I'm now managing two blogs.

I've started up an officially spiritual blog, which you may visit by clicking here. The reason is because Universal Faith is launching in December, so I thought it'd be fitting to have a Wordpress as well as this. You'll probably see the same blog posts here as there, though this blog will be more writing and art focused. The layout is just too gorgeous for me to abandon it, I spent a long time working on it.
Unfortunately, I won't be writing for a while. After two surgeries for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, I'll be taking a long-needed break, and instead focusing on reading and blogging. Maybe without so much writing I can develop a strong personality of my own. Don't worry, I'm not abandoning my projects. The Water Nymph Potion will be published, but it will be very different from how it was before. I've found lots of things that need changing, and ways to tighten the plot. Beautiful Dancing will be written someday as a Christian novel. The Wishing Well is probably going to be a thriller. The Shadow and all its sequels will be a fantasy series. My vampire books...well, I don't know about them. It depends on how my mind reinvents them when I start writing again...
...which won't be a while. My parents are watching me. My case of CT was really, extremely bad. So I'm finding some other hobbies to distract myself with in the meanwhile, including raising my voice about my religion. I'm learning what I believe and how to defend it. At this moment, I actually see myself more as an public figure inspiring people to become saints, than a bestselling author. We'll see what happens.
Both my blogs will be updated, so stick around. There's a lot going on in my head. It might not be a novel, but it'll be interesting.
P.S. I am praying for my bishop every Monday. If you're Catholic, you should pray for yours, too.

Friendship with Jesus will also lead you to bear witness to the faith wherever you are, even when it meets with rejection or indifference. We cannot encounter Christ and not want to make him known to others. So do not keep Christ to yourselves! Share with others the joy of your faith. The world needs the witness of your faith, it surely needs God. I think that the presence here of so many young people, coming from all over the world, is a wonderful proof of the fruitfulness of Christ's command to the Church: "Go into all the world and proclaim the Gospel to the whole creation" (Mk 16:15). You too have been given the extraordinary task of being disciples and missionaries of Christ in other lands and countries filled with young people who are looking for something greater and, because their heart tells them that more authentic values do exist, they do not let themselves be seduced by the empty promises of a lifestyle which has no room for God.

Pope Benedict XVI, WYD 2011

On Reading, Reviews, And Rereading Twilight.

First, I'm excited to finally be able to write a blog post on here that has something to do with reading and writing. I love writing about spirituality but I want there to be a balance, and I think that GOD is helping me to find that balance so I can write about both on here.
I wrote a couple of reviews which were first published on THE ESCAPISM PROJECT but I decided I can share on here, too, for my readers who enjoy reading and for some reason aren't yet following Escapism. From now on, when I read a book I'll be sharing my reviews on both blogs. If you're an Escapist blogger, feel free to do the same yourself.
I finished 13 LITTLE BLUE ENVELOPES and a review is a little bit overdue. I'll get to that ASAP. I also have to review BEASTLY, which I finished last night.

There are some books I've gotten recently that I'm going to read soon and review. I'm excited about all of them. There are titles from both genres, YA and Religion. A couple of books I'm rereading; others I'm discovering for the very first time. Here's a list of what I've got so far in the area of YA books, the volumes that I know I'm going to read: (Books in italics are ones I'm rereading; books in bold are new ones I've never read before. I'm not reading them in any particular order either, and this list may change with books appearing and disappearing, and there is no deadline.)

• Sing Me To Sleep by Angela Morrison
• Anna And The French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
• Shine by Lauren Myracle
• The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen
• The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
• The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
• A Great And Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
• Rebel Angels by Libba Bray
• The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray
• Wings by Aprilynne Pike
• Spells by Aprilynne Pike
• Illusions by Aprilynne Pike
• Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
• New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
• Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
• Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer

WAIT WAIT WAIT---YOU DON'T MEAN? HUH? TWILIGHT? THAT'S GOTTA BE A TYPO. That's probably what you're thinking. But you read correctly: I've decided to reread Twilight. It's been at least two years since I've read it last and I'm curious to see how my opinion on these books would differ now from how they were back then. I'm not saying I plan to read and love them, but I'm going to look at them with a critic's eye--or at least try to, because everyone knows I'm not a very good critic. Chances are I might throw aside Breaking Dawn before I finish it because I remember that book only for negative things. But I want to try it. It's just something I feel I have to do. I talk about how I dislike that series all the time but feel stupid doing it when I barely remember any of it, so I'm going to read it again in order to either change my mind or back up my claims.

Here are books about religion that I'm going to read, most of which I've never finished because though I love the subject I just can't skim them:

• Rediscovering Catholicism by Matthew Kelly
• Jesus Of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI
• The Sacred Romance by John Eldredge and Brent Curtis
• Spiritual Warfare For Every Christian by Dean Sherman
• Lord, Have Mercy by Scott Hahn

And, this is a 6-book boxed set on world religions that I got forever ago:

• Judaism by Alan Unterman
• Catholicism by George Brantl
• Protestantism by J. Leslie Dunstan
• Islam by John A. Williams
• Hinduism by Louis Renou
• Buddhism by Richard A. Gard

Some other books I have that are neither YA nor Religion:

• Tomorrow We Die by Shawn Grady
• The Prince Of Tides by Pat Conroy
• The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

Classic novels:

• The Prince And The Pauper by Mark Twain
• The Hunchback Of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo

Historical novels:

• The Diary of Anne Frank

I will, of course, keep you updated on any changes--additions, etc.--to this list. But so far this is what I've got and hopefully I can read them all by the end of the year.

I'm still open to suggestions and would love to hear what you think would be good books to read. I will put up my book reviews for Kissed by an Angel and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas tomorrow.

Hugs!

Browsing on Twitter, I found the same verse--just different translations--twice in a row.I guess it means something. Maybe this is a thing I'm supposed to know right now.I can do anything. :) Thank you, Jesus!

In Which Mariella Updates You On Her Progress Coming Out Of The Jar

This morning I had a lovely experience. Since I guess I'm an Insomniac at heart even without trying to be, I can't fall asleep too well. So I was up quite late--or early, if you want to put it that way--and decided that well, if I'm going to stay awake I may as well do something useful with my time. I decided to start reading my copy of the Youcat again. I'd gotten it a while back but only skimmed it, and not made it very far into the first chapter. This time I read the foreword written by the Pope and tried my hardest to pay attention to every little word, because they're all valuable in a book like this.

If you read the foreword, you'll see that the Youcat isn't just a book. It's a project several years in the making and its purpose was to clarify what Christians (or Catholics, if you want to see it in a narrow way) should believe. It's the result of the bishops of the Church working together. They came from all different parts of the world; their lifestyles varied and their languages did, too. But together they wrote for us a book that will clear up so much and after just a skim I have to say that any Catholic interested in learning about their faith, or any Christian wanting to learn about Catholicism, should give this book a try. It's interesting, easy to read, and written specifically for the youth of today's world.
Our youth need something to set us on fire with faith and this book is an attempt to do just that.
Anyway, in the foreword, the Pope wrote:

This Catechism will not make life easy for you, because it demands of you a new life. (Youcat, page 10)

That sentence really spoke to me, so I closed the book right here and got out a notebook. I hadn't written in my journal yet, and all I had nearby was one of those cool yellow notepads, but it would have to do. I quoted this line from the Youcat...and then I just started writing.
I don't know if I want to share the things I write when I get into real deep Jesus mode. It makes me feel really raw and vulnerable. Being human, I don't want to be raw or vulnerable. I want to be strong and impressive, somebody that others can look up to. After reading an article today, though, I realized that there's no reason why people can't look up to me if I'm not strong and impressive--it might be just another reason for people to look up to me--but that's an issue for another blog post.
Without further ado, I'm going to swallow my pride and share what Jesus wanted me to share. I think I'll be sharing a lot more from now on.

This Catechism will not make life easy for you, because it demands of you a new life.   p. 10

Don't I kind of start a new life every single day? I am constantly going to sleep with the resolve that I am changed; that I'll pray more; that I will use my gifts to serve the LORD only. And every day I fail. And every night I start over again.

Does Jesus ever get angry or frustrated with me? Does He ever stop and think, "Well, maybe she'll always be a blunt tool; I can't do much with her; she makes one impact on the world and then needs sharpening again!"

If He does, and since He loves me anyway--well, I can truly do anything. I find all my hope in the fact that I'm such a hopeless case but He still loves me...and He somehow wants me so much. There is nowhere I can go to hide from this, either, even if I wanted to. He loves me and He wants me and there is absolutely nothing I can do about it--but the wise choice would be to respond and accept it.

Because the wise thing to do if someone loves you, the good and beautiful response, is to love back. But the beauty of love is another subject altogether, one that I feel like I'll be uncovering soon.

I have value in Him...so much value. But only in Him can I ever do anything with it!

I wrote this at about 5am so any grammar mistakes or the likes cannot be blamed on me. I wrote it by hand in the little notepad. Now I don't know if what I wrote is right, but to me it feels right--at least, applying it to my situation specifically. This is something He said to Me. Maybe He's saying it to you, too--just ask and listen!
What I really want to point you to is the part in bold-face typing: But the beauty of love is another subject altogether, one that I feel like I'll be uncovering soon.
After I finished writing this in my notebook, I opened the Youcat again, finished the foreword, and started on the first chapter. I found this: (Since it's a lot to type up I'm just going to take a picture of the page I want to quote.)

It was like a direct response to what I wrote in my journal entry before that. So, I wrote another journal entry:

We were made out of love. It's in our fiber. It's our purpose. We don't need an explanation beyond that, really, as to why humans love and why it's so hard to describe different types of love and it doesn't even really have to make sense, either. We were made out of 'leftover love'; therefore, we love.

It's one of those instances in which we can't explain why we do something; we just do.

I put away my journal and decided to go outside to watch the sun rise, since I was awake anyway. I stood there and gazed at the sky and contemplated it.

Jesus is love...He loves me so much...I'm made out of love...love is my instinct...

It felt like I finally knew my purpose, what I was here for, and I got an idea of just how valuable I really am.

I felt so much joy at that moment. I was in pajamas but I danced around the back yard for five minutes.I feel like Jesus was there dancing with me.
Then I finally went to bed...But I still didn't fall asleep for an hour. (Needless to say, I slept very little and am a bit groggy right now.)
I'm being called back to love, called back to Christ, and told what my purpose is. Gradually, I'm learning what I've got to do with my life. It's like a summer romance but way above that. This summer is being great for me, not because I have some earthly love story that'll probably end in a break-up when the winter comes. I stopped worrying about that kind of romance, since I don't think those are in His plans for me anytime soon to begin with.
No, this summer is a love story to me because I'm learning who I am in GOD's eyes.Jesus is helping me out of my jar.And I know I can truly do anything.
Thanks for following me on my journey so far :) ♥

JESUS: The Perfect Gentleman

...for everything that becomes visible is light.

Therefore, it says: "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light."

Ephesians 5:14, NAB

http://weheartit.com/entry/11169206

I have always believed Ephesians 5 to be the perfect example of the mission one ought to set for their life. It's beautiful, it's comforting...it has always set me on fire for my life in a manner different from what other passages can do. No matter how many times I read it, or how many times I am going to read it, my reaction to it will always be the same: It makes me realize my self-worth. It reminds me that in Christ I will always be so much more than you see on the outside. I can shine if I choose to. I can live as a child of The Ultimate Light that brings joy and peace to the whole world. Though nobody can shine as brightly as He does, we can shine enough to help bring light to our own world.

A couple of days ago, there was a thunderstorm. It was the biggest, most epic thunderstorm I have ever seen in my life. It made me afraid at first, then I decided I was overreacting. I remarked jokingly to a friend, losing my mind for just a moment, "Wow, god must be really angry to send us a thunderstorm like this." Perhaps at that moment I was thinking of the Greek god Zeus, because on retrospect I know that our own GOD loves us too much. I just cannot imagine Him sending a storm like that out of anger. He could, but do you think He would?

My friend Jenn promptly put me in my place with her reply. "Or maybe He's putting on this really great show because He loves you so much."

I felt a little bit embarrassed at my own remark. She was so right. "Yeah," I replied thoughtfully, "I think that's it."

But it was only later that I would realize how right she was. I went to the window to watch the thunderstorm. Since at that moment the lightning was taking place behind the house where I could not see it, I instead listened to the thunder and wondered...

I had read a post on someone's Tumblr moments ago about the love of Jesus being a perfect love. No gentleman could beat Him--He is the Holy One, the Hero Who died for us and then defeated death. He created the universe. He is so big. What did I do to deserve such love from Him that He would put on the thunderstorm of such magnitude because He loves me that much?

I have done nothing to deserve this. If this is a love story, I am the ragged beggar with nothing to boast of, and He is the glorious knight Who loves me when there is nothing I can ever offer Him at all.

But the saddest part is, I no longer pray as often as I ought. It took a thunderstorm for Jesus to get me off the computer and to the window where we can talk and spend some time together.

He is so big, but with the worldly things dominating my mind, I BLIND MYSELF TO HIM!

HE DOES NOT DESERVE THIS, to be 'throwing stones at my window,' so to speak, just to get me to look at Him.

But you know what is so beautiful about this story? He forgave me. He forgives all of us in a manner that a normal gentleman never could. He keeps coming back when I forget Him. He keeps giving me chance after chance when I, the ragged beggar, have done nothing to earn it. I don't deserve it. Neither do you. We never will, but Jesus doesn't see that.



http://weheartit.com/entry/11155738
Need help getting out of your jar you put yourself in?
Just ask GOD. He'll open it for you.
But only if you tell Him you want to get out. Are you
having fun in the jar with the common butterflies, or do
you want to be free?

 He loves us more than we could ever possibly imagine. More than we can love Him back. More than a human guy can love us. Why does he love us?

There is no reason. He just does.

I will put my all into loving Him back as much as I can with the tiny human heart I have. He died for me. I do not want to leave Him waiting out a window for me to come speak with Him through the glass. Either I let Him in to be with me, or I come out to be with Him.

To do either of those, I need to pray. To do either of those, GOD needs to help me. He needs to open the jar of worldly things I put myself in, and then give me the courage to climb through and be with Him.

Take, for example, the gorgeous photo of these butterflies being let out of their jar. They have probably been put on display for being beautiful. Maybe a couple of them showed off so someone caught them in a net. One might have done it on purpose to become famous. Maybe they were born in a little cage and have never seen freedom but from an outside source. They were put on a shelf, and people stared at them and said, "Look! What pretty butterflies! See how they have wings?"

They have wings, but if they're in a jar to show off, can they really fly like they're meant to?

Similarly, I might have light, but if I'm stuck in a worldly box with just a little window, can I really shine like I want to?

What I have to do is ask, "GOD, please open this jar...I desire so strongly to be with You and fly by Your side among the saints and angels in heaven. But I can't open this jar I put myself in without Your help. It's closed too tightly...I can't open it."

You can ask this, too. And guess what? He will open it. But only if you tell Him you want to be by His side...and not with the other butterflies in the jar who prefer to be distant from Him.

It's up to you. It's up to me. Where do you want to be?

At the window, we talked about Ephesians 5. He told me that if I wanted to be a child of light, if I wanted to shine, I need only ask. If I wanted to get out of the jar of worldly things, He can take me up to the sky where I can shine like nothing you've ever seen before. He can make me brighter than the stars. So I asked Him to open the window tonight, after a couple of days contemplating what happened. Right now I'm in the process of climbing hesitantly through the window, thinking--what if I fall?

The thing is, I might be going through that process all my life, but I know that He's helping me through the window, so what have I to fear? And the least I can do is love Him with everything I've got. So I'm going to risk climbing through that window!

Guess what? He can make you shine, too. He's PERFECT! Better than a hero in a novel or anyone that will ever exist. And He wants you! How amazing is that?

So my question now is this: Do you love Jesus with everything you've got? Or are you going to make Him throw stones at your window?

Does He deserve that?

Don't you want to get out of the jar of worldly things and become radiant like a star in the heavens? Are you going to ask GOD to open the jar? Are you scared to fall out the window? Jesus will catch you.

Think about it.