A TIME OF GRACE

ASH WEDNESDAY

Today, our 40-day journey begins leading up to Easter. It is a journey that involves prayer, fasting and penance. We begin with ashes.

Ashes symbolise our own grief, our penitence, and our turning wholeheartedly towards Jesus Christ. Ashes become a sign of remorse, repentance and mourning.

Lent is a time of putting ourselves into the proper mindset to know how much we need Jesus Christ. Knowing that we are sinful and imperfect. We need to remember that without Christ we are hopeless.

The Lord invites us to deep change, to tear our heart, not just our garments (Joel 2:12-13). It may be painful and hard, but a true change of heart moves us closer to God and connects us with others. Our encounter with God opens us to a deeper sense of humility and gratitude.

During this season of Lent, starting today on Ash Wednesday, we are given the opportunity to return to God, to repent of our sins, to be moved by God’s grace, mercy and steadfast love. We will please God by doing what is right and loving Him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.

PREPARING FOR LENT

We are coming to end of the second month of the year, which is also the shortest month of the year. We have already kicked-start our first meeting for the Nine-Day Novena and Feast of our Patron saint, St Joseph, the Worker. The Feast Day committee has already set the dates starting from 22 April till 1 May 2017. We will be inviting some of our local priests to celebrate and concelebrate the Novena and Feast Day Masses.

These past few weeks, the Life in the Spirit Seminar (LSS) committee has been working hard to recruit our parishioners to join the session. The LSS will be held during the season of Lent commencing 8 March till 2 April 2017. It will be held every Saturday after the Sunset Mass and one on a weekend. Thus far, we have almost 60 people who have signed up for this LSS. We expect more of our parishioners to register by this weekend.

Last weekend there was a Parish Recollection for the month of February presented by Tomson on prayer life and the important of reading the Scripture. At the same time, our Parish Youth organised a Youth rally with a total of 56 participants including 15 members from the KASIH Ministry. Our youth ministry had shared this programme with our neighbouring parishes. It was a very great spiritual experience for many of our young people. I hope they will return to their respective Parishes to be more involved in the Church and to find the Real Jesus in their lives.

We had a pleasant surprise when Archbishop Julian Leow showed up at the rally just before at the opening session, without any prior notice. His Grace addressed the youth about the preparatory document on the upcoming Synod of Bishops to be held on 6 October 2018, which will focus on Youths. Archbishop Julian added that the Bishops in Malaysia would present the preparatory document of the pastoral care of the Church for the young people in Malaysia on “Youth, Faith and Vocational Discernment” at the Synod assembly.

Meanwhile, the Parish Retreat committee will be meeting for the first time on 28 February 2017 (Tuesday) before the Lent Season begins. The committee wants to brainstorm about the process of the retreat and responsibilities of each committee member. According to our year planner for this year, we have planned to organise our Parish Retreat from 11-13 August 2017 and the venue will be announced after Easter.

The Ash Wednesday marks the Lenten season and this year it falls on 1 March 2017. The Holy Father invites us to journey through Lent on the theme, “The Word is a Gift, Other Persons are a Gift.” We are called “to hear and ponder more deeply” the word and “find an inspiration on the parable of the Rich man and Lazarus” (LK 16: 19-31). May this parable assist us to make a good preparation for the coming Easter on 16 April 2017.

I hope this Lent will be a time of renewal and transformation Following the Way of Christ and live a life that is centred on Him.

DO NOT WORRY

Jesus says: It’s God or Money. It’s one or the other. It is a difficult choice. You cannot serve both God and Money (MT 6: 24-34). If we don’t show love and concern for people who were created in God’s image, we are not serving God. We might be serving money.

If you have loved the heavenly Father, your wealth is worry free. Loving God eradicates worry. So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

God wants us to trust Him and follow Him. God wants us to discover the worry-free treasure of loving and trusting Him. Love and trust go hand in hand. Trust is an important part of any close relationship. Our heavenly Father already knows us and He knows what we need. He promises to provide for us.

Just leave behind all those attractions that keep us from putting God first. It is a struggle but the Lord will help us to put Him first, above all else in our lives so that we may truly strive for the Kingdom of Heaven.

LET US PRAY FOR OUR NATION

Before ending the year 2016, the 13^th Malaysian Parliament sat for the last time on 24 November 2016. The 5^th session of the 13^th Parliament will commence again on 6 March 2017 (Monday) - 6 April 2017 (Thursday).

The Parliament of Malaysia will automatically dissolve the 13^th Parliament before or on 24 June 2018, and it will elect its members for the 14th Parliament of Malaysia before 24 August 2018.

The Church in Malaysia has set a Day of Prayer for Malaysia this coming Friday, 24 February starting from 7.30 pm to 10.30 pm. The Church invites us to participate in this liturgical celebration beginning with recitation of Rosary, the Eucharistic celebration, Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, Evening Prayer, a time of silent prayer and listening to the Word of God, etc. The Church has taken special readings and prayers for this Eucharistic celebration. The composed prayers and the prayer of faithful will be focusing on the situation in the country and its people.

As the Malaysian Parliament is preparing to sit with its elect members on 6 March 2017, the Church invites every Catholic to gather in the Church in prayer so that the coming 14^th General Election will be conducted peacefully and justly. The Church with great hope expects every parishioner to gather in prayer for the common good of our nation and for the country’s economic growth, political stability, fair education and decrease in social issues such as corruption and violence.

In this time of economic downturn and crisis, Malaysians are struggling with a high level of personal debt, reduction in public investment in various sectors and our currency, the ringgit, is sliding rapidly. Malaysia's economy is growing more slowly and will continue to remain unstable. Our top political leaders are the cause of this loss of confidence in Malaysia’s economy. The political scene has been equally unsettled and many are worried about which direction the country is heading.

Corruption and violence have become a major issue in our country. Now our country is one of the top in the list of corruption. At one time Malaysia was considered one of the safest country in South East Asia but now it has become one of the most dangerous countries in this region especially Kuala Lumpur City, which has become a center for criminal activities.

We also realise that Schools and education systems hardly serve as channels for the development of peaceful societies. The poor quality of the school education system also causes our economic, political and social skills to weaken. Why is our education system failing our students? Is it because of bad parents, bad teachers or bad administration? It is time to solve the problems within our education system to enable our students to succeed in the future and to bring the nation to success.

Let’s come together next Friday evening to pray for our nation to enjoy true peace, justice and love. We too pray for ourselves to hold firmly to our Christian faith and to courageously and generously serve our country.

“Be perfect as your Father is perfect,” (MT 5:48).

We agree with to say, “nobody is perfect”, meaning every one is “imperfect”. Jesus tells us that our Heavenly Father is the greatest of all because He is perfect. 

So as we seek to be perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect, we can take Jesus as our model. We should struggle to be like Jesus in both character and outlook.

The call to “be perfect” shouldn’t discourage us instead it should motivate us. As we seek godly perfection or godly character in our lives, we will develop habits of virtue – patience, kindness, generosity, humility, courtesy, unselfishness, good temper, gentleness, and sincerity.

When we stumble on the way to perfection, Jesus will always be there to pick us up, forgive us, and set us on our way again. He understands and He gives grace. We just need to trust God to help us to live it by faith.