zampocais-blog

[zampocais-blog]

Play this while reading my blog or not if you don’t want to.

[zampocais-blog]

[zampocais-blog]

Relfection #4: Our Leaders

“St. Peter committed one of the greatest sins, denying Christ, and yet they made him Pope. Think about that.”

Leaders can be appointed by voting or by volunteering. By voting, the leaders are appointed because the voters think that they will fit the descriptions of a leader and that they can do it while by volunteering, the volunteered leaders think that they can be a good role model to others and that they have passion and dedication to be one.

Asking me who is/are the best leader for me, my answer is my parents. My answer is them because they always guide me to the path that can help me live a good life. They give me advice whenever there are problems and they encourage and cheer me up whenever I’m nervous. My parents strengthen my faith and help me build my spirit as I grow and grasp things.

Jesus showed us that He can transform anyone from bad to good. For example, the apostle Peter. Peter denied Jesus at first but in the end, he became an apostle because of God’s grace. That’s how strong Jesus can be. As for me, I experienced being transformed into a better person. There’s a time when I really want to give up in life and I prayed and prayed but nothing happened and coincidentally, things just got worse. I stopped believing in Jesus that time and I started saying some bad things to him but then after some days, my day just got brighter and brighter each day. With that, I changed and started believing in Him again but my faith strengthened more.

In every step of our journey, there will be times that you will feel weak because of many problems. In these times, I communicate with God by confessing all of my sins to Him. I thank Him for all the blessings that I have received throughout my existence and for guiding me ‘til now.

One can be “SERVANT OF THE SERVANTS OF GOD” by spreading the word of the Lord and by applying the teachings in your life. The servants of god are the apostles while the servant of the servants of God is us. With that, let’s continue the mission of the apostles.

We need to be thankful at all times that God still accept us despite of all our sins and that He still loves and forgives us. Throughout your life, don’t forget God who has been a part of our life and journey until the end.

[zampocais-blog]

[zampocais-blog]

Reflection #3: Journey in Every Mission

A quote from Pope Francis:

"The mission of the Christian in the world is a mission for all, a mission of service, which excludes no-one; it requires great generosity and in particular the gaze and heart turned heavenward to invoke the Lord’s help. There is so much need for Christians who bear witness to the Gospel with joy in everyday life. The disciples, sent by Jesus, 'returned with joy'. When we do this, our heart fills with joy."

Jesus entrusted us and gave us missions to do. With this, we need commitment to accomplish and confidence to face these missions. All of us has the ability to do this. Just believe in yourself and don’t let anything distract you.

Sense is needed in every mission and every people has mission. In our community, sense of mission is visible by leadership. The leaders in our community have the ability to tap into that root of motivation to help and allow us to achieve our mission. Second is by participating in action without hesitation and doing things that change a lot of people’s lives. This is when we do something out of love, not just for love and when we do something without anything in return. Mission is already neglected by many so the third is determination. We, the people of our community, really tries to fulfill our share for Jesus Christ every single day of our lives.

In doing these missions, there could be hindrances or problems. From my point of my view, I think fear is the first. Most people are afraid to fail and to be rejected but in reality, that is going to help you throughout your life. With just one experience of failing, you can easily learn to step up your game in fulfilling your mission. Second is negative thoughts. When you set your goal to complete that mission, you should say positive things to motivate yourself like “You can do it like anyone” not like “I feel so tired, I can’t do it.”

All disciples of Jesus have missions but does that mean that you are one of those disciples? For me I call myself a disciple because first, I believe in Jesus as a payment for my sin. Second is that I repent from all of my sins and give all my devotion to Him. Third is I followed his steps and listened to Him in every commands and then last is I worshipped Him for my whole life and expressed my gratitude and honor to Lord.

With every step of our life, there will be missions until you finish. When you accomplished all your missions, there will be a sense of achievement and Jesus will be proud that you finished with dignity and faith.

[zampocais-blog]

Reflection #2: Fight Hardship with Apostleship

“I came as a pilgrim of peace and an apostle of hope.”

-Pope Francis

Next to Jesus are the apostles of church that helped him accomplish His mission in this world through spreading his words and continuing His works. Faithfulness, loyalty, and dedication: these are showed by them throughout their journey as an apostle.

Being an apostle can give you a task to do forever in your life and all of the apostles have gone through many problems and some of them died being an apostle but they died with dignity because they didn’t just died for nothing but with accomplishment in life. According to Mark 3:14-15, it says, "He appointed twelve - designating them apostles - that they might be with him, that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons." With that said, the apostles were chosen because they are able to stay with him all throughout, they are able to do what they ought to do or in the other words, they are committed in what they do, and they are able to carry the task of doing good.

Anyone can be an apostle but you need to be able to carry the tasks. As for myself, I want to be one of them so to meet the qualifications and demands of apostleship, I will learn more to balance my time and I will follow the commandments and teachings of the Church.

In this generation, many could not be familiar with the apostles because of technology and other distractions made but thankfully, apostleship is still evident and it is still being continued by the bishops and priests of the church. We can help the church in spreading apostleship by being an apostle everywhere through being a good role model to them and by respecting everyone.

Being an apostle also includes participation in church. As for me, for the good of the church, I am faithful to attend and participate. I believe that this will encourage the leaders of the church more. Some underestimate the value of just being simply there. Also, I always apply the teachings in my life. When you don’t do this, the pastor will only be discouraged because he will think that he is preaching for nothing. The teachings will also help me live a holy life.

I would continue to be an apostle of Christ by trusting and believing him. I will try to be able to accomplish my mission until the rest of my life.

Practicing in being an apostle helped me live a good holy life and it helps me understand many things. I will contribute largely and importantly to the well-being of all later generations.

[zampocais-blog]

Reflection #1: A Patron Saint in The Life of Mine

"Too often we participate in the globalization of indifference. May we strive instead to live global solidarity."

Life lessons have always taught me how to live my life and it all became a part in my journey. Whenever there are ups and downs, I try to understand, accept, and live out to the fullest. St. John Baptist de La Salle, who is a role model to me, also taught me and helped me understand that helping others play a big role in my life.

In my personal growth, prayer has been a part of it because God has always been there for me throughout my existence so I make time to thank him everyday. Also, prayer helped me build my foundation and strength for any problems that have passed/that will pass. But of course, I will not forget the reason why I’m alive, my family. Even though I make mistakes and problems that will cause headache to them, they still accept me and from that, it also became a reason on why I’m still growing and learning as a person.

Studying as a La Sallian really pulled me to be closer to God in just 1 year. Learning about the life of St. John Baptist de La Salle, who is the patron saint of De La Salle University, taught me many things that I can learn from. From his life, he made Mary the mother of Jesus Christ as his role model. She is held up highly by him because he believed that she is not simply ‘the’ blessed virgin but she is ‘the most’ blessed virgin. Also because even though Mary had no idea how she would raise the Child and even though she knew that she will lose Joseph, she still said yes to it without hesitation.

In 15 years of my existence in this world full of hardships but also blessings, I learned that making decisions really matter to my life and that they can make a major impact in my life. I realized that when it takes me a long time to decide and when so many people/things are involved. Even though it was hard for me to make a decision, I gathered all my thoughts and focus on the outcome of my decision.

Back to the life of De La Salle. Despite of his controversies with parish priests, he remained respectful at all times. He didn’t take any revenge on any of the priests because he believed that no matter what they do to you even if that is good or bad, do good to them.

Now, thinking about my own death, I would like to have a good legacy/remembrance. For that, I would like to be remembered as the one who takes care of others instead of myself. In this case, my friend is sick and she can’t be tired because of her disease. I always stay by her side whenever she needs me and whenever she needs support.

Being able to learn all of this throughout my journey in life as a person and as a La Sallian, I have been able to learn many things from accepting problems to making decisions until to being respectful.