All Packed and Ready!

My bags are packed. The room has been cleaned up. My sights are all geared up for tomorrow's trip back. The car service has been arranged and confirmed.

It's all set for the return to the Lion City! :-D

Fr Val

For those fans of Fr Val, he has already set foot safely in Rome and is now resting comfortably in the Collegio. He now looks ahead to his challenging years of his newly acquired student life and all that comes with the pursuit of academic excellence... ;-)

Mission Accomplished!

Image via Wikipedia

"Congratulations, you have done well..."

Those were the words that greeted me when one of my professors came out from the classroom after deliberating together for about 5 minutes on my lectio that Friday afternoon. They were words of great consolation after a gruelling hour and a half of presentation which was followed by some questionings later by three professors who were assessing me.

With that, I officially completed my entire Spirituality course (2 years in all) at the Pontifical University of St Thomas of Aquinas (also more commonly known as the Angelicum). It had been quite a journey and now this had ended and thankfully, it ended on a bright note!

Now I am free from all forms of studies (at least till I get back to S'pore) and savouring the mood that comes after finishing the exams. The whole body and mind now just seem to wind down a lot after the past weeks of adrenaline and stress-filled activity, that I feel exhausted, both mentally and physically.

However, it wasn't all that bad as I could still stay a little up-and-about during this night, earlier, to do some packing of my stuff which I am sending back by airfreight later. In the midst of it all, the feeling of satisfaction after finishing something as important as a licentiate studies like this, continues to pervade my senses. I thank you all for your prayers, support and encouragement during this while and my sojourn here in Rome. And I also know that I really, really would not be able to accomplish all this if not, in the final analysis, for the very grace of God...

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Priests

Image by Annoysius via Flickr

In case, one has forgotten the occasion, 19th June 2009 is the start of the celebration in the Church for the Year for the Priest, as the Year of St Paul ends. In this light, a letter from the Congregation for the Clergy offers a reflection to "... Seek Together to Concentrate on the Identity of Christ the Son of God" within the priestly ministry.

Certainly, there is much we need to meditate upon and to seek renewal and transformation that only God can provide. What we do not need are persons mentioned in these reports here and here who have 'lost' their minds and seemed to be following another god.

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Almost Done...

Image by Quiplash! via Flickr

Friday, 19th June is coming into the horizon. It is the horizon where I shall experience the end of another chapter of my life, while a new one will swing around to take me onto another ride of my life....

I have already gone to the Dean's office on Tuesday morning to pick my topic for my presentation of my lectio this coming Friday's final exam. I get to do a piece which was from my previous seminar presentation topic of last year on the pastoral issues about the Rosary. So, I have all the details already done up, but only now need to spruce it a little to put it within the 40 minute time limit. That is God's providence for you! While waiting for Friday to make its appearance, I still have some time to gather my thoughts and memory to hopefully pull off a decent show at the lectio later.

Meanwhile, do pray for Fr Joseph Tan of IHM Church who has just recovered from an operation of a cancer-related illness.

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ci vuole

There is something very 'magical' and heartwarming about this song. It is usually taught to young children and concerns about environmental appreciation which highlights the proper use of the Earth's resources. It was also taught at my Italian class when I was sequestered for 3 months in Terni. That was part of a lesson to get us to learn in a less rigid way the use of the Italian words and to get into the flow of things. The name of this song is 'ci voule'. Loosely translated, it means '(it is) necessary (to have)'.

It begins with the introduction of a table (tavolo) and what it needs to get that. The final analysis shows that we need 'fiore' or the flower to enable that end product, which is the table. Have a listen to this and see if you can get or catch the 'magic' behind the verses...

This is probably the only thing I like and could live with here in Italy (other than gelato)! :-D

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In the Between...

Time seems to be standing still for me this moment. I have finished my required studies and main exams for my course, save one. This one is coming up in 10 days time, but it may as well be a year from now with all this waiting! :-)

Yet, I am grateful for this intermission for it is allowing me to prepare myself sufficiently for that moment as I revise through those required topics and doing up the schemas for them. This will help a lot later when I finally know which topic to present for that day and do not need to hunt and run all over the place to search for the details and answers.

In the interim, I have put up a minor widget that sits unobtrusively by the right sidebar which, when clicked, will randomly direct me to any of my past posts or blog entries. It has been coming a little addictive, since then, to click on it and read what past entries I had done and compare that to where I am now. Some made me laugh, some made me cringe with embarassment, a few others brought a tear to my eye, but all a telling journey that carry with it a sense of growth and transformation of sorts.

Now that I am finishing another chapter of life's journey, what the next one will hold is anybody's guess....

(pic: East Coast Park benches, Nov 19, 2006)

3-in-1

This Sunday is the solemnity of Trinity Sunday.

To many preachers, it is a preaching 'nightmare' because he will usually come against a wall of questions that he himself will find seemingly difficult to breach. It will undoubtedly start with this question, "What is the Trinity?" The listeners will also be put into a turmoil of sorts because at the end of it all, they will never really be able to grasp fully what it is all about with this God of ours!

I used to subscribe, in a tentative manner, to the poor analogy of the 3-in-1 scheme found in the commercial product of the instance coffee and other beverage mix. Because it is a poor analogy, I never was easy with it and constantly fret with how to approach all matters concerning the Trinity. I am also not alone in his dilemma as many other preachers encounter the similar problem.

However, all is not lost! I had mentioned 'seemingly difficult to breach' earlier. It is seemingly so because, really, we are not fighting against spiritual unknowns or mumbo-jumbo but honest-to-goodness truth and spiritual reality of God, but in a manner that will always be beyond our finite thinking. Much later, I had an insight of the implication of the Trinity that always unfolds during Mass and invites all present to partake in it. So, the necessary steps to help us come to a coherent and reasonable understanding of the Trinity have already been explicitated in a celebration which we always tend to take for granted!

Without further ado, let me present the following below as it unfolds the mystery before you...



You can also head here to listen to the main and complete sermon of Fr Barron for this particular occasion.

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Happier

I went across to have a peek at my previous parish youth group's website and chance across this entry about their members having a fun time together with the Family Life Ministy in a workshop together last May.

One wrote of having learned about the 5 Key Points to being Happier:

1. Stop being hard on yourself
2. Start hanging out with people who are positive
3. Start watching more comedies, more programmes that would make you laugh!
4. Spend some time every day/week by yourself to think, pray – love yourself
5. Journal your thoughts and goals regularly

Ok, (1) I understand. A lot of us can be very hard on our failures than moving on with the good that we have done and more good that we are very much capable of doing. This is because we tend to beat ourselves by having seminars with the Devil concerning our sins rather than going to our Father, in humility, repentance and with joy into this embrace of love and forgiveness.

As for (2), it is pretty obvious. It is like saying, also, that to avoid looking thin, don't hang out with fat people....

(3) is my favourite pointer!
Comic strip from The Buckets, by Greg Craven from comics.com


The effect is the same. Are you laughing already?... :-D

So, (4). Here in the Collegio, we have our daily masses and we celebrate them as a celebrant or concelebrants, the Mass being the most significant part in a life of a priest. Besides making that effort to love ourselves, we have to also make that significant movement to love others who are also our neighbours. Never easy!....

And finally (5), well, that is what this blog is all about! ;-)

So, I should be a little happier now as compared to yesterday - I think... But I know when I will be the happiest! It has got to do with two numbers - 2 & 6 - and followed by the letter 'J'...

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Just Waiting...

After a quick scan over the past entries of the past weeks or so, it is apparent to me that most of them center around the topic of finishing my course here in Rome and to look towards the coming day when I will finally leave this place for Singapore.

Being in a place like Rome where the word inefficient and stupidity is its definitive emblem, heading back to a place like Singapore, where everything works, evokes a great sense of relief and the realization that much have been take for granted back there. You don't really know what you are really missing till you leave your own country, even if for a while. However, that doesn't mean that I did not gain anything worthwhile from my tour of duty in Rome.

One, is my further deepening and appreciation of my faith and of the Church that stands today. I don't mean the buildings and grand views of the Vatican and the churches here. I mean the truth, beauty and goodness that permeates our Catholic faith in its power to transform and transcend all that we know of, in preparing us to encounter the Divine. This is, of course, coming from my studies here in Spirituality and its related courses at the Angelicum, where I have been studying for a good part of my two-year stay here.

Second, I have gained much insight into the lives of the people from other countries through the presence of the various priests here in this Collegio, priests that come from Africa, Asia, Oceania, South America and Eastern Europe. A little of their culture and mindset can be gleaned from this interaction especially during games, Collegio formal functions, get-togethers and even at Masses which we celebrate daily. Indeed, it is a potpourri of faces and skin color that heightens the sight to the variety and types of nationalities that are living under one roof of this Collegio.

Lastly, I have learned to be a little more patience with the world with all its nonsense, and after staying here in Rome for awhile, I think ... nay... believe, I can survive anywhere else!

So, while the days get closer to the departure date, I am not shedding any crocodile tears over Rome, for I will gladly bid it a happy, relief and vociferous Arriverdeci!

(pic - street portrait painter, taken in Florence)

Giugno

What do you know? It's the month of June already!.... yeeaah.....

('Giugno' is Italian for June)

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Get Into the Right Spirit!

Happy Pentecost!

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Poetry and Theology

After reading what some of you have contributed (a handful, but enough) I managed to cobble up my prepared version to be put down in writing for the exam later. Here is an excerpt:

We can already go about or develop skills in bringing forth simple statements about those truths without having to bother with an extra burden of learning to appreciate a sense of poetry... Yet, are these the only ways which God speaks to us, namely through the discipline of theology and other related fields? Does God only speaks to us a theologian or a moralist? Can God also speak in a manner like a poet which can show forth His divine inspired Word that theology also speaks about?... Poetry can offer an opportunity for the hearers to get in touch with the mysteries of God which normal message can't.... in poetry, what eye and ear perceive and hear make us aware that there is more here than meets the eye and ear. The images of poetry speak to startle and puzzle us, to provoke us and cause us to think... One only has to read the poem of passionate love of St John of the Cross, The Dark Night, where he was daring to mix and use imagery of human passion and, at times, even of erotic love, in describing the vision of the soul's communion with God... Getting-down-to-earth also means that it would be an area which poetry can, in a more effective manner, articulate dimensions of religious faith through a form of theology that arises from a fragment of conversation, a visit to a cathedral, a memory of a friend or a family member, a biblical figure or text.. Poetry,... gives us theology and the expression of faith in a different voice and offer another way by which God also speaks and make his presence felt.. Because of the incarnation, God has come down among us as the Supreme Poet that resounds through time till now, that has offered a poetry which is radically different from other religious verse of other religion. While they speak of a poetry that portrays of a search for God, the Judeo-Christian religion speaks a poetry of a God who searches for us instead, where He takes the initiative. In this poetry, it is the voice of a Supreme Being who is crazy with love for his people and each one of us.

The above is by no means perfect and could end up a lot different on the day of my writing it out on the exam itself (depending on my atrocious memory). Nonetheless, I wish to thank all who have helped out in this little exercise and may God continue to keep you all in His love.

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Football and Poetry...

Tonight, as I am writing this, perhaps around half the priests here in this Collegio are in front of the tv in our TV room watching the match between Man U and Barcelona in the finals of the Champions League. The match is playing at the Stadio Olimpico just a few miles north of here in Rome, but I am totally unaffected by it all.

First, I have a few more notes to read up tonight before I call it a night, notes that are crucial for my exams next week. Second, it is not my soccer team playing (am still a Spurs fan...). Lastly, I needed to put this down else I won't get to write anything much later.

I need to work out an answer scheme to one of the exam preparatory questions which goes something like this:

Theology and preaching need to be down-to-earth. It does not need poetry. Discuss.

I already have some ideas on how to tackle that question and, generally, I am inclined to say that poetry can play an important role which will help theology and preaching see things afresh so as not to stay always to abstract thesis. A genuine poet, with the right theology and preaching will be able to make the common seem strange and the strange common. So, there. That has been my preoccupation for a while and needed only the closure this coming Monday when I put all that down on paper. I do have to do another surprise question on the exam day, though, which I have no inkling on what I am to write on. That is why it is called a surprise.

Meanwhile, there is also some semblance of poetry in the game mentioned above, as the players need some poetic movement and coordinated playing if they want to win the match. I welcome your views on my question I am currently working on and, so, the comments box is now open...

(pic - William Shakespeare, National Portrait Gallery)

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Finally...

Last class this evening! After this, I officially finished my 2-year course of Spirituality. Next is to go through the ordeal of the exams and then head for S'pore later!...

Slight Alteration

There were some feedback on the previous new template which I had installed earlier on this blog which made me redo the template and hence this newer one. Hopefully this one is a more stable and conducive one to look at! :-D

The Practicing Catholic mentioned something interesting which has also been bugging me for quite a while, but for a different reason. Ascension Thursday has come and gone and in Singapore, it has been celebrated on Thursday which gives a fitting ring to the flow of the liturgical life of the celebration as it coincided with the 40 days after Easter. This is because it would make celebrating Pentecost 10 days later on a Sunday following that all the more striking. Practicing was disappointed that they, in her place, celebrated Ascension on a Sunday after Thursday instead. This is similar in Rome where Ascension has been celebrated on Sunday for, oh, donkey years already.

There are many reasons why Ascension is not celebrated on Thursday in Rome, one of which is that you probably would not get anyone going for it. This is a place where most are Catholics but in name only. In Singapore, however, that it is continued to be celebrated on Thursday, and also a day of obligation, has been quite a feat for the faithful to take time off from work or other chores of the day to attend the Mass celebration. This has raised calls, on several occasions, by some priests to have this celebration to be done on Sunday instead. So far, the Bishops Conference of Malaysia-Singapore-Brunei have kept it to Thursday. :-)

So, I am in twos-and-threes as to which would be a better way or day to celebrate this occasion. Perhaps, it depends on the culture and place where all this unfolds. While the option is given between these two days, culture and the the bishops' conferences will decide the final vote.

(pic - "The Ascension of Christ" by Garofalo)

update1 - commenting had some problems. I managed to resolve it and it ought to work now. I apologise if that was a bit of a bummer for some earlier.

update2 - did another slight 'esthetic' rearrangement to the items at the right bar to accomodate a 'Featured Video'. I had wanted to have that item earlier but could not find a suitable slot for it. Since I managed to change the way 'Categories' to display its result, I could add the video now. Enjoy!

While Waiting, Something New...

21st May 2009, 11:52 p.m.

It took a while, but it is finally here!

I decided to do a little spring cleaning and redo, a little, my blog here and was hunting around for a suitable template to use that can present the entries in a more organic manner. So, after hunting around, I managed to come across this scheme and used it as the placement for the display as you can see it here. It may take a little getting use to, at first, but I think it will eventually grow on you and settle nicely into that little corner of your mind, sitting there unobstrusively and comfortably.

The only small drawback with this template is that I cannot display the labels, date and time of the entries. Hopefully I can resolve this later with any upgrade that may arise for this template. For now I have to put in the date and time manually, beginning with this entry. :-P

Meanwhile, it has been a slow week if not for a series of celebrations in honour of the final years who will leaving the Collegio when the semester ends in June. First was the Mass celebration in the chapel of the crypts below the Vatican. That was last Saturday, 16th May at 7.30 am. The chapel was the main one that faces the tomb of St Peter's where it can sit around 60 people. To the right of this chapel is the tomb of John Paul II.

Then on that same Saturday afternoon, we had football between the juniors and those of us who are leaving the Collegio. For both these occasions, I was the main photographer, as was always the case for festive or communal activities.

Something to do while waiting for that hour to arrive when I get to go off to Singapore!

'Death' is Better!

Someone said, "Forget 'Angels and Demons', go read 'Death of a Pope'"...

I think I shall go get this book and read it on my flight back to Singapore. It would certainly make that 12 hour non-stop journey a little better to go through!

Taking Care of Things...

It has been spotty with my entries here lately. :-P The days are leading up to the exams, which are coming up next month and after my finals of final, I have to start packing and prepare leaving for home.

Meanwhile, there is always this waiting that can sap the enthusiasm and positivity of daily living, with all the anxieties and fears (real or imagined) that come with this. The current uncertainty of the flu problem that is enveloping the world doesn't help to lessen those nagging anxieties either. At this point, a portion of a stanza from T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets comes to mind:

But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always—
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flames are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.

All shall be well. There is some sense of peaceful acceptance of all that has gone by and what is to come next. This has nothing to do with giving in to some sort of 'happy' pessimism (sure, this sounds like an oxymoron but that is how I see it at this time) or embracing the unknown with no idea of what to expect. Rather, it is placing myself in the hope of God's goodness that He knows how to take care of things for me, especially those which I cannot possibly do myself.

Church In Reality - Genius and Mystery

I was somewhat busy with tying up the submission of my thesis and meeting up with the Dean over some lectio questions for the comprehensive exam that will be on the 19th June. Yes! It is the last stretch of activities before I fly off to Singapore towards the end of next month. Aahh.. could almost taste that glorious smell of the teh tarik and roti telur already! :-D

Meanwhile, I saw that the new movie based on Dan Brown's Angels and Demons is making its way around the cinema circuits around the world (did I tell you he and the cast were in Rome last week to promote the show?... never mind, I didn't even noticed). But, perhaps not to my surprise, it did not seem to create any waves of sensationalism or purported mass exodus of people from the Catholic faith as it did in the earlier film. I think the whole idea of the Church being that big, bad evil (galactic) Empire has begun to sound and feel lame and tiring. Kansas Catholic sort of round up my sentiments on this. I never read any of Dan Brown's book nor bothered to watch the movies. They are all laughable. I'd rather spend my money on watching comedies and Disney cartoons like this for instance than Brown's meanderings about old and stale conspiracy theories on the Church. Too bad my favourite Jedi Knight had to associate himself with the current Dan Brown's movie. Maybe he had to constantly use Force Mind Trick on himself to stay on acting there till it was all over...

Speaking of the Church, Amy over a Via Media provides us some good updates (via links) on the journey of peace by our Holy Father as he starts his Holy Land trip. I don't know how much he can bring about the needed peace and stability in that volatile area of Jews, Christians and Muslims living side-by-side, but it is a start. It is a concrete start of the Church's outlook in a world today to unite and bring hope to all. Certainly a far cry and a total opposite from all those tales spun by Dan Brown about the Church. Maybe that is why he needed to create a big and 'evil' caricature of the Church because the reality of who/what the Church is doesn't make him any money nor sell his books. The L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican’s official newspaper which reviewed the movie says it is “harmless entertainment” that “hardly affects the genius and mystery of Christianity."