Called to be holy

Was reflecting on God's call for us to be holy tonight - do we make ourselves holy by our choices and actions? If so, where does the inspiration for our choices to do good come from? If not, then what do we DO? How can we be holy, if we don't have to do anything?

After a bit of thinking and praying, I realised that both answers led to the same place.

Yes, we make ourselves holy by the way that we choose to live our life and the actions that we take. How do we know what is right? He tells us in various ways - through His word in the bible, through those around us. We must open our eyes, ears and heart to God, who speaks to us in many ways. He will shape us through the situations that He puts us in, through the example of those around us, and through our reading of His word.

But at the same time, the answer is also "no" - we cannot be holy simply in the life that we lead (on our own). We must open ourselves to allow God to work in our lives... we must make ourselves "passive" enough to allow God to shape us; to allow Him to be the driver in our life, to take us where He wills. In order to do this, we must let go and trust in Him.

What does this mean?

It means that there is a fine balance between taking action and being receptive. It is a fine line between "letting go" and letting God control our life, but also still being proactive enough to do what He asks of us, and living a full life. We must learn to listen for Him - His call is gentle and inviting, not a harsh gong that will hit us over the head. We must not spend our whole lives waiting for some "sign" that will tell us what to do and how to live our lives - instead, we must do the best that we can, pray along the way and listen out for His whispering His directions to us. This is His call for us to be holy.

Faith Active in Love Witnesses to the Free Gift of Justification in Christ - Pope Benedict XVI

This is an excerpt and it really shows that our strength in faith is SO important.
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Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In the Catechesis last Wednesday I spoke of how man is justified before God. Following St. Paul, we have seen that man is unable to "justify" himself with his own actions, but can only truly become "just" before God because God confers his "justice" upon him, uniting him to Christ his Son. And man obtains this union through faith.

In this sense, St. Paul tells us: not our deeds, but rather faith renders us "just". This faith, however, is not a thought, an opinion, an idea. This faith is communion with Christ, which the Lord gives to us, and thus becomes life, becomes conformity with him. Or — to use different words — faith, if it is true, if it is real, becomes love, becomes charity, is expressed in charity. A faith without charity, without this fruit, would not be true faith. It would be a dead faith.

Thus, in our last Catechesis, we discovered two levels: that of the insignificance of our actions and of our deeds to achieve salvation, and that of "justification" through faith which produces the fruit of the Spirit.

The confusion of these two levels has caused more than a few misunderstandings in Christianity over the course of centuries. In this context it is important that St. Paul, in the same Letter to the Galatians radically accentuates, on the one hand, the freely given nature of justification that is not dependent on our works, but which at the same time also emphasizes the relationship between faith and charity, between faith and works:

"In Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love" (Gal 5:6). Consequently, there are on the one hand "works of the flesh", which are "immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry..." (Gal 5:19-20): all works that are contrary to the faith; on the other, there is the action of the Holy Spirit who nourishes Christian life, inspiring "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (Gal 5:22-23). These are the fruits of the Spirit that blossom from faith.
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I really like the following passage:
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We would be underselling the inestimable value of justification, purchased at the high price of Christ's Blood, if we were not to glorify him with our body. In fact, our worship — at the same time reasonable and spiritual — is exactly this, which is why St. Paul exhorts us "to present [our] bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God" (Rm 12:1).

Strong Christians

Sermon from Pastor Philip Mantofa (in Taiwan)

This cracks me up, Pastor Philip is so awesome in his sermons and healing services. Check out what he says...

When you are with your friends, your friends say "I change girlfriends every 2 months" and your friend is a womaniser, you are the only one who's different. They mock you, they say "Oh, you are a priest... Father! Father!" People mock you, I had that kind of treatment when i was younger, when they say "Father! Father!". I will not be angry or offended, why should i be offended? Why should i be offended when they associate me to the Lord? I should be proud, so [when] they said "Father! Father!", I said (in a deep voice) "Yes - I bless you! I bless you!".
:D

They say that you should have a lot of girlfriends, they say that you should cheat on your girlfriend, cheat on your wife, your husband. You say to them, "no i will just have one girlfriend and i will marry her". I will just have one girlfriend, holy, Godship, and I will marry her. They say "Oh you are so old fashion" [and I said] "Yeah - i come from biblical age!"
:D

God's Will and Free Will - Part 2

I split this post into a number of parts because this topic is really close to my heart and I could write so much about it... better that these be split up into separate posts that can be read on their own rather than one long essay.

The first part was my reflections on the bigger picture of how it was possible that God's will and our free will can co-exist. In this part I wanted to share my thoughts on practically, how I imagine these to actually work together. I will then post a third part on what exactly I think God's will is and how to apply it in our daily lives.

I pray that these thoughts will help you in growing closer to God - I found that figuring this out helped me to rely more on God and put more trust to Him! =)

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I imagine my life to be a journey towards some final destination. Visually, it might look like a map, with me travelling between two dots. I imagine that God desires that I will end my journey with Him in heaven - this is God's will/plan for my life.

I imagine that I have been given the chance to make my journey between my starting point and the end point however I like - and also to choose where I end up. If God had his way then I would travel in a straight line between my starting point (birth?) to my final destination - which He hopes will be heaven.

Because I am human and often make the wrong choices, I often stray from the path that he hopes I will walk - which probably would be the most suitable/easiest path for me. I choose to turn left when he hopes I will turn right, I don't move when I should, or I turn around and go back in the same way that I came when He hopes I will move forward. Because of this, my life seems to be full of challenges and suffering - and so much of the time I blame God for putting these roadblocks in my journey.

Little do I know that every time i made a wrong turn, He reoriented everything in the map so that I still have the best chance at getting to my final destination. Every time I stop when I'm meant to move, or move when I'm not supposed to, He adjusts everything so that my chances of ending up with Him are not jeopardised. How can He do this? Short answer - because He is God.

I believe He is able to do this because I believe 'linear' time (past, present, future) is a human concept. Because we are human, we have to do one thing after the other and can't go back or jump into the future. However God isn't human, and He isn't bound by time. Everything in our lives happens at the same point for Him. My being born, my wedding, my first step, the day I die, my graduatiion... it's all happening for him right NOW. And so, He is able to adjust my map while I am making the very choice that throws me off course.

Another way to think about it is in terms of how well He knows me. God is my Father, my creator, my God. He knows every hair on my head, every thought that has gone through/is going through/will go through my mind. He can 'predict' what I will choose, given a certain situation because of how well He knows me. Because of this, He can alter situations or put me in situations that will maximise my chances of ending up with Him.

(For example, my friends know that my favourite colour is purple. Given the chance to choose between anything purple and grey, they know that I will choose the purple, even before I have made the decision. God is like my friend, except He knows me that much more intimately.)

Does this mean we are manipulated by God? Are we pawns in His 'chess' game? Are we powerless and will He always win? I don't believe so. The most that God will do is put us in situations that will give us a better chance of being with Him. He won't ever make us choose in a certain way - because God is Love, and love is not manipulative nor forceful. God wants us to end up with Him because we want to be there, not because we have been told we 'must' be there.

And I can say with certainty that God, even though He is God, doesn't always get what He wants! He leaves Himself vulnerable to our choices, hoping and waiting ever so patiently that we will choose Him. And that's why the kingdom of heaven is like the father who rejoices over the return of a lost son, like the woman who celebrates when she finds her lost penny, or the shepherd who leoaves his 99 sheep to find the 1 who has gone astray.

My Prayer for Discerning Vocation

A few of us went on a silent retreat today, and the topic of the day was Discerning our Vocations. When I first started reflecting, I wasn't sure of wher to start... but after reading some thoughts from Thomas Merton, was instead inspired to write the following prayer. I hope you might find it a useful place if you are ever thinking about your vocation!

Dear God,

Thank you for blessing me so abundantly. Thank you for my faith in You, and allowing me to trust You so completely. Please continue to bless me in this way, and protect me if ever i start to lose this faith in You.

I don't know what You want me to do with my life, but I hope You will continue to reveal this to me. Please continue to inspire me to open myself to You, so that I will be able to tell when You are speaking to me.

Please help me to know myself better: show me my strengths, so that I may continue to use these to do Your will. Please show me my weaknesses, so that I may be aware of them, and learn to love myself in spite of them. Please help me work through the many fears that I may feel as I carry out Your work. Help me to remember that with You behind our backs, nothing is impossible.

Finally, please be with me and inspire me to desire what You desire; to will what You will, so that I may be a true reflection of You in everything I do.

I ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, my Lord and God.

God and Science - A Catholic View

In tonight's sharing, we touched a bit on science and religion, and how they fit together. Below is something that I wrote to someone about my thoughts on the topic... let me know what you think!!

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Catholic Teaching to be found here.

This is from the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), which is a place where all the church's official teachings are collated.
See the wiki entry for a start if you want to find out mroe about the CCC.

Back to the Catholic teaching:

You will see from paragraph 282, that the chruch irecognises that everyone s concerned with questions like "Where do we come from?" "Where are we going?" "What is our origin?" "What is our end?" "Where does everything that exists come from and where is it going?".

Para 283 states: "The question about the origins of the world and of man has been the object of many scientific studies which have splendidly enriched our knowledge of the age and dimensions of the cosmos, the development of life-forms and the appearance of man." The fact that it says that scientific studies have splendidly enriched our knowledge,means that the church agees with science in that evolution might have occured as the creation of the world.

Para 284 goes on to say: "The great interest accorded to these studies is strongly stimulated by a question of another order, which goes beyond the proper domain of the natural sciences. It is not only a question of knowing when and how the universe arose physically, or when man appeared, but rather of discovering the meaning of such an origin...". When they say "these studies", they are referring to what the church is primarily concerned about. And the church is not concerned about the WHEN and HOW the universe arose (it leaves this to science) but it focuses on the MEANING of such an origin - the WHY.

If you keep reading, you will notice that the church does not EVER discredit science, or say that the theory of evolution is wrong. In fact, it doesn't even go down the track of HOW at all, but concentrates on WHY the world has come to be.

Remember what I said - the church never says that Scientific knowledge is WRONG. Maybe part of the reason that the church has not said that evolution is RIGHT, is because scientists themselves call it the THEORY of evolution - meaning they believe it to be the most correct answer right now, but that it has not yet been proven to be the ABSOLUTELY CORRECT answer.

I folks,

Thanks to Edith for coming up with the idea for this web site & setting it up, & chumon for making it look pretty! =P

I'm sure this will be a great contribution to our group, & make it even more fun & enriching! =D

Below are the website references for last week's topic of "Salvation, Justification, Faith & Works", which were in my email.

Particularly the first site, by Peter Kreeft, is a good, short read. http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/apologetics/ap0027.html
Peter Kreeft is a prominent Catholic apologeticist & theologian, converted from Calvinism.

For a good list of some bible references, check out
http://www.catholicapologetics.org/ap020800.htm


Another good page for apologetics (explanation of our beliefs) & references from Scripture & early Church Fathers is Lumen Verum Apologetics:
http://www.theworkofgod.org/Library/Apologtc/R_Haddad/Course/Book1-A.htm#JUSTIFICATION

I look forward to all the future contributions & distributions! =D