2ND WEEK OF ADVENT Isaiah 41:13-20. Matthew 11:11-15
The first reading presents God’s comforting reassurance to the people of Israel, promising them that He will remove the mountains in their lives. We also need such reassurance every day since we have different mountains in our lives. Isaiah says, “The afflicted and the needy seek water in vain.” What is that prayer point that you have been seeking in vain? What is that mountain that has remained unmovable in your life? God promises to remove and thrash them, since his promises are eternal, we have to believe and trust in God’s Solutions to our problems. But, God’s solutions to our problems are not always easy, they are hard and better, like the Sermons on the Mount.
In the Gospel Jesus had a high praise for John the Baptist, showing the greatness of John. While other prophets ‘saw’ and prophesied about Jesus from a distance, John actually saw what was prophesied-Jesus. May she intercede for us. May God help us to trust in His ability and solutions to move mountains from our lives. Amen. God bless you*.
MEMORIAL OF OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE. Isaiah 40:25-31. Matthew 11:28-30
Once in the Junior Seminary, a seminarian went to report an issue to the Rector. He told the latter that he caught seminarian X sleeping in the chapel, looking expectantly at the Rector for the ultimate pronouncement of a punishment for the sleeping boy. Surprisingly, the Rector told him to leave the seminarian alone, since he was sleeping in his ‘father’s house’. Today, Jesus tells us to come and find rest in Him. He will make our burdens and troubles light. Jesus knows our challenges and what we are passing through. The way to achieve this is to take the yoke of Jesus upon ourselves (submitting oneself to His authority). His yoke is easy and his burden light. The Christian life lived by faith and love is a lighter yoke and burden to carry than the legalistic laws of the Pharisees/righteousness, moreover Jesus through His obedience had carried our burden, thus if we follow Jesus (or yoked together with Him); the journey becomes easy and we can rest or even ‘sleep’ like the seminarian in our story. ARE YOU READY TO FOLLOW JESUS AND TAKE HIS YOKE?
We celebrate today the memorial of our Lady of Guadalupe or the Virgin of Guadalupe, which; as a devotion has reached many places in the world today. The Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to a convert Juan Diego, who had a church built in her honour. In this place, Mary showed herself as a tender and compassionate Mother, reaching out to the poor and calling them to faith in Jesus Christ. PRAYER: Lord God, may we learn to follow Jesus and rest in Him always. God bless you today and do have a blessed day*.
The parable of the lost sheep is God’s own way of telling us that all of us are important in his sight. It is telling you that you are God’s ‘Personal Person’ no matter what has happened. He is ready to rescue you and remove that dirt around you and in you. Jesus’ coming was primarily to accomplish this, no wonder he was accused of loving sinners and eating with them. JESUS LEAVING THE 99 SHEEP BEHIND TO LOOK FOR 1 LOST SHEEP WILL MAKE NO SENSE TO YOU, UNTIL YOU SEE YOURSELF AS THE 1 LOST SHEEP.
Dear child of God, we have a God who looks for us more than we look for Him. He is after our own good and well being more than we are, He is more interested in you than you are in yourself. Let us realize the fact and make amends during this Advent season. It is time of total return to God. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Though what pains the Shepherd-Jesus is not our sin, but the non-committal to total repentance, we still desire to be lost over and over again, and we want Jesus to keep looking for us. PRAYER: Lord help us return to you and become faithful in following you. Amen. God bless you and do have a nice Tuesday.
Before the year ends, the Filipino Catholic Community in Gouda (FCC-Gouda) and the Filipino Catholic Community in Dordrecht (FCC-Dordrecht) joined forces and have successfully completed the first of many more upcoming leadership and organizational trainings to help the community move forward. Members of the Board, leaders or officers and future leaders as well as active members from both communities joined together on November 24, 2018 at the O.L.V. Hemelvaartkerk in Gouda for the 5-hour training on transformational leadership.
Led and facilitated by Myra Zymelka-Colis, Content & Concept Developer at E3 Data Intelligence Services (e3dis) and the Founding Chairperson of MABIKAs Foundation-The Netherlands, the interactive training focused more on understanding the WHYs, WHATs and HOWs of the organization and clarifying what the FCC communities are here for (vision, mission and goals).
What further added value to the training is the presence and support of Father Marcel Abouchi, of whom FCC will always be grateful for for his commitment and dedication in helping us meet the needs of the church and community members.
Seven (7) of the participants are from FCC-Dordrecht and eleven (11) are from FCC-Gouda. Apparently, the 7/11 attendees find the training workshop valuable and were all happy to end the day with positive and constructive feedback such as follows:
“A useful day with lots of information on how to improve, maintain, give info, grow and connect with people.”
“The content of the workshop meets the expectations and is spelled out. Presentation is very well, clear and engaging. The atmosphere was nice, informal yet adequate for learning.”“I’ve learned a lot from this training. It has given me a direction on where we are going as an organization. The training also helped me to realize what our vision, mission and goals are for the community as well as the activities that we need to focus onto to achieve our goals.”“The workshop was really worth attending. I’ve learned a number of things that I’m quite positive will greatly help improve how we as Board Members run our organization/ foundation. I’ve always been looking for ways to “professionalize” our organization and bring it to a higher level somehow, and our trainer & facilitator has given us insights and suggestions on how to achieve that.”Group discussion on spiritual maturityGroup discussion on time managementGroup discussion on human resourcesGroup discussion on fundraising“The speaker/facilitator is knowledgeable of the topic. The informal atmosphere enables us to openly speak our minds.”“The training is very informative. It opened my eyes to new ideas and also value what we are already doing as a group in the church. We learned a lot of ways to improve; there’s more room for improvement.”The FCC-Gouda TeamThe FCC-Dordrecht Team
“Thank you, Myra, for the educational and spiritual leadership training. It has enlarged my mission as a Christian and as a member of FCC. It was worth listening to every word.”
