This week marks the first Sunday of Lent and we are reminded through the readings that our journey this season will be filled with temptations, struggles, challenges, pain and salvation as individuals and as a community. In the first reading, we hear about the challenges of the Israelites during their time in Egypt - they were mistreated, oppressed, and made [...]
“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 [...]
Our parish's inaugural Catechism for children with different abilities had just started last weekend. Hallelujah! Michael coloured this so colourfully upon entering the worship hall and seeing all the stained glass windows with Jesus in it. There is a common saying… God our father gives special kids to ordinary parents. But there is another perspective too- could we [...]
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 [...]
Millions all over the world celebrate the Lunar New Year for a total of 15 days. For Christians, this season of spring ushers in a new year filled with joyful hope from our Lord. As we welcome the Chinese Lunar New Year, we give praise to God our Father from whom all blessings flow. A way we celebrate this heralding [...]
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 [...]