These past two weekends, two of our parish youths – Juliet Gregory
and Gloria Michael Raj - contributed articles for our weekly bulletin, as well as
for our parish website. They penned down their personal reflections about their
experience at the Marantha Retreat Centre at Janda Baik, Pahang. The
articles were well-written and if you have missed out on reading them, you can
always visit our parish website at: http://www.stjosephsentul.org
If you’ve noticed, these past three weekends, we have published
articles pertaining to personal retreat experiences, reflections and insights.
Normally, I don’t publish or upload specific articles onto our weekend bulletin
and website, but instead, I allow the prompting of the Holy Spirit to guide me.
Looking back at the three subsequent weekend messages on personal directed retreats,
I think we need to take time off from our daily routine and create space for ourselves
to rest and relax from everyday distractions. In today’s society, most of us are concerned about
work, family life, financial matters, etc. that we need to step out of our busy
schedules and enter into a slower pace of life. Therefore, I strongly encourage
everyone to attend a meditation or personal retreat, to help ourselves return
home refreshed and renewed. Retreats or any other form of spiritual formation, is
a perfect way to spend quality time with ourselves, and at the same time, it is
an opportunity to recharge, relax and reflect.
On 31 August to 2
September 2018, our parish has planned to hold a spiritual retreat in English. Last
year, when we invited priests from Divine Retreat Centre Porta, to our Parish
retreat, there was quite a good response from parishioners. This year, we will
be inviting retreat master, Rev Fr Roni George (Vincentian Congregation, who
also runs the Divine-Porta Ministries), from Divine Retreat Centre in Sydney,
Australia. I would like to invite our parishioners to block these dates in your
diaries and make an attempt to attend our annual spiritual retreat. It falls
during the long weekend. Instead of getting away for a long weekend holidays, I
recommend making yourselves available for this annual parish retreat, to spend
time with God. The organising team, led by Alan Jong, will announce more
details about this retreat in the weeks to come.
Last Tuesday to Friday (19 -
22 June) I met with our Form Five students individually, at my office. They are
preparing to receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation in August 2018, and many
of them were quite nervous because they thought I would be questioning them
about the understanding of the Sacrament of Confirmation and the seven gifts of
the Holy Spirit. However, I was mainly chatting with them about the importance
of the Church, and secular education which will determine their future.
Their catechism classes are coming to
end in couple of weeks and in four months, they will be sitting for a very
crucial examination. I encouraged them to start preparing for their Sijil
Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) which will be held in November 2018. This SPM exam
marks the end of their secondary school education, and it is a turning
point in their lives. Their next life chapter will either be in college or
university, and they may be away from their homes. From next year onwards they
will be exposed to various external influences. I warned them not to get swayed
by negative situations, but always place God in the centre of their lives and trust
in His plan for them. God’s plan is always better than ours, and be assured that
He will always lead us down the path of righteousness and happiness.
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