My dear GEM Family:
Last month we told you of two decisions that we were implementing: communicating with you on a monthly basis, and offering you spiritual companioning five times weekly to help your continued formation in discipleship. In sending out this month’s letter we have taken the next step toward implementing our first goal. Hopefully, our next steps will continue uninterruptedly. Regarding our Spiritual Companioning Reflections (SCR’s), several of you have expressed satisfaction and gratitude for receiving this help. Some are making hard copies of the written reflections for later use. Others have expressed the desire to have more audio reflections as they seem to be more user-friendly. We have made the decision, therefore, to send you a written and audio version of our SCR’s, giving you the option of your choice. We will offer you both formats, beginning Monday, December 31, 2018. It is our goal to create a comprehensive archive that can benefit anyone who is committed to serious formation in discipleship. Such a creation may take three or four years to complete. You can already access this archive at
www.godsembrace.org.
We request you, therefore, to send
info@godsembrace.org
email addresses of family and friends who would be interested in receiving our weekly SCR’s. With the archive at their disposal, anyone can determine the start date as well as the various legs of their journey into the heart of God through our SCR ministry. We are of the opinion that our SCR ministry will help many, individually and in small groups created by individual initiatives, to develop and deepen their commitment to becoming saints under the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit.
We had our annual Benefit Dinner on Friday, November 9, 2018. We had 100 guests, and our chief guest was Bishop Cahill of Victoria Diocese. As President of GEM, I offered the guests an annual report of GEM, detailing the different ministries that have taken shape and others that are in the making. I gave you a review in my October letter. We received many positive comments from our guests about the evening: the decorations were exquisite, the cuisine pleasing to the palate, and the easy flow of events, including the silent and live auctions, made the evening pleasantly memorable. The net amount of our contributions was $31,000. Thank you to all who participated in our Benefit Dinner and to everyone else for your prayer and continued generosity even though you could not be with us.
The Holy Spirit continues to initiate movements in various members of our GEM family, inspiring them to reach out and witness to Catholics in our parishes through individual contact or inviting them to form or join small groups. Our prayer is that through these initiatives, many will succumb to the Holy Spirit’s desire to set them on fire for Jesus, their Lord and Savior! We have already begun putting together the 2019 calendar for Texas which so far will offer 4 Seminars, 4 Day retreats, 2 silent weekend retreats, and sleepovers for high school students at our Center. And random holy thoughts as to how GEM can evangelize and renew our beloved Catholic Church keep surfacing in our prayer and discussions. I am sure we will be adding to our Events Calendar in the coming weeks and months. Our hope and prayer is that similar calendar of renewal events will be operative in Michigan and Florida. We do believe that God is asking GEM to become the leaven that will invigorate the dough, the Body of Christ, in our local parishes and dioceses.
In a few days we will be entering the season of Advent. While Jesus has come, and will come again at the end of time, the Church reminds us that waiting for the Coming of Jesus is a necessary disposition in a disciple. We are being made perfect by the Holy Spirit on a daily basis as we continue to impede our total surrender to Jesus because of sin that lurks in our hearts. During this coming season of Advent, we pray that the birth of the Incarnate Word and His death and resurrection will indeed overwhelm us with God’s grace-filled love and mercy, creating within us an irresistible surrender of our thoughts, words, and actions to Him, our Incarnate Lord! Thus, we will be well prepared for the Savior’s Second Coming. Let us keep one another in our prayer during this holy Season of Advent.
Please continue to pray for God’s Embrace Ministries, that we serve God’s covenant family wherever we are, generously and joyfully. May you be blessed in God’s Embrace! You are in our daily prayers.
