Monthly Archives: May 2017

The Ascension of the Lord
Acts 1:1-11 | Psalm 46(47):2-3,6-9 | Ephesians 1:17-23 | Matthew 28:16-20

And know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time. (Matthew 28:20)

This simple line just inspired a new personal litany…

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Lord, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy.

Christ, have mercy.

Christ, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy.

God the Father of Heaven.

Have mercy on us.

God the Son, Redeemer of the world.

Have mercy on us.

God the Holy Spirit.

Have mercy on us.

Holy Trinity, one God.

Have mercy on us.

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When we are washed clean of sin…

Be with us, Lord.

On each day at school…

Be with us, Lord.

When we receive your Precious Body and Blood…

Be with us, Lord.

When we are sealed in our faith…

Be with us, Lord.

When we fall in love…

Be with us, Lord.

When we fall into despair…

Be with us, Lord.

When we promise to be true to each other…

Be with us, Lord.

When we raise our sons and daughters to follow Your Holy Way…

Be with us, Lord.

When we commit ourselves to become Your shepherds to others…

Be with us, Lord.

When we reconcile our sinful selves with Your heavenly grace…

Be with us, Lord.

When we are in need of Your healing touch…

Be with us, Lord.

In the last hours of our earthly existence…

Be with us, Lord.

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Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.

Spare us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.

Graciously hear us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.

Have mercy on us, O Lord.

Christ, hear us.

Christ, graciously hear us.

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Lord Jesus Christ, You are our help and our shield. Be with us in our need, guide us in your Holy Way, and never let us forget Your boundless love for us, now and forever. Amen.

Wednesday of the 6th Week of Eastertide
Acts 17:15,22-18:1 | Psalm 148:1-2,11-14 | John 16:12-15

Since we are the children of God, we have no excuse for thinking that the deity looks like anything in gold, silver or stone that has been carved and designed by a man. (Acts 17:29)

“Daddy, what does God look like?”

Do you swallow hard, and point to the nearest stained-glass depiction of the Almighty?

“Really? He looks weird…”

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I was reflecting on this very question as I was riding the train this afternoon, when I was inspired by a whole bunch of leaves flying past the window in front of me.

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What does air look like?

Nothing, really.

Then how do we know it exists?

By its effects on the world around us;
flying leaves, soaring birds, living beings.

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As long as we live, we’ll never really understand God’s appearance. Ezekiel and John (in Revelations) painted vivid word-paintings that tried to describe their visions of God, but I think we don’t need to resort to such fantastical imagery.

All we need to do…is to look around us.

That harried mother, trying her best to care for her noisy and demanding children.

Those migrant workers quietly cleaning our block each day.

That tired face staring back at us in the bathroom mirror.

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What does God look like?

Well, us, really.

How do we know that?

Because of His effects on the world around us,
through our individual words and actions.

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“Daddy, what does God look like?”

Actually, He looks like you and me.

“Really?”

Really. Now how about we go out and show Him to the world?

Amen.

Tuesday of the 6th Week of Eastertide
Acts 16:22-34 | Psalm 137(138):1-3,7-8 | John 16:5-11

Late that night Paul and Silas were praying and singing God’s praises, while the other prisoners listened. (Acts 16:25)

…

WHAT?!?! Oh sorry, I couldn’t hear you from the music blasting in my ears.

Yesterday, a BBC Music article dripping with nostalgia appeared in my Facebook feed, courtesy of a primary school classmate: 40 photos that prove the 80s were the best decade.

Just before I wrote this post, I tried listening to a few of my favourite songs from that decade. It was a short trip down memory lane…and a bit of a “meh”.

Then I switched back to the latest Catholic Stuff You Should Know podcast, and sank into the dulcet tones and amusing banter between two priests from Denver, Colorado.

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Whenever I ride the train by myself, I often end up standing near youths with head-banging mega-death black-grunge noise leaking out around their massive headphones. At other times, random people play Tamil dramas or Cantonese music at full blast from their smartphones.

Sometimes, they annoy their fellow passengers enough to attract angry stares, but I usually ignore them, choosing instead to focus on one of several Catholic podcasts. If you’re looking to spend some time listening to the Word of Life, especially others’ reflections on them, I can recommend the following examples of aural salvation.

I’ve already mentioned Catholic Stuff You Should Know, hosted by diocesan priests associated under the Denver Companions of Christ. It’s a fun hour-long listen if you’re not in a hurry to get to the subject for each week, and while it presents an American-centric view of diocesan clerical life, it makes you wonder what the Singapore Catholic scene might look like, if our own priests socialized like these shepherds do.

Also from the Colorado highlands, the Lanky Guys podcast is presented by two, well, lanky guys from Denver. One is a priest who claims to “improvise homilies after staying up too late watching movies”, while the other teaches lay people at the local seminary. If anything, they’re even more laid-back than the companionable priests above, and their weekly podcasts appear early each Friday, in time for us to listen to their reflections on the upcoming Sunday’s liturgy.

For those in a perpetual hurry, Catholic Bytes is tailored to your busy schedule. Twice a week, various priests currently studying in Rome take 5-10 minutes to explore various aspects of Catholicism for the benefit of lay listeners. No fluff, just stuff, and if you don’t even have 10 minutes to spare, they recently introduced 60-second speed explorations. Quick! Quick! Subscribe now!

And for those of us who keep telling ourselves that we’ll read the Bible, but never get around to it, the Catholic Bytes priests put together a Bible in a Year podcast, so that you can at least listen to the Good Book on the go, with introductory material from the Knox Catholic Bible translation.

Even if you’d prefer to read with your eyes, you might want to take note of their reading order, and start with the more accessible New Testament. I can confirm from first-hand experience that most folks who start with Genesis grind to a frustrated halt somewhere in Leviticus.

And if you want deep dives into our faith that are nevertheless reasonably accessible, Matt Fradd records Pints With Aquinas, a weekly thought experiment involving the good Doctor of the Church St. Thomas Aquinas…and beer. I won’t spoil the experience by explaining any further, but this is a podcast that requires your undivided attention. Trying to listen to Fradd’s expositions on the go will likely be an exercise in frustration.

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That’s the stuff that fills my earholes each day. What Catholic audio material do you listen to? Please share in the comments section below, and thanks for listening reading.

Amen.

Monday of the 6th Week of Eastertide
Acts 16:11-15 | Psalm 149:1-6,9 | John 15:26-16:4

On this Eastertide day last year, I put up a photo journal of my 2013 visit to Philippi, to go with the reading that describes this very place.

This year, something different caught my attention:

After she and her household had been baptised she sent us an invitation: ‘If you really think me a true believer in the Lord,’ she said ‘come and stay with us’; and she would take no refusal. (Acts 16:15)

Introducing: Soulbnb, my Catholic spin on Airbnb.

Imagine an online lodging service in which hosts post images and videos of their day-to-day activities that befit a faithful Catholic. Instead of airbrushed images of perfect rooms, we’d see hosts:

• sharing a meal with a beggar, sitting cross-legged at an overhead bridge
• volunteering at a MINDS training centre
• quietly praying at home, in front of a portrait of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Now imagine that guests rate hosts not just on how much they enjoyed their stay, but also how closely their hosts’ Soulbnb “image” matched their real-life interactions.

Would you dare list your spare room on such a service?

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Taking Lydia’s challenge at face value, we acknowledge her confidence in her own faith, as befits a new convert. It’s like the incredible high we feel at our own weddings, not really grasping the reality of mundane-ever-after.

It was pretty much the same story when I started blogging. Blue Swede could’ve echoed my heart’s words:

I can’t stop this feeling
Deep inside of me
Lord, I finally realize
What you do to me

When You hold me
In your arms so tight
You let me know
Everything’s all right

I’m hooked on a feeling
I’m high on believing
You gave Your love to me

Ooga-chaka, indeed.

Then one day became another, one week led to a month, and that fiery euphoria faded away.

Now, it’s down to a few quietly glowing coals, not much to look at, but warming and comforting all the same, and much more sustainable than the “Rocket Man” high of spiritual rebirth.

Just as important is the confidence it gives me to list my spare room on this hypothetical service. I’m not perfect, and my wife even catches me in a nasty mood from time to time, but I can’t hide the lamp of my faith and love for God under a bushel (Matthew 5:15) and still call myself a Catholic.

After all, isn’t hospitality a key sign of love?

Amen.

6th Sunday of Easter (Year A)
Acts 8:5-8,14-17 | Psalm 65(66):1-7,16,20 | 1 Peter 3:15-18 | John 14:15-21

Reverence the Lord Christ in your hearts, and always have your answer ready for people who ask you the reason for the hope that you all have. (1 Peter 3:15)

That’s a tall order for most of us. When people ask us why we live in hope, when they press us to reveal our secret to happiness, what do we tell them?

Do we launch into a fact-laden spiel straight from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and instantly bore them to death?

Or do we speak from our hearts, and from our own experiences?

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The secret to my happiness is bound up in four simple words from Jesus:

I shall not call you servants any more, because a servant does not know his master’s business; I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have learnt from my Father. (John 15:15)

I was staring at that passage a few months before I started this journey of daily scriptural reflection, and thinking:

Jesus actually said that. “I call you friends.”

And he’s not the creepy uncle from upstairs who stares at me in a disturbing manner.

In fact, he’s everything I look for in a friend: loyal, kind-hearted, but also unafraid to let wrong-doers know what’s what.

Why the heck am I avoiding Him? Why am I not spending quality time with Him, like friends do?

So I began reading from the daily missal that I’d bought years before, and only cracked open when my mom would call for advice on how to pronounce some Biblical name in a mass reading.

And then I started blogging about daily scripture, because I had a website with nothing on it. Somehow, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

It still does.

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But my story of hope doesn’t end there…

The funny thing about spending time with your friends…is that you get introduced to their friends, and maybe establish a friendship with them too.

Guess who Jesus is friends with? That’s right: EVERYONE!

And so I started clearing my own table when I finish my lunch, and smiling at and thanking the cleaners if they’re around, and especially if they clear my tray before I have a chance to do the deed. It’s nice to see their mood lift for just a few seconds, before returning to their (literally) thankless task.

And so I started greeting bus drivers when I board, and waving and shouting my thanks when I alight. That usually makes them do a double-take, but they always smile back, and often return the wave too.

And if that lifts their mood, making them pay a little less attention to their personal grievances, and more attention to the road that they’re plying, I might just have made my fellow passengers’ journey a little more comfortable and safer.

No thanks needed. That’s what friends are for, no?

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Now, Jesus is my LORD, so I’m not about to go “hey, ol’ buddy, ol’ pal”.

But he’s also my friend, so I want to spend quality time bonding with Him, like with all my other friends.

And unlike all my other friends, He’ll be around forever.

That’s actually good to know.

Amen.