Sr. Miriam James Heidland - Belonging to the Body of Christ (2019 Steubenville of the Rockies)

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] okay alright so if it's okay let's do this again if it's okay with the person next to you can you put your hand on their shoulder please okay let's just we're gonna pray for each other all right and look at me here we go and we're gonna begin in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen so Lord we come before you this morning a new day on this most holy solemnity of your love poured out for us your body and blood poured out for us because you loved us I pray that our hearts would be open to receive all the grace that you have for us today and I pray that you would speak to even deeper levels of belonging of restoration of hope of courage and a fearless fearless witness to who you are I pray that all of us and they would receive you very deeply open our hearts our Holy Spirit you are welcome here come now come as you are come as you wish you are welcome here and if you'd be willing would you please pray with me over the person next to you and say Lord Jesus I thank you for my friend open their hearts today to all the grace that you have may they know that they belong to your body forever fill them with courage filled them with wisdom filled them with grace fill them with love let's turn our hearts to our mother Mary my dear friends let's ask her fearless intercession for us this woman who crushes the head of Satan in our life she would go to battle for us that she would intercede for us and her feminine heart her beauty and let's pray to her as a family as we say hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus Holy Mary Mother of God pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death amen Our Lady of Guadalupe pray for us amen in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit give us a hi-five and have a seat alright alright so yesterday latest talk is gonna be really about you and empowering you to go out and continue the mission that you've been given so yesterday I asked where my Star Wars fans were okay but this morning I want to know where my athletes at where my athletes at all right okay so um if you did if you didn't know this I'm actually a former division 1 athlete I played Division one volleyball in college and my goal in life yeah my goal in life was actually to work for ESPN but then Erin Andrews stole my job and I became a nun instead okay so that's what happened and I love sports is one of my love languages it's one of the first things I fell in love with as a little girl and to this day I can be found watching just whatever sporting event when I have time very very carefully because I love the pursuit of excellence and there's a reason why we find sports and there's there's many I love many things but there's a reason why we find sports so particularly poignant to our lives is because no matter what face you belong to or no matter what's going on in your life you can see somebody that's selling in the field of sports and you can say that's excellent what this is why for two weeks out every four years for two weeks planet Earth just stops and we watched people with no body fat win Stoke we called the Olympics okay that's what we do and we gather around and we love the human interest stories and we love people overcoming obstacles and we loved every second of it and there's another corporation that actually loves every second of it too and it's a little corporation called Nike right maybe you've heard of them okay so what Nike does is Nike sells you 200 all the running shoes but what else they do is they've actually studied you very well and I was telling the ladies yesterday in the women's workshop of one of the best questions you can ever ask yourselves and I'm just gonna offer this to you because I asked this every day one of the best questions you can ever ask yourselves is to ask the Holy Spirit Holy Spirit why am i doing what I'm doing because there's a good reason why you do what you do there is nothing accidental everything you do in your life it's for a reason why you do it whether it's consciously or unconsciously we always do things for a reason and so it says what Nike does Nike has studied the human heart and they've studied you very carefully and they know it's actly why you do what you do this is why they market very well so when you watch for example a Nike running commercial you watch the running commercial and the commercial and you're like I gotta go running but you like also me but I hate running but me but I know I need to go running I don't know what's happening you drop 200 ollars and a pair of shoes and you go run four times like I don't know what just happened okay but Nike knows what just happens because they appeal to your heart so every four years Nikes a massive massive sponsored the Olympics in every four years they release a new campaign so in 2012 when Michael Phelps won every gold medal in swimming there was to win in London Nike released a campaign it was called find your greatness hashtag find your greatness and their flagship commercial was you know pictures of London Street London town all over the world people from all walks of life playing all these different kinds of sports and the tagline of the commercial was greatness is not just found for two weeks in London among the greatest athletes in the world greatness is found wherever someone's trying to find it so in 2016 in Rio I knew that Nike was going to release another campaign like they will next summer and I was wondering what is their campaign going to be and sure enough their flagship commercial was a campaign called unlimited unlimited hope unlimited power unlimited strength and they featured Ron James Serena Williams like the best athletes they had speaking about the unlimited power of the human person to to pursue and achieve athletic excellence might one of my favorite athletes is Serena Williams I love Serena Williams and so I was very interested in her commercial because when she launched her commercial I found the most interesting thing about it was actually her interior monologue you talk about people that feel like they don't belong it's very interesting what Serena Williams who was for many years the number one athlete in the world number one tennis athlete in the world of female tennis player in the world and to this day she still she's still achieving that she's still working to achieve that and she's like what 35 now and that woman is still a woman on a mission to achieve athletic excellence and so you think somebody like that would and you have no insecurities would have no vulnerabilities but what I found two things most fascinating about that commercial was she actually talks about her inner insecurities and then she says something at the very end of the commercial but I've actually never forgotten okay so here you go can you show that commercial for us Justin I love it when she says the very end she says you know there are certainly days that go by that I don't feel like training there is not a day that goes by that I feel like losing amen and I love what Chris is saying to you because it's very true I was praying for you very deeply this morning and I had actually just a bit of a different presentation for you this morning which is gonna this morning as I was praying feeling like we're gonna go in a different direction because it is very easy to think you know we come to events like this and myself included when we come to events it's like going to a sports camp and in a sports camp or a music camp or a math camp like whatever kind of camp you're up into like you know when you go to a camp like that you receive the best training you receive all this attention and you receive all this nourishment and then we leave the camp and many times what happens is we have a choice whether we want to fall back into what we've been doing we're gonna practice new fundamentals and remember my college coach might went when I volleyball coach in college it was very interesting and we've been going through these drills and need to go through them over and over and over and over and over again and luckily I never had to learn this lesson I learned it through other people but what happened usually one of the freshmen we'd be going through this drill and one of the freshmen along the team would make some snarky little comment and she'd say well practice makes perfect and my coach would stop that drill you know when the coaches the coaches like veins start to bulge on the side of the neck you're like it's about to get real here you know so and he's like I'm sorry would you say and there was like crickets he's like who said that just like you say actually no it doesn't he said you can sit here and you can practice all the bad fundamentals that you want and you will never get good at volleyball he said it is not practice it makes perfect he said it is perfect practice that makes perfect she said your choice and then went back to the drill we're like okay we'll just be over here you know so in life you and I have a choice right of what we're gonna do is what is life gonna look like because you're not a passive victim you're not a passive receptive person in your life you have a choice and this is what God is empowering you to do and I love it st. Paul can you guys pull my PowerPoint back up for me Saint Paul in his letter to the Romans he says this he says for as in one body we have many members okay all the members do not have the same function so we though many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another which means that you and I have different parts of the vineyard that were called to serve in that we're part of the same body that Christ gives his life for the church so Jesus Christ this the church is born out of his side as he hanging on the cross here and what he is the bridegroom stripped naked for the bride and he gives his life for her because that's what a man does he lays down his life so his bride can live and his sight is pierced and blood and water flow out which is symbolic of the Eucharist and baptism so you see the church boy being born forth through his pierced body and he gives his life for his bride to make her perfect so even now Christ is at work like Jesus says my father is at work and I'm at work he's at work right now in your life making you perfect and when we talk about perfect or talk about the fullness of all we desire to be and don't you in your life like me and my life don't you have parts of your life where you just ached to be more full where you you take to live an abundant life and we have fruit that grows off the trees of our souls that's this broken and defective and the reason why it's because it has deep roots and crisis at the deep roots and his desire is that you live a vibrant abundant piercing beautiful fearless glorious life and him that is your call that's why you eat for and that's what you're made for that's what he comes for right so you and I where do we go from here because we know that that didn't end at the cross what happens is that we he rises from the dead we know that story in love what I love what David was talking about last night he was talking about how the crucifixion the cross in the resurrection you know is that it's the power it's a love of Christ he says because of the crucifixion because of the resurrection hopelessness is now optional man even say man that I did okay so we don't have to live like that we do not have to live like that and many times in life just like anything else like love love is to will the good of the other to give oneself or the other it's forgiveness when we choose to forgive it is it taking a full account of what has happened and choosing with our well and pressing that person into the heart of Christ as the anchor comes up as the emotions come up and releasing our grasp on that person it's a continuum perfection of the human person so also is our life lived out with Christ like anybody who's in any love relationship will tell you even myself as a religious sister I can see like Sarina there are days that go by that I don't feel like showing up to life and I've really rather do what I want to do and some of the you know it's life is difficult at times oh but there is not a day that goes by that I feel like losing I can tell you that so we know very well that Christ rises from the dead and he gives us that power and he tells his disciples stay here I'm gonna I'm gonna send the holy spring gonna send an advocate for you and it's just something very interesting he says it is better for you that I go there like what because it's outside their paradigm and so often God speaks outside of our paradigms and when he speaks outside of our paradigms which is one of the things I love about Christ you know when he's an as he we read about him in the Gospels he's always shattering people's ideas of who they think God is and I'd hoped this weekend for you that he has shattered a couple of ideas of who you think God is whether that's a father who doesn't care about you or our God who's distant from you or somebody who would never forgive you I hope some of those paradigms have been shattered and because it's very true our idea of God is not too big it is far too small and I'm so grateful that even in my own journey this last oh my gosh this last month I had been slayed to the core of just such immense suffering and it has opened up areas of poverty in my life and I have a just have a wonderful spiritual director who's actually an exorcist for his diocese and I just love that priest he's so good and he's a sister Miriam you know in our lives no matter what we're suffering no matter what it is whether it's your own fault whether it's something somebody did to you whether it's just a byproduct of living life after the fall he said at any moment at any moment no matter what suffering it is you can stand at the foot of the cross and you can take that suffering out of your heart and you can place it into his pierced heart and he accepts it and it's made fruitful so for the past month I've stood at the foot of the cross totally poor like the places of your life like I didn't even know those parts of my heart existed and like I said I'm very serious about my own healing journey but there were some areas of poverty in my life and when those things are triggered there was not a darn thing I could do about it and I just did before the cross in my court I I'm your bride like I I'm so poor here and I just pray you would speak very deeply deeply to me cuz I I just offered this to you and this is like utter just slain open poverty and his heart has grown more deeply in mine in his love and that's what I want to do is I want to love excellently I'm like Lord if this is what it takes for me to love excellently it's so I can love just a little bit like you do been so be it right and what happens Jesus continued to pour out his love and the person of the Holy Spirit upon you and upon me and in the Pentecost they're all gathered in the upper room and what happens is the Holy Spirit comes upon them and he blows like he would blow through this room he blows through the room and the tongues of fire appeared upon them and they were set on fire and we're sitting in this room today we're sitting in this room today because a girl a teenaged girls 2000 years ago said yes to God her Fiat changed the world we're also sitting in this room today because people gathered in an upper room and the Holy Spirit came upon them and the church was born that is the same Holy Spirit you received in your baptism the same Holy Spirit you received in your confirmation the same Holy Spirit who is who forgives you their sins and confidence and the sacrament of reconciliation you receive the body blood soul and divinity of Christ in the Eucharist you receive the Trinity in the Eucharist it is the same Holy Spirit that comes upon you it is the same Holy Spirit that's going home with you today he's calling you he's calling you in your life and not all of us have the same journey isn't it so easy at times to compare ourselves to one another and that's why I love what st. Paul talks about the world we're all members of the body and he says you know if we were all in higher we were all in air if we were all the foot we're all members of the body but we all have different parts of the vineyard we all have different respects to where we must serve or we must give the gift of ourselves because it's not just a ministry it's a way of being and if I could use that berry it's a very great parallel and just sports analogies you can use the same analogy that if you play on a team and you have a team of sport you don't all play the same position cuz if a football team had nothing but quarterbacks what would y'all do you know I'm saying like it wouldn't work you know that when you play soccer would it even in an orchestra not everybody's a violin not everybody's a clarinet not everybody's a flu you have a whole symphony you act right now as I'm looking at you you're a symphony and Christ is calling you and man you know what so a couple years ago in my life I was complaining about something in my life and I was just like kind of yammering on to God about that and it's just the situation was found irritating and I would just complain about it to the Lord and it's true story I could you know I was sitting there one day complaining about it all of a sudden the Lord interrupts you mean you said you keep complaining about that and I said yes yes I do and you said are you willing to do anything about it and I said no just being honest and then he's had been stopped complaining about it he said unless you're willing to do something about it then stop complaining about it and then I said and I be complaining about that anymore right so I'm not gonna do that so in life like where's God calling you to because what does it take like anything else in life it takes a practice a perfect practice right where we refine what it means to become strong in the Lord okay when we look at um the church so the church I'm gonna skip that so let me talk a little bit about how we grow okay cuz it's like the spiritual weight room of our life and so if you look on the bottom if you look at your seat you have a card underneath your seat can you pull that card out for me okay cuz I'm gonna give you like a spiritual weight training here I'm gonna put my little coach veil on okay so here we go so how do we how do we grow you know how do we grow just like anything else in life the practice must continue when we get to decide how the practice continues so if you talk about did you look at the card on the back it says being a disciple of Jesus can you look at that part of the card for me okay and the word disciple if you look at the etymology of words the word disciple D is C comes from the same word discipline right and that root word means student so you're a student and it's very interesting in the east you talk about the discipleship in the east when you're a disciple of somebody you become all about the master so like you don't go home after school when you study under somebody and you become their disciple your life is about your master so much so this is why people said about the Apostles so much so that people can look at you and they can tell who your master is because you use the same manners in sebade oh you're like them you know there's a saying that married couples look alike after a while like they start after they you know get married for long so they start to look alike it's because the two become one and they begin to take on the same mannerisms even families do that I was at a conference not too long ago and I met a girl and her she I met her sister earlier I know her sister and then I finally met her and she came up to me and she hugged me she's like oh my gosh you know my sister I've been waiting to meet you for a long time and I was just watching her and I started laughing I'm like you're totally related I can totally tell you're related you guys are the exact same mannerisms you know I can totally tell you come from the same family and this is what happens when you know people look at our lives they ask they ask us like who what master do you serve because we just heard that reading not too long ago on the daily Madison or was it yesterday what you can't serve two masters you were gonna love one or despise two others so we have to ask ourselves every day what am I going to do with my life how am I going to give gifted myself in love coz altum Utley the question for a human being is not will I give the gift of myself and love it's not will I its how because that's what we're made for okay so you look at some of the areas that we talked about being a student where are the areas that we grow areas that we become perfect and the fullness of who were called to be through obviously mass in confession okay I'm going to say something very interesting we talk about the sacrament of reconciliation I have a dear friend of mine who just finished a doctorate in moral theology and he wrote a actually a whole dissertation on forgiveness and he told me something very interesting he said you know when you look at the word reconciliation so reconciliation forgiveness are two different things but there's a reason why we call the sacrament of reconciliation a sacrament of reconciliation and he said you know what the word reconciliation means in Latin if you take that word apart so ree-ree means again con means with and Celia and Latin means eyelash so the literal translation of reconciliation means to come together eyelash to eyelash again to come together eyelash to eyelash again and that's something that God always offers you and I so at any time I go to confession all the time of regular I go to confession all the time because I need the grace it's a sacrament of healing it's not a sacrament of initiation sacrament of healing that healing grace my dear friends goes down to the deep deep roots of why we do what we do there's nothing there's nothing like it so mass in confession okay a prayer with Scripture so we have to decide also like if I you and I know each other and we're gonna hang out if we're gonna be friends and we're gonna get to know each other we have to spend some time together and so we have to ask ourselves you know what how am I going to incorporate this life it's like making a little you know strategy here how am I going to incorporate a life of prayer whether that's reading the readings for the day whether that's like a life tea nap or you have a scripture for the day something in your life where and you can decide what what time of the day is best in the morning or the evening some people are morning people some people are so many people are evening people I'm in the morning I get it very early in the morning where are you gonna spend time with the Lord because how are we gonna do the will of God how we gonna participate in his perfect love and his plan if I can't hear him if you're talking to mean I'm not listening to you how am I gonna hear what you're saying and I think so often in life you know myself included when it this parts of my hearts that are shut down at times from like Oh God's not talking to me man God is always talking sometimes I just can't quite hear him for a variety of reasons so he's always speaking to us so what is that for you what what is that these are very practical things like what is that for you also you see on the next step of his community so you and I are not meant to like we talked about yesterday we're not meant to live in isolation we're not called to live in isolation we're called to live in community life is a community the church is a family you belong to this church the church loves you you're part of the church it's not like when you grow up and get older you'll be part of the church you're part of the church now at the moment of your baptism you were incorporated you were adopted a child of desire you were adopted into God's very heart and you became his son his daughter which means you're part of the church which means you have something to say which means you have something to offer which means you have a seat at the table and we can't do it alone if you ever watch National Geographic specials which I totally do at times just saying like if you ever watched how animals of prey pick off other animals like how Lions pick up zebras or watch that like you just watch them just you know nature shows Lions will often pick out zebras right or whatever kind of animal would pray they're going for they'll pick off the ones that are isolated they will try to isolate them first of all but they'll watch and they'll watch the herd of zebras and they will pick off the ones not the strong ones not the ones that are herded together because they know that a herd of zebras would give them a formidable attack what they'll do is they'll pick off the ones that are isolated and that is exactly what Satan does with you and I cuz you have an enemy of your soul who wants to destroy you and he'll try to isolate us and that's when he speaks lies to us right he speaks lies into the depths of our soul we need each other I need you in my life we need each other we need to show their impairment each other and family please please participate in her youth group that you came with give the gift of yourself we can't do this alone even as adults we can't do this alone we have to come together as a family and when a family is united you know that beautiful things happen so we really need each other giving the gift of yourself in service so whatever is happening your parish whatever happening your youth get the gift of yourself it's so good for us especially if you're stuck in yourself like kind of you know feeling down or whatever to give the gift of yourself to look at outside yourself to make the gift of yourself to bring somebody else a blessing that's such an important thing because our lives are meant to be gift like john paul ii so often speaks in the language of gift our life is meant to be gifts we're also learning about our face okay and learn having accountability partner let me talk a bit in a second just for a second about learning about our faith one of the things I love about being Catholic I can tell you this one of my favorite things about being Catholic is that it makes sense it's rational it's logical there is nothing you will ever be asked to believe in the Catholic Church to this contre reason that is against your reason many things are Supra they're above they're called supernatural they're above our reason but they're not contra everything in Christianity makes sense because God is a God of reason in the prologue of the Gospel of John it says this in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and the Word was God and that word word logos does mean word but also means order God is a God of reason and you will I guarantee you this if you haven't encountered it yet you will encounter serious serious challenges to your faith everything from being told that God is not exist to science reign supreme to God if God is so good why is there suffering you and I must know our faith and we must know God we must know him because there's a good reason why we believe what we believe and when we can stand in the truth and in the depths of our heart if you have questions man ask whatever question you want ask whatever question you want because the church is a beautiful answer to it we're not asking you as Catholics to believe something that's crazy they believe something antiquated the truth of the church are timeless and they are in accord with the deepest beauties of what it means to be human all we have to do is delve very deeply and we will find them and that is a beautiful beautiful beautiful thing lastly if you turn the card over you'll see that there's a place for somebody with you on the journey there's a place for somebody who's can be accountability partner for you where they can ask you questions and is somebody that you need to trust somebody that's gonna be honest with you somebody that loves you okay can you think of somebody right now in your life who you could ask and who could ask you man you prayin been a mass like how's it going like what's God saying to you that you can share with and that might seem kind of awkward for us you know but once you start to kind of journey in that language I know I people in my life that ask me that I mean I live in community with sisters but I also have other people in my life that ask me those questions all the time because we need it we need people to speak into our lives we need people to sing our song when we've forgotten we need two people to call us up to higher level stip call us to excellence we need that in our life and that's what we're offered right and there will be days like Serena says that you will not feel like doing this and there will be days that you will epically fail and there are days that I epically fail it - and the beautiful thing is that what we do like anybody does when they want to get good at something when they build spiritual muscle or physical muscle you get back up again right and you try again and you keep going and you keep going and you keep going last quote for you here I love this one from John Paul the second and he says this he says we are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures we are the sum of the Father's love for us in our real capacity to become the image of His Son Jesus and as I was praying for you this morning I told you this talk was gonna go in a bit of a different direction I was praying for you and I just was holding you up to the Lord each one of you and the only word that kept coming to me I was like Lord really is that the word you want me to speak to them the only word that kept coming to me over and over and over again was the word courage it's the virtue of courage and courage pour is from the heart which means it subverts you from the heart is to live from the heart and it's not the kind of you know ephemeral like oh just you know follow your heart because that's often really bad advice if it's not tethered to your intellect in your will okay that's not what I'm talking about right but like the core of who you are it says in the Catechism that the core the heart is where Christ meets us it's the place of encounter it's a place of covenant and it takes a lot of courage it takes a lot of heart language it takes a lot of heart wisdom a lot of heart where Christ encounters us to live our faith in the world today and you know like right next to that came to mind this young man it means he's a saint Saint Jose Sanchez Del Rio okay Saint Jose Sanchez Del Rio was a young man who was persecuted by the Mexican government for being Catholic in 1926 when the Mexican government began to persecute the Catholic Church to repossess churches to get rid of priests - all these things that were happening this young man decided he wanted to go battle at the Cristeros he wanted a battle against the Mexican government to reclaim the religious freedom and his brothers got to go to battle but his mom said no cuz he was too young but he kept asking her he kept asking her and asking her and as and finally she relented the captain of the recruits Tara's army relented and they let him be if they give him a horse and let him be a flag bearer okay during the midst of one of those battles the captain's horse was shot and the captain was laying on the ground and Jose realized that that captain was gonna be captured by the mixen government boo and he hopped off he didn't made a decision that changed the course of his life in the life of the church and that young man got off his horse in the midst of battle and gave his horse to the captain and he said you you are more important than I am please take this horse and the captain got on his horse he actually escaped the battle and the Mexican government caught Jose and imprisoned him the ironic thing was they imprisoned him in the basement and tortured him in the very church where he was baptized and came into the church right and he would not relent the man who ordered his assassination was his own godfather and his godfather begged him to recant his faith begged him over and over again and he wouldn't do it he wouldn't do it he was not going to give in he wasn't gonna he was going to stay faithful to Christ to the end and what they did with him is they actually took him to a different place and they began to torture him and this is a true story they took a knife and they cut all the skin off the bottom of his feet and they made him walk through the streets that's what governments do sometimes to instill terror this what the Romans did that's why they crucified Christ to instill terror in the people and that's one of things they tried to do these grown men torturing this young man and he walked through the streets and he was moaning but on his lips the whole time was his belief in Christ and his godfather at the whole time even though he wasn't gonna relent when as fascinating his own son executing his own godson he kept begging him please just say death to Christ just say death to crisis is over oh and say Jose said I will never give and he said Viva Cristo Rey I will never I will never give in and he walked to the cemetery and that's where they martyred him he was 14 years old 14 I don't know in society today what's gonna happen I don't know but I know that that kind of courage when I read stories like that I just see it it opens my own soul but it speaks to me something so deep that for a time such as this you and I are here that you don't have to do these things alone that God comes with you he's with you that were for you and we must my difference we must go together as a family we must we must allow Christ's love to come and just transform us to release all the secrets in our life till we become you know totally transformed and will we be ever be perfect or sinless in this life no he won't we're gonna show up to life day after day after day and we're gonna say yes day after day after day and our lives little bit would be transformed into glory that's why you long for it so let's Stanley [Music] so Jesus we come before you today a pray right now that you would fill your sons and daughters with courage I pray that you would fill any places of their hearts that are have areas of skepticism or a disbelieve or just areas of self-protection I pray for any areas that we have in our hearts of hopelessness or the lie that says things will never change I'm going to leave I'm going to be the same way I pray Holy Spirit right now that you would come upon us and fill us with courage how though for all of us myself included they would speak to the deepest places of our [Music] help us Lord we could practice in the fullness of who were called to be helped our unbelief speak the truth of who we are that you love us you call us your children and we are not alone we are not orphans at any moment you are there to help and you guide and you bless you here in a trance and you fill us with joy three of us come always come Holy Spirit come fill us anew you

Channel: Steubenville Youth Conferences

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Length: 31min 27sec (1887 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 13 2019