Angels Among Us
In the Austin area, there are many ways to participate in building a culture of life and love. Some of us do so through volunteering with 40 Days for Life, promoting the good works of organizations such as the Vitae Clinic, Catholic Charities, Heroic Media, Texas Alliance for Life, volunteering with Mobile Loaves and Fishes and so much more. When people ask me about how they are called to build a culture of life and civilization of love, I always say that that is a conversation that they need to have with God in prayer but that as Catholics we are all to promote the dignity of the human person, and it looks different for all of us!
Lauren Anderson, a chemistry doctoral student at UT, a newlywed, and parishioner of St. Louis Catholic Church, volunteers for the St. Louis Gabriel Project as a Gabriel Angel.
Lauren first heard about this ministry through announcements in the parish bulletin, weekend campaigning and at a stewardship fair. The fear of not knowing what being an Angel would be like, initially kept her from volunteering; however, she was also experiencing a tug in her heart to do more.
After some self-reflection, she realized when it came down to her faith all she “had was an opinion and an understanding” but felt shewas not physically doing anything to make the world a better place. When asked what inspired her to volunteer, she said, “We can talk about being pro-life and respecting life at the beginning of conception but what about those women who are scared and in need of some help, whether emotional or financial, when it comes to keeping a baby? If we don’t help those women then we are just using words.” Lauren felt someday she wanted to be able to say she was doing more than just talking about respecting life - - she was doing something about it. “There are women out there who are thinking about having abortions and do not believe that people will help them if they decide to keep the baby. If every parish and every church (regardless of denomination) had a Gabriel Project then these women would know they have resources and people to turn to. I can find a crib and car seat for them. I can bring them diapers, bottles and baby clothes and it is one thing they can be less anxious about.”
When asked how she finally overcame her reservations, Lauren said she realized all she needed to do was ask God to give her the courage to go out and serve mothers in need and He did. She encourages those who are hesitant to join this ministry “to just pray to the Lord for guidance and He will give you the strength you need.” She went on to suggest, “The easiest way to listen to God? Go to adoration! It is a beautiful thing to be in the Lord’s presence.”
In Lauren’s 18 months as a trained Angel, she has had an opportunity to serve three Gabriel moms. She is currently meeting with two women that just had their babies – one had a boy and the other had a girl. She is humbled that during their pregnancies these moms opened up their homes and their lives to her. She loves that she was able to bring them some baby items during their pregnancies. “And now, I’ve been there to say hello to their babies and hold them and tell these two moms that their babies are beautiful. It fills my heart with joy,” she said.
Lauren said the training provided by the Office of Pro-Life Activities and Chaste Living helped her by allowing her to play out some scenarios she may encounter as an Angel and this really helped put her mind at ease. During this training she also enjoyed getting to meet others who were actively seeking to serve women in crisis pregnancies.
When asked what blessing she has received as a result of taking on this mission work, Lauren replied, “What more can we ask for than to know that we have listened to God’s call and answered him, ‘Yes, Lord, your servant is listening?’ My faith has gotten stronger and that has a big impact on my health, my day-to-day activities, and how I feel about my future, not to mention the people I have met. Also, the gift of being around so many pregnant women and being there to see their babies - - the gift of life is a mystery and now I am able to experience its joy in abundance.”
Lauren and her husband Mathew have been married 14 months and they hope to expand their family once Lauren graduates. In the meantime, she is dedicated to using her I time and energy in this ministry as she is sure her experiences “can only make [her] a better mother and wife.”
–Rebecca Niemerg
If you are interested in learning more about the Gabriel Project and how to be a Gabriel Angel, please join us for a Gabriel Project Training on Saturday, November 12th from 9 AM to 4:30 PM at San Jose Parish in Austin. You can register by contacting Rebecca Niemerg at the Office of Pro-Life Activities and Chaste Living at rebecca-niemerg@austindiocese.org
October 2011
Geoffrey Miller
Name: Geoffrey Miller
Age: 23
Birthday: January 7, 1988
Job: Graduate Student and Research Assistant
School: Texas State University, San Marcos
Grew up in: Austin, TX
Fav. Movies: The Passion of the Christ, The Fountain, Dragonfly, Batman: The Dark Knight, The Land Before Time
Fav. musicians: Lisa Gerrard, Enya, Loreena McKennitt, Chloe Agnew
Fav. activities: Reading, Creative Writing, Mathematics, Conversation
Fav. foods: Chick-fil-A and Chocolate
Fav. devotions: Daily Office, Bible Reading
Fav. prayers: Jesus Prayer, Rosary, Serenity Prayer
Fav. scripture verse: John 1:5
What does being Catholic mean to you?
Being Catholic means enjoying a seat at God’s family table. A rich fare of spiritual food is continually served from an unbroken Judeo-Christian religious tradition stretching back for thousands of years. There’s no other religion like it, and the best part is, it’s true.
Why is your Catholic faith important to you?
God sustained me through the various trials of growing up with a physical disability. Knowing that there’s a great crowd of victorious Christians cheering us on from the other side gives me the strength to keep going. If there were no place of final joy and rest, all life would come to nothing but despair and futility. My Catholic faith is important to me because it gives meaning to everything else.
What is your favorite part about the Catholic 20-Somethings?
Definitely the people. I love making new friends and getting into interesting conversations. I’ve learned so much from everyone and I hope the bonds I’m building will last well beyond my 20s and into eternity. Also, thanks for introducing me to deep-fried cookie dough!
September 2011
Congrats to Lindsay Wilcox for being our Member of the Month!
Name: Lindsay Wilcox
Age: 25
Birthday: August 30 (which is so awkward because I’ve always worked on the academic calendar, so I’ve always *just* met a ton of new people right before it rolls around)
Job: campus minister at the University Catholic Center at UT in Austin
School: University of Maryland undergrad, Notre Dame for grad school
Grew up in: southern Maryland, but also Japan and Germany (I’m an Air Force brat)
Fav. Movies: The Truman Show, Men in Black, Miss Congeniality, What Women Want, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Finding Nemo
Fav. musicians: Switchfoot, Matt Maher, Lifehouse, *NSYNC, Aly & AJ (now 78violet), Mandy Moore
Fav. activities: reading, blogging, trivia and party games, hand-writing letters
Fav. foods: French fries and sweet potato fries, fresh spinach, chips of all kinds, orange juice, pasta
Fav. devotions: the Holy Souls in purgatory, the rosary, the Divine Mercy
Fav. prayers: also the rosary, the Angelus, the prayer of abandonment by Blessed Charles Foucault, the Litany of Humility
Fav. scripture verse: Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
What does being Catholic mean to you?
Everything. Currently, of course, it is literally my job to be Catholic (which helps keep me honest!), but I could never have gotten the job without the foundation of faith built up by my Confirmation instructors and all the amazing people I met when I was a student in campus ministry at Maryland. I used to be a high school English teacher, but I never had joy doing that comparable to the joy I have now.
Why is your Catholic faith important to you?
I didn’t go to church for most of my life after being baptized Catholic, except for my pre-Confirmation years. Just after I started college, I got out of a really destructive relationship, and I needed something new to fill that huge hole in the center of my life. I decided to try God instead. I don’t do things halfway, so I moved steadily into a deeper relationship with Christ and others who loved him, too, and it has brought me a joy I never knew I was missing.
What is your favorite part about the Catholic 20-Somethings?
While I was teaching, I also lived in an intentional Christian community of other teachers (all but one Catholic, and she’s Episcopalian). I learned the hard way how important community is, and since I lost all of my communities when I moved to Austin, I hit Google in search of new ones. The Catholic 20-Somethings is a fantastic community to belong to!
August 2011
Congrats to Inigo Incer for being our Member of the Month!
Name: Inigo Incer
Job: Hardware Engineer
Inigo Incer
School: University of New Orleans, UT
Grew up in: Boaco, Nicaragua
Fav. Movies: The Lord of the Rings (all of them)
Fav. musicians: Bach, U2, Pachelbel, Fauré, Gregorian Chant in general
Fav. foods: Gallo pinto, serrano, lindt, paella, cappuccino, manchego, toblerone
Fav. devotions: Eucharistic Adoration, the Way of the Cross, Processions (how I miss them!). Saints: The Blessed Virgin Mary, San Ignacio de Loyola, St. Thomas Aquinas, Santa Teresa de Ávila, and St. Maximus the Confessor.
Fav. prayers: The Holy Rosary, The Divine Office, The Examen, Anima Cristi
Fav. scripture verse: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word…” (Jn 1:1-5, 14), our Lady’s fiat (Lk 1:38), “my joke is easy…” Mt 11:28-30, “where sin increased, grace overflowed…” (Rom 5:20)…
What does being Catholic mean to you? Everything.
Why is your Catholic faith important to you?
Because I believe in Jesus and in his words. He founded his Church on St. Peter, the first pope, and gave him the keys to the kingdom of heaven (Mt 16:19). The Lord Jesus founded Catholicism and gave the Church the Sacraments which he instituted. The Holy Eucharist deserves special mention since in it God gives Himself as gift. Moreover, the fullness of revelation has been entrusted to the Church, and there is no salvation outside of it*.
This explains “why Catholicism,” but why a Christian in the first place? a. Because there is nowhere else to go: “to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life ” (Jn 6:68). Jesus, a man, said he is God, a claim which commands an astonishment of dimensions that defy competent articulation. The screech of quakes crushing our cities is softer to the ear than the utterance of such statement, for more bearable is the scene of our houses burning than the drama of the cosmos torn asunder. The thing is that both his deeds (Mk 4:41; 5:20; 6:51…) and the “sobriety of his mien” preclude the possibility that this is not the truth. And so the Nazarene is the eternal Logos, God Himself. b. Because He is love (1 Jn 4:8), and the Incarnation occurred because of this (Jn 3:16). I was known and loved, and since the heart for love was made, when seeing Him for Whom it longed, love from it arose. It is this falling in love with Christ who thirsts (Jn 19:28) why I am a Christian.
What is your favorite part about the Catholic 20-Somethings? Its essence: a community of believers who are contemporaries. I have realized that community is of fundamental importance in the life of the Christian:
Man comes to deal with God in coming to deal with his fellowmen. [...] God wishes to approach man only through man; he seeks out man in no other way but in his fellow humanity. Introduction to Christianity. Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger.
And in a letter sent to seminarians on October 2010, His Holiness expounds a similar remark:
The seminary is a community journeying towards priestly ministry. I have said something very important here: one does not become a priest on one’s own. The “community of disciples” is essential, the fellowship of those who desire to serve the greater Church.
In this ministry, we pray together; serve together; and grow together in the Church’s faith which we are proud to profess.
* Please note that this teaching of the Church has been often misconstrued. See the encyclical Evangelii Nuntiandi by His Holiness Paul VI for more on this topic.
Christ of the Breadlines
I don’t like service projects. Not typically. I’ve never done well when face to face with human suffering. Whether trying to help at a hospice or a homeless shelter, I’ve never known what to say to a person in need. What do you say? How do you relate? I can’t even make eye-contact with beggars on the side of the road, so a visit to Mary House this past Saturday was well beyond my normal comfort zone. Yet, encouraged by our service chair, to Mary House I went.
Mary House is a shelter for those in need. For the sick, Mary House offers a place to rest and rejuvenate. For the dying, it is a place to say goodbye to this earth with dignity. Established in 1991 by Lynn Goodman-Strauss, it is part of the Catholic Worker movement, and answers our baptismal call to perform the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. The last time I visited Mary House, it was crowded with residents and volunteers. We brought dinner on a Friday night, but, intimidated by the faces of sick strangers, I did little more than offer potato salad and chit chat with the volunteers I knew. This time, however, our crowd was smaller, the residents of Mary House fewer.
We didn’t have much to do that Saturday afternoon. Watering plants, pulling weeds, and building a ramp were all that was on the agenda. Other than Lewis, the gentleman who helped us build the ramp, none of the other residents of Mary House were really present. So after the work was done, Lynn gathered us around her table to talk. And speaking with Lynn was like a revelation.
She told us about what motivated her to start a Catholic Worker House here in Austin—her brother, who was sent to a mental institution when they were children because their parents lacked the resources to take care of him. She told us his story, and the stories of others who had come and gone out of the house. Lynn was not reaching for holiness when she decided to take strangers into her home; she was reaching out to help those, like her brother, whose humanity had been forgotten. Nameless, faceless on the street, here they could share their stories, and become part of hers. I was struck. Here was a woman more love in her heart than I could fathom. Perhaps I could never open my home as she had, but maybe I could learn to give a little more than I had before.
Stories make us real. Stories make us human. By sharing the stories of numberless strangers in need, Lynn has come face to face with humanity. Lynn has come face to face with Christ. He is in the breadlines and in each person who comes to Mary House looking for shelter. Lynn’s stories served as a powerful reminder that the men and women we serve are Christ. And serving is our Salvation.
–Letti Lopez
July 2011
Congrats to Brittany Holan for being our Member of the Month!
Name: Brittany Holan
Brittany Holan
Age: 25
Birthday: October 8, 1985
Job: I’m currently in my clinical year of graduate school training to become a Licensed Professional Counselor, and possibly a Licensed Play Therapist.
School: Texas A&M University; Texas State University
Grew up in: Georgetown, TX
Fav. Movies: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; Once
Fav. musicians: These change on a monthly basis… Currently my favorites are Cold War Kids, Phoenix, Muse, Ray LaMontagne, Manchester Orchestra, Death Cab for Cutie… and many more.
Fav. activities: Writing, reading, wandering aimlessly through bookstores, kayaking, wandering in general, spending time with family and friends, playing chess with my little brother, yoga, dancing
Fav. foods: If it is made of chocolate, has chocolate in it, or could possibly be covered in chocolate, it is my favorite food.
Fav. devotions: Adoration, daily readings, Chaplet of Divine Mercy
Fav. prayers: Universal Prayer by Pope Clement XI; scriptural meditation
Fav. scripture verse: Psalm 25; Isaiah 53 (The Suffering Servant); Matthew 6:25-34 (Do Not Worry); and Romans 12:12
What does being Catholic mean to you? To be Catholic is to be connected to a universal truth that is bigger and brighter than anything I could ever fathom. To be Catholic is to be in a constant state of awe and thanksgiving, not only for all of God’s blessings, but also for the community that is the Church. It means to strive to see God in everyone, and to show His love by serving others. To be Catholic is to have the courage to be imperfect, the faith to persevere, and the hope that even in the midst of suffering, God’s love will see us through and make all things new (I promise that I didn’t mean for that last sentence to rhyme).
Why is your Catholic faith important to you? When I was attending a middle school Bible study, I remember being struck with the realization that God’s love was infinite and unwavering, and that faith was something I could choose. From that moment on, my faith became a big part of my life. My faith grounds me because I know it is the one thing that no one can take from me; it is something I can count on absolutely. Having faith in God guides everything I do, and it keeps me going in this sometimes-chaotic world.
What is your favorite part about the Catholic 20-Somethings? I think it’s a tie between the fellowship and all the opportunities for prayer/service that this ministry provides. The people in this group are amazing, and I feel like I’ve grown so much through the friendships I’ve made and activities I’ve participated in. I am truly blessed to have this ministry, and all the wonderful people in it, in my life.
June 2011
Congrats to Kevin Pelton for being our Member of the Month!
Name: Kevin Pelton
Kevin Pelton
Age: 24
Birthday: October 25th
Job: Geoscientist
School: University of Texas
Grew up in: Ft. Worth, Texas
Fav. Movies: Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Star Wars: A New Hope, Equilibrium
Fav. musicians: Symphony X
Fav. activities: camping, sports, backpacking, hiking, tubing, climbing
Fav. foods: brisket
Fav. devotions: Stations of the Cross, Adoration, Rosary
Fav. prayers: Anima Christi, Fatima Prayer
Fav. scripture verse: “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother of sister has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,” but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? (James 2:14-16)
What does being Catholic mean to you? It means challenging myself to uphold my faith on a daily basis through my actions and decisions. It means striving to hear and accept God’s call to fulfill His will through my life.
Why is your Catholic faith important to you? It provides a strong foundation for my life and helps me to better understand my life by viewing it from a Catholic perspective. It helps me appreciate all of the blessings in my life, and it gives me strength and hope to persevere during difficult tribulations.
What is your favorite part about the Catholic 20-Somethings? I especially enjoy participating in all of the fun activities organized by the 20-Somethings. I enjoy being part of an active and supportive faith community that provides members with the opportunity to share their experiences and faith among peers.
