Archive for December 25, 2017

Christmas Reflection

Posted: December 25, 2017 by CatholicJules in Meditations
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From a sermon by Saint Leo the Great, pope
Christian, remember your dignity

Dearly beloved, today our Savior is born; let us rejoice. Sadness should have no place on the birthday of life. The fear of death has been swallowed up; life brings us joy with the promise of eternal happiness.

No one is shut out from this joy; all share the same reason for rejoicing. Our Lord, victor over sin and death, finding no man free from sin, came to free us all. Let the saint rejoice as he sees the palm of victory at hand. Let the sinner be glad as he receives the offer of forgiveness. Let the pagan take courage as he is summoned to life.

In the fullness of time, chosen in the unfathomable depths of God’s wisdom, the Son of God took for himself our common humanity in order to reconcile it with its creator. He came to overthrow the devil, the origin of death, in that very nature by which he had overthrown mankind.

And so at the birth of our Lord the angels sing in joy: Glory to God in the highest, and they proclaim peace to his people on earth as they see the heavenly Jerusalem being built from all the nations of the world. When the angels on high are so exultant at this marvelous work of God’s goodness, what joy should it not bring to the lowly hearts of men?

Beloved, let us give thanks to God the Father, through his Son, in the Holy Spirit, because in his great love for us he took pity on us, and when we were dead in our sins he brought us to life with Christ, so that in him we might be a new creation. Let us throw off our old nature and all its ways and, as we have come to birth in Christ, let us renounce the works of the flesh.

Christian, remember your dignity, and now that you share in God’s own nature, do not return by sin to your former base condition. Bear in mind who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Do not forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of God’s kingdom.

Through the sacrament of baptism you have become a temple of the Holy Spirit. Do not drive away so great a guest by evil conduct and become again a slave to the devil, for your liberty was bought by the blood of Christ.

My Blessed 2017 Journey 

Posted: December 25, 2017 by CatholicJules in Life's Journeys, Personal Thoughts & Reflections
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2017 has been a most memorable year for me. It is a year of great faith for me personally as well as the most trying and challenging in which my faith was tested on many levels. The best way to sum it up is replacing ‘love’ with ‘faith’ written in a poem.

“Faith can soar to the highest pinnacle of ecstasy, it can also crumble to the very depths of excruciating misery. Faith from deep within Christ, is inspiring, exhilarating even intoxicating. However succumbing to worldly thoughts and values, the body mind it will devour leaving a tragic ending”

The year began on a high note, as I was involved in a discipling program and a keystone in our Parish called Development. Was also blessed to be voted as an office bearer for my EMHC ministry to begin in 2018. I had planned and written out a two year program for the latter and was looking forward to see it come to fruition.

The Lord also blessed me with an opportunity to be a participant in the dawn Eucharist at Easter. We covered the full readings of Easter and the highlight for me was the experience of full submersion baptism. Which called to mind our first, once for all time baptism. Then the highpoint of the dawn Eucharist itself receiving our resurrected Lord deep into our being.

After Easter however, due to change of spiritual direction everything changed. I stepped down and left EMHC and later was compelled to leave the development keystone as well which was later dissolved completely. Troubling indeed when I had sacrificed the last seven years of my life to dedicated service even though there were numerous times, I felt that the burden was too heavy to bear.

Feeling lost, the Lord led me to the ‘Labourers in the vineyard retreat’ which not only restored my wounded soul but renewed and invigorated my zeal to serve the Lord. Only thing is I was to wait on Him.

I drew confidence from some loving members of our parish community who invited me to serve along side them in their respective ministries. I was also deeply touched to be called upon to help startup a new parish initiative called ‘Bible Apostolate.’ The Lord’s direction however was to continue to wait on Him as a new initiative on an archdiocese level was soon to take shape. I am still prayerfully waiting as it will begin proper in 2018.

Then in the later part of this year was another great blessing of being called to attend the’ Watchmen retreat’ The Lord woke me up by speaking directly to me through His shepherd and His prophets. He both humbled me and enkindled within me a fire to serve Him more profoundly.

To end the year He brought me back to the basics by leading me once again to the ‘Four steps retreat’ so that I might never lose my way again. It was also wonderful to embrace the family team conducting the retreat.

Thank You Lord Jesus for the familial ties built over the years through the various communitues in and through You. Lord be with me now and always.

Glory and Praise to the Holy Trinity forever and ever. Amen

Love Of God

Posted: December 25, 2017 by CatholicJules in Life's Journeys
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