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
