Joseph: He Trusted and He Surrendered

“Go to Joseph with extreme confidence, because I do not remember having asked anything from St. Joseph, without having obtained it readily.” St. Padre Pio

I had never really paid much attention to Joseph. After all, he doesn’t say a single word in the Bible. He is one of those silent characters, like Chewbacca in Star Wars, that doesn’t say much but once you get to know him, you can’t help but love him. 

I began to pay more attention to Joseph during a silent retreat more than 10 years ago. Father Nelson Fernández, one of the spiritual directors guiding the retreat, shared a story about a group of nuns that were trying to raise funds to buy the property where they had their convent, otherwise they were going to lose it. Someone from the town brought them a statue of St. Joseph, and told them that even though he didn’t have any money to give them, he was giving them the statue because maybe it would help them to buy the property. Since St. Joseph is known as the patron saint of house sellers, maybe he can help buyers too. The sisters were not sure what to do with the statue, which was quite large. They decided to just place it in their front lawn, and within the week, they had all the money to buy the property thanks to the generosity of an anonymous benefactor. Father Nelson told us that when we are having issues with our family, our home, or anything else that it seems like God is not answering, to take it to St. Joseph. 

At that point, I began to read more about St. Joseph. I learned that he is the patron Saint of the Universal Church. This is a very important job, especially now that our church is being attacked. Have you heard of the schism of the Church that is taking place in Germany? You will not hear about this in regular news, of course, but what is un­fold­ing in Ger­many is akin to the 16th-cen­tury Lutheran Ref­ormation. Therefore, we must turn to St. Joseph and ask him to protect our Church. 

St. Joseph is also the patron saint of unborn children, fathers, workers, travelers, immigrants, and a happy death. Why a happy death? He died in the hands of Jesus and Mary. What can be better than that? I hope that when my day comes, Jesus and Mary are by my side. I must pray to St. Joseph to grant me this wish. 

St. Joseph was also a dreamer. I love this about him because I’m a dreamer too. Dreams were very important in St. Joseph’s life. He heard God’s voice in his dreams. And he trusted the message. He wanted to separate from Mary when he learned that she was pregnant, but he heard God’s voice in his dream, he trusted and he surrendered. When he was ready to return home from Bethlehem, he heard God’s voice telling him to go instead to Egypt, and once again, he trusted and he surrendered. 

Joseph teaches us to trust and surrender to God’s will. Whether his surrender took him to a Bethlehem stable or to Egypt for an undetermined length of time, he was ready to do God’s will because he trusted. 

Now, I trust that Joseph will hear me, and take my prayers to God. So I pray to St. Joseph for his intercession, and I surrender, just like he did. Even St. Padre Pio reminds us, “Go to Joseph with extreme confidence, because I do not remember having asked anything from St. Joseph, without having obtained it readily.”

Copyright © 2023 Christy Romero. All rights reserved.

Surrender to the Holy Spirit

“There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit.” 1 Cor 12:4

I have been invited multiple times to a “Life in the Spirit” retreat. If I’m honest with myself, I have been afraid to attend. I have heard the stories of people talking in tongues and people falling down. If you invite me to a silent retreat, I’m all in. But a retreat where I may fall down? Not for me.

But God knows what we need better than we know ourselves, so He sent the Holy Spirit to my house. I guess He figured that if I didn’t want to go to the mountain, He had to send the mountain to me.

Last night, I hosted a rosary at my home. I invited my Belen Emmaus sisters, and I also invited Sheila. I met Sheila by phone last December. Sheila had just finished writing her first book, and I was asked by a mutual friend if I could guide her with the next steps to take. I did not think I was the right person to guide her since I had sent my book to three publishers without success, but I decided to share with Sheila all the research that I had done regarding book publishing.

Fast forward three months, and last night I finally met Sheila in person. I realized that instead of God sending her to me so I could help her, God sent her to me so she could help me. First, her book, “One Soul: Awaken to His Love,” has already been published, and Sheila has decided to help me get my book published. But whether that happens or not, after last night, I know that the main reason God sent her to me is so she can help me get closer to the Holy Spirit. 

Sheila shared with us how terrified she felt the first time that she attended a meeting where people were praising, worshipping and speaking in tongues. She wanted to leave as soon as possible. But little by little, she was drawn in. And now, she is part of the team that puts together the “Life in the Spirit” retreats. 

In the times of Jesus, it was very common to speak in tongues. St. Paul talks about this in his letter to the Corinthians: “For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to human beings but to God” (1 Cor 14:2). He explains that “there are different kinds of spiritual gifts… To one is given through the Spirit varieties of tongues; to another interpretation of tongues” (1 Cor 12:4, 8, 10).  Jesus foretold of speaking in tongues: “These signs will accompany those who believe… they will speak new languages” (Mark 16:17). When the Holy Spirit was poured out on the apostles on the day of Pentecost, “they began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim” (Acts 2:4).

The gift of tongues is just one of many gifts of the Holy Spirit. St. Paul mentions nine: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, mighty deeds, prophecy, discernment of spirits, varieties of tongues, and interpretation of tongues (1 Cor 12:8-10). Sheila explained to us that we all have the Spirit within us, but like a bottle of champagne, we need to pop the cork for the Spirit to overflow and explode. We need to wake up the Spirit that has been dormant within us in order to discover which spiritual gift we have within us.

God certainly works in mysterious ways, and leads us in paths that are much better and unexpected than the ones we planned. He is definitely asking me to surrender to the Holy Spirit. It’s time to push my fears aside, and say out-loud: “Come Holy Spirit.”

Copyright © 2023 Christy Romero. All rights reserved.

Who do you trust?

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in Me.” John 14:1

When I was a child, the people I trusted most were my parents. But as much as I trusted them, I still felt scared when they left me. I always feared that they would not come back. I remember one time that we went to the store right before Christmas. We were living in Madrid at the time so I must have been 8 or 9 years old. The store had a childcare center in the basement, where they would show cartoons. They left me there while they went to do their shopping. I was not happy. I didn’t enjoy the cartoons at all. I just kept looking towards the door, waiting for them to return. After what seemed like an eternity, they came back. I allowed my fear to place a doubt on my trust in them.

Many times we try to place our trust in people or in the things of the world, thinking that the world will provide us with the happiness that we are seeking. We think that if we buy the latest car or the biggest house we are going to be happy. We place our trust in material things, and those things will never make us happy. We think that if we travel to the most exotic places in the world we will be ecstatic. But then we realize that as pretty as that destination was, it didn’t fill us with the joy that we were expecting. We trusted the marketing that said that we were going to have the most amazing vacation, only to realize that the joy was fleeting. We think that if we have a lot of money, we are going to be happy, but money can’t buy happiness. We should not trust money to make us happy. A lot of people place so much emphasis on making money that if something goes wrong, they are completely devastated. In extreme cases, it has even led to people ending their lives because they had turned money into their god, and once they lost it, they did not have a reason to keep on living. 

If we place our trust in the world, we are going to come up empty. The only One that I know I can trust without having second thoughts is God. He will never let me down. Even when He takes His sweet time to answer my prayers, He has my best interest at heart. If He doesn’t answer me right away is because He knows that the timing is not right. But I can trust that He hears me, and He is working on granting my petition, as long as it’s good for me. 

The only way we can be truly happy is if we place God at the center of our lives. If He is in charge of everything that we do, then we will not need to buy things or travel or have a lot of money in order to be happy. We will find happiness in the little things, because our joy will come from God.

If we place our trust in other humans, even if they are our parents or other family members, they may let us down even if they don’t do it on purpose. We humans are imperfect creatures, so we cannot be trusted unconditionally. We all have a hole within our hearts that cannot be filled by humans nor the things of this world. The only One that fits inside that hole is God. Until we realize this, we are always going to feel empty. We need to place our trust in God because He is the only One that can make us feel whole again.

My parents would have never abandoned me, but my fear became more powerful than my trust. The same thing can happen with God. We want to trust Him, but the fear that He may not answer our prayers can turn into an obstacle to trust Him unconditionally. Let’s set aside our fears, and listen to Jesus: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in Me.” John 14:1

Copyright © 2023 Christy Romero. All rights reserved.

Don’t Surrender Just Yet

 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” Matthew 7:7-8

On my last blog post, I wrote about praying for something just once, and then just surrendering it to God and trusting Him. I have tried to do this, I really have, but I have found it very difficult not to keep asking Him and nagging Him. As my friend Lourdes told me: “I repeat it and I repeat it… to make sure He understands.”

Today’s gospel reading gave me hope that I don’t need to pray it just once and then surrender. Bishop Robert Barron explains it perfectly in his daily gospel reflection: “Today’s Gospel urges us to persist in prayer. The Lord wants us to ask with persistence, even stubbornness. We must not think of God as becoming exasperated by our prayer of petition, but the clear implication is that we will get what we want through persistence: ‘Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.’"

I am so happy that God has just given me permission to be stubborn and to continue nagging Him. “St. Augustine said that God doesn’t always give us immediately what we ask for, and in fact, he compels us to ask again and again.” Thank You God. Here I am at four in the morning asking You again and again. 

“The Lord wants to stretch us, expanding our desire so as to receive the gift He desires to give us. If we got everything we wanted, right away and without effort, we wouldn’t appreciate what we’ve received.” My prayer is a three part prayer. And last night God gave me a glimpse that He is working on the first part of my request. However, He doesn’t want me to surrender just yet. 

I will not surrender, Lord. I will persist in my prayer. I will continue to nag you to the point of stubbornness. Now that You have sent me the clear message that You are not becoming exasperated by my prayer of petition, I will continue to pray. And yes, I will trust You. I know that You are working on my request. 

So if just like me you are in a situation of desperation, keep on praying with persistence, even stubbornness. As Bishop Barron concludes, “If the gift doesn’t come right away, don’t despair; rather, feel your very soul expanding in anticipation.”

Copyright © 2023 Christy Romero. All rights reserved.

Pray it Once and then just Trust

“Pray, hope, and don’t worry. Worry is useless. God is merciful and will hear your prayers.” Saint Padre Pio

I have a special prayer request that has gone unanswered for many years. I pray for it every single day, and yet, it seems that God has gone deaf. I’m not praying for anything out of this world. It’s not even a prayer for myself. It’s an intercessory prayer for someone else. And yet, God is totally ignoring me.

I recently read that when we want something from God, to pray for it just once and then just trust Him. In this book, the person was praying to find a husband. Her friend told her to write down everything that she was looking for in a husband, to offer her request up to God just one time, and then to leave it in His hands. I thought that it would take a huge amount of trust for me to be able to do that. Pray it once and then just trust? The nagger within me has been having a very hard time reconciling with that. I feel that unless I nag God every day, He’s going to forget about what I’m asking.

This is dumb, of course. God doesn’t forget anything. I know that if He has not answered me is because the person I’m praying for is not ready to receive what I’m asking. God needs to get the soil ready first so that the weeds of the world won’t choke the seeds that He needs to plant. Honestly, I think the seeds have already been planted, but the weeds have taken over. I believe God is working on removing them, but He’s taking so long that I’m beginning to grow a bit desperate. Nagging Him has not helped, so maybe if I leave Him alone, He will be able to work a bit faster. 

In the book that I read, the lady ends up finding the husband that she was praying for. She prayed, she trusted, and God came through for her. I have to trust that He will also come through for me, no matter how long it will take. But should I stop praying all together? I think I’ll pray for it one more time, and then, I’ll just trust that He won’t forget.

Copyright © 2023 Christy Romero. All rights reserved.

Surrender the Fear

 “Dare to do something courageous and step out onto that water.” Roma Downey in “Box of Butterflies”

I had never heard the name Harrison Butker until this past Sunday. In case you are sports illiterate like me, Butker is the Kansas City Chiefs' kicker who kicked the winning field goal during the Super Bowl. I probably would have forgotten him already, but his name keeps popping up on my phone. The reason is not because of his victory kick, but because of his faith. It turns out that the 27-year-old kicker is very outspoken about his Catholic faith. He is not afraid. When he was interviewed before the game, he said: “I always pray for God’s will to be done, so whether that’s a make or a miss, if I’m doing my absolute best to maximize the talents that He gave me, if it doesn’t go in I’m gonna keep the process and keep going as much as I can until I’m not kicking footballs anymore. ‘Jesus, I trust in You’ is a great prayer.” At the end of the game, he gave “all glory to God.”

It warms my heart to see young people, especially those that are public figures, speaking boldly about their faith. They are not afraid to talk about God and glorify Him in public. The Chiefs’ quarterback, 27-year-old Patrick Mahoney, is also outspoken about his faith. In an interview during a Super Bowl news conference, he said: “My Christian faith plays a role in everything that I do. I always ask God to lead me in the right direction and let me be who I am for His Name… We’ll be on a huge stage in the Super Bowl… and I want to make sure I’m glorifying Him while I do it.”

On the other side of the field, the other quarterback was also not shy about speaking up about his faith. Jalen Hurts, the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback who is only 24, has repeatedly credited God with keeping him strong during difficult moments in his career. “You have to put God at the center of everything that you do,” he told CBS Sports. “In all the things that we experience in life —good, bad or indifferent— you have to keep God in the center.” He has the phrase “Be who God called you to be” displayed at the top of his Twitter profile.

It is inspiring to see all these young athletes give witness to their faith on national television without fear. We all could learn a lot from them. I have been doing a challenge on social media during this month of February. I asked all my friends to boast in the Lord. I have been tagging five friends per day asking them to post about God for five consecutive days, and in turn for them to tag five of their friends, asking them to do the same. As of today, I have tagged a total of 85 people, and to my surprise, only two have accepted the challenge. Most of the people that I tagged are strong in their faith, so it never dawned on me that they would be afraid to post about God on their social media pages. And yet, to my disappointment, they have not been courageous to do so. Many of my friends have not even allowed my post to show up on their pages. It may be that they have been busy with other things, or that they simply did not see my request. Whatever the reason, I know that if the challenge was to post about our children, grandchildren or spouses, we would do so in a heartbeat. But when it comes to post about our faith, we hesitate. We are afraid to be called “holy-holy” or to be labeled a religious fanatic.

If I have learned one thing this week from these young football players is that as hard as they trained to win the Vince Lombardi Trophy, they never lost sight of the race that will lead them to win the trophy that will last forever. While they ate healthy meals to prepare them for the Super Bowl, they continued to feed their souls with spiritual nourishment. These young men taught me that no matter what I do in life, I cannot be afraid to speak about my faith and give witness before others.  We must surrender the fear in order to win the race of life. And it starts with not being afraid to speak up about our faith.

Copyright © 2023 Christy Romero. All rights reserved.

Trusting God in Spite of…

 “Living by faith isn’t living with certainty. It’s trusting God in spite of unanswered questions and unresolved doubts.” Pastor Rick Warren in “Box of Butterflies”

I have been reading a book titled “Box of Butterflies” by Roma Downey. Roma used to play Monica in “Touched by an Angel,” one of my favorite shows in the late 90s. As much as I liked the show, I’m liking the book even more. It was recommended by my friend Marcia because she said that my motto for this year, surrender and trust, is “peppered throughout the entire book.” She’s right. 

In the book, Roma Downey shares her life with us. She has not had an easy life, but her trust in God has allowed her to surrender all to Him, especially in her most difficult moments. 

It’s easy to trust God when all is going well, but we have to trust God “in spite of unanswered” prayers. We have to trust God in spite of our difficulties. We have to trust God in spite of changed plans. We have to trust God in spite of our fears. We have to trust God in spite of our doubts. We have to trust God in spite of the mountains He places in our path. 

In addition to her own personal story, the book is full of quotes, poems and scriptures. One of my favorite quotes is “We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us” by Joseph Campbell. This is a great lesson for the planner in me to learn. I plan and plan and plan, and God just laughs and messes up all my plans. I’m learning to accept that He is the captain of my boat so I might as well let Him steer. 

One of the reasons why I’m loving this book so much is because it’s reinforcing what I knew deep in my heart but didn’t trust. When we surrender and allow God to be the captain, He will lead us through rough and uncharted waters, but what an amazing journey it will be. This is exactly what happened to Roma, an Irish girl who allowed God to steer her boat. It brought her to New York where she started her career on Broadway. This eventually led to “Touched by an Angel,” and later to producing “The Bible” series for the History channel in which she starred as the Virgin Mary. When we surrender our plans to God and trust Him, He will do amazing things in our lives in spite of all our fears and insecurities. 

Roma didn’t allow the world of Hollywood to deter her from her faith. She always kept her eyes on God, and even though she encountered many storms in her path, with God as the captain of her boat, she has had an amazing journey. Needless to say, I highly recommend the book. I still have about 100 pages more to read, and I’m savoring each one. 

In addition, just like Roma, I love butterflies, and they too remind me of God’s presence. He knows when I need them, and He sends them to me, even to my fifteenth floor balcony. One day, I was having a tough day. I sat on the balcony, closed my eyes and just prayed. When I opened my eyes, a subtle movement on the leg of the chair next to mine caught my eye. I looked closer and it was a huge brown butterfly. 

“What is she doing all the way up here?” I asked myself. I soon realized that it was God letting me know that He was in control of the situation. Three days later, the butterfly was still on the balcony. I had a feeling that I had to release her, just like I had surrendered my worry to God. She was hardly moving so I carefully placed her on a cardboard, walked to the banister, and dropped her. I looked down, and she was just falling. “Oh no, I killed her, she cannot fly,” I said aloud. And just a few feet from hitting the ground, she opened her wings and began to fly. She came up as high as my balcony. It was as if she came to thank me for reminding her that she could fly. She fluttered for a few seconds in front of me, and then she just flew away. I was so in awe, I just sat and thanked God for letting me know that I could trust Him because He was in control. 

I conclude with another quote that I loved from the book: “For there in the journey and stuck in the sting, the struggle… the struggle… is what gives you wings!” Karen Kingsbury. We don’t like to struggle, but just like the butterfly has to struggle to get out of the cocoon in order to get her wings, we have to struggle to gain ours. If we trust God in spite of the struggle, He will give us amazing wings and lead us to great destinations. And once in a while, we need to be reminded that we can fly. 

Copyright © 2023 Christy Romero. All rights reserved.