You, Yes YOU—Watch This!

WE ARE GROWING AS A COMMUNITY!

Please forward to anyone you think would benefit from these vlogs and have them join the Compassionate Culture—www.kendravonesh.com/compassionate-culture

Was it my thumbnail that got you, or was it the title?

I don’t really care. I’m just glad you’re watching. So stick with me for a few minutes. I’m Kendra Von Esh. I put these vlogs together every week to share the Gospel and show you how to live it in today’s modern times. And I can’t believe those words are coming out of my mouth because five years ago I didn’t need God! I was confirmed Catholic, never practiced, didn’t understand a thing about the religion, and for the past 15 years, I wasn’t even a “Chreaster” meaning I wasn’t even going to Christmas and Easter Mass. I had no religion in my life at all! So when I did find God, more like when He found me, everything changed … my entire life changed! I transformed and I didn’t want to change. As a matter of fact, I didn’t want anything about Catholicism to be true! But I researched it and the more I found, the more I was dumbfounded at the fact that it IS THE TRUTH.

And that was when I became a devout Catholic. So much so that I left my career as an Executive in Corporate America for the past 20 years to become an Author and a Speaker to inspire YOU to enrich your life through faith and prayer … and to bring all of the beauty and the truth of the sacraments of the Catholic faith to you! You can learn more … this isn’t an ad … but I wrote a book. It’s written for YOU! Those of you who do not think you need God and for all of you fallen away Catholics and for those people who are looking for some peace, love, and joy in their life and for transformation in your life. It is called Am I Catholic? A Struggle with Faith, Humility and Surrendering to God. It’s a super quick read. It’s funny. It’s really about my journey cuz I’m just like YOU.

This is why I want you to stick with me because I’ve had people of all walks of life reach out to me through my email and talk to me about their struggles or about my new path and ministry. Some people I know and a lot of people I don’t know have sent me a couple page emails and it’s pretty amazing! But I’ll get to that after I do what I’m supposed to do on these vlogs, which is bringing the Gospel to you and show you how to live it in today’s modern times. These hands never touched a bible five years ago! I just thought it would be the most boring thing ever. I hated Mass, I never went to church, I never really paid any attention when I was there when I was younger either, but after I realized how amazing the Gospel is, I had to bring it to you with a Kendra-twist, so we’re going get started.

Let me just read it real quick.

Gospel John 6:41-51

The Jews murmured about Jesus because he said,
“I am the bread that came down from heaven, ”
and they said,
“Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph?
Do we not know his father and mother?
Then how can he say,
‘I have come down from heaven’?”
Jesus answered and said to them,
“Stop murmuring among yourselves.
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him,
and I will raise him on the last day.
It is written in the prophets:
They shall all be taught by God.
Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me.
Not that anyone has seen the Father
except the one who is from God;
he has seen the Father.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever believes has eternal life.
I am the bread of life.
Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died;
this is the bread that comes down from heaven
so that one may eat it and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”

Alright, that’s a lot, especially for those of you have never read the Bible or never even heard the Gospel before. The point here is you have to believe in Jesus that He was sent from the Father and you need to eat His flesh to live. This is so jacked up, right? So it’s funny … I was talking to my husband just this weekend and he is a confirmed Catholic. As a matter of fact, he was an altar boy, but he, like me, didn’t really learn what it meant to be Catholic and he is not practicing the faith now even though he’s watching his wife transform her life, leave her executive career and follow God and help others to find Him. I mean, how crazy is that? BUT he’s the most supportive, loving guy ever, I’m so blessed! And I asked him, “Do you believe in God?”

And he said, “I just can’t comprehend it … something being created from nothing and all these miracles, and you tell me that the Eucharist is the real presence of God and it’s Jesus’s body and blood.” So I started talking to him about the Eucharistic miracles and I have that link in here for you and then I started talking to him about the early church fathers, the ones who had the faith passed down from the 12 apostles teaching that it IS the living God. That’s why Mass, to some people, is boring because I don’t think they realize that’s what the priest is doing. He’s changing that bread into the living God so check out the Eucharistic miracles blog—God is helping us wrap our feeble human brains around this by showing us through some miracles that YES, this is God, the living body, and blood.

One of the Eucharistic miracles was when a priest, during the Protestant Reformation, started doubting and wondering, is this really God when I read the Eucharistic Prayer and Consecrate the host? Do I really change it into the living body and blood? And that day it started bleeding and it bled onto the Altar and he put it on the altar and called, who is now Pope Francis, at the time he was the bishop and they put it in water. So it was coagulated blood and flesh. And not just flesh from your arm, but flesh from the innermost part of your heart, the piece that actually pumps all the blood to all of the different arteries into your body. And they put it in water and it hasn’t changed form at all. It’s not in any preservative it is only in water! And there are other Eucharistic miracles where it hasn’t changed form for centuries (in no preservatives) and all are Jesus’s blood type. They can also prove that the heart was under immense stress as if the person was beaten to death. Hmmmmm. So, there are proven miracles that are out there for all you peeps who cannot wrap your mind around this.

And then I had a friend of mine send me an email. He said, “You know, hey, great stuff that you’re doing, I get it, I catch your drift. But I’m not religious at all and if I was, it wouldn’t be Catholic.”

And then a Catholic said, “Thank you so much for explaining this because I didn’t know! I’m sitting in Mass every week and I had no idea that the Eucharist is the real body and blood of Christ.”

And then there are others who have reached out who are lukewarm right now. They were on fire for the faith they get it, they understand the faith, but they’re just kind of feeling a little down about the faith. There’s some stuff going on with some priests now or maybe you’re ticked off from, you know, the previous scandals … there are scandals everywhere. I mean, let’s face it—human beings are not infallible. They commit sins. It doesn’t mean that the entire Church is and should be condemned because of their actions. We have a lot of work to do here, I know.

So, all I ask this week for all of you in whatever part of what I’m talking about with all these different people who reached out that relates to YOU is to pray.

I don’t care if you don’t have a relationship with God right now, pray, ask Him for one. Say, “Hey God, I’m here. I don’t know what the heck I’m asking for, but I’ve been told that if I pray that you will do all the work.” And watch and see your relationship grow and your life be enriched.

And my last thing is for those of you who don’t know or don’t believe or just are unsure of this whole “Catholic thing” come on, you guys are smart. Do what I did—go research it. Go look up this stuff and learn for yourself. Your happiness, your peace, your love can be so much GREATER.

Oh, by the way, your soul also redeemed. This isn’t a light subject. And you DO have time to look up this stuff. And take it from me, everything is richer with God, your personal life, your professional life, your relationships, your everything. Your life is GREATER with God.

And I know this to be a fact because my faith transformed my life and I didn’t want to change.

There’s kind of this chasm between,”Yeah, I get what she’s saying but I really don’t want to change my life because I kind of like living for me.”

That’s exactly where I was. But it wasn’t like I changed in a flash. The more I prayed, and my prayer life is so different from the beginning of my journey, the easier things were for me to see the way I was living, how I was treating others and what I should be doing on this earth and in this life.

I mean, I’ve got to tell you, when I thought about Heaven and Hell and where I was going to go … I was wearing the jersey from Satan’s team for 42 plus years. It’s pretty sad. And only recently have I changed colors and changed the jersey to God’s team. And life is incredibly rich! I didn’t give up anything, except my career, BUT that’s because I want to come out and share this with EVERYONE because it’s amazing!!

And it’s funny, when I first started my shift to become an Author and a Speaker, I was a little bit crazed. I was thinking of all the things I had to do. I’ve got to design my book, edit, format, record, market and get it out there and set up a website and content, etc. I was in the midst of madness and working on a ton of things.

Every day I pray off of my laptop, I read the daily scriptures, I go to daily Mass and I spend some time reflecting and in silence so that I can hear what He wants me to do. One week, I was not really doing very good prayer-wise because every time I would get on my laptop an email would come in or I would go to my website and I would start working on things. I was “tasking” myself to death. I was even “phoning it in” and watching Mass on TV on EWTN. So I wasn’t going and receiving the Lord into my body and soul giving it the nourishment it needed every day.

And my husband, as I told you, who is not faith-based and isn’t practicing, asks me on a Friday “Honey, are you going to Mass or are you praying anymore?” And I thought to myself, “Busted!” and said, “Why? Why? Why do you ask?” And he said, “Because you’re losing it, hon. I mean you’re anxious, you’re snippy and lately, you have had zero patience and I can see it all over you.”

So I admitted, “Uh, yeah, I cannot tell a lie. I have not been praying and going to Mass this week.” And you better believe I turned that right around. He said, “You have got to get back to prayer and back to Mass because you are a better person. You’re more loving. You’re more kind. You’re more peaceful and compassionate and definitely more patient!” Patience is a real big issue for me. And then he said, “I love you more when you’re practicing your faith.” And that’s coming from a guy who watches me go to Mass every Sunday.

So I have to say if this at all “touches” you do your research. If you’re a fallen away Catholic, go back to Mass but don’t receive the Eucharist until you’ve gone to confession. Especially if it’s been a long time! It was 26 years for me when I went back to confession. I don’t care how long you’ve been away. By the way, it was the best day ever!! I floated out of there and, you know, I had two pages written down of stuff that I did and I’m sure I didn’t recall everything!

I just have to say it again, my faith has transformed my life. It’s not just me saying it, it’s the people around me, so do it for yourself. Don’t worry about what anybody else thinks. Go research yourself.

That’s the task this week because again, in here, I’m going to read it again. I am the bread of life. This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may EAT it and not die. That is why we go to Mass. That is the Eucharist. We prepare ourselves to eat Him and bring Him into our body and soul. Go research it. Look at the links that I put in here, I gave you a few gems that can help you on your way.

I really don’t want this to be like a book-pimp, if you get my book, there’s a link to a free Resource Guide of all the things I looked up so that maybe it can shorten your time and you can check out some of the things that really changed my life.

So, thanks for your time. I really hope you stayed through the whole thing. Do your own research. This is your life for crying out loud. Don’t you owe it to yourself to figure this out, do your own research and not just take what other people are spoon feeding you?

All right, that’s it! I hope you have a blessed and inspired week … thanks for watching.