Pope's prayer intentions & Holiness

Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for July 2005

General Intercession:
That Christians be sensitive to the needs of every one, without ever hiding the radical requirements of the Gospel message.

Mission Intention:
That all the baptized be committed, each in their own state of life, to transforming society by permeating the mentality and structures of the world with the light of the Gospel.

Somehow this is quite in line with last night's Lumen Gentium session on Holiness. Baptism, commitment, state of life... In fact I just realise that we can add the tag "Holiness is" before both the intentions and it would be true.

I don't know why there's so much to write about on Holiness. I originally titled this post as Pope's prayer intentions & Lumen Gentium. But I read something in Zenit, and I don't know what made me turn around and pick up the envelope that a St Gab's teacher passed to me on Opus Dei, and there I also read something on holiness. Funny how He works.

"A problem arises when Christianity fails to propose the truth from within what it lives, accepting on the contrary the description made of it from outside."

This is the comment that I read in Zenit, and I guess it relates to what I wrote about in yesterday's post. When the world starts to dictate faith, rather than the other way around. How often I have heard the statement "I don't understand why the Church is making it so difficult to practice the faith.", with regards to things like homosexuality, abortion, pre-marital sex, contraception, euthanasia... And the quote above just sums up my feeling when I read the "Catholic Spain okays gay unions article". I really felt like saying to the spanish "catholics" please do yourself and the church a favour. If you are not living trying to live the faith, don't burden yourself with its rules, and also don't give the Catholic faith a bad name. I know it sounds judgemental, and I'm no saint myself. But we have gotta be striving to be perfect as Christ is perfect.

Some people find the faith the Church teaches too challenging, while some others think that the Church isn't challenging its people enough... The church isn't for wimps. As I was reflecting on the feast of St Peter, I was comparing him and Judas. Both betrayed Jesus, but one was a coward and took his life. The other accepted his weakness and became a pillar of the Church.

Which brings me to the Opus Dei article, or actually it's an article written by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger when he was Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on St Josemaría Escrivá after his canonization. I will just give some extracts from it, but you can read the whole article here. It's quite a good read especially about what Holiness is, and how to live it in our lives.

...in other words, being holy is nothing other than speaking with God as a friend speaks to a friend. That is holiness...

...Truly we are all able, we are all called to open ourselves to this friendship with God, not to let go of God's hands, not to give up, turning and returning to the Lord, speaking to him as to a friend, knowing well that the Lord really is the true friend of everyone, even of those who cannot do great things on their own...

For those who have read this far, congrats or actually thanks for reading. I doubt I would have made it this far, if it wasn't my own blog. Just want to end off with a personal thought. Cos Kenny affirmed me for blogging so much, and he said "when u think alot shows u pray alot n also reflects your life as pure n holy", makes me really wonder. Cos blogging really takes time. Like this article is already taking 1hr 20mins...given that I was reading other stuff for inspiration... but still takes time from doing other things. Like reading... I've stopped reading the Lumen Gentium document... The book "Reaching for the Invisible God" which I started reading on 18 May, and I'm only on page 125 1/3 the way thru, tat's like 3 pages a day. And praying... I've could have done 1 .5 holy hours. But of cos most of the time when I write my blog is late at nite when I can't go to the ador.. but yah maybe should pray more. But not that blogging isn't good. Aiyah...wat to do...