Perspective

June 8, 2025

Perspective

It’s been quite an Easter season! For me it was the first time I’ve truly paid attention to the apostolic succession process. I was sitting at my desk when the news of the white smoke was announced. I kept one eye on the screen I had up on a monitor, watching the balcony in St. Peter’s Square. I was texting the friends who first helped me tip toe back to the Church, sharing my excitement as if my cradle Catholic routes had never been close to a drought.

It’s really something—how my eyes have been opened to a world that’s always been here. I just couldn’t see it before.

Thanks be to God for these new glasses!

Kentucky Derby Half Marathon

While the Church was preparing for the conclave, I was traveling. I had the blessing of visiting nine different churches in just seven days! I started with a half marathon in Louisville, The Derby Mini-Marathon https://derbyfestivalmarathon.com/

The Catholic Sites I visited were:

Louisville, KY – Cathedral of the Assumption
Louisville, KY – Saint Martin of Tours
Bardstown, KY – Basilica of Saint Joseph Proto-Cathedral
Trappist, KY – Abbey of Gethsemani
Crestview Hills, KY – Monte Cassino Chapel
Covington, KY – Mother of God Church
St. Augustine, FL – Our Lady of La Leche National Shrine
St. Augustine, FL – Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine
Jacksonville, FL – Basilica of the Immaculate Conception

I love to travel, see new places, and run races in cities I haven’t been to before. I made a pre-COVID commitment to run a half marathon in every U.S. state. Now, with my return to practicing the Catholic faith and my renewed biblical worldview, it feels only natural to incorporate Catholic sites and history into these race trips.

First—what an awesome experience at the Derby! The people, the city, the race, the crowds—everything was great! The mini-marathon route even ran us through Churchill Downs the week before the Derby…and yes, I thought it was nice and flat! I’m not a foodie but a bunch of good restaurants and I even made time for a bourbon tour at Angels Envy. I’ve referenced the places I enjoyed on this trip below.

When I finished my travels in KY, I hopped off to Florida for some sun, beach runs, and the site of the first Catholic Mass held in the United States of America, on September 8, 1565, by Father Francisco Lopez. I even had time for a paddle board tour with Three Brothers Adventures in St. Augustine with an awesome guide named Noah. References below.

Keeping Faith at the Center of Life

Not long after my divorce was finalized, I lost my job. I saw it coming—God gave me a heads up thankfully—but it was still hard. The next few months were filled with further introspection, prayer, and surrender as if the previous four years of navigating a difficult divorce weren’t enough. You see life differently when losing the roof over your head is a real possibility, and you start to think about why you’re here and what truly matters.

Returning to an office required restructuring the prayer habits that I had started when I was 100% remote and then developed further during the break from the busy working parent lifestyle. Hybrid work makes it easier—a daily Mass or adoration can fit into my morning or a lunch break. I’ve learned to keep faith at the center, even when schedules shift.

A running rosary in the morning is a nice moving prayer in addition to my favorite apps, Hallow and Ascension. There I can listen to Fr. Mike Schmitz homilies, Bible in a Year, a Jeff Cavins daily reflection or one of the challenges or study plans they both offer. If it’s a Monday it has to be a podcast by Fr. Riccardo and Mary @ ACTXXIX. There is so much great content out there right now! I continue to find new ways to hear the Word of God through out the day and I love the collaboration between so many gifted religious and educated theologians. I’m grateful to be alive right now.

This trip gave me time to reset again, and reflect as the Church was gathering to elect the next Pope, back to when the Holy Spirit first nudged me in 2016:

“Why do you wear the Holy Mother around your neck? When was the last time you came to visit me?” Back then, I didn’t feel like I was living who I was meant to be, and I felt it, I knew something was off, but I didn’t know how to fix it. I have an entire library of self-help books on relationships, careers, kids…you name it, as I tried to find the answer.

A frantic working mom of three, doing my best to make everyone happy, working towards another deadline, trying to make “progress” towards what I was supposed to accomplish. But what exactly was I supposed to accomplish? Raise good kids? Bring in my half of the household income? Save a college education for the kids? Achieve a title? All of these things can of course be good things, creating financial security for your family is a good thing, as is working towards personal and professional goals. However, when they cause us to lose our focus on the fact that we are just stewards of all of these things given to us by God, they can become idols. Idols which then separate us from God, and that creates a problem.

What’s with me and the Churches?

I’ve always loved the quiet of libraries and churches, but the church is more than just quiet. It is in these churches where He makes his presence felt most strongly to me. Whether it be in worship with others at the Mass or in silence with only Him and me. I have found an incredible comfort in the Church these last five years.

Just sitting in a church while no one else is there, gazing at the flicker of the candle in front of the Tabernacle, I feel a sense of safety. Away from the noise and the distractions of the world. I can’t always separate myself from those distractions easily but stepping inside a church and closing the doors behind me gives me the space I need. If you are feeling frazzled by the world step inside your neighborhood Catholic church for fifteen minutes and just sit there and take a few deep breaths. What do you have to lose?

Walking through the churches on this trip also gave me pause to think about a time when these churches were built. The time when there were people who spent day after day working together to build a house of worship where all people felt called to come together and say thank you to our Heavenly Father. In fact, the church in Bardstown, KY was built together by Catholics and Protestants. I look at the intricate details and I see how everything in the church tells a story. The story of my family, my brothers and sisters who have walked the earth before I was created. I look to them for inspiration and ask for their intercession. The saints that line the walls of these churches, either in statues or stained-glass are saying to us, I’ve been there, I understand, but you can do it too. It’s the goal, just like Fr. Mike Schmitz has said: “The saints were ordinary people who gave God permission to do extraordinary things.”

I wonder what it felt to live in such an age, as it is certainly at odds with the culture of today. Our society seems to align more so with the meme made popular on a juvenile cartoon show ,“I do what I want! I do what I want!”

Visiting these churches and watching as 133 Cardinals from all over the globe elected our Pope Leo XIV, I was reminded of this sentence from Christendom to Apostolic Mission, “The point is that the Church has great powers of regeneration. It is not a static body with a fixed amount of resources and a limited number of adherents. It responds to each situation it encounters with the power and generative quality of the Holy Spirit.” That power, beyond that which we can see, has ensured that the Catholic Church, would endure, as stated when Jesus elected the first Pope, Saint Peter in Matthew 16:18 “And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld will not prevail against it”. It has been put through difficult times throughout history, yet here I am a disciple of Jesus 2,000 years later. We celebrate that today, Pentecost Sunday, the birthday of the church.

I was having a talk with someone recently about death and I said “I think some funerals are easier when I know that the person had faith.” They asked, “what is your definition of faith?” I answered that faith is an action, not only the belief in God but the response to that belief. In other words, not saying I love my neighbor, but actually doing my part in taking care of others. Not just saying I believe in God but being in a relationship with Him. I have a greater appreciation now for the Church as I see very clearly how evil attempts to separate us from each other and God. I believe that the Catholic Church has the difficult job of being true to what Jesus taught, all of what He taught. I believe that the sacraments and practicing my faith are the way I can become closest to the person that God created me to be.

My perspective on EVERYTHING in life is very different now than it used to be. I don’t wish to offend anyone by sharing my viewpoint whether not practicing, Protestant, Nondenominational, Jewish whatever. What I do want to make it clear that the word Catholic means universal or all-inclusive. The Church never said to me, your divorced so stay away, you are not welcome. Jesus makes very clear that the Church is a place for sick not the perfect, but in Matthew 5:17-20 also makes very clear the importance of the law.

Yes, now I go to Mass, Adoration, Confession, I even have a rosary hanging from my car mirror. Do I do this because I think I am holier than you? Not by a long shot, what I do hope is that someone sees my Rosary and thinks, hmmmm, when’s the last time I talked to God? The just man sins seven times a day, we are all sinners. I’ve just made the intentional decision to use the tools the Catholic church gives us to grow in my faith and I feel the difference. We all have our crosses, and we all decide again every single day. It is really the same as how I started my love of running. It wasn’t easy at first, but I felt the benefits in my life and it just got better as I found other people to run with. I’m going to continue to keep God at the center of my life and maybe I’ll find a few others who might feel called to step away from the noise and into the peace of the Catholic Church.

We all have free will, God has given that to us, and we all have our own perspectives. Our families of origin, our experiences, the people we have have in our life right now can color how we see the world around us. We all have our own spiritual journeys, and just like our bodies and our minds, we get to choose how we train them. As Jesus tells us in the Bible, if you don’t like what I have said and taught, you can leave, He knows some will leave – John 6:60-71. I pray that you take the time to think about your perspective and where it might be coming from to make sure it’s your own.

Cheerfully in Christ,

Karen✝️

Sundays With Ascension Fr. Mike Schmitz