In Transit

Dated: February 8th, 2013

"But in accordance with His promise, we wait for new heavens and a new heart, where righteousness is at home. " 2 Peter 3:13
“But in accordance with His promise, we wait for new heavens and a new heart, where righteousness is at home. ” 2 Peter 3:13

At some point (or for some potentially often) in the Mission, there will be that random trip where, for some reason,  you find yourself in an adventure to get to your Mission Area…with the Transit system as your playground.

I found myself navigating myself through the intricacies of GTA’s TTC and Go System las Friday, post-snow storm, on the way to the bus station for a Mission trip to Ottawa.  Ducking crowds,reading signs, consulting schedules (hoping and praying it’s the “right bus”), speaking to friendly security officers, acclimating myself to the temperatures to-and-from the outside and the stations.  The adrenaline’s rushing, mental faculties are on alert, and the soul is praying “Mother of Perpetual HELP, direct my [literal] wandering feet aright”! Lord, help me to see.  Lord help me hear. Where are You leading me next?

The Lord is constantly responding, answering to our every prayer, whether outwardly or inwardly expressed, the question is whether we hear or whole heartedly acknowledge the answer? Truly, “God never ceases to be a Father to His children” (St-Anthony of Padua).  In the daily grind of life, this is an important truth to cling to, but as a Missionary I’ve come to know…that is it an actual and essential hard skill needed for the “job” (haa). We’ve got no literal office or department to report to, but we do have a literal Boss that directs us through the skill of Listening.

Indeed,there are so many voices with different expectations (including your own).  So many places one can be. So many deliverables to accomplish.  As we venture, and respond to His leading, it’s a physical, mental and spiritual workout.  But eventually, we find yourself fully seated on the bus of your final destination, and with a deep sigh, we can exclaim “Lord, thank you for adventuring with me”.  These are the priceless and rewarding moments that come with Mission work. I have everything I need.

Lord, You are my divine companion. I thank you for the adventures we constantly live together. 

Desire of the Heart

“My God, my heart wants You alone. If you do not find this heart completely unworthy of You, here it is. I give it to You and dedicate it entirely to You. The desire I feel is the effect of Your grace You have obtained from me.”

There is a yearning in my heart for something Greater, Someone Greater. God’s love never fails, it never burdens, and it never dies. His love is an invitation to happiness. Within the desires of our own hearts, only God can satisfy our needs. It is so easy to fall into the wrong places searching for this love, blinded by the truth, and ignorant from the lies. Nothing in this world can please our hearts eternally than the graces of our Lord, Jesus Christ. We can only receive this love if we are willing to receive it. We must be ready to make sacrifices and place our trust in God. Not only does God want us to love Him faithfully, He calls us to come home to be with Him.

Instil a promise of devotion in His heart, so that we may learn to love Him fully as we declare His love in our lives and in our souls.

Benedictus Deus in Saecula

Salt and Light

“Salt seasons and improves the flavour of food. Following Jesus, you have to change and improve the ‘taste’ of human history.’
—Pope John Paul II

Sometimes I’m afraid that if I don’t think I’ll make a big difference, then it won’t matter if I even try to make a difference. I am reminded by PJPII that I am the salt to the earth. It doesn’t matter if I’m not making a big difference, as long as I am making a difference, that’s what matters. That’s what salt does, and we are each a tiny grain making a difference in the world. Praise God.

“Even a tiny flame lifts the heavy lid of night. How much more light will you make, all together, if you bond as one in the communion of the Church! If you love Jesus, love the Church!”
—Pope John Paul II

With the immense rise of the culture of death in our society, the world might seem like a very dark place. However, we are the light of the world. Even the smallest flame can illuminate the heaviest darkness. Darkness immediately ceases when there is light. What I love about the Church and community life is the communion of many tiny flames that form an inferno. We truly bring light to the world because we bring Jesus to the world. Praise God.

Heavenly Father, help us to recognize that, by Your Holy Spirit, truly we are salt and light to the world. May we be and bring You wherever we go and set ablaze the darkness of the world with the fire of Your love. Amen!

The Still More Excellent Way (Part II)

“Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from hurt and harm!” And God granted what he asked.” 1 Chronicles 4:10

 “…But I shall show you a still more excellent way”
1 Corinthians 12: 31

It was approximately a year ago to this date where I vaguely remember writing my “Why I want to be a Mission Volunteer” essay.  I remember writing it and being very consumed and perplexed with feelings of joy but also of great anxiousness.  Here I am, a year later, writing about why I still want to be a Mission Volunteer, and those feelings have yet to subside.  I look back on that very defining year and think “Wow”.  Like most spiritual endeavors, I was going in to this program, blindly, fully entrusting my Faith in God and without really comprehending the capacity of how much discernment, unrest, longing, difficulty, unending joy, hope, mercy, suffering, sacrifice, and love I would be experiencing. 

One of the greatest things I’ve been able to contemplate is how to really discern – not by acting on our earthly desires or wants, nor to even excite in the spiritual gains we can get from saying “yes” but to really, sincerely, know and love the Lord so intimately that the only way to approach him is in full surrender.  I love the Lord God so much and can honestly rejoice in the fact that this past year, through all the service he’s been able to grace me with, has not driven my away from him, but has taught me to love him in a more wholesome way – through family, through friendship, through vocation.  Truly our Lord wants to be loved in his entirety (Holy Trinity, One God) and it can only be done when we learn to do so with our entire selves just the same.

Perseverance has been the main key to my discernment for Full-time Pastoral Work.  In the many moments I’ve shared talking to my fellow Mission Volunteers, or the many times I’ve been corrected by my mentor or heads, God really shows me that His love is enduring.  It’s not a sprint where we love intensely for a short amount of time then fall rapidly when we get shoved or struck with difficulty.  The love we have for God and the love we want to share through the mission is meant to be consistent and unending.  In the same way, growth doesn’t come in stints, it comes slowly but also, like a harvest, very abundantly.

This leads me back to my current state of discernment – Why I still want to be a Mission Volunteer.  Well, It’s very simple.  I want to know and love the Lord’s plan for me in the most personal way possible.  Though I’ve learned to endure and to really obey, there is a still small voice inside of me that urges me to continue to be refined, like fermented wine.  Though I know what I want, and know what others want for me, there is still an unknown and a disconnect from my plans to His.  Albeit I’ve trusted him up to this point and I know I am where I’m supposed to be at this moment.  As for tomorrow, only God knows.

“For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.”
Jeremiah 29:11

Please pray for me as I continue to do for all of you.

Lord, I do not know my heart, only you do.  May I clearly know the plans you’ve written in the palm of your hand.  Amen.

cpm

Obey anyway

Luke 5:1-11
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
The First Disciples

5 Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret; 2 and He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake; but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. 3 And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And He sat down and began teaching the [a]people from the boat. 4 When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 Simon answered and said, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but [b]I will do as You say and let down the nets.” 6 When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break; 7 so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus’ [c]feet, saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!” 9 For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken; 10 and so also were [d]James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men.” 11 When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.
——————————————————————————

Yesterday’s gospel reading spoke powerfully to me. Fr. Wilbert, the young Filipino priest, gave a very eye opening homily. In the gospel, Jesus, the carpenter, was giving instructions to  Peter, the fisherman, on how to fish. Peter, already tired from casting the nets and getting nothing was probably thinking, “why is Jesus telling me to cast the nets again?”. “I know better, I do this for a living”.

And yet Peter obeyed anyway, and the Lord revealed his wisdom, glory and power when the nets could not even hold the load of fish that were caught.

How many times in our service do we feel we could not be successful and we should cancel an event based on what we assess? There was a time when I was asked to lead an Marriage Enrichment Retreat (MER) for CFC. There were only a few couples who signed up. Based on the costing, I concluded that this won’t be financially successful and I told my leader that we should just cancel this event. I also just recovering from being sick so I was feeling a bit lazy. Thank God the Lord spoke powerfully through my leader. He told to me to continue the MER, the rest of my household members offered to sponsor the food. The weekend resulted in a very personal and touching MER, where 7 couples where able to give their personal vows for their spouses during the renewal of vows, something that could be very time consuming with a larger group.

How many times do we feel we should not attend an activity because we feel lazy or not up to it, ATTEND anyway!

How many times do we feel we do not want to serve because we feel we are not capable and skilled, SERVE anyway!

How many times we feel that what God is asking us to do something that is too much for us handle, OBEY anyway!

Imagine if Jesus gave up on carrying the cross for us and suffering the painful crucifixion, would we be saved?

Lord, thank for the powerful theme for this year for our community, may we truly walk in the footsteps of the first disciple, our dear Mother Mary, when she asked the servants to “Do Whatever He tells you”. Amen!

Tito Gee

Be Full

There are so many times when people can’t see God. I know I’m guilty of this – of feeling “spiritually dry”. Being surrounded by other Youth for Christ members who love God and live out their faith makes you feel inadequate sometimes. Listening to speakers speak of God’s love or singers sing of God’s grace – we feel like we have so little to give. And so we pull away, slowly, feeling like we’re unworthy to be spiritually full. And then, because we’ve pulled away, we feel even less full. We feel as though God has left us because we have tried to leave Him.

The silly thing is we are always full of God’s love. We are constantly overflowing with God’s grace and goodness. A puddle can look at a lake and feel dry, and that lake can look at the ocean and feel dry, but they are not dry. We can’t look to others to judge our relationship with God. We can’t look at others and decide that we are less worthy than them to worship our Saviour.

God surrounds us in everything we do. He is constantly overfilling us, and when we turn away that doesn’t mean He stops pouring. God is constant. He will never stop.

A Servant For the Lord

Sitting on the bus, coming from Windsor, looking through all of the beautiful reflections that have been posted so far, I came across a short little question and reminder that came across my mind:

What does it mean to be a true servant for the Lord?

In the dictionary, it states that a servant is a person who performs duties for others. Even in a “secular” book, the definition of a servant is a person of humility; a person that submits to others. So there should be no excuse to humbling ourselves towards EVERYONE and not just towards members in the CFC Youth community. So, as servants of God, whether it is within the CFC Youth community or in the church, or wherever  else we may go, the only real way to serve is to truly put others above ourselves, ourselves last, and God first! It’s extremely hard and seemingly impossible at times, I admit, but it is also very humbling.

Let us be true servants of God, and always remember the way of our Lord!

AMDG