Theme for the month: Our Missionary intentionality in our missionary expansion General objective: To experience the trust of God who considers us as faithful servants in whom he can trust his vineyard. We are co-responsible partners of God’s Mission. To live out our creative fidelity in the charism by being pro-active in the missionary expansion. Objective of the week: “To experience the joy of Jesus for our fidelity to his will, being administrators of his kingdom. To discover and to value the importance of the smaller things in the mission.”
IntroductionIt is God’s desire that we followers and believers of Christ grow in love and in numbers. This week God invites us to see and taste the fruit of being faithful. Faith is a gift that only God can provide, without faith we can never understand profoundly God’s ways and God’s will. Without faith we can never be courageous enough to risk in saying “yes” to His will and in doing the mission. It is by faith that we surrender. It is by faith that we trust in the way we cannot see but with hope in the promise of God who greatly love us and who before us desires that our joy may be complete, that our joy may be His joy “Since you were faithful in small matters, come, share your master’s joy (Matthew 25:14-30)”. How joyful can one be if he be trusted? How happy can one be to know that his master sees his little but best effort in building his kingdom here on earth. Let us look over and review the life of a great saint known for her little deeds but with great love. Saint Therese set an example for us to follow, reaping the real happiness in these little deeds of great Love magnified by God himself. MondayWhat we need is just Faith the size of the Mustard Seed (Memorial of St. Leo the Great) Jesus said to his disciples, “Things that cause sin will inevitably occur, but woe to the one through whom they occur. It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he wrongs you seven times in one day and returns to you seven times saying, ‘I am sorry,’ you should forgive him.” And the Apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” The Lord replied, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.” (Luke 17:1-6) Paul, a slave of God and Apostle of Jesus Christ for the sake of the faith of God’s chosen ones and the recognition of religious truth, in the hope of eternal life that God, who does not lie, promised before time began, who indeed at the proper time revealed his word in the proclamation with which I was entrusted by the command of God our savior, to Titus, my true child in our common faith: grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our savior. Continue reading... (Titus 1:1-9) Oftentimes we underestimate the ordinary things that we are doing each day for they are just minute and may not take much of our attention. Yet if it is done with trust and confidence in the Lord, it will help us increase our faith in the LORD. Do we consider each day as an opportunity to exercise our faith? TuesdayEven a little eagerness to do what is good pleases God (Memorial of St. Martin of Tours) Jesus said to the Apostles: “Who among you would say to your servant who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here immediately and take your place at table’? Would he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for me to eat. Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink. You may eat and drink when I am finished’? Is he grateful to that servant because he did what was commanded? So should it be with you. When you have done all you have been commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.’” (Luke 17:7-10) Beloved: You must say what is consistent with sound doctrine, namely, that older men should be temperate, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, love, and endurance. Similarly, older women should be reverent in their behavior, not slanderers, not addicted to drink, teaching what is good, so that they may train younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, chaste, good homemakers, under the control of their husbands, so that the word of God may not be discredited. Urge the younger men, similarly, to control themselves, showing yourself as a model of good deeds in every respect, with integrity in your teaching, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be criticized, so that the opponent will be put to shame without anything bad to say about us. Continue reading… (Titus 2:1-8, 11-14) Understanding our simple duties and tasks with the intention of doing those for the LORD increases our eagerness and motivation of performing it to the best of our capabilities expecting nothing in return but the joy coming from LORD. WednesdayBe grateful in the Mercy of the Lord bestowed upon you As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem, he traveled through Samaria and Galilee. As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him. They stood at a distance from him and raised their voice, saying, “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!” And when he saw them, he said, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” As they were going they were cleansed. And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. He was a Samaritan. Jesus said in reply, “Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?” Then he said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.” (Luke 17:11-19) Beloved: Remind them to be under the control of magistrates and authorities, to be obedient, to be open to every good enterprise. They are to slander no one, to be peaceable, considerate, exercising all graciousness toward everyone. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, deluded, slaves to various desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful of ourselves and hating one another. continue reading ………… (Titus 3:1-7) We are experiencing countless mercies from the LORD day in and day out, tiny or big. But have we bothered to utter a word of thanksgiving every time we receive it from HIM? Have we thank God for helping us to forgive someone at fault against us? Or thank God that we were able to ask forgiveness for the faults we committed against our brethren? ThursdayAlways refresh your Heart in Christ Asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come, Jesus said in reply, “The coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed, and no one will announce, ‘Look, here it is,’ or, ‘There it is.’ For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you.” Then he said to his disciples, “The days will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. There will be those who will say to you, ‘Look, there he is,’ or Look, here he is.’ Do not go off, do not run in pursuit. For just as lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. But first he must suffer greatly and be rejected by this generation.” (Luke 17: 20-25) Beloved: I have experienced much joy and encouragement from your love, because the hearts of the holy ones have been refreshed by you, brother. Therefore, although I have the full right in Christ to order you to do what is proper, I rather urge you out of love, being as I am, Paul, an old man, and now also a prisoner for Christ Jesus. I urge you on behalf of my child Onesimus, whose father I have come in my imprisonment, who was once useless to you but is now useful to both you and me. I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you. I should have liked to retain him for myself, so that he might serve me on your behalf in my imprisonment for the Gospel, but I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that the good you do might not be forced but voluntary. Continue reading………(Philemon 1:7-20) Are you so busy doing your work, studies, assignments, projects, your daily routine, reports etc.? How was it? Burdensome right? Allow Jesus to Refresh your Heart each day and have the strength to pursue what you are doing with joy and gladness rather than a heavy heart. FridayThe Real Celebration and full recompense of our progress is in the LORD Jesus said to his disciples: “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man; they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage up to the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Similarly, as it was in the days of Lot: they were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building; on the day when Lot left Sodom, fire and brimstone rained from the sky to destroy them all. So it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, someone who is on the rooftop and whose belongings are in the house must not go down to get them, and likewise one in the field must not return to what was left behind. Remember the wife of Lot. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it. I tell you, on that night there will be two people in one bed; one will be taken, the other left. And there will be two women grinding meal together; one will be taken, the other left.” They said to him in reply, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the body is, there also the vultures will gather.” (Luke 17:26-37) I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth just as we were commanded by the Father. But now, Lady, I ask you, not as though I were writing a new commandment but the one we have had from the beginning: let us love one another. For this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, as you heard from the beginning, in which you should walk. Continue reading ……… (2 John 4-9) We always look forward to a fruitful day giving our best shot in everything that we are doing and oftentimes rewarding our labor in the opposite way of what God wants us to celebrate and we feel dizzy, tired, lazy and exhausted. The Real recompense is in the LORD who gives the real happiness that we’ve been looking for. Do not be deceived, stay with the LORD. SaturdayFaithfulness in our mission is the manifestation of our sincerity to the Lord Jesus told his disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary. He said, “There was a judge in a certain town who neither feared God nor respected any human being. And a widow in that town used to come to him and say, ‘Render a just decision for me against my adversary.’ For a long time the judge was unwilling, but eventually he thought, ‘While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being, because this widow keeps bothering me I shall deliver a just decision for her lest she finally come and strike me.’” The Lord said, “Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says. Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them? I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke. 18:1-8) Beloved, you are faithful in all you do for the brothers and sisters, especially for strangers; they have testified to your love before the Church. Please help them in a way worthy of God to continue their journey. For they have set out for the sake of the Name and are accepting nothing from the pagans. Therefore, we ought to support such persons, so that we may be co-workers in the truth. (3 John 5-8) Faithfulness to our LORD in the most tiny things entails fervent prayer, simple and plane conversation with HIM yet with trust and sincerity move us to continue the journey with joy, peace and assurance that whatever lies ahead of us is manageable since God is in control. Do we entrust to the LORD these tiny concerns we kept that blocks our journey? Sunday33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Weekly Prayer GuidelinesRead this week's guidelines to help you deepen in the Word of God for today. Archives
December 2016
Categories
All
|