Bless Me Father

Confession (Photo credit: Lawrence OP)

When I sit by the confessional booth, awaiting the next penitent. As with each waiting, I wonder if the penitents know the following: there is no such thing as a “bad” confession as long as you’ve come to the Sacrament with a contrite heart.

Signs

Image by Annoysius via Flickr

I am currently going through my journey with the RCIA group as we continue to instruct and offer an experience of Christ to the catechumens, by way of my presentation to them in the area of the sacraments. This evening, I have the privilege to share with them the Sacrament of Confirmation.

As baptised Catholics, you may say that all these are old hat to us already and shouldn't be too much of a problem following through with them. Strangely though, this isn't usually the case. For most of us who have been baptised as infants, much of the catechising in this area has either been done poorly or what was learned then has been relegated to the twilight zone of forgotten things. Nonetheless, the grace, experience and power of the sacraments continue to impact upon the persons who are seeking baptism and those who have had a rebound in their faith life.

This brings me to an incident which tickled my funnybone and also serves as a pointed reminder to all in the faith. This was seen on a van which belongs to a signboard making shop. It's spiel is, of course, very business like and to the point. It also serves to shows us a 'sign' to take our faith seriously:

'A business without a sign is a sign of no business'

I can't argue with that!

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A Rose by Any Other Name...

Image via Wikipedia

I had finished one session for the RCIA (Rite of Chriatian Initiation for Adults) this evening under the topic of Baptism. This follows from previous session by Fr Luke who talked about Sacraments in general. From this point on we will cover in greater detail the seven sacraments of the Church, namely baptism, confirmation, communion, holy orders, matrimony, reconciliation and anointing of the sick.

My contribution this evening was the sacrament that opens all other sacraments and start the person onto a new life of Christ and engaging the world and society as a witness of God's love in a world that is increasingly getting allergic to God.

One of the items about baptism concerns the baptismal name and how important it is for a person to choose a proper and meaning one to represent the change to new life and how the person is now before God and the community of believers. It then got me thinking, later, about my own name and how people in the parish I am now at have also been giving me names. I know for a fact that I am Aloysius and my surname is Ong. It doesn't matter how you pronounced it - as A - loi - shius, or Eh - loo - ee - shius - as long as you stick to one of the pronounciation. Nonetheless, that doesn't stopped the parishioners of this parish to have christened me with some other affectionate names of their own making. So, I am also known as Fr Chiak, Fr Morneeng!, Fr How You, and just this evening, because of somebody's birthday - Fr Cake!

Be that as they may, I am still the same person who continues to strive live out my life accordingly as God has given me - Fr Aloysius Ong Han Kiong!

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