Easter Sunday Weekend Wrap-Up

Happy Easter! The weather is warming up, my confirmation is coming up in a few short days and our Lord Jesus Christ is risen from the dead! I don't know how it can get any better that this. The triduum is always so beautiful, filled with such wonderful music, prayers, homilies and inspiring gospel stories of our Lord's Last Supper with His disciples, The Crucifixion of Jesus and finally his rising from death back to life again. Each one has a different and special meaning for me each year.

This year's triduum brought forth a new experience for me, as I was given the honor of singing the intercessions at both Holy Thursday Mass and the Easter Vigil. It was very exciting for me, standing in front of the congregation at the ambo. Some of you reading this might be wondering, "Why is this such a big deal? After all he does cantor and lector regularly at Mass." The extreme honor that I felt when I was singing, was having the privilege to sing the prayers of the entire community. Some of the prayers included the prayers for those who had been baptized and brought into full communion with the church at the Easter Vigil, the prayers for those who feel abandoned in their afflictions and the faithful departed whose life-long vigil had ended. I felt truly blessed to sing the prayers of the people of our parish up to God. It was the experience of a lifetime.

On Easter Sunday my family was invite for breakfast at the house of the rector of St. Francis De Sales Seminary, Father Don Hying. His beautiful loft overlooked the huge seminary forest and the paths below. It was so peaceful and extremely quiet. I felt blessed to be able to spend time with Father and talk with him. While we were there, Father Don presented to me his rosary that was blessed by Pope Benedict XVI on his latest trip to the Vatican. It was his early Confirmation present for me as I am set to be confirmed this Saturday! I am so blessed to have a friend like him.

New Favorite Song!

Just thought I would post the link to a favorite new song of mine called "Forgiven" by a band named Sanctus Real. At the time that I first heard the song, I felt like it was what I really needed to hear. The song talks about how a person often feels bad about his/her past. It talks about how a person can be so broken down over their sins that they had committed, that they leave no room for God's forgiveness to enter into their hearts.

This song showed me that God is extremely merciful and wants to be in an intimate relationship with us. He wants this so badly that he will forgive us of our sins and give us a clean heart and conscience. God is a loving and caring God. He does not want us to dwell on our sins so that our relationship with Him becomes complicated. God loves us and He wants us to love Him back.

This song really inspired me. I hope you find it just a inspiring. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZVjKrmvYYQ

True Happiness:)

Just recently I had watched a TV program on the subject of happiness. During the program, people on the streets were asked about what made them happy? The most popular answer given was that money was something that gave people true happiness. However some people don't realize that money can not make you truly happy and you can not buy happiness.

Sometimes when you think you are truly happy you become restless. You slowly begin to realize that what you thought would make you happy really makes you not happy at all. You begin to wonder what makes you really happy? Only one person has the best answer. The person is God. God knows what can truly make us happy. Sometimes we think we need more and more things in order to be happy, but we fail to realize that God has already given us everything we need to give us happiness! He has provided us all with a wonderful family, a warm house, friends, His unconditional love and a place with Him in Heaven! What more could we ask for? Sometimes we should just be thankful for what we have.

A great song that deals with this subject of happiness and satisfaction is the song Satisfy by the band Tenth Avenue North. In it the singer is talking to God asking Him to satisfy him with His loving care. He is asking for help. This is a good reminder for us to pray for those who do not have a warm house, a wonderful family or friends. We must pray for God to satisfy them with His love.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0z1o55gGWU

In Your Hands

Just found a beautiful song that I thought I should post! The song is entitled " Your Hands" by JJ Heller. When I first heard it, I was amazed! This song really hit me. The past few days I have been feeling a little down in the dumps. Everything was going wrong in school. I was stressing out about upcoming exams. I was losing interest in my extra-curricular activities and was letting every little thing get me down. I was praying everyday to God, asking Him for answers. I wanted to know why I was feeling like this? What should I do about it? Is God still here with me? How come I haven't felt His presence during this time?

Today my dad was listening to song on the computer as I was getting ready for bed. As I was preparing, I was listening to the lyrics. They were talking about " when the world is shaking, Heaven stands. When my heart is breaking, I never leave Your hands."

I felt like this was what I needed to hear! I felt like this was an answer to my prayer from God. God was telling me that He was still here with me even if I couldn't feel Him. I think He was telling me through this song that when I am feeling low, I am in His hands. He will never leave my side.

What beautiful lyrics! We must never forget these words of comfort. Even when nothing is going our way and we feel out of sync, God is still here and closer to us than ever. This song really made my day. Maybe you will enjoy it too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlL8LayF0uw

God Bless You,

John:)

Wake Me Up

One of my favorite songs is by a band named Further Seems Forever. The name of the song is called Light Up Ahead. This song is very special to me because I first heard it when I was going through one of the toughest times in my life. This was in 8th grade. I was failing school, messing around in class, not listening to teachers, not doing homework and worst of all I was moving away from God. I hardly prayed. I didn't feel the need. I felt like God didn't care about me and was punishing me by not helping me with my grades. My parents every night during dinner would tell me that I needed to buckle down and work harder, but I never really listened. To tell you the truth back then I never really cared. I felt I could get along in life without good grades in school. So I chose to give up. I chose not to work hard and give it everything that I had.

My parents told me that I better pray to God to help me realize that I need to work hard in school. My parents also took it a step further by telling me that if I didn't get my grades up they would pull me out of this school that I begged my parents to send me to over a year ago. This got me going. I started to work harder and try my hardest in school but nothing was happening. I began to feel that nothing was working. So during this time of stress, I knelt down for the first time in over a year and I prayed. I prayed asking God to help me do the best that I could to work hard and not give up in school. I told Him that I was giving up everything that I had that had moved me away from Him. I told Him that I would no longer mess around in school and give up on my homework if He helped me to get good grades for the rest of the year.

During one of my prayers a song on the radio began playing. It was the song called Light Up Ahead by Further Seems Forever. As I prayed I heard the lyrics of the song, " Take this heart of darkness, I give it up. And all the emptiness, you fill me up. The times I feel like nothing, you bring enough. So I can live for something, you lift me up! And all these bad dreams, I wake up to the light. And when I can't see, I wake up to your eyes. Wake me up!"

These were the lyrics I needed to hear. This song gave me renewed strength to carry on and work to get good grades. The lyrics taught me that I needed to wake up and turn away from not working hard in school so that I would be able to get good grades. It also taught me to trust in God that He would take care of me during this hard time. It also taught me that I couldn't do anything without God and I was wrong to criticize him for my own faults. I knew that He had been trying to help me but I did not open myself up to Him. However, this was definitely going to change.

Slowly I let God back into my heart. Ever since I let Him back in and trusted Him to help me with my grades everything began to fall into place. I began to pick up my grades and work hard in school. Now I pray everyday and ask God to be with me throughout my day helping me to grow closer to Him and continue to pick up my grades.
I must always remember that God is always near me. I just have to want to be near to Him. I must always remember that with God all things are possible. Thank you God for coming into my heart and helping me through my difficult time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s43ZIDSXgw0

God gives us everything, what should we give him in return?

Offertory


With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high?

Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, shall I come before Him with yearling calves?

Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I give my first born for my transgressions, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly, walk humbly with your God.



Text: Micah 6:6-8
Music: John Ness Beck

One Random Act of Kindness at a Time

Spanish class has continued to be a struggle for many of my classmates including me. Slowly we have begun to understand more and more thanks to all of your prayers!:) One fellow classmate of mine however has been having quite a lot of trouble in this class. He is a junior, but has no experience prior to taking this language. Even though he is a grade older than the rest of the class, he is often picked on by the other kids in my class. All of this teasing, and no experience have taken a toll on him. I see him become quieter and quieter each day, sinking deeper and deeper into his chair. All of the teasing has begun to hurt his grades too! This happens a lot, and many times I have had to stand up for him. I have become his only friend in the class.

Just today he told me that he was thinking of dropping this Spanish class. This did not surprise me one bit that he was thinking of this. However, I told him that I have been in the exact same position that he is in right now. I told him that I am there for him. I also told him that he is not the only one struggling in this class, because many of us are! I wanted him to know that he is not alone. I told him that I am struggling with Spanish also, but I am not giving up, and neither should he! I told him that I will help him to better understand the language. This way we will be learning together. Another thing that I told him is that if he is having problems with teasing, that he should go to the teachers and tell them what is happening. This way he doesn't have to tolerate any of the teasing anymore.

I feel that I am called to serve and help this boy, as we are all called to serve those who are in trouble. We are called to be friends to the friend-less. We must stand up for one another. We must show kindness and love to one another. There was a good movie that I have watched recently. It is entitled " Evan Almighty". It is so wonderful that I feel the need to watch it many times. In this movie a man wants to be able to change the world, so he asks for God's help. In the end, God tells him how he can change the world just by "demonstrating one random act of kindness at a time!" How true and beautiful this is! We all have a chance to rid the world of hate, ridicule, war and evil, and this is the way to do it!

Throughout each Spanish class I help him to better understand the things that we are working on. I sit with him and talk to him on the bus ride home. I tell him that I struggle also in Spanish, but together we will learn and be able to understand this difficult language! Please keep me, my friend and every single one of the kids in my Spanish class as we work on understanding Spanish, and how to change the world, using " one random act of kindness at a time".

P.S.- The choir I am singing at church practiced a song tonight that I think is appropriate for this post! It is called "Where There is Love" by David Haas. I could not find a link to this song, so I posted the lyrics instead! Enjoy!:)

Where There is Love


Where there is love, there is God.

The love of God has gathered us together: Alleluia

Love is patient, love is kind,

Never jealous, never proud,

Never seeking for one's self,

Love never leads to anger.

Love is gracious and forgiving

Taking no delight in wrong

Love rejoices in the truth

Love will endure

Many things will pass away,

There are but three things that last;

Faith, Hope and Love;

The greatest of these is Love.


Music and Lyrics by David Haas

Spreading God Word!

In this post I would like to place a very quick lyric from one of my favorite songs! The song is entitled " The secrets in telling " by Dashboard Confessional! Here are my favorite lyrics from the song!-


" There is a secret that we keep
I won't sleep if you won't sleep
Because tonight may be the last chance we'll be given
We are compelled to do what we have to
We are compelled to do what we have been forbidden"

I decided to post these lyrics because I think they truly reflect on what we feel compelled to do with our lives, that the world does not want us to do. From my prospective, this song is talking about our mission as Christians, although I don't think this is the songs true subject. I think this song is talking about praising, worshiping, and loving God, and preaching His good news! However, as these lyrics state, the world forbids us to be close to God and to preach His word to the world!
However, God pulls us closer to Himself every time we begin to fall away from His side. God is like a magnet! No matter how far we fall, we still are attracted to Him and so we are bursting, itching and urging to tell the whole world that we become compelled to telling everyone about Him by living the way He wants us to! We become compelled to God, and doing His will! We should all be like this! We should all be compelled and attracted to God, like a new born baby is to its mother! So we should as God to help us become attracted to Him, and not to the world! We should ask Him for the strength to deny the world, and preach what it forbids, which is Gods word!

Please pray this prayer with me for strength to resist the world, and live for God-

Eternal Father,

Help us to be your servants, and to do what you ask of us, even if the world forbids it! Give us the strength and the courage to place our trust in you. Help us to open ourselves and allow Yourself into our hearts, so that we feel the need to share this with the whole world! Lord attract us to yourself, and take us from the world!

We ask this in your name!


Amen!

Another Favorite Song and lyrics! :)

Here's another great song that I decided to post again by the band Lifehouse! This song is called Storm! I decided to post the lyrics to this song just because I think they really portray to us and our lives. In our lives we face many hardships, trails, sufferings and struggles which can also be called "storms" in our spiritual life. During these we must remember that the one that we should turn to for help and guidance is God! I think that this song is pointing out just that! It is pointing out that we need to put our complete trust in God during our "storms" because He is our comfort, our strength and our help! God is always with us! I hope you enjoy this song as much as I do! Thanks again! :)

Storm


How long have I been in this storm?
So overwhelmed by the ocean's shapeless form
Water's getting harder to tread
With these waves crashing over my head

If I could just see you
Everything would be all right
If I could see you
This darkness would turn to light

And I will walk on water
And you will catch me if I fall
And I will get lost into your eyes
And everything will be all right
And everything will be all right

I know you didn't bring me out here to drown
So why am I ten feet under and upside down
Barely surviving has become my purpose
Because I'm so used to living underneath the surface

If I could just see you
Everything would be all right
If I could see you
This darkness would turn to light

And I will walk on water
And you will catch me if I fall
And I will get lost into your eyes
And everything will be all right
And everything will be all right

Favorite Song and lyrics :)

I want to share with you, the lyrics of one of my favorite songs by a band called Lifehouse. The song is entitled Everything! These lyrics are very special to me because they help me realize who the center of my life should be, who is God! God should mean "everything" to us! Although the song may have many different view points, I still like to think of it as a song of praise to God! So I hope you enjoy these lyrics and hopefully check out the band for yourself! Thanks!:)

Everything


Find me here
And speak to me
I want to feel You
I need to hear You
You are the light
That's leading me
To the place
Where I find peace again

You are the strength
That keeps me walking
You are the hope
That keeps me trusting
You are the life
To my soul
You are my purpose
You're everything

And how can I stand here with You
And not be moved by You
Would You tell me how could it be
Any better than this
(Ahh Yeahhh)

You calm the storms
And You give me rest
You hold me in your hands
You won't let me fall
You steal my heart
And You take my breath away
Would You take me in
Would You take me deeper, now

And how can I stand here with You
And not be moved by You
Would You tell me how could it be
Any better than this

And how can I stand here with You
And not be moved by You
Would You tell me how could it be
Any better than this

Cause you're all I want
You're all I need
You're everything, everything
You're all I want
You're all I need
You're everything, everything
You're all I want
You're all I need
You're everything, everything
You're all I want
You're all I need
Everything, everything...

When how can I stand here with You
And not be moved by You
Would you tell me how could it be
Any better than this

Oh And how can I stand here with You
And not be moved by You
Would You tell me how could it be
Any better any better than this

And how can I stand here with You
And not be moved by You
Would You tell me how could it be
Any better than this

Would You tell me how could it be
Any better than this....