Gratitude & Thanksgiving

The forty years in the desert were looked back on in two ways:  Either they were a period of honeymoon in the desert, when Israel was alone with the Lord in the desert and the two were bonding together in love, like a honeymooning couple, expressing and intensifying their love for one another. Or they were looked at as a time when the murmuring and infidelities began, when Israel lusted to be back among ‘the leeks and garlic and onions’ of Egypt, shying away from the challenges of life in the harsh and difficult desert. Setting before Israel is the choice whether to obey or ignore the Laws which have been laid down.   It is not so much a choice of obedience as a choice of love,  obedience to the divine Law is an expression of love of God. The same choice lies before us in our tr ials and tribulations in life.   How do I choose?  Do I choose love? And the same choice lies before us in Lent whether or not to take the season seriously enough to make the spec...

Today is the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, it concludes the Christmas season. The Feast of the Presentation of our Lord is to make ourselves present to each other and to God .   When Mary and Joseph presented themselves in the Temple with Jesus, it was in order to make themselves present to God in a most personal way.  They went to the Temple to meet God, to encounter Him.   This is the key to today's celebration. Meeting God and encountering Him by presenting ourselves to Him.  And, our encounter with God is not just between Him and us as individuals but in the community and with the community. We are called to bring Jesus to the world and reveal his face to humanity. Excerpted from reflection by Archbishop William Goh