I remember the first time I really listened to the gospel of Luke about the Road to Emmaus. I was at Mater Dolorosa, a retreat center in Sierra Madre, California for an evening of recollection during the Easter season. I thought it was amazing that the two men whom Jesus was walking with did not recognize him while Jesus was walking with them. It wasn’t until Jesus broke bread with them that they recognized that Jesus was with them all along.
We can be like those two men.
Sometimes in our lives we wonder if God is listening to us. We wonder if he knows our problems. We have doubts about whether he cares about us or if he’s helping us.
And, then later our eyes our opened and we realize that God was there all along.
Jesus shares our journey with us. Jesus walks beside us.
I think the reason that the two men did not realize that it was Jesus who joined alongside them to walk with them was because they were discouraged. Verse 16 states “but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him” and verse 17 says they “were looking downcast.”
I think Jesus always wants to draw closer to us and it is up to us to be open to Jesus. In the Emmaus passage in verse 15, it states “Jesus himself drew near and walked with them.”
Having someone come alongside us in our journey can make things easier for us. We can deal with the challenges of life more easily. We can talk alongside with those who are journeying with us. We can encourage each other to keep moving forward. We can empathize with each other. We can celebrate with each other and we can ease each other’s burdens. We can help each other be the best version of ourselves. Many times, we have more motivation when someone is journeying with us.
God has been with me in my journey to help Catholic single women. I believe that he has called me to serve Catholic single women since I have experienced being a Catholic single woman who was single longer that I thought I would be. I didn’t start dating the man who was to become my husband until I was in my later 30s.
I actually met my husband about 10 years before we became married at a Theology on Tap event. Somehow, our eyes “were prevented from recognizing” that we could be partners in life. Even though we went to Theology on Tap to meet people, it was not God’s timing for us to date.
We did again meet in 2007 at a National Catholic Singles Conference. We did talk to each other at the event, but again we didn’t connect.
It was not until 2009 where I saw Joe at a Catholic Thrive event that our eyes were open to the possibility of us dating each other. I had just about given up on ever getting married. I decided to be happy no matter what happened in my life. So, I decided to pursue dance lessons. At the Catholic Thrive event, I asked Joe if he would join me for a dance competition and he said, it was his “dream to do something like that.”
Even though we were looking for someone to be our life partner before 2009, we didn’t really connect with the idea of us becoming partners until years later. We both see that God was with us all along.
I now see that others may have a similar experience like us. Others may not connect with who will become their life partner for whatever reason when they first meet. I think I didn’t connect with the man who was to become my husband because I was preoccupied with other things such as library school, or not being confident enough, and being discouraged about whether I would find anyone to marry among other things. This discouragement is what “prevented me from recognizing” that I could date Joe.
Now, it is my desire to help guide Catholic single women in their journey to finding true love. I was in a long single journey and I am happily married for 9 years now.
I invite you to join me in my journey.
Today, I have started a journey for sharing my business with more people. The journey is actually a challenge. I’m doing a Challenge44 journey where I am committed to blogging 44 times. The first phase is to write consecutively for 30 days. The second phase is writing 10 pieces of content every 3 days and focusing more on the quality of the content. The third phase is writing 1 piece of content every 4 days. I learned about the challenge through Shane Melaugh’s Audience from Scratch course.
Writing for 30 days is a major challenge for me. I can be a procrastinator and a perfectionist. I don’t really like writing assignments when it’s about writing something that other people will read.
But, since I very deeply believe in my mission to help support Catholic single women in their journey to finding true love, I am committed to this challenge.
If you believe in my mission, I invite you to join me in my journey and read what I’ll share.
I am so glad that there are two others who are joining me in this Challenge44 journey. I am definitely more motivated to keep up with the challenge. We know it’s hard, but we know we are supporting each other. We all want to share our mission. We are sharing our experiences in our journey in life.
Here’s a picture of my husband and me.
This picture was on a Share the Journey mixer party I had many years ago when I started a kiosk business selling inspirational gifts. My business has now evolved to helping Catholic single women find true love.