Receiving Christ

(August 31, 2016)

Talk to any Christian youth or young adult and ask them what their favourite worship song is?

More often than not, you will hear a song written by Hillsong. And more often than not, singing a line in the verse or chorus will easily garner the interest of those around you. Whether it’s the classics like “Here I am to Worship”, the recent ones like “Touch The Sky” and everything in between, there is a sort of relationship or attachment we have to the songs of prayer. And hearing more and more of their songs, I knew it was one thing to listen to their Live Albums, but another to actually experience it first-hand. And so for a good 6 years I hoped and dreamed of attending a Hillsong concert, building up the experience in my head. Imagining singing the same song with thousands of other Christians.

And it was during their Zion tour that I got to finally experience it. The best part of this experience was that a majority of the concert they played their classics and hit songs. Being able to finally translate my dreams while singing in the car to reality inside an arena, I came to a realization (through another brother with the same reflection) that the concert itself wasn’t fulfilling. For sure, it was great singing all these songs that I jammed to, but there was something missing, something was lacking — and that was Jesus Christ.

This all became a sudden realization; what’s greater than singing the worship songs that I love?Receiving Christ. What’s greater than singing with thousands of other people in that arena?Receiving Christ with Catholics all across the globe. What’s greater than sharing these songs and still singing the songs we love after the concert? Receiving Christ and sharing Christ to whomever we encounter.

When we receive the Holy Eucharist at Mass, we receive Jesus Christ and we become walking tabernacles. We become the vessels of Christ and the messenger of God’s love to all. And over my spiritual journey I have continued to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for the Holy Mass. What was once thought of as a Catholic task done once a week has now become the very essence of who I am, of who we are, as bearers of Christ’s love, grace and mercy.

These songs may only be memorable when brought up, but the Lord is truly present all the time within us.

AMDG.

For Christ.

(August 25, 2016)

This past weekend, I was blessed with the opportunity to attend the SFC CLP in Niagara Falls. The great blessing from attending the CLP was the opportunity to become a participant again. In fact, it has been about 9-10 years since I joined CFC-Youth, 9 years since I went to my first conference as a participant. That many years since I was not involved in the planning, in the busy-ness, in the stresses of an event. This experience was more than hearing the familiar teachings about God’s love, about who Jesus Christ is, about repentance and faith, about the power of the Holy Spirit, and about upholding the Christian ideal. Instead, I was reaffirmed of what I was called to do in my life, that in everything that we do and in everything we are, it all must lead to Christ.

How we present ourselves, how we conduct ourselves in our day to day lives, if they do not lead ourselves and others to Christ, then we are doing it wrong. It’s not that we are being controlled, rather, if we are to present Christ and be Christ then we must do it excellently.

Now it doesn’t take a person to go to a camp or a CLP to understand this. This is the very purpose we have in our lives. As for us in the community of Couples For Christ, it is in our very name that we highlight the calling and challenge we are called to, we are called to be For Christ. We are not youth for vanity, youth for materialism, youth for self-absorption, youth for evil…we are Youth for Christ. Singles for Christ. Yes it is difficult, yes we will fail at times, yes we will struggle, but let us remember that Christ too suffered for our sake and carried the cross. Therefore we must also carry ours.

Most merciful and loving God, empower us, inspire us, move us, and use us. In times of good and bad, may we continue to draw closer to You, for You are the everlasting source of life. May our mind, body and soul proclaim Your love and may it lead not only ourselves, but others as well, to You.

AMDG.

Best of Both Worlds

(August 25, 2016)

As I may have written in an earlier blog, I have been reading Catholicism by Bishop Robert Barron. (If there is a book you could start with, I suggest this book) And in it he writes about the Spirit of St. Paul and St. Peter, the pillars of the Catholic Church.

And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.
– Matthew 16:18

If we look at them separately, first with St. Peter, we know he stood for “office, structure, hierarchy, and headship” all of which were ways the Catholic church is ordered to achieve its purpose. With St. Peter, we have the foundation of the church, as Jesus called Peter the rock, a stable foundation so strong that nothing would prevail against it.

So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
– Acts 9:17

Opposite of St. Peter, we look at St. Paul. We all know of his conversion story and we know from his letters, that St. Paul stood for mission, engagement of the culture, and proclamation. And with St. Paul, as Bishop Barron says, every missionary, teacher, preacher and theologian are a son or daughter of Paul.

We know St. Paul and St. Peter as the pillars of the Catholic Church. Why? Because without the Petrine discipline, Pauline work would be all over the place and would be in danger of dissolution. On the other hand, without the Pauline energy, the Petrine work would become “cold management and ecclesiastical bureaucracy.” And so together, in tensive harmony, the church continued to grow through time, expanding to the far regions of the world.

As I read on, I couldn’t help but look at my own life and saw how I did not have that same tensive harmony. Instead I operated strictly with a Petrine discipline, consumed by the planning and maintenance of order and structure in my life. As a result, my life had slowly become robotic, procedural and cold-like programmed management of all my responsibilities. Even though I would be willing to go on mission trips (before I became an MV) and serve God every time I am called, on a personal and spiritual level, I never engaged and challenged myself. Aside from going to Mass every Sunday, everything else was an occasional instance. Most of it depending on how I felt or how ‘willing’ I was to pray, AKA how lazy I was.

And so to find that balance, I challenged myself to learn more about my faith. Whether it be taking classes/courses in university about the history of the Catholic church, listening to podcasts, reading books, I have been able to find a deeper appreciation and understanding of all the things that I do as a Catholic. So in regards to the Petrine discipline and Pauline work, I relate Petrine discipline to the skeletal structure of my faith (Sacraments, prayer, adoration) and Pauline work to the supplemental things I look to to help further my spiritual journey (courses, books, podcasts). And it’s a balance wherein both in tandem builds to something with a strong foundation and fruitful growth.

So find that balance of both, challenge yourself to learn more while still building the very foundation of your faith through the sacraments. If I hadn’t started reading books, then I wouldn’t have read about the pillars of the Catholic Church. Start in small steps, gradual adding more and more as you grow.

For those looking for podcasts, I suggest: Ignitecast, Catholic Stuff You Should Know and Word on Fire. For those looking for books, I can only suggest Catholicism (by Bishop Robert Barron) since it’s the only book I’ve been reading haha. Challenge yourselves to learn more than the bare minimum.

St. Peter and St. Paul, pray for us.

AMDG.

Happy

(August 1, 2016)

No matter what happens even if it is your “first” time, there will never be a last time that you will be loved by the Lord. Again, when we say yes to what the Lord presents, you will always be guaranteed growth. You will always be loved by Him. There is always something to receive the more you give.

This quote comes from a blog post of a very HAPPY brother of mine lol.

But this excerpt really spoke volumes of how this past weekend was like, and even how this past year has been. If there is any evidence of the Lord’s love for me, these past few days have been exactly that. I was graced with the opportunity to serve at Metro Region’s first ever KFC Family Conference as a competitions head and as part of the music ministry (1st time playing the ba-buh-bass). This also marked my first time serving in a KFC event. The reason why I said that the past few days was evidence was because that’s how long preparations and execution took place. We literally had only 4 days to prepare, 4 days to organize competitions, 4 days to learn KFC songs (thank the Lord most of them were in the key of E) and all the songs for each session. There were always moments where doubt would creep in. But for some reason, no matter the moment, there was always a moment of HAPPY-ness (hehehehehe).

The kids were energetic and always happy; even on the second day of conference. Just being around them, seeing them, it really encouraged and challenged me to have that same attitude. You know to have that child-like faith. They didn’t care about the mistakes I made when playing bass, they didn’t care that we were behind schedule, they didn’t care about anything but to simply enjoy the encounters they had with their friends, their family, the service team, and with God.

And so the Lord showed His love through these kids, always smiling and being joyful. I may have given a lot of energy trying to keep up with the energy of these kids (hence sleeping for 14 hours after the conference), but I received something far greater in the joy and smiles of the kids.

This was a year of firsts, first year serving in the GTA as Sector head, first time as program head at RYC, first time serving as transpo at TNC, first time attending NLS, first time serving in a KFC event, and first year as an MV. Through all of this I’m affirmed by the post of that happy brother of mine, to know and see that the Lord continues to show me His love for me.

AMDG.

Behold & Ponder

(August 1, 2016)

Here’s the last reflection I had from the one on one I had with God at the office last week.

It would’ve been predictable and would’ve made sense to have this post titled as Give Thanks, reflecting the theme for this year. However, I find it fitting to first revisit the theme of 2014.

Behold and Ponder. It was the third year for CFC in our journey with Mother Mary, and it was a year of reflection. A year to reflect in silence. This theme challenged us to see or observe and reflect deeply and thoroughly on where are hearts are. For CFC it was a reflection on the 33 years of CFC and where it would go from there. But now (or 7 days ago) for me, it’s a reflection on how I should take the time to stop and look at where Christ is leading me. Now how do I relate this to third part of this year’s theme, ‘Give Thanks’? It’s through these two that we have a posture of receiving. Prior to Behold and Ponder, we looked at the Magnificat (“Proclaim the greatness of the Lord”) and then Obey and Witness (“Do whatever He tells You”). Both of which called us to act, to do something in response to God’s love for us – parallel to rejoice and pray. And then with the third part, it is a calling to revisit where the Lord is leading us and to receive the fruits. If we are to give thanks for what the Lord has done, we must first KNOW where, when and how the Lord has been so good to us. How do we do that? By stopping, seeing and deeply reflecting on what the Lord has done.

However, I’ve come to realize that this doesn’t happen enough times. How often have I been so caught up in doing deed after deed, resulting in a focus solely on the success or failure of that deed. It’s a lot of doing and acting, and not a lot of receiving. As a result I am either positive or disappointed about the end result. But, there is so much more to this than simply the start and end. Every single thing that happens in our life bears fruit. As long as we look to Christ and take the time to see where He is leading us then we will be able to see the fruits. This year we weren’t called to give thanks just for the good things in our lives, but to give thanks in all things. For by doing this, as well as rejoicing and praying, we allow God who “surpasses all understanding [to] guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 4:7)

Proclaim the greatness of the Lord, Obey & Witness, Behold & Ponder.

Rejoice, Pray, Give Thanks.

AMDG.

Pray

(July 25, 2016)

The most daunting yet overlooked question in a one on one: how is your prayer time?

…

One of the key messages from the Montreal SHouT was that, Everything we do is a reflection of our prayer time.

Whether it is how we worship, how we lead, how we carry ourselves in our day to day lives — all of it is tied up to our prayer life. Our lifeline with God.

Looking at it, it makes sense, if it is God that blesses us with the things of our lives then it will be through God and with God that we travel on this journey. It’s like going on long drives to a place you’ve never been to before but without a GPS, cellphone, or map. Just as you lose your way easily without these navigational devices, you will also lose your way on this journey with Christ if You do not turn to Him.

But diving into the actual praying itself, how do you pray? Do you pray with endless petitions and requests for God to do for you? Or do you allow it to be a conversation, a dialogue rather than a monologue?

For myself, it has always been about me reaching out to Christ with petition after petition. I remember as a kid, for about a year, my prayer would be “I pray for a new playstation, if You allow it Lord I will be happy. If not, then okay.” Like legit that would be the full extent of my prayers, simple or even complex arrangements of requests. What I forgot was that the Lord was also reaching out to me. I’ve always treated my prayer life as a monologue, where I was the only one to speak. And my prayer time would always be second to my daily schedule, if I had time I’d pray, if not then maybe later. Then whenever I do pray it’d be a blitz of questions, and processing of what I THINK the Lord is trying to tell me.

But lately, I’ve been challenged by the Lord to make my prayers more conversational and personal. Meaning less structured and more genuine as to how I really am. Much like how I’ve written before that there is beauty in simplicity, I’ve challenged myself to keep my prayers simple in the sense that it’s a straight up conversation with God.

One thing I am affirmed of, despite how our prayer lives are, the Lord will always try to reach out to us. So no matter where you are in your prayer lives/times, keep at it. Your day should be built around your time with God, and not the other way around.

So again I pose the question, how is your prayer time?

AMDG.

Rejoice

(July 25, 2016)

I’ve always said that I’ll catch up on my blog posts, but every time I end up getting caught up in the busy-ness of conference season and I usually forget about it. But today the Lord was like, “yo you better get started on those blog posts.” So He made it literally impossible to be distracted from blogging by breaking down my phone service (aka no data or way of contacting others), he didn’t allow my macbook to connect to the office’s wifi (aka no youtube or anime) and he placed all the FTPWs in a coordination meeting downstairs while I’m here upstairs in the family min room. And so from 12 until whenever the coordination meeting was done (it ended at around 2, I think), it was a time for just God and me, the two of us, with no distraction. In a way this was a rare time where I’m not preoccupied by anything else, and also a way to reflect on the past few hectic weeks.

Because of this alone time with Christ, there will be a surplus of blog posts from me on this day lol. So there will be some overlap between the Montreal SHouT and TNC reflections. But that’s okay haha.

Just to give a brief timeline as to how things panned out for me, 4 weeks ago (June 29-July 4) I was in Montreal for their SHouT. And the past 3 weeks were dedicated to TNC service. And now this week is dedicated to the Family Conference here in the region.

I’ve never realized how busy my schedule had gotten as I was saying yes to service after service. But the challenge came during the week of TNC, where the Lord challenged me to find the joy in all of the busy-ness of TNC.

I can say that I have a hard time saying no, and that I hate disappointing others or not meeting their expectations. (My household knows, shout outs to you Mr. Bombae). Whether it’d be giving people rides, doing favours for others, cutting their hair (shameless plug here), I’d be willing to do it. And for this TNC, the Lord definitely brought me to my limits. At one point during the week, I heard the questions: “Hey OJ, how are we getting to the venue tomorrow? Are you driving me? I was told to ask you about how I’m getting to the venue tomorrow?” from countless numbers of people. And with all these people needing rides and my desire to meet their requests, the stress began piling up and I couldn’t handle it anymore – I broke down. You can sort of imagine this slow breakdown unfold, imagine like the destruction of an abandoned apartment, each floor being detonated until the eventual collapse of the whole building. That’s what it felt like.

I’m not the type to typically break down in that manner, but at that moment, I questioned the Lord why am I doing this? Why did I say yes to this?

I couldn’t find the answer, instead I kept chugging through serving Him as best as I could. But why did I keep chugging through? Looking back, it came back as the reflection of this year’s theme to REJOICE.

What is joy? Simply put, its one’s awareness of God’s grace, it is grace recognized. And as missionaries we are called to be joyful missionaries. However how does one remain joyful despite circumstances that prevent us from being joyful? The answer that rang deep within me was simply to keep trusting in the Lord. Joy is not a feeling or emotion but it is a understanding that God’s grace is present. And if God always present in our lives, then all we are called to do is become aware of God’s grace. We experience joy because we choose to be joyful knowing that the Lord in His providence will be with us through it all.

Therefore keep fighting the fight, keep running the race. Keep entrusting and surrendering everything to the Lord because it is only through Him will we experience joy. A joyful missionary is a good missionary.

AMDG.