SEEK JESUS IN SILENCE THIS ADVENT

Advent is a season that goes quick, unlike Lent. This year, Advent ends earlier because immediately after the 4th Sunday of Advent, we celebrate Christmas Eve Mass. December is always a busy and fascinating month of the year because of the holidays and Christmas festivities.

We often fail to slow down and take time from the rush of life to be with the Lord. We do not have time to contemplate the reason the Church sets aside four weeks of Advent preparations for Christmas. Advent is the way the Catholic Church prepares us spiritually for the Christmas celebration. Every year, we find ourselves busy with Christmas shopping, wrapping presents, putting up Christmas decorations and planning for parties, that we distract ourselves from having a truly meaningful Christmas. Then before you know it, Christmas has come and gone.

Did you spend time truly preparing your heart for Christ’s coming this Christmas? Have you prepared a timetable for prayer and mediation during Advent? Did you give at least 15-20 minutes a day to prayer and meditation? Have we strived to cultivate certain attitudes to welcome Christ in our hearts and home on Christmas morning?

Over the weeks we have been listening Christmas music in our homes, cars and at the malls. It is so easy for us to lose sight of the beauty of the four-week Advent. I like the readings selected by the Catholic Church during this season, highlighting Jesus’ arrival as a baby on Christmas as well as His second coming. Sometimes we get too bogged down with our worldly preparations that we forget to look into our spiritual preparations. On Christmas Eve we will sing the hymn - Silent Night.It is very important to cultivate silence in the midst of a world so immersed in noise. It is crucial to truly connect ourselves with God, who gives us a sense of peace.

We know there are many positive fruits that come from silence, but we sometimes fail to appreciate silence. God will speak to us in the depths of our hearts when we set an attitude of prayer in silence. Many people went through the process of discernment in silent prayer - either individually or with spiritual directors - in order to choose one’s vocation – married life or single life or religious life. Some of them have pursued their own personal conversion and purification in silent prayer.

Honestly speaking, during this Advent season, I have been weary with my daily priestly commitments in the parish. These past 3 weeks I have assisted in hearing confession at various parishes around the Klang Valley. I have visited the homebound and administered the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick and Eucharist to about 80 parishioners at home and at hospitals. It was pleasant to visit the elderly and sick of our community to affirm them that Jesus is still in charge, as the Lord of Life.

Even as I find that I haven’t spent much time in silent prayer, I sense that God is always present in mysterious ways as I exercise my daily priestly duties. For me, this Advent has been a fruitful time reaching out the homebound and carrying out my commitments faithfully for the spiritual well-being of my parishioners and others.

This Advent, let us seek Jesus in silence, in the Eucharist and in the Bible. May Christ Jesus bless us all and fill our hearts with joy, as we enter into the second half of our Advent season! God bless.

REJOICE IN THE LORD!

Third Sunday of Advent is known as Gaudete Sunday, focuses our attention on the spirit of rejoicing.We rejoice in our heart because Christmas is near. The prophet Zephaniah, centuries before the birth of Christ, calls God’s people to prepare for the coming of “the King of Israel, the Lord!” He tells the nation of Israel to rejoice and sing songs that God is in their midst. God has come, God is in their midst – “Rejoice, exult with all your heart,” (Zeph 3: 14-18).

In the Gospel reading, John the Baptist preaches good news to the people of his time and they are filled with joyful anticipation for God is near. In the midst of all our hardships, struggles, anxieties, sorrow, loneliness, illness, heartache, personal hurts, despair, and guilt, He is near and we shall see the salvation of Godwhen we turn to Him.

Always remember, even though we are facing a lot of crosses in our lives but at the end they produce joyful results. If we know that Jesus is the reason for our joy, He will indeed act for our own benefit, our own good.

“Sing and shout for joy for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel” (Isaiah 12).

A Mentor And A Friend - REV FR IGNATIUS HUAN (1941-2018)

On 3 December 2018, after morning Mass, I received a text message from my Clergy group about the demise of Rev Fr Ignatius Huan Kin Kwang, a priest from the Melaka-Johor Diocese of Malaysia. I was saddened by the news, but I understood that he was cancer stricken suffered very much as a result, for a year, and now his suffering has ended. He returned to the Lord at 3.28am on 3 December 2018, which is also the feast of Saint Francis Xavier.

Fr Ignatius was born on 23 November 1941. Prior to joining the seminary, he was a secondary school Science teacher in Segamat and Kulai, Johor. He started his seminary formation when he was 35 years old, and was ordained as a priest on 28 March 1985. After serving for a couple of years in the Melaka-Johor Diocese, he was sent to further his studies, in Rome.

Upon completing his Licentiate in Sacred Theology in Rome, Fr Ignatius was assigned to teach Spirituality and Psycho-Spirituality at the College General Major Seminary, Penang in 1995. He was also appointed as an Initiation Year Director (1stYear) for my class, during my first year in the seminary. He was a professor and Spiritual Director of College General Major Seminary in Penang (1995-2007) and St Francis Xavier Major Seminary in Singapore (2008-2010).

During my seminary life, I had a personal Spiritual Father, but I met with Fr Ignatius for spiritual direction and advice, at least two or three times a month. While I was completing my eight-year journey in the seminary, we established a relationship of mutual respect and appreciation, especially as I was the only one who survived the 1995 batch, while four other classmates dropped out within the first three years. Fr Ignatius was a source of guidance, as he mentored in the seminary.

When I was ministering in Kuantan and Terengganu, I was going through a tough time in my priesthood. I drove to Penang to seek spiritual directions from Fr Ignatius and I spent three days in silent retreat staying in the College General. Fr Ignatius told me that I was facing a mid-life crisis and he assisted and enlightened my priesthood and my life’s journey. He also recommended books for my spiritual reading and they were really helpful in my soul-searching.

The last time I met Fr Ignatius was during our Malaysian Clergy Convention in Plentong, Johor in July 2018. During this convention I purchased a copy of his book “The Mass: We Remember, We Celebrate, We Believe”published in 2018. Eventhough I have not started reading it, the book is precious to me because Fr Ignatius signed and wrote on it, “Dear George Packia, Shalom, by Huan”, dated 18 July 2018.

Fr Ignatius always showed special affection for people. Everyone looked up to him because of his simplicity. He spent most of his time praying, reading, preparing lectures, sessions and formations. He valued time and spent most of his priestly ministry lecturing in the seminaries forming priests. He also directed many priests, religious, seminarians and lay people through retreats and formations. He was always available if anyone wanted to meet him for spiritual guidance. He was a great preacher. 

There were almost 60 bishops and priests from Peninsula Malaysia and Singapore who attended his funeral on Wednesday, 5 December 2018 at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Johor Bharu. He will be missed dearly and he will never be forgotten. May God rest his soul in peace.

REPENT, GET READY AND BE PREPARED

“Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,” (Luke 1:4).

John Baptist’s message today, “Repent!” He is asking the people of his time, and us as well, to “repent, get ready, prepare the way of the Lord.” 

How do we prepare to meet our God? We face sins and we need to repent from sins. Repentance is not a once in a lifetime event, but through our daily action to stay closer with God.

A spiritual preparation is necessary for the coming of Jesus into our hearts. Sins need to be made clean by repentance. “Winding roads” and “rough ways” need to be “made straight” and “made smooth.” It is also our work in Advent, a season for our own preparation as we await the coming of Jesus this Christmas.

Advent reminds of our need for spiritual preparation in the midst of our busyness with decorating our homes, shopping for Christmas gifts and planning parties. 

Advent can be the time when we, as individuals, as a family of God, should turn away from our sins and balance our busy schedules with prayers, mediation and reflection because it allows us to rise up in our hearts. 

“The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.” (Ps 126)

CARRYING OUT THE MISSION OF JESUS CHRIST

“It’s time for Christmas shopping!” - this comes to mind the moment we enter into the season of Advent. Advent is “a time of vigilant waiting, conversion and of hope.”The next couple of weeks we will be waiting for the coming of Jesus once again into our hearts and our homes on Christmas Day, and also prepare for His final glorious coming on Judgment Day. 

To welcome the mystery of the Word Incarnate (cf. John 1:1) and to incarnate it in our lives this Christmas, we need to have conversion of our hearts. We ought to tune our mind and heart to live and re-live the spirit of Advent, hoping the Lord will bestow His grace upon us, as we grow in holiness and peace. To come to the true meaning of Christmas - the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus, we should spend time in pray, meditation and daily reading of Scripture throughout Advent. As we are striving to be closer to Jesus, may His Grace free us from sins and from its evil consequences. May the New liturgical year and Advent bring many blessings and graces to you and your families.

To prepare for the new liturgical year 2018/2019, twelve of us from various head of ministries, came together on Saturday, 24 November 2018 to revise our parish mission statements and pastoral priorities. We began with a silent adoration in front of the Blessed Sacrament for an hour before entering into our discussions and sharing.

First, we discuss why the Church wants the New Evangelisation? The word Evangelisation has a similar meaning to missionary efforts in proclaiming Jesus to everyone. The term New Evangelisation was first used by Saint Pope John Paul II, when he was addressing the Latin American Bishops in 1983. He invited every Christian to make known Christ and His Gospel to everyone, to the baptised who have lost the sense of faith and those who live a life far detached from Christ and His Church.

In the year of Jubilee 2000, Saint John Paul challenged the Church to leave behind the shallow waters by not just maintaining the Church institution, but to go to the deeper waters of Evangelisation. We, as a Church, are invited today to “put into the deep” or Duc in Altum, and lower our nets for more catch (Luke 5:4), which means to carry out the mission of Jesus Christ to every corner of the world and to every culture.

Dear Parishioners, I hope you still remember our parish vision for the year 2018-2020, which is “Committing Ourselves to New Evangelisation” and our parish pastoral priority for the year 2019, which will be on Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue (EIRD). Our discussion on our pastoral priority for 2019 focuses on EIRD and the issues, which arise with our fellow brethren from other churches and people of other faiths as well. Next, how can we guide our various ministries, clusters and parish community and what are the events we may think of, in order to achieve our vision and mission? 

Hence, we want each parishioner to build respectful relationships with everyone, get in touch with each other in the parish and with those whom have distance themselves from our faith, and to communicate with people of other faiths for the common good of all. Let’s work together to set a path of love and fraternity, by promoting ecumenical and inter-faith harmony, mutual understanding and friendship. The Holy Spirit will guide us on our journey, as we work towards our vision and mission in the coming year, 2019.

VISION: COMMITTING OURSELVES TO NEW EVANGELISATION

MISSION: As disciples of hope, we, the Parishioners of Saint Joseph’s Church, commit into the spirit of New Evangelisation by building friendship with EVERYONE, including people of other faiths, respectfully and joyfully