Where I Belong...

To be in Community – Proof of Our Love to God

          We often tell God and other people that we love Him. Yet the Lord is very clear when He said that “Whoever confesses that he loves God yet hates his brother is a liar.” Hence, our love for God should overflow by loving our neighbors. This will be much easier to express when we are in community. He is calling us to prove our love for Him by loving those in the community in spite of many differences. In being a community, we are further called on to serve since this is a fruit of genuine love. Service means working out of perfect love without expecting any affirmation, consolation nor payment in return. It is voluntary and not an obligation. It is not considered a responsibility nor a burden but a blessing and an opportunity for grace to come in. Our community is suppose to increase our love for God even more as it is a special calling to be together in union with Christ. Hence, it is also important that we always come together and pray so that we can become light to those are still in the dark.  J

          Praise God for the gift of communities.  

FILLING IN THE NEED – A Higher Calling

         By declaring and claiming the identity of being a Breviarian means acquiring the duty of being soldiers of Christ.  As a Brev, we are responding to a higher calling of filling in the needs of our dear Mother Church.  This higher calling has a special vow attached to it – availability (thanks bro.A!).  It does not mean however that you are always physically present, but that availability to go the extra mile in answering to a particular call in the most creative way possible you can think of or inspired to do.  It may sound difficult, but saying "Yes" to God gives you a special anointing to carry out a task He requires of us.  We could make many excuses of turning our backs to a  call, but when God chooses you, that means there is no other person who can do the way you are capable of doing.  Question is:  Can He count on you?

     "Filling in the Need" may have become a cliché in our community but let us be reminded that this is one of the primary reasons why we existed and are still existing.  God continues to call us because the work He has for us is not done yet.  Rest is in heaven.  God has given us this special grace to recognize a unique path to sainthood – making each moment of our lives a DIVINE APPOINTMENT...a priority above all as we have to PUT HIM FIRST in everything.  [M.O.B.] – Make good Or make room But don't make excuses!

                When we took the name Brevs, it did not only mean we are to be active Catholics.  It called us to be REAL sons and daughters of the Father.  And if we have the faith that the Holy Spirit moves in our lives, then we are expected to do more than the ordinary...because we can....because He chose us.

                Maybe we do have our own wills and personal plans, but God gives us more than we can understand.  So when God calls, are we willing to obey and make His plans our own?  Can we say, "READY" like Abraham?  Can we leave our nets IMMEDIATELY like Peter?  Are we willing to follow Him in any road and to obey at any cost?  Or are we like those who were willing to follow but had to take care of some matters before being ready?  Because He was not part of our current schedule?  What is our priority? Let us be reminded that in the end, our relationship with God matters most. 

                We are indeed challenged to prove our love to God.  Is He still number one in our lives?  With all the things we do in our lives, at the end of the day, can we say we were working according to His holy will?  Or were we just relying on our own understanding and putting all human efforts to do something successfully, leaving no space for Him to work with us? Let us not forget that He is our partner; not merely a Master.  The balance in our lives can only happen if we have Him outweigh every aspect of our lives.

                The task is most of the time toilsome, yet it is full of His loving surprises.  There is no specific perfect time when to respond to God's call of love as each moment of our lives is GOD'S APPOINTED TIME.  We may feel unworthy, we may feel small, we may think we may be emotionally compromised...we may make the biggest mistakes  or even become everyone's heartaches...but never fail to trust in His mercy for He will see us through because He alone knows what each of us can do. 

                We have our motto:  Nothing but the Best for God!  Oh yes, in everything we have to prepare ourselves like real soldiers and just wait until the Lord has in need of us. That's the way DAVID prepared himself.  He was young and was just a shepherd boy, but he was anointed and had great faith in God.  When the battle was set before him, he recognized the call and responded bravely and immediately because he knew that God was on his side and while he took pleasure on His blessings, he wanted to prove God that He could also count on him.  The victory was not that he defeated Goliath.  It was more of being there when THE appointed time came for him for God's glory to manifest.

                So you see, we don't wait until the storm has passed or if we are ready, healed or perfect or "pag may time," before we start serving or loving God.  We don't wait for the others to change or to go first before we respond.  Again, it is between you and God.  Our READY YES is more than enough for His grace to overflow and use us in His own unique way.  He meets us where we are.  And for those of us who think that we have given our best and have responded to a call in the past, be reminded that while we carry the name BREVIARIANS, the call of making a difference in this world to make manifest the glory of God never ends as long as we can breathe. 
              

                You are called...you are anointed...you are chosen.  Once a Brev always a Brev.

              

                HAPPY EASTER!  Brev It On!

                               

                               

               

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He Loved Me First

                Have you tried putting on leg weights?  I suppose these are often used by athletes and body builders.  There are times that I use them too!  I’m not the body conscious type but Oh Yes!  I got to use leg weights on many occasions like services.  Unlike the common ones, mine is magical.   They are invisible and are territorial.  They are as heavy as gold that the pain of carrying them runs up to my chest.  They target not my legs but the muscles of the heart.  They usually appear when I’m off to serve or when there i a Brev activity and I just don’t feel like going.

         I believe all of us undergo this stage especially after our honeymoon stage in serving the Lord.  When I was told that following the Lord is not just a bed of roses but a road full of crosses, I did not believe it.  My mind could not actually comprehend how a person would give up such an elating experience of discovering God and learning to love Him.  I thought to myself, even if such a depressing time would come, I would never give up serving.  I was happy and that gave me a reason to commit myself in serving my fellow youth.  I wanted the young to discover what I did.  I wanted them to feel what I felt and that it was worth sacrificing a lot to live in a world where Christ was the center.  I was so idealistic and radical.

                There were indeed ups and downs and the temptation of quitting.  However, I would always recall how happy it was to love the Lord.  Also, ate Ruth Garcia’s (a member of my former community) words would always echo on my mind telling me that whenever there were such temptations, it only meant that Jesus has a surprise for me and something wonderful would happen so the enemy would keep me from coming.  My heart then became tougher.

                Years passed and whenever those magical weights would burden me, the commitment I had to love and serve the Lord as well as those thoughts would help me release from their grip.  But there came a time when the clutches of those magical weights were so tight and heavy that all the positive thoughts seemed to have no effect anymore.  I simply got tired and wanted to give up.

                During my prayer time, I would cry out and ask the Lord, “Why do I feel this way?  Where are the zeal and that burning desire to serve  You?”  That moment, I questioned my “emotional why.”

                “Emotional why.”  I borrowed this term from some renowned speakers.  It means your deep reason, your hunger, your drive – it is that powerful force inside that makes you move with passion.  In every dream that we have, we must never  lose that “emotional why” or the purpose why we are trying to achieve it.  Otherwise, it will be very easy to forget and not work on the dream.

                So there I was, begging the Lord to let me rediscover my “emotional why.”  “Why am I still here?  My closest friends are no longer around in the community...yet why do I have to stay?  I am so broken, rejected, misjudged and persecuted...should I still care?  It would be easier for me to quit, forget everything, think of new dreams, and move on.  But why do I keep on coming back?  You know that I love You, I just want to love You the way I loved You before.”

                As I pondered, like a gentle breeze, the answer came, “Is it all because you love Me?”  Then I realized, as I looked back on the first moment I committed myself in serving the Lord, that the reason why I learned to love God was primarily because HE LOVED ME FIRST.  My “emotional why’s” emanated from Him loving me first.   “My dear Child, I love you just as you are,” came the Words. 

                The great love that He has for me is the reason why I can’t let go.  It was not merely because I love Him but because I wanted to be loved back to the fullest.  The God of love can only fill up our tanks more than enough to keep us going in life.  His love is just too great that it draws me back to Him even if I fall most of the time.  I cannot deny myself of the love of God because I need Him and I know that He loves me unconditionally.  He doesn’t need my love because He is already full of it.  In fact, it is so overflowing that He cannot but give it to us.  It is His joy to love us even if we do not put too much effort in loving Him. 

                I realized every service that we render is all grace.  It is His way of giving us the opportunity not to burden us to prove our love for Him but rather, every service is an occasion for us to celebrate His love for us.  In celebrating, He calls us to give out our best so we can be happy.  He allows us to use our gifts to the fullest as His affirmation that we were created with so much goodness and at the same time share these to others while we serve them.  When we express our love for Him in return, He considers it His bonus – consoling His suffering heart for loving us unconditionally.  When He sees us loving others the way He did, He is more than pleased.

                Now, I have rediscovered why I am here sharing how the Lord is working in my life through the talents He has given me—He loved me first in spite of my sinfulness and unworthiness.  And as I express back my love for Him in my little ways, I am hoping that He be consoled and have mercy on my soul. 

               

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