Should we be rational?

Argh! Tell me something. I give you two options: guess heads or tails in a coin flip, or guess a six digit number that I'm thinking of. You'll get $10 if you get it correct. Which game would you rather play?

One gives you a one out of two chance; the other gives you a one in a million chance. If you want to win $10, you would choose the coin toss....... right...... ?

I came back from a class and a bunch of students say it doesn't matter! I sincerely don't get it. They don't think that we ought to act rationally. This is not just a gripe; I want to lead on to this important point: should we be rational when it comes to our faith?

This point is a little tricky because not all matters of faith can be rationalised fully, but I must qualify this carefully. I think we should be rational as possible, but I also accept that some things are beyond the capacity of human reason to rationalise. But this does'nt mean that we therefore should not rationalise about everything else!

Just as a matter of fact, the student that I am refering to happens to be a protestant. I may be generalising a little here, but because there is quite a lot of emphasis in protestanism of personal faith, I feel that they are more willing to throw rationalism out of the window. "Why rationalise! All that matters is God and me!". This I'm sure very well applies to a lot of Catholics. They are not willing to be rational at all about things. I think that this is a mistake.

What do you think?

Image is nothing but an image

People Flock To See Supposed Image Of Virgin Mary-Image Appears On Chicago Expressway Underpass
http://www.nbc17.com/news/4389444/detail.html

Another point of debate and argument if such 'evidence' can be considered as a miracle and if people should affix their faith on such a sighting.

A priest once shared with me, about how he was invited to a home because the owner claims that a holy face of Jesus could be seen on the reflection on his wall when a mini spotlight is switched on.

The priest was amused but nevertheless told him off, that to put value or faith into such a picture is demeaning to Jesus, simply because by virtue that Jesus can be "switched on or off" like an entertainer. And he is now the god for being able to create Jesus' "presence" in his house.

Likewise, in the article above in which "mary" appears, I find it ridiculous. As it is, the image has no real image much less to be compared to Mother Mary, but with all the beautiful statues and pictures, why would Mother Mary need to "apparate" herself as a blurry image on a wall? When from past experiences we know that She has no qualms in appearing to people, if Her intentions are to motivate and remind people of prayers and sacrifices?

By and large, I suppose everyone of us are constantly seeking to see some miracles in our lives, and hoping that there are real signs that our Catholic faith is on the 'right track'. But if our faith is in the right place, surely such images are meaningless.

Suddenly the Jesus' image left on the clothe of the woman who wiped His brow on his way to His crucifixion came to mind. But that can be justified because the reason given was that Jesus left that as a form of gratitude to the woman, and so He left His image there as a memorial.

As a bottomline, my point is that if God wants to remind us of His presence in our life, even if He were to create any form of images on anywhere, it cannot replace the real thing. And so we should not put too much values into them.

Ebay-Consecrated host

Someone is auctioning a consecrated host.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6169851381

Bye bye John-Paul..

After so many years of fighting on, I still can't believe that pope John Paul II is finally gone. As Loretta shared with me, I find myself thinking too of him doing cartwheels, canoeing, and playing football in the great somewhere. I am both happy and sad at the same time.

As we celebrate the pope's passing, and also since our blog is named after one of his books, I sincerely invite everyone to contribute a small post about the pope or the new changes that are to come in the Church. It can be on anything and written in anyway. Do pray about it and share your feelings or thoughts please…

Pope John Paul II- A Pastoral Leader

Pope John Paul II-A Pastoral Leader
He was our leader, giving pastoral care especially to the poor and sick of the world. He travelled to 129 countries to see his people, prompting world peace and love.

Pope John Paul II had passed on, our Holy Father on Earth, our Earthly Shepherd of the Flock had relinquished his post and gone to Heaven.

He was made Pope in 1978, the year I was born, but yet I only know about him today on his demise. The reports on him and the Catholic faith is at worse, inspiring. I cannot describe how proud I am to be called a Catholic nor can I explain the pride of being one of the flock to that Polish Shepherd.

When he came to Singapore in 1986, I was but a mere 8 year old. All I could remember was that it was raining and I was feeling restless to be at a mass in the huge stadium, drenched. Little was I to know that Singapore would be one of the 129 countries the Pope was to visit in his lifetime. And that figure stuck me, hard.

How come he goes about visiting these countries? What is his purpose in doing that? Or rather, what is the role of the Pope?

In my little way, I understand. He travels to gather his flock. He travels so that his flock can see him and learn from his examples, of an untiring servant of Christ.

Then I wondered, how come he doesn't need to do adminstrative work? Doesn't he need to build churches? And how come he doesn't go around appealing for donation drives?

But instead, he goes about writing his spiritual messages, broadcasting it through mass medias, travelling to provide pastoral care, meeting the different spiritual leaders for world peace, comforting the poor and the sick, protesting against the terrorists and wars and most importantly leading the Catholics in prayer and love.

And that is why Pope John Paul II is our contemporary hero, where there is even a comic book by Marvel Heroes depicting his life story.

I pray that when other spiritual groups and our fellow Christian brothers and sisters who read about him would be touched. Perhaps Pope JPII could bring about unifications in his demise.

And perhaps our own Church leaders can learn from him. That we do not need administration leaders, we only want Pastoral leaders.