FROM
THE SERVANT GENERAL
December 26, 2008
My
dear brethren in Christ,
Peace
be with you all.
The
year is almost over, and we face another exciting
year to come. It is always exciting when faced in
the Lord and looked forward to as another opportunity
to do the Lord’s work. By His grace, we know
that it will be a year of spiritual growth—for
ourselves, for our families, and for the community.
But
are we fit for the fight? Or are we not only unfit,
but might even be the enemy within? There are many
professed Catholics who are anti-life and who oppose
the authentic teachings of the Church. The Philippines
is a Christian (majority Catholic) nation but many
crooks in business and government, and many criminals,
and many of those in prisons, are Catholics. Even
with the old CFC, the crisis last year brought out
the worst in even top elders, who conducted themselves
in very unchristian ways.
There
is a dire need for authentic spirituality and growth
in holiness. We need to be fed solid spiritual food.
Given our experience of many Christians throughout
the world, and even our own experience through the
crisis of 2007, it seems that there are many who
remain as babies in Christ, and do not move on to
greater maturity. This is the challenge.
“About
this we have much to say, and it is difficult to
explain, for you have become sluggish in hearing.
Although you should be teachers by this time, you
need to have someone teach you again the basic elements
of the utterances of God. You need milk, and not
solid food. Everyone who lives on milk lacks experiences
of the word of righteousness, for he is a child.
But solid food is for the mature, for those whose
faculties are trained by practice to discern good
and evil.” (Heb 5:11-14)
In
the crisis of 2007, even elders failed to discern
good and evil. And many members were led astray,
like lost children. This is not as it should have
been, but unfortunately it was. Some will have to
be fed milk again. Hopefully many others will accept
solid food. Then let us all in CFC-FFL be teachers
to the world around us.
Authentic
spirituality and growth in holiness will happen
through the many tools to growth provided by the
Lord, and one of those tools is Christian formation.
Christian formation happens in many ways. There
is your own prayer life, your reading and study
of the Bible, and then there are the more formal
programs that we have in our community. But at times,
these formation programs are not offered, or if
offered, brethren are unable to attend, for various
reasons.
We
have one further formation tool that is available.
These are the books I have written, and will continue
to write, for your benefit and in furtherance of
our mission. All these books are grounded on Scripture,
and make use of very many Biblical passages. Reading
these books will allow you to learn what the Bible
teaches about the most important aspects of our
Christian life and mission.
Further,
in order to serve as guideposts so that we never
again veer away, we have our 7 Core Values. These
Core Values, while on the surface are easy to understand,
are really quite profound and will take a lifetime
of reflection and study in order to be fully integrated
into our very being. My books can help you appreciate
and appropriate our Core Values for your lives.
You
can look to the correspondence of my various books
with our 7 Core Values, as follows:
Centered
on Christ
A Future Full of Hope *
Amazing Truths that will Change your Life *
Focused on Christ
Evangelistic
and missionary
Facing the Future
Fishers of Men (on person-to-person evangelization)
Fulfilling the Mandate
Renewing the Face of the Earth
Witnesses to the Ends of the Earth
Focused
on the family
Families in the Holy Spirit
Females are Fabulous (on husband-wife relationship)
Being
community
Forty Days of Lamentations
Showing His Power and Majesty
Preferential
option for the poor
Bringing Glad Tidings to the Poor
Forty Days with the Poor
Freeing the Captives
Servant
leadership
Friend or Foe? Fighting the Enemy Within
Being
a servant to the Church
Forty Days with Mary
Forty More Days with Mary *
(*
coming out in January 2009)
I
encourage you to read these books. When you do,
have a Bible beside you, and check out the passages
cited in the book with your own Bible. Read the
text before and after the cited passage. Pause to
reflect as led. Pray as led. One benefit in reading
a book, as opposed to listening to a live teaching,
is that you can put the book aside for a moment
in order to reflect, check out references, study,
jot down thoughts, and pray.
If
all our brethren, especially our leaders, would
take to heart the content of these books, we will
be well on our way to growth in holiness, full appreciation
of our vision, and total commitment to our mission.
Then God can truly use us as families in the Holy
Spirit that will be His instruments in renewing
the face of the earth.
God
has much in store for us in the years that are to
come. Let us properly equip ourselves. Let us be
prepared to do our work in all circumstances. And
let us take our life and service in community as
privileges and opportunities the Lord gives us in
order to truly become closer to Him and to our eternal
reward.
God
bless you all.
Your
brother and servant,
Frank
Padilla
