My Hour With The Saints

"I love Jesus Christ and that is why I am on fire to give Him my soul." - St. Alphonsus Ligouri

      Let's be real, being a full-time undergrad student, I don't get much free time or time to spend in silence or with JC during the day. That's the reason I get up every morning an hour before the rest of campus; to make sure I get at least an hour with JC. Even though He travels with me throughout the day, we chat often during those quick moments between class and work, I often feel like I'm cheating Him and cheating myself. So frequently, my heart simply desires silence. Today, on the Feast of All Saints, I got my chance.

      First let me explain that own of my many work study jobs on campus is for the Mission and Ministry part of Campus Ministry. I get the opportunity to work one on one with the sister in charge on various projects, one of which has been the glass display boxes at the main entrance of our main building. Yeah, it's a little bit of a big deal. In the past two weeks, this project has been my arch nemesis. First, we had to take out the glass shelving. I felt the fragility of each shelf throughout my whole body, afraid that at any moment they were going to crash to the floor and shatter. Then, the backing wouldn't match up to which Sister insisted I am a High J and Logical learner. Hm...I dislike math more than a lot of other things. Then, we had to put the shelving back in. I can't tell you how many times we dropped those shelves on my feet and knees. Thank God for high pain tolerance! But finally, after all our trials, we were able to finally add in some of the display. 

     Working with Sister is such a privilege because not only do we work well together, but she also knows when I need some quiet time during work. That's not saying, we don't talk to each other, but rather, she'll set me to a task that I can do on my own. Today, she set me to putting together the display and I got to spend a good amount of quiet time with the saints of my university. It was such an unique and peaceful experience to spend about an hour with the people who made my university a possibility, most of whom were sisters, and read about their experiences. It was a full trip into the history of the saints, of those who are in some way responsible for the start of my school and those who have continued the legends and traditions. According to the homily from Mass, the saints are meant to be our friends, and so, I had a beautiful date with my new friends: the saints of my university!