Real Friends are Worth Keeping

          How many friends whom you can really consider as real ones? If we will think about it, some of those friends are not really "real". Real friends are those whom you can rely in whatever situation one is in. He is there in times of joy and times of tears. 

          Thus you should be thankful if you can find one. Having them in our life adds flavour to it and let us find ways to keep them inside our hearts. Life's journey could be very tricky at times and in those trying times,

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we need people who can share their time and energy with us. This is always a gift --to have somebody who can listen to you no matter what it takes. 

          Journeying in life is exciting and easy when we have real friends around us. Hence we also allow others to enjoy and treasure our friendships. After all, we are made to help each other in all times. 

Quality Time.....Quality Life

          No matter how abundant we are in life but if we are not happy and contented with our primary relationships, then everything goes to nothing. Though we may differ in terms of our understanding of quality life yet for many, it is the amount of time that we spend together with our loved ones like family, relatives, friends and others. 

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          Life is marked by the kinds of priorities that we assigned to it. And from one person to the other, this varies according to our standards, ideals  and behaviour. This will take form in a matter of a pyramid and at times, this will become the inverted pyramid for others. Priorities such as money, health, travels, religion, food, security, and many others almost become as our main reasons why we need to get up every single day. 

          Yet at the end of the day, many among us are convinced that spending quality time with our families and others is the best positive way so that we can attain the so-called quality life. Amidst the challenge brought about by today's all advancements such as technologies and others, there lies the very basic way of promoting quality life----to spend quality time that is defined by the amount of love, affection as well as kindness that we share with those special people in our life. 

Sharing the Joy of Christmas

          As we in our household joined together in the spirit of the holiday season, we cherished every moment of our bonding. The hosts of our gathering were Sis Danna and Bro Rodel Ordonez at their lovely residence in Mernda suburban. What  made this gathering a momentous one was that almost all the members were present. 

 While waiting for the food to be served, we enjoyed ourselves through our karaoke session. Each one rendered his masterpiece to the delight of the rest of the group. Songs ranging from the 60s up to the latest ones were performed by the group.

After a while, food was served and everyone was delighted to the various recipes prepared by the different wives of our household. 

          As each one is excited to welcome the birthday of our Lord Jesus Christ, the joy also of being gathered together as one community through our household was very evident on the face of each member. Thus, we say good- bye to 2015 and with a high spirit, we welcome this new year 2016. 

Sharing of Love and Compassion

          Another gathering of life was held today on our Couples for Christ North Household community. Our kind host was the Vidal family, couple Bro. Alex and Sis. Precious and their ever talented daughter Alexi. We went through our usual routine of our gathering and in spite of our conventional way, it was still enriched by the varied experiences we shared in our group. 

          When everyone was ready, we started our gathering with two meaningful songs,  My Life is In You and Give Thanks. The first song allowed us to recognise God as the source of all- that everything we have in life- life, strength, talents, skills, etc. - they are all coming from Him and it is  but fitting for us all to recognise Him as such.

          The second song, Give Thanks, allowed us to recognise again God as the source of everything and that we are expressing our gratefulness to Him for all His unending goodness showered on us every single day.  

  We have so much to be thankful to Him and for several times in our life, we fail to recognise such goodness thus we chose this song to remind us that we have to be constantly grateful to God Above for His love and compassion.

          We moved on with the rest of our activities such as the sharing of thanksgiving prayers and also the expression of petitions wherein we submitted all our worries and concerns to God believing that He can hear us at all times. He would always remain as the source of our strength and energy everyday as we continue with our separate journeys in life. 

The Need To Belong

          One of man's primary needs is the need to belong to a certain group. It goes with his desire to be accepted as a person. However just like any process of communication, it is always a two-way process meaning he needs to be accepted by the other members of that group and at the same time, he needs to accept the whole package of that group so as to be considered as in the group. 

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          Different stages are involved in this process of integrating oneself into the group. At a certain stage, personal values need to be aligned with that of the group. Maybe there could be instances that he needs to sacrifice for the sake of the group. Citing a concrete example of this, if the group is actively participating and responding to the social needs of the times like poverty, social discrimination, racial issues, etc. then he has to convince himself that he values these issues personally so that he can extend a genuine participation to the cause of the group.

            Oneself vs. themselves......man vs. community....him vs. them....sometimes a conflict between any of these groups but somehow, the tides can be turned against a conflicting situation and finally emerging as victorious at the end. Hence the best way to belong to a particular group is by initially checking what are the values this group has and compare them with one's own values. 

A Borrowed Quote

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What you do today can improve all your tomorrows.

Ralph Marston

I personally shared this borrowed quote from Ralph Marston for I strongly believe on what he shared here that whatever we do in the present moment of time will greatly affect our "tomorrows". 

Henceforth, it is but essential for us to be always  mindful of all the ways that we communicate with others for there might be unfavourable consequences on our actions that may, sooner or later, affect us negatively. 

However, being aware of our everyday dynamics, it is but an everyday challenge for us to constantly monitor and be consistent on our life values for whether we like it or not, there would always be instances wherein these values will be tested and challenged. 

Yet at the end of the day, we will always go back to the basic premise and question ourselves, " What have we done today that improve our life being?", " Have we contributed positively or the contrary to our world today?", Did we become agents of change for others today?"....so on and so forth. 

Again, as Ralph said, let us utilise positively our "todays" to experience a better "tomorrows".....not just for our sake but that of our neighbours regardless of any status, situation, colour etc. in life. 

CFC Celebrates 24th Year Anniversary

          August 15, 2014, Saturday will mark the 24th anniversary of CFC (Couples for Christ) in Melbourne, Australia. Many grateful hearts are ready to share their gifts tomorrow during the celebration. The venue for this momentous event will be St. Brigid's Church and Parish Hall.

          To make this event a very meaningful one, the following activities are being prepared for everyone to share. The celebration of the Holy Eucharist will commence the festivities then this will be followed with the following events:

- praise and worship

- group photo

- dinner

- inspirational talk from Bro. Ed Canilao 

- unit presentations 1, 2 and 3

-  unit and family ministry presentations

          Everyone is so thankful to God for everything that has transpired all those 24 years that CFC existed here in Melbourne, Australia. It has passed through so many stages including the moment of purification most notably when it passed the division phase. Yet after all those trying moments, CFC continues to grow and move forward by the grace of God and by the abled leadership of people like Bros. Bong, Romy, Ed and others. Happy 24th anniversary dear fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.