Gratitude & Thanksgiving

  23 Oct 2017 - Sharing the 2nd Reading in today’s Office of Prayers Today’s morning psalm was taken from Psalm 5 - A morning prayer for help.   “It is You whom I invoke O Lord, in the morning, you hear me…” How wonderful it is to be able to call upon the Lord in the morning, with all our day’s burdens and know He hears us.  I found today’s 2nd reading from the Office of Readings a good reminder too, about the attention, focus, disposition and pitfalls  we must take note of about praying….  St Augustine speaks about the need to  repeatedly "stir our faith into flame".... For we can be "so easily distracted" by our preoccupations, "losing focus on the object of our desire" (the Lord).  This losing of focus will lead our faith to "become lukewarm, grow chill and totally extinguished".... This is not an option for us.  We must strive to stir our faith into flame…. Second Reading  A letter to Proba by St Augustine  Let ...

22 Oct 2017  Sharing my notes taken @ Church of the Holy Family, Singapore - Homily by Rev Fr Philip Lai, CSsR Referencing today’s Gospel from Matthew 22:15-21, Fr Philip Lai (CSsR) pointed out that as Christians we are citizens of two worlds the physical world  and the spiritual world, that is the Kingdom of God. And we have duty both to God and to society. Many today remove God in the way they live…falling into secularism and relativism. Fr Lai elaborated that secularism is Removing God in the way we live Putting human being as the centre of the universe Insisting on the right to decide, each personally, what is right and wrong. Fr Lai cautioned that this is exactly repeating the mistake of Adam who wanted to have absolute authority over their moral actions as well as a to have a divine status.   The sense of he Sacred, God’s presence is constantly under attack today. True religion cannot be just a set of prayers or attending mass. ...

  21 Oct 2017  Sharing my notes taken @ Church of St Alphonsus, Singapore - Homily by Rev Fr Simon Tan, CSsR     Many of us will find today’s sermon by Fr Simon Tan, CSsR so relevant and meaningful…. I tried to capture the essence of what he preached and not all of the below are his exact words.  May you be blessed too, by his sharing. In this world of tragedies and pain, where do we find God? It is easy to sense God’s presence when things are going well. But when things fall apart , where can we find God ? in the loving acts of those who stand by us in the medical profession, doctors, nurses, health workers fighting hard along with us, caring for us.   They are instruments of God. In a friend, family member who offer encouragement  in someone who shows up caring in our moment of deep need In those who help us to continually hope in the Lord, encourage us to be open to God.  even in the person who sits next to us at the pew, join...

  15 Oct 2017 Sunday Sharing my notes taken @ Church of the Holy Family, Singapore - Homily by Rev Fr Eugene Lee, CSsR   Fr Eugene Lee CSsR celebrated mass and the Gospel was from Mat 22:1-10 - " Inviting everyone you can to the wedding." How he started the homily reminded me of a passage about honouring the Holy Eucharist  that spoke to me when I read it in The Imitation of Christ (Thomas A Kempis) : "Oh, the blindness and the hardness  of the heart of man  that does not show more regard for so wonderful a gift,  but rather falls into carelessness from its daily use!  If this most holy Sacrament were celebrated  in only one place and consecrated by only one priest  in the whole world,  with what great desire would men be attracted  to  that place,  to that priest of God,  in order to witness the celebration  of the divine Mysteries!  " Fr Eugene reminds us how little we do to p...

14 Oct 2017 Sharing my notes taken  @ Church of St Alphonsus, Singaopore - Sermons  by Rev Fr Eugene Lee, CSsR and Rev Fr Simon Pereira, CSsR     At Novena this morning, Fr Eugene Lee CSsR read from Luke 17:11-19 and preached Gratitude.   He pointed out the huge difference in numbers of thanksgiving and petition letters received daily - the ratio of around 1 to 9 meant that in every 9 petition letters received, there was only 1 thanksgiving letter in comparison.  Fr said,  To be grateful means to say we are good enough:   We are good enough with what we are and what we have  and we have no need to envy  or be jealous of others.   We are good enough to be happy  when others are blessed.… Cultivating gratitude is cultivating the good, positive spirit  and with that, negative thoughts and despondence  w ill not have any chance to creep in and take hold of us.   T he Lord freely grants grace and mercy t...