A new year a new beginning

The year of the rat is over and a new year of the ox has begun.Thank God for the year of the rat is over and praise him for the new year.

2008 was a tough year and hopefully 2009 will be a more stable year despite the poor economic outlook

Signal Graces

Times are still tough and challenging especially in the office. I often feel very drain and demoralized everyday, and physically exhausted despite having a weekend break. My schedule has been very hectic, and I often do not have time to myself just to chill out and do the things i have to do or what to do. Lately I have been praying for direction and guidance in my life. Asking God if what I was doing is correct, especially more this weekend. I didn’t think much of it, but at the end of Sunset Mass last Saturday at SFX, as we were singing the recessional hymm, when I suddenly look up , and there was this old man, who looked like he was a bit crazy, walking pass me. As he walked pass me, he just flashed me a toothy grin and gave me the thumbs up .

 

Ordinarily I would have dismissed such an action, as an eccentric old man (missing a few marbles) being friendly to everyone. But at the time when I was seeking direction and affirmation in my life, this was too coincidental to ignore.

 

Well as ”Signal Graces are signs sent by God to help us make the right decisions in life. Moses saw a burning bush as a sign from God, and other people received signs from God daily. Signal graces usually come about as subtle hints to help keep us moving in the right direction - these signs are truly gifts from God.” - http://www.erosary.com/faq/view/about-the-rosary/what-is-a-signal-grace?/120.htm

 

I guess that was my signal grace from God that I am doing ok.

Our Father

Have you ever wondered how beautiful the prayer “ Our Father” is ? It is one of the most complete and substantial prayer, yet simple and easy to remember. Millions of catholics, and Christians around the world know this prayer by heart, not to mention others who are not Christians, but have often heard this prayer in the mass media .  Well here is my simple reflection on this prayer. I have been thinking about it, and something keeps telling me to post this online.

 

The Opening  - Calling upon God as our father, giving Him Glory and reverence. A simple yet elegant greeting to our God

Our Father

Who are in Heaven

Holy be your name

 

The Surrender – To remember that it is His will to be done, and not ours. Often we forget our focus on God and why we’re here on this earth, but rather prefer to pursue our own worldly pleasure. Here we remind ourselves and we offer to God, that His will , not ours be done

Your kingdom come,

Your will be done

On earth, as it is in heaven

 

The Request – A simple request, not an elaborate one asking for worldly pleasures, but to ask Him not only for our daily sustenance off what we need, but also our spiritual food. The graces to carry with our lives, through His mercy, we ask him to not only feed our physical being but also spiritual being. Bread in the Catholic Church means many things, including the normal bread made of Wheat, the bread of life ( Eucharist) and some refers to the bible as the Daily bread.

Give us today our daily bread

 

 

The Repentance – Here we humbly ask God for his forgiveness for our failings and our sins. But the important thing to remember is that we must not only seek for God’s forgiveness, but we have to forgive those who have done us wrong. Holding a grudge is a very unhealthy thing, and it eats away at your soul. In Matthew 18 : 21 – 35, Jesus says that in order to receive the God’s grace of forgiveness, we have to first forgive those who has wronged us. This in reality is really a difficult thing to do , as all of us know, but I guess, this part of the prayer, constantly reminds us, that not only do we receive the grace of God’s Mercy, but we too should be like Him and forgive others.

 

Forgive us our sins

As we forgive those who sinned against us

 

The Protection – Finally asking God for his guidance and protection, in everything we do. Here we submit to God , as his children, asking Him not only to protect us from physical dangers, but also to ask Him to help us to avoid sin, as well as to seek His guidance and wisdom in our daily challenges and problems. We acknowledge here that we are sinful beings, and that we need His help to live our life here on earth, so that it may be pleasing to him. We’re also telling God that he is in control of our lives, and that we come to Him, not only with our joys but also our trouble, very much like how a child will approach his father for help.  This is also a simple yet very powerful statement, asking God for protection against all spiritual evils i.e A prayer for exorcism, in 2 simple sentence.

 

Do not bring us to the test

But deliver us from evil

 

The prayer “Our Father” is a very simple yet powerful prayer. It takes about 1 minute to recite, yet covers everything that we possibly need. It covers our needs both spiritually and physically, yet it is a prayer that is often underestimated. Worst still many recite the prayer, without reflecting on the beauty of this prayer, hence not realising the power of this particular prayer. The “Our Father” is often a prayer many people take for granted.

 

If you are in a state of mind where you do not know what to pray, or just simply too busy to pray, saying the Our Father would be sufficient to ask God for everything that we want.

Crying Madonna

In response to the following query :

"Yo you guys i need u to clearify my doubt.? i just checked out a few
videos in youtube of mother mary and jesus appearing in some church
and some statue crying out tears of blood and even from a picture? how
can it be true? are those incident for real or either is there some
thing going behind it i wish to get your comments?"

 

It's very difficult to say, and often the Catholic church takes great pains to verify the authencity of church miracles or apparitions. It may even take years before the church will acknowledge it is genuine as the investigation is apparently very thorough . There have been many that has been declared genuine as well as many declared as fake.

 However being a human being, and a struggling catholic myself, it is no surprise that we often need physical evidence to convince us of our faith. And often we seek it in things such a apparitions and crying madonna's.  And on the flip side, a lot of con artist are well aware of the need, and many have manage to recreate the crying Madonna or such apparitions, or even the stigmata to profit from the faithful. This is the very reason, why the catholic church insist on thorough investigations before declaring any such miracles as genuine

 I guess it really boils down to how our  personal faith has grown. It is always best to look internally for the evidence of our faith. There are many miracles happening on a daily basis, if we open our eyes. Simple things as the stars, and the sun, the flowers, the miracle of child birth, the smile that brightens someone's day, a kind word, and not forgetting our CHOICE weekend, are the many miracles that tells us God is really present in our lives and that he is very involved in our lives. Only just if we make time to look for it, then we would never really need such apparitions or crying madonnas to convince us God really exist.

 

How Bless Are We...

As a Catholic, I have the privilege of attending morning mass everyday. I started the practice of attending weekday mass when I can, especially in particular times in need, or for special feast occasions. The privilege of attending morning mass is a great gift , that the Catholic Church can give, and sadly an under appreciated one.

 

This week, I decided I really need the presense of Jesus. I needed to go to Him, and to know that He is with me. Yes that teachings of the Church always emphasizes that Jesus is always with you, through thick and thin, but to go for weekday mass, allows you physically re-affirm it. Similar to confession, you are always though that Jesus will forgive you for your sins,but for many , I am sure there is a lingering doubt. Through the sacrement of reconciliation, you know you have received absolution and forgiveness through the ministry of the priest. So in Mass, you know that you not only spent valueable time in worship with Him, but also to receive Him through the Blessed Sacrement.

 

And when I come out from Mass, I feel stronger, knowing that I can face the challenges of each day. I walk out with a little smile on my face, like that of having a little secret.. the secret of knowing that I have Jesus with me today. That the problems and difficulties I face, no longer seems so big.  There is a bounce in my step, because I know, I have my Big Brother with me, ready to catch my if I trip .

 

That is how privilege we are, to have the opportunity to receive Jesus everyday.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest ~ Matthew 11:28

I decided to continue my journal of faith, namely because I find things very difficult in my life lately. While in perspective and relativity, the troubles I face these few months can be considered small, yet I feel very overwhelmed with what is happening. Nothing disastrous has happen in my life, but these few months and the coming months are really busy. I was recently promoted to a manager end of last year, having to fill in pretty large shoes left behind by my previous manager. On top of that , I was also "Promoted" in CHOICE to be the state coordinator. This has brought on a lot of new responsibilty in the past 6 months, with 9 more months of the year to go .

 

I am already very burnt out , and I now go through the day, where I can't motivate myself to get out of Bed. I have to deal with work problems, ranging from raging bosses, difficult clients, training new analyst, HR issues, basically a day to day of fire fighting. In CHOICE , it is also similar. This year calendar is pack  and my biggest worry is the service team. Alot of the seniors have left, and now only the current weekend co-ordinator is running things. It iis difficult for her to cope, so I am also still very involved in the service team .

 

Last week was the worst, where I really felt like breaking down and crying. It was the culmination of a horrible week, where I was dealing with a lot of personal matters. My sister was unloading her personal problems with her siblings on to me , and dragging me into the conflict. My car was bump from behind, resulting in my car trunk being flooded when it rains. I am worried sick about the preparations for CHOICE 83. I am co-ordinating with various sub teams in CHOICE to get things moving ini thier relevant teams. I had various office issues to deal with , such as starting a new project, having a new analyst on board, proposing new projects. I was / am struggling to balance time with family, friend , Choice and work .. all these "Yokes" culminated last week, and I was rushing to depart for a holiday to Hong Kong on Friday Morning 3 am , of which I was completely unprepared. Basically it was a shitty and crappy past few weeks, and it was just too much to bear.

 

During my short trip to Hong Kong, I originally planned to attend cantonese mass ( which i will not be able to understand) in a church behind my hotel. Due to my travelling companions change in timing, our itenary got swap around leaving it difficult for me to go for Mass on Sunday at St Benedict (behind my hotel) . I decided that I'll just simply look for a church around any area I was in on Saturday Evening ,and attend sunset mass there. As we didn't plan our Saturday Itenary, where we landed up ono Sunday evening was pretty much on random . I checked my list and found a church in the area, and it so happen to be a minute walking distance from where we were.

 

God certainly has a mysterious way of working.. and the chain of events, lead me to an English Mass in the Church of St Anne. It was Vocation Sunday. It struck me so strongly the messages that came out of the readings and the Gospel . The homily and hymns sent another strong message to me. It was a very emotional Mass for me. I was very tired, emotionally, spritually and physically... and God told me to go to him . He is my shepherd..     He lead me to St Anne's, so that I may hear his word in a language I understood, His messages, and that I could seek St Anne's Intercession

 

I felt guilty for the troubles i was going through, I also felt guilty for delaying in my decision on vocation, I felt guilty at my frustration. I felt guilty for not being Christ like,  But yet I also felt His love around me. I felt comforted , and that He wanted me to know He Knew, what I was going through. .

 

He brought me to St Annes, for a reason......

 

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Matthew 11: 28-30)

Anger and Forgiveness

Anger is a very powerful and disruptive emotion, especially anger at another person. If it is allowed to brew and manifest itself in your heart and soul, I have found that it eats away at your soul. To hold anger and hate agaisnt someone is a very very unhealthy thing. It is this thing that just sits and brews in your heart, and it really brews very long and hard. While it brews, it destroys alot of things in you that it is good, the capacity to love, your humilty, your patience, your understanding and all the graces of God. It even blocks you from receiving God's Divine Mercy.

I've recently been very angry with a few people, for the past month or so, and I've comed to realised that this anger, resentment , and hate was eating away at my soul. It was making me exhausted, and it was tiring me out, just thinking about it. It limited me to show my love, and understanding towards other people, and slowly I found myself getting obsessed with it, neglecting the beauty of life.

It was commonly said, to err is human to forgive is divine. I have experienced that to received forgiveness is an even more beautiful thing. To receive forgiveness, from anybody, is equivalent to receiving God's mercy. I've experience that God's love, mercy and forgiveness is such a beautiful thing, that I cannot describe. It is this feeling for pure love and contentment.

As I've said, I was angry at a few people recently, and I found it was very unhealthy for me . A priest once told me , that anger leads to hate, which leads you to dispise someone. I went through that journey, and I didn't like it. I decided that enough was enough. If God can show me his Divine Mercy, I will trust in Him to grant me the graces of mercy. I went to the people who I was angry with , not to demand and apology, but to seek their forgiveness. I did not want them to bear the anger and ill will agaisnt me like how I beared it agaisnt them, and I wanted to start the road towards reconciliation. I went to apologise to them for my actions and anger I held towards them .

To me, personally , when I made this decision, and subsequently acted upon it, it brought down barriers that was blocking me from belonging. It allowed me to see the beauty in the person, no matter how much I was angry at that person, and it allowed to realise the challenges that person faces. Yes to forgive is divine, but to receive forgiveness is some thing that words cannot describe !