PROMOTING INTERFAITH HARMONY

On Sunday, 26th February, a group of 80 Muslim students who are in their fourth semester from University of Sultan Azlan Shah, Kuala Kangsar, Perak (KUISAS) came to our Church of St Joseph, Sentul, Kuala Lumpur for an exposure study programme. Prior to this they had visited the Buddhist, Taoist and Hindu temples in KL City. They were assigned to do comparison studies on all religions in Malaysia and how the people of other faiths worship. They were led by Professor Puan Siti Nurleha Binti Safie from the faculty of Islamic Studies of KUISAS.

They arrived at 8am and joined us for our English Mass at 9.00 am. Our Parishioners of St Joseph welcomed them and thanked them for choosing our parish for their assignments. After Mass, they adjourned to the Hall for a simple breakfast followed by a one hour Q & A forum at our Formation Hall.

I began the forum by introducing myself and explained briefly about the history of our Church. As we were discussing, I subtly corrected them of their concept of using the words “Comparison Studies of All Religions.” I suggested to them that in search of truth every religion has its beauty and uniqueness and we should understand them in the perspective of interfaith dialogue. Among the many other discussions, they also raised the question on how Catholics fast and observe the season of Lent. After the session, they went around our Church to take a few photographs and left at 12.00 noon.

EMBARKING ON OUR LENTEN JOURNEY

TIME FOR REPENTANCE
On Ash Wednesday (1^st March), we Catholics began our 40-day journey with the marking of ashes on our forehead. On the first day of Lent, Prophet Joel has described the true nature of God that he is a God of gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing,” (Joel 2:12-13). We are given the opportunity to return to God, to repent of our sins, to be moved by His grace, mercy and steadfast in love. Here, Prophet Joel highlights his three key words: Merciful, Gracious and Abounding in steadfast love. Let’s make a deep change of our hearts move closer to God and stay connected ourselves with our neigbours by being be merciful, gracious and steadfast in love.

I believe on Ash Wednesday, all of us received a lot of images, text messages and icons pertaining to Ash Wednesday and Lent. One thing, which captured my heart, are from the words of Pope Francis as below:

Fast from HURTING WORDS and say KIND WORDS.

Fast from SADNESS and be filled with GRATITUDE.

Fast from ANGER and be filled with PATIENCE.

Fast from PESSIMISSM and be filled with HOPE.

Fast from WORRIES and TRUST IN GOD.

Fast from COMPLAINTS and contemplate SIMPLICITY.

Fast from PRESSURES and be PRAYERFUL.

Fast from BITTERNES and fill your heart with JOY.

Fast from SELFISHNESS and be COMPASSIONATE to others.

Fast from GRADGES and be RECONCILED.

Fast from WORDS and be silent so you can listen.

They are very practical statements for us to follow our day. Let’s adopt these attitudes for the rest of weeks in this season of Lent and grow in holiness.

HAVE A BLESSED AND HOLY LENT!

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.