You plan to move to the Philippines? Wollen Sie auf den Philippinen leben?

There are REALLY TONS of websites telling us how, why, maybe why not and when you'll be able to move to the Philippines. I only love to tell and explain some things "between the lines". Enjoy reading, be informed, have fun and be entertained too!

Ja, es gibt tonnenweise Webseiten, die Ihnen sagen wie, warum, vielleicht warum nicht und wann Sie am besten auf die Philippinen auswandern könnten. Ich möchte Ihnen in Zukunft "zwischen den Zeilen" einige zusätzlichen Dinge berichten und erzählen. Viel Spass beim Lesen und Gute Unterhaltung!


Visitors of germanexpatinthephilippines/Besucher dieser Webseite.Ich liebe meine Flaggensammlung!

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Showing posts with label Apostolic Zeal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Apostolic Zeal. Show all posts

Saturday, October 16, 2021

From abandonment to apostolic zeal






By Fr. Roy Cimagala *


          IT’S intriguing to note that when Christ sent out his

disciples in pairs to prepare his coming to the different towns, he

commanded them to “carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals, and to

greet no one along the way.” (cfr. Lk 10,1-9) He is actually telling

them not to worry so much about these items because in the end he will

take care of them.


          Such words of Christ can only remind us that we should

always be trusting of the ever powerful and merciful providence of God

who governs all of his creation with absolute effectiveness no matter

how much we mess up things.


          Yes, we may experience some privations, some losses, etc.,

in our life, but if we stick with God, we know that everything will

always work out for the good. (cfr. Rom 8,28)


          With all the things that we have to contend with in this

life, we certainly need to have a healthy sense of trust in God’s

loving and wise providence, abandoning ourselves in his will and ways

that often are mysterious to us and can appear to be contrary to what

we would like to have.


          A healthy spirit of abandonment in God’s hands is necessary

even as we exhaust all possible human means to achieve our goals or

simply to tackle all the challenges, trials and predicaments of our

life. We should never forget this truth of our faith.


          In this life, we need to acquire a good, healthy sporting

spirit, because life is actually like a game. Yes, life is like a

game. We set out to pursue a goal, we have to follow certain rules, we

are given some means, tools and instruments, we are primed to win and

we do our best, but losses can come, and yet, we just have to move on.


          Woe to us when we get stuck with our defeats and failures,

developing a loser’s mentality. That would be the epic fail that puts

a period and a finis in a hanging narrative, when a comma, a colon or

semi-colon would have sufficed.


          We need a sporting spirit because life’s true failure can

come only when we choose not to have hope. That happens when our

vision and understanding of things is narrow and limited, confined

only to the here and now and ignorant of the transcendent reality of

the spiritual and supernatural world.


          It’s only when we are properly detached from the things of

this world and trust in the powerful providence of God that we can

develop the ideal apostolic zeal. To develop our zealous apostolic

concern surely entails sacrifice. We should not be surprised if in

pursuing it we are challenged, faced with difficulties and asked to do

self-denials and other forms of sacrifice.


          We just have to hold firm on our Christian conviction,

together with the continuing petition for God’s grace and the generous

discharge of our human effort, that to do apostolate is the will of

God. He is bent in accomplishing it. It’s his first concern to contend

with the difficulties. Ours is simply to cooperate.


          We have to continually ask ourselves if our thoughts and

desires bear an eminently apostolic character. If not, let’s

immediately do the necessary adjustments and corrections.


          We have to embark also on a life-long effort to acquire

apostolic skills—how to make friends and deepen that friendship, how

to pursue full blast the supernatural apostolic goal of our life while

respecting our natural conditions, etc.


* Chaplain Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com