A Child

From this day and to the coming weeks, our country will celebrate many festivals in many different province around the whole country. All of this festivals is made in honor of the Sto. Niño.

There are many kinds of image of Sto. Niño in our country, all are reflecting what kind of life each one has.

When is the devotion in Sto. Niño begun?

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When Teresa de Jesus of Avila was asked to reform the carmelite order of nuns, together with st. John of the cross, they decided that the reformation must begun immediately.This is to avoid the nuns from living with so much wealth and prestige and for them to live back to a simple life as a servant of God.
Then Teresa made a group which she called the discalced order of the carmelite. discalced means go in barefoot.She knows that because of this the wealthy people inside the convent may get angry to her. But she pursue doing it because she knew it was the right thing to do.

Then one day, Teresa went back to their old monastery in Avila.
She was surprised when she entered in the monastery and she saw a little boy playing a ball. She asked herself, how this boy come inside this place? because only the sisters are allowed to enter the monastery. Then he asked the child, "What is your name?".
the boy only smiled at her and continue playing.
but she asked again, "What is your name?".
the boy looked at her and also asked her, "you, what is your name?".
Teresa answered with the name she chose when she became a nun, "I am Teresa of Jesus".
and the boy answered, "then, I am Jesus of Teresa".
the boy ran and suddenly disappear.

Teresa decided to make an image of a little boy Jesus, so that all the sisters will continue to be reformed.
In this child we will see His poverty, his lowliness, his sense of doing the will of God, that is why he became a man.

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That is how the first sto. Niño appeared.

It is an invitation for us to asked ourselves, "Am I belong to Jesus?"

The original image of the child Jesus that was made for Teresa, can now be found in the Czech Republic, in the city of Prague. That is the Sto. Nino de Prague, the original image of Sto. Niño.

Here in our country, we all know when is the first image of sto. Nino came from.
When the Spaniards came and they baptized the first Filipino Christians, one of those to be baptized happened to be the daughter of the Datu, a princess. And as a gift they decided to give her a beautiful gift, the first Sto. Niño ever that was given to the Filipinos. Which remains to be the Sto. Niño de Cebu.

Truly, it is good to see that we have our own image of the child Jesus in our home, even in our business area there is a sto.nino.

Today, let me advice you this,
Go, put clothes on your sto.Nino, decorate it, put coins on it, put candies on it, there is no problem with that.
Its good that you owned this sto. Nino, that you make yourselves close to them.
But please dont forget that the story does not end there.
That we may also say, "I am Ash of Jesus"
and Jesus may say to us, "I am Jesus of Ash".

In this feast of the Sto. Niño,
feel good, feel happy and say "I have a Sto Nino in my home, it is mine. but I pray too that Jesus will say, they are also mine because I belong to them as they belong to me".

That devotion to the child Jesus challenges us to be like Him in obedience to the Father.
The Sto. Nino challenges us to be like Him, pleasing to God.
once you understand that, you understood the true meaning of this devotion.



Please do not forget the meaning of that devotion,

that one day, we may truly be declared as children of the heavenly Father, pleasing to Him.




May your life be truly blessed,


Ash





(inspired by fr. Mar)

Obedience

Are you obedient to your parents?
Do you follow their will? or not?
and most of all,

Are you obedient to your God?


Friends, When Jesus approach John the baptist and ask for baptism, John prevent Him and said "I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?" but Jesus answered, "Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness."

What I want to tell to you is simple, that from the start, even if it don't look alright, even if it is not the best way to do, there is only one thing in the mind of Christ. Fulfill the will of the Father.

If the father declares Jesus as His beloved son with whom He is most pleased, It is because Christ His son knows how to listen and obey Him.
That defines the Son.

Obedience.

It came from a Latin word, obi-dire means listening and obeying.

In the end we as the new children of God, will truly be pleasing to Him if like Jesus, we also know how to listen and to obey.

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Today, many Filipinos are focused on the Black Nazarene of Quiapo.
According to some source, 6 million people will go to the church just to see the image.
Also on this day, the tradition of pulling the ropes during the procession and throwing their towel in order to touch the image of Jesus is done. They are doing all of this sacrifice because they want to be blessed.
We all wished for good life, more blessings, less problems and less sufferings. But the Black nazarene, image of Jesus we celebrate, is Jesus who is kneeling, full of blood, carrying His cross with all of His wounds and crowned with thorns.

This is the God who did not refuse all pains just to obey his Father.

What I am telling you is this, If we are truly have faith in Him, what we must ask more than the wealth, more than the luck, more than this financial blessings is like Him we may be obedient to the Father that we believed in. That is when true devotion begins to happen. When you go near to the black nazarene of Quiapo, remember a suffering God, because He wanted to obey His Father's will.

More than all of the blessings, ask for the gift of OBEDIENCE, because that is the only way that the Father can say, that is whom I am pleased, that is whom I loved, that is my child because he/she became obedient to my will.


Sometimes, the problem is we are very much attached to our own will. We want our own will to be done. And sometimes we modify what God has already planned in our life.

Today, we end officially the celebration of Christmas and it is true that during Christmas, we rejoice in this one fact that the Son of God humbles himself to be a man. But today because of baptism, we are rejoicing for we, the children of man unites with Christ, exalted and became children of God.

Now, our responsibility is to continue His mission and live up to the dignity of being children of the same heavenly Father.

Let us hope that one day will come, when the Lord will look at us and declare as He has declared for Jesus His son,

"That is my beloved child, with whom I am well pleased"


Let us obey His will, even if we do not really understand, even if we do not like, and we will truly be defined as beloved to Him.

Obedience.
Today we ask for that grace.
and may the Father truly one day say,


"They are my children, knows how to obey. I Love them."




May you life truly be blessed,

Ash








(inspired by fr. mar)

Which way will you take?

There is a story about 3 farmers going to the market to sell their crops, melon and watermelon.
Along halfway they started chatting with each other and talk about some matters until the time that they talk a topic about religion. The two farmers had the moment of debate where they are debating about the question, "What is the true and best religion?"

After some time of debating and talking about it, they ask their other companion, the eldest among them and probably the most wiser, they ask the topic they are debating.

He answered,
You know, it is like what we are doing now. We are going to the market to sell our harvested fruits, we can go this short way to arrive early to the market but the road is too steep that makes it dangerous for our fruits and ourselves. The other way is another short way but the road is too rough. Another way is a very long road that will take some time for us to walk before we can go to the market.

You are asking about what is the true religion.
When we sell our fruits to the market the buyer will not ask which way we take in order to bring our fruits to the market, instead they will ask, How sweet is your melon?, How fresh is your fruits?

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Today,we are told about something that is important. That the salvation is not only for the Jews, but for the whole world. That the truth is not exclusive to a particular group of people but for all who seeks the truth.


In Jerusalem, there are people that is known as an expert about the scripture, the people who which herod asked where the messiah will be born.
When Jesus became a man, there are also people who knows about His birth. First is the shepherd who got direct revelation from the angels and another is the wise men. They are from far away land but they went to Bethlehem with only the star as their guide.They are nature worshipers, they dont have religion but they went and search for he king that was born.This wise men, probably astrologers, went and offer their gifts and then go.They are not baptized as Christians, but they worshiped Jesus as the way they worship a great king. But the people who claim to be the expert in scriptures did not come to worship the king.

We do not say that all religions are the same, what we say is that we Christians, we have gotten the truth in its fullness. Because of the truth that we received, we can really know God, love Him and truly serve Him.

There are many ways of reaching God, There are many paths to attain heavenly reality, but if we lose our focus, it can be like we know the truth but we cannot arrive to the place where we must go.

What will gifts will you offer to Jesus when you arrive at Him?
How sweet is your melon?
Is your life pleasing to God?
Is the life you will offer, is a life that is full?


There is a woman who will celebrate her 100th birthday this January. A priest ask the woman, what makes you live a long life? and she answered,"My love for God and for others".

The secret of her life is by living it simple, My life is for the God I believe in and for the people I would like to serve.

When we come face to face with God, It is not how long or short our life was, it is not where or how we came to Him, are you a catholic, INC, born again, protestant or any other religion it doesn't matter. The only thing that He would ask, "The melon that you bring, is that sweet?"

DId you became fruitful?
Did you leave a pleasing life?
Was your life, is a life that was lived well and a life that matters?

The Lord tells us,
He is a God of all nations,
He is a God of all who desire to find the truth,
He is a God who will grant salvation to anyone who walks by the light of the star of faith and walk in the light of the truth of God.


As we enter the new year 2011,Thank the Lord for the all the blessings he gave this past year and Ask for the lord's guidance and ask for His light. So that this whole year, we may live our lives to its full as a way to be with Him.Pray that our life will be fruitful. And also be the Light for your neighbors. Be the one who bears the Light of Christ. Bring others closer to Jesus and in that way you became the same light, the same star that appear on the sky during the first Christmas.

How sweet is your melon?

We have only one life, lets use it, and live your life to its full.

Lets pray for the unity of the whole world, and for the unity of all Christians.
Let us pray for each other that we may find our religion as the way to lead us to our king.
That when the evening of our life has come, we can see each other with Jesus, regardless of what religion we belong while we are here on earth.

Our king was born, and reveals himself to all nations.

Love God by serving His people.

A happy and blessed new year to all of us!





May your life be truly blessed,

Ash