so it seems...

You scored as History/Anthropology/LiberalArts, You should strongly consider majoring (or minoring) in History, Anthropology, or related majors (e.g., African and African-American Studies, Chinese, Classics, Cultural Studies, Economics, English, French, Geography, German, Greek, Hebrew, International Studies, Philosophy, Sociology, Women's Studies, or other Liberal Arts majors).

It is possible that the best major for you is your 2nd, 3rd, or even 5th listed category, so be sure to consider ALL majors in your OTHER high scoring categories (below). You may score high in a category you didnt think you would--it is possible that a great major for you is something you once dismissed as not for you. The right major for you will be something 1) you love and enjoy and 2) are really great at it.

Consider adding a minor or double majoring to make yourself standout and to combine your interests. Please post your results in your myspace/blog/journal.

History/Anthropology/LiberalArts		88%
Visual&PerformingArts		81%
English/Journalism/Comm		81%
Religion/Theology		75%
French/Spanish/OtherLanguage		75%
Nursing/AthleticTraining/Health		50%
HR/BusinessManagement		44%
Physics/Engineering/Computer		44%
Biology/Chemistry/Geology		44%
PoliticalScience/Philosophy		44%
Education/Counseling		44%
Psychology/Sociology		31%
Accounting/Finance/Marketing		25%
Mathematics/Statistics		13%

WHAT MAJOR IS RIGHT FOR YOU?
created with QuizFarm.com

So it seems I got the right major...Mass Communications/Journalism with a minor in art... not that I am currently using it... ARRGHH! Anyone! let me use my skills and get paid for it!! arrghh!

stuff stuff

About the "extra emotional-physical effort" that was required of me...well, Once again He proved Himself to be the Greatest! In fact, what I thought would be taxing and exhausting ended up invigorating me!

Pentecost was this Sunday. I usually don't pray to the Holy Spirit... but this Pentecost has brought around new graces. He is the Consoler. Don't miss out on having a relationship with Him, He is Beauty, Light and Fire. Talk to Him today...

I was out of the country this weekend so I went to a church that I had never been at. Turns out the priest that celebrated is a "new" priest. It was his first mass in that church and he was also "new" as in extremelly young. And when I say "extremely young" I mean extremely young as in the youngest priest I've ever seen. He is probably between 25-28! (went to minor seminary probably at 14 the approved age for minor seminary in this country.)When he came in I was like "is that the priest?" and he was full of zeal, his voice clear and a great Spirit filled homily. Totally humble. Sometimes I read about horrible liturgical-abuse filled Novus Ordo masses...well, you just have to come down to this church to see a liturgically-correct, rightly incultured Novus Ordo mass. Awesome! So, it was a great Pentecost...

a beautiful thing he said during the homily: Every time we resist temptation, every time we chose good, every time we pray...that's the Holy Spirit! I hadn't realized He is so involved in my life. When I breathe he is sustaining me, I battle temptation every single moment and He is there sustaining my thoughts, being my Light in this darkness...Praise the Holy Spirit!!

strenght

To the Generous Reader:

I appreciate your generosity so much! but I think it will be best if the article we discussed was given to some religious order/church. I know the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal are in England and they are pretty orthodox. Also in the links to the right you will see a bunch of links to Visitation Monasteries (the ones founded by St. Francis). I would LOVE to have this article but the cost to send it where I live would be very high plus I could not assure it gets here in good shape. Thank you again for your generosity! God bless!

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Anywho. Its been a trying couple of days. I am exhausted in many ways but some extra-emotional/physical effort has been asked from me. I told Him that I didn't want to do it, that I was too tired...But today at work I received a Grace.

the reading for the Liturgy of the Hours says: "But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Cor 9-10 I am truly exhausted and feel I have not strenght to be patient and loving... but by His Grace I TRUST that HE WILL BE STRONG. I can't but He can!
I believe!

thanks and a sigh...

To the extremely generous reader who offered to share a piece of Catholic interest
with yours truly:

for some reason when I click on your name it doesn't let me see your profile or anything, so I don't think I have a way of contacting you except through the blog itself. Could you please send me a link to your blog so we can talk about this? thank you for your great generosity and God bless!

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sigh* today I am a little shaken. Just stuff. struggling... but Ok. Now that I am slowing down I am feeling the aftereffects of the earthquake that this last year was...

There is such an small amount of love in me...

Oh Holy Spirit. Fill the hearts of Thy faithful. Forgive me, cleanse me, wash me and fill me with your fruits and gifts. I am thirsty, a parched land withouth water. Temptations and evil assail me. Save me! I trust entirelly in you, and I let myself rest in You. Oh Sweet Consoler, my Advocate, the very Essence of Love, have mercy on me. Only You can transform me, only You can pour Love in me. I cannot Oh Master! You who flew over the waters at the beginning of time, Pour yourself in me. Conquer me.

My Spiritual Director agreed that I need more "God & I" time. He said those were good decisions. Lord, hold me. Console me. Guard me. I trust in You. I am safe in your arms...
I started by seeking chances of solitude and by going jack-rabbit watching in the vast empty lands around here. Those things always remind me that life is funny, awkward and vastly enjoyable.

being burned out in the desert

This is a personal rant. Beware. This last year has been one of the most trying and at the same time one of the most blessed. I have moved 12 times, I have been in 10 different cities, in 4 different countries, in 2 different continents. I had to do some family crisis management. In a week I went from being the youngest daughter to being the only provider with a job that pays less than $1500.

Now things are finally settling down...

but towards the middle of this craziness life became a battle. I mean, thanks to His Grace I've stayed faithful but prayer became so structured that I felt I was squizing Him into time slots. Spiritual/ emotional/ financial struggles of all sorts started falling on me. Satan saw I was tired and decided to attack...

But my Christ loves me and would not abandon me and has kept me going and now is leading me to green pastures and to quiet waters. The other day I saw a movie based on the life of St. Francis of Assisi. And I kept thinking, where did all my zeal go? what happened to all the love in my heart? and I usually don't pray to the Holy Spirit (I know, i know) but for some reason I started asking him to come. To transform me. Yesterday at work for some reason I had to take a time management online training... and one of the activities was to rate how satisfied you are with how the different areas of your life are going ...well... it turns out I am not happy with even one of them. And the conclusion... I am burned out.

I mean...duh! but it took the Holy Spirit's power to order everything so I would realize that I am burned out.

So there you go. I am Ali (now say "hello Ali") and I just found out I am burned out.

So its renewal time. Its time to go to green pastures and still waters. I'm going to drop the church groups I am involved in (how can I give what I do not have?), start swimming again, go back to painting and above all get some solitude, spend time alone with Him. I am always surrounded by people and I am in desperate need of JUST Him for a while.

Its break time. (but don't worry! I'm not stopping this blog!)
I am going to go talk with my spiritual director tomorrow, let's see if he has anything to add. I feel good about the decision to drop things and spend some time/money in myself... I don't think its selfish because I am doing it so I can love Him better.

And I am happy because my Shepherd is truly caring for me. Its great. He is taking me into his arms and telling me to slow down. To rest in his arms for a little while. To let Him do the walking.

I love you my beloved Shepherd. I am the luckiest lamb of all the world for having such a master.

trips, comments and one more jackrabbit

It turns out the course was cancelled because the professor was called by his Order to go somewhere else. *tear. They said that the classes will be available for the Fall.. but man! As a true daughter of this instant-gratification-generation I say "but I want it now!"... anywho.

Oh, and to you all who read this blog...cuz I know there is people reading it (yay for site meter) please comment! so I know if you hate it, love it or wassup. In that way I can improve this little blog. Plus, there is people from all over the world reading this little thing and I would love to say hi! and in some shameless advertising, don't forget to visit Catholic Parables my other blog. ok, enough of shameless advertising, ha!

If you are one of those people blessed with stupidly enormous amounts of money and you have a job in which you can take off whenever you want you should think about going in this Salesian Pilgrimage. (The people over there should pay me for doing all this advertising). Its going through the footsteps of Father Francis in France and Switzerland. I bet its going to be amazing, probably they will see the incorruptible heart of Father Francis over at Annecy!

But if you are one of those blessed mortals that live in Europe and have the joy of being a member of the European Union (no visa to travel woo hoo!) you have no excuse to not have visited these places, I've been in Europe, I know everything is really close (compared to stuff in the Americas) so you should go! As for me I might stop eating and live under a bridge for the next five years. Maybe then I can pay for a ticket ha!

And for the sake of randomness.... a jackrabbit:

God bless all the jackrabbits of the world.

p.s. I apologize for the stream of conciousness writing. I seem to be suffering of the effects of a sugar/caffeine withdrawal.

stuff, prayers and a Salesian Jesuit!

man... this just goes to prove that sometimes what I think its God's will really is not. Today my course at DeSales university was supposed to start but they sent me an e-mail saying that the course had to be canceled... probably because of lack of people signing up for it. They are sending back the check. Man. I am really disappointed. But oh well, God's will be done...

Please say a prayer for an special intention from yours truly. Something really sucky happened this weekend but hopefully it can be solved... thanks.

Now its time for a little Saint Trivia :) Who is the Jesuit most associated with St. Francis de Sales? A clue... without him we wouldn't know about the devotion to the Sacred Heart. give up?

St. Claude la Colombiere, S.J.

He was the spiritual director of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, the Visitation nun to which Jesus appeared to spread the devotion to the Sacred Heart. Aside from his wisdom in directing souls, he was sent to England during the most virulent anti-catholic period. He was imprisoned and suffered a "dry" martyrdom. Meaning that he suffered everything except death. He was expelled from England and sent back to France where he died of tuberculosis which was aggravated during the harsh treatment he received in imprisonment. Because of his ties with St. Margaret Mary, he is a "Salesian Jesuit" if you want to call him that. He loved the Love of Christ, represented in His Sacred Heart and wrote much including this amazing prayer:

My God, I believe most firmly that Thou watchest over all who hope in Thee, and that we can want for nothing when we rely upon Thee in all things; therefore I am resolved for the future to have no anxieties, and to cast all my cares upon Thee.

People may deprive me of worldly goods and of honors; sickness may take from me my strength and the means of serving Thee; I may even lose Thy grace by sin; but my trust shall never leave me. I will preserve it to the last moment of my life, and the powers of hell shall seek in vain to wrestle it from me.

Let others seek happiness in their wealth, in their talents; let them trust to the purity of their lives, the severity of their mortifications, to the number of their good works, the fervor of their prayers; as for me, O my God, in my very confidence lies all my hope. "For Thou, O Lord, singularly has settled me in hope." This confidence can never be in vain. "No one has hoped in the Lord and has been confounded."

I am assured, therefore, of my eternal happiness, for I firmly hope for it, and all my hope is in Thee. "In Thee, O Lord, I have hoped; let me never be confounded."
I know, alas! I know but too well that I am frail and changeable; I know the power of temptation against the strongest virtue. I have seen stars fall from heaven, and pillars of firmament totter; but these things alarm me not. While I hope in Thee I am sheltered from all misfortune, and I am sure that my trust shall endure, for I rely upon Thee to sustain this unfailing hope.

Finally, I know that my confidence cannot exceed Thy bounty, and that I shall never receive less than I have hoped for from Thee. Therefore I hope that Thou wilt sustain me against my evil inclinations; that Thou wilt protect me against the most furious assaults of the evil one, and that Thou wilt cause my weakness to triumph over my most powerful enemies. I hope that Thou wilt never cease to love me, and that I shall love Thee unceasingly. "In Thee, O Lord, have I hoped; let me never be confounded."