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 [...]
In the first reading, Ezra, the priest, proclaimed the Law of God before the assembly, on the first day of the seventh month. This day, also known as Rosh Hashanah, is one of the most holy days in the Jewish calendar and is also the first day of the Jewish new year. Nehemiah, leader of the people, said “Go eat [...]
The first reading of this Sunday assures us of God’s determination to continually love us and reminds us that He will not abandon us. The words of the passage tell us how God’s love transforms us, changes us from ‘Forsaken’ to ‘My Delight’ and our land from ‘Abandoned’ to ‘The Wedded’. Marriage is used here as a metaphor to describe [...]
This week as we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord, let us reflect on our own baptism when God stood with us and lifted us from the muddy waters of sin. God then incorporated us into the body of Christ empowering us to lead the life of Christ. We have read in the scriptures about the Baptism of our Lord [...]
The lyrics of a popular Christmas Carol expound upon a series of rhetorical questions, questioning Mary about whether she knew that Jesus would save us, whether she knew that her child once walked with angels… and the short answer to this sequence of “did you know” questions, is Yes! Mary did know. This is succinctly stated in Scripture when the [...]