Step 1: The Choice to Be a Christian
Step 2: The Choice to Be a Disciple
Step 3: The Choice to Be a Prophet
Step 4: The Choice to Be a Priest
Step 5: The Choice to Be a Steward
Hopefully, the book will be translated to Vietnamese in the future.
Thanks to c.HKT for sharing with us the first three steps, as she had shared with other in her group discussion.
oOo
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Even though I’ve finished all the chapters or steps, I just finished my sharing on the first three Chapters and would like to share with you.
Step 1- The Choice to Be a Christian: I really need to work on “giving Jesus an active part in what I do... P21,” as least consciously. On my way to work I often do a few Hail Mary to pray, to thank Him and talk to Him about various issues, but rarely think about how I might involve Him in what I about to do. On the way back from work, I usually go directly to Church for daily mass. Many times I applied the “Rinky-dink” prayers, “I am running late, if You don’t want me to be late for Mass, You better clear the traffic or turn those lights green for me.” I love these ‘Rinky-dink’ prayers!!! It makes me become personal with Him. At night I rarely reflect back what I’ve done during the day…
Note: “‘Rinky-dink’ prayer is a prayer for something that is not important enough to bother the Almighty about. When we make it, we become conscious that Jesus is our friend. P 23"
I was comforted when I read the section on page 26 “The Prayer Beyond Prayers. The most powerful way to make Jesus a part of everything we do is to participate daily in the mystery of the Mass.” That I do, and thank God that I live and work within a few miles from 3 different parishes with daily mass 6:30AM, 7:00AM, 8:30AM, 6:00PM, and 7:00PM so I can always plan to attend one of those masses.
Step 2- The Choice to Be a Disciple: "The word disciple doesn't mean 'follower,' it means 'student.' To be disciples of Jesus Christ, we have to be his students.P29" “No one graduates from the school of Jesus until death. P30.” That really enlightened me. I have the Vietnamese –English Missalette that I bring to mass everyday, I think Catholic is so wonderful, each day we celebrate the same Mass all around the world in different languages. For the Vietnamese Mass, I follow the English translation to learn the English Bible terms so that I can share with my English speaking friends at work. Since beginning of this year, at each Mass, I try to write down a few ideas from the sermon . It helps me focus. I rarely read Bible at home or read the readings before hand. I guess I need to work on that too.
Step 3 - The Choice to Be a Prophet: This chapter is wonderful. It gave me a clearer picture of the positions of being a prophet. “If we want to be prophets, we have to break free of cultural conformity and go beyond law observance. P48” I have to work extra hard on the cultural conformity since I have two cultures Vietnamese and American. However, the two cultures can be an advantage at times. I can choose the better from the two to conform to and break free from the bad ones…
”A Christian prophet is someone who takes the general, abstract principles of the gospel and applies them creatively to the concrete circumstances of a given time and place. P49” … This sometimes let to guilt on my part. I always try to avoid any interaction with people asking for money at intersections, especially when I am by myself. Several times, I was approached in parking lots or at gas stations with people asking for money. I always give but not always feel happy about it, especially when I see the person smoking or buying cigarettes. I always feel guilty when I fail to stop to offer help to strangers because I was afraid.
“The prophet is one who makes the choice never to ask again merely whether something is right or wrong, but whether it bears witness to Jesus Christ. P53” This is the best thing I learned from Father Knight and the WIT (With Jesus, In Jesus, Through Jesus) prayer. I shared this with all my friends and applying it everyday.
“The prophet has to die to fear, beginning with the fear of being wrong. P55” I always have the fear of what I do may set bad example or being misunderstood or having negative effect on people. The WIT prayer and asking if it bears witness to Jesus Christ helped me a lot to over come this particular fear of mine.
“JUST DO IT!!!”
Hoàng Khổng Thiêng