Fearfully Made

“Pride keeps [the soul] in darkness. The soul neither knows how, nor is it willing, to probe with precision the depths of its own misery. It puts on a mask and avoids everything that might bring it recovery.” -St. Faustina

I am currently reading St. Faustina’s diary, and when I read these lines my mind completely froze, because this is my soul. These past couple of weeks have really taken a toll on my soul. The Lord has slowly (and painfully) been peeling these masks off of my soul that I hold on to so tightly. I am the type of person who would rather suppress certain miseries and cover them with a mask rather than show my true feelings. I do all of this and tell myself that I am happy even when it’s not true. I cover my soul with layers of masks that are prohibiting me from being authentically loved by others and ultimately by God.

My first semester of college was difficult for multiple reasons. I think the main reason was that God was slowly showing me how wounded I really was. There were wounds that I didn’t even know existed because I am that good at pushing down these miseries. I had some wounds that I caused myself, but a majority of the wounds were caused by other people. I like to think of myself as a strong independent person who a) doesn’t really need other people’s help with my problems and b) won’t let anyone get to me. So, this means if someone hurts me, I will ignore it, cover it up with a mask, and pretend that I am alright. However, this lie can’t last forever. Eventually, this pain grows to the point where I can’t ignore it anymore.

I completely ignored these wounds and I was doing a good job of it—then SEEK happened. I went to this talk called “Seeking Healing Through Forgiveness” by Sr. Miriam James Heidland. She said, “You can’t ignore a wound.” And at that moment, I felt the weight of all my miseries on my soul. I felt my heart physically ache to the point where I couldn’t even pay attention to the talk anymore. I knew that not letting myself face these pains had taken a toll on me, and that it was time to start healing them. The problem was that I had been suppressing and masking so many wounds that I didn’t know what to do or where to begin.

I began by inviting God into my healing, and asking him to show me which masks he wanted me to deal with first and so on. The first couple were little baby wounds and I dealt with them fairly easily. However, this past week, God started to slowly peel off a mask that was covering a gigantic wound that someone had caused me. This was not a particularly fun wound to deal with because it involves me forgiving someone who will probably never know how much pain they caused me. I asked God to fill the depths of this wound with His light and give me the grace to forgive the one who hurt me. By inviting God into this act of forgiveness, I am truly letting go of this wound and letting God begin to refill this space in my soul with His love.

I don’t know what wounds you have and how many masks are covering your soul, but I can tell you that you will never regret asking God to take them off. You were not called to live a life covering your soul in masks. You were made to live a life where your soul can be completely engulfed in God’s love. How is he supposed to do that when we are constantly putting masks in between us and Him? The process of taking the masks off can be painful and long but in the end your soul will finally be freed. I am not even close to having my soul completely unmasked, but I can’t wait to be loved the way that God created me to be loved.

In Christ,
Ava

A dating fast for 6 months. Why the HECK would anyone do that to themselves? What even is that? Out of your own free will? Yes—it’s me, Devyn. I did do this to myself, and all of this will be answered.

Like most people, I am my own worst critic. In July, I had a conversation with my friend Dylan that led me to an existential crisis. Apparently, I didn’t let people love me—YIKES. I knew I mildly disliked myself, but I never thought I didn’t let people love me because I LOVE love!!

Around the end of July I was feeling really overwhelmed, lost, and broken. It felt like all of the busyness and worrying about things that didn’t matter finally caught up to me. I never really took the time to take care of myself and the important things like mental and physical health. If I’m being completely honest, I relied solely on other worldly people for my happiness—often boys. It got to the point (and I hate to say it now) where these boys were my God. I looked to these boys as my Savior when I knew deep down, they would fail me—only God can give me what I need. My priorities were completely out of WACK and I knew that needed to change.

I went into adoration one day feeling very uneasy and I asked God for guidance. I had been thinking about going on a dating fast for a while after hearing about it through FOCUS and other things. I straight up asked Him, “Am I supposed to go on a dating fast?” I immediately felt a wave of relief; I knew this is what I needed to do. I went out and bought books and told friends, so I could be held accountable. I really had no idea how this fast was going to change me, but HOLY MOLY it did. I set goals for myself: be able to love myself, look at men as brothers in Christ rather than possible mates, strengthen my relationship with God, etc.

I could feel myself struggling right off the bat. I met this guy who started pursuing me romantically and I didn’t know what to do. I was honestly talking to God like, “Really? After all of this time where he could have come into my life, now is when you want it? Yeah okay.” After about a week of confusion, I remained determined on my goals for the dating fast and respectively rejected that relationship for the time being. It truly made me so much stronger and helped me see men as my friends and as my brothers in Christ from the very beginning. Before the fast started I would see a man and talk to him for maybe two seconds and think to myself, “DANG would he look nice in a charcoal tuxedo?” Like what the HECK is wrong with you Dev??? I could not control my emotional chastity by any means–I saw every guy as possibly ‘the one’. 

The greatest impact, the thing that truly changed me the most, was a health class—weird, right? We did an exercise on happiness. At the end of the exercise, our professor had us write down something we were ashamed of, and she told us to fold it up and put it in our pocket. After that she told us we needed to write a letter, forgiving ourselves for what we did on that little scrap of paper because we cannot change the past. I took this assignment to adoration and once I started writing I had tears rolling down my face. I was able to write down the words, “I’m proud to be myself.” I cannot tell y’all how hard that would have been for me a couple of months ago. I had no idea how much I despised myself and it broke me. As a child of God, an image bearer of our creator, how can I hate myself? If I truly love God… there is no possible way not to love ME. That realization came to me a couple of months later, but it was truly mind-blowing to me.

As I slowly began to reach my goals, taking one tiny step at a time, I could see myself letting people in. I finally began to accept the love I so freely give to others. Once I finally understood that God was within me, I could not deny that love. I had been deprived of it, and I had pushed it away for so long that I did not realize the joy I was longing for.

Sitting in adoration at SEEK2019, I was listening to the worship music. I heard the words, “You will never see the way he looks at me.” I broke down. After six months of ups, downs, strides, and struggles—I finally know who I am. NO, I know whose I am. The Father’s gaze has completely changed the way I see myself. We are all such individualistic and special children to our Savior, and it is such a gift to finally realize that. This fast was the best decision I have ever made, and I cannot thank God enough for setting me on this path.

Amor Vincit Omnia ~ Love Conquers All,

Devyn

2018 will forever be remembered as the year of transformation for me. I’ve been a Catholic my whole life, but for the first time, I decided that I actually wanted it to mean something. I worked at a Catholic summer camp where my heart was truly transformed. By witnessing the vibrant faith of cool, young Catholics and starting to pray daily, I took my faith into my own hands.

I learned so much about forming a prayer life and was excited to put it to the test in my new college life. Keeping up with that desire to pray daily was not easy and took a lot of learning, discipline, and patience. Even though I let myself fall short, and was not be always completely present, that consistency gave me a completely new perspective on my faith.

I learned the importance of accountability. I found friends that asked me about my prayer life and encouraged me to keep it going. I learned the importance of “showing up” for God. Some days were better than others. Some days I felt moved by prayer and others I felt desolate. No matter what I was feeling, I know that God was pleased with me for just being there. I learned that through prayer, I was able to be honest with God about admitting my faults and celebrating my victories.

I continue to struggle finding the time for God every day. But I can promise you that when you intentionally give your time to God, he will bless you immensely. The power of prayer is so real. He wants to talk to you. He wants to hear about everything you’re going through, good or bad. He wants you to sit and listen to Him with your heart in His hands.

This year has taught me a lot and I’m so grateful for the growth I have experienced, especially in my role as a daughter of Christ. Through consistency in prayer, I’ve grown closer to Christ in ways I never could’ve imagined. He is waiting for you to call upon Him. Remind Him of your love for Him and make prayer a part of your routine.

“The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.”

-Psalm 145:18

I pray that you have an blessed, faith-filled new year.

With love,

Leah

“I will give thanks to you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made” | Psalm 139:14

In this Psalm of David, we hear the words and prayers of complete sureness in the Lord. I remember when Ava and I were brainstorming some names for our blog, we were extremely stuck. With this complete and utter confusion AND with the extreme desire to start a blog, I took it to prayer. This verse jumped at me and I was like WOAH. Later, I was like, ok, wait–How can I be Fearfully Made?

I texted TONS of people to get answers because I truly could not understand. Like did God make me out of fear? No, he doesn’t fear. So, I was made full-of-fear, ok, but fear of what? All of these questions were running through my head with no answers in sight.

One of my VERY intelligent friends dumbed it down to my level and explained it to me so I could understand. Fear is not to be taken in the literal sense. We were not created fearing anything in particular, or not that I believe. Being Fearfully Made refers to the concept of Fear of the Lord, one of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. This is also not supposed to be taken literally. God is our friend and our Father and we should not be afraid of Him. The word ‘fear’ should be better interpreted as respect.

We are all in completely different stages of our lives with different stories, different backgrounds, and different perspectives; however, we all have the same God. He created us to be full of reverence and full of wonder so we are all unique in our own image and that is why we praise Him.

In Christ,
Devyn

Hi friends!

Welcome to Fearfully Made! We are three Catholic girls who are striving for sainthood. We want to share with people the beauty that we have encountered through Catholicism. Today, many people our age have a distorted view of the faith. They see it as something old and unattainable when it is simply not. We want to show the true beauty of Catholicism through our own experiences, through pictures, through music and much more. We also want to share our struggles, give advice and truly walk with each other toward our Heavenly Father. Look forward to faith filled motivation, some ‘let’s get real’ moments, prayer tips, saint stories, and earnest growth.

We can’t wait to start this journey and to share our faith with y’all!
Holiness is attainable guys, so let’s be saints!

In Christ,
Ava, Devyn, Leah