Week three: You are CHOSEN
Week three: You are CHOSEN
I’m currently sitting in a room in the Big House waiting for the oven to preheat, and once it does I will be throwing in a frozen pizza to bake that I’ll be sharing with some other girls living in the house for our dinner. I spent time today writing out a blog post to put on here, but due to bad internet connection what I had written wasn't saved. And I now have to write out something else as upon that blog post being lost I decided it wasn’t really what I wanted to post anyway. (So bear with me in this post, hopefully this all makes sense.)
This week we went over our testimonies in order to witness how Christ has been working in our lives with others, we also started going over various church documents. (Redemptoris Missio, Maximum Illud, Princeps Pastorum, Evangelii Nuntiandi, Apostolicam Actuositatem, and Ad Gentes), and we did treasure hunting ministry where we took time with the Lord in the chapel to find His treasure: someone who needed prayers and going out to find those people and pray with them. Treasure hunting was a wonderful and challenging experience and it was great to pray with people in places like Walmart and Dollar Tree and see the Lord at work within that. (I may at some other point share those stories with you all. )
We will continue to go over more church documents and do treasure hunting ministry over the next few weeks. We will also have other talks to listen to. This week the talks we had were on these topics: ‘Living the Charisms (of FMC)’, (Our charisms are: Prayer, God’s Word, Sacraments, Community, Service, Catholic, Evangelistic, Obedience, Embracing Gospel Poverty, Spirit Led and Open to the Charisms, Family, and Sacrificial. ) and ‘The Call to Holiness’. We also started going through Acts in the bible, and commenting on what stands out to us. We also had many opportunities for service (we spent time on Thursday volunteering at a place called Christian Service Center) and also time of socializing (We had a pizza/ game party on Thursday night and on Saturday night all the FMC singles who could come celebrated the Lord's Day together with a wonderful potluck dinner)
So yeah, this week has been jam packed with a lot of wonderful things where we’re growing and going in many many ways. I would love to go into more detail than what I've already said but it would take me awhile to type out all of the experiences that happened this week. But within all that happened this week, the things I felt the Lord drawing me to reflect on most this week were these points:
1. Humility
2. Come with what you have, you are called, you are CHOSEN.
Humility:
"To be little is not attributing to oneself the virtues that one practices, believing oneself capable of anything, but to recognize that God places this treasure in the hands of His little child to be used when necessary: but it remains always God's treasure." -St. Therese of Lisieux.
Everything that we've been going over in our studies, and doing this week have all led me back to humility. Humility is very necessary in our journey with the Lord, if we are going to be able to do all that He's calling us to do we need to be willing to let go of our pride and allow Him to move in our lives. I love that quote from St. Therese, which I reflected on this week, as it reminds us that God gives us all that we need in order to do what He's calling us to do and it always remains His and is in His hands-- and He places it in our hands when it is necessary for us to use it-- but it always remains His.
I definitely felt challenged this week to continue to grow in humility, and when you pray to grow in humility the Lord gives you opportunities to grow in humility. It can be easy, when you’re involved in ministry, to see all that you’ve done and point to yourself rather than acknowledging that you were only able to do what you did with God’s help. It’s freeing to be able to surrender to the Lord everything and come to Him admitting that of yourself you can’t do anything and that you need His grace and guidance in order to do what He’s calling you to.
2. Come with what you have, you are called, you are CHOSEN.
This week there were challenging moments, and moments where I questioned, “Am I even going to be able to do this? Can I do this?” And when I looked on the difficulties that came to my mind, it was easy to give into the fears that came up. But one morning, during prayer we had Mr. Frank Summers join us (one of the founders of FMC) and at one point he was going over different things with us and he turned to me and pointed at me and said, “He has called YOU. He has chosen YOU.” And it was beautiful to reflect on that and remember that within this journey the Lord knows where I am at, He knows the skills that I have and every single thing about me and He has chosen me and called me to this. And that whatever comes my way I can always turn to Him and He will help me and guide me with whatever happens. I simply have to come with what I have, surrender it into His hands, and in humility allow Him to lead me wherever He wants me to go.
Going forward: This week the thing I want to strive to do is to remain present where I am, it can be so easy to focus on where I was before, or where I might be in the future. But I want to be present where the Lord has me right here, right now. I want to, as St. Gianna Molla said, “Live holy the present moment.” For in the present moment is where we can encounter the Lord and do whatever He’s calling us to do in that moment.
I’m currently sitting in a room in the Big House waiting for the oven to preheat, and once it does I will be throwing in a frozen pizza to bake that I’ll be sharing with some other girls living in the house for our dinner. I spent time today writing out a blog post to put on here, but due to bad internet connection what I had written wasn't saved. And I now have to write out something else as upon that blog post being lost I decided it wasn’t really what I wanted to post anyway. (So bear with me in this post, hopefully this all makes sense.)
This week we went over our testimonies in order to witness how Christ has been working in our lives with others, we also started going over various church documents. (Redemptoris Missio, Maximum Illud, Princeps Pastorum, Evangelii Nuntiandi, Apostolicam Actuositatem, and Ad Gentes), and we did treasure hunting ministry where we took time with the Lord in the chapel to find His treasure: someone who needed prayers and going out to find those people and pray with them. Treasure hunting was a wonderful and challenging experience and it was great to pray with people in places like Walmart and Dollar Tree and see the Lord at work within that. (I may at some other point share those stories with you all. )
We will continue to go over more church documents and do treasure hunting ministry over the next few weeks. We will also have other talks to listen to. This week the talks we had were on these topics: ‘Living the Charisms (of FMC)’, (Our charisms are: Prayer, God’s Word, Sacraments, Community, Service, Catholic, Evangelistic, Obedience, Embracing Gospel Poverty, Spirit Led and Open to the Charisms, Family, and Sacrificial. ) and ‘The Call to Holiness’. We also started going through Acts in the bible, and commenting on what stands out to us. We also had many opportunities for service (we spent time on Thursday volunteering at a place called Christian Service Center) and also time of socializing (We had a pizza/ game party on Thursday night and on Saturday night all the FMC singles who could come celebrated the Lord's Day together with a wonderful potluck dinner)
So yeah, this week has been jam packed with a lot of wonderful things where we’re growing and going in many many ways. I would love to go into more detail than what I've already said but it would take me awhile to type out all of the experiences that happened this week. But within all that happened this week, the things I felt the Lord drawing me to reflect on most this week were these points:
1. Humility
2. Come with what you have, you are called, you are CHOSEN.
Humility:
Everything that we've been going over in our studies, and doing this week have all led me back to humility. Humility is very necessary in our journey with the Lord, if we are going to be able to do all that He's calling us to do we need to be willing to let go of our pride and allow Him to move in our lives. I love that quote from St. Therese, which I reflected on this week, as it reminds us that God gives us all that we need in order to do what He's calling us to do and it always remains His and is in His hands-- and He places it in our hands when it is necessary for us to use it-- but it always remains His.
I definitely felt challenged this week to continue to grow in humility, and when you pray to grow in humility the Lord gives you opportunities to grow in humility. It can be easy, when you’re involved in ministry, to see all that you’ve done and point to yourself rather than acknowledging that you were only able to do what you did with God’s help. It’s freeing to be able to surrender to the Lord everything and come to Him admitting that of yourself you can’t do anything and that you need His grace and guidance in order to do what He’s calling you to.
2. Come with what you have, you are called, you are CHOSEN.
This week there were challenging moments, and moments where I questioned, “Am I even going to be able to do this? Can I do this?” And when I looked on the difficulties that came to my mind, it was easy to give into the fears that came up. But one morning, during prayer we had Mr. Frank Summers join us (one of the founders of FMC) and at one point he was going over different things with us and he turned to me and pointed at me and said, “He has called YOU. He has chosen YOU.” And it was beautiful to reflect on that and remember that within this journey the Lord knows where I am at, He knows the skills that I have and every single thing about me and He has chosen me and called me to this. And that whatever comes my way I can always turn to Him and He will help me and guide me with whatever happens. I simply have to come with what I have, surrender it into His hands, and in humility allow Him to lead me wherever He wants me to go.
Going forward: This week the thing I want to strive to do is to remain present where I am, it can be so easy to focus on where I was before, or where I might be in the future. But I want to be present where the Lord has me right here, right now. I want to, as St. Gianna Molla said, “Live holy the present moment.” For in the present moment is where we can encounter the Lord and do whatever He’s calling us to do in that moment.
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