March for Life Happenings

Boom.  Estimations put this years attendance above 600,000.  Eat it, America!!!  We are pro-life, and we're not going away!!

Oh my good grief, where to begin this post?  Perhaps it's not so smart that we literally just got back to campus from the March for Life, but I want to capture every shiny detail while it's still fresh in my head.

Wednesday:  Courtney and I had to attend the first part of our afternoon class, then we met up with the rest of our group of 12 from Rockhurst that were traveling to go on the March.  We took the school van to a Wal-Mart on the side of the highway where the 7 buses of Benedictine/K-State would pick us up. (Yeah, that's right folks, we made the news!)  The bus picked us up around 6pm and after a minor stop for some technical difficulties with another bus we were really on our way!

Thursday:  A day spent on traveling, naturally.  We pulled into DC and had Mass at St. Louis parish.  We were aiming to make it to the vigil Mass at the National Basilica, but due to time constraints just ended up borrowing a parish.  We made it to the hotel about 8:30pm and settled in to await the next day!

Friday:  The whole group loaded the buses and went to St. Patrick's for the Kansas (minus the Diocese of Wichita) Mass.  We grabbed some bagels and juice and walked down to the national mall.  That's not shopping, for those of you unfamiliar with the DC experience.  That's the empty space by the Washington Monument in-between the Smithsonian museums.  We were right in front of the stage, and speakers like post-abortive women, Rick Santorum, a Franciscan cardinal and some Greek Orthodox brethren, gave encouraging remarks and told us about the Pope's tweet.  Super cool.

Speaking of "super cool," it was cold, folks.   Twenty degrees cold. And it snowed (which was actually suuuuuper pretty and everybody came to consensus that it added to the experience). Everyone had tingling extremities and/or numb toes.  That kind of cold that settles into your bones despite the amount of layers...and trust me I had layers.  Tights, jeans, sweat pants, and a skirt over that.  Long-sleeve shirt, T-shirt, hoodie, and 2 coats.  Two pairs of socks and rainboots.  And still cold.  And you know what?  We prayed.  We sang.  We danced.  We MARCHED.  We celebrated LIFE, because NO ONE can take that joy away from us.

So cool

Ladies and gentlemen, Rick Santorum!

In my early college years, those of us on the trip would make the mistake of trying to locate specific friends from different places while we were getting ready to march.  It made it chaotic, and disappointing if you didn't find that person, and stressful on anybody else trying to help you in your search.  The past couple years I have resisted that urge, and have gone simply to march, to be fully present and aware of my purpose.  Which is why being found by one of my best guy friends from high school (Joe T.) and a wonderfully beautiful friend from FOCUS (Sister Mary Refuge of Sinners with the SSVMs) were HUGE blessings...really, my heart nearly burst as I ran to hug Sister, my beautiful SSVM novice in her grey and blue habit and white veil.  God is so incredibly good.

This is the banner I carried during the march.  It was kinda handy, I wore it "cape style".  I had "Rockhurst University Students for Life" painted on the back with another picture.  I had the banner with the Rockhurst side pointing out during the March when my friend Joe recognized me...it clicked for him when he saw the name Rockhurst and he realized he knew I went there, so he said my name and sure enough, it was me!

We made our way to a metro station a ways away from the Supreme Court building after we were finished marching (Union Station is just packed, so we decided to avoid that).  Our Rockhurst group decided to reconvene at our hotel, and simply spent the rest of the evening in each others' company as we found a local restaurant and enjoyed some fabulous Italian dining.

Saturday:  Again, our Rockhurst group created its own agenda for the day.  We awoke especially early and attended the Students for Life National Conference.  There were some fabulous key note speakers, and we look forward to sharing notes soon on our experiences, as we did not all go to the same break-out sessions.  After navigating the metro system once more amidst delays galore, we made it just in time to meet up with the Benedictine/K-State group for Mass at St. Dominic's to fulfill our Sunday obligation.

And this is where the trip became a pilgrimage for me.  We boarded the buses, made a dinner stop heading out of town...and I could. not. sleep.  I was literally awake all night.  My iPod usually helps me fall asleep on buses, but not last night.  But this was actually a huge blessing.  I had the chance to pray for everyone around me, and to catch up on some good Jesus time that had been sorely lacking lately.

Sunday (today):  I finally had a couple hours of sleep starting about 6am.  We had more leisurely time for stops today since there wasn't a push to get somewhere in a hurry.  Obviously we all wanted to get home, but still we didn't have to rush.  It was nice.  We pulled into KC and the BC group dropped us off.  And Courtney and I walked in our door about 8pm.

There you have it folks.  Just a day in the life ;-)

Quote of the Day XXXI

"Love can be a collision in which two selves realize profoundly they ought to belong to each other, even though they have no convenient moods and sensations. It is one of those processes in the universe which bring a synthesis, unite what was divided, broaden and enrich what was limited and narrow."--The Jeweler's Shop by (then) Karol Wojtyla

 

And so begins the last semester

Ugh, sorry to dump a catch-up post on you to read.  I'll try to keep it brief and organized (ha!).

• Christmas break...where did it go?!  The break really actually flew by this time around.  The only long part was working between Christmas Day and the 3rd of January when I went home.  Yeah, people, I went a little crazy.  On the 3rd I worked only 4pm-9pm, helping to train a new CNA on how to be the "fourth person" on the 3rd floor of the nursing home.  The "fourth person" helps relieve the other 3 CNAs who work 3pm-11:30pm by helping with dinner and helping 5-6 residents to go to bed.  As soon as I was done at 9pm, I drove straight back to Wichita.  Told you I went crazy...but I just wanted to get home so badly!  Ergo, about 1am, I returned home.  My dad was sweet and stayed up to wait for me, and we ended up chatting till 2am.
• I also had the chance to return to the great city of St. Louis for the wedding of a good friend from Rockhurst!  Let me tell you, I love St. Louis so much...the people, the food, the sites, the memories...only I wish the traffic wasn't so darn awful.  Really, it's a bad idea for one lone girl from a town of 800 to be put in the middle of rush-hour traffic on super highways following a Google map.  Needless to say, I was glad my STL friends did all of the driving on the day of the wedding.
• Speaking of weddings, one of my best girlfriends from high school got married on my birthday!  I mean, what more can a girl ask for on her birthday than seeing great friends and a dance to boot!  Matt goes to school with the bride and groom at BC, so it was nice for the four of us to get to be together again.  And the bride looked FABulous.
• My time home was really chill.  I worked more on my genealogy project.  Saw a couple friends.  It was a nice time.
• On Saturday I had to work, but on Monday morning I had my WSU grad school interview, so my weekend was a LOT of travelling!  I went up to KC on Saturday, worked that evening, went up to BC on Sunday to take a load of stuff up to Matt that he had left at his house and went to Mass with him, and then went back to Wichita.  I was gone from my house for just over 24 hours and traveled almost 500 miles.  Have I mentioned I'm crazy...?
• Interview day at WSU!  The day was alright over all: had a tour of the PA building, talked to the students a lot...and then the interview.  I was so nervous, I just know my answers came out more jumbled than I would have liked.  The only thing making me less nervous is the about 50/50 chance I have now of being accepted.
• School started on Tuesday!  Last first day of undergraduate classes.  Weird.  I think it's going to be a great semester.  I have one intro to psych course, one philosophy, and three theology courses.  It's rather strange to not have a science class with a lab, but I really really don't mind.  Do you understand how much more time I now have?!

Well, that wasn't quite as brief as I planned on, but now you don't have to worry about a catch up post for quite a while!

Daily Gospel XVIII: Luke 5: 12-16

"Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean."

Obviously we're all quite happy that Jesus' reply was that He did will it...

...but what if He had said, "No, it is not my will."

During this break I had the great blessing of revisiting one of my favorite books on one of my favorite people: a young woman who was my role model, especially in high school.  Her name is Venerable Maria Teresa Quevedo, better known to her friends as "Teresita".  She was a young woman, endowed with beauty, charm, freshness.  She liked to play tennis and basketball and was the star of each party she went to, but not because of any worldliness.  In fact, she was quite detached from the world, which made her even more attractive.  She was cloaked in Mary at all times.  She joined the order of Sisters that her aunts were a part of and which taught at her high school at an early age of 17 with special parental permission.  She was in a hurry to become a saint, though I doubt she knew her death would come so soon.  Her health was ravaged by tubercular meningitis, and died at the age of 20.

All of her peers, fellow Sisters, and family implored her to seek a miracle from God.  She yearned for Heaven, but obeyed her parents and asked God for her health.  She attained a time or two of reprieve from her illness, but no lasting cure occurred.

It sounds funny to the world...a 20 year old woman ready to die, to be in the throes of pain, to suffer it with grace, even to the point that others around her didn't realize the extent of her pain...except for her father (the physician) and his assistant, who gave her more than 30 spinal taps to relieve her immense headaches.

I really really hope that the leper in the Gospel story would have responded like dear Teresita.  With yearning to do the will of God.  With intense love that would have sent him straight to Heaven.  Perhaps, while physical healing helped advance this leper in sainthood, illness helped Teresita toward her own.  Each soul responds differently, and God knows that best of all.