In A Semester Break

It's our semester break now and all the seminarians are away for their pastoral posting in the parishes except for the two seminarians in the Philosophy cycle who are attached to Missionaries of Charity (Mother Teresa's Home).

Chapel's New Crucifix

It is quite and peacful now with not much noise and the bustle of term life that I wonder if the environment here is like a 'cemetery'. Apart from the Fathers who are staying here, including myself, there are still the staff members who upkeep and maintain this place as life in the seminary continues, though at a slower pace.

Our chapel had gone through a small renovation that saw an addition of a crucifix just above the sanctuary. For the past 25+ years, the seminary chapel never had any big crucifix to call its own to adorn the sanctuary area. It had to use a standing or processional cross that was placed on a stand by the altar side. Now that we have a proper big crucifix, the chapel's sacred interior and environment is finally complete!

I wonder if we could get better with more vocation intake from now on?...

Meantime, there will be two milestones coming up for myself. One would be my years as a Catholic priest and the other would be as formator in this seminary. June 29 and October 1 would be those dates respectively. When I left this seminary after completing my studies and formation here some 9 years ago, I didn't figure to be back here again, least of all as a formator. Now I am coming full circle and I really don;t know if this gets any better or worse. But, as Christians and to be an authentic one at that - we walk by faith and not by sight (last weekend's 11th Sunday of Ordinary Times readings)!

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)

Discern the BBQ!

Image by Giorgio___ via FlickrThe last weekend saw the Seminary together with the Vocation Office organising a discernment workshop or both the aspirants and members from the parishes to explore the various ways to figure out carefully, in the context of faith, how to discern God's call. The main speaker, being Fr Ignatius Huan, engaged the participants through an enlightening series of sessions that offered them the intricacies and potential of using the Ignatian method of discerning the spirits to sieve through our baggages of life and to come to a suitable conclusion of what need to be done for one's vocation in life.

This workshop gave valuable tools and insight, which should be used by any one who profess to follow Christ and seek to do God's will. I have come across quite a few persons during my stint in the parishes who are earnestly searching for answers in this area that may be on vocation or just simply to deal with a particular crossroads of life, but do not know where to start or how to go about making a right decision. Perhaps, they should have attended the workshop...

On Saturday, the Serra Club (of Singapore) graciously held a BBQ for the Seminary and we had our aspirants who stayed for the weekend to joined in and gotten myself initiated into the community here, in a small ceremony of myself receiving a gift and wearing it - a sarong! The theme for that night's BBQ was "Kampung Nite"! It was the first time in a very long while that I wore one...

Besides the usual, and delicious, BBQ food, we also had local fruits which included the durians. The durians that we had was one of the better quality ones, brought over by the Serran president (Sean Yeo), who had to bear with the smell over the two hour journey in getting it into Singapore and to the Seminary, as he couldn't stand durians. That is what we call sacrifice!

The workshop ended on late Sunday afternoon with a celebration of a Mass and the participants and the aspirants much more enlightened and discerning concerning their call of life to engage in.

Walking with Seminarians....

Image by Annoysius via Flickr

It has been three days since I stepped in here at the Seminary to begin my new posting. It was a little over seven years ago when I first left this place after finishing my formation and studies here as I head of to my first parish then, Holy Family.

Now that I am back here in this hallowed place it is like coming full circle to what my ministry had entailed. Never did I thought, after stepping out of the Seminary, that I would one day return and to be a part of the formators team. Now that I am part of this landscape in Punggol it became apparent that I would have a great and heavy responsibility ahead in contributing to the growth and formation of  discerning young men towards the call of the priesthood.

There has been some amount of adjustment I had to make and the main one was getting used to a much lesser amount of people and the lesser attention given to me compared to back when I was in a parish. Here, I can't help but feel like one of the seminarians, and that is rather schizophrenic!

Whatever it is about living here, I am accepting my placing here as one for the long haul and a life that will see how to raise men into the priesthood that is after the heart of Christ.

Fishers of Men

I happened to see this over at a friend's blog and was bowled over by the incredible message that was presented there in a manner that was not overboard, sensitively done with just the right touch of intensity and urgency without being too drama-mama.

The phrasing and words used there are so prickingly true that they pierce the very essence of what we are experiencing in the world today. A bold statement made there is that the 'Catholic priesthood is an instrument for change in the world today'. Much can be debated over that and this video offers such an opportunity for this.

I like this video on promoting vocations because it takes in the vista of the priestly vocations that is much more encompassing which also describes it with strong and remarkable statements. Statements which are echoed and printed in Sacred Scripture and all the other relevant Church documents on this matter.

I wonder if the Serra Club over in Singapore can offer a similar video of such nature that can instill and move men into the priestly vocations that our archdiocese sorely need...