|
IN
THIS ISSUE:
Cover
Page
From
the Head Servant
by Bro.
Pete Lapid
The
Father Speaks
By Fr.
Binzler, SJ
Our
Faith
By Fr.
KJ Veeger, MSC
Place
of Refuge
By
Philip Yuson
Surabaya
Corner
By
Ramon Martillano
Sharing
By Rita
Gomez
Here's
the Latest
By
Pinky Torres
Sharing
By Bro.
Alvin Barcelona
Sharing
By Joji ESCUBAN
By
Armand Sol
Saint
for the Month
|
-
- Catholic
Links
|
|
 - PROFILE
OF THE
- GENESIS
CATHOLIC COMMUNITY
|
|
- FROM
THE HEAD SERVANT
-
 
-
-
- This
Lenten season, I made a special prayer to God. And this was the first
time I made this prayer. I prayed that this Lent will be special; that
my experience will be different from those in past years. Glory be to
Him! He heard and answered my prayer.
-
- It
happened on Maundy Thursday. Because for the very first time in my
entire life, I was able to attend a Chrism Mass. It was held that
Thursday morning at the Jakarta Cathedral concelebrated by His
Eminence Julius Cardinal Darmaatmadja and His Excellency Monsignor
Renzo Fratini, Papal Nuncio, together with three other bishops. It is
difficult to describe the joy of the whole experience. It is simply
AWESOME!!!
-
- The
Holy Mass began with all the priests marching from the main door of
the Cathedral to the altar. And as I was looking at them, it suddenly
dawned on me that all these people, walking past by me – over 150 of
them - are all “holy men of
God”! These are the servants of the Lord. God’s chosen ones.
-
- As
I looked, I began to recognize some of them. Soon I began to see their
appearances. Humanly speaking, some of them looked very holy while
others do not even look like priests. (I wonder how priests should
look like!) Again, suddenly it dawned on me. This is the beauty of the
Lord. He calls all of us not using “human standards”. (For if He
did, I would be the last person on earth He would choose to serve
Genesis.) How true indeed are His words in Isaiah 55:8. “My thoughts
are not your thoughts, My ways are not your ways, says the Lord”.
Simply put, these are the men whom God has called and who responded to
His call. These are the men who gave up their lives in order to serve
Him through His Church.
-
- And
when they reached the altar, it became even more beautiful. The altar
was filled with all these holy men in white robes, gathered around the
altar of God. Simply awesome! I remembered the vision described by
John in Revelation (Chapters 4-5). The twenty four elders dressed in
white robes, the multitude of angels gathered around the throne and
the thousands upon thousands of elders crying out with a loud voice
their praises to God.
-
- Then
came the part when they publicly renewed their commitment to priestly
service. After this, the Bishop invited the people to pray for the
priests. What unity! The shepherds and the elders of the flock
together with the entire sheep, praying, presenting and uniting
themselves with the One True Eternal Shepherd. Especially when all the
people and all the priests present glorified God together in one loud
thunderous voice crying out “Holy, holy, holy Lord…...” Truly,
one heart, one mind, one spirit in Christ Jesus.
-
- I
praise and thank the Lord for this beautiful experience that will
forever be my heart. Still,
this experience is not without lessons learned. First, we need to pray
for all our priests, including our Pope and bishops. For they too are
human like us, sometimes also weak. They need our spiritual support.
Second, we need to be faithful to our calling as Christians, as
followers of Christ, so that we can become part of that beautiful
vision of John in the book of Revelation.
-
- A
Blessed Easter to you and your families!
|
