{"parish":{"localizations":[{"locale":"es","slug":"national-shrine-of-the-little-flower-basilica"}],"seo":{"metaTitle":"National Shrine of the Little Flower Basilica","metaDescription":"Eucharistic testimonies from Shrine of the Little Flower in Royal Oak, MI","metaImage":{"url":"https://res.cloudinary.com/furrow/image/upload/v1654882069/i-am-here/220607_IAH_CVR_FB_CRD_01_58dbc6076b.png","alt":"220607_IAH-CVR_FB-CRD-01.png","width":1200,"height":630},"metaSocial":[{"socialNetwork":"Facebook","title":"National Shrine of the Little Flower Basilica","description":"Eucharistic testimonies from Shrine of the Little Flower","image":{"url":"https://res.cloudinary.com/furrow/image/upload/v1654882069/i-am-here/220607_IAH_CVR_FB_CRD_01_58dbc6076b.png","alt":"220607_IAH-CVR_FB-CRD-01.png","width":1200,"height":630}},{"socialNetwork":"Twitter","title":"National Shrine of the Little Flower Basilica","description":"Eucharistic testimonies from Shrine of the Little 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wish more people knew what a blessing this is”","author":{"name":"Lynda 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The Eucharist gives me strength to make it through hard times. When the consecration takes place, I feel the presence of the angels and saints and all the people I have loved who have gone before me. It's the time when Heaven and Earth come together, and it gives me great peace. When I walk up in the Communion line, I like to make sure my mind and heart are in the right place, so I picture Jesus at the front waiting to give me His body and blood. After I receive, I look at the cross and silently say, ‘Thank You.’ All of this helps me to recognize what a beautiful gift I am receiving. This was especially helpful when I was wrangling young children up through the Communion line.

In 2004, after I had my fifth child, my husband got a new job that required our family to move to Buffalo, NY for a time span of anywhere between 18 months and 3 years. I was devastated and didn't want to leave family, friends, and my beloved Shrine community. As much as I didn't want to, we went, and it was hard. When I got to Buffalo, I remember having to fill out the school forms and I had to put my realtor's name as the emergency contact because it was the only person that I knew in the area.

We found a Catholic church and school that was nice but it wasn't the same. Every Sunday, after I received the Eucharist, I prayed in the pew for Jesus to give me His strength, His wisdom and His joy to keep going in a situation that I was not happy in. I would say, “God, just give me your strength. Give me your strength to get through this week.” And I would take it one day at a time.

And you know what? He did all those things and more! He sent me this wonderful neighbor who moved from Texas with her husband and two kids, and she was so helpful. She would babysit, she would bring me lunch every Tuesday and sit when the kids were taking a nap. And there was another mom that I met at a soccer game. She drove the same big van that I had and she had six kids. She took me under her wing, invited me to coffee mornings, and helped me meet other women.

We met wonderful friends and people of strong faith that carried us through our time in Buffalo. I would have very vivid dreams during the night that Jesus was actually carrying me through my life! And on the day that we had been there 18 months, we got word that we could return to Royal Oak. God is good! When my husband and I look back on that time, we realize that because we didn't know that many people, we had so much family time, which was such a blessing. But you don't always see it when you're in it.

"},{"title":"“Where the fullness of our lives flow from and flows to”","author":{"name":"Jordan Beachnau","age":null},"slug":"jordan-beachnau","featured":true,"cover":{"url":"https://res.cloudinary.com/furrow/image/upload/v1665754712/i-am-here/IAMHERE_Beachnau_1_f42d57c55a.jpg","provider":"cloudinary","width":3000,"formats":{"large":{"ext":".jpg","url":"https://res.cloudinary.com/furrow/image/upload/v1665754713/i-am-here/large_IAMHERE_Beachnau_1_f42d57c55a.jpg","hash":"large_IAMHERE_Beachnau_1_f42d57c55a","mime":"image/jpeg","name":"large_IAMHERE-Beachnau-1.jpg","path":null,"size":52.48,"width":1000,"height":667,"provider_metadata":{"public_id":"i-am-here/large_IAMHERE_Beachnau_1_f42d57c55a","resource_type":"image"}},"small":{"ext":".jpg","url":"https://res.cloudinary.com/furrow/image/upload/v1665754714/i-am-here/small_IAMHERE_Beachnau_1_f42d57c55a.jpg","hash":"small_IAMHERE_Beachnau_1_f42d57c55a","mime":"image/jpeg","name":"small_IAMHERE-Beachnau-1.jpg","path":null,"size":16.09,"width":500,"height":333,"provider_metadata":{"public_id":"i-am-here/small_IAMHERE_Beachnau_1_f42d57c55a","resource_type":"image"}},"medium":{"ext":".jpg","url":"https://res.cloudinary.com/furrow/image/upload/v1665754713/i-am-here/medium_IAMHERE_Beachnau_1_f42d57c55a.jpg","hash":"medium_IAMHERE_Beachnau_1_f42d57c55a","mime":"image/jpeg","name":"medium_IAMHERE-Beachnau-1.jpg","path":null,"size":32,"width":750,"height":500,"provider_metadata":{"public_id":"i-am-here/medium_IAMHERE_Beachnau_1_f42d57c55a","resource_type":"image"}},"thumbnail":{"ext":".jpg","url":"https://res.cloudinary.com/furrow/image/upload/v1665754712/i-am-here/thumbnail_IAMHERE_Beachnau_1_f42d57c55a.jpg","hash":"thumbnail_IAMHERE_Beachnau_1_f42d57c55a","mime":"image/jpeg","name":"thumbnail_IAMHERE-Beachnau-1.jpg","path":null,"size":4.88,"width":234,"height":156,"provider_metadata":{"public_id":"i-am-here/thumbnail_IAMHERE_Beachnau_1_f42d57c55a","resource_type":"image"}}},"alternativeText":"IAMHERE-Beachnau-1.jpg"},"excerpt":"

On Easter of 2017, at the age of 25 when I received my first Eucharist, I felt nothing… and yet my entire life would never be the same. I was baptized Catholic when I was four, but I essentially left the Church that same day. I grew up with little-to-no faith and Church was not on our calendar. We “believed” in God but didn’t know Him. I did not know the difference between Christmas and Easter let alone the meaning of those days, or who it was that loved me so radically.
My childhood and young adult life consisted of academics and sports. I went on to play football at Grand Valley. After two major knee surgeries, I received a medical hardship and my career was over after four years. I fell into depression. I had gone to college for the purpose of football, but now that was taken away. In the midst of that low, God was pulling me into His great love story. I began going to non-denominational churches around Grand Rapids. What I got out of each Sunday was dependent upon how good the music was and how good the preaching was. I was in and out of church, and in and out of a life of the world that does not satisfy.
With football gone, I was now able to take accounting as my major, which then got me a job in Detroit. My sister and I began attending a megachurch, but again something was clearly missing. In the fall of 2016, my sister invited me to join the RCIA program with her as she wanted to become Catholic. At first, my answer was simple: No! I had built up anti-Catholic beliefs and thought that the Church was plainly wrong. My sister convinced me to be there to support her so I agreed. I joined the RCIA with her at St. Mary in Royal Oak. Long story short, after reading the Church Fathers, Scott Hahn, others who left everything to become Catholic, as well as many other resources, I was convinced that the Catholic Church was the Church established by Jesus. However, it was all headspace while my life remained unchanged – same bad habits; same brokenness; same lies that I believed about myself, God and others. Until the Eucharist.

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