Women of Grace

For the last few weeks, I've been watching the show Women of Grace on EWTN in between looking for jobs (and finally finding one!), and although I find it a little cheesy sometimes, I do enjoy it very much. It's an easy way to keep connected with my faith without my parents having to see, and it's on all week at the same time. The show's host, Johnette Benkovic, covers all sorts of different topics in her short half hour each day, and any viewer can tell that she earnestly desires for those who watch the show to know the God of love. She ends each episode by saying "Until next time, may the abundant life of Jesus Christ be yours", which I think is a sweet phrase, but also a sort of blessing on her viewers, though I doubt many of them are not actively seeking that life, such is the crowd that watches EWTN.

WoG is a lovely little respite for me each day, and often the highlight, except for yesterday. Three weeks ago, I was (FINALLY) able to make it to daily Mass and Adoration in a little church two towns over, and it was magnificent! I was the only person even remotely close to my age in the church (not counting the altar boys), but I didn't care. I sat and listened to the readings and the homily, and almost could have cried, I was so happy to finally make it back to God on a day that wasn't Sunday. Immediately after Mass ended, the altar boys and the priest started setting up for a holy hour, and I was psyched. I could barely concentrate on praying because I was genuinely that excited, and I wasn't disappointed. Almost nobody from Mass left, and they started Adoration with Morning Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours (something I try to do every morning). After all that, I settled in to say the Rosary, and by the time I was done, I had a few minutes of quiet, personal prayer before Benediction. It was fabulous, and I loved every minute.  :)

A couple of the women in the church approached me after Adoration had ended, since it's not often that teenagers run into church of their own volition at 7:30 a.m., and they probably wondered what had brought me out so early for no apparent reason. The answer, of course, was Jesus Christ, and we talked about our faith, and my future (as is inevitable, my being a college student and all). They told me they would pray for me, and for my school's Newman Center, since it has instilled in me a deep love of God and a solid, orthodox faith. I talked to one of them in the parking lot, and she took great joy in the fact that I was running after Christ, even though I was not in the place where my experience of Him was the strongest.

In the days since this Mass, I have tried to get to that church for Mass as often as I can, though often I don't make it because my father doesn't leave early enough for work for me to make the trip in time. I've considered leaving right after he does to try to catch what part of the Mass I can, or simply getting there in time for the Holy Hour they have every morning, but I don't know if I should. Part of that may be my neuroses about wanting to be on time for the whole thing, but I know that another part is that I feel there's a particular grace in going to Mass when I can now that it's rather less often than it is at school. I also know that there are graces in having the women I interact with at Mass and Johnette's wonderful (if occasionally campy) show as good examples for how to live during my remaining time at home.