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Becoming Another Christ


It all started with the Prayer for Detachment by St. Peter Faber, S.J. The thing about St. Peter Faber is that he evangelized people by befriending him. He didn't give hard core teaching about the Catholic faith but the friendship he offered said everything about it, and it was his genuine love and care that drew people to believe in God. 

Here goes the prayer: 

I beg of you, my Lord,
to remove anything which separates
me from You, and You from me.

Remove anything that makes me unworthy
of Your sight, Your control, Your reprehension;
of Your speech and conversation,
of Your benevolence and love.

Cast from me every evil
that stands in the way of my seeing You,
hearing, tasting, savoring, and touching You;
fearing and being mindful of You;
knowing, trusting, loving, and possessing You;
being conscious of Your presence
and, as far as may be, enjoying You.
This is what I ask for myself
and earnestly desire from You. Amen.

Then, Fr. Xave presented the topic in a very reflective way, truly Ignatian. :)

So here are my notes during that night of beholding and pondering. Be very blessed! :)
To be another Christ, we need to come close to Him and constantly look. 
Grace: My dear Lord Jesus, I beg of You the grace of knowing You more deeply, loving You more dearly, following You more nearly that I may embrace the call of being Alter Christus. 
  • Called to be alter Christus by virtue of our baptism. In baptism, we are united with Christ. We are also united with His body, the Church, which is called to be Christ's presence on earth. 
  • Recalling the Call
    • How did Jesus call?
    • Whom did Jesus call?
    • Luke 5:1-11. Jesus calls His first followers
    • Matthew 9:9-13. The call of Matthew
    • How do we look at people? Do we see the bad reputation first? Or do we see the persons like us, weak, sinner, unworthy, yet capable of greatness through God's grace and mercy?
    • Notice how Jesus calls and leads. 
    • Jesus encounters and calls each of his disciples where he is - on the shore, at the tax collector's table, etc. - as each one is busy. Jesus enters their world and disturbs them. And it is good that the disciples allow Him to. 
    • How did you experience Jesus disturbing you? How is Jesus disturbing you now? 
  • On Becoming Like Christ
Prayer of Fr. Pedro Arrupe, S.J.
Above all, give me the sensus Christi - the sensing of Christ about which St. Paul speaks (1 Corinthians 2:16), that I may feel with Your feelings, with the sentiments of Your heart, which basically are love for Your Father and love for humanity. 
Teach me Your way of relating to disciples, to sinners, to children, to Pharisees, to Pilates and Herods. 
Teach me how You deal with Your disciples. How delicately you treat them on Lake Tiberias, even preparing breakfast for them! How you washed their feet. 
May I learn from You and from Your ways, as St. Ignatius did: how to eat and drink, how to attend banquets, how to act when hungry or thirsty, when tired from the ministry, when in need of rest or sleep. 
Teach me how to be compassionate to the suffering, to the poor, the blind, the lame, and the lepers. 
Teach me Your way of looking at people: as You glanced at Peter after his denial, as You penetrated the heart of the rich young man and the hearts of Your disciples.
We have to learn from You the secret of a close bond or union with God: in the more trivial everyday actions, with that total dedication to loving the Father and all humanity. 
Give me the grace, that sensus Christi, Your very heartbeat. that I may live all my life, interiorly and exteriorly, proceeding and discerning with Your spirit, exactly as You did during Your mortal life.
  • Mary, the Son's First Disciple
    • She is the Christ-bearer, not only welcoming Jesus into her very self but also carrying Him to others. 
    • She walks the difficult way of the cross, standing by her Son at Calvary, sharing His pain.
    • She offers us her Son, her very life revolves around Him, ever points to Him. 
  • Called to be alter Christus to one another.
    • Acts 4:32-35. The community of believers was of one heart and mind. They had everything in common. There was no needy person among them.
    • "I hold that every poor man, every vagrant, every beggar is Christ carrying his cross. And as Christ, we must love and help him. We must treat him as a brother, a human being like ourselves. If we were to start a campaign of love for the poor and homeless, we would, in a short time, do away with depressing scenes of begging, children sleeping in doorways and women with babies in their arms fainting in our streets." -St. Alberto Hurtado
    • The most difficult prayers to pray are the most beautiful prayers, just like this one: "Dear God, please help my annoying seatmate pass Science." 
  • Become whatever Jesus is! As Mary instructed the servants, "Do whatever He tells you!" (John 2:5)
Notes from CFC MC Teaching Night, August 19, 2014
Topic: Alter Christus, Nurtured by Mary
Speaker: Fr. Xavier Olin, S.J.

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