Service

    

Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

20 October 2024

 

First Reading: Is 53:10-11

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 33:4-5, 18-19, 20, 22

Second Reading: Heb 4:14-16

Gospel: Mk 10:35-45 or 10:42-45

 

Reflection

By: Fely C. Santiago

 

"For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve."

Jesus is truly our role model of service and He exemplified selflessness by consistently placing the needs of others before His own. Imagine He is the Son of God but He came to the world to be like us, who understands our humanity. And we see Him serving the poor, going around healing the sick, driving out demons, giving life to the dead, teaching the disciples.

If we want to be great, we really have to serve first. I started serving the Lord in my college days. I was part of the Legion of Mary in our parish and we would go around doing the block rosary from house to house, I would also go to depressed areas as part of our outreach programs. I also became a member of the Ministry of Lectors and Commentators and other ministries in the church. And when I got married, my husband and I continued serving our parish and there was even a time we would serve the 5AM, 6AM, 7AM, and 8AM Sunday Masses! We also became members of the Magis Deo Marriage Encounter Community serving as Shepherds to ME Classes, helping couples as they journey in their spiritual life. And when we had children, we would also bring them to church and eventually my son became an altar boy/sacristan. Thinking about it right now, I couldn't imagine how we were able to do it with our full-time job and raising four children! But truly when you just say YES to the calling of the Lord, He will equip you so you can do your mission.

My other children also started serving at The Feast of the Light of Jesus Community in the Youth and Worship Ministry and led worship singing to the Lord. Today, my youngest daughter and her husband are full time Youth Missionaries. They gave up their careers in the corporate to serve the Lord. My two children who are already married and have migrated to Sydney, Australia continue to serve at The Feast in Sydney.

It's a joy to serve the Lord as an answer to His calling. He loved us so much unconditionally and we want to share that love to others by serving them. And I truly believe that graces and blessings abound when we serve.

Prayer

Dear Jesus, thank You for the opportunities to serve You.

"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." - Joshua 24:15

Speaking in Tongues

Pentecost Sunday

31 May 2020

First reading                                                                         Acts 2:1-11

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.
Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs-in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.”

Second reading                                                       1 Corinthians 12:3-7, 12-13

My friends, I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus be cursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in every one. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body-Jews or Greeks, slaves or free-and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

Gospel                                                                     John 14:15-16; 23-26

Jesus said to his disciples, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever….

Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me. I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.”

Reflection

By Gary Tulabut

A long, long time ago, if you asked me what I knew about speaking in tongues was, the only thing I could tell you was what was mentioned in our First Reading today, when the disciples “’were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues,’ as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.” (Acts 2:4)

It was only more than a decade ago—from the time I joined Light of Jesus (LOJ) Family—that I have learned about what they call “speaking in tongues.”

And you know what my first reaction to this was? Doubt. Skepticism.

Well, aside from what seems to be words that sounded like “Shalom Aleichem; Aleichem Shalom” everything sounded gibberish to me. I even told myself, why would the Spirit let me utter supposedly words of praise that I myself do not understand? Of course that was just me being exposed to speaking in tongues for the first time.

But it did not come to a point of judging. I know it’s one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit that was granted to them which I do not have. Sometimes, I envy them for having that gift (being taken over by the Holy Spirit, isn’t that cool?). But I am quite satisfied not having the same gift. Because I already knew what my gift was.

Fast forward. Today, I use what I know as my gift is to serve in the LOJ ministries; i.e. my visual creativity, as well as my limited but enough knowledge in the use of basic computer programs to make our bulletins and to run the visual effects during our prayer meetings.

I could do other things as well. I write; I give talks once in a while; I can be an impromptu emcee.

But there are two things I did not even think of doing—preaching and worship leading. I remember, during the first years that I attended The Feast, I could not even raise my hand in worship. I usually told my companions in prayer meetings that I only came for the Mass and the talks. I was not comfortable with what charismatic groups do.

And even when I became a regular servant at the Light of Jesus Family in Pampanga, I only served in different capacities related to my known gifts – creatives, computer operations, writing, etc.

But never worship leading nor preaching. 

That was until one Sunday in 2015.

In the absence of our two regular worship leaders and our discipleship head, I was asked to lead the prayers and worship.

This was a big deal to me. You know why? Because I couldn’t even speak prayers with inspiring words. Yes I can give talks. I can do emcee tasks. But nobody is inspired by my prayers. What more become a worship leader???

And so I just started what every worship leader should do first—asking for the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

And the Holy Spirit took over…

And guess what…. I spoke in tongues.

Although the words that came out of my mouth were not the shalom-aleichem-sounding ones but those that could be understood by ordinary people like you and me—phrases of praise like, “Hallelujah!”, “Lord of Lords”, “King of kings”, “We worship You, we adore You, we give You praise”, “We glorify Your name.”

But for me this was already speaking in tongues because these words did not come from me. Because at that very moment I knew I was not worthy. And I knew all the words of praise, worship, and exhortation came out of my mouth because at that very moment I was “filled with the Holy Spirit that I began to speak in different tongues as the Spirit enabled me to proclaim.”


I am now one of the regular worship leaders and co-preachers of The Light of Jesus in Pampanga. Whenever I was not assigned in either task, I was in the technical booth leading the media team. All these are pre-Covid, of course. And whichever task I am assigned for the day, the first thing I do is ask the Holy Spirit to take over and make me worthy.

Prayer

Come Holy Spirit, take over me. Take over my family. Take over our country. Take over our leaders. Amen.

Simply Jessie

First Reading: Exodus 17:8-13

Then came Am'alek and fought with Israel at Reph'idim. And Moses said to Joshua, "Choose for us men, and go out, fight with Am'alek; tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand." So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Am'alek; and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed; and whenever he lowered his hand, Am'alek prevailed. But Moses' hands grew weary; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat upon it, and Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; so his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua mowed down Am'alek and his people with the edge of the sword.

Psalm: Psalm 121:1-8

Second Reading: 2 Timothy 3:14 -- 4:2

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Gospel:Luke 18:1-8

And he told them a parable, to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor regarded man; and there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, `Vindicate me against my adversary.' For a while he refused; but afterward he said to himself, `Though I neither fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will vindicate her, or she will wear me out by her continual coming.'" And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God vindicate his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will vindicate them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

Reflection
by Gharri Tulabut

One friend at a time. This has been my practice in inviting friends to join The Angeles Feast (our prayer meeting). Yes, I often do Facebook invitations and, yes, there were people that joined us because of those invitations but I still like focusing on one person at a time. Well, sometimes up to 3 or even 5. But what I mean is, I always want to make it more personal and invite those that I worked with, whom I have an idea what their issues are all about, and those I really want to help.

Let’s call one of them, Jessica.

I was able to make her attend once last year. That did not happen for a second time because of the many issues she had at work. Often she confides in me. And because I had an idea what her issues are, I wanted to help her. And I think joining the Yuppies Group in our community would really help her with her issues at work on top of the personal advice she gets from me. That is why I was persistent in inviting her.

Every Saturday morning, I would always remind her, either through text message or Facebook.  Every Saturday.

But no, there was no Jessie in our weekly prayer meeting.

One Saturday, I told myself not to invite her this time (to save my 1 peso cellphone load for a while, hehe). No, I am not planning to quit just yet. I will just step back and probably change strategy.

I did not wake up early that Saturday. But upon waking up at noon guess who texted me.

Yup, it was Jessie.

And guess what the text was all about.

She’s asking me what time The Feast was?

She’s attending. Hurray!

And that afternoon we were all very happy in The Feast together with some of Jessie’s (and my former) officemates.

…But without Jessie.

She’s still a no-show.

But I was not mad at her. I did not even confront her to ask why she did not suit up. I still saw her at Mass. And we talked about other things.

I remember what Pope Francis said, “We just have to be a friend and Christ will do the rest.” So this remains my strategy in “disciple-ing”.

One other thing that keeps my communication line open with Jessie busy is my passion with financial investments. Last Tuesday, I received an unexpected text from her. This time she’s telling me that she is now ready to invest in the Mutual Funds I am representing.

Well, I do my regular talks on investments right after The Feast, so I told her, let’s meet at The Feast and discuss afterwards. 

She was not promising but she said she might attend this coming Saturday.

That Saturday is Oct 19. Did she finally attend?

As of this writing, I still don’t know.

But one thing I know, I will keep my persistence in inviting her and in praying that she finally say yes. I am that determined to help her… in her financial life, and of course, in her spiritual life.

And Jessie is just an example of many similar situations I handle.

Prayer

Father God, touch Jessie and the many like her who are still confused, to finally see the beauty of having a community both to receive blessings and to bless others. Grant me always the patience and persistence in inviting and spreading your good news. Amen!