True North Missionaries Journal

Since November of 2017, every time that I find myself at an adoration chapel or I am in a quiet place of reflection, this hymn keeps popping up in my mind as I pray. You may be familiar with it. It goes something along the lines of:

“What do you want of me, Lord? Where do you want me to serve You?”
(The Servant Song)

Hmm. Serving God.

Where does God want me to serve Him?

This has been a burning question that I have been asking God and myself for the past several months. And every time I asked or sought out an answer from Him, all I would hear was pure silence.

Does God want me to serve Him in the church? For the church? In my family? In CFC-Youth or on campus only?
These were questions I kept asking God and because I felt like I was not getting an answer, I grew quite impatient and frustrated with Him.

However, just recently (literally earlier today) a dear sister of mine shared an inspiring quote that has answered, or at least has opened my eyes to understand where the Lord has been calling me to.

The quote says: “Instead of having to try to figure everything out, try to figure out this: How am I going to serve the Lord today? How am I going to make the most of this moment, with what He has already given me?” (Morgan H. Nichols)

As soon as I read this I realized that maybe the reason why I did not get an answer from God was because I was asking all the wrong questions. Instead of asking where does God want me to serve, I should have been asking Him, how.

As disciples and followers of Christ, we should not become so fixated on where God wants us to serve because frankly, God calls us to serve wherever we are! If we keep worrying about the “where” when it comes to service, we will eventually make excuses to not serve in that particular area anymore telling God “oh, it’s too far; too scary; it’s out of my comfort zone,” and so forth.

Rather, we should be taking the time to reflect on how we can serve God to the best of our abilities. We should also try our best to use what we already have and own to serve Him more fruitfully. Such as using our God-given talents, exercising our strengths and even taking the time to develop and work on our weaknesses when serving Him. At the end of the day, we should be continuously lifting all of this up to God as we serve.

“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.” – 1 Peter 4:10

There is no specific requirement that we need in order to become a servant of God either. God calls all types of people to serve Him but only if we are willing and open enough to accept this calling of ours.

With that being said, let us ask God for the wisdom, compassion, and faith that we need to be the true servants God calls us to be. Let us also not spend so much time focusing on where God is calling us to serve but rather ask Him how we can serve Him better every day.

Thank You, Lord for this simple reminder and for calling me to serve You in the big and small ways! May I continuously grow in courage so that I may be able to serve you more faithfully, especially as I begin this new journey of becoming an MVA (Omg, I’m an MVA!)

Amen.

– Danielle M. Lape

This morning while awaiting mass at my home parish I had to leave my pew to simply blow my nose in the washroom. On my way to the washroom an old teacher of mine from the elementary school stopped me near a processional box of the resurrected Christ. (It was a small-scale version of the parade cars that you see on TV for Christmas or different celebrations) She asked me if I could help them out with the Salubong procession.

What is “Salubong?” Salubong in its literal translation from Tagalog to English is “Meeting.” It essentially is the meeting of a sorrowful Mother Mary with the Resurrected Christ. The procession starts off with a group of women veiled and following a processional Mother Mary surrounded in flowers and covered in a black veil. The women accompanying the processional box are reciting the rosary while processing around the church. The procession meets at the centre of the church near the overhang of the church balcony and the processional box of Jesus approaches. Jesus is accompanied by men with instruments and tasked with making noise to alert people of the resurrection. Angels dressed in white are also singing a jubilant song in Latin. At the meeting of the Mother and Son, a dove is lowered and the Angels sing the Regina Caeli, at the same time the black veil is taken off Mother Mary. The Mother and Son are surrounded in song and Alleluias as they two are processed to the front of the church.

Simply taking part as a drummer in the procession gave me goose bumps. I tried imagining myself with the disciples and upon hearing the news of the resurrection of Christ eager to share with others the great miracle. I imagined how happy Mother Mary must have been after seeing her son alive again and in the flesh and how happy Jesus would have been to see his Mother smile and to wipe away her tears.

I pray that we may all experience the great miracle of the Easter season with our friends and families.

God Bless and See you in the Eucharist

Cristopher Sy

Attending the recent 25th Anniversary of Singles for Christ and participating in the Pre-ICON activities and the International Conference in Manila, I have asked the Lord in prayers to speak to me and give me the grace to be more sensitive and attentive to his message. It was the message of the Cross – embracing the Cross.

I was amazed on how the Lord truly reaffirms this call that He has given me. I was reminded of a reflection I wrote almost a year ago when the Lord spoke to me about embracing the Cross after having visited one of my lower household’s teaching. They had the household topic of “When Helplessness Means Blessedness.”

Here is the reflection:

It was a moment of reaffirmation and reassurance for all of us. We were reminded again of the reality and significance of the cross in our lives especially in our Christian faith. There is the reality that each of us has a cross to carry. It could be temporary or will last a lifetime until we reach our ultimate goal, which is heaven. There is the lesson that Jesus is continually teaching us: to embrace our cross for it will lead us to our salvation.

It gives comfort knowing that I am not alone. It is not that I am happy to know that my brothers have crosses, sufferings or problems too. I hope and pray that they are always okay and unburdened. But the cross is a reality of life and it gives so much hope and reassurance to all of us that we are not journeying alone in this life, this path to heaven. We have our brothers and sisters, also carrying their cross, walking with us and striving to reach the same destination.

Jesus, in His way to purchase our salvation, has shown us the perfect example of embracing the cross. Human as we are, we feel the pain and burden. With the hedonistic culture of the world, we have focused so much in search of what can make us feel happy, what can make us always feel good. Worst of it all, we settle to temporary escape from our crosses. Jesus endured the way of the cross until the end to save us. The Lord had fallen three times to the ground and still rose up. We are to face our crosses. We are to embrace them. We will fall. Yes, many times we will fall but we have to stand up.

Also, we have to remind ourselves that it is okay to ask or receive help. Most of the times, we tend to just keep our struggles to ourselves as we don’t want to burden others of our load and worse is feeding our pride telling ourselves we don’t need others’ help. Jesus, in the way of the cross, accepted the help of Simon of Cyrene to carry His cross and let Veronica wipe His face. God humbled himself by accepting help from others. We have to ask for the grace of true humility. We can not journey in this earthly life alone. We are to help one another. We are made for communion.

Most of the times when we pray, we thank the Lord for all the good things he has done for us. We too have to be thankful for the crosses that we have. As true Christians following Jesus’ example, we should embrace the cross. Let us regard every challenge, struggle or problem as a blessing from the Lord. Let us face and embrace them and take that difficult and dark moment as our share to our Lord’s suffering in the cross.

We have learned from the Christian Life Program Talk 2 Who is Jesus Christ that he cross is both a language that communicates the weakness of our human nature, discloses our sins and reveals our errors, and conveys our desperate need for redemption and a parable that tells a story and provides a lesson.

The recent ICON have shown us the Cross as a parable that tells us the story of God’s Relentless Love for all of us. Looking through the 25 years of Singles for Christ, we the Singles for Christ of the next 25 years and more have a strong stand post to anchor ourselves to as we continue our journey of carrying and embracing the Cross.

With the new direction that we are called as Singles for Christ, which is to embrace not only the single unmarried men and women but most importantly also our brothers and sisters that are single parents, widows or widowers, singles struggling with same-sex attraction, and those young adult divorced, annulled and separated, we are called to fully embrace this Cross – not so much as a cross of burden but a Cross that speaks of God’s Relentless Love! We are to embrace and share God’s Relentless Love!

The fourth session of ICON that included the Solemn Re-commitment and Passing on of the Cross to each chapter was the highlight of it all. It has rekindled all the gifts that the Lord has blessed us with, personally and as a community. And it put our hearts ablaze, empowered to fulfill the ministry that the Lord has entrusted to us!

Once again, we are reminded:

“For this reason, I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands.” (2 Timothy 1:6)

“Solemn Charge. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingly power: proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching. For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine but, following their own desires and insatiable curiosity, will accumulate teachers and will stop listening to the truth and will be diverted to myths. But you, be self-possessed in all circumstances; put up with hardship; perform the work of an evangelist; fulfill your ministry. (2 Timothy 4:1-5)

“We adore Thee, O Christ, and bless Thee.
Because by Your holy cross You have redeemed the world.” Amen.

Aldin Francis Canobas

SFC Calgary AB Canada

There is this saying that is always repeated when something happens and it goes like “everything happens for a reason.” No matter what the situation good or bad, this quote is often used as words of encouragement towards the storyteller. In my reflection of the various highlights, and milestones of the first three months of the year I was able to tell myself that very same quote. I was able to understand that everything that has happened was a result of God moving pieces and planning our every move. It was in this realization that I was filled with joy knowing that just by letting the Lord use me, he has allowed me to experience his works in the people that I meet.

“The world’s thy ship and not thy home.” –St. Therese of Lisieux

See you in the Eucharist!

Cristopher Sy