Cusp of the New Year

Descending... (Photo credit: Annoysius)

She walked out by the Seminary's porch area, awaiting the transport which will take her to work. With a smile on her face, she said, "It is the eve. We are at the cusp of the New Year!"

Indeed we were.

We just finished about of spiritual direction (SD) and there were several matters we discussed which we set in place for her to get into the New Year on a better footing. Instead of just allowing the year 2014 to enter with a whimper, it would be better to make attempts to renew her position to greet it with a better perspective of life she would like to have as a person and a Christian that can make a difference in a world of today.

Merry Christmas!

Crop of original painting "Anbetung der Hirten" (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On this special day, I wish all readers and people of good will a blessed and holy Christmas and may God's blessings of peace and joy be unto you all!

O dear...

English: Jesus Christ - detail from Deesis mosaic, Hagia Sophia, Istanbul (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I looked at the calendar today and noted that it is the coundown towards Christmas and the appearance of the O Antiphons.

Today's being O Lord or O Adonai. In our Church's liturgical prayer of the Divine Office, the antiphons show themselves prior to and after the recitation of the Magnificat during the Evening Prayer (Vespers). But I wonder if the celebration of Christmas all this while really celebrates the Lordship of Christ as it really should....

I think the latest Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, can offer us a direction in this.

Christmas Greet!

Image via Wikipedia

Joyous and Blessed Christmas and compliments of the season. May your New Year be also filled with God's grace of peace and joy!


Will be back in a few days time!

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Oh, O!

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The countdown is slowly getting us to the Christmas event and during this week it is being rung, not by silver bells, but by the O Antiphons.

If you go to the link from Wikipedia, you will get the whole description on what we are encountering here. So, since the 17th of this month, we have seen Wisdom (Sapientia), Lord (Adonai), Root of Jesse (Radix Jesse), and today, it is Key of David (Clavis David). These are excellent items you can use for your Advent reflections as we get closer towards Christmas. If you don't also already know, these antiphons are embedded in a very fitting way in a hymn which you may have already sung it at Masses during this period, or perhaps last Sunday recently: O Come, O Come Emmanuel.

Being here in Kajang, everything seems to have slowed down. Unlike in Singapore, where everything seems rushed, I can now really feel time slowing down as I savour the seconds and minutes passing by. I don't have to worry much about the next appointment or activity to be done, as there are none here now. So, for now, it is a slow burn towards Christmas with the Antiphons.

Meantime, do keep in your prayers for Deacon David Arulanatham who was recently ordained to the diaconate in his parish in Klang (Malaysia). Deacon David finished his priestly formation recently this year in the SFX Major Seminary, Singapore and will be serving the Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur in his parish at Klang. He is among the batch of Malaysians who are studying in the Singapore seminary and has now finished and moved on towards the priestly ministry. His priesty ordination is expected to be in mid-January next year! Praise be to God!

Related articles

• The "O" Antiphons by Ilia Delio, OSF (franciscansisterswdc.wordpress.com)
• O! (wdtprs.com)

The Real Stuff

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"... the best way to maintain a spirit of love is to give beyond yourself. Find a place to give a little of your money, find a place to give a little of your time. It's amazing how much Christ comes back to you when you do that."

Sarah Hart on her latest Christmas album "This Winter's Eve"

Sometimes when you come once again back to the season of Advent and then moving into Christmas, you can get this lazy and, perhaps, a little lost feeling that nothing seems to have changed and there seems no use to continue to welcome this celebration any more.

This is not surprising if we just look at all those secular activities associated with this season as thought Christmas is all only about shopping, Santa, silver bells, snow, tree, lights, Orchard Road, or even carols. When we start going down that way, then it is no wonder it could end up being the same old, same old. This is also giving in to the sentiment of secularists or even atheists who see all this as necessary fluff to feel good about something and nothing else.

The season and celebration of Christmas is much, much more than those shopping bags, presents, lights and glitter that usually crowd out the real message, which, by the way, is a radical and rallying call to claim our identity and true calling as children of God, that we belong to one another, and not slave of the material world and all the sins that ensue in our fallen nature.

"... in truth and the heavenly reality, which is so different from our reality, all is well because God has kissed the world and said 'I love you and here's My gift for you, My gift of eternal life through My son."

Sarah Hart on the song All is Well in This Winter's Eve.

The real Christmas message always continues to ring out tall and imposing because it is about our Father in heaven who came down to us to take us up to Him to see and enjoy His love that none in this world can ever hope to give or achieve. But because we always think less of ourselves we shoot for the second best or anything else, we are always finding our glasses half-filled and therefore always lacking. This is even in spite if the assurance of His son, Jesus Christ, who said, "I come to give you life, life to the fullest".

"For my husband and me, I wanted to paint that picture of . . . bringing our sacrament back to the manger year after year, turning to Christ with our brokenness in our hands and saying, 'Lord, continue to help us. Bless us and walk with us on this path of marriage. We come here to remember where love comes from. It comes from You. Please bless us with one more year of love for each other in our love for You."

Sarah Hart

One of the powerful symbols that continue to carry us into the mysterious embrace of the Incarnation, which is what Christmas is all about, would be the crib and in the Nativity scene. Its very setting is more than enough to tell us that our faith is not of this world and will never seat well with fluffy and light-headed sentiment that knows not the very presence and power of God, in the, ironically, vulnerable and lowly stable, whose occupants include an oxen and an ass.When we do find ourselves in front of a Christmas crib, we should allow the setting there tell us something about ourselves and how much we may need to amend  in order to accept the infant Christ child into our lives today, so that real transformation can take place. I pray that all married couples do take this opportunity to bring their sacrament back to the manger for their love to grow deeper, for that is what the Lord wants.

Related articles

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Real Seasons Greetings...

Image via Wikipedia
Here are some more insightful articles to check up on, in our journey to get a grip on where our faith is taking us and, how, we as Catholics ought to carry ourselves:

Raging Mirth
Christmas Back in Christ
Questioning God
How Not To Fail Your Children

Those above are good meditational pieces do be done in front of the Christmas crib. Enjoy!

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Blessed and Holy Christmas!

Image via Wikipedia
Some fireworks and sounds of crackers can be heard going off in the distance. It is a little after midnight

Merry Christmas everyone and do have a meaningful and fruitful celebration of it for the festivities and season ahead! After all, we have 12 days to thoroughly enjoy them all.

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Like Ice Cream and Peanut Butter...

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From Anon

------
hi fr aloy..

just my thoughts.. what do you think of our way of life in sinagpore? are we pursing recklessly? meaning excessive materialism, selfish culture, addictions of all kinds.. seems to be we are quite close but yet to this "culture of death"? than life.. look at it.. sinagpore seem to have all the ingredients of it.. high abortion rates, excessive materialism, quite high divorce rates.. etc..
While we may progress materially, our life esp morals is decaying day by day..
to me while economic growth is good.. but too much of it is bad enough yr thoughts?
blessed X'mas
tks

anonymous...

----

We are on the threshold of Christmas and tomorrow (or in the night closer to midnight) we will be celebrating the wonder of God's gift onto the world and the birthday of Our Lord and Saviour.

In the midst of the preparations and the festivities that follow, there will always be that niggling thought like anonymous above which can have us pause a little to question the very nature of our being.

Perhaps the following may give us that pause or two. This was written in the heart of 'evil' itself in the early 1940s and during the Advent season, as the writer considered the actions of man in the grip of arrogant power:

"[We] have stood on this earth in false pathos, in false security; in our spiritual insanity we really believed we could, with the power of our own hand and arm, bring the stars down from heaven and kindle flames of eternity in the world. We believed that with our own forces we could avert the dangers and banish night, switch off and halt the internal quaking of the universe. We believed we could harness everything and fit it into a final order that would stand.

Here is the message of Advent: Faced with him who is the Last, the world will begin to shake. Only when we do not cling to false securities will our eyes be able to see this Last One and get to the bottom of things. Only then will we be able to guard our life from the frights and terrors into which God the Lord has let the world sink to teach us, so that we may awaken from sleep, as Paul says, and see that it is time to repent, time to change things..." (Rev Fr Alfred Delp, s.j.)

The Jesuit Rev. Alfred Delp wrote those words from his prison cell shortly before the Third Reich executed him for resistance to Hitler's regime. His words are still very prophetic today, for even if that regime is no longer in existent today, ironically, its very ideology and attitude is now prevalent like ice-cream and peanut butter.


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Is This Too Much To Ask?

Image by Annoysius via FlickrSo, here we are onwards to Christmas and in the midst of the 4th Week in Advent.

From the comments in the previous entry, there seemed to be some varied response to the question 'All I Want For Christmas...' There were also other silent and unmentioned responses, which I am sure are still out there within the hearts and minds of those silent observers who frequent this dubious blog.

For all, here is my own take to that query.

What I want for Christmas is to regain the sense of awe and wonder to the beauty, greatness and mystery of this world that can open up all our inner senses to that glory and mystery of the divine, whom we as Christ followers call God and Father. There. I finally got that off my chest.

This is no small matter. Let me explain.

In April 19, 2005, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger was elected the 265th successor of Peter, bishop of Rome and head of the universal Church. He was elected by his fellow cardinals, many of whom representing countries like Argentina, India and Nigeria, who would prefered someone more progressive who can modernize traditional Christian doctrines and to emphasize social issues, but decided in the end, to put in someone who earned a reputation for defending the traditional teachings of the Church and for emphasizing the priority of "right worship" of God as a way towards building a just human society.

Why did this happen? Here is where it gets interesting. Over the past 30 years or so, not only the cardinals who elected Ratzinger as Pope, but many Catholics and other men and women of goodwill around the world, have come to agree with Benedict that the greatest 'crisis' facing the Church and the world is the "absence of God" - a culture and way of life without any transcendent dimension, without any orientation toward eternity, toward the sacred, toward the divine. Benedict' solution to this is simple: the world needs the presence of God!

Benedict was elected by his fellow cardinals, including those from very poor countries, because they agreed with him for a need of a Pope who could preach the priority of God, and in doing so, lay the only secure foundation for a just society.

When reading his memoirs or autobiography, you will come to encounter Benedict as a man who sees the world and everyday life with a sense of wonder, as if all things are crisscrossed with hints and "traces" of God. In this attitude, is Benedict's great message: the world is a sacrament - an "outward" sign of the "inward" reality of God's love and that man would only be happy when he recognizes the primacy of God in his life and in the entire world.

That is what I am asking - reclaim our spiritual senses that will put us right back on track towards all clear understanding of the meaning of life and our ultimate destiny.

(sources from Let God's Light Shine Forth: The Spiritual Vision of Pope Benedict XVI, editor Robert Moynihan)

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Advent Query

In case you are wondering about the recent lack of activity here, it is because I am out of town!

I am vacationing during this December break back at my parents place in Kajang (M'sia). The sparseness and no frills flavour of this entry is not, so much, due to the lack of sophistication of electronic or s/w means of blogging, but an intention of mine to make a point that blogging is still very possible, even with the more-than-average comforts of modern technology being sorely lessened.

Which brings me to the question: All I want for Christmas is?.....

Comment below and let me know, while I work this out myself for the next entry.

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Image via Wikipedia

Merry Christmas to all and do have a blessed and meaningful one this Christmas season!

O Antiphons - Oriens, Rex Gentium, Emmanuel

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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!

Venturing into Advent

We now find ourselves in the midst of Advent and with the 1st week of it now.

Image via Wikipedia

It is the theme of Hope and a virtue which we greatly need today in a world that seems to have lost this sense of outlook and running all over the place to find any medium to fill up that emptiness which is felt. Christians already have their answer in this through the person of Jesus Christ, yet how many can sincerly say that one is truely hopeful of the future and our heritage that is in heaven, where now all is not quite yet there.

I am in the Seminary for these 3 days till Thursday, giving a retreat to the seminarians who are preparing themselves to be installed as lector or acolyte. Much of my reflection for them would be on their role and duties of the ministries which they will be living out as of tomorrow evening, Thursday, when they get installed by the archbishop in a special ceremony at their seminary chapel, attended by some priests, families and friends.

In the series of reflections is included this dimension of hope, coupled with faith, which asks of the seminarians to pay careful and close attention on how they can be persons that bring this Hope which people greatly need. Christians, in general, are to live as if there is a future to look out for, but one that is far more revealing and utterly fulfilling than what we can get in this world.We usually sell ourselves short by concentrating too much on this world and forgetting that we do have a greater life we are all called into - namely to be with God.

While not forgetting what we must still do here on earth in making it a better place for all, we must also see that this 'better place for all' is really a practice and pointer to a 'greater place for all'!

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Christmas Prelude - Of Sorts...

I am feeling a little Christmas-sy this evening.

I headed down to the parish bookshop a few doors down and got myself a 5 CDs of Christmas hymns, songs and music in this spur of Christmas spirit that seems to have pervaded my office today. One of the newly purchased CD is already playing, with the music wafting and weaving its unmistakeable magic around the room.

This was a far cry from a few days ago, or even a week ago when I had the dubious honour to be hit with the blues that made the past days rather moody and lost. I was feelnig myself getting much more irritated easily and wished I could hit out at something. I managed to reined in my emotions and decided yesterday to take a bus-ride towards ECP and did a spot of roller blading. But the ride was tediously slow due to the traffic jams that occurred along the Paya Lebar Road toward Tg Katong. Coupled with the fear that it may rain along the way, as I saw the skies were cloudy, I was getting impatient and feeling frustrated as the minutes wore on. Thankfully I finally arrived my destintion and the skies cleared and I had my first full-fledged roller blading in two years. There is this feeling of the freedom of doing something out of the usual office or ministerial work...

Part of my moodiness lies in the fact that I have been doing much fire-fighting and problem solving with the ministries currently under my care. On the surface, everyone seems nice to everyone. But scratch a little deeper, the ugliness and bitterness of the reality of politicking in any ministry begin to show. But, by God's grace (it's the only way can see how), things are slowly being worked out. They just demand a little sacrifice to walk a little way off the comfort zone a bit.

Another reason for the moodiness is the realization that I have gotten another year older and wondering what  good have I really done (my thanks to all who have given me the birthday wishes and greetings!). It is this good that Paul was beating himself over when he says that he wants to do the good that is called for in his life but ended up doing the bad instead. I can empathise with him on that.

But today, the curtain of gloom seems to have lifted up to reveal a picture of hope and freshness that takes one away from engaging in a seminar with the devil and to face the rubrics of happiness which God offers. Hence the Christmas mood of sorts. It is the reminder, once again, of how Godly power can be found in the weak, meek and lowly. Yes, it is difficult to flow with that when I am in a position that can force me to control and dictate the flow of events. Nonetheless, this is the way of the basin and water the towel. It can also be the 'lonely' way which few dare to walk on...

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Merry Christmas!

So, we are here and that special day of the Christ child is upon us! However, you may say, "So what's new about it? Isn't this the same, year in year out?" You can go on to say that the very meaning of Christmas isn't there anymore, or you could also wonder what the heck is the meaning of Christmas in the very situation of today's world?...

Those are good questions and there are certainly no easy answers. The situations that have already affected the world's economy and society at large does not give much justice to the words 'Merry' or 'Happy' that precedes the Christmas greeting. So, where do I even start? Perhaps with this one...



The profound clip from Peanuts is the starting point to our Christian appreciation towards the real understanding of Christmas and why it still matters to us today. It is a starting point that speaks of the 'mystery' and wonder of God's presence and activity in our world, a world that seems to be trying hard not to have anything to do with Him. In our race towards technological and scientific advancement, the trend towards being more rationalist that calls for rigorous proofs is the order of the day. Now, don't get me wrong. I am not anti-science. I am a computer science graduate and I know how science and faith can really work hand-in-hand to produce great and wonderful creations that move humanity towards a better life. It is a question of the sense within us of the openness to the mystery and wonder that is all around.

It is this sense that allows us to enquire and see the wonders that is beyond rational but not necessarily nonsensical. Today, we tend to inoculate our senses and yes, our children too, against that sense of mystery, awe and wonder that is necessary to accept the gift of faith in the first place. Our way of catechising in our Sunday classes have the unfortunate tendency of focusing on reasoning about God, using methods that favors the mind more than the heart. For the adult formation, it may also include archaeological finds, anthropological examinations and scientific argumentation. An interesting article here shows what it means to 'see' God and why Christmas is still relevant.

Whatever your own take is about Christmas, it cannot be denied that this celebration continues to be a lightning rod of religious and civil matters which provokes all sorts of reaction. Many, I am afraid, would be like those dwarfs in C.S. Lewis' Last Battle, the seventh and last of the Narnia Chronicles series, who have become cynical and kept themselves from seeing the truth (about the real Narnia), thereby placing themselves in a position to receive no help from anyone (even Aslan).

As I end this Christmas pilgrimage which started with the 'mystery' of the Christ child, I thank you all for your patient generosity in allowing me to ramble on for this long, and all your Christmas greetings too! Do have a peaceful and joyful Happy Christmas and may your New Year be blessed and fruitful!


(a larger view of the pic is here)