SHOUT the truth.

Daily Affairs.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Dear Father,
In my desperation, I humbly seek that you would grant me strength to go on, courage to keep living and wisdom to see me through my examinations. Life is tough and I feel like I am breaking down. It's getting me suicidal and I sincerely pray that you will watch over me and keep me safe. I genuinely thank You for all my pretty friends who never failed to give me support! I pray that they will always be happy in your warmth. I seek refuge in your comfort, please hear and answer me. Amen.

You won't turn away, right?

BE HAPPY!7:42 PM

Friday, June 29, 2007

I really had a hard time to look for that perfect verse from the Bible, mainly because I have so much to say for everything and to rank which is the most important it is a really tough task. Nonetheless, after much thinking and detailed selection I choose Luke 13:23-28.

Take a few minutes and think then read the following verse.
Are you guilty of indulging in earthly possessions or splurging yourselves with materialism? Are you holding any grudges? Do you have worries you cannot surrender?

23Someone asked him, "Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?"
He said to them, 24"Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.

Who then are the people who cannot enter the narrow door? These people are people who are too attach to the world of materialism, too attached and preoccupied with their daily life. Are you one of them?

Ask yourselves again, 'are you willingly to surrender everything to Christ?'

In all honesty, when judgement day comes, I doubt I will be able to enter through the narrow door. In order to enter that door, I must now surrender my pride. I must say sorry to all whom I have hurt, to all whom I hate. Then again, am I truly sorry for what I have done?

Are you truly doing what you are doing? Or just simply doing it because people are watching you?

I can especially relate my life with that verse because it serve as a constant reminder to me that, 'God calls us ALL to be in paradise with him.' It's us that choose not to surrender our all to him. What's more!

25Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, 'Sir, open the door for us.'
"But he will answer, 'I don't know you or where you come from.'
26"Then you will say, 'We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.'

Interpretation.
They ate and drank with Jesus and thought that Jesus ought to remember them somehow. Relating this to today's context, it tells us, though me are baptise as catholics, we go church take the Eucharist BUT are we LIVING the live catholics should? Going church seems to be rather superficial in revealing your relationship with God.

ARE WE HELPING THE POOR AND LOWLY?

It is like how they just drink with Jesus and that it, not going to do anything else about it and when judgement day comes, they EXPECT Jesus to accept them.Without the way of love, not reflecting Christ's image, we can't be called Christians. It's just like a Fig tree without figs.

Do you know God? Digressing a bit to the pass, In Greek language to know someone means to have sexual intercourse with someone so in the Bible, to know God means to have this special intimacy with God. So, do you know GOD?

27"But he will reply, 'I don't know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!'

Here's that one million dollar question. WHAT IS GOD'S WILL FOR US?
God's will for us is to be where God needs us most and not where you want to be.
An example would be, you are free at this time, and two people ask you out the first one who is your good friend who is so lonely another one, say your prospect business partner and would be beneficial for you if you dined with him. Obliviously, your good friend needs you more but WHO WILL YOU CHOOSE TO DINE WITH?

Needless to say, we as human who always falter makes selfish choices. This whole passage Luke 13:23-28, tells us God's mission for us as catholics. Make the right choice and surrender all to him. I draw great strength from this passage. Whenever I am too preoccupied with school work, training etc and just want to take a break from everything, I will just ask myself 'Am I living God's word?'

Dear Theophilus,
MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICE TODAY! Also think again, 'Do we follow Christ because of emotions or a purpose or do we really and truly want to serve him?'

BE HAPPY!11:50 PM

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Catherine mentioned that 'an honour (severs) should not be a right only for the boys'. I certainly agree with her.

To justify my earlier points about traditions, 'Jesus disciplines are men', it was simply just assumptions that I have made.

There's nothing much to touch on actually, therefore I shall talk about my own personally opinions on this issue.

Of course, I want to be able to serve during mass. I asked Risen Christ's alter severs president, 'can the servers ministry just allow girls as servers' and his reply was simply, ' you think I don't want? There's not much boy servers now. But it's not for me to say it's for the bishop.' he ended with a laugh. It all boils down to the Bishop of Singapore. According to Perry (president), many appeals have been sent out to the Bishop to allow girls servers but he just said 'no'. Surely he has his own reasons.

C'mon girls! Let's not dwell on this issue! For there are many other Honourable ministries to serve. Perhaps let's go for a mission trip I'm sure we will be able to handle it better than those boys!

Pardon me for the lack of effort for the new school term is approaching there are many things to clear and do. Perhaps it's excuses to you, nonetheless, I do agree that my time management is bad.

I promise a better post.

BE HAPPY!10:59 PM

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Personally, as a girl myself, I always wanted and hoped that one day churches of Singapore, would approve the idea of accepting girls in the alter servers ministry. Til today, though I do sometime lament why the Bishop of Singapore still disapprove the idea of having girls servers, but I do understand the importance of maintaining the traditions of the Catholic church.

The website provided, mentioned about 'boy servers have fostered vocations to the priesthood.' However, they left out about girls going in the vocation to be a nun.

The demand for priest on the whole, particularly in Asia has definitely rose drastically over the years.
As priests are representation of Jesus during the Holy mass, hence the number of priest should be constantly increasing or at least maintain at the same number. Of course, this is not happening. Also, the importance of priests entering vocation suggests why churches in Singapore always promote priesthood and not 'nun hood'.

This indirectly explains why the the disapproval of girls servers. Like the website mentioned, 'some parishes have found that the introduction of girl servers has led to a sharp drop-off of boys offering to serve' due to the maturity of girl which is higher than that of a boy.

'It is important not to focus this debate using political categories such as rights, equality, discrimination, etc..' also brought up in the website provided, I thought that this point needs to be thoroughly covered in order to give a fair answer to whether church should allow girl severs.

Catholic church unlike Christan church, hold three key principles, we, Catholic church link this three principles makes the body of our church and one of them is TRADITIONS the other two, bible and hymns. Whereas Christan church only depend on the bible for direction.

As church is a sacre topic to talk about hence the factor on political categories should be fully ignored and so this would keep our tradition as priority.

Perhaps in the past, Jesus disciples were all men, therefore, today we see alter boys and not girls severs. This is our tradition. I strongly feel that we should not violate this tradition and keep it close to us.

Girls in Singapore, maybe can never be alter severs or at least not in the near future, however they still can serve the church in many other different aspect. Girls can always go for mission trip, join a youth group, contribute their voice to the choir and many many more.

Therefore, the argument whether girls should be allowed as alter servers should come to an end with the Pope explaining himself to explicit consideration.

BE HAPPY!12:27 AM

Saturday, June 16, 2007

'You don't have to save lives to be a hero.' Ruth brought up this point, and I really like it a lot. I think she meant saving life physically for example a burning building. However, baring in mind that saving a person's live can be in the sense of a spiritual live this indirectly save a person's live physically and I call this the REAL HERO.

We are so mesmerise in the world of idols, so influenced by the media and to many of us we see 'heroes as imaginary people from comic books and movies' mainly because they are termed 'hero' in that particular scenario. Thanks to Andre, he so kindly reminded me what real heroes are and where they come from.

If Heroes are not those from the movies or the comics book we see, then what makes a REAL hero? Unanimously, participates of this competition referred their heroes to someone who touched their life, someone where they can draw strength from, someone who have changed them for the better not forgetting, someone who saved their spiritual life. I myself agrees to it as well because my definition of Hero corresponds to the above. Character makes a person and with those above, with that SOMEONE to be there always directing you back to the right pave, breeds a beautiful and colourful character of an individual.

BE A HERO TODAY! Change someone life for the better, inspire them, reach out to them as individuals. It's definitely not an easy job but the end product is doubtlessly rewarding and priceless.
Ultimately, it's your choice. Your choice to suffer the criticism you may get like Jesus Christ did, your choice to make a difference in someones life and lastly, your choice to say that you truly care.
MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICE TODAY! It is never too late to start.

Jesus told his disciplines, 'Let the children come to me'

BE HAPPY!12:01 AM

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Heroes in my life.

Heroes verse Idols.
In Exodus 20:3-6 The Lord said, 'Thou shalt have no other Gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me'

I suppose the vast and most obvious differences between Heroes and Idols is that we follow a particular Hero for instant, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, for her upright morals and dignified virtues that are mostly absent in the presences of Idols, where we usually follow the way they dress, how they look and to the extend of how they just spend their money indulging on materialism and all these acts as a blasphemy.

Not to drift any further from the topic,
meet Martin Luther King Jr, a man's dream made real.

He is my HERO!
A little about his background, he tried to lead the Afro Americans, Blacks, out of poverty and suffering. They were living on 'lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity'. Though this discrimination for the blacks still carries on in the Southern side of America, nonetheless, he tried to make a difference. He 'refused to believe that the bank of justice was bankrupt.'

At the same time, he was filled with conviction through his one and only speech entitled, 'I have a dream'. Some people may say, 'It's JUST ONE speech he made.' Stella says, 'It's JUST one speech and it remarkably changed history.'

How has his doings helped me in leading a better Christain life?

Well, being a Black himself, definitely needs a lot and I mean A LOT A LOT of courage to take the stand in front of hundreds and thousands people to say his conviction and convince America that they should be all united as one again as they cannot stand alone.
Relating back to my own life as a Christian and an IJ girl, as an IJ girl, I am taught to battle with the corrupt society, we have to stand firm with our morals and values to do what is right, speak off nothing but the truth no matter how unpopular in may seem.

Martin Luther King, he could just suffering silently, like every other Afro Americans but he CHOSE NOT TO. Indeed, it would be a good idea not to create any trouble and just settle for what is good. However, he lifted the words of the LORD through his action. He settled for what is the best. Going for what is good is not good enough, settling for the best is what God calls us to.

Surely YOU and I, have subconsciously compromised with evil. A classic example, 'you see someone getting bullied, you don't say a thing.' Of course you are not doing anything wrong BUT BUT BUT in God's word, it's not about doing what's wrong but doing something that is RIGHT. Recall such instances?

Well, this 'settling for what's good and not what's best' thing is called the sin of mediocrity, which is the most common sin however a subtle one. We CHOOSE to ignore.

It's all about making differences and touching one's life changing it into a positive light, and from here, I can directly link to the previous topic, 'church groups', CYF leaders are constantly making that special effort, going that extra mile making other's smile. Thus, I say, everyone is a Hero to another's life as long as you make a difference is that particular person's life.

SO MAKE A DIFFERENCE TODAY!

Here's something to ponder about, Martin Luther King said, 'Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.'

Here's a video of him making his conviction.

BE HAPPY!11:00 PM

Friday, June 8, 2007

'Being in a ministry is not necessary but it certainly is helpful in keeping oneself closer to God.' -Catherine

One thing in common with most of the posts is that joining a ministry or a group in church would only draw your faith stronger and closer towards Jesus. With this faith, comes a bond, a special relationship that you and Jesus would establish together and uniquely.

Father Ambrose said, ' this relationship, this touch with God is the reason why we should be rejoicing about and not about material stuff which God has granted us.'

Though going to church, serving in a ministry or going down for session every Friday may seem to like routine perhaps not satisfactory to one and 'maybe that does get kinda repetitive, but it does get fulfilling' like what Andre has mentioned. It's the little thing that we do in these different ministries and that we have made a difference is other's life that truly matters.

My friend who is a Cathetist would constantly ask himself, 'am i making any differences in their live? Or are they just coming down every Saturday just to hear me speak for that one hour leaves and that's it.'

All in all, 'in a church group spiritual development is inevitable' like what Casandra would say and reaching out one another making differences in theirs life, would one find themselves doing if one is in a church group.

BE HAPPY!11:21 PM