My Notes for Feast PICC January 4, 2015 8A.M. Session

I. The Mass 

For the mass celebration, the message was the Feast of the Epiphany. This is to remember the time when the three Magis visited the baby Jesus,  our Lord God, and offered their gifts. 

The homily's message says that the gifts of the Magis are symbols. I cannot exactly recall what Father Titus said about the meanings for these gifts. Sometimes when a priest or preacher tells a message, audience perceives it differently. Maybe their perception depends on their experiences or how they interpret things. 

Here is what I can recall about the homily or how I perceived the message.

The Feast of the Epiphany is an enlightening event. According to Mirriam Webster, epiphany aside from the Christian festival of Three Kings, also means "a moment in which you suddenly see or understand something in a new or very clear way".  It is amazing how the Magis found baby Jesus by following the star. They knew that the star was telling them that the Savior, the Lord of Lords, was born. For people without deep understanding, that star may mean nothing. But the Magis knew. It was very clear to them and they knew what they have to do. They knew that they need to go there to witness God turned into flesh and to praise and worship the baby Jesus. They gave gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Father Titus giving the homily

If I am not mistaken, Father Titus said that the gold symbolizes that Jesus  is a treasure that GOD gave to us for our salvation.  Gold symbolizes great value so that means that God greatly values our salvation.  According to the website of BibleStudyTools, one of the figuratively meaning behind the symbol of gold is:  "Gold was the most valuable of metals.It stood for anything of great value hence was most worthy for use in worshipping Yahweh".  So that means that the Magi who gave gold worshiped the baby Jesus because He is acknowledged as God. The frankincense is also a symbol for worship as it is being use in worship rituals. The myrrh symbolizes that death of the human body of Jesus is expected as part of God's plan.

Father Titus said that we also give gifts to people to express our love. However,sometimes, gifts are meaningless. Father Titus gave an example of a husband giving a diamond ring which is an expensive gift, but cheating his wife. As I understand, this means that aside from the gift we are giving, we must also commit to do acts that really show true love to our love ones. 

To conclude, Feast of the Epiphany is a celebration of the first worship done to Jesus when He became a human like us.

II. The Prayer Meeting

For the first series of the year 2015, we have the BOLD series: Dare to Ask God for the Impossible. The series has four topics that will be preach each week. For the first week, we had the topic of Power.  We had brother Mike Vinas as a guest preacher and we had brother Alvin Barcelona who did the end prayer after the talk.

A. Brother Mike Vinas' Talk

Brother Mike Vinas shared the story of Israel defeating the Amorites and their Allies. He got the Bible verses from Joshua 10:8-13.

He said that this story shows that even if it is impossible, God promises that we will win the wars in our life. He said that "GOD IS FIGHTING FOR YOU" so victory is expected. He also said that if we feel that we are not yet victorious, that means that the battle is not yet done. 

He said that we must not be afraid in asking bold prayers. He thinks that "if your prayer is not intimidating to you, there is a chance that it is insulting to God." What he means to say is that we must not be shy in our prayers especially for our dreams and goals in life. This is because our God is a big God and generous to whoever ask and believe.

This gives hope to Christians. We believe in the promise of God that He will not forsake us. Because of our faith the problems and trials of life becomes bearable. Our faith in God gives us strength and power to successfully deal our trials and to pursue our goals in life. 

B. Brother Bo Sanchez' Talk

Brother Bo Sanchez preached that worry, trouble and problems have good reasons too. He said that our challenges make us humble. Knowing our limitations when we face trials, we seek God's help. God is the source of our life, strength and power.

Brother Bo Sanchez preaching

Brother Bo shared his bold prayer as a parent: "Lord help me disciple my kids so that they follow You the rest of their lives." 

He said that now that his oldest son is a teenager he is having difficulty with him. He said that his son is good but because of many successes,his son became unteachable. At a very young age his Bene has accomplished so much. Bene, his son is an author of a book, tv show host, musical director, musician, etc. One night he dreamed that his son was in a driver seat of a race car with hands not holding the steering wheel. He demonstrated that his son in his dream was like hugging himself with eyes close and was calling him asking for his help. He said that the funny part of his dream was that he immediately went to his son and changed the wheels of the race car into wheels of bicycles. So when he spent his bonding time with Bene, he shared this dream and his son said that it was funny. After that, Bene told him : "Dad, teach me to be teachable." Here he realized that his prayer was answered. He also said that he is glad that Bene took initiative because it means that Bene is now aware that he became unteachable. To quote brother Bo,he said "self correction is more powerful than correction." 

Brother Bo also said that when our problem is greater than our blessings, then it a time to make a bold prayer. For me, the meaning of this is just go to God and surrender to Him our problems or dreams and then boldly pray to become successful.

III. My Conclusion

view from my seat

To conclude, Jesus is God who is powerful and generous so make bold prayers. We will become successful in dealing with problems and all our dreams will come true in God's time. Just keep on believing, praying and worshiping God. 

Thank you for reading and have a blessed week.To God be the glory!