NEW YEAR, NEW SPIRITUAL ASPIRATIONS

We have just celebrated Christmas wherein we are reminded again that “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son,” (Jn 3:16).

“Joy to the World,” is a popular Christmas Carol. Joy is sung in our hearts on Christmas Day. Christmas celebrations bring great joy and happiness to us. I was really impressed with the Caroling led by our Tamil and English choirs. They sang very well and all enjoyed listening to them sing. They sang very well during both the Christmas Eve and Day Masses and choice of songs were very good. Many thanks for your efforts and congratulations on your fabulous singing. It was truly wonderful and we all enjoyed it.

Today is the 1st Sunday of a New Year. This week our children will be returning to their schools and our young people will be heading off to colleges. Most of us will be going back to work after a long holiday break. How can we prepare for the New Year? What do you anticipate for this year? Are you full of enthusiasm, looking forward eagerly to what each day will bring? I am sure we are looking forward to the New Year and hoping that this year will be better than last. It is good to start over afresh.

This New Year onwards we shall be journeying with a theme, “TOWARDS STRENGTHENING OUR FAITH COMMUNITY”. This year will be another best of years for each and every one of us in St Joseph’s community.  As we enter into the threshold of the New Year we shall start reciting our community prayer during the weekend Masses and mediate and reflect upon this. May this prayer help us to build our relationship with one another and a willingness to move in the direction God is calling us.

Let us love Jesus and His Church and follow Jesus, bring others to Jesus and be transformed into Jesus. Let’s make 2017 the best year ever at the Church of St Joseph, Sentul, KL.

PRAYER TOWARDS STRENGTHENING OUR FAITH COMMUNITY 2017

God the Father, strengthen our faith community,

enlighten our understanding,

strengthen our will, purify our hearts and make us holy.

Give us only Your Love and Your Grace

to rise above our human weaknesses

and to grow stronger as a Christian community.

We are blessed here at the Church of St Joseph

with many opportunities to serve and grow in our faith journey.

We ask for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon us,

to submit our lives to Your will and

realise our vision as we commit ourselves to celebrate Jesus Christ by:

·      Deepening our prayer life

·      Being deeply rooted in the Word of God

·      Experiencing the Sacraments as a touch of God

·      Committing ourselves to New Evangelisation.

Loving Saint Joseph, our Patron, watch over us, protect us. Blessed Virgin, assist us to live your obedience, your faith, your hope and your love. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns, for ever and ever. Amen.

May God bless you and your family and bless your New Year of 2017!

WE WORK TOGETHER AS A COMMUNITY

What a huge effort it took to make the “Christmas Get-Together 2016” a great success for us at St Joseph’s Church Sentul. We had so much fun and fellowship from the beginning to the end. We began with the Community Mass at 9.30 am and commenced our celebrations from 11.00 am till 3.30 pm. We had Christmas Carols, songs and other performances in English, Tamil and in the Myanmarese. There were more than 2,500 people from the surrounding areas of Sentul and Sri Gombak who attended this event.

I want to express my sincere gratitude to the many individuals, sponsors and most of all my dearest parishioners who worked hard for the success of this event which was held last Sunday, 18 December. The steering committee has worked tireless these past 4 months to make this Christmas Get Together a success. Personally I want to say a huge thank to our Steering Committee: Robin Rangel, Morine Lionel, Gabriel, Joe Fernando, Alan Jong, Mary Bernadette Peters, Judith Patrick, Edwin Alpouns, Jude Hilary, Annie Pereira, Leonard Paiva, Charles Francis and John Paul.

Many thanks to our sponsors and donours. A sincere appreciation to the 200 volunteers from our parish and the 25 others from iM4U. I would like to thank all our parishioners who were involved in putting together this event and making it a grand success through the sale of raffle tickets, contributions in cash and kind to achieve our target and beyond. You have created a great legacy for our Parish today.

We all had a great time working together with one spirit to go all out to achieve our target. It was such a pleasure to meet people from various backgrounds and of other faiths last Sunday. What a wonderful experience of sharing the joy of Christmas with them. We met many of them for the first time who came to have lunch with us. Thank you for your hospitality – you made all of them feel so welcome. Today we can be so proud of ourselves for doing a great job. We have made a difference in their lives and in our community. My dearest parishioners, thank you for all of your hard work and dedication. Do visit our website: http://www.stjosephsentul.org to view photos of this event.

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!

Our Christmas Get Together event was published in two Daily Papers – in Naanban on 17 December 2016 (Saturday) and in Malay Mail on 19 December 2016 (Monday). Unfortunately, the Malay Mail had mistakenly reported that Kamdar, All American and Julie Biscuits sponsored the event. Actually, Kamdar and All American Shoes Company only offered discounts for the purchased products whereas Julie biscuits offered free biscuits and chocolates. We really benefited a lot from them. Thank you.

During Advent the Church has set aside these four weeks as a time of spiritual preparation for the coming of Christ. “The people who walked in darkness have seen the light,” (Isaiah 9:2). Today we rejoice. Today we celebrate the “Word Became Flesh, He lived Among us” (Jn 1:14). On this Christmas Day we have allowed to make room in our hearts and in our lives for Christ to be born again. His presence gives us a reason to live in hope, peace, joy and love. He has come alive in us this Christmas!

May the light of love shine on you, and may your life be filled with blessings this Christmas season. I wish you and your entire family a Blessed Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

GOD'S GIFT OF LOVE

Today, the commercial world over took the spirit of Christmas and the real meaning of Christmas. How many of us really placed Jesus' birth first? For many of us parties and presents are the most important part of Christmas.

The birth of Christ was the greatest gift that could ever be given, and it was not given out of obligation, it was given out of love by God the Father. We don't celebrate anything else in the Christmas season but only celebrate the love of God.

The story is about God brings us together to celebrate Christmas. A God who loved the world so much that He gave us His only Son to be born and to die so that we could live forever. His only Son came to live among us to save from sin and bring us to eternal life. Christmas is a celebration of God’s love.

May the spirit of Christmas – that is the great of love of God for us – be kept alive in our hearts and our homes and to be shared by everyone in our gift-giving and in our Christmas gatherings. May you all have a holy and Blessed Christmas.

COUNTDOWN TO CHRISTMAS JOY

Since the beginning of Advent you would have noticed the glow of the Christmas lights twinkling on the trees around our Church compound as well as the façade of the Church. The crib and Jesse Tree have been set up in the Church by the efforts of the Tamil speaking youth. I too have set a wonderful nativity set and Christmas tree in the parish office.

Christmas is traditionally a season dedicated to wishing joy and love to our loved ones and friends. This year will be my third Christmas with you. I hope and pray that for this year’s Christmas I may bring joy, love and heartwarming thoughts to inspire your families, loved ones and close friends.

Before I became a priest I used to sit down and write Christmas cards to my close friends and relatives. I used to choose some expressive and perfect verses and quotes for Christmas cards. I too took extra care when I wrote the Christmas cards and made sure I wouldn’t make any mistakes on them. I used to keep my Christmas cards, which I received over the years and now I have disposed of them. Since I became a priest I haven’t sent out cards due to my commitments.

Sending Christmas cards is quite costly nowadays because we have to purchase cards and spend on postage as well. But by sending Christmas cards to our loved ones and close friends they feel appreciated when they open our cards and read our warm wishes. These Christmas wishes are sure to kindle warmth in the hearts of our families, friends and loved ones.

Presently, most of us don’t take time to sit down and write Christmas cards. Sending Christmas cards to people whom we are in contact with, is unpopular today. In this digital age it is much easier to just wake up on Christmas morning, type a greeting and just click on our smart phones and send greetings to all our contacts. All our Whatsapp group and Facebook friends will receive our electronic greetings in the blink of an eye.

We all have been waiting eagerly for the ‘Christmas Get Together’ event these past 3 months. The good news is that we have collected the amount that we need. I really thank all of you for your prayers, support, encouragement, contributions and the spirit of working together towards this event. It is going to be a beautiful charitable time of the year for the parishioners of St Joseph. We are going to bring so much loveliness into this mega event. On this day we shall get together many families and children from various cultures and backgrounds, friends of other faiths to have a special time with them through fellowship whilst we entertain them with a variety of events planned for the day.

Let’s give our share of Christmas joy to all those who are going to be present at this ‘Christmas Get Together’ and we shall proclaim the joyous Good News that “God is with us”. I give thanks for all my dearest parishioners and the blessings of a Merry Christmas to you and your family, and to all your loved ones. May you experience lots of love, laughter and joy this Christmas!

GOD IS WITH US

We have many plans in our lives. We work out all of the details, and we get excited about all of the good that is going to come. As we begin to complete our plans, things start going twisted; nothing works out right. This can be both frustrating and depressing. We begin to ask ourselves, “Where did I go wrong?”

This is exactly what happened in the life of Saint Joseph and Mary. Everything was going fine for them until they faced God’s intervention. God’s plans and their plan did not seem to match. Finally, Mary and Joseph let go their plan and embrace God’s plan with faith for the sake of all humanity.

What about us now? We have our plans, our strategies; and very often we say our plan and God’s plan do not match. We are unable to adjust to his way? What holds us back?

We have to learn to let go of our plans in order to embrace whatever God wants of us – be it difficult or easy, pleasing or unpleasant. 

We need to open our hearts to God’s marvelous plan. Open wide the doors of our heart to Christ! Welcome Emmanuel, “God is with us,” this Christmas.