Hello friends, long time no see.

I have some notes/quotes from Daniel Cardinal DiNardo on July 9, 2012 (Cafe Catholica).

Salvation is the marriage of God and human beings. 


If you can learn to love scripture, you can be confronted.

If you think no one cares, know that the archbishop cares.

3 Challenges of the Church

1. -(Grave Issue) Great falling away of those practicing their faith.
2. - Those in the clergy who are not enthused of the faith and we do not have enough religious.
3. - Hostility towards the Catholic faith.

How will we recover from the consequences of Vatican 2?
- Increased reverence for the Eucharist as the anticipation of the final kingdom.

Advice for sons and daughters who are active in the Church, but their parents are not.

1. - Pray for the parents every day. Never stop praying, Jesus can always rise up at the last minute.
2. - Carefully place a pamphlet of apologetics where they can see it.
3. - Always be forthcoming of your own faith.

On Prayer.

"Rejoice Always. Pray without ceasing." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-17

Praying in so special that it is our tweet, facebook message, text/call, e-mail, snail mail to our Heavenly Father. As much as we keep touch with our friends on the social networks, God gives us the opportunity to talk to him by praying to him. However, with all these technological ways to contact our friends, we somewhat expect them to respond immediately, or we think that we are being ignored, rejected. When we call on God, it is only on His time that He will respond to us.

Let's go back to the basics.

"Pray" comes from the Latin word "Precari", meaning "to beg".
"Begging" comes from the Latin word "mendicans", (mendicant) - those who rely on charitable donations to survive.

When we pray, we beg for God's mercy, forgiveness and favor on whatever we place at the foot of his cross. At the same time, we CANNOT CHOOSE what we want on our plate. When unfortunate events happen to us, it does not mean that our Lord and Savior allowed it to happen to spite us and make our lives miserable. He knows that it enables us to grow stronger in Him when we are at our lowest, if we let it.

I'm guilty of this too, but I hear people all the time praying for God to DO this or DO that for them. The real question is what are WE doing for the One who created us?

Where is our Faith?

I don't have to be devoted to God to love God.-Anonymous

Today, the gospel was Matthew 13:44-52. Jesus talks about how clear cut the good and the bad are. How our hearts should be yearning for that goodness, so much so that we would give up all our possessions and obsessions to obtain the true treasure. The "good fish" and the "bad fish", the "wheat" and the "weeds". HOW CLEAR CUT IS OUR GOD? He does NOT say, "And the O.K. fish are throw in their own special bucket for the choosing." NO! My brothers and sisters, His judgement is clear. We cannot just live to be O.K., we cannot live through life as just a "good person". God gave us free will to be EXTRAORDINARY. To live out our faith TILL IT HURTS (Mother Theresa).

I have been given the crazy stare down many times. I have been asked Why do you go to church a lot, is something wrong? Yes, my friend, something is wrong. The church is not filled EVERY DAY. We don't praise God EVERY DAY, just only on the special holidays (Easter, Christmas..etc.). CHRIST is just waiting for us to visit him to say hello and we are too busy to care. I would be seriously offended if someone called me their best friend and just visits me on my birthday or when they only need help. Imagine all those heartbreaks that we have faced; I'm sure Christ's heart aches every minute... every second.

But you know is crazy wonderful? That our GOD still loves us even though we're messed up, in the dumps, and have nothing to offer. He loves us when no one else does. He loves us when we think we've been the bad fish all our lives and you think there is no hope. He gives us hope when the world hates us.

Can we love our family and not be devoted to them? Can we love our spouse and not be devoted to him or her? Dictionary.com says that devotion is profound dedication; consecration.
Lastly, can we love our Lord Jesus Christ and not be devoted to Him?

May our roots be planted in the good soil.

#rant #allforGod

The Journey Begins, Again.

Teach me, Lord, your way that I may walk in your truth, single-hearted and revering your name.

Psalm 86:11

This verse strikes a different chord in my heart, once that brings me closer to my calling. Oh, how the Lord has humbled me in so many ways. Reading that verse is SO MUCH EASIER than LIVING the verse. Simply asking, "God, I will drop everything in my life for you, so that Your will may be done" entails a higher level of trust and faith. I am not very sure where I am... in all of that.

I admit, I tend to act on impulse. I make decisions right away, and I slowly but surely convince myself that I have made the right decision. Sometimes, my emotions and feelings would be manifested by listening to my heart instead of logic. In turn, I breakdown and cry over it...never turning to God for his leadership.

The main idea that I have been struggling with is my vocation. What does my God want me to be? And frankly, how does that fit into my "ideal" life? Why am I here on this Earth? Day after day, as I read into Rediscovering Catholicism by Matthew Kelly, I contemplated on the people I want to imitate. I want to be closer with God; with my whole body and soul immersed in His undying love. I want to be a sponge saturated with His Love and that every action of mine is only to glorify Him. I want to imitate the Saints.

Every Saint has a past, Every sinner has a future.
Please pray for me :)

Distraction.

As I sit here brainstorming for my Patho paper, I thought of blogging.

"And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in the truth"

- Jesus (John 17:19)

"Consider how he endured such opposition from sinners, in order that you may not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.

(Hebrews 12:3-4)

God had put many trials before me, and I have failed them all. Entrusting Him with my whole life and my whole being is not as simple as the Christian happy-go-lucky movies portray. It is a real battle that must be faced each and every day with the armor of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is up to us to wear his armor, or to go naked.

I, myself, have been going naked for quite some time without realizing it. I have depended on my brothers and sisters in Christ to lead me, when it is actually a vertical relationship between God and myself. It only makes sense, because in the end, it will be just God and myself. I cannot be attached to anything of this world, for it is only temporary. Father God, have mercy on me.

A priest during confession corrected me on a point: There is a difference between struggling with sin and surrendering to sin. Struggling is using everything in your power, as well as the weapons of God (i.e. Bible, Rosary, increased prayer life) to fight and take charge to resist sin and Satan. Surrendering is letting the sin control your life, to devour you, and you fail to move against it because you are tempted. God fights for our attention each and every day, He loves us so dearly and would do anything to have us back in His arms.

Protect your hearts, protect your spirit and open your hearts to Him.

SB

Thought of the Day

These past few weeks have been pretty hectic. School here, family there, homework here, friends there, et cetera. In the midst of it all, I seem to always encounter this problem; Where shall one draw the line in friendship? When I mean "draw the line" I meant the line between being brothers and sisters (for girls and guys respectively) to taking the next level.

In this modern society that we live in, we tend to be surrounded by the product of the media. The media brainwashes children and even older adults to believing that it is impossible to keep a platonic relationship with the opposite sex.

That bothers me. This is where my rant starts.

Where has all the chivalry gone? What happened to being friends first, and trusting that God will send you the right soul mate?

Brothers, stop chasing after us like we stole your wallet. We sisters do not like to be chased around, nor do we appreciate you touching/talking to us inappropriately. I understand that this is not all the brothers, but you guys seriously need to start learning from each other. How can we ever view you as a brother when you cannot respect us as a sister?

Sisters, guard you heart. There are so many guys out there that all look like a nice piece of candy. But some of them will make your tummy and your heart feel ill. Be patient with God and trust Him first. Always strive for purity! You are your own billboard- you attract men by the way you dress, the way you talk, and present yourself. Empty yourself and let God in so that he can fill you with the love that we long for. :)

So how can we keep our relationships with our brothers and sisters pure and friendly? We should all love one another, just as Christ loved us. We should all respect each others personal space, privacy and friendship. We must keep our mind focus on the ONE who created you both, and He will direct your relationship in the right direction.

Fin.
Sarahboo.

A Speaker, Speaks.

Evangelism.

Since Cafe Catholica- no, scratch that.. since I have admitted and practiced my faith this year, I started to see and feel so many opportunities to evangelize.

Ooh! The word that not very many Catholics are quick to do. For 20 years of my life, I have always hidden behind the door, because of my little faith. Marcel LeJeune in Cafe Catholica Houston 2010 told us that as Catholics, we were CONFIRMED and ANOINTED not to be just "labeled" Catholics, but to be a light to others through evangelism.

I don't know what you are thinking, but the idea of evangelism has such a negative connotation these days. I was just talking to two great friends of mine, and they just hate it whenever people come up to them and ask them if they are saved or that they will be going to hell because they are straight up Buddhist. I constantly get ridiculed because they assume that I will do the same thing to them because of my faith. I do not blame them! Did Christ go up to his disciples and told them that they will go to Hell? Or did He lead by example and showed love and compassion to everyone he encountered? Mohammed did make a point (don't quote me):

"I like your Christ, I don't like your Christians."

How can we bring people into the Church if we scare them away? You cannot force anyone out of their free will, so lead by example and love with all your heart, your mind and your soul to our Lord Jesus Christ. "It is not your job to "lead" (them), but to get out of the way (LeJeune)".

I will leave you with a special quote by my lovely sister, Janie:
"Sometimes we are only meant to plant the seed."

Praise be to our Lord Jesus Christ.