Wait a minute.  Catholics don’t evangelize, do they?  Well, certainly not enough, but we are all called to evangelize and spread the true joy that we know only because Christ has touched our lives.  Msgr. Charles Pope has written a fantastic article about the Seven Habits of Divinely Inspired Evangelizers.

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. (Matthew 28:19-20)

If this doesn’t bring tears to your eyes, you may not be human.

I just read this post from the Why I Am Catholic blog.  This guy is a man after my own heart.  He used a calculator to figure out that 0.89% of his time is not enough.  Good Stuff.

My grandmother, who is now in a nursing home, turns ninety this weekend.  It has been just over a year since we nearly lost her.  That was quite a story.  You can read about it here.

Our efforts to encourage some distant family to come and celebrate this weekend were moderately successful.  I have four distant family members in my home now, two of whom I have never met until this event.  I have been doing what every normal person does when they have company over that they don’t really know very well — cooking and cleaning.

I wonder why it is that whenever I’m a little uncomfortable and don’t know what to say, I feel the need to feed people.  I guess it gives me something to focus on, a justifiable busyness that will hopefully be a good excuse to avoid thinking of things to say.

Birthdays and family celebrations always seem to revolve around food for us.  I am praying for the strength to avoid gluttony.  I pray that God will fill me with the comfort that I sometimes seek through food and artificial busyness.  And may the good Lord bless my Grandmother, who has worked so hard throughout her days, and is most deserving of his unending love.

In my last post, over two months ago, my final words were “God is first.  No exceptions.”  I would like to be able to proclaim my great success, but unfortunately it has been “Me first.  No exceptions.”  I have gone from several posts per week to one every couple of months.  I have abandoned my reflections of the Gospel readings, rarely even reading the daily Mass readings, and I haven’t reviewed any books or movies lately.  My prayer life has been lukewarm.  I only seem to devote time to God when I am finished with my own self indulgences.

I’m not sure what causes me to be so self-centered.  I only know that it’s a constant struggle to stay on the path to a spiritual and virtuous life.  As always, I am grateful for the limitless mercy of God.  This Lenten season, I am making a commitment to do a thorough examination of conscience every day.  My hope is that I will identify these selfish tendencies in the early stages and correct them before two more months go by.

So I’ll make this resolution once more.  In fact, I’ll keep making this resolution until I leave this life.  God is first.  No exceptions.

I have heard it said by a number of people that fear and anxiety indicate a lack of faith.  Worrying about the uncertainty of future events can cause many sleepless nights.  What good comes from all that worry?  Letting go and letting God work in our lives is the only real solution to life’s anxiety problems.  Trusting that He knows what is best for us is critical to having a sane, faith-filled life.

Why is it that things like this are so obvious, and yet so difficult to actually practice?

I’m not really sure if I have any kind of “following” on this blog or not.  Judging from the number of comments that I receive, I would say that I don’t.  My wife is kind enough to check in on me once in awhile, which is greatly appreciated!

Occasionally, I’ll get a comment, and even less often I’ll receive an e-mail regarding ConversionForLife.com.  Every once in awhile, someone will ask me about joining the Church.  That’s the most rewarding type of correspondence.  For the most part though, I write on this blog for selfish reasons.  I enjoy writing.  It’s a relatively new-found pleasure.  I’ve always considered myself a math or science person.  Writing always seemed to be a chore.

But writing has evolved into the next logical step in my faith journey — and conversion is a journey.  I have never been a very strong communicator of my own emotions.  I’ve only been able to express my emotions…emotionally…if that makes any sense.  Rather than thoughtfully considering my feelings and then using language to express these feelings in a way that is beneficial to myself and others around me, I have relied on body language and tone of voice to get my point across.  Writing has helped me to become more introspective.  It has helped me to understand how I really feel about things, and then to try my best to express those feelings so that someone else can truly understand them.  I’m not sure if I’ve achieved any sort of success, but I’m fairly certain that it has had a positive impact on the way that I communicate with others on a daily basis.

In any case, I really enjoy this and I look forward to doing more of it.  But for the time being, I’ve got to take a break to work on some professional goals.  I’ll be taking a month or two sabbatical from my blog to study for an exam.  If it turns out that I do have a small following, I hope that you’ll wait for me.  I’ll be back, refreshed and renewed.  Wish me luck.  Or even better, pray for me.  Luck is pretend.  Prayers really work.  Thanks.