With or Without You.

The other day I went to daily mass. It's a rare occurrence for me to go to daily mass, even though it shouldn't be (that's a another story for another time), but a friend asked me to act ask as Extraordinary Minister, so I went. I was immediately distracted by the sweetest family two pews in front of me: a mom with her three daughters. The youngest daughter, who I'd say was four or five, was sitting on her older sister's lap. The little girl kept trying to braid her hair and failing. Her older sister braided it for her, and when she had finished, the littlest girl felt it. Seemingly dissatisfied with her sister's work, she unbraided it and tried to do it again on her own.

With that, I saw my relationship with God.

Whenever I fail at something, He comes in and tries to fix it. And most of the time, I don't like the way His plans work. Sometimes they're too hard, or too unpredictable, or oftentimes, I'm simply annoyed because it wasn't my plan.

Coming to Mount Saint Mary's wasn't my first choice. In fact, it was at the very bottom of my list of schools. So when things didn't work out with Franciscan, Christendom, and the Catholic University of America, I 'resigned' myself to the Mount, because I simply thought I didn't have another choice.

Now that I'm finishing up my junior year, I know that me coming here was all a part of His divine plan for me. And one day, I know that I'll look back, and see that each time I tried to do something, and God took over, it was to create something much more beautiful than I could ever imagine.

God has great plans for you. They're beautiful. And I know you will do so much to change the world.

Have Courage and Be Kind

On Easter Sunday, my family and I went to see Cinderella. I'm a big fan of fairy tales, and Kenneth Branagh's directing (Much Ado About Nothing, anyone?), so I knew I'd love it, but what really struck me was how Ella dealt with the suffering and pain she experienced throughout her life.

I'm a big believer that we have a choice on how we react to bad things that happen to us: 1) we can become bitter and angry, and let our struggles become our identity or 2) allow our suffering to become something greater and allow a phoenix to rise from our ashes.

As her beloved mother lies on her death bed, she gives Ella some invaluable advice: Have courage and be kind. It's simple, basic advice, but it's the advice that keeps Ella going. After the death of both her parents, Ella could have turned to anger, to bitterness, but instead, she chose to be courageous and kind. As seen in the movie, it's not an easy path. She is treated as a slave by her cruel stepmother and sisters, but instead of retaliation or revenge, she continues to face her problems head on.

That's what makes her so beautiful. Think about it. The stepmother, played by the flawless Cate Blanchett, is beautiful, absolutely gorgeous... on the outside. But her cruelty towards Ella makes her despicable. When the audience gets a taste of Lady Tremaine's back story, things make a little more sense. She is twice widowed, and was deeply in love with her first husband. She, too, has suffered. She was always the second choice of her second husband, and lived in the shadow of his first wife and beloved daughter. She is not cruel for cruelness' sake, but because she has been hurt.

But so has Ella. And she rises above it. In fact, at the end of the movie, she is able to face her tormentor and tell her: I forgive you. It couldn't have been easy for Ella to say that, but she chose to. She looked at her stepmother and saw her humanity. This is what we are called to. Our struggles should not break us down and cripple us, rather they should lift us to be Christlike, to love.

In the credits, a beautiful song, Strong sung by Sonna Rele, played, and the lyrics really stuck out to me. I think they summed up Ella's character, and who we are all called to be;

Let your smile light up the sky, keep your spirit soaring high 

Trust in your heart and your sun shines forever and ever. Hold fast to kindness, your light shines forever and ever. I believe in you and me. We are strong 

A bird all alone on the wind can still be strong and sing

May we act with courage and kindness, not allowing our struggles to define us, but our dignity. We are strong.

"I can do all things in Him who strengthens me" - Philippians 4:13