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

st_casimir@rogers.com 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:st_casimir@rogers.com

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..