my desire for time with Jesus, something infinite with something finite?
Make Jesus a part of your life. Look for him in your day. Ask yourself: how is Jesus showing me he loves me today?
Jesus, I desperately desire to be filled by you. Fill me up, and further reveal to me the depth of your love for me. May I always seek you first, help me to seek you when I feel lonely, when I long to be satisfied and fulfilled. 


Where are you seeking to satisfy your desire to be full?

A Sunday Reflection

Today's Gospel really struck me, and God once again reminded of his love and presence in my life.

At that time, Jesus came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town. 
Now a man there named Zacchaeus,
who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man,
was seeking to see who Jesus was;
but he could not see him because of the crowd,
for he was short in stature. 
So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus,
who was about to pass that way.
When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said,
"Zacchaeus, come down quickly,
for today I must stay at your house." 
And he came down quickly and received him with joy. 
When they all saw this, they began to grumble, saying,
"He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner." 
But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord,
"Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor,
and if I have extorted anything from anyone
I shall repay it four times over."
And Jesus said to him,
"Today salvation has come to this house
because this man too is a descendant of Abraham. 
For the Son of Man has come to seek
and to save what was lost." (Lk 19:1-10)

I'm also currently reading Captivating. This is a book about being a woman and how God created woman to be. In this book they explain 3  desires of a woman's heart - 1. to be romanced 2. to play an irreplaceable role in a great adventure 3. to unveil beauty are the three. So when I heard the Gospel I was struck by verse 4 "so he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus". Zacchaeus desired Jesus so much that he ran and climbed a tree just in order to see him. 

As human we reflect God, the desires of a woman's heart not only are part of who women are, but also reveals to us the desires of God's heart as well. Women desire to be romanced, God also desires to be romanced. Jesus pursued Zacchaeus' heart and when he is running and climbing to see Jesus he is running to his encounter with the Lord - as Father said in mass today he is experiencing his conversion. 

SO my point is - we should all be desiring Jesus as Zacchaeus did. We should be running after him and climbing trees to see him. We should be pursuing him because in this very moment he is pursuing us with all he has and all he is - thus we need to reciprocate this. Jesus desires a relationship with us, and he is already pursuing us, thus we need to begin to pursue him, to seek him out, to allow him to love us and care for us, trusting and knowing that he is the one, the one and only who will satisfy any and every desire of our hearts, for his love is enough for us. 

Praise him! 

God bless & happy Sunday