There are times when we find ourselves praying just to manipulate God. We must realize that we do not pray to change God. He is immutable but He does use prayer to change us especially our hearts in order to conform us to His own heart. St. Theresa said to God, "Give me what you want." We pray that God gives us what He wants. As a good Father, He does not spoil His children neither does He deprive us. He gives us what we lack and what we need. If there's something that we want but God recognizes as not what's best for us then He doesn't give it to us. On the other hand God sometimes wants us to wait. We often become impatient and wonder why the wait. Oftentimes too, God gives us what we want in order to gain our trust and ultimately come to a point when we want what He wants. This is because of the fact that we can trust God to know what is best for us more than ourselves. Whenever an election is upcoming it is expected to hear all kinds of things just for a candidate to get elected. We should take on the responsibility of a campaign manager, but not for any election candidate but for the Lord. If we are given a chance to cheer up a friend who is feeling homesick, bored and depressed then we should do so by telling how through God's grace we can manage to go through it all if we vote for God straight and all the way. Amen. Hallelujah!
2 Timothy 4:1-8
...2 proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching.... put up with hardship; perform the work of an evangelist; fulfill your ministry...7 I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. 8 From now on the crown of righteousness awaits me, which the Lord, the just judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but to all who have longed for his appearance.
Let us not forget that our bodies are God's temple and we should make an effort of maintaining our health at its prime, so that just like Samson we can have the strength to hurdle whatever is coming our way. There are many things that we don't understand especially the things that happen to us. We can always choose to trust that it comes from God. We are His beloved son or daughter with an awareness that God is fathering us and has brought us into a family. We should have a childlike fearlessness that we can appropriate and exercise as we trust God who never fails. In God we find the most secure and safest shelter. If we will always fill our hearts with gratitude and praise for God we will realize as we look back and recall that we really have a lot of things to be thankful to God. Let us proclaim God's goodness and mercy. Our God is incomparable for He loves us with a love greater than any other. In God we find the most secure and safest shelter. Let us constantly build our confidence in God who never fails. There is really nowhere else to go but to Him alone. By just looking back at our past and present we can only come up with just one thing which is God is constantly at work and in charge of our lives for as long as we live. The mention of being called even from a mother’s womb, is one of the symbols of God’s words. The Word that reaches to the ends of the earth, penetrates the hearts of people and able to separate soul and spirit. It should be our duty to spread God’s Word. Evangelization is defined with a very broad meaning and although preaching is its core there's more to it than just that. It is crucial that we reflect the values of Jesus. There is the so called "Equipping the Saints". We need to go through a process to achieve this. We process information in the mind, it is mind centered since it is a quest for knowledge. Formation is soul centered, it is a quest for wisdom and go through it by making decisions in the heart. Transformation is the meeting of mind and soul since it is a quest for spirituality. Propagation is the fullness of mind, body and soul resulting to authentic and meaningful faith in action. It is sometimes called Evangelization. The Balloon Story tells us of a child who saw balloons of different colors rising up in the sky. The child exclaimed how beautiful it looked up there with all the different colors. An old man told the child that it's not the colors that makes the balloons rise up but what's inside of it. As we become formed and equipped for evangelization we become Good messengers of the Good News. Furthermore, we need to differentiate between good and great leaders. A good leader when the company is doing good, is one who faces the mirror and look back at the reason why the company is doing well but looks out of the window and to others when the company is performing bad. On the other hand, a great leader is one who looks out of the window and point to others as the reason why the company is doing well but when things are bad, looks at himself and ask what he can do to help. Jesus is a great leader because when things got really bad for humankind, He did not point any finger but instead came as man and redeemed us all. Evangelization should work towards making humanity whole again and free men and women from things that hinder them from being whole again. We should treasure the salvation that Jesus has given us. Do away with sin that makes us broken. Avoid not just sin but the occasions of sin. When we speak of the 5th commandment which is, "Thou shall not kill" there is an unwritten command too, that we need to be peacemakers. There is no peace without justice. We need to fight injustice and unjust structures.
The Principles of Catholic Evangelization1. Live the gospel-use words only when necessary. Walk the talk
2. Challenge others by one's example and lifestyle
3. Uphold true values. People first than profit. Embrace peace and justice. A Capitalist value works differently, it upholds profit at all cost.
4. Open our hearts to the saving power of God. From a distance foolishness and wisdom look alike but if we come closer we'll find that foolishness is an open mouth and wisdom is an open mind. In evangelization we need to approach it in a manner of discovery with an element of surprise rather than deciding which means we already have an idea of it. In discovery, God brought us to where we are although not fully revealing but trusting. We discover God and the wonders of His wisdom.
5. Build community
6. Identify and really call injustice as injustice. Accept and handle the truth. Sometimes the closer we are to power the farther we become to truth.7. Work for a better society. Life is a gift from God but what we make of it is our gift to God. Amen. Hallelujah!
Psalm 71:8-9, 14-15ab, 16-17, 22
R: I will sing of your salvation.
8 My mouth shall be filled with your praise, with your glory day by day. 9 Cast me not off in my old age; as my strength fails, forsake me not. (R) 14 But I will always hope and praise you ever more and more.
Sometimes we are tempted not to pray anymore and not make any special effort to do good. Faith is friendship with God and it should never be just like aiming for the bare minimum because that is not what friends do. It is simply not true that we don't need God. We have to be glad that God didn't permit us to stop relying on Him. It would have been easy to fall into sin and stop befriending God. It is a betrayal of our friendship with God. We need to love Him more and more each day by spending many years of friendship with Him. One way to make sure that we don't forget how much we need Him is to always ask Him to bless us in all we do. We can do this by offering everything to God. I believe that God has perfectly planned every single event that happened, is happening and will happen in our lives. All we have to do is give in and totally surrender everything to God and just like this widow in the gospel may we find our longing and feeling of loss satisfied by the one, true, perfect husband or partner for all men and women alike in God our Savior. Amen. Hallelujah!
Mark 12:38-44
...A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents. Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them, “Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.”
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Sometimes we are tempted not to pray anymore and not make any special effort to do good. Faith is friendship with God and it should never be just like aiming for the bare minimum because that is not what friends do. It is simply not true that we don't need God. We have to be glad that God didn't permit us to stop relying on Him. It would have been easy to fall into sin and stop befriending God. It is a betrayal of our friendship with God. We need to love Him more and more each day by spending many years of friendship with Him. One way to make sure that we don't forget how much we need Him is to always ask Him to bless us in all we do. We can do this by offering everything to God. I believe that God has perfectly planned every single event that happened, is happening and will happen in our lives. All we have to do is give in and totally surrender everything to God and just like this widow in the gospel may we find our longing and feeling of loss satisfied by the one, true, perfect husband or partner for all men and women alike in God our Savior. Amen. Hallelujah!
Mark 12:38-44
...A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents. Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them, “Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.”
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