Dearly Beloved,
for those of you whom I haven't met in AGES, happy new year to all of you :) I wish that we will all experience the love of God in whatever ways He alone knows best. :)
FIRSTLY, let me (before all of you start skipping this email upon reading this) make a SLIGHT amendment to the announcement on the Eucharistic adoration on 29th Jan:
TIME: 7.00PM not 7.30PM
This is very important because we will start on time and not drag on for too long as there's still sharing sessions by EW which follow after.
:) Now that we've got that out of the way, some of you may wonder what is going on? (or may not, in that case, THANK YOU for reading my facebook event and acknowledging! :) )
For those of us who have the privilege of participating in EYR last year 2011 will understand, through our dearest Bro Jo, that this is the season for some of us to dwell deeper into our relationship with God, aiming not for the high, but for the deep.
In prayer, there is, I feel, a deep and worrying (yet, an inviting) sign that surfaced when I pondered on scripture,
An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. ~Matt 12:39
Allow me to share a little on my reflections before I carry on (humor me :) )
In the previous years, looking at the patterns of spirituality we have experienced, I felt that our God has been trying to "wake" us out of our slumber, to experience his love for us, and to know and realise that this Love is REAL, and not just a figment of our imagination. Through the retreats like Facing the Giants, Man in the Mirror, through facilitating camps and retreats like NYC, confirmation camps, through our lives at work, school, home, we have all in some way or another (of this i have no doubt), experienced God's love in an impactful (right in your face) way. This is really an invitation to know that God truly IS real and without a doubt, working very very hard in our lives to show us that He IS real. I believe that that period of our lives is where God shows us "signs" to show how much He loves us.
This is analogous to an experience in a relationship with your significant other: The honeymoon phase, where everything is perfect with the world and we 'love' our other half in a very passionate way.
Now is the time, where we encounter obstacles in our lives that challenge our relationship with God where we often question about our faith in Him. And things don't help when the hussle and bussle of our lives come into the picture, when we experience disappointments, hardships, heartbreaks etc.. And we often (in the past) drift away from our God, whom we sometimes doubt he even existed... But God is good and He is always trying ways and means to get our attention back and we realise again that He is ever present in our lives. Yet, in our human weakness, we fail to uphold our end of this relationship.
At this time, we often question God where is He in this part of our lives and in a way, we are practically asking Him for "a sign" to help us tide through difficulties. What if this "sign" which we are hoping for doesn't come? Will we find ourselves trapped again in the cycle of doubting Him and steering away from His love?
Again, in the relationship analogy, this is when the honeymoon phase is over and we start to see the flaws and idiosyncracies of the other that challenge us to love them despite their flaws. At times, we love them for who they really are, while at others, we love them for what we want them to be.
Don't we want to get out of this vicious cycle of constant doubt in times of struggle?
The challenge therefore, is to truly LOVE this God, and acknowledge that He has a hand in every single thing in our lives and to trust in Him, IN ALL THINGS, to trust in Him.
How do we do that?
At this call, I felt that the answer truly lies in the Eucharist: "the source and summit of our Christian Spirituality"
Which brings me to begin this monthly Eucharistic Adoration, or Holy Hour.
This is an invitation for you to realise FIRST AND FOREMOST that God LOVES you TREMENDOUSLY, and it pains Him so to see you in the state you are in. Though we are sinners by nature, God invites us to become more like His Son through our struggles and difficulties so as to appreciate His Love more and more.
Let me disclaim that I would not know what His plans are for you, but I truly know this: "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11.
Through what means/media he will change your life I don't know, but our FIRST step is to acknowledge that He loves us and only THEN, God can take it from there.
So my invitation for you this year is to "Come and See", come and experience His love, that you yourself will be transformed through this constant exposure to His love to become more and more like Him each day. For when Moses saw the Lord, his face turned dazzling white that he had to veil his face when he met the Israelites. So for us too! When we constantly face God himself in the Eucharist, we will be transformed internally to become more and more like him! "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us with unveiled faces, SEEING the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, ARE BEING TRANSFORMED into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit" 2 Corinthians 3:17-18.
COME and SEE :) The dates for the adoration can be found in the attached poster, make yourselves free at least once a month to adore Christ in the Sacrament and see what wonders He has in store for you!
I'll leave you now with the verse which I have read today which has confirmed this calling now to start a Eucharistic Adoration. 2 verses taken from 2 translations (New Jerusalem and NRSV) to tell us that it is truly the season and time for deepening this relationship with Him:
1 John 3:1
(Jerusalem translation) You must see what great love the Father has lavished on us by letting us be called God's children -- which is what we are! The reason why the world does not acknowledge us is that it did not acknowledge him.
1 John 3:2-3
(NRSV translation) BELOVED, we are God's children now: what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we know is this: when he is revealed (in the Eucharist), we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
As I typed, even now, it has sent shivers down my spine.
:)
Please, too, send in your petitions for all of us to pray for you if you are having difficulties in any way, that we as a praying community will support you spiritually and storm heaven's gates together to humbly ASK God to listen to your prayers!
Have a pleasant week my brothers and sisters in Christ, and remember to Be(Loved) by Him! :)
Ben
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