by Jean Nathalia
17 Oct – Memorial for St.
Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr
Ignatius (c. 50–107) was a
convert from paganism to Christianity. He succeeded Peter as bishop of Antioch,
Syria. He served during persecution of Domitian. During the persecution of
Trajan, he was ordered to be taken to Rome to be killed by wild animals. On the
way, a journey which took months, he wrote a series of encouraging letters to
the churches under his care. He was the first writer to use the term The
Catholic Church. He was an apostolic father and a martyr. His name occurs in
the Canon of the Mass. Legend says he was the infant that Jesus took into his
arms in Mark 9.
- Patron Saint Index
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Ephesians 1:11-14
It is in Christ that we were
claimed as God’s own,
chosen from the beginning,
under the predetermined plan of
the one who guides all things
as he decides by his own will;
chosen to be,
for his greater glory,
the people who would put their
hopes in Christ before he came.
Now you too, in him,
have heard the message of the
truth and the good news of your salvation,
and have believed it;
and you too have been stamped
with the seal of the Holy Spirit of the Promise,
the pledge of our inheritance
which brings freedom for those
whom God has taken for his own, to make his glory praised.
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Luke 12:1-7
The people had gathered in their
thousands so that they were treading on one another. And Jesus began to speak,
first of all to his disciples. ‘Be on your guard against the yeast of the
Pharisees – that is, their hypocrisy. Everything that is now covered will be
uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear. For this reason,
whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you
have whispered in hidden places will be proclaimed on the housetops.
‘To you my friends I say: Do not
be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. I will tell
you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has the power to cast into
hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. Can you not buy five sparrows for two pennies?
And yet not one is forgotten in God’s sight. Why, every hair on your head has
been counted. There is no need to be afraid: you are worth more than hundreds
of sparrows.’
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You too have been stamped with
the seal of the Holy Spirit of the Promise
I recently got married and
entered into the working world. Although I am grateful to be married to my
husband and to have a job that is meaningful to me, certain worries have begun
bubbling within. I feel like I have to start preparing to look after a new family
when the time comes to have children and to look after aging parents. As such,
greater responsibility falls upon my shoulders to learn to manage my finances,
to hold onto my job, and to be savvy. In some sense, I feel like I am no longer
able to be a carefree child who can get away with not knowing much. I am now an
adult¬¬¬–an identity that carries responsibility.
This scares me. There is so much
to learn and so little time. What if something happens to my parents? What if I
get sacked? What if something happens to my husband? What if we don’t manage
our expenses well enough? What if… what if… what if…
In the midst of all my anxieties
and worries, I feel the Lord saying, “I am here”. It is, however, so difficult
to surrender my worries. I want to know exactly how everything will work out in
the end. I want to be in control. Chasing certainty, however, is a futile
chase. As the saying goes, ‘Uncertainty is the only certainty in life’. While
we cannot be certain of how things will play out, as children of God, we can be
certain that God will be there for us. None of us will ever be forgotten in
God’s sight. We have been stamped by our God – a promise that He is always for
us, and never against us. A promise that He will be faithful to us.
The reality is that I will not be
able to rely on myself to handle all the pressures and demands of life. There
will be times when life will require me to humbly depend on the assistance of
others, particularly during certain storms. Will I trust that wherever life
calls me, God’s grace will be enough to carry me through in that season?
I do trust but my stubbornness
means that I also do not want to let go of my chase for certainty. Yet, these
two desires cannot coexist. Chasing both will only cause me to bounce from left
to right, running forwards and backwards.
I need a new desire: freedom. I
know that freedom is an active pursuit. Freedom will not simply fall into my
lap. It is something I have to cooperate with God in working towards. He will
lead the way to freedom, and I must follow. The first step is to let go of my
need for control and to do what I can do for now: to learn the ropes of
adulthood at a humane pace, and not to expect to learn everything in one day.
Tomorrow will bring different steps towards freedom. Only tomorrow, will I be
equipped for tomorrow’s call. Let me respond to the call of today.
(Today’s OXYGEN by Jean Nathalia)
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Prayer: Jesus, I choose to trust my life to you again. You are the one
who has taken care of me from the time I was conceived in my mother’s womb. You
will take care of me through my life. Help me to humble myself to this journey
of life and to enter into it with a smile.
Thanksgiving: We give thanks that we
have been stamped by the Holy Spirit. We have a Father who will never ever
forget and abandon us.
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