8 Living Water - January 15, 2016888 Living Water - July 22, 2016

It was indeed the day the Lord has made<and what a day it was! The BLD Toronto Annual

Picnic 2016, sponsored and organized by ME Classes 29 & 30, was truly a celebration of com-munity and a glorious welcome to the summer season.

The day opened with a Praise & Worship led by ME 29 Class shepherds Lina and Val Ayroso (currently serving as stewards at BLD St. Catharines), followed by an inspiring welcome by ME 30 class shepherds Pat and Eric Lazaro. To kick off the festivities, Julie Goce got everyone on their feet by leading an energetic and spunky Zumba while DJ Nilo Goce (ME30) set the mood and tone with his uninterrupted upbeat music, keeping everyone in high spirits all throughout the day.

This year’s picnic theme, Palarong Pinoy, focused on health and fitness. Using traditional Pili-

pino street games like the Patintero, Piko, Luksong Tinik and LuksongBaka and the pabitin as plat-forms, the games brought back wonderful childhood memories that drew active and raucous participation from everyone, old and young alike. There were also special presenta-tions from the new ME Class 40, the Mark 10 Ministry, the Youth Ministry and the Solo Parent Ministry, that added more color to the already festive day.

And true to BLD tradition, the food was exquisite and overflowing, topped by 3 mouth-watering lechon (all donated by kind hearts!), a buffet of fruits and a table of refreshing drinks shared by the sponsoring class.

The day was made even more special as the site, Marylake Shrine, designated by the Archdio-cese as one of the 7 Holy Doors, gave everyone the opportunity to pass through its Holy Door and offer prayers of thanksgiving. The activities culminated with a turnover ceremony for next year's sponsors, ME31 (represented by Len Carluen) & ME32 (represented by class shepherds Gie/Beth Santulan), and a closing prayer by Pat and Rose Canlas that capped a day of fun and fellowship<a day the Lord has made for a community that shared love and celebrated the

blessings of another glorious summer. By Ariel Ang ME2930

BLD SUMMER PICNIC ‘PALARONG PINOY’ 2016

From the Life in the Spirit Ministry LSS No.34 is scheduled on September 30 – October 2, 2016

Orientation is scheduled on July 29, 2016 after the Praise and Worship and August 5, 2016 after the mass at the Mark 10 room. Salubong will be on Friday, August 19, 2016.

For registration and more information, please contact LSS #34 Coordinators Ariel/Ethel Ang.

Living Water - July 22, 2016 1

July 22, 2016

BUKÁS-LOÓB SA DIYÓS • OPEN IN SPIRIT TO GOD

www.bldworld.org www.bldtoronto.com

THEME We produce abundant har-vest when we persevere in prayer.

WORD Gen 18:20-32/Ps 138:1-2,2-3,6-7,7-8/Col 2:12-14/Lk 11:1-13

ORDER ‚Ask, and it will be given to

you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.‛ (Luke 11:9) DIRECTION Speak to the Lord in prayer. Give thanks for His steadfast love and

faithfulness.

REFLECTION

The 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time primarily deals with a subject we frequently do: prayer. In the gospel of St Luke chapter 10 v.1, the dis-ciples asked our Lord Jesus, ‚Lord, teach us to

pray.‛

He said to them, ‚When you pray, say: ‘Father,

hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone in-debted to us. And lead us not into temp-tation.‛

This prayer is called the ‚Lord’s Prayer‛

because Jesus himself taught the prayer. Some call this ‚The Disciples Prayer‛ because the dis-

ciples were the ones who requested it. And oth-ers call it ‚The Model Prayer‛ because it’s being

used as a skeleton around which we can build our own prayer.

The following are the elements of prayer based on the acronym FACTS:

F=Faith: We are to pray in faith and expectancy. We are to pray that God will hear us and that he will answer our prayers in his way, in his time. ...P2

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

www.bldworld.org www.bldtoronto.com

2 Living Water - January 15, 2016222 Living Water - July 22, 2016

(Cont’d from P1) A=Adoration C=Contrition T=Thanksgiving S= Supplications

Our prayers will bring the greatest blessings when we:1.Pray persistently. 2.Pray confi-dently.

1.Pray persistently.

And Jesus said to them, ‚Suppose one of your

friend has a friend, and you go to him at mid-night and said to him, ‘Friend, lend me three

loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has just arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’

and your friend answers from within, ‘Do not

bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’

‚I tell you, even though he will not get up and

give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

‚So I say to you: Ask, and it will be given to

you; search and you shall find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and for everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

It is clear in this parable that our Lord wants us to be persistent in praying similar to the persis-tence that Abraham had shown us in the first reading to save the people that he believed were righteous.

No. 2: Pray confidently.

But sometimes, we experienced unanswered

prayers and Jesus teaches us how to deal with this in the next parable. He said, ‚Is there any

father among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give the child a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion?

‚If you then, who are evil, know how to give

good gifts to your children, how much more the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!‛ In other words if we who

are sinners, won’t give our children something

that might not be good for them, how much more will God whom we know loves us un-conditionally, will only give to us what is truly for our own good. We can be confident of this, because God has already given us His best – His Son.

To pray persistently and to pray confidently are somehow part of the explanations as to the ‚hows and the whys‛ of prayer. They are im-

portant knowledge to know but Jesus seemed to focus more on a different question: ‚Who‛.

He seemed to be more interested in invitation rather than explanation. In this passage Jesus invites us into relationship with God through prayer; God who desires to be known as loving parent, provider of all that is good and protec-tor of all in need. This is probably why Jesus said that prayer is about relationship and pres-ence. The relationship means that our life, our existence, our very being, comes from our Fa-ther. In short, there is only one answer to every prayer- God: His presence, beauty, generosity, compassion, forgiveness, wisdom, His mercy and love.

So, you pray persistently and confidently and finally you start your personal relation< P3

Living Water - July 22, 2016 7 Living Water - July 22, 2016 7

...all moving in graceful symmetry to the rhythm of God’s creation!

6 Living Water - January 15, 2016666 Living Water - July 22, 2016

Summer Picnic 2016

Living Water - July 22, 2016

Sumumumumumumummumu mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ememememememeemem rererrererrerePicicicicicciciccici ncncncncncncnncnc ininiininiinin cicicicicciciccici2016

The fun, the laughter, the fellow-ship, the prayer. The birds, the breeze, the trees, the skies...

...all moving in graceful symmetry to the rhythm of God’s creation!

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Living Water - July 22, 2016 3

(Cont’d from P2)

...with God. What question do you ask God?

In the BLD Encounter Programs and Life in the Spirit Seminars, Lord Jesus touched most of us, and with that one touch, we were introduced to a new world where the center of our lives had become God. The worldly values we used to treasure so much were no longer attractive even though we were born in an organized system of self gratification. Instead, we experienced an indescribable inner peace. Brief moments as they were, there was no competition, no evalua-tion, no measurement, just God’s presence and

his unconditional love.

BLD is also organized but has a completely different purpose: the fulfillment of God’s will.

The evangelization of all who care to listen through the community’s Encounter and LSS

programs, and the nurturing and caring of the gathered disciples. This is a big task that re-quires the community’s diverse talents, sup-

ported by lots of prayers and unified by the Holy Spirit.

Slowly but surely, as we participated in the op-eration of the BLD’s programs, God reveals to

us the reason why each one of us was created. How can we not know? Our weekly meeting here is called ‚Praise and Worship‛. The songs

of every prayer leader of every week depicted glorifying and worshipping God. We are ex-horted to obey God’s two greatest command-

ments found in the gospel of Mark 12:29-31, it says ‚The Lord our God is Lord alone! You

shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: you shall love your neighbour as yourself.‛

To put it simply, God created us to serve, love, worship and glorify Him; to love our neighbour as we love ourselves; and to fulfill His desire: that we live with him forever in his everlasting kingdom. He even sent his only Son, Jesus Christ as our Saviour and Redeemer.

So brothers and sisters, it is of utmost impor-tance to pray persistently that each one of us have a personal relation with God. How else will we be able to know him? How else will we know what pleases him? How else will we know that we are on the right path to fulfill his plan for each one of us? And as Fr. Ben said in his talk last Saturday, we hear and we listen and we get the information but we do not proc-ess it, we do not bring it into our hearts so that we become transformed and live it in our daily life. We need to listen and treasure everything in our heart so that we become transformed and sanctify our lives in prayer and action.

PROMISE ‚Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and

you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.‛ (Luke 11:9)

4 Living Water - January 15, 2016444

Living Water - July 22, 2016

There is a Sufi story about an aspiring disciple who went to the master with a question: ‚What must I do to follow

God?‛ The master replied: ‚Give up your pos-

sessions.‛ And the disciple answered: ‚I have

done that.‛ ‚Then,‛ said the master, ‚give up

your ideas of God.‛ It is with this framework of mind that I found myself among 129 BLD community members who attended the mid-year retreat last Satur-day, July 9, 2016 at the OLA Hall. I came with an open mind, hoping to know more about Mary, the Mother of Jesus and The First Disci-ple. In his talk, Fr. Ben highlighted some of Mary’s attributes as a disciple and shared with

us his coined acronym, ‘CHOP’ for easy recall.

‚CHOP‛ stands for Charity, Humility, Obedi-ence and Perseverance. As a disciple and a BLD covenanted member, I mentally checked how I was faring in each of these areas. I realized how much my spiritual growth had been blocked. In the last 12 years, my faith journey had been characterized by regression and an eventual distancing from the community. It was only by God’s sheer love

and grace that I was able to accept with convic-

tion that ‚God is in all (my joy, sorrow, success

and failure) that God is within me, that God is All.‛ This renewed conviction enabled me to

slowly return to the community with eagerness and anticipation. I am amazed and humbled to be the recipient of God’s untiring search for

one of His lost ones. The morning and afternoon discussions were directed by facilitators who made sure that the questions were discussed in their respective groups. Questions like, ‚What is my greatest

difficulty in following the disciplines of the community‛ and ‚How can I apply the charac-

ter of Mary in my service to BLD/my family/others‛ gave the members an opportunity to

look inward and take stock of where they are and where they would like to go. At the end of each session, group discussions were collated, summarized and reported by 3 Presenters. It was indeed a good retreat and we went home invigorated, replenished and satisfied. Yet, there is that lingering thought of giving up your ideas of God. Take heed . . . ’Forget the

answers in your head; get in touch with your heart.’

Getting in touch with your heart...

BLD Mid-Year Retreat: Getting in touch with your heart... By Willie Hernandez

Living Water - July 22, 2016 5

We thank the BLD Toronto for their prayers as we packed our bags and headed off to BLD Cincin-nati to conduct YE#3 this past weekend. To the Toronto Team (youth & adults) thank you for taking the time to help our brothers and sisters in Cincinnati. It was a very successful YE weekend as de-scribed by Amiel Castillo: Being a youth facilitator, I was given the opportunity to experience going out of the country to BLD Cincinnati to help with their YE #3. It was truly a blessing to have such an experience. I could see the power of God working through each of the candidates. Although the group was younger than usual, the Toronto Youth Working Team along with the Cincinnati Working Team, we were able to organize a successful Youth Encounter 3. The candidates were very grateful for our contribution to their community. They were appreciative of our efforts to work as God’s instruments. Overall, the weekend was an unforgettable experience. Friends were made, memories were cre-ated, and the success was shared with all. The BLD Cincinnati Community was very helpful, and I look forward to seeing them especially their youth soon in the upcoming YIDC. We also thank the BLD Cincinnati for their very warm hospitality and generosity. We thank Fr. Gerry Juarez of Pittsburgh for his very inspiring talks. Above all, we thank the Lord, our loving God, for giving us this opportunity once again to work in His vineyard through the BLD Cincinnati Youth Ministry. Congratulations to the 19 Cincinnati YE3 graduates.

Toronto Youth reaching out across borders.

BLD Cincinnati Youth Encounter #3

By Froilan/Charito Piamonte

Cincinnati YE#3 Graduates

Toronto Team with CIN adults