Sacred Scripture - 1 -

I. CHRIST - THE UNIQUE WORD OF SACRED SCRIPTURE

The way of CCC is organised is by paragraph, so if I mentioned about CCC 101, it means the paragraph no 101 from the CCC. Why do I choose to discuss start from Chapter 2-Article 3 regarding the Sacred Scripture? It's because I found a lot of shocking facts regarding the Church teaching and perspective about the Sacred Scripture.

Due to my lack of knowledge and understanding, I didn't know how actually the Catholic or Universal Church interpret, love, respect and inspired by the Sacred Scripture.

Let me start from the first paragraph of this article:
101 In order to reveal himself to men, in the condescension of his goodness God speaks to them in human words: "Indeed the words of God, expressed in the words of men, are in every way like human language, just as the Word of the eternal Father, when he took on himself the flesh of human weakness, became like men."

The definition of the Sacred Scripture or the bible that we as Christian reads its actually the Words of God, in human language. Similar to Jesus who is indeed God but decided to became man, God also use human language in His word to be written in the Sacred Scripture.

102 Through all the words of Sacred Scripture, God speaks only one single Word, his one Utterance in whom he expresses himself completely:

You recall that one and the same Word of God extends throughout Scripture, that it is one and the same Utterance that resounds in the mouths of all the sacred writers, since he who was in the beginning God with God has no need of separate syllables; for he is not subject to time.

The one Word here means is God Himself, or about Jesus Christ!!He who was in the beginning God with God. We can try to read the entire bible, we will learn and see that it is about God, the father,son and the holy spirit revealing Himself through His Word.

103 For this reason, the Church has always venerated the Scriptures as she venerates the Lord's Body. She never ceases to present to the faithful the bread of life, taken from the one table of God's Word and Christ's Body.

This paragraph remind me, that during the Gospel acclamation, the reason why , when the priest raise the Bible that he hold before he read it, we usually genuflect. I do it as well, after I got the understanding that the Gospel contains the Word of God in human language, and the Word represent God Himself, because the Word was God (John 1)

104 In Sacred Scripture, the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength, for she welcomes it not as a human word, "but as what it really is, the word of God"."In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his children, and talks with them."

This paragraph conclude of what we believe as a Catholic, that the bible was really the Word of God, and it was about the divine revelation, that God who loves us so much want to reveal Himself through human language. For me, after reading about this four paragraph, I was really amazed, since I didn't really read bible and respect it as the Word of God. The perspective of the Church on the Sacred Scripture from this first four paragraph gave me a bigger picture of what the Word of God is in the bible.

Now I can understand that no wonder we are so encourage to read bible daily by the Church, because by reading it, we are meeting our God, our heavenly Father who wants to reveal Himself to me and to you. I am trying starting from today to read the daily reading from the liturgical calendar of the church. I recommend you to read from this resources : http://www.wau.org/meditations/meditations.asp? with the reflection that really help me to understand and meditate on the Word of God in the daily reading.

Praise the Lord!!!

To Sacred Scripture ~2~

CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

The fear of the Lord is the beginnig of Wisdom
( Proverb 9:10)

I want to start to post some reflections and articles about Cathechism of the Catholic Church. its the publication of the Church from Vatican. This is the reference text of the Catholic (Universal) Church teaching. Therefore anything about the Church teaching, tradition, are summarized into a book called the CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. The source is from http://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/ccc_toc.htm

The Catechism of the Catholic Church is the result of very extensive collaboration; it was prepared over six years of intense work done in a spirit of complete openness and fervent zeal.

A catechism should faithfully and systematically present the teaching of Sacred Scripture, the living Tradition in the Church and the authentic Magisterium, as well as the spiritual heritage of the Fathers, Doctors and saints of the Church, to allow for a better knowledge of the Christian mystery and for enlivening the faith of the People of God. It should take into account the doctrinal statements which down the centuries the Holy Spirit has intimated to his Church. It should also help to illumine with the light of faith the new situations and problems which had not yet emerged in the past.

From now on I want to post some articles regarding the CCC. I hope what I share about the richness of the Church teaching and tradition may triggered you to be inspired by the Holy Spirit. So that your relationship with the Lord will be more intimate and lovely.

Praise the Lord

Who am I?

This question has been bothering me since I heard Fr Jivan session about salvation. He asked us to write 5 sentences starting with the words I am.... So I supposed to describe my self in 5 sentences. I tried my best to describe my self in 5 sentences.

For me as a final year student right now who will graduate soon. I feel that I am at the cross road right now, I am still a bit confused which way that I should choose? I realise there might be no turning back so its a great decision that I am going to make at this short of time.

Going back to Fr Jivan session, he told us that salvation according to him is to be with God at ALL TIME. He illustrated it with the story of Adam and eve from the book of Genesis. Both of them were with God at all time in their nakedness. For me that state or condition is also applicable for me. I mean God wants to be with me and although I don't have anything with me ( naked ) it would still be alright. Instead it may be the best way to be with God at all time, just me and God, nothing else. It was quite confusing but I believe that what I myself actually want is only that. To be with God at all time, and to be Myself in my nakedness.

From this session I start to reflect on my life and learnt few things. I am created by the Lord as a unique creation, and the reason why He created me is because He loves me. How do I know about this? I cant really explain it, because this conviction came after the process of learning, reflecting, experiencing, listening to God's revelation. I may share with you about this later on my next posting.

So as a unique creation He bestowed on me also a unique composition of talents,endowments and etc. Which mean there will be only one person who is me in this world at this point of time. In my reflection the state of being naked is actually my true self. Which God created me to be. It is the core of my self that I can be the best of me, the truest of me in this life. When I am being naked and with God at all time there will be nothing else I shall want in this world. I feel fulfilled.

I found a way of discovering this core of myself, first is relying on God's revelation, second is to ask my self. Its a way of discovering, meaning that it was already there, its not an invention or a creation of my self. I just need to look for it, it was always there. I am still learning by reading some books such as : Self matters from McGraw Phill, and also Bible from the LORD. I am quite sure right now after looking into my self regularly this past few months I can get a feel of my true self. It is still not completely revealed but I already can see the glimpse of it.

I am writting on my personal journal on every discovery that I made, any thing that the Lord reveals to me, so that I will not forget and this will be like my life project. This is a very interesting journey for me, the journey to the inward of my self. Slowly but sure, God is revealing His plan for me, and also for you.

Praise the LORD!!!!Alleluia!!!

Life in the Spirit Camp (LISC) 2007 " Come. Follow Me"

This is my third experience of attending LISC, and guess what, it is more wonderful and fruitful than before. More for the participant, and also more for me. I was the publicity comm with my bro vidy together preparing for about 3 months on outreaching the participant. It was quite sad because the response was quite bad in number, but we believe God will call many people. So we just do our best and at the end there are about 80+ people attending LISC ( service team + participant). For me personally it was a great experience of doing outreach, although I was not so good at outreaching and praise God He still want to use me. I am really glad that He gave me bro vidy as my partner because he is so reliable.

Then came to the first day of LISC for me as a Facilitator of group 12. When I looked to the name list of my group, I said to myself I want to love all of them and being with them will be a great experience for me. I believe that will happen although the LISC had not started yet. I also have a great partner who has grown wonderfully in the Lord. She has been inspiring me since she start to serve in CPG. I thank God and also chief Facil for giving me a very wonderful and lovely group.

Starting from the first day when we had a very wonderful sharing among my group member. I can feel the openess and sincerity in our sharing. The session were also wonderful, and especially Fr Jivan session regarding salvation. It really inspired me, to reflect on my life about salvation. I really love the way he thinks and reflects on the word of God into his life.

Then on the second to the fourth day, we had our LISC on IHM retreat house. I was quite amazed that we dont have enough bed for the comm, and I need to sleep at "extra" room. I was surprised on the number of people that turn up to stay there. There were great session, and also great testimonies, but my favorite was the testimony from our brother Randy. He shared that he felt nothing on his first LISC last year,but he experience the growth on his life throughout his life in this 1 year, and he told us it was because that God has touched him differently.

I said to my self, WOW!!!!This is the best. I really love to listen on this testimony, because for me personally I prefer that from LISC people can start to commit their life to God, even that they dont receive or experience something extraordinary. But it was their life with Jesus that make the extraordinary life.

For me myself, this year LISC is a very wonderful experience, because God teach me to be more faithful to Him. He comfort me by touching me again, and he want to use me to do greater things for His glory. I am so challenged now by the Lord and I want to grow and commit myself more to Him.

Praise The LORD!!!!Alleluia!!!

My Life In The Spirit Journey

"My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my savior. " Luke 1:46-47

I want to share about my past life before I live my life in the spirit. My past life was very different before I experience God personally. I am a very logical person, hence I like to reason every thing, even about my faith and my God. During my junior high school ( secondary school) I was having a very bad life, I was a very bad boy, I smoke, cursed others with dirty language, lied to many people, addicted to pornography & masturbation, and many other things.

One day some one ask me, " andy, why do you believe in God? or Jesus? ", I don't really remember my answer, but I remember that I also began to ask my self about this question. How could I have faith in someone who I have never met before? How could I love someone who I have never heard his voice before? How could I obey someone who I have never touched or feel him before? How could I pray to God whose existence might not be real? and so on and so on.

I asked this question, then my belief and faith to Him diminished and even I didn't believe in Him anymore. I didn't want to go to mass anymore, because I thought its useless and waste my time. I didn't pray anymore, because its just a nonsense to me. I've never read bible because this books is not proven to be true, as historically or anything, and what I believe that this book contains more lies that truths. Lastly, Christianity for me is a big lie, in its faith of something unreal.

I don't know how God's felt about this, but I know His response. Even though I didn't pray anymore, He answered my questions to my self. He reveal Himself to me, let me feel Him personally, but I think it is just my own feeling, and I still don't believe it. Then He let me hear His voice, but I think it is just my imagination. Then He touch my hand, but I think it is just the air con. Then He surround me and hold me close, and this time I cant reject Him anymore, and start to believe that He exist, Jesus is real, and this is the way He answer me when I attended my first LISC during my senior high school.

After I experienced Him personally, I became understand a little bit more about God. I start to attend mass. I start to pray again. Then I start to read bible, and it made my thirst for God became greater. I want to know Him more, then I start to serve Him through CSA community after I attended my second LISC.

That is why, when you meet me, I will ask you to join LISC, because of this journey of my life. I am not sharing of others story, but my own life. That's why I sometimes you might feel irritated by me of asking you to join LISC. Because God also made me feel irritated last time, when He calls me everyday to come back to Him. Now God uses me to call others, I can understand how does it feel to be rejected, when the invitation is not successful.

My journey is not ended, but now I pray to God to let me experience Him more. I pray to God to know Him more, and I pray to God to help me with these by His charism(gift) in my life in the Spirit.

May the Holy Spirit inspires you and moves your heart and life to experience God personally.

"The LORD is close to the brokenhearted, saves those whose spirit is crushed. "

Psalms 34:19

NTU CSA Praise & Worship

A new page for CSA Praise and Worship. 2 years ago, I was called by Jesus just like in the picture display above. Now, I really praise God for calling me 2 years ago. He changed my life totally. It was only few hour, but the effect after it.... A life changing experience.

I just have 1 question for you. Do you want to live according to His plan? Do you have the longing and courage to answer His calling to you?

You may experience a life changing experience like I did, or even more!!! Because God has His plan only for you!!

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."

John 3 :16

Why do we have confession when you can just tell your sins to God?

16Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. (James 5:16)

5When you realize your guilt in any of these, you shall confess the sin that you have committed. 6And you shall bring to the Lord, as your penalty for the sin that you have committed, a female from the flock, a sheep or a goat, as a sin-offering; and the priest shall make atonement on your behalf for your sin. (Leviticus 5:5-6)

5 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 6Speak to the Israelites: When a man or a woman wrongs another, breaking faith with the Lord, that person incurs guilt 7and shall confess the sin that has been committed. The person shall make full restitution for the wrong, adding one-fifth to it, and giving it to the one who was wronged. (Num 5:5-7)

22When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’ (John 20:22-23)

10For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. (Rom 10:10)

This is some of the verse in the bible that stated clearly that we should confess our sin to one another, and of course to the church. The priest is a person who has the authority from God to forgive sin and also the representation of the church.
There is also an explanation taken from book Lord, Have Mercy written by Scott Hahn.

Sin is a transgression/disobedience/wrongdoing against almighty God. When we sin we reject the love of God. There are two big categories of sins: Original sins and Actual sins.
Original sin is hereditary but impersonal. It is contracted, not committed; and we contract original sin without personal consent/ permission. That is why God can remove original sin without personal consent, as He does with newborn babies on their baptism day.

The same thing cannot be said for actual sin. Actual sin can only be committed through informed consent, or we can say by some action or deed. And so it can only be removed through informed consent. That’s why we need confession.

How to make a good decision

This is one of my business module I take this semester, management decision tools. In business and in fact in anything that we do in this life require us to make decision. Whether it is routine or any urgent and important decision. The decisions we make everyday determine our life, where we will go, what we will do. Whether we realise it or not, our decision reflect about our self. It reflect about of mind, and the way we think and perceive. And everything about a person will start from his or her mind.

Most of the time when me decide upon some choices we consider several things, what is our benefit of taking this choice? Is there any consequences or disadvantage? I heard a very good reflection of our spiritual director, Fr Jivan about yesterday's reading taken from Mark 3:1-6. It is about Jesus decide to heal sick people on Sabbath day, and the Pharisees decide to plan a plot against Jesus. There are two different decisions we can see here, and the decisions are made from two different considerations.

First is about Jesus decision, He decide to heal the sick person. Jesus said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.”He stretched it out and his hand was restored ( Mark 3:5). He heal him because of the truth that this person need Jesus healing, and how could He ignore him? But during Sabbath day people are not allowed to work, because they have to go to synagogue to pray. Basically this is one of the ten commandment to make the Sabbath day as holy, to worship God. So the consequences of Jesus healed the man is he was seen as breaking the law and the punishment is stoning to death. Did Jesus know about this? Of course and what He did is to keep following the truth, which is to heal the person.

Second is about the Pharisees, how did they react? Then he said to them, "Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?" But they remained silent( Mark 3:4). On the other hand they made a different decision, but actually they know about the truth. They don't have the courage to answer, because they know the consequence. They are afraid loosing their position, status, and their life.

I asked my self, have I followed Jesus's way on making decision? Based on the truth or on the other hand, I think too much about my self and I am also afraid of the consequences?
What is the truth anyway? This is just my belief that the truth lies in our conscience, and mind. We know it like the pharisees, but the question is do we have courage to make a good decision based on the truth?

Try to ask your self, how do I make decision in my life?

St Stephen, The ripple of God's Plan

It is about the today's reading : Acts 6:8-10; 7:54-59.

It is telling about the story of St Stephen. From the meditation of Word Among Us, it said that "... one remote consequence of Stephen’s death was the conversion of St. Paul. Was Paul converted solely because he saw how Stephen had died (Acts 8:1)? No. But it was one of many extraordinary events that Paul witnessed—all of which testified to the power of the gospel and helped prepare him for his encounter with Jesus. "

This sentences really amazed me, and inspire me so much. What happened to St Stephen had been told by Jesus Himself (Mt 10:17-22). God is really almighty, today's passage is one of it. The great plan of God, we as His creator can't really grasp his plan, but with faith and when we are in heaven, we will know how is our life in His plan. We have the free will, given by God's grace to choose anything in our life.

I want to ponder and discuss about the story of St Stephen. After reading the passage and the meditation from Word Among Us. I am thinking, although it is not said in the bible, but I think there are many people who were affected by the death of St Stephen. Many of them were touched by the great faith and love of St Stephen to God. One of the example, as I quoted above, the conversion of St Paul. It is not a direct cause and effect, because God's plan work differently from our plan or imagination.

I keep pondering, in my life, I might not have the opportunity like St Stephen to evangelize to spread the good news. But I believe that God still use me as subtle ripple on the pond that can continue to make another ripple. It might be in the form of my daily activity, the way I speak, interact with other people. Who knows, if today I can share the love of Jesus by greeting someone, or the small deeds that I do to help others. It might seems small thing to me, but it might be a big thing for others.

I may not know now how am I affecting others by sharing God's love and the good news that Jesus is born to save the world, but I believe that God is waiting to use me to be in His plan. He is very passionate and merciful to give me the 2nd chance. His great love want to help me, to enable me to do His plan. I just need to do one thing, it is to be in His love, to be in His presence, to stay close with Him everyday. And He will reveal many things to me. He is waiting and keep waiting for me.

Because He love the world so much, that He gives His only Son. He loves me and all of you.

God Bless You all, may the peace and joy that Christ bring in His birth be with you all!

First Posting

Hi all,
I want to dedicate this blog to share my insight, experience and knowledge. I want to use this facility of blogging to share about Christ, how I experience Him in my life, how He revealed His plan for me.

I pray that some of my sharing will be fruitful to anyone of you. Please correct me or just send anything if you would like to discuss anything with me.

I want to learn to put down into words about my deep thinking , my meditation of the words of God.

I am inspired by my brother, who have a great blog and has helped me through his blog, I thank God for giving him to the community.

Praise The Lord!!