Guest Post: Collette

Collette is an aspiring evangelist from the Midlands, and blogs over at Catholic Birmingham.

    Over Lent, my focus has been to grow more into my dignity as a beloved daughter of God. To learn a little more of what this means, I searched around for a Scripture to keep me focused during Lent.  The obvious ones came up such as "This is my Beloved..." and "You are precious in my eyes..."  However, as I brought these to adoration on the evening before Ash Wednesday, the Lord came back with an entirely different Scripture for my Lenten focus.

"We are God's work of art, created anew in Christ Jesus, to live the good life as He intended from the beginning" (Eph 2:10)

    It was so perfectly apt for my circumstances and proof that our Heavenly Father always knows what’s best for His children.  Meditating on this Scripture the last few weeks has highlighted 3 truths in my life that I would like to share with you:

1) I am God's work of art

    One can only imagine how the artist delights in his masterpiece.  Lovingly created by his own hands, stroke by stroke, turning a dream into a reality.  And then think of those that delight in his masterpiece – the many millions that have gazed in wonder and awe over a Rembrant, Monet or Van Gogh.  The same can be said about God.  The Father marvels at each one of us.  From before all time, you were on His Heart and even now He is lovingly perfecting you, stroke by stroke – ready for heaven and all eternity.  As the artist delights in the work of his hands, so too, the Father delights in you. 

    God gave me a real image to secure this during an evening of commitment to Christ in my parish during Lent.  I felt very low that day but knew this was an important night.  Taking inspiration from Rosanna's post on here, I put a nice dress on, did my hair and put my favourite lipstick on.  I had some flowers in my hand to leave at the Lady Chapel as it was the Feast of the Annunication.  As I walked up to the church, I felt like a beautiful bride… and then I felt really silly.  At that moment, it was as if the Lord whispered in my ear "Why do you shrink from who you are? You are my beautiful bride, hold your head high, know your worth and walk confidently towards the One who loves you so deeply and intimately."  

2) I am also His work in progress

    I think this is implied in being God's work of art but also in the little line that follows about being created anew in Christ Jesus.  I’ve learned a little more to accept that I am not yet the masterpiece God desires to create in me. Each day he chisels a little more off me or adds another stroke of paint here and there.  The final masterpiece will not be complete until I am in Heaven.

    My vocation is to become like His Son, and each day He is creating me anew in Christ. A huge weight is lifted off my shoulders when I realise that this work is His and not mine.  All I am expected to do is hand the troubles of my heart, my imperfections and my weaknesses over to Him.  We tend to want to put our best foot forward in life and this is even true with our relationship with God.  We come to the Lord having spent endless time and energy to make sure we look and sound good, we have ticked all the boxes and glossed over our struggles.  

    Or sometimes we don't even bother going to the Lord, because we think we’ll go when we’re better or holier... God can do very little with this.  He knows what’s really on our heart and therefore we shouldn't be afraid to hand over what we are really struggling with.  God likes mess, for it is in the honesty of this mess that He does His best work.  As Scripture reminds us, His Power is made perfect in our weaknesses! Every weakness is an opportunity for growth and grace if we hand it over to God.  

    Healing and wholeness is God's work, so even if I fall down on the journey I just need to keep on getting up and keeping my heart open to all He desires to create in me.

3) I am made for goodness

    When God created me He intended love and goodness for my life.  He had plans in mind to make me prosper and not to harm me.  This can be an incredibly hard truth to hold onto, especially when your life has been filled with a lot of darkness.  When your heart is wounded by events of your past and these moments still haunt you.  It can be a hard truth to hold onto when in your pain and hurt you’re crying out "God where were you?", and your heart might be resentful or angry because of this.  Maybe you doubt God's love for you because of the circumstances of your life.  What I want to say to you is this:

    Whatever horrible things you have experienced in your past, this was not God's plan for your life.  From the beginning, He intended love and goodness to fill all the days of your life.  Unfortunately free will of others and even of ourselves can get in the way, but that is why the Father sent Jesus.  He sent His Son to set us free and to lead us into the abundant life that He has promised to give us.  Nothing, absolutely nothing, is beyond redemption.  No matter how dark life can seem, Jesus had the last word on the cross and His love is greater than any situation you find yourself in.  Pope Francis sums it up so perfectly:

Jesus Christ loves you; he gave his life to save you; and now he is living at your side every day to enlighten, strengthen and free you” (Evangelii Gaudium #164)

    But what I have learned over Lent is that each day we have to choose to walk in this freedom.  We have to make a conscious decision to walk confidently in the knowledge that He intends goodness for our lives.  When the darkness threatens to overwhelm us, we need to ground ourselves in the Truth that this too will pass and to seek the goodness of God in all things.  We need to have the courage to pick up our cross and carry it as best we can, secure in the knowledge that our Father in Heaven is faithful and our resurrection moment will come.

And it will come. 

Guest Post: Sarah Beresford

Sarah and her husband, David, have just taken over as directors of the Catholic Bible School.

        When I was about 13 I had a birthday sleepover party with my four best friends. At some point in the middle of the night after laughing a lot, eating way too much sugar and talking about all the boys we fancied we got a bit serious and wrote down five ambitions each. I remember finding this hard after the first two. Did I want to be a florist or an actress or whatever the current fantasy career was at the time.

         The first two were easy though and they haven't changed as I have gotten older. I wanted to be a good wife and a good mum. I still do. My career ideals have changed here and there over the years although broadly in the same field but my family life is permanent. 

        I fell in love with my wonderful David (his name means Beloved - and he is) when I was 17 years old and married him three years later aged 20. Almost 22 years down the line I still love him and much more than I did back then. Eight years ago our lovely daughter Molly was born (her name means wished for child - and she is) and the other great focus of my life came into being. 

        To be a woman of God is to truly live out your vocation, and for me this is being the best I can as a wife and mother. It means setting a good example and living a life of love and sacrifice. It means putting them first in the knowledge that they do the same. It means trying my best to always be attentive to the presence of God in my life, which can be quite tricky, but it's easier when I can make decisions that I know will build my marriage and family and not distract me from them because David and Molly are permanent features (God-willing) in my life and everything else - apart from the Lord himself - can change and most likely will. 

        It doesn't sound exciting to some and in fact sounds quite old-fashioned and outdated to many, but I find it liberating and joyful because it is an active choice I have made. Being a woman of God means trusting and listening and loving till it hurts and doing it with those you love most makes it the most fulfilling experience ever. 

So fall in love with the Lord and do your best to listen and trust and do what you think he wants you to do.

Guest Post: Rosanna Cassidy

 Rosanna is studying for a PhD at the University of Nottigham

    Everyone has bad days. Today was definitely one of mine. I woke up out of breath from screaming so much at my nightmares, and although they faded so fast that I couldn’t even remember them, I started the day still feeling a bit rubbish; it was nothing major, it had just already begun to feel like a ‘bad day’.

    About an hour after I had woken I spoke to my boyfriend and when I told him that I was still feeling a bit down he told me to remember that I was God’s princess, and that He was holding me safe in His arms. Now that is wonderful advice, but at the time I didn’t really pay too much attention to his words, because I’d heard them a thousand times before, and they were just words, how were they supposed to make me feel better?

    However, after returning from Mass and still not feeling 100%, I began to actually dwell on that advice a little more. I asked myself, “what does it actually mean to remind myself that I am God’s princess?” An answer sprung into my head pretty quickly: “start living like you believe it.”

    But then I laughed at myself, wondering what on earth that answer actually meant in a practical, real-life sort of way. I realised that the problem wasn’t reminding myself that I was God’s beloved, because I had never forgotten that fact in my head, but the problem was that I had forgotten how to feel it in my heart.

    Isn’t it true that from time to time on our Christian journey we get so caught up in the intricacies of theology, or the business of our serving, or we just have a down day, and we forget how to connect with the fundamental basics of our faith: that God loves us, that Jesus died to reclaim us, God’s daughters, God’s princesses, from every power of darkness in our lives?

    And of course, faith is not all about feeling things; we can still choose faith even when we can not feel that love and that joy for one reason or another. But sometimes it can be good for us to remind ourselves of how loved we are, and for us to reconnect with God’s love for us in a way that we can feel.

    So, thinking about all this, and being a practical and creative sort of girl, I decided that the only way for me to ‘live like I believe that I’m God’s princess’, was for me to scratch the ‘like I believe’, and actually spend some time ‘living as God’s princess’. So I put on a pretty dress, and put flowers in my hair and built myself a castle (ok, so really it’s a child’s den, but in my imagination it’s a castle!), and just generally, in a really practical, obvious way, taught myself how it feels to be a cherished, loved princess of the greatest King! And it may seem silly and childish, but God loves it when we are childlike with Him, when we strip things back to the simple things and just invite Him in. As I lie inside my den now I know that my day has turned around into a good day, and that I feel safe, and loved, and comforted– and it’s not because I’m between two sofas with a bedsheet over my head, but it’s because I found a simple way to reconnect my heart with God’s love for me.

    What I want to say to you is that everyone has bad days, or bad weeks, or bad months, but never be afraid or ashamed to admit that you need to go back to basics with God again. If you’ve lost sight of the basic message of God’s love, or if you feel like you’ve been over it time and time again but you still haven’t got it, don’t be frustrated with yourself, just be willing to be vulnerable and childlike with God again.

    When I crawled into my den today, I opened up a book, and this was what was written on the page in front of me:

‘My child, let My peace enfold you… not looking at yourself but at Me! Consciously and frequently rest your spirit in that peace; it brings true healing, and is all that you need. …Do not ‘analyse’ whether you have My peace; just know that it is there… My Name – the Name of Jesus – brings peace; Say it to Me – in love; say it to yourself – to comfort your heart, unfailingly.’