Bday Greetings!

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Hi Sister Lan!

Chuc Mung Sinh Nhat! :)

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Be at Peace

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Do not look forward in fear to the changes in life;
rather, look to them with full hope that as they arise,
God, whose very own you are,
will lead you safely through all things;
and when you cannot stand it, God will carry you in His arms.

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Do not fear what may happen tomorrow;
the same understanding Father who cares for
you today will take care of you then and every day.

He will either shield you from suffering
or will give you unfailing strength to bear it.
Be at peace, and put aside
all anxious thoughts and imaginations.




by St. Francis de Sales

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picture: Sunset in Danshui, north Taiwan

Pulilan

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Pulilan

bayang sinilangan

hinahanap-hanap

di kailanman malilimutan

lupang kinagisnan

tahanang bayan

Pulilan

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larawan kuha ni Matilde de Guzman

Beauty of Silence

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What cannot be expressed, should be left in silence.

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Lesson In Life

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Perseverance is much more important in life than intelligence.

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Entering Holy Week

Palm Sunday 2008

During Holy Week we are entering into a special part of Church calendar when you and I will accompany the final moments of our Lord – his agony in the Garden, his arrest, his abandonment by his friends, the denial of Peter.

On Holy Thursday we will remember the Last Supper and the betrayal of Judas.

On Good Friday, the arrest, trial, crucifixion, death and burial of Jesus Christ.

Holy Saturday, the Sabbath on which Jesus rested in the grave.

Easter Sunday, the glorious Resurrection of our Lord.


You and I, and the rest of Catholic around the world, are invited during this Holy Week to enter prayerfully and meditatively into the heart and mystery of our salvation. It’s the mystery of dying and rising, the mystery of humiliation and exaltation, the mystery of suffering and glorification, the mystery of death of one person in order that we live eternally, the mystery of defeat which is crowed with victory.

We just heard the narration of the Lord’s Passion according to the Gospel of St Matthew. The scripture story invites us all to enter into the story of Christ’s passion, his psychological torture, physical torment of the scourging and the crowning with thorn.

There are several characters in the story that perhaps we can relate with - Pilate, the crowds, Judas, Simon of Cyrene, Barabbas, the good thief, the bad thief, the crown, etc. Let us journey with them this Holy Week. Gradually we will experience during this week our Lord’s desire to be near us, to be so intimately closed to each one of us and reveal his love.

Jesus wants you and I, to always remember how he loves us, love that caused his own death on the cross.

Commitment
Today, let us make a commitment to celebrate this holy week in the way never celebrate before. Let us participate in our liturgical activities during the week as an expression of our desire to encounter Jesus and not to abandon him.

Jesus knows our own suffering too, the burdens we bear, depression, conflict in our family, health problem and all other conflict we carry in our mind and heart. During this week we ask our Lord to give us the strength and courage to carry our own crosses in life and make sacrifices for others sake.

With all this in mind and heart we are ready for Holy Week.

Living Up

Fifth Sunday of Lent A
Hope – Raising of Lazarus
March 8, 2008

Herald Sun Weekend magazine
Last Saturday week Herald Sun Weekend magazine had a big section on how to achieve a better life – how to feel fitter, eat better, think faster, de-stress and put real meaning back into our world. The magazine enumerated 20 practical ways how to change our life. They are in this order: invite your neighbour in, show that you appreciate your friends and family, learn to cook something new, drink more water, cook at home, learn to dance, have a check-up, meditate, find your own special place, get some exercise, get a good night’s sleep, play mind games, manage conflict at work, take up a team sport, heal yourself through laughter, consider yoga, keep a diary, enroll in a coarse, and lastly, go easy on yourself as a parent.

I myself would personally try most of these (except the last one) and see what will happen. I believe our modern technology and health experts can provide us the possibility of rapid change in our life for better, a balance and healthy life-style.

Then, I ask myself, let’s say that I’ve done all these things good exercise, good diet, and everything, still in the end I will die. Even if I’m the most discipline, smart and healthy person on earth, I can’t be here forever.

I must be hope for something more than good health or a radical change in our life!

We must hope for something that is not temporary but lasting, that is beyond this life.

Ultimate Hope
Today’s readings point to our ultimate hope in life in the midst of the mess in humanity, depression and all its confusion. We have all the ultimate hope to live a life untouched by debt, miseries, pain and death. Our ultimate hope is eternal life.

In encyclical letter Spes Salvi (On Christian Hope), Pope Benedict XIV says, In some way we want life itself, true life, untouched even by death; yet we do not know the thing towards which we feel driven. We cannot stop reaching out for it, and yet we know that all we can experience or accomplish is not what we yearn for.

I suppose what the Holy Father is saying is that we are all hoping for a better life, we often don’t know how to achieve it. No medical breakthrough or modern technology can offer us eternal life. We cannot simply download it from the internet.

In today’s Gospel Jesus brings the ultimate hope to humanity that we are all longing for – the hope for eternal life.

We heard from the Gospel last Sunday when Jesus healed the blind, he brings the sign of light into the world. Today’s raising of Lazarus is a sign of the new life, of new hope, offered through the Spirit of the risen Lord.

The dramatic scene of Lazarus coming out from the cave, wrapped in linen but alive and well, is not really the main point of the reading. Lazarus was only temporarily resuscitated by our Lord. Like all human beings, Lazarus would succumb to natural death later on.

The raising of Lazarus is one of the last and greatest miracles worked by our Lord to prove that he is the Messiah, sent by God to give a new life, an eternal life, to humankind and that through faith in him believers will receive eternal life.

Jesus explains the purpose of this miracle not because Lazarus was one of his very close friends, rather “it is for God's glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” How? First, when Jesus brings Lazarus back to life, people will give God glory for the miracle. Second, by restoring the life of Lazarus, Jewish leaders of his time would be more determine to kill Jesus. And ironically, the death of Jesus would bring true life and hope to the world.

Message
When Lazarus came out of the cave, Jesus commanded the people to “Untie him, let him go.” This is what Jesus saying to each of us today as we approach the end of Lent.

Untie him, let him go.
There are so many dark areas in our private life. We often bind ourselves with strings of our sinfulness, laziness, un-forgiveness, pride gossip, prejudices, hatred and uncontrollable anger and bury ourselves in the tombs of despair. Jesus asks us today to seek his help and that of the community around us to loosen those chains and come out of tombs of our own creation.

Is there an area of your life where your hope is gone? Do you want to lock it up in a tomb and seal it away from Jesus or are you willing to have Jesus visit this area of your life? There are times when we refuse to let God enter into lives, to unbind and free us from the darkness of mess.

If you want Jesus to visit the dark dungeons of your life, ask Jesus during this Holy Mass to bring the light and the power of His Holy Spirit into your private life and ask him to liberate us from our tombs.

Let the story of the resurrection of Lazarus become our story! We are called to leave our graves of sin and unhappiness. Jesus calls each of us by name to come out of our graves and help others to do the same.

Only then after we come out from our raised own grave of sinfulness, and be re-created by the power of the Holy Spirit, that we can truly say that we live better, feel fitter, eat better, think faster, put real meaning back into our world.

Blind can see

Fourth Sunday of Lent A
March 1-2, 2008

(DRAFT )

Healing of the Blind Man

Highschool class discussion
If you would have one disability what would you choose?
It’s alright to be deaf;
Somehow it’s ok mute; limp; lose one leg; arm
To be blind? To loose sight it’s like leaving in a dark hole; Imagine you cannot the colour of a flowers; the change of season; the face of your loved ones.
It doesn’t only restricts your mobility but you seem to live in your own world; it’s not easy…
Imagine yourself being blind – close you eyes for a minute. How blessed we are that we can see.

Sri Lankan
- met at St Peters parish 4 years ago...
She prays not for herself but for world, for the poor, young people and her children and grandchildren. I never heard her praying for her own needs. Her physical eyes were blind but her heart has clear vision of the needs of the people.

Physical blindness
Spiritual blindness
People who can see yet they cannot see what is essential.
Some people pretend to be blind or not seeing things because they don’t what to see the reality. (Mother pretending not seeing the jocks and socks scattered in the house; Cat during Mass; beggars in the streets)

Some people cannot see the goodness of their loved ones. Those who do not appreciate good things in life – those who cannot appreciate smile; laughter; friendship

We are spiritually blind when we cannot see the needs of other people. (In the train pregnant woman without seat; elderly person crossing the road)

We are spiritually blind when we pretend not to see evil/harmful things in our lives. When we tolerate one’s inclination to sins. When we pretend not seeing sinfulness happening inside or around us.

The highest level of spiritual blindness – we cannot see Jesus as the light of our life.


Pharisees are spiritually blind
They witnessed before their eyes the miracle that happened to a man born blind yet their “eyes of faith” are closed; they were blind to it. They met Jesus, without really meeting him. They heard Jesus and they saw him, but they neither saw nor heard the salvation that Jesus brings. Why? Because if they admitted the truth that Jesus is God – Messiah - they were afraid that they would lose their seat of power and their influence.

Their pride is the one that is covering the eyes of their faith – which makes them “spiritually blind”.

Spiritual blindness is worst than being physically blind. When people are spiritually blind they do not believe in Jesus or obey him. But when people trust in Jesus to save them, they are given "spiritual eyes" to see God’s will for their lives. When our “eyes of our faith” is open we are able to see and understand the goodness of God; the beauty of the world; the grandeur of being human; that other people do not see and understand.

Jesus is the light
When Jesus healed the blind man in the Gospel. Jesus brought both physical and spiritual healing.

When the former blind man believed that Jesus is the Lord his vision goes beyond seeing. He faith able to see Jesus as the Light that shun the darkness of sin. The Light that illumines the humanity and the whole world. In Jesus, he found a much important security in life more than having clear vision eyes.

Jesus is ever ready to heal us and to free us from the darkness of sin and deception. There is no sickness, whether physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual that the Lord Jesus cannot heal.

The Lord offers us freedom from spiritual blindness due to sin and he restores us to wholeness of body, mind, soul, and heart.

We ask our Lord in this Eucharist to touch and open our eyes to the deeper and beautiful realities of our faith.

Let's rejoice today that Christ is the Light of the World. We cannot remain in the darkness of sin; miseries and anxiety. We have Jesus who can take us out of the darkness of our sins and even our dark past.

He is the our Saviour, Healer and our Light.


"Jesus, in your name the blind see, the lame walk, and the dead are raised to life. Come into our lives and heal the wounds of our broken hearts. Give us eyes of faith to see your glory and hearts of courage to bring you glory in all we say and do."