KALIS Homily

“Meddle with Us, Jesus!”

July 2, 2014, 13^th Wk in Ordinary Time

Readings: Amos 5:14-15, 21-24; Ps 50:7,8-9,10-11,12-13,16-17;Mt 8:28-34.

In the course of the days after Pentecost Sunday, we had been hearing a lot from the gospel of Matthew. We heard of Jesus and his preaching and healing ministry. We heard of his powerful words and deeds that have healed the wounded soul and spirit. We heard from the gospel yesterday a very dramatic episode wherein Jesus calmed the violent storm that the apostles met on the lake. Today we hear about Jesus encountering two demons who were terrified upon seeing  him.  The demoniacs might have been [quote-unquote] ‘at peace’ in the tombs, but suddenly, they met Jesus, and that was not at all a ‘peaceful’ experience for them.

I propose that we reflect on the reactions of the gospel characters towards Jesus. First is the reaction of the demons upon seeing Jesus and second is the reaction of the Gadarenes to what Jesus did. I believe we can mirror these reactions in our experiences here in the community.

The first reaction, “Why meddle with us, Son of God?” In our daily lives here in the seminary, we are caught up with many tasks; paper works, our office and extra – curricular activities inside and outside of the seminary. We are too caught up with them that sometimes we forget there are other more important things to do like sitting down having quiet time to reflect and be immersed in God’s presence in prayer. Like the demons, sometimes trying to settle down and see Jesus is a  disturbance of our busy routine because we need to beat the deadlines. Jesus disturbs the [quote-unquote] ‘peace’ that we find in busying ourselves up because of work and too much work. We sometimes wrongly convince ourselves that “my work is my prayer”. We become uncomfortable when we have nothing to do or when we are put into silence. My brothers, do we come to a point in saying “Why meddle with ME, Son of God in my busy schedule?”

Second reaction, the Gadarenes begged Jesus to leave. We strive to be a community of those chosen to live as Christ did. Our activities are always geared towards the configuration of our hearts to the heart of Jesus. When taking the extra mile is for my greater glory, when appraising our brothers because of jealousy or pride becomes a show of hasty undiscerned judgment and when praying and faithfully following the newly revised seminary handbook becomes a show of self-preservation and self-righteousness, we have taken the wrong path towards configuration to the heart of Jesus. Sometimes little do we know it, our unconscious takes over our conscious self. When selfish motivations take over, the configuration will be temporarily halted or much worse, permanently halted.  When we allow this to happen, it is like making Jesus leave our hearts. We set Him aside. The worth of our work becomes weightier than that of Jesus’ worth in our lives. Our formation becomes futile because we become those little monsters that give Pope Francis the goosebumps.

Where do these reactions lead us? It leads us to our destruction. Soon enough, if we find Jesus to be a disturbance to us, we trigger the destruction of the self, of our relationship with others in the community, and most of all, of our relationship with God. But my dear brothers, if we allow ourselves to be disturbed by Christ, we allow Him to come to us. We recognize the need for Him in our lives. It should lead us more to Christ who is the prince of peace. Being disturbed by God is not something negative. What matters is our response to it. Let us allow Christ to meddle with our affairs so that we can always discern if we are on the right track and be disturbed if we are already doing things on our own or when our personal issues take over. It takes a lot of humility and acceptance to allow God through Jesus to come in and be at peace with Him. Let us ask for the grace of inner peace that only God can provide.

Weng Pelingon

KALIS Homily

Homily on June 11, 2014, Wednesday

(Feast of St. Barnabas)

Our Gospel today is part of Matthew Chapter 10, the missionary discourse of Jesus. The first reading complements the Gospel for it talks about the flourishing community of Antioch which Barnabas visited.  Antioch, as we know, was where the disciples were first called “Christians”. As we celebrate today the feast of  St. Banabas, who is a prolific missionary of the early church, allow me to focus my sharing on being a missionary, which, I believe, is one of the key themes of our liturgy today.

            If we take the gospel in a literal sense, we might conclude that Jesus is equating discipleship with asceticism. Imagine: no walking staff, no sandals, and no extra cloak. “Ang hirap naman niyan”.   Mathew is more radical compared to Mark who allows staff and sandal on missionary travel. If I am to translate this to our modern parlance, Jesus must be saying to us: “Do not bring iPad, No ATM, No Business or do not acquire property.” The purpose of Matthew here, however, is not to encourage a believer to live a destitute life. On the contrary, he reminds everyone to prioritize missionary activity over personal comfort. Simplicity is an imperative in doing the works of the kingdom of God. Simplicity is not an end of itself. It is a means to become more available, loving, and accommodating. True simplicity compels us to prioritize what is divine over earthly. Our priorities in life define where our hearts belong.

It is not unknown to us all that formation for the priesthood demands a lot from us. Some of us,  including myself, tend to sacrifice one pillar of formation over another; studies over prayer, apostolate over studies, and so on.  Every day in the seminary is a test of our priorities.  Hence, I think we need to examine our lives using the lens of simplicity.  Simplicity takes many forms. Simplicity can be seen in how we spend our prayer time, free time, and study period. At times we are engrossed by many personal or common activities which are not necessary for our formation. In Fr. Raul’s term, these are energy leaks that burn up our energy.

Dear brothers, our simplicity in terms of time element will be challenged in the coming days. Some of us are still want to continue the “not-so-demanding life” of previous weeks.  Some are still reminiscing our community building specially the Japanese walk that many of us executed it with no effort at all. Some want to still arrange their rooms for another round of gallery walk. However, we need to move forward. Many requirements await us. We are no longer master of our time. It is the demands of formation that will take priority as our way of knowing and loving God. Thus, simplicity leads to obedience. We obey the formation because we want to love God. According to Fr. Alejo, “ If a seminarian does not study his lesson well, he disobeyed in advanced for he deprived himself of an opportunity to gain more learning  that will help him fulfill his future ministry with competence”.

Vianney does not promise us an easy life; nor she make life difficult for us. Since we want to be sent to a mission, the seminary has to prepare us.  Our mission starts here and now. How pitiful it is for a seminarian like me to look at mission in view of the future without the consciousness that it starts at the moment I set foot on the gates of the seminary. The dichotomy between seminary formation and mission will end in the disintegration of priorities, and as a result, our simplicity will be put into question. Many complaints will be born if our now is not connected to our tomorrow and our tomorrow is not grounded in the present. As Henri Nouwen says, “waiting is not a passive activity; rather it is active, for by waiting, we gradually become what we are waiting for.” If we want to become a true missionary like St. Barnabas, let us live fully our present. Waiting needs a missionary attitude.

            True missionary does not favor one situation over the other. He is at home in joy as well as in pain; in easy subjects and in difficult ones; it matters little to him whether he passed or he failed. He is at home in any place or any situation-for home for him is where God calls him. May God be praised!

-Randy Caerlang-

KALIS Homily

Wednesday, 11^th Week

2 Kings 2:1, 6-14, PS 31:20, 21, 24, Mt 6:1-6, 16-18

TS Eliot in his poem, The Murder at the Cathedral, once said, “The last temptation is the greatest treason: to do right deed for wrong reason.”

Our first reading today presents Elijah asking Elisha what gift he would like to ask for from God. Elisha, the apprentice of Elijah, asked for the double portion of the spirit of Elijah, which means, a special connection or relationship with God. In the Gospel today, Jesus reminds His disciples that they should be focused on their relationship with the Father.  The disciples should do good deeds of almsgiving, praying, and fasting not to be noticed by others and receive praise from mere humans, but rather to draw closer to the Father who sees the deeds of those who are trying to live like their Master.  The close relationship with God is much more important than the admiration of other people as Pope Francis stated in one of his homilies.  The purpose of their actions should be a deepening of their relationship with the One who sees what is done in secret and gives gifts better than that of being held in high esteem bypeople.  

Let me focus my reflection on the intention or motivation of the heart in doing good. TS Eliot is indeed correct in saying that it is treason and hypocrisy to do good deeds with the wrong intention. This is what constantly comes to my prayer on this passage. In the sphere of human dynamics, person gifted with self-consciousness, self-confidence, and aggressiveness may be prey to this hypocrisy.  And much more if the person is not aware of this dynamics. The good deeds he has done may be tainted by hypocrisy rather than inspired by a closer relationship with the Giver of the gifts.  Our Human Formation reminds us always that it is our ego that often prevents us from establishing a meaningful relationship with God. The ego  leads to self-centeredness and desirespraises and recognition. Based on my experience, one feels frustrated if one is not recognized and given importance.

Throughout my 11 years in formation, I have found myself continually struggling with this. I acknowledge my God-given gifts. However, many times,I am defeated by my ego. This is a reminder for me. I ask myself, “In everything I do and for all that I share, what are my motivations”? I never had pure motivations. Never. Hence, I am very grateful to my counsellor and spiritual director for the guidance and enlightenment. In the constant struggle with this ego-centric dynamics and the desire to serve God and his Church, this seminary has never ever left me hanging. The programs of the seminary continually help me to stand in the midst of the creative tension between the two realities of ego-centric dynamics and genuine service to God. I believe thateach one of us have our own struggles in this regard, but on  different levels and intensities. Let us always remember that though our motivation is never pure, there is always room for growth for those who are willing to be helped.

In our daily awareness of this inner movement, we can surely develop our deeper relationship with the Giver of our giftsand make Him the right reason for every good deed we do. As Cardinal Tagle reminded us also during his talk, to be grounded on where we came from so that the praises we receive may be directed with gratitude to the Giver rather than to us. This will then lead to a deeper relationship with God. Like Elisha, let us continually ask God for the grace of openness and humility to acknowledge and tame our own issues and struggles. Quoting Fr. Cel, let us always ask ourselves; what is/are my motivations in doing things? Where is the direction of my affect? May we desire for deeper relationship with God as our motivation rather than others’ praises and adulations. Amen.

-          Eric Cantones

NEW YEAR (B)

NEW YEAR (B)

Hapi new year sa tanan!

Let us wlcome this year 2012 with HOPE and TRUST in God!  not with FEAR!

Do not be afraid of the end of the world prediction.

Karun, gusto naku tan awon ninyo ang imahe sa krus!  Unsa nga letter inyong Makita?  Letter T ug Y diba?  Thank You...angayan ta nga magpasalamat sa Ginoo sa grasya nga atong nadawat sa tuig 2011.

Ania kita karun nagkatigum arun sa pagpasalamat sa pagpasalamat sa Ginoo.  Bisag nabahaan ang Valencia magpasalamat gihapon ta kay hayag pa nahetabu. 

Na luge man inyung basakan o umahan, pasalamat gihapon kita kay kita buhi pa.  Ingon pa ni Blue Blink HABANG NABUBUHAY MAY PAG-ASA!

Ug dili pud nato kalimtan ang mga leksyun nga atong natagamtaman sa tuig 2011.  Dili na unta ma usab ang baha nga naagian sac do ug iligan...dili na unta kita mag buta buta labi na gyud kung ang isyu bahin sa kinaiyahan.

Sa pikas bahin tan awa ninyo otro ang imahe sa krus!  (HORIZONTAL ug VERTICAL line)

Sa paghuman sa tuig 2011 kumusta nab a ang imong relasyon diha sa GINOO?  Milig-on ba o mihuyang?

Kumusta pud ang imong relasyon sa imong pamilya? Sa imung silingan?  Ug sa kinaiyahan?

Mao kini ang atong dalhon nga imahe sa atong paglawig sa tuig 2012...the image of the cross...that relationship matters most that any other material belongings.

Ingun pa ni Fr. Joey Rapadas(formator SJVTS) there are 4 ways to reflect on about new year.

1.       LOOK BACK AND THANK GOD.

2.       LOOK AHEAD AND TRUST IN GOD

3.       LOOK AROUND AND SERVE GOD

4.       LOOK WITHIN AND FIND GOD

And Mary is our model in responding with an open heart to God’s love.

Sa katapusan mga igsoon...3 mabubuting bisyo ngayong 2012.

1.       ALAK-alalahahin lagi ang kapwa/kalikasan

2.       SUGAL-sa umaga gunitain ang LUMIKHA

3.       BABAE-buklatin ang bibliya’t basahin ang EBANGHELYO.

Hinaut pa unta!

CHRISTMAS (B)

CHRISTMAS (B)

Maayong Pasko sa tanan!

Kantahan nato karun si Jesus ug Hapi BDAY!

For sure nakadawat namu ug mga regalo...ang nag bday karun gihatagan ba ninyo ug regalo?  Unsa pud kaha nga regalo?

What is Christmas?  Let us define it...(from Fr.Toto’s Homily)

Sa uban pasko is a time for GATHERING...family reunion,etc...sa uban pud ang pasko malipayon kayo pag nay xmas bonus, pag wala gani...mingaw ug walay pasko!  How about sa mga biktima sa bagyong Sendong?  Unsa kaha ilang pasko?  Naa ba kahay pasko?

Christmas is not about the gifts, parties, bonus, etc...but it is about JESUS...it is not about you.

Malipayon Kaman karun o nag masulob on, xmas gihapon kay si Kristo na kig uban kanato dili lang sa pulong taman apan pud sa presensya.

Usa sa among formators sa seminary nanguta sa mga ALAGAD sa Talakag...why?  nga nagpakabata si Kristo pag anhi niya sa yuta? (elaborate...)

Mga igsoon ang atong ebanghelyo karun nag hisgot kang HESUS nga mao ang PULONG.  Dili lang siya sa PULONG apan nakig uban siya kanato.

Ang pulong nga gipasabot sa Ebanghelyo makaluwas...apan sa atong kinabuhi usahay pinaagi sa atong mga pulong kita makapatay ug higala o silingan...sama sa kantiyaw o pagsulti sa mga dili tinoud o pagdaut nga mga pulong.

Isip mga kristiyanos...we are challenge to say GOOD WORDS sa uban.  Sama sa, I LOVE U, TAKE CARE, INGATS...etc...

We must be the living word of JESUS...we must be the light of the world.

Ug unsay timailhan nga naghari na si Jesus sa inyong kinabuhi?  Makita kini sa atong panimalay ug sa atong kaugalingon.

1.       Una kung kita nag puyo or gi puy-an nato ang mga mensahe ni Jesus diha sa atong kinabuhi.

2.       Makita sa panimalay...xmas is about JESUS.  Nanghinaut ko nga kamu nga nagasimba karun didto unta sa inyong balay anaay BELEN...dili unta si Santa Clause ra ang naa kay dili maniya bday karun.

Ang PULONG nga si JESUS muluwas kanato!  Busa kita ipadayun nato atong maayong mga gawi nga makalipay sa Ginoo ug sa uban.

Sa katapusan...THE BEST GIFT WE CAN GIVE OTHERS IS OUR PERSON.  LET US BE GENEROUS WITH OUR TIME AND PRESENCE LIKE JESUS DID TO US.

Hinaut pa unta!

INNOCENTS DAY (B)

INNOCENTS DAY (B)

(PYD 11 at Sugarland)

Maayong AM sa tanan!  Ug maayong Pasko bisag na bahaan atong siyudad...ug sa mga trahedya nga na again.

Kumusta naman mo?  Paki lingi sa inyong higala ug kumustaha...naa bay nag bag-o kanila?

Kay ang inyong TEMA naga ingon BE TRANSFORMED!

Kita naman guro mo sa movie nga transformers or power ranger no?  Diba they will transform into something bigger and better to protect us from the bad ones.

BUKYO must change for the BETTER not for the BITTER!

Ang atong simbahan nanghinaut nga pinaagi ni’ng kalihikan, kamung mga batan-on sa VALENCIA mahimong RESPONSABLE nga kristiyano ug katoliko.

Ma transform unta kamo gikan sa irisponsable-responsable, bugoy-buotan, walay concern sa environment-REDUCE REUSE and RECYCLE, talawan-isog motindog sa kamatuuran, ug uban pang mga aspeto...

Be transformed...BUKYO!  its morphine time...(HONEST, RESPONSIBLE, BRAVE, etc...)

Ang atong Ebanghelyo karun nagpahinumdum sa mga gagmay’ng bata nga sa walay kaluoy gipatay ni hari Herodes.  Atong masabtan sa ebanghelyo nga gibuhat kini ni Herodes tungod sa iyang kahadlok nga mapulihan sa iyang trono pinaagi sa batang matawo nga mahimong hari sa mga Hudeyo.

Sa atong panahon karun ang pagpamatay sa mga bata nagpadayon pinaagi sa aborsyon.  Ang mga aborsyonista ug ang mga tawo nga naga supporta sa aborsyon mao ang modernong HERODES.

Wala silay kahadlok o pagtahud sa Ginoo nga maoy tag iya sa tanang kinabuhi sa tawo.  Ang gipamatay ni Herodes gamay ra kayo nga itandi sa kadaghanan sa mga bata karun nga gipangpatay sa matag adlaw pinaagi sa aborsyon. (From Fr. Abet’s Homily)

Dugang pa niani na dugangan pa ang mga Herodes sa kalibutan labi natong mga tawo nga uhaw sa salapi...mga tawo nga sige ug pamutol sa kahoy sa kabukiran nga walay tanum2x.

Ug unsa may angayan nga buhaton BUKYO?  Igo raba ang mo simpatiya? Mohatag ug used clothes?  Mag-ampo?  To tell you my dear BUKYO..dili kana igo...dapat naa pud tay action nga paga buhaton.  Ug ang pinaka concreto mao ang pagpananum ug kahoy, waste segregation, u gang re-use,reduce, recycle...

Kung sa NARUTO pa nga series...naa kay makuha nga leksyun mao ang...A PERSON BECOMES STRONGER NOT BECAUSE HE KNOWS A LOT OF SPECIAL TECHNIQUES, BUT BECAUSE HE HAS SOMEONE VERY IMPORTANT TO PROTECT(From Dawn Alvarez). (protect our environment,etc...BUKYO!)

Busa hagit kanato mga kabatan-onan...LIHOK samtang naa pa kita’y mabuhat nga maayo!

Sa katapusan..tugoti ko ninyo motapos ning akong pag paambit sa usa ka storya bahin sa CARROTS, EGG, ug COFFEE BEAN....HINAUT PA UNTA!

PSALMS

• THE BOOK OF PSALMS
• Introduction
• Costacurta, Bruna, Class notes: Biblical Exegesis on Selected Psalms. (1st Semester 2001-2002, Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome).
• Polish, Daniel, Bringing the Psalms to Life: How to Understand and Use the Book of Psalms. (Woodstock, 2000).
• The Book of Psalms in the life of the Church and Israel
• As priests and religious, we intimately encounter the Psalms daily.
• In fact many a times during the day.
• The Divine Office, the official prayer of the Church to sanctify the different hours of the day and to give glory to our God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is essentially  based on the Psalms.
• More importantly when we celebrate the Eucharist to listen to the Word of God and to partake of His Body and Blood, it is the Psalms that put words into our hearts and lips so that we can fully respond to the Word of God being proclaimed in our midst.
• The Psalms in the Life of Israel, God’s Chosen People
• A note about the place of Psalms in the lives of the Chosen People of God, Israel, is worth mentioning.
• The Psalms themselves are but fruits of their own encounters with God as His Chosen People through the ends and outs of their history and daily lives.
• For Israel, they find POWER IN THESE ANCIENT POEMS.
• They experienced being pulled by these hymns, a pull that causes them to read the Psalm over and over again, a pull that long ago led people to evolve the worship service itself so that they could visit—and reinterpret—psalms regularly.
• In a word, the Psalms are so BELOVED by Israel.
• A clue to the power of the Book of Psalms can be found in the life of a well-known contemporary hero of the Jewish people, former Soviet refusenik Anatoly Sharansky, who became Nathan Sharansky when he migrated to Israel in 1986.
• Sharansky had been held prisoner by Soviet authorities, detained in solitary confinement for years with nothing to read but this book of Psalms.
• His wife Avital wrote about the imprisonment of Sharansky.
• She said,

  “Anatoly has been educated to his Jewishness in a lonely cell in Chistopol Prison, where locked alone with the Psalms of David, he found expression for his innermost feelings in the outpourings of the king of Israel thousand of years ago.”

• In his love of the Psalms, and in FINDING HIS DEEPEST FEELINGS GIVEN VOICE IN THE PSALMS, Sharansky was the embodiment of every Jew for the last three hundred years, and every Christian, too.
• Somehow the Psalms put us in TOUCH WITH WHAT MATTERS MOST TO US, and EXPRESS THOSE FEELINGS MORE CLEARLY AND MOVINGLY THAN WE CAN EXPRESS THEM OURSELVES.
• Psalms as Beloved
• More than any other part of Scriptures, we can say that the Psalms are not beloved because they are holy, but that THEY ARE HOLY BECAUSE THEY ARE BELOVED.
• We do not turn the Psalms out of a sense of obligation. We read Psalms because they help us CONFRONT the PAINS and CHALLENGES that are PART OF EVERY HUMAN LIFE.
• Psalms help us PUT INTO WORDS what WE EXPERIENCE and FEEL; more than many will tell you, Psalms help us OVERCOME OUR PROBLEMS and BEAR the BURDENS that LIFE PLACES ON ALL OF US.
• What has made the Psalms so BELOVED and POWERFUL is NOT their divinity , but THEIR HUMANITY.
• For Psalms GREW out of the SOIL of HUMAN EXPERIENCE.
• They talk to us in the VOICE of a FELLOW JOURNEYER ALONG LIFE’S PATH, and they have within them the resources to help us when the journey gets difficult.
• An Invitation to Becoming Friends with the Book of Psalms
• Given these Christian and Jewish perspectives of the Psalms, may I invite you as individuals and as a community, to consciously and personally MAKE  the Book of Psalms YOUR FRIEND.
• Like a good and faithful friend, the Psalms help us UNDERSTAND MORE ABOUT OURSELVES.
• In fact if we will strive to become friends with the Psalms, we can turn to them AS TRUE FRIENDS FOR HELP in our TIMES OF NEED.
• Just like what Jesus did as He painfully hung Himself on the Cross, it was to Psalm 22 that He turned Himself for help: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?”
• Each of us brings our own particular experience to everything each of us does.
• Our histories and struggles shape the way we see our world and the way we understand everything we study.
• No book of the Bible lends itself as much as Psalms does to being read through the lenses of our own circumstances and search.
• The Book of Psalms talks to our SPIRITUAL QUEST: our DESIRE TO FIND GOD and our FRUSTRATION that God often seems REMOTE, HIDDEN, UNAPPROACHALBE, and UNKNOWABLE.
• Psalms talks to human PAIN—ILLNESS and FEAR, and to the SENSE that we sometimes have of being ABANDONED.
• Psalms knows the STING of FAILURE and the DISTRESS of being BETRAYED by people WE TRUSTED.
• Psalms can be the voice through which we CRY OUT FOR HELP, and Psalms can be the GUIDE through which the LOST BEGIN to be FOUND.
• The power of the Psalms lies in their ability to speak directly and personally to the human condition.
• As St. Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, wrote:

   “The Psalms embrace the entire human life, express every emotion of the soul, every impulse of the heart—[The Psalms speak for you] when your soul yearns for penance and confession, when your spirit is depressed or joyous…when your soul is yearning to express its thanks to God, or its pain…”

• Psalm 51:1-2  Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy steadfast love; according to thy abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.  2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!
• Psalm 31:10-12   For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my misery, and my bones waste away.  11 I am the scorn of all my adversaries, a horror to my neighbors, an object of dread to my acquaintances; those who see me in the street flee from me.  12 I have passed out of mind like one who is dead; I have become like a broken vessel.
• Psalm 9:1-2  I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart; I will tell of all thy wonderful deeds.  2 I will be glad and exult in thee, I will sing praise to thy name, O Most High.
• Indeed the Psalms are remarkably human.
• They validate the whole range of human emotions.
• Psalms start with the recognition of just how fragile life is : we suffer, we experience fear and exaltation, we meet with success and failure, we know contentment and anxiety, we experience betrayal, have enemies, even know rage and the desire for revenge, and we find vindication, comfort, new confidence.
• The Psalms give voice to all of these emotions and help us put them in context.
• They help us marshal our resources so that we can move from HURT to HEALING, from the VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH back to the HIGH PLACES of life.
• The Psalms hold out hope for us, even in our darkest hours.
• Above all, the Psalms encourage us to give voice to our emotions and pour our hearts to God.
• In Psalms, we watch the DRAMA of SALVATION ENACTED—not salvation on the grand cosmological scale, but the SIMPLE STORY OF PEOPLE SAVED FROM THE BURDENS THAT OPPRESSED THEM.
• Psalms talks of THANKSGIVING—breaking out in SHOUTS of JOY and GRATITUDE when DARKNESS that THREATENED to ENVELOP US is pierced by RAYS of HOPE.
• Psalms shows us the PATH to TRIUMPH and provides the SONGS to SING when we have PREVAILED.
• Psalm 33:1-5  Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous! Praise befits the upright.  2 Praise the LORD with the lyre, make melody to him with the harp of ten strings!  3 Sing to him a new song, play skilfully on the strings, with loud shouts.  4 For the word of the LORD is upright; and all his work is done in faithfulness.  5 He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD.
• One can say that Psalms does all of this AS ANY FRIEND SHOULD—without LECTURING, DEMANDING, OR COERCING.
• Psalms TEACHES BY EXAMPLE, by SHOWING US, “I’VE BEEN THERE, THAT HAS HAPPENED TO ME, AND THIS IS HOW I MADE IT THROUGH.”
• This PERSONAL MESSAGE of the Book of Psalms is the REASON people have turned to it for thousand years.
• It is the POWER LATENT in Psalms that has made it THE FIRST REFUGE OF PEOPLE IN DISTRESS.
• That power has not diminished over time.
• It remains EVER-PRESENT and AVAILABLE to us, if we know how to find it.
• Turning to the Book of Psalms, learning where to look and how to understand it, is a study we undertake not from some lofty, theoretical vantage, but from the VERY HUMAN NEED TO MAKE OUR LIVES BETTER, MORE AT EASE, and WHOLE.
• We are drawn to Psalms, as generations before us were, not by abstract curiosity, but by COMPULSION—NOT FIGURATIVE, but LITERAL—TO SAVE OUR LIVES, or better still, THAT OUR LIVES BE SAVED, since it is beyond us to SAVE ourselves.
• Psalms still holds the power to help us through the DARKEST TIMES, give us our BEARINGS, and ENRICH our lives.
• I hope and pray that this exposition may lead us to REDISCOVER THE WHOLE-MAKING and HEALING POWER of the Psalms.
• May we truly make the Psalms our FRIENDS.