Integration 3: A Life Well-Lived


A Pilgrim on her Journey

At the beginning of the semester, I realized that I am currently living a life that I will
want to remember when I look back at it. So, I began writing a little bit everyday a few times a
week about everything that was happening in my life. Now, I have nineteen pages of writing on a
document called “I want to remember.” On the first day I wrote “I can’t even imagine leaving
here, the place that has become my home, and the people who have become my family! I already
know I will miss it dearly someday.” Now, reflecting on all of these entries, I have decided that a
life well lived is one where we follow the paths God leads us down and love the people He puts
in front of us.

One of my favorite hymns is “The Servant Song.” One of the lines is “We are pilgrims on
a journey, / We are trav'lers on the road; / We are here to help each other / Walk the mile and bear
the load.” The Meruelo Family Center for Career Development compares planning for your
career to preparing to go on a trip: “Usually planning a trip is not a quick process - depending on
the nature of the trip - but hopefully it’s also a bit fun and rewarding, especially if you end up
having a really great time!” (“Navigating Your Career Journey - Moreau First Year Experience
Course” Merulo Family Center for Career Development - Moreau FYE Week Four). The steps I
am making now for my career are preparing me to go on this journey. However, what makes
planning a career different from planning a trip is that on trips you know your destination- for
one’s career, the future is much less clear. However, the lessons I have learned by going to
Campus Ministry’s Discernment Coffee Hours has helped me be at peace with this. Someone
made the point that no path that we choose to go down in life is bad, even if it ends up not being
the path we pursue, because we will always learn something along the way. For example, while
I’m glad that I decided to no longer pursue being a vocal performance major, I am forever
grateful for the semester that I gave it a try. I got to see some beautiful singers, my voice and
sight-reading skills improved dramatically, and the workload that came with it taught me how to
appreciate the times when I wasn’t busy and have a positive outlook on working. In the end, as
long as we choose a path that is going towards Heaven, we can be at peace knowing that life is a
journey with an eternal destination. To quote Sister Aletheia, “Remembering death keeps us
awake, focused, and ready for whatever might happen — both the excruciatingly difficult and the
breathtakingly beautiful” (“Meet the Nun Who Wants You to Remember You Will Die” by Ruth
Graham - Moreau FYE Week Three). We are pilgrims on a journey, and our final destination will
always end as death- no matter what path in life we took. Although some may see this as cryptic,
remembering our true destination makes our purpose in life seem so simple, and since death can
come at any moment, often the best thing we can do is worry less about the path ahead and try
our best to live a life well-lived every day. The best evidence of why this is true can be seen on
our Sabbaths. In the words of Pico Iyer, “The Sabbath recalls to us that, in the end, all our
journeys have to bring us home. And we do not have to travel far to get away from our less
considered habits. The places that move us most deeply are often the ones we recognize like
long-lost friends; we come to them with a piercing sense of familiarity, as if returning to some

https://undergradcareers.nd.edu/navigating-your-career-journey---moreau/
https://undergradcareers.nd.edu/navigating-your-career-journey---moreau/
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/14/us/memento-mori-nun.html


source we already know” (“Why we need to slow down our lives” by Pico Iyer - Moreau FYE
Week One). I believe that God gave us Sabbaths to remember the purpose of our journeys, that
we are meant to enjoy life on the way to our destination, and to show us a small glimpse of what
Heaven will be like. We must have a chance to pause and reflect on our journeys if we are ever to
know that we are living the life we are meant to live. For exactly the same reason we are given
suffering. In the words of Saint Augustine, “the wayfarer traveling toward his homeland must not
fall in love with a stable instead of a home” (Exposition, 231). Our final destination is not
anything beautiful in this world, because everything that is beautiful is temporary- everything
grows old, everything fades, everything dies. We are fragile beings, and we are made to undergo
suffering in our lives. In the words of Dr Kim, “The purpose of my life is not simply about
overcoming suffering. Suffering is part of our lives. It is always there, but it is about how to
respond to suffering with God. And that’s the reason how I was able to go through them and still
trust in God and live with joy and gratitude” (“5 Minutes” by Dr. Jihoon Kim - Moreau FYE
Week Six). Living a life well-lived means not becoming discouraged because of suffering. It is
remembering that even Christ allowed Himself to suffer so that we might be free from suffering.
In turn, Christians are called to take up their own crosses out of love for Christ. In the words of
Saint Therese the Little Flower, “I want to suffer and even rejoice for love, for this is my way of
scattering flowers. Never a flower shall I find but its petals shall be scattered for you; and all the
while I will sing; yes, always sing, even when gathering roses in the midst of thorns; and the
longer and sharper the thorns may be, the sweeter shall be my song!” For this reason, I don’t see
suffering as an obstacle to a life well-lived. Rather, I see it as an opportunity to give my life more
fully to God.

The important thing to remember about our paths is that we never walk them alone.
When looking back at what I wrote in my journal over the past month, all of the experiences
about which I wrote were grounded in my relationship with the people I experienced them with.
Whether it was singing in the liturgical choir, helping my group mates in calc tutorial, going to a
Bible study at St. Mary’s, or going to a faith group in my dorm, I would always be writing less
about what I was doing than the people I was doing it with. When God puts people in our lives,
often our paths can intertwine and these people become a part of our story instead of just
background characters. Who we are is so intertwined with our relationships with others because
“often, others can help us see things we cannot see ourselves” (“Spring 2022 Week Five:
Discerning a Life Well-Lived Discernment Conversation Activity” by Andrew Whittington -
Moreau FYE Week Five). The discernment conversation activity helped me see how others view
me, and in turn taught me more about myself. This activity was an important reminder that we
never walk alone on our journeys, and we are called to serve one another and “walk the mile and
bear the load” with our brothers and sisters that God put into our lives.

Living a life well-lived means following the vocations given to us by God. I believe that
my ultimate vocation is love, and that this love encompasses everything that I am to do in my
life. It sounds simple enough, but the enemy that gets in the way of love is judgment, especially
judgment of those who do not show us love back. In the words of Pope Francis, “Even the harsh

https://ideas.ted.com/why-we-need-a-secular-sabbath/
https://grottonetwork.com/make-an-impact/transform/why-does-god-allow-suffering/?utm_source=moreau&utm_medium=class&utm_campaign=spring_2022
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yZ7hqvx-u4EuW2nlK-fRbWFiurQm1mZv_KpoeeiN4So/edit
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yZ7hqvx-u4EuW2nlK-fRbWFiurQm1mZv_KpoeeiN4So/edit


judgment I hold in my heart against my brother or my sister, the open wound that was never
cured, the offense that was never forgiven, the rancor that is only going to hurt me, are all
instances of a fight that I carry within me, a flare deep in my heart that needs to be extinguished
before it goes up in flames, leaving only ashes behind” (“Why the only future worth building
includes everyone” by His Holiness Pope Francis - Moreau FYE Week Seven). Reading back
over my journal of this past month, I came across times where I battled the difficulty of living
this vocation of love, and I responded to this difficulty by trying to see God in the people I had
difficulty loving. In the words of Saint Therese, “True Charity consists in bearing with all the
defects of our neighbor, in not being surprised at his failings, and in being edified by his least
virtues.” Believing and having hope that people are capable of being good is what allows us to
love one another. Father Hesburgh is an example of someone who lived like this: “What made
him such an extraordinary figure was that he really didn’t belong to any side. He belonged to the
side of decency, he belonged to the side of a fundamental belief in the redeemability of mankind”
("Hesburgh,” produced by Jerry Barca and Christine O'Malley - Moreau FYE Week Two). By
believing in that truth, Father Hesburgh was able to bring change to this country and reveal the
goodness in people that many others would not have seen. A few days ago, I went to the Grotto
with a group of students to pray a rosary for Ukraine. In addition to praying for Ukraine, we were
called to follow the difficult commandment of loving our enemies and pray for Putin and Russia
as well. Often the best way to respond to the difficulty we experience in loving others is simply
to pray for them, and pray that God gives them a desire for love and peace as well.

In my final quote from Saint Therese, I will say that I believe “Holiness consists simply
in doing God's will, and being just what God wants us to be.” I hope to continue following
whatever path God wants me to follow, and to continue loving the pilgrims with which I am on
this journey. I hope to embrace suffering with love of Christ, especially going into Lent this year.
I want to continue building the relationships I have started as we continue to share in God’s love.
I hope to have a life well-lived every single day, and to always live life I will want to remember
when I look back at it.

https://www.ted.com/talks/his_holiness_pope_francis_why_the_only_future_worth_building_includes_everyone/transcript
https://www.ted.com/talks/his_holiness_pope_francis_why_the_only_future_worth_building_includes_everyone/transcript
https://notredame.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=10159379-7eca-4549-8581-ab9500c9ecd9