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4 Living Water - January 16, 2015
PLEASE WEAR YOUR BLD ID EVERY FRIDAY
A N N O U N C E M E N T S
START OF THE YEAR RETREAT
“Ascent to the Pure Love of God” by Fr.
Charles Anang, St. Augustine Seminary
Saturday, January 17, 2015
OLA Basement Hall
From the Life in the Spirit Ministry
LSS No. 31 is scheduled on April 11 – 12. Invited participants are: Graduates of ME#37
and Previous graduates of ME, SPE and SE who have not yet taken the LSS. Non-
encountered Singles, Solo Parents and Couples are also welcome to join the LSS.
For previous encounter graduates and non-encountered candidates, orientations are sched-
uled on Fridays, January 16, 23 and 30 after the Praise and Worships, and on February
6 after the mass. Please note all orientations are held at the Mark 10 room.
Salubong will be on Friday, February 13, 2015. Registration Forms are available through
any member of the Life in the Spirit Ministry. For more information, please contact the
LSS#31 Coordinators or any member of the Life in the Spirit Ministry.
YOUTH MINISTRY KORNER
Registration is on-going for the 2015 YLSS #
16 on January 16, 23, 30 and Feb. 6, 2015. Non
-BLD youth are welcome to attend YLSS # 16.
Please visit the Youth Ministry desk in the
basement hall for registration or e-mail
Froilan and Charito Piamonte at
[email protected] for more information.
Welcome/Salubong will be held on
Friday, February 13, 2015
JANUARY 2015 LECTORS
January 16
1st reading.........Ling and Bing Brinas
Psalm..................Edmar Aquino
2nd reading........Willie and Vivian Saguil
January 23
1st reading..........Bert and Cecile Cruz
Psalm...................Marife Capistrano
2nd reading........Gusty and Annie Andino
January 30
1st reading..........Charlie and Jo Gonzales
Psalm...................Linda Canaria
2nd reading........Espei Cosme
Living Water - January 16, 2015
January 16, 2015
BUKÁS-LOÓB SA DIYÓS • OPEN IN SPIRIT TO GOD
www.bldworld.org www.bldtoronto.com
THEME
We are guided by the Star in our journey of
faith when we follow and remain with Jesus.
WORD
1 Sam 3:3 -10, 19; Ps 40:2, 4, 7-8, 8-9, 10;
1 Cor 6:13-15, 17-20; Jn 1:35-42
ORDER
“Glorify God in your body.” (1Cor 6:20)
“Come and see.” (Jn 1:39)
DIRECTION
Come and see the Lord through our Disci-
pleship Formation program through teach-
ing and service in ministry.
Take care of your body physically and spiri-
tually.
REFLECTION
This week’s Readings remind us of the differ-
ent phases we go through as we journey with
our Lord and with our community towards
our Discipleship.
The First Reading relates to how the Lord calls
His Disciples, His chosen ones, those He hand-
picked to continue His mission and work here
on earth.
Here we found Samuel going to Eli a few
times: “Here I am for you called me.” Finally,
the realization of what is happening dawned
on Eli and he instructed Samuel – that when
the call comes again, to say: “Speak, for your
servant is listening. “
This is our story before we joined the BLD/
OSG. We heard so many calls from the Lord
but then, it just got drowned with the noise
around us. Sometimes, we miss God’s call,
even if He is talking to us directly. By the
grace of God, we finally heeded the call
Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
www.bldworld.org www.bldtoronto.com
mailto:[email protected]
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2 Living Water - January 16, 2015
through our Encounter Programs, ME, SE, YE,
SE, SPE and LSS.
Interestingly, just like us, Samuel was called by
the Lord, and was perceived to be not suitable
for the task ahead. It is truly amazing how God
calls the most unlikely people to do His job.
They do not seem to fit the image and the quali-
fications at first.
With the calling comes the abiding, “Here I am
Lord, I come to do your will. “ Similarly, with
our story, once we recognized that the call is
really for us, we started attending our Praise
and Worship, and got involved doing Ministry
work and helping build communities.
From the calling, we went on with the offering
of self, as Psalm 40 tells us: “I waited patiently
for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my
cry. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of
praise to our God. “ The exhortation from the
Lord followed, which is in the Second Reading,
where we are admonished to keep ourselves
holy and acceptable to His sight.
”Do you not know that your body is a temple of
the Holy Spirit within you, which you have
from God, and that you are not your own? We
are exhorted to keep ourselves holy and accept-
able to His sight. For you were bought for a
price: therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Cor
6:19-20).
As we go deeper with our commitment and we
finally realize the value and joy of serving the
Lord not only in our community, but, in the
greater church, there is a need for us to be Christ
like, testifying to the holiness and purity of our
Lord. For if we want to serve God, we have to
emulate Him. We are being exhorted, that our
body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and that
we are not our own, we are bought for a price,
therefore we should glorify God in our body.
Finally, the Gospel of John confirms the expec-
tation from us as Disciples of the Lord: That
of being a pointer for Jesus. Here we are being
invited to testify to everyone to “Come and
see.”
John the Baptist, standing by the road with two
of his Disciples, watching Jesus walk by, ex-
claimed: “Look here is the Lamb of God.”
Hearing John’s word, the disciples followed
Jesus.
Realizing the two men were following Him,
Jesus asked, “What are you looking for?” In-
stead of answering the question, the Disciples
asked, “Where are you staying? “ For which
Jesus answered, “Come and see”. And finally,
the confirmation from the Disciples: “We have
found the Messiah.”
The above Readings, especially the Gospel,
convey the story of every Christian follower of
Jesus, most especially members of BLD/ OSG.
It tells us that the essence and true meaning of
being a Disciple of Jesus is to take our main
responsibility, that of being a Pointer for Jesus,
testifying in our life that, “we have found the
Messiah.”
Who is Jesus to you? What are you looking
for? Where are you staying?
All of these questions found in the Gospel are
answered by belonging and staying with the
BLD Covenant Community.
Who is Jesus to you? He is the Lord of our life,
our friend, and our saviour.
What are you looking for? We found Jesus
enthroned in our hearts, and we found Him in
Living Water - January 16, 2015
the BLD/OSG community. Ours is a community
of disciples who are “Pointers” for Jesus. As
Disciples of Jesus, we need to stay focused, mak-
ing sure that our hearts rest on Jesus alone.
Where are you staying? Jesus in not only in the
tabernacle of the Church, but He is everywhere.
Jesus rests in our heart; we are the temples of the
Holy Spirit – pointers towards Jesus, workers of
His vineyard. For we have found the Messiah,
through our community and its formation and
evangelization programs.
“We have found the Messiah!” - when we dis-
cover something valuable, important and excit-
ing, we find a need to share it with everyone.
The joy of sharing Jesus is something inherent in
all of us. This is what Shepherds feel and cher-
ish. This is why we evangelize and spread the
good News.
That is why we go out as a community, we build
Prayer Groups and DIPs, we evangelize, and we
give LSS and encounter programs.
How do we repay those who helped build us up
as a Disciple of the Lord? By doing what they
did to us and by giving what they gave us.
Examples of these are serving as Shepherds dur-
ing LSS; Continually forming ourselves spiritu-
ally by attending teachings and Praise and Wor-
ship; Sharing the Word of God during our LWG;
Praising the Lord through our voice and gift of
music; Praying for everyone during Intercessory
Sessions; and, offering of service to the commu-
nity. All of us have a deep longing to feel closer
to Jesus, and to be given this opportunity is a
gift in itself.
We should all be like St. John the Baptist, full of
humility, staying in the sideline, pointing to Je-
sus as the light and the source of light. We are
not the light, our Lord Jesus is the light of the
world, and our calling besides pointing to Jesus
is to reflect the light of God into our life. Praise
the Lord.
PROMISE
"But anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit
with him.” (1 Cor 6:17)
Baptism of the Lord “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well
pleased.” (Matthew 3:17)
Because Jesus humbled himself so completely, his
Father proclaimed how delighted he was in him
(Mark1:11). At his baptism, Jesus became the source
of the Spirit for all who would believe in him. The
heavens were opened, the Spirit fell, and a new crea-
tion was inaugurated.
If we want to experience the power and grace of this
new creation in our lives, we must follow Jesus’ ex-
ample. St. Gregory of Nazianzus, a fourth-century
church Father, gives us this advice: “Let us be buried
with Christ by baptism, in order to rise with him. Let
us go down with him in order to be raised with him.
Let us rise with him in order to be glorified with
him.” If we want to experience the transformation
Gregory wrote about, we need to ask the Holy Spirit
to forge the same humility in our hearts that Jesus
showed at his baptism.
Jesus is ever ready to renew us in his Spirit and to
anoint us for our mission. He wants to make us
“light” and “salt” to those around us (Matthew 5:13,
14). He wants his love and truth to shine through us
so that others will be touched by his goodness. Ask
the Lord to fill you with his Holy Spirit so that you
may radiate the joy of the gospel to those around
you. As you do, heaven will open for you as well.
Source: A Year of Celebration: Experiencing God through the Feast Days
of the Church by Patricia Mitchell (The Word Among Us Press, 2001..