True North Missionaries Journal

For the past year now I’ve been telling myself, and others, how great it is to let God surprise you.

Just the other day I was on the phone with a friend who had some bad news to share. Initially I thought the phone call would be one where I’d be picking little pieces of their heart off the floor doing my best to help them put it back together. I was almost completely wrong, and somehow with God’s grace there was immense peace, clarity, and joy that this ‘bad’ news allowed to blossom. It’s true that at certain times when we’re in the thick of things and caught up in what’s going on it can be easy to forget that God is working in the background – He is constantly working in our favour.

The moments when we forget who He is are usually the moments when He catches us off guard. I know that I often unknowingly put limits on Him, which in turn puts limits on what is possible – for myself, my service, my efforts, my choices, etc. As an events planner at work it’s literally my job to plan (something I love to do in general), but in everyday life there comes a time when you have to trust that you’ve done your part. You’ve planned as much as you could, made concrete steps to carry out those plans, but then let the Lord surprise you with His own plans and His way of how things will unfold. It’s not always clear in the beginning, but usually with time we see just how many times His surprises have been in our favour out of pure and unconditional love for us.

With summer nearly over, I’d like to share with you one of my simple (yet ironically complicated) joys:

Construction

Yes I know, I’m probably crazy but seeing and being involved in construction, whether it’s road or structures, brings me a lot of joy. This simple joy came about after being put in the middle of road construction for a majority of my university co-op terms. The knowledge, insight, and awesome (not) farmer’s tan that I took away from the experiences are things I’ve come to value.

Before my co-op terms, I could say I took construction for granted. It wasn’t until my work terms that I learned that there are sewer (sanitary and storm) and water pipes installed under the road. With the exception of the water main, the pipes are gravity-driven and have to be sloped at a specific percentage in order for the fluid (whether it’s storm water or wastewater) to flow properly to its final destination, either a stormwater management facility (aka pond) or a wastewater treatment plant. If you think about it, there are so many kilometers of pipe under our roads that all have a design and destination. Even with roads and sidewalks, they have to be sloped a certain way to ensure the water flows to the catch basins and doesn’t create unnecessary puddles.

Now that I’m given the opportunity to design these pipes and roads as a project engineer, I realize that every little thing has to be thought of prior to construction; everything has to be given a specific purpose and design. Things aren’t left up to chance and workers and designers don’t just “wing it” for the sake of the public’s safety.

What amazes me and brings me joy is that construction reminds me of God. Everything that we can touch, everything that we see has the indelible mark of God on it. Just like how bricks are laid one by one by the hand of the worker, every single atom that exists has been designed, touched, and carefully placed by our Creator.

“All creatures that exist are in the hands of God. The action of the creature can only be perceived by the senses, but faith sees in all things the action of the Creator. It believes that in Jesus Christ all things live, and that his divine operation continues to the end of time, embracing the passing moment and the smallest created atom in its hidden life and mysterious action. The action of the creature is a veil which covers the profound mysteries of the divine operation.” – Jean-Pierre de Causs

A lot of the time, however, things don’t always go as planned. More often times than not, it is because of miscommunication. People interpret things differently and if confusion is not cleared up, roads, for example, could be constructed too wide or with insufficient slope. With our faith life, I am constantly reminded of the importance of communication with the Ultimate Engineer.

During my confession a few weeks ago, Father reminded me of something very important, something I always seem to forget: What God desires from our prayer is not success, but faithfulness. The first fruit of prayer is charity, because it is with that virtue that we will be able to see God in all things and love unceasingly. 

Only through constant communication with our Creator will we be able to truly abide by His Will, where we will be able to properly construct His masterpiece of our lives and appreciate His presence in all things.

Lord, I thank you for being present in all that I see and all that I do. I continue to pray for the will to be consistent in my communication with you so that I may never fail to see you in everything and everyone, and that I may live out the plans You have for me.

You know that feeling when you lie in bed, and you just have this urge to move your legs? Apparently, the term is called “Restless Leg Syndrome” but a good friend of mine describes it as, “Your legs being constipated” which I still chuckle at to this day. How is the constipation analogy relevant? I’m not sure, I try to keep things entertaining sometimes.

I bring this up because that’s the state our souls should be in every single day of our lives (and no I don’t mean constipated, for all you wise guys out there). We should always be wanting to be spiritually active, and we should never feel rested that we just simply stop moving. Fundamentally, there is something missing in our lives. We are always yearning for something whether it be tangible or not. We yearn for air, food, new clothes, more money, social status, respect, identity, approval, love from others, and so on. But even if all those wants & needs are met, we still feel so unsatisfied. There is a God-shaped hole in our hearts that none of those things can fulfill permanently. We can try our best, but it’ll never be enough because we’ll always want more. Luckily, God is infinite and easily attainable. His Love is endless and when we finally acknowledge that He is what we should be filling ourselves with, then everything else just doesn’t matter as much anymore. We don’t occupy ourselves with what fills us temporarily, but turn towards what is already in us and nurture it.

“Our hearts are made restless, until they rest in You”

St. Augustine

 

Ever since I started working at my family’s restaurant, I’ve realized something; Everyone has a need to connect. Many of us go to restaurants with people to do just that, connect with them. But more and more often as I continue to work there even more, I began to realize something that contradicts that deep need to connect; People try to find connection in the wrong places. Let me explain.

Every week I see the same things over and over again. A pair or group of people walk in and gets seated, and their first instinct is to… you guessed it, pull out their phone. What is the next thing you may ask? They would ask me for the Wifi password. Then for the next five minutes, instead of looking over the menu or engaging in conversation with the people they are with, they would scroll through their phones looking at the latest status updates or photo posts on their favourite social media website. Then when I come to ask what they would like to order, they would reply with a “Sorry, please give us another 2 minutes to decide”, because they have not even opened the menu yet. As I stand there waiting for them to make up their minds, the people still do not speak to each other, but rather they would hastily skim through the menu knowing I will be returning soon to take their order. Once I return to do just that, I would leave the table to hear silence as they continue scrolling through their phones. Here and there I would hear a little chatter between the people as they discuss what so and so said on Twitter or that funny video that they saw the day before. Then once the food comes, it is once again silent as they sip their soup and focus on filling themselves. Once they finish eating, they would once again scroll through their phones one last time before they leave the comfort of a Wifi hotspot.

Now I’m not complaining, but just painting a picture of what I see on a weekly basis. Does this sound familiar? I know that not everyone has been to that extreme of a situation, but I know that at this day in age, every one of us has experienced that in some degree, and this bothers me.

Nowadays, everyone thinks that looking through a screen opens the world to them, when in reality they are only shutting out the world around them. They feel this need to connect to every one of their 1500 friends that they forget about the ones in front of them. How ironic is it that through a sincere desire to be connected, they only end up becoming more disconnected.

Now it’s true, I feel that there is this sincere desire in everyone to have a connection to those around them. And this is a good desire, because God gave us other people to journey with us on this faith journey. However, this desire is just twisted and bent into something that no longer represents what it means to be connected, just like every other work of the devil. Yes, work of the devil. He knows that we have a desire for connection with others, so he twists it into a way that it seems like we are connecting, when it fact we are alone, just the way he wants for us to be. He doesn’t want us around other people building genuine relationships that lead to Christ. He wants us to be alone and vulnerable to his works.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not perfect, I often fail at this too. Too often I pull out my phone and look for a Wifi to connect to, or scroll through my feed when I am with another person. But I believe it is time for a change. It is time to begin building real relationships, ones that make me a better person, that ultimately lead me to Christ. I challenge you all to join me, that next time you are in the company of another person, don’ try to pull out your phones. Maybe leave it in the car (if you live is Surrey though then maybe not), or on silent in your pocket. But try and work on building your relationship with that person, because ultimately that relationship could connect you to the only real, unbroken connection; Your connection to Christ.

All the glory to God.

In this past year of service I’ve been constantly reminded of the life of St. Paul. His conversion into the faith is so simple, but amazing. Once he was a “blasphemer, persecutor, and a man of violence” (1 Timothy 1:13) but today he is known for being one of the greatest saints and evangelizers. All it took was for Christ to reveal Himself to him.

But isn’t this true for all of us? Christ invites us to see Him and be present with Him. And when we accept Him in our lives, we are changed and we look towards Him; there is no one else and there is no turning back.

In today’s Gospel (Luke 6:39-42), Jesus reminds me to love, but before that, He reminds me to allow Him to love me first and to experience His love. I’m reminded that Jesus lovingly corrects me in a multitude of ways and before I dare to correct anyone else, I ought to be corrected first and repent. Just as I sin, I am in constant need of experiencing God’s love; this will help the conversion of my own heart.

I’m currently reading “Persuasive Pro-life” by Trent Horn. There are a couple of lines in it that have caught my eye (or should I say, ‘my heart’). Horn states,

In Ephesians 4:15 Paul says we must “speak the truth in love.” The most loving thing we can do for someone is to tell him the truth and prevent him from being deceived.

I understand that this is in the context of defending the unborn by providing bullet proof evidence, but I still believe that this same truth can be applied in witnessing any part of the faith. When I share about God’s love, this community, or be an advocate for my family, school, the poor, or the unborn, the only thing I’m required to do is speak truthfully and with God’s compassionate, merciful, and life-giving love.

This world is flooded with lies and these distort the truth. In my experience, the truth is like fresh air. I deeply desire it, but sometimes I fail to recognize that it exists or I think I have to work and travel far to get it. As a result of my own spiritual lukewarmness, I reduce to accepting the air that fills the media, my busy city, and my secularized school. But when I look to the lives of St. Paul and Trent Horn, I perceive them as air filters; they remove all the dirty excess and reveal the pure essence of what is true: God’s love is everything.

I look to their lives and others as a form of “Godspiration”, which is anything/anyone that reminds me to live my life for the One who created it. In being inspired, I pray that I may be a bold witness and help prevent others from being deceived in the ways that I used to be deceived. More over, I pray that the people I speak to will meet Christ in a very personal way, whether that is through me or through a different encounter.

Jesus, I pray for a humble heart, that which reflects Your own and your mother’s. Teach me how to love the way that You love me.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us and the whole world. Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.
St. Paul, pray for us. Amen.

Letting go can be difficult sometimes. It’s usually the letting go of things that have become habits or even a part of us that are the hardest to let go of. I’m sure most of us have experienced those phases in our lives when we’ve had to say goodbye to our old selves and hello to better versions of our new selves. This process often happens during big transition periods in our life, but in some way, it should be taking place on a regular basis. I don’t think we are ever in a state in this life where we can’t improve, or can’t become greater than the person we were yesterday. We can be less doubtful, less anxious, less angry, less sinful. But we can also be more loving, more patient, more compassionate, more forgiving.

“Putting of the old” and “putting on the new” can be a daily thing. Becoming less of what we want and becoming more like Christ can be and should be a continuous ongoing process. Putting off the old and isn’t meant to be an easy task, but I believe with a mind and heart focused on Christ’s endless mercy we are made capable to be more – not just more like Christ, but more of ourselves, the version that He intends and hopes for us to be.

“The things of this world do not remain constantly with us, for if we do not leave them before we actually die, in death at least we all infallibly depart as empty-handed as we came” – The Maxims and Counsels of St. Philip Neri for September 9th

“So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed. On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life. But now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!” – First Reading for today, September 9th, Colossians 3:1-11

“We should love our family with a love that is beyond ourselves” – Kuya John Acosta

Over the past few months, I have been blessed to experience a wedding, an engagement, a funeral, and multiple viewings. In all of these events, what struck me the most was the amount of love I felt from the families. No matter what the situation, whether happy or sad, through the smiles and tears, everyone acted out of love.

It seemed so fitting that the theme of this year’s SFC TNC was about God’s Masterpiece in our lives, something that every single person on this earth can relate to in some way: our families. I was so grateful to be given the opportunity to reflect on the Lord’s goodness in my life and how he has blessed me with every member of my family.

I admit, there have been many times I’ve taken my family for granted, and I’ve also hurt them many times. What kept going through my head that weekend and kept bringing tears to my eyes (other than the fact that all the talks and sharings were so touching) was the knowledge that my parents are so forgiving. Though I’ve hurt them, they continue to love me unconditionally. Their forgiveness and unceasing love continues to inspire me to do the same with others and ultimately reminds me of the kind of love that The Lord has for us: a love that goes beyond anything we can ever imagine and embraces despite the hurts.

My family is by no means perfect. We each have our own flaws but what makes this building block of society so beautiful is that with every imperfection and crack, the Lord continues to shine through. His love and mercy is what binds the cracks together to make us whole.

“Above all, let your love for one another be intense, for love covers a multitude of sins” – 1 Peter 4:8