Skip to main content

#536 A pursuit for holiness.

Monsenor Gimenez at the central mass in Caacupe spoke today about purification. A believer needs to imitate Jesus and the life he portrait. He  stressed the importance of purification of  the faithful and the church. 

Thousands of believers, many of them pilgrims gather for the Virgin of Caacupe Day in Caacupe, Paraguay, gather every year. This is the most important religious celebration. Located 50 km from the capital, Caacupe is the centre of the country's religious events on the day when the Catholic calendar marks the Day of the Conception.

I resonate with the message of holiness and the need for our life's to be under Gods spirit purification process. In my own life over the years I have realized how easy it is to talk about faith, but how difficult it becomes to enact, live out, incarnate the virtues of Jesus and the life of a true christian. 

Some faith assemblies call this process; baptism, cleansing, holy spirit infilling, having the fruits of the spirit. John Wesley in the 1700's and others preached holiness and were willing to die for the message.

Holiness living continues to be a daunting task in this modern age, full of distractions and opportunities for evil.  

Not just Sundays, holidays or annual pilgrimages should make us virtuous. Aiming at a daily transformation of our souls, mind and spirit is the way to go. 


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Christmas in Paraguay!

If you're wondering what Paraguayans do at Christmastime, they have some great traditions , including the " noche buena " meal on Christmas Eve at midnight.  They eat lots chipa guasu (a type of corn casserole, stay tuned for a recipe), asado or grilled meat (some eat it cold), salads, especially fruit salad, watermelon and drink mucho terere . Families travel from all over the country, many even return from working in other countries like Brazil, Argentina, and Spain, to celebrate with loved ones. This is us at last year's Kurrle celebration in Asuncion. Festivities are anything but a silent night with fireworks, loud music and drinking cidra (hard cider).  Most Paraguayans do not decorate Christmas trees (we decorate ours in shorts!) or emphasize Santa Claus.  Instead, they put beautiful nativities " pesebres " in their yards and in store fronts.  Kind of novel to focus on Christ at Christmas, isn't it! To beat the heat, many Paraguayans g...

Paraguayan Weddings

On Valentine’s Day, we had the joy of attending the wedding of Sandra and Anastacio, young leaders in the church. Sandra is my assistant with Children of Promise and Anastacio, apart from his carpentry job, has a popular youth-focused radio program every night at 8:00 on our station. We’ve been to quite a few weddings, and these are some of the uniquenesses of southern Paraguayan wedding celebrations from our North American culture: 1. Nothing is fancy. Emphasis is placed on the act of marriage and not on the decorations or food. 2. It is not an expectation that parents help pay for expenses. Most families just make it each month with regular expenses and cannot afford to pay for eleborate feasts. Most couples have to spend months saving for their own wedding. 3. Borrow as much as possible. Many times wedding dresses are borrowed 5-10 times, because few women can afford their own. Flowers, decorations, shoes and ties (Norb loans out his ties often...since he never wears them!...

How to make Rosella (Roselle) Juice and Tea

This is rosella (not to be confused with grosella, which is gooseberry).  Rosella is from the hibiscus family. It's harvest time here, and we use the rosella to make juice and tea.  It's properties are absolutely tremendous.  It helps sooth colds, coughs, helps digestion, promotes healthy kidney function, is a treatment for cancer, and reduces a fever and that's just a few of its benefits!  To make rosella juice, first de-pit the fruit and wash the skin thoroughly. Put the fruit into boiling water until the water is bright red (about 15 minutes).  The color is so vibrant, Roselle is sold to make dyes.  Strain the fruit (which can be used to make a delicious jam) and refrigerate the juice.  Add a few squirts of Stevia for a healthy drink. The finished product looks exactly like red Kool-aid, but is entirely full of nutrients.  We can't get enough of it. We dehydrated the petals for hot tea.  All you need is two dried flowers to infus...