Faith Formation

Home/Faith Formation

A Suffering Community

When Adam and Eve fell from grace, the Lord God said to them, "Cursed be the ground because of you! In toil shall you eat its yield all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you as you eat of the plants of the field. by the sweat of your face shall you get [...]

By |2020-07-31T02:10:50+08:00July 31st, 2020|Faith Formation|Comments Off on A Suffering Community

Liturgical Reflection for 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

They said to him, “Five loaves and two fish are all we have here."(Matthew 14:17) How many time have we told the Lord that we do not have enough to feed the rest? If only we believe that we just need to take the first step to surrender to Jesus and he will provide the rest.   The little boy [...]

By |2020-07-31T02:10:19+08:00July 31st, 2020|Faith Formation, Liturgical Reflection|Comments Off on Liturgical Reflection for 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Making Sense of Suffering

We each suffer differently in our journey towards holiness, living the life that God calls us to. The nature of our struggles and the way we cope differs from person to person and they are often a reflection of our relationship with God. Before we try to make sense of what suffering is, it is important for us to first [...]

By |2020-07-31T02:09:15+08:00July 31st, 2020|Faith Formation|Comments Off on Making Sense of Suffering

Liturgical Reflection for 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (26 July 2020)

In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives us glimpses of the pathway to heaven by using parables -  finding a hidden treasure buried in a field; a pearl trader searching for a pearl of great price; and a large fishing net full of every kind of fish to be sorted. Jesus used these parables to explain and give us a glimpse of [...]

By |2020-07-23T13:58:52+08:00July 23rd, 2020|Faith Formation, Liturgical Reflection|Comments Off on Liturgical Reflection for 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (26 July 2020)

Beyond an Imagined Communitas: Building Authentic Christian Communities

In writing about the nation,  and drawing upon concepts coined by Anthropologists such as Victor Turner, Sociologists such as  Benedict Anderson have written about how the idea of a nation is a social construct and is by and large, "an imagined community" - "imagined" because "the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet [...]

By |2020-07-23T13:57:50+08:00July 23rd, 2020|Faith Formation, Featured story|Comments Off on Beyond an Imagined Communitas: Building Authentic Christian Communities

The Sacrament of Marriage as the Wedding Feast of Christ

Marriage has such a place of importance that Christ elevated it to the level of a sacrament. God himself is the author of marriage (C.C.C. 1603). Man is created out of the love of God, and being made in the image and likeness of God, who is love Himself, and since God made both man and woman, their mutual love [...]

By |2020-07-18T08:52:24+08:00July 18th, 2020|Faith Formation|Comments Off on The Sacrament of Marriage as the Wedding Feast of Christ

Liturgical Reflection for the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time (19 July 2020)

Our Father is indeed merciful and patient, loving and forgiving, He stays faithful to His Covenant and waits patiently for us to return. The psalmist is so convinced of God’s mercy and love that he becomes a willing servant and seeks God for strength to go through the trials to do His will. This is the response that we are [...]

By |2020-07-18T11:48:58+08:00July 16th, 2020|Faith Formation, Liturgical Reflection|Comments Off on Liturgical Reflection for the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time (19 July 2020)

Healing the Disappointments in Community

"Disappointments are markers on the road of life, saying: Perfect happiness is not here. Though your passions may have been satisfied, you were never truly satisfied, because while your passions can find satisfaction in this world, you cannot. Start with your own insufficiency and begin a search for perfection. Begin with your own emptiness and seek Him who can fill [...]

By |2020-07-16T14:34:06+08:00July 16th, 2020|Faith Formation, Featured story|Comments Off on Healing the Disappointments in Community

Christianity vs New Age Spirituality

Walk into any bookstore and you will find a section on Self-Improvement. Or just google search Self-Improvement and there are many websites offering advice. One of the first books I read was Dale Carnegie’s ‘How to make friends and influence people’. The tips were innocuous. I still recall to this day the tip on the importance of not only remembering [...]

By |2020-07-16T08:28:11+08:00July 16th, 2020|Faith Formation, Featured story|Comments Off on Christianity vs New Age Spirituality

A Case for Community Accountability

The word, "accountability" can be traced etymologically as being in a "state of testimony or being answerable", while the Oxford Dictionary, states the definition of accountability as, "​the fact of being responsible for your decisions or actions and being expected to explain them when you are asked."  However, in the context of a Christian community, the concept of accountability takes [...]

By |2020-07-12T03:29:59+08:00July 9th, 2020|Faith Formation, Featured story|Comments Off on A Case for Community Accountability