One Body in Christ

 

 

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We here this all the time that we as a community of believers (the Catholic Church) in Jesus Christ, are ONE BODY. Just like the Original Power Ranger Megazord…

But how?

Each power ranger had a dinosaur robot associated with each of them:

Blue Ranger: Triceratops

Red Ranger: T-Rex

Yellow Ranger: Saber-tooth Tiger

Pink Ranger: Pterodactyl

Black Ranger: Mastodon

These 5 dinosaur Robots combine to make a bigger dinosaur Robot called a MEGAZORD (as shown in the picture) so that they can battle the bigger and badder bad guys. Each dinosaur acts as a specific part of the Megazord (arms, feet, chest, head) As a church, we are essentially the same. We fight the evils of this world and in ourselves together as ONE BODY with Christ being the head and us as His hands and feet.

This weekend was Central Region’s CFC-Youth Regional Conference. Despite the doubts, frustrations, struggles, and worries, the Lord was plain and simple yet profound… VICTORIOUS (how easy is it for us to forget?).

Celebrating 2 years here as a FTPW on May 8th 2015, I could not but help but be overwhelmed with God’s presence influenced by the power of the Holy Spirit in EVERY SINGLE PERSON this weekend. As much as I think we can prepare for the joy that is to be expressed after a RYC, I never do.

With the help of our Blessed Mother Mary and through Jesus and our Father’s Divine mercy and grace, WE GLORIFIED HIM TOGETHER. Everyone did their part with our service being unravelled beautifully by our Lord. One community, one family, one church. We all worked together as one body, with our Lord Jesus Christ as the head.

“The Church …’is the visible plan of God’s love for humanity,’ because God desires ‘that the whole human race may become one People of God, form one Body of Christ, and be built up into one temple of the Holy Spirit.’… ” (CCC 776)

Lord, as we prepare for Pentacost and the birth of the Church, may we continue to be reminded by Your grace that we are one body and with the help of the Holy Spirit, be beacons of light filled with charity to each other and the whole World.

AMDG

 

Reflection.

(Oct 8th 2014)

“But the Lord answered, ‘Martha, Martha’ he said, ‘you worry and fret about so many things, and yet few are needed, indeed only one. It is Mary who has chosen the better part, and it is not to be taken from her.”

Blunt as it is, sometimes we worry about things to much. We let things get to our head, which gets to our hearts. It’s hard… definitely hard not to be overwhelmed by so many things in life, especially family, service, school, vocation, etc., whatever it may be. Sometimes we just need that simple… just got to go back to Jesus. Go back to Him in prayer, Mass, Adoration, etc., wherever you need to meet. He can even be found in family, nature, silence, the most sacred spot in our homes, or even in the struggle itself. No one can/should oppose your relationship with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

The gospel was very personal to me today. It came at the right time. What a great affirmation and a time that Jesus aligned His heart with mine. Thank you Lord Jesus, I love you. I love the mission. I love the struggle. I love you. I love you.

Pray Pray Pray. Jesus Jesus Jesus.

Charity

One of Blessed Mother Teresa’s favourite prayers which she recited every day after Holy Mass and the sisters of her founded order, Missionaries of Charity, continue to do is Radiating Christ.
Here is the prayer:
Dear Jesus,
help me to spread your fragrance
everywhere I go.
Flood my soul with Your Spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly
that my life may only be a radiance of Yours.
Shine through me and be so in me that every soul
I come in contact with may feel Your presence in my soul.
Let them look up, and see no longer me, but only Jesus!
Stay with me and then I will begin to shine as Your shine,
so to shine as to be a light to others.
The light, O Jesus, will be all from You;
none of it will be mine.
It will be You, shining on others through me.
Let me thus praise You in the way You love best,
by shining on those around me.
Let me preach You without preaching, not by words but
by example, by the catching force, the sympathetic
influence of what I do, the evident fullness of the love my
heart bears for You.
Amen.

Along this path of seeking to grow in God’s love and by His grace, this journey of discernment for the vocation He has planned for this life He’s blessed me with, I was presented this prayer.
One of my past CFC-Youth couple coordinators was truly a beautiful and strong instrument, for it was her who gave me the contact info. to get in touch with the Mother Superior of this order in hopes to speak with her in 2013. After 3 months, I finally accepted the invitation from God, was blessed with the chance to meet her, and spent a good amount of time during that summer at their convent. It was there that the sister offered a few copies of this prayer and I recognized it was the one they faithfully prayed each day after Holy Mass.
It was one of the beginning and active steps our Blessed Mother Mary helped me to take in this walk with and towards our Lord Jesus Christ in discerning His will; and I cherish every teaching, prayer, grace, their openness, experience, the time of sheer simplicity and quietness amidst uncertainties I shared with them. I have been grateful to dive into seeking, learning, and desiring His virtue of charity.
This is a longing in my heart and a prayer I try to revisit constantly, indeed, after Holy Mass, for our loving Father to purify my intentions. May they see You Lord, not me. May we radiate You and shine Your light as Your Word made flesh tells us. Then, wholly trust in every act, deed, service, and word that follows is led by Your Holy Spirit in hopes that we may truly live charity, and love charitably our neighbours.

Charity in Latin is “caritas” which means Christian love of humankind; 
one of the virtues.
– Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus had said, “Above all I have learned that charity must not remain shut up in the depths of our hearts . . .”
Last Sunday, our Church celebrated the tremendous Feast of His Divine Mercy. Mercy . . . Jesus’ beloved daughter, Saint Faustina, who obediently spread the Lord’s message of Divine Mercy had shared to us His instructions.
He tells us, “I demand from you deeds of mercy which are to arise out of love for Me. You are to show mercy to your neighbours always and everywhere. You must not shrink from this or try to excuse yourself from it . . . Even the strongest faith is of no avail without works.”
– – –
May we all open up our hearts, allow His Holy Spirit to penetrate and flood our souls with His graces, grow in virtue, and thus, show mercy, love, and charity to all we encounter. May we all encounter Christ.
Amen.

The Great Amen

(Easter Wednesday, April 8, 2015)
At mass, the Liturgy of the Eucharist: presenting the gifts, the specific actions of the priest being ready for something dramatic to occur, the Eucharistic Prayer “Lift up your hearts!” (Col 3:1-2) the moment we should want our heart to unite with God, the moment our reverence in the Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy!) should have us bowing down moreso, to the words of Institution and Consecration with our memorial of Jesus Christ giving of Himself as the Lamb- His body, His blood, concludes with
The Great Amen.
“We sign . . . we affirm all the priest has said.”
This afternoon during mass, our priest surprisingly and tenderly allowed us to witness the Gift of the Holy Spirit – counsel. After most us present said “Amen”, he looked up and basically asked us where is your Amen? and encouraged, exhorted us all to repeat this great response. What a humbling and blessed opportunity. It is truly not something we would normally expect to occur. Praise be to God for this grace and mercy to be awakened and give more of ourselves, our Amen, our “yes”.
– – –
We hear it said in the Gospel, “Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one” (Matthew 5:37 NRSVCE).
“I ask you, instead, to be revolutionaries, to swim against the tide;
yes, I am asking you to rebel against this culture that sees everything as temporary and that ultimately believes that you are incapable of responsibility, that you are incapable of true love.
I have confidence in you and I pray for you.
Have the courage ‘to swim against the tide.’
Have the courage to be happy.” (Pope Francis)
Amen!

You are Blessed

(Holy Thursday, April 2’15)
As soon as His grace, our Archbishop Richard Gagnon, came down upon one knee and tenderly took hold of the first parishioner’s foot for him to wash, a grace from God opened wide the eyes of my heart and stilled my soul. In that moment, an utter striking and gentle fire burned in my heart as the Holy Spirit allowed me to fully realize and recognize Love.
This is You, Jesus, this is You. How are You kneeling there in the most humble position before me, before each of us?
Our Lord… yes, Your love for us is beyond measure. At this very moment, You remind us how our ways are not Your ways. But, no, let us not get distracted or discouraged; let us simply look before us, here, You go before us.
May we know who goes before us.
You want to tenderly reveal how deeply You love us and came to be a servant of all.
You desire to take care of each of us and show compassion. You desire to humble Yourself above all else, yet You are God. You are our King, our Father, our Creator, our Author. But, You are God and You are Love.
You are Love and Mercy itself. And, You desire for Your children to know Your model of humility to trust in Your Mercy.
Our aim is loving You, Lord Jesus Christ, by trusting in You.
– – –
“It is there that I will know You and You will know me – in the silence of the heart, You speak.” (Audrey Assad)
– – –
“Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” . . .
After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? 
You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. 
So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 
For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. 
Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them.
If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.” (John 13: 8, 12-16 NRSVCE)

BELIEVE | Change in Posture

I’m so thankful for the gift of being part of CFC-Youth Canada because the community has grown in many beautiful ways. I feel very blessed that this growth has reached the Mountain Region because I’ve seen and been part of the growth for the past 11 years. I would have never thought that God would lead us to this point where we would dream of having a myriad of youth attend from more delegations and that the service team would dream bigger and work more intently in bringing life and creativity to sharing God’s message with other youth. Who would’ve thought that there would be an Awake Fair, workshops, a poetry slam competition, and a bunch of other crazy cool things? Eleven years ago, I personally would have never thought that I would be serving in an RYC, but by the grace of God, here I am! Praise God! 🙂

A lot can change in eleven years, but one thing that I noticed that was very different today than in the past was the posture of everyone’s hearts. When I was younger, we were reminded several times that any competitions we were a part of were to bring glory to God. But still, many of us would be upset when we didn’t win a particular competition. There were even tears of sadness and disappointment. Even while worshiping, many people would be crying  painful tears. But today, the youth seem to just know truly in their hearts and minds, that all they did and offered on stage, on court, in worship, or in their service was for the glory of God.

At RYC I witnessed tears, but these tears were joined with bright smiles because I knew some of the youth had breakthroughs after being broken down; I knew some of the youth were expressing joy after working tirelessly; and I knew some of the youth were touched to hear the conversion stories shared by their fellow brothers and sisters; or were excited to encounter and worship Christ again.

I shared at RYC that I joyfully cried at the sight of seeing the growth of an old household member as she played in the RYC band and when I saw some of the Edmonton youth perform a session creative because I was aware of the sacrifices many of them made in order to serve. How beautiful a sight it is to see this great change in the posture of the youth’s hearts — hearts of perseverance, trust, and liveliness! Also, how amazing it is to see the reverence of the youth when they encountered Christ in mass and adoration! Thinking about it again makes my heart very full because in the past we didn’t have adoration, nor did we have mass twice in a single RYC. In fact, this was our first RYC where Mountain Region celebrated mass two times! :’)

This past RYC in Mountain was so blessed! From the preparations to the event itself, I couldn’t help but feel very loved by God. Witnessing all of the work everyone put in, the amount of trust they had in God, and the final execution of ensuring that it was the best they could make it really brings me joy. Even having the entire RYC Package was a huge blessing because it contained all of the outlines for the talks, sharers, and workshops; the graphic package; and just everything else in it haha.  CFC-Youth Canada and CFC-Youth Mountain Region has bloomed despite the many struggles. What’s more exciting is that we’re not finished growing! God has much more in store for everyone! But this growth in numbers, creativity, faith, love, hope, and joy in the past and in the future can only be attributed to the Holy Spirit who guides, empowers, and inspires our hearts to serve and love God.

Thank You, Holy Spirit! Please continue to fall down on us and come into us and ignite our hearts to love and serve more! Change the posture of our hearts that we may believe in the Gospel and live as true disciples of Christ. Amen.

To God Be the Glory

In March I attended a talent show at one of the catholic high schools to support some of the youth in the core group and in my home chapter. As I waited for my brothers and sisters to dance, I watched the many other performers share their talents. There were students singing, dancing, rapping, playing the drums, guitar or other instruments. Everyone did such an amazing job, but there were some performers who really impressed me with their talent!

As I sat in my seat, watching these youth and being entertained, I couldn’t help but ask myself, “Why does this event seem slightly empty?” And then it occurred to me that there was no pastoral aspect/content to this event. I was at a catholic high school and there was no mention of God or how God gave all these youth their talent; there was no mention of how the youth’s talents could be used to help the world and give God glory. I grew up in the public school system, so I was used to not hearing about God, but it just seemed off to me that not a single person said anything about God and I was a catholic school.

Although God was not spoken about, I asked God to help me see Him there. And so I found God in the youth and in their courage to perform, and in their desire to share their talents with others. I found Him in the songs that were sung and in the lyrics rapped. I heard God in the encouragement of the audience members as they cheered their fellow school mates on. I heard God in the voices of the teachers who shared their positive feedback as they judged each performer. I heard God in the emcees who thanked and honoured the staff and students who planned and executed the event. In all of this, it caused me to silently cry tears of joy haha. God is present. He is here!

Yes, God was present in the goodness found in the people of the school. But there was still this desire, this longing, in my heart for the people to fully acknowledge God and to mention Him in the program. I thought, how great would it be to have HSB at this high school again? It’s been many years since HSB was established here.

My prayer for this catholic high school and other schools across Edmonton is for the students and teachers to know the CFC-Youth community in the near future. I pray that they will come to know and encounter Christ in varying ways, and see that He is relevant and rightfully deserves praise and honour. I pray that everyone will remember God and vocally say aloud that He is present with boldness and excitement. Amen.