In the week following the Fifth Sunday of Lent, as the Church approaches Holy Week, a shift occurs. According to The Roman Missal (3rd Edition, 2011), “the practice of covering crosses and images throughout the church from this Sunday may be observed. Crosses remain covered until the end of the Celebration of the Lord’s Passion on Good Friday, but images [...]
A 2023 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) survey collated the data of the annual average hours worked in different countries. At the top of the charts was Mexico clocking in at an average of 2,128 hours per year, per worker, and at the lowest was Germany at 1,349 hours a year, per worker. This was the data that [...]
The readings on this 5th Sunday of Lent tells us that God can bring us from death to new life. The First Reading tells us of God's desire to restore life in us. The Second Reading tells us that if Christ dwells in us, we will have new life as He does. As we draw near to the end of [...]
The artistic renditions of Jesus crucified on the cross, are often sanitised and aestheticised - Beautifully cleaned up with strategically painted-on blood streaks at the knees or side where Jesus was pierced through with a lance, a crown of thorns neatly woven together in a braid, and more intentionally placed droplets of blood flowing down Jesus’ forehead. Jesus, Crucified Roman [...]
The prophet Samuel was sent to the house of Jesse of Bethlehem, to anoint one of his sons as king. While there, he sees Eliab, who was tall and handsome. He thought that he was the Lord's choice. Blinded by our own sense of what is good and bad, we often choose what we think is right, to realise that [...]
There is, in truth, a lot of trash, no cap, that is floating around the Internet biosphere these days. As a wannabe Internet content-creator, I sometimes scroll through the video reels on Instagram and Tiktok, just to see what is trending these days, and some content befuddles me – why are people creating this nonsense, and worse, why are there [...]
In today’s Gospel, we listen to Jesus’ teaching about himself as the source of living water. During the sojourn in the wilderness, God’s people thirsted bodily, and God satisfied them with water. The wilderness narratives remind us Christians of the experience of disruption, transition, or adversity. As we struggle, do we believe that where God calls, God provides? In [...]
The 2004 Vatican version of the Via Crucis writes poetically about the Eighth Station – Simon of Cyrene helps to carry the cross of Jesus: “The first stars that hail the Sabbath have not begun to shine in the sky, and yet Simon makes his way home from his work in the fields. Pagan soldiers, who know nothing of [...]
What is your personal encounter with God? We are in the season of lent. Are you going to let yourself be a mournful Catholic during this period? Many times, I have heard from fellow Catholics, “oh it is Lent, I am going to skip meat and alcohol. This is how I am going to sacrifice during this period.” As soon [...]
It was the year 2020 and the world had just received the news around the time of the Lunar New Year celebrations that a new virus had been discovered and that it was rapidly spreading across the globe. Paralysed by the shock, the world waited with abated breath in the hope that it would be a fad virus and quickly [...]
