After 14 Days...
After about two weeks plus into the ministry, it's time to take a look at what has gone down so far. Firstly, the very act of celebrating Mass has been internalize that it's almost a prt of the psyche. Almost. Then there is this lingering thought that floats in and out of my mind that makes me want to pinch myself saying "I not dreaming. This is for real. I am a priest!".

In all this, there is a sense of fulfilment that I have finally found a way of life that is for me, through and through. All previous doubts and concerns about whether I'll make it or not and the usual anxieties of not being too sure about the decision to this vocation, all fade into the background as I begin to take on a more definitive lifestyle of a priest.

However, being a priest doesn't take away the vulnerability and fragility of life as the pain and sorrow of the world bites into one's comfort zone now and then. A parishioner who is helping in my Bible Apostolate team has to face the possibility of having his leg amputated and he is trying all he can to prevent that... A new convert who was baptised together with his wife last year just lost his wife to cancer recently. He is asking why this happened?... A mother desperately wants her daughter to be confirmed this year in August, and despite the fact that her daughter has only spend 2 of the 4 years in Confirmation class. While the need for further preparation for Confirmation is resolved, it is done around the need to still have the confirmation done this year...

Then there is Racial Harmony Day. I read the pastoral letter from the Archbishop this weekend at all the Masses and it brings up the awareness of our Catholics of the need to respect the space of other faiths and to try to get to know them better, and they us.

It's an exceptionally interesting era that we live in. I just hope I don't live to see us blow each other up in the name of God.

"..ensure that religion will not be abused to create conflict and disharmony in Singapore." (Declaration of Religious Harmony, 20 July 2003)