Wood Burning Draft

Another option: Focusing on how I use my free time.



“Ever wonder what Miss Rose does in her free time?”



Since I was a kid I have always enjoys creating things with my hands. It is a time that allows my heart to do the thinking rather than my head. It is also a time when I am able rest and relax forgetting about worries and to does, and to simply enjoy the present moment and what I am doing. Working on art projects is away that I connect and talk to God, I think because I am more present in living the present moment. The present moment is where God is and where He wants each one of us to be.



I often design images of the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts, they fascinate me. I just love looking at images of them. I love them because it is just to amazing to think about how much we are loved, and I have a huge yearning in my heart for every single person to know and experience that love. One of my favorite spontaneous prayers, which I pray frequently throughout is “Jesus meek and humble of heart, make my heart more like yours!” Can you imagine what it would be like to have Jesus’s heart? To see as he see, to think as he thinks, to love as he loves, and to act as he acts? I wish I could be more like him. Each day I want to become a better reflection of him so when people see me they see His love for them. St. Catherine of Siena had a mystical experience while ardently praying over and over “A clean heart create in me, God: renew within me a steadfast spirit” (Ps 51: 10), in the church near her house in Siena, Italy. Jesus appeared and gave her his heart, so she could live with it for the rest of her life and love like him. It is said that a scar appeared to prove the miracle and that frequently when she was filled with joy her heart would beat so loudly other could hear it. I heard this story when I was younger and since then I have had the blessing of visiting this church and standing in the very spot this took place (there is a tile engraved in the floor marking out where she was). Though I have never had an experience like St. Catherine, God gives me other little signs of his closeness and I hope that little by little I am being transformed more and more into his image.



I also often make images of the Holy Family, mainly for the same reason, the great desire of better reflecting God’s love. The Holy Family is a reflection of the love of the Trinity, therefore all families are called to be a reflection of that great love. It helps me to imagine the close bond between Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. How much love, care, acceptance, awe, wonder, praise, and gratitude, must have filled each of their hearts. Seeing them inspires me to want to be the same way.



The Everest Mountaineer is a piece for our Gala, which I hope to see everyone at soon. I have done a few pieces with Everest logos on them. They also draw me to pray, because I feel like Everest is my family. Each person there, student, teacher, staff, parent, grandparents, and alumni, mean so much to me. Each person I have gotten to know through Everest has touched and shaped my heart in some way, and for me each person is a sign of my vocation, because if it were not for my vocation I would not being living in Michigan, working at Everest.