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Jan 28, 2007

Message of Our Lady from Medjugorje

Message of January 25, 2007
“Dear children! Put Sacred Scripture in a visible place in your family and read it. In this way, you will come to know prayer with the heart and your thoughts will be on God. Do not forget that you are passing like a flower in a field, which is visible from afar but disappears in a moment. Little children, leave a sign of goodness and love wherever you pass and God will bless you with an abundance of His blessing. Thank you for having responded to my call.”

My Pondering
Our Lady is reminding us again of the importance of reading Scripture. There are some people whom I know, said that: since they don't understand what most of the texts in the Bible are talking about, they chose not to read it at all. Of which, in my humble opinion, should not be the way. God's Words is my spiritual food, and my soul needs it to grow more in love and in knowledge of Him.

Jan 16, 2007

Contribute your opinions

Do you have comments or opinions regarding the Catholic church? Edward Lee from To Jesus Through Mary would need your help.

As the Blogger of To Jesus Through Mary I am requesting Catholics in the age group of 16-45 to take part in a survey about the direction of the Catholic Church. I want to come to an understanding what young people think of the Church, maybe why they don't go to mass every weekend, and such. I want to know how these individuals want to the Church to be in 20 years from now.

For this reason I wish to dedicate a portion of my time in 2007 to reading surveys which I will create with the help of others. These surveys will be available sometime after the first of the year.

I am asking for all Catholics, from Conservative Catholics to Liberal Catholics, to those involved in the Charismatic movement. Catholics who attend the traditional latin mass and to those who attend mass in the vernacular. All Catholics in the age range of 16-45 I request you to email me at:

catholicsurvey (at) gmail (dot) com

Please put in the subject "Catholic Survey" as a way to eliminate spam.

Upon the receipt of your email, I will send you an email confiriming your request to take part in the survey and the date on which I plan to release the suvey.

I ask if you have a blog or any way to promote this survey to please do so.

I appreciate it your help. This is a great opportunity for us to evaluate your own positions of the Church and to learn about the Church at the same time.

Your Brother in Christ,
Edward Lee


I'll be participating in the survey! Oh well, there's nothing to lose.

Jan 7, 2007

Food for thoughts


"Following the example of the Wise Men we adore the newborn King, and offer Him the gold of a loving heart, the frankincense of persevering prayer, and the myrrh of our readiness to labor and suffer for Him."

Jan 3, 2007

Selfish... that's me

A simple hug expresses love which words cannot describe.

Yes. I'm referring to myself. Selfish... that's the best word to describe what I've not done tonight. And yes, I'm so very disappointed with myself right now. This very moment. No, not just disappointment. Even shame.

Shame on me. I've always wanted to receive a hug from Christ, a real hug; but tonight, I've just let the opportunity slip by. And I could have brought Christ to another person as well, but I failed. Shame, what a shame!

I went for the *Evening of Prayer just now. As I did not have any transport to go home, a friend (who is one of the important people in the Parish Council) offered to give me a lift home. So I waited for him outside the church as he had a short discussion with somebody. I was with another two persons, one of the Extraordinary Ministers (who is my father's friend) and his partially disabled son (he had an accident years ago, which affected his locomotion, speech and appearance). I was talking to him and his father when a friend of mine came and we gave each other a hug.

"Gosh, I could have fallen asleep if we hug this way. Haha!" She laughed. And after waving me goodbye and good night, she left with her mother.

So my partially disabled friend saw us, got excited and he said to me, "Hey, I want a hug too!" At first, I couldn't make out what he was saying. I thought he said "I want to hachoo!" which means he wanted to sneeze. I jokingly backed away from him, and told him to "Go ahead and sneeze", then only to realize that something was wrong. So I asked him to repeat what he has just said.

"I want a hug too," he repeated.
"Ohh... from whom?" I asked.
He pointed his index finger at me. "You."

At that very moment, I didn't know what to do. I flashed him a big, shy smile, and stood there, feeling embarrassed. I was totally lost. I didn't know whether I should give him a hug or not. Then a thought came: You're a lady, and you want to hug a guy? HELLO! And look, his father is looking at you. There are some other people around too. Are you not afraid that people might spread rumours? Seeing me not doing anything, he changed the topic.

I must have broken his heart, twice.

See, I'm right, am I not? I'm a selfish person. I feel so insincere. I always tell myself that I must reach out and give anybody a hug if they ask for one or needed one. Anybody at all. Male, female, the sick, the young and the old. Anyway, what is so difficult in performing the simple act of hugging? Yet, I failed. I failed so terribly!!

Oh Lord, please tell me what was wrong with me! How could I give in to such selfish thoughts? Ohhh... how could I let this happen? How could I reject a hug for and from Christ in disguise?? I wish I were at the beach now, alone so that I could cry my heart out... and cry for His forgiveness and perhaps, for another chance...

My dear friends, please, as you read this, DON'T follow my bad example. If I say that I'm still bounded by the Chinese tradition where unmarried man and woman are not supposed to touch, what more to hug each other, I'll be a big liar and besides, that would be a very lame excuse.

A sincere advice for all (this time, I know this comes from God): When it comes to reaching out, don't be self-conscious. Instead, be God-conscious. A hug is a simple act of love. It has the power to bring others to God, as well as helping us to experience God.

I'm invited to the Mandarin session of Evening of Prayer next week, for my help is needed then. I hope I'll be given another chance to give that friend of mine a hug he has asked for tonight.



*A special prayer session with praise and worship, which is held every Wednesday night in Holy Trinity Church. Every first Wednesday, there will be Benediction and exposure of the Host. All are invited to attend, as long as you're in Kuching.

Happy New Year 2007

Wow, how time flies! Another new year has come! And I didn't even know that we are already in the Third Millennium!! A friend told me that time is flying scarily fast, that she kind of lost control! So what about you?

Did you enjoy New Year Eve countdown? Or attended any New Year parties?

I was back in Sibu, my home town on New Year Day to attend the Ordination Mass of Deacon Paul Ling (now Fr. Paul - I'll blog about it in the next post), and to meet up with a few friends that night. We spent the night shopping and later went to a cafe to catch up on each other while we dine. It was simple but fun; I really missed them for we have not met for months since our graduation. My friend (who went to Sibu with me) and I almost missed the flight back to Kuching because we attended the first Mass celebrated by the newly-ordained Fr. Paul Ling. I even wasted RM33 for taxi... the driver made me pay extra RM5 because he had no change. Bummer! But I thank God that we were just in time to check in.

Alrights, hope all of you had a great holiday and enjoyed yourselves to the fullest!! Wishing you another year filled with blessings and the love of God... and all good things that come from above!