Ep. 12 - Summer

As we start to wrap up the school year, Emily and Michael sit down and talk summer plans and routines for keeping your faith strong throughout.

Have a safe and blessed summer!

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Keep your heart blazing!

@blazing.hearts.podcast

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Hey everyone, welcome to Blazing Hearts Podcast. I'm Michael.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

And I'm Emily.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

And today we are going to be talking about summer.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:22

So as this year comes to a close, we just Finally. Finally. Emily just mounted me. As it comes to a close, we kind of figured we gave our first episode on, you know, ordinary life, especially in school. And we kind of wanted to revisit, I guess, that idea and give it into like going into summer, like how we are keeping up with our faith in like a different, almost like lack of routine. There's still definitely a routine, but much less rigid. Different routine than during the school year. So we figured it would be a good idea just to talk, hopefully give you some ideas, wish you a happy end of the school year. So what is one thing that you are really looking forward to this summer?

SPEAKER_01 1:10

I'm very excited because Well, it kind of doesn't really have anything to do with my face, but I'm going on vacation with my family, and then the very week after, so I get home, and then the next day, like after I get home, then I leave again for LTLC, and I get home and I'm doing DBS, I think, maybe. And then after that week, the next day after that, I leave for Damascus. So pretty much I'm just very excited because there's like a lot of Jesus happening, you know, and that's like really exciting. And I don't even know how I get to go to LTLC again because I literally thought there was like no way. I was like, okay, like I'll go there's an extra open spot, and then there was like five, and I was like, oh my gosh. So I'm really excited that I get to go back because that was like it was like the best week of my life, honestly.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

Well, that's fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

It was it was so fun. I made so many friends, and it was just like I don't know, it was so good because it was like a conference and it had all like the planned things, but it also gave a lot of room for like free time and like you can choose to wake up at 5 30 and go pray with the monks, or like do this or that.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

Free time is just generally the best time.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

Oh yeah, or play death ball on the turf for three hours and get burnt three days in a row. So lovely for my skin, but it's fine. But yeah, just like all my campaign conferences I get to go to. What about you?

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Just hanging out with friends mostly. Someone Emily, but in a different manner. I'm really busy this summer. Football provides a fairly rigid structure to my days. But yeah, I think what I'm just most excited for is just to be able to spend time with friends and kind of just enjoy the summer going into senior year.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

So scary. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

It's fine. We have like six more. That's a it that uh is also for all our parents. And for our parents who now don't like us that we mentioned that. But I think one of the big parts of summer is it's pretty easy to keep a routine of your faith um during the school year. I I mean it's easier because you have so many routines already.

SPEAKER_01 3:18

Yeah, it's just like go school, go from here, go there, there.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

I definitely think it can be harder because you definitely have to like actively seek them out.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

In summary thing.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

Yeah, yeah. Like you can just sleep in. So and that like throws off like a morning routine that you may have. So I think it's still important to even if it's not the exact same routines, to still have some some routines to keep you kind of grounded in your faith as you go through summer.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

And I think that's what I wanted to talk about a bit.

SPEAKER_01 3:52

Yeah. Personally, how I'm gonna do that this summer is through like well, my church has like morning Bible studies on Wednesdays, and then like a neighboring church has worship nights on Mondays, so I'll go to those as much as I can when I'm not gone. But then I guess just something that I feel like I really need to focus on is just going to silent adoration. Because I do go when I can, but again, in like the school year it's hard because it's like go to school, go to practice, have two hours of homework, eat dinner, go to sleep, repeat every day, especially in the cross season. So just doing like taking the initiative to do that with the free time I have. And then yeah, I don't know. I think me and my one friend are gonna try to go to other churches. Like I know St. Mary Hudson has night prayer. Well, we have night prayer too, but they have night prayer there as well, so we might go there sometimes and just like branch out, just make more connections, I feel like that can like help lead me closer to the Lord.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

You remind me of two things. Um one is yeah, if you are a fan of daily mass, church hop over the summer. Yes, go to different churches, see what see what they're like. And the second one that you reminded me of is how last summer my youth group signed up for the 3 a.m. Adoration slot on Saturday mornings. And I think it was just it was, I mean, so church needed it. One of my friends was like, okay, I'll do it. And he was like, Alright, I'm probably gonna need help for that. Because guys, high schoolers can't function like that. They shouldn't function like that every week. I was supposed to go into the weekend.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:53

But it was this really going was really nice because it was like you and a friend of yours way early in the morning, no one else is there.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

But just like like you said, just like silent adoration on being really nice.

SPEAKER_01 6:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:11

But I mean both of those are kind of fun ideas.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

And I'd also say, I mean, just enjoy summer.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:20

Is one of the big things. Like, that's what I'm as I said earlier, I'm really looking forward to it. Just spending time with others.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

People are social creatures. We weren't Genesis, it's not good for man to be alone.

SPEAKER_01 6:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:33

We're communal.

SPEAKER_01 6:34

We need community. Enjoy it.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

Community is very important, especially in the faith.

unknown 6:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

So I think that's one of the big parts. Is you can grow your faith spending time with friends. And it doesn't have to be an explicitly religious context.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

Yeah, that's what I was gonna say. Yeah. Like literally just being around people. And I find that you can find the Lord in even like people who are like not your like church friends, or like they're just like a friend from school that you like kind of know, but you're like, oh, I see Jesus in them, and that like I don't know, it's just like beautiful to see where he is just like everywhere around you.

SPEAKER_00 7:10

Yeah, you're much better than that at that than I am. But thank you. I I definitely can feel that. I I will say, I think one of the things that's gonna be important for me to try this summer. So last summer I kind of started to do this, but went in and out since Lent. I've been pretty good about it. But just giving myself the liturgy of the hours as a routine for my day. We talked about it before on the podcast, liturgy hours is the prayer at the church. There's one over this right before. The office of readings, morning, mid-morning, midday, afternoon, evening, night. I pray morning, evening, night. But I think those are still really important to me at least, because it offers a really nice routine for the day. You wake up, you pray morning prayer. Yeah, and then sometime in the evening, or if you're like me and you forget and are a little lazy, and it's right before bed, you just double pray evening and night. Um but it's I find it a nice way to set a routine, especially during summer, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:26

Where you don't necessarily have you know, maybe like an hour to go like in depth in prayer or like exactly.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

Yeah. Or you know, either you're not busy and you have free time or you subroutine, like mornings are busy for me. But I think it is important to like summer's the time to develop a prayer routine.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

Yeah. Or like see what you like.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

You have that time to kind of explore experiment.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:51

I will say I never thought I was gonna be the type of person to be like wake up 15 minutes earlier to pray because I was always you always hear like, well, I can't find time to pray. Well, just wake up 15 minutes earlier. It's like, no, I don't want to do that. I need my sleep. And it's like, well, yeah, that's true. But I think recently I've kind of learned, like, you know, I've experimented with it. I I don't mind praying it, even if I it means I forget the hour father and pray it three times. Pray it once because it's I don't know, 5 30 in the morning because I have lifts.

SPEAKER_01 9:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:24

But like, even like it's just something that I learned that I could do, and I think summer is a fun time to explore your prayer routines.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

Yeah, I agree. And I think like going along with that, just like exploring things. I'm well, we kind of tried to do it with the girls in our church the past two years, like a girls group that was like girl led, because we have a girls group that's like core-led, but then just like core as adults, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:52

Like adult-led.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

Yeah. But then just like outside of adults, just like our own thing, and it kind of failed. It like kind I say kind of because we had definitely we hung out, but it wasn't as much as we had hoped or like everything we had envisioned. So I'm trying to do it again this year as me being the upcoming senior. Oh, so scary. Um, but yeah, I feel like just like taking the initiative to like make it what I want it. Because like at this point, like if I want a girls' group, then I'll just make it. And if I feel like it should go this way, then I'll have it go like one way or another direction, or like I don't know. I guess what I'm trying to say is I've learned recently that sometimes like it's okay that maybe not everyone wants to do the same thing as you, but like if you want to do it and you have like a vision for it, then you should try to do it or like go for it, you know.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

Yeah, I think I think it's one of the important things is for a summer faith life, you need to take the initiative. I think we talked about that a bit with our young church episode. Yeah, of course, I love giving self-plugs. Yes, but I think that's something important that you know as you enjoy summer, yeah, if you want your faith to stay with that, you need to make an initiative. I mean, right if I go to a Catholic school, you know, mass is offered, adoration is offered, but I can't access that in the summer.

SPEAKER_01 11:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:21

Actually, I might be able to, I think they still have it, but like nobody really wants to make the drive out to their church at like 7 40 in the morning. I'll be there because of football. But like, you know, most people wouldn't necessarily think of that. But it's the idea of like you need to take your initiative in the summer.

SPEAKER_01 11:39

Right.

SPEAKER_00 11:40

But I think when you do that too, it's really valuable when you take the an initiative on your faith to try something new. I made a lot of friends this past summer through a night prayer group that I kind of started. Like we'd pray night prayer at a camp that I was at. We'd pray night prayer every night, and it was just this really nice way to end the day. And it was something I don't think I expected to grow as much as it did, or find as much value as I think it did to me.

SPEAKER_01 12:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

Even but it was really cool because it was like, I don't know, there were like 350 people total at the camp, and it was like, I don't know, a seventh of them were praying at the last night, which was really cool. Weird to think about now, but still really cool. So I think that just like taking the initiative can be a lot for your faith. And it can really help you, yeah. Especially in ways that you might not think it might.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

Yeah. Oh, I was literally thinking about that the other day the other day, but hold on, I'm gonna say my own thought. But like kind of what you're saying, it like grows in ways you didn't expect. Like you could inspire other people, or like maybe like you starting something is like another person's like inspiration to start something that like maybe the Lord has put on their heart, but they were too like worried to start it or something. But yeah, other thought branching out, because I think that just like branching out and literally just being yourself is like the best thing that you can do for yourself. Because I was thinking about this like yesterday. I have this little baby freshman, I'm in church, baby hilts, shout out, and he is like my little brother, and it's so funny because when I first met him, like it was one of the first times I talked to him, he was like, Yeah, when I first saw you, I was really scared of you. And I was like, What? Like he saw me walking across a field, then he was like, Yeah, I'm so scared of you. I was like, What? Okay, but then I was like, Are you still scared of me? He's like, No, no, no, like I'm not scared of you anymore. I was like, Okay, sounds good, thank you. And then like I would just like talk to him about school and like his life, and then it got to the point where like he became comfortable enough around me to like tell me things that maybe he didn't want everyone else to know, and then it's called being a friend. Well, yeah, but but like more than like just like a oh I see you at youth group type of friend, you know. Oh yeah, yeah. Like he is like like my little brother, like at this point. But where I'm going with this, let's connect it, is like I never would have ever guessed that I would have become such good friends with him as I have by literally just talking to people. Like I literally just go to night prayer and I'm just like happy and I just like talk to everyone, and then like this beautiful, amazing, fruitful friendship has come out of that, and I literally couldn't have asked for anything more. Like, I don't know, it's the friendship that I never knew that I needed, or the little brother that I never knew I needed, because you have a little brother, you don't need to I have a little brother, an actual biological little brother who I do need, and I love him very much, but like the other little brother that I never knew.

SPEAKER_00 14:46

Didn't know I need who's also a freshman and blonde.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

They're the same exact age. Um no, Preston, I love you. Don't worry. Oh my gosh. Um, but yeah, he just like I don't even know. We speak to each other through the Lord, like the Lord speaks to each of us through each other a lot in ways we don't know that is happening until after the fact. But just anyways, put yourself out there and just talk to people, make friends, because it's like it's so much better than not having friends or like not like taking the risk because like okay, maybe you talk to somebody and then you never talk to them again, but guess what? You took the risk, and then next time you want to go talk to somebody, it's gonna be easier. Yeah, so just like talk to people and make friends. That was like a tangent.

SPEAKER_00 15:39

Yeah, that was alright. It's a good it's a good tangent. Yeah, I think in the trick for summer, especially obviously we're relating all this through faith context.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

I as much as I would like to say I'm the type of person who's in a church 24 hours a day, and some of my friends think I am. I'm not. You can absolutely still have a fun summer, yeah. But you know, like without like a full church like 24 hours. I'm signing up for perpetual adoration. Oh, cool, like the hour. No, no, the whole thing.

SPEAKER_01 16:15

A full entire 24 hours, but yeah, it's to enjoy it.

SPEAKER_00 16:22

Especially because they go by quick, but just enjoy it, put yourself out there, love your faith, love others.

SPEAKER_01 16:29

Yeah, and just like use it as an opportunity.

SPEAKER_00 16:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:32

For like literally whatever you want it to be.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

And yeah, I think both of us are really looking forward to summer. I'm so excited. We're recording this like for me a week before I get out. Emily, two weeks before you get out, two or three weeks.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

Two weeks and two days.

SPEAKER_00 16:49

Yeah, I get out a lot sooner than her.

SPEAKER_01 16:51

I know I'm gonna cry at all.

SPEAKER_00 16:53

We're we're really excited for summer.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:55

Uh so I think we kind of just wanted to share kind of what we're doing.

SPEAKER_01 16:58

In hopes of inspiring slash helping you.

SPEAKER_00 17:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:02

So I think I don't think I ever really fully answered the question of what I'm doing with like faith stuff, but definitely continuing prayer.

SPEAKER_01 17:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:09

Uh hopefully daily mass. I think football's gonna make that a little difficult.

SPEAKER_01 17:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:14

But just taking the initiative, taking, you know, meeting new people, putting myself out there, um, being willing to explore different churches and you know, meet new people.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:25

I think that's kind of the big thing for me.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

Yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

Yeah. That's everything I would say. Just the other fact that it's just like it's your faith.

SPEAKER_00 17:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:34

Like you have to choose it for yourself.

SPEAKER_00 17:35

Have fun with it. Faith is it faith shouldn't be boring.

SPEAKER_01 17:38

No, make it fun.

SPEAKER_00 17:40

So that's gonna be it for this episode of Blazing Hearts. Listen to us wherever you get your pods. Subscribe to our Instagram down in the description, I believe. I hope. Have a great day.