Pray Serve Love

I got involved in two events last weekend. Both gave me the opportunity to live out the Year of Faith's new evangelization theme which was great. I also got to do things I had never done before and to stretch myself. Always a good thing.

The first was to be part of the intercessory prayer team of the Archdiocesan Youth Day 2012. Thanks Amilia for saying yes, then roping the rest of us W2W Ministry women in so enthusiastically. The second was to help out with the Church of Saint Teresa's kid's camp.

So instead of our usual meeting on Friday evening, we gathered in the chapel of the Catholic Junior College and led the prayer teams in a time of prayer before the youth rally. We also prayed for the youth of each individual parish. And later in the evening, we led intercessory prayer during the time the prayer teams would be praying with individual youth at the rally itself.

Then on Saturday morning, at MacRitchie Reservoir, I read the story of Zacchaeus out loud to four groups of children aged between 5-12, as part of the morning's activities.

In the evening it was back to CJC for one more night of intercessory prayer.

Finally I was back at the kid's camp the whole of Sunday to help out as a mentor. It has been an exhausting weekend and I got burnt to a crisp, but it has also been an exhilarating couple of days.

I was humbled and awed by the depth of love and faithfulness I encountered in others. His Spirit is alive and touches me in an unmistakeable fashion; just as I had read to the kids, Jesus is like love, you cannot hear, smell or touch Him, but you know He is there.

More specifically, I was extremely glad to be able to enjoy of the gifts of my W2W sisters first-hand and I am proud to be associated with such God-fearing women. It encourages me that these are the women God has placed in my life to help me journey on the narrow path.

I was also deeply moved by the faith of the young adults who made up the prayer teams at the youth rally for I was nothing like them when I was their age. Young and so in love with God. What a blessing.

Finally I am heartened by the many good men and women, young and old, who pitched in to make the camp a safe and enjoyable experience for the children. I am sure the young campers encountered Jesus as much as I did in the people who served them by feeding them, entertaining them, affirming them, and teaching them by just loving them.

Denise and James, you are both my heroes, I want to be just like you when I grow up. I admire your boundless energy, patience and good humour; your availability to all and sundry; and most of all, your graciousness. You both reflect God's love in everything you do and are powerful testaments to Him. Thank you for inviting me to be part of the "camp" experience.

My learning lesson from this weekend is to step out of my comfort zone and go where I do not want to willingly go (I really wanted to attend the Charles Whitehead talk last Friday). Like love, which isn't love until you give it away, faith is equally potent only when you give it away, not just for the receiver, but it is a blessing that rebounds on you as well.

Of course, the success of the rally and the camp would not have been possible without loads of pre-event prayer, a heart for genuine service and the capacity to love that is fuelled supernaturally.

So my mantra for the remaining 12 months of the Year of Faith is simple: Pray Serve Love.

Practising charity

The Gospel past Sunday was on the widow who gave her two mites and Jesus challenges us to examine our own efforts at generosity.

We all know that "to be Christian" we must share our blessings for everything we have comes from God, to be paid forward as a sign of our gratitude.

The Old Testament concept of first fruits and tithing 10 per cent is still a popular way of putting a numeric value on charitable efforts, but it can be a rather narrow definition.

We tend to give based on affiliation and more often than not, out of a sense of duty, or to feel good about ourselves. As Albert Camus said: Too many have dispensed with generosity in order to practise charity.

So when is charity true generosity that comes from the place where there is no fear of loss nor hope of gain (to borrow a phrase from Margaret Silf)? When it is an act of faith that truly professes love of God and neighbour.

Pope Benedict XVI commented in his Sunday Angelus address*, faith and charity and love of God and love of neighbour are inseparable.

He also added that both women, from the stories of the widow from the first Book of Kings and the widow from the Gospel of St. Mark, demonstrated "a great faith in God", even in dire situations.

"From these two biblical episodes, the Holy Father said, 'we can draw a precious teaching about faith. It is about the interior attitude of those who base their lives on God, on his Word, and completely entrust themselves to him.'"

Believing in God's providence is a concept quite alien in today's society where independence is prized. When we do well, we believe we did it on our own, often forgetting it is God who paves the way or steers us away from danger.

It is only when we experience grievous loss or significant hurt, a time of great need, that we then turn to God, and drawing on deeper reserves of faith, allow ourselves to be transformed by God's love. Only then can we move out of immature selfishness and begin to practise gratitude by giving back in love that is not obligatory in nature.

We cannot wait until we are older or retired before we decide to help the disadvantaged among us, as P, my brother's friend, shared with me. It may be just about too late as Doctor Richard Teo** found out.

Having been privileged to experience providence in a very real way, I am always cognizant of giving back, to be the tenth leper who turned back and thanked Jesus after being healed in Luke chapter 17.

So I have a couple of guidelines for myself when it comes to me practising charity.

*   Monetary donations must be in amounts that hurt. If it doesn't cause me to give pause and utter a silent ouch, I am nowhere near the generosity of the widow in Mark's gospel. It is, after all, only money, necessary for subsistence, but it cannot buy happiness, nor should it be my god for my God will provide, as He has done so, a million times over.

*   Time and effort given must involve sacrifice, that is, I have to juggle my schedule and make time for a cause (sometimes even at the opportunity cost of lost income) rather than I do something only because I happen to be at loose ends and it feeds my ego.

*   The poor do not just constitute organizations or formal groups, but whoever is identified as having a need that I can personally address, especially the invisible. Who is my neighbour whom I can love? It could well be the next person I meet.

*   The practice of charity begins at home with kindness, patience, a helping hand and a forgiving heart, every day, not just on special days. It is easy to get caught up with work and life and forget the emotional and spiritual needs of ageing parents/grandparents, focusing only on satisfying their physical or material needs which is insufficient.

*   Go with the flow and keep an open heart and mind for every day presents opportunities for generosity of heart. Be attuned to the world and people you meet. Hear the silent cries of the hurt and lonely around you. This is hardest for me for I am always rushing around and in my impatience, I tend to overlook someone who is in need, focusing only on my own needs.

*   Most important of all, be a cheerful giver. When I start to resent the demands on my time, I have to stop and remind myself it is pointless to give grudgingly and grouchily for it completely cancels out all good intentions.

While I can only aspire to be as faithful as the widows in last Sunday's readings, I am glad for the reminder that faith is an interior attitude that must be lived out in concrete action.

So give generously, from the heart, and with a smile.

*    http://www.zenit.org/article-35938?l=english
**  Read his powerful and moving testimony: http://www.heavenaddress.com/Dr-Richard-Teo-Keng-Siang/424153/379719/content

Make love freely

In last Sunday's homily Father Arro encouraged us to make love by listening, trusting and following God. As he explained, to love the Lord "with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength" requires first a listening heart, one that trusts the Creator and acts out that trust by caring for others by being kind, forgiving and faithful.

This definition of making love appeals vastly to me. The greatest commandment, love of God and love of neighbour, is distilled into one simple act: to listen. It is increasingly a lost art, yet a requisite in life, especially in the pursuit of freedom and truth.

We have hit the Big Daddy of chapters in the book Landmarks, Margaret Silf begins chapter 12 with two questions: What is freedom? What is truth?, questions salient to one's quest for fulfilment in life.

D pointed out that freedom and truth are like close siblings. Amidst the tension of where we feel drawn to be and where we are actually living out our days - our good intentions at odds with our self-expectations and what the world wants from us - we can only arrive at the place of freedom in our choices if we resonate truth in our beings; a truth which is found in the place where God meets us, and He meets us where we truly are, not where we, or others think we should or could be.

Silf recommends stillness for only in this elusive place of receptivity are we able to listen to His movements in our hearts, thereby allowing Him to administer to us, bringing forgiveness and healing that in turn strengthen and empower us, especially when making moral or ethical decisions.

We enter a place of power when we live true to our desires, having aligned our true self with True North or God, and how we know we are there is that we will feel liberated, at peace and energized in whatever we do. This meeting point of inner freedom and God's unconditional love enables us to be who we are and to make choices without fear of loss or hope of gain.

I like living in this state of indifference that is living in the Spirit, for my decisions are not so coloured by my fears and prejudices, or worse, my pride. And my choices are unfettered of the influences of dogmas and social mores that speak of an individualistic, self-centred truth.

As the Catechism of the Catholic Church states: freedom is a force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness that attains its perfection when directed toward God, our beatitude. (1731)

It goes on to state that the more one does what is good, the freer one becomes. There is no true freedom except in the service of what is good and just. The choice to disobey and do evil is an abuse of freedom and leads to "the slavery of sin." (1732)

We are born with a disposition for good and a free will to navigate through life. If we act against our truth, our innate disposition for goodness, then we act against our own nature with the consequence of a circumscribed freedom.

Thus choosing true freedom implies choosing goodness, and choosing God and His ways (that lead to truth and life). And so the commandments and Church teachings are like signposts or guiding lights that help us navigate our way to truth and freedom.

Even with guidelines, finding the truth is tricky, unless we listen. When we do not listen, we very often decide our truth is THE TRUTH and we close our hearts and minds to other truths. We end up seeing only differences and great divides. To quote Father Timothy Radcliffe: Claiming that you have got the truth wrapped up does breed violence and intolerance.

While the truth may set us free, living out truth in our lives will always present challenges and be fraught with tension. But if we soak in the truth that we are created by God and we belong to Him, then we won’t forget to make love by listening first to God.

Feel free to make love today.  

Saintly aspirations

It amazes me that Halloween is such a worldwide phenomenon that people celebrate without truly understanding the meaning behind it; much like Christmas. Both events have lost their true meaning to commercialism and are now simply means of making more money, or reasons to throw a party.

Halloween or All Hallows' Eve (the eve of the all holy) is thought to have its roots in a harvest festival or a pagan feast for the dead. More importantly it is also the precursor to the joyous feast day of All Saints' Day, a feast to celebrate the holiness of humanity as seen in the saints who have gone before us and are among us today.

Ironically All Saints' Day is not as celebrated as its eve although it is an occasion for much rejoicing as the holiness of ordinary men and women reminds us we ourselves can be holy and we have a multitude of role models to choose from to emulate.

Do we restore dignity to the poor like Saint Vincent de Paul or Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta?

Do we use education as a way out of poverty for the masses like Blessed Nicholas Barre or Saint Jean-Baptiste De La Salle?

Can we be the voice of the poor like Dorothy Day in the United States, and of the oppressed like Servant of God Oscar Romero in El Salvador?

Can we humble ourselves and find the little ways of love like cloistered Saint Thérèse of Lisieux?

Can we use our own brokenness and inspire many lives like much-loved writer Henri Nouwen?

Last evening Father Romeo reminded us that we can all be saints. All it takes is the desire and the subsequent decision to act like one. Whilst most of us won't have the temerity to call ourselves holy or saints, we can still aim for holiness and sainthood.

So be a saint!