Crosswalk from the Head Servant..

Christian Community

Maybe some of us are wondering why in spite of the fact that we have good speakers and leaders, the community is still not growing as it should be. We try to justify that community growth is not based on quantity but on quality. We sometimes forget that quantity is the product of quality.

The big question or challenge is, "Are we really building a Christian Community or just a group?" If we go back to the time of early Christians which we can read on Acts 2: 42-47, we will note how deep and strong the love of every member for one another was. They did not consider what they have as their own but for everyone in the community.

A Christian Community should be a place of love, hope, peace, joy and healing. Everyone should be an instrument of love, more so, a blessing and inspiration to one another. Everybody should speak, act, and work for the salvation of every member. It should not be a place of intrigue, gossip, judgment and condemnation.

We need to TRUST one another as God trusted us so much. We need to understand that we have different levels of spirituality. Our weakness can be the strength of others and their weakness can be our strength. Although our goal is to be perfect, we cannot be, for only God is perfect. Let us accept the truth that we need one another. Let us support the strength of others and help them on their weaknesses. Let us be humble also to accept the truth that we need the help of others to overcome our weaknesses.

False spirituality is when we become self-righteous as if we are the only ones who are good. True spirituality is when love, patience, understanding, and forgiveness go wider. When we learn to accept the strength and weakness of others and accept our own weaknesses, too.

We need to move forward from the emotional level of love to the spiritual level of love. Emotional level of love focuses so much on feelings, emotions and expectations. If this is not satisfied, it leads to frustration and condemnation. Spiritual level of love is to love like Christ, to understand that we need one another. We need to trust the goodness of the person. Let us not forget that whatever and no matter how big the sin of a person is, God is still doing everything for his salvation, as what He is doing for us, up to the point that He even gave His only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to save us. Do not act the other way around, for we have no right to destroy what God is trying to save.

Let us always remember that we are all so precious to God and the value of each one of us is Jesus Himself on the Cross.

Christian Community should be Christ-Love driven!

!

Bro. Don Quilao
Head Servant

From the Deacon's Bench

In the first three centuries of Christianity, preparation for the Easter feast usually covered a period of one or two days, perhaps a week at the most. Saint Irenaeus of Lyons (ca AD 140-202) even speaks of a forty-hour preparation for Easter. As of the 5th century, some Church Fathers, such as St. Leo, believed the 40 day fast to be an Apostolic tradition. However, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, most modern scholars reject this view. History shows a variety in both the duration and fasting guidelines in the first three centuries.

The first official reference to Lent as a period of forty days' preparation occurs in the teachings of the First Council of Nicaea in AD 325, which uses the term tessarakoste, meaning "fortieth" in Greek. By the end of the fourth century, a Lenten period of forty days was established and accepted.

Lent is the 40 day season prior to Easter. It is a penitential time of prayer and fasting. The season begins Ash Wednesday and concludes at the end of Holy Saturday, with the Easter Vigil. In the Roman Catholic Church, the 40 days of this season do not include the six Sundays of Lent. Sundays throughout the year are considered "mini-Easters" - they always celebrate the joy of the Resurrection of Christ.

The word "Lent" itself comes from lencten, simply referring to the Spring season. However, since the Anglo-Saxon period (9th century) it has been a popular term for this penitential season. The Latin name for the season, quadragesima, is more significant, as it means "forty days" or "fortieth day."

During this Lenten season we are strongly invited to practice abstinence, fasting, and penance. Abstinence: 1. Penitential: Depriving oneself of meat or of foods prepared with meat on days prescribed by the Church as "penitential": Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and all Fridays of the year which are not solemnities. Fasting is an ascetic practice, limited in duration, undertaken as a means of mortification or penance for one's spiritual welfare as a way of affirming the human need for a dependence on God; thus, one stops what is otherwise self-controlled and waits upon God to meet one's needs. With food understood as a gift from God (Dt 8:3; Mt 6:11; Lk 11:3), fasting is the willingness to face one's own weakness, frailty, and need not only for the provision of nourishment but also for the Provider Himself. Penance, also called confession or reconciliation, is not merely a ceremony or function, but a sacrament, as it is an outward sign instituted by Christ to impart grace to the soul. As an outward sign, the sacrament involves a person presenting him or herself in a penitent manner to the priest and confessing his or her sins, and the priest pronouncing absolution and imposing satisfaction. The Catholic Encyclopedia describes the actions as a judicial process, wherein "the penitent is at once the accuser, the person accused, and the witness, while the priest pronounces judgment and sentence."

An Act of Contrition

O My God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, Who art all-good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life. Amen.

May our communities go through this 40-day preparation with gladness and enthusiastic hope that we may meaningfully unite ourselves with Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, in his journey to His passion, death and Resurrection.

In Christ's name,

Deacon Bob Rosales
Spiritual Adviser

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