ASB 2013

     This year, I had the best spring break of my life (so far). Instead of spending the week sitting on the couch at home, or drinking away my stresses on Padre Island, I chose to go on a mission trip to the diocese of Brownsville.

     The week started with an eventful drive to San Juan, Texas (just outside of McAllen). Unlike the typical school style road trips, our drive resembled that of a very large and obnoxiously loud family. Whenever someone wanted to eat, we stopped. If someone needed to go to the bathroom, we stopped. If someone felt the need to check their hair in a mirror, we stopped. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I loved the fact that we weren't on a strict schedule - it made the trip much more relaxed. You'd think that this would add a significant amount of travel time. However, thanks to the speedy driving habits of Fr. Joseph, we made it in about 6.5 hours (only an hour over the estimate).

Excited for the trip with Eugenia

James, Gio, and Joel at Whataburger

Credit goes to Shane for Vine-ing our drive in van 1

     We arrived in San Juan at around 8:00pm. It is here that the beautiful Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle is located. Alternative Spring Break (ASB) was a mixture of a mission trip as well as a pilgrimage. Our mission work consisted of helping the Newman Center at UT Pan American and our pilgrimage was centered around visiting this amazing Basilica. The staff at the Basilica served as excellent hosts and offered us a very generous rate to stay at their on site housing. This is where we stayed for the duration of our trip, 3 nights.

Excuse the poor quality iPhone picture

      Tuesday morning we headed off to the University of Texas Pan American (UTPA) to meet our friend Joe, the campus minister at the Newman Center. 

UH campus minister, Gio, with UTPA campus minister, Joe.

     He presented us with our task for the day... and I'm just going to go ahead and say that it was not easy. The center at UTPA owns a small house right across the parking lot. It has a lot of potential, but the problem is that it has been abandoned for years. As a result, the quaint 3 bedroom house looked like a scene from the "Hoarders: Buried Alive" show. But not to worry, 15 of us stormed into the house and cleaned it out completely. 

Cleaning all the stuff out of the house went surprisingly quickly

I was useless when it came to the heavy lifting. But we formed one heck of a cleaning crew.
Look at those sparkling floors!

     Wednesday was spent doing some minor housekeeping work at the actual Newman Center. It was much more relaxed than our previous day of playing "Extreme Makeover Home Edition." The best part however was when we got news of our new pope! There is no group of people I would have rather been with to watch this exciting moment in church history. 

i

Excuse this incredibly unflattering picture of me, but it shows the excitement.

Papa Francisco!  

     The first two days of our trip was our mission work, and the last day was our pilgrimage. We spent Thursday morning at the Basilica for daily mass and Stations of the Cross. It was absolutely gorgeous and so peaceful. You could feel really feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. I was also able to find a new bible in the gift shop which I had been planning on buying for a while!

Breathtaking altar

Giant mural on the side of the Basilica made out of tiny glass tiles

     To say I'm blessed to have gone on this trip is an understatement. This week allowed me to see mission work from an entirely new perspective. On Monday afternoon we left as a group of 21 friends and acquaintances  By the time we got back to Houston on Thursday night, we were a family. I love my ASB family, not just as a result of the memories we made but of the humbling experience we shared while serving in the poorest of all dioceses.
     God allowed me to go on this mission trip not only to serve him and his people, but to enrich my life by making 21 new brothers and sisters. I couldn't have ever imagined a more perfect spring break. I'm already counting down the days until next year.

Stop Punishing Yourself

     I always find it funny whenever someone makes reference to "Good old fashioned Catholic guilt." Why is this even a thing?  Every time I hear this I want to kindly inform everyone about the fact that we have confession... which, if I may add, is probably one of the coolest sacraments ever. We can commit even the most horrible of sins, but as long as we come into reconciliation with a humble and contrite heart, we are forgiven. Why is it then that we still have this idea of feeling guilty for what we've done? 
     I'm telling you folks, God is a way better "forgiver" than we will ever be. I sometimes come into contact with amazing people who are convinced that they have been damaged beyond repair as a result of some sin they previously committed. What makes this even more saddening is that they tell me they've already been to reconciliation and received absolution! In their minds, they know that God has forgiven them. But in their hearts, they're convinced that that's just "too good to be true."
     We have this awful habit of trying to prove ourselves to God. We want to show him that although He has already forgiven us, we will continue to live in sadness and despair for what we've done. He doesn't want that! He made us for happiness and love! What I'm about to tell you is going to be difficult to comprehend because it is so far from what we are told in our society today... God doesn't love you because you're good, He loves you because you're His.
     Stop living in darkness as a way of trying to punish yourself. Jesus has already taken the punishment upon himself! The best way to thank Him is to repent for your sins and take advantage of all the love and grace He pours upon us.
     Okay, I've finished my very small and somewhat meaningless rant. Go and enjoy your Sunday!

Burning Lights Tour

     I'm completely overwhelmed by the greatness of this past week. All I could think about was getting back to my computer to tell you all about it! I started my Spring Break exactly a week from today and boy was that a blast. I took a few of my friends to the fish fry at my home parish and completely stuffed my face with some quality Knights of Columbus home cooking. I think we all agreed that there's something about fish fried outside your local Catholic church that just hits the spot. 
     Saturday brought a whole new set of adventures. I, along with two of the greatest Catholic boys you will ever meet, ventured to The Woodlands to go see Chris Tomlin in concert. I had never been to a praise and worship concert outside of the retreat setting, so I was curious to see how this was all going to go down.

     I give the Burning Lights Tour a glowing review. The entire pavilion was full of energy, love, and excitement. The evening started with the beautiful Kari Jobe leading us in some praise and worship. Shortly after, Chris Tomlin took the stage and brought your typical "Jesus Music" to a whole new level. Now, here's what's super cool. After a few songs, Louie Giglio took the stage and preached. For those of you who are not into stuff like this, I completely understand how crazy this sounds. But trust me, this was not your typical dull and boring bible school lesson. He broke open three stories from scripture and proclaimed them in an absolutely phenomenal way. His explanation of the Story of The Prodigal Son is the best I've ever heard! (More on that coming soon). Once again, Chris and Kari both took the stage and finished out the evening. I don't remember the last time I've seen so many people dancing with such joy in public... I'm talking kids as young as 4 years old to men and women in their 70's.

     Obviously, the concert was fun... as they almost always are. But, I could have not thought of any better way to begin my spring break. I knew that on Monday morning, I was going to leave with a group of students on a mission trip for Alternative Spring Break (ASB). Chris' lyrics perfectly prepared my heart for what was to come.

"I feel alive. I come alive. I am alive, on God's great dance floor."

     The world we are surrounded by every day is God's great dance floor. That world is not always pretty. Sometimes it's filled with sadness, destruction, and poverty. But alongside all those negatives, there are a never ending number of positives. When we accept the will and love of God into our lives, no matter the state of the dance floor around us, we become alive. We fill the dance floor with positives. That's what I was about to do on ASB. I was accepting our Father's love and plunging into the dance floor of the diocese of Brownsville. Although the state of this place was unknown to me, I felt alive and ready to accomplish whatever challenges came my way. (Stay tuned for info coming soon about ASB... if I can manage to fit it all into one post!)

Let Go of Your Tree

     The gospel reading from yesterday (3rd Sunday of Lent) really struck me. This particular reading shares with us one of Jesus' parables. Oh parables... You know when one of those gets introduced, things are going to get complicated. 
     This parable tells the story of a orchard owner who has a fig tree. It has been three years and the fig tree still has not produced fruit. Frustrated, the orchard owner tells the gardner that he plans on cutting down the tree. The gardner then promises to cultivate the ground and fertilize the soil in hopes of it bearing fruit. If after a year it still does not bear fruit, the orchard owner can cut it down. 
   I guess, cool story bro. I had the hardest time trying to relate to this parable. I spent a while trying to manipulate the circumstances of my life to find a way to convince myself that I was the tree in some sense (a work in progress), or even the gardner (the one who helps things grow to their potential). Imagine my disappointment when I realized I was the lame orchard owner. I wasn't the beautiful tree with immense potential. I wasn't the selfless and dedicated gardner. I was the whiny complaining orchard owner. Great.
     I've spent the past few months really trying my hardest to grow in my relationship with God, to become a living, breathing representation of the Holy Spirit. I desperately wanted to be the gardner. Hey, I was even fine with being the tree. But I felt like being seen as the orchard owner meant that I had made no progress throughout these past few months. I was still hung up on what had failed in my life. My three year old fruitless tree. My friend Claire noticed my disappointment and kindly reminded me not to judge my feelings. "Recognize how you feel and see that as something to work on, with God." I couldn't have said it better myself.
     I believe that at some point, we are all the orchard owner. We all have something in our lives that isn't working out and we feel tempted to just "cut it down", give up. Or, sometimes it's taken away from us. Regardless, we need to recognize that it doesn't end there. All of the failed parts of our lives (academics, jobs, relationships) do not disappear when we decide that they do not bring about the fruit that we desire. We've been challenged to hand what we perceive as failures to the "gardner", to God. I'm going to ask you all to join me in this task. Instead of just giving up and throwing it away, hand it over to God, ask him to fix it. If for some reason we believe it has already been taken away, realize that maybe God is using this as an opportunity to fix it Himself, to cultivate the ground and fertilize the soil. 
     Don't cut down your tree. Rather, give it to the gardner and allow Him to do with it what He deems most beneficial. 

Music Obsession

My friend Angie showed me this song earlier this week and I really enjoyed it. It's a very "feel good" kind of song. Don't go into it expecting some deep lyrics that are going to make you rethink your life. But, it can definitely put you in a cheerful mood!