Vision for the Mission

These past few months have been focused (haha) on discernment for my life. I am constantly finding myself asking the question, "Lord, what the heck am I supposed to do next year?" I feel pressure from all sides to make a swift decision, and it's understandable. FOCUS needs to know what I am doing, so they can either find my replacement to lead the team at NAU, find a place for me at the Support Center, or a number of other things. My family wants to know when I'll be home, if I'm moving back to Denver, and what my life is going to look like. My friends are split down the middle. Even with all of this swimming around me, I am not allowing it to steal my peace. The previous two weeks have been hectic, stressful, and I have not allowed myself to be at peace while trying to make a decision. I no longer allow this.

I sat with myself in prayer the last few days and tried to find my passion. Yes, I am passionate about Jesus Christ. He is everything to me. I sat with my own heart, dissecting it to find what He laid upon it in order to find what He wants. I don't know any more what my life is supposed to look like, but I do know one thing: Evangelization is my passion. I rarely get worked up when giving a talk with the same passion and force unless it's about evangelization. I spent about an hour with some ladies who spent their time telling me that some people in their sphere of young adults are all about prayer and others are all about evangelization - as if the two are entirely separate. I see something happening in some hearts, and it scares me. There used to be a false dichotomy of people within the Church - those who were faithful and those who loved social justice. This did not and does not make sense; a very faithful Archbishop has been quoted saying, "If we do not take care of the poor, we are going to hell." He also stresses the need for daily prayer and an intensity within the Sacramental life. Here is my dilemma, people - Evangelization is VITAL. It is not an option, no matter who you are. If you are Catholic, you are called to evangelize. This doesn't mean you are called to be a street-preacher. This doesn't mean you are called to be a FOCUS Missionary, necessarily, but you are a missionary.

To evangelize is the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her profound identity."

-Pope Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi

I sit in prayer, and I become on fire for this mission of the world. "If you are would you ought to be, you will set the world on fire." -St. Catherine of Sienna. Why shouldn't I set the world on fire? "I came to set the world on fire, and how I wish it were already ablaze!" -Luke 2:49 Is it not written in the end of the Gospel of Matthew that Christ's final words to his disciples, prior to his Ascension, were to "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations." Wow, this isn't an option. It's beautiful, and the ultimate goal of prayer, to have the prayer life described by Blessed John Paul II, "This great mystical tradition...shows how prayer can progress, as a genuine dialogue of love to the point of rendering the person wholly possessed by the Divine Beloved, vibrating at the Spirit's touch, resting filially within the Father's Heart." (NMI 33) However, a fruit of this prayer, this relationship should be the bring this love, this prayer, this beauty, this GRACE to the lives of others. If we are not evangelizing, if we are not bringing the fruit of pure light into the darkness of our world filled with the Culture of Death, we are not truly fulfilling our lives as Christians, as Catholics. We are universal. We follow the Truth. We should bring that truth to others, and it is NOT EVER a choice. Yes, a choice of free will, but should not ever be a "I'll be prayerful or evangelical". No. This is a false dichotomy that the Evil One tries to play within the grounds of our minds and hearts. Do not believe it.

So, my passion lies in this - teaching others how to reach the lost. My heart was created for this. I don't know what that means for my life, but I do know what it means for the next few months - I am renewed in this vision:

We will pierce hearts on the NAU campus with the Gospel and bring students face-to-face with Jesus Christ so that they must make a lifelong decision and must lead others to do the same.

FOCUS at NAU Mission Statement