About a month ago San Diego was blessed by the presence of the wonderful Catholic author, Katrina Zeno. I had the privileged of talking with her at a few young adult events and then I was able to attend her presentation on Living the Eucharistic Pattern. If you are not aware, I am a huge fan of her book "Discovering the Feminine Genius: Every Woman's Journey" so it was kind of surreal to meet her and talk with her. You can just ask Tim about how excited I was when I realized who she was. Katrina has experienced a few hardships in her life including having her Catholic marriage unravel and becoming a divorced single mother. In all of her suffering God taught her about the true meaning of her vocation as a woman. She is a beautiful woman whose life has been transformed by Pope John Paul II's writings on women, especially Theology of the Body. Discovering the Feminine Genius really made an impact on my life and I was eager to learn about what Living the Eucharistic Pattern meant.
Katrina's presentation was only about an hour but it contained a lot of information so I decided to break it up into four posts. A lot of her presentation was inspired by "Life of the Beloved" by Henri Nouwen. If you are not interested in adding an entire book to your reading list it is summarized in a chapter of Katrina's book titled "When Life Doesn't Go Your Way". As Christian's we are called to live a Eucharistic Pattern in our daily lives. By being anchored in the Eucharist we can truly have a faith encounter with the Living God which allows us to share in his sufferings and death before the resurrection. Just like the Eucharist our lives are Chosen, Blessed, Broken, and Given.
We are all CHOSEN by Jesus himself. Katrina reflected on Jesus spotting Zacchaeus, a tax collector in a tree. Zacchaeus was a man who was hated by the community. In a sense he was perceived to be a traitor as he was taking their money to give to Rome. However, he wanted to see Jesus so he decided to climb a tree and watch from afar where he could be safe. Jesus was in the midst of a crowd of people all trying to get his attention and he looks right at Zacchaeus up in the tree and tells him to get down because Jesus plans to stay at his house that night. Jesus chose a man who was hated by the community, a tax collector, a sinner. Jesus chose us and we can't do anything to earn or lose it. No matter what you have done Jesus wants you to open your home (your heart) for him to stay at. Are you ready for Jesus to come stay with you tonight? I don't know about you but it seems crazy to me to turn down Jesus. However, Jesus knocks at the door of our hearts continuously inviting us into prayer or to share his love with others and I know that I don't always answer. At the end of the day we must remind ourselves that Jesus doesn't notice performance he notices people. By understanding that we are chosen by Jesus and he wants to come into our lives we can respond by running to prepare our lives for him to be welcomed inside.
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