Our proclamation of the Gospel of Holy Friendship can now be more widespread through www.sinirangan.com a team blog of natives and residents of Eastern Samar. We do hope that this development would allow more sharings and increased membership :)
God bless us all!
The Society of the Holy Friendship will be composed of cenacles - small groups of friends who will share, pray and live the Gospel of Holy Friendship as small cells and little communities. A Cenacle responsible shall facilitate the activities of the friends.
It is suggested that since the Gospel of Holy Friendship was announced by the Lord Jesus Christ during the Last Supper at the Cenacle, or Upper Room, then the special day for gathering, praying together and sharing by the friends should be in a Thursday evening.
It is my prayer that God allow us to meet together during the World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia! and from there spread the Gospel of Holy Friendship to all the world!
The PSALM stands up for Prayer, Simplicity, Availability, Liturgy and Moderation - the five pillars of the Holy Friendship.
Prayer is communicating with God and it can be done in three ways - through personal prayers, prayers with a small group during prayer meetings and other small community gatherings and the big Church community during Sundays and Holy Days of obligation.
Simplicity means a lifestyle in accordance with what God is providing you and not what you wish to have. It could be that you will have a more comfortable life or a less luxurious living than others but as long as it is within your capacity and you are not trampling down on others rights and not disregarding others needs then there's nothing to be guilty about.
Availability comes to play when we give time to more important things than what we wish to accomplish. It is proper to exert more effort to work if we want to have more in life but it must not divert our attention from fulfilling our duties to God, country, family and others.
Love cannot be disregarded because it is the supreme law of holy friendship: Love one another as I have loved you! according to the Lord.
Moderation must be practiced if we want to control our lower appetites and be free from abusing our bodies to the point of endangering our lives because of excessive intake of food and drinks, unbriddled desire for fame and popularity, etc.
Let the PSALM guide us in our daily lives and let us sing psalms of joy to the Lord!
Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called "the friend of God." - James 2:23
If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, his religion is vain. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world. - James 1:
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Friendship is certainly a call to Holiness. We cannot become friends of God if we do not leave behind sinfulness and unless we commit to the requirements of the Christian religion which is to Love One Another as God has Loved us!
Being holy does not mean doing incredible things unless very much called for in extreme instances like martyrdom and heroism. We can actually manifest holiness in the smallest things that happen in our lives such as inside our homes (the way we treat each other in the family including helpers and others), in our respective workplaces (the way we treat co-employees, subordinates, superiors, clients, customers, etc), in school (how we treat our teachers, students, classmates, co-teachers, superiors, etc), in the streets (do we follow traffic rules, do we disdain the person walking alongside with us, do we look with evil intent upon other people, etc) and etc.
Many of us think of holiness as being able to do great things for the Church and for God. But great things start small. If we fail to accomplish the littlest things that we ought to how much more those big sacrifices which could break our nerves first then our faith itself?
Read the entire Chapter 13 of St Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians and reflect on the true meaning of LOVE.
The following passage from the Gospel according to St. John is what I call the Gospel of Holy Friendship. Here the Lord Jesus Christ declares the invitation by God to man to that divine relationship which He initiated since the foundation of the world. We are called to be His friends and turning down this invitation is a big ingratitude to Him who has paid so dear a price - the death of His only begotten Son upon the cross - just for us to be reconciled to Him and become worthy of this great opportunity of Holy Friendship.
12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command. 15I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 17This is my command: Love each other.
This passage was copied and pasted from http://bibleresources.bible.com
According to the Holy Bible, Abraham was the only one who was considered as a Friend of God.
And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," [ Gen. 15:6] and he was called God's friend. - James 2:23.
This passage was copied and pasted from http://bibleresources.bible.com
Everyone else has been called Sevants of God even the great men and heroes of faith such as King David, Isaiah, Moses. Hence this invitation to friendship is a great privilege and it is only because of the Lord Jesus Christ that we were given this chance.
I therefore encourage you to accept this invitation and let us be one in the great family of God's friends!
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