Support a Catholic Speaker Month: Crystalina Evert

On the last day of September (barely made it!), I'd like to talk a little bit about Crystalina Evert for Support a Catholic Speaker Month. 

To see Crystalina and her husband Jason Evert speak, is to see the Gospel come alive. They radiate charisma, beauty, a real talent for speaking and especially their love for one another. Every coordinated move shows that they work as a team. Their union as a couple and family is what really shines through in their evangelization and speaking. "This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (Jn 13:35)

Crystalina and her husband have been giving talks on chastity and love ever since they met, at a conference in the Bahamas. They are full-time Catholic speakers for Catholic Answers, as well as authors of several books and DVDs. Starting from when they were engaged, they've toured high schools, speaking openly and honestly to teens about chastity. You can watch them on their DVD called Romance Without Regret. They also teamed up with Brian Butler to put together a wonderful, high-quality DVD series called Theology of the Body for Teens. 

In that DVD series, Crystalina talks about how she went on a mission trip with a friend. When they came back, they each pursued their own vocation. Crystalina got married and her friend became a nun. Crystalina then says that even though their vocations are different, they are still fulfilling God's commandment of feeding, clothing and caring for Him (Mt 25:35). While her friend does it towards others that God puts in her path (on the street, in schools, etc.), Crystalina does it as a mother. 

This statement has really stayed with me and I think it reflects Crystalina's humility and depth. She embraces being a woman, wife and mother with simplicity and therein lies her strength. Not everyone can share their sexual past with millions of teenagers in talks and online, but Crystalina does it with honesty and simplicity. She is the perfect example of boasting gladly in her weakness, for when she is weak, she is strong (2 Cor 12:9-10).

Crystalina has recently launched a new website, Women Made New, and it is full of testimonies and resources that reflect Crystalina's mission. 

In one of the videos on the site, "Emotional Virtue", it says that a group of guys voted holiness and confidence as the most attractive qualities in a woman. These are definitely qualities that Crystalina exudes. One thing is for sure, there is a strong prayer life behind both Crystalina and Jason as a couple. In an interview in 2003 she says, "Well, every day Jason and I do an hour of adoration, the rosary, mass, confession every two weeks and honestly just trying to always maintain and keep Christ at the center of my life... the center of everything I do." 

(images source)

Thinking about those special people...

There are those people in life whose hearts you are sure are made of gold. Who when you talk to them on the phone your face beams and your heart feels homey. Those people who love you unconditionally, even if you live a million miles away and are terrible at keeping in touch long-distance. Who still remember the special moments you spent together and talk about them with love and nostalgia, as if they were yesterday.Who make you think, everyone in the world could let you down but you trust goodness still exists because of them. 

I'm so lucky and so undeserving to have such people as my second family in the US: the Harrisons. If I had to choose three words to describe them, I'd maybe choose genuine, true and good-hearted. I think the wonderful moments I spent with them and our friendship really helped form who I am. Here's to a hug across the Atlantic!

My best friend and her mom (with two family members missing)...

Where the green grass grows

It finally rained here in Lisbon, which makes me really happy after a month of scorching heat and having to teach kids in a non-air-conditioned classroom. And just having to walk around in general in the heat. I felt just as refreshed as I'm sure dirt everywhere felt. I loved seeing the grass in the park look really GREEN in contrast with the autumn leaves starting to show up. Just like tears are purifying for our soul (or so they say), I think rain must be purifying for the earth. I went running (just a little, twice a week) and it felt really, realy good. 

 My view when I do my sit ups...

Love and Responsibility Quotes

I finished reading Love and Responsibility by John Paul II (before he was pope) and, even though it was pretty dense and philosophical, I loved it. It helped me understand basic things about love, it helped me in my own personal relationship and it is definitely a book I will go back to for reference. 

Here are a few of my favorite quotes: 

• "The sexual urge in this conception is a natural drive born in all human beings, a vector of aspiration along which their whole existence develops and perfects itself from within." p. 46
• "The only way to surmount the element of uti is to embrace simultaneously the alternative, fundamentally different, defined by St Augustine as frui. There exists a joy which is consonant both with the nature of the sexual urge and with the dignity of human persons, a joy which results from collaboration, from mutual understanding and the harmonious realization of jointly chosen aims, in the broad field of action which is love between man and woman." p. 61
• "It should be emphasized here that love is the fullest realization of the possibilities inherent in man. The potential inherent in the person is most fully actualized through love. The person finds in love the greatest possible fullness of being, of objective existence. Love is an activity, a deed which develops the existence of the person to its fullest. It must of course be genuine love." p. 82
• "A woman is capable of truly making a gift of herself only if she fully believes in the value of her person and in the value as a person of the man to whom she gives herself. And a man is capable of fully accepting a woman's gift of herself only if he is fully conscious of the magnitude of the gift - which he cannot be unless he affirms the value of her person." p. 129
• "For love is never something ready made, something merely 'given' to man and woman, it is always at the same time a 'task' which they are set." p. 139
• "For this reason genuine human love, love 'for' a person, and love 'between' persons, must combine two elements: tenderness and a certain firmness. Otherwise, it will lose its inner soundness and resilience, and turn into sterile sloppiness and mawkishness. We must not forget that love for a human being must also contain certain elements of struggle. Struggle for the beloved human being, and his or her true good." p. 204
• "Without integration marriage is an enormous risk. A man and a woman whose love has not begun to mature, has not established itself as a genuine union of persons, should not marry, for they are not ready to undergo the test to which married life will subject them." p. 215
• "But the need for betrothed love, the need to give oneself to and unite with another person, is deeper and connected with the spiritual existence of the person. It is not finally and completely satisfied by union with another human being." p. 253

The Effects of the Rosary

Julie Rodrigues | September 19, 2012 AD | Reply

Why do people pray the rosary: to obtain special graces? to connect with God? as Christian meditation? in reparation for one’s sins and the sins of others? for world peace?

The rosary is very mysterious and so are the effects of praying the rosary. How is it that by saying certain prayers while thinking about certain events in the life of Jesus… usually while getting distracted, thinking about other things, even falling asleep… can do anything for our relationship with God? Or even stranger, can take part in God’s plan of salvation for all mankind? Other forms of prayer seem to have more tangible effects: reading the Bible can give us a pretty clear message, silence or journaling can make us more aware of what’s going on in our interior, the sacraments can be powerful emotional experiences.

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