Voices to End Hunger Conference

It's Ash Wednesday, and many of us Catholics (especially lazy Catholics like me), are fasting for the first time since Good Friday last year, and are naturally feeling pretty hungry right now.  However, there exists in our world those who are always this hungry, and our call as Christians is to seek to ease that hunger.  One of the many ways we can do that is to attend the Voices to End Hunger Conference Banquet this March 3, 2012, at the Christian Theological Seminary.  If your heart hungers for more information, please email Jeanne Hidalgo at jhidalgo@marian.edu .  In the meanwhile, good luck with the Lenten fasting and penance!

Challenges for a Holy Lent: Penance and Preparation

As Catholics, we have the age old practice of honoring the season of Lent with actions of penance, such as denying ourselves of something that gives us pleasure, pledging to do something good, or kicking a bad habit.  If you're like most people and are still uncertain of what to give up for Lent, here's 20 practical, challenging ideas for preparing your soul for Holy Week. 

Don’t eat the last bite of your food

Park at the very back of the parking lot

Put a popcorn kernel in your shoe every day

Don’t use your apps

Get to know your neighbors

Pray the “Hail Mary” and do an ab crunch for every single word

Stop complaining and/or being negative

Give up texting and call whoever you need to talk to

Don’t use utensils

Give away 10 shirts, 2 pairs of pants, and a pair of shoes

When you wake up, jump out of bed, kiss the floor, and learn humility

Wear the same 4 outfits for all of lent

Everyday do 20 (or 100) pushups and offer it up for someone who’s sick

Leave a post-it with a positive message on it wherever you go

Cut out all screen-time (phone, TV, computer) after dinner

Use your weekends to babysit for free

Send a different person an affirmation email every day of Lent

Don’t straighten or curl your hair

Sit and stand up straight – don’t slouch!

Every day take a picture of something or someone you’re grateful for and hang the pictures in your room

Like many posts recently put on here, this list was stolen.  I found it on LifeTeen.com.

I challenge you:  Do something beyond what you'd normally do for Lent.  I mean seriously, you're giving up chocolate again?  Really original.  Christ was in the desert fasting for 40 days, you can do 40 days with something a little more spiritually exerting than a chocolate fast.  Just like an athlete improves to the degree they exercise their muscles, so it is with our soul.  Do you want to be holy?  Then challenge yourself this Lent.

Loneliness Sucks

This post is a guest post hijacked from the blog BadCatholic.  Originally authored by Marc Barnes. (If you happen to be said person, forgive me for hijacking your post.)

There is nothing, for instance, particularly undemocratic about kicking your butler downstairs. It may be wrong, but it is not unfraternal. – G.K Chesterton

There are two ways of being by yourself. One is to be alone – a fantastic and human desire – and the other is to be lonely.

Be the Change in Someone Else's Life

Watch this video (its about  10 minutes) and see how mere pocket change and generousity can change people's lives. 

In our lives, we are not always called to do extraordinary things.  Sometimes, we are called to do very ordinary things with extraordinary love.

Saints Who Served: Episode the Third, St. Zita

St. Zita was born into a poor but holy Christian family. Her older sister became a Cistercian nun and her uncle Graziano was a hermit whom the local people regarded as a saint. Zita herself always tried to do God's will obediently whenever it was pointed out to her by her mother. At the age of twelve Zita became a housekeeper in the house of a rich weaver in Lucca, Italy, eight miles from her home at Monte Sagrati.

Java for Justice THIS SAT the 28th featuring Marion student band Dreaming in Color

Local Marion band, Dreaming in Color, will be one of the featured performers during this Saturday, Jan. 28th, Java for Justice Event: A Night with Rebuilding the Wall.

The event will feature three local musicians, singer-songwriters and spoken word poets to include local Rtw neighborhood youth. We will also have food catered by one of our newest Rtw families and fair trade coffee will be on tap. The highlight of the eve, at 8pm, will celebrate our six construction crew members who passed national construction certification. Come celebrate with us!

Fletcher Place Arts & Books
642 Virginia Ave.
Indy, 46203

Inquiries to shelley@rebuildingthewall.org or 317-925-9789. Check out our Facebook event at Rebuilding the Wall's group page.

Welcome Back!

Its a New Year, a new semester, and a new day! Welcome back to Marian University!  This is your very friendly reminder of several things: 

1. STARR commences this Friday, January 13!  Come and join us and kick off the new semester the right way, with a few hours of service.
2. Invite your friends to come and check out STARR blog!  With the coming semester, we hope to expand our blog and make it a service based social connection for Marian students and all interested in the spirit of service.
3. Spread the word about STARR!  If you're like me and failed to come up with a resolution before Lady Gaga dropped the Times Square Ball, make your resolution to go to STARR as much as possible!

That is all!  Blessings and salutations.