Glorious

I left Winnipeg for Toronto on June 12th at 5:20 am. As usual, during take-off of every flight, I pray the rosary. Right when we were making our ascent, I said “the first Glorious mystery is the Resurrection”.

Then a beautiful thing happened.

Right then, the sun broke out from the horizon, in vivid yellows and oranges, so blinding that I had to close my eyes. Then it struck me.

The sun has risen. The SON has risen. The first Glorious mystery is the Resurrection of the Son.

BEAUTIFUL, GOD!

Everything was perfect. The way the plane was angled, the way I announced the first mystery, the way the Son GLORIOUSLY shone through the windows… it was my miracle.

Then I had a revelation. On Wednesdays and Sundays, we say the Glorious Mysteries. So from the beginning to the end of the East MV SHouT, it will be glorious. For the greater GLORY of GOD.

† AMDG †

Wanderlust

I have this unfathomable love for airports and for traveling. I love looking at maps and globes. I get giddy over every customs stamp that gets added to my passport. I love stamps. I adore airplanes (hence my alias paperairplanedreams). Within the past 24 months I have been to more cities and countries than I could care to count. I suffer from wanderlust.

I was “planted” and rooted in PH, but cultivated in Toronto. That really pushed me to have this hardly home but always reppin‘ mentality. We moved quite a lot growing up so I could never really appreciate where I was. Even though we’ve rooted ourselves in Mississauga for a while now, the child in me was so used to relocating that I never realized how hard it was for me to be present in the here and now. It was so easy for me to love every other destination, yet so challenging for me to see the beauty in where I already was.

It affected the way I approached my spiritual life. It became some sort of hide & seek game; God was at my next travel destination. God was two plane rides away. God was five cities to the south and ten cities to the north. God was a twenty-six hour bus ride or a five hour drive. God was in the middle of the ocean, on top of a mountain, or beneath at the caves. God was everywhere to me but here. At home.

Then he slapped my hand, figuratively of course. He used the same voice I use when I reprimand my kindergarten students- firm but loving.

There is no need to search for God because He meets us right where we are. God doesn’t meet us halfway, He meets us right where we are. God is in the people I interact with everyday. God is in the youth I serve with and serve for. God is with the students I teach. God is with my family. God is with my friends. God is in the air I breathe, the sky that embraces me outside, the sun that illuminates my path, the rain that touches my skin, and the ground that catches my feet every, single, morning. God is in me.

You cannot search for what has already been found.

His lesson: it is not in the changing of locations that you will come to know me and my works. Rather it is in the changing of your hearts and its posture that you will be oriented back to me. That you will come to see my love, to know my love and be my love.

I will meet you right where you are.
I will love you where you are.

Remain in me, just as I remain in you.

Seekers

When we started the SHOUT, we told ourselves that we were seekers. We came into the training seeking the Will of God in our lives, where He can use us to the full and what life He wants us to live for. The journey can be scary, but the thought that He is holding you is assurance enough.

The following prayer by Thomas Merton in “Thoughts in Solitude” may well be a good prayer for all of us seekers:

“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”

I Want to Hold Your Hand

“The best job in the world is one where you get to hold the hand of Jesus” – Angelo Saludo (AKA Gelo the Explorer)

Last week I spent the week cooped up in a house full of missionaries. It was good.

There’s so much to say about the Mission Volunteer Summer House Training (SHOUT), but I think the Lord’s message to me in the end was very simple, He wants me to hold His hand.

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If you’re an observant person and have ever had the chance to worship in the same room as me, you might notice that during worship my left hand is usually open in the air reaching out and praising the Lord, while my right hand is usually resting firmly on top of my heart. I never really paid attention to the physical posture of my body in worship but last week it became so clear as to why my body chooses to worship in that position.

When I hold Hannah’s hand, I hold her right hand using my left.

During the SHOUT we did a reflection activity where we would write a covenant to the Lord in order to process our discernment in the MV Program. We wrote our covenants on a small piece of paper and we’re asked to stick that paper on a large cross at the front of the room.

I placed my paper where Jesus’ right hand would have been nailed to the cross.

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Praise God for the gift of mission.
Mission leads to God’s perfect plan for the family.

– Jesse R.

The Lord is in the Journey

“Journeying is an art,” the Pope replied, “because if we’re always in a hurry, we get tired and don’t arrive at our journey’s goal. If we stop, if we don’t go forward then we miss the goal. Journeying is precisely the art of looking toward the horizon, thinking where I want to go but also enduring the fatigue of the journey, which is sometimes difficult.” – Pope Francis

Pope Francis nailed it on the head. Fr. Dave said in a homily, “we are not human doings. We are human beings”. I used to think that being busy was a sign of productivity, growth, and success. But it means nothing if we do not take the time out to just be with the Lord.

I used to think that in times of suffering, hardship and trial, that the Lord is really preparing something great for me. And it’s true. But now I know that the Lord is IN the suffering, IN the hardship and IN the trial. The Lord isn’t just waiting for us on the other side of the man-made or God-allowing challenge. He’s with us in the journey. Emmanuel. God with us. He comes to us. He meets us where we are. He runs towards us, embraces us and carries us. The Lord is also IN the victory and IN the blessing, He doesn’t just give us things. He gives us Himself. He is not just the reward at the end of the journey. He is also in the journey.

At the end of the day, there’s really no reason to be unhappy. The Lord is always with us. The Lord was, is and is to come. He knows that we’re going to get tired and forget what lies ahead in our journey. So He comes to us where we are. He knows that we’re not going to acknowledge Him being with us at this very moment. So He gives us hope. And when we forget what lies ahead and can’t seem to acknowledge Him in the present, He reminds us of what He’s done for us in the past.

Now that’s something.

 

 

 

Being a Father

After Sunday mass yesterday, the priest reminded all Fathers (as well as Mothers) to continue to bring their families closer to Christ.  As parents, it’s not enough to bring ourselves closer to Christ, but we must be a light to our children as well.

Praise God for Couples for Christ.  During my “dark days” or my pre-CFC life, my spiritual life was limited to praying to God whenever I needed something.  Mass for me was a once a year thing (only on Christmas and New Year was optional), and I would drive my wife to church and pick her up after.  I would always try to make an excuse not to go to mass, sometimes, using my kids as an excuse.  I know what kind of father I would have become.  My misconception was that the father was the financial “breadwinner” of the family and anything else, including the spiritual, was left to the wife.

Praise God I have realized that fatherhood is much more than just bringing home the bacon.  The love that a father has for his children should encompass taking care of all their needs, including their faith.  My kids grew up in this community, for them, it’s the normal way of life, growing up knowing the Father who loves them so much.  They won’t have the dark days like I did, yes, they will have problems and obstacles but for them, these will be opportunities to glorify God.

 

Father, thanks so much for loving us unconditionally. Thank You, Lord, for giving me the wonderful gift of fatherhood, for allowing me a taste of the great love You have for each and every one of us.  Amen!!

A Happy Household Head

Every time I go to a household I am reminded of its importance. Yes I’ve learned a lot about my faith and have been nourished, but what I value most is the presence of my brothers and sisters. We don’t need a household to learn the faith. If I want to learn, I can go on the internet, read a book, watch a documentary, etc. However, the blessing of having a household is the nourishment and building of relationships with brothers and sisters in Christ. I look forward to hearing my brothers share their experiences after the talk. I have learned a lot from them and in sharing our joys and struggles, I believe that the Lord has brought us closer to His heart and each other’s hearts.

I am not currently a household head but I have learned by recent observations what it means to be a household head. A household head is a friend, someone who is not looking to be one step ahead of his brothers but taking one step at a time alongside his brothers. He doesn’t seek his own interests but the interests of those the Lord has given to him. He builds relationships and is overjoyed when his members succeed, distraught when they suffer, and is inspired when he sees God in his members. And if the members do not show the respect he deserves, it doesn’t matter to him, because he is glad to lay down his life and his pride for them.

Praise God for household heads, and if we are one, may the Lord humble us always, that we may always seek the good of our members before our own. Let’s pray that we may always seek to lay down our lives for them and bring them closer to the Lord by leading a good example, and living a life of integrity. If we do this, I believe we will be a truly happy household head.