Rejoice in your sufferings for the sake of others, Christ needs you in the works of His church. You are a minister in accordance with God’s stewardship given to you to bring to completion for you the word of God.
The mystery hidden from ages and from generations past has been manifested to you. God chose you to make known the riches of the glory of this mystery.
It is Christ in you, who is the hope for glory. It is He who should be proclaimed, admonishing everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that you may present everyone perfect in Christ.
For this, you labor and struggle, in accord with the exercise of His power working within you. How great is the struggle you are having for others, so that their hearts may be encouraged as they are brought together in love.
You have all the richness of fully assured understanding, the knowledge of the mystery of God, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
REFLECTION
In an orientation I attended conducted by Fr. Manny Sarez, the known author and father of the “Balik Handog” program (tithing or love offering), I learned a lot regarding the value and essence of stewardship. As a paradigm shift on how a person should view or understand tithing, he presented clearly the difference between “the need to give” and “to give to a need”. I intend to write an article about this and hopefully publish it on different community sites.
Every Christian is a Minister. This is the welcome introduction I wrote after creating a community site for the Our Lady of the Pillar Parish. The first time I heard this was from Fr. Greg Ramos who is our Parish Priest. He used this as a battle cry to encourage more parishioners to be active in serving the church.
For many years now, I have been an active servant of our parish. I have been involved in almost all types of ministry activities to the point that I was no longer serious in running my own professional and business affairs. Because of this, life became a struggle and I still face a lot of uncertainties in the future.
In my struggle, I have learned to value each second as “A Moment of Grace”, not looking beyond but more on appreciating how God adds experiences to my life in order for me to become a better person.
In ministry work, what is most rewarding is to find peace and joy of being used as an instrument of the Lord to reach others. Once we loose focus on the fact that it is Christ in us who is at work and allow self-centeredness to step in, then we begin to experience problems and difficulties on the work at hand.
PRAYER
Father God, You have chosen me to be a minister of Your church in Christ. In Him, You have given me the knowledge and wisdom to reach out to others. In doing so, I continue to struggle and labor for Your Name Sake.
Today, I pray for those who have not yet fully understood the mystery of their faith. Teach them and touch their lives so that we may all live in love. In a very special way, I also pray for all the servants of our church, that they may find joy in serving You.
Continue to bless all the works of my hands towards the fulfillment of all Your promises. All these I pray, in Jesus Name. Amen.
Read : Colossians 1:24, 2:3
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