Meeting a Lutheran friend...

Recently, I met a friend of mine who is from one of those independent church. Lutheran I suppose.

We were talking about our differences in doctrines and the first topic is Purgatory. He said that this place is not written in the bible and so it is wrong to think that such a place exist. I tried to explain to him but I couldn't because we had no bible with us nor could I quote him the line. And to be honest, I am not very sure as this is certainly not an issue that would affect my faith.

However, he made another point stating that we do not need purgatory for any redeeming effects as our death is sanctifying and St Paul said that the dead would be "sleeping" till Jesus comes again, thus there is no "waiting area" at all.

Then he seems to imply that Luther was a kind of a hero for bringing about this separation as our doctrines are wrong as some of them are not based on the bible.

Another issue is our belief that faith and good works are together. Their stand is that good works is the spin-off from the faith in Jesus whereas having faith in Jesus is good enough to be saved.

Baptism is not for original sin but for your past sin, in fact they don't seem to have this concept of original sin.

And by not becoming a christian, or following Christ, those not Christians (explicitly rejecting the call to be a christian) would go to hell.

I felt disheartened. It seems the rift between the Catholic Church and these deviant doctrines would take a longer time to be reconciled, if at all.

And I am not proud of myself for I am not armed theologically to defend my Church.

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.

Reality Bites

Reality Bites
By Nick Teo

After studying in Major Seminary for about 2 months, I am beginning to feel the struggle. For every morning, I would engage in a battle of wills with the devil. It would tell me to sleep and just go for the next class, whereas my angels would frantically shout out that I am pursuing knowledge, and each day's absence would be each day's loss of information. And I will frantically drag myself up and rush for lessons. Indeed, that's the battle of the flesh.

And then reality stuck me! Unlike usual university degrees or those part time MBA courses, the seminary courses would take 6 years. That's like 2 times longer than my BA and 6 times longer than an MBA course. Would I be able to go through all 6 years? It's after all, my SECOND month. It's just so hard.

That's not all, what am I pursuing this degree for? Certainly, I know that my passion and personal mission is to serve the church, and I know that I would just be an empty vessel if I do not pursue knowledge. And I certainly hope to serve the church full-time, to assist the priests so as to allow them to fully undertake their greatest role of administering sacraments and providing pastoral care for the community. But alas, as I go through each day's lessons and speak with more religious brothers from the Archdiosces and other religious groups, I get more and more discouraged.

I am faced with the likelihood that the prospect of working full-time would be low. And even if they were to really employ someday, it would just be the bare minimum wage. Now, I'm not going to complain about wages here, but I have got to eat, my family would have to eat. Would the bare minimum be enough? Then I would have to look for a part time job, or retain my present job. Then I would not be able to function as a full-time worker. And eventually, we would go back to the present, which is to depend on volunteers or those 'with lots of heart'.

To be fair, some big parishes have already employed full-time workers. And the problem lies in that such staffs comes from the coffers of the parish, and not from the Archdiosces. Thus, poor churches would never be able to employ more than their usual admin staffs. That becomes a viscous cycle, for without a strong team mixed with a priest(s) and some full-time workers, good pastoral care can never be adequately administered to the people. And they wonder why people leave the Catholic church.

Recently, I went into the website of a well-known 'New Independent Church'. In that, I found information of a well-distributed network of cellgroups, 2 institutions providing spiritual studies and full-time employment oppurtunities, different ministries and activities for their congregation to belong to. As much as I do not feel for their church-service, I am very intrigued and impressed with their efficient and well-thought network. They are meeting needs of people who wants to participate and to make this religion theirs.

My girlfriend who is a social worker once said this, the delinquents whom she counsels, she is confident that they would be welcomed in one of those Christian (sic) churches rather than to invite them to any Catholic churches where they would be lost into oblivion. I'm sure Catholics readers can identify with that.

To say that our Mass is the crux of our religion would be giving people the wrong message, because to be catholic is to be a community. So if our 'drawing point' to non-believers or first time visitors to our church is the Mass, then no wonder these people are clueless of what our religion is all about. It must be with explaination and understanding can one appreciate the beauty and importance of the Mass, otherwise it is just an hour of rituals. And I suppose rituals can never be the main focus of any religion, especially ours. Jesus himself scoffed at that.

I have many plans, but I wonder if our traditional and unwavering religious model would ever embrace the modern mindsets.

I once told a good friend of mine who is a Methodist, "we are 1600 years before you, but yet we are 1600 years after you."

Now, do not misquote me nor get me wrong. I love my church and I love my religion, but it is simply because I do that I want to make it special for others as it is for me. I am very sure that Catholics deserve much more.

For years, we speak about how to tap sunday-catholics. But if the roots and branches are not reaching far and wide, no matter how thick and secure those short roots and brances are, they would not reach them.

Whatever the future holds, I will continue to persevere within my parish. Afterall, what better message to bring across if I can succeed in my parish first.

Jesus asked us to "Set (our) hearts in the Kingdom of God", I am sure He will then unveil His plans.


Nick Teo is currently studying in the Major Seminary, he is at the Philosophy Cycle and struggling with the vast knowledge of the Church. He gets asked by curious seminarians frequently if he would be joining the seminary. And his answer is always a No, and that is the reason why he pays for his own courses. Otherwise, he would had just entered the seminary to received free theological education....
click on 'permanent link' to read the full article...

Some photos of St. Francis Xavier Church

Some images to share. St Francis Xavier Church interior.


Some images to share. St Francis Xavier Church interior.


Some images to share. St Francis Xavier Church interior.

Do Catholics evangelise?

Do Catholics evangelise?
by Christopher Yeo

I was sharing today with a protestant colleague the other day and she asked me whether Catholics evangelise. I would like to share with you my reply to her.

"The simple answer is, Catholics do evangalise. However, the way we go about evangelising and whether we actually do enough of evangelising is open to ... well, discussion. The problem is this; people often define themselves by saying what they are not. Thus, Catholics tend to define themselves in opposition to what Protestants do, and the Protestant view is that you have to go around converting people into accepting Jesus as their personal saviour - because that is the only way that they will receive salvation.

Catholics are miffed by the "Are you saved?" question, because their ideas about salvation are somewhat different. Catholics do not believe that people who do not know Jesus will definitely go to hell because they believe that God is much more merciful than that. What of young children and other good people whom have not had the opportunity to understand and accept the Gospel? Surely they cannot be condemned to eternal damnation? Of course, what adds to this is the strong emotional response many Catholics have against the "irritating and arrogant" way protestants go about trying to convert others (based on their own personal experiences or anecdotal evidence or otherwise).

Therefore, Catholics feel that the protestant's way of evangelization is in some sense wrong. Many Catholics therefore prefer to take the view that only if a person shows that he is open to knowing more about Catholicism, then one should begin the process of evangalisation and begin sharing about God.

Another factor that I think influences Catholics' view on evangelization is Mark 7:3-5:

3“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

Often, we see that our own relationship with Jesus is not satisfactory, or realize that our own friends and family members are in need of evangelization. We then feel too inadequate to go out and evangelise to other people. We feel that we should start with ourselves and our close friends first. We then fall into this belief, perhaps too naively, that God will always send 'evangelical fodder' our way, or that there is always already more than enough people to evangelize to (our 'evangelical hands' are full, so to speak). We should therefore work hard with our family and friends, and not be overly concerned about reaching out to more people.

So, Catholics do evangelise, and often very powerfully. It is just that our style and understanding of evangelization is different.”

Having concluded my analysis and attempted justification of Catholic evangelization to my colleague, I began questioning whether my understanding of Catholic evangelization was indeed justified.

Perhaps while accepting that some protestant may indeed be too arrogant in their attempts to evangelise, we should not react in an immature way and say that we therefore should not reach out to people we don't know and who don't ask.

Perhaps while accepting that we have our hands full administering to ourselves and our friends and family, God might also be giving us the strength and calling us to reach out to people outside of this circle.

Do you think that the popular Catholic understanding of evangelistion is correct? I hope that by asking these questions, it will help us improve our ideas on evangelization and help us be more open to the will of God....
click on 'permanent link' to read the full article...

A reflection on Lent: 5th Sunday's 1st Reading

A reflection on Lent
By Christopher Ow

After reading Immanuel's posting of the poem on the divine name, I recalled this reading from Mass on Sunday.

Reading I
Is 58:7-10

Thus says the LORD:
Share your bread with the hungry,
shelter the oppressed and the homeless;
clothe the naked when you see them,
and do not turn your back on your own.
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your wound shall quickly be healed;
your vindication shall go before you,
and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer,
you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am!
If you remove from your midst
oppression, false accusation and malicious speech;
if you bestow your bread on the hungry
and satisfy the afflicted;
then light shall rise for you in the darkness,
and the gloom shall become for you like midday.

And why this reflection all of a sudden? Well for us in Singapore, today (Fri 11 Feb) is both the celebration of Ash Wednesday and the third day of the Chinese New Year.

I could write about shifting the observance of fast and abstinence from Wed to Fri, but i don't think that is a really important issue. And I'd wager that neither Isaiah nor Our Lord would have regarded it as being of great import either.

Living la vida loca -- Nope, Lent is not a crazy life

What I'd like to share are just a few thoughts on Lent, seeing as how we're already in the midst of it.

When I was younger, I always saw Lent as a dreary time of deprivation. There were just so many things that I was supposed to give up. Watching TV, playing computer games, eating meat, etc... Being thus deprived was not a good thing for me. "How could it ever be?", I used to think to msyelf. Lent was always a moody season in my life.

And what better reminder of this than to have ashes smeared on your forehead at Mass on Ash Wednesday, a day of fast and abstinence too!

Good news first or bad news first?

Now at the homily at Mass today, the celebrant preached about the two traditional formulae for the imposition of ashes. "Remember, o man, thou art dust and unto dust ye shall return." and "Turn away from sins (Repent) and be faithful to the Gospel."

In the first, we are starkly reminded of our mortality and fragility and the shortness of our temporary earthly life. What then is the good news? How can going back to dust be good news? If that is good news, I'm not staying to find out what the bad news is!

But when we consider the second formula, we realise that we are being urged to repent and return to the values of the Gospel. But what is this Gospel, this good news? A little more reflection leads to

John 11:25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live

And slowly, we begin to see that the real good news is that for us, at our death "life is changed, not ended" (CCC 1012, Preface of Christian Death I)

Adopting the values of the Gospel [as captured by Isaiah in the reading (Isa 58:7-10), and expanded upon by Jesus in his teaching, especially in the Beatitudes (Matt 5)] can make sense to a person only after she has begun to her see life with an eternal perspective.

If death is an annihilation, why be good? Why give bread to the hungry? Why should I be moral when there are clear instances where being immoral will serve my interests better?

Setting aside more esoteric philosophical considerations, what I want to point to is the reality of the prophet's words.

When one begins to treat with dignity and profound respect those around us, made by the same hand of God that fashioned our very selves in the secret of our mother's womb, each one a reflection, an image of the invisible God whom we worship though we cannot see, then by our words and deeds, God is made visible in our midst. Then when the vicissitudes of life deal us a blow beyond our own ability to cope, the community into which we have birthed God, will be the hands that hold us; theirs will be the lips that utter the words of God himself, "I am here."

And when we consider that in Lent, the Church propose three key practices that we are called to intensify, namely: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, then we see that Isaiah was really talking about living Lent.

I am here...

All too often, I find myself assuming that God is already present in my home, within my family, among my friends, in my cell group, in my community...

How often I go wrong in making this assumption. So often where envy has a foothold, God is crowded out. When egos get in the way, God has no space. Where self-aggrandisement is on the agenda, God isn't. And so on... You get the idea.

Yet the Scriptures remind us again and again that God wishes to be with us. He wants to be in our midst, living and dying, crying and laughing, with us.

He wants to answer our pleas. "I am here" is what he wants to say to the needy one. Will we lend him our lips and our lives?

Refiner's Fire

Our lives are a continuous attempt at purifying our hearts. Lent just helps us to focus better on this ever-present need.

And Lent is meant to be a season of joy. This is not simply agreeable sensations. After all it's not hard to see that feasting, hoarding, and self-centredness will lead to more agreeable sensations than fasting, almsgiving, and prayer. So what is this joy and where does it come from?

"Each year you give us this joyful season when we prepare to celebrate the paschal mystery with mind and heart renewed.
You give us a spirit of loving reverence for you, our Father, and of willing service to our neighbor.
As we recall the great events that gave us life in Christ, you bring the image of him to perfection within us."
Preface of Lent I

It comes as a gift from the Father. It is a supernatural joy. A joy that makes loving reverence and willing service to God and neighbour possible and fulfilling.

This gift is what I hope to receive this Lent. And I believe that you would want it to, wouldn't you?

Where do we go from here?

So what am I really being asked to fast from? I don't know exactly what it is yet. And I expect to get an answer in the days to come through prayer.

What about you? What do you need to fast from?

Click on "permanent link" to read full article.

I AM

"I Am"
anonymous

I was regretting the past and fearing the future. Suddenly my Lord was speaking.
"My name is 'I Am'." He paused and I waited.
He
continued...

"When you live in the past with its mistakes and regrets
it's hard, cos I am not there my name is not 'I Was'.

When you live in
the future, with its problems and fears, its hard, for I am not there. My name
is not 'I Will Be'.

When you live in this moment, it's not hard, for I
am here.my name is 'I AM'."

This was shared with me by a priest, Father Ignatius Huan from Malaysia. I do not know where he got this from but I felt a great surge of peace when I read this. For it shows us that God is the present, not past nor future. And He doesn't want us to regret nor worry. It totally brings a deeper understanding of why He calls Himself 'I AM'.