Holy Week Is Just Around The Corner

Can't believe it that we are almost towards the end of Lent season, and beginning of the Holy Week. Speaking of Lent season, tomorrow there will be Way of The Cross in GKF, followed by mass. Hope we'll be there on time, though I doubt it very much that we can actually reach there before the start of Way of the Cross. Its usually before the start of mass (or end of Way of the Cross) that we finally arrived.

Don't forget to go for your penitential service. Happy fasting, people and GOD bless!

Different Ways To Fast

Usually, comes Lent season, I would be thinking, "Ok, this is the time for me to fast, to give up food." But a friend of mine sent me this powerpoint presentation which says, "Lets try a different way of fasting. Instead of giving up food only, lets try... "

Fast from anger and hatred
Give your family an extra dose of love each day...

Fast from judging others
Before judging others, recall how Jesus overlooks our faults

Fast from discouragement
Hold on to Jesus's promise that He has perfect plan for your life

Fast from complaining
When you find yourself about to complain, close your eyes and recall the little blessings that Jesus gave you

Fast from resentment or bitterness
Forgive those who may have hurt you

Fast from spending too much money
Try to reduce spending by ten percent and give those savings to the poor

Spend extra time for personal prayer

I pray that this season of Lent will help me to be more grateful and thankful with the gift of Jesus in my life. And to be more grateful and thankful for the gift of my family - my syg and little Daniel.

Spirit of Lent

Harian Metro yesterday reported that a church in Johor Bahru WILLINGLY AND WITHOUT ANY CONDITION offered RM2000 to a single mother to help her only daughter pay for university fees. It was reported that the mother, who practices Islam faith had gone to several places like Baitulmal and Pusat Zakat Negeri to ask for help as she was unable to pay for her daughter's fee.

Unfortunely she was turned down by her own people of same faith!

As she sat at a bus stop crying, a man came forward and asked what had happened. She relate her story to this man who had then brought her to a church to seek for help. The priest, after listening to her plight, gave her a cheque amounting to RM2000, with no obligations whatsoever.

Now, this is what I called the spirit of Alms-Giving. And this is what the Season of Lent is all about - Helping another person regardless of their faith and religion.

This is Christ's teaching to us (Matthew 25: 35 - 36, 40):

"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.... "

"The King will reply, 'Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me... "


And when someone is doing good to others out of their own free will and with no strings attached, it is not right for us to make speculations or find ulterior motives behind the gesture. After all, we are only practising what our faith had taught us to do...

Please do not mistake the help as an intention to lure away other people of different faith ....

Biblical Reflections for Ash Wednesday

It Took 40 Days …

On Ash Wednesday the Church begins her great Lenten journey with Jesus on the road to Jerusalem. For centuries, Lent has been a very intense spiritual journey and experience for the followers of Jesus Christ.

Why are there 40 days in Lent?

• It took 40 days for sinfulness to drown in the flood before a new creation could inherit the earth.
• It took 40 years for the generation of slaves to die before the freeborn could enter the Promised Land.
• For 40 days Moses, Elijah and Jesus fasted and prayed to prepare themselves for a life's work.

Lent invites us to turn from our own selves, from our sin, to come together in community. Self-denial is the way we express our repentance. Self-denial is threefold, advises Matthew's Gospel.

• We pray: "Go to your room, close your door, and pray to your Father in private."
• We fast: "No one must see you are fasting but your Father."
• We give alms: "Keep your deeds of mercy secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you."

Through the Lenten exercise of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, we spring-clean our lives, sharpen our senses, put tomorrow in its place and treasure the day at hand.

One of the three Lenten practices open to most misinterpretation today is that of fasting. Fasting has become an ambiguous practice. In antiquity, only religious fasting was known; today, political and social fasting exists (hunger strikes), health and ideological fasting (vegetarians), pathological fasting (anorexia), aesthetic fasting (the cult of the body -- believing that thinner is better). There is, above all, a fast imposed by necessity: that of millions of human beings who lack the indispensable minimum and die of hunger.

These fasts in themselves have nothing to do with religious or aesthetic reasons. In aesthetic fasting at times one can even "mortify" the vice of gluttony only to obey another capital vice, that of pride or vanity.

Fasting, in itself, is something good and advisable; it translates some fundamental religious attitudes: reverence before God, acknowledgment of one's sins, resistance to the desires of the flesh, concern for and solidarity with the poor. ...

As with all human things, however, it can fall into "presumption of the flesh." Remember the words of the Pharisee in the temple: "I fast twice a week" (Luke 18:12).

Lent is a time for us to discover the reasons for the pious practices, disciplines and devotions of our Catholic Christian tradition. What have we done with the important Lenten practice of fasting? If Jesus were here to speak to disciples of today, what would he stress most?

We regard as more important the need to "share bread with the hungry and clothe the naked"; we are in fact ashamed to call ours a "fast," when what would be for us the height of austerity -- to be on bread and water -- for millions of people would already be an extraordinary luxury, especially if it is fresh bread and clean water.

In his message for Lent 2009, Benedict XVI writes: "At the same time, fasting is an aid to open our eyes to the situation in which so many of our brothers and sisters live. In his First Letter, St. John admonishes: 'If anyone has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need, yet shuts up his bowels of compassion from him -- how does the love of God abide in him?' Voluntary fasting enables us to grow in the spirit of the Good Samaritan, who bends low and goes to the help of his suffering brother.

"By freely embracing an act of self-denial for the sake of another, we make a statement that our brother or sister in need is not a stranger. It is precisely to keep alive this welcoming and attentive attitude towards our brothers and sisters that I encourage the parishes and every other community to intensify in Lent the custom of private and communal fasts, joined to the reading of the Word of God, prayer and almsgiving. From the beginning, this has been the hallmark of the Christian community, in which special collections were taken up, the faithful being invited to give to the poor what had been set aside from their fast. This practice needs to be rediscovered and encouraged again in our day, especially during the liturgical season of Lent."

Fasting helps us not to be reduced to pure "consumers"; it helps us to acquire the precious "fruit of the Spirit," which is "self-control," it predisposes us to the encounter with God.

We must empty ourselves in order to be filled by God. Fasting creates authentic solidarity with millions of hungry people throughout the world.

But we must not forget that there are alternative forms of fasting and abstinence from food. We can practice fasting from smoking and drinking. This not only benefits the soul but also the body. There is fasting from violent and sexual pictures that television, movies, magazines and Internet bombard us with daily as they distort human dignity. There is the fasting from condemning and dismissing others -- a practice so prevalent in today's Church.

"For now is the acceptable time! Now is the day of salvation!"

We need Lent to help us recognize that our identity and mission are rooted in Jesus' dying and rising. Prayer, fasting and almsgiving are the pillars of the Lenten journey for Christians.

Lent is a time to fast from certain things, but also a time to feast on others.

Fast from discontent, anger, bitterness, self-concern, discouragement, laziness, suspicion, guilt.
Feast on gratitude, patience, forgiveness, compassion for others, hope, commitment, truth, and the mercy of God.

Lent is just such a time of fasting and feasting!

Lent Is 'Round D Corner

Again, it is time of the year - time of fast and abstinence.

As a Catholic, this is a time for us to reflect on Jesus's sufferings for mankind, the love He had for us, that He died to set us free.

Am I letting Him died in vain? Have I done enough to build His church on earth? Most of all, have I spread His love to everyone?

Looks like I need to do some serious soul-searching, and also to prepare myself for confession.

Good Friday

Today is a very special day for all Christians in the world...

Christ gave up His life so that we can have new life. He said, "Take this body, which will be given up for you." He is our Saviour and our God.

Went for mass yesterday and I was still searching within myself. I felt very difficult to let go have the hatred I bore on those people who had accused me of sending that "surat layang". In fact, they have now come up with a new conclusion - that the letter was written by more than 1 person.

Christ's commandment - "Love one another as I have love you" seems so difficult to achieve. I can't even stand them now, I lost al the respects I have had for them. How to love them ???????

What a conflict. Arggghhh .......

Please pray for me that I will be able to "Forgive those who sinned against us".

Easter Is Coming

It's almost coming to the end of Lent season.

Opps, I have not gone for confession yet. Must ask God to forgive me for I am unable to forgive those who accused me. Jesus once said that we need to forgive people "seventy times seven". And He can forgive those who betrayed Him. I can't...

"Oh God, I needed Your courage and wisdom. Open up my heart to be able to forgive them. Amen."