In my 22 years of life, I have seen God work in ways I never thought possible. Despite my lack of faith in His love, mercy and goodness He has always remained faithful. I know this can sound obvious for those who have been raised Catholic and who have heard these words over and over again. But do we really believe that God who created the heavens and Earth comes to meet us in all our mess, in all our poverty, and all our pain to set us free? This is where we cry out to God to help our unbelief.

By “spicy,” I mean controversial or emotive or uncomfortable. You know the ones I’m talking about.

“Does the Church really hate gay people?”

“Why can’t women be priests?”

“How can God be a good person when He does so many bad things?”

Hey 15 year old Anti,

Beautiful Anti, (I know that you won’t admit that you need to hear yourself be called beautiful at the moment, or that you don’t quite believe it. So let it be spoken over your life until it settles in your heart years from now) allow me to introduce myself.

“What do I want?”

That question has given me a surprising amount of sleepless nights. For a simple question, it’s rarely an easy one to answer. There are some obvious prompts: I want love, fulfilment, hope, joy, peace; I want money, relationships, freedom, stability; I want people to like me, I want to be important, or useful, in the sense that I want to meaningfully contribute to the world…