By Annie-Rose Keith
Connecting Liturgy and Life
Editor’s note: For 2026, the weekly “Connecting Faith and Life” column has been renamed “Connecting Liturgy and Life.” The column consists of reflections on Part Two of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), which focuses on the Liturgy and the Sacraments.
cf. CCC 1468-1473, 1474-1484
I like to dabble. Not just in one specific thing, but in a bunch of different creative outlets. I’m not particularly good at any of them, but being able to choose to have a variety of activities is quite fun for me. For most of my teenage/young adult life, I would start a new hobby expecting to be perfect at it. I immediately wanted to monetize it and take over the world, etc. I am very good at making plans and having big illustrious dreams, but usually what happens is God knocks just ever so quietly, and gently says, “Annie-Rose, loving daughter. I love your energy, but … no.” And then I become slightly annoyed because being told no is hard for this eldest daughter.
I really have to work hard at making sure that I don’t feed this pressure to be perfect or obsess over what others are going to think of me in whatever project I am dabbling in. I certainly want to improve in painting, graphic design or playing guitar, but I don’t want to get better to increase production. I want to get better for the sake of my own heart. I want to get better at creativity because my heart longs for beauty and desperately needs more peace.
This same idea, I feel, could be applied to any situation where one has to do it because it lifts you up, and because it lifts you up, it lifts others up, too. That’s the fruit of really acting on your calling as a Christian. The biggest roadblock in achieving a life of beauty, truth, goodness (and peace) is our own free will. We have to choose to live our lives in Christ each day. We are well aware that we are going to fail in this, as is our fallen human nature. But through the Sacrament of Penance, the sacrament of Reconciliation, we can be made new again. We just have to choose to get up and go find a priest.
Communion with God was given before the fall and was made possible again after Jesus’s death on the cross. Free will, by God’s grace, is never fully jeopardized despite mankind’s propensity to sin. Humanity is continuously invited to turn back to God, who lovingly never falters in seeking after his creation. Mankind is not forced to follow him, but rather, by seeking him with fallen natures, mankind’s inclination to fail is shrouded by God’s loving embrace if the penitent is truly sincere. Furthermore, if one looks for the Lord “while He may be found,” a sense of urgency is made clear (Isaiah 66:6). Humanity is compelled to hurriedly run after the Lord for communion and forgiveness because of his abundant pardon, much like Adam and Eve. It is a comforting thought that regardless of how often mankind falls, “as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are (God’s) ways higher than your ways” (Isaiah 66:9).
We are constantly invited by scripture and witnesses to repent and believe in the Gospel. This invitation is presented in a myriad of ways throughout the Gospels, but one particular note comes from John the Baptist. This radical witness is an exemplary invitation to a deeper relationship with “the one that is coming” (Mark 1:7). We can also announce “the one that is coming” by living our lives in manners befitting of our baptisms. By tuning our inner compasses towards perfection, not production.