Novena - What's your Good News

Someone sent me an email with a story a few days ago, just as I was preparing what to share at today’s novena. And I found it very apt, and would like to share it with you.

On New Year’s Eve, a man and his wife were having dinner and reflecting on all that has happened in the past year. The husband started to complain of how bad the year was. His father got cancer, he had to take a pay cut, the dog died, and the list went on.

The wife was listening patiently, when all of a sudden, she said, “Don’t you think our Christmas Tree is very beautiful?” The husband was shocked at the sudden change of subject, but nodded to agree.

The wife continued, “but if you look carefully, there are a few of the bulbs that have blown. But why focus on those few bulbs, when the rest are shining brightly illuminating the tree and the room?” The husband got the message, and they started to share the many blessings they had in the year.

My brothers and sisters, it is so natural for us to focus on the negatives in our lives, the times when things don’t go the way we want them to. Just look at our newspapers everyday, bad news and scandals greatly outnumber the good news. MRT breaks down and it is the biggest news in Singapore. Orchard Road floods, and as made fun of on the Noose, we call police.

The problem with us, is that we only notice when something goes wrong, not when something goes right. MRT, floods, traffic jam, economy downturn. But you don’t see the news reporting that today the MRT and Buses ran without problem, or that it rained but there were no floods. If we look at the letters that we write in for Novena, only 80 out of 437 are thanksgiving letters (<20%). Isn’t that like the looking at the Christmas tree and seeing the bulbs that are blown?

Actually the News is not only Bad News, it also highlights when amazing things or miracles happen. But it is so easy to overlook the things that normal. Parents will always complain that their children take all that they do for them for granted. Why? Because for the children that is what parents should do normally. Similarly we take God for granted, when we only turn to him at the times when things go wrong, or we give thanks to him when he answers our prayers and makes miracles happen.

My brothers and sisters, we are people of the Good News. That God loved us so much, he sent Jesus, His Son, to remind us of the love of God, and the many blessings that we receive from Him.

So what is the Good News in your life?

Today is the last day of the year, we usually look forward to the New Year and make Resolutions to be a better person. But let us not forget to look back at the year, and count the blessings that God has done for us this whole year. I tell you honestly, if you start now and really think of the blessings, you will not be finished by the time this year is over.

So I would like to give you this challenge. Go home today, think of your blessings, and in this one week, write a thanksgiving letter, to God for his many blessings, and for our Mother who always intercedes for us. Put it in an envelope and write "Thanksgiving for Novena" and drop it in our parish office. So next week, we can really give thanks to God for his many blessings on us

I am sure that we have more to give thanks to God for His blessings than asking him for what we need. Amen.

Sharing on the readings of Tue 19th Jul 2011

Yesterday evening, my sister and I went to NTUC to get some groceries for the family. The realisation dawned on me of how things have changed. In the past, it was our parents who bought all the household necessities. We just told them what we needed. Now having grown up, we realise our part in the family and chip in to look after the family's needs. The role of a child in the family is not one who just gets looked after, but as he grows older, he realises that he contributes and is involved in the matters of the family.

And that is what Jesus is reminding us today in the Gospel (Mt 12:46-50). There is a link between our identity (who we are) and our actions (what we do). In the passage Jesus says

whoever does the will of my heavenly Father IS my brother, and sister, and mother

He doesn't say that who ever does the will of the Father "WILL BECOME", insteads he say "IS" my brother, sister and mother.

Though it might seem like a play of words, but there is a difference between the two. One who "is" Jesus' brother, sister or mother knows that he is a child of God and that he belongs in God's family. And because he belongs to the family, he will do the will of the Father. But one who "will become" Jesus' brother, sister or mother, sees himself as outside of the family, and hopes to become a family member by doing the will of the Father.

In the past, I belonged to the second category. I saw God as someone I needed to obey, who will judge me and so I needed to be good to gain His love, to enter heaven. But as I journeyed and grew in my faith, I realised my identity as truly a child of God. I didn't need to work to gain His trust and His love, but I was already immensely loved by Him. And as a child of God, I wanted to do His will. Like Jesus said to his earthly parents when they found him in the temple:

Did you not know that I must be about my Father's work? - Lk 2:49

The question we need to ask ourselves is: Am I doing my Father's will in my life today?

If we are not, could it be that we have failed to realise that we are children of God? Or am I still a young child in the faith, not fully realising my responsibilities as a member of God's family.

The other problem could be forgetfulness. Not that we do not know that we are children of God, but that we get so distracted, or we believe the lies of the tempter that we forget who we are.

Let us pray that we might truly realise our identity as children of God, as brothers and sister of our Lord Jesus Christ. And pray for the Holy Spirit to guide and strengthen us to know and do the will of our Father.

Sharing on the readings of Mon 18th Jul 2011

When I read the Gospel passage of Mt 12:38-42, I used to think it was best not to ask God for a sign. After all Jesus said "It is an evil and unfaithful generation that seeks a sign".

But as I continue on my faith journey, I have come to realise that signs from God are important to help us grow in our faith. It assures us of God's presence with us on our journey, sometimes leading us, other times just to let us know He is there.

One sign which God gave me which I treasure was during a silent retreat that I went for. During that retreat, it was about 5 prayer sessions of 1 hour each a day. And of course after a few days, I started to lose focus and was getting a bit tired or lazy. So there was one prayer session that I felt that my prayer was really dry and fruitless. And I started to bargain with God to let me do 30 mins, or 45 mins instead of the full hour.

I tried to persevere on, but I couldn't get my mind focused on the bible passage, and so I started to look around for something to distract me, and I saw a trail of ants. The ants were just industriously walking up and down the trail, I think to find food or something.

I was really so bored and distracted at the time, that I decided to search whether the bible mentions "ants". And so I searched and found the passage Proverbs 6:6

Go to the ant, you lazybones; consider its ways, and be wise.

And I knew that God was showing me a sign, to remind me not to be lazy, but to be faithful like the ant, even if the task may seem boring or routine.

Back to the Gospel passage. If signs from God are beneficial to us, why did Jesus say what he said? It is not that signs are bad, but signs cannot be the foundation of our faith. Our faith needs to be built on our relationship with God, not external signs.

Take the example of dating vs marriage. In the beginning stages of the relationship, both parties give lots of signs of their love for the other, gifts, smses, etc. But as the relationship deepens, these external signs no longer play such an important role in expressing the love between the two.

It is the same with God, our relationship with him needs to be deepened, where it is strengthened by external signs, but not dependent on them. If we fail to reach that stage, we will be like the Israelites in the 1st Reading (Exodus 15:1bc-2, 3-4, 5-6) who despite the signs that God has shown them, complain at the first sign of difficulty, and wanting to go back to slavery in Egypt.

Our relationship with God cannot be one where he is a vending machine giving us signs whenever we want them. But it should be based on the trust that he truly is God and loves us immensely. The one most important sign that He gave us, as what Jesus says in the Gospel, is that of Jesus Christ who died for our sins and rose again to give us hope.

Remember that during the times in our lives where we may fail to see God's signs in our lives, it could be that he is testing and strengthening our faith in him, that we still believe even if we don't see. As Jesus said to doubting Thomas:

You believe because you can see me. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe - Jn 20:29

Fr Stephen Yim Blogs His Homilies

Fr Stephen Yim has decided to enter the cyber realm.
No he hasn't joined facebook, but he has decided to post his Sunday Homilies on a blog he created recently.

Sunday Homilies

Since he already types out and prints all his homilies when he preaches, and at the many requests and positive feedback he gets from the parishioners, a simple process of copy and pasting, allows him to share his preaching in cyberspace.

For those who attend Mandarin Mass, Fr Stephen also posts up his Mandarin homilies on another blog.

主日弥撒道理

I tried to put his Mandarin homily through Google translate, and got some quite hilarious results. Like "我会先救火" which means "I will first put out the fire" is translated as "I will fire you."

So far the online feedback about the blog has been rather positive, with a few who said they were glad to be able to read the homily online, either because they are out of the country, or had to attend Mass at another parish for some reason or the other.

My recent post on taking notes at Mass, mentioned that the Pope didn't need to take notes during Mass, because all the homilies he listens to can be found online. Now with Fr Stephen's blog, those attending the Mass would also be able to read and reflect on his homilies further after they go home. Although I hope it is not a reason to not pay attention when he is preaching at Mass. And it doesn't mean that we should stop writing down our reflections at Mass, as it includes our own reflections, or words from the readings that may not be in the homily.

Taking Notes During Mass

Got this story in my email recently.

A Church goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. 'I've gone for 30 years now,' he wrote, 'and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them. So, I think I'm wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all.'

This started a real controversy in the 'Letters to the Editor' column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher:

'I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this ... They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!'

And then Daniel does a post on his blog "Digital Donkey" about a conversation we had, where I shared with him an encounter I had with two girls who were using their mobile phones in church. (click here to read the post)

So here are my thoughts on the matter. I first started taking notes at mass after I had my spiritual conversion, and decided to take my faith more seriously. As a young boy I didn't understand the homily; As an Altar Server I was paid more attention to my sitting posture and thinking of what needs to be done on the altar; In the Army, homily time was for me to catch up on lost sleep. But it was only when I started to question and learn more about the faith and the Mass, that I realised that there was much more to the homily than I ever realised.

There are those preachers who keep you awake with the jokes and stories, but thats about all you remember of the homily. But when I started to ask myself, "what is God trying to speak to me in His Word today?", that I found many pearls of wisdom in the content that was preached.

I started out by scribbling short notes on the church bulletin margins. Then realising that I often misplaced or threw away the bulletins, I started to write them in a little notebook. And when I started to blog, and wanted to post my reflections up. I decided to write them straight into my PDA. Of course I got strange stares from the people around me, wondering why I'm playing games during mass. But luckily I was always around friends, so they knew what I was doing, and left me alone.

Here I would want to clarify on the term "Taking Notes". I did intially start by taking notes on the homily for later reflection. But then it progressed to recording down any word, phrase or even my own thoughts that struck me at the Mass, that I would like to bring back for further reflection. Thus the Mass and homily became not so much instructional as reflective and inspirational.

This is the reason why I quoted the story above. While the story counters the first man's argument that he does not remember the sermon. It kind of sounds like it's ok to forget about what the priest is preaching about. But why shouldn't I remember something from the sermon? Wouldn't it be great if we do bring home something from each Mass that will nourish our faith? Much has been said about the importance of both parts of the Mass, the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist. Shouldn't God's Word and the priest's homily also be as life transforming as receiving the Eucharist.

Of course there will be the argument that if it was that important a point or something that really strikes us, we will be able to remember it after the Mass. But the reality for me is that after the Homily, there are so many other things like the creed and the eucharistic prayer, that require my concentration, that I soon forget what was said in the readings and the homily. So for my own spiritual benefit, I choose to record down things for me to take home.

I wonder if the Pope writes anything down during Mass when someone else preaches. But then again, the homilies preached can all be found on the net, especially those by the Preacher of the Papal Household, Fr Canatalamessa.

On a final note, although not a very good reason. Just as in lectures, I find that when can write down things, it does help me to keep awake and pay better attention. And so while there are differing schools of thought about "taking notes" during Mass, I believe... No, I want to get the most out of each Mass I go for, and if by taking notes it is going to help me grow in my spiritual life and let the Word of God transform me, I think it is a good practice for me. Although I'll probably stick to Pen & Paper, because I don't want to be a bad example for youths and also adults to think that it is ok to be smsing during Mass.

(My phone not so hi-tech, so this post has been blogged from my computer ;)

Fr Chris Soh, WYD '08

Now I know why my friend asked me about the wedding at Cana. Anyway I just found out that Fr Christopher Soh, S.J. has a blog which he puts up reflections on the daily readings. And I found the one on today's readings to be very good. Fr Chris is a very good preacher, and it was a joy to listen to his homilies. I can still remember the homily he preached on the Feast of the Archangels, when I was doing my 8-day retreat in 2005.

Another event that has been building up excitement is the World Youth Day in Sydney in July 2008. It is almost exactly 1.5 yrs away, or as the website says 547 days to go.

Some interesting information I found on the website

1. Dates : 14-20 July 2008
2. Venue : Sydney (duh!)
3. The basic tenets of World Youth Day are:
• An expression of the universal Church
• An instrument of evangelization of the young
• An 'Epiphany' of the youth of the Church
• An effective sign of ecclesial union
• A pilgrimage of faith, both spiritually and practically
4. Costs of the WYD packages can be found here.
   They range from A$175 - A$395(excluding airfare)
5. If you don't want to pay, you can sign up as a volunteer, which could be an interesting experience by itself.
6. For a more enriching experience, there is the "Days in the Diocese" event which takes place in the dioceses around Sydney from 10-14 Jul. This is where you can spend time in one of the dioceses, and take part in special activities that they organise before everyone makes their way to Sydney. I wouldn't mind going for the Melbourne one.
   
7. You can listen to Fr Roderick's Podcasts live from WYD '05 in Cologne, Germany.
   

Personally, I had a wonderful experience in Manila, Philippines on 1995, and I believe Sydney would be a greater one, because of the change in my own faith life and this whole idea of being part of a universal Church. Hope to see you there.

Novena - Say Yes First, Ask Why Later

Dear brothers and sisters, we just celebrated the new year on Monday, which means this is the first novena of the year. I am sure that many of us over the course of the last few days have been reviewing the year that has gone by, and come up with resolutions, decisions, to change something, to do something. I too have gone through that process, of thinking how I can better live this year.

But this year as I was doing my new year resolutions, I have had a revelation in my life that I would like to share with you. I found myself asking “How am I going to live as a better Christian this year”. Actually it all started when I watched the movie “Nativity Story”. It is a really good movie, especially for the Christmas period, because it gives us an idea of the thoughts, the fears and the struggles that Mary and Joseph must have faced.

In the Nativity Story, there is one scene, where Mary and Elizabeth are grinding wheat and making bread. Elizabeth asks Mary, “Are you afraid?” and Mary replies “Yes”. Then Mary asks Elizabeth, “Elizabeth, Why is it me God has asked? I am nothing.” This question “Why is it me God has asked?” has been going through my mind ever since. “Why me? Why not someone else? Who am I? What have I to offer?” And the answer I got was, “If not you then who? I made you for a purpose, you are not some random act or an accident.”

And that is the amazing thing, my dear brothers and sisters, that God has a purpose, a reason for each and everyone of us being here today. There is a reason why we are all here in 2007, in Singapore, working or studying at a particular place, with the friends we have. All so that we can be like Mary, and bring the light and love of Jesus to the people around us and to the world.

I just read in yesterday’s NewPaper, a story about a man, Wesley Autrey, who jumped in front of a train to save a man who had fallen onto the tracks. In the interview he said, “I saw someone in distress and went to his aid”. And his mother added, “He was there to help somebody who needed help more than him. He didn't think twice. He dived in, like he said. He helped the guy and God helped them.” Notice the words “He didn’t think twice”, I think if I was there at the train station, I might have thought twice, “Why me, why do I have to be the one to jump onto the track to save the guy?” And by the time I think and think, the chance would have been gone. It really made me reflect on the many times I have hesitated, I have questioned God that I missed the opportunity.


I can recall a few instances of on the bus and MRT, when I see an elderly person needing a seat, I think should I, should I not? And by that time, someone else has already offered their seat. Too often I spend more time thinking of the Why God is asking me, instead of the more important question of What God is asking me? We see Wesley Autrey who did what he had to do. We also have a perfect Christian model in Mary, who said Yes to God. She only questioned later, Why her, not because she wished it was someone else, but the wonder and awe that God would choose her who is nothing.

So my brothers and sisters, the question that we need to ask ourselves as we begin this new year is “What is God asking?”. What is God asking me to do this year? What is God asking me to do in my life? Who does He want me to reach out to?

It could be a simple gesture of visiting an old folks home to bring joy to the residents there. It could be to bring reconciliation among family members. These are only examples, because as I said earlier, each and everyone of us is unique, in our own different circumstances. And God is calling each of us to be Light of the World and Salt of the Earth here and now.

For me I know God is calling me back to the Seminary after my holidays, to continue my formation, to continue to grow in my relationship. I ask that you keep all of us seminarians in your prayers, and also to continue to pray for more vocations to the priesthood and religious life. That more young men and women will find out what God is asking of them, and that they will have the courage like Mother Mary, to say Yes first, and ask Why later. Amen