ARE YOU BOUND FOR HEAVEN

PERSONAL NOTES taken @ SSVP Annual Retreat (16 May 2026)
Conduced by Rev Fr Richards Ambrose

RETREAT THEME:  ARE YOU BOUND FOR HEAVEN?

(This is not a verbatim transcript, but rather, brief notes I took for my reference.  The notes are not compiled in the exact sequence of Fr's delivery, but re-organised to a small  extent, and put under headings for better clarity.   Any errors or omissions are my own.)

PART A - THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN AND THE FULLNESS OF LIFE

We are all called to be saints.
What state do I need to be in to be in heaven?

WHAT IS NECESSARY TO ENTER THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN?

• To know Jesus and to follow Jesus

• God created us to 
• know him
• love him
• serve him

• We can enter the Kingdom of God because God has given us
• The Word of God
• His Holy Spirit.

THE FULLNESS OF LIFE

• The fullness of life is to be found in union with Jesus
• Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.
• The decision whether to believe this is the most important decision of our lives.
• He knows us and He loves us - everlasting, unfailing
• Our focus in this life must be on Jesus.  
• Our life on earth is all about God.
• We have to make a choice to accept Jesus.

PART B - WHAT STOPS US FROM FOLLOWING JESUS

[I]    Satan - The lies he tells us and us choosing to believe him

[II]   Ourselves - The choices we make and the commitments we keep

[I] SATAN - THE LIES HE TELLS US AND US CHOOSING TO BELIEVE HIM

WHO IS SATAN?

• Satan is the father of lies
• Every time we lie, we are calling Satan our father
• Every time we sin, we are making a choice for Satan.

• The difference between Satan and us:
• he has the mark of intelligence that is superior to us.  
• He is smarter than us.  
• He knows what makes us fall.

• But Satan is predictable
• He has been using the same approach for thousands of years
• He tells us lies to make us fall.

• Satan can only tempt us. The decision is ours
• He has no power over us.  
• He can only lie to us, and tempts us to do what is not right, not holy and what is against God.
• He is like the barking dog on a leash - we can see it, we can hear it, but the dog cannot bite us unless we make the choice to walk up to the dog..

WHAT IS A LIE

• A lie is something told to another person who has a right to the truth with the purpose of deception.  An untruth may be told to someone who has no right to the truth (eg the burglar who demands to know where the jewelery are kept.)

• When we believe Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, it means there can be no lies in our lives.

[II] OURSELVES - THE CHOICES WE MAKE AND THE COMMITMENTS WE KEEP

COMMITMENTS

• Our souls are shaped by our commitments
• Words that are spoken do not get us to heaven.  Words that are lived do.
• We need to make commitments to live out the Word
• Only commitments count. 

NOT MAKING THE EFFORT TO KNOW GOD IS A SIN AGAINST THE 1ST COMMANDMENT

• We have a duty towards the Commandments.  
• The consequence of not following the commandments is death.
• When we do not have enough intimacy with God, we may not feel He is with us.
• Our lives must be about Jesus.
• Every choice is an act of self determination
• In freely choosing God, we experience more deeply what it is to be in His image, and to be a child of God.

LIVING OUT THE GREAT COMMANDMENT - TO LOVE

• We must be people of love
• By our love, they will know that we are His.  We become the image of God.  People can recognise God in us.
• The Commandment is to love everyone

• Is it possible to love everyone?  
• Yes because Jesus commands us.
• He knows we can. 
• He says to love as He loves
• He tells us & set the example for us that it is possible.
• He gifted us with the Holy Spirit to help us.
• Look upon everyone as Christ (Mother Theresa)

• Often the most difficult person require more of our love (like the sick child who require more of our attention)

• We must love everyone, but we do not need to like everyone (eg when a person who has been difficult in our life falls, we run up to help him. This is loving the person.  But we do not need to like the person, eg go out for lunch with him.)

LOVING AND FORGIVING

• If we love, then we can forgive
• If we cannot forgive, it means we have not loved
• The condition for us to experience God's love is to forgive.
• If we cannot forgive, then we cannot love, and we cannot be forgiven too.
• When we forgive someone, we are giving them a blessing, and in turn we receive a blessing from God.

WHO WE ARE AND WHO WE CREATE OURSELVES TO BE

• It all boils down to choices
• We move from being to becoming in order to become the being we need to be.
• Life is a journey, and we learn to live life from the Beatitudes - the attitudes to be.
• The beatitudes help us in our daily choices.
• It is the way for us to become saints.

SHAPING OUR SOULS

• Jesus invites us to create in us a new being.
• Every respond we make shapes our soul.
• Mat 16:25 - For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.
• The Christian life is a constant dying for what is less, to live for what is more. 
• These deaths are not losses, but gains

LIVING THE FULLNESS OF LIFE

• The Christian life is passionately lived in love.
• We live in joy to the fullest
• We live in love to the fullest
• If we truly live the life that God wants us to live, we will have complete joy and complete love.

FAITH

• We have the obligation to learn our faith through proper formation
• We need to learn in order to know God.

• "I believe, help my unbelief."
• "Faith seeking understanding."
  "We must know to come to believe.  We must believe in order to know."

• Do I believe what I have come to know and understand?
• Some believe without faith, because faith is a commitment and a choice to subscribe to a life according to what I have learnt about Jesus.

• We must know why we believe in what we believe.
• If we truly have faith in God, we cannot not have faith in God later in life.

KEEPING THE COMMANDMENTS

• We must love what we believe.
• Following the commandments is not an obligation, we follow because we love.

• The commandments of the Church is not to cripple our freedom, it is to make us free - free to become who I am created to be.

• We choose to keep the commandments to make sure we choose what is true and right in life.

CONVERSION

• Conversion from our old way of life... in repentance in contrition.

• St Paul's conversion
• Physical blindness to union with Jesus
• Spiritual blindness - we need to open our eyes.
• The spirit of Saul is in us when 
• we think we are right
• we do not want to change

• Conversion experience is the foundation for transformation in our live.
• The conversion journey begins when the light of Christ shines upon us.  
• We need to pray and reflect in Scripture.

• Have I encountered Jesus?
• What was the defining moment in our life...
• Go back to that Damascus moment - what were my thoughts, what were my feelings, what were my commitments

• Do I want to lead a deep spiritual life?
• Take the road to Damascus
• It is an interior journey within ourselves to know who we are
• Pray for the light of God to knock us down.

EMBRACE SUFFERING

• At baptism, we proclaimed to God we will follow him and we are prepared to die for him and this includes embracing suffering.

• Suffering is part and parcel of life.

• Our powerlessness becomes the perfect dwelling place for Christ.  His power will reign in us.

• But some times we create our own suffering, and this is dangerous  (Luke 17:12 - It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.)

• Suffering for Jesus is a joy.
• Know that Jesus has conquered the world.

LESSONS FROM PAUL'S CONVERSION EXPERIENCE

• Stay open to change.  
• all strong opinions and habit can be changed.
• Be willing to rethink assumptions and your position
• Be open to growth and not be stuck in old ways.

• Use our gifts for God
• Paul used his zeal against God
• After his conversion, he redirected his talents and zeal towards God for the benefit of others.

GLORIFING GOD

• We are called to glorify God
• We are called to evangelize
• We are not to be afraid of who we are or afraid to share ourselves.
• We use our experience as witness that God can transform us.
• Or lives become testimony for others
• Be not afraid to stand up for Jesus.

PART 3 - HOW DO WE FORM A DEEP RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

ANALOGY WTIH OUR PHYSICAL BODY

• Our bodies - biological facts
• If we do not eat, our body dies. 
• If we do not give our bodies adequate food (eg feeding a teenager only milk), our body will slowly die.

• Our souls - spiritual facts
• If we do not pray, our soul dies.
• If we pray inadequately (eg praying only standard prayers without growth in the intimacy of prayer, our soul will slowly die too. 

THE WORD OF GOD

• We must build our relationship with the Word of God
• The Word of God is the only adequate food for our soul.
• We must grow in holiness
• Jesus overcame the devil with the Word of God.
• We must read and live the Bible
• Every time we read the Bible, we are encountering God.

PRAY USING THE WORD OF GOD

• Bible Before Bed - Start with 3 minutes a day.
• Before bed:
• Read the next day's Gospel passage
• Reflect what it is about
• Pick 1 virtue
• Pray to have that virtue
• The next morning
• Pray to be able practice that virtue
• Throughout he day, be alert to opportunities to live out that virtue
• At the end of the day, before bed
• Examination of conscious
• Have I lived the virtue - give thanks
• Have I let opportunities slipped by - repentance and contrition

LIVING THE WORD OF GOD

• Every act of virtue we do out of love of God becomes a part of us.
• When we practice and live the message, it becomes a part of us.
• Punctuate our day with prayers, stop to pray, stake the habit with our daily routine.

THE HOLY EUCHARIST

• God has given us the most precious gift for us to get to heaven --> the Eucharist.
• The Eucharist is not a meal, it is a celebration
• The Eucharistic celebration is not an enactment, it is a celebration
• Eucharist is a communion (come in union) that gives life (God's life).
• In the Eucharist, God is truly present - body, blood, soul and divinity - the fullness of God.

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Further notes

(1)    GENERAL INSTRUCTION OF THE ROMAN MISSAL (Marialis Cultus)

Fr walked us through the order of the mass to explain the sacredness of the celebration. 

Fr also highlighted some areas for attention (below are just some point, not fully capturing all of what Fr covered)

• Sign of the Cross - 3 fingers not 1
• It is NOT necessary to sign the cross after holy communion
• It is not necessary to bow when the priest bows upon entry, this is because we had already genuflected when we entered the pews
• Posture when praying our Father: standing, hands clasps (congregation is not to adopt the orans posture (hand held out), this posture can only be adopted by the celebrant priest(s)
• Prayers of the faithful should not be lengthly, usually confined to 4 segments:
• For the needs of the Church;
• For public authorities and the salvation of the whole world;
• For those burdened by any kind of difficulty;
• For the local community.
• The point when the bread and wine turns into the real presence of Christ is during the epiclesis — the invocation of the Holy Spirit upon the bread and wine:  "make holy therefore these gifts....."
• Communion rites:
• Bow before receiving communion - a full bow, not just a nod of the head
• & therefore No need to make the sign of the cross after receving holy communion
• The rite of  peace 
• No need to say the words "peace be with you"
• A nod of the head to those around us
• No hugs, no kisses even with family (this is because it is the same peace offered to all, no differentiation)

(2) Fr gave several anecdotal examples to illustrate the points he was making, some of these were:

• You know for a fact that a colleague goes around borrowing money and not returning.  When a new staff joins, do you caution him or not?
• we can alert the new comer but take care not to pin the sin onto the colleague (& therefore become judgmental & we do not know his state of repentance).  Say something like "in case people borrow money, don't give."

• Someone in our life has been very difficult and we may feel anger.  It is okay to be angry. Aner is a feeling, not a sin.  We can get angry, frustrated.  What we do with our feelings is what is important.  We need to exercise our choice carefully.  Jesus says pray for those who persecute us.  Pray for the person, pray that he does not do it to others....etc.

• You spot someone you know with someone whom you suspect is having an improper relationship - do we tell his wife?  we may not have knowledge of the full situation, what we have seen may be deceiving.  Give him the benefit of the doubt.  If we want, we could have a word with him but telling his wife with half knowledge is not right.