Through the valley...with Christ - The Way of the Journey
is a dream project. It is a compilation of meditations and other essays reflecting a personal ministry which I pray our merciful Lord may bless to bring glory to His Name. I had planned it to be a three-volume-collection drawing on the three-year-cycle of scripture readings based on the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) used by churches of the reformed tradition.
Picking up some loose pieces from past attempts, let me start again with Adviento 2012 using RCL Cycle C lections. Adviento 2012 is a celebration of the Gospel of Advent, with the theme Martyrdom with Christ (Cycle C). It is a collection of liturgies for four Sundays of Advent and a special supplement : Simbang Gabi, worship notes for the traditional nine days dawn services, and for Christmas Eve service, Christmas service , and New Year Watch Night service.
With our theme, Martyrdom with Christ, we pray NOT for the privilege of dying a martyr’s death BUT for the privilege of living a martyr’s life, serving the cause of Christ and His church. We have one such person in mind, Atty. Joe Frank Zuniga, a comrade in faith we dearly long to see again. Let us dedicate Adviento 2012 in his loving memory. Let Adviento 2012 also be alternatively known as the Writ of Amos, ever screaming, “But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:24).
Finally, let Adviento 2012 be an affirmation of everlasting hope in God –
Advent is the beginning of the Church Year for most churches in the Western tradition... Both the season of Advent and the season of Lent are about hope. It is not just hope for a better day or hope for the lessening of pain and suffering, although that is certainly a significant part of it. It is more about hope that human existence has meaning and possibility beyond our present experiences, a hope that the limits of our lives are not nearly as narrow as we experience them to be. It is not that we have possibility in ourselves, but that God is a God of new things and so all things are possible cf: Isaiah 42:9, Matthew 19:26, Mark 14:36 (Dennis Bratcher (http://www.cresourcei.org).
The hopes and fears of all the years are met in Emmanuel!
Alex Lopez Saclayan
Cooperative Community Ministry
http://alexsaclayan.wix.com/alabkoop