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Fellowship and Community, to me, can be likened to an intense blazing fire… while it’s people are the flame’s embers. It is vital that we, the members of community, stay within that fire… it is what keeps our hearts burning for God.
No one can maintain such an intense zeal all by his/her lonesome… a person needs to belong to a fellowship… a group of individuals gathered for the same purpose.
You feed off of one another… you share experiences… you lift each other up.
Take away an ember from the fire and the ember’s glow diminishes slowly… similar to a person taken away from community and fellowship for long stretches of time.
In order to maintain that zeal and enthusiasm, one needs to be part of active community worship and service.
I thank the Lord that I found my family at . My KG (Koinonia Group) buddies in “Disciple 1″ have always been there for me as we all have for one another. I always look forward to our gatherings and actively participate in sharing and discussions. It brings me great great joy to praise and worship the Lord every day!
I enjoy prayer time… I love talking about God… I look forward to Sunday Mass every week. It’s the most wonderful feeling I have ever experienced.
Looking back now, I seem to wonder how I survived not belonging and actively participating in any community in the past.
All I know now is that, I am never going back to my old life…
I found God… in a very personal way… and boy, does it feel great!
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Praise God and more fire!
Jas
Comment by November 20, 2007 @ 3:22 amFirstly, let me just say I’m not Catholic. I have recently posted about the Catholic Church and my questions about it from what I have seen here in Italy. You seem to have a really beautiful personal relationship with God and for that I am truly happy. But there remain so many unanswered questions about the Catholic church and their teachings which I just cannot understand the reasons for. Like praying to Mary and to other Saints. The bowing down in front of statues and many other little actions which seem to be so meaningful to them but totally unbiblical. I hope to learn more by reading your blogs…
Comment by November 25, 2007 @ 12:02 am@ NEMO
I understand how you feel… I have had a ton of questions way back then.
Yes, I have a beautiful and STILL growing relationship with God. But I grew closer only when I slowly understood His ways, teachings and His life.
In answer to some of your queries… one, our prayer to the Virgin Mary is to honor her… to give recognition… when we pray to her, it is in an intercessory manner.
For example, the prayer “HAIL MARY” has the line, “PRAY for us sinners now and at the hour of our death…”. “Pray” meaning, to petition us. Same goes for the saints. It is not to pray directly to them, but to ask for intercession.
In the same manner that we talk to our loved ones who have already passed away… maybe a father or an uncle… we talk to them knowing that they’re just nearby listening to us.
Christians and Catholic Christians have about a 95% similarity in faith.
It just so happens that there are other more outrageous devout (?) Catholics, like the ones we have here in the Philippines who go to the extent of, for example, wiping the feet of statues with oil using their handkerchiefs and touching it on their faces. That for me is pretty much overboard already. So it really depends which “Catholic” you look at.
I hope I am able to inspire you more through this blog and to help you understand more about the Catholic Christian faith.
God bless you always, Nemo.
Comment by November 25, 2007 @ 4:22 pm