GROWING TOGETHER AS ONE FAITH COMMUNITY

Last Sunday (8^th January), the Catechetical team started the registration for the catechism classes for the year 2017. The catechism classes will resume this weekend, 15^th January in both Tamil and English at 8.45 am and 10.45 am respectively.

We expect parents to send their children to class early so that the kids will have time to get settled for their classes. I hope you will send your children with a warm smile and trace their foreheads with the Sign of the Cross. When you send your dear children to their respective classes do greet the other children and teachers with a warm smile, after all we are one parish community, one family.

Next week on 21^st January, we will be celebrating Catechetical Sunday with the theme, “Christ Our Joy,” (Jn 15:11). Our Catechism teachers will be animating the 9.00 am Mass. During the Mass we shall commission our catechism teachers as they come forward to renew their commitment once again as Faith Educators. May our teachers not just impart their knowledge of the faith but also make a real, lasting impact on the lives of our young children to grow in a holistic and spiritual manner.

In today’s society, parents have to face many challenges but you should show your children the importance of a God-centered life. As parents we ought to understand that faith and moral education are much more important than school subjects. You have the first responsibility for the faith and moral education of your children and you should be able to guide and correct them. It will be much benefitting for our children if we come together as a family to Church every Sunday. Sunday Mass communicates to us the heart of the Christian faith.

Over the past few days, we had a number of meetings and among them were the Parish Coordinating Council (PCC) the Basic Ecclesial Community Coordinating Team (BECCOT). The PCC met last Tuesday and the BECCOT met on last Wednesday. The PCC has set up two important ministries. The first is a Parish Feast Day Committee, which will be led by Jason Gomez. This committee will plan and strategise the nine-day novena and feast day preparation. The second is the Parish New Evangelisation Ministry, which will be led by Alan Jong. This committee will solely be in charge of the various formations and events that have been planned in the year planner for this year. Soon, we will be setting up a team for a Parish Outing and Retreat. We shall update you with more information when the time comes.

This year our parish will be focusing more on the spiritual growth and faith of our parishioners. In the first quarter of the year, the Parish Prayer Group and Parish Youth Ministry have planned two events – The Life in the Spirit Seminar (LSS) and Youth Rally. We encourage every member of our parish to participate in them. May all our spiritual formations and faith educations will help us to grow stronger in our faith and in our Christian life through prayers, scriptures, Eucharist and fellowship with one other in our parish community.

NEW YEAR … NEW BEGINNING IN FAITH

Our holiday mood is gone as we resume our daily routine in this new year. I hope you had a very beautiful time with your loved ones during this season of Christmas. What is Christmas without Jesus who has brought the “Joy to the World.” Jesus’ birthday is a source of the greatest joy and happiness in our lives.

Our celebration of Christmas has increased our faith and love in Jesus Christ who is the reason for the season, who was born in a manger, who became for us the Saviour of the World. He brought peace on earth, which began in Bethlehem, and we have not lost that reason. Soon we will be coming to an end of the Christmas season. I hope and pray that Jesus has become the very centre of our lives and families. I too pray that this New Year will be the best of years and you will be bestowed with many more blessings. This year we shall pray more fervently for the grace of God and strive for intimate friendship with our Lord Jesus and to follow His footsteps more closely.

This year we shall set our priorities in prayers, to make it a point to read the Word of God every day and participate in the Sacrament of the Eucharist every weekend. Very often we fall into the trap of saying, “I have no time to pray, read and meditate upon the Word of God.” It is not a lack of time or that we are busy with our own agendas but it is a question of priorities. Let’s not get distracted with things of the world, which may push aside Jesus from our lives.

Every day we should find a time to enter into friendly conversation with Jesus through prayer and meditation. Every Weekend you must be present at the Mass to fulfill your Sunday obligation. Our daily prayers, reading the Word of God and celebration of the Sacrament of the Eucharist can gradually transform our lives. Let us experience the best of this New Year by committing ourselves mind, heart, soul and spirit to know Jesus, love Jesus, bring others to Jesus and be transformed into Jesus.

The Catechism classes at St Joseph’s Church, Sentul for the year 2017 will start on Sunday, 8th January. The Catechetical Team would love to have our children registered for another exciting year of faith education. We request all parents to register their children for catechism classes for this year. Parents, you should take a great interest in encouraging your children to learn more about our Catholic faith and encourage them to grow in their relationship with God and the Church. You have the responsibilities in the faith development of your children, which includes attending Mass regularly, participating in parents meetings, community events and assisting your children with faith learning. Do bring your children regularly and punctually for Mass and catechism classes.

Just pray that all the catechism programmes in our parish will provide much enrichment and enhancement in the lives of teachers, parents, and children and with every parishioner who might be involved with the programmes. Let’s do our best to comply with our Church in fulfilling our obligation to raise our children in the practice of the Catholic faith. God bless you and your children.

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.