A Choice Made

With two more months left, things are moving fast as the final year seminarians prepare themselves for their graduation and eventual insertion into the priestly ministry. They have their final Baccalaureate (Theology) exams to undergo and following that, the essential preparations for their diaconate and the priesthood.

Because I Am Human...

... because I am human, I am weak,
because I am weak, therefore I pray.

The above verses came from our retreat master, Fr Michael Casey, OCSO, a Trappist monk from Tarrawara Abbey, Melbourne (Australia). At my last entry, I mentioned we were on our Clergy Annual Retreat from 15 - 19 July. The theme was on prayer that had various aspects of 'faces' to discern and reflect.

Overall, the retreat was a fruitful one because it helped me regained my composure on my own prayer life and the various possibilities of growth and deepening of my relationship with God.

Clergy Retreat

We are having our Clergy Annual Retreat this week at the SFX Major Seminary. It will be from the 15 July till 19 July.

The retreat master is Fr Michael Casey, OCSO, Trappist monk from the Tarrawara Abbey, Melbourne, Australia. The theme he his presenting is on Prayer, through some of the sub-topics of simplicity, faith, revelation, spiritual warfare, forgiveness, petition, dedication and Christ the Priest, just to name a few.

Do pray for all of us priests and clergy that we would have a fruitful and spirit-filled week and that we may come out this refreshed and renewed in our ministry.

Doulos

Jesus Discourses with His Disciples (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The gospel passage for today's Mass reading is so stark about how we humans are so attuned to seeking, and predictable even, positions of power when given the chance. The apostles James and John are perfect examples of this type of attitude.

Assuming that they follow Jesus in that manner, they deserve special positions of honor and prestige. We too have many opportunities and occasions that can get us seeking positions of honor and prestige just because we 'work for God'.

Jesus had to teach the brothers and the rest of his disciples that to follow him is to be a servant (doulos, Greek), and obviously, servants don't go looking for rewards or recognition. Service, if it is to be true, is selfless. It is concerned with others' needs, not our own.

Handing Over

Well, the announcement finally came about. This was what all in the archdiocese was waiting to hear.

As of 6 pm, Singapore time, on 18th May 2013, we have a new archbishop taking office in the person of His Grace Archbishop William Goh. It was almost 3 months ago that we witnessed his ordination and installation to the episcopate at the Singapore Expo.

Flashback!

A flash back in time! Looking at this video makes me feel so old!... This was in 1996 or was it 1997? My memory is failing me...

Any Change?...

'Tis less than a week away before we ramp up the activities a little, as we move into Holy Week and the great Easter celebrations.

At this juncture, I ask myself this well-worn and used question: have I changed for the better?

Having to look back, I have to see if the Lenten preparations and their great traditional practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving able to transform me into a better child of God, a much more responsible Catholic, a better priest after the very heart of Christ?

It is a tough question to answer as the results vary and have many different shades of nuances that do not necessary border of preciseness and clarity. In general, I see some level of improvement but the main journey is still tough and usually demands a deeper honesty and sacrifice which I don't always abide by. Nonetheless, this Lenten period has been meaningful and have shown or offered me several important insights that were learning experiences which speaks of the power (dunamis) of God's love and light.

How was it for you?....

Helped By Jacob's God

Image via Wikipedia

There have been a few inspiring moments that made me very hopeful for the ministry of the priesthood, at least for the near future and within the S-E Asian region.

One is to see that our seminarians have taken to using their skills towards their homily practices at a more regular pace and frequency in their introduction to the psalms during their prayer times at the chapel. Their stories and sharing in relation to the psalms and prayers which we will do later is a good way to get them to form their homilies in time to come when they do begin their ministry of the Word later. All of their introductions thus far have been inspirational, offering much food for thought, and also creating an atmosphere of attentive prayer where one is taken and prepared into even as we move towards singing the hymn that follows after that. This is a practice that came into the Seminary only recently and it is a timely one, too.

This would allow the seminarians now to learn how to formulate their thoughts well, seek out ideas and homily aids, all to break open the Word to the faithful to understand and digest better, so that the People of God can be better inspired to live out their calling as sons and daughters of God that we all are. It is a small contribution to bringing about a better and orderly manner to homilies in the pulpit during Mass by priests in general, and to slowly do away with sloppy and unprepared ones...

Another inspiring sign on this ministry, is the homily today by the newly ordained priest Fr Andrew Stephen (Malaysian), who celebrated Mass for our community in the seminary. He was here with us this morning as a traditional practice for all newly ordained from this Seminary to come back and celebrate a Mass for us. His homily spoke of his struggles from his younger days when he never paid any attention to his studies and school, but through the miraculous grace of God, still managed to rise up to life's challenges and ended up beng a priest today. He could safely and proudly say that, apart  from his 'O' levels certificate which he just got through, through the skin of his teeth, the only other paper  qualification he managed to receive was his degree in Theology from the Baccalaureate exams before he graduated from Seminary studies. That's really a feat of going from 'zero' to 'hero' in such a short period of time!

Of course , all this is only possible through the very grace and blessings of God and his love for us all.

"He is happy, who is helped by Jacob's God" (Ps 145)

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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...

Seven Years

Image via Wikipedia

I am back after a two week break in Kajang and the land of my birthplace. The well-needed respite from the parish was certainly welcomed.

In the meantime, with the solemnity of Ss Peter and Paul in the Church's liturgical calendar today, marks my 7th year in the priesthood and I continue to shake my head, as always, for having survived all these years in this ministry. It has its ups and downs and offers many opportunities to stretch my limits and even my sanity that this ministry can certainly qualify as one of the challenging 'jobs' in the universe (just my humble opinion)!

Seven years is nothing compared to my peers who have been at this half their lives and still have their heads firmly fixed on their shoulders, weathering the storms over their own years of serving, especially now in a world that has seen decline in priestly vocations and a general aversion to things religion.

It is a great challenge to be in this situation as a priest of today. Seven years is certainly not enough of experience to seriously or adequately handle the many issues of the faith that, in view of the current happenngs in the world, is seeing itself questioned and even mocked. Today, knowledge is power and all things tend to gravitate around this scheme that there is a great scramble to acquire such position. The Church of today finds itself in a very challenging role to account reasonably for its existence and, more importantly, to account for her mission to the Gospel of Christ which the apostles Peter and Paul had started on admirably during the pioneering life of the early Church years.

With my seven years in the priesthood, I have reached another milestone, after finishing my 2-year tour of duty in Rome and now grappling with the intricacies of life here in the parish of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. If there is any knowledge which I have acquired over the years, it is the knowledge that I still am an amateur in this ministry and the only constant is still change and taxes.

If only life could be simpler....

What Lent?....

Image by Annoysius via Flickr

I feel drained after the past two weeks of 'parish situation hazards' that taxed my duties in the parish, archdiocese and the seminary.

I have my presence, besides being the usual suspect in the parish, also in the Senate (member), Priestly Life (member), District Priest (Chairman) and assisting in the Engaged Encounter as one of the panel of priests presenters. I have my hands already too full with these 'portfolios' and I certainly do not need any more problems to present itself unnecessary to complicate matters further.

However, as with any parish, there will always be occasions where such matters can make its way into the parish scene whereby I have to go in and fire-fight the situation. Much of the problems that I have dealt thus far, tend to fall into the case of misrepresentation, differences of expectations and lack of communication between two parties. In this case between priests of the parish and parishioners and between ministry members.

They never taught us in the Seminary, the finer details of dealing with people and how to maneuver with difficult persons using necessary PR tools or other related skills. Much of this I picked up by trial and error and through learning by experience. But not all priests have this kind of awareness and have found themselves in the firing line of people's expectations.

Hence I am certainly glad to really take a break from all this when I go for my leave in two weeks time to recover from playing nanny or fire-fighter to all the various ministries under my care. I really wonder if the correct sense of Lent is in the minds and psyche of our people when it comes to areas like prayer, conversion and penance...

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