Parish Boundaries The word, “parish” can be traced etymologically to the Latin parochia and the Greek paroikia, which can be taken literally to mean a cluster or group of neighbouring living places to dwell in (Boudinhon & Fanning, 1911). A parish thus consists of a community of homes, which do not exist independently of each other, but in solidarity with [...]
The word, “Eden” historically refers to an ancient land that was situated in the region of Southern Mesopotamia. The term is derived from the Sumerian word, eden meaning “a plain that is fertile”. In Hebrew, a word bearing a similar sound, makes referent to the notion of “delight”. The Garden in Eden as we hear of in the accounts of [...]
“Every war leaves our world worse than it was before. War is a failure of politics and of humanity, a shameful capitulation, a stinging defeat before the forces of evil.” – Pope Francis, Fratelli tutti, 261 On the 24th of February 2022, the world was greeted with the dismal news that Russia had commenced a full-scale military invasion on Ukraine. [...]
We must be careful when choosing whom to follow lest we stumble into a pit alongside our blind guide. A corollary is that we have no business trying to guide others unless we ourselves can see clearly. Jesus, however, does not intend for us to go through life blindly accepting everything that we see or hear. He indicates that there [...]
The first reading is an indication of God’s mercy as Saul’s life was spared. When David saw Saul asleep along with his men, his partner Abishai told him to kill Saul with Saul’s spear beside him. However, his obedience to God overwhelmed his desire to kill him proclaiming that he would not raise his hand on God's anointed. David took [...]
The story of Cinderella can be traced to a 1634 anthology of collected folk tales that had been compiled by an author known by the name of Giambattista Basile, who was a soldier in Napoleon's regime. In 1697, Charles Perrault from France, embellished the story by adding details that we are still familiar with today, such of that of a [...]
The readings for today implicitly and explicitly invite us to “trust”, “believe”, and also speak of “blessings and woes”. Babies learn to trust their parents, especially their mothers, when they constantly care for them - when they are fed, changed, cuddled when they need it, and when they baby talk to them. As soon as they learned to [...]
Theme: Discipleship The first reading reveals the solemn calling of Isaiah by God to be a prophet. However, due to the death of king Uzziah, Isaiah was filled with sorrow. He was then unable to recognise that it was the Lord sitting upon the throne and not that it was empty. Similar to Isaiah, many of us with all our [...]
In the first reading we see that God did not call us by accident - the call was a deliberate action from God who knows us personally. We are tasked to proclaim the good news to all nations. Just like how Jeremiah the prophet had to preach to corrupt kings and religious leaders of ancient Judah who opposed him fiercely, [...]
In the Japanese culture, there is an artform known as Kintsugi. It is the process of restoring and mending broken pottery with lacquer mixed with gold, silver, or platinum dust. In Kintsugi, there is no attempt to hide the damage, but to celebrate, accept, and even highlight the parts that which have been broken. The broken areas, and the repair [...]