SEASON OF CREATION 2017

In 2015, Pope Francis established 1 September as an annual World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, inspired by the example of the Orthodox Churches who have observed this day since 1989.

On 1 September 2017, Christians all over the world came together to celebrate the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, uniting with one purpose: to steward the Earth. This Day of prayer, “Season of Creation” will last from 1 September to 4 October 2017 (Feast of St. Francis of Assisi).

Pope Francis wishes to remind us that: “Christians are called to “an ecological conversion whereby the effects of their encounter with Jesus Christ become evident in their relationship with the world around them.” Thus, “living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience.” (Laudato Si’, no. 217).

The Holy Father invites all Christians to offer our contribution towards overcoming the ecological crisis which humanity is living through. Therefore, first of all we must draw from our rich spiritual heritage the reasons which feed our passion for the care of creation, always remembering that for believers in Jesus Christ, the Word of God who became man for us, “the life of the spirit is not dissociated from the body or from nature or from worldly realities, but lived in and with them, in communion with all that surrounds us.” The ecological crisis therefore calls us to a profound spiritual conversion: Christians are called to “an ecological conversion whereby the effects of their encounter with Jesus Christ become evident in their relationship with the world around them.”

The annual World Day of prayer for the Care of Creation offers to individual believers and to the community a precious opportunity to renew our personal participation in this vocation as custodians of creation, raising to God our thanks for the marvellous works that He has entrusted to our care, invoking his help for the protection of creation and his mercy for the sins committed against the world in which we live in

. The celebration of the Day on the same date as the Orthodox Church will be a valuable opportunity to bear witness to our growing communion with our orthodox brothers. We live in a time where all Christians are faced with identical and important challenges and we must give common replies to these in order to appear more credible and effective. Therefore, this Day can involve, in some way, other Churches and ecclesial Communities and be celebrated in union with the initiatives that the World Council of Churches is promoting on this issue.

Let us pray today and throughout the year for the Care of the Earth: God our Father and Creator, we give you thanks for the wonder of creation which inspires us, the fruit of the Earth which feeds us, the beauty of nature which grounds us, and the joy of life which gives us hope. Heal the places where your creation has been marred, and restore all creatures to the splendor of your glory, that all may delight once again in your goodness. Praise be to you! Amen.

Here are some suggestions: We invite every parishioner to ‘go green’.  We also invite you to go meatless on Fridays and fast at least once a month. Do volunteer yourselves to save people and planet.

Extract from POPE FRANCIS’ LETTER ANNOUNCING THE “WORLD DAY OF PRAYER FOR THE CARE OF CREATION.”

DON'T LET OUR HEART HARDEN!

The gospel text, “If your brother does something wrong, go and have it out with him alone…” (MT 18: 15) reveals to us another element of living faithfully - how to nurture and maintain our relationships.

God wants us to love as He loves us, even loving those whose sins may have directly harmed us in some way. This is hard. Sometimes we are not particularly forgiving and merciful towards those who sin against us.

Our sinfulness is exhibited by our sins against God in thought, word and deed. We seek God’s forgiveness that is always freely given. But when we are offended or hurt others, our human response is to revenge those who offended us. We harm or tarnish others by gossiping.

Forgiveness is a constant and we need to forgive one another totally. This is not only for the sake of the relationship, but also for our own physical, spiritual and emotional health.

Don’t let our hearts harden against others but help ourselves to go to them with Christ’s love and forgiveness.

PARISH RETREAT: A NEW STRATEGY ON DISCIPLE MAKING

Our Parish Retreat will be held on 22-24 September 2017 at two locations: our Church hall and at the adjacent Chi Man School Hall. It is an opportunity for every parishioner to take time away from our normal activities and to spend more time getting to know God and to love Him; to examine our priorities in life, make concrete and practical resolutions and to commit ourselves to a life of purpose and service.  Making a good retreat can be a powerful step towards individual conversion.

The Church in Peninsular Malaysia conducts periodic retreats every year during the month of September requesting all bishops and priests to make their yearly retreat for at least 5 days. We take time off from our parish activities and pastoral duties to be in solitude with the Lord. These past three years our parish has been organising retreats but these were only one-day sessions. This year however the committee is organising a 3-day Parish Retreat for all parishioners.  This time round we will be bringing distinguished speakers from a well-known retreat centre  – the Divine Retreat Centre, Potta, Kerala. Every parishioner is encouraged to register and so to discover how they may rekindle their relationship with Christ Jesus and learn the secret of successful and joyful families!

In every part of the world, the Catholic Church organisation offers many types of retreats for their members. Retreats can be a single day or a whole week or even a month. They can be silent retreats, preached retreats, directed or guided retreats with various spiritual topics and daily meditations or conferences. Initially, we planned to have our retreat for two days over the weekend but the Lord blessed us with another day when the Muslims shifted the “Awal Muharram” from Thursday 21^st to Friday 22^nd September this year. That is why we have added another day to make it a 3-day retreat over the weekend. It will be more dynamic and charismatic in tone with many spiritual insights, Praise and Worship and healing sessions, Confessions and the Holy Eucharist. A special room will be prepared for you to spend time in silent conversation in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament during the course of the retreat. It is a time for you to listen to the Holy Spirit and to get to know Jesus better as you get into your truer self.

When you come for this weekend retreat with our POTTA priests retreat masters, it will be a special time of the year for you to get away from all your daily activities, to encounter God and to deepen your relationship with Him. Too often, in our daily life, we are overwhelmed with many distractions and we may fail to hear the voice of God. So we encourage you, when you come for the retreat, please do turn off your hand phones and unplug yourself from all social-communications. The Lord wants your full attention in this upcoming retreat.

As your parish priest I strongly recommend you to attend this retreat and do not give reasons or excuses but take the trouble to register soonest. It is a retreat all about seeking, finding and loving Christ and you too will gain many spiritual enlightenments and insights. The Holy Spirit will prompt you as you participate in this retreat. He will provide special graces to lead you to true and lasting spiritual progress. As the retreat days draw closer, we invite you to pray that the Lord, “Give success to the work of our hands, and may His kingdom come and may His will be done!”

For more information about the Parish Retreat 2017,  do visit the Parish Retreat counter in front of our Church before and after every weekend Mass. My best wishes!

SUFFERING UNITES US WITH JESUS

“… Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me…,” (Matt 16:24). Carry your Cross means embrace it or make it your own or endure it.

None of us likes cross or suffering. Our natural inclination is to avoid cross or suffering at all costs. In realities we are not free from physical, mental illness, poverty, worries, boredom, anxieties, failures, frustrations and death of those dear to us. These problem of suffering will be solved by the person of Christ when we are willingly take hold and carry them.

We put all our crosses and suffering on our back of Jesus then we shall see Jesus in our actions. We need to be patient, trust and confidence in the Lord. Be a Jesus disciple.

 “When you have many kinds of trials, you should be full of joy, because you know that these trials test your faith, and this will give you perseverance,” (James 1:2-3).

BUILDING BECs THROUGH SHARED RESPONSIBILITY

Every parish in Peninsular Malaysia is struggling to build and revive the Basic Ecclesial Communities (BEC) in both urban and rural areas.  In our parish our BECs are doing quite well relatively speaking, but we can still do a little more. I make every effort to be present at the BECCOT meetings (BEC Coordinating Team) every first Wednesday of the month. The BECCOT team is working hand in hand with the BEC leaders by animating the monthly meetings and solving issues that arise at the BEC level.  The team also assists and trains the BEC leaders and revives the leaders’ roles by giving them formations especially on leadership quality.

Some leaders are happy and joyfully serve their BECs without qualms even though they have been serving in their BECs for a number of years.  At large many leaders are not too happy about serving in their BECs and are just waiting to hand over their batons or tasks to someone else.  Some members are not willing to give it a try to take up the leadership role by giving excuses such as: fear of failure, fear of embarrassment, fear of uncertainty, fear of responsibility, fear of making mistakes, lack of confidence, lack of time and so forth.

When we don't eliminate a life of excuses, we hold ourselves back from recognising opportunities and discovering our talents, skills and potential. We paralyze ourselves from growing in our spiritual life and this prevents us from moving forward in all areas of our lives!  If we don't challenge ourselves to reach new heights, we will never really know what we are capable of.  Opportunities lie hidden in front of us and in every corner of our lives - so it’s best that we don’t crack our heads by constantly finding reasons to make excuses.

What I request from the BEC leaders and the BEC core teams is that they bear the burden of leadership and responsibility and to genuinely care for one another in their respective BECs.  You are not alone working in the vineyard of the Lord, “For you are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s farm, God’s building,” (1 Cor 3:9).  You need to first and foremost focus on your spirituality and making efforts to increase your faith life.  In the long run, these will grow your personal strength and expand the scope of your ministry in the BECs. In fact, your BEC members will gain their trust in you and they perceive you guiding them well.

I suggest that you develop your leadership quality by sharing your responsibilities with your core teams as well as members of your BECs. If you are willing to let others share in your responsibilities, encourage the caring for one another and to make decisions, (even if you think they do things a bit differently from you), perhaps this kind of shared leadership will attract your BEC members and new leaders will be in the making!

On my part, I too look around for leaders and volunteers from the BECs and also among the weekend congregation who can really do the work of serving and caring for one another in the life of the Church, without having been given a title. Every now and then I do try to identify potential leaders and pray to the Lord that He will provide individuals to come forward to render service to the Church.

Basic Ecclesial Community (BEC) is not another ministry or organisation but it is the Church at the grassroots.  The members are considered as a new way of “being Church”.  Every ordinary Catholic is called to be disciples of hope and to actively participate in the life and mission of the Church and to live in the spirit of the Gospel.