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SLOVAK CHURCH OF Sts. CYRIL AND METHODIUS
IN NEW
WESTMINSTER BRITISH COLUMBIA
40th
ANNIVERSARY
JUNE 25, 2000
PAGE THREE
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Thirdly we are told in the Acts of
the Apostles, that the early Christians persevered in prayer. And so as we
look to the future and bound to become a strong Church that will bring in
a new springtime of faith of Christian living we must look ourselves how
much do we pray on day to day basis? It is not good enough to go to the
masses on Sunday and then forget about God for the rest of the week.
Authentic Christian community prays every day. We live our oneness with
God and the oneness with each other every day, we pray every day, that is
important. It is important that children in the family learn to pray every
day, it is important that we pray alone as individuals, it is important
that we pray as families. Not only when we go to the church. St. Theresa
of Avalon once said: "God is in found in prayer." And if anyone
teaches you differently, they are leading you astray. You want to find
God, learn to pray. God is found in prayer. And so as we look to the
future, lets look to how we pray and deepen our prayer and our love for
prayer and teach others to pray. Then we can look to a new springtime in
the future.
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Fourthly the Acts of the Apostles
tells us that the early Christians persevered as a community in Koinonia a
Greek word that simply means oneness with God and oneness with each other.
That is Christian community. Jesus is the middle of the Christian
community. We are united to him and one another in such a way that
everyone is of one mind and one part. And as we are united in this oneness
the Acts of the Apostles tells us so that no one should be in need amongst
us. Because as the early Christians show us, no one was in need in their
community because they shared their kind, they shared the palette and they
even shared their possessions. So that no one should be in need. Are we
doing that? We must look at it. And we are also told that the early
Christian community was noted for one thing especially, seeing how they
loved one another. The love we have for God and the love we have for each
other are latent and that love must become visible. This is something we
must deepen and strive.
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This community of life will live for love of God
and for love of each other. Then the springtime will come. And then
finally we are also told of the Acts of the Apostles that they were a
community with favor with all people. No, they were in favor with all
people and their God haven't pull their number. They were an outreaching
community, they reached out to those who have fallen away to bring them
back and they reach back to those who did not yet believe to bring them in
to the fold with Christ into this Church. This is something that we as a
Christian community must do as well. We must not close ourselves in and
merely look after our own needs. We must like early Christians be open and
in relationship with all people, in favor with all people and reach out to
those who have fallen away and to those who do not yet believe. And for us
here in Vancouver area is a special mission because we probably have a
higher percentage of non-Christians than any other city of Canada. Because
we have so many oriental people amongst us here who many of them didn't
heard of Christ and many don't believe. In the whole of Asia only 3 % is
Catholic. Many of those live in Philippines which is 98% Catholic. This
means that many of the some of Asian countries where many of our people
dome are only 1/2 % Catholic.
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Two years ago our Holy Father invited me to
the Synod of Bishops for Asia. One day I was having coffee with young
Bishop from Okinawa, part of Japan. He said how many Catholics do you have
in your diocese? I said about 3600000. He almost dropped his coffers. I
said What's so extraordinary about that? He said do you realize that you
have almost as many Catholics in your diocese as we have in the whole of
Japan. And in Japan we have 14 dioceses. Then I almost dropped my coffers.
But you see the people we that have here today are very high percentage is
Asian, but very, very small percentage is Catholic. Our Holy Father is
always talking about the need in our age for new evangelization. And You
know I thing we out to be honest with ourselves. I have to say it for
myself. I think I grew up, as young man not really that conscious that I
was expected to bring the fait to others. I didn’t have much or this
Missionary responsibility in the sense. But as I grew older I joined
missionary order because I wanted to go to foreign country to bring the
fait to those who don’t believe yet. I never made it to any foreign
country. I realize now that God has answered my prayers because to be a
missionary today you do not have to go to foreign country. Foreign
countries have come here. We are a missionary territory. And therefore to
be faithful to the Gospel and to the description of the Christian Catholic
Community we must be in favor with all people. We must reach out; we must
become more missionary. This I think is our special mission here in our
diocese as we begin the new century and the new millennium.
Color video
of the Holy Divine service is available for US$ 44.45
Please send
personal check to:
Vladimir
Linder
3804 Yale Street
Burnaby, BC, V5C 1P6
CANADA
GO TO PAGE FOUR
GO TO CATHOLIC CHURCHES
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TO Sts. CYRIL AND METHODIUS CHURCH
HAND EMBROIDERED
VESTMENTS FROM SLOVAKIA
Published in the Slovak Heritage Live
newsletter Volume 8, No. 2, Summer 2000
Copyright © Vladimir Linder 2000
3804 Yale Street, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada V5C 1P6
The above article and photographs may not be copied,
reproduced, republished, or redistributed by any means including electronic,
without the express written permission of
Vladimir
Linder. All rights
reserved.
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