We catholics are so blessed to have priests and nuns who give themselves so enthusiastically to us, the lay people. We must indeed pray for them, for good health, for blessings for their generosity of answering God's call.
Today, Sister Christine continued on her sharing on the letters of St Paul. I think this was either my 2nd or 3rd session, and I have missed quite a bit in between, as she was drawing close to ending her "lessons".
Indeed, she was always very conscious that she does not take up too much of our time, and starts her session on time so that she ends on time.
Just last night, Bert and I were talking about the various people serving our church. They come from all walks of life, with different personalities, different social strata, all wanting to serve God in one way or the other, but inevitably brushing against each other and sometimes tempers flare and egos get bruised. Then, today, Sr Christine shared on 1 Corinthians, asking us to read on our own, Chapters 1 - 13. Even then, in St Paul's time, the early Christian Church had the exact same problem. Human nature never changes.
Reading the write-up she had given us, I recall the story of St Theresa of Lisieux....she was imperfect and yet she became a saint, and not only a saint, but a saint who can relate to us frail human beings and was not afraid to acknowledge her weaknesses. Yet, she aspired to be a saint, even in her imperfections (stubbornness, being "spoilt", revengeful sometimes). Aren't I the same, I asked myself? Who am I to judge others where I myself am not perfect? Should I stop serving God just so that I don't have to work and see people who are different from me? The early Church had the same problem, and I suppose, this same problem will always persist throughout mankind and society and even in the Church. As we used to say between Bert & I, "Where there's people, there's problem".
Write-up given by Sr Christine. I've taken close-up of it in 4 parts to share (below):
1 Cor 13:4 - "Love is patient and kind".
1 Cor 13:13 - "Meanwhile these 3 remain: faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is LOVE".
Sister reminded us that the most important virtue to practise is to LOVE, as only when there is the unconditional love, the Christ-like love, the agape love that the other virtues like peace, joy, faith and so on will all come in, as those are secondary.
She then touched a little on "Conflict-communication", which she hopes to share with us the next time or possibly, next year. It's very much tied in to our LC's last session on "Listening" and like what Lenz said, "Silent" is formed from the letters of Listen. We have to silent our emotions to really listen with our heart, and pray for the right words to speak. One take-away was to start our question or statement with a "What" and not "Why". A what question opens the way to dialogue whereas a why is like an interrogation.
Basically, the statement begins with
"What happened?"
Next is to state your feelings "I feel worried that you didn't call..."
Next is state your needs like wanting the child to get enough rest
Lastly what the child can do for you "Perhaps I could come in at 12 to remind you to get your 7 hours of sleep".
Guess what? She had also helped in Marriage Encounter (ME) and talked about the importance of dialogue, the ME WAY! Haha!
Just to share with you the wonderful session we had today. Indeed, we always receive more than we give to God! He blesses us more than we can ever repay him. Though the school was a bit far away for me to travel to, and the session kinda short, I always take away pearls of wisdom from Sr Christine.
Love
Theresa
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