AP (Mural)

THE MAKING

The Video: http://animoto.com/play/j6jleP0XORYMwa2WMGYqcw

CE Chapter 10 Reflection (substitute of Retreat Reflection) (Louise Escobar)

 

JESUS SACRIFICED FOR US. (ch 10)

Long before Jesus ever died on a cross, He made a tremendous sacrifice for you.  Most have heard how Jesus died on a cross and how His death pays the penalty for our sins, but did you know that long before He breathed the last breath before His death, He gave up who He was for you and me?

John 1 tells us that “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (verses 1, 14).  The Word who was with God and who was God is the One we know as Jesus the Christ.  He is the One who made all things and nothing was made without Him (John 1:3).  He is the One who created all things “that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible” (Colossians 1:16).  He is the One who is before all things and who makes all things consist (Colossians 1:17).
The life of Jesus started well before He was known as the man Jesus on the earth.  He was the One who spoke to Moses in the burning bush and said, “I AM that I AM”.  He declared Himself as this same I AM when He said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:58).  I Corinthians 10 tells us that the Spiritual Rock that followed the Israelites in the desert when they wandered was the same Christ (I Corinthians 10:1-4).
Long before Jesus died He made a great sacrifice for us; He gave up who He was as God with all His power and might.  Philippians 2:5-8 tell us,

In chapter 10, it's about the sufferings and the sacrifices of Jesus Christ our Lord. It tells us to follow the Lord our God and to carry our own crosses. To follow and love God for all that He has done for us; to listen to Him even facing all the trials that life is giving. Jesus died on the cross to redeem us from our sins Through His sacrifice, He reconciled humanity with God. It's the way of the cross to give us the lesson that God sacrificed and gave His life for us. That through HIs sacrifice on the cross, Jesus showed His love for humanity. By all the sufferings and death on the cross, He redeemed us from the slavery of sin and opened the gates of eternal life. one way that we can share the sufferings of Jesus Christ is by giving submitting ourselves unto Him whole heartedly. Our God is our God. He is our moghty Savior, Lord, and Son of our Creator. We should love Him in all ways that we can. LOVE GOD.  <3

Jesus loves you so much that He was willing to give up all His power and reputation as God to come in the form of a servant and to be clothed with flesh as a man, just like you and me.  He made himself like a part of His own creation.  He humbled himself to become like us for the purpose of giving us eternal life.  He gave up His eternal life so that we could have it.  He gave up being with God so that we could live with God forever.
Imagine that the Word, now God in the flesh, Emanuel, Jesus, was for the first time in his life separated from the Father by flesh.  He was no longer in the Spirit dwelling with God the Father, but He was on earth where He had to eat and sleep, where He felt pain and got tired, where he could be injured and die.  Jesus made a tremendous sacrifice to simply become a man.
It was in this part of His great sacrifice that Jesus was made perfect or complete, being identified with the sufferings of mankind (Hebrews 2:9-18; 4:14-16).  He is now able to minister on our behalf in Heaven with understanding and compassion because He lived in the flesh as a man and was tempted by sins as a man is.  Jesus made Himself like us so that He could better serve us.

Revelation 14:7 - Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.

CE Life Verse (Louise Escobar)

MY CE LIFE VERSE <3 

I think Luke 7:12 tells a lot about how we should love our neighbor. 
“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”
We should treat others as we would like to be treated but that treatment should be informed by the Law and Prophets. Some people engage in self-destructive behaviors. If someone is a drug addict, giving them the next fix is not an act of love. We need to do the right thing for our neighbor and that is not necessarily the nice thing.

What I get out of the verses is that we are to act as the Good Samaritan acted, which means as we walk the path Christ leads us down in our lives,  as we live our lives, we are to stop when we see people hurting, and reach out and help them, however we can. I think this ties into the verse, as we do unto the least, we do unto Him, Christ. The focus is more on those hurting, and we see how Christ in His life practiced this, He could not turn away, when He saw people hurting, He had to reach out and help them. And there is something I found myself recently thinking about, when He was doing this, it was before his sacrifice on the cross, it was when He was preaching the message to his people, the Jews.  Even then, He could not walk by a human being hurting and not stop and help them, many of them outcasts, outsiders, Gentiles. But I have to remember, He created each one of us, He loves each one of us. When we hurt, He hurts. He cannot look away. His love compels Him to gaze upon our pain. Can you imagine feeling the pain of the world, seeing all the hurting we do to each other, all of the time, not being able to look away from it?

LOVE CONQUERS ALL. 

LUKE 10: 27 is all about love. Loving God and loving our neighbors as how we love ourselves. 

That's my life verse simply because its generally what people needs. With love we can create love, modesty, and grace. Love is the most important thing in life; love makes everything else seem less important. As the saying goes, 'Love conquers all'. What does it mean?Does love really conquer all?

A beautiful thing to believe.  Its  a phrase that means love is capable of overcoming all obstacles such as fear or any other contradicting emotion. Here's a link on a  wonderful example of how love conquered all in a life of a person whose having a serious  decision in her life that takes love, true love to be done.http://thoughtcatalog.com/2012/love-conquers-all/

Going back to LOVE. We can make a difference with love. Love is the beginning of everything. And love is God. Loving other people as you love yourself can create peace will make a domino effect . And through this, evil; anger; hatred: and all that is negative  will detoriate and can make our place a better world to live in. 

John 3:16 is a great verse that shows how God gave His Son to save us. An example in my life how he showed that to me is wonderful and treasurable. He shows that to me EVRERYDAY. He never failed to amuse me. He protects and guides me everyday. He blesses me even through my rough times. He forgives me even through the most stupid sins I do.... He is God. Our Almight Father. A lot of trials passed through my life. Family, social, financial, behaviour, and all the problems that a girl like me could get, but what God did is that He never let me down. He had faith in me. He helped me and answered my prayers. He was there when nobody else was. He gave his arms even to the point were everything is doing wrong. He's my bestfriend, all time brother and at the  same time  Father. HE IS GOD. <3

CE My Worship Experience (Mark Adajar)

Our Church (Christ the King Parish)

          God is our creator. He is the most supreme being the exists. He loves us unconditionally. He takes care of us in everyday of our lives. In return, we should worship and glorify him with all our hearts. Worship is our response to God for who he is and what he has done, expressed in and by the things we  say and the way we live. The purpose of our worship is to glorify, praise, and please god. Our worship must show adoration and loyalty to God for his grace in providing us with the way to escape the sins we have done, so we can have the salvation he so wants to give us. Our worship demands the surrender of our souls before him in humble and contrite submission.

"Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up."

"Be humble because until the sun with all its grandeur, let the moon shines."

Always keep your feet on the ground. A person can achieve everything by being simple and humble. Be humble when you are victorious because God does things to make you humble, other things to keep you humble and yet others to make sure you're still humble. 

          Last Sunday I went to church.The teaching is all about being humble. our preacher is telling us that whatever life gives you, even of it hurts, just be strong and faithful to God. Strong walls shake, but never collapse. What ever happens, all you need to do is to stand strong like what trees do. the roots are holding tightly on the soil. It means that we should hold onto the Lord tightly like what the root of the trees do. It's the only way to keep ourselves strongly standing whatever problems would come.

"Even the strongest wind blows, just remain standing while holding onto God's promises."

CE My Worship Experience (Louise Escobar)

MY WORSHIP EXPERIENCE <3

My worship experience? Well...I based all this from my experience last Sunday as I went to church at Christ The King Parish. I listened to the Gospel and observed each and every procedure during the so called 'worship' or others might call it, devotion.

 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.  Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.  Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.  Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.  For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. (PSALM 100:1-5)

A lot of people usually asks if going to Church and praying at home has the same worth or value; has the same impact or sense. Well, if you ask me, I'd say that praying is a great way of talking to God or communicating Him. It's about the sincerity and purity of our hearts while praying and confessing unto Him. Prayer is good, as long as you do it right. But does it have the same value from going to church?

Practically speaking, no it does not have the same value. Being inside the church has a different aura from just being inside our homes.It's about visiting God and giving time for Him. To make it simple, imagine you talking or texting with someone over the phone and you visiting them personally. See the difference? Its that simple. It's a way of showing God that we give ourselves unto Him.  A little sacrifice and God appreciates that more than enough. And to add on it, worshipping the Lord our God comes in different aspects. It starts with  the heart,with the sincerity of the heart, the aura and setting, and most importantly, the contents of the prayer itself. <3

When I went to  church last Sunday, I listened to the mass. Iprayed first when I came in. I was late for a few minutes. But, I still got the chance to listen in the priest's Homily. The priest's sermons and Gospels are very authentic and holy. I consistently prayed silently. I worshipped God in the form of singing, clapping, praying and praising. I kneeled and prayed which is done three times every mass service.We had the communion which is a form or receiving God, His holy which is represnted by the bread and the wine which represents His blood. Few announcements was stated and the mass ended with a smile on our faces and a clap as well. 

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-8TD0HaLfg

CE Retreat (Mark Adajar)

              I learned a lot in our retreat at the Capuchin Retreat Center. The surrounding is so quiet and peaceful. It will renew your peace of mind and you will enjoy the beauty of nature in this place. This is a perfect venue for a spiritual get away that helps people encounter their truest self and gain a fresh perspective of God`s presence and action in their life.

        In our retreat, there is that specific activity that really struck my feelings. We shared our problems with each other. All of us have their own problems. The only difference is hos big or small that problems are. We have different ways to cope with those problems. Based on my observation we have ways on how to hide our problems in a way that no one could ever imagine. That`s one of our defense mechanisms as human beings. We don`t want others to see us emotional because they will think that we are weak.

        For some of us, crying is showing of weakness. For me crying is the best way to represent that we've been strong for a long time. All the problems and sufferings in our life is hidden at he bottom of our heart. that`s what we want so that no one would see you as a weak person. we will just hide it all. when our heart can no longer handle all the pains in our life, crying is the best way that we can do. Crying is the best representation of what our mouth can't say and our hearts can't handle anymore.

"The loneliest people are the KINDEST. The saddest people smile the BRIGHTEST. The most damaged people are the WISEST. All because they do not wish to see anyone else suffer the way they do."

Sometimes the strongest among us are the one who smile through silent pain, cry behind closed doors, and fight battles that nobody knows about.

No matter how hard we're going through, no matter how much tears shed in our eyes, and no matter how broken our heart is we should never give up.Never let anything or anyone bring you down.

CE My Worship Experience (Kathlyn Caballero)

Our Church

                  There are so many religion a man can be with. There are so many ways a man can worship God. I am a human who's loving God. I am a human who's worshiping Him. I Thank God for the blessings; I thank God for protecting me, I thank God for everything when I worship Him.

Hymn Book

                I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Since I was a child, I belong to it. I worship God there and I enjoy my christian life there. As I observe our ways in worshiping God, first, there was a conducting speaker that will introduce and give information to the flow of the service. After, we will sing an opening hymn to invite the spirit within us. We use our own hymn book for us to see the lyrics in a easier way. We sing in a solemn way with accompany of the piano and sing with a peace on our heart. After, a person will pray so must bow down our head and close our eyes. After that, we will sing a sacrament hymn to invite the spirit when we do our sacrament and while we're singing, the priesthood will prepare the sacrament. The sacrament is where we take the bread to remember the body of thy son Jesus Christ and water to remember his blood, to remember Him, and keep his commandments. After we take our sacrament, a speaker will talk about a specific topic that can inspire us to do good things. Through this, we can learn about something that can help us to renew ourselves. This is where the speaker will share his/her testimony and what he/she believes. Afterwards, we will sing a hymn and will continue to the other speaker. After, we will sing again and pray. Then we will go to our Sunday school.

The Sacrament

Meeting

                After I go to church, I feel the spirit within me. I feel that I'm renewed. I feel that I want to share my testimonies to others, I feel the goodness of God. I can feel his love. Through it, I enjoyed worshiping God and maybe, I will enjoy it for the rest of my life for I know it's true and I will be blessed if I continuously seek Him and trust Him.

CE Life Verse (Mark Adajar)

Philippians 4:13

Our existence today is the best gift of God for us. He gave us the chance to experience everything, and that`s his best gift. God only gave us one life here on Earth so we should not waste it. Enjoy life to the fullest and never let problems be the reason for us to hate this life or even worst, end this life.

All of us undergo different problems, some are strong enough to overcome those problems but some don`t have the faithful spirit to cope with it. There is no one in the world who is problem free.

My life verse is Philippians 4:13,

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

This verse gives me strong faith that I can do anything because God is always by my side. I know that even the hardest problem has a solution. Sometimes we just need to think deeply to know the answer. Sometimes we need to sacrifice for the good of everyone.

I hold onto this life verse especially when I want to achieve something. In studying, I always tell myself that I can do it. No matter what or no how. I will give my best and I know that God will do the rest. It`s just like in playing basketball. The moment you quit and totally lose hope is the moment you lose the game. In order to win a game, just remain in the game. 

We should never give up because we only live once. As long as we`re breathing, life must go on. Hope is what keeps us going. Our hope keeps us strong and helps us motivate towards our goal. So never give up your hope no matter how hard the situations is right now.

"What ever happens, be still. never give up because God has his own purpose for everything."

CE Retreat (Kathlyn Caballero)

                There are so many questions that I can't answer. There are so many things that I want to know. I am not perfect. I also commit mistakes but this retreat makes me realize what life is really all about.

Capuchin Retreat Center

My Classmates

                When I enter the retreat house, I feel the warm breeze of the area; I feel the peace all around the venue; I feel that I am in a safe place. As we go around, we enjoyed seeing different things about nature and it makes me realize that I can enjoy my life when I focus myself to the Lord. While the session is ongoing, I can feel that I will enjoy the times I am with my classmates, friends, my very own best friend, and my teachers. I can learn new things about them and be happy while sharing stuffs about ourselves. When we had our first activity, I enjoyed listening to the speaker. Because of him, I learned so many things. He is so funny and so friendly that I feel that I'm comfortable when he is speaking. I am really happy whenever I listen to his talk because I know that when I will listen to him, I will learn new things and how will I handle myself in every trials.

My Family

                There are so many things I've learned because of the retreat. I've learned that being pure is really important because it is the most precious thing you can give to your true love. It is the most precious thing that God gave to me so I must take care of it. I also learned that I must treasure my loves ones. Especially my family and my best friend. Because they are the ones that can make me happy and that can help me in every trials. I know and I believe that they will never leave me behind and will love me for what I am. My family provides and support my everyday needs. They give me advice so I may handle my life correctly.

My Best Friend

My best friend is always there for me. She always listen to my dramas and she help and support me in everything I do. She love me for what I am and makes me happy every time I am with her. The retreat makes me realize that I must love them also and take care of them for they are God's blessing to me.

             






                 This retreat is so memorable for me. It helps me face the world and be an example to everyone. I also learned that every man has a different problems and it's up to them how they will handle it. But in all things, the most precious thing I've learned is that we must not forget God.

CE Life Verse (Kathlyn Caballero)

              I undergo trials; I commit mistakes; I feel pain and as a live, I will continuously engage to it because I am a child of God. I believe that God only give trials for us to learn and to know the true purpose in life. God said,

       "Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him (James 1:12)."

It means that we will be blessed if we endure under trials and if we always seek his guidance. For the purpose of trials is not just to test our faith. It is also for us to draw closer to God. For God knows that if we have problems, challenges, and trials we will come closer to him, seek after him, and pay attention to him. But it is also depend on the person whether they look to it negatively. God wants us to become faithful to him. God gives trials and he knows that we can accomplish it. Remember that God know our capacity to take trials. It is up to us on how we can handle it. God gives us holy spirit to guide us and put us in the right way. All we have to do is live with it, listen, walk with it.

               Sometimes, I feel so blessed when I have challenges in life because I know he only wants me to exercise my faith to him and because of my trials, I can changes. I will grow spiritually and realize that he blesses me everyday.

               I love God, I know that he also loves me. He gave me trials that I might see the goodness in Him. He wants me to love other people as he loves me. I will try my best to become worthy daughter of Him and I'll accept any trials for I know I will be blessed and will try my best to endure to the end. But don't forget, in everything we do, seek first the kingdom of God.