Knees Out November: Let's Clarify

It has been pointed out to me that there needs to be some clarification about Knees Out November. Knees out does not mean you have to show your knees, and on the flip side it does not mean you can't show your knees. Long skirt or short skirt it is up to your discretion. However a good rule of thumb is that when you are standing straight and your arms are relaxed at your side your skirt or dress should go passed your fingertips. One request from the men has also been please watch how tight your skirts are. If you are wearing a tight form-fitted skirt, it is basically like you are not wearing anything. Marilyn Monroe said, "Your clothes should be tight enough to show you are women, but loose enough to show you're a lady."

Wise words from our famous friend, however this is probably the only peace of fashion advice we should take from her. Loose flowing skirts are more fun to wear anyway! Twirl factor...enough said. Another tip is sitting "like a lady" I know it is a revolutionary idea, especially in this day and age, but if you are wearing a skirt or a dress please ladies for all the is good keep your knees together! Sitting criss cross applesauce is out, unless you are rocking a maxi!

My last point I want to make is for all you lovely ladies out there who don't own dresses or skirts, or who can't because of work or sports or something. We don't want to leave you out! The whole point of this project is to help you feel beautiful! So I challenge you to this! Wear a skirt once or twice a week, wake up early and do your hair, work out, or don't use your mirror! Do something that is going to make you feel beautiful because you ARE! I know I know for some of you I am just some random person so what does it really mean, but I can tell you that the people around you think you are beautiful inside and out. Because you are. So now go and put a smile on that face, take on the world! I believe in you, you should too!

This One's For the Girls

November is a beautiful month of turkey and stuffing, leaves falling, and men not shaving their beards. This year however we are doing something for us girls. Knees OUT November. I know silly name right, but let me tell you what it means. For all of November we will be wearing dresses and skirts! Why, you may ask? Because women in this day and age don't feel good about themselves and there is something about putting on a dress that makes you feel good about yourself!

No one explains it better then Notre Dame professor, Linda Przybyszewski. She teaches a class called a Nation of Slobs. This class basically teaches men and women the art of dressing, an art form that she thinks we have lost. Click Here to watch her explain!

So now that we know why, what are the rules?
1) Pajamas don't count
2) Working out does not count
3) You can wear tights or leggings under you dress or skirt (please stay warm!)
4) Wear skirts and dresses that are long enough to cover everything (Ladies you know what I am talking about!)
5) express your own style! Wearing dresses and dressing modestly does not mean we have to wear a potato sack everyday...I don't even think I own a potato sack. Learn to express yourself through what you are wearing!

So This is my challenge to all of you! Join me this month! Wear dresses and skirts and feel good about yourself!

From Russia With Love

It has been about a month since I have returned from Russia, and I think I've finally processed everything that happened. It was a wild ride that changed a lot about how I view the world. I had a lot of preconceived ideas about what Russia was.  I thought that the Russian language sounded similar to German, that Russia was all Siberia, that everything "cool" is Russia was in the West, and that everything there was super "manly." Absolutely none of these ideas are correct.

Russia is a beautiful country, where the women wear long dresses and use fans, where there are flower gardens around every corner, and where drinking tea could be an olympic sport. Russia has a sense of culture that we have lost in the United States.  Where we rush, rush, rush, people in Russia know how to relax. Each meal lasts an hour, and afternoon chi (What the Russian's call tea) is not to be skipped! I got the feeling that because they had a lack of beauty under communism they appreciate it more now. The most beautiful thing about Russia however, is the people.

I met one women who knew almost every kind of plant we walked by and taught us which ones we could eat, and which ones make really good tea! Another women, told us all about her conversion while working at the hospital, and made really good biscotti! Each person I met was so full of life and had such a joy about them, that I did not want to be anywhere else. I had the privilege to attend and speak at the Far East Young Adult Conference, in Khabarovsk. It was at this conference that I was able to make a lot of friends and really begin to experience Russia. I got to lead a bi-lingual small group bible study, where I got close with Merri. Merri is a college student at the University in Khabarovsk and could speak English about as much as I speak Russian...which is basically nothing. Yet over the course of the week we became really good friends.  We learned that friendship can grow anywhere even  when you don't know the language. 

Another great thing about Russia is the Russian Orthodox Church. I knew almost nothing about this church when I left for Russia, but their love of Icons and beautiful churches is incredible. Every church is full of icons and gold edging. It is simply beautiful with the candles and choirs. My favorite part however was learning about the similarities and differences between our two churches. For those of you who don't know the Russia Orthodox church has all of the same sacraments as the Roman Catholic Church, however they do not follow our Pope. At one time we tried to come back together, but things did not really work out. The Roman Catholic Church says it is ok for Catholics to receive communion in the Russian church and that people from the Russian Church can receive communion in  the Roman Church, however the Russian church prefers that neither happens. My favorite fun fact about the Russian Orthodox Church is that Anastasia is actually a Saint in their church. Her and her entire family were the first killed under communism. The entire family was Russian Orthodox, and after their family was killed the communists went after Russian and Roman priests, religious, and eventually the people. Anastasia and her family are upheld as martyrs for the faith.  I will never be able to watch the movie Anastasia in the same way. 

Well now that I have given you a quick overview of my travels in Russia, I will leave you with this. Russia is a beautiful country full of beautiful people and a rich culture. Russia has seen the worst of people but I pray that they now see the best of people. Please keep Russia in your prayers. 
From Russia With Love 

New York, New York

            It has been almost a month since Spring Break and I am still reveling at how blessed I was to go on this trip!  I was privileged to help lead a mission trip to New York City with FOCUS Missions. Myself and four other missionaries took six young women to work with three different religious orders in one incredible city.

          I was blessed to travel with an incredible young women from Wayne named Jaicee! I was so blessed to be able to share this trip with her!

Jaicee and I at the airport at 6AM ready to head to the East Coast. 

Once we got to New York, Jaicee and I braved the public transportation system. We jumped on a bus and then the subway.  We ended up getting on the correct train going the wrong direction and we knew that this trip was going to be an adventure. Eventually we made our way to the Sheen Center, named for Archbishop Fulton Sheen who was a bishop of New York and is on his way to becoming a Saint! The center was beautiful as it was designed as a center for creating Catholic culture specifically in the arts. Because of this there was an art gallery and a concert hall in the building.

This is the view from the roof of the Sheen Center. It was truly beautiful. 

          The first full day we were there we stumbled upon a beautiful church with a soup kitchen in need of help! Though it was not planned we ended up helping out and meeting lots of wonderful people!

Above is our entire group with a couple of men we met at the soup kitchen. 

We ended up helping out at this church several times through out the week as the theme of the week quickly became doing things completely unplanned.  The Holy Spirit was 100% guiding this trip and we quickly learned that we should just do what He asks!

Through out the week we were able to visit many incredible churches.  None was more incredible than the perpetual adoration church we found not too far from Central Park. It was a wonderful place to stop in and pray after a hard day's work. Possibly the most beautiful part was the relics that were there. My favorite was that of St. Anne. 

This beautiful statue of St. Anne and the child Mary were near St. Anne's relic. It was my favorite place in the church. 

As well as seeing churches we got to do a little bit of site-seeing. We were able to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island (from land), all 5 boroughs, and my personal favorite Central Park. Go figure the farm girl in me would love the one place in the city that is all about nature! We had the chance to take a long walk in the park, and even though there was still snow on the ground I loved every second of it! 

The lovely ladies I was with while exploring the park. 

(The very first picture in the entry is also from Central Park. It is the big lake that is at the center of the park.)

The trip however was much more then churches and site-seeing. It was a lot of work as well. We worked with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal,  Missionaries of Charity, and the Little Sisters of the Poor. It was very different work at each order, but it gave us a well rounded experience of service.  We worked with everyone from the homeless, to AIDS victims, to the elderly, and everyone in between! It was so beautiful to see the joy and the love that these people had for life! It was truly inspiring. 

Me and some of the girls helping decorate the nursing home we worked at for two days! 

Getting ready for St. Patty's day was fun, and it was a whole new experience decorating in a surgical mask! 

Though the trip is over, the lessons that we learned and the friendships that we made are not. I know that someday I will go back to the city. Until then I will be praying with everything that happened while I was there, and praying for all of the people I met! 

Until next time, 

Carpe Diem 

FOCUS Year Two!

I have been doing a terrible job of updating this blog this year. I am so sorry. Last semester was extremely busy and extremely awesome. We did so much. To catch ya'll up I am going to do a whirl wind tour of last semester via pictures. You ready? Because here we go...

First Let's Start by Introducing this years Team 

From Left to Right: Rachael, Alex, Ben and Me 

 We went on a lot of crazy adventures this past semester. We even went to Colorado and spent some time in the mountains (above) and went to a Wayne State Football Game (right). 

 We got to go to Vala's Pumpkin Patch for Halloween and it was a lot of fun.  Slides, Go-Karts, picking pumpkins...fall does not get better then this.

Right is a picture of us and some students at a Rugby match! Rugby is huge at Wayne and our team is really good.

We also got a chance to go boating down in Bellevue  (Upper left) and go on a beautiful retreat at the Broom Tree Retreat Center in South Dakota (Upper right) 

 We also got the chance to go to Vermillion South Dakota to meet and hear Chris Stefanick talk. He was a great speaker and got us super excited for the FOCUS National Seek Conference.

Every Wednesday Night is Country Night (below) 

And we love to get our dance on.

Above is me and two of my friends from when I was in College at Northwest Missouri State. We all got a chance to meet up at the National SEEK Conference.

We ended this year with an awesome Christmas Party. We made ginger bread houses, wore ugly sweaters, and celebrated in true Christmas Spirit. Now it is second semester and we are ready for the adventure to begin. 

Ave Maria

Greetings from Ave Maria, Florida! For those of you who don't know, I have been in Florida for the past 3 weeks for New Staff Training (NST). NST is a time for all the missionaries from all over the country to get together for a little over a month and learn as much as we can to take back to campus. So far we have learned about the Gospel of John, discernment of spirits, forming good habits, and so much more!

The first thing we do when we get to training, is get put into "colleges." each college has a saint they learn about (Mine is St. Mary Magdalene) as they live and work together. We spend time every week as a college growing in  virtue, learning about leading bible studies, working with others, and all sorts of things for campus! We also have a lot of fun!

This is my college this year after we got second place in the Women's volleyball tournament! 

The next big thing we do is meet your team! All the first years get to find out their placements and the second year and above staff get to plan a fun night of team bonding. So here I am to announce the NEW WAYNE STATE TEAM!! 

From Left to Right: Ben, Molly, Me! 

Alex my team director from last year will also be on our team, but sadly he was unable to be there for placements. Ah the challenges of having lots of awesome kids! Ben's wife Molly will also be joining us in Wayne, though she is not a missionary.  

Training has been a lot of hard work, but I am even more pumped for next year! I can't wait to share with all of you all the adventures that have yet to happen. 

Remember I'm pulling for you, we're all in this together! 

Elizabeth 

End of the Semester

Hello Everyone! The Semester is officially over, all the students are done with finals, the RAs are checking everyone out of the dorms and I am about to head to Omaha for a few weeks! I am excited to announce that I will be back in Wayne next year, and we have an exciting year planned! As it is the end of the year I thought giving you all a funny video to watch would be good! So here is a video I made around Valentines Day! This is how we represent St. Valentine in Wayne America! 

Stay Classy World, Stay Classy 

Elizabeth 

Vocations Fair

Well folks there is officially less then 2 weeks left in the semester!! Can you believe it? I sure can't! This year has been blessed with so many graces and so many beautiful things that I can't even began to talk about them all, but I am going to talk about my grace from yesterday. Yesterday was Wayne States very first VOCATIONS FAIR!!! WOOT!! 

We have several different orders come. Men, women, even a table for marriage and so much more! It was a lot of work, but the grace was huge!

Please pray for all of our students as they set out on this adventure of discernment! 

Remember I'm Praying for Ya! We're all in this together! 

Elizabeth 

San Diego!

I feel as if this blog is turning into a travel blog, first Chicago, now San Diego. This is not what I intended this blog to be, but alas it is my life. 

So some of you might be wondering, what in the world was I doing in San Diego. I was there for the West Regional Offsite Gathering. In FOCUS we have split the country up into different regions.  The West region goes from Nebraska all the way to California. So naturally if all of the missionaries of the west region are going to get together, we are going to go to California. 

It was a great weekend filled with talks from Steve Pries, John Zimmer, and the chaplain from L.A. It was also good talking other missionaries, seeing how other campus' are going, and what they are doing. It was a refreshing weekend full of learning, fun, and of corse the beach. 

   

This is a picture of my team on the Beach. Sadly our team director was not able to join us! 

I am really excited to be back and to bring back everything that I learned. This trip got me even more excited for New Staff Training this summer which will once again be in Ave Maria, FL. 

Tune in next week when I talk about Holy Week and Easter! 

Have a Blessed last week of Lent! 

Elizabeth 

Chicago 2.0

"A city is a place where there is no need to wait for next week to get the answer to a question, to taste the food of any country, to find new voices to listen to and familiar ones to listen to again." - Margret Mead 

The City is most defiantly what we experienced while in Chicago, and after spending a whole week working we decided we needed some time to play.  Most of the students had never been to the big city before so to start we did all of the tourist activities, and when being a tourist in Chicago the best place to start is Navy Pier.

After Spending some time at the Pier we split into two groups. The first went to look and churches and the second...well we went shopping.  After that we all met up and went to the Bean, as no trip to Chicago is complete with out Bean Pictures.

While we were in Chicago we also got to experience Chicago Style Pizza, which I say is a must! The pizzeria we went to was called Uno's, and if you are ever in Chicago I highly recommend it!    

Well that's all for now! Happy Lent! I'm Praying for you, we're all in this together! 

The Windy City

Last Week was spring break, and what a great week it was! We spent the week with the Missionaries of Charity in Chicago working to fix up one of their house's for a women's shelter, feeding the homeless, working in a soup kitchen and so much more! But as pictures speak louder then words, why don't I just show you.

The trip started at 4:30am. on Saturday, when we all woke up to hit the road early. With this group even the traveling was fun! We stopped at the movie set for the Field of Dreams and got to run the bases in the snow! We also stopped at several churches, and even gas stations became fun as noted by the photo below.

We got to Chicago just in time for supper. I had to learn how to drive a 12 passenger van in Chicago Rush Hour very quickly. But It was all a good experience. That night we met some of the women who lived in the women's shelter and their children. Then we found our cots and settled in for the night. The next was Sunday so we got up went to mass, changed out of our mass clothes and headed to the Soup Kitchen. We worked at the Soup Kitchen almost everyday last week and by the end of the week the students knew most of everyone's name and stories. It was a beautiful experience  for them to learn how to connect with the people they were serving. For many of the students simply talking to people was their favorite part. However we did get to do a lot of cooking and a lot of dishes as well.

At the Soup Kitchen we worked both upstairs and down.  The pictures to the right and left are the students making salad and cleaning it, downstairs. The picture below is the students putting together lunches to pass out to people in the streets as we are driving around. We also go the chance to go out on the streets with the sisters and meet the people. We took these bags of food with us when we did this as well.  

Below is a picture of our entire group, with one of our new friends named Red Fox. We spent a lot of time talking with Red Fox and he told us a lot about his life and how he is really trying to save and get off the streets. Others that we met loved living on the streets and would not want to live life any other way. It was not what anyone expected to hear. 

                            

We also spent a lot of time painting. The students loved it and finished a whole floor of the house! It was great for the students to do this work and they were extremely joyful the whole time.

We also spent a whole day doing simple fun things in the city. However this post has already gotten extremely long, so I have decided to break the Chicago trip into two parts. Part two will have all of the fun stuff we did! Until next time, Stay Classy!

The Thirsting

I know that I have not been very good at posting for quite a while, but I am going to get better! The plan is to post something every other week or so. This way all of you will get updates from Wayne but they wont be very over the top.

This weeks update is about an exciting opportunity we have just had here in Wayne. The Newman Center has been awesome enough to bring in the band The Thirsting! The Thirsting is a Catholic band with a beautiful focus on Mary and the rosary. If you have not checked out their music I highly encourage it!

This is one of their older songs. 

The Show was an acoustic show with the lead singer of the band, Daniel Oberreuter, and took place in the Lower "Gag" or lower level of the Student Center. The Concert was a great success!  

The Students did a lot of work to get ready for the show. They put up posters, baked food for the bake sale, made campus wide advertisements, and told all of their friends. It was so great to see all of the hard work the students put into this project. 

Posters that the students put up on campus. 

We had around 40 people stay for the entire show, this does not count the dozens of people who showed up to get dinner and stopped to stay a while. 

Over all it was a great event and we hope to bring back the entire band net year! I will end with a short video from the concert! 

To Learn more about the Thirsting check out: 

Website: http://www.thethirstingcatholic.com/home.html

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheThirsting

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thethirsting

Adventures in a Coffee Shop

(This is a story that happened last semester. I started writing it then, but did not finish until now. Enjoy!)

Many things have happened since I have been here in Wayne, but nothing as comical as my adventure at Miss Molly's! But I have already gotten ahead of myself so let me start over and begin at the beginning!

Up until he end if last week my roommates and I have not had Internet in our apartment. We were forced to go and search out Internet elsewhere and my favorite place to find it is Miss Molly's coffee shop! 

It's a cute little coffee shop with frozen yogurt and loose leaf tea (two of my favorites!)  I would go there and order my tea and pastry and would go up this beautiful spiral staircase into a nice little living room area called the "Magnolia Suite" 

    This is quite the staircase is it not?!? 

It is up in this room where I sat for several hours working away, like the little humming bird I tend to be, when I noticed it got idly dark really fast. So I packed up my things and headed downstairs. I did not even get one spin around the staircase when I noticed something was not right. The lights where off, there were no people, and the doors were locked. 

Yep you guessed it! Miss Molly's was closed and I was stuck inside!  I went down the stairs and looked around. I quickly realized that that I could easily leave, but if I did that I would have to leave the door unlocked and when they opened in the morning the first thing they would think is break in! Now I could have none of that so I went and sat down to think. I thought, and thought, and thought, but could not come up with anything. So with that realization I called my roommate Kirsten. 

When I relayed all of this to my roommate and she had finished laughing hysterically, she suggested that I call Amy, our Campus Minister and a local business owner in town.  After I told her what was going on, (she never did stop laughing), Amy and I agreed that it would be best if she called the police. 

I did not find this out until later, but apparently when Amy called the police they passed the phone from person to person, that way everyone could here the story of how I Elizabeth Connealy, got locked in Miss Molly's. After that the Police called the owners and they came and let me out. Apparently the student who was working forgot I was upstairs and thinking no one was in closed up shop early. 

The next day I went back to Miss Molly's and they gave me a coffee for my trouble. Moral of the story is this - Always be open to adventure because you could just be looking for tea and internet but what you find is a fun story. 

P.S. Thanks to Miss Molly and her family for not leaving me inside for too long ;) 

Nun RUN!

So This one is going to be short! I have been editing some video together for a while and the first part is done! What is it? DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!!

It's a NUN RUN! This is day one of a Nun Run that me and my college friends went on before last Christmas. More is to come! :)

Fall Outreach

This past week was Wayne's first week of classes. So needless to say this week has been pretty intense! We started off this week with a student mass and adoration on Tuesday. Then on Wednesday we got to get out on campus    With the Newman centers Ice Cream Social. 

 

Look at all if these awesome people who came! It was Father's birthday so we even had an ice cream cake!  The team and I got to meet a lot of students, mostly freshman. 

Here is me with one of the freshman! 

Then yesterday we had the Newman BBQ and mass!  It was great to spend that time on campus ! 

      Newman Center BBQ on campus! 

The rest of the weekend I spent on my families farm! It was great to get away for a night! 

 

This week we are focusing on getting our bible studies up and running. I can wait to start investing in the students! We had over 100 students express an interest in bible studies! What a great way to start the year! 

Please pray for me as I am praying for you! 

Elizabeth