"Vocation is..." video

My friend from university made this great video called "Vocation is... a gift of God's love" in which many different people with different vocations answer the question "what is vocation?"

The first person that speaks is a girl from my parish youth group and at 0:59 my boyfriend and I make our star appearance saying, "Vocação é descobrir o amor de Cristo na relação com o outro” (Vocation is discovering the love of Christ in your relationship with the other). Enjoy! :)

Easter in the North

This Easter was the first time I didn't visit my parents where they live :( but instead, I went up north with my boyfriend's family. We went to a tiny (as in... 30 houses) little village up high in the mountains. Like many villages in Portugal, there are a lot of toothless old people ;), but there is also a warm-heartedness and authenticity that you can't find anywhere in the city.

A card that crossed the Atlantic and I am always so happy to get

The view from my bedroom window

The house where I stayed

The kitchen window



An Easter tradition in the North, the cross goes from house to house and when it passes in your house you follow it to the next house. Here the entire village is out on the road.

A final blessing at the end...

Time to go home...!

Happy Easter...!

I'm off to spend a few days in a place without internet access... which will be a welcome break. :)

I hope your Easter is filled with time, community and love. And mine too!

Here are some pictures of Daniel and I at a youth ministry diocese retreat two weeks ago...

PS And here is a post I wrote called "Is Being Single a Failure?"

What I've learned this Lent

This Lent my resolution to make it to daily mass failed with a big, fat, capital F. I didn't even come close. But... I tried! And as always, God surprised me and showed me things this Lent I wasn't expecting. Especially important were the youth group retreat about the Our Father and reading Mother Teresa's book. It was especially important for me to learn that life isn't about the earthly pleasures... and getting married and having the perfect family can seem like the perfect earthly pleasure to a lot of women, myself included. Earthly pleasures are just a preview of the eternal pleasure of total communion with God and others, heaven. And along the way, we're called to love and draw as many others into that love with us.

“As part of my Lenten practice, I do give something up, but it must be something I’ll be longing for with every part of me. When I have chosen the right sacrifice, these 40 days of Lent can seem like an eternity. Perhaps that’s why the single life can often feel like Lent: I feel that something is missing, something I truly desire and yearn for.

“I find myself waiting and hoping for a long period of time to come to an end.  … Unlike my Lenten sacrifice, which can be easily broken, the single life is not so easy to break if I want to experience what I am really looking for. The 40 days of Lent, like life, cannot be rushed if we are truly to appreciate and rejoice in a glorious Easter.” 

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/lenten-reads-for-catholic-singles/#ixzz1qyCcBDjv

 

What I've learned this Lent:

 

♪ Life cannot be rushed ♪ God's plans cannot be rushed or even guessed ♪ I'm absolutely unable to stick to priorities ♪ I'm absolutely unable to succeed or get my life in order ♪ The value of silence ♪ Friendship takes TIME ♪ Even the right decisions include thorns ♪ I'm a lot blinder than I think ♪ I can learn from everyone ♪ We need touch and physical closeness... to others and to God ♪ Suffering alone is the worst... suffering for another is a form of love, and a form of prayer ♪ God identifies Himself with the poor and that's a gift for us... to allow us to express our love for Him ♪ Love is patient ♪ The value of close friendships ♪ The value of community ♪ How few things I really need ♪ Joy is a result of being loved and loving ♪ The most difficult type of poverty to satiate is loneliness ♪

 

My amazing goddaughter, who teaches me
about unconditional love

A celebration of love

I went to the most beautiful wedding last Saturday. It was a little further north, in Coimbra. My favorite parts, other than the people of course, were how the mass was the most important, how the bride and groom came in with the priests in the procession, how laid-back and deep the homily was, the beautiful women's choir (that the bride usually sings in) and the general simplicity of it all!

These friends that got married are a real example of love for me. They have been dating for quite some time, but it is so obvious that they have really become a unit/one flesh and all through patience, chastity, perseverance, forgiveness, adaptation and true friendship. Hard work!