The Latest

Fall 2009 School Pic

I can't believe how quickly this semester is going. Fall is leaving us, and winter is approaching. Thanksgiving is just around the corner and before we know it, we will be celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ!

Things are still going well for me, I am happy to report. School is in full swing, and we are about to hit crunch time. There is lots to teach and plenty for the students to learn before the state assessments and finals for this course! It makes me a little leery, but we will press on! My students make me smile every day and I am happy to be a part of their lives.

Besides school, the usual is taking place...a busy schedule, multiple activities, and quality time with those around me.

I have also been blessed to spend time with Nathan as he has traveled to Kansas city in the late part of October and will be returning for Thanksgiving week!

As this year draws close to an end (I know we are not quite there...I am just reflecting... :), I have had a few moments here and there to look back on this year and see my many blessings. One being my involvement in the Collaborator movement. It has been just over 10 months since I took a promise to the Family of the Apostles of the Interior Life. On January 1st, I have the opportunity to say yes again to this charism. I look forward to it and hope to live it out more joyfully each and every day.

Also the theme of hope has been coming to mind for several months. I pray that each of you may have a renewed sense of hope at all times. For if you do not hope, hope cannot exist!

I just want each of you to know that I think of YOU often. I wish I could see you more! Please know that I keep you in my prayers and would love to hear how each of you are!

I think I am going to sign off for now...but here are a few pics from the last month or so...

This is the outlook at Benedictine College in Atchison, KS. Nathan and I went to part of the Homecoming festivities while he was in town.

This is the Benedictine Abbey on campus

This picture has a story behind it, well the stone does...you'll have to ask Nathan!

The rest of my time has been visiting friends for coffee, meals, birthdays, parties, etc...

Here's Michelle and I at our friend Brook's birthday party

How to Be Vigilant

The easiest way to keep your peace of heart is to accept everything as coming directly from the hands of the God who loves you. If you do this, any pain or persecution, anything which is difficult to accept will be transformed into a source of joy, happiness, and peace...

Silence and recollection are two very effective ways of bringing ourselves before the Lord and entering into the sanctuary of his love: "When peaceful silence lay over all, and night had run the half of her swift course, down from the heavens leapt your all-powerful word."

When a person comes to terms with his feelings, when he lives in God and walks by the light of faith, he has attained that stillness of the night which God is waiting for. It is then that the Word of God comes to birth in him in a way which is entirely of the spirit, entirely of God.

Remain within your deepest self, in the interior kingdom of your spirit.

Remember that your soul is a temple of the living God. "The kingdom of God is within you."

Night and day let your aim be to remain in simplicity and gentleness, calmness and serenity, and in freedom from created things, so that you will find your joy in the Lord Jesus.

Love silence and solitude, even when in the midst of a crowd or when caught up in your work. Physical solitude is a good thing, provided that it is backed up by prayer and a holy life, but far better than this is solitude of heart, which is the interior desert in which your spirit can become totally immersed in God, and can hear and savor the words of eternal life.

With great purity of intention, aim in everything to do what pleases God. Always remain faithful to God and genuinely accept whatever he wishes.

~Saint Paul of the Cross

[St. Paul of the Cross (1775) was an Italian priest, mystic, and the founder of the Passionists]
Meditation found in Tuesday, Oct. 20th, 2009 Magnificat

Once Again...

Long time no blog!

So since I last wrote, school is approaching the end of the first quarter, I have been spending time with friends and traveling to see other friends and family, I am just attempting running again since I did not have the surgery this summer, I have been staying on top of school work, I have been attending Collaborators, and I have let God make some major movements in my life!

Here is just a glimpse of what I have been up to! To all of those who I have not included below, know that I cherished my times with you as well!!!

I hope this update finds you all well too!

Love, Lauren

Parabola Slide

Here is a glimpse into my classroom! This is certainly not a typical lesson, and it was an optional lesson, so only a few chose to participate! The day prior to this video footage, I was teaching my class how to translate parabolas given an equation and comparing it to the parent function...while I was teaching, it popped into my head that this could be done in correlation with the Cha-Cha slide, you know the song that is popular at wedding receptions and school dances???

Anyways, I asked my students if they would dance to it, if I made it a mathematical lesson. Many were on board, until the camera was involved! (I told them no one else would see this, so don't tell them ;) So I created a powerpoint where I translated the lyrics into Quadratic Equations. Each dance move of the Cha-Cha Slide was represented by a particular translation.

Even though the students could have just danced based on the lyrics they heard, I think many of them actually danced to the "translated" lyrics!

Here's a glimpse into Ms. D's Accelerated Algebra II class...don't mind the others talking in the background :)

I left on a jetplane!

So some may know and others may not, but God has placed a new friend in my life! His name is Nathan Stanley. Nathan and I were introduced back in July through our mutual friends, the Dorings. Little did I know that meeting him 3 months ago would lead me to a weekend trip in Denver!

Nathan works for the organization called FOCUS: Fellowship Of Catholic University Students. Nathan was first introduced to this organization while in college where he attended bible studies led by FOCUS missionaries. Following graduation he joined FOCUS as a missionary, then later became a university team director, and is now serving as an Associate Regional Director in Denver.

Nathan and I have been blessed to grow in friendship through times of visiting one another and definitely through the world of technology in order to shorten the distance between Denver and Kansas City.

God alone knows where is He is leading our relationship, but I know we are both blessed to have met one another!

Over the first weekend of October, I traveled to Denver to see him. I was hosted by some dear friends who lived in Lawrence while I was at KU and are also Promised Family Members with me. Unfortunately I did not get much time with the Donelson family, but I am blessed to have them also as a part of my life!

Here's a pictoral glimpse of the weekend. It was full, but great! We saw the mountains, went to St. Francis Xavier Cabrini's (the first American canonized saint) Shrine, attended a couple FOCUS functions, shared meals with some of Nathan's closest friends, and also attended the Collaborator meeting that took place in Denver the same weekend I was in town!

on the drive to Estes Park...

Nathan and I at one of the visitor centers

Hiking in Estes Park on the Twin Sisters Trail...

Delicious Pizza up in Estes

St. Cabrini's Shrine...can you see Jesus at the top???

Here's a closer view...

Nathan and I at the top of St. Cabrini's Shrine

This is Cecilia Donelson, the 5th child of 6!!!! Isn't she cute?

Thanks Donelson's for your gracious hospitality!

Let Go and Let God

Below is the meditation I gave at the last Collaborator meeting. I have been reflecting lately on the peace and ease that comes to surrendering to God and letting Him guide and lead us to His will for our lives...

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I invite you into this meditation with the simple thought of “Letting Go and Letting God.”

The gift of wisdom leads us to peace: the interior peace of the soul who, having tasted God, gives itself to Him without reserve, in complete surrender to His divine will; the serene peace of one who, seeing God in all things, accepts the hardships of life without being disturbed, adoring God's providence in all....(Divine Intimacy, 314.2)

Take a few moments and consider the “obstacles/struggles” in your life that prevent you from growing closer to God and have taken away some of your peace. Don’t go into depth, just name them...is it a desire that has not been fulfilled? or an attachment you can’t let go of? or an imprudent habit? or an illness you or a dear one is suffering? or a relationship with a friend/family member/significant other? or a job? or finances? or a lack of these? Whatever it is, identify the most difficult obstacle in your life in which you struggle to surrender to God.

Over and over again we hear that God’s will is what we should most desire. We SHOULD, not because it’s the “right” thing to do, but we SHOULD because His will is His design for our lives, and He knows what can bring us the utmost joy and happiness.

So why don’t we just Let Go and Let God, in a total abandonment of our own desires to be freely open to His Will for our lives?

I can name several obstacles in my life that have distanced me from growing in a more intimate relationship with God. But there is one in particular that has caused me to distance myself from Him, and it has resulted in mediocrity and dryness in prayer for several years. Over the years I constantly tried to surrender my will to our Lord, but never did so fully because I did not want to let go of it and because I was trying to do so without relying on God’s help! Why did I not want to surrender? Well I thought it was what I wanted, I became attached to it, and there was a sense of comfort in it, no matter how false it was! I couldn’t denounce this obstacle because I was not ready to fully give it to God.

Where is our faith that God knows what is best, why don’t we trust Him?

After years of trying to let go and let God without relying on God’s grace in my efforts, this summer I finally fell to my knees and sincerely asked for God’s intercession to help me to be OPEN to his will in my life…so I did three things, I the independent one would never do….I prayed a novena for myself, I asked for the intercession of St. Therese, and I asked for a concrete sign. I prayed the novena. I receive the sign. And hours later I was asked to be OPENED… from that moment on, I slowly felt the grace of God fall upon me, and from that day forward, I have felt myself become more free, I have recognized God’s presence more concretely in my life, and I have joyfully allowed God to guide me and I have simply followed. By letting go, and letting God, I not only became free of my obstacle, but I found joy in letting God lead my life, rather than myself...I have seen myself move freely and reliantly on God in many other avenues of my life, in addition to my obstacle...Simply because I let go and let God.

St. Therese of the Child Jesus

We as humans naturally try to fix our own difficulties, we often forget that without God’s help and grace, we will see no growth or change in our struggles…

“There is nothing difficult for God; the one who grows anxious at difficulties is the one who counts on his own capacity for action…It seems to us that a soul standing before such action is like a night that is full of expectation for the coming dawn. And when the light breaks, when God’s will is clearly understood, she lives it out gently, with poise, peacefully watching her God inspiring her and at work within her. It seems to us that action is also an imploring prayer…Each docile act makes us receive God totally and give God totally in great freedom of spirit. And thus life becomes a celebration. (Madeleine Delbrel, French lay mystic, Sept. 4th Magnificat)

Imagine the freedom you could have by letting go of the obstacles that are between you and God...by simply handing them over...living your life out gently with poise, and peacefully watching God inspire within you!

“When a soul has understood the greatness of…life, when it has grasped that the wellspring of it is to be found in union with Christ through faith and charity, it aspires to the perfection of that union; it seeks the fullness of the life that it should, in accordance with thought of God, possess within itself…It is indeed true that all the efforts of human nature, left to itself a distance from Christ, are not able to advance us one step in achieving of that union, in the birth and development of the life it brings forth. It is God alone who gives us the seed-germ and the growth, we care for the plant, we water it: that is necessary, indispensable, says St. Paul, but the fruits of life are produced only because God causes the sap of his grace to rise within us.” (Blessed Colomba Marmion, Benedictine Abbot, August Magnificat)

Let Go and Let God.

Richard and Amanda's Wedding

On Friday, the 25th, I rode the Megabus home to St. Louis! My cousin Scott picked me up in time to head to Forest Park's Jewel Box so that I could attend my step brother's, Richard, marriage to Amanda! The evening was beautiful and it was fun to celebrate with them! Here's to a joyful marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Uhlmansiek!!!

The outside and inside of the Jewel Box in Forest Park

My familia

...and just outside of the Jewel Box is this huge statue of St. Francis!

Hee-Haw Hoedown

For the past three years I have attended the Hee-Haw Hoedown, an event put on by the KC Catholic young adult group! It is a night full of fun. BBQ, square dancing, dancing, bon fires, hay rides, and catching up with friends. Many came in their hats, boots, and maybe a few with their chaps!

I wish I could take credit for the pictures, but as you can tell it was a beautiful night. This year the hoedown was on the property of a pumpkin patch farm!

Women's Retreat

For the weekend of September 11-13th, the Apostles of the Interior Life, along with some of the women of the Family of the Apostles of the Interior Life (the group I took a promise with), put on a retreat for women. The theme of the weekend was, May the King Desire Your Beauty. It was a lovely weekend of talks, meditations, prayer, Sacraments, and community. I was blessed to have mom and Aunt Robyn join me for the weekend, along with some of my friends.

Jessica with Sr. Janel

Michelle, me, Sarah, Jean, Aubrey, and Adrienne

Me with Isaac, my Godson, and friend Katie, Isaac's mom!

Aubrey, Sarah, me and Jessica

Mom, Aunt Robyn, me, and Sr. Loredana

Thanks mom and Aunt Robyn for making the trip, I greatly enjoyed spending time with you and having you there!

Nature's Call 17

For the past 15 years or so, my friend Greg Doring has been heading up a young adult campout over Labor Day weekend. This year was #17!

For the past few years I have toyed with the idea of going, but it always coincided with the Dirnberger family reunion. This year, however, I decided to go camping instead of attending the reunion. [Thanks to my aunt Germaine and uncle Peck who celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this summer, so I was able to at least be in the presence of my family.]

I love to camp, and therefore this weekend was a great getaway in nature!

I attended with several of my friends and nearly 150 other young adults.

The weekend was full of various traditions such as....

A Taste of NC, shopping for groceries in the small passing towns as we traveled to the camp site at Lake Pomme de Terre!

Playing greased pig (a game similar to water polo with a watermelon greased in lard)

It was fun to be a player and then also a spectator!

Attending a street dance (at the campsite), that our group populated!

Cooking out and late night bonfires!

Spending time with friends

sweet v. evil???

Adrienne and I and the guys in the back!

rest, sports, swimming, conversations....

This also gave me the opportunity to get to know Nathan more...

Definitely a great way to spend Labor Day weekend...no work...all leisure and relaxation!