Spirituality....

When Jesus called his 12 disciples, he did not turn around to ask them in a private conference what he thought of each new disciple that he called. He just called, and they left their nets or tax collection...or whatever....and followed Jesus.

*****
Let's keep this in mind today.

1. So the youths went for youth rally. Leaving a measly group of us. M did her best to keep spirits and morale up. C encouraged us to sit closer to each other. And the organ was not playing full blast as per normal so that the measly group could be heard.

2. Cantor
So yesterday was a boo boo in terms of who is to sing. So marvic was assigned, not ready, so pass to greg, who got called to youth rally, so pass to martin, who through miscommunication, did not know that the task was passed to him, so pass to big J.
Huh????
And by this point, M was beginning to feel flustered. But M being M, never loss her cool.

3. A little bird sang to me that C was not happy with people talking as they walk into church, with people sms-ing during mass, during sermon.
I guess C feels torn that open mouth or not open mouth he will offend this bunch of people called 'youths'.
Which brings me to the MAIN POINT TODAY....

Spirituality....
Sprituality is like a seed, planted, nurtured and it will grow.
Sometimes on good soil, surrounded by sunlight, water and good nutrients, it blossoms as it should.
Sometimes, diseases strike or somebody forgot to water it, then it starts to wither.
Although, as it is withering, it probably has no idea that it is showing signs of withering.

****
And I take a look at my own spirituality....
When I was undergoing catechism, the teacher, a certain Mrs. Paul who taught the important holy communion class and confirmation class, was a teacher who walks the talk. She lived the GOSPEL. It was not so much book knowledge, I mean we had to memorise 10 commandmants and drew picture of love in the family and all that stuff.....BUT, Mrs Paul catechism by her deep spirituality.

Why point to spirituality?
Because, it makes one think why am I doing what I am doing.

Why am I singing in the choir?
Why do I pay attention during choir practise?
Why must I be responsible when it is my turn to cantor?
When somebody tells me that my singing can be improved, do I have the humility to learn?
When somebody points out that the youths are talking, do I go into a defensive mode?
Do I openly dislike certain individuals in the choir?
Is my sms-ing so important that it cannot wait till after mass?

I remember reading a comic about John Bosco. My parents put this comic in the shelf, and I picked it up to read one day. John Bosco is the patron saint of youths.
As he was giving a sermon in church, he noticed that some youths were not praying from their hearts. As he looked closer, behind each youth was a devil. Yep, I remember the picture of the devils vividly drawn in that comic book. The devils had horns and a tail and they were fiery red and ugly. He saw that each time a youth did not listen to his sermons, or failed to pray properly, they were falling into the snares laid out by the devils. There at the end of the snares, a devil held on to the other end of the rope. He would tighten the rope and pull each of the youth that was entrapped and pulled them in the direction of hell.

It was a VERY POWERFUL IMAGE that still sticks in my mind vividly.

And I was thinking, what to do with all this building up resentments between youths and adults?
Between leaders and members? Between cantors, section leaders, instrumentalists etc?

What did JOHN BOSCO do?
He PRAYED.
He sprinkled holy water and the devils fled.

I am not saying there are horned, red little devils lurking behind the youths, or behind C or behind moi even!
But one must ALWAYS guard against EVIL.
And everyone is susceptible to a FALL and a downward slide in faith.

So how to counteract?
Prayers, read the scripture, reflection, self awareness, think before opening mouth, think before reacting.

This ministry has to have meaning for each of us individually. And nobody can take that away from us.