THE WAY FORWARD IN CHRIST
(Part 17)
CFC-FFL
CORE VALUES & FRANK PADILLA'S BOOKS
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
