Tag: blessed

3/52: Balance

There is so much to be thankful for, I’m sure I don’t have to present the laundry list of blessings we all receive on a daily basis!  What I will comment on is how we often we tend to complain and stress over them.  I am guilty of this =( 

Maybe we’re feeling overwhelmed. Maybe we’re doubting our capabilities.  Maybe things are piling up and we’re beginning to get anxious about all that is expected of us.  We spend so much time worrying about the tasks as opposed to doing them that we get lost in the mix.  How can we even begin to serve our Lord, if already at the start we’re hindered?

I’ve come to be reminded that BALANCE is key.  If we are at an imbalance in our lives, how do we plan on tackling all of our tasks and responsibilities?  How can we properly share our Lord’s message? How can we remain firm and steadfast to win the race?

More important than reevaluating our priorities is PRAYER!  Prayer is what offsets all those tasks we have to take care of.  And if we’ve got a lot of things to do then that also means we’ve got a lot of praying to do!  It is through prayer that we receive the graces to handle such things, that allows us to centre ourselves in Christ, and gives us the freedom to rest in the Lord after a long day’s work.  Prayer, both, grounds us in our faith but it also motivates us into action!

Mother Teresa once said,

 “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.”

Let us balance our lives with prayer and realize how much of a blessing each day is.  Let us be good stewards of our time, talent and treasure and make the most of each day for our Lord.  Let us not bog ourselves down with worry or anxiety or complaint and realize our Lord walks with us daily, therefore is with us every step of the way.  Let us begin…

2/52: Public Display of Affection

Proclamations of love have always stirred a varied kind of emotion.  Some are embarrassed, some can’t stop laughing, others blush or cry.  But one emotion that most people can’t identify right off the bat, is the feeling of certainty.  To be loved publicly adds to our own sense of self-worth.

Now imagine being Jesus, Christ Himself in human form, who needs no reminder of His worth, might I add!  Imagine the certainty He felt when His Father tore the heavens apart in today’s gospel to say, ” This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

Such a public display of affection affirms why Jesus had the certainty and strength to carry out His Father’s will.  He was affirmed of His Father’s love.  Love makes you do the craziest things!  That very love is what brought Him to His cross and that same love transcends the cross and touches our lives everyday.

Each new day given to us is just another opportunity to acknowledge the public displays of affection our Lord orchestrates. And like Jesus, we should be affirmed of our Lord’s love for each of us, individually & collectively, and from that love we should draw the same certainty that motivated the beginning of one of the greatest displays of affection known to man; the public ministry that ensured our salvation.

 

1/52: Gracious God

Walking into 2013, I made no resolutions, I set no specific goals, and I had no expectations.  You could say that I surrendered my proverbial pen and gave way for God to write my next year!  And since He is our creator and author of life, He put together an impeccable story!

It was filled with new adventures and action.  There was mystery and intrigue and even romance, nothing was spared.  2013 came and went like a flash of light; allowing only enough time to live life moment by moment.  When I think about everything that has happened this past year, I’m surrounded by images of people, places, emotions and experiences.  All of which individually different, yet very much the same.  The same because each person and place, emotion and experience were just different ways God surrounded me with HIS love.

How fortunate am I, a mere sinner, to be blessed in such immense proportions? And that’s just it… I am fortunate to have such a gracious God… we all are!!!  Our Lord chooses everyday to love us past our yesterdays and despite our unworthiness.  And its because of that fact that I can boldly walk into 2014 knowing His graciousness will continue to abound in my life.

I pray you are assured of the same truth!

Happy New Year everyone, God Bless you always… =) 

 

 

Extremely Favoured

Thirty minutes after my shift ended today, I walked into my director’s office with a heavy cloud looming over me, and no it wasn’t the one outside that’s been causing all this crazy rain here in the GTA. Approximately 23 days from today I will be hopping on a plane (again) but this time with my family.

I was sure that I’d be coming home with bad news today- that our upcoming family trip would cost me my job. We will be gone all of July which means that I’ll be missing out on my service for the Eastern True North Conference. Since I didn’t feel too comfortable with that, I started a novena for the Western True North Conference in Calgary that’s happening Mid-Aug. I’d be back just in time for that. I don’t know how it would be possible financially, but God has provided for me under worse conditions before. It doesn’t hurt to ask.

To put things in perspective, I was just granted a two month leave (MAR-MAY) even though I only started in September of last year. I’m only five weeks back in my classroom and here I was expecting my director to approve another sudden leave of absence. How was I going to explain to her that I needed 2 months….again?

———

I knew I had to call on Mama Mary so I did the rosary during my lunch break hoping that she’d send an extra serving of peace. She gave me that and a spoonful extra. Knowing how I am, I knew I’d find every excuse not to ask permission today. So I walked into the staff room, had a quick convo with God and He reassured me that no matter what the outcome would be, there was already a victory. Even if I was to lose my job, I would still have my family vacation.

In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths || Proverbs 3:6

Brothers & sisters, I walked out of that room not with storm clouds, but with sunshine and a double rainbow. I am extremely and irrevocably favoured by God. Not only did my director tell me that my leave would be approved, she made it very clear to me that she would ignore any talk of resignation. My classroom is secured. AGAIN. My job as a preschool teacher is on reserve.

That’s not all.

I will be receiving paid vacation time, which means that there’s an extra paycheque coming in while I’m gone. That amount is enough for a round trip ticket to Calgary.

“It’s never about whether or not YOU can provide for yourself. Faith is knowing that you have a God who can do wonders for you. Faith is knowing that He is of divine providence. It was never about you to begin with! So the next time you consider whether or not you can go, take your question to God first, and don’t let it just die with you. That’s the beauty about our relationship with the Lord. Sometimes we don’t even do anything yet he still showers us with abundant blessings. He still wants to keep capturing our hearts. He still wants to reach out to us. But first you have to allow yourself to see the ways in which he tries to reach out to you. All he needs is your Yes.” (July 19, 2012)

The Lord hasn’t stopped showing me how extremely favoured and extremely loved I am. He affirmed me just now by allowing me to reread that old blog post. Little did I know that the “yes” I gave 500 days ago would lead me here, walking on a path made wonderfully and beautifully paved straight for me. 

The light that leads

“If you haven’t surrendered it to God, then you’ve surrendered it to someone else.”

I recently attended the GTA Area Core SHouT this past weekend and there are not enough words in the dictionary to describe the plethora of events that happened within those 5 days. So I’ll just use one: enlightened.

You know when you’re at a sleepover and everyone’s already passed out cold on the beds and floors. The morning after is hard to get through. You’re tired and exhausted. You have some sort of consciousness- awake but not really. It’s not until someone draws the blinds or curtains to expose the harsh sunlight rays that you feel the urgency to get up. It’s already half past noon and you’ve just wasted half the day away.

That’s how my recent experience with Christ was at SHouT. He turned on the lights. The light allowed me to see everything that was in that room, rather…my life. Enlightened- one’s ability to be spiritually aware. The Lord allowed me to see His plans for me that much clearer.

But see, when you turn on the lights EVERYTHING gets exposed, not just the good stuff. You don’t have a choice. But God is a god of light and peace- The truth, His truth is exposed in all its glory.

I’m facing the skeletons in my closet right now, some I thought I buried a long time ago but really just put a drape over. God’s light drew me to these areas, the crevices and corners, the edges and cracks. The small things count, because to God everything matters. As much as it hurts me to pull out long overdue band aids, I know that with His love I’ll finally be able to heal properly.

“Ate, it’s like when you make a paper boat and then you put it in the water. That’s how you’ll know if your boat is good or not. It might start to sink because of a hole, but all you have to do is just take it out and then patch up whatever holes exist.”

It had to happen this way for me. This was God’s way of telling me to patch up those holes so that my boat could float. How else can I be a better person or leader if I don’t allow God to shine His light on every single area of my life, even the dark sides- the ones I don’t want to look at. In this way, I can confidently go out and allow the God in me to shine.

Send out your light and your truth; let them guide me.- Psalm 43:3

Is that what you really want?

When you spend every waking hour with 20+ other CFC-Youth members for a three- week period the normal conference high quadruples.  You never really come off the mountain experience you’re feeding off of each other’s vibes. We all came with different service backgrounds but what we shared was this search for God in a land foreign to us. Our pathways all merged into some sort of Lord of the Rings quest thus making the journey less tiring. So when the time came that I had to leave my tightly sealed and sheltered CFC-Youth pack to transition back to my regular Philippines environment, I really felt displaced.

Right after the two week World Great Adventure Tour, I went on a five day excursion with my childhood friends to Iloilo, Guimaras and Boracay. Halfway through our trip we stopped by this Trappist monastery. It was part of the day tour and to be honest with all the changes that kept happening I really needed to find myself in something familiar. A church seemed like the best option. Now I’ve entered dozens of churches here in the Philippines and the beauty each one holds always takes my breath away. But there was something different about this one.

As soon as I entered through the gates, my tear ducts hit some sort of overdrive. Something caught my throat and my chest tightened up. Something was tugging at my heartstrings, and it wasn’t being very gentle. All throughout the year I’ve felt God playing hide and seek with me. The moments that He decides to make His presence felt always catch me off guard and I can’t help but feel as if some hypothetical suckerpunch comes flying at me. Ultimate silence filled my head while my heart was being flooded with a million and one different emotions spurred by nothing.

Then out of nowhere, I felt God asking me in the most casual tone:

“What do you really want? I’m not asking you what you think I think you want. I’m asking you to tell me what the desires in your heart are. Of course I know them. I know what will bring you happiness, but I need you to vocalize what YOU want…what you FEEL you deserve to have in your life.”

It was probably one of the most humbling moments throughout this trip. There’s a difference between giving an answer because you know it’s the textbook sample, and giving an authentic, sincere heartfelt reply. He knows what I want, of course he does. Some of the things I’ve been asking for are more than a decade old. But there I was being asked to take centre stage. Would I ask for the same thing knowing that this time He was initiating instead? Was I really sure about what I wanted? I just pictured God smiling down at me, encouraging me to ask for my desires with full confidence.

Before walking back to join my friends for the rest of the tour, I walked over to where the candles for petition were. I took five candles and as I lit one for every prayer I felt myself getting lighter. It was an act of unpacking my emotional luggage. I realized that gaining peace through God would happen as a culmination of reaching different checkpoints. This was one of them. I looked at my five candles, let out an exasperated sigh and confidently muttered Psalm 37:4……

“Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

Hero’s Welcome

Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord— the King of Israel!

Yesterday, I had the great honour of reveling in one of the most significant moments in the history of salvation.  No, not the Passion of the Lord, but of course, Jesus’ triumphant entrance in to Jerusalem.  To me, this holds great significance because for the first time, he makes a very audacious public statement, to believers and non-believers alike, with a sense of great regalia but at the same time, humility.  He was, indeed, their king.  Though they failed to see what being King really meant,  this sense of overwhelming hope and devotion to Christ affirms me of the posture of hope we should maintain in our full awareness of his divine and royal sovereignty.

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!
Lo, your king comes to you;
triumphant and victorious is he,
humble and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey”

Zechariah 9:9

Jesus, Prince of Peace

St. Ignatius always taught that to really contemplate on the scripture, we must picture ourselves present in that exact moment in time.  I could imagine myself being one of the Jews on the sideline thinking, “We’re waiting for a great military leader who will lead us to redemption and we get an average joe on a donkey?!”  That exact way of thinking is likely how must Jews would have felt at the time, however something that I recently learned was that Jesus’ triumphant return by way of donkey was no mere coincidence.  In fact, It was written.  Not only was in prophesied by Zachariah, but Jewish tradition tells us that all Jewish kings who have entered a city ride in one of two distinct animals:  a horse or a donkey.  A horse symbolizes readiness for battle.  It signals his troops to take heed and also sends a message to the men of the town that he’s ready for war.  However, a donkey, signifies just the opposite.  It signifies that he comes in peace.  The donkey, in it’s lack of size and “masculinity” is meant to show humility and in an altruistic sense, meekness.  When Jesus rode in to Jerusalem on a donkey, He sent a very clear message to the Romans and Jews that he and his apostles came in peace.

Our Personal Pilgrimmage

The great truth the Lord has been revealing to me this Holy week (thus far) is really to pilgrim through this faith journey by way of donkey – to make known of our peaceful intentions by maintaining a humble heart and a charitable Spirit.  Though no one will know what the Lord intends for us, not even us, we should always make it very clear that we, as Christians, should be vessels of virtue.  Christ already knew of the suffering that was to come, he entered willingly His passion.  Similarly, we, with the same God-given wisdom and discernment, must enter willingly our own personal passion not with a heart of conflict or waging war, but with a peace, joy, and charity.  When there is suffering, we must burst from the seams with overwhelming compassion and we must always call in to mind that though we remain pilgrims in this life, we are ultimately called to be eternal residences in the next.

Father, allow me to be a faithful pilgrim to you this Holy Week.  Allow me to immerse myself in deep conversation with you, as I strive to deepen my love for you.  Allow me to strength and grace to do what is needed to enter in to your kingdom in the same manner our Lord entered Jerusalum, in meekness, humility, and peacefulness.

Pater Noster.  Ave Maria.  Gloria Patri.
Amen

cpm