LET’S PRAY FOR THE FUTURE OF OUR NATION

On 16 May 2017 (Tuesday) a group of seven individuals from Malaysian Islamic Party, well-known as PAS (Party Islam Se-Malaysia), from the Parliament Constituency of BATU led by Ustaz Azhar Bin Yahya came to pay a visit to our parish in the morning. Tuan Azhar is head of finance in Kolej University Zulkifli Muhammad (KUIZM) at Batu Caves, Selangor. Batu is a parliamentary constituency, which includes Sentul on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. The current Member of Parliament of Batu is YB Tian Chua of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR). On 12^th May, Hishamuddin Ghazalli, the PAS secretary of Batu constituency met me with a letter for an appointment with his group in order to have a better understanding and collaboration working together with people particularly in his constituency.

The PAS group shared with me their objective of meeting all the religious leaders in their constituency before the next General Election. Their first meeting was with the Catholic Church and then they will move on to meet all the other religious leaders in Batu constituency. They too have shared of their new concept and vision of their party in building up good values, harmonious, free speech, peaceful nation and unite all races in our country. They have their ambitious goal of winning this parliamentary seat in the 14^th General Election. They are looking forward for more meetings with parishioners in the future. I was so impressed with their sharing and we had a healthy dialogue session.

Ever since I came to Church of St Joseph, I had many opportunities to meet with groups of students from the local Islamic universities and lately with these Islamic religious and political leaders. Through the conversation with these groups I notice that they all express their strong support for democracy and freedom of religion in the country. In reality we have hardly established a harmonious dialogue with one another and till now there is not much freedom in practicing our faith in our nation. One thing I realised is that when political matters influence religious sentiments then we have imbalanced thoughts and extremist groups exist.

The 14^th General Election will be a very essential election for us Malaysians. In his book entitled “Malaysia 14^th General Election”, Dr Kua Kia Soong (an adviser to human rights movement Suara Rakyat Malaysia – Suaram) said, “It will be a hard struggle for Malaysians to take back the country from the hands of corrupt and indifferent politicians.”  We as a Malaysian society should take a drastic action as we learn from the mistakes in the previous General Election. We shall look forward for a more brighter future for all Malaysians with justice, peace and prosperous.

Our Bible always encourages us pray for our governing leaders (2 Timothy 2: 1-4) and to respect in authority (Roman 13: 1-7). When we look at the situation of our country right now we find it hard to respect our indifferent political leaders. However, we should not despair but follow what God has commanded us to do – that is pray for our leaders especially for their wisdom, for their loyalty to people and country and for their hearts to be led by God.

JESUS LOVES US NOW and ALWAYS IF...

Jesus says, “If you love Me, keep My commandments,” (Jn 14: 15).

If we say we love Jesus but continue to think or act in a way that is the opposite of Jesus then we do not put Jesus in first place. We do not truly love Jesus because we do not keep his commandments. We cannot have both a pure love of Jesus and sin in our lives at the same time. If we love Jesus we will strive to give ourselves totally to Him. When we love Jesus with all our heart, soul, mind and strength we will not want to put anything before Jesus. We cannot fail if we love and obey God’s commandments.

It is the Holy Spirit that empowers us to obey God’s commandments. The Holy Spirit is the source of our strength. He teaches, guides and promotes us God's will in our lives.


Jesus loves us now and always and He wants us to live the commendments that he thought us.

MOTHER - A WORD THAT MEANS THE WORLD TO US

Being a mother is a great privilege, but also a great challenge.

There are many troubled mothers in the world. There are many mothers with broken hearts today.

Mothers, you may not receive the thanks or praises here on earth for all your sacrifice and for all that you give. One day sure you will receive rewards in heaven. Until then do continue to radiate the love of Christ from your heart.

On this Mother’s Day we must recognise the ability of mothers to shape the minds and hearts of tomorrow’s generation.

Today, I just want to say how wonderful you are. You have shown me your love right from my birth. You are the one who nurtured me, prayed over me, worried about me, guided me and supported me every moment of my life. Thank you mom for everything that you have done and keep doing for me. Just want to thank you for all the love and care that you give me.

Thank you, Mother dear.

Saints Jacinta and Francisco pray for our mothers!

REMEMBERING THE LITTLE CHILDREN OF FATIMA

Pope Francis has canonised two Fatima visionaries, Francisco Marto and Jacinta Marto when he visited the Fatima Shrine on 12 and 13 May 2017, the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima and the 100th anniversary of the date when the two children along with their cousin Lucia who had experienced the first apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Fatima, Portugal.

Our Lady appeared to these three poor children several times between 13 May 1917 and 13 October 1917. The two children died in childhood. Jacinta died on February, 1920, at age 9 while her brother Francisco died on 4 April 1919, at age 10. During Saint John Paul II’s pastoral visit to Portugal, he beatified them in Fatima on 13 May 2000, 83^rd anniversary of the first apparition of Our Lady of Fatima. He was teaching us that even young children can become saints.

Their cousin Lucia was the only one to reach adult life. She joined a convent in Coimbra, Portugal. Later she became a Discalced Carmelite Nun. She was born 1907 and died in 2005 at the age of 98. Sr Lucia’s beatification is now being examined for the canonisation process in Vatican since 13 February 2017.

Pope Francis was the fourth pope to visit the Fatima Shrine after Blessed Paul VI, Saint John Paul II and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. During his pontificate since 2013, Pope Francis has canonised 36 saints and these two children will be the 37^th and 38^th saints in his list of canonisations. These two peasant brother and sister would become the youngest non-martyr children in the history of the Church. Their canonisation would help us “to give credibility to the apparitions and the message of Fatima.” The appearance of Our Lady was asking these three children to pray the rosary, make sacrifices for the conversion of sinners and an increase in love for God.

As we celebrate the 100^th anniversary of Mary’s first appearance in Fatima and on this month of Rosary, we too are encouraged continuously to pray the rosary, make conversion and increase the love of Christ. When we pray the rosary with our BEC members, families and individuals we make the change in the lives of our loved ones, parishioners and friends. I hope by praying the rosary will help you to live our faith more stronger and make us happy. Whenever we leave home for work, office, school or travelling to overseas just remember to carry your rosary along as your companion of your journey. We should be great devotees to Our Lady and listen attentively to Her and ask for peace in the world.

Parents and grandparents, you need to encourage your children and grandchildren to pray the Rosary and to help them grow in their friendship with Mary, Joseph and Jesus. Grandparents of Jesus, Sts Joachim and Anne are honoured by the Church because they were instruments for Mary’s YES to the Angel Gabriel to become the Mother of Jesus in Her younger age. Whereas Mary and Jospeh nurtured Jesus to grow in wisdom and age during his childhood. So, parents and grandparents do commit yourselves to teach your children and grandchildren to always say something to Jesus before going to school, work, anywhere and even before sleeping. Do tell them too that going for Mass and catechism classes during the weekend are also important in order to strengthen their faith. Be their teachers of wisdom of God and courage that they may be pass on to future generations to grow in the fear of God. Mary, Mother of Hope, Pray for Us!

"Jesus is the Way..."

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

The world proclaims every day that there are many ways to an eternity. The world also tells us that there are many truths.

The Gospel (Jn 14:6) says that there is no other way than through Jesus. There is no other truth than Jesus. There is no real life other than the eternal life found in Jesus.

Jesus says that He is the Way. He is the only Way to the Father. He is the only way to heaven. He is the only Way to get to heaven. The place where we are going to spend all of eternity.


FOR US CHRISTIANS JESUS IS THE ONE and ONLY WAY TO GOD.