Emily Wilson: "Go Bravely" | SEEK2019

[Applause] hello I am so delighted to see all of you in here I know it's a little crazy out there glad you all got a seat I'm really grateful and I really mean it when I say that I'm so grateful you're here if you watch my videos you watch my Instagram live whatever brought you here maybe you have no idea who the heck this blonde girl is and you're like I'll just go to this talk this is all about Jesus and that's who I want to point you to but I want to talk about womanhood in this session and I want to talk about one of my favorite people who I've never met but who inspires me all the time and that Saint Joan of Arc yes love her I don't have a lot of time so I want to kind of swing for the fences but for those of you who are unfamiliar kind up with the way that I talk I kind of get right to the point I'm kind of a straight shooter I was raised in Los Angeles California and in Los Angeles yeah whoo there's not really time for like Minnesota nice or like Wisconsin polite or like Indiana sweet like y'all are you like so nice oh yeah that wouldn't last a week in Los Angeles so we got to get right to the point and so I'm kind of a straight shooter and I want to talk that way today if that's okay with all of you and I want to point you to Jesus and tell you about Saint Joan of Arc I want to talk about four events in her life that kind of I find parallels between your life as a young woman in college and and her life that she lived in battle and kind of the the timeline in the story of her life and the first one that I want to talk about is God's call to Joan like the way that God called Joan he calls Joan to recover France from English domination late in the Hundred Years War and I'm gonna be reading quotes from Saint Joan of Arc it's a book called Joan of Arc in her own words and it's a beautiful little book a quick read but very powerful so the quotes that I'm gonna be reading our quotes that she is said to have said herself so she says this she says my mother had told me that my father often dreamed that I would run away with a band of soldiers that was more than two years after I have first heard the voices she told me that he had said to my brothers if I believed that the thing I have dreamed about Joan would come to pass I would want you to drown her and if you would not I would drown her myself on account of these dreams my father and mother watched me closely and kept me in great subjection and I was obedient in everything but since God had commanded me to go I must do it and since God had commanded it had I had a hundred fathers and a hundred mothers and had I been a king's daughter I would have gone it pleased God thus to act through a simple maid in order to turn back the King's enemies Wow it pleased God thus to act through a simple maid in order to turn back the King's enemies and here I don't want to focus on the time that God called you to follow him for the first time I'm sure you remember that moment here I want to focus on God's call for you today to live a radically beautiful life of faith as a young woman in college which is almost impossible amen it is a battle beyond a battle beyond a battle to be a young faithful Catholic woman on any college campus in America today amen so I went to a tiny little school called Arizona State University yeah tiny just a few thousand people like eighty thousand no big deal huge right so I went to Arizona State University and some of y'all have these cute little mascots like Bulldogs and birds there's like Ravens and like two little things guess what the mascot of Arizona State University is the devil which is not ironic right because at Arizona State University one of the most well known like party schools on all those party school lists and all those different kinds of things Arizona State University is not known for virtue or anything even remotely close to virtue right it is known for like the sin and the filth that is there being a party school and I went to Arizona State because I wanted to be a reporter for ESPN that was my dream that was my goal and they have a great journalism program and I got a fantastic education there but when I was there I saw just how challenging it is to live your faith as a young woman because when I was there maybe you can relate I was there trying to live my life as a young faithful Catholic woman and it seemed like everybody else was concerned about parties and drinking and drugs and sleeping around like a huge majority not everybody but a huge majority of people that was like their number one concern anyone relate to that on their college campus yes okay and that was really challenging because that's what everybody else wanted to do and before I had gotten there the Lord said I want you to live a life that looks different I want you to follow me and I was like okay I'll do that I don't know what that's gonna look like but I'll do it so I got to ASU and I found a daily Mass on campus at 11:40 a.m. and some of y'all have Catholic centers like the daily masses like packed out standing-room-only hours had like 10 people that went there every day out of like 80,000 and I started going to daily Mass and just being faithful and that was really challenging because I felt lonely and I felt like an outcast and if you read go brave will you know all about that I'm gonna talk a little bit about that if you read my book but it was so very challenging and this call of Saint Joan looks so much like our call today just use something that's very difficult that the Lord asks us to live our faith on campus and just like Joan we say like Lord really like that's like an impossibility but if you want me to I will go she says the lord commanded me to do it so I have to do it and one of my favorite things she said she said although I would have rather remained spinning wool at my mother's side although I would rather remain spinning wool at my mother's side the Lord calls me to do it so I have to do it she says although I rather do what's comfortable what I know right hanging out with my mom like knitting scarves whatever that looks like back then oh my gosh I just hit my teeth with a microphone I've never done that before in my whole entire life of speaking sorry although I rather do what's comfortable what's easy what I know where why I will be unbothered God calls me to do it so I have to do it and it would be so much more comfortable to do not live our faith on campus to do all the forgetting things to kind of go with the flow it would be so much easier not to be a woman of faith and just go with what everyone else is doing but the Lord calls us to live a life that looks different a life that is radical and beautiful and it is a battle so often every single day but a battle that the Lord calls us to fight and he called me to fight every single day so I said alright if the Lord calls me to it I must do it and I must go and I love that and it pleased God thus to act through a simple made in order to turn back the King's enemies it pleases God to act through you on your college campus to transform your dorm to transform whatever major you're a part of to transform the hearts of each person that you encountered to shine the light and love of Jesus into every person you meet in college it pleases God to act through you amen the second event this is my favorite event in her life cuz it's pretty cool she was so awesome the this is what happens okay she says I was the first to set a ladder against the fortress on the bridge and as I raised it I was wounded in the throat by a crossbow bolt that's an arrow but st. Catherine comforted me greatly and I did not cease to ride and do my work Joan of Arc get this she gets hit in the throat by an arrow in battle and what does she do she pulls it out of her body herself and keeps fighting if that's not be a I don't know what is okay that's pretty cool right in battle she gets wounded and she pulls the arrow out and she keeps fighting and that is so often what happens in our life of faith as young woman today living this countercultural life there are arrows that come and just hit us and hit us and hit and they look at like all different kinds of things whether that's in your relationships whether that's at school whatever that is arrows continue to just hit us and threaten to keep us down I've been my own experience at Arizona State University some of you might have heard me share my testimony before so I went to Arizona State to be a part of the journalism program and I was part of a living learning community there in the freshman dorms how many of y'all are freshmen in college okay whoo what a great strange year of life freshman year of colleges amen yep just keep it up girls you can get through it you're amazing and guys in here I know there's some guys in here welcome to you know learning about women 101 yes power to the guys love y'all thanks for being here freshman year of college I was trying to make friends you know you show up and you're like oh my gosh who's gonna be friends with me right like who's gonna be friends with me I have no idea what's about to happen so your parents drop you off and I started making friends with people yeah I was living this life of faith at the same time I was going to mass on Sundays I was going to this daily Mass on in the chapel in the center of campus I knew that going to parties wasn't gonna be helpful for my mind and for my spirit so I chose not to and I was just living this life that looked different I wasn't trying to shove it down anybody's throat standing on the cafeteria you know tables in the cafeteria saying repent and believe in the gospel you're all gonna go to hell I turn back to Jesus I was just living what Jesus asked me to like the life that he asked me to live and so midway through my freshman year my friend Eric sat me down and he said Emily we have to kind of talk about what's been going on in the dorms I just want you to know something I said okay he said every time you leave a room everyone talks trash about you behind your back everyone constantly I don't know why they were so obsessed with talking about me but they were everyone constantly talks about what a stuck-up high-and-mighty gal you are he didn't say gal he said the b-word he said everyone thinks that you're nice to people and you're like all like nice and cheerful and joyful because you want attention that you don't actually want friends you just want attention I don't questions your sexuality because you don't bring guys back to the dorm like every other girl does like and you know kind of rounded it out by saying Emily nobody wants you around like we just rather you not be around and as an 18 year old girl right as a woman we just want to be accepted by people right that's just part of the nature of who we are we want to be accepted we want to be loved as human beings and in that moment I was obviously crushed if you if you've all you know experienced betrayal and he experienced betrayal in your life it's really painful it was a really painful moment and so I was a little bit you know dazed and and you know just just wondering like how did I even get here and how is this possible I've just been nice to people been loving but doing what Jesus wants me to do I knew that like it wasn't gonna be easy but I didn't know that it was gonna be like this and so this was a human of the base arrows that I've ever experienced in my life it hit me right in the neck just like st. Joan of Arc right and I got the choice in that moment the choice was very clear and the choice is so often clear for us to say this arrow has come into my life and I could choose right now to just go with it the way of the world may you i-i've always often felt like a salmon swimming upstream right I felt like a salmon I was like I could just turn around and I could just go with the rest of the world and it would be so much easier and I could just be a part of everyone and I wouldn't be so lonely and it wouldn't be so painful and it would just be a lot easier or I could keep going I could pull this arrow right out of my neck and keep fighting and that's what I did because I knew deep down in the pit of my soul that going with the world was never going to leave me lead me to peace never going to lead me to join never going to lead me to true fulfillment and so I got up and I kept going and I said if this is happening there must be something to this so I dug in deeper and I started visiting the chapel more they had a forty hours of prayer like 24/7 someone was in the chapel leading worship I would go and I would just spend time with Jesus and I would pray and I was just develop my relationship with the Lord and grow it there and let him love me and throughout that time of freshman year it was very lonely and it was very painful and often I prayed Jesus bring me friends who want to love me for me who want to show me the love of Jesus who want what is best for me and in time those friends came but it took a while as you know sometimes it takes a lot of investment and time to make those friends amen those friends who really want to love you and and like up until that time it was very lonely it was bitterly lonely and bitterly painful and there were so many weekends there was just me alone in my dorm hanging out we didn't have Netflix back then I'm showing my age no Netflix when I was in college but I would say you know home alone well everybody went out and it felt like everybody like I was missing out I wasn't missing out I was doing what the Lord wanted me to do but it was very challenging it was very challenging and I know you guys have experienced moments probably like that in your life in college and Joan of Arc shows us what to do when these arrows come maybe it's people on your campus maybe you're constantly receiving arrows from your family you might be the only Catholic in your family and your family just at you all the time why what what is this faith thing like why do you care so much about this maybe this is in your relationships right your a relationship with your boyfriend our relationship with your fiance whoever that might be it can be very challenging to receive these arrows and get back up but this is what we can draw from st. Joan of Arc in that moment to say you know what these arrows will come and I must take them out myself and keep fighting amen and continue to go the way that the Lord has called me to go and walk in the way that he has called me to walk because the devil will use those arrows to try to convince you to give up he will try to say it's not worth it sit down just stop trying stop fighting give and we have to look back the devil in the face and say I will not give up just like Saint Joan did she said I'm not giving up I will battle on because God is on my side amen the third event in her life that I want to talk about is when she rescinds her faith she signs the document that says it's all untrue so they put her on trial uh her I mean her life this is the story of all of this is so heartbreaking so she is sold to the English and she is put on trial and they offer her they say you can sign his document to say it's all untrue so it says the bishop begins to read her sentence a written form of AB duration is presented to Joan she said I'm content to do what you will have me I would rather sign this paper I would rather sign the document than burn now you churchmen take me to your prison and let me be no longer in the hands of the English so she signs the document for fear of the fire she says for fear of the fire I signed it because she did not want to be burned alive who would want to be burned alive she said many times that she would rather be beheaded than be burned alive so she signs this document to say it was all untrue she like recants her face she recants like the the idea that God called her to this and so many times in our life we do the exact same thing in our walk of faith for fear of X I did X whatever that might be and he know fear has been brought up a lot of times I know Lea talked about fear and sister Miriam talked about fear last night fear is a very powerful motivator and how many times do we give in to fear in our life as the young college women and they think most of the time our fear goes back honestly to what people will think about us and what people will say about us right we fear so much what are people gonna say what are people gonna think what is this guy going to think or do when I tell him I'm saving sex for marriage and that that's totally off the table what's my boyfriend gonna do when I say to him like sexual intimacy cannot be a part of our relationship anymore what are my friends gonna say when I say I can't go see that movie with you guys or I can't go to that party what are people gonna say and think about me is this thing you guys struggle with or is it just me worrying about what people think and say yeah she's like me me too I totally get it it can be very challenging to think what are people gonna say about me and what are people gonna think about me if I live this life of radical faith and there were times in my life in college where I thought the same thing I thought oh my gosh I don't want to like look like the fool so freshman year was near the end of freshman year I had this group of friends and they'd say hey we're having a birthday party for Matt at this house we would love for you to come all right and I didn't normally go to parties but I thought like maybe people will think like I don't care or Matt will think I don't want to be friends with him and so I went to this party thinking like oh gosh I don't know what people think or say so I should go and then I went do you ever go like go somewhere and you show up and you're like why did I come here why did I think that this was a good idea I knew it was a bad idea but I talked myself into thinking that it was a good idea and then I came right so I'm there and I'm like why did I come here I knew what would be here just people drinking and doing drugs and hooking up and all the things that I don't care to partake in but it was so worried about what everyone would think and say that I came and then I'm just there and then I'm just uncomfortable and I think why did I come why did I come oh yeah because I care so much about what everyone else thinks and what everyone else says took me a long time to get to a place in my life where I just thought to myself why do I care so much about what everyone thinks and says and I and I just decided one moment to just let that go to think you know I don't care what anyone thinks I don't care what people say behind my back I'm just gonna do what God is calling me to do is a very freeing day if you haven't gone to that day I pray it comes quickly in your life I pray that maybe this conference is that time where you say enough caring about what other people think and say I'm just gonna follow the way of the Lord and forget the rest amen so there were times where I thought you know I care so much that I'm just gonna let this go and I'm just gonna do what everyone else is doing and I never brought me peace it never brought me joy it never brought me fulfillment and so this fear we have we just have to look it in the face and say I will not I will not stop following the Lord for fear of whatever it might be for fear of my boyfriend leaving me I gave in to sexual sin for the fear of the people in my dorm thinking I'm a goody-two-shoes I drank with them in the dorms for feit fear of being made the fool I said nothing when everybody else was talking trash about that girl that I know behind her back I said nothing there are so many situations with for fear of X I did this and we have to not allow that fear to motivate us but look past that fear and say I'm in charge here and I'm going to follow the way of the Lord the beautiful thing is that our God is a God of second chances and immediately after Jones signs it she says like she's experiences massive and deep regret and she thinks I should not have done that and immediately she goes to them and says for fear of the fire I signed it I take back me signing that paper God truly has sent me and in our life when we do like make mistakes none of us is gonna be perfect on this walk of faith when we make mistakes when we make choices that we know that wasn't so good whether that's a sinful choice or not a sinful choices choice that we know is not good for our hearts and our minds we get the opportunity to wake up the next day and say well not doing that again right have you ever come to that day we're like wow that was a mistake not doing that again kind of like Joan she said wow that was a mistake I take it back God really sent me and we got that choice in our daily lives when we make those mistakes to say you know what Lord that was a mistake I know you didn't call me to go there I know that that you know I I did exactly what you didn't want me to do I take it back and we go to confession if it was a mistake of sinful nature and we make reparations to the Lord Joan of Arc loved the sacrament of reconciliation she always made sure that before her soldiers went into battle they went to confession how cool is that she loved the sacraments so we can go to confession to say lord I get back I take it back I want to be unified with you again I want our relationship to be restored and we have that opportunity again and again so as young women of faith we do not let fear control our lives fear motivate us to make that those decisions but when we do make mistakes we can say you know what for fear the fire I sign that paper and I'm not gonna do that again I take it back the fourth moment of her life that I want to talk about it is very very very powerful moment is when Joan of Arc it gets burned at the stake when Joan of Arc gets burned at the stake and a lot of times we hear this quote Ivy I know you heard the quote what she says hold the cross higher so I can see it through the flames anyone heard that quote okay that's kind of a variation of what she said and so I want to read to you what she actually said while she was being burned alive she says I pray you go to the nearest church and bring me the cross and hold it up level with my eyes until I am dead I would have the cross on which God hung be ever before my eyes while life lasts in me Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus she died saying the name of Jesus and this moment Joan of Arc getting burned at the stake propels me forward in everything that I do in my ministry and in my life because I think about her there right and we live our life as young women today I make videos on this place called YouTube right some of you have seen some of my videos yeah thanks I'm so glad you enjoy them I just sit at home and hope that something resonates in your heart and I love when it does I love when it doesn't I only make youtube videos cuz one day Jesus said Emily I want you to start making YouTube videos honestly that's why I did it so I love that you love my videos but YouTube's like being on YouTube is like being in hell right there's a lot of angry people on YouTube amen there's a lot of miserable people in comment sections who I just you know I tell them I'm like you while your misery is showing like honestly these comments are pretty sad your misery showing very clearly here YouTube is not a place for you know Christian girls who talk about having a moral code right or any set of values or whatever I receive more hate than probably anyone would understand or believe or maybe you would believe it and it's really really sad I had one girl it was really funny she said you should just tell young women that they should just do whatever they want you'd be a lot more relevant and I was like I totally would because the world wants to just do whatever you want you'll be fine but I I'm on YouTube telling young women that there's freedom and not doing what you want there's freedom and following Jesus who tells us that we can't do whatever we want because sometimes whatever we want is not good for our hearts and our souls and our spirits so we follow him but on YouTube a lot of people I get told all the time that my husband's gonna leave me I get told all the time of how ugly I am that Daniels cheating on me probably he'll definitely leave me when he gets bored of me in a few years I'm a terrible human I used fear-mongering as a tactic you know to help women leave boring lives like it's horrible okay and people say like how do you deal with it like how do you deal with P like like this stuff that comes along with this I think of st. Joan of Arc being burned at the stake and I think if she can deal with that I can deal with those hateful people on YouTube right I really can it seems so trivial right people like wow that must really affect you I'm like honestly it really doesn't because AI know those people really are miserable and they need Jesus so desperately in their lives but at the same time like I Jesus called me to this and none of that affects me and Joan of Arc shows me that and I think so many times in my life were like living my faith I'm like jeez this is so hard dude this is so hard like Isis you know I'm tired on Sunday and I don't want to go to Mass it's just too hard it's too hard people talking about I mean all these things and I'm like oh my gosh Emilie get it together Joan of Arc was burned at the stake see Jose Sanchez Del Rio had his feet skinned and warms through the streets and he still wouldn't renounce Jesus and I don't really like Jesus is it so hard right it's almost pathetic when I think about me saying Jesus is so hard in light of what the saints have done and in light of like the martyrs dying martyrs death right and I go back to this moment Joan of Arc being burned at the stake and saying get me the cross and I just want to see Jesus while I'm being burned alive I can't imagine the pain and she's thinking about Jesus and dying a martyr's death and I think as young women in college today if Joan of Arc can be burned alive we can stand up for the cause of Jesus Christ and we can stand up in our workplaces for our faith whatever if people are having a discussion about abortion if people are talking about some you know a colleague behind their back whatever that is we can stand up and say something if Joan of Arc can be burned at the stake we can get our little booties out of bed every Sunday and get to Mass amen we can find a mass and we can go and if she can burn get burned at the stake we can make a little bit of time to go to Mass again maybe once or twice a week amen if she can do that there are so many things that we can do and look to that example to let us be inspired by it if Joan of Arc can get burned at the stake I can say yes to the vocation that Jesus is calling me to whether it's the one I thought he was gonna call me to or not amen [Music] she gave it all for Jesus and sometimes when Jesus calls us to our vocation or like really Jesus that's not the one that I was going for and Jesus says follow me follow me if Joan of Arc can get burned at the stake I can say yes to the Lord in every aspect of my life that he calls me to because it's very unlikely that any woman or man in this room is going to be burned at the stake and so we can follow the way of the Lord what he calls us to and look to that example of Joan of Perpetua of blessed Jose Nazi who say sorry and allow that to inspire us in our lives when God calls us to good things and hard things when God calls you to hard things you're in good company you're in the company of saints that's a pretty amazing thing amen that the Saints and the angels the kingdom of heaven is praying with us and for us as we are here but when we say yes to the Lord every single day in those hard moments we are in the company of the Saints and that is a very very very powerful thing a couple years ago I went to a beautiful city called Paris France beautiful city loved it and Daniel and I went to a Basilica called the sacre-coeur Basilica you can go ahead and bring up that first slide Thank You 'ln so in the Basilica at the sacre coeur you see you behold this beautiful mosaic you can go to the next slide and this is called the mosaic of Christ in glory how beautiful is that Jesus in his triumphant triumphant nests right arms extended the resurrection real beautiful with his massive gold heart isn't this amazing there's so much to behold in it there's like scenes in the history of France all along the sides there's all these saints all up above you can see the Holy Spirit there there's God the Father there's God the Holy Spirit and there's Jesus himself all connected there it's pretty cool so Daniel and I are standing in this church and I'm looking at this and then I see they're at the feet of Jesus I see little joan right little joan there the feet of the lord showing me how to live once again as she always does you can go to the next slide i'm not allowed to take pictures in there so this you'll this will have to do but this is joan there at the feet of the lord and this is the posture that i to take with my life like I said it's all about Jesus and I love her posture here because she kneels at the foot of Jesus Christ saying I know that I am NOT God I know that you are God and I am NOT in recognition of who Jesus is and arms wide open in recognition and in sit and surrender to the Lord to say Lord wherever you want me to go whatever you want me to do I will do it I will go there it's amazing to me because so often in my life maybe sometimes I'll be like Jonah and I'll kneel down in recognition of who the Lord is right you kneel down and you like Jesus I know that you're God and I am NOT right but so often in our lives we hold onto these little things right we kneel before the Lord and we're like lord I want to surrender everything to you I want to follow you radically every single day and I want to walk in your ways but there's these little things that I love and I want to hold on to them got those things in your life I know I do does these things that we hold onto and the Lord asks us to live in this posture to open our arms wide and say Lord Here I am my life is yours send me and every day we get the opportunity as young women of faith to wake up and say Lord Here I am my life is yours send me and that is a very conscious decision that we have to make the conscious decision to respond to God that we know that we have to make we know God is calling us to make but sometimes we don't feel like making it to rest in that posture to kneel down before the Lord and say Here I am my life is yours send me out to be your hands and feet to that person that I'm gonna meet in my calculus class today for all you smart people in calculus - did you in calculus in college yes they do okay good just making sure so that person sitting next to me in class to my boyfriend who may not believe in anything at all to my family to my community to my campus if God used Joan of Arc to do such a massive massive massive thing to be remembered for so many years to transform history God can use you to transform your entire college campus and you're like no he couldn't yes he could yes he could one of my favorite things that Joan also said she said I was a poor maid I didn't understand why the Lord called me because I was a poor maid who knew nothing of writing and warfare right I knew nothing of riding in warfare and she says I'm not capable of this I am NOT like a this isn't in my skill set I'm not equipped for this and sometimes as a woman of faith today and you might feel that same way you think I'm not equipped for this and there's that quote that says you know I think it was Pope Benedict God doesn't call the equipt he equips the called who knows if he even said it right there's so many quotes you're like I don't know if that person said it but people say it all the time right like Pope Benedict didn't really say you were made for greatness or something that really wasn't him actually but she says I was I'm a poor maid who knows nothing of writing in warfare like this isn't for me who you must have the wrong person God did not have the wrong person when he picked you to follow him and to transform your campus and you might think that like I don't know anything like I'm not equipped for this I'm not capable of being a person who looks different who lives differently yes you are why because the almighty unstoppable God is with you in every single moment those painful moments of loneliness those painful moments where you think I just can't do this anymore God is on your side as women who have high standards in dating which I hope you have there are probably days when you think they were there are no left I can't do this anymore I can't do this anymore god I don't want you to call me to live a life of intentional dating because there will be a would be a lot more guys in the pool and I could go on a date like sooner than six years from now right but God says I want you to you know keep those standards high I will be with you in those painful seasons of singleness when you think there is no man who will love me because there's no man with a moral code who wants to love me with my moral code and this life that I've chosen that looks different God will be with you when you are the woman like I said who feels like she has no friends who feels loneliness God will be with you if you have spent a night of painful loneliness in your Durham alone because you have chosen differently God will be with you have any of you ever done that before raise your hand look around you are not alone you are not alone and I want you to know that and believe that because this conference is so beautiful and so wonderful right we're like oh my gosh look at all these people they all love the Lord and it's so easy to love the Lord here Amen your like crazy journey enjoy off Jesus and no one's like wow she's really weird everyone's like wow she's so normal right it's normal for us to love Jesus Joel those things but you're gonna go back to college in a couple weeks right somebody I'll get this nice long break I missed that break that month-long break except for those who who are on winter term you're gonna go back to college and you're gonna experience those nights right like y'all raise your hands and I want you to remember the women that you looked around I think I might feel alone in this moment in this place but I am NOT alone because there are thousands of women fighting this battle all over America and all over the world with me and I get a beautiful and humbling opportunity to connect with so many of those women so I know all of you are not alone but I wish that I could connect you in a bigger way I wish that I could get us all together you know a couple times the years so we know like I'm not there are people with me but I want you to remember that and as we go forward going back to our college campuses to remember the life of st. Joan to say I might feel alone in this moment st. Joan of Arc pray for me that I can be fearless in what I am doing in this radical call to follow Jesus to kneel before the Lord in recognition of who he is in my life and opened my arms in surrender to live the life that he is calling me to amen so I'm gonna go into a little time of prayer with all of you so that you can just talk to the Lord about these areas of our hearts and of our lives just to take a couple minutes to pray and to allow the Lord to speak courage and boldness and beauty and bravery into your heart in this time so let's pray in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen and I just want to give you a couple of moments just you and Jesus for whatever you want to say to him or whatever he wants to say to you and I want to invite you to think about a time in this moment where you were hit by an arrow speaking figuratively in your faith as a woman I want you to think about that time and I want you to imagine Jesus there with you in that moment and I want you to imagine Jesus in that moment with you encouraging you to get up and to keep going and to keep fighting on and next I want you to think about a time where you've been terribly terribly lonely for living your faith in college maybe you were at a party maybe you're in your dorm maybe you're in your classroom once you think about a moment where you felt that acute and painful loneliness and imagine Jesus there with you in that moment what does he say to you what words does he have for your heart and then the next thing I want you to do is imagine yourself standing there it was gory and ugly and awful as Joan of Arc got burned at the stake but I'd invite you to place yourself in that scene right there where Joan of Arc is being martyred for her faith for the God for the call that God has placed on her life place herself there and in that moment admire her courage and her bravery what do you feel as you watch her give her life for the cause of Christ and how can you allow that scene to propel you forward in your cause for Christ Lord Jesus as you know it can be a terribly difficult thing to be a young woman of faith in college today Lord we thank you for the gifts of your love for the gift of your life for the gift of your light and I ask that you set each heart in this room on fire with your love and on fire with courage to go forward in boldness and in bravery knowing that each little yes that we give to you has the power to transform so much more than we could ever imagine help us to say yes and rise each day to the battle that brings joy that brings loneliness that brings hardship knowing that you are on our side in everything and help us to remember every day that we are in the company of Saint Joan of Arc who says it to us all in God's name let us go on bravely living a life that is radical that is beautiful that is what you have so lovingly called us to and Mama Mary we ask that you pray with us and for us you are the model of true femininity may we inspire your courage by your yes every single day give each woman in this room the courage that she needs to go back to her campus wherever that might be and continue to say yes in the big ways in the small ways mama Mary we ask that you pray with us and for us as we sing hail me [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen once again I thank you for coming here and very humbled that you came here and I hope that you're inspired to live in boldness and in bravery may God bless all of you thank you so much

Channel: FOCUS Catholic

Views: 26,343

Rating: 4.9755201 out of 5

Keywords: emily wilson, emily wilson youtube, focus, focus catholic, focus talks, catholic conference, catholic college students, seek conference, catholic, catholic youth, brave

Id: mUswlnpnT_w

Length: 45min 35sec (2735 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 10 2019