Death to our old ways..Resurrect to a new life..

Haven't been updating my blogsite for a long while...been very occupied with sch work, and church stuffs... and especially when alot of things had happened in RCIA recently, its the amazing grace of God who had seen us through and grant us blessings...

Alot of people in St Anthony's church have prayed over for us Catechumens in RCIA Chronicles. Wanna thank them so much...people like Uncle Andrew (My big teddy bear uncle!) and Aunt Daisy, Rofina (My future Catechist mentor!! *hehe* wanna teach young children like her), and my coming-to-be Godparents (Dear Aunt Carol and Uncle Jeffrey)....Our group underwent a crisis, and we managed to pull through after 1 week of prayer!!! Praise the Lord!

Ever since i started RCIA, I was so sure that i will go through the whole process until i get baptised, until a few weeks ago, certain events started to plague the whole group...we underwent a dark period..and gradually, i began to realise that evil really exist and its trying to break us Catechumens who desires to be baptised in Jesus' name, next year during Easter. It was a chaotic period which lasted for 3 weeks, before we pulled through...a period of Death and Resurrection. We came back together as a whole group, and even had full attendance on thursday for our RCIA session (usually "The Sarah Kumar" will be missing..haha)! Thank you God for blessing us... Thank you Lord for granting the many miracles i've witnessed and hear about all these while...

Father Terence gave a wonderful teaching about the topic on Death and Resurrection...

The part that captivated me was the teaching that...God is omnipotent...God knows everything..

God knows our lives...God has plans for each of us..God is present in our past, present and future...What do i mean by that?

E.g. A woman lives a life of sadness, gets married in her 30s, gets divorced, lands herself into a huge financial debt... So since God knows everything, and He is in our past, present and future, Did God planned for it?

The answer is....NO. God is merciful and kind, He did not give us this kind of plan. It is ourselves who willed our own plans.. We, man, willed our sad story. God is almighty, and he loves us so much, that he gave us FREEDOM to live our lives. HE, indeed does have a plan for every single one of us, and if we CHOOSE to listen intently about what he wants to say to us, we will be able to lead a happy life....in God's grace.. =)

Why did bad things happen to us? Why did God not do anything to help us?
Bad things, events happens, when we go according to our OWN will... being sturborn..being arrogant, unforgiving, unable to let go of anger, hatred, sins, and we suffer...

God's knowing, does not determine what we do.

God's will is for us to be with Him. If we choose not to be, then we may end up suffering...Suffering is planned by us, not God. All consequences is due upon us when we chose to be egostic and do our will...and we cant blame God for our free will.

Human lives moment by moment, i.e, 8pm..9pm, 10pm, today, tomorrow.. BUT God is present at all these times.. He knows what is going to happen with every decision we make. He transcends time and space. God loves us so much, that he sets us free to do whatever we want to do..And when we do bad things, he actually knows what will happen in our future... God can only help us when we CHOOSE to listen to him... and He will guide us out of our DEATHS....

What exactly is Death, in this context?
Unforgiveness is death, anger is death, hatred is death, arrogance is death, pride is death, being sorrowful is death. Are we stuck in our sad pathetic ways? If we are, we are dead!

We must be open to Life. Every area of life must be open to new inspiration, new choices, new doors, so that we are open to Life...so that we can resurrect from the death.

Do we want to choose to continue to keep hitting, banging walls by our own will, or be open to changes, and will ourselves to the good plans of God?

When did Jesus begin to save us?
This was the question that one of us Catechumen asked Father Terence.

He said, "The moment when Jesus saved us, was when he came down from heaven, to earth and was born as a man." Man is raised to the level with God. Man, of course is not God, but God is with us now. What i'll like to think is, The Love story of God truly began when Jesus descended unto Earth...

How deep is your experience with God's Love?.. What i can really say is, the moment when you begin to understand his love, that's Salvation. This happens when we are prepared to move out of death.

To experience Love, you must experience You.
Admit to yourself, face yourself, come to terms with who you are.

Face death, know what it is, and come to resurrection.

There will be no resurrection until there is acknowledgment. Until we acknowledge ourselves who we are, we are unable to love ourselves and experience the Love of God.

Without Death, the Resurrection doesn't happen.

If there was no resurrection of Jesus, there wouldn't be Christianity. Jesus was risen by Himself and by no one else. His resurrection, all that was said by him, is verified. New life is offered.

Now, i truly understood why us Catechumens in RCIA have to go through a 22 months process before getting baptised. Father wants us to go through a series of conversion, going through the many deaths and resurrection...death to our old ways and be reborn to a new life... I begin to witness the changes in our people..and this is amazing...

We, as Catholics, do not believe in fate. If there is fate and predestination, there is NO FREEDOM, NO LOVE. Only with Freedom, there is Love. Now i understood more about the saying, "If you love someone, set him free. If he is yours to be with, he will come back to you.." This is God's love for us.. He waits for us to come back to him.

Many people have been asking me, "Why did i chose to become a Catholic?" I've never given a thought about it...but now, i only have an answer..

"Because i realised that God really loves me. Jesus loves us all.."