By Emily E. Long
Have you ever sat in a pew on Sunday morning and all you can think about is having a donut after Mass? Or maybe you pray a Rosary every day and the prayers feel meaningless. You even question why you are a part of the Catholic Church in the first place. How does a 2,000-year-old institution even apply to my life? Why does Jesus even matter?
Let’s admit it, we’ve all been in similar situations. My name is Emily, I’m 26 and a practicing Catholic. For a while, I was just going through the motions. I loved my faith, but Church had gotten dull, going to Mass was a struggle, and prayer was not happening. I decided to change. There are so many ways to pray, meditate, worship, and ultimately, grow closer to Jesus. So why not try those? Welcome to Experiments in Catholicism.
For the next year, I’m going to challenge myself to go outside the box when it comes to my usual practices. From waking up to pray in the morning, attempting to pray the Rosary daily, and maybe even sprinkling in a bit of Latin, I want to reinvigorate my faith to be completely on fire for the Lord. I’ll report here in The Catholic Sun and challenge you, our readers, to try some experiments of your own.
When I first tried to write this column, it did not go well. I almost forgot one crucial step in our spiritual scientific method: Surrender.
I set up my laptop at a coffee shop and put in my earbuds. Coincidentally, the coffee shop I was at was also hosting a Loud Persons Anonymous meeting. I cannot understate how loud it was. My words became jumbled on my screen, and none of my thoughts made sense. After struggling for a while, I reached a breaking point. I gathered my things and headed to my car. It was as if I was throwing my hands up in the air, saying, “Lord, you figure this out, take it away from me!”
Then, it made sense. It was like Jesus replied to me, saying, “Finally! That was the whole point!” If I were going to write about the Church and my faith, I needed to open my heart and allow the Lord in. At that moment, I gave this column up to Him, permitting Him to do what He wanted with my words. I didn’t have to do this on my own anymore.
Saint Edith Stein once wrote, “When we entrust all the troubles of our earthly existence confidently to the divine heart, we are relieved of them. Then our soul is free to participate in the divine life.” All these worries and anxieties were never meant for us, but Jesus is always ready to help. He wants to be called upon and let into our lives. The Lord is our Creator. He knows us intimately, but He wants us to know Him like a friend. To make a new friend, you need to talk to them and invite them into parts of your life. Jesus wants us to know that we always have someone willing to help us when we deal with stress.
Need to surrender something and don’t exactly know how? If you haven’t heard of the Christian singer, Forrest Frank, I need you to go to wherever you listen to music and type in “Your Way’s Better.” This song is infectiously catchy as it is spiritual. The chorus so perfectly sums up why we need to surrender. Forrest sings, “Oh Lord I need you now more than ever, would you put my heart back together, I searched the world ‘till my head hurt, just to find out your way’s better!”
His way is always better, we just need to let Him in.
Experiment of the Week: When you feel stressed, turn on “Your Way’s Better” and give your stress to the Lord!
