AS237 Ask Sister - New Year’s resolutions, spiritual ambition, if a romantic relationship falters should you be a nun instead, and more!

Sister Maxine  
From the studio of A Nun's Life Ministry, this is Ask Sister, a program where we take your questions about prayer, faith, community, ministry, and everything in between. You're here with Sister Maxine and my co-host, Sister Shannon Schrein. It is great to see you, Shannon, our first podcast of the new year.

Sister Shannon  
Yeah. Merry Christmas a little late, and Happy New Year blessings. I hope it was a wonderful experience.

Sister Maxine  
It was, and for you, too, I hope it was. We have some great questions here to start the new year off, Shannon. Today on Ask Sister, a listener worries that she lacks spiritual ambition, because she has no prayer improvement plans for the new year. Then a listener wonders if a romantic relationship gone bad is a sign that she should be a nun instead. And finally, a listener asks if her friend was right, that Catholics don't focus on a personal relationship with Jesus the way other Christians do. We get lots of questions from our listeners. And if you have one, please send it in. Go to the contact page on our website or leave a comment at anunslife.org. We want to give a quick shout out of thanks to our awesome sponsors for supporting the Ask Sister podcast. And you can help too. Just visit anunlife.org and click the donate button. Shannon, given that we are at the beginning of the new year, we have a question, our first one, that kind of reflects that theme.

Sister Shannon  
Mm hmm.

Sister Maxine  
It comes in from Marianne in Tampa. Marianne writes, "I belong to a prayer group with seven friends, all of us Catholic. With the new year approaching, they're talking about spiritual New Year's Resolutions: reading the Bible more, adding more prayer time, doing volunteer work for a good cause, and the like. Their plans are impressive. I don't say much, though, because I don't have any plans for extra prayers. My current prayers are working fine. But I admit that their plans make me feel like I lack spiritual ambition. Maybe I should get on the bandwagon. What do you think?" Marianne, thank you for the question. And it's it's great to hear that you have a prayer group. It sounds like it's life-giving, even though you have a little angst right now. And you know, of course, with the new year, a lot of people think about changes they would like to make. Sounds like your friends are there. What about you, Shannon? Are you a New Year's resolution kind of sister?

Sister Shannon  
Well, I'm really not much of a New Year's resolution person. Maybe because in the past, I've neglected those resolutions too much, and so I feel defeated before I begin. But what I like about this question is the notion of a spiritual resolution. And while I don't associate it with January 1--maybe I should!--I do make these resolutions when I'm in conversation with my spiritual director, when I experience the sacrament of reconciliation, and I talk with the priest who is there. And so the notion of determining a spiritual resolution for the coming year--that really kind of piques my interest.

Sister Maxine  
Well, in order to do that, you have to give some real thought to where you are in your spiritual life right now. And where you might like to move.

Sister Shannon  
And what's the genuine need? What will also transform you individually? So for example, I was attracted by her concept of reading the Bible more because that's a special thing for me: I love to read the scripture. But giving service is another impactful experience. And so when you do that, you have to look at yourself and how you reacted and what happened in that situation. And it changes you. These spiritual resolutions should be, I think, for the sake of transforming us personally, into a deeper relationship with our God.

Sister Maxine  
And to look for specific ways to do it. You mentioned spiritual direction. Like for me, I realize I might need more meditation time. You know, I love being busy. I love getting stuff done. And for me to step back a little bit, and maybe not, as Marianne was saying, create extra time for prayer, but for me to step back so that I can deepen in my prayer.

Sister Shannon  
I was thinking about what you said, Marianne, specifically in what you sent us, and it was that line about your current prayers are working now, are working fine, "but I admit that their plans make me feel like I lack spiritual ambition." I don't know if it's so much that you lack spiritual ambition as maybe you're thinking about what will happen to you?

Sister Maxine  
Well, that's a good point. That's a very good point. Because what her friends are talking about is growing in intimacy through prayer.

Sister Shannon  
If you trust them, as your friends, you are at home with joining them for prayer, and I don't know how your prayer together works. But it seems to me that they're being called to deepen that and you're listening and wondering, "Maybe I should listen too.) But what does that mean for you? What will it change in you? How will you be transformed if you start to read the Bible more, or you make a resolution to serve?

Sister Maxine  
So what you may be hearing, Shannon, in that "my current prayers are working fine," is maybe a little bit of doubt or fear. I don't know if it's complacency, because Marianne is saying maybe she should get on the bandwagon. She sounds like a person who likes to get stuff done. But maybe it's a little bit of fear.

Sister Shannon  
I wonder about the concept that her prayers are working fine.

Sister Maxine  
How do you know if your prayers are working fine, Shannon?

Sister Shannon  
Well, you know, the experience of a prayer life is not just about putting in a nickel's worth of prayers and hoping to get a nickel's worth of blessings back. What I think prayer is about is the relationship that you're developing with Jesus. And so how could it ever just be fine? It needs to grow.

Sister Maxine  
And to your point, sometimes I think when my prayer life is at its finest, is when I feel discomfort.

Sister Shannon  
It's time to change. Time to grow.

Sister Maxine  
Yeah. And it's time to just step back a little bit and remember that God is at the center of things, despite all the stuff that is happening in this world. And that relationship is central and that relationships with friends are central and family.

Sister Shannon  
 If you think about a relationship that you have with your best friend or another person in your life, who's significant, and things are going just fine, that's good. But isn't there a desire, always there, to know that person more deeply, to share at a deeper level with one another in a way that you can help each other--not just enjoy each other's company--which is a good thing; that's how friendship starts out. Everything's going fine. We're getting along fine. That's all good. What happens when you face the first challenge? Or how do you grow in that relationship? I think that's the same thing with our prayer life. So we are feeling really comfortable, we're happy with ourselves because we're going to a prayer group. And we're meeting with friends who are like-minded. And that's a wonderful thing to be able to share and to think about. But what next? These friends of yours are challenging you, Marianne.

Sister Maxine  
Part of that challenge is that as you grow closer, as we all grow closer to our friends and closer to our God, the other half of that is that you could be hurt then. Because when we become more intimate with people, the risk of the pain of being disappointed or hurt, or whatever happens, you know, all these things happen in relationship. And with God. I mean, think about all those Bible stories where people are like, "God, what are you doing here?"

Sister Shannon  
Remember this scripture story where the young man asks Jesus what he needs to do to be a follower. And he says, You have to keep the commandments and love God. And he says, "I've done that all my life." And he said, "Well, then, the next step is you give what you have to the poor, and you come and follow me." And he went away sad. Because Jesus reached the point of asking that this young man, for whatever reason, could not respond in a positive way. And it broke his heart, but he wasn't ready. And I think those kinds of opportunities happen in our prayer life where God says, "What's next? Okay, you've given me your time, you're praying with your friends, I think this is wonderful. Your prayers in your mind and heart seem to be working. What's next? Where will you go next? How can you give more of who you are?"

Sister Maxine  
Maybe that is--we can only guess here, Marianne--but maybe that's the place you are now. Maybe God has said, "Okay, there's more to be done here." I can recall times like that in my own life, and a person doesn't have to say yes right away. It's fine to ponder it and think about it. Again, God does not want to push us into something that would terrify us necessarily. Well, maybe sometimes!

Sister Shannon  
But don't you wonder about that young man after he went away sad? The fact that the scripture says he was sad, I'll bet he went away and he thought about it and he prayed about it. And who knows what choices he made in his future, because we just get that little snippet in the scripture to think about. But in my imagination, I like to think that he came back, that he reached the point in his life where he was able to give himself more totally to that relationship, and it happened.

Sister Maxine  
And it's a choice that we can make. It's not forced upon us by God. Like for Marianne here, she has this group of friends who's reaching out to her; God is not being like, "You gotta take some more steps here." It's not forceful like that. It's Invitational.

Sister Shannon  
And you know what, Marianne, try one of these things, and see if it fits, see if it does something for you. You start reading the Bible, and you're completely bored. Well, that means you started with Leviticus. Don't do that. But what I'm saying is, there is a sense in which there's a call there, you're hearing it a little bit, you're ready to try, go do some service, talk about it with your friends, pray about it in your pray service. We have a group of students at our university that are engaged in the [unclear] Project. And before they go out to bring food to poor neighborhoods, they pray together about the people that they're going to meet. And then when they're there, they interact with the people. They ask them about how their week went, or they bring balls, and they play with the kids. And they do things besides just give them food. And then on the way back in the van, they share with each other what they discovered. "Oh, John had to see the doctor this weekend, he's a little worried because this is going on," or "One of the kids has got a test coming up." They just share their lives. And then back to the university, they gather for prayer, and they put the names of those individuals into a litany. And they ask that God would really change their lives, touch them. But what happens is those students are changed by those graced encounters. That's a possibility, Marianne. Try something that deepens your love of prayer, and makes you realize there's always more.

Sister Maxine  
And to not be afraid of going outside your usual prayer routine.

Sister Shannon  
Yeah.

Sister Maxine  
It could very well be that your current prayers are suiting you fine. You feel close to God and all that. But I think there's always some benefit of trying different things. It doesn't mean what a person's doing at this moment isn't working, but who knows what might open up. Marianne, we hope that you will encourage your friends and support them as they move forward. Maybe participate with them, if you feel this kind of calling in yourself, and to be open to what the next steps are.

Sister Shannon  
And don't worry if you make a resolution and after you do it three times you stop. Try something else.

Sister Maxine  
So Marianne, as we move into the new year, you've got a lot of things to think about and a lot of things to consider, but please know that we'll hold you up in our prayers.

Sister Shannon  
We'll make it part of our spiritual resolution to keep you in prayer.

Sister Maxine  
Amen, Shannon.

Sister Shannon  
Amen.

Sister Maxine  
It's time for a brief break. This is Ask Sister, a program of A Nun's Life Ministry. We want to thank our sponsors and individual donors like you whose support makes the Ask Sister program possible. We love to hear from you, our listeners, and your input helps us create the podcasts that you enjoy. If you'd please take a couple of minutes right after this podcast to fill out a short survey, we'd be very grateful. You can do that by clicking on the survey link in the Episode Notes of the podcast. We'll be right back.

Welcome back! You are listening to Sister Maxine and my co-host, Sister Shannon, here on the Ask Sister podcast. You can hear previous episodes of Ask Sister, as well as all of our In Good Faith podcasts, on our website. And you can find them and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. So we've got another question. It is from Abigail.

Sister Shannon  
Let me share what Abigail writes. "I'm in college now. But since third grade, I've dreamed of raising a family. But I'm also open to religious life. But every time I imagined being a nun, I'd get depressed and start to cry, realizing that I'd never have children. I love little children. But I want to also be open in case God wants me to join religious life, even though I've never felt particularly called to an order. Also, I'm not sure if my personality fits for religious life, either being a talkative introvert, and that nothing could get me up before 8am except school. I've always felt that I'm called to marriage. But the last and only relationship I was in turned out not to be good. So is that a sign I should consider religious life? I just don't want to consider it for the wrong reasons. What advice do you have?"

Sister Maxine  
Thank you for the question, Abigail, and I'm sorry that that relationship that you talked about, that very first relationship you had, went in the direction you didn't anticipate, and that was disappointing to you. I can hear that in your question. Ultimately, your question is, now that that didn't work out, should I be a nun instead? And there's, I think, a few questions for us to unpack in here, Shannon.

Sister Shannon  
There are quite a few. So I suppose it's good advice to say at first, that when a failed relationship occurs, that's not the best time to make another lifetime decision. That the decision to be a religious or the decision to marry or the decision to remain single throughout your life is something that comes by the grace of God. And it takes a broad spectrum of wisdom from people that we care about, people we trust, people we love, and in our own prayer, to come to some kind of discernment about what it is that God is asking.

Sister Maxine  
I think that's part of what our dreams--as you mentioned, you've dreamed of raising a family and you've imagined being a nun--I think that's what part of those dreams are for, and the imaginations are for. Maybe there is a seed of God's calling in that.

Sister Shannon  
That's right.

Sister Maxine  
But it can't just be there at the conceptual level.

Sister Shannon  
You're at a very important time in your development as an individual. You're in college, there's all kinds of new experiences--experiences that stretch us, that take us outside of our comfort family zone, expose us to new ways of thinking, new ways of doing things. And so it kind of, I think, causes that sense of spiritual discernment to sort of rise up inside of you. What disturbed me a little about your thoughts was that when you think about being a sister, it makes you cry. Really, God would never, ever call you to do something that wouldn't make you happy. That's part of the call.

Sister Maxine  
And that doesn't mean that God can't surprise you sometimes. For me, when I realized what I was feeling was a call to religious life, it seemed preposterous to me. I had never dreamed that. And at first, I think I was in shock. And I thought, "Oh, this, this just can't be right." Once I got past purely the idea of it and actually kind of started taking steps in a direction--because I had to find out--did I feel as Abigail does, you know, depressed and crying? No, I felt joyful. I was terrified, but also joyful.

Sister Shannon  
The other thing that you mentioned in your question to us, Abigail, is that you aren't sure you have the personality for religious life, which made me smile. I think Sister Max can relate to this as well. We are members of congregations of women, broad spectrum women from all different backgrounds and all different kinds of personalities, and interacting at a community level with 100 or more other women is always an interesting challenge. But who wants everybody to be the same?

Sister Maxine  
Mm hmm. And being, as you describe yourself a talkative introvert--it's an interesting expression. But I think in religious life, certainly there are very talkative people. There are introverts. There are extroverts, there are all kinds of personalities that kind of fit. Not an issue. Now getting up before 8am, that might be something you got to look at pretty closely--even more so for parenthood.

Sister Shannon  
That's right. We were talking about it before the podcast began that getting up with a sick child in the middle of the night, or getting everybody ready to be on the bus by eight o'clock means that mom's up a long time before everyone else in the family. So don't let that stop you. That's the college experience; you get there to class. But this is a wonderful time of questioning and discernment in your life. And what makes me very happy is that you want to be open to what God is calling you to do.

Sister Maxine  
That is really, really important. Because we might have one idea for our life, and it might be a good idea. I thought my idea for my life was a great idea. But God had better ideas. And so to be open, even in the midst of our fear, even if it kind of goes against what we had already dreamed of. To trust that it's going to be okay. God wants us to be happy.

Sister Shannon  
That's right. Indeed, God does want us to be happy.

Sister Maxine  
And the idea of marriage--I would probably just add this, Shannon. It's like when you're in that concept stage and dreaming and imagining, that's good. But at some point, there's got to be like meeting somebody. And, Abigail, just because the first one did not work out, that should not deter you.

Sister Shannon  
No, that happens to us many times in our lives. And so it's just a way to begin to look more broadly. You're having such a wonderful experience in college, you're being stretched and growing. And so that's going to help you to remain open to what God is calling you to do. But don't lose sight of the importance of the relationship that you have with God during this time. I think if you make that a priority, then you'll hear what God is calling you to do, whether it's to married life or single life or to religious life. It's about developing a relationship with God so that you have a spiritual grounding, no matter where God calls you.

Sister Maxine  
I would add, too, that--when you comment about, "Since the relationship didn't work out, does that mean I should be a nun?" And it can work the other way. If religious life didn't work out, then should you get married? Now, these things are not like consolation prizes for each other.

Sister Shannon  
That's right. Or rebound relationships.

Sister Maxine  
Mm hmm. These are two very different calls. And yes, it may be if the situation of getting married, you've never found somebody who you feel that way about, then it may be then when you meet a religious congregation, the light goes on. That was how it was for me. When that light went on, I'm like, "Oh, this, this is where I was meant to be." These are not consolation prizes. These are not second best. It's about letting yourself be open to truly what is going to bring you joy in life.

Sister Shannon  
I think that's a really important point to make, Maxine, because it is about finding a way to serve God, to be happy, to love others, to be a member of the community of faith that changes lives and interacts well with people and develops a relationship with God.

Sister Maxine  
And even in the sense of parenthood, you know, maybe God's invitation even there won't be quite what you expect. Maybe it will be adoption, maybe it will be foster children.

Sister Shannon  
Who knows?

Sister Maxine  
Teaching. It could be anything.

Sister Shannon  
The last thing you say in your conversation with us is, "I don't want to consider it"--"it" is religious life here, but I think we could put marriage there as well--"for the wrong reasons." I think that's a really important realization. You want to make this decision out of love, out of the joy that comes from it. Because you've listened to others who you trust and who care about you. You want to make the decision out of your own experience of prayer and what you deeply feel God is calling you to.

Sister Maxine  
There's a lot of wisdom in your insights here, Abigail. Trust yourself and listen to yourself. Don't dismiss yourself for any reason, because I think that openness is going to be where you find the call that you recognize in your heart.

Sister Shannon  
Have fun while you're in college. Enjoy it. A very important time in your personal development and growth. And you should have your mind and your heart open to all good things.

Sister Maxine  
So, Abigail, we are going to hold you up in our prayers as you continue through college and on to wherever else God is calling you. Just know that we will keep you in prayer. It's time for a brief break. This is Ask Sister, a program of A Nun's Life Ministry. We want to thank our sponsors, and individual donors like you, who support makes the Ask Sister program possible. We love to hear from you, our listeners, and your input helps us create the podcasts that you enjoy. If you'd please take a couple of minutes right after this podcast to fill out a short survey, we'd be very grateful. And you can do that by clicking on the survey link in the Episode Notes of the podcast. We'll be right back.

Welcome back. You are listening to Sister Maxine and my co-host, Sister Shannon, here on the Ask Sister podcast. You can hear previous episodes of Ask Sister, as well as all of our In Good Faith podcasts, on our website. And you can find them and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Shannon, our final question comes in from Madison in West Virginia. And Madison writes, "I'm an Evangelical Christian, and I attend a university where I'm very active and open about my faith. I find a lot of strength in my personal relationship with Jesus. And the main point of my church is to help me grow in that personal relationship. My question is about something that my friends said their parents told them: that Catholics don't really focus on a personal relationship with Jesus. I wasn't sure what they meant, because don't all Christians focus on their relationship with Jesus? I'm hoping you can help me understand. Thank you." Madison, we appreciate the question. And you know, the relationship with Jesus--it's a huge question in anybody's faith life.

Sister Shannon  
It's a very important one, especially in the conversation between Evangelical Christians and Roman Catholics. We use different language, but we are after the same ultimate goal, which is to deepen our spiritual life and to grow in that. And so do Catholics ask that question, "Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior?" We do it through our sacramental life. We do it in baptism, when our godparents and our parents speak on our behalf. And then we secure that in Confirmation, when we claim it as our own.

Sister Maxine  
And from that we do grow into a personal relationship with God, with Jesus, as one would have a personal relationship with someone else. But as you were saying, it's in a different context. And our idea of church is a different context,

Sister Shannon  
It is a little different. But I think really, it's so similar in our ultimate desire to grow in wisdom and grace and knowledge. Just the other day in church, because we were celebrating the feast in our tradition of the Holy Family, which is the Sunday right after Christmas, they read the story of Jesus staying behind in the temple when He was 12 years old. And at the end of that story, it says that Jesus went back to Nazareth with his mom and dad, and he was there with them. And he grew in grace and knowledge and love and strength before God and the people. And I love that notion of Jesus's own growth and development. And that that's the call for us: to grow and develop in our relationship with Him in our relationship overall with our God, with the power of God, who we recognize as Creator, the power of Jesus, our Redeemer, the power of the Holy Spirit, who is our sanctifier.

Sister Maxine  
As we grow in that, I think the reality is that every day we are called to accept Jesus into our heart. Every day we are called to embrace this personal relationship.

Sister Shannon  
Madison, you may or may not be very familiar with liturgical practice within Roman Catholicism, but what sits at the heart and center, of course, is our belief in our Trinity, specifically belief in Jesus, and centered around that, our sacraments, our seven sacraments--not only baptism that you celebrate along with us. But we put a great deal of emphasis in our tradition on the notion of the Eucharist, that is sharing the table with our brothers and sisters coming to receive the Body and Blood of Jesus. And we take that in a very literal way. We really choose to bring Jesus into our hearts, through consuming the bread and the wine. We believe deeply that when we do so, we become, as it were, Jesus within us. And Eucharist is so essential that we attend every week, and we share at the table with one another every week. And many of us share at the table every day. Because we find the nourishment that comes from Eucharist so important in our relationship with Jesus.

Sister Maxine  
And it's not just the nourishment of us personally. It's the nourishment of the community that we are part of, that gives us life and we give our life to. And so yes, personal but also community.

Sister Shannon  
I think you're onto something really important there, Sister Max, when you talk about the notion of community, because while it is really important for us to develop a personal relationship with Jesus, we don't do that in isolation from one another. We want to develop a relationship with our brothers and sisters, with our church, with that whole sense of coming together as a community.

Sister Maxine  
You know, interestingly, the first question we had in the podcast sort of dealt with that community issue, you know, a woman whose seven friends were inviting her basically more deeply into prayer. And it's that community aspect that is really, for me as Catholic, also very important.

Sister Shannon  
So, to answer your question more directly, while Catholics don't use the same language, I suppose, as Evangelical Christians, we do work very hard throughout our lives at developing a personal relationship with Jesus.

Sister Maxine  
And there was a time historically--Sister Shannon and I were talking about it a bit before the podcast--where that was a little bit more difficult, when Catholics really weren't encouraged to read scripture as a way to learn more about who Jesus is.

Sister Shannon  
And so things have changed dramatically since the Second Vatican Council, which took place in the 1960s. And we are encouraged to deepen our understanding of the Scriptures, so that there is a balance between our sacramental life and our understanding of the power of the Word. So the Word has become essential to us. And understanding that Word means study of the Scriptures, and deepening our understanding of who Jesus is.

Sister Maxine  
Madison, if your friend's parents remember that time in history, they might be touching into that as well.

Sister Shannon  
The way things used to be rather than the way they currently are. And would it be possible to run across some Catholics who still believe that way? Of course. So we're a very large church organization, and we are a broad spectrum of believers. But the purpose is always to come together as a community as the body of Christ, as Paul tells us in several of his letters, recognizing Jesus as the head.

Sister Maxine  
And Madison, I am so pleased that being an Evangelical Christian, that you reached out to us. I think it is such a benefit, not just to all of us personally, but to the world, when we can ask each other questions about things we are curious about, about faith, about religion. I think that's a real positive.

Sister Shannon  
I agree. That took a great deal of wisdom on your part, to decide to write a letter to nuns and see what they had to say about your question. And so it was a happy thought for us to receive that.

Sister Maxine  
And anytime you have other questions, Madison, please do send them in. We're grateful for the questions and for your interest in your faith and in the interest in Catholicism.

Sister Shannon  
One ofthe most--well, it's hard to judge most important, but one of the many important developments that happened at the Second Vatican Council, which we mentioned earlier, was ecumenical dialogue became a very important piece of our life and our tradition. There were individuals from other faith traditions that were invited to come to Rome and be witnesses to the Council as it transpired. We grew in interreligious dialogue as well; we began to talk more with our Jewish brothers and sisters, our Muslim brothers and sisters, Buddhist, Hindu. We were encouraged to explore the beauty of each religious tradition and to acknowledge the wonder of each religious tradition. Because we're all on this journey, attempting to achieve oneness with our God.

Sister Maxine  
And the ecumenical piece of it--I was just recalling at Holy Wisdom Monastery, which is an ecumenical community in Wisconsin, they talk about ecumenism as everyone standing firm in their own tradition. It's not sort of like a mash up where you give a little bit of your own faith tradition away to accommodate others. It's really not that at all. It's standing firm in your own tradition, while embracing the traditions around you.

Sister Shannon  
Recognizing the beauty and the wonder, I love that notion. I could easily answer your question, "Have I accepted Jesus as my personal Savior?" And I would give this answer: that that happened on my behalf when I was baptized into the church, as an infant, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And it was made manifest in my life at confirmation, when I chose to make that commitment myself.

Sister Maxine  
Being a reflection of the love of Jesus in the world--that's what we're called to. And it sounds like Madison here is all about that, too.

Sister Shannon  
So Madison, you have some religious Roman sisters who are going to be praying for you, and supporting you as you continue your journey.

Sister Maxine  
Have a blessed New Year. Well, friends, that's our show for today. We appreciate your interest in this podcast. And if you have questions about God, faith, religious life, and pretty much anything else, please send them in. You can use the contact form on our website. And if you have a couple of minutes, please let us know your thoughts about the podcast. Just click the link in the Episode Notes to take a short survey. Thank you so much. Ask Sister is a production of A Nun's Life Ministry, helping people discover and grow in their vocation by engaging questions about God, faith, and religious life. The songs in our program are Bits and Pieces by Wild Carrot and In the Deep by Jen Edds. This program is made possible through the grace of God, the support of the sponsors of A Nun's Life Ministry, and you, our listeners. We are very grateful for your prayers, your encouragement and your support. Visit us at anunslife.org. God bless