Hello all! As you may (or may not) have noticed, I took a small break from writing regularly on my site. The reason is because having finished scripture mediations for you for each of the Sundays in our three-year liturgical cycle, I was praying about how God wanted me to serve you in Him next, through this writing endeavor. 

Through much prayer, thought, and discernment, I feel most passionately about illuminating the dark in our culture with the light of faith regarding our identity as human persons made in the image and likeness of God. It’s much easier to judge and criticize our confused culture than to work at healing it. My hope is to contribute my mustard seed of knowledge and experience as a Catholic writer, speaker, and high school religion teacher, praying that the Lord may apply it as a healing balm in the minds and hearts of those who need it.

My heart breaks at the oceans of young people lost with no one guiding them or sheltering them through the strong and often stormy currents of competing assertions about who they are and what will make them happy. Christians rooted to the vine (cf. John 15) can see differently in important ways that cut through cultural limits or mistakes.  We would be far better served to investigate the Christian revelation rather than the cultural and political trends to plumb deep questions such as “What does it mean to be a human being?” and more specifically, “What does it mean to be a male or female human being?”, or “What is our origin and what is our end?” since “We have the freedom to pursue happiness, but what is happiness?”

To be a human person in the image and likeness of God, means to be male or female: “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gensis 1:27). Moreover, it means to live in a complementary relationship of life and love: “And God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.'” (Gensis 1:28). However, because of the destructive effects of original sin, the relationship between men and women has suffered tremendously and the image of God intended to be shone has been obscured. This has led to many deep wounds, some with millennia of history. At the same time, the Lord has sent Christ, Who “heals the broken hearted and binds up all their wounds” (Psalm 147:3). We do not have to remain in this darkness if we allow grace and the light of faith to heal our wounded experience and views. 

To that end, I need a favor from all of you 🙂 I’d like to write my thoughts about what I’m seeing and get your perspective. I’d like to write what I wish I could say to every young person about what will really make them happy and some of the flaws in secular “wisdom”. I’d like to write to every person who has suffered from the fallout of sin or of the cultural deformation that has misled them down wounding paths and left them disillusioned and questioning. I want to know your experience and your perspective too. After each post, I would deeply appreciate your point of view: What resonated with your experience? What did you find helpful or healing? What did you find thought provoking? Is there another dimension to the question we could explore? Do you see an inaccuracy in comparison with your observations? Was there something you think I overlooked that ought to be included or considered?

We live in an incredible time of opportunity for freedom and creativity. Let’s use it to cooperate with Christ in His work of restoring us in the image of God who is Love. Like seeing the warmth of a lighted window on a winter’s night, let’s offer the warmth of Christ’s light and the fullness of joy He died to give us (cf John 15:11).

You will be in my prayers, and please keep me in yours!

Angela

© 2024 Angela M Jendro

*Scriptural texts, unless otherwise noted, are taken from The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)