The first reading reveals how unscrupulous people treat the poor in the ancient times - ‘Lowering the bushel, raising the shekel, and tampering with the scales’ for financial gains. Fast forward 2000 years later, similar practices abound. The rich get richer and the poor continues to be poor. How is it that these situations persist? ‘Never will I forget a [...]
My alarm goes off at 7.58am. I could sleep a bit longer. I shut my eyes. The next moment it is 8.05am. Uh-oh! Quick log in, the Liturgy of the Hours started already! The Liturgy of the Hours has become my morning prayer. However, it is a commitment that I struggle with. Some of you may have noticed that I [...]
The Jalan Tenteram area has many new and young families, and the Holy Spirit was speaking powerfully to Jennifer Noronha when she discovered that during the parish's recent outreach to that area, that many Catholics and parishioners of the Church of St. Michael living in the vicinity did not know many people and each other. With the Feast Day celebrations [...]
How do we feel when we have gone out of our way to help someone but see that our acts of kindness are soon forgotten or treated lightly? Even though the Israelites had witnessed amazing miracles which had been worked on their behalf, they forgot them very quickly and, worse, turned back to their familiar idols and gods of Egypt. [...]
A couple of months back, I did a spinal and postural check just to see if things were functionally okay. From the front, things appeared to be in alignment and good, but from the side, the advanced Scientific scanning equipment revealed that my posture was destabilised and tilted off a couple of angles. This resulted in a forward thrust of [...]
In today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus challenging us to give up our possessions and desires and dedicate ourselves to the work of the Gospel. “Anyone who does not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple”- Luke 14:27. The call for us to take up the cross and follow Jesus is not something easily understood especially so [...]
In John 10:10, Jesus says, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Since the creation of Mankind by God our Father, Humanity has been invited to enter into the fullness of life that is offered by God. This fullness of life has dimensions beyond one’s earthly existence. Intrinsic in this, is a call to partake of [...]
“For everyone who exults himself will be humbled, and the man who humbles himself will be exalted.” Of all the ways others have described you, how many have described you as a humble person? His state was divine, yet Christ Jesus did not cling to his equality with God but emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave, and became as men [...]
Beginning in the Victorian era and continuing into the 1960s, there were many floating pseudo-Sciences and quackeries that were masquerading themselves as legitimate medical practices. Women were often sent to asylums to treat their monthly hysterias, while supposed medical practitioners often advocated extreme and shocking measures such as lobotomies to eradicate temperaments. An infamous case in point was Rosemary Kennedy [...]
“For I know what my plans for you are, plans to save you and not to harm you., plans to give you a future and to give you hope.” (Jer 29:11) God’s plan for us is salvation and salvation begins when we begin to ‘know’ Jesus Christ. Simply claiming to be a good Catholic and to have spent time with [...]