From the Editor

By: Kierstin Richter, Editor

As we fall into fall, we enter a time of gloomier days and chillier mornings. The days get shorter, the air gets crisper and everything feels fresh and new. We trade in popsicles and poolsides for hot chocolate and pumpkins. We decorate our porches with skeletons, make casseroles passed down from generation to generation, bless the graves of our loved ones, and we do all of this because fall is a natural time for rebirth.

The first article in this issue focuses on a term you may or may not have heard of: Memento Mori, Latin for, “Remember you will die.” (Ooo. Spooky.) Death isn’t always about being in the ground. Death is also about dying to the vices that pull us away from Christ: dying from our ego, dying from the need to control, dying from seeking our identities in things that are only temporary. We die to ourselves to embrace change. Without change, there is no growth. And where there is no growth, there is sin. And sin is simply looking for the right things in the wrong places.

This month, we celebrate the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi. Saint Francis knew firsthand what it meant to embrace change. He left a life of wealth for a life of poverty. He lost his sight and accepted a life of blindness. He wasn’t worried. It didn’t define him, and it didn’t affect his love for everything and everyone. He shows us this life is temporary, and we should value every moment we’re given because it is truly a gift.

We take our days for granted and wave away today, gesturing vaguely to this dumpster fire of a year and say, “we can be happy when all of this is over.” But that’s not how we’re called to live as Christians. We aren’t even guaranteed the rest of this year. We tell ourselves we’re just waiting for this all to end until we can be truly content, whether that’s waiting for a vaccine, for the election to be over, the animosity of our Facebook feed to calm, etc. But instead of hiding away until the chaos has passed, as Catholics, we are called to embrace change in the chaos.

Waiting for “when things calm down” is seldom possible because there is always a new storm. But that’s exactly how God works. We don’t have faith to avoid the storms. Our faith is knowing God will bring us through them to change our hearts. But what makes Christianity so incredible is that it teaches us to heal in the disorder. We grow in the brokenness and imperfection.

It’s in this chaos where we change and transform. We grow in our faith when we find beauty in the darkness and grace in the pain. Everything has a purpose. We never stay the same. It’s in the death of ourselves we are reborn in Christ. It’s in the pain where we change and sanctify ourselves. And it’s when we sanctify ourselves that we sanctify society.