"Let us always meet each other with a smile, for a smile is the beginning of love."

The title quote is from Mother Teresa, if you didn't already know. I pray that I could have anywhere near the beautiful, caring, and passionate faith life that she had.

I wish I could put into words how overwhelming God's love is. I want to be best friends with Christ. I want Mary to pull me in and tell me she's praying for me. Faith humbles me--at Mass yesterday Father Sternberg delivered one of the most beautiful homilies I've ever heard. I won't go into too much detail, but it was perfect. He said that if he could, he would kneel for the entire Mass because he wants to belittle himself as much as possible for God. That is exactly how I feel. I am at my happiest when I let everything out to God. When I make myself smaller, Christ becomes larger and he wraps his arms around me and opens me to the peace and love that he has been giving me all along. I feel like such a child in my faith. I am in love with Christ--he is all I see all the time, you guys. With everything I do, he is with me. With everything I do, I want to show his beautiful, passionate, undying love for us as his children.

I have been helping out a lot in the Special Education department at our school. I've been eating lunch and helping out at the gym class of a few of the students, and they are so beautiful. I can't even begin to express the gratitude I've felt to God for bringing them to me. They shine, all the time. With the beauty of God, whether they've been completely introduced to his presence or not. Many of their families lack in strong faiths, so they don't know much. Despite that fact, they show me his beauty more than anyone I've ever met. Every day, I am more and more assured that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I want to help these children, and hopefully even help them grow closer to God. I do realize that I am being selfish, though. I love working with them because it brings me closer to God--their smiles, their laughter, their joy-filled hugs--that's Christ working, you guys. That's my savior telling me that this is how people are meant to live. For some of these kids, their love is all they have to give--but what more do they need? They have an advantage over the rest of us--nothing gets in their way of showing their love (and, in turn, showing God's love for us).

I am so grateful that God has brought me to these kids. I am so grateful that even in school--which can often be a place where strong faith is looked down upon--I can have a few constant reminders of God's love and glory. Find that wherever you are, LITs (and, perhaps, Jenna and Renata and Bill, and whoever else may have stumbled upon this post). I promise, nothing else will matter. When you find God showing his love to you, the whole world will seem unimportant. All negative thoughts will fade away, and his love will be your mission.

I'm praying for you.
Taylor

IN ADDITION: I apologize that I always sound like a greeting card. I don't try to, but my posts always seem so corny and lame in comparison to Alanna's witty posts or Michelle's passionate posts. It sounds good in my head, and when I initially post things, I feel good about them... but when I read once more, I realize that it totally looks like I'm trying to be deep, when clearly I do not have the capacity to do that. Alanna says she enjoys it, but I think she's just being nice so that we can stay friends. Apparently, even though I clearly sound like an overused, unpopular wannabe motivational speaker, told me that "you're way less creepy, and I believe you, cause you're not getting paid." Which works for me, I suppose. So folks, sorry for being a post hog and I hope that you can forgive my lame diction and dried up phrasing. It's been real.