The Acts - Giving praise to the Almighty God

Best Excuses for Dozing at Work

2007-01-12T13:15:00.000+08:00

10 best excuses when you get caught falling asleep on your desk:

10. "They told me at the blood bank this might happen."

9. "This is just a 15 minute power-nap like they raved about inthat time management course you sent me to."

8. "Whew! Guess I left the top off the White-Out. You probablygot here just in time!"

7. "I wasn't sleeping! I was meditating on the mission statementand envisioning a new paradigm."

6. "I was testing my keyboard for drool resistance."

5. "I was doing a highly specific Yoga exercise to relievework-related stress. Are you discriminatory toward people whopractice Yoga?"

4. "Why did you interrupt me? I had almost figured out asolution to our biggest problem."

3. "The coffee machine is broken..."

2. "Someone must've put decaf in the wrong pot..."

And the #1 best thing to say if you get caught sleeping at your desk...

1. " ... in Jesus' name. Amen."

Jean

Jobs

2007-01-09T15:53:00.000+08:00

A Catholic Priest and a Rabbi were chatting one day when the conversation turned to a discussion of job descriptions and promotion.

"What do you have to look forward to in way of a promotion in your job?" asked the Rabbi.

"Well, I'm next in line for the Monsignor's job." replied the Priest.

"Yes, and then what?" asked the Rabbi.

"Well, next I can become Bishop." said the Priest.

"Yes, and then?" asked the Rabbi.

"If I work real hard and do a good job as Bishop, it's possible for me to become an Archbishop." said the Priest.

"O.K., then what?" asked the Rabbi.

The Priest, begining to get a bit exasperated replied, "With some luck and real hard work, maybe I can become a Cardinal."

"And then?" asked the Rabbi.

The Priest is really starting to get mad now and replies, "With lots and lots of luck and some real difficult work and if I'm in the right places at the right times and play my political games just right, maybe, just maybe, I can get elected Pope."

"Yes, and then what?" asked the Rabbi.

"Good grief!" shouted the Priest. "What do you expect me to become, GOD?"

"Well," said the Rabbi, "One of our boys made it!"

Jean

Jokes: Q&A

2006-11-20T11:53:00.000+08:00

Q. Which servant of Jehovah was the most flagrant lawbreaker in the Bible?
A. Moses. Because he broke all 10 commandments; at once.

Q. What excuse did Adam give to his children as to why he no longer lived in Eden?
A. Your mother ate us out of house and home.

Q. How do we know that Job went to a chiropractor?
A. Because in Job 16:12 we read, "I had come to be at ease, but he proceeded to shake me up and he grabbed me by the back of the neck and proceeded to smash me."

Read more at Aha! Jokes

who else?
JS
;)

The Real Jacob

2006-11-10T18:45:00.000+08:00

http://www.beth-elsa.org/abv112604.htm

Punctuation

2006-11-01T19:00:00.001+08:00

excerpt from Giving Pause (,) for Thought by Janadas Devan

Misplaced commas have caused schisms; questionable ones have occasioned lawsuits.

Consider this passage from Luke, xxiii, 43, reporting Christ's words to one of the criminals who was crucified with Him: 'Verily I say unto thee, Today thou shalt be with me in Paradise.'
That is how the Protestant Bible renders the passage, placing the comma after 'thee'. The implication is the thief will be translated straight into Paradise with Jesus, skipping 'the whole unpleasant business of Purgatory', as Ms Truss puts it.

Now consider how the Catholic Bible renders the same passage: 'Verily I say unto thee today, Thou shalt be with me in Paradise.' The implication here is the thief will be translated into Paradise, but not immediately, leaving 'Purgatory nicely in the picture for Catholics, who believe in it.' One wonders: If Luke had got not only Christ's words right, but also the precise punctuation He intended, would Christendom have been riven into so many pieces?

Note: "And Jesus said to him: Amen I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with me in paradise." -Luke 23:43
"In paradise"... That is, in the happy state of rest, joy, and peace everlasting. Christ was pleased, by a special privilege, to reward the faith and confession of the penitent thief, with a full discharge of all his sins, both as to the guilt and punishment; and to introduce him immediately after death into the happy society of the saints, whose limbo, that is, the place of their confinement, was now made a paradise by our Lord's going thither.
-Douay-Rheims Catholic Bible
http://www.drbo.org/cgi-bin/d?b=drb&bk=49&ch=23&l=43&f=s#x

Harry Potter, Catholic Boy

2006-10-30T13:34:00.000+08:00

http://www.up.edu/portlandmag/2004_summer/potter.htm

Catholic Gasoline

2006-09-25T14:55:00.000+08:00

Sister Mary Ann, who worked for a home health agency, was out making her rounds visiting homebound patients when she ran out of gas. As luck would have it, an Exxon Gasoline station was just a block away. She walked to the station to borrow a gas can and buy some gas.

The attendant told her that the only gas can he owned had been loaned out, but she could wait until it was returned.

Since Sister Mary Ann was on the way to see a patient, she decided not to wait and walked back to her car. She looked for something in her car that she could fill with gas and spotted the bedpan she was taking to the patient.

Always resourceful, Sister Mary Ann carried the bedpan to the station, filled it with gasoline, and carried the full bedpan back to her car.

As she was pouring the gas into her tank, two men watched from across the street. One of them turned to the other and said, "If it starts, I'm turning Catholic."

Irish Priest in Texas

2006-09-25T14:54:00.000+08:00

Good old Irish humour to brighten the day.

Seems that the good Father O'Malley rose from his bed on a beautiful spring day
in his new Texas mission parish.

He walked to the window of his bedroom to get a breath of fresh air of the new day.

But alas, Father O'Malley noticed that there was a dead jackass lying in the middle of the front lawn.

He promptly called the police station and the conversation went like this:

"Good morning, this is Sgt. Jones. How may I help you?"

"The best of the day to you my son. This is Father O'Malley at St. Brigid's.
There is a dead jackass in me front lawn. Would ye be so kind as to send a couple o' yer lads to take care of the matter?"

Sgt. Jones considered himself to be a comedian. He replied with a smirk,
"Well now Father, it was always my impression that you people took care of last rites."

There was a dead silence for a few moments, then Father O'Malley replied: " Aye, tis certainly true, but we are also obligated to notify the next of kin."

Gotta love those Irish priests!

Why I Don't Forward Religious Stories

2006-09-25T14:48:00.000+08:00

Why I Don't Forward Religious Stories by Darrell Hamilton
...
The problem with this story is that while it conveys a principle that seems true enough, it is actually a fictional story. It is very easy for a crafty person to hide untruths (lies) in the midst of truths when the overall medium is fiction. That is how most mythology was started - someone came up with a "plausible" explanation with a story that could not be verified.
...
Satan is never described in the Scriptures as an "villainous-looking gent". He and his servants are described as looking like angels of light (II Corinthains 11:14) and as wolves in sheep's clothing (Matthew 7:15).
...
In general, there is no need to pass along make believe stories about Jesus. It dishonors the Bible to think that you have to get people to see their condition by spreading false tales. The Bible is sufficient to convict men of their ways. Cute stories only encourage people to make up their own story and believe that.

So here is the ultimate test. If you send this story to someone who has never read the Bible, would this story make them curious enough to read the Bible? If they read the Bible because of this story, would they be upset when they discovered that this story is not in the Bible? Too often, stories of this nature are designed to give people comfort that they can be acceptable to God just as they are, without any change on their part.

Jean

Amplify

2006-09-01T13:48:00.000+08:00

Come join us and learn about Life, the way God intended =)
-Juliana Yong

www.amplifyministries.blogspot.com

Jean

Takashi Nagai: Prophet of Nagasaki

2006-08-27T10:59:00.000+08:00

Every year, on August 6, throngs of people converge on Hiroshima and hold political demonstrations and rallies, many of them characterised by noisy anti-West slogans. Three days later, another group of people gather in Nagasaki to pray for reconciliation and peace. Many Japanese say, "Hiroshima is anger, Nagasaki is prayer." This is the legacy of a once proud atheist who, through faith and trust, embodied the poverty of spirit and inner strength of Jesus Christ, the unblemished Lamb of God.
-The Word Among Us

I never knew that.. Nagasaki was "the home of the Japanese martyrs;... the home of the largest Catholic cathedral in Asia, the home of Japan's largest and most vibrant Catholic community."

Jean

Can Criminals Hide In Churches?

2006-08-20T22:14:00.000+08:00

On the tradition of religious sanctuary.
http://www.slate.com/id/2147879/?GT1=8483

Jean

BIG MEETING!

2006-08-05T23:00:00.000+08:00

HEY GUYS!!!!

The ACTS is back...our first big meeting would be on:
15TH AUGUST 2006, 5.15PM at LT2
The theme is: A CALL TO COMMUNITY
SPEAKER: FREDDY GOMEZ (AMPLIFY MINISTRIES)

Check us out on the 15th, bring a friend along and have your own personal JESUS ENCOUNTER!

St. John Vianney, the Cure of Ars

2006-08-05T18:58:00.000+08:00

Memorial: 4 August

"If people would do for God what they do for the world, what a great number of Christians would go to Heaven."

"My little children, reflect on these words: the Christian's treasure is not on earth but in heaven. Our thoughts, then, ought to be directed to where out treasure is. This is the glorious duty of man: to pray and to love. If you pray and love, that is where a man's happiness lies.

Prayer is nothing else but union with God. In this intimate union, God and the soul are fused together like two bits of wax that no one can every pull apart. This union of god with a tiny creature is a lovely thing. It is a happiness beyond understanding.

My little children, your hearts, are small, but prayer stretches them and makes them capable of loving God. Through prayer we receive a foretaste of heaven and something of paradise comes down upon us. Prayer never leaves us without sweetness. It is honey that flows into the souls and makes all things sweet. When we pray properly, sorrows disappear like snow before the sun.

Some men immerse themselves as deeply in prayer as fish in water, because they give themselves totally to God. O, how I love these noble souls!

How unlike them we are! How often we come to church with no idea of what to do or what to ask for. And yet, whenever we go to any human being, we know well enough why we go. And still worse, there are some who seem to speak to the good God like this: "I will only say a couple of things to you, and then I will be rid of you." I often think that when we come to adore the Lord, we would receive everything we ask for, if we would ask with living faith and with a pure heart."

"Prayer is the inner bath of love into which the soul plunges itself."

-Saint John Mary Vianney/Jean Marie Vianney
Patron Saints Index: Saint John Mary Vianney

also see our post on the play: http://cjctheacts.blogspot.com/2006/04/cure-of-ars-play.html

Jean

St. Martha

2006-07-29T12:14:00.000+08:00

Patron of servants and cooks.

"Jesus loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus." This unique statement in John's gospel tells us of the special relationship Jesus had with Martha, her sister, and her brother.

Dorothy Day said: "If everyone were holy and handsome, it would be easy to see Christ in everyone. But it was not Christ's way for himself. Ask honestly what you would do when a beggar asked at your house for food. Would you give it on an old cracked plate, thinking that was good enough? Do you think that Martha and Mary thought that the old and chipped dish was good enough for their guest? It is not a duty to help Christ - it is a privilege."

Prayer:
Saint Martha, pray for us that we might serve Jesus better. Help us to overcome our distractions and worries to listen to His words and be present to Him this day. Amen

-Catholic Online: St. Martha

No one of you should say, "Blessed are they who have deserved to receive Christ into their homes!" Do not grieve or complain that you were born in a time when you can no longer see God in the flesh. He did not in fact take this privilege from you. As he says, "Whatever you have done to the least of my brothers, you did to me."
from a sermon by Saint Augustine
-Patron Saints Index: Saint Martha

We do know that she is our patroness for whom Jesus was like family, and therefore, a powerful one in the presence of God. Because she took care of the hungry, followers of Jesus traditionally know her as the Patroness of housewives, waiters, and waitresses.

The Prayer to St. Martha is:
St. Martha, I resort to thy protection and aid and as a proof of my affection and faith I offer this light which I shall burn every Tuesday. Comfort me in all my difficulties and through the great favour thou didst enjoy when the Saviour was lodged in thy house. Intercede for my family that we may always hold God in our hearts, and that we may be provided for in all our necessities, I ask, St. Martha, to overcome all difficulties as thou didst overcome the dragon at thy feet.

As a Novena, this may be said for nine Tuesdays with the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory be to the Father.
-St. Martha Catholic Church: History of Saint Martha

Scripture commentators point out that in writing his account of the raising of Lazarus, St. John intends that we should see Martha's words to Mary before the resurrection of Lazarus as a summons that every Christian must obey. In her saying "The teacher is here and is asking for you," Jesus is calling every one of us to resurrection - now in baptismal faith, forever in sharing his victory over death. And all of us, as well as these three friends, are in our own unique way called to special friendship with him.
-American Catholic: Saint of the Day: St. Martha

Jean

Amen.

2006-07-26T16:08:00.000+08:00

Amen is a derivative from the Hebrew verb aman "to strengthen" or "Confirm".
-Catholic Encyclopedia: Amen

Joachim & Anne

2006-07-26T15:19:00.000+08:00

For those who wonder what we can learn from people we know nothing about and how we can honour them, we must focus on why they are honoured by the church. Whatever their names or the facts of their lives, the truth is that it was the parents of Mary who nurtured Mary, taught her, brought her up to be a worthy Mother of God. It was their teaching that led her to respond to God's request with faith, "Let it be done to me as you will." It was their example of parenting that Mary must have followed as she brought up her own son, Jesus. It was their faith that laid the foundation of courage and strength that allowed her to stand by the cross as her son was crucified and still believe.

Such parents can be examples and models for all parents.

Anne (or Ann) is the patron saint of Christian mothers and of women in labour.

Prayer:
Parents of Mary, pray for all parents that they may provide the loving home and faithful teaching that you provided your daughter. Amen.
-Catholic Online: Sts. Joachim and Anne

Tradition has assigned the names Joachim and Anne (meaning "gracious" in Hebrew) to the parents of the Blessed Virgin, although there is some thought that her father's name may actually have been Heli (Luke 3:23), though it is very uncertain. Joachim has been assigned other names as well in other apocryphal writings: Cleopas, Eliacim, Jonachir, and Sadoc.

The names Anne and Joachim derive from an early apocryphal writing called the Protoevangelium of James (2nd century), which professes to give an account of Mary's birth and early life. The story parallels that of the Biblical narrative (1 Samuel 1) of the childless Hannah bearing Samuel. It is worth noting that in Hebrew Anne and Hannah are the same name.

Whatever their names, they were highly extolled by Saints John Damascene, Epiphanius, and Gregory of Nyssa as the model for Christian spouses and parents, whose principal duty is the holy education of their children. By this they glorify their Creator, perpetuate His honour on earth, and sanctify their own souls. Saint Paul says that it is by the education of their children that parents are to be saved.

...
Saint Anne is the patron of Brittany, childless women, housewives, cabinet makers, and miners (the result of a comparison between Mary and Jesus and precious metals.)
-Saint Patrick Catholic Church: Saints of July 26

Joachim (whose name means Yahweh prepares), was the father of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
-Catholic Encyclopedia: St. Joachim

St. Anne is patroness of women in labour; she is represented holding the Blessed Virgin Mary in her lap, who again carries on her arm the child Jesus. She is also patroness of miners, Christ being compared to gold, Mary to silver.
-Catholic Encyclopedia: St. Anne

Joachim and Anne were the parents of Mary and the grandparents of Jesus.

The name "Hannah" means grace. In Galilee, where she lived, Mary's mother was probably called "Hannah" even though we know her as Saint Anne. So, if you are named "Hannah" or "Anne" you are named after the mother of Our Blessed Mother.

It was in the womb of Saint Anne that Mary was immaculately conceived. From the first instant of her life, she was in a state of grace and free from all stain of Original Sin. It was her parents, Anne and Joachim that raised her to be faithful to God's word and remain free of sin.

Anne is the patron of Christian mothers, and Joachim the patron of fathers. They were given the great honour and responsibility of raising Mary to be the Mother of God, and can help mothers and fathers today to raise their children to love and follow God too.

...
Prayer:
Lord, God of our fathers, through Saints Joachim and Anne You gave us the Mother of Your Incarnate Son. May their prayers help us to attain the salvation You promised to Your people. Amen.
-Domestic-Church.Com: Saint Profile: Saints Anne and Joachim

Whether we rely on the legends about Mary's childhood or make guesses from the information in the Bible, we see in her a fulfillment of many generations of prayerful persons, herself steeped in the religious traditions of her people.

The strong character of Mary in making decisions, her continuous practice of prayer, her devotion to the laws of her faith, her steadiness at moments of crisis, and her devotion to her relatives - all indicate a close-knit, loving family that looked forward to the next generation even while retaining the best of the past.

Joachim and Ann - whether these are their real names or not - represent that entire quiet series of generations who faithfully perform their duties, practice their faith and establish an atmosphere for the coming of the Messiah, but remain obscure.

This is the "feast of grandparents." It reminds grandparents of their responsibility to establish a tone for generations to come: They must make the traditions live and offer them as a promise to little children. But the feast has a message for the younger generation as well. It reminds the young that older people's greater perspective, depth of experience and appreciation of life's profound rhythms are all part of a wisdom not to be taken lightly or ignored.
-American Catholic: Sts. Ann and Joachim

It is a dogma of faith that Mary the mother of God-Made-Man was herself conceived and born immaculate - that is, untainted in soul by the stain of original sin that has marked the souls of all other human beings since Adam's fall. Some devout Catholics of yore thought it appropriate to theorize that Mary herself was not conceived in the normal way, but by a virginal conception like that of Jesus. Catholic devotion to SS. Anne and Joachim overrules this mistaken piety. In honouring them as the true grandparents of Jesus, it implies that Mary was begotten in the manner that God established for the human race.
...
Popular Christian devotion to these parents of so great a daughter developed naturally. They must have been wonderful people to have been so favoured. Through them, Jesus became a member of an extended family - a concept that society venerated. Finally, they were saints whom average couples could more easily appreciate than the virginal parents of Jesus Himself.
...
Although St. Anne remains more popular than her saintly husband, Catholic devotion to the pair has been essentially a devotion to the human family. Having produced a daughter whom God called upon to give to the world its redeemer, they had become the supreme witnesses of the greatness of the family as a divine creation. In them, every other couple can find a reassurance that in marriage, by bearing and raising children for the greater honour and glory of God, they are privileged to be, if not God's grandparents, at least co-creators with Him of the human race.
-Father Robert F. MacNamara, Saint Thomas the Apostle Church: SS. Anne and Joachim

[About.com: St. Ann Novena]

Along with St Joseph they are protectors of [the Carmelite] Order.

Prayer:
Lord, God of our fathers, you bestowed on St Joachim and St Anne this singular grace that their daughter, Mary, should become the Mother of your Son, Jesus Christ.
Grant, at their intercession, the salvation you promised to your people.
We ask this through Christ, our Lord.
-The Irish Province of the Order of Carmelites: Saints Joachim & Anne

Our information about Mary's parents comes from an apocryphal Christian writing, the Protoevangelium Jacobi (or Gospel of James), written about the year 170. According to this story, Joachim was a prominent and respected man who had no children, and he and his wife, Anne, looked upon this as a punishment from God. In answer to their prayers, Mary was born and was dedicated to God at a very early age.
...
Anne is often shown in paintings with Jesus and Mary and is considered a subject that attracts attention, since Anne is the grandmother of Jesus. Her two great shrines - that of Ste. Anne d'Auray in Britanny, France, and that of Ste. Anne de Beaupre near Quebec in Canada - are very popular.
...
There is a church of St. Anne in Jerusalem and it is believed to be built on the site of the home of SS. Joachim and Anne, when they lived in Jerusalem.
(The One Year Book of Saints by Rev. Clifford Stevens)

Collect:
God of our fathers, you gave Saints Joachim and Ann the privilege of being the parents of Mary, the mother of your incarnate Son. May their prayers help us to attain the salvation you have promised to your people. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
-Catholic Culture: Liturgical Year: July 26, 2006: Joachim and Anne

Jean

Sts. Peter and Paul

2006-07-01T13:08:00.000+08:00

Pope Benedict XVI, 29 June 2006: "Columns and Foundation of the City of God"
The two apostles rendered their supreme testimony in a short distance of time and space one from the other: Here, in Rome, St. Peter was crucified and subsequently St. Paul was decapitated.

Their blood was fused therefore almost in one sole testimony of Christ, which drove St. Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon, in the middle of the second century, to speak of the "Church founded and constituted in Rome by the two most glorious Apostles Peter and Paul" ("Against Heresies" III, 3, 2).

Shortly after, from North Africa, Tertullian exclaimed: "This Church of Rome, how blessed she is! It was the Apostles themselves, who with their blood, poured out to her the whole doctrine" ("Prescription against the Heretics," 36).

Precisely because of this, the Bishop of Rome, Successor of the Apostle Peter, carries out a particular ministry of service of the doctrinal and pastoral unity of the people of God spread throughout the world.

[Translation by ZENIT]
© 2006 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana [adapted]

With what crowns of praise shall we crown Peter and Paul? The former as the leader of the apostles, the latter as the one who toiled more than the others.

June is always marked by the festive commemoration of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul which is observed by our Church on the 29^th day, and indeed after fasting in honour of the chief Apostles.
-The Greek Orthodox Church in Australia

This day has been consecrated for us by the martyrdom of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul. It is not some obscure martyrs we are talking about. "Their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world" (Ps. 19). These martyrs had seen what they proclaimed, they pursued justice by confessing the truth, by dying for the truth.
-The Crossroads Initiative: St. Augustine on the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles

In celebrating the lives of Peter and Paul together, we recognize that the Gospel for the circumcised was committed to Peter and that for the uncircumcised to Paul (Galatians 2:7-9). Yet there was considerable overlap and working together of Peter and Paul, especially in Antioch in the late 40's and early 50's AD (Galatians 2:11-15). In addition, Paul's custom was to stop first at the Jewish Synagogue when he entered a city (Acts 17:1-2, 10). Only after they rejected him did he go to the Gentiles (Acts 13:42-49). Peter, on the other hand began by preaching to the Jews, but his later missionary journeys took him very far afield to places dominated by Gentiles such as Asia, Macedonia, Britain and Italy (see Appendix A pp. 34-37 for Peter's Missionary Journeys).
-St. Athanasius Orthodox Church

Jean

Must a Pope Change His Name?

2006-06-30T11:01:00.000+08:00

St. Anthony Messenger: How does a new pope choose his name? Is this even required? Are there formal policies for the choice of a name?

A: This is not required...

The Creed

2006-06-30T10:48:00.000+08:00

St. Anthony Messenger: 'I Believe' or 'We Believe'?
On Sundays and holy days of obligation, we recite the Nicene Creed. We begin by saying, "We believe in one God...." Although this is the first person plural, this prayer's Latin text reads "Credo" ("I believe," first person singular). Who made this change and by what authority?

Zenit: Why the Creed Doesn't Mention the Eucharist

Happy Youth Day weekend =)

Jean

Feast or Solemnity?

2006-06-24T15:18:00.000+08:00

"Solemnities" are the days of greatest importance; then come "feasts" in the narrower sense; and then "memorials."
-Catechist

how do [these various designations] affect the celebration of a Mass?
The ranking of liturgical celebrations guarantees that the most important events in the Church's life will not be skipped. For example, if your parish church was dedicated on March 27, in most years the parish could have a special Mass on that date. But since Christians in the West will be observing that as the date of Easter this year, that solemnity outranks all other liturgical celebrations.

On solemnities, there are three readings, plus the Gloria and the Profession of Faith. On feasts, there are two readings, but only the Gloria. Memorials generally have two readings with no Gloria or Profession of Faith.
-St. Anthony Messenger

St. John the Baptist

2006-06-24T13:37:00.000+08:00

He was specially chosen to prepare people's hearts to receive the Good News that Jesus would preach. We are all expected to help people to be more receptive to God's Truth, Love and gift of eternal life. Speak to the Lord of how you are doing or not doing this.
-Fr. Philip Heng, S.J.

The date originally was the pagan celebration of the summer solstice. King Clovis of France christianised the event by making it a religious celebration of the birth of John the Baptist. John the Baptist is known as the Precursor of Christ, rebirth, and the light to the world, which explains the link to the solstice.
...
Unfortunately, like many religious holidays, the holiday was securalised, and is now know as the Fête Nationale in Quebec.
This does not stop modern Christians though from remembering the deeds, service, and loyalty of John the Baptist...
-About: St. Jean Baptiste Day

...the times were troubled, and the people yearned for reassurance and comfort...
Although his preaching and baptising continued for some months during the Saviour's own ministry, John always made plain that he was merely the Forerunner. His humility remained incorruptible even when his fame spread to Jerusalem and members of the higher priesthood came to make inquiries and to hear him. "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand," -this was John's oft-repeated theme.
-Eternal World Network: St. John the Baptist the Precursor

But the angel said to him: "Fear not, Zachary, for thy prayer is heard; and they wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John: and thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice in his nativity. For he shall be great before the Lord; and shall drink no wine nor strong drink: and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. And he shall convert many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias; that he may turn the hearts of the fathers unto the children, and the incredulous to the wisdom of the just, to prepare unto the Lord a perfect people."
...
The resemblance of the feast of St. John with that of Christmas was carried farther, for another feature of the 24th of June was the celebration of three masses: the first, in the dead of night, recalled his mission of Precursor; the second, at daybreak, commemorated the baptism he conferred; and the third, at the hour of Terce, honoured his sanctity. The whole liturgy of the day, repeatedly enriched by the additions of several popes, was in suggestiveness and beauty on a part with the liturgy of Christmas. So sacred was St. John's day deemed that two rival armies, meeting face to face on 23 June, by common accord put off the battle until the morrow of the feast (Battle of Fontenay, 841).
-Catholic Encyclopedia: St. John the Baptist

Cool. Christmas is at the winter solstice and St. John's is the summer solstice! Although this year's summer solstice was June 21.

John the Baptist (also called John the Baptiser, or Yahya the Baptiser) is regarded as a prophet by at least three religions: Christianity, Islam, and Mandaeanism.
...
The Eastern Orthodox Church remembers Saint John the Forerunner on six separate feastdays:
September 23 - Conception of St. John the Forerunner
January 7 - The Commemoration of St. John the Forerunner (main feastday, immediately after Epiphany on January 6)
February 24 - First and Second Finding of the Head of St. John the Forerunner
May 25 - Third Finding of the Head of St. John the Forerunner
June 24 - Birth of St. John the Forerunner
August 29 - The Beheading of St. John the Forerunner

The Roman Catholic Church remembers St. John the Baptists on two separate feastdays:
June 24 The Birth of St. John
August 29 The Decollation (Beheading) of St. John
...
Saint John the Baptist is the patron saint of French Canada. The Canadian cities of St. John's, Newfoundland (1497) and Saint John, New Brunswick (1604) were both named in honour of Saint John. His feast day is June 24, celebrated in Quebec as the Fête nationale du Québec.
He is also counted as the Patron of the Knights Hospitaller of Jerusalem.
...
St. John's Wort is named after St. John because it is traditionally harvested on his feast day.
-Wikipedia: John the Baptist

...he is the only saint besides the Virgin Mary whose birthday is celebrated: June 24.
-Answers.com: John the Baptist

Also known as
Joannes Baptista; John the Baptiser; John the Forerunner; Juan Bautista

Name Meaning
God is gracious; gift of God (John)

Patronage
[places, nationalities, orders]
diocese of Charleston, South Carolina
Colletorto, Italy
diocese of Dodge City, Kansas
French Canadians
Fürstenberg, Germany
Genoa, Italy
Jordan
Knights Hospitaller
Knights of Malta
Leioa, Spain
Macau, China
Maltese Knights
Monte San Giovanni Campano, Italy
Monza, Italy
Palermo, Sicily
diocese of Paterson, New Jersey
Penzance, Cornwall, England
diocese of Portland, Maine
Pozzallo, Sicily
Puerto Rico
Quebec
Ragusa, Sicily
Saint-Jean-le-Blanc, Loiret, France
San Juan Indian Pueblo
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Sassano, Italy
diocese of Savannah, Georgia
Teising, Germany
Torino, Italy
Umbria, Italy
Wenden, Germany
Wenings, Germany
Wroclaw, Poland

[others]
baptism; bird dealers; converts; convulsions; convulsive children; cutters; epilepsy; epileptics; farriers; hail; hailstorms; lambs; monastic life; motorways; printers; spasms; tailors

His persecutor had demanded not that he should deny Christ, but only that he should keep silent about the truth. Nevertheless, he died for Christ. Does Christ not say: "I am the truth"? Therefore, because John shed his blood for the truth, he surely died for Christ.
from a homily by Saint Bede the Venerable on the death of John the Baptist
-Patron Saints Index: Saint John the Baptist

If the part about his name looks familiar, it's because you read it at this post about St. John the Apostle

Crikey, Macau has a patron saint? and Singapore doesn't have one. =(
All we've got is Saint Jack.

Ordinarily the Church observes the day of a saint's death as his feast, because that day marks his entrance into heaven. To this rule there are two notable exceptions, the birthdays of Blessed Mary and of St. John the Baptist. All other persons were stained with original sin at birth, hence, were displeasing to God. But Mary, already in the first moment of her existence, was free from original sin (for which reason even her very conception is commemorated by a special feast), and John was cleansed of original sin in the womb of his mother.
...today's feast anticipates the feast of Christmas.
...
This is one of the few saint feast days that is connected with the temporal calendar, not the sanctoral calendar, because John the Baptist was intimately involved in Christ's work of redemption.

In Brazil, this day is known as Diário de Sáo Joáo (Saint John's Day). The festivities are set off in the villages and countryside by the Fogueira de Sáo Joáo (bonfire) on St. John's eve. Families and friends eat traditional foods around the fire while younger folks jump over the fire and firecrackers are exploded. The day is primarily a festival for children, who save up months in advance to purchase fireworks to set off for the day. In cities this is a day for parties and dances, with the urban dwellers dressing up in rural costumes.

St. John is the protector of lovers, so for fun, young country girls in Brazil will roll up scraps of paper, each bearing a name of a single girl and place them into a bowl of water. The first one which unfolds indicates the girl who will marry first.
-Catholic Culture: Solemnity of the Birth of St. John the Baptist

that sounds like fun! jumping over fires 8)

...and of course, food is involved. This makes sense in terms of the bounty of the season, the diet of locusts and honey that sustained the Voice Crying in the Wilderness, and the banquet where Salome danced, and thus, sealed the tragic fate of the saint.
-eG Forums: Feast of St. John the Baptist [lots of recipes]

Jean

The only thing necessary for the perpetuation of evil is for good people to do nothing.
-Edmund Burke

Sacred Heart

2006-06-23T19:18:00.000+08:00

It falls 19 days after Pentecost, on a Friday.
-Wikipedia: Feast of the Sacred Heart

...the divine Saviour appeared to her, showed her His Heart burning with love, and said: "Behold this Heart, which has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming itself, in order to testify its love...
-Sacred Heart Catholic Church: Feast of the Sacred Heart

Many Catholics prepare for this feast by beginning a Novena to the Sacred Heart on the Feast of Corpus Christi...
On the day of the Feast a special meal may be prepared for the family in accordance with Catholic tradition.
The family should attend Confession and Mass and receive the Holy Eucharist.
The family may perform a Renewal of the Consecration of the family to the Sacred Heart ceremony...
-Servants of the Sacred Heart of Jesus: The Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Devotion to the Sacred Heart is but a special form of devotion to Jesus. We shall know just what it is and what distinguishes it when we ascertain its object, its foundations, and its proper act.
-Catholic Encyclopedia: Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

The Heart of Jesus, like all else that belongs to His Person, is worthy of adoration, but this would not be so if It were considered as isolated from this Person and as having no connection with It...
The worship, although paid to the Heart of Jesus, extends further than the Heart of flesh, being directed to the love of which this Heart is the living and expressive symbol.
-Saint Lawrence Catholic Resource Site: Sacred Heart of Jesus

Devotion to the Sacred Heart is a form of devotion to the person Jesus, and especially to His Love.

Pope John Paul II:
If the human heart represents an unfathomable mystery that only God knows, how much more sublime is the heart of Jesus, in which the life of the Word itself beats.

Pope Benedict XVI, Angelus Message, St Peter's Square; Sunday, June 5, 2005:
The feast of the Sacred Heart is also World Day for the Sanctification of Priests, a favorable opportunity to pray that priests will put nothing before love of Christ.
-Women for Faith and Family: Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

We are called to surpass the lower forms of love in order to attain Divine love, a self-sacrificial love that gives itself without boundaries or hesitation.
-The Catholic Doors Ministry: Homilies: Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, June 22, 2001

Devotion to the Sacred Heart is as old as the Church herself. The image of Christ hanging on the Cross with blood and water flowing from His side made a tremendous impression on early Christians. St. Irenaeus, who lived at the turn of the third century, wrote: "The church is the source of living water which flows from the Heart of Christ."
-Priests of the Sacred Heart Development Office Home Page: Devotion to the Sacred Heart

The Feast of Love has come.
-Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus: The Feast of the Sacred Heart

"I promise you in the excessive mercy of my Heart that my all-powerful love will grant to all those who receive Holy Communion on the First Fridays in nine consecutive months the grace of final perseverance..." (Jesus to St. Margaret Mary)
-Catholic Culture: Sacred Heart of Jesus [check out the Heart Cake recipes!]

The Monks of Adoration: Sacred Heart of Jesus Photos

Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus has as its dogmatic foundation the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.
-Patron Saints Index: Sacred Heart of Jesus

We have his own word for the fact that our Lord's love for us is a sweet yoke and a light burden.
-Abbot John Eudes Bamberger, Abbey of the Genesee: MY YOKE IS SWEET AND MY BURDEN LIGHT: Feast of the Sacred Heart Homily

The Kingdom of God is within you.
-AMASC - World Association of Alumnae and Alumni of the Sacred Heart

Discover the greatest source of spiritual and temporal help, graces and blessings for those who truly love the Sacred Heart of Our Lord, Jesus Christ...
-Heart to Heart

Catholic Ireland: Sacred Heart

St. Mary Margaret Alacoque
From early childhood Margaret showed intense love for the Blessed Sacrament, and preferred silence and prayer to childish amusements...
Her feast is celebrated on 17 October.
-Catholic Encyclopedia: St. Mary Margaret Alacoque

Sacred Heart Novena Prayer
Lord Jesus, the needs of your people open your heart in love for each of us. You care for us when we are lost, sympathise with us in loneliness, and comfort us in mourning; you are closest to us where we are weakest. You love us most when we love ourselves least; you forgive us most when we forgive ourselves least; and you call us to spread your love in whatever way we can.

Lord Jesus, your heart is moved with compassion when we are suffering, when we need your help, and when we pray for each other. I ask you to listen to my prayer during this Novena, and grant what I ask (make your request silently). If what I ask is not for my own good and the good of others, grant me always what is best, that I may build up your kingdom of love in our world.
Amen.

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus,
I place all my trust in you.

-+♥+-

Cor unum et anima una in corde Jesu
One heart and one mind in the heart of Jesus

Jean

Feast of the Body of Christ

2006-06-18T10:46:00.000+08:00

Catholic Encyclopedia: Corpus Christi

EWTN - The Holy Eucharist - Catholic Teaching on the Eucharist

Wikipedia:
The Blessed Sacrament
Corpus Christi (feast)
Corpus Christi is a bank holiday in Austria and in parts of Germany and Switzerland. It used to be a bank holiday in Italy but was abolished. It is also a national holiday in Brazil, Chile,Croatia, Poland, and Portugal.

also see our earlier post: Maundy Thursday & Corpus Christi:Why We Have Two Days to Celebrate the Eucharist

Today is also Anne's 18^th birthday and Father's Day, and yesterday was Graham's 18^th birthday and Queen Elizabeth II's 80^th birthday.

Jean

Jokes

2006-06-12T23:45:00.000+08:00

Christian Jokes

Catholic Humour
I esp like
School Sex Ed
Ratzinger, Kung and Rahner
Jesuits and Dominicans

Jean

Trinity Sunday

2006-06-11T17:14:00.000+08:00

The first Sunday after Pentecost, instituted to honour the Most Holy Trinity. In the early Church no special Office or day was assigned for the Holy Trinity.
...
Since it was after the first great Pentecost that the doctrine of the Trinity was proclaimed to the world, the feast becomingly follows that of Pentecost.
-Catholic Encyclopedia: Trinity Sunday

Trinity Sunday also represents the beginning of the Church part of the liturgical year, continuing until Advent, where green vestments are worn by clergy; however, the colour for Trinity Sunday itself is white.

Trinity Sunday is celebrated in all the Western liturgical churches: Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran and Methodist.

In the Eastern Churches, Pentecost itself is considered the feast of the Trinity.
...
Prior to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, it marked the end of a three-week period when church weddings were forbidden.
...
Other times when church weddings were forbidden included:
The first Sunday of Advent to January 13, the end of the Octave of Epiphany.
Septuagesima to the Octave of Easter (the first Sunday after Easter).
...
Trinity Sunday is... eight weeks after Easter Sunday.

The earliest possible date is May 17 as in 1818 and 2285. The latest possible date is June 20 as in 1943 and 2038.

-Wikipedia: Trinity Sunday

See also: Athanasian Creed

WHAT IS TRINITY SUNDAY?
The Sunday after Pentecost is the Festival of the Holy Trinity. On this day, the church rejoices in the impenetrable mystery that God is triune (three-in-one) - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. How the Lord can be one God in three distinct persons is completely beyond the ability of any human to understand. By the power of the Holy Spirit, Christians accept this incomprehensible mystery as a fundamental article of faith.

WHAT IS THE ATHANASIAN CREED?
The Athanasian Creed is the Christian church's wonderful and profound confession of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. This creed takes its name from the influential Egyptian bishop and theologian of the 4th century, Athanasius, who was once thought to be its author. Because of its length, it is not recited in church on a regular basis. However, many congregations (including Saint Paul's) use it on Trinity Sunday. This creed, along with the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed, is one of the three ecumenical creeds that have been universally accepted and confessed by the Christian church since ancient times.

WHY IS TRINITY CELEBRATED ON THE FIRST SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST?
How God can be one God in three Persons is a mystery. While it is taught in the Bible (for example, in Matthew 28:18-20 and 2 Corinthians 13:14), it can never be understood or rationalized - it can only be accepted by faith. Since faith comes only through the work of the Holy Spirit, it is appropriate that this glorious mystery is celebrated on the first Sunday after Pentecost, the great festival of the coming of the Holy Spirit.

WHY DOES THE CHURCH ASSIGN A SPECIAL FESTIVAL TO GLORIFY THE HOLY TRINITY?
From Advent through Pentecost, the church ponders with joy and thanksgiving what Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have done to accomplish the salvation of sinful humanity. During the Season after Pentecost, we focus on how we as Christians ought to respond to the love that God has shown us. Trinity Sunday is a transitional day that bridges these two parts of the liturgical year. This is the solemn day on which we praise and adore God both for what He has done for the world and for who He is:
FATHER - Our Creator and Sustainer
SON - Our Saviour and Redeemer
HOLY SPIRIT - Our Sanctifier and Comforter

-Saint Paul's Lutheran Church: Questions & Answers about Trinity Sunday

We are all created by God the Father, saved by God the Son, Jesus, and guided by God the Holy Spirit. We are called to live a meaningful and fulfilling life here on Earth so that we can all return to our Creator, who has prepared an eternal home of glory and joy for us.
-Daily Email Reflection by Fr. Philip Heng, SJ

Jean

My One Desire

2006-06-08T15:25:00.000+08:00

Christ the King's
Maranatha Prayer Ministry presents

Event Introduction
To act as a channel to bring more vibrancy and life to the prayer life of youths, no matter their spiritual level.
To inspire youths to take the step to establish a more active personal prayer life and a closer relationship with God.
To instil in youths a sense of belonging in the Catholic community.

Objective of Event
To inspire youths to develop a stronger relationship with God through a personal experience of God's love.

Event Details
Venue: Main church hall, Church of Christ The King
Date: Saturday, 1st July 2006
Time: 8:00p.m to 10:00p.m.

Event Programme
1. Video Trailer for Prayer Rally
2. Praise dance
3. Praise & Worship
4. Skit on three individuals who lead life without prayer
5. Sharing by guest speaker, Freddy Gomez
6. Blessed Sacrament
7. Worship
8. Testimonies
9. Praise and praise dance

The inaugural Youth Prayer Rally 2006 (PR06) is a call to all youths - from schools to the various youth groups in Singapore - to gather in a night of thanksgiving and worship; it is an answer to God's call to a renewal in every young Catholic's prayer life.

My One Desire is designed to create an input, an experience and a participation in every youth. No matter the age, there is space in our relationship with God; there is always more to give, and there is always more to receive.

Input
God calls us to be "holy" for He is holy (Lev 19:2). Yet, we cannot possibly imitate our God in being holy without first knowing Him. Since our human thoughts are not His thoughts (Isaiah 55:8, Matt 16:23), it is important, as Christians, to understand the person of Jesus - the way He speaks, the way He acts, the way He loves. Only in appreciating the things Jesus did in His life on earth can we start trying to be like Him. PR06 invites us to grow in knowledge of God.

Experience
Jesus reminded us that the one who is forgiven more, loves more (Luke 7:47). In a wider spectrum, the more we receive and experience God's love, the more we are able to give love. We strongly believe that every Christian who opens his/her heart to God's unconditional love will experience the love that has been present in our lives all along.

Participation
When Jesus was anointed at Bethany (Matt 26:6-13), He praised her for her "wastefulness" (v10). The woman was participating in paying Jesus the highest form of respect. Nothing was held back when she worshipped Jesus. We want to follow this example, giving God all we have, holding nothing back. PR06 urges us to participate fully - to be extravagant in our praise and wasteful in our worship.

We can never get too close to God. We must therefore strive to get ever closer in faith and knowledge of God. We firmly believe the essence of this is prayer. Our united prayer is that you will take the step in joining us, and the rest of the Catholic youth community in receiving the power every one of us has in prayer.

Find out more.

post contributed by Dorothy, the person who got me into ACTS =)

tag, Dot!

love, Jean

Happy Birthday! It's Pentecost Sunday

2006-06-04T00:31:00.000+08:00

This Sunday marks the birthday party of the billion people who today make up the Catholic Church. On that first Pentecost, the party was smaller, only 120, but the attendees themselves became the birthday candles when the Spirit crowned each of them with fiery tongues.
click here to see the gifts we received!

A feast of the universal Church which commemorates the Descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles, fifty days after the Resurrection of Christ, on the ancient Jewish festival called the "feast of weeks" or Pentecost (Exodus 34:22; Deuteronomy 16:10). Whitsunday is so called from the white garments which were worn by those who were baptised during the vigil; Pentecost ("Pfingsten" in German), is the Greek for "the fiftieth" (day after Easter).
-Catholic Encyclopedia: Pentecost (Whitsunday)

Pentecost represents God's gracious, enabling presence actively at work among His people, calling and enabling them to live out in dynamic ways the witness of being His people.
...
For Christians, Pentecost Sunday is a day to celebrate hope, a hope evoked by the knowledge that God through His Holy Spirit is at work among His people.
-Dennis Bratcher: Pentecost

Pentecost was the first day that the Spirit took hold of the followers of Christ as a group or "body", and came to stay. It was the first time the Spirit's raw power was there in anyone who followed Christ, not just the Twelve.
-Spirithome - A Fresh Blast of the Pentecost Spirit : Be Lit!

Pentecost is regarded as the birthday of the Christian church, and the start of the church's mission to the world.
-BBC - Religion & Ethics - Pentecost
read The Story of Pentecost

"Through the Holy Spirit we are restored to paradise, led back to the Kingdom of heaven, and adopted as children, given confidence to call God "Father" and to share in Christ's grace, called children of light and given a share in eternal glory."
St. Basil, De Spiritu Sancto
-EWTN: Pentecost

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

The Bible & Catholics on Gambling

2006-06-04T00:00:00.000+08:00

Mr. T often challenges people during GP, and the Catholic or Christian faith isn't exempt. While we were going through a comprehension on gambling, he asked: "Does the Bible say anything against it?" and I had to reply, "No."

"Yes it does," said my Protestant friend Anna, who has a good grasp of the Bible. "When Jesus turned the tables over in the marketplace..."

"That was moneylenders, not gamblers," I retorted heavily, trying but failing to come up with a verse about gambling.

"What do you think about gambling?" said Mr. T.

"I think it's a waste of time."

The thing about GP readings is that their arguments are so convincing... and this comprehension passage in favour of gambling seemed rather logical.

Ruminating about it today, I finally got around to googling. Happily, Anna was online to share the knowledge. Here's what I found:

The Bible does not specifically condemn gambling, betting, or the lottery. The Bible does warn us, however, to stay away from the love of money (1 Timothy 6:10; Hebrews 13:5). Scripture also encourages us to stay away from attempts to "get rich quick" (Proverbs 13:11; 23:5; Ecclesiastes 5:10).
-Got Questions: What does the Bible say about gambling? Is gambling a sin?

The Interactive Bible: Gambling and the Bible

Theologians commonly require four conditions so that gaming may not be illicit.
1) What is staked must belong to the gambler and must be at his free disposal. It is wrong, therefore, for the lawyer to stake the money of his client, or for anyone to gamble with what is necessary for the maintenance of his wife and children.
2) The gambler must act freely, without unjust compulsion.
3) There must be no fraud in the transaction, although the usual ruses of the game may be allowed. It is unlawful, accordingly, to mark the cards, but it is permissible to conceal carefully from an opponent the number of trump cards one holds.
4) Finally, there must be some sort of equality between the parties to make the contract equitable; it would be unfair for a combination of two expert whist players to take the money of a couple of mere novices at the game.
-Catholic Encyclopedia: Gambling

Blessed Nicholas Barre & The Visitation

2006-06-03T23:03:00.000+08:00

I was reading some stuff about saints today when I had the thundering realisation that I'd completely forgotten to post about Fr. Barre! How could I post about a saint and founder of another school and not about my own?! Haha.

So here's the belated post. Late is better than never. =)

On May 31, we members of the Catholic Church family celebrate the feast of the Visitation.
We also honor, in a special way, the following friends of God - saints whose souls are now in heaven:
...Bl. Nicholas Barre of Amiens [Nicolas] (French, priest, religious of the Order of the Minims of St. Francis of Padua, founded Congregation of the Sisters of the Infant Jesus, d. 1686 [beatified 1999])
-Greenspun.com May 31 - today's saints

I have a dim recollection of how we celebrated his beatification when I was in P5. Hm.

Good grief, I didn't know it was the Visitation. All right, you are hereby priviledged to receive a lengthier post.

HEADLINES:
Pope marks Third Sunday of Lent with special beatification of Ten candidates for sainthood
The Holy Father moved ten blesseds closer to sainthood when he beatified seven Augustinian monks and one priest Blessed Father Vincent Soler who were martyred in Spain during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930's. Pope John Paul II also beatified Blessed Pere Nicolas Barre, a 17th century monk who dedicated his life to teaching youth the treasures of the faith, and Bavarian victim soul Blessed Anna Schaffer who bore the stigmata early in this century. For more, click on Beatifications
-Daily Catholic, March 9, 1999

Well, I clicked on that, and here's the pertinent paragraph:

The Pope also pronounced the beatification of Nicolas Barre, a French monk of the 17th century and founder of Parisian schools which now serve thousands of young people. Some 7,000 students from those schools were present at the beatification ceremony, to hear the Pope praise Blessed Nicolas Barre as a model educator, who worked at a time when many people lived in "religious ignorance," and who fought valiantly against the corrupting tendencies of secular thought in his day.
-Daily Catholic, March 9, 1999: Beatifications

Augh. The trying thing about "Blessed"s is that the Net generally less information on them compared to Saints. Which is of course to be expected. Isn't it?

Since my efforts are currently turning fruitless, here's the

Hymn to Father Barre
De vos enfants exaucez la priere
Veillez sur nous O Saint Pere Barre
Choisissez-vous un essaim d'ouviere
Par le seigneur a votre attiree
Dans l'institut conservez d'age en age
Un zele ardent, l'humilite, la foi
Le pur amour, la force et le courage
Pour obsever a jamais votre loi (x2)

O hear our prayer, most holy Father Barre
We are your children, watch o'er us we pray
Touch many hearts to follow in your footsteps
To delicate their lives to youth and poor
Drawn by the Lord to make Christ known and loved
Fill us with zeal, humility and faith
Pure love and strength and courage without fear
To keep your spirit alive in our hearts (x2)

My most poignant memory of this song is cycling up and down the common corridor on training wheels in P4 singing it at full volume... poor neighbours. Those were happy afternoons though.

Oh well.

This is becoming like my 2nd blog. and it's not. It's our blog. Please blog, people, I know you have lots of things to share. Read our first post ever to see the purpose of this blog.

All right, on to The Visitation.

Visitation - Mary's Soul Proclaims God's Greatness (St. Bede)

A Roman Catholic homily for the Visitation of Mary on May 31, 2002, in Year A of the Liturgical Year.
The Catholic Doors Ministry: Visitation of Mary

Catholic Encyclopedia: Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Jean

clips

2006-06-02T12:35:00.000+08:00

At the Da Vinci Code cinema screening: http://www.syfc.org.sg/events/dvc/cinema.html

Jesus Died for Us All: http://www.jeffiscool.com/jesus.html

Jean

Ai

2006-05-31T16:49:00.000+08:00

This is a picture on the wall of Shalom Medical Clinic.

Jean

Atheist

2006-05-30T10:17:00.000+08:00

An atheist is walking through the forest when Big Foot jumps out at him. As the monster approaches menacingly, the atheist yells, "Lord, save me!"

Seconds later, a voice rumbles from Heaven. "I thought you didn't believe in me."

"Well," the man replies, "until a minute ago, I didn't believe in Big Foot either."

Dear God

2006-05-30T10:10:00.000+08:00

by preschool kids.

"Can you imagine how much fun God had hearing our prayers when we were kids too?"
-Juliana Yong

Jean

Moms as Genetic Outlaws

2006-05-28T01:21:00.000+08:00

Some Women Resist Pressure to Abort the Less-Than-Perfect

PARRAMATTA, Australia, MAY 27, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Society increasingly demands perfection, and babies diagnosed with problems are aborted more often than not. Some women, however, resist the pressure and bear children who suffer disabilities.

The stories of a number of these women are brought together by Australian researcher and activist Melinda Tankard Reist in a book titled, "Defiant Birth: Women Who Resist Medical Eugenics" (Spinifex Press). First-person testimonies comprise the bulk of the book.

In her opening essay Tankard Reist, founding director of Women's Forum Australia, gives an overview of the women who confront a society fearful of disability and who decide to have babies without the genetic stamp of approval. "They are, in a sense, genetic outlaws," she states.

The experience of some of the women also raises doubts over the medical profession. Some received grave diagnoses regarding their unborn children. Later, these children were born, either without any problems, or with handicaps that were much less serious than predicted. Some doctors even refused to help women who refused to abort children who were diagnosed with disabilities.

In fact, with increasing frequency women's desires are ignored. Tankard Reist recounts the case of one woman who didn't wish to be informed of any possible problems before she underwent an ultrasound procedure. On taking the image home she found on the image, nevertheless, a series of annotations of possible abnormalities. The baby was later born free of any of the conditions mentioned.

The upshot, the researcher states, is that prenatal screening, instead of giving women more power -- part of the rhetoric of the "right to choose" -- in practice puts pressure on them to conform to social prejudices against the handicapped.

The a-word

Also looming is another, more insidious, danger with genetic testing. Screening and abortion become merely a part of the routine prenatal program, Tankard Reist argues. Prior to prenatal testing the possibility of abortion might not even be mentioned and when problems are detected a full explanation of the options available might not be given.

Such was the case of Natalie Withers. Her fourth baby was diagnosed with heart problems and other conditions. She told Tankard Reist that the term "abortion" was not even mentioned; there was merely talk of "inducing birth" -- at 20 weeks gestation. Only when Withers was in labor was she informed that the baby might either be stillborn or die immediately. Not until after it was all over -- the baby didn't survive -- did Withers discover that children born with her daughter's condition can survive and do well if they receive the right care.

Women, then, can become victims after innocently going along with the attitude of "doctor knows best." Only too late do they discover that their own interests and preferences are passed over in favor of the conventional wisdom of perfect children, says Tankard Reist. And once they wake up to what is going on, even well-educated women can find the going difficult if they choose to go against the preferences of medical experts.

Often the information given to women is slanted in such a way as to encourage abortion. In many cases parents are not directed to groups that would help them to understand better the nature of the disabilities involved. That in turn makes it difficult for them to know how their child might fare or what support is available.

Other difficulties involve coping with the trauma and anxiety of test results that show possible problems. Tankard Reist cites a number of studies showing that many woman who are told their children suffer from defects suffer from serious shock, distress and panic. These psychological pressures can even affect the mother's well-being, and that of the unborn child.

The dangers involve physical risks too. Some observers question, for example, the frequent use of ultrasound machines without an adequate evaluation of the negative consequences. And amniocentesis, in which a sample of the amniotic fluid is taken from the mother's womb for analysis, can lead to the loss of the baby in 1 in 125 pregnancies, according to one meta-analysis cited in the book. Another study showed that this procedure caused up to four healthy babies to be miscarried for every abnormality detected.

Sometimes the tests are simply wrong. A study of 300 fetal autopsies found that the prenatal hypothesis concerning problems was confirmed in only 39% of the cases.

Dehumanizing

The eugenic mentality behind the practice of aborting handicapped children is sometimes more blatant. One survey of obstetricians in England and Wales, for example, found that a third of them require a woman, even before she undergoes prenatal diagnosis, to agree to abort a pregnancy if the child were found to have a problem.

Behind such a practice lurks the belief that allowing these children to be born would burden them with second-rate lives and bring misery into the world. This gives rise to a form of new eugenics masquerading under the appearance of health concerns, Tankard Reist warns. People who follow such a line of reasoning, she adds, might end up acquiescing to the selection and elimination of less-than-perfect children, a sort of infanticide.

Such a mentality mirrors the increased desire for perfection in today's society. Other manifestations of this trend include excessive dieting and the ever-spreading use of cosmetic surgery. A number of prominent geneticists and ethicists, including figures such as James Watson and Peter Singer, openly favor the use of genetic techniques to design more perfect babies.

Ever-higher health costs also contribute to the pressure on mothers to abort the handicapped. Parents who decide not to abort imperfect children are sometimes made to feel irresponsible for "burdening" society.

Tankard Reist cites Australian geneticist Grant Sutherland, who reckoned that preventing the birth of a child with Down syndrome saves the community a million dollars or more. He has urged governments to set up public clinics to screen pregnant women.

This financial pressure extends to other areas, such as the increasing difficulties faced by people with genetic defects in obtaining life insurance, or permission to adopt children.

Healthy Harrison

A report in last Sunday's London-based Telegraph newspaper highlighted the relevance of the problems raised in "Defiant Birth." Lisa Green was 35 weeks pregnant when her baby was diagnosed with Down syndrome, and she was offered an abortion by doctors.

The doctor, recounted Green, only disclosed the negative aspects of giving birth to the child. She rejected the advice, and two weeks later gave birth to a baby, named Harrison, now 2 years old. He is, said the newspaper, a "happy and healthy" child, according to the mother.

In an editorial published the same day, the Telegraph referred to the practice of aborting babies in a very late stage of pregnancy. "It is very difficult," it said, "if not impossible, to explain what makes these 'terminations' different from the killing of children." Such killings will continue, so long as the new eugenics mentality prevails.

* * *

[As part of a worldwide promotion, Melinda Tankard Reist's book "Defiant Birth" will be presented in Rome on June 1 at 5:45 p.m. in the Art Museum of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, Via Acciaioli 2]
ZE06052704
ZENIT. The World Seen From Rome.

Eugenics is a social philosophy which advocates the improvement of human hereditary traits through various forms of intervention.
-Wikipedia - Eugenics

And I thought I was done with GP for the time being.. oh well. Learning is woven in the fabric of daily living.

Jean

The Da Vinci Code, further elaborated

2006-05-27T16:39:00.000+08:00

Hi people,

It is always useful to know what is untrue in a work of fiction which deals with fact.

Even if it doesn't seem to matter to you now, don't navigate away from this post before reading it.

Thanks =)

"All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them."
-Galileo Galilei

"It's not what you know that gets you in trouble, but what you think you know!"

summary of the post:
1) Why the fuss?
2) 20 Big Lies
3) True Witnesses
4) Feminity in the Church - The Importance of Women
5) More Historical Errors
6) Why We're All Jesus' Children
7) Holy Grail Wars
8) Who Is the Real Mary Magdalene?
9) Art History; Real Life
10) For You
---
It isn't a defense to say that The Da Vinci Code is a work of fiction. Fiction can't change the basic facts about major historical figures without being subject to criticism. People would be outraged if Doubleday printed a novel portraying Adolph Hitler in a positive light. Christians have a right to be outraged when the basic historical facts about Christ are falsified. The criticism will be even more intense when a publisher releases a book parodying the most sacred beliefs of others in this fashion.

Further, the book takes great pains to create the appearance of factuality, including placing the infamous "fact" page at the beginning of the novel. Brown has stressed the ostensible accuracy of the book on his web site and in interviews. This is not a case where an author and a publisher have produced an ordinary novel. They have gone to great lengths to mislead people into thinking that the novel has a historical basis. They deserve especially sharp criticism for this, and when criticism is made they cannot hypocritically hide behind the "It's just fiction" allegation after having made such extensive efforts to convince the reader that it is not "just fiction."

source. Catholic Answers Special Report: Cracking the Da Vinci Code

---
20 Big Lies in the Da Vinci Code
By James A. Beverley

Don't be fooled. Here are just a few ways Dan Brown's best-selling book twists and distorts the truth of the gospel.
In a little more than three years The Da Vinci Code has become the best-selling adult novel of all time. It has also become the subject of intense debate among Christians because of its radical claims that undermine basic Christianity.
Why all the fuss over a work of fiction? The answer lies on Page 1, where author Dan Brown asserts that "all descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate."

In reality, the novel is a model of inaccuracy in almost every subject it addresses. Critics have noted its mistakes in mathematics, French geography and even the layout of the Louvre. More important, Brown's jarring claims about Jesus, the Bible, secret societies and ritual sex are based on shallow research, sloppy investigation and careless thought. However, given the novel's popularity and the staggering bravado in its tone, it is necessary for Christians to provide a critique of its central blunders. Here are 20 of them.

1. The Bible was invented by Roman Emperor Constantine in the fourth century.
The Da Vinci Code reports that "Constantine commissioned and financed a new Bible," one that left out the Gnostic texts and included the four traditional Gospels. In fact, Constantine had nothing to do with the making of the Christian canon. He is not even mentioned in the standard Cambridge History of the Bible. The traditional Gospels were recognized by virtually all Christians 150 years before Constantine.

2. The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Gnostic Gospels are the "earliest Christian records."
Not so. The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947 and date from 250 B.C. to A.D. 100. However, these documents have virtually nothing to do with Christianity but with various Jewish groups, rituals and ideas before and during the time of Christ.

The Gnostic Gospels offer a twisted and heretical version of the Christian faith, but they didn't come into existence until about a century or more after the death of Christ.

The earliest Christian records are the writings of the New Testament.

3. The Gnostic Gospels present a positive view of the feminine.
The Gnostic texts are said to picture a human, sexualized Jesus who embraced the sacred feminine. Actually, the Jesus presented in the Gnostic material is often simply weird, and the underlying ideology tends to be radically anti-feminine. Consider this bizarre passage from the Gospel of Thomas: "Simon Peter said to them, 'Make Mary leave us, for females don't deserve life.' Jesus said, 'Look, I will guide her to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every female who makes herself male will enter the kingdom of Heaven.'"

4. Early Christians did not believe Jesus was God's Son.
This is a bizarre claim, rooted in either willful ignorance or blindness to the obvious. After 2,000 years, people continue to debate whether Jesus is the Son of God. But what has never been subject to doubt is that early Christians confessed that Jesus is God's Son, as the following Scriptures indicate: "Simon Peter answered and said, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God'" (Matt. 16:16); "But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son" (Gal. 4:4).

5. The Council of Nicea (A.D. 325) invented the divinity of Jesus.
Contrary to Brown's claim, the famous church council met to clarify the divinity of Jesus, not create it. There are thousands of references to the divinity of Jesus in Christian literature and archaeology before the Council at Nicea. This includes the hundreds of claims in the New Testament and the witness of early church leaders through the second and third centuries.

6. Jesus was really a pagan or a witch.
No standard reference works on witchcraft ever include Jesus as a witch or pagan. The novel attempts to argue that Jesus was a copycat figure of ancient pagan deities. This view depends on totally ignoring the Jewish context of the life and teaching of Jesus. If Jesus had been a pagan or a witch, this would have been noticed by the Jewish leaders who opposed Him.

7. Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene.
The novel claims that there are "countless references" to their union in ancient history and that the topic "has been explored ad nauseam by modern historians." First, there is nothing in the New Testament or other first century material about such a marriage. Second, there is no explicit mention of the alleged marriage in the Gnostic material of the second and third centuries. All we have in the Gnostic material is one reference to Mary as the "companion" of Jesus. That word, however, does not usually mean "spouse" or "wife."

8. Jesus and Mary had a child named Sarah.
The novel claims Mary was pregnant at the time of the death of Jesus. Joseph of Arimathea, her uncle, helped her move to France. There she gave birth to a girl she named Sarah. Mary and Sarah found refuge in the Jewish community in France. We are told that "countless scholars of that era chronicled Mary Magdalene's days in France." This is nothing but historical junk first made popular by the 1982 potboiler Holy Blood, Holy Grail. There are no ancient documents supporting any of these claims, and no scholars of that era chronicled these alleged events.

9. There was a smear campaign against Mary Magdalene in Catholic tradition.
To the contrary, Mary Magdalene receives positive attention in the Bible and in Catholic tradition. In fact, she is regarded as a saint, and her Feast Day is July 22. As a close disciple of Jesus, she was one of the first witnesses of His resurrection. The mistaken view that she was a prostitute did not arise until A.D. 591 when Pope Gregory I confused her with a prostitute mentioned in Luke 7:36-50.

10. A secret society named the Priory of Sion started in 1099 and has protected the bones of Mary Magdalene and documents about the bloodline of Jesus Christ.
This is one of the most significant blunders of The Da Vinci Code. The Priory of Sion was actually started in France on May 7, 1956, by a con artist named Pierre Plantard (1920-2000). The Priory was first a civic organization. In the 1960s Plantard created the mythology of a secret society led by figures such as Isaac Newton and Leonardo da Vinci.

11. Ancient documents about the Priory were discovered in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris in 1975.
The Da Vinci Code refers to these alleged parchments as Les Dossiers Secrets. These documents are not ancient but are actually forgeries done by Philippe de Chérisey (1925-1985), a co-conspirator with Plantard. They were not discovered by the French library in 1975 but were placed there by Plantard in 1967.

Both de Chérisey and Plantard admitted the hoax before their deaths. In fact, Plantard was forced to admit his fraud before Judge Thierry Jean-Pierre in a French court case in September 1993.

12. There are historical lists of the Grand Masters of the Priory of Sion.
Actually, when Plantard invented the Priory of Sion he copied most of his list of Grand Masters from lists of alleged leaders of other groups, such as the Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, a secret society founded in America in 1915. Plantard also changed his list of Grand Masters as he adopted different conspiracy theories about his Priory of Sion.

13. The Holy Grail is not the cup used at the Last Supper but the bones of Mary Magdalene.
The novel states that "the quest for the Holy Grail is literally the quest to kneel before the bones of Mary Magdalene. A journey to pray at the feet of the outcast one, the lost sacred feminine."

The Holy Grail legends started about A.D. 1180 and continued through the 19th century. They never involved claims about the bones of Mary Magdalene. Isn't it amazing that no Priory of Sion member has ever given in to the temptation to reveal the location of the bones of Mary Magdalene?

14. The Knights Templar guarded the bones of Mary Magdalene and four huge chests of ancient documents about the bloodline of Jesus Christ and the French kings who descended from Him.
The Knights Templar is a religious military order founded in the early 12th century. Hugues de Payens, a French Knight, led eight comrades in the campaign to protect pilgrims to the Holy Land.

It has never been argued in the historical material about the Templars that they protected either Mary Magdalene or documents about French kings. These claims are the inventions of Pierre Plantard, who declared at one point that he was the descendant of Jesus and the proper heir to the French throne.

[See The Knights Templar, Wikipedia - Knights Templar for more.

The Knights Templars were the earliest founders of the military orders, and are the type on which the others are modelled. They are marked in history (1) by their humble beginning, (2) by their marvellous growth, and (3) by their tragic end. -Catholic Encyclopedia - The Knights Templar]

15. Leonardo da Vinci was once the Grand Master of the Priory of Sion.
The Priory started 437 years after the death of the great artist. Not one Leonardo da Vinci specialist in the entire world has supported the view that he once headed a pagan sex cult. James Beck of Columbia University calls this "total nonsense." Leonard da Vinci scholars have convened special conferences in order to debunk the novel's false claims about the famous artist.

16. Leonardo da Vinci placed Mary Magdalene next to Jesus in his famous painting The Last Supper.
In da Vinci's time everyone believed that this person was John, the beloved disciple. Renaissance art specialists have always noted that John was painted in a rather effeminate manner. The painting was not meant to reveal the identity of a woman but the tension created among the apostles after Jesus says to them, "'One of you will betray Me'" (Matt. 26:21). Of course, even if da Vinci put a woman next to Jesus in his painting, this would not tell us anything about the real Last Supper more than 14 centuries earlier.

17. The Catholic Church killed 5 million
women during the Witchcraft Inquisition. The women targeted as witches were freethinkers, scholars, priestesses, gypsies, nature lovers, mystics and midwives.

The novel radically misinterprets the nature and scope of the Inquisition. First, both men and women were targeted as witches. Second, the female victims were generally older and were not from any specific class or profession. Third, the deaths totaled no more than 100,000, counting both males and females. Most important, the Inquisition was rooted in the real belief that certain men and women actually worshiped Satan and performed diabolical acts of evil.

18. French President Francois Mitterand ordered 666 panes of glass in the pyramid at the front entrance to the Louvre.

The novel adopts a false rumor that circulated in French society two decades ago. Mitterand did not order 666 panes of glass to be in the pyramid. In fact, the public relations office at the Louvre informed me that the pyramid actually has 673 panes of glass.

19. Early Jewish as well as Christian tradition involved sex ritualism in worship.
There is not a single hint in the entire Old Testament or in Jewish history that sex rites were part of temple worship. Jewish males did not engage in sex with priestesses in the temple. The word "priestess" is not even used in the Old Testament.

In the novel Jesus and Mary Magdalene are pictured as the ideal participants in an early Christian sex ritual. This wild claim has no basis in history, either in terms of early Christian tradition or even in reference to Gnostic documents.

20. True worship involves sex ritualism.
The Da Vinci Code states that "historically, intercourse was the act through which male and female experienced God" and that "by communing with woman … man could achieve a climactic instant when his mind went totally blank and he could see God."

The Da Vinci Code will bring great harm to every innocent religious seeker who follows its endorsement of sex ritual as the path to God. Brown is surely bluffing in his rhetoric about sex in worship. It is impossible to imagine that he really believes his own novel's ideology.

Would he be willing to participate in the ancient ritual that The Da Vinci Code defends? Would he really recommend this ancient ritual to his wife, family and friends?

In both book and movie form The Da Vinci Code represents a threat as well as an opportunity for Christians. Its danger lies in its strident assertions of falsehoods that undermine basic teachings of the gospel.

Uninformed readers and moviegoers must be made aware of the historical blunders in Dan Brown's claims.

source: 20 Big Lies in the Da Vinci Code

---

Error: The book tells readers that "The New Testament is false testimony."
Rebuttal: The New Testament was sealed with the apostles' blood. They put their money where their mouths were. The Greek word for "witness" - as in the idea of witnessing to the truth about Jesus - is "martyro," from whence we get the word martyr. Why? Because so many witnesses to Jesus, e.g., the apostles, were killed for testifying about what they themselves saw. Brown glibly ignores this history and, instead, exalts the questionable writings of second-, third-, and fourth-century Gnostic Christians, who were sexual libertines for the most part. (Other Gnostics were strict legalists.)

source: "Da Vinci Code" Errors: a quick list
---

...what Dan Brown's book aims to tear down: the Christian Faith in general, and the alleged "just-too-masculine" Catholic Church with its all-male clergy in particular. But what does Brown's book offer as a replacement for Christianity? As critics are beginning to point out more and more, what the Code is really calling for is a return to the fertility cults of the ancient pagan mystery religions as a substitute, or at least a "remedy," for Christianity - all in the name of "the sacred feminine."

Throughout Brown's piece of fiction, various characters lament the loss of this "sacred feminine" in religion and culture. In one scene, members of an esoteric secret group are even depicted performing an erotic ritual, including a publicly performed marital act which glorifies "the sacred feminine." The book places this modern-day fertility rite in a very positive light. In other words, when The Da Vinci Code is thoroughly unlocked, what lies inside is a venomous agenda: the promotion of sex as religion, with the feminine generative powers having the privileged place of worship. This is the "old-time religion" which Dan Brown's bestseller is subtly peddling. Talk about an easy sell for the sex-drenched culture of the West.

... the Blessed Virgin Mary personally embodies an authentic "sacred feminine" spirituality [in Christianity.]

source: The Oranta Solution: Our Lady's Solution to Dan Brown's Code

---

Over the centuries one of Mary's greatest strengths as a symbol is the considerable tension she exemplifies between the humble peasant woman and the powerful mother of God.

source: Virgin Mary, Mother of God

---

The Church sees in Mary the highest expression of the "feminine genius", and she finds in her a source of constant inspiration. Mary called herself the "handmaid of the Lord" (Luke 1:38). Through obedience to the word of God she accepted her lofty yet, not easy vocation as wife and mother in the family of Nazareth. Putting herself at God's service, she also put herself at the service of others: a service of love. Precisely through this service Mary was able to experience in her life a mysterious, but authentic “reign". It is not by chance that she is invoked as "Queen of Heaven and Earth."

source: Mary Reveals True Feminity

---

Why the Blessed Virgin Mary Is Better Than Wonder Woman or My Mom Can Beat Up Your Feminist Icon

2.) Mary is a real, historical person. Unlike Wonder Woman, I can model my life on Mary. As one who is baptized and therefore illuminated by grace, I can actually attain to the same things that Mary actually achieved. Through Faith, I can give birth to the Word Incarnate, both in thought and action. Through Hope, I can unite any misery or suffering to the Passion of Christ, and thus not submit to despair. Through Love, I can achieve victory over the greatest evil of any time or place. No matter how hard I try, I will never become an Amazonian princess. (I think we are all glad about that.) Additionally, I can never learn to fly under my own power or deflect bullets with magic bracelets.

1.) Mary's Son is God! In the final analysis, this is the Ace of Trumps in this discussion. Rather than having some muddled sense of divinity being like a genetic trait, which predominates in both Greek and modern American culture, Mary's Son reinforces the great divide between Creator and Creature, while simulataneously showing us the condescension which God shows to Man in order to bring all creation back into union with Himself.

source: Catholic Ragemonkey

---

It is probably safe to say that for nearly two thousand years "'Mary' has been the name most frequently given to girls." She is the model, the archetype for feminity, much more than Jesus is the archetype for masculinity. She is the single most important female figure in art and music. Though we know very little about her, and mostly through these birth stories, Mary has been the inspiration to more people than any other woman who has lived. She also has been the enforcer of the status quo in a male dominated church, and of the cultural stereotypes of women for centuries.

source: All Souls Unitarian Church - Sermon: Mary

---

We talked a bit about the idea of Mary Magdalene becoming more popular because people want to tap into the feminine divine. It's true that Catholics, in some sense, have a feminine figure in the Virgin Mary. Protestants don't have that and will sometimes express feelings of loss at not having that. So what do you say to Protestants, and especially maybe to Protestant women?

It seems to me that the novel's popularity has to do with an unfulfilled longing. You can say there needs to be balance between the idea of God as father and something on the other side, and in fact we do have elements of that in the Bible - even though the Bible is very clear that its portrayal of divinity has nothing to do with gender. Men and women are both made in the image of God. But we also get the picture of wisdom as female. We get pictures of God gathering his people like a mother hen would gather [her] chicks.

So it isn't like there isn't feminine imagery associated with the nurturing care of God in scripture. It's there. The reason this is a problem is because it suggests a need to place God in gender categories, when the point theologically is that God transcends gender.

source: Da Vinci's Secret Agenda

---

Ungodly Errors
Scholarly gripes about The Da Vinci Code's Jesus.
By Larry Hurtado
Posted Monday, May 22, 2006, at 5:19 PM ET

Faith in the divine glory of the resurrected Jesus appears to have emerged amazingly soon after his execution, most likely among circles of his Jewish followers.

...the historic Gnostics and the gospels often linked with their circles did not emphasise Jesus' human nature at all - quite the opposite.

In reality, the Gnostics' negativity about the body includes a dim view of procreation and the sexual activity that went with it.

...the New Testament was not created at the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325. The question wasn't even on the council's agenda.

...this question of which writings to treat as scripture... was not decided at a single point by a church council, a pope, or a Roman emperor.

There were no two-way wars between Christians and pagans in the decades before Constantine.

source: Slate: Scholarly Gripes about The Da Vinci Code

---

Why We're All Jesus' Children
Go back a few millenniums, and we've all got the same ancestors.
By Steve Olson
Posted Wednesday, March 15, 2006, at 1:40 PM ET

On Monday Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code, testified in a London courtroom to defend himself against the charge that he stole from an earlier book the idea that Jesus has a secret line of descendants who are alive today. But no matter how the court case turns out, both books are confused. If anyone living today is descended from Jesus, so are most of us on the planet.

...If Jesus had children (a big if, of course) and if those children had children so that Jesus' lineage survived, then Jesus is today the ancestor of almost everyone living on Earth. True, Jesus lived two rather than three millenniums ago, but a person's descendants spread quickly from well-connected parts of the world like the Middle East.

Source: Slate: Why We're All Jesus' Children

---

Holy Grail Wars
The latest battle over The Da Vinci Code.
By Tim Wu
Posted Monday, March 13, 2006, at 11:57 AM ET

The authors of Holy Grail chose to make claims to truth - and while that gives their book a certain rhetorical power, it should also mean their work loses much legal protection. When copyright starts saying you can't borrow claims to truth, it stops helping and starts hurting all authors.

Let's start at the beginning. One of the basic principles of copyright law is that you can't copyright historical facts, though you can own how you express those facts.

...The answer is that Leigh et al., had a choice: They could have decided to portray their work as fiction, not history - and that, in the words of American judge Frank Easterbrook, "makes all the difference." When you, as an author, make a claim to present the truth, you both gain something and lose something. You have a shot at changing what we think to be true, and you may gain reader interest. But you cannot own the truth the way you might own elements of a fictional story, like the character "Rocky." To claim the truth is fine, but to own it is not.

...How can duelling authors ever have a meaningful public discussion of who Mary Magdalene was, if, for example, one side claims exclusive ownership of the theory that she was a lowly prostitute? Progress in science and scholarship requires the freedom to examine and expose claims to the truth, even crazy ones. Giving ownership to such claims would create free expression problems that go beyond book sales.

If the author calls it a fact, you can steal it. The first person to publish a historical theory, again in the words of Judge Frank Easterbrook, "does not get dibs on history."

source: Slate: Holy Grail Wars

---

So who is the real Mary Magdalene? Father Collins, who wrote the "Mary Magdalene" article in the Anchor Bible Dictionary, told Catholic News Service, "Luke describes Mary Magdalene as a woman from whom Jesus cast out seven demons, and that characterization of Mary Magdalene is repeated in the longer canonical ending of Mark's Gospel."

But he noted that in Jesus' time it was not uncommon to attribute physical or mental afflictions to demonic possession and this did not imply that the possessed person was sinful. "Whatever affected Mary Magdalene was considered to be the effect of demonic possession so she would not have been considered a public sinner the way the medieval legends have made her out to be," he said.

He said she is called the Magdalene because she comes from Magdala, "a fishing village up in northern Galilee."

He said one also learns from Luke "that she supported Jesus from her resources," suggesting that she was a woman of some means, and that she was one of several women from Galilee who were disciples of Jesus and followed him.

Luke's Gospel is the only one that mentions Mary Magdalene by name in the narration of Jesus' public ministry. But all four Gospel writers place her as a witness to Jesus' death on the cross, a witness to his burial and the chief witness to his resurrection, making her one of the most significant female figures in the Gospels apart from Jesus' own mother, Mary.

Summing up the real Mary Magdalene with what she called the "w's," Sister Elizabeth said, "Let's get this straight: She was not Jesus' wife ... neither a wife nor a whore, but a witness."
Source: Mary Magdalene: Setting the Record Straight

---

oh, but the material on Leonardo da Vinci is very interesting.

Perhaps, but it's all wrong. The Da Vinci Code is wrong on every single point in makes about Leonardo: from his name, to his religious and philosophical beliefs, to every statement about every art work mentioned: the Mona Lisa, the Last Supper, the Madonna of the Rocks, and The Adoration of the Magi.

I once gave a talk at a university. At the end of my talk, an art historian stood up and addressed the group. She said, "So many people come up to me and gush about how much art history they’ve learned from The Da Vinci Code... I tell them they’ve learned nothing about art from the Da Vinci Code!"

Indeed, if you asserted to any art historian that what is really going on in the Last Supper is that Leonardo is revealing that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married and she is the real Holy Grail…they would laugh. They would.

The Jesus of The Da Vinci Code is so much more human. I can relate to him so much more easily than I can the Jesus of the Gospels and the Church.
The Jesus of the Gnostic writings more human than the Jesus of the Gospels and the Church?

Really?

If you believe that, you’ve never read a Gospel.

If you believe that, you’ve never set foot in a Catholic Church.

Because, when you read the Gnostic writings, you meet the most unearthly, abstract, and frankly, boring and yes, barely human figure you can imagine. He walks around talking, talking and talking. He doesn't suffer, and for sure he doesn't die.

But when you actually sit down and read a Gospel, what do you see? Or rather... who?

You meet a man who was born of a woman, who, it is said in the Gospel of Luke "grew in wisdom." He eats with his friends, goes visiting, gets into arguments, has to get away from people at times, weeps, and is even afraid. He dies. On a cross, in agony, he dies.

You're going to tell me that's not human?

Think about Christian iconography, as well. What are the two most frequent ways of depicting Jesus that you see in 2000 years of devotional art from this church intent on suppressing the humanity of Jesus?

An infant on his mother's lap... and a man suffering his death throes.

You're going to tell me that's not human?

source: What do you say to a Da Vinci Code Believer?

---

Mirror Writing

Several reasons have been put forward for the use of mirror writing:

He was left-handed and in those days of writing with pen and ink this was a particular disadvantage; as your hand crossed the page it would smudge the still wet text.

source: Leonardo Da Vinci

---

How the Da Vinci Code Doesn't Work

---

Causing people to see something they never saw before in a five-hundred-year-old work of art which is among the most famous and reproduced of all time is an accomplishment of genius, if that "something" is a valid new insight. If it is not, then this kind of achievement usually goes by other names.

The Da Vinci Code novel contains a claim that in Leonardo’s mural The Last Supper, which portrays Jesus and his twelve apostles at the meal he took with them on the night before he died, one of the twelve is not the apostle John but actually a woman who is Mary Magdalene.

Forget the Gospel narratives through which Leonardo, like every other Christian, would have known about the Last Supper and which contain no mention of Mary Magdalene; forget the fact that this mural seems to have caused no sensation among the monks whose refectory it decorated and who would have been as likely to recognize a female form then as we are today; forget the many paintings of the Last Supper which show a handsome youth often leaning on Christ's shoulder or on his chest following the tradition that identified John with the unnamed "beloved disciple" of the fourth Gospel. If such a claim is put between the covers of a book, apparently it merits respectful consideration no matter how absurd.

What this novel does to Leonardo's Last Supper, it does to Christianity as such. It asks people to consider equivalent to the mainstream Christian tradition quite a few odd claims. Some are merely distortions of hypotheses advanced by serious scholars who do serious research. Others, however, are inaccurate or false.

Reporters have asked whether even a bestselling novel can seriously damage a Church of one billion believers. No, in the long run, it cannot. But that is not the point. The pastoral concern of the Church is for each and every person. If only one person were to come away with a distorted impression of Jesus Christ or His Church, our concern is for that person as if he or she were the whole world.

source: Jesus Decoded

---

Happy June holidays.

and feel free to talk if you have any questions.

JIAYOU!!!

*pours oil over everyone*

love, Jean

PS: Disclaimer - I am not responsible for recent oil shortages in the North Sea.

"Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent."
-Napoleon Bonaparte

PPS: Thanks to Teresa for emailing Cracking the Da Vinci Code and Darren for 20 Big Lies in The Da Vinci Code

Joan Chan Shu Fang

2006-05-26T22:53:00.000+08:00

On Wednesday as I walked past the old CAC Room, I paused to glance at an article pinned on the crowded noticeboard, about Joan Chan. It was odd, that I had never noticed it before. Someone, probably the person who maintains the board, had written "Never Give Up..." above the title.

Today I leafed to the Home section of the newspaper to see that Joan had died in her sleep on Wednesday night, the eve of Ascension Day.

Visit her old blog here and the one set up by her friends here.

And, just as for Fr. Brygier, pray for the repose of her soul.

Perhaps it has something to do with my classmate's post about love which I read and responded to earlier today, but here's the hymn that's playing in my mind.. and somehow it fits this post.

Strong and Constant

I will be Yahweh who walks with you
You will be always within My hand
Take your heart and give it all to Me

Strong and constant is My love
Strong and constant is My love

Should you wander far away from Me
I will search for you in every land
Should you call then you will truly know

Strong and constant is My love
Strong and constant is My love

When you know sorrow within your life
I will come
I will embrace your heart
Through your pain you will discover Me

Strong and constant is My love
Strong and constant is My love

icon for MSN by me, today.

Treasure life.

Jean

Pentecost Novena

2006-05-25T13:46:00.000+08:00

The Pentecost Novena is the first of all novenas, nine days of prayer. After Jesus' Ascension into heaven, He commanded His disciples to come together in the upper room to devote themselves to constant prayer (Acts 1:14). They prayed for nine days before receiving the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.
-Presentation Ministries: Pentecost Novena

Jesus instructed the apostles to go to Jerusalem and wait for the Holy Spirit. This was actually the first novena in preparation of Pentecost - Novena to the Holy Spirit.
-About: Ascension of the Lord

About: Roman Catholicism Novena to the Holy Spirit

Novena: Ascension Through Pentecost
Prayer guides for the nine days leading up to Pentecost.

Fr. Pat's Place: Pentecost Novena

The Burning Bush Pentecost Novena

Novena: A nine days' private or public devotion in the Catholic Church to obtain special graces.
-Catholic Encyclopedia: Novena

That's what the disciples had to do - just sit still and wait. "Don't leave the city until..." Why did Jesus make them wait? I think it was as much the sitting still as the waiting that was the point of the exercise. Just waiting a while, if you were getting on with other stuff in the meantime, wouldn't be any big deal really. But having to SIT STILL - not travel about, not distract yourself with other things, just reach a place of stillness - meant that when the Spirit came they were ready to handle it. They weren't just waiting, passively, FOR something to happen. It was an active, expectant waiting - like the phrase from the Psalms, they were 'Waiting ON God'.
-maggi dawn

Then, placing their trust in the word of Jesus, which would henceforth be their only support, they returned to Jerusalem where, in the Cenacle, they awaited in prayer the fulfillment of the promise. It was the first novena in preparation for Pentecost: "All these were persevering with one mind in prayer with... Mary, the Mother of Jesus" (Acts 1:14).

Silence, recollection, prayer, peace with our brethren, and union with Mary: these are the characteristics of the novena we too should make in preparation for the coming of the Holy Spirit.
-Catholic Culture: Liturgical Year: Solemnity of the Ascension, excerpted from Divine Intimacy, Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D.

He ascended into Heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

2006-05-25T13:16:00.000+08:00

Ascension Day is always Thursday (the fortieth day from Easter.)

In some countries (e.g. Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Germany) it is a public holiday; Germany also holds its Father's Day on the same date. In Roman Catholicism the Ascension of the Lord is a Holy Day of Obligation. In the Eastern Orthodox Church the Ascension is one of twelve Great Feasts.

In Western Christianity, the earliest possible date is April 30, the latest possible date is June 3.

According to Welsh superstition, it is unlucky to do any work on Ascension Day.
-Wikipedia - Ascension

Crikey, this was the wrong day for a study break! Haha. =p

Check out Firmin's post a year ago for more Ascension info: http://cjctheacts.blogspot.com/2005/05/feast-of-ascension.html

and also,
Annie's Ascension Day Page
Ken Collins' Web Site: The View From Above

All the best for GP tomorrow. =)

Jean

The Eucharist, God's Kiss

2006-05-24T22:39:00.000+08:00

In it, God physically embraces us. Indeed that is what all sacraments are, God's physical embrace. Words, as we know, have a relative power. In critical situations they often fail us. When this happens, we have still another language, the language of ritual. The most ancient and primal ritual of all is the ritual of physical embrace. It can say and do what words cannot.
http://www.the-tidings.com/2006/0512/rolheiser.htm

Jean

The Da Vinci Code

2006-05-20T19:16:00.000+08:00

Down to earth: Is Christianity true or not?
But did you once, ever, learn that Christianity deserves serious attention because it's true?

Facts About the Fiction

The Da Vinci Dialogue

The Deadly Propaganda of Da Vinci

The Oranta Solution: Our Lady's Solution to Dan Brown's Code

Scholarly gripes about The Da Vinci Code

"Who do you say I am?"
-Matthew 16:15

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg - or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us.
-C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Friendship with Jesus

2006-05-20T18:25:00.000+08:00

A Big "If"
We can only claim friendship with Jesus if we do what He commands.

The Night Before He Died
...to love mankind in general is not sufficient; disciples must love each other specifically.

John Wesley's "On a Catholic Spirit"
And now run the race that is set before you, in the royal way of universal love.

No, He's MY Personal Jesus
The problem with friendship with Jesus is that we can't change Him; we can only emulate Him.
...
This "problem" naturally has its solution in the recognition of who Jesus is (God) and of the primary nature of our relationship with God: to be perfected as He is perfect.
...
If we are astute, we also attempt to redefine and cultivate our human friendships by exercising virtues that exemplify this love to others.
...
However, this doesn't stop the vast majority of us from trying to coerce Jesus to conform Himself to our own desires.
...
We will have a false friendship with a Jesus of our own making, rather than an abiding love with a sacred Lord who is worthy of all our devotion.

Jean

The Month of Mary

2006-05-18T18:51:00.000+08:00

Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun?

May Crowning

May: the Month of Mary, Mother of God

Catholic Culture: Liturgical Year: May (Month of Mary)
Prayer of the Month
An Act of Consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary
Holy Mary, Mother of God and Virgin, I choose thee this day for my queen, patron, and advocate, and firmly resolve and purpose never to abandon thee, never to say or do anything against thee, nor to permit that aught be done by others to dishonor thee. Receive me, then, I conjure thee, as thy perpetual servant; assist me in all my actions, and do not abandon me at the hour of my death. Amen.
-St. John Berchmans

Mary - Marian Feast Days and Prayers

The Month of Mary

Mary's Month
O Mary We Crown Thee
© 1938 St. Basil Hymnal

O Mary we crown thee
With blossoms today
Queen of the Angels
Queen of the May.

Bring flowers of the fairest
From garden and woodland
And hillside and dale.
Our full hearts are swelling
Our glad voices telling
The praise of the loveliest
Rose of the vale.

We honor and praise thee
Please pray that our hearts
Will forever be thine.
In joy and in sorrow
From thee may we borrow
A faith that is trusting
In Jesus thy Son.

Josemaria Escriva - Founder of Opus Dei: May, the Month of Mary
The month of May urges us to think and to speak in a special way about the Virgin Mary. In effect, this is her month. Consequently, this time of the Liturgical Year (Easter), and this month are a call, inviting us to open our hearts in a special way to Mary. (John Paul II, General Audience, May 2, 1979)

May is the Month of Mary - Prayers.

Fr. Pat's Place: Mary's Page

Jean

A Universal Call to Party

2006-05-14T16:18:00.000+08:00

The Easter season is a time to think about baptism - and about launching a new family tradition.

http://www.wau.org/family/article.asp?id=4763

excerpts:

Celebrating Re-Birthdays. In 1997, Pope John Paul II issued yet another call to festivities: "We should celebrate the day of our baptism as we do our birthday!" he exclaimed on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.

Rediscover the Gift. In his 1994 apostolic exhortation "On the Coming Third Millennium" (Tertio Millennio Adveniente), Pope John Paul called us to "a renewed appreciation of baptism as the basis of Christian living."

As the pope went on to say, celebrating draws our attention to the great gift of life in Christ: "But how many of the baptized are fully aware of what they have received? We must give a new impetus to catechesis, to rediscover this gift which also means taking on a great responsibility."

And it all begins, like most good things, in the home. Religion doesn't have to be dull or dreary or burdensome. The Catholic faith can, sometimes, be as fun, as crazy - and as memorable - as a family birthday celebration.

So: Anyone up for a party?

Jean

Pope Benedict XVI

2006-05-13T21:37:00.000+08:00

MSNBC: Pope Benedict wins over flock

Catholic.org: Benedict's 1st year - Pope, teacher, consulter more than enforcer, star
People came to see John Paul, they come to hear Benedict.

Wall Street Journal: Branding and the Pope
A senior Vatican official who asked not to be named says that when it comes to worldly goods, Benedict XVI's choice of personal accessories is "completely arbitrary."
The official adds: "He's aware of the buzz, but mostly he laughs about it, because it's so absurd. What does he really have to choose? He doesn't wear a tie or coat. The glasses he wears are the same glasses he wore as a cardinal, as is the pen he writes with."
But because the pope is so lightly accessorised, brands like to be associated with him all the more.

The Holy See - The Holy Father - Benedict XVI

The Pope Blog

Time 100: The New Pontiff Finds His Voice

BBC News: The papacy of Benedict XVI

Wikipedia: Pope Benedict XVI

The Pope Benedict XVI Fan Club

Btw, Happy World Fair Trade Day!

Jean

I've Learned

2006-05-12T10:05:00.000+08:00

I've learned... That life is like a roll of toilet paper.
The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.

I've learned... That we should be glad God doesn't give us everything we ask for.

I've learned... That money doesn't buy class.

I've learned... That it's those small daily happenings that make life so spectacular.

I've learned... That under everyone's hard shell is someone who wants to be appreciated and loved.

I've learned... That the Lord didn't do it all in one day.
What makes me think I can?

I've learned... That to ignore the facts does not change the facts.

I've learned... That the less time I have to work, the more things I get done.

Btw, we've been linked at CATH, the Catholic search engine. You can submit your own links too!

Happy Vesak Day!

Jean

The Right to Life, or a Duty to Die

2006-05-10T20:17:00.000+08:00

Terri Schiavo: A Life That Mattered and Still Matters

Trying to end life as we know it

Vatican Pro-Life Documents

Abortion Images

---

Atheist Foundation of Australie: Pro Life?
The Vatican's "pro life" stance (shared by anti-abortionists and various fundamentalist sects) is a threat to all forms of life including the human species.

---
The Vatican wrestles with a fraught topic

Jean

Orthodox Orthography: Why No 'O' in 'G-d'?

2006-05-09T15:55:00.000+08:00

Often in religious articles, "G-d" is used instead of "God." Why is this?
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/135/story_13547_1.html

Crosses & Leaves

2006-05-08T19:26:00.000+08:00

I was just updating the Council photos when I noticed sth.

The Lenten Cross has a bare bough in the background, while the Easter Cross is beneath a whole swathe of green.

Cool, how that tree makes the perfect backdrop.

Anyway, check out whyeaster?.com for answers to Easter questions!
For instance, a detailed description of what the Last Supper was probably like.

Happy Easter, and have a blessed Month of Mary. =)

Jean

4th Sunday of Easter: Good Shepherd/Vocation Sunday

2006-05-07T02:01:00.000+08:00

Message of His Holiness
Pope Benedict XVI
for the 43rd World Day of Prayer for Vocations
In Christ, the Head of the Church, which is his Body, all Christians form "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him" (1 Pt 2,9). The Church is holy, even if her members need to be purified, in order that holiness, which is a gift of God, can shine forth from them with its full splendour. The Second Vatican Council highlights the universal call to holiness, when it affirms: "The followers of Christ are called by God, not because of their works, but according to his own purpose and grace. They are justified in the Lord Jesus, because in the Baptism of faith they truly become sons of God and sharers in the divine nature. In this way, they are really made holy" (Lumen Gentium, 40).
-=+=-
A Shepherd's Sacrifice
Pope St. Pius X received four priests in the apostolic palace one day and greeted each of them individually. The first introduced himself as a university professor. The second priest served on the faculty of a seminary. The third practiced canon law in his chancery. The fourth priest simply said, "Habeo curam animarum," which means, "I have the care of souls."

In a very beautiful way, he was telling the pope that he was a parish priest - a shepherd of souls. When St. Pius X heard those words, he knelt before that priest and asked for his blessing.
-=+=-
My Sheep Hear My Voice
I wince, because before I entered religious life 18 years ago, this plea of desperation was the last reason why I wanted to become a religious and if I had been unsure of my vocation it would've been the last reason why I'd want to become a Sister. Who wants to rescue a sinking ship?

The fact is that there IS a new surge of vocations right now. Eighteen years ago I only knew one other person persuing a religious vocation (she is now a Cistercian). Now, it seems that young men and women often are part of a small group of like minded people inquiring into religious life.

A call to religious life is about answering the Shepherd's invitation. It is about saying YES with the entirety of one's life. It is responding to the call to become like Christ Crucified in self-sacrificing love. A vocation is about love: Christ's unconditional, total love for us and our response to Him. What matters is this exchange of love. Everything else: the "where", the "what" will follow if we first respond in love.
-=+=-
UK National Office for Vocations - Resources
UK Priest
Catholic Insider - The World Through the Eyes and Ears of a Priest
-=+=-
Prayer for Vocations
Father, today the harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few, and You said to us through Your Son:
"Ask the Master of the harvest to send labourers to gather the harvest."
Filled with confidence, we ask in Your plan of salvation to provide shepherds for your people.
Fill those You have chosen in Singapore with a spirit of courage and love to answer the call as religious Brother or Sister.
We ask this in Jesus' name, Amen.

Jean

Christianity & The After-Life

2006-05-06T21:21:00.000+08:00

Does the afterlife degrade and devalue this life? According to some critics of religion, it does indeed. If the real life of man lies on the other side of death, then how significant, how important can this earthly existence of ours really be?

https://www.basilicapress.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=1&art_id=32814

Jean

2006-05-05T23:15:00.000+08:00

hey everyone!

Jeanette here for the very first time! ahahahhaha.

anyway, jean's asked me to come here to blog an entry i wrote about purgatory a little while ago. haha.

don't laugh ok!

haha. it's what i think, is all... mayb you guys cld share your thoughts about it too! :) ok here goes...

i've been reading about purgatory and i've had some interesting thoughts about it.

for one thing, according to what i read, purgatory isn't really a place per se. It is actually a state of mind, a feeling, a period of time where the soul undergoes great grief upon the realisation of his or her imperfection. It is when a soul becomes aware of the times that he or she had failed to show the love that he had received from another, to them. And when he or she realises that God has shown them so much unconditional love throughout the whole of his or her existence, and that he had only reciprocated such little love in proportion to the vastness of God's love, he feels great, deep, unexpressibile grief.

I used to have this specific theory of how purgatory is. (don't ask me why i thought it to be that way, i just did. and i even had an image of purgatory in my mind, can you believe it! so yes anyway.) So i always thought that purgatory was like this static place between earth and heaven, where souls go. and when you die, your soul goes there as a kind of pit stop. and depending on the amount of sin you have committed in your life, you'll join this "queue" of souls that leads towards this table, where the judge, St Peter and the archangels of Heaven decide whether or not you should enter Heaven or Hell, or whether you should spend another ten thousand years or something in purgatory. Purgatory, to me, was this brownish, blackish, chute-like place where souls wander around alone. What i always pictured it was like this vertical tunnel, with no top or bottom, and you can just keep going down and down and down without ever finding the bottom.. giving much space for moping and contemplation and reflection. It is just a cloudy brown-black space with only walls and nothing else. And when you die, you just kind of find yourself there. That's when you start contemplating on the extent of your sins and feeling so unworthy of God's love, inspite of God having given so much boundless, unconditional love to you. Because God gave so much love, even through others if not directly from Him (and that already encapsulates like A LOT), and we don't reciprocate it or return it... we simply absorb it like a sponge but when squeezed, nothing comes out. Either that, or much less does. so for all the instances in our lives that we have done that, when we die, all of them come back to us, and we'll spend tens of thousands of years reflecting over all these episodes in our short miserable lives, and wonder why we were so evil and hard-hearted, until we feel that we are so unworthy we won't even wanna join that "queue" to the Table.

There is a bright side to this, however. (and this is the part that kinda corresponds to the true Catholic interpretation of purgatory) After all this depressed contemplation that our souls would have done after all this lengthy time spent on our own, we suddenly get a kind of epiphany, a realisation that hey, God loved me so much! that must be why even though i have sinned so much, His love for me has overcome the sins i have committed, and that very same love has even the capacity to FORGIVE the unforgivable sins that i have committed in spite of the love that He has shown me throughout my life. and THAT would be when the soul in question would be ready to join the thousand-year queue of souls trying to enter Heaven.

so yes, that was my interpretation of the whole idea of Purgatory.

and that kinda makes me glad that i wasn't entirely on the wrong track, especially the realisation part.

but then again when i think about that, i realise that if the teaching of the Catholic Church really is true, what IS the point of life? when in death, purgatory is really only a state of mind that the soul goes through, and not really a place, a physical, material transition that a soul undergoes after death. it just doesn't really add up to me. like you live your life for say, sixty, seventy-odd years. and then when you die you start feeling great grief and suffering, until one day everything clicks and you reach Heaven to be united in God's love again. But i dunno.. its just kind of anti-climax to me... i guess i expected that there would be more, y'know? i just don't really know what. but i always thought that after death there would be like a great number of processes that would occur before our souls can enter Heaven or undergo reincarnation, if that actually happens, and with regard to that, i suppose i'm still not entirely certain.

and incase you think i'm being morbid cuz of all this talk about death and purgatory n stuff, i'm really not! because i suppose now that i'm thinking of it, death really is the purpose of life. because in death, and then in purgatory, we start to reflect on our lives and wonder if we have truly lived them in the way that we feel is best. and if our actions have truly glorified God in the best way He deserves. and That's probably also why we should all live our lives, and never ever feel that we have no purpose in our lives... because once we die, if we have not lived our lives to the best of our abilities, we will regret it forever, and our souls will probably stay in the state of purgatory for a very long time.

haha yeap that was it... sorry it's pretty long-winded! but yea that's i guess what i think of purgatory... or the state of it, to be more precise. haha.

ok til i feel spiritually "deep" (HA) again, seeya guys!

Yours in Christ..

((:

All Night Vigil for Vocations - All are Welcome!

2006-05-02T18:03:00.000+08:00

Dear Friends in the Lord,

I am deeply grateful of any support we can muster for our coming Saturday's All NIGHT VIGIL for more Vocations.

It will begin at 9.00 pm with Sunset Mass at the Kingsmead Hall (Spirituality Centre), behind the Church of St Ignatius.

Please, encourage your family and friends too to join us in storming heaven for more good vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

Please, do stay for the whole night... the sacrifice is meant to be offered for more vocations. I am sure the night of prayer will help us all deepen our own vocations, including your lay-married vocations.

There will surely be enough coffee to keep you awake and food for your growling stomachs throughout the night. It's easier than you think; at every hour, a different group from our parish will lead about 25-30 minutes of prayer. Then the rest of the hour is for you to pray privately, in silence, in front of the Blessed Sacrament, or to refresh yourself or wake yourself up with a cup of coffee.

Looking forward to a overwhelming response. God bless.

Fr Philip Heng S.J.
(on behalf of the Society of Jesus)

The Cure of Ars: a play

2006-04-29T15:53:00.000+08:00

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

We know of the need for more priests for the future of the Church.

Besides prayers, here's an opportunity for you to personally lend support towards this essential cause. It can be your way of supporting Vocations Sunday - 7 May 2006.

This June 2006, Walk on Water Productions is presenting the life story of Jean Baptiste Marie Vianney, a man who lived from 1786 to 1859 in France and was canonised a Saint in 1925 by Pope Pius X for the miracle of his life.

The story we are going to tell is about a saint that many of us do not know. He is St. John Marie Vianney.

The story of his life is known by many in France and Europe. But somehow, we here don't know much about him.

As you know, each saint is a patron for something special, like St Anthony is the patron saint of lost things; St. Christopher, the patron saint of travellers; and St. Jude, the patron saint of hopeless cases.

St. John Marie Vianney is the patron saint of... Priests.

We have taken his life as the inspiration for a play, entitled The Cure. (Q Ray) "Cure" means pastor or shepherd. St. John Marie Vianney was much loved as a parish priest and remembered for his unique gifts which he used in the confessional.

The Cure also explores evil in our lives, the reality of it and how evil can be kept at bay or overcome.
St. John Marie Vianney was visited by the devil every day for 35 years.
The play is not a horror story, but it may be frightening to some.

This play also celebrates the great vocation of Priesthood.

For about 40 years of his life, John Vianney suffered from insufficient food and sleep to the point beyond sustainable life while committing his life to labouring incessantly for the less privileged, orphans and charities; yet with unfailing humility, gentleness, patience and cheerfulness even beyond his 73rd birthday. A simple man, his advice was sought by many including bishops, religious, youth, people in difficulties and the sick. By 1855, some 20,000 people a year would visit him to seek advice. It was said he could see through a person and "get it" about a person.

St. John Vianney is widely known for interceding in miraculous results in raising money for charities and food for orphans, for his supernatural knowledge of the past and future when speaking with people seeking his counsel and for interceding in miraculous healing of the sick, especially children.

On Fri 30th June and Sat 1st July 2006, the youth and adults of St. Anthony's Church will tell the story of this man onstage at Victoria Theatre.

Come see, discover and experience the life this man led. You won't get a chance to sleep in your chair. This man's place in history is worth telling.

This play would be a very pleasant after-dinner activity.

In addition to our play, there will be an art exhibition on our faith by members of our parish.

There will be a preshow session for the matinee show. You will be treated to a lively lecture on the history and development of Catholic art by practising Catholic artistes. The team will seek to expose the youths to the use of fine art, music, theatre and dance as a form of prayerful expression and how to use their God given talents and creativity to worship the Lord.

After the play there will also be a talk-back session with artistes involved in the play.

The tickets are going at only $20 and $22. All proceeds will go to our renovation fund.

Target particularly the youths: Student discount at $18/$20, only through Catholic schools and catechism block bookings.

For group bookings, buy 9, get 1 free.

Justina will be coming down to CJ this coming Wed from 11 a.m. - 2p.m. to sell tickets!

Caution: Strobe lighting and other effects will be used in the show. If you suffer from epilepsy or a weak heart condition, or can't take jolting surprises, please seek medical advice before attending.

Btw, if you're interested, the book The Cure of Ars by Fr. Bartholomew J. O'Brien is a very interesting and insightful book on the life of St. John Vianney. You can buy it for $15.

Confession

2006-04-29T15:29:00.000+08:00

As any devout Catholic will tell you, going to confession allows people to get a lot off their chests. Sometimes too much. I was waiting my turn at the confessional when I heard a priest admonish one penitent, "Please limit your confession to your own sins."
-Beatrice Rodriguez, Reader's Digest May 2006

Btw, have a look at the new stuff in the Gallery. There's a powerpoint presentation about poverty, it's titled "Is Something Bothering You?"

Happy Easter!

Jean

Resurrectix Christus, Alleluia!

2006-04-17T20:32:00.000+08:00

Risen Christ!: Easter brings us great joy because we are celebrating the gift of eternal life that Jesus has won for us. Without this gift, life would be meaningless and miserable. With this gift, nothing in life can be totally bleak as we are assured of the eternal glory that awaits us.
-Fr Philip Heng, S.J. [http://www.jesuit.org.sg/]

Easter is the principal feast of the ecclesiastical year. Leo I (Sermo xlvii in Exodum) calls it the greatest feast (festum festorum), and says that Christmas is celebrated only in preparation for Easter.

It is the centre of the greater part of the ecclesiastical year. The order of Sundays from Septuagesima to the last Sunday after Pentecost, the feast of the Ascension, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, and all other movable feasts, from that of the Prayer of Jesus in the Garden (Tuesday after Septuagesima) to the feast of the Sacred Heart (Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi), depend upon the Easter date.

Commemorating the slaying of the true Lamb of God and the Resurrection of Christ, the corner-stone upon which faith is built, it is also the oldest feast of the Christian Church, as old as Christianity, the connecting link between the Old and New Testaments.

Peculiar Customs of Easter Time
1. Risus Paschalis
2. Easter Eggs
Because the use of eggs was forbidden during Lent, they were brought to the table on Easter Day, coloured red to symbolise the Easter joy. This custom is found not only in the Latin but also in the Oriental Churches. The symbolic meaning of a new creation of mankind by Jesus risen from the dead was probably an invention of later times.
3. The Easter Rabbit
4. Handball
5. Men & women
On Easter Monday the women had a right to strike their husbands, on Tuesday the men struck their wives, as in December the servants scolded their masters. In the northern parts of England the men parade the streets on Easter Sunday and claim the privilege of lifting every woman three times from the ground, receiving in payment a kiss or a silver sixpence. The same is done by the women to the men on the next day. In the Neumark (Germany) on Easter Day the men servants whip the maid servants with switches; on Monday the maids whip the men. They secure their release with Easter eggs. These customs are probably of pre-Christian origin (Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Das festliche Jahr, 118).
6. The Easter Fire
7. Processions & awakenings
8. Blessing of food
9. House blessings
10. Sports and celebrations
-Catholic Encyclopedia: Easter [click to see more about the peculiar practices! Worth a read.]

*Happy Easter Eggs*

- How can you prove Christ's resurrection?
- Where was Jesus for the three days between His death and resurrection?
- Who was responsible for Christ's death?
- Why did Jesus have to experience so much suffering?
- What are the last seven sayings of Christ and what do they mean?
- Why is Christianity such a bloody religion?
- Why did God require animal sacrifices in the Old Testament?
- How is Jesus Christ unique?
- What does it mean that Jesus is the Son of God?

Christus vincit! Christus regnat! Christus imperat!

Jean

Holy Saturday

2006-04-14T15:27:00.000+08:00

This is the seventh day of the [Holy] week, the day Jesus rested in the tomb. In the first three Gospel accounts this was the Jewish Sabbath, which provided appropriate symbolism of the seventh day rest. While some church traditions continue daily services on Saturday, there is no communion served on this day.

Some traditions suspend services and Scripture readings during the day on Saturday, to be resumed at the Easter Vigil after sundown Saturday. It is traditionally a day of quiet meditation as Christians contemplate the darkness of a world without a future and without hope apart from God and his grace.

It is also a time to remember family and the faithful who have died as we await the resurrection, or to honour the martyrs who have given their lives for the cause of Christ in the world.

...Holy Saturday has traditionally been a time of reflection and waiting, the time of weeping that lasts for the night while awaiting the joy that comes in the morning (Psa 30:5).
-The Days of Holy Week
click to read more.

In the primitive Church Holy Saturday was known as Great, or Grand, Saturday, Holy Saturday, the Angelic Night, the Vigil of Easter, etc. It is no longer, like Maundy Thursday, a day of joy, but one of joy and sadness intermingled; it is the close of the season of Lent and penance, and the beginning of paschal time, which is one of rejoicing.

By a noteworthy exception, in the early Church this was the only Saturday on which fasting was permitted (Constit. Apost., VII, 23), and the fast was one of special severity. Dating from the time of St. Irenaeus, an absolute fast from every kind of food was observed for the forty hours preceding the feast of Easter, and although the moment assigned for breaking the fast at dawn on Sunday varied according to time and country, the abstinence from food on Holy Saturday was general.
-Catholic Encyclopedia: Holy Saturday

Miracles of Our Lord of Pardon

2006-04-14T14:57:00.000+08:00

There was a woman who was living in the mountains and was leading an exemplary life. She, wishing to know how many were the wounds that Christ our Lord had received on His Most Sacred Body, requested the Lord with devotion to reveal them to her. The Lord appeared to her and said:

"You must know that the wounds I received were five thousand four hundred fifty-five and therefore, I tell you that all those who in memory of them would recite Fifteen Our Father's and Hail Mary's during the year, shall take away from Purgatory fifteen souls and shall be relieved from the penance that would be done for so many mortal sins, and besides, shall obtain the grace and confirmation of good works.

"Also, whoever recites, during one whole year these prayers, I will give him fifteen days beforehand, My Body to eat, and he will not be hungry and My Blood to drink and he will not be thirsty, and I will place before him the sign of the cross that will serve him as his guardian and defense; and I, together with My Most Holy Mother, shall attend to him in the hour of his death, and I will receive benignly his soul and will take it to the eternal pleasure, and once there, I will give him the drink of Divinity and whoever should have true sorrow and contrition or repentance of his sins, and comply with the prayers during one year, I will pardon all his sins from the day he was born until his death and I will save him from the power of the demon and from his temptations; and if he is wicked, he will become good and continually I will save his soul from the fires of hell; and that whatever he would ask from my Mother I will grant and guve him the life that will entitle him to live in my Kingdom and inhabit with me eternally.

"Whoever takes with him this prayer, and gives it to somebody to read, or will show it to any person, will obtain in this life pleasure and reward. Wherever he may be, this prayer will keep him in peace and intact in the same manner that I kept the heavy waves of the sea. Any person, be it a man or a woman, who would have this prayer shall not die suddenly, shall not be persecuted by his or her enemies, nor shall they be conquered in battle, or imprisoned, or drowned in the sea, nor burned by fire or by lightnings; nor shall be deposed against by any false witness. Any woman who is about to deliver and should hang this prayer on her neck will deliver easily without any danger."

This prayer was brought over by Don Juan Cardoso from Rome. It was found on the body of a man who was thrown into the sea with a big stone tied to his neck. This man remained floating without drowning. When he was rescued from the waves the prayer was found in his posession. Any one carrying it, must carry it with sincere faith, because God does not know how to fail in his promises. Every day, say the following:

Prayer
My Lord, Jesus Christ, remember that I am a sinner. Most Holy Virgin pray for me. You shall always be praised and blessed. Pray for this sinner to Your Beloved Son, Precious beauty of the angels, the Prophets and the Patriarchs, Crown of the Martyrs, Apostles, and Confessors, Glory of the Seraphs, Crown of the Virgins, save me from the most fearful figure of the demon when my soul departs from my body. Oh Most Holy Fount of Piety and Beauty of Jesus Christ, Joy of the Heaven, Consolation of the Clergy, Remedy in our works: with, you, Virgin Most Prudent, the angels are happy, recommend my soul and the soul of all devout Christians, pray for us to Your Blessed Son and take us to the Eternal Paradise where you reign and live forever and there we will venerate you eternally. Amen.

Sovereign Virgin Mary, Mother of the Living God, because you have delivered Him, pray for all of us sinners so that he may pardon us, save us from the wicked enemy that is fighting us, and grant us the eternal glory.

Blessed be forever the Sacred Passion and Death of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, Amen.

Veneration of the Wounds On the Shoulder of Christ

2006-04-14T14:50:00.000+08:00

Years ago in Clairvaux, France, we are told that St. Bernard once asked of the Lord which among His sacrifices and sufferings was greatest, most painful and least known. Our Lord answered: "I have a most painful wound on my shoulders as I carried the cross on the bitter way to Calvary, which pained me more than did my other wounds, but which was never known because it was never seen. Do honour this wound in your prayers and I will give anything you ask through the merits of this same wound. And all who will venerate this wound will obtain from Me the remission of their sins, and I will no longer remember the mortal sins they have committed and already forgiven.

Prayer
O dearest Jesus, Lamb of God most meek, I, a miserable sinner, render homage and worship to the wounds upon Thy shoulder made by the heavy cross Thou didst carry. Its weight tore Thy flesh and bared Thy shoulder bones, which caused Thee sufferings more than did Thy other wounds... I adore Thee, O grieving Jesus, I praise, I love and honour Thee. I thank Thee for Thy adorable and most painful wound. Vouchsafe to grant me, through the excessive pain and unmeasured weight of the cross to have mercy on me, a sinner. Forgive me my mortal and venial sins, and guide me on to heaven through the way of the cross. Amen.
-Miracles of Our Lord of Pardon,
a pocketbook which you can get for $0.40

Good Friday

2006-04-14T10:50:00.000+08:00

Good Friday, called Feria VI in Parasceve in the Roman Missal, he hagia kai megale paraskeue (the Holy and Great Friday) in the Greek Liturgy, Holy Friday in Romance Languages, Charfreitag (Sorrowful Friday) in German, is the English designation of Friday in Holy Week - that is, the Friday on which the Church keeps the anniversary of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
-Catholic Encyclopedia: Good Friday

Maundy Thursday & Corpus Christi: Why We Have Two Days to Celebrate the Eucharist

2006-04-14T10:13:00.000+08:00

The feast of Maundy (or Holy) Thursday solemnly commemorates the institution of the Eucharist and is the oldest of the observances peculiar to Holy Week. In Rome various accessory ceremonies were early added to this commemoration, namely the consecration of the holy oils and the reconciliation of penitents, ceremonies obviously practical in character and readily explained by the proximity of the Christian Easter and the necessity of preparing for it. Holy Thursday could not but be a day of liturgical reunion since, in the cycle of movable feasts, it brings around the anniversary of the institution of the Liturgy.

Holy Thursday was taken up with a succession of ceremonies of a joyful character. the baptism of neophytes, the reconciliation of penitents, the consecration of the holy oils, the washing of the feet, and commemoration of the Blessed Eucharist, and because of all these ceremonies, the day received different names, all of which allude to one or another of the solemnities.

Redditio symboli was so called because, before being admitted to baptism, the catechumens had to recite the Creed from memory, either in the presence of the bishop or his representative.

Pedilavium (washing of the feet), traces of which are found in the most ancient rites, occurred in many churches on Holy Thursday, the capitilavium (washing of the head) having taken place on Palm Sunday.

Exomologesis, and reconciliation of penitents: letter of Pope Innocent I to Decentius of Gubbio, testifies that in Rome it was customary "quinta feria Pascha" to absolve penitents from their mortal and venial sins, except in cases of serious illness which kept them away from church.

Olei exorcizati confectio. In the fifth century the custom was established of consecrating on Holy Thursday all the chrism necessary for the anointing of the newly baptised.

Anniversarium Eucharistiae. The Eucharistic celebration [takes] place in the morning, and the bishop reserve[s] a part of the sacred species for the communion of the morrow, Missa praesanctificatorum.

Other observances: On Holy Thursday the ringing of bells ceases, the altar is stripped after vespers, and the night office is celebrated under the name of Tenebrae.

-Catholic Encyclopedia: Maudny Thursday

The word 'tenebrae' is Latin for shadows. The purpose of the Tenebrae service is to recreate the emotional aspects of the passion story, so this is not supposed to be a happy service, because the occasion is not happy.

The service may include other parts, such as solemn hymns, a sermon, and Communion, but the core of the Tenebrae service works like this: It starts out with the church in candlelight. There are as many candles as there are readings, plus a white Christ candle. The readers go up one at a time, read their assigned selections, and extinguish one of the candles, until only the Christ candle remains. Then someone reads the first part of Psalm 22, which Jesus quoted on the cross. Then the Christ candle is put out, leaving the congregation in near total darkness - and near total devastation. At this point, the service ends. There is no benediction and the people leave in silence. (The lights are turned up but remain dim so that people can see their way out.)

The purpose of the service is to recreate the betrayal, abandonment, and agony of the events, and it is left unfinished, because the story isn't over until Easter Day.
-Ken Collins: What Is a Tenebrae Service?

The night of Maundy Thursday is the night on which Jesus was betrayed by Judas in the Garden of Gethsemane.

The word "maundy" comes from the command given by Christ at the Last Supper, that we should love one another.

In Roman Catholic churches the anthem "Mandatum novum do vobis" ("a new commandment I give to you") would be sung on Maundy Thursday.

In Roman Catholic churches, Maundy Thursday is the day on which the supply of anointing oil to be used in ceremonies during the year is "consecrated".

This is done at a special "Chrism Mass".
-BBC - Religion & Ethics - Maundy Thursday

In those days it was usual for a servant to wash the guests' feet on arrival. On this occasion there was no servant present and none of the disciples volunteered to do the menial task. Instead, Jesus got up and washed his disciples feet, giving them an object lesson in humility and service.
-ThisIsChurch.com (click to see a photo of the basin Jesus could have used: a bowl with two platforms. The guest would be able to stand on [the platforms] and have water poured over the feet into the bowl.)

[Corpus Christi] is celebrated in the Latin Church on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday to solemnly commemorate the institution of the Holy Eucharist.

Of Maundy Thursday, which commemorates this great event, mention is made as Natalis Calicis (Birth of the Chalice) in the Calendar of Polemius (448) for the 24th of March, the 25th of March being in some places considered as the day of the death of Christ. This day, however, was in Holy Week, a season of sadness, during which the minds of the faithful are expected to be occupied with thoughts of the Lord's Passion. Moreover, so many other functions took place on this day that the principal event was almost lost sight of. This is mentioned as the chief reason for the introduction of the new feast, in the Bull "Transiturus."
-Catholic Encyclopedia: Corpus Christi

Martimort remarks that Urban IV was so impressed by a Eucharistic miracle that took place at Bolsena near Viterbo, where he was in residence, he promulgated the Bull Transiturus, in which he established a new solemnity to be celebrate in honor of the Blessed Sacrament on the Thursday after the octave of Pentecost.

Urban IV published, on August 11, 1264, a bull that extended the feast to the universal Church, but his death on October 2 left the decree without effect.

In Urban IV's bull the answer was simple and functional: just as there was a day for every saint, so too Christ's body deserved one. It continued to argue that Corpus Christi was to be a sort of obverse Maundy Thursday, celebrating the day of the institution of the eucharist not in sorrow in the Passion week, but on another, joyful occasion.

Interestingly, Mitchell notes the promulgation of the solemnity:

[I]n...Transiturus, Urban IV insisted on the intimate connection between the feast and the eucharistic liturgy. He proposed an indulgence of 100 days to all who would attend matins, Mass, and vespers on the feast, as well as an additional indulgence of 40 days to all who assisted at the lesser hours of prime, terce, sext, none, and compline. Each day during the octave of the feast, moreover, Urban offered indulgences to those who participated in matins, Mass, and vespers. The pope's idea seems to have been to encourage Christians toward more active participation in the liturgy, both the liturgy of the hours and the eucharist.
-Emmanuel Article, June 1997: From Corpus Christi to the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ

The word indulgence (Lat. indulgentia, from indulgeo, to be kind or tender) originally meant kindness or favour; in post-classic Latin it came to mean the remission of a tax or debt. In Roman law and in the Vulgate of the Old Testament (Isaiah 61:1) it was used to express release from captivity or punishment. In theological language also the word is sometimes employed in its primary sense to signify the kindness and mercy of God. But in the special sense in which it is here considered, an indulgence is a remission of the temporal punishment due to sin, the guilt of which has been forgiven. Among the equivalent terms used in antiquity were pax, remissio, donatio, condonatio.

Isaiah 61:1. The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me: he hath sent me to preach to the meek, to heal the contrite of heart, and to preach a release to the captives, and deliverance to them that are shut up.
Spiritus Domini super me eo quod unxerit Dominus me ad adnuntiandum mansuetis misit me ut mederer contritis corde et praedicarem captivis indulgentiam et clausis apertionem.
-Catholic Encyclopedia: Indulgences

Btw, Anne's birthday is on Corpus Christi this year. It's Father's Day too. =)

Jean

Fun In the Sun

2006-04-11T16:07:00.000+08:00

Dearest people of God,

Do you find that you no longer need whitening products to stay tofu-fair? Do you long to go outdoors and break free from the shackles of studenthood/working life? Wait no longer! Amplify Ministries invites you to a day of "Fun In the Sun" on 1st May 2006 (Monday) at East Coast Park. Come celebrate Labour Day with us by through fun-filled physical activity and a time of prayer. Amplify Ministries also intends for this to be a photoshoot as part of our plans to archive our ministry moments. If you are keen in photography and willing to be a volunteer photographer for the day, we would love to hear from you.

Activities planned for the day:
- Cycling
- Rollerblading
- Beach Soccer
- Beach Volleyball
- Tele-matches
- Group sharings
- "Pray-as-you-walk" reflection
- Praise & Worship on the Beach
- BBQ dinner

This year's event promises to match up and perhaps even exceed it. So get ready your sun block, beachwear, flip-flops, and prepare to have a day of Godly fun with us.

We will be meeting at the McDonalds at East Coast Park at 10am on Labour Day.

Best Regards,

Juliana Yong
Amplify Ministries

--------
Tag if you want to go, or contact Amplify at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AmpM/.

In other news, Genevieve asks that we pray for a baby from her church, St. Ignatius. He's not doing too well... please pray that the Lord will keep him healthy. Thanks.

Jean

Palm Sunday

2006-04-09T23:39:00.000+08:00

The sixth and last Sunday of Lent and beginning of Holy Week, a Sunday of the highest rank, not even a commemoration of any kind being permitted in the Mass. In common law it fixes the commencement of Easter duty.

The Greeks celebrate the day with great solemnity; they call it kyriake or heorte ton baion or heorte baiophoros or also Lazarus Sunday, because on the day before they have the feast of the resuscitation of Lazarus.

The Latin liturgical books call it Dominica in Palmis, Dominica or Dies Palmarum. From the cry of the people during the procession the day has received the name Dominica Hosanna or simply Hosanna (Ozanna).
Because every great feast was in some way a remembrance of the resurrection of Christ and was in consequence called Pascha, we find the names Pascha floridum, in French Pâques fleuries, in Spanish Pascua florida, and it was from this day of 1512 that [the] State of Florida received its name.

The prayers make reference to the dove bringing back the olive branch to Noah's ark and to the multitude greeting Our Lord; they say that the branches of palms signify victory over the prince of death and the olive the advent of spiritual unction through Christ.

Palm branches have been used by all nations as an emblem of joy and victory over enemies; in Christianity as a sign of victory over the flesh and the world according to Ps. xci, 13, "Justus ut palma florebit "; hence especially associated with the memory of the martyrs. The palms blessed on Palm Sunday were used in the procession of the day, then taken home by the faithful and used as a sacramental. They were preserved in prominent places in the house, in the barns, and in the fields, and thrown into the fire during storms. On the Lower Rhine the custom exists of decorating the grave with blessed palms. From the blessed palms the ashes are procured for Ash Wednesday. In places where palms cannot be found, branches of olive, box elder, spruce or other trees are used and the "Cæremoniale episcoporum", II, xxi, 2 suggests that in such cases at least little flowers or crosses made of palm be attached to the olive boughs.
-Catholic Encyclopedia

Palm Sunday is a moveable feast in the church calendar observed by Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant Christians. It is the Sunday before Easter. In the Western church it must always fall on one of the 35 dates between March 15 and April 18.

The feast commemorates the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem in the days before his execution. This was the only day in which Jesus Christ set aside His ministerial role to make a political statement before His covenant people. Many Christians and Messianic Jews regard this event as the terminus of the first 69 weeks of Daniel's Prophecy of Seventy Weeks, and thereby a very holy day.

It was also a common custom in many lands in the ancient Near East to cover, in some way, the path of someone thought worthy of the highest honour. All of the Gospels report that people gave Jesus this honour. In the gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke they are reported as laying their garments and cut rushes on the street. John is the only Gospel to specifically mention palm branches. The palm branch was a symbol of triumph and victory (Leviticus 23:40 - Feast of Tabernacles, and Revelation 7:9).

Originally the Roman Catholic Church officially called this Sunday the Second Sunday of the Passion; in 1970 the formal designation was changed to Passion Sunday, a change that has caused considerable confusion because the latter term had heretofore been affixed to the previous Sunday, or the fifth within Lent.
-Wikipedia

Sacramentals are things (sacramentalia) set apart or blessed by the Catholic Church to manifest the respect due to the Sacraments, and so to excite good thoughts and to increase devotion, and through these movements of the heart to remit venial sin, according to the Council of Trent (Session XXII, 15).

...the sacramentals excite pious dispositions, by means of which the faithful may obtain grace. It is not the sacramental itself that gives grace, but the devotion, the love of God, or sorrow for sin that it inspires, and the prayers of the Church that render sacramentals efficacious against evil spirit.

The pious use of sacramentals by non-Catholics is permitted. As blessed objects or rituals that represent sacred beliefs and persons, disrespect to sacramentals is considered a form of sacrilege.
-Wikipedia

The most solemn week of the Christian year, Holy week is the week leading up to Easter, and is the week during which Christians particularly remember the last week of Jesus's life. Holy week begins on Palm Sunday.

Christian clergy will often use the Palm Sunday story to help people think about the strength of their own commitment to their faith. They may ask believers to think about times that they have been unfaithful to Christ, or been hypocritical in proclaiming their support.

Hymns for Palm Sunday usually include Ride On, Ride On In Majesty and All Glory, Laud and Honour. Songs may include Make Way, Hosanna, and (for children) We have a King who Rides a Donkey.
-BBC - Religion & Ethics

Find out more at Annie's Palm Sunday Page.

The week we now call Holy Week, started with Palm Sunday. Why was this week so important that three of the gospel writers (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) devote a full third of their contents to reporting this week, and The Fourth (John) dedicates its entire last half?
Continue reading at History of Easter: Palm Sunday by Bill Petro.

Jesus Rides into Jerusalem as a King
And, a Week Later, Walks to a Humiliating Death
The last week of Jesus' life was crammed with events, as we follow him from his glorious entry into Jerusalem on Sunday until his death on Friday. In the days in between, he preached, taught, presided over the Passover supper, stood trial, and was condemned to death. This week we call Holy Week.
-Sunday School Lessons

When discarding old palms, remember it is a blessed religious object and should be burned or buried. Some gardeners bury it in their home garden, believing it will bless the coming year's crop.
-Holiday Insights

Jean

St. John Baptist de la Salle

2006-04-07T22:53:00.000+08:00

Jean-Baptiste de la Salle, Patron Saint of Teachers

Founder of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, educational reformer, and father of modern pedagogy, was born at Reims, 30 April, 1651, and died at Saint-Yon, Rouen, on Good Friday, 7 April, 1719.
During the few years that intervened between his ordination to the priesthood and the establishing of the institute, de la Salle was occupied in carrying out the last will and testament of Nicolas Roland, who, when dying, had confided to him the newly established Congregation of the Sisters of the Child Jesus. "Your zeal will bring it to prosperity", said Nicolas Roland to him. "You will complete the work which I have begun. In all this, Father Barre will be your model and guide." Thus was de la Salle imperceptibly drawn towards his life-work.
-Catholic Encyclopedia

Spiritual director of the Sisters of the Holy Infant who were devoted to teaching poor girls. Founded the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools (Christian Brothers) in 1681, established and supported academic education for all boys.
-Patron Saints Index

He was one of the first to emphasize classroom teaching over individual instruction. He also began teaching in the vernacular instead of in Latin. His schools were formed all over Italy. In 1705, he established a reform school for boys at Dijon. John was named patron of teachers by Pope Pius XII in 1950.
-Catholic Online

"To touch the hearts of your pupils is the greatest miracle you can perform"
-The Website for Lasallian People

John Baptist de La Salle inspired others how to teach and care for young people, how to meet failure and frailty with compassion, how to affirm, strengthen and heal. At the present time there are De La Salle schools in 80 different countries around the globe.
-Lasallian Heritage

Saint Bonaventure said, "They only are true educators who can kindle in the hearts of their students the vision of beauty, illuminate it with the light of truth, and form it to virtue."
For this reason, the Church cherishes with a great affection those whose duty it is to educate the young, all the more so as the welfare and development of the Christian commonwealth depend on them in no small measure. A man of outstanding holiness and remarkable genius, JOHN BAPTIST DE LA SALLE, once educated the young, and still, through the Institute founded by him, continues to do so according to excellent principles and methods.
Saint John Baptist de La Salle... had as his patron the better-known Saint John the Baptist. But De La Salle wanted the Institute of the Brothers and the Schools that he founded to have the same mission as the Precursor, to prepare the way of the Lord and make straight his paths.
-Lasan [Vietnam]

...a French priest, educational reformer, and founder of international educational movement who spent over forty years of his life dedicated to education for the children of the poor.
-Wikipedia

Also, Happy International Friendship Day! =)

Jean

Healing Prayer; Won't God Heal Amputees?

2006-04-03T03:16:00.000+08:00

http://whydoesgodhateamputees.com/
http://theworldofdan.co.uk/index.php?itemid=1
http://ravingatheist.com/archives/2005/11/why_does_god_hate_amputees.php
http://theadjoint.blogspot.com/2006/01/why-does-god-hate-amputees.html

Power of prayer flunks an unusual test
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12082681/

---

Refutations
http://www.tektonics.org/lp/nobrains.html
Prayer and Healing: http://www.ffrf.org/fttoday/1996/march96/prayer.html

---
http://www.questioningchristian.com/2006/03/prayersforheali.html

http://www.unityonline.org/thms/lettinggolettinggod-article.htm

The Wounded: Healing, With New Limbs and Fragile Dreams
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/index.cfm?page=Article&ID=6538

Jean

One Year Later: Remembering Pope John Paul II

2006-04-03T00:03:00.000+08:00

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12080643

Perhaps 'Saint John Paul the Great?'
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12083308/
A year after death, former pontiff is on the fast track to sainthood

[Live Vote: What Do You Think About Sainthood for John Paul?]

[Cause for Beatification & Canonisation of John Paul II]

[Tu Es Petrus: Pope John Paul II]

[Remembering a Great]
I had refused to be confirmed in high school, had stopped going to Mass, and considered the Catholic faith one among other undesirable '70s eccentricities of church ladies in Tucson, Arizona. I had as much interest in it as I had in macramé.

Through a bizarre set of circumstances, I transferred into a great books program in San Francisco for college. I tried to fit in as best I could with the hardcore Catholics I was surprised to find there.

In September of that year — 1987 — the pope was visiting San Francisco, and a group of students were going to Geary Avenue to see him pass by. Weird, but whatever — I was trying to fit in. I went along.

There was no good place to stand so I climbed up a small, slender tree to get a better view — and to add some element of interest to the pointless thing we were doing.Then I saw the pope pass by. You've heard the experience described elsewhere. It caught me totally by surprise. How watching a small man behind bullet-proof glass in a moving vehicle could touch me so profoundly I still have a hard time understanding. I remember sitting in the tree after he passed, numb. He had blessed the crowd. It had worked.

My life changed direction after that — slowly, to be sure, but unmistakably. And now, most of my career has been spent, simply, doing what the man I saw from the tree wanted done. I was like Zacchaeus. John Paul had shown me Christ.

On the night the pope died, I asked my wife, April, when she first saw him. It was September, 1987. She was clueless about the Catholic faith, but was brought to an event with the Pope. Her youth group got seats right next to a little stage where an armless singer, Tony Melendez, played a song for the pope. April and her friends were shocked when John Paul jumped off the stage and walked over to embrace him. He changed her life's trajectory, too. After that experience, she chose my school in San Francisco in order to learn more about her faith.

I was startled. Here we were, two West Coasters sitting in the darkness of a cold Connecticut spring night, with the Pope's image flickering on the screen and our six children sleeping upstairs, and all of it — that we met, where we worked, the number of kids — it had all started with him.Then — I kid you not — the new baby started crying upstairs. April stood up. "I'd better go nurse John Paul," she said.
— Tom Hoopes is executive editor of The National Catholic Register and with his wife, April, is editorial co-director of Faith & Family magazine.

['The heart of Jesus': Abbot Marcel reflects on two men of God]

Viva il Papa.

Jean

Fr. Brygier

2006-03-27T05:25:00.000+08:00

Fr. Felix Brygier died yesterday; please pray for the repose of his soul.
His funeral Mass will be held tomorrow in the church of St. Teresa.

Jean

A Catholic Paradise?

2006-03-26T08:19:00.000+08:00

The Sunday Times - Times Online, February 26, 2006

'Pizza pope' builds a Catholic heaven
Tony Allen-Mills, New York

A FORMER marine who was raised by nuns and made a fortune selling pizza has embarked on a £230m plan to build the first town in America to be run according to strict Catholic principles.

Abortions, pornography and contraceptives will be banned in the new Florida town of Ave Maria, which has begun to take shape on former vegetable farms 90 miles northwest of Miami.

Tom Monaghan, the founder of the Domino's Pizza chain, has stirred protests from civil rights activists by declaring that Ave Maria's pharmacies will not be allowed to sell condoms or birth control pills. The town's cable television network will carry no X-rated channels.

The town will be centred around a 100ft tall oratory and the first Catholic university to be built in America for 40 years. The university's president, Nicholas J Healy, has said future students should "help rebuild the city of God" in a country suffering from "catastrophic cultural collapse".

Monaghan, 68, sold his takeaway chain in 1998 for an estimated $1 billion (£573m). A devout Catholic who has ploughed millions into religious projects — including radio stations, primary schools and a Catholic law faculty in Michigan — Monaghan has bought about 5,000 acres previously used by migrant farmers.

The land on the western edge of the Everglades swamp will eventually house up to 30,000 people, with 5,000 students living on the university campus. Florida officials have declared the project a development bonanza for a depressed area, and Governor Jeb Bush attended a groundbreaking ceremony for the new university earlier this month.

Yet civil rights activists and other watchdogs concerned about the separation of church and state are threatening lawsuits if Ave Maria attempts to enforce Catholic dogma. Environmentalists have also complained the town will restrict the habitat of the Florida panther, an endangered species.

None of which has deterred Monaghan, who initially tried to build his new university in Michigan but could not get permission. Asked recently about possible lawsuits in Florida, he replied: "That's great. That would be the best publicity we could get."

The Florida developers managing the project claim more than 7,000 people have already expressed interest in buying homes in the town. Retailers and other businesses are reportedly close to leasing 60% of the intended commercial space.

Monaghan was sent to a Catholic orphanage with his brother James after the death of their father on Christmas Eve 1941. After serving with the US Marines and later dropping out of university, he founded Domino's in 1960 with his brother, who sold back his share for a Volkswagen Beetle.

Monaghan then set about building what became America's second-largest pizza chain. He collected antique cars, bought a yacht and became the owner of the Detroit Tigers baseball team.

About 15 years ago he read Mere Christianity by CS Lewis. "That was a big turnaround," he said recently. "I decided to simplify my life. No more airplanes, no more yachts. It's been a big relief."

Sources close to the project said Monaghan was particularly disturbed by what he regards as the failure of western civilisation to resist Islamic fundamentalism. In a speech to students last year Healy warned that Islam "no longer faces a religiously dynamic West".

Healy described the "virtual collapse of Europe" as "one of the most profound and unsettling developments of our new century". He added: "If you consider the more telling signs, such as its plummeting birth rate, Europe does not even seem to believe in a future . . . children are a sign of hope and the fruit of obedience to God's command to be fruitful and multiply."

Monaghan has argued that the owners of the town's commercial properties will be free to impose conditions in leases — notably the restriction on the sale of contraceptives. But that has been challenged by Howard Simon, executive director of the Florida branch of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Simon said the US Supreme Court had already ruled "ownership [of a town] does not always mean absolute dominion". "If he wants to build a town and encourage like-minded people to come and live there, that's fine. We get into problems where he tries to exercise governmental authority."

Frances Kissling, president of a liberal Catholic group supporting women's rights to contraception and abortion, said the idea of a Catholic town was "very disturbing".

"We have to learn to tolerate the fact that there are other religions — as well as non-believers — and the interplay of cultures helps make each of us more productive members of society. A Catholic-only town goes totally against that."

Lawsuits appear inevitable once the new town begins functioning in 2007, but Monaghan believes he has more than the law on his side. "I think it's God's will to do this," he said.

Jean

Lent

2006-03-25T00:18:00.000+08:00

=> Catholic Encyclopedia:

Origin of the Wod
The Teutonic word Lent, which we employ to denote the forty days' fast preceding Easter, originally meant no more than the spring season. Still it has been used from the Anglo-Saxon period to translate the more significant Latin term quadragesima (French carême, Italian quaresima, Spanish cuaresma), meaning the "forty days", or more literally the "fortieth day". This in turn imitated the Greek name for Lent, tessarakoste (fortieth), a word formed on the analogy of Pentecost (pentekoste), which last was in use for the Jewish festival before New Testament times. This etymology, as we shall see, is of some little importance in explaining the early developments of the Easter fast.

Duration of the Fast
In determining this period of forty days the example of Moses, Elias, and Christ must have exercised a predominant influence, but it is also possible that the fact was borne in mind that Christ lay forty hours in the tomb. On the other hand just as Pentecost (the fifty days) was a period during which Christians were joyous and prayed standing, though they were not always engaged in such prayer, so the Quadragesima (the forty days) was originally a period marked by fasting, but not necessarily a period in which the faithful fasted every day.

=> The Season of Lent - Ken Collins' Site
=> All About Lent by James Akin
=> The Season of Lent - Dennis Bratcher
=> Lent - Wikipedia
=> Lent - Call to Conversion
=> Praying Lent

=> BBC - Religion & Ethics - Lent:
Why 40 Days?
40 is a significant number in Jewish-Christian scripture:
In Genesis, the flood which destroyed the earth was brought about by 40 days and nights of rain.
The Hebrews spent 40 years in the wilderness before reaching the land promised to them by God.
Moses fasted for 40 days before receiving the ten commandments on Mount Sinai.
Most Christians regard Jesus' time in the wilderness as the key event for the duration of Lent.

Why is it called Lent?
Lent is an old English word meaning to lengthen. Lent is observed in spring, when the days begin to get longer.

The colour purple
Purple is the symbolic colour used in some churches throughout Lent, for drapes and altar frontals.

Purple is used for two reasons: firstly because it is associated with mourning and so anticipates the pain and suffering of the crucifixion, and secondly because purple is the colour associated with royalty, and celebrates Christ's resurrection and sovereignty.

East and West
Both the eastern and western churches observe Lent but they count the 40 days differently.

The western church excludes Sundays (which is celebrated as the day of Christ's resurrection) whereas the eastern church includes them.

The churches also start Lent on different days.

Western churches start Lent on the 7th Wednesday before Easter Day (called Ash Wednesday).

Eastern churches start Lent on the Monday of the 7th week before Easter and end it on the Friday 9 days before Easter. Eastern churches call this period the 'Great Lent'.

=> Powerpoint presentation: Steps for Lent

Jean

The Whisper

2006-03-18T15:06:00.000+08:00

A young man had lost his job and didn't know which way to turn. So he went to see an old preacher.

Pacing about the preacher's study, the young man ranted about his problem. Finally he clenched his fist and shouted, "I've begged God to say something to help me. Tell me, Preacher, why doesn't God answer?"

The old preacher, who sat across the room, spoke something in reply - something so hushed it was indistinguishable. The young man stepped across the room. "What did you say?" he asked.

The preacher repeated himself, but again in a tone as soft as a whisper. So the young man moved closer until he was leaning on the preacher's chair.

"Sorry," he said. "I still didn't hear you."

With their heads bent together, the old preacher spoke once more. "God sometimes whispers," he said, "so we will move closer to hear Him."

This time the young man heard and he understood.

Jean

St. Patrick's Day

2006-03-18T01:06:00.000+08:00

All You Need to Know abt St. Patrick's Day

Btw, it's Sarah Swee's birthday too. But it's past midnight, so technically, I'm belated. =#

Jean

Stay With Me

2006-03-15T12:54:00.000+08:00

Lenten Vigil for Youth: "Stay With Me"

Organised by: Church of St. Ignatius
Location: Catholic Junior College
Date: Fri Mar 17 2006, 7:00pm - 10:30pm

Program Highlights:
- Meditative prayer and songs from Taize Reconciliation (6.45 to 7.30pm)
- Stations of the Cross
- Sacrament of Reconciliation
- Reflections by Fr Leslie Raj, S.J. and Sr Wendy Ooi, fsp
- Visual Montage

Shrove Tuesday

2006-02-28T21:05:00.000+08:00

International Pancake Day/Shrove Tuesday/Mardi Gras/Carnival, is the day before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. In earlier times, the consumption of fat and eggs was not allowed during Lent, so families made pancakes to mark the start of Lent and to use up the "forbidden" ingredients - thus Pancake Day was born.

Happy Pancake Day!!!

Jean

The Teacher's Story

2006-02-06T20:44:00.000+08:00

There is a story of an elementary teacher. Her name was Mrs. Thompson. And as she stood in front of her 5th grade class on the very first day of school, she told the children a lie. Like most teachers, she looked at her students and said that she loved them all the same.

But that was impossible, because there in the front row, slumped in his seat, was a little boy named Teddy Stoddard. Mrs. Thompson had watched Teddy the year before and noticed that he didn't play well with the other children, that his clothes were messy and that he constantly needed a bath. And Teddy could be unpleasant. It got to the point where Mrs. Thompson would actually take delight in marking his papers with a broad red pen, making bold X's and then putting a big "F" at the top of his papers.

At the school where Mrs. Thompson taught, she was required to review each child's past records and she put Teddy's off until last. However, when she reviewed his file, she was in for a surprise. Teddy's first grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is a bright child with a ready laugh. He does his work neatly and has good manners...he is a joy to be around." His second grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is an excellent student, well liked by his classmates, but he is troubled because his mother has a terminal illness and life at home must be a struggle." His third grade teacher wrote, "His mother's death had been hard on him. He tries to do his best, but his father doesn't show much interest and his home life will soon affect him if some steps aren't taken." Teddy's fourth grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is withdrawn and doesn't show much interest in school. He doesn't have many friends and he sometimes sleeps in class."

By now, Mrs. Thompson realized the problem and she was ashamed of herself. She felt even worse when her student brought her Christmas presents, wrapped in beautiful ribbons and bright paper, except for Teddy's. His present was clumsily wrapped in the heavy, brown paper that he got from a grocery bag.

Mrs. Thompson took pains to open it in the middle of the other presents. Some of the children started to laugh when she found a rhinestone bracelet with some of the stones missing, and a bottle that was one quarter full of perfume. But she stifled the children's laughter when she exclaimed how pretty the bracelet was, putting it on, and dabbing some of the perfume on her wrist.
Teddy Stoddard stayed after school that day just long enough to say, "Mrs. Thompson, today you smelled just like my Mom used to." After the children left she cried for at least an hour.

On that very day, she quit teaching reading, and writing, and arithmetic. Instead, she began to teach children.

Mrs. Thompson paid particular attention to Teddy. As she worked with him, his mind seemed to come alive. The more she encouraged him, the faster he responded. By the end of the year, Teddy had become one of the smartest children in the class and, despite her lie that she would love all the children the same, Teddy became one of her "teacher's pets."

A year later, she found a note under her door, from Teddy, telling her that she was still the best teacher he ever had in his whole life.

Six years went by before she got another note from Teddy. He then wrote that he had finished high school, third in his class, and she was still the best teacher he ever had in his whole life.

Four years after that, she got another letter, saying that while things had been tough at times, he'd stayed in school, had stuck with it, and would soon graduate from college with the highest of honours. He assured Mrs. Thompson that she was still the best and favorite teacher he ever had in his whole life.

Then four more years passed and yet another letter came. This time he explained that after he got his bachelor's degree, he decided to go a little further. The letter explained that she was still the best and favourite teacher he ever had. But now his name was a little longer -- the letter was signed, Theodore F. Stoddard, MD.

The story doesn't end there. You see, there was yet another letter that spring. Teddy said he'd met this girl and was going to be married. He explained that his father had died a couple of years ago and he was wondering if Mrs. Thompson might agree to sit in the place at the wedding that was usually reserved for the mother of the groom.

Of course, Mrs. Thompson did.

And guess what? She wore that bracelet, the one with several rhinestones missing. And she made sure she was wearing the perfume that Teddy remembered his mother wearing on their last Christmas together.

They hugged each other, and Dr. Stoddard whispered in Mrs. Thompson's ear, "Thank you Mrs. Thompson for believing in me. Thank you so much for making me feel important and showing me that I could make a difference."

Mrs. Thompson, with tears in her eyes, whispered back. She said, "Teddy, you have it all wrong. You were the one who taught me that I could make a difference. I didn't know how to teach until I met you."
__________________________
AUGH the 2 posts before this disappeared. I'm trying out with this post before I re-post those. And when I posted the 1st of those 2 posts, then posted the 2nd, the 1st disappeared, so when I repost again, it will be for the 3rd time that I am posting! Hm. LoL. This post better not vanish.
Oddly, you can still find the posts here and over here.
I didn't sign those posts.. but... that wouldn't make them disappear!

Jean

Tell Me Now

2006-01-30T15:31:00.000+08:00

by Eden's Bridge

Was it a case of mistaken identity,
A shot in the dark
where I missed and found You?
Was it a case of my studied indifference
Being so easy for You to see through?

O Lord, tell me now.

I thought I could blame it
on youthful exuberance,
An overexcitement
for something all new.
But as I moved on
on this wandering pathway,
I tested Your words
and I found they were true.

I know I belong
(I will call them My people)
I know that You chose me
(This is My covenant with them)
I know it's no accident
(Now we are near Him)
And that's all that I need to know.

Their music is hauntingly beautiful...
you have to hear it.
http://store.yahoo.com/worshipmusic/ssd0181.html

Jean

Christian Unity Week

2006-01-25T22:22:00.000+08:00

Today is the last day... happy last day! =)

http://www.textweek.com/festivals/christian_unity.htm

"We are one in the Spirit,
we are one in the Lord,
We are one in the Spirit,
we are one in the Lord,
And we pray that all unity
May one day be restored."

Jean

Epiphany

2006-01-08T14:39:00.000+08:00

"Wise Men": The Three Magi were "wise" men because they searched for the Messiah in order to worship Him. The divine star led them to the real "King" of the universe. How "wise" are we? Do we allow the divine inspirations in our hearts to lead us to worship God wholeheartedly?

Daily E-mail Reflection by Fr Philip Heng, S.J.

Click here to deepen your reflection on today's Gospel text: Gospel Text or 10-Minute Guide to Prayer

"The Magi's Worship: Fulfillment of Scriptures"

VATICAN CITY, JAN. 6, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave today before praying the Angelus from the window of his study with pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square.
* * *
Dear Brothers and Sisters!

Today we celebrate the Epiphany of the Lord, namely, his manifestation to the Gentiles, represented by the Wise Men, mysterious people who came from the East, of which the Gospel according to Matthew speaks (Matthew 2:1-12). The Magi's worship of Jesus was recognised immediately as fulfillment of the prophetic Scriptures. "And nations shall come to your light," we read in the Book of Isaiah, "and kings to the brightness of your rising. … They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord" (Isaiah 60:3,6). The light of Christ, which the cave of Bethlehem contained, today expands in all its universal splendor. My thoughts go particularly to the beloved brothers and sisters of the Oriental Churches who, following the Julian calendar, celebrate today holy Christmas: I address to them my most cordial greetings of peace and goodness in the Lord.

It seems spontaneous to recall today World Youth Day. Last August, it gathered in Cologne more than 1 million young people, who raised as their motto the Magi's words in reference to Jesus: "We Have Come to Worship Him" (Matthew 2:2). How many times we have heard and repeated them! Now we cannot hear them without returning spiritually to that memorable event that represented a genuine "epiphany." In fact, the pilgrimage of young people in its most profound dimension, can be seen as an itinerary guided by the light of a "star," by the light of faith. And today I want to extend to the whole Church the message that I then proposed to young people gathered on the banks of the Rhine River: "Open wide your hearts to God; let yourselves be astonished by Christ! Open the doors of your freedom to his merciful love! Show Christ your joys and sorrows, allowing him to illuminate your mind with his light and touch your hearts with his grace" (Address of Aug. 18, 2005).

I would like the entire Church to breathe, as in Cologne, the atmosphere of "epiphany," and of genuine missionary commitment aroused by the manifestation of Christ, light of the world, sent by God the Father to reconcile and unify humanity with the force of love. With this spirit, let us pray with fervor for full Christian unity so that their testimony will become the leaven of communion for the whole world. For this reason, let us invoke the intercession of Mary Most Holy, Mother of Christ and Mother of the Church.

[After praying the Angelus, the Pope said:] On the feast of the Epiphany, Children's Missionary Day is celebrated, established by Pope Pius XII, of happy memory. With the theme "Children Help Children," thousands of initiatives of solidarity are supported by the Pontifical Society of Missionary Childhood, teaching children to grow with a spirit of openness to the world and of attention to the difficulties of their more underprivileged contemporaries. For my ministry, I also count on the prayer of children and on their active participation in the mission of the Church.

[Translation by ZENIT]

[The Holy Father then greeted pilgrims in several languages. In English, he said:] I greet all the English-speaking visitors present at this Angelus. The Epiphany of Our Lord is the manifestation of Jesus as the divine Savior for people of all races and nations. May Christians everywhere deepen their personal communion with Christ, and bear constant witness to the Gospel of God's universal love!
ZE06010705

Jean

The Holy Family; 12 Days of Xmas

2005-12-30T21:15:00.000+08:00

Holy Family - Feast (Sunday in the Octave of Christmas or December 30)
This feast was developed in the 17th century. It is based on the Gospel accounts. This family is looked upon as an excellent domestic unit representing the ideal family life. This feast was established in the Universal Church in 1921. The Feast of the Holy Family is celebrated on the Sunday in the Octave of Christmas or on December 30 if Christmas falls on Sunday.
-St. Lawrence Roman Catholic Site: "Special Feastdays"

images & prayers.
-Patron Saints Index: "Holy Family"

The primary purpose of the Church in instituting and promoting this feast is to present the Holy Family as the model and exemplar of all Christian families.
excerpted from With Christ Through the Year, Rev. Bernard Strasser, O.S.B.
-Catholic Culture: "Feast of the Holy Family"

See Catholic Culture: "The Twelve Days of Christmas"
Jean

The Holy Innocents, Martyrs; St. John

2005-12-28T11:41:00.000+08:00

Happy Holy Innocents' Day!!!

On hearing the Magi ask for "He that is born King of the Jews", Herod, the Roman client-king in Judea, felt his throne was in jeopardy. He ordered the murder of all male children in Bethlehem under the age of two, to be secure. However, Joseph, Mary and Jesus had fled to Egypt after they had been warned by an angel, the theme of the "Flight into Egypt."

The feast has formerly been called Childermas, Children's Mass, Holy Innocents' Day.

The Roman Catholic Church keeps a simple octave in memory of the Holy Innocents; they are also commemorated in the liturgy of January 4. They are the only martyrs whose feastday is kept by the wearing of purple vestments at Mass, as opposed to red.

In Spain and Iberoamerica, December 28 is a day for pranks, equivalent to April Fool's Day in many countries. Prank victims are called inocentes.
-Wikipedia: "Massacre of the Innocents"

The Church venerates these children as martyrs (flores martyrum); they are the first buds of the Church killed by the frost of persecution; they died not only for Christ, but in his stead (St. Augustine, "Sermo 10us de sanctis").

The Latin Church instituted the feast of the Holy Innocents at a date now unknown, not before the end of the fourth and not later than the end of the fifth century. It is, with the feasts of St. Stephen and St. John, first found in the Leonine Sacramentary, dating from about 485. To the Philocalian Calendar of 354 it is unknown. The Latins keep it on 28 December, the Greeks on 29 December, the Syrians and Chaldeans on 27 December. These dates have nothing to do with the chronological order of the event; the feast is kept within the octave of Christmas because the Holy Innocents gave their life for the newborn Saviour. Stephen the first martyr (martyr by will, love, and blood), John, the Disciple of Love (martyr by will and love), and these first flowers of the Church (martyrs by blood alone) accompany the Holy Child Jesus entering this world on Christmas day. Only the Church of Rome applies the word Innocentes to these children; in other Latin countries they are called simply Infantes and the feast had the title "Allisio infantium" (Brev. Goth.), "Natale infantum", or "Necatio infantum". The Armenians keep it on Monday after the Second Sunday after Pentecost (Armen. Menology, 11 May), because they believe the Holy Innocents were killed fifteen weeks after the birth of Christ.

The Roman Station of 28 December is at St. Paul's Outside the Walls, because that church is believed to possess the bodies of several of the Holy Innocents. A portion of these relics was transferred by Sixtus V to Santa Maria Maggiore (feast on 5 May; it is a semi-double).
-Catholic Encyclopedia: "Holy Innocents"

O God, whose praise the martyred innocents did this day proclaim, not by speaking, but by dying: Destroy in us all the malice of sinfulness, that our lives may also proclaim thy faith, which our tongues profess. Through our Lord. Amen.
-Women for Faith & Family: "Feast of the Holy Innocents"

Today's festival in honour of the Holy Innocents seems to stand in sharp contrast to the Christmas season of which it is a part. It seems to be a kind of anti-Christmas. Instead of the newborn Christ-child, we hear of the massacre of children. Instead of "peace on earth, good will towards men," we hear of envy, jealousy, and malice. Instead of shepherds and wise men hasting to the cradle, we hear of soldiers and policemen. Instead of mother Mary keeping all these things and pondering them in her heart, we hear of mother Rachel weeping for her lost children. Instead of festive white and gold, the Church and her ministers are vested this morning in red, symbolising the blood of martyrs.

One might well ask: why interrupt our Christmas festivities with this? Why should this fourth day of Christmas not be a day of four calling birds, rather than a commemoration of murdered infants?
...
At Christmas we celebrate the mystery of God the Son, the eternal Word of God, becoming flesh and pitching his tent amongst us. And to be among human beings is not always to be among milking maids and leaping lords and drumming drummers; it is sometimes to be amidst squalid, brutal, and violent conditions. This is the world, and these are the people, that Christ came to earth to redeem.
...
Saint Matthew says that the slaughter of the Innocents was in fulfillment of a saying of the prophet Jeremiah: "A voice is heard in Ramah, lamenting and weeping bitterly; it is Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted for her children, because they are no more." Ramah is the place-name of a hill near Bethlehem, traditionally the burial place of Rachel, the wife of the patriarch Isaac, the son of Abraham and the father of Judah, from whom the people and country of Judea took their name.

The very next verse is this: "The Lord says, stop your lamenting, dry your eyes, for your labour will have a reward. There is hope for the future after all, the Lord declares." And a couple of verses later: "How long will you hesitate, rebellious daughter? For the Lord is creating something new on earth."

And this is the Christmas message: "Stop your lamenting, dry your eyes, for the Lord is creating something new on earth." We do not any longer have to be subject to the Herods of this world; power they may have, armies they may command, atrocities they may order - but they cannot rule us any longer. We have a new king, a legitimate king, and he will rule in our hearts.
-The Deacon's Homily for Holy Innocents' Day [Anglican]

Reading:
Why are you afraid, Herod, when you hear of the birth of a king? He does not come to drive you out, but to conquer the devil. But because you do not understand this you are disturbed and in a rage. To destroy one child whom you seek, you show your cruelty in the death of so many children.

You are not restrained by the love of weeping mothers and fathers mourning the deaths of their sons, nor by the cries and sobs of the children. You destroy those who are tiny in body because fear is destroying your heart. You imagine that if you accomplish your desire you can prolong you own life, though you are seeking to kill Life himself.

The children die for Christ, though they do not know it. The parents mourn for the death of martyrs. The Christ child makes of those as yet unable to speak fit witnesses to himself. But you, Herod, do not know this and are disturbed and furious. While you vent your fury against the child, you are already paying him homage, and do not know it.

To what merits of their own do the children owe this kind of victory? They cannot speak, yet they bear witness to Christ. They cannot use their limbs to engage in battle, yet already they bear off the palm of victory.

Patronage: babies; children's choir; choir boys; foundlings

-Patron Saints Index: Holy Innocents

[Ecard for Holy Innocents' Day.]

Today is Sherlyn's & my birthday! LoL. Let me tell your our story: We were born on the same day in the same hospital (Mt. Alvernia), both premature, and since there's only one incubator room in that hospital, we were probably in the same room... Then we went to the same primary school (CHIJ Toa Payoh Pri), but we didn't meet until we were posted to the same class in the same secondary school (CHIJ Toa Payoh Sec) and we only found out abt our birthday & birthplace in Sec. 2! And now we've been classmates for 5 years! Haha.

Merry 4th day of Christmas!!!

Now for yesterday's feast, which I couldn't post yesterday 'cos I fell asleep after Sherlyn's party.

St. John the Apostle

Called by Jesus during the first year of His ministry, and traveled everywhere with Him, becoming so close as to be known as the beloved disciple. Took part in the Last Supper. The only one of the Twelve not to forsake the Savior in the hour of His Passion, standing at the foot of the cross. Made guardian of Our Lady by Jesus, he took her into his home. Upon hearing of the Resurrection, he was the first to reach the tomb; when he met the risen Lord at the lake of Tiberias, he was the first to recognize Him.

Imprisoned with Peter for preaching after Pentecost. Wrote the fourth Gospel, three Epistles, and possibly the Book of Revelation. Survived all his fellow apostles.

Patronage: against poison; art dealers; Asia Minor; authors; bookbinders; booksellers; burns; diocese of Cleveland, Ohio; compositors; editors; engravers; friendships; lithographers; diocese of Milwaukee, Wisconsin; painters; papermakers; poisoning; printers; publishers; Sundern, Germany; tanners; Taos, New Mexico; theologians; typesetters; Umbria, Italy; writers

Name Meaning: God is gracious; gift of God

[hey.. that's the meaning of my name.]

-Patron Saints Index: St. John the Apostle

Jean

On the Feast of Stephen

2005-12-26T22:28:00.000+08:00

Happy St. Stephen's Day!

St. Stephen:
One of the first deacons and the first Christian martyr; feast on 26 December.
-Catholic Encyclopedia: St. Stephen

St Stephen's Day is... a popular day for visiting family members.
-Wikipedia

Stephen's name means "crown," and he was the first disciple of Jesus to receive the martyr's crown. Stephen was a deacon in the early Christian Church. The apostles had found that they needed helpers to look after the care of the widows and the poor. So they ordained seven deacons, and Stephen is the most famous of these.
...
St. Stephen faced that great assembly of enemies without fear. In fact, the Holy Bible says that his face looked like the face of an angel.

The saint spoke about Jesus, showing that He is the Saviour, God had promised to send. He scolded his enemies for not having believed in Jesus. At that, they rose up in great anger and shouted at him. But Stephen looked up to Heaven and said that he saw the heavens opening and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

His hearers plugged their ears and refused to listen to another word. They dragged St. Stephen outside the city of Jerusalem and stoned him to death. The saint prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!" Then he fell to his knees and begged God not to punish his enemies for killing him.

After such an expression of love, the holy martyr went to his heavenly reward.

-Catholic Online

Claim: The name of Boxing Day comes from the need to rid the house of empty boxes the day after Christmas.

Status: False.

Origins: ...The holiday's roots can be traced to Britain, where Boxing Day is also known as St. Stephen's Day. Reduced to the simplest essence, its origins are found in a long-ago practice of giving cash or durable goods to those of the lower classes. Gifts among equals were exchanged on or before Christmas Day, but beneficences to those less fortunate were bestowed the day after.

Sightings: In the familiar Christmas carol, Good King Wenceslas' gifts of flesh (meat), wine, and firewood were made to a poor man whom he observed struggling through the snow "on the Feast of Stephen."

-Urban Legends Reference Pages: Holidays (Boxing Day)

Good King Wenceslas
words: John M. Neale (1818-1866)

Good King Wenceslas looked out
on the Feast of Stephen,
When the snow lay round about,
deep and crisp and even.
Brightly shone the moon that night,
though the frost was cruel,
When a poor man came in sight,
gathering winter fuel.

"Hither, page, and stand by me,
if you know it, telling,
Yonder peasant, who is he?
Where and what his dwelling?"
"Sire, he lives a good league hence,
underneath the mountain,
Right against the forest fence,
by Saint Agnes' fountain."

"Bring me food and bring me wine,
bring me pine logs hither,
You and I will see him dine,
when we bear them thither."
Page and monarch, forth they went,
forth they went together,
Through the cold wind's wild lament
and the bitter weather.

"Sire, the night is darker now,
and the wind blows stronger,
Fails my heart, I know not how;
I can go no longer."
"Mark my footsteps, my good page,
tread now in them boldly,
You shall find the winter's rage
freeze your blood less coldly."

In his master's steps he trod,
where the snow lay dinted;
Heat was in the very sod
which the saint had printed.
Therefore, Christian men, be sure,
wealth or rank possessing,
You who now will bless the poor
shall yourselves find blessing.

-Cyber Hymnal

And for the readers who don't know... today Miss Fiona Koh was wedded to Mr. Ivan Ho in St. Ignatius' Church at 10 a.m.! =D

Jean

It's Christmas Day!

2005-12-25T00:51:00.000+08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Christmas (originally the "Mass of Christ") is a holiday, observed in most of the world on December 25, celebrated by Christians to mark the birth of Jesus.
continue reading this article in Wikipedia.

But what does "mass" really mean in the compound word Christmas? Any authoritative dictionary will reveal that the English term mass evolved from the Anglo-Saxon word maesse, which derived in turn from the Latin missa, which is a form of the verb mittere, which means "to send."
Consequently, the root meaning of Christ-mass is "to send Christ," or "Christ is sent."
-Is God Against Christmas?

The "X" in Xmas refers to the Greek translation of Christ, the first letter of which strongly resembles the Roman "X." Early Christians, aware of this, did not feel sacrilegious using the abbreviation, but in modern times, many have forgotten this fact.
-'X' stands for Christ

IXOYE is explained as the Greek word for "fish" and is also an acronym. I=JESUS, X=CHRIST, O=GOD, Y=SON, E=SAVIOUR. That X, though, means Christ, and so it means something in Xmas.
-The Meaning of Xmas

Read more at Origin of X in Xmas.

And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David,
to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.
And while they were there, the time came for her to be delivered.
And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
And in that region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear.
And the angel said to them, "Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people;
for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger."
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!"
When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us."
And they went with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.
Luke 2:1-16

God bless =)

Jean

Bethlehem of Judea

2005-12-17T12:38:00.000+08:00

author unknown

A little child,
A shining star.
A stable rude,
The door ajar.
Yet in that place,
So crude, forlorn,
The Hope of all
The world was born.

Jean

The Crucifixion: a Medical Viewpoint

2005-12-16T21:48:00.000+08:00

The following is a transcription of a talk given by Keith Maxwell, a medical doctor in Asheville, N.C.

This talk is approached from the perspective of how a physician would assess the injuries of Jesus if he were there to see the actual physical trauma he experienced. Dr. Maxwell speaks plainly, with as little medical jargon as possible. His development of this topic began to evolve one night when Dr. Maxwell, in the emergency room, thought to himself, "If they brought the Lord in here, exactly what would his physical injuries be like?"

He hopes through this talk to reveal some things that will make us meditate on the actual suffering Jesus experienced in the last hours of his life. In the notes that follow are his conclusions about the death of Jesus based on his research, experience as a trauma physician and his understanding of scripture.

"You may or may not have thought of some of the things I'll point out to you tonight, but I hope I can share some things with you that will make the life and death of our Savior a little bit more precious.

By the time he was crucified, Jesus had been up about thirty-six hours without any sleep. We know from biblical accounts that Jesus was an early riser. There are several places in the gospels where he arose early and went and prayed. We have no reason to believe that he did anything other than that the day he had his last meal with his disciples. He likely arose early that morning, spent his day, and subsequently had dinner with the disciples that night - the last supper in the upper room. He was then taken prisoner in the garden of Gethsemane, was led all about the old city of Jerusalem and was tried at least twice. The next day at about daybreak he was actually hung on the cross, and hung there throughout that day. Between the time he arose and the time he actually died on the cross, a period of about thirty-six hours had passed, with no sleep or rest.

Something else you may not have thought of was how far Jesus actually walked about the old city of Jerusalem. We know he was led about from the chief priest's house to Herod's to Pilot's during the time that he was being tried, and we know he was led all about the old city of Jerusalem. If you add it up, he walked about two and one half miles that last night. Also, as best we can ascertain from historical accounts, Jesus carried his cross about a third of a mile before he collapsed and wasn't able to carry it anymore. These are some physical exertions that added up, place stress on a person.

The next thing I want to talk about is a phenomenon called hemathidrosis. Hemathidrosis is a very rare medical phenomenon that's been reported about twelve to fourteen times in world medical literature and is only seen in people who are under tremendous stress and agony. In hemathidrosis, a person actually exudes blood from every sweat gland in their body. Each sweat gland has a small capillary that surrounds it, and in hemathidrosis, that small capillary ruptures. As it bursts, a person actually bleeds into their sweat glands. Instead of perspiring sweat, if you will, they actually perspire blood. The Bible gives an excellent description of this phenomenon, saying that the Lord's sweat became as great drops of blood. Indeed, every pore of Jesus' body oozed and drained blood.

Now, I believe that Christ was a man just as much as any one of us. But at the same time, I believe that Christ was God and knew the terrible fate that lay ahead of him. He knew the job he had come to this earth to do, the mission he had to fulfill, and I believe the man part of Christ dreaded this agonizing death and torture that lay a few hours ahead of him just as much as any one of us would. We know he prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, saying 'Father, if it be your will, let this cup pass from me.' But he submitted his will to his Father's. There in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was under about as much anxiety and physical stress from an emotional standpoint that a human could experience, knowing that in a few hours he would be delivered into one of the most agonizing and brutal deaths ever recorded in history.

Why didn't the Lord bleed to death if he bled out of every sweat gland in his body? If you've been to Israel, as I have, you know that this time of year you have warm days and cool nights. It was this cool night air that probably cause the Lord's damp skin, covered with sweat and blood, to chill, causing the capillaries to constrict and stop the bleeding. This same chilling in the cold night air has kept many a drunk and hoodlum who I've seen shot or stabbed and who's then lain in a ditch all night, from dying. It causes the blood vessels to constrict and causes the blood loss to be minimal. But by the time Jesus was taken by the soldiers from the garden of Gethsemane, he probably had a mixture of sweat and blood over his entire body surface. I can imagine this was some sight to behold.

Let's talk about the scourging. Scourging was such a horrible torture that Roman citizens were forbade to be scourged - only slaves and traders could be scourged. It was one of the worst punishments the Romans had to inflict on a human body. Typically, the victim was stripped completely naked and tied by his wrists to a post or wall with his back exposed. He was then whipped from the back of his arms, down his shoulders and back, across his bare buttocks, down the back of his legs and calves, all the way down to his heels by two Roman legionnaires, one on either side, alternating blows. The historical accounts tell us that the traditional scourging consisted of thirty-nine lashes. If you can, imagine two large, strong, burly Roman legionnaires (someone that we would equate to say, a pro football player today) with a wooden handled whip about eighteen inches long that had nine leather thongs, something akin to what we would call a cat-o-nine tails. The nine leather thongs were about six to seven feet long, and at the end of each thong was some lead shod, like a sinker you'd use to go fishing. Attached to the lead shod were pieces of sheep and cattle bone. The idea of those small pieces of bone was that, as the Roman legionnaire would beat his victim, snapping his wrist would cause the weight of the metal shod to dig into the back, while the sheep/cattle bone cut the skin. As the sheep/cattle bone lacerated the skin and actually dug in under the surface of the skin, the skilled and trained legionnaire could whip his wrist and literally lift small shards of skeletal muscle out through the skin, leaving small ribbons of muscle, about two inches long, hanging through the skin."

"When I was working on this, I looked at in the cadaver lab and did some dissection, trying to figure out what one blow like this would mean to you and me. As best I could tell, and from some of the information I was able to gather from the Shroud of Turin exhibit, one lash with this whip - one thong - would make a cut about two inches long and about three quarters to an inch deep. To put that into medical terms, that's a cut that takes about twenty stitches to close. So with one lash, one swing of the whip, a total of nine lacerations could be inflicted on the victim, each laceration two inches long and three quarters to one inch deep. With one blow, one Roman legionnaire could inflict enough wounds to take one hundred eighty stitches to close. If you multiply that times thirty-nine, those two Roman legionnaires inflicted enough lacerations to take about 2,000 stitches to close. I've seen people who've gone through the windshield of a car or wrecked a motorcycle into a barbed wire fence, and I've still never seen anyone that tattered up in any of my medical experience. This gives you an idea of the amount of the physical trauma that was inflicted upon Jesus just from the scourging.

Again you'd ask why Jesus didn't bleed to death. And again, you have to remember that this was done in the cold night air, the very thing that caused his blood vessels and capillaries to constrict and actually cause the blood loss from this beating to be minimal.

As mentioned, the idea of the lead weight was to lift the skeletal muscle out. Imagine having a cut on your skin with an inch of muscle pulled out through the cut, exposed to the night air. We see this sometimes in stab wounds or when people are stabbed with sharp objects like sticks and the muscles are pulled back through the skin. The purpose this served in the scourging was, that as the victim hung on the cross in the heat of the day, birds could light on him and actually peck and pull at these pieces of muscle, just like a robin trying to pull a worm out of the ground. Frequently, how long a person actually survived on the cross during the crucifixion was determined by how severely he was scourged. Sometimes they would beat a man nearly to death before they put him on the cross and he would only live a few hours. Most of the time, though, the scourging was intended for public humiliation and embarrassment, because it was such an inhumane method of torture.

Another thing you may not have considered... TV has done a real injustice to trauma, depicting men in bar room fights who take blows to the face or head and jump up and beat up three or four men. I can tell you that it's really not that way in real life. If I took any one of the men here, tied his hands behind him and then let any other man of average size and build beat him in the face with his fists open and closed, I cannot begin to tell you the amount of trauma this would inflict on him.

We know that Jesus was beaten in the face and head as he was mocked. I can assure you with all confidence that by the time the Lord was crucified after his beatings, it's almost certain that both of his eyes were swollen shut and no doubt his nose was pouring blood. I can also tell you that when people are struck in the mouth with a fist, the first thing that happens is that the lower teeth come right through the lip. I've taken care of many people in the emergency room who've come in beaten up in fights with their teeth sticking through their lips, both upper and lower sides. If Jesus was tied and held and beaten in the face by these strong legionnaires, I don't think there's any doubt that his lips were tattered like paper and some of his teeth were knocked loose or maybe even knocked out. You might ask if his jaw bones were broken. Normally they would be, but not in Jesus' case, and I'll tell you why in a few minutes.

During Jesus' trials and humiliation we also know that a crown of thorns was plaited and placed on his head. In Christ's case this was done to mock him as being King of the Jews. Some of you have been to Israel and have seen these thorns. They're about an inch and one half to two inches long, and they're as sharp as an ice pick. The custom was to take a small three or four foot long reed and slap the thorns on top of the head of the victim in order to drive the thorns into the skull. Those thorns laid upon someone's head and then tapped down with a reed were hard enough to penetrate the outer table or the outer bone of the skull. Imagine the bleeding from three or four hundred puncture wounds in the scalp and around the forehead from these thorns.

So, before Jesus' crucifixion ever begins, his face has been beaten to a pulp, no doubt his eyes were swollen shut, his nose is bloodied, and I remind you that every pore in his skin has wept and oozed blood. Every visible surface on the good Lord Jesus, I am confident, was covered and caked with dried blood. And his back and his arms and his buttocks and the back of his legs were literally torn to shreds from the scourging. This was the shape Jesus was in before they ever gave him his cross to head out to Calvary."

"Now, one of the things I take issue with from agnostics who I've heard debate this: I do not think the Lord died from shock secondary to blood loss. There is nothing that Jesus said on the cross and nothing in the description of the crucifixion in any of the gospels that gives us any idea that Jesus was in shock before he died. How do I know that? When someone is shot or hit by a car and comes to the emergency room, they're not sitting up talking to you. Their eyes are glassy, their color is pale, their blood pressure is about sixty over nothing and they're barely conscious, if conscious at all. Jesus never lost consciousness. There's nothing in the description of his trials, his scourging or his time on the cross that tells us he was incoherent mentally or lost consciousness.

Something else, physical stress - everything the Bible tells us about the life of Jesus is that he was a healthy, early thirties male who lived a rough life. He didn't have a home, he probably slept outside, and he walked every where he went. He was probably, as we would say, as tough as a pine knot. I think Jesus was a hardy young man, very strong and stout physically, and that there was nothing weak or puny about him from a medical standpoint, prior to the crucifixion. As far as emotional stress, I don't think Jesus had any kind of nervous breakdown. He was certainly under stress in the garden of Gethsemane, but nothing that he said on the cross gave any indication whatsoever that he was decompensating mentally, even during his gravest hours on the cross.

I've also heard cardiac arrhythmia debated as a cause of Jesus' death. When people go into cardiac arrhythmia, if it's ventricular tachycardia or some of the other types of cardiac arrhythmia's, one of the first things that happens is that the heart, even though it beats fast or funny, doesn't function very well as a pump. When it doesn't function well as a pump, your blood pressure drops, and you lose consciousness. Again, nowhere in the gospels do we have an account where Jesus ever lost consciousness until he died.

Let's talk about the cross for just a minute. We know from Corinthian and Roman history that the crosses were usually in two parts. First, the cross bar, that from very good historical accounts can be estimated to have a weight of 125 to 150 pounds, and to be about the size of a cross tie. Many of us have stacked or used cross ties at one time or another or have certainly seen what they look like on the railroad tracks. I want to remind you that this was a rough, unplaned, unfinished piece of wood with splinters and spikes and rough places in it, just like you would expect to see in a railroad cross tie. When the victim's final trial and condemnation had taken place, to maximize the shame and suffering, the custom was to tie the cross bar to the victim, and have him carry it through the city from his point of condemnation to his point of execution. Part of the custom was that many times these people would be forced to stagger through the streets after being scourged and beaten, with the cross bar tied to their arms, and to add to the ultimate humiliation, the victim had to bear the cross naked. Imagine how humiliating that would be in this day and time, much less how humiliating and agonizing it must have been for Jesus.

The other part of the cross was an upright part, which is just like a post in the ground. Every major city at that time had an area outside their gates where they performed crucifixions. It was really not only a form of execution, but of entertainment as well. Many of the major cities had areas outside their walls where they would have three or four of these upright posts that were permanent fixtures. Someone condemned to crucifixion would bear the cross bar through the streets to the point of crucifixion, and once there, would be thrown onto the ground. Nails would then be driven through their hands into the cross bar. Then two forks, something similar to pitch forks, would be placed around each end of the cross bar, and they would be boosted up and the cross bar hung on top of the upright post. Once they were braced on the upright post, both feet would then be nailed to the foot piece.

The nail wounds... The Romans practiced crucifixion for hundreds of years, and they perfected the art of pain and suffering. How could a man have spikes driven through his hands and feet and not bleed to death? The Romans figured out that if they drove the spike through a man's wrist right at the middle, they could avoid hitting any arteries or veins. If you go back and look at the Hebrew word for hand, it's inclusive from the fingertips to about where your wristwatch crosses your wrist. So the hand didn't necessarily mean the palm, and I can tell you, from having been a hand surgeon at one time and from dissecting cadavers to try to see if the muscle was strong enough to hold the body weight, it's not. You can not drive a spike through a man's palm and hang him by it without it pulling right out between his fingers. It is an accepted medical fact that the muscle in your palm is not strong enough to support your body weight.

In order to be able to drive spikes through the Lord's hands, they had to drive them through at the wrists. There, there's a very strong ligament, called the traverse carpal ligament, that's strong enough to support the body weight. The Romans figured out that if they came about where the crease in the wrist is and drove the spike through this area, they would miss the radial artery (the artery people cut when they try to kill themselves by cutting their wrist - right where the doctor takes your pulse), and they would also miss what we call the ulnar artery over on the little finger side. What they would do though, is drive the nail right through the biggest nerve in the hand, called the median nerve. If any of y'all have ever had carpal tunnel syndrome, you know how uncomfortable any inflammation or irritation to that median nerve can be. When the median nerve is transected, it gives about the sensation of having an electric cattle prod stuck to your wrist and a constant electrical shock going through your hand, and causes the fingers to claw. In essence, the Romans devised a way they could drive a spike through a man's hand and not lose one drop of blood, while maximising the amount of pain and suffering that man would endure.

The Romans did the same thing with the feet. They calculated where they could drive a spike through both a man's feet and not cause blood loss that would cause the victim to bleed to death. The spike would have been placed between the first and second metatarsal bones, missing the dorals pedis artery. There again, they drove the spike through the feet with no blood loss. The spike misses the artery, but does hit the plantar nerves, thereby causing that same horrible shock sensation.

Let's talk now about Jesus hanging on the cross. When hanging by their arms, as a crucifixion victim's body weight sags down, their diaphragm functions like a billows. As the diaphragm drops into the abdomen it pulls in air, so someone hanging on the cross had no difficulty whatsoever pulling air into their lungs. The tough part for people hanging on the cross was breathing out. In order for a crucifixion victim to exhale, they would have to pull up against the spikes with their hands, and push up against the spikes with their feet. I want to remind you - here's Jesus hanging on the cross, probably naked in front of the whole city of Jerusalem. I've already described his back to you. Every time he took a breath, that tattered, lacerated and riddled back was drug and scraped across the splinters and the rough knobs and spikes protruding from the cross. Each time he breathed out, each time he uttered a word, he would have to pull up with his arms and push up with his legs. That's why I want to remind you just how precious Jesus' words from the cross were. That's why he couldn't say more than three or four words at a time. Because when you talk, you only talk as you breathe out, not as you breathe in. Every word Jesus spoke on the cross was spoken as he was pulling up against the nails and dragging his back across the cross. That's why what the Lord tells us - what he spoke from the cross - is very precious to me, because I know what it cost him and how badly it hurt him. Every time I give this talk it reminds me how he died for us and just how every word hurt and how he suffered just to give us every word. What did he say? He said, 'Behold your son." And then he said 'Behold your mother.' Jesus knew he had just about finished his job and done everything that he'd come into this world to fulfill and do. Finally, when he had done all of that, he said, 'It is finished.' And when he said 'It is finished", that's the last time he pulled up with his hands and pushed up with his feet, dragging his back across the cross as he hung there naked before the city of Jerusalem in total shame and humiliation. Convicted and tortured and condemned for something of which he was not guilty.

If you go back and look at historical accounts, you find that people actually lived on the cross, crucified, for up to six days. If you can, imagine a man hanging on a cross outside the gates of a city with the birds pecking at his eyes and roosting on his head, as he hangs there naked as a spectacle for the whole city. That was the point of this. It was part of the shame and humiliation that a man hang there so people could come by for a day or two and stand and mock and jeer and shout accusations and railings and blasphemy at him. The idea was to make him suffer as much as possible. Crucifixion was never intended to kill anybody. It was only intended to make a human being suffer as much as could be inflicted upon him before killing him by breaking his legs.

But I don't believe Jesus died from crucifracture or from exhaustion asphyxia either. Crucifracture is what they would do when they simply grew tired of watching this agony and suffering or when they had something better to do and wanted to end a crucifixion. They would take a spear and swing it like a ball bat and hit the victim in the shins to break his shin bones. They'd break the tibula and the fibula bone. Many times they would have to beat the legs for five or ten minutes until they finally could break the shin bones - it takes a lot of force to break your shin bone. With the shin bone broken, the victim could no longer push up to breathe.

Why didn't they break Jesus' legs? If you go back to the Psalms - I believe the 34th chapter - it says "Not a bone of his body was broken." This is why Jesus' nose and jaws and cheekbones should have been broken but couldn't have been. The 34th chapter of Psalms wouldn't let that take place. And that's why the Roman centurion didn't break his legs, because the Bible says "Not a bone of his body was broken." That was totally uncharacteristic of the crucifixion, because that's how crucifixion victims died. When they grew tired of you and got bored with the situation they'd break your legs and in about four to six minutes you'd smother to death, because you could no longer push up with your legs. You laid there sagging, unable to breathe out, and you were asphyxiated in about four to six minutes. That's how the two thieves died. But Jesus was dead already.

Let's go back to the 19th chapter of John. What happened? What did they do when they went to the first thief? The Roman centurion broke his legs. What did he do when he went to the second thief? He broke his legs. But when the centurion went to Jesus, the Bible says he was dead already.

Now why would a young, strapping, healthy man be dead after being on the cross for six hours? There's absolutely no medical explanation for it at all. Excuse my interpretation here, but the Lord had no business being dead. He should have been alive just like the other two. He wasn't beaten to the point of death, his blood loss was minimal and we know he wasn't in shock, because everything he told us from the cross made sense. He identified his mother standing at some distance from the foot of the cross. He was able to see enough to identify her and to identify one of the disciples. And everything he said was coherent. He was not out of his mind and he was not having a nervous breakdown, and he wasn't even in shock from blood loss. The Lord was perfectly coherent and sane up to the moment he died.

The spear wound to the Lord's side was not the cause of his death either. When the centurion saw that Jesus was dead already, he thrust a spear into Jesus' side. The Bible says in Zachariah that they may look upon him who they've pierced. The spear thrust was biblical prophecy fulfilled. That was one of the reasons why Jesus was already dead; God had a plan that we were to look upon the one they had pierced - Zachariah had to be fulfilled.

Roman centurions were trained killers. They were taught how to deliver death blows that would take a man's life in a matter of seconds. I've taken care of many gunshot victims to the chest. A person can take a .22 through the left side of the heart and likely come in sitting up talking to you. However, if you're stabbed or shot on the right side of the heart, where the inferior and superior vena cava are emptying into the right side of the heart, you're unconscious and pretty close to dead in about twenty to thirty seconds. This blow to Jesus was no doubt delivered from the right side through the right lung into the heart and on into the spine. It would have penetrated somewhere between the seventh and eighth intercostal space probably on the right.

But the Bible says that blood and water came out of Jesus' side after the spear was thrust in. Now if you take a unit of blood, drain it out of a human being's body, put it in a quart jar and set it on top of a desk, in about thirty minutes the red blood cells begin to settle out and the plasma rises to the top. The plasma separates from the red blood cells. When the soldier thrust the spear into the Lord's side, Jesus had already been dead for thirty or forty-five minutes. Maybe you've never thought about that. The spear wound did not take the life of the Lord Jesus; he was dead already when they thrust the spear into his side.

So let me conjecture a little about what I think. I think there's a very good description of the crucifixion in the Bible and there's very good medical evidence that can be pulled out of that description that tells us that the Lord did not die in the manner that most crucifixion victims die. When the Roman centurion went to him to break his legs, he was dead already. They couldn't break his legs because the Bible said in Psalms, "Not a bone of his body shall be broken." Why then would the soldier thrust a spear into his side? Because Zachariah told us hundreds of years before that we'd look upon him that we'd pierced. And what came out? Blood and water - I think there's enough medical evidence there that the Lord was dead at least a half an hour.

So what took the Lord's life? No man did. No man, no Roman centurion, no cross took Jesus' life. He was able to do something I've never seen another human being do - he laid down his life. When it was finished and with a loud voice, he gave up the ghost. Jesus gave his life."

"The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life - only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father." (NIV) John 10:17,18

Jean

A Man Called Jake

2005-12-15T22:46:00.000+08:00

"Therefore encourage one another and build each other up..."
1 Thessalonians 5:11

This Christmas as we welcome our Saviour let us also remember to show our love and mercy to people like Jake and all the least of our brothers and sisters. A good time to recount the seven corporal works of mercy:-

to feed the hungry
give drink to the thirsty
clothe the naked
to ransom the captive
to shelter the homeless
to visit the sick
to bury the dead

Bill Andrews was a big, awkward, homely guy. He dressed oddly with ill-fitting clothes.

There were several fellows who thought it smart to make fun of him. One day one fellow noticed a small tear in his shirt and gave it a small rip. Another worker in the factory added his bit, and before long there was quite a ribbon dangling. Bill went on about his work, and as he passed too near a moving belt the shirt strip was sucked into the machinery. In a split second the sleeve and Bill were in trouble. Alarms were sounded, switches pulled, and trouble was avoided.

The foreman, however, aware of what had happened, summoned the men and related this story:

"In my younger days I worked in a small factory. That's where I first met Mike Havoc. He was big and witty, was always making jokes, and playing little pranks. Mike was a leader. Then there was Pete Lumas who was a follower. He always went along with Mike. And then there was a man named... Jake.

"He was a little older than the rest of us - quiet, harmless, apart. He always ate his lunch by himself. He wore the same patched trousers for three years straight. He never entered into the games we played at noon, wrestling, horseshoes and such. He appeared to be indifferent, always sitting quietly alone under a tree instead. Jake was a natural target for practical jokes. He might find a live frog in his dinner pail, or a dead rodent in his hat. But he always took it in good humour.

"Then one autumn when things were slack, Mike took off a few days to go hunting. Pete went along, of course. And they promised all of us that if they got anything they'd bring us each apiece. So we were all quite excited when we heard that they'd returned and that Mike had got a really nice big buck. We heard more than that. Pete could never keep anything to himself, and it leaked out that they had a real whopper to play on Jake. Mike had cut up the critter and had made a nice package for each of us. And, for the laugh, for the joke of it, he had saved the ears, the tail, the hooves - it would be so funny when Jake unwrapped them.

"Mike distributed his packages during the noon hour. We each got a nice piece, opened it, and thanked him. The biggest package of all he saved until last. It was for Jake. Pete was all but bursting; and Mike looked very smug.

"Like always, Jake sat by himself; he was on the far side of the big table. Mike pushed the package over to where he could reach it; and we all sat and waited. Jake was never one to say much. You might never know that he was around for all the talking he did. In three years he'd never said a hundred words. So we were all quite astounded with what happened next.

"He took the package firmly in his grip and rose slowly to his feet. He smiled broadly at Mike - and it was then we noticed that his eyes were glistening. His Adam's apple bobbed up and down for a moment, and then he got control of himself.

"'I knew you wouldn't forget me,' he said gratefully. 'I knew you'd come through! You're big and you're playful, but I knew all along that you had a good heart.'

"He swallowed again, and then took in the rest of us. 'I know I haven't seemed too chummy with you men; but I never meant to be rude. You see, I've got nine kids at home - and a wife that's been an invalid - bedfast now for four years. She ain't ever going to get any better. And sometimes when she's real bad off, I have to sit up all night to take care of her. And most of my wages have had to go for doctors and medicine. The kids do all they can to help out, but at times it's been hard to keep food in their mouths. Maybe you think it's funny that I go off by myself to eat my dinner. Well, I guess I've been a little ashamed, because I don't always have anything between my sandwiches. Or like today - maybe there's only a raw turnip in my pail. But I want you to know that this meat really means a lot to me. Maybe more than to anybody here because tonight my kids...' He wiped the tears from his eyes with the back of his hand, '...tonight my kids will have a really...' He tugged at the string.

"We'd been watching Jake so intently we hadn't paid much notice to Mike and Pete. But we all noticed them now, because they both dove at once to try to grab the package. But they were too late. Jake had broken the wrapper and was already surveying his present. He examined each hoof, each ear, and then he held up the tail. It wiggled limply.

"It should have been so funny, but nobody laughed - nobody at all. But the hardest part was when Jake looked up and said thank you while trying to smile.

"Silently, one by one, each man moved forward carrying his package and quietly placed it in front of Jake for they had suddenly realised how little their own gift had really meant to them... until now...

This was where the foreman left the story and the men. He didn't need to say anymore; but it was gratifying to notice that as each man ate his lunch that day, they shared part with Bill Andrews and one fellow even took off his shirt and gave it to him.

Galatians 5:22 - But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control.

God and The Geese

2005-12-15T19:33:00.000+08:00

A good reminder before we all get caught up in the Xmas season; this is a touching Xmas story I would like to share with you.

There was once a man who didn't believe in God, and he didn't hesitate to let others know how he felt about religion and religious holidays.

His wife, however, did believe, and she raised their children to also have faith in God and Jesus, despite his disparaging comments.

One snowy Eve, his wife was taking their children to service in the farm community in which they lived. They were to talk about Jesus' birth. She asked him to come, but he refused.

"That story is nonsense!" he said. "Why would God lower Himself to come to Earth as a man? That's ridiculous!"

So she and the children left, and he stayed home. A while later, the winds grew stronger and the snow turned into a blizzard. As the man looked out the window, all he saw was a blinding snowstorm. He sat down to relax before the fire for the evening. Then he heard a loud thump. Something had hit the window. He looked out, but couldn't see more than a few feet.

When the snow let up a little, he ventured outside to see what could have been beating on his window.

In the field near his house he saw a flock of wild geese. Apparently they had been flying south for the winter when they got caught in the snowstorm and couldn't go on. They were lost and stranded on his farm, with no food or shelter. They just flapped their wings and flew around the field in low circles, blindly and aimlessly. A couple of them had flown into his window, it seemed.

The man felt sorry for the geese and wanted to help them. The barn would be a great place for them to stay, he thought. It's warm and safe; surely they could spend the night and wait out the storm.

So he walked over to the barn and opened the doors wide, then watched and waited, hoping th ey would notice the open barn and go inside.

But the geese just fluttered around aimlessly and didn't seem to notice the barn or realise what it could mean for them. The man tried to get their attention, but that just seemed to scare them, and they moved further away. He went into the house and came with some bread, broke it up, and made a bread crumb trail leading to the barn. They still didn't catch on.

Now he was getting frustrated. He got behind them and tried to shoo them toward the barn, but they only got more scared and scattered in every direction except toward the barn. Nothing he did could get them to go into the barn where they would be warm and safe.

"Why don't they follow me?" he exclaimed. "Can't they see this is the only place where they can survive the storm?"He thought for a moment and realised that they just wouldn't follow a human. "If only I were a goose, then I could save them," he said out loud. Then he had an idea.

He went into barn, got one of his own geese, and carried it in his arms as he circled around behind the flock of wild geese.He then released it. His goose flew through the flock and straight into the barn - and one-by-one, the other geese followed it to safety.

He stood silently for a moment as the words he had spoken a few minutes earlier replayed in his mind: "If only I were a goose, then I could save them!" Then he thought about what he had said to his wife earlier. "Why would God want to be like us? That's ridiculous!"

Suddenly it all made sense. That is what God had done. We were like the geese - blind, lost, perishing. God had His Son become like us so He could show us the way and save us.

As the winds and blinding snow died down, his soul became quiet and pondered this wonderful thought. Suddenly he understood why Christ had come. Years of doubt and disbelief vanished with the passing storm. He fell to his knees in the snow, and prayed his first prayer:"Thank You, God, for coming in human form to get me out of the storm!"

The Bible and the Coal Basket

2005-12-15T19:23:00.000+08:00

An old man lived on a farm in the mountains of eastern Kentucky with his young grandson. Each morning Grandpa was up early sitting at the kitchen table reading his Bible.

His grandson wanted to be just like him and tried to imitate him in every way he could. One day the grandson asked, "Papa, I try to read the Bible just like you but I don't understand it, and what I do understand I forget as soon as I close the book. What good does reading the Bible do?"

The Grandfather quietly turned from putting coal in the stove and replied, "Take this coal basket down to the river and bring me back a basket of water." The boy did as he was told, but all the water leaked out before he got back to the house.

The grandfather laughed and said, "You'll have to move a little faster next time," and sent him back to the river with the basket to try again.

This time the boy ran faster, but again the basket was empty before he returned home. Out of breath, he told his grandfather that it was impossible to carry water in a basket, and he went to get a bucket instead.

The old man said, "I don't want a bucket of water; I want a basket of water. You're just not trying hard enough," and he went out the door to watch the boy try again.

At this point, the boy knew it was impossible, but he wanted to show his grandfather that even if he ran as fast as he could, the water would leak out before he got back to the house. The boy again dipped the basket into river and ran hard, but when he reached his grandfather the basket was again empty.

Out of breath, he said, "See Papa, it's useless!" "So you think it is useless?" The old man said, "Look at the basket."

The boy looked at the basket and for the first time realised that the basket was different. It had been transformed from a dirty old coal basket and was now clean, inside and out.

"Son, that's what happens when you read the Bible. You might not understand or remember everything, but when you read it, you will be changed, inside and out. That is the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives."

Jean

26 Beautiful One-Liners

2005-12-13T21:41:00.000+08:00

1. Give God what's right - not what's left.
2. Man's way leads to a hopeless end - God's way leads to an endless hope.
3. A lot of kneeling will keep you in good standing.
4. He who kneels before God can stand before anyone.
5. In the sentence of life, the devil may be a comma - but never let him be the period (full-stop). 6. Don't put a question mark where God puts a period.
7. Are you wrinkled with burden? Come to the church for a face-lift.
8. When praying, don't give God instructions - just report for duty.
9. Don't wait for six strong men to take you to church.
10. We don't change God's message - His message changes us.
11. The church is pr"ayer"-conditioned.
12. When God ordains, He sustains.
13. WARNING: Exposure to the Son may prevent burning.
14. Plan ahead - it wasn't raining when Noah built the ark.
15. Most people want to serve God, but only in an advisory position.
16. Suffering from truth decay? Brush up on your Bible.
17. Exercise daily - walk with the Lord.
18. Never give the devil a ride - he will always want to drive.
19. Nothing else ruins the truth like stretching it.
20. Compassion is difficult to give away because it keeps coming back.
21. He who angers you controls you.
22. Worry is the darkroom in which negatives can develop.
23. Give Satan an inch & he'll be a ruler.
24. Be ye fishers of men - you catch them and He'll clean them.
25. God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called.
26. Read the Bible - it will scare the Hell out of you.

A few more...
a. Get on your knees, and thank God you’re on your feet.
b. You can't fall when you're on your knees.
c. It's hard to stumble when you're on your knees.

Jean

God's Spider

2005-12-13T21:37:00.000+08:00

During World War II, a US marine was separated from his unit on a Pacific island. The fighting had been intense, and in the smoke and the crossfire he had lost touch with his comrades.

Alone in the jungle, he could hear enemy soldiers coming in his direction. Scrambling for cover, he found his way up a high ridge to several small caves in the rock. Quickly he crawled inside one of the caves. Although safe for the moment, he realised that once the enemy soldiers looking for him swept up the ridge, they would quickly search all the caves and he would be killed.

As he waited, he prayed, "Lord, if it be Your will, please protect me. Whatever Your will though, I love You and trust You. Amen."

After praying, he lay quietly listening to the enemy begin to draw close. He thought, "Well, I guess the Lord isn't going to help me out of this one." Then he saw a spider begin to build a web over the front of his cave.

As he watched, listening to the enemy searching for him all the while, the spider layered strand after strand of web across the opening of the cave.

"Ha!" he thought. "What I need is a brick wall and what the Lord has sent me is a spider web. God does have a sense of humour."

As the enemy drew closer he watched from the darkness of his hideout and could see them searching one cave after another. As they came to his, he got ready to make his last stand. To his amazement, however, after glancing in the direction of his cave, they moved on. Suddenly, he realized that with the spider web over the entrance, his cave looked as if no one had entered for quite a while. "Lord, forgive me," prayed the young man. "I had forgotten that in You a spider's web is stronger than a brick wall."

We all face times of great trouble. When we do, it is so easy to forget the victories that God would work in our lives, sometimes in the most surprising ways. As the great leader, Nehemiah, reminded the people of Israel when they faced the task of rebuilding Jerusalem, "In God we will have success!" [Nehemiah 2:20]

And remember: Whatever is happening in your life, in God, a mere spider's web becomes a brick wall of protection.

Jean

Flight Plan

2005-12-12T15:00:00.000+08:00

Eagles are the most long-lived birds in the world.

By the time they reach 40 years of age, their claws will start to age, losing their effectiveness and making it hard for them to catch prey. The lifespan of an eagle is up to 70 years. But in order to live this long, the eagle must make the toughest decision at 40. At 40, its beak is too long and curvy, such that it reaches its chest. Its wings, full of long, thickened feathers, are too heavy for easy flying. The eagle is left with 2 choices: do nothing and await its death, or go through a painful period of transformation and renewal.

For 150 days, it first trains itself to fly beyond the high mountains, build and live in its nest and cease all flying activities. It then begins to knock its beak against granite rocks till the beak is completely removed. When a new beak is grown, the eagle will use it to remove all its old claws and await quietly for new ones to be fully grown. When the new claws are fully grown, the eagle will use them to remove all its feathers, one by one. Five months later, when its new feathers are fully grown, it will soar in the sky again with renewed strength and is able to live for the next 30 years.

In life, as an individual, in a ministry, even in an organisation, sometimes, we have to learn to make difficult decisions so as to make room for changes. Changes bring about renewal. And the only way for us to soar again is to let go old ways, old habits, and old lives. For as long as we are prepared to put aside our old baggage - past glory or shame, past success or failure - be willing to become zero, with an empty cup mentality, we will be able to discover our potential and head towards a renewed perspective in any aspect of our lives.

I am also reminded of Isaiah 40:31 - "but they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."

I used to wonder why the Lord would associate those who wait upon him with the eagle and not other birds like peacocks, chickens or turkeys. It is only when I read this that I know - God has intended that we should soar on wings like eagles, run and not be weary, walk and not faint. But this could only be possible when we hope and wait in Him to renew our strength and be prepared to be molded all over again - be zero again, be still again, be quiet again.

And the journey of renewal will be painful and it requires an attitude of 5 words - I WANT, I AM WILLING.

So be bold, be strong and soar like an eagle - for the Lord Thy God is with You.

Jean

By Mother Teresa

2005-11-22T11:30:00.000+08:00

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish uterior motives; Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and true enemies; Succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; Build anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; Be happy anyway. The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give the world the best you've got anyway. You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God; It was never between you and them anyway.

by ChoC eCLAiRE

Verses

2005-11-09T21:23:00.000+08:00

by Dorothy,
for last year's O-levels.

All the best for A-levels!

Home For Sale

2005-11-07T17:54:00.000+08:00

http://wandascountryhome.com/forsale/index.html
Btw, please pray for Rachel Lim... she was in The Acts for a few weeks after the 2nd Orientation... she was knocked down today. Now she's in Tan Tock Seng Hospital. She missed her OP today because of the accident. She broke something, but the person who told me says, besides that, she's out of danger.
Last year, the newspapers reported about a boy who was killed crossing the road. He had missed his stop and was crossing to the opposite bus-stop to make the return journey. The boy was Rachel's neighbour.

Jean

Images

2005-11-04T22:00:00.000+08:00

I have some folders of religious images "collecting dust" in my computer, so I stuck them in a gallery where others may find them useful. Enjoy!
http://www.geocities.com/cjc_theacts/images.html
Btw, if you want to add images, audio files, webpages or sth to the Geocities acc, ask Clare or me for the password... Yahoo didn't allow our blog password =/

Instructions for Uploading Files in Geocities
Sign in at Geocities.com
Click File Manager in the menu on the right
Open File Manager
If you're uploading a picture to the Gallery, click the Images folder.
If not, proceed straight to Upload (button at top right corner)
Browse for the file(s)
Upload
Return to File Manager
Open the page you want to place the file(s) in for edition. (click the pencil icon between the check box and the file name)
Scroll down to the part of the page you want to put the file(s).

To insert a picture, this is the code
(when using, remove the spaces before and after <, > and /):
< img src="PICTUREURL" alt="PICTURETITLE" >

To link a page:
< a href="PAGEURL" >PAGE TITLE< / a >

If you're using a picture to link to a page, the code is:
< a href="PAGEURL" >< img src="PICTUREURL" alt="PICTURETITLE" border="0" >< / a >

Preview to check your progress & save your work often in case your computer dies while you're at work. That's what the Save and Continue button is for. ;)

Tips
1) Make very sure that the files you are uploading do not have the same names as any files already in the site, otherwise the files present in the site will be automatically overwritten by your files.
2) Bitmap images are large, hence they use up a lot of space and bandwidth [what's bandwidth/data transfer?]. So before uploading a Bitmap image, open it in Paint [< Start >< Programs >< Accessories >< Paint >] and re-save it as a JPEG image. Then upload the JPEG version.
3) Before uploading, make sure that there are no spaces or symbols like "." "," "!" in the filename. "-" and "_" are accepted. If not, the upload would be unsuccessful and Geocities will inform you that your filename is invalid. (yea, in bright red.)
4) Keep practising, it'll become second nature after some days.
5) You can always take the easier route and send me the file(s) for uploading. =p

Start uploading/sending!

Jean

Youth in the Spirit Seminar

2005-11-03T17:37:00.000+08:00

Hi guys, remember the Youth in the Spirit Seminar that they talked about during the retreat?
Don't forget about it...it's from 8-11 Dec. Really hope that we can go together as ACTS. So, do sign up for it. See you guys there =D.

By ChoC eCLAiRE

Jesus Rocks, don't you just agree =D

2005-10-25T22:37:00.000+08:00

Remember the times when you:

were lonely, Jesus was there.
felt lost, Jesus was there.
were frustrated, Jesus was there.
were jealous, Jesus was there.
gave in to sin, Jesus was there.
were in pain, Jesus was there.
got distant from Him, Jesus was there.

were excited, Jesus was there.
were thankful, Jesus was there.
were at peace, Jesus was there.
felt relief, Jesus was there.
were happy, Jesus was there.

forgot Him, Jesus was there.

He was there.
He was always there beside you.
He was always LOVING YOU.

He still is.
He still wants you by His side.
And all eternity long, He will LOVE YOU.
Not conditional love.
It is LOVE.

Amen?
Of course =D.
Amen!

by ChoC eCLAiRE

Natural Disasters

2005-10-23T12:44:00.000+08:00

Does God Send Killer Hurricanes?

http://en.bibleinfo.com/questions/question.html?id=770

Jean

2005-10-21T22:24:00.000+08:00

Here's a picture which i think is kinda cool. Saw it on the net.

posted by ChoC eCLAiRE

Blessing for seniors taking A'levels, from the book of Numbers

2005-10-21T21:58:00.000+08:00

May the Lord bless you and keep you.
May the Lord let His face shine on you and be gracious to you.
May the Lord uncover His face to you and bring you peace.
--------------------------------------

Yes indeed our good Lord is gracious, merciful and always loving.
So people, do not fear for today, Today, the Lord has shown you His mercy
as he did for ages even before you were born. Always remember; to a place
the Lord has brought us, He will never abandon us.
Take shelter in the Lord and abide in His word.
Take up His yolk and follow Him,
for you will find rest for your souls. For His yolk is easy, and burden light.

posted by ChoC eCLAiRE

Prayers Answered

2005-10-17T00:20:00.000+08:00

author unknown

A voyaging ship was wrecked during a storm at sea and only two of the men on it were able to swim to a small, desert-like island. The two survivors, not knowing what else to do, agreed that they had no other recourse but to pray to God.

However, to find out whose prayer was more powerful, they agreed to divide the territory between them and stay on opposite sides of the island.

The first thing they prayed for was food. The next morning, the first man saw a fruit-bearing tree on his side of the land, and he was able to eat its fruit. The other man's parcel of land remained barren.

After a week, the first man was lonely and he decided to pray for a wife. The next day, another ship was wrecked, and the only survivor was a woman who swam to his side of the land. On the other side of the island, there was nothing.

So, on the next day the first man prayed for a house, clothes, more food. The next day, like magic, all of these were given to him. However, the second man still had nothing.

Finally, the first man prayed for a ship, so that he and his wife could leave the island. In the morning, he found a ship docked at his side of the island. The first man boarded the ship with his wife and decided to leave the second man on the island. He considered the other man unworthy to receive God's blessings, since none of his prayers had been answered.

As the ship was about to leave, the first man heard a Voice from Heaven booming, "Why are you leaving your companion on the island?"

"My blessings are mine alone, since I was the one who prayed for them," the first man answered. "His prayers were all unanswered and so he does not deserve anything."

"You are mistaken!" the Voice rebuked him. "He had only one prayer, which I answered. If not for that, you would not have received any of my blessings."

"Tell me," the first man asked the Voice, "What did he pray for that I should owe him anything?"

The Voice replied, "He prayed that all your prayers be answered."

For all we know, our blessings are not the fruits of our prayers alone, but those of another praying for us. "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." James 5:16.

My prayer for you today is that all your prayers are answered.

Jean

J1 Retreat Pictures

2005-10-16T17:30:00.000+08:00

Hey...

Remember the pics on the powerpoint slides during Reconciliation?

I was sitting right at the back of the Audi & squinted at the bottom right corner of one pic...

*drumroll*

The web address of the pic source was there. Haha.

Anyway, you can find those pics and others at http://www.heartlight.org/

Those with verses are in the Gallery at http://www.heartlight.org/cgi/heartgallery.cgi

Some pictures from this presentation look familiar too: http://www.fathersloveletter.com/fllpreviewlarge.html
and it's a beautiful video.

Plus if you didn't take it down, the address for Amplify Ministries is http://www.amplifyministries.org/

Have a great day...

Jean