A Pastor According To The Heart Of God

In this year of priest, papa Benedict XVI has spoken about the 3 primary tasks entrusted to priests. Today's Zenit news shared what he said about the third task, guiding. The zenit article can be found at the link below.

POPE EXPLAINS AUTHORITY AND THE PRIESTHOOD

There's one section that got my attention most. It's something basic, simple and people would already know. However when I read it, it just caught my eye.

"To be a pastor according to the heart of God there must be a profound rootedness in living friendship with Christ," he said. "In fact, no one is really capable of feeding Christ's flock if he does not live a profound and real obedience to Christ and to the Church, and the docility itself of the people to their priests depends on the docility of priests to Christ."

I remembered when during the election of The Emmaus coordinator in 2007, from which I was appointed as coordinator. I was scared, and that time Jesus gave me a conviction. When God sends, God will provide. Everybody in the leadership and service team had no solid planning. But I remembered what brother Oka shared in one of our core team meeting. It's a story he got from his prayer group leader in Jakarta. That the wellbeing of a prayer group depends on the prayer life of the leaders.

When I read papa Benedict's words, I remembered this words bro Oka shared. I had no idea what to do to lead a prayer group. Us in the service team had nothing to offer that would bring peace and joy to our members. But we realize that we are asked to strife to live a life of surrender and obedience to Christ. And it's something that I believe everybody in the Emmaus service team, until now, is still doing.

Emmaus was just starting up that time. We had only small amount of people. And seeing how Emmaus has grown in numbers, it's solely because of God's grace and guidance. I truly thank God for all His goodness. I pray that everybody in Emmaus will grown in holiness and our relationship with Jesus. And from that obedience and docility to Christ, we can go in peace to love and serve the Lord and one another.

Note: This post originally shows up at here.