Re(peatedly)filling the Tank

I recall my primary school days. It was a common practice at primary 6, before graduation, to buy a pretty autograph book and pass it around the class for our classmates and teachers to write their contact details and a message for the friendship. It was always nice to accumulate as many entries as possible because somehow, that made us, or at least, me, feel accepted. It was a sign that assured me that I was well-loved, giving my self-esteem some boost. But that 'love' never lasted and after all the "frenz 4eva" that were written throughout the book, not many of those friendships stood the test of time. Friends even turned on one another in secondary school even though they had been good friends in primary. That love wasn't real. Yet, for that moment it was received, it did give the security we all longed for as creatures searching for love. 


In our modern times, as mature adults... maybe not so mature after all... our autograph books have evolved into Facebooks. Some keep blogs to express their emotions, their pains and struggles. The most wonderful thing about Facebook, in my opinion, is that it allows for interaction. I post something and people can 'like' what I say and add a comment. People respond. Thankfully, there isn't a 'dislike' option because that would make Facebook so much less secure a space. 


But notice how for many, these online spaces have become a testing ground for our 'like-ability'. How many friends actually bother to read my updates? Who agrees with me? Whose support do I have? Who has read my blog posts and left a comment? Who is comforting me after reading about my sadness? Who is sharing my joy and happy moments? Definitely, such online spaces like Facebook can be used for many good purposes too, including evangelical ones. Blogger now has the function of tracking the number of views each blog posts has, and YouTube has the most concise breakdown of views in various graphs and chats, tracking even to the detail of which country those views were recorded in!! Map provided!!


Some times, most subtly, such spaces have become for us a burden because we begin to depend heavily and most unsuspectingly on them for affirmation, love, acceptance, etc... quelling our insecurities momentarily. And what if our posts do not receive the responses we had hoped for? Disappointment, self-doubt, loneliness, melancholy.


But is that all the love we can get? Is this all the love we deserve? Does such love satisfy? If it does, why then do we always have to keep refilling the tank of our hearts that seem rather easily emptied out after the effects of the affirmations through all these means have worn out?


True love, once given, needs no refilling or replenishing. And such a love has only one Source - God. The fullness of God in our hearts satisfies and fills us completely. With God's love, we know that all other sources are inferior. Nothing can match up to the love of God. Yet, this can only be an abstract knowledge if one has not experienced this love. Such an abstract knowledge cannot possibly be convincing at all. 


God's love is not easily found although it is given to all. It is not easily found because our hearts are cluttered with too many distractions. Once these are cleared, we can be more disposed to receive the love of God that has always been there, knocking at the door of our hearts, waiting for our attention amidst so many other loves. We must first desire for God's love.


But do we want God's love?
How dearly do we want this love of God? 
If we truly want God's love, then all other sources, all other forms of 'love' must exit from our hearts and lives, and be kept this way. 
The problem and the challenge is... Are we willing to let go of the temporary securities, experience a period of complete uncertainty and insecurity, before gaining the perpetual security of dwelling for the rest of our lives and beyond in the love of God? 
Do we dare to take this turn?


21 May 2012, Monday
2129

Silence on World Communications Sunday

In this weekend when we celebrate World Communications Day, isn't it most appropriate to reflect a little deeper on the lack of silence that bombards our modern lifestyle?

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What are the noises we hear everyday? There are two types that I have experienced - the audible and inaudible. It is rather easy to identify the audible noises around us. Sit in the middle of a school canteen during recess and you will know what noise at a very high level can do to your peace within. Going to the clubs and having music blasting through the speakers, you will realise the temporary deafness it causes you upon your exit. Needless to say, with all that hype, the senses are taken as deep as the superficial levels. 


But there seems to be an increasing number of inaudible noises. Noises that the human ears cannot pick up. We know well how to shut out those audible ones but these well-disguised inaudible noises are more deafening to the human heart than the audible ones are to the human ear. They cloud the heart, distract it from God, hide God and create a distorted illusion of God so much so that what was once familiar about God becomes unfamiliar and uncertain. Love for God takes a back seat while these loud inaudible noises grow larger and closer in the forefront. They become louder each time while silence diminishes exponentially, overtaken, overthrown. 


So... just what are these inaudible noises? Here's a suggestion of some possible ones.
(*Differs according to the individual)


- Online chats and friends' status updates
- Blogging 
- Mobile phones e.g. incoming messages about work after office hours, etc
- Emotions e.g. insecurities and the anxieties they create, disappointments and discouragements that create a sense of hopelessness, helplessness, fears, anger, frustrations, doubts, etc
- Over-obsession with one's external appearances, status, wealth, etc


The inaudible noises seem to encompass those attachments we have to things that are not of God but are of this world. Things that are not life-giving but subtly life-zapping. Things that add burdens and chains to our shoulders and our limbs most unsuspectingly. 


Silence helps us to shift our focus inward. It thereby helps us to gain a deeper consciousness of our inner selves. It is not just about keeping quiet and to shut out the external sounds. It is to rid the heart of its distractions, to soundproof completely this secret room of our hearts with only God dwelling and speaking within, so that only God's voice resounds audibly. It is to consciously keep out all other voices that do not align with and compliment God's but attempt to down Him out instead. 


In this silence is where we can encounter God whose voice and presence can now be heard and felt. 
Silence is so important in our communication with God. And it is only through this communication with God that we can learn how to communicate with the world.


19 May 2012, Saturday
2251

Because It Is You

I shall know where to go

Because it is You whose hand is leading me

I shall know what to say

Because it is You who will whisper into my ears

I shall know when to go

Because it is You who will nudge me at the right time

I shall know what to do

Because it is You who have given me Your example

I shall be strong

Because it is You I lean upon

I shall trust

Because I lean upon the shoulders that have borne the heavier weight of the world

I shall love

Because it is You whose death keeps open the doorway of my heart

I shall forgive

Because it is You who ask this of me

I shall die to myself

Because it is You who first died for me

I shall remain with You

Because it is You who first beckoned me to Your side

I shall stride on

Because it is You who promised Your perpetual companionship

Because it is You, dear Jesus,

For You,

And with You.

16 May 2012, Wednesday

2310

Prayer to Love

Lord, 

Help me to love You as You deserve, 

Help me to love You the way You want me to,

Help me to love You with an undivided love. 

If there is no greater love one can have 

Than to lay down his life for his friend. 

Then, my loving Jesus, 

Let me love You with my life. 

And knowing how impossible this is, 

For this sinful, narrow person that I am,

I beg for Your hand to hold onto mine;

That with You as my guide to illumine the way,

I may walk on with certainty,

Inching ever closer to You 

As You make perfect what You have long begun in me. 

Amen.

10 May 2012, Thursday

2357

Enter [ Part II ]

Have you ever been to a coffee joint or some cosy hang out place with really nice, comfy couches? You sit yourself down and your entire body simply sinks into it? The air con blows strongly while the sun remains unsparing out there, and you are enjoying your favourite food or beverage in the company of awesome friends? How at home you feel on this lazy afternoon. No stress, no rush, no work. Just chilling. Your tummy is satisfied and you begin to yawn. 


Garfield comes to mind. Just him, the couch, the tv and its remote control, lasagne, and the dog to add some amusement. We can roughly guess where the creator of Garfield got his idea from! And quite typically, if Jon were to ask Garfield to get up from the couch to run an errand, this is probably what he would say...

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At times, we find ourselves in situations in which we do not wish to step in because we do not want to step out. A comfort zone that has become so warm and cosy. We feel so at home there. Why would we want to step out of it into something that is strange, uncertain and some times, threatening? Not until Garfield chooses to part from his ultimate comfortable position can he move from that spot to do anything else. Until he decides to willingly and completely give up his comfort, he will never be able to put his heart and soul into anything else. Isn't that why Garfield seems to always be dragging his feet around? He seems only enthusiastic about his food, couch and tv shows. 


Until I pluck my feet up from the spot I stand upon, how can these same feet occupy a new space? How can I enter into something when I cannot bring myself to be uprooted from what I am currently so securely embedded in? And if this continues, how can I ever move myself to be fully immersed in the wholehearted search for God's will in my life? And even if I should know this will of His, will I not face the same struggle as Garfield? I can... but I won't. Hidden under the mask of "I want to... but I can't"?


How can I then enter in when I cannot bear to exit? And even if I should manage to exit, will I not be dragging my feet along and thus, not put my whole being into anything I do, always looking back at what a better option I seemed to have given up, reminiscing the good old times? Will I achieve good results with such half-heartedness? What good, then, would any of my doing be if they were half-hearted? It might have been better to continue being on the couch than to be off it and adversely affect other people around. 


How can I exit so that I can enter wholeheartedly, without looking back? Without feeling that I'm settling for less? 
What am I refusing to exit from to enter into? 
Are there similar conflicts in your life too?


9 May 2012, Wednesday
2258

Lord in my Darkness

Refrain:
In my darkness, O Lord, 
Be my light,
My strength,
My help and salvation.


When I cry to You, Lord, hear me.
Do not leave me alone in my anguish.
Shed the light of Your truth on my darkness
As I place all my trust in You.


In trials and temptations, help me. 
Shield me from the enemies' assaults.
Do not leave me to my own defences.
But Your grace and Your blessings grant me.

The Priest is not His Own

I walked past a row of bookshelves and without stopping to browse, my gaze was unexpectedly and mysteriously fixed onto Fulton Sheen's The Priest Is Not His Own. It left a slight impression. I somewhat understood what this title means. 


Even more unexpectedly, Fr. Philip Heng, SJ was con-celebrating Mass at the Church of St. Joseph for their feast day. It was his first time there and after Mass, a line of parishioners waited to ask for his blessings and prayers. Without hesitating, without a word of complaint, he attended to every one of them and their needs. Having had interrupted sleep the night before, he must have felt exhausted. The heat of the early afternoon probably intensified the fatigue. Yet, not a sign of tiredness was shown.


What would I have done in his shoes? What would you have done? I would have probably preferred to go get my funfair coupons and grab a bite to first tame the growling tummy, and then patronise the game stalls and have some fun playing the games too. I might have just, to escape from the crowd, headed directly, as invited, to the priest's house and have my meal there in peace. 


But a priest is really not his own. His life is no longer his. It is for the service of God. Is it not? And it is the same for all religious men and women. This is probably what it means to be broken and poured out for all. An entire rearranging of priorities so that God becomes the one and only, and thereby, everything done must serve this one priority. A true servant of God, no more of one's own self. Taking the example of Jesus Himself, and walking in His footsteps, imitating Him in all His ways. A total denial of self. An unmeasured love for the people; a love which is not counted or rationed. Constantly receiving from God to constantly give to others. A disposition not of hoarding but of an openness, of pouring out. Of allowing oneself to bleed for the greater glory of God and in so doing, becoming one with the Master who bled for humanity.


A priest is not his own. His life has been surrendered to God, so that it is, henceforth, God who lives in this servant, works in this servant, and labours in our lives through this servant, who truly becomes the visible, tangible and effective hands and feet of God, the presence of God in the world. God comforts us through this servant. And perhaps, not only the religious men and women are such worthy servants of God. Anyone who loves God and imitates Him with sincerity and steadfastness becomes His children and His workers. 


Can I open my heart so fully to God?
Can I die to myself completely? 
With God's graces, I know I can. 
But will I choose to?
Will you?


6 May 2012, Sunday
2103

The Hands and Feet of Who?

An elementary school teacher was tasked to teach Mathematics and Science in a class most teachers would classify as "challenging". A class of a rather large size, made up of students from contrasting family backgrounds and intellectual capacities. The common basic behavioural pattern - children do not complete and submit their homework punctually, and appear to be disinterested in their studies.


Faced with such a class and exhausting all known methods to try to change the behaviour of the students, the teacher reaches a point of questioning how much does one give to these kids. How far does one go to help them while still maintaining a healthy work-life balance? Can these kids be helped? Is there a line to draw in one's giving of oneself to them? What are their parents doing? Why are they not monitoring their own child's work closely? If the parents do not care, why should teachers? After all, the responsibility of educating a child rests primarily and most reasonably on the parents. 


The teacher began having tea with one child in the school tuck shop, holding a conversation in confidence to find out about the child's struggles and family situation. As she listened to the child, probing further, her heart was moved with deep compassion. Before her sat a child who was helpless, clueless about what else he could do to improve in his studies. Frustrated because no matter how he has tried, he did not seem to be getting anywhere. He must have been questioning what was wrong with himself. When he met questions he did not understand, there wasn't anyone he could go to for help. During lessons, he would sit quietly at his desk, copying down the answers given on the board, and then staring out of the window in despair again. 


In that conversation over tea, it was as if God Himself was crying out for help, for love, in that child. God was reaching out His hands to the teacher, seemingly asking, "Please, help me." God was inviting her to love Him in this child. Can the teacher not grab hold of those hands and pull him along? She certainly can. But because of all she has received from the Lord, because of the many times she herself has reached out to Him in utter helplessness and despair and always found Him ready to grab on and give her a tug, she could not bring herself to ignore or turn down the invitation. She could love because she first received the love of God. 


And so, the teacher came up with a plan with the child to help him more specifically outside curriculum time. The child went away with a glimmer of hope on his face. He sat upright during lessons, and was diligently paying attention to what the teacher was teaching. There is light in what was an unending darkness. Someone cares, someone is available, someone will help me. I am not alone. I am not alone. And then, to the second child... 


Although the teacher knows and accepts that she cannot help everyone in her limited time and energy, she finds joy in doing what she can in her capacity to be the hands and feet of the Master she desires to imitate. And even if the child does not improve in his grades, she knows she has spread a little love and cheer to someone in need. She has given Jesus to someone who did not know Him. 


How much have you received from the hands of God?
In your life everyday, who may you give Jesus to? 


04 May 2012, Friday
1720

Prayer - God of Justice

My God, the God of justice,
How do I encounter You amidst the injustices that I face so very often? 
How do I recognize You in the very situations and people that seem to shout out to me Your absence?


Dear God, 
Open my heart and uncover my eyes.
In this, Your absence, I find my heart longing all the more for You, for Your consoling assurance that You have not given up on us but will continue to labour in all these apparently hopeless situations. 


I alone cannot fight the might of injustice; I alone cannot undo any damage already done. 
But with You all things are possible. Help me with Your unfailing graces to bear with courage the injustices I see, to remain faithfully with You in this bearing and to sense the soft promptings of Your Spirit to do what You will of me in carrying out Your justice. So that with this poor labour I may offer in Your Name, I may pray with a stronger conviction, "Thy Kingdom come". 


Amen.


29 April 2012, Sunday
12.18pm @ The Botanics

"Rojak" feelings at a Priestly Ordination

When a parishioner or a relative sits there in the pews to witness an priestly ordination, what do they really see and how do they feel? 


Perhaps, they see a person who is different, someone unlike the majority, someone who is special because he has been called to a different state of life than most others. Perhaps, it evokes contrasting emotions of connectedness and disconnectedness. A connectedness because he is a familiar member of the family, because he is part of the community; he is one of us - a fellow Catholic. Yet, a disconnectedness because many will not be able to identify with the experience of a Love which first called and which then moved one into a loving response. A feeling of joy that is genuine and yet distant. And to some others, perhaps they were just caught unaware, not knowing that there was going to be an ordination at that Mass and the solemn celebration meant no more than an irrelevant ritual. 


However, to one who is walking or has walked the same path, one who has experienced the struggles of the journey in perseverance and faithfulness, one who shares a similar love for the One to whom our responses are directed, witnessing an ordination reaches far beyond the indifference of a bystander, beyond the conflicting connectedness and disconnectedness of a fellow Catholic. 


There exists a deep awareness in the depths of one's heart of the bruises and consolations that must have preceded this celebration, the falling and rising along the way, the purification and moulding, the failures and successes that teach humility. The laughters and tears that the journey presents. An intimate knowing that here, before the altar of sacrifice, God once again assures His people of His faithfulness towards them in giving them of Himself not only in the Eucharist but in a person He has Himself raised to administer to their needs and well being, another life now broken and poured out in Christ for all. An immeasurable gratitude, an enormous inspiration, a burning desire to arrive at the same destination as the ordained. 


Which experience might yours be should you be present at an ordination, like I had the privilege to this evening at the priestly ordination of Fr. Agustinus Tanudjaja, S.J.?


29 April 2012, Sunday
0025

Remain - Eastertide

It's Easter... at last! Weeks before, supermarkets started to load onto their shelves all types and brands of Easter eggs, chocolates, and plastic egg shells for Easter egg hunts. Surprisingly, unlike last year, the shelves are still loaded with chocolates today. Many people, believers and non-believers alike, spend Good Friday and Easter Sunday differently. What is Easter to you personally?

As we continue to remain with Jesus in His joyous resurrection, celebrating His victory over death, we are reminded that this is not the type of 'remaining' that finds its source only in the jubilation of this season. It is a continuation from Lent, and in fact, from the beginning of all creation. God had a plan and we are all a part of His plan - God's perfect plan of love. A love that encompasses mercy, forgiveness, justice, peace, joy, an everlasting sonship. A love that is always reaching out to call us home.

God revealed Himself to us in this plan in the coming of Jesus on Christmas morn, His ministry on earth to lay the foundation of His church, His passion, death and resurrection. Easter did not just happen. It is a continuum. A long history preceded. We now celebrate Easter as a participant in this same history and plan. We continue the Easter story in a relay first started by the apostles.

Easter is not just the long awaited liberation from our fasting, abstinence and almsgiving; the time we break free from our self-discipline to indulge, even though we are most tempted to run from suffering to pleasure. We are reminded today of the price that Christ first paid before His resurrection and to remain with Him in the Easter joy, we must first carry our daily crosses, dying to ourselves, our selfishness, pride and sin, choosing always the ways of God, abiding by His teachings, sharing with Him an intimate relationship, and so in the end, we may rise with Christ to the ranks of the Saints. Remaining with Jesus in the resurrection requires us to first remain with Him in His crucifixion. 

Amidst the joy of this season's celebrations, let us always remain grounded with God to savour all that He has in His great mercy and love done for us from the beginning of time. Have a blessed, grace-filled and joyous Easter. 

source

Ephesians 1:4-12

Before the world was made, he chose us, chose us in Christ, to be holy and spotless, and to live through love in his presence, determining that we should become his adopted sons, through Jesus Christ for his own kind purposes, to make us praise the glory of his grace, his free gift to us in the Beloved, in whom, through his blood, we gain our freedom, the forgiveness of our sins. 

Such is the richness of the grace which he has showered on us in all wisdom and insight. He has let us know the mystery of his purpose, the hidden plan he so kindly made in Christ from the beginning to act upon when the times had run their course to the end: that he would bring everything together under Christ, as head, everything in the heavens and everything on earth. 

And it is in him that we were claimed as God's own, chosen from the beginning, under the predetermined plan of the one who guides all things as he decides as his own will; chosen to be, for his greater glory, the people who would put their hopes in Christ before he came.

Remain - The Fourteenth Station

The Fourteenth Station

Jesus is Laid in the Tomb

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Along with Jesus's death was the death of the hopes and joy of His disciples. Having returned to His side at the tomb, what was left for them? The Person they had been following was no longer with them. Who shall they turn to now? Would life ever be the same as it was before? Could they have gone back to their old trades and continue living from where they had left off before they came to know this Man, Jesus? They could have... if they had never loved Jesus. And that was the problem. They loved Jesus and consequently, their lives sank into an empty pit of despair and confusion, hopelessness and dejection. 

Was there a silence in the air? A cold, still silence? An uncomfortable silence that reminded of the loss, highlighted the awkwardness of the same familiar places that were void of the most significant Presence? What would they do now? They had no clue. They were lost. Nothing interest them any more; nothing except the participation in the memorable events that Jesus once shared with them. These events that evoked the same nostalgic emotions to bridge the impossible distance between the present and the absent. Just like how we visit places we had previously been to with departed loved ones to reminisce the times shared. It is the closest we can get to the time spent together. 

But having been told what happened in Christ's resurrection and ascension, and the host of other dramatic events from the Pentecost onwards, we are now no longer haunted by that frightening silence. Because in that silence, there lies an eager anticipation, a silence so full of hope burning bright, a knowing that the separation is only temporary, a wait for that day of reunion, the day we can, at long last, meet God face to face. A silent longing, a deep yearning... understood only by those whose heart seeks and loves Him who also awaits our return.

REFLECTION

In your heart, does the death of Jesus leave any silence? How much does His death matter to you personally to impact your life? Pause to listen to the silence. 

REMAINING WITH JESUS
Reflecting more deeply on this last station in the Way of the Cross, and 

Knowing that Lent is ending and we can continue our lives in the jubilation of Easter without the Lenten observances to remind us of our Lord's Passion, will you determinedly choose to continue to remain with Jesus in a lifelong relationship that far extends beyond Lent?

Remain - The Thirteen Station

The Thirteen Station

Jesus is taken down from the Cross

source

Mary watched on as her Son was tortured and crucified. She stood by Him all along the way and now, having Him taken down from the Cross, she can finally hold Him in her arms. A mother, holding her child, cold, bloody, bruised, dead. Her heart is pierced through, inflicted by a deep inconsolable sorrow. 

Why is there no anger in her? No hatred or resentment? Why is she not pointing her fingers and grinding her teeth at us? We who continue to scourge and nail Jesus to the cross by our sinful living? 

John 19:26-27

Seeing his mother and the disciple he loved standing near her, Jesus said to his mother, 'Woman, this is your son'. Then to the disciple he said, 'This is your mother'. And from that moment the disciple made a place for her in his home. 

Mary was obedient to God in her Son Jesus, to the point of accepting the motherhood of all of her own Son's murderers. She became the mother of all Man, loving and praying for us in all our troubles, and protecting us even when we do not realise that she is. Who among us can replace Mary in her great compassion and obedience? God has indeed chosen her to be our dear mother. 

REFLECTION

Can you feel the pain and sorrow of Mary as she beheld her Son?

How can you live life differently so as to console the pierced heart of Mary who continues to suffer with her suffering Son?

REMAINING WITH JESUS

Reflecting more deeply on this thirteen station in the Way of the Cross, and

Realising more deeply how you have continued to crucify Jesus and break the heart of Mary, will you choose to remain with Jesus as a consolation to Him?

Remain - The Twelfth Station

The Twelfth Station

Jesus Dies on the Cross

John 19:32-34

Consequently the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with him and then of the other. When they came to Jesus, they found he was already dead, and so instead of breaking his legs one of the soldiers pierced his side with a lance; and immediately there came out blood and water.

At last, it is over. The Father's Will is obeyed, fulfilled. God has been revealed to all in the Person of Christ who has demonstrated the extent of God's love for us and yet, there does not seem to be a real extent to love; it is rather a love that is complete, perfect and whole. Jesus has revealed to us how God reaches out to His people in the attempt to pull us out of the pit of eternal darkness, to save us, to show us who our true God is. 

By the water that flows from the side of Jesus, we are born to new life in Baptism. The gates of heaven are reopened to us because of this water that cleanses and redeems us. We have been bought at the price Christ paid on the cross. We are restored and made whole as God's children because Jesus emptied Himself to a nothingness. Jesus used His life to exchange for ours. 

REFLECTION

How precious is your life to you? 

Do you make choices and live your life with the awareness that someone died to save your life?

How grateful are you for all that God has done for you, even till this very day? How does this gratitude show up in your relationship with God?

REMAINING WITH JESUS 
Reflecting more deeply on this twelfth station in the Way of the Cross, and
Relishing in God's infinite love for you, will you continue to remain with Him in every moment of your life, to continue to seek Him in good times and not just in the bad?

Remain - The Eleventh Station

The Eleventh Station

Jesus is Nailed to the Cross

source

What do we do when we want to hang something up on the wall at home? Option 1 - Use a 3M hook (the kind you stick on and remove as you wish) if you do not intend for it to be permanent. Option 2 - Hammer a nail into the wall but this means you make a permanent hole there so you will not choose this option unless you are dead sure you are not going to change your mind later. 


When Jesus was nailed to the cross, it wasn't just His body being fixed on but along with it is God's pledge of love for all of mankind, past, present and future. God's infinite love poured out upon us through Jesus Christ, the promised mercy and eternal salvation, can never be altered any more. The gift of friendship, the bridge across to God's infinity have been extended once and for all. All these, nailed to the cross in Jesus, have become God's everlasting covenant with Man. 


Jeremiah 31:31-32
See, the days are coming - it is Yahweh who speaks - when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel, but not a covenant like the one I made with their ancestors... They broke that covenant of mine, so I had to show them who was master. 


No one, absolutely no one, can ever break this new covenant that God has made with Man. Not by sin or death, by betrayal or even our denial of Jesus.


By our sins, we nailed Jesus to the cross. Yet, by His accepting to be hung up for all to see, He became the everlasting promise and evidence of God's love for us. That in times of fear and uncertainty, we may look up at Him and be assured of His love and saving help. What more can we ask for?


REFLECTION
How much do you fall back upon this unalterable love God has for us in times of need?
When moved towards a deep awareness of how we have let God down through our sinfulness, do you remain in despair or trust in the infinite love God has fixed upon the cross for you?


REMAINING WITH JESUS
Reflecting more deeply on this eleventh station in the Way of the Cross, and 
Knowing how God has made an everlasting covenant with us for our own sake, will you remain with Him at the place of crucifixion with gratitude and unwavering trust?