Lessons Learnt During Praise & Worship Ministry - II

Dear all,

(Continuation of the previous posting with the subject "Lessons Learnt During Praise & Worship Ministry - I")

• (Not a real incident. This is for example only)
  In the Indo-Pak border the Army captain was pressing on hard to contain the infiltration problem. He had two companies of army posted at two key locations. The captain instructed the commanders of the 2 groups (each with 10 members) to shout "Vande Mataram" when they need to charge towards the enemy. When the time came, the commander of the 1st group thought - "Why should I waste my energy in shouting 'Vande Mataram'. No one in my group doubts my patriotism. So he said the slogan "Vande Mataram" but with an average voice. The group members felt that the commander is less confident, eventhough the enemy group were only 8 soldiers. Though they did their best, they got terribly assaluted by the enemy who charged upon them with full josh. Meanwhile the other commander was facing an enemy group of 15 people. He shouted "VANDE MAATARAM" with all of his heart, mind, spirit and strength. The group members could feel patriotism in the air... they were all set to lay their lives for their MOTHERLAND. It look less than 5 minutes only to finish all the 15 of the enemies without losing even 1 soldier, managing with minor injuries only. Thus everyone realized that the command to shout VANDE MAATARAM was not jusst meant to give honour to the country, but also to give strength and victory to themseslves.
• Some people think that Christian life is one that is very peaceful. NO.... It's the fiercest battlefield, in which you are not going to get enough rest until you finish the race. Here the enemy doesn't sleep. But the good news is that our Heavenly Father is always at work, and so is Jesus (John 5:17). To keep going, we should frequently confess with our lips our God, the name of Jesus and the salvation that He brought us. This confession of faith reassures our faith and the faith of the community. The voice of the world is loud, with the enemy ready to deceive us with his lies, and to be in focus we need to raise our voices uttering the truth.
• In fact praising our Creator is far more meaningful and fitting than to shout slogans for the motherland. "The HOLY ONE of Israel inhabits within the praises of His people." (Psalm 22:3). How much more it re-vitalizes those who utter His praises!! How much more it scares and scatters the enemy!!
• A good time of Praise and Worship prepares the way for the WORD OF GOD to produce 100 fold fruits - repentence, healings, deliverance, decision makings, reception of spiritual gifts/charisms etc.
• Two things that the Worship Leader/Team should go after - Presence of the LORD, Anointing. One is not independent of another, one brings the other.
• Music Ministry plays an important role here. Though people call it Music Ministry, it is or rather should be in fact Worship Ministry. Music in itself does no good here if it does not lead one to Praise and to Worship. A well known worship song puts it most beautifully - "I bring you more than a song, for a song in itself is not what you have required... You search much deeper within, through the way things appear... You're looking into my heart. I'm coming back to the 'heart of worship' that is all about YOU... all about you, JESUS"
• If a song is sung just as a song rather than as a praise/worship, it does not help much to experience the Presence of the LORD and his Anointing.
• You can't command Anointing of the LORD by the choice of your words and songs, but your humility and thirst for it can. "Water flows only towards the low-lying area."
• What is the role of the Music Ministry?
  
  • Is it to sing/play songs? No
  • Is it to sing praises? Yes, but that's not enough!
  • It is to lead people to praise and worship the LORD. They must not only praise & worship, but should help the entire congregation to do so
• So, their role is to complement the Worship Leader's job to help the congregation sing praises and offer worship to the LORD, with apt songs.
• Worship leader with his words declares "ABOUT THE LORD", His works, His nature and qualities that encourage the congregation to praise the LORD; Music Ministry complements with songs of praise.
• Worship leader with his words helps the congregation to utter words of love, honour and worship "TO THE LORD"; Music Ministry does the same with songs of worship.
• Until recently I thought that songs of praise are fast numbers and songs of worship are slow and soothing songs. I was not clear the difference between praise and worship, until I saw this link http://www.reference.com/motif/Society/difference-between-praise-worship.
  
  "The difference between praise and worship is that the praise is usually comprised of songs that talk about the goodness of God. The songs also sing about what the Lord has done for us and what the promises of God are. The songs talk about how good the Lord is. Worship are songs that are singing directly to God. You are singing about how you adore Him, thank him, trust him, admire him, exalt him, etc. Another way to show that you are worshiping God is to do what the word of God says that you are supposed to do. A great example of someone showing that they are worshiping God is when the Lord says in the bible to love your neighbors as yourselves. When a person begins to love someone that is unlovable you are worshiping God with your actions."

(More to come in the next edition)

Lessons Learnt During Praise & Worship Ministry - I

Dear all,

"Let us give thanks to the LORD our God.... It is right to give Him thanks and praise" (Roman Missal)

I am back here to share what I've learnt while being in the team leading worship ministry.

In the initial years, when I was in MA College of Engg, whenever I had to lead the Praise & Worship, it was almost entirely spontaneous. I was not even sure whether it is right to plan things (I was of the opinion that there is no need to plan and everything will be revealed on time.) At that time I was a little careless about how the group responded to the way I was leading. Sometimes it was good, sometimes it was not. I was a little avert to using tips and tricks in order to make the session interesting. To me it was like interfering with the work of the Holy Spirit.

It was when I came to Mumbai and started ministering to a youth prayer group in Mulund (sometime in 2002-03) that I realized that leading a P & W session needs a lot of preparation. Years with Jesus Youth Mumbai taught me a few lessons on this which I wish to share with you all. I hope that this will be of some use to the new Jesus Youth leaders, those in the parish choirs, the new leadership in KEY Army and so on.

I don't attempt to present a research paper on Praise & Worship. You will find detailed presentation on the net. As in my earlier posts on "Lessons Learnt .." series, you will find several things doubtful or inconsistent, and so feel free to disagree with my views.

• Praise and Worship is a beautiful way of responding to God's infinite love, glory, providence, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and all that He really is, with all the superlative qualities.
• The praises that we offer is something that cannot match what He rightly deserves.
• A layperson who is not used to Praise & Worship may find it awkward. One might wonder if any god would require his creation to shout praises to him; and if so, how praise-hungry god he is!! But things are a bit different...
• All the heavenly beings (Angels and Saints) constantly see the beatific vision of the One Almighty God!!! They can't help constantly praising Him whose glory and goodness has no measure!! Nobody compels them. They do so because they are really know what they are doing!
• "God so loved this world that He gave His only begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him shall not persish but have eternal life." (John 3:16) "To those who accepted Him, to those who believe in his name, he gave power to become children of God" (John 1:12). By praising and worshipping God who made all this possible, we are already doing what we will be doing in heaven for eternity.
• Our praises & worship do not add anything to the "intrinsic glory" of God or subtract anything from this glory by not doing it. But the "extrinsic glory" (glory that needs to be duly acknowledged by the creation) is not perfect; rather it's minimal compared to what He deserves. By way of our Praise & Worship, we are privileged to participate in increasing the extrinsic glory of God.
• The last person who is benefited by hearing our shouts of praise or the seeing the moments of worship will be God. Our praises confirms our faith and that of the congregation. Our worship brings us closer in intimacy with the LORD. It renders our enemy powerless. The power of God is released abundantly that breaks the bondages and set ourselves free.

(To be continued)

Just Missed!!!

Dear all,

While the Jubilee excitement is in the air, I missed by a day something that is of great importance to me.

It was on 21st October 1996, the last day of Campus Meet '96 at Nirmala College (Muvattupuzha, Kareala), that I first ever made an act of commitment to the LORD. I was not sure what I was doing, I had never had any plans to do such a thing before coming there. The last day last session was led by Manoj Sunny chettan, who talked about Jesus Youth movement, its Catholic roots, Charismatic spirituality etc. Many of the things I did not understand. But when he asked us on the previous day (20th) to write on a piece of paper the names of those who hurt me and whom I need to forgive, I did so, and I was a bit surprised when we were asked to surrender those people to the Lord and tear the paper down. But with the 3 grace-filled days, I was really responding positively to the sessions, and I honestly and earnestly obeyed. On the final day (21st), Manojettan asked us to write down a few decisions that we all want to take. I think I made a decision to surrender my life to the LORD and to be faithful to Him. And I asked Him the grace to keep the commitments, because I knew I didn't have a strong will power.

(I heard after the programme from some leaders that that programme was not as fruitful as it was expected. I don't know all those things. What I know is that the LORD touched me and blessed me through it. Praise Jesus!!)

So, it's 14th anniversary just passed after making my first commitment to the LORD. In Biblical terms, 2 Sabbath Years have gone by. It is inviting me to thank, introspect, correct, hope and march ahead along with the cloud of witnesses around me, many of those belonging to Jesus Youth movement. Say one prayer for me as you read this.

Happy Jubilee!!

A Jubilee Decision

In this Jubilee Year, I am making a decision very special to me. My patron saint is St. Martin de Porres (http://magnificat.ca/cal/engl/11-03.htm). His story is worth said, that can move the heart of the hardest nature. I am known by my saint's name only in my Mulund circles only, where I got baptized in the year 2002. It sometimes pricks my conscience that even I remember him very rarely. But in these days of real blessings of the Jubilee, I have decided to remind myself and others that I am born again as "Martin", with great deal of his intercession, and above all the intercession of Mary our mother. I will be glad if anyone starts addressing me as Martin. I am sure that if someone calls me Martin when I am in the state of sin, that itself would make me run to the confessional.

The biggest detail I've ever got about St Martin was a book I read on him which is not more than 100 pages. But as I read it sometime in 1999, I knew that he is going to be my patron saint if I ever get baptized. One small book was enough to build a strong bond between us!! I received baptism on 8th September 2002 (solemnity of the Nativity of Blessed Virgin Mary, and also a Sunday), an on the same year I received my first Sacrament of Penance, First Holy Communion and Holy Confirmation. Our Bishop was coming on November 10th to give the First Holy Communion and Confirmation to the children. Since I was receiving both, Fr. Joju the parish priest said that Confirmation is generally given after Communion. But in the Solemn Celebration, Communion is at the last and Confirmation is in the middle. Since I am receiving both, I was advised to receive Communion in the previous Sunday itself. That was November 3rd 2002 Sunday, which was also the Feast of St. Martin de Porres!!!! Praise God!

Before I disclosed that I wanted to have my name as Martin, some of my prayer group members got a message that Martin is the name shown to them. That was a joyful confirmation.

This is thus my first mail with the changed signature, through which I want to proclaim to myself and to the world about what I am called to be.

Some Lessons on Celebrating the Mass

Dear all,

In the past couple of weeks, I could experience a sudden turn of events that really helped to renew my walk with the LORD. I got the grace to celebrate Mass daily, and to spent good amount of time in rosary, personal prayer, Word of God reading, writing etc. etc. I attribute all this revival to the most generous graces showered by our Father in the name of Jesus through His Spirit. This happened through the motivation & prayers of multiple people, not as a group but in individual personal interactions, but all working together in proper order for the salvation of my poor soul. Another reiteration/affirmation of God's constant love and concern for me.

At this juncture, to start with my own response to my "Jubilee Thoughts", I am sharing a few lessons I learnt in my struggle to celebrate Holy Mass in a worthy manner. These are not general rules, but things I felt really apply to me. I am sharing this to myself grow in this fellowship, but if anyone finds this useful, it's a bonus!

In this span of 14 years since I first started celebrating Mass, I have gone through my ups and downs in the way I celebrate the Mass. I notice that in my beginning years, I used to see God's presence with the whole heavenly hosts upon the altar, but many a times in the years later, I had to struggle with lots of wandering thoughts during the celebration. I found that though my faith in the Real Presence never reduced, the devotion to it varied. I used to wonder what was wrong, and wanted to figure out how to deal with the problem.

As I introspected, I could find out the following things:

• When I was not regularly spending time in personal prayers, there were distractions during the Mass.
  The connection? I meditate/contemplate a lot during my prayer time. If I am not spending time in prayer, I would instead spend time in contemplation during the Holy Mass. Thus, instead of watching closely the Holy Mass and its mysteries, I would do my contemplation, which I came to as "not healthy", though contemplation was something good.
• When I am not using my Liturgy Book, I tend to get distracted.
  When I shared my difficulty to some of my friends and to some religious sisters, they recommended me to use the Liturgy Book. I could not first accept this suggestion, because I though that I will lose spontaneity if "read" prayers from a book. But I was amazed to see that their suggestion was full of wisdom, and it worked. I learnt that almost all the religious sisters daily use the Mass book, eventhough they know the prayers by-heart much more than we do. Why? One of the reasons is this: If you are not using the book, you'll need to put some effort to remember the prayers, however small that effort is. Our focus might shift to saying the prayers correctly from our memory "by-heart" rather than saying the prayers "from heart". Again, we may also tend to feel the pride in "knowing it fully" especially when you see your 'poor' neighbor "needs a book". (All this may not be true for you, but it is for me)
• When I get distracted for some part of the Mass, I would get discouraged for the rest of the Mass.
  Even with my best efforts, it was (and is) common that distractions happen. At times I even "miss" the most important parts such as "Words of Institution" and the "Invocation of the Holy Spirit". Till some time back, if I got distracted for some portion of the Eucharist, I used to get discouraged till the end scolding myself for the same. But when God convicted me that though I need to set high standards for myself (according to the gospel values), I need not put high expectations from myself, that too so soon. God made me realize how poor I am and how He still loves me. The times when I was walking triumphantly with Him did not point to my greatness but to His ability to cover my inability. So what if I got distracted for a few minutes, I can humble myself and with ten times zeal try to open myself to the infinite graces of the Most Holy Eucharist by giving my best in the remaining moments, even if I come to my senses only during the Final Blessing.

That's all for now. I hope to continue my sharings as and when inspired to do so. I pray that I may be inspired all the time. ;-) If this inspires you in anyway to share your experiences, let that add glory to HIM.