For Charlie.

When you finish school, you are in no means prepared for what actually takes place in the real world. You only know that the faces you once saw every day of thirteen years, will no longer be a frequent thing in your life. You know that you’re going to move on to bigger things and you know that nothing will stay the same.

What you don’t actually realize is a reality is that some of the people you went to school with, will be married, or have children – you know this is all a possibility but you imagine it won’t be for some time.

You don’t expect time to move so quickly, or that you won’t actually remember the last time you saw certain people. Sometimes you even forget your class mates until their name comes up in conversation, or you see them on Facebook.

But for all of you, I sincerely hope you never have to hear news of an ex-class mate’s death. When I left school I anticipated many things, but I never anticipated any of my classmates dying. I never expected to be hearing that kind of news about someone my age. None of us did.

I guess that is testimony to the fact that we actually know very little about the next hour of our lives.

You never expect something so wrong to happen to someone so young and you don’t expect to be so taken aback by it. You don't expect it to faze you.

The fact of the matter is that most of us spent our entire childhood and most of our adolescence living with the people we went to school with. By living I mean that you spent at least seven hours of most days/weeks/months of a year with these people. You grew up with them, and even if you don’t keep in contact with them or frequently see each other, you still know things about these people. You know some of their embarrassing stories, what kind of person they were, who they were friends with, what kind of music they listened to and thanks to social media, you can basically keep up without catching up with them.

We may have left school years ago, we may all have different lives to the ones we thought we would have, but deep down in a place we don’t even realize exists we are all still those little kids, running around the play-ground, racing to our classrooms, gossiping about each other, our teachers and dreading those hideous blue blazers. We’re still those kids who keep their timetables in their diaries, hate their uniforms, and can’t wait for recess and lunch just to have a chance to sit down and chill with our favorite friends. We’re all still there, we all still have a piece of each other with us.

We re-visit that place constantly when we see or hear news about one another, we think about it in the back of our minds, we try to picture that persons face, remember the last time we spoke to them, we jog through all the times we encountered them and then we think “how naïve were we back then, that we didn’t ever expect things to change so dramatically” – and that’s the thing about growing up, you realize more and more every day, that each day in its own way is a blessing. That there are no guarantees. We never expect that one day, when we look back on those times, that one of us won’t be existing in the same world that we exist in, that they’ll no longer be with us. That all we actually have is that memory, of when we were young, when things were simple. When you didn’t have to remember people because they were always there. You never have to face the reality that for everyone, there’s an “end”.

Today our entire grade lost a class mate, some of us were still close to him, some of us weren’t, but all of us will look back on those days, when we were still young, still naïve, still together and we won’t forget you. We will always remember you, always pray for you and always revisit our memories with you. God bless you and Rest in Peace.

Matthew 25:21

" His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your master.’ "

Serviam OR Non Serviam

"Quis ut Deus? Serviam!" (Who is like God? I will serve!)

When put to the test by God, Lucifer - who wanted to be above God- declared his rebellion in Heaven against Him with the cry, “Non Serviam!” (“I will not serve!”).  The Archangel Michael loyally defended God with his cry of “Serviam” (I will serve) and vanquished Lucifer to Hell with all his demons, today all Catholics pray to St Michael so that he may defend and protect us against the wickedness and snares of the devil.



'SERVIAM' is THE battle-cry which needs to be our daily cry to God, declaring that we will submit ourselves to Him in His divine plan for each of us and for all humanity.
All you need is a sincere heart and good will (Lk 2:14), to unite your will to His and start bringing His reign and heavenly peace into a world that tells us to ignore God and embrace only what feels good. Translation; only want for yourself, what He wants for you!

Embracing the war cry "Serviam" is simple. 

Avoid Cafeteria Catholicism – 

We can’t pick and choose what we believe and still be authentically Catholic.  We need only TRUST that two millennia of Church history and teaching are far superior to what we may come up with on our own.

‎”Be Catholic, really, faithfully, unapollogetically Catholic, and the future will have the kind of articulate and morally mature leaders it needs.” (Archbishop Charles Chaput)

Put your Pride Aside – 

 It takes a pretty big ego to say no to Christ and His Church! What you need is more humility, total surrender and a sincere commitment to put God's will before our own. I know I'm not the only one who can say that doing it my way has never really worked out well for me in the end.

“Few souls understand what God would accomplish in them if they were to abandon themselves unreservedly to Him and if they were to allow His grace to mold them accordingly.”(St. Ignatius of Loyola) 

Practice Personal Holiness – 

I could wax lyrical about this on my own or I could just show you this...

“Since Christians are reclothed in Christ Jesus and refreshed by his Spirit, they are ‘holy’. They therefore have the ability to manifest this holiness and the responsibility to bear witness to it in all that they do."  (Blessed John Paul II,)

It say's it all!!!

Be Joyful – 

It is so easy to let all of our problems take over and cause us so much anxiety and pain which leads us to forget to be HAPPY- it happens to all of us, even the best of us.  But, try not to forget that people in our community are watching us.  They may be seeking Him and looking for someone, anyone, to show them the way to Christ.  For some it's as simple as learning from good examples, or being inspired by joy and being encouraged by other people's faith.
Remember we are called to share the Good News.

Pursue Heaven, Reject the World – 

As Catholics and children of God we should always know that Heaven is our ultimate destination and we are not of the Earth.  Will anything but the Holy Spirit help us get into Heaven?  No without the Holy Spirit we are forced into a secular way of life in a society that only wants us to have little room for God- if any- and where vanity and pride take over all of our thoughts and intentions.  Doing what is right is not always easy, but in the long run it is clearly the most beneficial. Besides...  Why would we not choose Heaven?

There is still another way to be a true Catholic in today’s world that is the way that makes all the others possible:

PRAY FAITHFULLY EVERY DAY.

No one can seriously rebel against the Church if they are faithfully committed to daily prayer. It's really not that hard!

• Start the day with a prayer of thanks to God for the blessings in our lives.  
• Pray for help and courage to face the trials the world will throw at you.  
• Make the sign of the cross and pray over every meal, public or private.  
• Pray a daily Rosary and ask for the help and intercession of our Blessed Mother and pray with our families every night. 

Look, it would be so easy to read this and decide that it doesn't work for you, I'm not judging anyone, I believe everyone is guilty of not being able to do these things constantly and I know I have taken the easy way out in practicing my faith in the past mainly because I haven't been really keen to put in any extra effort.
We all push back against doing what we know is right because it takes a lot more effort, or because we don't want to be judged by others and sometimes even because we have a lack of courage to confront really difficult situations.
But, there's an upside - it's the thing I love most about being a Catholic- No secret it's not easy to be Catholic- the road to hell is EASY, but God know's that, and He knows sometimes we will fall, so He is all merciful and compassionate and gives us ample opportunity to rectify things with Him, while we are of the living, and He never abandons us!
Take it from someone who is incredibly grateful for her faith. I have spent way too much time in a pride-fulled rebellion and it was exhausting.  Surrendering to His will and saying “yes” truly made all the difference in my life.

So, what will it be, Serviam or non serviam?