Novena - Do You Recognise God's Voice

This week I attended a bible sharing with some university students, and they were reflecting on this Sunday’s Gospel passage. One girl remarked “I can’t believe that Jesus just approached the fishermen Simon, Andrew, James and John, and said to them ‘Come follow me, and I will make you fishers of men’, and they just left everything and followed him, How did they know he was the Messiah, not some mad man? Didn't they ask him who he was, listen to what he was teaching first, make sure he was the Messiah first before agreeing to follow him?"

I don’t believe that St Mark was trying to say that was exactly how it happened. But what St Mark was trying to say was, that when God calls, it is an invitation to respond, and that is what the fishermen did.

But the problem is, how do we know when God is calling us, and what he is calling us to do? Like the university student, we all want some kind of surety. We want to know is that really God's voice? Is that what he really wants me to do?

Sometimes I get jealous when I read about the prophets in the Old Testament, how God speaks to them so directly. Like Jonah in todays 1st reading, and Mother Mary who had an angel appear to her. Why can't God speak to us like that? Then at least we can be sure of what he wants of us.

The truth is that God is still speaking to us today. The question that we need to ask ourselves is how familiar are we of the voice of God? I'm sure we all have experiences where we pick up the phone and just from the greeting of the other person, we know who it is. Especially if it is our mother or a very close friend. That is because we have spent much time speaking and listening to them that we know the sound of their voice, and even the way they talk.

So it us with God, we will only know his voice if we spend time in prayer with him. Not just praying for blessings and giving thanks, but in also listening to what he has to say, through the scriptures, the church, and even the Catholics around you.

How often we turn to God also plays a part to getting to know his will and call for us. Most people only associate God's call to the call to the priesthood, or when they have a major or difficult decision to make. But God is speaking to us everyday, even in the small things, trying to guide us in our lives if we only allow him to, and if we only ask him.

He may be saying to you that a colleague is going through a tough time and just needs a listening ear, or for you to invite your friend for Mass one day. Try asking God in the morning, what do you want me to do today.

The more we pray, the more we ask him to reveal his plan for us, the closer we will grow to him, and the more familiar we will be of his voice. So when he really asks something big of us, we will be a bit more sure that it is him speaking to us.

Then we just need to have a bit of courage and trust, and do it. We don't need to be 100% sure. The prophets, the disciples and even Mother Mary were not 100% sure of what good was asking of them. It is only as they lived out God's call that they became more and more sure.

So let us pray that we too may be more aware of God's call in out lives, and we continue to grow closer to him. Amen.

Lent Seasoning

When we use the word "season" for Lent, we are usually referring to the period of fourty days of preparation before Easter. But the word "season" also bears another meaning, which the dictionary defines as "to improve and enhance the flavour of food"

I remember when I was young, there was this Maggi Seasoning in its uniquely shaped bottle, that I would add to my half boiled eggs to enhance the taste and flavour. This same seasoning was used by my mum to marinate everthing from chicken and pork to stir-fried vegetables.

It is this image of seasoning and marinating that I find relevant to the season of Lent. When we season a piece of meat before cooking, we usually cover the meat with the seasoning, making sure that it is completely covered, sometimes even rubbing or massaging so that the seasoning will go into the meat. Often we would leave the meat to soak in the seasoning to allow the flavour to soak all the way through.

Similarly when we look at our "Lenten Seasoning", we are given forty days to be "marinated" by the various Lenten Practices that we are undertaking. First what are we seasoning ourselves with? There are the 3 practices of Fasting, Almsgiving and Prayer that the Church recommends as the best seasoning. Because they help us look at 3 areas in our lives. Fasting looks at our lives and what are the things that we have allowed to take control of our lives, not just food, but other distractions or addictions. Almsgiving makes us look at others, not just about giving money, but giving our time, energy and love. And prayer of course makes us turn back to God.

Meat that is seasoned properly makes it tender, enhances the taste, and it is not just on the surface that it can be washed away. So too our Lenten Seasoning, has to be something that transforms us internally. The effects of our fasting cannot be that we lose weight, but are we tempering our desires and feelings. Our almsgiving cannot result just in a lighter wallet, but are we more aware of the needs of others and growing in our relationships. And our prayer has to result in an increase in our relationship and love of God. Though we will stop our lenten practices at Easter, the effects of a properly "seasoned" person will continue in the lives we lead.

So let us pray that our Lenten Seasoning this year may not just be "garnishing" that is put on externally and just looks nice, but that it will truly transform us within to be tastier, tender and holier when we celebrate the gift of New Life at Easter.

Are our Radios Tuned?

In the recent Superbowl, Budweiser came up with and advertisement about a group of plane crash survivors stranded on a deserted island. One of them managed to salvage the plane's radio, and there seems to be a glimmer of hope that they can make send out a distress signal and be rescued from the island.



Link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjPDlAroblI

But another guy finds the plane's beverage cart, and it is filled with Budweiser beer. And we see the group lose interest in the radio, and start to drink, party and have fun. Budweiser probably intended the ad to emphasise on how beer brings fun and enjoyment in the now moment. But I don't think they realise that it also sends a message that beer drinking distracts people from the important things in life - Here being to be rescued off the island.

The ad reflects the current day mindset and culture that is being promoted, spend the money that you have earned or even before you earn it. Enjoy the pleasures of life. Live in the Now, let tomorrow worry about itself. Just like how just as the woman got the radio working, the guy tunes it to play music to liven up the party. The ad might seem funny and exaggerated, yet its scary how real it can reflect the lifestyle we are living, where we let ourselves be "controlled" by our need for "pleasure".

In life we can sometimes get distracted by the needs and pleasure of the present moment, and forget about the important thing in life - God and his promise of salvation. That there is a "tomorrow" that we are looking ahead, and not just about enjoying the "Today". It is thus that our Lenten practices help us to realise how we are controlled by our needs and pleasure. Fasting helps us to transcend our fleshly desires, Almsgiving helps us to not be ego-centric and to think of others in need, and Prayer helps us to remember God our salvation and our final destination.

Now that we are 10 days into Lent, lets look at what Lenten practices we have undertaken, and whether they are helping us to be in control of our earthly desires, and tune our "radios" to the salvation that God has graced us with.

Prayer - B.A.P.T.I.S.M

Recently I came across this post in a blog by a seminarian in Miami. He managed to come up with an acronym, that he uses in his catechism classes to teach the different kinds of prayer.

What I've learnt in the past was that there were prayer could be classified into 4 main categories. Praise, Adoration, Intercession and Thanksgiving. But looking at his acronym B.A.P.T.I.S.M sounds like quite a good way to remember, with the few additions.

B = Blessing (to invoke God’s power for a person, place or activity)
A = Adoration (the “created” before the Creator)
P = Praise (glorify God)
T = Thanksgiving (gratitude)
I = Intercession (I ask God for OTHERS) + Petition (I ask God for ME)
S = “Sorry” (ask for forgiveness)
M = Mass (Eucharist source and summit of our faith)

I changed the "M" from Meditation to Mass, as I've always learnt that the Eucharist/Mass is the highest form of prayer.

Its great to see creative ways of making the faith easier to understand and remember. And also to make it more interesting to teach the faith. I remember doing one for a confirmation retreat, on Christian living using the acronym S.A.C.R.A.M.E.N.T. But can't really recall what each stands for. Must go and find if I still have the session notes stored somewhere.