DRAW CLOSER TO GOD THROUGH WORSHIP IN CHURCH

These couple of months I have noticed the attendance for our weekend Masses dwindling.  I don't know about other churches but I tend to be too obsessed with this troubling thought. I try my best making my homilies and celebrations interesting so that you may stay connected when you come for Mass. Some of our parishioners don't feel that it is important to attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation.

Church attendance is important. We attend Church to meet with God. God is worthy of our worship.  As Catholics, Church is a place where we can all come together to worship. It reminds me of one of the hymns, which goes, “Enter His gate with thanksgiving in our hearts…” (cf. Psalm 100:4). Every time when we enter our Church doors we come with thanksgiving in our hearts and we sing praises to God.

We come to Church to be part of our Church and to be one with Jesus. We submit ourselves to Him and draw life from Him. We gather in the Church where the Word

of God is faithfully proclaimed and the Sacrament of the Eucharist is celebrated reverently for us. Our gathering in the Church for weekly worship will encourage us, strengthen us and nourish us.  We listen and learn from Jesus, Mary and Joseph in order for us to grow spiritually.

It is very important that Catholic families should start to form their children in faith while they are still young. We attend our Sunday Masses or any other spiritual formations in Church to enhance our spiritual and psychological growth. Our participation in the sacrament, prayers and formation each week will deepen our belief and our faith in the “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one Church,” (cf. Eph 4: 5).

There is no excuse on Sundays. Often we hear that “Sunday is my only day to sleep in.” Church no longer holds the priority in our lives. We are too occupied with our daily schedule. When weekend comes we would like to go for vacation or away from the town just to get some relaxation. One of the greatest advantages we Catholics have in KL city is having Churches nearby – within 20 minutes drive!  It will be most pleasing to God that we fulfill our Sunday obligation before we entangle ourselves with other agendas during the weekend. God will be happy when we come to Church and worship Him. When Jesus sees His Church attendance is full and His Church is growing in numbers, surely He will be rejoicing in Heaven as He rewards us with His overflowing love.

Today’s culture is changing where we have become very individualistic. Both Church attendance and fellowship with communities are equally important. The Holy Spirit leads us to unity with the Body of Christ, which is the Church. “Without Jesus Christ, there can be no Church; and without the Church, we cannot stay united with Jesus.” We need to bring ourselves closer to Jesus and to reach out to the people in the community. It is for our own good that Jesus wants us to have fellowship with one another. The more we develop our friendship in the Church, the more we want to be together.  We are to be disciples of Christ.  We need each other to grow up in the faith of Christ, to learn to serve, to love one another, to exercise our spiritual gifts, and to practice forgiveness.

GREAT IS YOUR FAITH!

The story of the Canaanite woman (MT 15:21-28) with the demon possesses her daughter, but allows nothing to suffocate her faith. She has within her the courage and boldness which nourishes and strengthens her faith.

When she comes up to Jesus in a loud voice pleads with him to heal her daughter. Jesus first ignores the woman. This woman was fearless. She was rejected three times. Each reject made her stronger. She would not give up.

We realise that sometimes Jesus does say “No” to our prayers. There are those times when we are not making the right request. There are times when the request is right but the timing is off.

The Canaanite woman kept asking until Jesus granted her request. It is her persistence that caused Jesus to say that she was a woman of great faith. Such a faith changes our lives, leaves an impact on the people around us, and transforms the world.

 “O woman, great is your faith!”

UPCOMING FAITH FORMATION AND EVENTS

We had a lot of formation programmes, activities and events in our parish over the last couple of months. I would like to thank the organising committees, ministries and also the participants for attending. It shows your seriousness and eagerness to grow spiritually. I feel great when you take every effort to organise and attend all these events. Our parish is always moving ahead and for the coming months we have lined up a few other enriching formation programmes and exciting projects and events.

Our Parish Retreat for the year 2017 will be held on 22 – 24 September in our Church. The parish retreat working committee has already made the necessary arrangements on registration and other logistics. We shall bring the heart of the Divine Retreat Centre right to our door steps. Two great distinguished speakers from Divine Retreat Centre (DRC), Potta, India, Rev Fr Jacob Arimpur, VC., (Assistant Director of the Centre) will be presenting in English whereas Rev Fr Arun Louis, VC., will be presenting for the Tamil section. We are anticipating at least 700 to 800 participants for both languages. This retreat is solely for our parishioners but if the registration is poor in response by end of August then we shall open up to other neighbouring parishes. My dear parishioners please do not wait till the last minute.

Our Parish Pastoral Assembly (PPA) will be scheduled on 27 October (Saturday) from 2.00pm to 5.00pm. The Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur led by Rev Monsignor Mitchel Anthony will be coordinating this assembly for this year at our Formation Hall. He will be explaining about the eight “clusters” and the 5-year direction (2018-2022) of the Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur. The eight clusters are the areas of concern: BEC, Unity, Integral Human Development, Family Life, Formation, Inter-Religious Dialogue, Youth and Social Communication. As we know our parish will be accomplishing our three-year journey (2015-2017) and we shall be moving ahead with the KL Archdiocese Pastoral Structures for the next 5 years towards 2022 on Integrated Evangelization.

The Holy Father, Pope Francis has declared November 19^th, 2017 (33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time) as the First World Day of the Poor with the theme:  “Let us love, not with words but with deeds.” We are going to form an organizing committee for the above event with five main ministries in our parish – Parish Integral Human Development Ministry (PIHDM), BECCOT, Catechetical Ministry, Youth Ministry and Fund Raising Committee.  We will be expecting at least 1500 - 2000 people to join us in this event. There will be some stage shows entertainment, games, raffle draw, carnival and jumble sale (items like clothes and electrical goods from RM1-2 for the poor people to purchase). During the months of September and October we will be selling raffle draw tickets for the refurbishing of our community hall.

On December 3^rd, the Eagle’s Wing will be celebrating the 10^th anniversary of their Ministry in Sentul, and International Day for the Differently-Abled (IDD). This ministry consists of all the differently abled people from Petaling Jaya and Kuala Lumpur. Archbishop Julian Leow will be celebrating the IDD Mass in our parish together with our community. Immediately after Mass there will be some activities such as games, entertainment, sales of handicrafts and t-shirts.

In the month of December we shall continue with our annual programme and campaign on distributing school uniforms for the 300 school children who come from the low income families and provision of groceries for our regular adoptees. This year we may organise it in a low-key manner compared to last year’s Christmas Get Together.

All the above formations and events will help us to strategise our parish goal by strengthening our faith community with the greater focus on the Eucharist. We encourage the faithful to give life to one another and to follow in the way of Christ and His Church. May you and your families continue to enjoy God’s abundant blessings in our parish.

Jesus and the Storms of Life

The apostles were in a terrible storm, (Mt 14: 22-33). They struggled with fear as a raging storm tosses their boat and Jesus calmed the storm. He also calms storms of our lives.

God doesn’t always promise to deliver us out of the storms of life or afflictions. Storms come and go in everybody’s life. If you are going through a storm, Jesus knows about it and He has a purpose in it and He will make it into something good in your life. Storms come in the life of everyone of us to take us to our next level of faith and our next level of maturity.

Every storm is to build us up for something. Sometimes God allows trials in our lives to discipline, correct us and increase our faith. Often trials are to bring us closer to God and make us more God-dependent.

Jesus will be with you to help you, comfort you, strengthen you and bless you. Trust Him! “Lord, I can’t see any good in this for me, but by faith I trust you to know what You are doing.”

SEEKING FOR NEW LIFE IN CHRIST

It is already a month since we have started the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) classes in English and Tamil in our parish. We have a total of 16 candidates (12 in English and 4 in Tamil). The RCIA classes are being held every Tuesday at 8.00 pm. The RCIA programs will go on till June 2018.

This program prepares the candidates who need the Sacrament of Initiation – Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Communion - which are the three primary sacraments. There are other candidates coming into the Church through Sacrament of Confirmation.

Our main objective is not to convert them but to carefully guide them in their soul-searching for truth and assist them in discerning what they are entering into. The RCIA classes are also to answer their questions pertaining to their believe in God and help them to have an increase of a strong conviction of their faith. In the past years there were many students who have discontinued their classes and did not feel ready to be baptised. If they are not ready we usually advise them not to become Catholics. We don't pressure them and we don't even baptise them if they are inadequately prepared. They can always continue their classes at another time or another year.

RCIA is a great time for the candidates to search for truth and to know about the God they believe in. The RCIA students should not stop asking questions from the priest and RCIA instructors. They can always rely on or ask questions with their assigned sponsors or godparents as they progress in their faith journey. During this nine-month preparation process, as these candidates are progressing in their faith, we parishioners should reach out and offer our friendship to them and welcome them with kind hearted to ensure they have a very comforting and spiritual discernment before they become Catholics.

After going through all the RCIA classes and receiving the Sacrament of Initiation on Easter Vigil they are fully entered into Catholic faith. Once they have professed the Catholic faith and entered into the Catholic Church they should not stop learning more about the Catholic faith. Many of the RCIA converts to the Catholic faith fall through the cracks after being initiated and they stop learning the Catholic faith and also stop fulfilling the Sunday obligation. By participating and sharing in the Sunday Eucharist is a state of grace.

Many of these converts including the adult Confirmation candidates do think that becoming Catholic or receiving confirmation is a type of ceremony. They must remember that it is a continual call for conversion. It is not the ceremony but it is a call of God to be a Catholic. It is a life long journey and a life-long commitment to witness Christ in your life through words and deeds.

If anyone who is thinking seriously to become a Catholic, please do contact our parish RCIA facilitators or priest or nearest Catholic Church for further details. We as members of this parish do remember to pray for these RCIA candidates and for those who are still contemplating becoming Catholic. Do pray for them always to allow God moves their hearts and discover the truth that they are searching for.

“Seek out and surrender your heart to Christ to find joy…and you will also find happiness!