Sunday Special: Verse a week.

In the next few weeks I am going to be elaborating on some of my goals for 2019 in hope that 1) it will motivate me to actually achieve them and 2) you will find some motivation and inspiration for your own yearly goals.

I call them goals rather than resolutions, because resolution sounds to me like something that you need to keep up every day without fail, whereas goals are things you aspire to and work towards. 

One of my spiritual goals for this year is to memorise 52 Bible verses: one verse for each week of the year.

Why bother?, you ask.

I had a number of friends over the years who were able to whip up an appropriate Bible verse together with where you could find it in the Bible just like that and I've always wondered how they did it. It has only recently occurred to me that they must have memorised them. They must have made an effort to commit those important verses to their memory so that they could permeate their lives. This is the reason why I want to memorise 52 Bible verses this year: to immerse my life in life-giving Words of God.

How do I go about it? Every morning I write out the verse in my notebook and repeated it a few times. I come back to it throughout the day and make it a centre of my prayer in the evening.

So far I'm on my second verse of the year. Last week it was the last verse of Psalm 23, this week it's a verse from the 2nd Letter to Timothy. If you feel inspired and would like to join in, here's the link to my schedule. Yellow fields are Psalms, blue are verses from the Gospel. I'm going to finish off putting in the last weeks of the year in the coming days so it will then be all ready be printed, copied into the planner or whatever else you might want to do with it.

Have a truly blessed and joyful 2019!

Sunday Special: Prepare the way of the Lord.

It's interesting that preparing brings to my mind words such as hurry, to do list, busy, overwhelmed. How different preparing for the Lord is. I am convinced that God wants us to carve out moments of silence and peace in our lives so that we can met Him away from the noise of our hectic lives. 

I've been prayerfully reading the Bible much more and finding more moments of stillness during the day. It brings me so much comfort to be able to slow down and spend time sitting in the presence of the Lord. No special acts are necessary. Just pay attention.

I often run around like a headless chicken, trying to have it all, do it all. Clean the house, get the groceries, purchase Christmas gifts, catch up with friends, mark end of term assessments, plan the last 20 odd lessons, sort out my finances, car maintenance... There is so much that clutters my mind towards the end of the year. I need to make a conscious effort to carve out a chunk of time dedicated for expanding my heart. Only in this way I can prepare for the Lord. Or at least try to prepare.

I'm not convinced that I would be completely ready for Christmas. It's such a massive task to change your heart. It takes years, not weeks. But this Advent I have an opportunity to prepare my heart through time spent in quiet prayer. This has already shone such a bright light on so many areas of my life. In so many ways I've become more compassionate, more patient, more positive (although it might not always show). Most importantly, I feel so loved and I know I have my Father in Heaven and He will keep me in all the ups and downs of my life. I just need to let Him enter.

Below is an inspiring video filmed for last year's Advent. Incredible message delivered by a joyful sister.

Sunday Special: To tithe or not to tithe?

Let's talk money today. And in particular about money given to the Church.

Under the Mosaic Law, the Israelites had to pay around 20%-30% of their income in tithe. There appear to have been three different kinds of tithe, paid in different places, for different purposes and in different amounts. The New Testament, on the other hand, does not suggest that tithing remains the obligation for the members of the Christian community. St Paul is his letters ephasises the need to give freely, and he does say that this does not have the force of a commandment (2 Cor 8:8).

Apparently Catholics are one of the least generous communities in terms of giving money to the Church. Other Christian denominations seems to be much more inclined to part with their money to support evangelisation and other works of their congregations. I wonder whether this is because the Catholic Church is seen as a large institution, whereas protestant churches, for instance, are usually single congregations without ties to large organisations?

If you follow my blog regularly, you would have seen that I'm in the process of reorganising my finances. This also applies to the money I give to the Church. I have a fixed amount I offer during collection on a Sunday each week. It's important for me since this money supports my parish directly. At the end of the day, electricity and heating bills needs to be paid, bread and wine need to be bought for Mass celebrations.

However, charity obliges to look after the poor and the needy around us. This is why I try to support the local food bank. So many families around here rely on food from donations. I'm yet to establish a regular pattern of donating, but I find it to be more meaningful than placing coins in the church basket. Charitable giving is something that I consider an important part of living out my faith. Give bread to the hungry and drink to the thirsty. It might be neither practical nor efficient to do it on individual basis (though there is time and place for it as well), but there are so many organisations that do wonderful work with those in need.

Everything belongs to God, and we only have stewardship of our resources.

I often worry about money, whether there is enough of it to cover all the expenses, to pay the bills and buy food. This sometimes makes me reluctant to suport the Church and the community. Yet God really calls me to less attachment to money. Every time I open my purse and give generously, God gives me tenfold more.

My resolution for the coming months is to become more generously and thoughtful in my giving. Have more discipline so that I have a regular pattern of giving rather than giving only when I feel guilty for not doing it often enough.

My answer to the question whether to tithe or not is to be generous in sharing your money and time with those around you: set a fixed amount of money aside each month and distribute it across different organisations according to what your heart tells you. For me this is my parish church, the local food bank and a number of charities that I support in the run-up to Christmas (Operation Christmas Child) and during Lent (CAFOD). Take time to volunteer if possible or to have a chat with your neighbour. I think we forget that time is probably our most precious resource and there are so many opportunities to give it generously for the good of others.

I would really encourage you to consider supporting the work of the church or local charities with your time and money. Christmas is approaching fast: maybe you could pack a shoe box for a child in need. It's my second year of getting involved with this project and it has brought me much joy.

Sunday Special: The Bible hack.

Do you ever think that you don't read the Bible nearly often enough?

I don't read the Bible daily and in my busy life it's so easy to get caught up in different activities and before I know it, it's already bedtime.

But I want to read the Bible every day, so I had to find a hack for this.

And I did. It's so simple, I can't believe I didn't come up with it months ago.

What is the first thing you grab after waking up? Probably your smartphone. Now, exchange the smartphone for the Bible and all of a sudden you read the Bible every morning. Use a physical book rather than an app to avoid distractions.

Read a verse, a passage, a chapter. It doesn't matter how much you read as long as you get those life-giving words into your day.

I'm currently working my way through the Letter to the Hebrews in this way. And I truly believe that it can transform my life, make me more attuned to the voice of God and more caring about people around me. Pretty good for five-ten minutes of reading each morning.

If you don't know where to start, I really love the Gospel according to St Mark. I love all of the Gospels, but Mark's one is special to me. I also really like the Letter of St Paul to the Ephesians. It really doesn't matter where you start, God will speak to you through any passage you pick as long as you are open to His voice.

It is by your holding fast to the word of life that I can boast on the day of Christ that I did not run in vain or labour in vain. (Philippians 2:16)