Podcast appearances and mentions of Saint Gabriel

Delivered by Jack and Joanna from the Parish of Saint Gabriel in the Diocese of Bandung, Indonesia. Acts of the Apostles 28: 16-20.30-31; Rs psalm 11: 4.5.7; John 21: 20-25.NECESSARY INTERVETNION Our meditation today is entitled:Necessary Intervention. With this statement we want to express an appropriateand correct intervention. We can also be reminded that if one is not inclinedto interfere then he doesn't need to do so. If you feel obliged to intervene inanother's matter, just do it anyway. The Holy Spirit who moves us at the righttime, will allow us to intervene in the affairs of others or of common things,but at other moments He will prevent us from doing so. Many people often share theirexperiences, especially about personal life and the journey of their faith,with the help of daily meditation through this La Porta media. All gave theirappreciation and gratitude because this spiritual sharing serves to intervene intheir personal lives. A devout listener once wrote a message like this:"Father, I feel my life every day is disturbed by the pouring out of God'sword. I felt reprimanded, but at the same time I am consoled, calm, anddirected towards the wisdom of God." This is an example of doingintervention in the proper and right moment. For the apostle Peter, it seems hewas reprimanded by Jesus because he intervened with the affairs of otherdisciple who the Lord loved so much. He also intervened Jesus' own affairs.According to Jesus, Peter must take care of his matters before being busy withthe matters of others. In other words, there are always moments  that are not right to intervene. This alsohappened with the interest of Roman authority and the diputes of Jewishreligious leaders reagarding the sufferings and trials of the apostle Paulwhile he was in Rome. Our intervention with the matters ofothers is basically unavoidable. That's part of giving attention to them. Butin order to be a very positive act and as a service, we should be able to avoidthe two extremes that make an intervention wrong and negative on ourselves andothers. The first extreme is about theunnecessary, or precisely, excessive and improper time and place of making an intervention.To a person who was stressful and sad, we actually involved him in a discussionof something that made him more confused and depressed. The second is not doinganything or not at all intervening. A friend regretted that he could not helphis friend, when in fact he could provide his help, and as a result the friendsuffered a more severe accident. So, by avoiding these two extremes there isonly one choice, namely the action of intervention that is needed, at the righttime and place, according to one's need or interest. Let's pray. In the name of theFather ... Listen to our prayers, o Lord, as we beg for our mutual cooperationof individuals and communities or the society that really aims to improve ourquality of life according to Your will. Our Father who art in heaven ... In thename of the Father ...

Delivered by Gladys from the Parish of Saint Gabriel in the Diocese of Bandung, Indonesia. Acts of the Apostles 22: 30; 23: 6-11; Rs psalm 16: 1-2a.5.7-8.9-10.11; Yohanes 17: 20-26.MAY THEY BECOME ONE The title for our meditation today is:May They Become One. This sentence comes from Jesus Himself, that is when Heprayed for the apostles, the disciples and all of His followers, at the momentof the last supper. The focus of a prayer of this type continues to inspire allour prayers with the intentions for communion and unity among us. This communion is the fundamentalnature of God's being and existence, namely the Trinity. Based on this, Jesusthen prayed that all of his followers will finally arrive at this goal. Butthere is one simple question as it goes: why does Jesus not reveal: “They mustbecome one”, but instead he says: “May they become one”? The most obvious reason is that Godgives freedom to every human person to choose communion or division anddisintegration. This is the same as the human freedom to choose to obey God ordisobey Him. In this world the battle field and struggle of life will determinewhether one really follows God or otherwise chooses another path to oppose Him.Every human being is blessed with freedom and intelligence to choose the pathto salvation. Another reason that we may not realizeis that preparation is always an important element in the pilgrimage of ourfaith in the world. The prayer of Jesus that we may unite in the world is anencouragement, therefore, we can prepare a strong and dignified unity as sonsand daughters of God. This preparation is like an increase of our passion tolong for eternal communion in heaven. Therefore to each one of us: neitherignore nor play and underestimate any kind of unity of God's children in theworld and rather think only the future communion in heaven. God does not pleasewith this type of belief. The next reason that maybe the highestone is that God is the only one God, and He dwells forever in heaven. To getthere we have to go through a long journey and process. There is no magic gameor highly-expressed transportation to get there. If there is no need of aprocess, then we need only one miracle to bring all of us together to heaven.This is not the way of God. God allows us to follow the process, and so we usethe prayer "May we become one". In all our efforts, we humans hopethat we can achieve the goal of communion with God. God does not want toeliminate the element of hope in us by using the word “must”. Hope is veryimportant for us humans. All our prayers clearly use the words "hopefully"or "may" and "will" or "later", because it is aconcrete sign of our hope.Let's pray. In the name of theFather ... O God Almighty, unity in You is our ultimate hope, may the HolySpirit sent by Your Son Jesus Christ unite us in this world in all our ways andsituations as our preparation to enjoy eternal communion in heaven. Hail Maryfull of grace ... In the name of the Father ...

Delivered by Joanna from the Parish of Saint Gabriel in the Diocese of Bandung, Indonesia. Acts of the Apostles 16: 1-10; Rs psalm 100: 1-2.3.5; John 15: 18-21.THE OPPOSING SPIRITS The title for our meditation today is:The Opposing Spirits. We want to understand this meditation from two opposingdirections. From where the Lord Jesus Christ and all the components in Hismission stands, the opposing spirit is surely an evil spirit with Satan as thecommander. Whereas from where the opponent stands,that is the the spirit of this world and Satan as its commander, the opposingspirit is goodness and truth of Jesus Christ manifested through Hisself-sacrifice to save the world and mankind. The holy Church continues to bearthid goodness and truth till this day. The evil spirit had indeed been defeatedby Jesus but he always waits for the best time to conquer its target namelyhuman persons. Both the Holy Spirit and the evil spirit are againtst eachother. Which one is superior depends on the free will of every human person to choose. Let us show one example. I was calm inmy room. There were no disturbances of evil thoughts, strange intentions and evilacts. There was also at that moment the presence of an evil spirit who wasstill waiting for my unawareness or lost of self-control, then it would temptand conquer me. That's how our daily life goes. The most crucial moment we willface is when the conflict of interest comes, namely choosing between good orevil, right or wrong, humble and pride and so on. A very important point here is that asfollowers of Christ, we must be able to distinguish the opposing spirits, theopposing orientation of life. We must know and be aware of interests that arenot in line with Jesus Christ. Christ has prepared us to have the ability todistinguish. He commands us to keep to His word. The stronger sign of the power ofGod's Spirit is expressed in the words of the Lord Jesus, as He says, "Ihave chosen you from this world". We belong to Jesus. So we have theability to make sure that there is a spirit that is contrary to Jesus and we,His followers. This is also shown in the experience of the two apostles, Pauland Barnabas, while they were undergoing an extraordinary mission. Saints arealso our examples in making of this distinction. So there are many examples around us.Through advice, spiritual guidance, discipline and spiritual assistance, we arehelped to be able to distinguish the opposing spirits. We are getting closer tothe Solemnity of the Pentecost, so we should have in our hearts and minds alonging for the gift of the Holy Spirit to each one of us. Let's pray. In the name of the Father... Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen us always with Your blessings, especiallywhen we are struggling and fighting against the interests of this world thatare contrary to You. You have won all the desires of this evil spirit and thewill of the world, so fill us with your Spirit. Our Father who art in heaven... In the name of the Father ...