Today, we reflect on our relationship with our faith and prepare ourselves to celebrate Christ's resurrection on Easter. I reflect best by writing, and this Lent I've decided to start reflecting more on life throughout the year to continually remind myself of God's blessings.
Shayne and I decided to create "The Numinous Journey" as our platform for our lives as a reminder of the importance of our faith each day and how blessed we are for the experiences we have in this life. We chose this title because numinous can be defined as awe and wonder in the presence of an almighty and transcendent God, having a strong religious or spiritual quality, or surpassing comprehension or understanding. A journey can refer to our lives, our travels, or our hardships.
Somedays we will feature the new destinations we get to discover others it may be marriage lessons we learn, recipes, books, or movies we love, and cute pictures of our little men (aka our cats).
To commence the Lenten season, Shayne and I headed to St. Thomas Aquinas Church (Newman Center) after work for mass. Today was the first time since our wedding (over five months!) that we have been back to the Newman Center, and it made me think about how quickly time goes by. In those five months, we have started attending a new church, visited a new country, a new territory, and new cities, bought a new car, and spent a lot of time together and with our friends and families. We've also learned a lot about car buying, health insurance, winter electric bills, budgeting, and preparing for the future. It's been a fun and challenging adventure, but we've enjoyed taking it all on together.
Back to the pews // Although Shayne has attended Ash Wednesday masses with me before, today was special in that it was the first time he ever received the ashes. He was not sure if he wanted to go up with me or not, and he had decided on not, but once everyone in front of us was going, he leaned over and asked if he should, too, with a little bit of excitement in his eyes. I said yes, thanking God for this moment to include Shayne in my Catholic faith. Shayne is not Catholic, so understanding why I believe the things I do has been a constant discussion topic for the last six years. I have enjoyed watching his heart open to Catholicism bit by bit, and I am excited to see where his faith journey takes him - hopefully, to RCIA classes next fall :)
One of the reasons I fell in love with Shayne were his convictions in his beliefs. God was his rock, and a man of solid faith was exactly what I was looking for. Although we weren't the most regular church attendees in college, we've gotten back in the habit of going to church regularly as "real" adults. We enjoy debriefing on the readings and the homilies, and we remember to pray more before meals. We trade off bedtime prayers, and it's fun to see how we each pray so differently, but each with so much intention. God is so good, and as long as our faith is in Him, we know everything will turn out exactly as it's meant to.
We can't wait to see where our numinous journey takes us.
