Formation Session 1: FOUR FOUNDATIONS

With a new set of officers, the clan had been having a series of formation sessions every Sunday since September 19, given by the clan guide, Y.E. Gamutan.

The topic last September 19 was the Four Foundations of the League, which were:  Interior Life, Study, Charity, and Apostolic Work.

Regarding the interior life, we were told that if we did not grow spiritually our lives would be in vain.  Our end is to be united with Our Creator and we have to journey spiritually in order to achieve our goal. To aid us in this journey, we are to begin with a grid, which would aid us in developing a life of prayer.  The grid would help us to gauge where we are in the royal road to personal sanctification.

Our efforts to be united with God is to start with a serious study, as we cannot yearn for what we do not know...  Indeed, we cannot have a desire to have or be with something or someone we never knew anything of.  Ignorance would be our greatest enemy and STUDY would be our friend.  With study we can have educated convictions, and we will have piety rooted firmly on faith.  We must not remain ignorant because our intellect is made to discover TRUTH and in discovering the TRUTH we will find GOD, Who is The TRUTH.

Charity is to be the ruling force of the league.  Without charity we would be divided against ourselves, and we could not achieve our goal. In the practical sense we have to be of good manners and right conduct in order not to be offensive to our teammates.  We had to be sensitive to the needs of others in order to build harmony.  And we have to be careful to observe modesty in order not to cause scandal to our friends.  In a spiritual sense, we have to LOVE GOD and our neighbor for the love of God.  Without love of God, all our activities would not have merit.  We have to keep in mind that everything we do and say should be done for the love of God.  The best way to show God our Love for Him is to obey His Commandments.  "If you love Me, keep my commandments."  Charity is the bond of perfection.  To have an understanding of what charity really meant, we were asked to open the Holy Bible and all together, we read aloud the first epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians, chapter 13, verses 1-13. 

Apostolate is the outward manifestation of charity.  'Faith without good works is dead".  If we say we love God and see our brother in need and close our heart to him, how can we say that we love God?"  So, if we truly love God, we cannot be blind to the needs of our neighbors.  We discussed the works of mercy but we were reminded that in the league we were not required to go to the marketplace and the bus terminals to preach as the protestant evangelizers do.  We are to preach first by our Christian lives.  We have to live first our grid and then later, gradually, we can influence others who will notice the change in our lives.  If we preach without living what we preach we will be clearly identified as the phonies and hypocrites that we are and will never succeed in inviting people to live a life of prayer and love of God.  We will not be asked to preach until we are ready because our main focus is to discover ourselves and our weaknesses, to develop Christian habits and to know God and love God.  If we begin to live good Catholic lives, the time for apostolate will come spontaneously.  When our family and firiends notice a good change in our behavior, they will ask questions and we will be called to answer their questions, and then we can start inviting them to join us in prayers.  Later we can invite them to the sacraments.  But first, we are to live genuine Christian lives, and then STUDY in order to be ready to answer questions regarding the Catholic Faith. As we study we can grow deeper in our relationship with God and bear fruit in apostolate.