Author: Niccolo Arboleda

I was at service meeting recently and I came to a realization.

The TNC (True North Conference) happening this year isn’t an ETNC (Eastern True North Conference)! It’s a Legit TNC where youth from all over Canada will be participating in!

I know you are probably wondering why I’m getting worked up about this, well it’s because it totally slipped my mind until now.

I got really excited when I realized this and then I came to a deeper realization summed up by two questions.

“Since when did I stop being excited for the Lord?”

“Why have I not been this excited for such a long time?”

I can vividly remember my earlier years in CFC- Youth where every little thing excited me. I was excited to attend meetings, to have fellowship, to have general assemblies, to be present at mass, and to pray. Everything was so exciting and inspiring at the beginning of my journey and every part of me wanted to serve the Lord.

In time this excitement faded and I think it’s because I have been given more and more responsibilities, duties, and expectations. The excitement became work and the work became routine and almost mechanical in all its structure and intricacies. However, the final realization I had in this series is that there is nothing…. and I mean NOTHING more exciting than the Lord. I am not excited for the TNC per se, I am excited to meet the Lord there through all my brothers and sisters in Christ. I am excited to Celebrate God’s faithfulness and graciousness to the community for the past twenty years.

The Lord has shown to me the beauty of living for Him through community and its mission, through loving and serving Christ in the people within this community and beyond, and most importantly through allowing me to make him the center of both my spiritual and physical life in actively partaking in the sacraments.

This upcoming TNC is a testament of God’s Love for everyone in this community including myself. So let’s all be EXCITED for what the Lord has in store for us in this True North Conference as He affirms us and reminds us of the beauty of a life spent for Him.

I had a professor this past semester who passed away at around the age of fifty. This never happened to me before so I was quiet shocked when I had heard about it. He was a good person and in many ways he taught me things that I would have never learned from a book.

This professor was an interesting one because he was a lawyer and he liked poetry. I remember walking into his law class and wondering if I was in the wrong room. He walked into the class and before introducing himself he read a poem from a book. The poem was A Summer Day by Mary Oliver. The poem is as follows:

“Who made the world?

Who made the swan, and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper, I mean-

the one who has flung herself out of the grass,

the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,

who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-

who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down

into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,

how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,

which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me, what else should I have done?

Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?”

-Mary Oliver

As I look back to this poem and remember my professor the one word that resounds in my mind is Gratitude. I realize how much I love my professor despite hardly knowing him and how thankful I am to the Lord for allowing us to cross paths. I am reminded of the countless blessings in my life and how easy it is to forget what the Lord has given me.

To pass through life without being grateful for what the Lord has given you is really one of the greatest tragedies.

All victories, challenges, and encounters are blessings to be thankful for, and to walk with Christ is to be in a constant state of gratefulness as we traverse this life.

Lord I am truly thankful for everything that has made this very moment possible. Amen

The Christian life reminds me of driving.

I remember when I took my driving lessons some time ago. The driving instructor taught me how to drive defensively. He taught me to always look at the blind spot when changing lanes, to use my signal lights whenever I change lanes or turn, to pay attention to streets I pass by for cars that are coming, to keep a certain distance from the car in front of me, and even pay attention to the tires of stationary cars to see which way they are planning to turn. I still remember and apply everything he taught to this day.

A friend of mine was laughing at me one time because I drove so “proper”. I told him that it’s just how I drive.

As time goes we pick up bad habits when driving. We forget or choose not to follow what we were taught by our driving instructors. We get lazy and become complacent with our own way of driving.

I think that’s a lot like our Christian life. We pick up bad habits along the way and become complacent with our own way of living life despite having learned the teachings of Jesus. In CFC-Youth we learn a better way from living out our identities and bringing Christ wherever we go, so why do we become complacent in a lesser way even when we are taught a better one?

I always hear people saying “oh man I can’t get any bad habits until I get my G”. Then I realized, maybe we get lazy and complacent in driving because we don’t have to worry about a test. If I have my G (full time license) then why do I have to worry about driving so safe right? We start thinking like this because we take for granted the privilege of driving after passing our final driving test.

We are given a full time license to live so why not live our life the way God wants us to? It’s because we have taken for granted the Love that God has showed us.

In our Christian life we are always tested. In the Our Father we say “lead us not into temptation”.

The temptations in our lives are the tests that we are given, the crosses that we carry, the vices we must overcome. The Lord did not allow temptations so that we may fall, He allowed it so that we may reach holiness by rising above it. In passing every test we grow closer to the Lord. We fail our tests and fall into temptation because we take for granted the privilege the Lord has given us.

Temptation is a humbling reminder of how much we need God and how His way is the one in which we should live our lives. More importantly it is an opportunity to choose Love. An opportunity to never take the privilege God has given us for granted.

Lets always remember what Jesus has taught us so that we may never become complacent to anything short of being a saint.

So if someone laughs at you or judges you for living your life so “proper”. Tell them it’s just the way you live.

The Light of Christ is so bright, radiant, and unyielding.

It’s been some time since I joined community and turned my eyes towards the Light of Christ. I have grown in my faith and changed in ways I would never have thought possible. But if there’s anything that I have realized more than anything after all this time is that I’m a sinner.

The Light allows the shadows of the soul to be seen, the sins that thrive in the darkness.

This past Palm Sunday I was reminded again that I am a sinner, but this time it was in a way I have never experienced before. The priest talked about how the crucifixion came to be; how Jesus was rejected, betrayed, and abandoned to the mercy of sinners. I cannot even comprehend what the Lord must have experienced not only physically but also emotionally.

At the middle of the homily I realized that that in His Light I could see in me;

the shadow of Pilate who allowed His persecution to please others,

the shadow of Peter who rejected Him in order to save face,

the shadow of Thomas who doubted because he did not believe in Him,

and the shadow of Judas who betrayed Him in exchange for temporary pleasures.

After realizing this I knelt down and prayed, asking the Lord for His forgiveness. There was only one response and it was unexplainable peace.

This peace affirmed me that the Lord loves me despite all the sins that I have committed and that I need Him more now than ever before.

I remember a passing conversation I had with kuya Kevin after one service meeting.

Kevin: bro are you going home now?

Me: no

Kevin: why?

Me: because I’m going to Church

Kevin: why?

Me: because I have to go to confession and mass

Kevin: why?

Me:…..well…BECAUSE I’M A SINNER GUY! (seriously what does this guy want me to say LOL)

*then we both laugh like maniacs*

So much love for that brother for always putting me out of my comfort zone.

The Lord has changed me so much that I can no longer recognize myself when I look at the mirror but I have realized that there is still a VERY long way to go. I am affirmed every day that I will only grow more dependent on the Lord as I continue my personal road to holiness.

As I journey in His Light I am always reminded that God is Love and there is no sin greater than Him.

Lord I need you, every second I need you. Allow me to always walk in your Light, to love others like you Love me. Amen.

Did you ever hear the expression that “we are fighting the good fight!”? I have always been intrigued by this concept. To follow Jesus we take up our cross and fight against the world. It’s very romantic if you think about it, that you’re a warrior fighting for the greatest Love the world has ever known. There are many kinds of warriors who have different reasons for fighting. This past week the Lord reminded me of what kind of warrior He has called me to be.

I watched Captain America: Winter Soldier this past Friday with some brothers. I enjoyed the movie because of all the fast paced action scenes where Captain America would send bad guys flying with kicks and punches. I was thinking to myself “wow! Captain America is such a great fighter! If only I could make someone fly that far with a kick!” Although I wish that I could fight like captain America, the one thing about him that I admire more is his ability to deliver a motivational speech. Captain America gave such a speech before a deciding battle where he said:

“The price of freedom is high. But it’s a price I’m willing to pay.”

The movie ended but that line stuck with me. I was thinking “man Captain America is so cool!!”

That night I went to church with brothers from my household. There was Stations of the Cross before the mass started. As the priest was going through the stations I realized something. That a price was paid for the freedom we are experiencing at this very moment. The price for our freedom is the body and blood of Jesus himself. There was no greater price to pay and He paid it in full by willingly entering into his passion. I also realized that Jesus is the greatest warrior ever! Yes more of a warrior than Captain America.

Jesus is a fighter like no other who won an impossible battle by committing the greatest act of sacrifice the world has ever seen. He fought for every single one of us in a way that He wants us to fight for Him. To carry our cross and struggle towards oneness with Him. To sacrifice what is of this world so that we and others can be made holy.

In this battle we will be persecuted just like Jesus was, we will fall at times but like Him we must get up a push forward, and like Him we must endure and persevere in order to claim true freedom on the cross.

What does it mean to be a warrior of Christ? Let’s take a samurai for example. In the same context that a samurai adopts the Way of the Sword, we as followers of Christ adopt the Way of the Cross. Just as a samurai carries his sword at all times, we carry our cross so that we can bring Christ with us wherever we go. The cross we carry is our mark as a warrior just as a sword is to a samurai.

As Christians we acknowledge that the price of freedom is high because we are sinners, but we also recognize that it is a price we are willing to pay.

Don’t get me wrong…. I still wish I could fight like Captain America, but I want to be able to carry my cross like Jesus did much more.

Lord, thank you for showing me how to fight for you. Thank you for being the strength to carry my cross with. Please be with me as I continue in a battle which I would have already lost without you. Allow me to carry my Cross to wherever you wish me to bring it. Amen.