Chris' prayer: Matt Maher's "Everything You've Done"

For Christmas, I painted my sister a picture. She knew that she would be getting a painting from me; it was what she had asked for, and she had purchased the supplies for me, but she left everything else up to me. I got to decide the color scheme, the subject, the title, everything. The result is what you see above.

I was a little worried about what Michelle would think of it, but when she opened it, I could see on her face that she really liked it. It was very visually pleasing to her eyes. But when I told her what it meant, when I told her the story behind it, how the painting signified home, and how each of the blocks of color represented a different room in our childhood home, and how our home will always be in our hearts, I could see that she loved it. It was very visually pleasing to her heart.

Today's song reminds me that that is what I have to look forward to. Seeing and hearing the story behind all the wonderful gifts that God has given me, realizing for the first time the extent to which He loves me via all of the tiniest details that he has placed into my life, the details that I was sure to miss, but still made my life what it is. Today, I naively celebrate all the things I can see that He has done for me. Someday, I will truly celebrate [His] love … and everything [He's] done.


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Megan's prayer: Matt Maher's "Everything You've Done"

Most weeks I have the joy of attending two masses at some point during the week. I always make it to the noon mass at Cletus, where there is singing and dancing, and I am surrounded by teens, and the mass is full of energy. I also normally have the chance to attend a weekday mass in the chapel on campus. These Thursday afternoon masses are much more reverent, without any music, without much energy. Different, but still wonderful.

Today's song spoke to me about the joy that I feel during the Sunday masses at Cletus. I love getting the song sheet before mass starts and having a chance to see what songs we will be singing. I enjoy the songs the slow songs, the songs with feeling, the songs sang during times of reflection. Even more than that, I like the songs that give me the feeling that no matter what, I couldn't sing it loud enough. Songs that fill the whole church. The songs that I love the most are the songs that encourage dancing. Although that may sound hypocritical because I don't typically dance, I enjoy them more for the chance to see others dance, to see others express their faith in such a pure form of joy. The songs that are even able to get teenage boys to dance. While some may find this irreverent, all I can think during these times is "Jesus, we dance for you."

Marie's Prayer: Matt Maher's "Everything You've Done"

Celebrate everything you're doing

I don't celebrate myself enough. I realized this yesterday as I celebrated the successful start of my collaborative vlog. Actually, I don't think I've ever actually celebrated anything I've ever done. And that's kind of sad when you think about it. I've celebrated things others have done, but never me. So I'm going to try and do that more often. Because if I can't celebrate me, what can I celebrate? I need to learn to appreciate me because God made me in His image and I should celebrate that. Yay God!

Erinnicole's Prayer: Matt Maher's "Everything You've Done"

We dance for you!

this song made me want to dance...i haven't stopped "bopping" along since I clicked play! That is how i think life should be; it is just a great thing so why not dance?! sometimes we hit hard times, yes...but we still wake up in the morning. and that's reason enough for me to dance. i have little to no rhythm but that doesn't really take away from my love of dance. i wish that instead of blogging my love for God today, I could dance it! The words aren't coming so easily today but if you all could see me dancing, it would look something like this :

~* ~* ~* ~* ~* ~*~~* ~^^^^^ *~*~~**~*~* ~* ~* ~*~ *~ *~ *~ *~ *~*~ LA LA LA LA ~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~**~ ^^^
with the "^"s indicating jumps

because when I get into my faith with my whole body, it's an overwhelming, passion-filled mess.

this point of this whole mess of emotion, is that I think we should use the love and joy that God fills us with to express our gratitude in the most vibrant way that we can which, today, happens to be dancing for me!

Dance for the Lord!

Catie's prayer: Matt Maher's "Everything You've Done"

Celebrate in joyful hope
Celebrate your love
Celebrate what you are doing,
And everything you've done

I met someone a few weeks ago who I really look up to. She is always so joyful, always has a positive attitude, always has a smile on her face and always ready to greet everyone she meets with a warm welcome. She is probably one of the nicest and most genuine people I have met thus far. The reason I look up to her so much is because she is able to celebrate, celebrate life, celebrate love, celebrate God in everything that she does. I want to be like that. I want that joy that God gives us to celebrate the good and the bad, the triumphs and the trials. It's easy to celebrate when things are going well, if one can celebrate and triumph in the midst of hardship though, that is the true test of character.