Life - Death

The Devil's Sinkhole, Texas

I just read the latest post of my confrere Fr Luke on his response to the bone marrow transplant via stem cells which almost happened. It certainly was a blow that the donor Canada pulled out at the last minute  from donating her cells. Life can be frustrating indeed. He was that close to getting the needed treatment to curing his leukemia.

Furnace of Humiliation

As I am approaching the 10th year of my sacerdotal anniversary (29 June), I was 'nicely' reminded of the implication of my priesthood, as in, what had transpired thus far and what to look out for ahead. That was by way of the 1st reading of Tuesday of 7th Week in Ordinary times (yesterday).

By all accounts, the reading was engaging enough and can be a reminder to all the faithful believers on the proper understanding of what working for or serving the Lord is about.

"... if you aspire to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for an ordeal..." (Eccle 2: 1)

Am Officially 48!

Catholicism at high altitude (Photo credit: blackenedsky)

I have just finished forty eight years of existence and now onto the forty ninth with no idea as to what the future may hold, except with some educated guesses and inferences from what goes on in the general public, the media, the life of the Church within the local archdiocese and in the world. On that, the future is challenging from all sides and certainly demands the life of a priest that goes beyond his usual comforts that he usually engages in. This is because we are heading into a culture that is deeply shaped by rejection of the Good News and by a sustained effort to live life on explicitly non- or even anti-Christian grounds.

Eternal Rest...

Zaduszki (Photo credit: Klearchos Kapoutsis)

Yesterday we celebrated All Saints’ and today we remember All Souls. There is something about the opening days of November that tends to bring these two celebration neatly together. Even the weather (cool and rainy) somehow have conspired towards bringing about this awareness of the mystical and haunting feeling associated with All Saints and today, All Souls.

To celebrate All Souls is not something we do lightly. Neither is it to be taken in a superstitious manner which would negate totally the understanding of our Christian faith. Instead, the celebration of All Souls’ is an affirmation of our capacity to a relationship with God – One whom we can know and love. It is also about our acknowledgement that in us we have something that links us to a power that transcends this world. That something is our soul.

Road Less Travelled...

Bell Tower (Photo credit: Annoysius)

I am using my iPhone to access the Internet to write this.

We had a heavy thunderstorm a few days ago and it knocked out most of our electrical system and phone lines, which we are now slowly recovering and bringing them back to normal. Meantime, our Internet line is still unavailable and the Singtel maintenance personnel haven't gotten round to our place yet to look in our predicament even though they said they would come by between 2 - 6 pm today. Typical!

This weekend is our Diocean Vocation retreat and we have with us just over 50 participants, young men between the ages of 18 - 35, who will spend the weekend in the Seminary to discern their calling to their priesthood. This is the early stages of the candidates' life as they explore their options toward this vocation and still a long way to go before they even decide to step in the Seminary.

Should they get serious about wanting to join the Seminary, they will have to see the Fathers' of the Seminary (of whom I am one of them) and journey with them for at least a year before any decision is made to take them in.

It is apparent since Fr William Goh took over as Rector of the Seminary that we are looking for quality and not too quick with quantity. If it were quantity, we would undoubtedly have a good bunch of men to help up the population of seminarians which currently stands at 15 this year. However, with the different emotional baggages, misconstrued expectations and possible wrong motivations that many take into the Seminary, the community here would be in a turmoil as we wade our way through all these landmines of human frailties and shortcomings. Hence the need and the putting in place of a need for a more proper and stringent screening. In doing so, the effect is the careful selection of candidates and longer duration of journeying with these aspirants before they are even given the form to register into the Seminary.

While journeying, they have opportunities to attend the Seminary's series of ongoing Vocation recollections and retreats that are done during the year. These give the aspirants a better foothold of their discerning stage as well as to continue to remain connected with the Seminary and the community there.

This weekend's vocation retreat begins for many of the participants a greater journey of life should they decide to take the road less travelled, making all that difference...

From Death To Life!

Incensing2 (Photo credit: Annoysius)

Happy Easter to one and all!

Forget the Easter bunny! Christ is risen, alleluia!

Sometimes we allow ourselves to be distracted too much by the lesser trappings of the Easter celebrations that we forget the real reason of this celebration. Our 40 days of the Lenten period is over, and now we rejoice and are filled with a lightness that speaks of a deep and profound happiness which pervades our being in knowing that Jesus Christ has conquered death! This implies that we, too, follow in his steps to conquering our death in our journey to God, our Father.

What can be more joyful and exhilirating than that?...

Related articles

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• Benedict XVI's Sermon for the Easter Vigil: of creation, light, communication, community, and bees (wdtprs.com)
• PASCHALCAzT 47: Easter Sunday - "the one in whose fist all things are enclosed" (wdtprs.com)

David or Herod?

When you read up on the passages given for the mass celebration of Friday, 4th Week in Ordinary Times, of this month (February), we come across two men who have wielded great influence over their subjects or people's life but from opposing values between them.
 

One, David, though not a perfect human being, was always concerned about his relationship with God. He may not always got things right in his life as king of Israel but David understood acutely that God sees the heart. David understood that evil cannot be hidden from God. David chose ruthless honesty when he evaluates himself and begs God’s forgiveness for his wrongdoings and sins.

The other, Herod (Antipas), never understood what evil was in his life and allowed it to swallow him, through the many ruthless atrocities and engagements with people whom he labeled as enemies or threats. On one occasion, not wanting to lose face in front of his guests, he had a prophet beheaded.

We can learnt quite a lot from these two men. They can help us come to terms with what kind of life do we want. Is it a life that allows us to engage in the rubrics of happiness or is it that which oppresses us in the cycle of never ending rubrics of suspicion?

Today, more than ever, we need to come to terms with our own brokenness and like David, throw ourselves in God's embrace of healing love, so that all our fears can be cast away. We must learnt to allow God's grace to help us fight fear with faith and to actively use goodness and truth to overcome the temptation to compromise with wrongdoing and falsehood.

"... choose this day whom you will serve... but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." (Joshua 24: 15)

Related articles

• David's Choice: Vengeance belongs to God (thoughtsonscripture.com)
• David, A Great King, Yet With a Critical Flaw. What is the Lesson for us Today? (adw.org)
• On Ordinary Time (acatholicdad.wordpress.com)
• The Demonic Jezebel Spirit and Its Rabid Hatred of God's Prophets (getrealchristianity.wordpress.com)

A Good Case For More...

Image by Annoysius via Flickr

I have let the weeks slipped by without an entry and I was about to let another few more days to go on before I put something down here but thought otherwise. I am getting lazy with this blog...

I thought that I would be able to have a little more time here to cater to more frequency of using and updating my blog but that doesn't seem to be the case. Call it procrastination and the lethargy that sets in when I get caught up with other work and administrative matters. I have been here for the past 7 months and by October I would be finishing a year in this Major Seminary as the Spiritual Director of the House.

As an SD of the House it is my responsibility to ensure that the seminarians get the right balance of spiritual formation and a proper take to the roles and responsibilities that come together within the purview of the priesthood. In this time and age, it can be very challenging to prepare our young men (some are already middle aged!) to face adequately the forces of the world that are constantly at odds with our values and lifestyle we are upholding. We, the Seminary Fathers, can only do so much and the rest would be up to them to navigate carefully as befit their ministerial priesthood later.

With 17 of them in the seminary this year, of which 10 are local Singaporeans, it isn't really a great number to be comfortable with when we look at the growing numbers of baptised Catholics that have come up over the past 10 years. According to the National Census of 2010, we have with us a total of 219,133 Catholics (of whom 165,520 are PRs) in the Singapore, who are 15 years and above. Add in those below 15 years and infants who are baptised and the numbers will certainly be a lot more.

But we are still maintaining our total number of priests at around the average of 130, both religious and diocesan. But not all are fully functioning in the parish and we have others who are away on leave (study or medical) and some who have retired. So, you can do your math to see how overworked the clergy is, in living out their ministry in the Archdiocese.

Meanwhile, our vocation programs are slowly bringing about the necessary awareness for more your men to consider and discern their calling toward the life of a priest. There are vocation teams at most parish and the Seminary conducts vocation retreats and recollections over periodic months of the year and keep in contact with the aspirants. Much of this work is led by Fr Alex Chua who is the archdiocese's Vocation Director.

But we need to translate the program's activities into fruits of new admissions into the Seminary of these men who have journeyed through much of the discernment process and vocation programs with Fr Alex as well as the Seminary fathers. We certainly do not expect to see a flood of people suddenly wanting to join the seminary just like that! But, it would be fitting if there were a steady intake of around 2 or 3 men every year, assuming these men are rightly motivated and have been judged suitable to continue their journey into the seminary's formation.

For now, it would be a major windfall if we ever get one...

note: here are some pics of the recent priests' retreat.

Related articles

• Diocesan Vocation Retreat 2011 - Testimony #2 (kampungpunggol.blogspot.com)
• Cardinal Pell on 'Authentic Catholicism vs Cafeteria Catholicism' (onecatholicnews.wordpress.com)
• Cutting off arms and tearing out eyes (frlukefong.blogspot.com)

Limits

Image by Ferran. via FlickrAnother week ends and as one more week goes by, I get closer to another week that would eventually end the semester break (2 months) and herald in the final semester before we end the academic year for 2011.

Throughout the break thus far, much matters concerning the human person, one's frailties, potential and dignity were never far from my consideration and, to put it honestly, is a real messy affair because we are all complex and complicated creatures.

When dealing with people, whether in spiritual direction or researching on priests' resources for the diocese, the one common factor that crops up is the willingness or unwillingness of the person or priests to concretely have a bold faith that doesn't place limits upon God in one's life. All that has transpired thus far in our own lives may come down to answering the following: Do we have a living relationship with God, or are we just practicing religion?...

I believe that much of our problems in the parishes and the archdiocese can be resolved if we answer that question brutally and honestly. There is a great need to undo all limits that we may have thrust upon God and allow ourselves to be invited to believe that God is bigger, much bigger than we can imagine and whose love truly knows no bounds. Much of how we go through life now as Christians can be liken to an experience of the divine which is static and predictable, bringing about a relationship with God that is small and confined. That is if we still have a religion that we say we go to!

The true purpose of religion, the one which we follow through, is one that must open our hearts and minds in a manner we can personally experience the infinite breadth of God, an experience that will really cry out, "Abba!", Father!

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Which Is the Real Way?

Image by 2create via Flickr866th post and counting...

That's blogging since June 27th 2001! It has been just a over 10 years of engaging in this type social media that has since taken over the world in so many ways that now it has already become one of the many 'norms' of communicating on the Web. It is also a way where one opens up a little of one's life to the world which is constantly monitoring for any news bite that it wants to highlight.

Recently, there were some discussion brought up by a friend who pointed to the dubious value of things related to New Age and their ilks. These may include yoga, chi gong, Harry Potter stuff, etc. I am sure there are some of us out there who may already been involved in some small way towards some usage of practice of these elements. Fr William Goh over at the Catholic Spirituality Centre has spoken with some greater detail on this matter under the topic of New Age Spirituality: The Dangers of Syncretism and Illegitimate Assimilation of New Age Beliefs into the Christian Faith.

I, myself, hardly bothered with such New Age stuff - whether one calls yoga or chi gong as such - and my attention to the Harry Potter (and the Twilight series) products are just entertainment curiosities akin to watching The Green Lantern, The Green Hornet, The Green Mile, and so on.

But for the younger generation of this era, these elements are highly influential to them and do form some sort of a construct of how they see the world, act as humans/adults, all of which will then inform - rightly or wrongly - their thinking on matters of right and wrong, fantasy and reality, natural and supernatural. It becomes seriously damaging when all of these coaleasce into one fuzzy mixture where proper distinctions cannot be made or are not being made between each one.

We find ourselves, especially today, in an era where information, and there is an explosion of them, are taken easily for granted and there is a general lack of discerning them carefully whether they are suitable for consumption and how to deal with them appropriately. Mostly, we may be also totally clueless of the implications of the information we are staring at. In all this, all persons are, in one way or another, doing one's best as one can, to perceive or believe and to achieve towards the truth of things in life.

However, as Catholics and disciples of Christ, I believe that all of us must do our own upmost and with great gumption, sincerity and honesty own up and reclaim our truth in Jesus Christ, "... the real way to happiness, the truth about God and the fullness of life for every man and woman who is prepared to respond to His love".

Any other way would leave us totally disoriented, confuse and, ultimately, lost.

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Who IS Our God?

Image via Wikipedia

The recent highlight in the papers recently (The Sunday Times, 6 February 2011, Home section, pg 8) on the issue of dress code in the Catholic churches have brought out some burning thoughts from my mind as I ponder on this tension of how we present ourselves before our God.

First and foremost, it is an issue that falls solely upon us Catholics Christians as believers of God we call Father. It is also an issue that only within this recent decades have emerged as a challenging dimension in one's spiritual life or lack of it in the context of our calling into the discipleship of Christ. It is also an issue that will determine whether we can effectively work out our baptismal calling and vows that want us and is pointing us to being truly people of God who are 'salt of the earth' and 'light to the world'.

It is therefore telling upon us as Catholics, in particular, that much of this brouhaha and tension arising from this matter can be encapsulated into the following statement that was towards the end of the article: "We are taught that God loves us no matter what we are, so why should the church discriminate against our attire?"

It is certainly true that God loves us no matter what we are. The whole of our Bible attest to that, Old and New Testament alike. But to stop at that or to simply choose to bracket our faith solely on that loving  action of God, is like seeing life and the question of God and the way we celebrate and express our faith with blinkers or with just one good eye. The view is myopic and half-truthful at best, disrespectful, distorted and on the borders of heresy at worst.

Much of what we encountered and are influenced by in the world of modernity of today, we have in some way living a life that is somewhat based on a measured freedom that, to some extend, allow us to do, say or acknowledge whatever one chooses. This is also an influence that has affected ourselves as a people of God who is '... in the world but is not of the world'. We are seeing that happening through this article in the papers recently.

Which brings us back to the question of God who '... loves us no matter what we are'.

I wonder just how each of us see or know God for who he really is.  With the kinds of images and responses which we can give to the question of who God is for us, there are many that is not truly the God I know that is revealed to us in the Scriptures and '... in the last days... has spoken to us by a Son' (Hb 1: 1 - 2).

This is because we seem to be rather lackadaisical about our faith that everything becomes relative to the secular dimension which in turn dilute the very power and glory of God which we are continously called to proclaim (1 Pt 2: 9 - 10). If we truly experience the real and active nature and presence of God in our lives, an experience of being taken out of darkness and into His wonderful light (and life), there would be no fighting over as to how to worship Him and what attire we wear. We would know what is the right thing to do. Our attitude, however, seems to have placed God, which is summed up in the following words by a German Dominican mystic, Meister Eckhart: "... you are acting just as if you took God and muffled his head up in a cloak and pushed him under a bench..."

What it boils down to, is our response to the fact '... that God loves us no matter what we are'. It is precisely because of that love that we ought to be able to give the necessary reverance and respect in return, which will form the basis of a decent and right ATTITUDE to use for any Mass or Eucharistic celebration.

What kind of a God that deserves such reverence and respect that we  quibble over? The whole of Scriptures have given us generous signs and clues and spiritual footnotes, where the few given here, can help us reconsider our attitude we now possess towards God.

In Genesis, as with the readings we have during these weeks, we see the Fall of man and woman in their disobedience to God and their lost of supernatural life that placed them into a state where they had to hide from his presence and the sound of his voice. Commentors have said that besides hiding because they were naked, it was also this presence and voice which they now could not bear. Psalm 29 gives us this idea what commentators are hinting at:

... the voice of the Lord is powerful;
the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.


The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;
the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon...


The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire...
the voice f the Lord... shakes the wilderness of Kadesh...


The voice of the Lord... strips the forest bare...
and in his temple all say 'Glory!'

This is the God who, also in his reply to Job, gave a sweeping and majestic account of his powers and glory that signifies He is in charge: 

Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?...
... who laid the cornerstones when the morning stars sang together...
... who shut in the seas with doors when it burst from the womb...
... entered into the springs of the sea or walked the recesses of the deep?...
... cut a channel for the torrents of rain, and a way for the thunder bolts...
... know the ordinances of the heavens... establish their rule on earth?...
(Job 38: 1ff)

One can go on and on to see how much we have misjudged the very nature of God and by our lazy manner in addressing our relationship with Him thinking he is like any other things we use and put back to the shelf when we tire of him.

Seriously, I think we are like the disciples in today's gospel reading (Mk 8: 14 - 23) who were clueless about Jesus' identity and his power when he had to question their understanding after the feeding of the crowd on two occasion: "Are you still without perception?". The disciples were thinking about food when Jesus talked about the yeast of the Pharisees and Herod, while he meant them to look at the signs given that point to the message of the Kingdom and who the messenger that is in their midst.

I think we are doing just that today - ignoring God in our midst and immersing ourselves too much in the material realities of the world and being influenced by them. I believe we can do better than that. After all, He has given us, who believe, the power to become His children and what greater deed can any child to do than in honouring this position and gift by offering back a reasonable semblance of reverance and respect for our Creator who continues to love us and sustain our existence, no matter what we are.

Related articles

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They Say, We Say...

Image via Wikipedia

An offshoot from being in a Seminary environment, is the opportunity to come across interesting insights that could easily be forgotten or lost in the midst of our daily hustle and bustle activity we call LIFE.

One particular insight, well... actually 12, came from a Catholic website that, coincidentally, amounted to those questions that we, as Catholic, usually have to attend to when confronted by our questioners that tend to deride our faith. Some of the questioners can be, disappointingly, be our own brethen (these are people who seemed to be the ones to look for the simplest and wrong reasons to leave the Church and the faith).

But fear no more! At InsideCatholic, a presentation of 12 Myths Every Catholic Should Be Able to Answer will assist Catholics to come to terms with what their faith is all about and if they should find themselves lacking in a decent understanding of what they are professing to, this would be a good starting point to start deepening their knowledge of their faith - and also yours.

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The Signing...

For those who have been with me for Salvation History course, here's a piece that captures what this history continues to mean for us today...

A picture is always worth a thousand words...

source: ari's blog

A Student Too...

The folks at the Singapore Pastoral Institute has put up the advert for the course which I had agreed to conduct for them. This was taken off from their e-news June issue at their website.

It is a compressed course which I am currently giving in the Seminary for all the first years there. For the Seminary purposes, this course is 1 year. However, for the one at the SPI, it will be a series of 20 sessions beginning 1 July, Thursday, 7.45 p.m. This will go on for every Thursday of the week till 11 November.

As the title suggests, "participants in this course will be guided to explore the roots of our Catholic tradition from our history with God - the History of Salvation." This is my first stint teaching at the SPI and to a more mature crowd of people who come from all walks of life and not necessarily with a seminarian mode of thinking. So, I am really working through this experience blindly and with a slight trepidation as one walking into the unknown.

I may be smiling in the picture, but beneath all that so-called confidence is the awareness that I am really like anyone of the participants for the course - a student too...

O Antiphons - Oriens, Rex Gentium, Emmanuel

Image via Wikipedia

It is the eve of the eve...

Today the remaining series of antiphons get down to the heart of the person and mission of Jesus Christ and why we, as his followers today, have to be clear as to why we continue his mission which he had mandated: "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit... "

Those remaining antiphons put into place what we already have worshipped Jesus as all this while, namely he is the Rising Sun who comes to light the dark corners of our lives and give to us the true freedom as God's children, freeing us from the shadows of death. He is also our King to whom we must allow to matter most in our lives and not the kings of materialism, consumerism and other worldly priorities. He it is also whom we must acknowledge as Emmanuel, being among us, even in a world that doesn't want to acknowledge him.

All this is gathered up in a special day later when he is borned in a manger that is cold, of a lowly estate and vulnerable to the elements of the world, helped and cared for by the parents called by God in a mysterious manner, whose instructions were carried out only through faith for the very hope of Israel which welcomed the love that came down that profound night.

May your Christmas season be blessed, meaningful and joyful!

O Antiphons - Clavis

Image by mtgf93 via Flickr

Isaiah 22:22: "I will place the key of the House of David on his shoulder. When he opens, no one shall shut; when he shuts, no one shall open."

The key and scepter are traditional symbols of kingly power and authority. Christ, the anointed one, is the heir of David and possessor of the kingdom. Jesus himself also made use of this symbol, showing the prophetic relationship of the earthly kingdom of David to the kingdom of God.  All power and authority was given to him after the resurrection, and he entrusted this power to "bind and to loose" to Peter and the ministers of his church. (Jeanne Kun)

O Antiphons - Radix

What is a sign to you?

We have them all over the place and we have taken them to a level where signs have been taken much for granted. Especially in advertisements, they have been used and milked in many forms and ways, just so they could provide monetary gains for businesses. Some signs do have their learning value and there are those which seem to pervert the notion of goodness and areas of decency (all for the license of creativity).

However, for us, the faithful believers of God, there is one clear and solid sign that we are made known of every time this Advent is here: Christ, himself.

O Flower of Jesse’s stem, you have been raised up as a sign for all peoples; kings stand silent in your presences; the nations bow down in worship before you. Come, let nothing keep you from coming to our aid.

The question which Jesus asked his disciples at Caesarea Philippi continues to ring down to our times today as the implication of the sign of Christ bears down upon us: Who do you say that I am? How you answer this will tell you much about the question of signs in your life.

O Antiphons - Adonai

O Adonai... come and save us with your mighty power!

O Antiphons - Sapientia

Today we begin the last 7 days towards the push before the eve of Christmas and the eventual joyful celebration of the birth of Christ. It is a good opportunity then to consider the "O Antiphons" to help us take us there in good stead as we reflect the intentions that can arise from them.

These are the seven antiphons to the Magnificat in the ferial Office of the seven days preceeding the vigil of Christmas; so called because all begin with the interjection "O". Their opening words are: (1) "O Sapientia", (2) "O Adonai", (3) "O Radix Jesse", (4) "O Clavis David", (5) "O Oriens", (6) "O Rex Gentium", (7) "O Emmanuel". Addressed to Christ under one or other of His Scriptural titles, they conclude with a distinct petition to the coming Lord (e.g.: "O Wisdom … come and teach us the way of prudence"; "O Adonai … come and redeem us by thy outstretched arm"; "O Key of David … come and lead from prison the captive sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death" etc.)

As we see from this excerpt from the Catholic Encyclopedia from New Advent, the first one we will begin to look at is "O Sapientia", sapientia meaning wisdom. The antiphon goes, "O Wisdom, you come forth from the mouth of the Most High. You fill the universe and hold all things together in a strong yet gentle manner. O come to teach us the way of truth."

In our world today we are keenly aware how much we need wisdom. We make immediate choices about families and jobs, and we also face life-shaping decisions about where to work and live, even wrestle with crucial end-of-life dilemmas. We agonize over how to take appropriate responsibility in our relationships. On a larger scale, we wonder how to preserve the planet and the best of human culture for our children to be born in the future. It is a delicate balancing act and knowing what to give to immediate and distant family, friends, the needy, the church and the job becomes harder when resources seem limited.

Because we know such great need at a natural level, a plea for supernatural Wisdom should rise from within us with heartfelt poignance. The Wisdom that comes from God must lift us above a plea for holiday sanity or mere survival. It is the Wisdom that will certainly shake her head in disgust and sorrow at the way the world is heading with its so-called cleverness, especially in the area of eliminating babies and the unborn. One can only wish that this was a joke...

O Wisdom... really come and teach us the way of truth!