Weekly Doan Truong Blogging #11

Doan Truong Blogging:http://www.tomathienga.org/huynhtruong/
= Thank you for the few HT and HS who went to the catechist class by cha Tan. He gave a great lesson on classroom management, the calling as a catechist teacher as well as other teachers sharing their experiences with each other.
~ excerpt from The Rhythm of Life: Living Every Day with Passion & Purpose by Matthew Kelly”Emotional Needs, part 1
In the emotional realm, it can be much more difficult to pinpoint our legitimate needs, because they are not necessary for our immediate survival. It is not too common to read in the newspaper about someone dying of emotional starvation. Our emotional needs are in many ways subtler, but certainly no less important if we are to thrive.

Emotional starvation, while not life threatening, does have some symptoms. For some of us, emotional starvation can lead to radical mood swings, for others to general lethargy, for others yet, to anger, bitterness, and resentment. The heart suffers and the body cries out. Most of all, emotional starvation leads to distortions in our character and prevents us from becoming the-best-version-of-ourselves.

For most people, their legitimate emotional needs include spending time with family, friends, a spouse, a boyfriend or girlfriend, colleagues at work, and perhaps a spiritual director or mentor. Spending time with these people helps us to develop a sense of self, teaches us to participate in the fulfillment of other people’s needs, and reminds us of our deep connection with the human family.

One of our most dominant emotional needs is our need for acceptance. We all need to feel we belong. In the face of rejection, we may put on a brave face and pretend that we can survive without acceptance. And that is true; we can survive without the nurturing acceptance provides.

But we cannot thrive without it.

We all have a great need to feel accepted. It is one of the forces that drives human behavior. Our need to be accepted is powerful, and it is astounding what most people will do to gain some sort of acceptance or sense of belonging.

I have always been fascinated with how many different churches there are in America and the criteria people use to choose a church. For several years I have been asking people, and I am amazed how similar their responses are. Most of them say something like “From the minute I walked in there five years ago, I just felt so welcome” or “I just feel like I belong there.”

We have a great need to be accepted. We need to belong.

With this in mind, it is easy to understand why so many people join gangs and cults. From time to time, you may hear a story about a gang or a cult, and those of us who live in a relatively secluded world may wonder why anyone would get involved in these things. Simple. Just like you and me, people who join gangs and cults have a legitimate need for acceptance and a sense of belonging. They just don’t have the options you and I have.

Our needs are powerful. In many cases, if they are not fulfilled in healthy ways, they will seek their own satisfaction in self-destructive ways.”

Upcoming Events: = Basic Catechist Training  Monday Oct 11 @ 7pm-9pm: Rev. Martino Nguyen (Cha Thong) – We love what we know. We invite everyone to come to learn more about Jesus and the Church. 2010-2011Catechist Training Schedule. = Leadership Fall Retreat for HT and HS Helpers Oct 15 @7pm – Oct 16 @5pm, 2010 – Please mark your calendars for our retreat to refresh our spiritual well being. Bring warm clothes and clothes you can get wet in.  - Come reconnect with God and each other.  - Please report to your Nganh Truong whether you can make it to this retreat.  = Basic Catechist Training  Monday Oct 25 @ 7pm-9pm: Rev. Martino Nguyen (Cha Thong) – We love what we know. We invite everyone to come to learn more about Jesus and the Church. 2010-2011Catechist Training Schedule.
= Basic Catechist Training  Tues Nov 2 @ 7pm-9pm: Rev. Robert Tân Phạm – We love what we know. We invite everyone to come to learn more about Jesus and the Church. 2010-2011Catechist Training Schedule. = Monthly HT & HS Adoration Saturday Nov 13 7:00-8:00pm due to Ephata Retreat – This Adoration will brought to you by Nganh Nghia.   – Come at 6:30pm for some food and mingling
= Monthly HT & HS Meeting Nov 14 @ 3:15pm-4:15pm.
= Thanksgiving TN Leadership Dinner Nov 26 @ 6pm, Location TBD

Your Servant in Christ,
Nhan

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Weekly Doan Truong Blogging #10

Doan Truong Blogging:

http://www.tomathienga.org/huynhtruong/

= A Special Thanks to all HT and HS who showed up to show support for the families at the funeral. It is one of the ways we “làm việc tông đồ” doing apostolic work.

= Quote from “Because God is Real”

8. So the meaning of life is . . . to be a saint? Exactly! But being a saint does not necessarily mean being someone unusual and famous, like Saint Francis of Assisi or Mother Teresa. It means simply loving God with your whole heart and loving your neighbor as you love yourself (Mt 19:19). This is every person’s destiny. Most of us have a long, long way to go to reach it. But God cares about every one of His children, even the ones who are the slowest to learn to walk down the road of love, the only road that leads to Heaven. God cares about the smallest steps we take on this road, the tiniest choices to love. He is our Father, after all; that’s why He is “easy to please and hard to satisfy”, as C. S. Lewis’ friend George MacDonald put it. God is pleased with the first little baby steps we take on this royal road of love, but He will not be satisfied until we are mature and whole and reach the end of the road. That’s one reason why the process of learning to love completely will be completed after death in Purgatory for most of us: because we’re not finished yet. Although Baptism and faith have made us “justified” (or “saved”, or “in a state of grace”), so that we can go to Heaven, we still need to do good works, the works of love, throughout our lives in order to grow into saints, in order to be “sanctified”. Meanwhile, life is a road to that end. Here is what life looks like from the perspective of that end, that destiny:

It is a serious thing to live in a world of possible gods and goddesses, to realize that the dullest person you meet may one day be something which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship; or else a horror and a corruption which you meet now only in a nightmare. All day long we are helping each other to one or the other of these two destinations. There are no ordinary people. You have never met a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations, these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we work with, play with, marry, snub, or exploit: immortal horrors or everlasting splendors (C. S. Lewis, “The Weight of Glory”). ”

Upcoming Events:

= Our First Praise & Worship: MOVED TO Friday Oct 1  @ 7pm-10pm

- We moved it so it would not conflict with the Wake service at Church

= Monthly HT & HS Adoration Saturday Oct 2nd 7:00-8:00pm in FULL UNIFORM

- This Adoration will brought to you by Nganh Thieu.

- Come at 6:30pm for some light food and mingling

= Monthly HT & HS Meeting Oct. 3 @ 3:15pm-4:15pm.

= Basic Catechist Training Tuesday Oct 5 @ 7pm-9pm: Rev. Robert Tân Phạm

- We love what we know. We invite everyone to come to learn more about Jesus and the Church. 2010-2011Catechist Training Schedule.

= Leadership Fall Retreat for HT and HS Helpers Oct 15-16, 2010

- Please mark your calendars for our retreat to refresh our spiritual well being.

- Come reconnect with God and each other.

= Basic Catechist Training  Monday Oct 25 @ 7pm-9pm: Rev. Martino Nguyen (Cha Thong)

- We love what we know. We invite everyone to come to learn more about Jesus and the Church. 2010-2011Catechist Training Schedule.

= Basic Catechist Training  Tues Nov 2 @ 7pm-9pm: Rev. Robert Tân Phạm

- We love what we know. We invite everyone to come to learn more about Jesus and the Church. 2010-2011Catechist Training Schedule.

= Monthly HT & HS Adoration Saturday Nov 13 7:00-8:00pm due to Ephata Retreat

- This Adoration will brought to you by Nganh Nghia.

- Come at 6:30pm for some food and mingling

= Monthly HT & HS Meeting Nov 14 @ 3:15pm-4:15pm.

= Thanksgiving TN Leadership Dinner Nov 26 @ 6pm, Location TBD

Your Servant in Christ,
Nhan

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