Weekly Guidelines
Read this week's guidelines and be nourished as you journey with our Community in Cebu.
Live in Me as I live in you(John 15:4) June 15-21, 2020 General Theme: Called to be the Word of God in the World of Today. General Objective: To live our identity as Verbum Dei in the world of today, relying on the grace of God. Objective of the week: To see the need to nurture and to live our supreme identity and mission in union with God.
INTRODUCTION We are called to live out our supreme vocation, our identity and mission in union with God. Living out our identity as Verbum Dei, as “being Word”, needs to be nurtured with our union with God. This living out of identity will be easy through prayer. Prayer is the key for us to really know our identity being the heirs of the charism that is open to the dynamism of the Spirit. Prayer is a grace from God. Prayer shows us the why, how, to whom, where, and for what to live our identity. Prayer helps us to realize that we are loved, that when people sees us they see love in us, they see Christ in us. Our supreme vocation is to be Christ for the people. To be Christ in your respective reality is to pray and to love. “I would like to say to Verbum Dei, since I feel it as my great responsibility before God that Verbum Dei without prayer will not exist, nor preach, nor expands, nor it grows.”(Fr. Jaime Bonet) Our founder mentioned in Herald of the Evangelizer “I am not afraid to confess that my call to Evangelization takes me many long hours of reflection and self-examination, and even more so if it implies a call to form or to in some way influence the formation and lives of many Evangelizers or missionaries of Jesus. I am also affected and held personally responsible in my preaching, in an explicit way, by voice or in writing, having this opportunity to influence those called to Evangelization” MONDAY Prayer reveals to us our real identity But only God, who created man to His own image and ransomed him from sin, provides a fully adequate answer to [man’s basic] questions… revealed in Christ His Son who became man. Whoever follows after Christ, the perfect man, becomes himself more of a man. (Gaudium et Spes 41) After experiencing the liberating and transforming presence of Christ through the grace of the Spirit, this enables us to commit ourselves to live our identity as Verbum Dei. Let us discover and find our true identity in Christ Jesus. Let us fixed our eyes on Him who showed us the true us. Have you found your identity in Christ? How are you convinced of it? TUESDAY Prayer leads us how to live profoundly our identity Jn. 13:15 I have set an example for you, so that you will do just what I have done for you. Jn. 14:6 Jesus answered him, I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one goes to the Father except by me. Only from a prayerful life and united to God can we live the true following of Jesus, build the Kingdom among us and create fraternal environments in our world. (Identity and Mission of the Verbum Dei Missionary Family #31) To live our identity as Verbum Dei means to walk with Jesus in all the innumerable actions, events, joys, and problems in our daily life. At this point of time, who are you following and walking with in every moment of your life? WEDNESDAY Prayer nurtures our identity in Christ John 15:4 Remain united in me, and I will remain united to you. A branch cannot bear fruit by itself, it can do so only if it remains in the vine. In the same way you cannot bear fruit unless you remain in me. Mark 1:35 - Very early the next morning, long before daylight, Jesus got up and left the house. He went out of town to a lonely place, where he prayed. There’s a need to develop a great personal familiarity with the Word of God, to grow in love in the Word we preach. Let us approach the Word with docility and prayerful heart so that it may deeply penetrate its message to us and bring about a new perspective for us. Prayer gives us fruits that empowers us to live our identity as Verbum Dei, our new life with Christ. For in Christ we go forth, through whom we live and toward whom He leads us in our journey. Have you set a particular time for prayer? Make a daily option today to nurture your identity as Verbum Dei. THURSDAY Prayer gives us hope to be Christ Rom.5:5 - This hope does not disappoint us, for God has poured out his love into our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit, who is God’s gift to us. For when we were still helpless, Christ died for the wicked at the time that God chose. Gal 3:27 You were baptized into union with Christ Jesus, and now you are clothed, so to speak, with the life of Christ himself. Living in this world, where to live our identity in Christ Jesus is a great challenge, it is most of the time not easy, yet the invitation is never to lose hope. With the difficulties thronging us, we feel all the more the need for a profound link with Christ. He has conquered the world, so we can in Him and with Him as well. God is strengthening us by letting us share in the life of Christ through the Holy Spirit that we received in our baptism. Let us, then, be faithful with our baptismal vows. During this time, how is your hope that others may see Christ in you? Or is Christ inviting you to give hope for others? FRIDAY (Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus) Prayer brings miracle within us Acts 2: 43-44 - Many miracles and wonders were being done through the apostles and everyone was filled with awe. All the believers continued together in close fellowship and shared their belongings with one another. Being at the service of the Word of God as spiritual family, and to live our identity as Verbum Dei, is to mutually support one another through the grace of the Holy Spirit. Together, may we allow God’s word to enlighten and renew us from within. What concrete ways does the Lord invites you to live your identity as Verbum Dei? Who are the concrete people the Lord wants you to accompany in this time? SATURDAY (Feast of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary) Prayer brings freedom to live our identity as Verbum Dei Gal 5:1 Freedom is what we have – Christ has set us free! Stand then as free people, and do not allow yourselves to become slaves again. Lk 2:49-51 He answered them, “Why did you have to look for me? Didn't you know that I had to be in my Father's house?” But they did not understand his answer. So Jesus went back with them to Nazareth, where he was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart. We are loved and this is our identity as Verbum Dei. To love means to be free to live our true self and to continue the same mission that Jesus has entrusted to us. To be Verbum Dei is to bring many people who needs Jesus to Him or to bring Jesus to the people He desires to reveal Himself. Being nurtured by Christ through prayer and freed to live out our identity being His Word, where or to whom does the Lord desires us to share our radicality in following Him? SUNDAY 12th Sunday in ORDINARY TIME 1st Reading: Jer. 20:10-13;
Resp. Ps: Ps 69:8-10, 14, 17, 33-35; 2nd Reading: Rom 5:12-15; Gospel: Mt. 10:26-33 |
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