We Long to See You

We long to see You so,
To see the newly born,
We long for Christmas morn,
The sense of time runs slow.

O come, O come, O come,
Our Saviour dear to be.
O come, O come, O come,
We have no King but Thee.

We long to see You so,
To see the angel's glory,
To hear their midnight story
And with the Shepherds go.

We long to see You so,
To print our kisses sweet,
Upon your little feet
While tears of love shall flow.

Here's the first of my Christmas songs this season. :)

Such a simple little hymn, but it's brimming with joyful impatience and tender love isn't it? The choir sang this at the 11am Mass at St Joseph's Church (BT) today. It was my first time hearing it.

During the past few weeks there was a bit of this ennui, the joyful feeling of Christmas hadn't yet caught on. I looked at the Orchard decorations rather cynically - oh great, they're up already - they'll look so old and tired by the time it's really Christmas.

But thank God, and thanks to a couple of meditations at Opus Dei, a homily by Fr Cary, a chat with Fr Joe Lopez, some prayers and resolutions, I'm able to start Advent in anticipation and hope.

A blessed Advent to you all! May hope reign in us, and may we be agents, stars, of hope for others too this lovely, magical season.

'Let us learn from her, the Woman of Advent, how to live our daily actions with a new spirit, with the feeling of profound expectation that only the coming of God can fulfil.' (Pope Benedict, 28 November, 2010).

Refreshed!!!

I've realized that this blog hasn't been updated for a looooonggg time, so let me share a simple story of our Legion meeting last Tuesday.

Two days ago I actually felt very tired of studying (it's exam period in NUS). 7pm is our meeting time and initially I thought I wouldn't have energy to smile a lot during meeting. Hahaha. It was just so tiring to read various human rights convention on that day for my module preparation.

However, it's amazing how Mother Mary works during meeting. She works through each member in a unique way. Honestly, we haven't put FRESH flowers on the altar for a looooonngggg time. Eugene brought flowers on Tuesday and it was two stalks of yellow chrystanthemum(?). So pretty!!! You can smell the fresh aroma of the flowers (and the leaves) even during rosary. This simple thing apparently has brought different atmosphere to the meeting.

Then, the meeting goes on. Every meeting is always unique. Different members share different stories of the apostolic work that they have done for the whole week. It's always interesting and we can learn a lot from each other's report.

So yeah...after the meeting on Tuesday, I felt SUPER-REFRESHED! Hehehe.

Thank you, Mother Mary!! :):)
See you all next Tuesday and thanks for the support during exams!! Yeay:):)

Battling for souls

From the Legion Handbook:

"We must understand what the warfare is. It is being fought not simply to enlarge the Church, but to bring souls into union with Christ. It is that strangest of wars which is fought for the enemy, not against him. Even the term 'enemy' must not be allowed to mislead.

Every unbeliever is, as every Catholic is, a being with an immortal spirit, made in the image of God, for whom Christ died. However violently hostile to the Church or to Christ he may be, our aim is to convert him, not simply to defeat him. We must never forget that the devil wants his soul in hell as he wants ours, and we must fight the devil for him. We may be forced to oppose a man to prevent his endangering souls; but always we want to win him for his own soul's salvation. It is in the power of the Holy Spirit (sic) that we must fight, and he is the Love of the Father and the Son; in so far as the Church's soldiers fight in hatred, they are fighting against him."

- F. J. Sheed: Theology for Beginners

We must recover the urgent concern for souls - for each individual, priceless soul - that the saints of old display.

How to plant seeds of faith with strangers

When having a conversation with someone who is ignorant or hostile to Catholic teaching, a reasoned, gentle defense is most effective

You are sitting at your son’s soccer game, enjoying the crisp weather and your boy’s joy for the game. Then you hear someone nearby say “Catholic Church,” then “divorce”; suddenly the hair on your neck stands on end and your body tenses.

You realize that two parents next to you are criticizing the Church; they notice you looking at them and ask, “What do you think?”

Now that we live in a post-Christian world, every one of us encounters situations like this. The Catholic Church teaches certain precepts that are simply unacceptable — antithetical, even — to the modern ethos. Standing by those precepts, we open ourselves to criticism and even attack. Furthermore — and sadly — there are scandals surrounding some Church figures that open Catholics up for easy condemnation.

Be prepared

So what are Catholics to do? How do we respond? What are our obligations in these situations?
In a time of persecution in a deeply pagan culture, our first pope, St. Peter, wrote to his fellow Christians, “Always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you” (1 Pt 3:15, RSV). This is an oft-quoted Scripture passage, especially among evangelists and apologists, but not quoted as frequently are St. Peter’s next words, “yet do it with gentleness and reverence” (1 Pt 3:15b, RSV).

Thus we have the guidelines laid out for how we are to react when our faith is challenged or defamed:
◗ Be prepared to make a defense.
◗ Do so with gentleness and reverence.

So, how do we go about following St. Peter’s command?

Read the rest here.

To be or not to be

To be or not to be , that is the question:
Whether it is nobler to lead a life of total seclusion
a shield of oneself against waves of avarice and desperation
and thence sustaining a complete ignorance and desolate action
or to take arms against an unending secular abyss
to preach, to impart, to negate and hence remnant of no debris

To be or not to be, that is the question:
Whether it is subtler a prayer of solution
to which it is conferred to single libation
a singular soul consoled to deep resolution
or to stand up shining before the tumultuous bodies
foundations to shift, believes to steer, winner of countless follies

To be or not to be, that is the question:
Whether it is more decent of a propagation
marching in a horde of splendid devotion
composing thousands of salvation tales under Her protection
or to tread in solitude, calling but to aids unseen
to bear, to grow,craving for great triumphs in between



--Inspired by W.Shakespeare's Hamlet--

More than just a group of aunties praying rosary

I went for my first curia meeting today and get very inspired. Unlike other conventional (worldly) meetings where people demand a lot of you and they just put more and more stress on your already pressure-cooker-ish life, the meeting went more like a family gathering. It embraces its members, no matter how incompetent they maybe, and gives everybody a chance to grow and learn. It does not mean that it does not demand anything. It serves a much bigger purpose than our daily worldly works: the salvation of souls and the glory of God. It demands a lot of your time, energy and efforts. But at the same time facilitates its members to be able to provide such commitment and dedication.

Some people might disappoint you, discourage you, give little meaning to what you do or serve; but we still treasure those people. Not because we lack of members, simply because they are human. We are always tempted to think like "what value does a person have if he does not do anything worthy enough?" But person's value does not come from what he/she does. No one is as bad as the worst thing he/she ever did in his/her life. Neither is someone ever as good as what he/she manage to achieve for everything is given from the mighty. We believe that everything comes out of nothing, from God's hand. With this faith, we can see that someone is precious simply because he IS. That's what I see and what I feel from being in NUS Legion of Mary. People would usually turn down other people who they think might not be able to perform as what is expected. In some occasions, they do not even give a damn about these people, ignore them as if they do not matter at all. It is very sad because those who are needy will never be able to improve and will stay crooked until the end. In legion, we are very eager to bring as many people as we could to what we believe is good. "...so that - the battle of life over - our Legion may reassemble, without the loss of any one, in the kingdom of Your love and glory..." (Legion's prayer)

And therefore we are trying our best to "be loyal; be understanding with others and demanding on ourselves" (St Josemaria Escriva) No one is left out. What you need to have is a willingness to serve, and everything will be given unto you. You could learn about the thing that matter most in your life; your faith, and you are surrounded by people with this value, ready to help you any time, sometimes even when you don't ask at all. Not saying I am an already good one, but I wish to be a good legionary and bring more people in to let them really see how this religious organization could be an answer on how we are supposed to live this life. You need to be professional, you have to be responsible of whatever mandate you are trusted to, you need to think to win people's heart and bring them closer to God; organize events, facilitate forums, public outreach, meetings to keep everyone on the right track, you have to give your best and make the best of your effort to please your ultimate CEO, God. But putting everyone into a pressure cooker is not the way we do our works. What comes out of love is always far better than something that comes out of fear.

I wish every legionary could see this value. It is okay to be inexperienced and unknowledgeable, it is okay if you make mistakes. So long as you have the desire to do better, you'll definitely reach there.

And I wish people outside the Legion could also look deeper on Legion of Mary. It is more than a stereotypical rosary praying group full with aunties, or the only CCA an incompetent people could get in cos it requires no interviews and it will have no power to boost your CV and all you have to do is just pray. We have a lot of great Legionary role model who lived heroic lives. In NUS itself, I have a number of seniors (pretty much all of them) who live with this value. They are great friends to everyone, passionate students, heroic leaders and devoted prayers.

And the secret, as my senior shared with me : "..it's not about being senior - somehow this wonderful spirit is passed to every member who joins..."

"In this life we cannot do great things.
We can only do small things with great love."
(Mother Teresa)