Coincidence or a sign of Hope and Blessing.....

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Our Blessed Mother appeared to a young girl, Bernedette, in Lourdes, a small town in France 151 years ago.......

Something happened in our Punggol seminary when they celebrate the memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes 2 days ago........

Is this a coincidence or is it a sign of the confirmation of the affections and blessings of Our Lady on her seminarians there?

Find out what happened HERE

Charities see spike in take-up rate of free meals

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This is an interesting article taken from Channelnewsasia website. It is wonderful to know that there are love and charity in other faith and also how people from different faith can come together to share the teaching of the Gospel and to bring warm and joy to the needy within our community.

QUOTE:

While many may have been feasting during this festive period, those who cannot afford it have not been forgotten either.

The Buddhist Lodge has been giving out food, buffet-style, every day for the past 30 years.

Since the economic downturn, it has seen more people showing up -- at least a 35 per cent increase in numbers since the beginning of the year, with a significant number of them being foreign workers.

The Lodge serves up on average 1400 meals daily, and this number can go up to 6000 over the weekend.

Despite the downturn, the Lodge says people have not cut back on their donations, and this allows the Lodge to pass on excess to other charities.

One such beneficiary is the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Upper Serangoon.

The church started giving out meals from April this year. It distributes packed meals, ensuring no one goes hungry in the community.

UNQUOTE

Let's not forget to do our part as we celebrate and party to welcome 2009.....

<<<<<< HAPPY NEW YEAR ! >>>>>>

Lesson from our Blessed Mother

Image via WikipediaAfter reading the homily of the Archbishop Nicholas Chia on our Blessed Mother (in the post before this), I gain a deeper understanding on Marian worship. As I have blogged before (click here to read about it), there are many misconceptions about praying to our Blessed Mother.

At the wedding feast in Cana, our Blessed Mother clearly showed us that she do care for us when she brings the needs of the wedding couple to Jesus. And as what the Archbishop said, “. Here we see the powerful intercession of Mary” and she continues to intercede for us and we must also pray and intercede for others like our Blessed Mother.

Our Blessed Mother has never seek fame and glory for herself. In all her appearances, she always point the people to her son Jesus Christ our savior. Her simple words ““Do whatever He tells you”, and her genuine love for others has converted more than any self proclaimed pastors (especially those Korean or American styled – courtesy of their wives) and is still converting.

So, let’s learn from our Blessed Mother and make her shining example be known to all.

To end this all, I love to share with you here a clip on Ave Maria....

"Do whatever He tells you" - Advice from our Blessed Mother

Image via WikipediaOn the 6th of December 2008, the Lourdes experience was held at the Singapore Indoor Stadium to celebrate the 150th year of our Mother appearance to St Bernadette. You can read about the event HERE.

During his homily, the Archbishop Nicholas Chia has made a very interesting and powerful message that I would like to share with you here in full and I quote:

“AT THE ANNUNCIATION, God spoke through the Archangel Gabriel: ʻYou shall conceive and bear a sonʼ,” Archbishop Nicholas Chia reminded the worshippers during his homily.

Mary could not understand how she was to conceive as a virgin but when she learnt that it was Godʼs will, she consented, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to your word.”

In her response, Mary is teaching us to have faith in God and to do Godʼs will and not our own will, the archbishop said.

In the flight to Egypt, Mary and Joseph carried out the word of God at a cost without complaining, making the long journey to Egypt and living there in exile.

Archbishop Chia explained that Mary teaches us that sacrifice is part of carrying out Godʼs will.

At the Presentation in the temple, Mary could not understand the word of God communicated through Simeon: “A sword shall pierce your heart”. She could not understand but she did not dismiss the message. Rather, she kept it in her heart. This, Archbishop Chia said, is to teach us that at times we may not understand the word of God, but like Mary we must not be impatient but take time to reflect on Godʼs message and patiently wait for enlightenment from God.

In the mystery of the Visitation, Mary carried Jesus in her womb and brought him to Elizabeth and John the Baptist. The message for us is that we too must bring Jesus, the Word of God, to our fellowmen by our word and example.

At the wedding feast in Cana, she brought the attention of Jesus to the needs of the wedding couple: “They have no wine left”. And Jesus changed the water into wine. Here we see the powerful intercession of Mary, Archbishop Chia continued. She continues to intercede for us, he added. And like her we must also pray and intercede for others.

Furthermore, Mary told the stewards: “Do whatever He tells you”. In the Gospels, these are the only words of Mary addressed to human beings. Other words by our Blessed Mother are addressed to God. So these words are of special significance. Maryʼs message to us is that we are to carry out Godʼs will in our life, Archbishop Chia concluded.

Unquote

Sources : Catholic News Sunday December 21,2008 page 11

A little history of the Rosary…

Image via WikipediaIn the early centuries, the Church monks would recite the Psalms as part of their rule of life. However, this means only those who could read can do it. How about the illiterate brothers? Clearly there is a need for a simpler prayer for them. The Lord’s Prayer was adopted for this purpose; the brothers would recite 150 Our Fathers to correspond to the number of Psalms.

Small stones were used originally to count the prayers. Later, beads were strung as prayer counters. With the rise of widespread devotion to the Blessed Mother in the early second millennium, the Hail Mary gained popularity and was inserted into the prayer tradition.

The word rosary comes from Latin and means a garland of roses. Incidentally, the rose is one the flowers used to symbolize the Virgin Mary. The rosary is a devotion in honour of the Virgin Mary and it is a truly biblical form of prayer — after all, the prayers that comprise it come mainly from the Bible.

The rosary consists of a set number of specific prayers but they are NOT boring, uselessly repetitious, meaningless recitation of prayers. It is a form of meditation on the grace of God! It is the meditation on the scriptural based mysteries that gives the rosary its staying power. There are 5 Mysteries in each namely the Joyful Mysteries, the Sorrowful Mysteries and the Glorious Mysteries. All these are explicitly scriptural except for the last 2 in the Glorious Mysteries - the Assumption and Coronation of Mary which are not explicitly stated in the Bible, but they are not contrary to it.

Pope John Paul II has proposed five new mysteries to be used during the saying of the Rosary known as the "mysteries of light" or the "luminous mysteries."

These mysteries are as follows:

1. The Baptism in the Jordan
2. The Wedding at Cana
3. The Proclamation of the Kingdom
4. The Transfiguration
5. The Institution of the Eucharist

Although the repeated Hail Mary is addressed directly to Mary, it is to Jesus that the act of love is ultimately directed. Far from being unbiblical, it is actually a beautiful scriptural way of praying that leads us closer to him. By reciting the Hail Mary throughout the rosary, we participate over and over again in the wonder-filled response of Gabriel and Elizabeth to the mystery of Christ. Bead after bead, we ask Mary to pray for us that we may be drawn closer to her Son.

And most of all, prayer after prayer, we affectionately speak the name of our Beloved at the very center of each Hail Mary: "Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus." The holy name of Jesus, repeated with tender love, is the heartbeat of the entire rosary.

Once you understand the essence of the rosary and you know that meditating the rosary will help you have an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

God is LOVE!

Image by freestone via FlickrThe action of anti-Christ was a real shame and leaving some non-Christians friends having the wrong impression that Christianity is evil. However, the truth is - God is Love (Jn 4:16). Christianity is about faith, hope and love and nothing is greater than love. I will tell you why.

This is what the often quoted John 3:16 said : “For this is how God loved the world: he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

So who did Jesus die on the Cross for?

Even the blind knows that Jesus died on the Cross for the entire human race “as for God loved the world” – not Christians only but everybody including people from ALL other faith.

Did God create only Christians? Of course NOT….ALL human are created by God and ALL human regardless of race and religions are God’s creation and God’s children.

Most of us are converts and if God is kind only to Christians, there will be no conversions since we are non-Christians first (and God hate us first). The truth is exactly opposite as it was God who love us first – not hate.

As I mentioned many times, Jesus said (in MT 22:37-40): 'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets too.'

So again, Jesus NEVER teaches us to treat others differently but to love. And throughout the gospel, Jesus is telling us how much God love us and why we must be obedient to God and follow His teachings I.E. to love one another as how I love you.

At Novena services, we see how people from all walks of life come to pray and how God answer their prayers through the petitions of our Blessed Mother. It was God’s grace that people (regardless of faith) have their prayers answered . It was such grace by God that many (non-Christians) was converted because they know and felt the love of God. This is undeniable fact from the amount of thanks giving letters and many more petitions received.

Therefore, any claims that Christians are different from others will NEVER stand. 1Jn 4:8 says "Whoever fails to love does not know God, because God is love."

To put God in a bad light by claiming that it was God’s idea to treat people without love (such as cursing, swearing, wild allegations and treat people of other faith differently) can only be work of Satan and his disciples.

Anti-Christ is alive and lurking around us.