True North Missionaries Journal

“In this sign you will conquer”

The person I was before was so afraid to pray in public. Servant evangelization was something I looked for ways out of. I would pretend to casually be brushing my forehead if I would say grace before meals at restaurants. I would be so ashamed to be Catholic. So embarrassed to love God enough to speak to Him.

I was blessed to spend the past two days at the Holy Cross grade 12 grad retreat as an alumni leader. It still surprises me how little God is talked about, how little about our faith is known, to teenagers – even those attending Catholic schools. And it worried me, the entire retreat, because I love my God and I want to serve my God, but how was I supposed to get it through to these youth? How can I get people who may not have a good relationship with God to trust me? To trust that when I say that God loves them unconditionally that I am telling the truth?

But truthfully, I can speak a million truths and perform a million selfless acts, but if I can’t bring it all back to my God, it is nothing. If I can’t acknowledge my God, I am nothing. It is only through prayer to Him that I am able to do His work. It is only through admitting my weakness and glorifying Him in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit that I can do wonders. It is only through this sign that I will conquer.

After a moment’s creativity, I was spurred to write a one pager a while back on how strange we humans are, especially if we were to look at ourselves from the outside. How we dye the hard protein on our heads (“hair”) different colours, how we paint the toughened keratin on the ends of our hands (“nails”), and although the parts of our faces all serve the same purpose from one human to the next, we insist that one can be “prettier” or “better looking” than the other. We spend large amounts of money (and time and effort to get this money) on brand names that really, are just pieces of cloth with the true purpose of covering our bodies. In terms of history, we are probably at the highest point when it comes to the amount we care about our appearances. Because of this, I can picture God frowning.. we invest so much time on how we look and how others perceive us that some of us, myself included, sometimes forget to give as much attention to our inner-selves; our spirituality and connection to God.

How others see us has become a central part of all our lives, whether we’d like to admit it or not. We have inherently become the generation obsessed with instagramming our healthy meals and our outfits that without even realizing it, the gap between the “haves and the have-nots” has increased. I’m not trying to instill guilt here (as I myself have posted several “ootds” and I’ve used the hashtag #brunch several times), but just simple realization. We need to continuously reflect on our actions and whether they glorify God or ourselves. Are we feeding our souls with true nourishment (#healthyliving, #cleaneating), are we also clothing ourselves with humility and joy (#ootd)? Are we able to reflect our Creator through our actions and show this love to others?

The 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs start today, and although I’m not a huge hockey fan, I’ll be cheering for the Habs.

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Home

Like most filipinos, I was born into a Christian family. I was baptized as a baby, went to mass on sundays, went to a Catholic elementary school and served as an altar boy. Being Christian was a reality I accepted in my life, and I was happy to support the faith that I grew up with.

Being a Montréaler, people tend to assume that I’m into hockey, which if I’m being perfectly honest, is far from true. However, the Habs are my home-team, and much like an Ottawater cheering for the Sens, a Toronotian supporting the Leafs, or a Vancouverite rooting for the Canuks, I am a Montréaler who will sing “Olé Olé Olé” proudly if the occasion calls for it.

Away

One day I started to seriously question why I root for the Habs. Was it simply a way for my pride as a Montréaler to be manifested? Was it the power of group thinking or me seeking peer acceptance? The answer is that I don’t know! So I decided to find a concrete reason as to why I’m a fan of the Habs in order to validate my stance on their awesomeness. What I re-discovered is that the Habs have won about 25% of all Stanley Cup Playoffs, and even though their last win was in ’93, it still makes them one of the most successful professional sports teams not only in hockey, but in most traditional North American sports. That’s a team I can proudly stand behind.

What is it then that draws me to Christianity? Much like my love for the Habs, I didn’t want my love for Christ to be based solely on the fact that Christianity it’s my home-faith (made up term). So I decided to make a firm claim on why I love living out my faith as a Christian. After some reflection, the answer I settled on is quite simple, which I found in Matthew 22:39, “… you shall love your neighbor as yourself”. This is why I love being Christian and this is why I stand proudly behind our God.

– Jesse R.

P.S. So I guess I love all you Canuks fans even though you guys riot harder than we do, and I suppose I love all you Leafs fans even though the Leafs suck, and I guess I love all you Sens fans even though we’re gonna beat you this Thursday.

Kidding, I love you all sincerely.

I was having a mission in another area and I was struck by the simplicity of my fellow youth who were serving. It was a parish youth camp and almost everyone were first time to serve in a camp. The camp was simple, a guitar for music ministry but with a beautiful and spirited voice of the singers. We had a Tongues Workshop (an empowerment worship) and I was a bit worried at first since most of them were young and sometimes a bit hesitant to give it all to worship. We even had a hard time choosing for songs to use because we don’t want to have songs that they don’t know or else we will end up looking at the lyrics instead of asking for the Spirit to descend upon us. However during the worship everyone was giving there all and I could really feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. This was affirmed during the sharing when everyone shared how they experienced the Spirit. Someone had a vision of lights descending upon each and everyone of us with varying degree. Then another one affirmed that it was God hovering around us pouring on His Spirit that shows itself in the colors. It was an awesome experience indeed!

God’s presence was strongly felt. And I would say it was because there were no pretensions among the team, they had real joy and were innocent. Without knowing it, they were already used by the Lord. I said to a YFC, “That’s why God loves children, because they have no pretensions.”

Sometimes we have the tendency to complicate things when we only need simple things. God reminded me that I don’t need to complicate things to share His message. The simpler the message the better it can reach and be understood. The better too He can reach our hearts and souls.

In warfare, the greatest honor belongs not to the ones who survive, but to those that give the supreme sacrifice of their lives.

I thought about this for a long while. Looking for a deeper meaning. Truth is, there isn’t. There was a man named Jesus Christ who has done exactly that. He did it for us. Just like Him, we aim to hopefully grow into our roles as servants, and do exactly as he did. How many of us can say we are willing to lay our lives down, not just for the Lord, but for His people? Makes you think.

My God, I humbly set aside my own concerns for the struggles of those who need You the most. You are present always, Your grace is sufficient. Allow me to love everyone around me. Allow me to further pour out my overflowing cup, to those that are yet to be filled by You. Lord, I offer my life to You, take over.

Christi Crux Est Mea Lux

Last Saturday, our early morning household meeting was at our house. With some more essential things needed (like milk and eggs); I decided to go to our local Safeway to buy these. I had to rush though, as it was already 8:20 am and our arrival time was 8:30 am.
As soon as I parked my van, and was rushing to go to Safeway, a young guy stopped me, “Excuse me, sir”.
He explained that his truck ran out of gas and he needed help. He didn’t have the cash so he wondered if I could help him. He explained that he had a landscaping business and that he would pay me back with services.
I showed him my wallet and told him I didn’t have the cash and was thinking of ways to get out of this situation, but I told him, I’ll go inside and get some cash at Safeway (cash back).
While inside the grocery, some doubts crept into my mind. Is his situation legit, will he really use it to buy gas? But suddenly, I felt a sense to “see Jesus” in this situation. I quickly bought some milk (and I planned to come back again for the rest), and get some cash from the cashier.
When I came out, he was still there waiting, I gave him the cash, he asked me if he could give me his number and I said, “don’t worry about this, God bless you”. He thanked me and left.
Yesterday, we are at the grocery buying ingredients for our taco night (they were so good, diet postponed again), my 7 year old son, Jak-jak found a quarter and was so happy he found money. I pointed out to him a donation box for poor children and asked him if he wanted to give the quarter and without hesitation, he dropped the coin in.
I pray that I could be more like him, though I’m improving, I would like to have the heart of a child, who gives freely without hesitation.
Lord, thank you for showing your face to me, through other people, and through my son. May I truly know you even more, so I can really sense you in very situation that you allow me to live.