To Whom Much is Given: Surviving the Massacre in Mumbai

Last Wednesday evening around 10pm, following a relaxing supper, my friend Eugene and I arrived at the check-out desk at the Taj Hotel in Mumbai, as we have done together hundreds of times in our travels as New York investment bankers currently living in Hong Kong.

As I placed my bag on the table I heard a loud gunshot, which I recognized from my years living in South Africa to be the distinctive snap of an AK-47 assault rifle. Hearing another shot a second later, I looked at Eugene and said, “Run, that’s AK!”

We streaked away from the gunfire toward the nearest exit as the terrorists were entering the hotel lobby from various points. I smashed through the doors toward the pool area and ducked into some bushes as the gunfire grew in intensity. I realized Eugene did not make it out of the lobby.

Five or six people had arrived in the bushes before me, all now paralyzed in fear. From the sound of things I realized that a Columbine-like shooting spree was taking place inside, with gunmen walking around methodically executing people. Mind racing, I concluded that being bunched up in the bushes in the corner of the pool area was not safe.

Surveying the scene brought the dispiriting conclusion that we were trapped, surrounded by dozen foot-high walls on all sides. I scanned the walls and then scrambled for a finger or toehold, but found none. I did, however, spy an air conditioning duct about nine feet above me. I leaped and was able to knock a cover away. I jumped again and grabbed onto the unit, but as I tried to pull myself up, I fell, causing the folks in the bushes to hush me to be quiet.

A quick aspiration to the Holy Spirit — “Come, O Holy Spirit, fill the heart of thy faithful!” — and then another leap upward. This time I was able to grab on and pull myself up over the wall where I flipped onto a lean-to roof of the pool shed. I laid low and quiet, partially concealing myself with tree branches.

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Musica Sacra: Impossible?

Via St John's Valdosta

The Immaculate Conception and The Legion

Allocutio for the 986th Meeting of Regina Coeli Praesidium
The Immaculate Conception and the Legion

We are coming to one of Our Lady’s Feast day, the Immaculate Conception. This dogma was pronounced and defined in the Constitution Ineffabilis Deus in 8 December 1854 by Pope Pius IX, only 4 years before our Lady revealed herself to St. Bernadette at Lourdes in 1858, calling Herself as “I am the Immaculate Conception”. This dogma says “in the first instance of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin”.

To my surprise, this particular dogma of our Lady has a strong relation with the Legion. About this in the chapter of “Devotional Outlook of the Legion”, our handbook says “A second aspect of Legion devotion is towards the Immaculate Conception”. This devotion clearly is reflected in its prayers which strongly rooted on a profound faith in God and the love he bears his children. At the very first Legion meeting, the members prayed and deliberated around the little altar of the Immaculate Conception identical with that which now forms the centre of every Legion meeting. So, even from the very first breath of the Legion, may be said to have drawn in an ejaculation in honour of this privilege of Our Lady which formed the preparation for all the dignities and all the privileges afterwards accorded to her.

Yes, this privilege is part of Mary, the Immaculate Conception, and together with the privilege, prophecy is made of the heavenly sequel, the Divine Maternity, the crushing of the serpent’s head in Redemption, and Mary’s motherhood of men. Our Founder put this text from Genesis 2:15, as the best entrance to the spirit of the Legion “I will put enmities between you and the woman, and thy seed and her seed; She shall crush thy head and thou shalt lie in wait for her hell”. Fr Bede McGregor, in his allocution to the Concilium in December 2007 commented on this, “If there had been even the slightest moral fault in Mary and even if it was only for a split second, then for that brief moment she would have not been at enmity with Satan but subject to him. Surely it would be unthinkable in the Mother of God. So, she was indeed created Mary Immaculate”. As Her Legionaries, we wish to turn these words, addressed to satan by Almighty God, together with our Lady’s total opposition to sin, as our source of confidence and strength in our daily warfare with sin, the only thing that destroys human person so profoundly. Yes, this struggle is never easy, but we need to remember there is pledge of victory in our Lady. (Also, as we are in Advent season so one more reason to struggle more :)

The Immaculate Conception is not only about freedom from the least of sin, but also about the fullness of grace in Mary. No one say that to be the Mother of God is easy. So, She is given all the grace she needs to be a worthy Mother of God and Mother of all of us, and her whole life is to be the instrument of all the graces merited by the passion and death of Our Lord. So do we as legionaries, like our Mother, we are not simply busy seeking out evil and condemning it, but we are called to be an instrument of grace in out world, to be the apostle of grace. Like what our Mother has shown, our lives too, are to proclaim the joy of spreading the Gospel, to spread the well founded hope in God through our Lady in the worst possible situation.

Also in relation with this is the indispensable sacramental of our Legion Apostolate, our devotion to the Miraculous Medal. This Medal has the richness of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. So when we distribute it, or when we ourselves wearing it, it is also good to go to the understanding the meaning of the Medal, which is to bring the immense hope and good news that with Mary they can overcome every obstacle to union with Our Lord and with each other in Him.

So, as we prepare ourselves in this Advent season, we can consider to the example that our Lady has given for us. Her whole life is a Magnificat of thanksgiving and of praising the mercy of God. That is why she loves to call herself the Immaculate Conception because it points to Jesus and his redemptive love, not only for her, but for all mankind. We too, as legionaries, together with our Lady, let’s become channels of God’s Mercy in union with Mary, our Lady, our Queen, and our Mother. Amen.

On Christianity and love

I'm reading a book by Henry Sienkiewicz called Quo Vadis: A Narrative of the Time of Nero. It's an excellent book - a very gripping tale indeed, especially since I enjoy reading about the ancients.

It revolves around a soldier and noble called Marcus Vincicus and his love for a Christian girl called Lygia.

Here's Vincicus speaking to Lygia about his change of heart regarding her faith.

"Paul has convinced me, has converted me; and could it be otherwise? How was I not to believe that Christ came into the world, since he, who was His disciple, says so, and Paul, to who He appeared? How was I not to believe that He was God, since He rose from the dead? Others saw Him in the city and on the lake and on the mountain; people saw Him whose lips have not known a lie. I began to believe this the first time I heard Peter in Ostrianum, for I said to myself even then: In the whole world any other man might lie rather than this one who says, 'I saw.' But I feared thy religion. It seemed to me that thy religion would take thee from me. I thought that there was neither wisdom nor beauty nor happiness in it. But to-day, when I know it, what kind of man should I be were I not to wish truth to rule the world instead of falsehood, love instead of hatred, virtue instead of crime, faithfulness instead of unfaithfulness, mercy instead of vengeance? What sort of man would he be who would not choose and wish the same? But your religion teaches this. Others desire justice also; but thy religion is the only one which makes man's heart just, and besides makes it pure, like thine and Pomponia's, makes it faithful, like thine and Pomponia's. I should be blind were I not to see this. But if in addition Christ God has promised eternal life, and promised happiness as immeasurable as the all-might of God can give, what more can one wish? Were I to ask Seneca why he enjoins virtue, if wickedness brings more happiness, he would not be able to say anything sensible. But I know now that I ought to be virtuous, because virtue and love flow from Christ, and because, when death closes my eyes, I shall find life and happiness, I shall find myself and thee. Why not love and accept a religion which both speaks the truth and destroys death? Who would not prefer good to evil? I tough thy religion opposed happiness; meanwhile Paul has convinced me that not only does it not take away, but that it gives. All this hardly finds a place in my head; but I feel that it is true, for I have never been so happy....O Lygia! Reason declares this religion divine, and the best; the heart feels it, and who can resist two such forces?"

...After a while he said with a lowered and quivering voice: "Thou wilt be the soul of my soul, and the dearest in the world to me. Our hearts will beat together, we shall have one prayer of and one gratitude to Christ. O my dear! To live together, to honour together the sweet God, and to know that when death comes our eyes will be open again, as after a pleasant sleep, to a new light, - what better could be imagined? I only marvel that I did not understand this at first. And knowest thou what occurs to me now? That no one can resist this religion. In two hundred or three hundred years the whole world will accept it. People will forget Jupiter, and there will be no God except Christ, and no temples but Christian. Who would not wish his own happiness?"

Very beautiful! There are many other such sublime bits of prose in the this book. Do read it! It's available in the Central Library.

After Legion Meeting

Thanks Ferninda for singing!

More videos and photos here

Thank you all for the very relaxing time and the wonderful company :)

(the video quality seems bad...anyone wanting the original can contact me :p)

Dogmas

"Dogmas--someone has said--are not walls that prevent us from seeing. On the contrary, they are windows that open upon the infinite."

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

The right kind of Catholic

The right kind of Catholic

December 2, 2008 by Amy

Divisions within Catholicism have been a frequent subject here. In contemporary American Catholicism, ideology often trumps Christ, something Pope Benedict himself noted on his visit last spring:

I ask you, in the Lord Jesus, to set aside all division and to work with joy to prepare a way for him, in fidelity to his word and in constant conversion to his will. Above all, I urge you to continue to be a leaven of evangelical hope in American society, striving to bring the light and truth of the Gospel to the task of building an ever more just and free world for generations yet to come.

Those who have hope must live different lives! (cf. Spe Salvi, 2). By your prayers, by the witness of your faith, by the fruitfulness of your charity, may you point the way towards that vast horizon of hope which God is even now opening up to his Church, and indeed to all humanity: the vision of a world reconciled and renewed in Christ Jesus, our Savior. To him be all honor and glory, now and forever. Amen.

That is not a call to paper over differences, to pretend that is all is well as we join hands around the campfire. It is not a call to abandon mutual fraternal correction. It is simply, as a first step, to look to Christ and open ourselves to him, together. And to go from there, dependent on the Spirit to bind us together, to reveal the truth to us, and to empower us to bring the Gospel to a world that thirsts and hungers.

What is true is that this unity is indeed not uniformity, as St. Paul notes and as only one who is blind to history can deny. The diversity within the Body of Christ runs deep, and is complex - as complex as life itself.

...

As much as we hope to be salt and light ourselves, as much as we would hope to share God’s love with others, would we really want another person’s faith in Christ to depend on our witness?

Then it is not fair to make the lives and works of others, no matter how holy, idols in that way either.

Rome is a good place to run up against this complexity. Of course, if one is aware of history or even aware of what happens in one’s own parish, it is not news. But even if you have avoided the reality before, in Rome, you can’t. For in Rome you walk amid all kinds of Catholics, the right and wrong sort, and you are forced to take a stand.

Most vividly. In Rome, you might stand or kneel within a church built on the home of an ancient martyr. Perhaps the church contains that martyr’s remains and truly bears the martyr’s memory, which has strengthened the faithful in carrying their own crosses for centuries.

But there is a good chance that this same church was built by, expanded by or decorated by a wealthy Cardinal with a mistress or two and some sins for which to atone. The gorgeous art, resonant and powerful in its portrayal of Calvary, might have come from the hands of an artist with little or no faith to speak of, doing what he had to do for the commission. You are walking on paths that were stained by the blood of bishop martyrs and then paved by the edict of bishop rulers. St. Francis walked here in bare feet. Catholic aristocracy were carried above the muck, flattered by clergy as they handed out bread to the poor and paid the dowries of impoverished girls.

What, in that mess, do we reject? What do we accept? What is pure enough for us?

Layer upon layer. Nothing is simple. In this Body of Christ, paradox reigns, inherent at its root - the Body of the Christ, the Anointed of God, descended from eternity, yet broken, yet risen, yet still embodied here.

Ultimately, to sneer at the wrong sort of Catholic leads us to one place.

The mirror.

Do read the rest of this very nice reflection by Amy Welborn HERE

Why we should have more chant in the liturgy? :p

Haha...something as mundane as the weather forecast or the highway code actually sound important when chanted :p

A Prayer for the Immaculate Conception

I know, it's still too early, but Jeffry post this prayer to our yahoogroups and I cant wait not to post it.. so.... :)

Tota pulchra es, Mariaet macula originalis non est in te.
Vestimentum tuum candidum quasi nix, et facies tua sicut sol.
Tota pulchra es, Maria,et macula originalis non est in te.
Tu gloria Jerusalem, tu laetitia Israel, tu honorificentia populi nostri.
Tota pulchra es, Maria.

You are completely pure, Mary,
and the stain of original sin is not within you.
Your clothing is white like snow, and your face is like the sun.
You are completely pure, Mary,and the stain of original sin is not within you.
You are the glory of Jerusalem, you are the joy of Israel,
you are the honoured of our people.
You are completely pure, Mary

to our Lady

Spotted in the Esplanade lift :) A timely reminder to remember God during the short pauses in daily life.

A creative form of evangelism? :) Should we try this in NUS?