True North Missionaries Journal

This week I had the beautiful opportunity of attending an event here in the Archdiocese of Toronto which was hosted by the Sisters for Life at St. Peter’s Church, called “The Source” which is basically Holy Hour, but with a social afterwards.

I was seated near the middle of the Church when I heard the sisters announce that there would be confessions in the back of the church. So I decided to prepare myself to go to confessions and when I was ready, I got up and made my way to the back of the church. When the sister directed me where to sit for the line of confession, I realized something that was actually shocking. Jesus and the monstrance was the same size. With some basic physics, it was impossible, both were supposed to be smaller. Why was this? What was God trying to tell me? Then it dawned on me…

No matter how far you are, or how close you are to the Lord, where the Lord stands, that doesn’t change. God is always going to be there it’s just a matter of us to see Him and how close He really is in our lives. He is knocking at the door of our hearts, but only we can let Him in.

– Christian Medeiros

Today I started my first day of work for Camp Merciful. One of the activities we did was pray the Divine Mercy chaplet, which was later followed by a Lectio Divina on today’s gospel. If you did not have the chance to read the gospel just yet, don’t fret! Here is a snippet of it:

“The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death he will rise.”
But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to question him. They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house, he began to ask them, “What were you arguing about on the way?”
But they remained silent. They had been discussing among themselves on the way who was the greatest.
Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servantof all.” (Mark 9:30-37)

(Full gospel can be found here: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/052218.cfm)

As I was reflecting on what I should write about, I thought that it would be fitting to share my reflection on this particular reading.

The first word that stuck out to me was “rise.” When I initially heard this word being read out loud, I wondered why such a simple word caught my attention. However, when the second word, “servant” was read, it didn’t take long to realize its significance and correlation between the two.

The Lord was reminding me that no matter how high a person goes up in their service – be that in ministry work or in community – they must always remember to be humble. To be a great disciple of Jesus does not necessarily mean to be the smartest, strongest, most knowledgeable person, but someone who is willing to be a loyal servant of Christ a-l-w-a-y-s. This means that they stay connected to Christ at all times. They may feel like they are better than everyone else, or even believe that they don’t need to include God in their life choices or decisions, but they soon realize the fault in this belief.

I thought that this gospel came at the perfect time; especially since I am returning to work for Camp Merciful a second time around. Even though I may have experience of working in this position as before, I know that there is always something new that I can learn and take away from my co-workers, the volunteers and even the participants of the camp. Also, after being in CFC-Youth for a decade now, it can be difficult to not let my pride take over my mind and my actions at times. I’m still in the process of learning how I can improve on comparing myself to others, as it can definitely make me question my personal abilities and what I can offer to God specifically.

With that being said, I was very touched by today’s gospel reading. I am thankful for Jesus speaking so closely to my heart and for reminding me the importance of having a servant heart in the mission. May I learn to be a more kind, loving and humble disciple of His.

Amen.

Danielle Lape

I joined this community back in 2010, and I never had the experience of being a part of Kids For Christ. KFC never really had a big impact on me, I just thought of it as another ministry. There are many perceptions to the ministry as well, one being, it is like a daycare, and it is far from it. Being able to serve at the R.O.C.K. training last weekend here in Toronto actually really changed my perspective on the ministry and the importance of it.

“Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.” – Proverbs 22:6

About two weeks ago, I had the blessing to be able to attend a General Assembly in my home Chapter of Brampton. It was at St. Margeurite D’Youville Parish, where CFC had the hall booked so the youth decided to share the venue with them. Meaning, the KFC’s were present as well. Even though I was helping out the youth, I couldn’t help but be distracted by what the kids were doing and in all honesty, it was very loud. In my mind, I couldn’t help but think, “Man, why can’t they just be quiet?” I actually never realized how arrogant I sounded. After I said that, it dawned on me the importance of having R.O.C.K. leaders and I started to reflect on that.

Now, let’s fast forward to last Saturday where I was able to serve at the R.O.C.K. Leaders Training. It was an eye opening experience for me. One part that really stood out to me was having the mock assembly. If you know me, I only learn or come to realize things through extreme circumstances, and being a part of the mock assembly was beyond that. From there I realized what a vital role not only do parents have on kids but the role that their older brothers and sisters do (us).

I remember when I was just a little boy, I would always look up to my older cousins as my role models. I always thought they were so cool with everything that they were doing. Everything that they did, I would imitate. Especially in today’s society, with influences such as Lil Pump, 6ix9ine, xxxtenacion and the list goes on. It is so vital for us to be a good influence to the kids of today, to bring Christ early into their lives because just as it says when they are older they will not turn from it. So let’s pray for the growth of our hearts and especially those of the kids.

– Christian Medeiros

This week I had our first Unit HH as a unit. All I can say by the end of our night is I can see our hearts is on fire to serve and flourish the community. Which I did not expect, I only expected that they only have an urge but I was wrong which I’m grateful.

The reason why I didn’t expect that drive to have a strong community is that I was losing hope, it just occurred to me as I wrote this. Slowly but surely, that fire of hope was disappearing to the point that I didn’t have high expectations for my unit. It was just especially hard when the small discouragement piles, you don’t realize it until it’s big enough that you start paying attention and try to start cleaning it and overwhelms you.

This is wake up call for me because if I’m losing hope in my Unit, I’m basically saying I’m losing trust on God with His plan for us.

So, having our first HH now, I have high hopes and expectation for our future as a community and as a unit because my unit affirmed me with the fire in their hearts that we will fan each other’s flames so that we don’t lose hope again and we will be stronger as a unit to build His kingdom.

This past weekend I had the wonderful opportunity to serve for the KFC ROCK training. Just a few days before the event, I reached out to one of the KFC area heads and asked if they needed any support for the day. When I messaged them I was expecting to be asked to possibly help with games, maybe even lead a workshop, or just attend the event as a participant.

But to my surprise, my counterpart and I were asked to serve as the music ministry for the day. If you know my service history in CFC-Y, then you would know that I used to serve in the music ministry in my old chapter. I really enjoyed this service because one of my hobbies is to sing (though I’m not amazing at it) and because I love to worship the Lord. However, once I was asked to move onto another service I never thought that I would be part of a music ministry again.

So when this opportunity came up, not only was I surprised or eager to serve, but I was nervous as well. I was so prepared to help in KFC, as in doing something that involved KFC teachings or aspects but instead I was asked to serve in something that I was not necessarily ready for.

Reflecting back on the entire day of the ROCK training, I have come to realize two things.

One, sometimes in mission you will be asked to serve in something that is not necessarily your strong suit or something that you were prepared for.
When there’s a limited amount of people on the battlefield, you must learn to be open-minded as you could be asked to sub-in at any time or day. It may be scary but it’s important to trust in the Lord that He will carry you through it. Also, don’t doubt in your God-given talents. He’s gifted them to you for a reason – which is to share it with the world! (Not saying I’m a great singer or will start posting covers on the internet though)

Second, the wonderful thing about this community is that we are a FAMILY ministry. This means that we support one another regardless if we are in CFC, SFC, CFC-Y, KFC and so forth. We all serve for one purpose and that is because of God.
It was so amazing to witness young leaders who I’ve known for a while, ready to grow as the future ROCK leaders of the GTA region. It was also inspiring to know that these youth wanted to dedicate their whole Saturday to learn how they can lead the future Catholic generation of the world!

I praise God for this humbling and eye-opening experience. I’m so happy that I was able to see the joys of mission in another ministry that I’m not entirely familiar with. Serving the kids may be difficult at times BUT there is always something we can learn from these moments of unfamiliarity and uncomfortability. Whether it is learning to be more patient, compassionate, understanding or even loving, there is always something the Lord wants us to learn.

I honour every past, present and future leader in ROCK and in the Kids-for-Christ ministry. Praise God for your child-like hearts!

Danielle Lape

“It is better to be a child of God than king of the whole world!” – St. Aloysius Gonzaga

At the beginning of the year, I hunted for the BEST agenda. I literally mean a hunt. I went through all the shelves at bookstores, office supply stores, online, just to find the one that was perfect for me. I couldn’t even physically get the book myself, I had to ask a friend to pick it up for me. That’s how badly I wanted it. I bought new pens in multiple colours, not for school or for any type of journaling but for my agenda.

When I finally got it in my hands, I rushed to insert all of the important dates into my agenda; birthdays, holidays, weddings, conferences, retreats, CFC-Youth events, you name it. Every entry was colour coded with some stickers for emphasis. I was honestly so happy with this agenda, that I carried it around with me everywhere I went even if I knew I wouldn’t need it that day. I entered goals for myself and even logged my spending habits. This was it, this was the year I would be organized and get my “act together”.

Then, I started to fall behind. I wasn’t starting my school assignments when I said I would, I was even struggling to hand them in on the due dates. Most of the goals I set weren’t getting a red star sticker of accomplishment next to them. CFC-Youth events that were planned for months in advance were getting cancelled or rescheduled. At this point I didn’t even bother opening my agenda because it was a reminder of all of the things that I could start but didn’t finish, goals I couldn’t achieve, events I couldn’t be present at. This agenda that I was so excited to fill with my plans for the year was something I didn’t even want to see so much that hid it under my bed because I was too ashamed of everything I couldn’t do.

On the weekend, I was complaining (something I am really great at) that I had to say “no” to so many things I wanted to say “yes” because I needed to be present at this one event and yet others couldn’t show up for just a bit. If I could sacrifice my time for just a couple of hours to attend I couldn’t understand the difficulty that other people could not do the same. As I was talking (more complaining) someone interrupted me and asked, “Are you really that busy?”. I was shocked. One, because I was interrupted and secondly, did this person not know who I am? Did I not show them my jam packed, colour coded agenda from the beginning of the year? Of course, being who I am began listing all of the things that I had to do for just the remainder of the month (in my mind). Ending my long list with, “yes, I am busy” out loud. HA. Showed them.

Naturally, I couldn’t let the question go. Am I really busy? Why was there? I could have chosen not to be there at that event but I was. Then I had to reflect on all the “yes'” and “no’s” I had made. The thing is, I made a choice and many other choices. I chose to not start my assignments on time instead I picked up that extra shift at work. I chose to stay up and hangout with my friends and woke up too late to make it to a meeting. I chose to say yes to my service, to be an MVA. I chose to accidentally drop my agenda and slide it under my bed and forget that it was there (until now). They weren’t bad choices (maybe that last one) but they were my choices.

God created us with the ability to make our own choices. It is with (hopefully) true discernment that the choices we make are aligned with God’s plan for us. Will I always choose His way? Probably not, sorry I’m a little stubborn and like making things harder for myself. For me, the real challenge is to admit that my way is not always His way. And that’s okay, knowing God He will always find a way to bring me back to where He wants me to be. I need to accept that the decisions I make are for myself and to be ok with them. My personal challenge is to upgrade my prayer time to make my relationship and communication with the Lord stronger. So for those future choices, whether they’re big or small can be more aligned to His plan

Well at least most of them.