Rosary Making!

At yesterday's session, we looked to our Blessed Mother as the greatest model of how we all should approach our relationship with God.

... Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her. - Luke 1:38

Sury asked the question -- are we too able to say that? despite knowing what will come from this "YES" to God? this act of obedience and love for God?

Mary allowed herself to be God's greatest instrument - to bring our lord Jesus to this world. So we pray for her intercession. And everytime we pray to Jesus, Mary is always praying with us too... coz she loves it when people love her Son!

Fun with the Rosary! View photos at
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God's Transcendence

What is God like?
Fred Smith, Sr.
Article taken from BuildingChurchLeaders.com

My thoughts are completely different from yours," says the Lord. "And my
ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are
higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts
higher than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8-9

Many of us are tempted to respond, "Like us." We so can overemphasize the God who is so involved with out lives that he begins to look like us, and in so ding, we diminish his complete holiness and transcendence. A friend said to me, "All our sins can be classified under three categories: deifying of man, humanizing of God, and minimizing of sin." This insight has been very helpful for me in evaluating my concepts of God.

We humanize God when we think he is motivated in the same ways humans are. For example, we subconsciously feel more secure if we believe God needs us rather than believe that he only loves us. This thinking implies that God uses us to satisfy his selfish need. Since we strive to satisfy our needs and value those people and things that fulfill our needs, we reason that God appreciates and rewards our satisfying his needs.

But God has no needs because God is sovereign. God loves us; he doesn't need us. Our security is based totally on his love and not on our satisfying his need of us.

Christian leaders can harbor the arrogant notion that God needs them around. Some will say, "I will live as long as God needs me." Yet many great saints died young or during their prime years of ministry. Service is no more a guarantee of long life than good works are an assurance of prosperity.

Another danger is that when we try to obligate God by service, we can become very possessive of our efforts and resent sharing the recognition with others. We are anxious to receive the credit for our service, as if God valued the work rather than the motive. We become selfish in our service, not wanting to share the work for fear God will not recognize our sacrificial works of piety.

A great spiritual release came to me after five years of strict Calvinist teaching on God's sovereignty. I came to the spiritual conviction that God does not need me. He loves me. He gives me the opportunity to perform for my maturity in Christ. It is for my good, not his good.

—Fred Smith Sr.

Reflection

Do I spend some time regularly—in worship, in private devotions—simply extolling the majesty and awesome otherness of the Almighty? How might this be a corrective to the subtle trap of "domesticating" God?

Prayer

Read Psalm 145: http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/psalms/psalm145.htm


"Aslan is not a tame lion."
—C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe


Article taken from BuildingChurchLeaders.com

Friends, Mass, and Prayer...

Today I had dinner with Vanessa. We were scheduled to play tennis. But it seems all my efforts at exercise this week includin last have been thwarted by the rain.

Anyway, it was really fun to chit chat and catch up. We talked about work, good things, bad things, ministry, people, life, habits, personality, etc etc. One night is really wonderful to catch up.

So anyway, the whole point of this post is that I wanted to say - God gives us friends. We treasure our friends by being a friend to them. We don't need anything in return. We are simply, a listening ear (to all their troubles)... a helping hand (to their needs).... a lovely friend (who loves them).

In addition, a friend desires for your good, your growth, your development. True friends will help each other to grow, find the right path, and godly friends will help you to find God.

I thank God for all the friends I have in YAM. They helped me last Sunday a lot! They persuaded me with ALL THEIR MIGHT... even whipping out the Catechism of the Catholic Church to find me the passage about how missing Mass on Sunday is a sin.

Well, don't see that I am already in ministry for long. That doesn't count for even one bit. We can serve but we need to grow personally in our spiritual maturity and understanding between us and God, and between God and the traditions of the Catholic Church. For me, it is no different. It takes time.

And so my issue now is about going for Mass. I have never been brought up to feel that missing Mass is a sin. Even deliberate missing of Mass (e.g. to attend a wedding, a gathering, some hobby). Moreover, my parents do miss Mass too. So I have a very rebellious thought towards God, saying, If they can do it, I can do it too! (of course this is in the negative sense!)

But a sin is a sin. And sometimes, God has to bring us to realise and accept it. So... 2 things happened this week.

Sunday, I was supposed to go blading in the evening (thus miss mass, since I didn't make it for morning Mass). BUT --- it rained! So blading was cancelled. In the end, after persuasion from Marlene, Gav, Sury, Eugene, and Jane..... I went for Mass, and got my mum to go along too! (She was originally going to miss coz Dad was out at golf and I had other plans).

Today, I was feeling a bit desperate this morning because I was worried about what a colleague thought of me. So I prayed. Sometimes you don't pray consciously at the workplace.... or we just tend to pray anyway out of habit. But today, I prayed, intentionally, and asked God,.. oh God, make this a good day and bless my workplace. I then said the simple "Our Father". And today, though long (worked till 7pm) was a good day. Amen!

So I was convicted - to go for Mass, and to Pray.

And friends, godly friends, have played a key role in these realisations.

I thank God for everyone around me.

God Bless,
Sam

Common Question on Mary

Question:
How can we pray to Mary when St.Paul tells us that Jesus Christ is the “one mediator between God and men”?

Answer:

Jesus Christ is indeed our principal Mediator. However, there may be secondary mediators. Mary is one of these mediators.

The practice of asking the prayers of others (secondary mediators) is common sense. We have all asked friends to speak on our behalf at some time or other. It may be to obtain an increase in our salary or to find a place in a kindergarten for one of the children or to get a good price on something we are buying…….In praying to Mary, we are asking her to speak to her Son on our behalf. So He is still the Principal Mediator with God.

Further, Mary has the God-given role of mother – Mother of Christ and Mother of all who are united to him. Just as Jesus sought her comfort and care during his life on earth, so we who follow him should also turn to her in our needs, confident of her motherly concern for us.

Come & Go

Today I just thought of this two words: Come and Go.

We can look at it in a few ways. Firstly... Is Jesus someone in our lives who just "Comes" and "Goes"? We experience Him during a camp, or during the Mass, but does that experience stick on or do we forget it after a while? In other words, we may sometimes actually treat our best friend and saviour, Jesus, as someone who "comes to us"... and "goes off".... an acquaintance. We don't want Him to stay around too long. Just for a short while. We can do without him most of the time...

Another way of looking at it is, JESUS being the source - of everything (life, joy, peace, rest, abundance)... and WE are the ones who "Come to Jesus" and "Go Forth" to spread the Good News. In other word, JESUS is the pivot and unmoving. Everlasting, forever, the same. But we are the ones who move to him when he says "come" and we go away, filled, empowered, encouraged by knowing Him.

So "Come and Go" has so many ways of looking at it. What does it look like for your life?

A Prayer

"The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary.... The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears, and I have not been rebellious; I have not drawn back" (Isa. 50:4-5). Dear Lord, I want to be able to say the same thing Isaiah said, and mean it. I want to spend time receiving your instructions and wisdom through your Word, speaking with you in prayer, and hearing you through an open mind, willing heart, and listening ears. Please bring to remembrance your Word so that I may share it with the weary and offer them hope. Please hide your Word in my heart that I will remember it and not be rebellious, that it will be a constant guide in my daily walk. Thank you, Lord, for all your blessings past, present, and future. In Your name I pray, amen.

Leadership & the Valley of Baca

This is interesting - from Os Hillman once again - my favourite daily devotional.

I believe all our leaders (whether in YAM or outside & beyond).... have had their fair share of trials. The times of uncertainty, self-doubt, and times when you face rejection or disagreement, especially from members. It is so hard then, how? You try to please everyone and you also try to hold firm... it's always a learning phase.

I think ALL of us have the potential to be a leader. But you must first be willing to pass through the Valley of Baca. Sounds like some adventure game right?? Read on!

The Valley of Baca
TGIF Today God Is First Volume 2, by Os Hillman
10-04-2008

"Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion" (Ps 84:5-7).

There is a spiritual law in the Kingdom of God. Every great leader in the Kingdom will pass through the Valley of Baca. Baca means to weep. It comes from the Hebrew word,bakah (baw-kaw'); a primitive root; to weep; generally to bemoan.

However, Baca is also a place of springs. There is nothing better on a hot day when you're thirsty and weary than to drink water from a mountain spring. It refreshes. It renews. It gives you a second wind to continue your journey. Those who commit themselves to a pilgrimage with God will experience the Valley of Baca. But in the midst of Baca they will discover that in this valley they will also drink from a very special spring that refreshes with a different kind of living water.

It becomes the source of "secret things in hidden places" described by the prophet Isaiah (Isa 45:3) reserved only for those willing to journey on the Great Pilgrimage with God. Once you drink from this spring you will be energized in your spiritual man from strength to strength. Each Valley of Baca will result in a new spiritual spring from which you will drink. It is handmade just for you by God. But know this?it will be used to provide a refreshing drink for others you will encounter who are also on their pilgrimage.

Ultimately, Baca leads to the presence of God. There is something about being in a place with God that results in our weeping and crying out to Him. Do you find yourself in this place with God today? If so, know that His springs are also available to you. Ask him today to give you a drink from His spring only available in the Valley of Baca.