Tag: home

Familiaris Consortio

One thing that I struggle with is actually finding a topic to reflect on, but it’s funny because I am just taking this in as I write this. It is not more so finding a topic but just listening to what God wants you to write.

I guess it all starts from Saturday, I was asked to give a talk called “In the Midst of the Storm” at a General Assembly in the Scarborough-Markham Chapter here in Toronto. Which is a talk about the family and through the hardships you go through, the family is always there with God protecting it. If we fast forward to today, I attended my SFC CLP and todays first session was one The Christian Family. I couldn’t help but wonder, in the midst of wondering what I was going to write about today, it was right in front of me. The family, and more to it, my family.

So I grew up in a Catholic Family of four- my dad, my mom and my sister (she is one year younger than me). Praise the Lord for blessing me with a loving family, but just like any other family, we are not perfect. I remember growing up, every Sunday we would go to church as a family and I would actually dread going to mass. I just wanted to sleep in. I never really knew why my parents, most especially my mother, would want us to go every week together. Yet I never questioned it. It wasn’t until I actually started serving the Brampton Chapter as Chapter Head that I never really took in the importance of us going as a family. It’s been a couple of years now since my sister has stopped going to church, for reasons I have yet to get an answer but it really showed me how important it really is to go as a family, not only for my mom, but for all four of us. To keep it simple, we’re a really busy family- my dad works Monday to Friday and goes wherever my mom does, my mom works part time but if not she is always at home and she is just recently very active with the Sisters For Life, my sister is in school and actually lives now in St. Catherines because of her school and co-op, as for me, I am working right now Monday to Friday and on top of all that I serve the youth. Being so busy, it really is hard for us to come together and spend some time with each other. It wasn’t until I realized this that I noticed the reason why my mom always wants us all to come together for mass on Sundays. It literally is the only time that we would have together.

It’s funny too because the question that was brought up, “Are we fulfilling God’s plan within our families?”

Simply put, my answer to that was I don’t know. God works in many ways and in His timing. So because I am just realizing this now, it is definitely going to be a primary focus for me. One thing is for sure though, I strive for my family to be just like the Holy Family. To be like them meaning to surrender ourselves to God and to continue to say yes to His plan. Whatever His plan is, is our plan as well. My current prayer for my family is for us to go to Sunday masses together again, so please pray for us!

– Christian Medeiros

“But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord”– Joshua 24:15

Bohol, Philippines 2012

You’re Doing Good

Building the Church of the Home and Building the Church of the Poor. This is the mission and pillars of Couples for Christ. It is through the family and poor that we truly experience the Love of God and I’m so happy to be part of a community that recognizes and prioritizes this.

God has revealed Himself throughout the Bible using familial terms (Father, Son, Daughter, Children, Bride, Groom, Spouse, etc.) He Himself is a family (Father, Son, Holy Spirit). This tells us how important the concept of family is to Him and how much He wants to reveal himself to us and wants to bless the world through the domestic church.

He has also shown His love for the poor by being born in a manger and raised in the little town of Bethlehem. He spent His whole life with the most destitute in body, mind, and soul, and cared for them throughout His ministry by healing their ailments in every way.

It is obvious that what’s important to God is family and the poor, and throughout salvation history He has tried instilling these values in us through His covenants and teachings.

It is no wonder we truly experience the love of our Blessed Lord in this community where its mission is founded on what God Himself loves. We are blessed to be following in the anointing of this community because we can rest assured that we are pleasing the Lord by taking to heart what’s so much in His heart—the family and the poor.

So let us continue building the Church of the Home and building the Church of the Poor simply because we know it pleases our Lord and it consoles His Sacred Heart.

“Couples for Christ, you’re doing good… you’re doing good.” –Benedict XVI

Amen.

 

Ready & Willing

“While being on mission, it’s such a blessing to hear mass in different parishes, said by different priests.  There’s beauty in variety yet amidst the many differences, the message hits home the same way. ” — myself

Yesterday our gospel was about the Prodigal Son; a fan favourite parable!  It talks of mercy, of forgiveness, of being lost, of going ‘home’, of love and of acceptance. As the priest recounted the message behind the gospel and reminded us of our Lord’s extreme love for us… it brought to mind the words ready & willing.

Both the father and the son exemplified the meanings for both of those words during both the pre- and post-departure.  Pre-departure: The son seemed to have made up his mind and was ready to ask for half of his share.  Most people wouldn’t dare ask such a lofty question, yet he was willing enough to bring his concern before his father.  Upon hearing the son’s request, and I’m sure against his better judgement, the father was ready to hand over the son’s share of the land & earnings and willingly did so.  I say willingly because there was no catch, there was no bargain, there was no stipulation.  Post-departure: After he gambled and spent everything that was given to him, the son came to a point where he realized he didn’t have to live that life because his father was wealthy and had more than enough provisions.  At some point, we can assume that the son had to struggle with setting his pride aside to even think of going back to the father he turned away from.  In that process he became ready & willing to seek out his father and admit his faults.  The father, I like to believe, was always ready and willing for his son’s return.  When his son came home he was more than ready and willing to love him, accept him, and forgive him.

Both men showed their readiness and willingness to one another.  Both seemed secure enough in their relationship to be able act in readiness and willingness with whatever they set their hearts to.  This is what makes this parable so beautiful and so highly applicable to our everyday lives.

If we were to put ourselves in this parable, God will always play the role of the Father.  Always ready and willing to love us, accept us, forgive us and embrace us.  He will always celebrate our return to him.  He will always forget all transgressions we’ve committed against Him.  He will always be ready and willing to love us through both our best and worst.  That’s how much worth he places on each of us.  We, on the other hand, quickly relate to the character of the son.  We get caught up with what the world deems as necessary, we take our claims to our Father and demand something, as though we’re entitled.  Instead of handling things with care, we waste them on cheap flings and temporary highs only to find ourselves exhausted, used up and unfulfilled.  But like the son, we need to acknowledge our own weaknesses and be willing to turn back to our Father, our Lord.

It isn’t always about How God is ready and willing to love us, that’s a given!  It’s more about how ready and willing we are to go back to him, to ask for forgiveness, to plead for mercy.  How ready and willing are we to die to ourselves and seek the life that our Father in Heaven wants to adorn us with?  How ready and willing are we to pick up our crosses and walk with Him?  How ready and willing are we to fully trust that whatever He has in store for us is exactly what we need; more than we could have ever dreamed to ask or hope for?

Like the Father in the parable, our God is slow to anger and quick to love.  He has more than enough provisions to ensure us a life of fulfillment and true happiness in Him.  He will always toil in preparation for our return to Him, and when we do return, not only will we be welcomed with open arms but a celebration will be thrown, for one of His children, one of His lost sheep has found it’s way back home.

Father, May we listen to your still small voice and be guided back to your side.  Mama Mary, please pray for our souls and for the souls whom have no one to pray for them.

 

Home.

With the amount of times that I’ve had to travel within an eighteen month time frame, most people would assume that I no longer suffer from homesickness. The past three trips (2009, 2012, 2013a) have been by myself; the shortest trip lasting 8 weeks and the longest lasting 6 months. Most people base their judgement on my social media posts and are probably thinking, “Dang, she is living the life.”

Well, reality check: I still suffer from homesickness. I still feel somewhat lost even though I’ve revisited Place A, B and C more than a handful of times. I still feel out of place in a room full of old friends and the nausea that accompanies displacement is very much real.

All those things still exist. Even now. Even when my family is here with me. We all haven’t been together in a very, very long time. Dad’s had to work out of town for the past 2 years and my brother’s had to live away at Waterloo ever since he started his Undergrad. And me, well…..I’ve been traveling to PH.

A few days into our family trip here, I was still feeling so bothered. My temper kept getting the best of me. I grew impatient and volatile. I couldn’t understand it. Shouldn’t my family have cushioned the hypothetical “emotional blow” that always hit me during my trips? Shouldn’t the weird jumble of emotions have stopped because I was with my loved ones? The anger and frustration drained me so much that one night, I decided to just leave the group. The innermost depths of me was craving for something. I didn’t know what that something was, but what I did know was that going to God wouldn’t leave me any more desolate than I already was. So I looked for a church.

I ended up at Sto. Rosario. I got through confession. I kneeled at the Adoration Chapel. I sat through Mass and received Holy Eucharist. And you know what? For the first time I felt good. Not just ice-cream-on-a-hot-sunny-day good, but ‘passing my final exam with flying colours and making the honour roll’ kinda good. I was a fish out of water that suddenly found my way back to the water. I could breathe again.

As I contemplated at the Adoration Chapel I was reminded of a promise I made to Him during the SFC precon praisefest. It just so happened to my birthday too. I told God that I was willing to finally give Him the one part of me that I hadn’t let go of yet- a very specific piece of my heart that was put on reserve. I didn’t have the strength to fight that fourteen year battle any more. It took me that long to surrender. That day He said to me, “Exodus 14:14, my beloved. Do not forget. I will fight for you, you need only to be still.

In the presence of the Eucharist and in front of the altar, I felt God whisper me to me, “Therese, my dearest Therese. You silly stubborn girl. Remember what you offered at the foot of my cross weeks ago? Remember that you promised me you’d finally give that last piece to me? Home is where the heart is and yours just so happens to be with me. It’s safe. It’s in my hands now. I’m happy that you finally found your back. My child, right now at this very moment …you are home. I’ve been waiting.”

All the puzzle pieces fit.
It all made sense.
I felt this sudden rush of peace, of final certainty.

Everything in this world is temporary. Even my family. But God, God is infinite. God is timeless, boundless and endless. I am made to stand in His presence, to bask in the love that is always present in His house.

 

Father, I’m coming home.
Amen. 

Wanderlust

I have this unfathomable love for airports and for traveling. I love looking at maps and globes. I get giddy over every customs stamp that gets added to my passport. I love stamps. I adore airplanes (hence my alias paperairplanedreams). Within the past 24 months I have been to more cities and countries than I could care to count. I suffer from wanderlust.

I was “planted” and rooted in PH, but cultivated in Toronto. That really pushed me to have this hardly home but always reppin‘ mentality. We moved quite a lot growing up so I could never really appreciate where I was. Even though we’ve rooted ourselves in Mississauga for a while now, the child in me was so used to relocating that I never realized how hard it was for me to be present in the here and now. It was so easy for me to love every other destination, yet so challenging for me to see the beauty in where I already was.

It affected the way I approached my spiritual life. It became some sort of hide & seek game; God was at my next travel destination. God was two plane rides away. God was five cities to the south and ten cities to the north. God was a twenty-six hour bus ride or a five hour drive. God was in the middle of the ocean, on top of a mountain, or beneath at the caves. God was everywhere to me but here. At home.

Then he slapped my hand, figuratively of course. He used the same voice I use when I reprimand my kindergarten students- firm but loving.

There is no need to search for God because He meets us right where we are. God doesn’t meet us halfway, He meets us right where we are. God is in the people I interact with everyday. God is in the youth I serve with and serve for. God is with the students I teach. God is with my family. God is with my friends. God is in the air I breathe, the sky that embraces me outside, the sun that illuminates my path, the rain that touches my skin, and the ground that catches my feet every, single, morning. God is in me.

You cannot search for what has already been found.

His lesson: it is not in the changing of locations that you will come to know me and my works. Rather it is in the changing of your hearts and its posture that you will be oriented back to me. That you will come to see my love, to know my love and be my love.

I will meet you right where you are.
I will love you where you are.

Remain in me, just as I remain in you.

Coming Home

The Lord has surrounded me with many blessings.
These blessings include the people I encounter on a day-to-day basis at school.
Yesterday, one of my classmates at school had the courage to ask me if I was Catholic. I told her that I am and so I asked her the same question. She told me that she is a Catholic as well, and because of pressure from her parents she attended a Catholic elementary and high school and was also “forced” to attend church and practice the faith regularly. But now that she’s living far from home, she told me that she hasn’t gone to mass or confession in a really long time. She also mentioned how she’s been looking around for a church nearby for her to attend regular Sunday masses. I told her that St. Jude’s Parish was just a 5-minute walk up the street and as I kept talking to her, I could tell by her eyes and the way she spoke that she wanted to cry. She told me how she misses going to church and feels like something is missing in her life. It turns out that the last time she went to confession was in high school. I advised her to go as soon as possible, and she agreed with me. She felt as if she really needed to go. I told her that I would love to join her in mass one day. I shared how I love going to weekday masses because of the peace I feel. The sincerity of her question really opened the doors for her and allowed her to open up about her faith and how she’s been struggling. Her story was humbling to hear and a great witness to God’s plan in her life.

After reflecting on our conversation I was able to see how amazing God’s love and mercy works. He yearns for our hearts and He yearns for us to come back Home to Him. With the conversation I had with my classmate it allowed me to see God’s light within her, yearning for something Greater rather than the temporary pleasures of the world. This year of faith we are all called to evangelize, save souls, and bring them Home. My heart is humbled and her story made me realized the beauty within God’s forgiving and faithful love.

“Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him” – 2 Corinthians 2:8

Deo Gratias.