Now so often we talk about blessings, and we talk about being recipients of God’s blessings. But how often do we really stop and focus and think about what it actually means to be a blessing? Do we believe that we are blessings? And if we do believe that, then how do we show up from that place of belief? I think this is an area that a lot of us don’t really think about too often. We’re so busy in our lives, and it’s oftentimes hard to really think about. What does it mean to be a blessing? And I’m gonna get to that in a minute But I wanna start off actually talking about the Eucharist. And in part, this Eucharistic Revitas that we are in right now. I think we’re in still maybe kind of wrapping up the first year of this Eucharistic Revival as we know our United States Catholic bishops instituted this revival, this this period of 3 years where the church is especially in America, is really focusing on helping the faithful come to a greater understanding of Christ’s presence in the Eucharist and drawing closer to him in the Eucharist and realizing the extraordinary gift of the source and summit of our Catholic faith.

Which is that Jesus is truly present, body, blood, soul, and divinity in the mass, in the Eucharist. Every time we go to mass and receive him, He is there. And I’m so grateful. I’m so grateful that our bishops are like, gosh. Yes, this is important. We need to really be putting some emphasis on this. And I also feel really blessed to be living in this time where we as, you know, the members of the body of Christ get to experience this heuristic revival. We know that this revival has come about because of a Pew study a number of years ago. And and just, you know, looking at the church, we’ve seen this major decline in Catholics believing in the true presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The Pew study showed that some 70 percent of Catholics struggle with this teaching and have a lot of doubt and confusion around the teaching of the church in the Eucharist. And that really only about 30 percent of active Catholics really believe that Christ is present.

And, ultimately, I mean, this is, in a way, a bit of a crisis in the church in a sense that 1 of the most substantial and important teachings of our faith. Only 30 percent of Catholics really understand and believe it. And although I am grateful, I’m grateful for God’s grace, and I’m grateful for the gift of faith that I have that I can count myself in that 30 percent. Like, I can say, yes. I do know I do believe 100 percent the crisis present in the Eucharist, and I can say that with total confidence. I also believe that this Eucharistic Revival is an opportunity for those 30 percent of us to have a sense, a deeper conversion, deeper awareness. And I’m grateful for this opportunity for myself and for my fellow friends and family and and others who are part of the 30 percent, but maybe need to even — have our eyes be opened even more to the divine and great mystery of the Eucharist and how profound it is in our lives. Because I’ve spent some time lately reflecting on this. And part of it is that I wanna encourage you. I recently watched Father Mike Schmidt’s homily on core on the feast of Corpus Christi. And I want to be like, I am imploring you. If you have not already watched that, please go back.

And watch it. It is so good. It is so good. And to think that we live in a time and day where we have access at our fingertips the press of a button to be given such profound and amazing teachings from a priest like you know, father Mike or bishops like bishop Aaron or all the you know, all of these great resources that are at our fingertips. It just blows my mind. So I wanna encourage you to go watch that. But at the same time, I was thinking about Like, I was thinking about, yes, we do believe that Jesus is present at every single mass and that like, our minds should be blown. And I and I think it’s important for us from time to time and even to try to make it even more important almost, like, if we can every single day to spend some time reflecting on the extraordinary and powerful gift of the Eucharist, the extraordinary and powerful gift of god’s love for us, his profound Like, the, like, the fact that we even exist in the world, like, is so incredible, and we need to ponder these things. Otherwise, if we don’t take the time to ponder the extraordinary gift of God’s love, his mercy.

The fact that he created us brought us into existence, the fact that god sent his son 2000 years ago to live on this earth and to be a witness and a model for us, to live and to die for us so that we could have, you know, the gift of eternal life with him. And but, like, not only that. Like, it wasn’t just that. Like, it didn’t just, like, end there at his crucifixion and resurrection. But that god and his extraordinary and profound love for us said, like, I want to be with you for all of eternity. I loved you into existence. I brought you into this world. I sent my son to die for you. I’ve the gates of heaven have been open for you, but, like and I wanna spend eternity with you But that’s not enough. Like, I also want my divine life and my divine presence to be with you, like, so close to you, like, not just, like, in front of you or near you, but, like, physically in your body. Like, I love you that much, and I want my divine life in you that much that I’m gonna give you this profound gift of the Eucharist so that you don’t have to wait until you die and go to heaven to, like, be that close to me.

Like, I wanna be that close to you now that I’m literally dwelling in your body. Like, this is the kind of god that we have. And it’s so important for us to ponder this. I think about the great saints when you read their writings. 1 of the things that’s so profound about their writings is that they actually had time in their day to sit. And to pray and to be silent and to reflect on these mysteries. And so for so many of us, especially laity, and peep you know, in the church that aren’t in religious life, like, we actually have to carve out time to sit and to be quiet and to think and to ponder and to allow these mysteries of god to settle into the depths of our being. Because we have to like, first, like, if we’re even gonna get to a place where we’re capable of realizing that we’re a blessing. Like, we have to start with the 1 who is the blessing and created us and he created us to be a blessing. And he has given us his life, and he gives us himself to dwell within us because he wants us to be his hands and feet in this world. And this world is hard, and there’s a lot going on, and he needs us and he needs us to bring his light and his truth and his goodness and his blessings into this world.

And he gives us himself so that we can have his divine life in us as we go out and bring the blessings of him and the blessings that he’s given to us and our gifts and our talents into this world. And so I’m so incredibly grateful for this time of Eucharistic revival where the church is saying to us, you guys pay attention. Right now, we need to understand the mystery of the source in some of our faith. That, yes, at the last supper 2000 years ago, Christ gave himself his body and his blood And then the next day, he died for us. Like, he gave us himself, but he does that at every single mass. For, like, the only reason is love so that we would know his love, that we would feel his love, that we would experience his love and have his divine life within us. How amazing is that? And So I think about, like, yes. How amazing would it be in these 3 years of this Eucharistic revival if that 70 percent of Catholics that struggle with this or don’t believe or don’t understand or just don’t know, like, if that number were to decrease, like, that’s the hope and that’s the prayer. But, also, I think the hope and the prayer is that for the 30 percent of us that, like, already do know and do believe, like, What if we can be even more set on fire for our love of the Eucharist and more set on fire? And our belief because this is the thing. Like, if we really believe that Christ is present at every single mass and that we’re receiving him, we should be asking ourselves and thinking about and praying about and taking this in prayer to god.

Like, then how am I living this? What am I doing as a person, as a believer who believes that I’m receiving god’s divine life into me, and what am I doing with that and taking him out into this world. Like, if I really, really, truly believe and know that he’s present in every single mass, wouldn’t I want to invite everyone I know to come and experience that. Wouldn’t I be wanting to shout out from the rooftops like my gosh. You guys, like, the lord, he’s present here. Come. Do you need healing? Come. God is here. Like, do I believe that? And then it makes me go, wow. Maybe in this time, like, what do I need during this Eucharistic revival, this e Eucharistic renewal for my own heart to be broken open to the reality of the Eucharist.

What do I believe? And what do I do? What do I, you know, believe that God is capable of doing in this world and in my family, in my life, and in my community, and in and through me. I think that’s a question all of us should be pondering and praying about. And I think so often, like, It’s just so easy for us in our human state. Right? Like, we go to mass, and and we’re we have these human brains, and we can’t begin to comprehend god. Like, it’s so hard. I mean, god, the creator of the universe, is a star breathing, galaxy making god that just in an instant creates galaxies and light and these worlds and all the things. And creates earth and, you know, human life and existence all of it. Like, it’s just it’s just mind blowing, and we can’t comprehend god like we can’t. And yet, I often wonder to myself, like, do I make god too small? In my mind because sometimes it’s just too hard to imagine how big he is.

Like, we’re human beings, and so it’s so easy to instead of really thinking about us being made in god’s image and likeness, it’s so easy for us to make god in our image and likeness. It’s so easy for us to make god smaller so that we can maybe try to comprehend him. And when we do that, I think sometimes it makes our prayers smaller. It makes our hopes and our belief in our trust in God even smaller because we limit it to our own human understanding. And so I just again, I want us to break free of that a little bit if we can, even though it’s so completely hard. But I came across this poem a few months ago, and it really hit me hard. It’s a poem written by a woman named Rachel H. It showed up on my Facebook feed. And it just, like, hit me. It convicted me. And I’m gonna read it to you real quick. It’s pretty short, but this is it. I think I’m praying to a god who doesn’t exist. By this, I mean, I am praying to a god who does only logical things, proportionate things, things within the realm of human capability. I admit My prayers have become pocket sized even though our god can carry the whole world in his back pocket.

I need to pray for miracles, like a farmer who prays for rainfall, each day looking upwards to ask for transformation in his land. I need to ask for restoration in unfathomable amounts, something like a generation turning to Jesus, something like a war torn country knowing peace, something like planes of destruction being made new. There is audacity to these prayers. Yes. But wouldn’t it be even more audacious to pray asking god to move a blade of grass when he has told us that he has the power to move mountains. And so I wanna talk for a moment about this, like, concept of praying even with a sense of audacity. Do we pray thinking that god is this extraordinary god of the universe that loves us so much that gave us his only son that gives us the Eucharist. It gives us himself in these sacraments that pours out his mercy on in in fathomable ways? Like, do we really believe in a god like that? And if so, Do our prayers reflect that? And do our prayers, like, indicate that we believe that God is capable of moving blades of grass and moving mountains and doing incredible things.

On this day, as I’m recording this podcast episode, the gospel reading this morning was about a leper who came to Jesus, and he said to him, Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean. And Jesus stretched out his hands, touched him, and said, I will do it. Being made clean. And so I think about, like, the audacity of this leopard. So I come to Jesus and say to him, Lord, If you will do it, like, please make me clean. And to pray with that type of desire And I think that this is where I’m feeling convicted lately is to to pray like that. And to pray trusting the god of the universe that loves us so intimately and so closely. Desires to do both the small little miracles in our lives and the big ones. And, of course, we don’t always know God’s plan. And, of course, he doesn’t answer all of our prayers in the way we anticipate that he could or should do it. But, nevertheless, I don’t wanna limit god to what I think he’s capable of doing. Like, I don’t wanna limit my prayers to thinking, well, I don’t know I don’t know if this is something I should be asking for. Like, I wanna pray with the trust that I’m gonna pour out and ask him for healing and for grace and for conversion and for the things that I believe that he’s capable of doing in my life and the lives of others that could be really big.

Why? Because he has given us himself and his divine life because he loves us. He wants us to be close to him. And I think that so often, god delights in kind of blowing us away. If we only limited God to doing the things that we’re also capable of doing, Well, then where does that give room for him to dazzle us or to really blow us away with his extraordinary and profound love. And I’m not talking about, like, the type of prayers that are like, hey, god. You know? Hey. I know you’re capable of helping me win the lottery. Like, That would be really nice. Can you help me win the lottery? I’m not talking about that, but I am talking about the things that I know that I sometimes struggle with with bringing to god, which is really believing that could he really help me with this struggle that I’m going through right now? Maybe an addiction, maybe it’s a weakness, Maybe it’s just these areas in our lives that we that we struggle with, whether it’s maybe from overeating, over drinking, struggling in our own motherhood, in our own location, and really, like, praying with this trust and this surrender that, god, I may not know how you’re gonna fix this. I do believe that you’re capable of it.

And I do believe that you’re gonna give me the grace that I need to get through this, and I trust in you and I need you because I can’t do it on my own. For the maybe it’s for somebody in our life that’s that really is in need of, like, a a physical healing or is going through a really hard time and just praying with with with more of an audacity like, god, I know that when all other things fail, like, you are the 1. And even though I don’t know how it’s all gonna play out. I just pray for your presence and your grace, and I know that in all things, you are working in such big ways in all of this. And I don’t have to figure it out. I don’t have to, like, have all the answers, and I don’t have to figure it out how to do it myself. But I can sit here in this place trusting in you. And, also, like, when it comes to praying big, like, how often do we pray that god could do big things in and through us for others So often, I know that that is a prayer that I keep pretty small as well because I’m aware I’m, like, so aware of my own limitations that I just can’t really fathom how God could do really that many great things in and through me because of my limitations. But then that’s just relying on ourselves. And just saying, yeah. I’m weak. I’m small. I make mistakes.

I’m not holy enough. Like, I know so often I think about like, I’ll read the same like, the stories of the saints, and I’ll think to myself, oh, yeah. God used Saint Tres or Saint Catherine of Sienna or Padre Pio because they were just so good and they were so holy. And he clearly can’t use me in those ways because I’m so flawed or I’m so lacking in so many areas or I am not holy enough and or I’m not good enough. All of those things. Like, I will limit what god might be capable of doing in and through me because I make it about me versus really focusing it on him. Because if I really believe that Jesus Christ comes into me in his presence, his body, blood, soul, and divinity enters into me every time I go to mass, then I have to believe that the living god that dwells within me is capable of shining in and through me and using me as his instrument despite my limitations, despite my weaknesses.

And that he’s capable of doing great things in and through me because of him, not because of me. And 1 of this is something that we could embrace more even in a way almost like a mindset. Now when you listen to made for greatness, you hear us talking a lot about mindset. And really, like, all that mindset is is it’s like a way of thinking about things, a way of looking at things. If you look at the definition for the word mindset, it simply means a habitual mental attitude that determines how we respond to situations and to people. And so my question is, sometimes I’d have to look and say, what is my mindset about God and what he’s capable of doing in and through me and in my life. Is it a limiting mindset? Is there scarcity around that? And if there is, maybe do I need to shift it? Does there need to be a mindset shift? Because what if I, in a way, am limiting God Because of my own limitations, instead of opening up the possibility that God is capable of doing great things in all of us despite our weaknesses and despite our limitations.

And truly, when we look at the lives of the saints, what we really see in the lives of, like, people throughout all of the Old Testament, the New Testament scripture, is we see that god oftentimes used the least likely people to accomplish his greatest tasks. He used the people that had limitations and weaknesses and flaws and addictions and struggles and all of it. Why? Maybe because he could shine all the more in and through them. Maybe it was so that people could say, well, yeah, like, that person on their own probably couldn’t do anything. But clearly, God must be at work in their life. Because look at what’s happening. And this, my sisters in Christ, this is where we get to us actually believing that we’re capable of being a blessing. And, like, this I really wanna talk about this mindset of believing that we are loved and held into existence by a god who loves us more than we can imagine, who’s crazy about us. It wants to be close to us even when we mess up, even when we fall short. And that he wants us to be a part of his plan in building his kingdom. Like, how crazy cool is that that we have a god that invites us in, and he was and he says he was like, I want you to be my body of Christ. Like, I want you to be my hands and feet. I want your gifts and talents to be used for my glory.

You, my precious daughter. You are my blessing in this world. What? What if we woke up actually believing that? How would that shift? You know, so often in the women I coach, and I’ve said this to myself, like, sometimes I’m afraid to ask god for big things, and and a lot of women I’ve talked to are who have told me the same. Like, yeah, my life is pretty good. And so it’s hard for me to pray for things in my life because I don’t wanna be a burden. Right? Like, I don’t wanna be a burden to God or, like, I’m sure God has bigger things that are more important, or there’s other people in the world that are suffering far greater than I am suffering, and therefore, I should just allow God to focus his attention and energy on them.

It’s crazy saying it out loud, and I hope that you’re kinda laughing as you hear me say this because look at how limiting that is. Like, we’re putting our limits. Like, we’re imagining if all these people were coming to us asking us for things, how it might feel like a burden? So we’re putting our human limitation and applying it and imagining the god is the same. Like, oh god. I don’t wanna burden you with this. I know you’ve got enough stuff to worry about. And god is like, no. No. I kinda, like, breathe galaxies into existence. Like, your little problem isn’t gonna be a burden to me. I’m pretty sure of that. But what’s even more important to me is that I just want you to bring that little thing to me because it tells me that you trust me with your heart. And that’s really what I want right now. That’s what I want to know is that you trust me with your heart. And so when we come to him with all of our things, the big things, the little things are not a burden. And that even that mindset of, like, thinking, oh, I don’t wanna burden god. I don’t wanna, you know, I don’t wanna take god’s attention away from other things. No. That is a limiting belief. That’s a limiting mindset.

We’re putting limits on God, and I’m sure he just kind of laughs at it. God wants us to ask great things of him. And he wants us to ask great things of him for us, but he also wants us to ask great things of him in our abilities to do great things for him. In him and through him. And with him, like, he wants us to know that on our own, yeah, on our own, we can’t do a whole lot. But with him, Oh my gosh. The sky’s the limit. And 1 of my favorite saints that reveals this to me is, like, Saint Catherine of Sienna. I love her. So much. She’s a doctor of the church. She is this profound woman who did extraordinary miracles. But the thing that I think I love about her is that she just was this pretty simple, meek, like, homely young woman, like, in the eyes of the world, she was just so, like, nothing in the eyes of the world. Just this homely young girl, and she couldn’t even, like, read or write. But she loves god, and she knew how big he was and how massive he was and also how massive his love was for her. And she trusted in him, and she believed that he could do great things in and through her. And she allowed him to do that. And I can only imagine how much god delighted in her openness and receptivity to his grace.

I love the saints because when you read the saints in their prayers, they were a dashes. Like, they prayed for really big things. They prayed for really big miracles. And they trust it. I love Saint Therese of Lisieux because even though she’s the saint of the little way, like, she you know, was small, and she believed in doing small things with great love. But she also believed that she was gonna become a saint. Like, she wanted to be a saint. She trusted, like, god. She’s like, god’s gonna make me a saint. I know that. I’m like his little precious little girl sitting on his lap. He’s just gonna pick me up, and he’s gonna take me to heaven. I’m gonna be a great saint. Like, there’s audacity to that. She believed so much that she was gonna be a saint that when they cut her hair, she hadn’t put it in a bag because she knew that someday they would be used as relics. What if we live with that kind of audacious trust that God was gonna make us great saints someday.

Not because of what we can do, but because he’s just gonna pick us up in his arms, and he’s gonna use us as his instruments, and we’re gonna trust in him. He’s gonna do all of it in and through us, and we just get to participate in his extraordinary plan. And when we start to think like this, when this becomes, like, our mindset our mindset shifts into believing that We’re not a burden. And that, like, that God cares about us, and that our prayers aren’t too big or too small, The god wants our hearts and that he wants to use us and that he has like, he created us. Therefore, he has a plan for us. He wants to be with us. For all of eternity. And he gives us himself in the Eucharist so that we, like, have him every moment physically in us as much as we possibly could come to him to receive him. And When we start to realize that, we start to think, gosh, well, maybe I can be his blessing in this world. And when we start to wake up in the morning thinking, I’m a blessing. I am God’s blessing, not in a way and it is hard.

This is 1 of the hardest things, I think, especially for women to say that out loud. Like, I’m a blessing. Does that sound prideful? Does that sound boastful? But I want you to imagine. I wanna invite you and to imagine what your life might look like. Even if we put that into a model that thought Like, I am a blessing. Like, owning that realization of that fact that the fact that I am here and living and breathing means that god is holding me in his existence. It’s an absolute miracle that I am here. And yet, like, I’m here because God likes, the only reason I’m here is because God wants me to be here, and he’s given me gifts and talents. They all come from him, and he’s giving me a heart to know and to love him. And he’s given me his sacraments and his grace, and it flows in and through me, and he’s inviting me to be this blessing in the world. And when I take that and realize that, like, when I wake up in the morning and think to myself, I am a blessing. Like, I’m blessed, and I am called to be a blessing.

It shifts things, and I’ve spent a lot of time the last few months thinking about this and practicing this thought. Like, I’ve practiced it and practiced it because for so many years in my life, I would wake up in the morning feeling like a burden, feeling like I’m taking up space, feeling like I don’t wanna bother people, and I don’t wanna ruffle any others. I don’t wanna make any mistakes. I have to be perfect in order to be worthy of God’s love. And I have to You know, I just I’ve I’ve felt so much in my life just like a burden. And when it switches over to, like, No. But I’m a blessing. I’m called to be a blessing and to recognize that I’m here for a reason and that my life has a purpose and that I’m called to share the blessings that god has given me with others, then all of a sudden it opens me up to being used as his instrument. And recognizing the ways in which God wants to use me. For some, I am a pretty strong introvert.

It’s hard for me to go to places where I’m, like, going into a public place and having to socialize and meet people that I don’t know. And yet now when I think to myself, when I’m about to go into a place where maybe I don’t know people or maybe I feel shy or a little bit insecure, my first thought is, you know, God is calling me. He’s inviting me to be a blessing. And how can I open myself up and realize that maybe there’s other people here in this room that maybe are also feeling a little insecure and a little you know, unsure? And what if I could be a blessing to them in their lives? What if I could come out of myself a little bit? And have a little courage and walk up to people and introduce myself and be friendly and joyful and maybe make somebody else comfortable eat it in my own discomfort. And I’m much more capable of doing that when I think that god is inviting me to be a blessing. In someone’s life. And I love thinking about that even throughout the day as I’m going about my task. It’s like, how can I be a blessing? How can I bless others? How can God work through me? How can I invite him in to do even miraculous things? And when my mindset is focused on that, it just opens up so many possibilities.

I find my limiting beliefs in what god is capable of doing in and through me opening up. And the moment I open up to that, the more open I am to being receptive — of being a conduit, an instrument truly of his grace and his light. And being used by him. It’s so easy for us to just sit and look at all of the ways that we lack and fall short and our and we just wallow in our own insecurities, man, it doesn’t make much space or room for us to really be used by god. But when we open ourselves up to, okay, lord. How do you wanna use me? How can I be a blessing? I know that I’m a blessing. It just opens up so many things. And then the more we focus on really stepping into that understanding of being a blessing, the more we start to see that in other people as well. We start to see the blessings of all the people that are around us and how God’s working in and through them and what their gifts and talents are, and how they’re here for a reason and a purpose to reveal God’s glory as well.

And it does something that is, I think, quite profound. And what it also does is it brings his reality of his divine presence that we receive at the Eucharist into this world in an even greater and more profound way. We have to remember that at every single mass, like, the greatest miracle that we could ever experience happens at every single mass. And I tell young people this. I’ll tell teenagers because they know, teenagers will come to me, and they’ll say, missus Horn, I’ve never really had a miracle happen to me. And I asked them to just pause for a moment, and I let them know you may think that a miracle hasn’t happened to you. I understand that. But just because maybe you haven’t noticed 1 or realized 1 doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened. The miracles aren’t happening all around you all the time because they are.

And we know that at every single mass, like, the greatest miracle that we could ever experience is happening, that heaven is coming crashing into earth, and god is becoming truly present right in front of us. If only our eyes could see this miracle, if only our eyes could see the grace and the communion of saints and the angels and the glory, and the holy spirit moving amongst all of us. And the holy spirit enters into us as if we’re receiving Jesus’ body and blood, like, if only we could see, we would just like, our minds would be blown away. But just like, at the wedding feast of Cana, All of the people at the wedding feast of Cana, were there when a miracle was happening. They just most of them other than the servants and Mary, like, they just weren’t aware of it. It didn’t make the miracle any less real. The miracle really happened. Jesus was performing his first public miracle even in their midst. They just weren’t aware of it, but they still got to partake of it. They still gotta drink the best wine you could imagine as a result of a miracle that they weren’t even aware was happening. And this is what happens to us so often at every single mass.

We are participating and experiencing an entering into this profound miracle. And then God makes himself so humble into this little host and into this wine so that we can receive him. And then we are sent out of the church on a mission. Like, we are sent out on a mission to bring him to everyone else, to bring him and the reality of this miracle and the reality of his presence into the world. And that in of itself is another miracle that now is happening in and through you and I. At every single mass. We are a blessing when we leave that church and head out with him into this world. And, oh my goodness, if only in this time of Eucharist renewal and revival could he even start to comprehend that a little bit, how might this world change? How might this world be transformed? This is the hope. This is the prayer. And I just want to wrap this up with this understanding that we his beautiful beloved daughters are like, we are his blessings.

Let that be our new mindset. I promise you, if you practice this, like, I am a blessing. Like, this is my identity as his beloved daughter. It will show up in how you feel. Like, because when we think that, when we think, I’m God’s blessing in this world. Like, it makes me feel Like, I’m part of his team. It makes me feel like I’m so loved by him. It makes me feel valued and worthy and good and hopeful and excited to do his work. And when I feel those emotions, I show up differently. I show up differently with my family and my friends. I show up differently with strangers and people. I show up differently with the people I administer to and with. It’s so profound. And if we think that throughout the day and even before we go to bed at night, just remind ourselves, yes. I’m not a burden. I’m not insignificant. I’m a blessing, and god loves me, and he’s using me. And so my sisters in crisis, brings us back to this reality that we always share on this podcast. We’re not made for comfort. We’re made for greatness. And, god, — has been and is gonna continue to do great things in and through us because we are his blessings.

And I hope you have an amazing day. God bless.