Save the Date: 2016 Mission retreats
2016 MISSION MESSAGE
**Source for featured image above. Please note featured image above is only for inspiration and is not the pilgrim statue that will be visiting.
Save these dates on your calendars! Yes, it’s that time of the year again.
Bro Jo & Lord’s Leaven Mission Society will be conducting the annual mission retreats and seminars in The Philippines & Sydney, Australia.
For all of you lucky enough to be in The Philippines or Sydney, Australia during these 2 months we invite you to come and attend his seminars, listen to God’s message and learn more about Lord’s Leaven Mission and unlocking the key which is Divine Indwelling.
Most importantly the pilgrim statue bestowed upon Bro Jo in 1984 will be making a pilgrimage to all the visiting cities.(to learn more of this please Read the story here). We hope you can join us in welcoming our lady.
Commencing September 25-October 25, below is the tentative schedule for you to start marking on your calendars.
September 27, Tuesday – arrival Philippines
September 30, Friday – leave for Butuan
October 1, Saturday – Butuan General Assembly, for Agusan del Norte
October 2, Sunday – Patin-ay, Agusan del Sur
October 3, Monday – leave for Tago, Surigao del Sur
October 4, Tuesday – audience with Bishop Odchimar, Parish Priest
October 5, Wednesday – Tandag Orientation
October 6, Thursday – Tago Orientation
October 7, Friday – leave for CDO-Lagonglong, MISAMIS ORIENTAL
October 10, Monday – Cagayan De Oro to Manila
October 12, Thursday to 18, Wednesday – SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
SYDNEY, Please mark on your calendars: October 15-16 will be the RETREAT in Sydney, Australia and will be a deep dive into the Spirit & Divine Indwelling. Further details to be posted and to be confirmed here.
October 18, Thursday – leave for Manila
October 22, Saturday – Pangasinan
Full and confirmed itinerary and schedule to come, so keep checking the blog for updates!
In the meantime we encourage you to read Bro Jo’s letter of invitation below.
Brothers, Sisters,
Many things are happening in the world today. Wherever you turn there are a lot of apprehensions, confusions, misunderstandings, uncertainties and fears. There is an escalation of a lot of killings, genocides, poverty, misery. War is in the air. The Holy Father declared that the world is now at war. A war not of religion. But a war of domination and greed. Troubles in the home. Troubles in Society. Troubles in the Church. Corruption is blatantly in the air. Addiction is everywhere. Money! Money! Money! All about money! Even our churches and councils spend their meetings mainly discussing and arguing about money! In many churches money has become a very important issue. And councils fight over money. Families are being destroyed.
This is Satan ALIVE AND ACTIVE today. In all these, what does God really want?
Every time we open the social media, the TV, the internet and see what is happening in the world and the Philippines we feel like we are looking into the basura (rubbish) of the esteros (slums) of MetroManila and in the shoreline of Manila Bay.
The Lord showed me in a vision in 1974 what would come to pass between 1975 to 2000. Then the Blessed Mother showed me that in the year 2000 heaven would open the gate of Her Triumph, this is so that many people may now enter into the Immaculate Heart and be protected from harm because many will suffer and die when the world and society will suffer the pains of inability to meet the needs of all. “Kapit sa patalim,” we call it. (“Kapit sa patalim” is an expression in Filipino language, it literally means Gripping the Knife’s Edge. This phrase is often used when someone is in a difficult sometimes dangerous situation, but doesn’t have any choice but to live with it.)
The TRIUMPH OF THE IMMACULATE HEART as prophesied in Fatima has begun since 2000. She also revealed this through the Marian Movement of Priests. While the world is going headlong in greater trouble, Our Lady is leading the way to help people enter into safety. The Triumph can only be understood with the Third Secret of Fatima of all the troubles in the world in the background. This Triumph must be DONE and EXPERIENCED, and not only talked about.
The solution to all of these troubles in the world is to follow Our Lady’s Peace Plan and to bring as many people to EXPERIENCE the peace, the joy and the love of God and with one another not by just talking about it but mainly by:
LIVING IN UNION WITH GOD WITHIN OUR SOUL IN HIS DIVINE INDWELLING AND SEEING HIM IN THE HEARTS OF OTHERS.
There is no other message that will bring sense and peace among our people but only what Heaven has already given to us. All other human solutions, however noble, will only create more confusions and doubts if they are not according to the instructions of heaven as revealed in Scriptures.
As Moses was instructed to tell the people who were suffering and dying to look at the SERPENT HANGING ON THE GIBBET so also must all of us now, we should not look at the serpents of problems biting us every day but rather look at JESUS HANGING ON THE CROSS. And JESUS IS IN OUR HEARTS, SO CLOSE TO US. PEOPLE MUST KNOW HOW NOT TO LOOK AT THE PAINS BUT RATHER LOOK AT THE LORD WITHIN US. We must know how to enter into our heart and see God within us and see God in the hearts of others, beyond their mistakes and sins. This is the solution to our pains.
There is nothing new under the sun. It is either we live what God has said and what Our Lady has continually been reminding us of or we suffer the consequences of our “stubborn opinions” in our “external religiosity projects and activities.”
As Jesus said,
Mt 7:21 “Not all those who come to Me and call My Name will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only those who do the will of My Father will enter the Kingdom.”
We are a prayerful people, religious people. But are we spiritual? Are we obedient to God’s will? If we are children of God why is there a lot of mess at home and around us? It just shows that WE ARE NOT OBEDIENT TO GOD’S HOLY WILL. Where is God? The God of order, the God of peace and joy and love in all this?
Instead of talking and sharing our experiences of our Interior Journey of union with God with one another, we talk so much about projects and money, about dirty politics and corruption, the evils going on and our own achievements. People are tired. Even many among our people in the Church criticise the evils of government, when the people of government are baptised Christians and mostly Catholics at that.
If the children are a failure, whose fault is that? Can the children be blamed? Where is love and compassion at home? Where are the parents? Where are the pastors? People these days are tired of preachers, they need inspiration to bring them out of their pains. They need compassion and mercy. Not theologians, philosophers, preachers and tyrants and money makers. But in all this mess, who are we to turn to? PUT NO BLAME ON ANYONE; FOR ALL OF US HAVE BECOME VICTIMS OF OUR BLINDNESS AND STUBBORNNESS IN WHAT WE THINK ABOUT GOD.
Psalm 127:1-3 “Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. Unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to retire late, to eat the bread of painful labors; For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep.”
The Government puts up projects. The parishes put up projects. And more discussions about the more need for money. The people’s actual need are neglected. What does God really want? Instead of building the hearts of men as a Living church, we put up buildings that can be destroyed.
Jn 15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.”
Everybody is busy, busy doing a lot of things. And yet summing it all up it boils down to the same boredom and feeling of lack. People do not find satisfaction anymore. People are afraid to share what they have because they feel they do not have enough.
Acts 7:51 “You stubborn people! You are no better than pagans at heart and deaf to the truth. Why do you resist and not listen to the Holy Spirit? That’s what your ancestors did, and so do you!”
Jn 5:39-40 “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and YOU ARE NOT WILLING AND DO NOT COME TO ME SO THAT YOU MAY HAVE LIFE.”
Now Our Lady and our Lord are calling us. Our Lady says, “Whatever my Son tells you, follow Him”, we need to listen to Him who wants to talk to us within THE SILENCE OF OUR HEARTS. We need to know how to listen to the Holy Spirit in us. Let us stop talking about God when we are not really with God within our soul and recognise Him in the hearts of others.
So in this retreat we shall hear and learn what exactly Our Lady has been telling us, how we can get away from our pains and troubles. Our Lord will tell us in this retreat how to listen to Him, really listen to Him, in the silence of our hearts. This is the effort we are doing in this Mission. Lords Leaven Mission is not an organisation, but an effort to help ourselves and others how to find God within us and live always in the Presence of God within our soul and in the souls of others.
Remember there are only two VERY IMPORTANT THINGS WE NEED TO KNOW IN HIS RETREAT: TO DO DI AND TO BE FAITHFUL TO OUR BEC CENACLE TEAM WALK THROUGH. The rest will follow.
Mt 6:32-34 “For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
We are seeking the Kingdom of God. But what we need to do is RIGHTEOUSNESS, meaning to put into practice what we shall learn in this retreat today. What is the use of knowing when we do not still do it and obey the Lord.
Jn 14:21 “If you do what I tell you, I will show and reveal Myself to you.”
This blessing of putting our lives on the right path of what God is telling us is all the effort of Lord’s Leaven Mission. This grace we pray.
God bless us all. May you have a very blessed retreat.
Bro. Joe Rona
Global Shepherd