What I'm Thinking About Right Now.

So retreat is in 11 days. I'm so ready for it I really can't wait! Life has been kind of crazy lately and it's starting to get me down. I'm just so ready for a break from it all. Yet at the same time I'm almost dreading it because it means I have to actually articulate what's in my heart to someone I've never met before and I'm really not good at that. It's so much easier for me to type or write what's on my heart then for me to actually say it face to face to someone. I guess the reason I'm posting this is just to get it out. I've been holding this in for way to long. Please keep me in your prayers.

JMJ+
~Betsy

Totus tuus Maria!

New Blog

I am now a part of the Holy Vocations blog and so will not be posting here much any more.

JMJ+
~Betsy

Totus tuus Maria!

My Vocation Story.

The Amazing Journey of How God Has Asked Me to Marry Him and Brought Me to the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist.
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From the time I was very young the thought that maybe I was going to be a nun was there.
This was due in part to the fact that five of my paternal great aunts were Sisters of Saint
Joseph in London, Ontario. My aunt and uncle have a cottage in Canada that they let us use for
family vacations and we would always spend a day in London at the motherhouse. While yes, it
was only seven days of my life, it made such a huge impact on me that whenever someone
asked me “What do you want to be when you grow up?” it was always “…or a nun”.
When I was twelve I was sitting on the couch making a bracelet and thinking and praying about my life. All of a sudden I knew that I was going to be one hundred percent God’s. I can’t say what happened, but I knew and have never doubted it since. The first year was very hard for me because I didn’t really understand what that meant. Instead of seeing everything I get
when I give myself to God I was focused on everything I had to give up. At my Confirmation Mass, about a year later, my eyes were opened to the amazing thing that being a sister really is and that’s when my romance with God really began. I still had no idea how I was going to live it out.
In August of 2007 I was pretty sure that God was calling me to one of three orders: the Servants of God’s Love, The Sisters of Life, or The Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. In November I was looking more into the Servants of God’s Love and was very attracted to their work with orphans and I was thinking that maybe that’s where God was calling me. Then the fact that they don’t wear a traditional habit started bugging me. I kept telling myself, “Betsy, that’s ridiculous, what they wear doesn’t matter at all, the important thing is the work they do,” but I was having a really hard time with it. Eventually I got so fed up with myself I said, “Okay God, I’m going to go back to discerning between these three orders and if you want me with the Servants of God’s Love you are going to have to change my heart because I’m having a really hard time with this” and He said ,“Okay, I’ll let you know, but not yet.”
In late November I got a phone call from one of my friends asking if I wanted to go on the March for Life in Washington D.C. I said yes, and thought that maybe this would decide the Sisters of Life one way or the other. I went on the trip and had an amazing time of course, but when I got home I couldn’t figure out if something had happened or if I only felt like something happened because I wanted something to happen. I kept going back and forth and just couldn’t figure it out. At the end of February I went on retreat with my youth group and was talking to my small group leader about what was going on and she said to me, “ Betsy, if you believe that God is calling you to the Sisters of Life, then pursue it and if He isn’t He will let you know before your final vows.” I started pursuing it, but there wasn’t anything I could really do about it because they ask you to go to college before you join.. I was just waiting.
My mom and I came to the profession of first vows in August and I was very moved. When the Sisters were prostrate in front of the altar, I saw myself at some point in the future, in a white habit and black veil prostrate in front of the altar at Christ the King. I just brushed it aside though because I was going to have a blue scapular and cape and it was going to be in New York. When we came to the motherhouse, the first thing we did was go into the chapel and right .way I felt at home and at peace. One of the things that really stuck out to me was the joy and laughter of all of the sisters, even in the midst of hard work. What also struck me was the genuine beauty of all of you that has nothing to do with the outside.
On Friday, my first thought was “Maybe I’m not so sure about New York.” I told my mom this and she said “Yeah, I kind of thought that might happen.” Later in the day I was doing dishes and I asked God, “Okay, what happened yesterday? I thought you wanted me in New York?” He told me that the reason I thought He wanted me in New York was because He needed to know how much I am willing to give and if I was willing to wait. A few weeks prior to this I was in Adoration and had finally given Him everything and really meant it. He told me that because I had shown Him that I was ready to do anything for Him, He wasn’t asking me to go to New York and do theses hard things but He was asking me to go to Ann Arbor next year.

JMJ+
~Betsy

Totus tuus Maria!

Bishop Sheen quotes!

My Favorite Quotes by Bishop Fulton J. Sheen
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Hearing nuns' confessions is like being stoned to death with popcorn.

Leisure is a form of silence, not noiselessness. It is the silence of contemplation such as occurs when we let our minds rest on a rosebud, a child at play, a Divine mystery, or a waterfall.

Life is like a cash register, in that every account, every thought, every deed, like every sale, is registered and recorded.

Show me your hands. Do they have scars from giving? Show me your feet. Are they wounded in service? Show me your heart. Have you left a place for divine love?

The proud man counts his newspaper clippings, the humble man his blessings.

Too many people get credit for being good, when they are only being passive. They are too often praised for being broadminded when they are so broadminded they can never make up their minds about anything.

There are not a hundred people in America who hate the Catholic Church. There are millions of people who hate what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church— which is, of course, quite a different thing.

It's like being a Knight of the Garter. It's an honor, but it doesn't hold up anything.

JMJ+
~Betsy

Totus tuus Maria!

Spirit and Life

Spirit & Life®
"The words I spoke to you are spirit and life." (Jn 6:63) Human Life International e-Newsletter Volume 04, Number 26 | Friday, August 21, 2009
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Pro-Life Dos and Don'ts for 2009 In light of the recent political and economic upheaval in our country, I have been asked by a number of people to re-issue the Spirit & Life edition that I sent out at the time of the March for Life this past January. Our readers may look again and judge whether or not there is any relevance to it. I will only preface this posting with an insight that pro-life activist Mark Crutcher gave on his recent "Life Talk" show. It is this: with regard to the phenomenal citizen participation in the town hall meetings this summer, where have all these patriotic citizens been when it comes to the killing of babies in their country? There are many who are concerned about their own healthcare and more who are concerned about their pocketbooks, but why can we not generate the same level of indignation about the destruction of 50 million American taxpayers who would even now be contributing to the economy and buying into the healthcare system? Our country needs serious conversion of heart. Don't get me wrong; I am glad people are standing up to ridiculous legislation proposed by professional liars, but I am not in favor of selective indignation when the destruction of innocent life right in our own neighborhoods is so catastrophic for our country. This economic crisis is only the beginning of the long-term effects of the loss of so much precious life. Let's pray intensely for that deep national conversion of heart that is really the only thing that will save our country from destruction - terrorism, healthcare and the economy all take a back seat to this utterly urgent priority. And by the way, if you didn't commit to these dos and don'ts back in January, there's no time like the present! January 23rd, 2009, Spirit & Life The pro-life movement is going through a great deal of self-examination at this time. I am not a pessimist, but my sense of realism tells me that the election of extreme abortion advocate, Barack Obama, and the nearly 7,000 political appointments of his administration will usher in a new decade of war on decency and the sanctity of life. Despite the ferocious optimism of his inauguration, the dark clouds of the culture of death are gathering over Washington as we speak, ready to cast their darkness everywhere. In this time of preparation for the upcoming total war on life, I offer this modest list of Dos and Don'ts for the generous and valiant pro-lifers who gather for the March for Life in Washington, DC on January 22nd. May all men and women of good will take these recommendations to heart for a fruitful pro-life 2009! DON'TS Above all, do not grow despondent: there is much to fear for the situation of life around the world, but we are not permitted by our Christian faith to give up our efforts or zeal for life. In fact, we need to redouble it! Do not become absorbed in the quest for a political solution to abortion: after 36 years of working for a political solution to abortion, we may soon see the wiping out of most, if not all, of the pro-life movement's gains with the stroke of a pen. Politics has failed. Or rather, we have failed at politics. Either way, politics now offers us little chance of anything other than just trying to slow the massive momentum of the culture of death. Do not waste any more energy on overturning Roe: two Supreme Court seats are assured during an Obama administration, and they will undoubtedly be filled with extreme pro-abortion activist judges. A third appointment will leave us with no hope of overturning Roe in anyone's lifetime reading this. For that matter, the chance that a good pro-life President will succeed Obama in four years and nullify the leftward lurch of the high court is, shall we say, unlikely. Let's get hopes of undoing Roe out of our system and focus on more productive things. DOS Pray every day for God to end abortion with our help (in that order): abortion is such a great spiritual and social evil that only the divine power of God Himself can end it. "The Lord hears the cry of the poor," but God will not do it alone. He needs us to humbly recognize the basic fact that it is humanly impossible to end this evil. We need to get on our knees and beg His Mercy on the unborn and the conversion of all those who commit these evils. Commit to fasting every week to end the evils of abortion and contraception: "Some demons can only be driven out by prayer and fasting," said the Lord, and we have to take that admonition seriously if we are to effect any change in the hearts of our people or of our society. Fasting makes us more spiritual and gives greater efficacy to all our works and prayers. Take back the culture: Even if the anti-lifers hold the reins of political power, we must not sit back and allow moral anarchists to define all the terms of the cultural or social agenda. Whether it is through social activism for life (crisis pregnancy centers, pickets and prayer marches) or through touching hearts and minds one soul at a time (persuasion, formation, teaching, media), we cannot be neutral about the direction our American culture is heading. It is leading us to certain spiritual death, and no one can afford that. We need to fight for it and never give up the battle. I promise you that Human Life International will be in the struggle for lives and souls continuously. It is our calling and mission. We will never give one inch to uphold the truth that the whole world needs to hear more than ever: namely, that human life is sacred from the first moment of natural fertilization to the moment of natural death - and we will defend it whether Mr. Obama likes it or not. Sincerely, Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, President, Human Life International JMJ+ ~Betsy Totus tuus Maria!

Rearranging

I was listening to an old Steubinville CD, there is one line in the song that says "though my life may be in need of some rearranging, you are always there, unchanging." I was thinking about rearranging a room, and how when you rearrange you take some stuff away, add some stuff and move some stuff around. Also when you rearrange, it's a lot of hard work to get it the way you want it and sometimes, particularly if you are doing it alone, you can get hurt. So, what does this mean for your life? It means that sometimes you are going to have to take things away in your life. You can't take something away without replacing it though, so one idea is to replace it with more in depth prayer, or more hanging out with family or good friends. Sometimes you just need to get your priorities straight and move things around in your life so you have the right outlook on things.
All of this rearranging is not easy, I know it's not, but it's even harder to do on your own and if you are trying to do this on your own with no outside support at all, odds are you are going to get hurt at some point. If you need to do some rearranging, I would so strongly encourage you to find someone to help you, because even though you can do all things through God, He did give us people for a reason and you just can't do it on your own.
I pray that you will be able to rearrange what ever you need to in your life and that God will give you His continued blessings everyday!

JMJ+
~Betsy

Totus tuus Maria!

Passion

JMJ+
~Betsy

Totus tuus Maria!