The Journey Home: Leah Darrow
Alex’s note: We watched a recording of Leah Darrow from EWTN’s program The Journey Home. These notes are much briefer than usual because it’s hard to write in the dark.
It’s not about how you feel, whether you feel like praying. It’s just what you do. You pray. I heard this from my mom all the time when we prayed rosary as a family.
The “soup” of the world — all of the common ideas and thoughts and practices of the people in the world around us.
We are free to to make choices in this world, but not free from the consequences of those choices.
Our culture treats virginity as something childish — a joke almost. You should get rid of it and grow up.
I looked to culture to validate me, and it did. For a little while, it made me not feel so bad. The truth was too scary. So I accepted the definition of love as just a thing you do with your body. It was easier to change that than to change my life.
Catholicism isn’t a buffet for you to take just the things you like. It’s a banquet, where you’re called to sit with Christ and be part of it. It’s a seven-course meal, and you’re invited to stay for all of it.
I knew I wasn’t doing what I should, but I couldn’t bring myself to change what I was doing. I came to care more about what others thought of me than about doing the right thing.
Through all of this I convinced myself I was still a good Catholic — God is love, I love Him, so He wouldn’t condemn me. Right?
A turning point for me was when I was doing a modelling photo shoot, in which they asked me to wear some pretty immodest clothes. The flash got right in my eyes, and while my sight was clearing I had a brief vision of myself holding my hands up to God and then lowering them, ashamed to realize that they held nothing. I just couldn’t do it anymore, and I left. The photographer followed me, saying “If you walk out of this photo shoot, you’ll be a nobody.” My response was “Do you promise?” I need to say no to you right now, but I don’t know if I’ll be strong enough to say no to you again. Do you promise you won’t tempt me back to this?