On the journey to grow closer to God, we need communities to bring us to Jesus, especially during our times of struggle or spiritual lethargy. These communities can be informal or formal communities like our family or structured church sharing groups respectively. There lies the importance of building kingdom friendships rather than just friendships of utility or pleasure. Friendships [...]
Are you a Godly Parent, or Are You a No-good Parent? Now, who am I to talk about parenting? I am neither married, nor do I have any children of my own. However, what I do have is an accumulation of 12 years of experience working with children and teenagers from the age of toddlers to youth. Here are [...]
About 9 years ago, I found myself alone one day with my mother in her room. Already in the final stages of cancer, I saw this once robust and feisty powerhouse wither away before my eyes. As her round-the-clock caregiver – and juggling a full-time job – the stress was overwhelming. Emotionally, I was grappling with the grim reality [...]
A feeling or deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one's own achievements. This is the definition of pride according to dictionary.com. Pride can manifest itself in many ways. It can be in the explicit form of boasting and showing off to others about our own achievements. It can also be rejecting help from others even when we desperately need [...]
Feast Day : 9 September St Peter Claver was born in Catalonia, Spain, and the youngest of 4 children of a well-to-do country farmer. At 13, Peter already decided to become a priest. At 16, he went to Barcelona to study at the university where he became acquainted with the Jesuits, and wanted to become one of them. Whilst [...]
Having attended the previous two Inter Ministry retreats in April and Oct 2018, I was wondering what will be in store for us this time round in this retreat on 9/10 Mar 19. (Even as I write this, I just realized that 9+10=19 – looking at the dates of the retreat, even the dates were so specially picked, no [...]
The term “Lent” comes from the Anglo-Saxon word, lencten, meaning Spring, and lenctentid, meaning March, the majority of which this liturgical season falls. By the sixth century, Christians were generally practising 6 weeks of fasting. However the Mathematics was not quite right. 6 weeks, not counting Sunday, which is a day of celebration with no fasting on that day, [...]
As a story goes, a man acquired a new property. After some time and effort, he had managed to renovate and to clean it up. He had also taken time to replace his appliances which were short-circuiting or had worn out due to wear and tear. As part of the renovation process, he had also installed a new security [...]
How I made it to the CSM Parish Retreat 1-3 March There were many calls to attend a CSM retreat in 2018 but alas, I am a freelance English teacher and my main income came from my weekend teaching sessions – I taught 4 classes on Saturday of 8.5 hours and 3 classes on Sunday of 6.5 hours. I [...]
Reflect: The Wilderness may seem like a place of desolation - it is an open, vulnerable place where there are possibilities of attacks from wild beasts and temptations, but it is also a place where as Psalm 144:1 says, “Blessed be the LORD my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle.” The Israelites were [...]