Real Talk.

20. You can never eat too much Milka or too many kebabs. 

These two are going to kill me for this but these pictures are too perfect. I just won't tell them about it. Julia's face (on left) is not disgust, but rather, "There's no Oreo Milka left, we are going to die."

And I can't look at that kebab anymore because I'm drooling all over the place and that's really inappropriate for my age.

21. Travel is about adventure and unmade plans. 

We had no idea where we were. 

This is another one that is self-explanatory. If you need to have a plan in order to have fun, please go for it. But otherwise, do a little research, book a clean hostel, and MAKE TRAIN RESERVATIONS and just go. Travel overnight, sit next to strangers, sleep wherever you can. Pack light, and bring deodorant and rub it everywhere and you should be fine. If you feel like you are going crazy from lack of sleep, you probably are. So just roll with the punches and take a video so you can look back and laugh later. You'll need that laugh when you get lost or stranded somewhere and you wonder if you'll ever see home again. Welcome every mishap as a surprise adventure and add it to the long list of memories. There is nothing I regret. Not a single Milka bar.


22. Love is needed everywhere.

I bought my first pair of TOMS right before Austria and did a really hipster thing and wrote with Sharpie on the soles of them. I wrote "Take me where love is needed," because I was being all symbolic and sentimental and I wanted those unbelievably comfortable shoes to take my feet to the places where I was called to be. I wanted to live out Mother Theresa's call for us to be Christ's hands and feet on this earth. As it turns out, those shoes taught me a lesson that I should have realized before I even wrote that message on them. Love is needed everywhere. Duh. That is so hard to get our minds around because we are so used to thinking, usually subconsciously, that certain people need or deserve more love than others at any given time. It didn't matter where I wore those shoes, which happened to be everywhere, I was called to be there in that moment. But the gypsies in the slums in Romania need my love just as much as the  bag lady that sits outside the basilica everyday on my way to work in Baltimore. I know that, but I don't always act on it. I walked through that slum with a bleeding heart, but if I'm late for work I sometimes just pass that misfortunate woman like I passed the tree on the block before.

Love is needed everywhere. So take it there yourself.

Hopefully, you won't need your worn-out, smelly shoes to tell you that.

23. Even during the most horrific of tragedies, there is mercy and hope. 

Ah yes, I've been looking forward to this one. This is a biggie. In February, we went on a school trip to Poland. After seeing the miraculous image of Our Lady of Częstochowa, we headed to the Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz. I was not and could not have been mentally prepared for what I experienced there. (I have told many people about this already so I apologize if I repeat myself.) You can read a library of books about the Holocaust and watch every World War II movie out there and still not be able to adequately comprehend what happened there until you step between the barbed wire fences where it all happened. I didn't say a word that whole day. No one did. There was nothing you could say that wouldn't sound stupid and menial. It was something that everyone should go see but that I never want to see again. Ever. I walked through the cold, wet weather through various cells and torture rooms and filthy living quarters. I passed the execution wall and the place where escapees were hanged for all to see. I walked into the cement gas chamber and walked out the other side, barely able to catch my breath. I saw piles and massive mounds of things that belonged to innocent people who ended up dying with nothing, not even the hair on their heads. One room held thousands of suitcases with names painted on them, as if their owners planned to come back to get them and finally go back home. We also went a few miles down the road to the death camp at Birkenau. As we walked through the snow and slush along the fateful train tracks that ended at the gas chambers, I opened my coat and let my face and hands sting in the freezing wind. I wanted to feel alive. 

Auschwitz

I felt anger and disbelief. I felt hatred. This event was not so far off from the holocaust of the innocent unborn that happens every day, as we speak. How can people walk through this camp and shake their heads at the black souls of the Nazis, but they don't bat an eyelash at the thousands that suffer and die before they even get a breath of air? How bad is it going to get before people are as horrified at that, as they are at the Jewish Holocaust? I. was. so. angry. 

Birkenau

Then I did it. I despaired. I believed that there was no hope left for us. 

But Professor Cassidy had warned us of this. He said, "Before you give in to that despair, make the choice to get back on the bus and go experience Divine Mercy." So I got back on the bus with the other somewhat stunned students and we headed to Krakow. I felt like I could finally breathe. Divine Mercy is one of the most beautiful undeserved gifts we can ever receive.  

   
I love this image of St. Faustina's vision because it reveals something that the normal Divine Mercy image doesn't really show. 

Those rays are shooting out of His heart to flood over us. 

In her diary, St. Faustina wrote these words that she heard from Christ, "There is no misery that could be a match for My mercy, neither will misery exhaust it, because as it is being granted-it increases. The soul that trusts in My mercy is most fortunate, because I  myself take care of it.” (1273)

I hope that I can count myself as one of those blessed souls.  

24. The Divine Mercy chaplet isn't just helpful, it is necessary. 

This basic prayer may take under ten minutes, but it is a desperate plea for mercy and a pledge of trust. It is also a guaranteed conduit for mercy and graces. 

"Say unceasingly the Chaplet that I have taught you. Whoever will recite it, they will receive great mercy at the hour of death. Priests will recommend it to sinners as their last hope of salvation. Even if there were a sinner most hardened, if he were to recite this chaplet only once, he would receive grace from My infinite mercy." (Diary, 687)