Happy New Year!

During the Holiday Season there’s always so much to eat. Turkey, chicken, pies, cookies, cakes, and tamales, are plentiful. Sometimes we become overwhelmed with the variety of food that our eyes are bigger than our stomachs.

With the New Year, we all begin to make of our New Years Resolution. Like our holiday meals, sometimes our imaginations are larger than our will for those resolutions, and sometimes we become a little over zealous. I'm sure you've heard the term, "baby steps." Rather than taking one large leap forward only to fall backwards (which 8 times out of 10 will happen), let's take baby steps towards our spiritual resolutions. You can't learn to walk before learning to crawl. Look at it this way, a small step forward is still a step forward.

This is not to say that it is completely impossible to provide a complete 180° from our old selves. Through the graces of God anything is possible, even Jesus say's that if we have the "faith as a grain of mustard seed" (Matt 17:19) we are able to move even mountains. The feelings we get from retreats show conversions, true. But a few weeks if not days, we may slowly start to backslide into our old selves. Sometimes we'll hear someone's "conversion story." That one moment in someone's life that completely changed and converted them. For a point in my life, I tried to pinpoint exactly that conversion story so that I may share it. I struggled and struggled to find it, almost to a point where I was tempted to make one up! Finally in conversations that I had with close friends I came to realize that every day is a new conversion story waiting to happen.

Conversion doesn't just happen once in our life and then we're done, even the most the Saints recognized this. Pope St. Leo the Great said "Virtue is nothing without the trial of temptation, for there is no conflict without an enemy, no victory without strife." Each day comes with it's own trial or as Pope St. Leo the Great said, "conflict," and with each "victory" comes a new conversion. We should come to realize conversion happens EVERY DAY if we allow it. If we are to think otherwise, we are to say then that there is no longer a need for change within ourselves, and that my brothers and sisters is a dangerous place to be. I would even argue that the only day that I am fully converted is the day I have joined God in his kingdom.

So with this New Year, lets resolve to be open to our daily conversions. Fr. Fred sent me a text message today that reads "New year is God's way of saying 'Once more time… Live life… Make a difference… Touch one heart… Encourage one mind… and inspire one soul.' Happy New Year."

Happy New Year and God Bless Brothers and Sisters.

Tis the Season

Remember in your younger years when family seemed abundant, Christmas lights seemed brighter, and the thought of a large white man coming into your house in the middle of the night wasn't that scary. We may be working a little overtime at work because of the holiday season, or we may be stressing because we have yet to finish all of our "Christmas shopping." Some of you may be thinking what to get your boyfriend/girlfriend, and others may be wishing they had that special someone to buy a present for, or even receive a present from.

We get so caught up on the Popular Christmas Whim, in the Fox Family Christmas Specials or cartoon Christmas marathons that we almost lose the "reason for the season." Too easily we're swept away in the fairytale view of Christmas. We see on the latest TV shows that even enemies are (for this one day a year) reconciling and celebrating together. We are encouraged by the popular media to go out and shop for the one's we love, exercising and flexing (maybe even stretching) the size of our wallets.

Why? What brings about this frenzy of kindness and generosity? Surely it has to deal with more than a obese caucasian man in red pajamas sneaking into our house in the middle of the night for milk and cookies. There has to be more to the elaborate decorations and contests to see whose house is the brightest and most creative. We all feel the difference in the air brothers and sisters. This season should be a season of easy breathing, every moment we inhale we are able to capture the joy and anticipation into our very souls, and every exhale should be an attempt to spread that feeling even more. I'm not saying lets all share our onion breath and get uncomfortably close to each other, I'm saying this season should be preparation of the coming events on a less material manner.

Not to say that the gift giving is Christmas gone horribly wrong. Absolutely not! However, before we start thinking about what everyone else should be given, lets start inwardly. No not buy gifts for ourselves, but the preparation for Christmas day should start with reflection of ourselves. Because after all Christmas should focus our attention on Jesus, and what better gift to give Him, the one who has everything, than our everything. But how presentable are we to our God, how have we taken care of what He has given us? Have we obeyed his commands? Have we lived a life worthy of that to be called an apostle of Jesus Christ?

After we have meditated on these things and much, much more. Than we live out the word CHRISTMAS, and spread the fruits of our preparation to those who surround us. "More Christ" is what the season is called, and this is the explanation of joy and anticipation that we sense. This is what should bring around the "frenzy of kindness and generosity" as I called it earlier. Because when we come into the realization of the TRUE meaning of the CHRISTMAS/ADVENT season, then we can't help but wait in joyful anticipation.

Our hearts should be the Christmas lights glowing and illuminating the cold winter nights. Our actions of love of neighbor are the silent carols that those in need hear even more clearly. Our souls, cleansed through Reconciliation, should be the gifts that we polish and make presentable, for our Lord.

So when we think about how lonely we may feel this Christmas season, or how stressful everything may seem. Let's remember to stop, think, breath, and say a prayer of thanksgiving to God for giving us his Son to come and save us all

Might as well be Turkey Day

So everyone is probably gonna post a blog about Thanksgiving and what they're thankful for. But before we get to that, I want to point a few things out.

Thanksgiving, although has been turned to a secular or domestic holiday, does have Catholic roots. "How so Jerome?" Well I'm glad you asked! First let's recall that Thanksgiving always falls on a Thursday.

To us Catholics, what is an important Thursday?
How about Holy Thursday?
This is an important day because, the day before Jesus died, Good Friday, he broke the bread with his apostles. Giving us His body and blood.

What do we call this? The Eucharist.

If we take a look at the word Eucharist, we will find that it comes from the Greek noun eucharistia, which means thanksgiving.

This is the point where you say "ahhHhHh."

good =)

So we have a holiday "Thanksgiving" which always lands on Thursday, which happens to be the same day of the week when Jesus first took the chalice gave thanks and gave it to his disciples telling them to drink the blood of the new covenant.

Coincidence? I think not.

So here in the United States we are given a day out of the year for Thanksgiving. But as Catholics, we are given AT LEAST one day a week to do the same in the celebration of Mass, more if you attend mass daily. There's one more thing to be thankful for! =)

Catholic or non-Catholic lets not limit ourselves to one day a year, even a week, let us practice thanksgiving ALWAYS. Only difference is that today... we eat more turkey's than normal =)

I'm thankful for you =)

God Bless

Not of This World

Throughout highschool, and even throughout our lives, we will continually try and fit in to different groups. Very few times do we break away from the molds that are there, and set ourselves apart from everyone else. Why? Because it's scary! Because we want to feel like we belong, or maybe because it seems like the world has already accepted it as right.

Let's take a look at Jesus, who did not fit the mold and was not accepted by both Jews and Romans, and therefore was crucified by both. He set himself apart from the world because he knew he did not belong to the world, just as he says in John 17:16. In that same verse he reminds us that we ourselves, like Him, do not belong to the world as well. But this does not necessarily mean we seperate ourselves from those in the world, simply the evils of it.

" I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me..."
- John 17:9

"I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one."
- John 17:15

How does this speak to me? It tells me that Jesus had me in mind the day before his death. And in the Gospel of John he tells us, and reminds us, that we are to be a people SET APART, a people not of this world, but still for those in this world.

The difference is we may be a people set apart in this world, but through the body of Christ we are a people gathered, and united, through the love of Jesus and His sacrifice. It is right that we seperate ourselves from a world which promotes sex as recreation, violence as entertainment, and humans as dollar signs rather than souls. Become aware of your surroundings, because as it says in Luke 11:23, " Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters."

We are all called to be with Christ, to walk with him. To follow his footsteps, and the path which he paved for us. For those who know me I'm a fairly dark individual, darker than even the average Filipino. I want to walk one so close to Christ, that people mistake this dark filipino boy to be his shadow. Let's not only follow his footsteps, but let's shadow his image and grow closer to our Lord who humbled Himself so that all of us may be saved. Our same Lord who had each one of us in mind while praying to His Father for us so as to remind us that we are not of this world, but of the kingdom that is to come.


Selah

News!

Things Going On This Weekend:

-No Day But Today Choir Concert
St. Patricks @ 7 pm

-First LIFE Night of the School Year
St. Christophers after 6 pm Mass

Community

This past weekend we had our Annual International Festival, and if there's any proof of community in our parish it was this. If you'd ask around about the community of our parish you may get mixed comments. But for those who doubt, picture this; LIFE TEEN, Lambs of Christ, and Jovenes Caminando en Christo, all under one roof, planning and suggesting various events and ways to allow both themselves and the youth of our parish to grow closer to Christ. Various types of people from various walks of life, gathering from different communities in our parish, to form a united one. If that doesn't make a statement about our parish and it's Reconciling Multicultural Church, I don't know what will.

Compared to previous year's this years rides and focused on family time. Giving families the opportunity to come and join in the music, food, games, and most importantly each other. The food available at the festival ranged from hot dogs all the way to Guamanian food and everything in between. Faces like the one to above were seen everywhere this weekend. The games allowed all the young and the young at heart to have fun and even win some prizes in the process. Some of the games, such as the one from LIFE TEEN (LT), included a paintball shooting booth, dubbed "PaintBall X-Treme" gave both children and adults time for target practice. The popular booth for Lambs or Christ (LOC) was face painting. Children of all ages walked around with their faces ornamented with lambs, hearts, and other things. We also had Jovenes Caminando en Christo (JCC) with their Basketball Booth as well as many more. JCC came well equipped with many prizes for all the youth as well.

With so much disparity and chaos in this world, we've found our safe place close to Jesus. This past weekend was more than just fun and games, it was a rebuilding if you will; a reminder of the importance of community, whose basic building block is the family. The youth themselves have created a home away from home in our parish. There has never been so much cooperation between so many youth of so many different backgrounds in our parish before. If it was safe to base the outlook of our Church simply on the perseverance and faith of the young people present at our International Festival, then I would say we're looking good.

Regardless of the rumors you may hear, or the way things seem to be, I can say that at least on our end, things look bright and promising. Keep prayer alive in the home and soon enough our homes will be as lively and as full of love as our parish.

Let's not stop this weekend . Let the celebration of community continue each day with a simple smile to each other. With an "I Love You" to your mom, dad, brother, sister, son, and daughter. Let everyone from every walk know that we are children of God, saved by His Son through the joy and happiness we carry in each of our hearts. As a community, let's all climb higher and help each other up.

F.R.I.E.N.D.S.

Lately the conversation of friends, and those who we surround ourselves with has come up more than usual. One thing you will notice is as you grow in your faith, you will become more aware of who and what you surround yourself with.

Reflect on this following passage from the Letter to the Ephesians 4:22-24:

"You must give up your former way of living, the old self, whose deceitful desires bring self-destruction. Renew yourselves spiritually, from inside, and put on the new self, or self according to God, which is created in true righteousness and holiness."

Now ask yourself this:

Are you able to put on your new self and still surround yourself with the people who still participate in things that your old self would?

I know it's a little confusing, but there is a reason I've worded it that way. Because this is a VERY touchy subject, and in NO WAY am I judging anyone. So many people have asked me about the same thing, so I then began questioning myself as well! Can we still HEAVILY surround ourselves with those who played a big part in our old selves.

We've heard that saying, "You can tell what a person is like by the company they keep." I say this is a little too harsh and maybe finds us guilty of telling a book by its cover. So let's switch it up, I would disagree with that first saying, but rather, "You can tell a person struggles by the company they keep." Sure this is not the case for everyone, but stay with me here.

In a crowd, if we are weak, we lose ourselves to a "mass mentality." Maybe you've heard that term in philosophy or even a history class. It's true, we sometimes get carried away with the crowd. In this we sometimes find ourselves doing things we didn't plan on doing, or things we probably should not be doing. Avoid the occasion of sin. Where is the occasion of sin here? Placing ourselves in a situation where those around us could perhaps steer us a direction we may not have planned to go.

St. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 5:11-13:

"I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people, not at all referring to the immoral of this world or the greedy and robbers or idolaters; for you would then have to leave the world. But I now write to you not to associate with anyone named a brother, if he is immoral, greedy, an idolater, a slanderer, a drunkard, or a robber, not even to eat with such a person. For why should I be judging outsiders? Is it not your business to judge those within? God will judge those outside. "Purge the evil person from your midst.""

St. Paul reminds us it is impossible for us to avoid contact with sinners in the large society but urges the Corinthians to maintain purity within their community. Likewise with us, it is impossible for us to avoid all people in the world, but it is possible to maintain purity around us.

If for some reason the people we surround ourselves with begin to weaken our faith, not because of them, but because of the situation we have placed ourselves in, then be aware of it and "let the Spirit guide you" (Gal 5:25). Yes if possible we should evangelize and be among our Brothers and Sisters, this is what God wants. BUT he does not want us to sin, because then we seperate ourselves from him, so we should also avoid the occasion of sin. Yes be the beacon of light that we are all called to be, but do not dim that light for anyone.

Friends keep you grounded and still let you fly.
They Love you.
This means they care for your soul, and its salvation.