Category Archives: Sacraments

Prayer must be a top priority for priests

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Example of prayer life is Pope Benedict XVI’s exhortation for all ordained Ministers

In a sermon during a visit to priests and seminarians at the Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Brindisi, Southern Italy, on 15 June 2008, Pope Benedict XVI spoke about the importance of daily prayer that they must not put aside.

With a fatherly love, he offered meaningful and practical advice for the survival of a priestly life. He said:

Dear brother priests, in order for your life to become a strong and vibrant faith, as you know, we need to nourish that life with diligent prayer. Therefore, you should become an example of prayer, become a teacher of prayer. It is necessary to arrange for your day to have time for prayer and for meditation, in which, following the example of Jesus, you converse with God, the Father.

I know that it is not easy to be faithful to the daily prayer and to set aside the time to meet with the Lord, especially in today’s fast-paced life, with ever-increasing busyness. But we must be convinced that the moment of prayer is the most important thing in the life of a priest, that is when God’s grace works most effectively, bringing richness to the priestly ministry.

Prayer is the first service that must be rendered to the community and therefore times of prayer must take real priority in our lives. I know how many things are weighing us down: for me, they are the meeting with general audiences, documents to research, meetings, etc. But if we are not inwardly united with God, then we cannot bring anything to others. Therefore, God is the number one priority and we must always spend the necessary time in prayerful communion with our Lord. 

(For the Vietnamese Language version of this post, read Fr. Tran Duc Anh’s translation)

These words from Pope Benedict XVI really touched me. They pierced my heart, and at the same time they helped me orient and redefine the priorities in my priesthood and consecrated life.

Especially when these words were echoed again during The Year for Priests that he inaugurated exactly a year later on 19 June 2009, on the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

In an Apostolic Letter to his brother priests to mark the start of the year, the Pope reiterated the meaning and benefits of prayer. He invited all priests to follow the example of Saint John Maria Vianey, pastor of the Ars parish in France, in praying diligently and fervently celebrating Mass.

This extremely useful advice of Pope Benedict XVI resonated strongly in my heart last week on the morning of July 20. It motivated me to  have a desire to live a life of contemplative prayer and resolve to practise this every day.

As he said, this is essential and paramount to the survival of the priestly vocation and the consecrated life. Because I always believe: “Without a life of prayer and contemplation, we cannot be faithful to our own vocation.”

Vocation does not only cover the priesthood, but all Catholic life, be it religious and in every aspect of the laity, whether in marriage or as singles.

God has given priests in their consecrated life His gratuitous and unconditional love as a special grace, when He invited and selected these men in the priesthood to commit themselves and serve His holy people.

It must be said that this is a great and noble gift that God has given to humanity. This was confirmed by Saint John Maria Vianey, when he spoke about the priesthood as a great and unfathomable gift that God has entrusted to the human person:  

A good shepherd, a pastor after God’s heart, is the greatest treasure which the good Lord can grant to a parish, and one of the most precious gifts of divine mercy”. He spoke of the priesthood as if incapable of fathoming the grandeur of the gift and task entrusted to a human creature: “O, how great is the priest! … If he realized what he is, he would die… God obeys him: he utters a few words and the Lord descends from heaven at his voice, to be contained within a small host…”.

Explaining to his parishioners the importance of the sacraments, he would say: “Without the Sacrament of Holy Orders, we would not have the Lord. Who put him there in that tabernacle? The priest.

Who welcomed your soul at the beginning of your life? The priest.

Who feeds your soul and gives it strength for its journey? The priest.

Who will prepare it to appear before God, bathing it one last time in the blood of Jesus Christ? The priest, always the priest.

And if this soul should happen to die [as a result of sin], who will raise it up, who will restore its calm and peace? Again, the priest…

After God, the priest is everything! … Only in heaven will he fully realize what he is”.

These words, welling up from the priestly heart of the holy pastor, might sound excessive. Yet they reveal the high esteem in which he held the sacrament of the priesthood.

It can be said that the priesthood is one of the most precious gifts of God’s compassion for believers. 

However, like the apostle Paul (2 Cor 4:7), priests are also aware of their own fragility and weakness, so they do not rely only on their own strength, but completely entrust their entire life into the loving hands of God.

Because priests experience this, although they have been consecrated, they are still humans and are living in the world with many intrigues, traps, and luxurious frivolities. That’s why they need help, first of all from God, who has called them to the priestly mission, to pass on the good news of God’s love to everyone.

Next, they need sympathy and support from the parishioners through concrete actions to help them fulfil their entrusted duties and responsibilities. Most especially, they need fervent PRAYERS from the laity, to help them stay faithful to their priestly vocation and to the mission they have been assigned by the Church. 

I would like to conclude this article on the practice of PRAYER in the life of a committed Christian and especially in the life of a priest by quoting Pope Francis’ words to priests in his opening speech at the international symposium on priesthood in Vatican February 17, 2022. 

Many crises in the priesthood originate precisely in a poor life of prayer, a lack of intimacy with the Lord, the reduction of the spiritual life to mere religious practice. I can think of important moments of my own life, where closeness to the Lord proved decisive in sustaining me. The intimacy born of prayer, the spiritual life, concrete closeness to God through listening to his word, the celebration of the Eucharist, the silence of adoration, entrustment to Mary, the wise accompaniment of a guide and the sacrament of Reconciliation… Without these “forms of closeness”, a priest is merely a weary hireling who has none of the benefits of the Lord’s friends. 

All too often, for example, in the life of priests, prayer is practiced only as a duty; we forget that friendship and love do not come from following rules, but are a fundamental choice of the heart. The priest who prays remains, ultimately, a Christian who has come to fully appreciate the gift received at baptism. A priest who prays is a son who constantly remembers that he is such, and that he has a Father who loves him deeply. A priest who prays is a son who keeps close to the Lord. 

None of this is easy, however, unless we are accustomed to find moments of silence throughout our day and to set aside the activism of Martha in order to learn the quiet contemplation of Mary. We find it hard to give up that activism, because once we stop running around, what we immediately feel is not peace but a kind of emptiness; and in order to keep from feeling that, we are unwilling to slow down.

Yet once we accept the desolation that is born of silence, fast from our activities and words, and find the courage to take a sincere look at ourselves, everything takes on a light and peace no longer based on our own strengths and abilities. We need to learn to let the Lord bring his work to fulfilment in each of us and to “prune” all that is unfruitful, barren or unworthy of our calling.

Perseverance in prayer is more than simply remaining faithful to its practice: it means not running away in those times when prayer draws us into the desert. The way of the desert is the way that leads to intimacy with God, provided we do not run away or find ways to avoid this encounter. In the desert “I will speak tenderly to her”, says the Lord to his people through the words of the prophet Hosea (Hos 2:14).

I hope as you read this article, please remember and pray for your priests, those who are serving you in the parishes throughout this country and the priests that you come to know. Pray that they will follow the footsteps of Jesus closely and dedicate their lives to serving God’s people everywhere, for the sake of joy and bring God’s salvation to the ends of the earth. 

God’s love remains constant for 28 years

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A priest’s journey began as a mountain too high to climb, but not for Christ

Editor’s Note: Fr Peter celebrated his 28th Sacerdotal Anniversary Mass earlier this evening on the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. He shares with us the homily he preached.

Dear Readers,

Twenty-eight years ago, I was ordained as a Redemptorist priest in Melbourne by Bishop Peter Connor. It was a wonderful celebration and a joyous occasion, which I will never forget.

My journey to the priesthood, which began in Vietnam, was the biggest challenge in my life (read my story here: For God, every dark cloud has a silver lining ). It was like climbing up the highest mountain that has lots of twists and unexpected turns.

Sometimes it was like I had arrived at a dead end and there was no way out. But God rescued me from all those dangerous events and allowed me to settle in Australia. In a foreign land, I was able to start a new life and pursue my vocation. In reflecting on my journey, I am ever more convinced that with God nothing is impossible (Luke 1:37).

On this 28th Anniversary of my ordination, I like to share with you an experience that took place during my Novitiate at the Redemptorist Monastery in Mayfield, Newcastle City in 1987. Since without this spiritual experience, I would not have been ordained as priest.

In fact, I would not be here today to celebrate Mass, in thanksgiving to God, on this most blessed occasion with special friends and parishioners at St. Thomas More College Chapel.

Every Friday during my Novitiate, I had to see my Novice Master for about an hour to discuss how things had been going with me, especially in terms of my spiritual life and vocation. I was asked to reflect on the vows that I must take by the end of my 12-month Novitiate. These included the vows of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience. I told him the hardest for me would be Chastity, since I felt I was not able to live up to its expectation. My Novice Master advised me to pray over this and see what God would say to me.

In the Chapel, Novice Peter Hung heard God’s calling to “Come as you are”.

After leaving his office, I went immediately to the Chapel and was there alone. I poured out my heart to God and I told Him how I felt, especially regarding my future commitment as a member of the Redemptorist Congregation. I felt that I could not keep these vows completely.

I was anxious and wanted to give up on the idea of becoming a priest, since it was too difficult. I was in a state of despair and did not know what I had to do. While I was in that state, I heard the words of the Hymn: COME AS YOU ARE, composed by Sr. Deirdre Brown. It resounded in my mind, especially these verses:

Come as you are, that’s how I want you

Come as you are, feel quite at home

Close to my heart, loved and forgiven

Come as you are, why stand alone?

I came to call sinners, not just the virtuous

I came to bring peace, not to condemn

Each time you fail to live by my promise,

Why do you think I’d love you the less?

Watch and listen to the hymn, Come as you are

I could not believe what I was hearing, it was too good to be true. How could God love me that much, and even if each time I fail to live by His promise, God still loves me as I am.

Listening to the hymn, with those verses appearing vividly in my mind, I cried my heart out and was inconsolable for quite a while. I knew then that God was speaking to me directly with those words. It was very clear He wanted me to know nothing will ever change His love for me, even when I fail to keep my promises. I was so happy, felt strengthened by the experienced and, finally, told my Novice Master I would take my vows, with the knowledge I could fail from time to time.

Today, as I celebrate the anniversary of my ordination, I can honestly tell you that God has done everything in my life. Whatever I have achieved until now, it has been by the grace of God who has empowered and given me the ability to do so. All my being and everything I possess are totally from God, and I still feel I am not worthy of His service.

Fr Peter was blessed his mother, youngest sister (on his left) from Vietnam and two nieces
(on his right) from the United States were in Melbourne for his ordination on 16 July 1994.

I would like to conclude my homily this evening by sharing with you a story that is very meaningful to me. It is in fact just like my own story (The old violin nobody wanted was first published here on 12 July 2022).

There was an auction and buyers competed fiercely to outbid each other for everything that was on offer. Before long, they eagerly snapped up all the items. Except for one: an old violin.

Keen to find a buyer for it, the auctioneer held the string instrument in his hands and offered what he thought was an attractive price, saying “if anyone is interested, I would sell it for $100.”

A deathly silence filled the room.

After a while, it became apparent to the auctioneer that even at that price, it was not enough to convince anyone to buy the old violin. So he reduced its price to $80, but even this did not move anyone to take it off his hands. The auctioneer then lowered the asking price even further to $50, insisting it was the best price he could offer. Still, nobody raised their hands to buy it. Finally, in desperation, he dropped the price to only $20.

Then, after another short period of silence, an old gentleman who sat at the back, raised his hand and asked: “May I have a look at the violin, please?”

“Yes, surely, you may,” the auctioneer replied, relieved that finally, someone showed an interest in the old violin. The measly price did not bother him. At least, the stringed instrument faced the prospect of finding a new owner and home.

The old man rose from his seat at the back and slowly walked to the front and carefully examined the old violin. He took out his handkerchief and dusted the surface of the wooden music instrument. He then gently tuned each string until, one by one, they were in the right tones.

Finally, and only then, did he place the old violin between his chin and left shoulder, lifted the bow with his right hand, and started playing a piece of music. Each musical note he produced from the old violin penetrated the silence in the room and danced delightfully in the air. It stunned everyone and they listened attentively to what was coming out of the instrument in the hands of what was obvious to all: a maestro.

He played a familiar classical hymn. The melody was so beautiful that it quickly enchanted everyone at the auction, and they were awestruck. They had never heard of or even witnessed anyone playing music so beautifully, let alone on an old violin. And they never thought for one moment, it would catch their fancy later on when the auction resumed.

When the old man had finished playing, he calmly returned the violin to the auctioneer, so that he could try and sell it again. But before the auctioneer could even ask everyone in the room, if they would still like to buy it, there was a rush in the raising of hands. Everyone suddenly wanted it after the impromptu masterly performance.

From an unwanted item a short while earlier, the old violin was suddenly the focus, of the most intense bidding competition of the auction. From the starting bid of $20, the price immediately shot up to $500.

The old violin was ultimately sold for $10,000, which was 500 times more than its lowest asking price.

It took only 15 minutes for the old violin to transform from something nobody wanted into the star of the auction. And it had to take a maestro musician to tune up its strings, and play a wonderful melody. He showed that what looked unattractive on the outside, was actually a beautiful and priceless soul, inside the instrument.

Perhaps, like the old violin, our lives normally do not seem to have much worth at first. But, if we hand them over to Jesus, who is the maestro above all maestros, then He will be able to play beautiful songs through us, and their melodies will stun listeners even much more. Our lives, then, will catch the world’s attention, and everyone wants to listen to the music, that He produces out of our lives.

So tonight, I would like to pray for all of us:

“Lord, may our lives become your musical instrument, like that old violin, so that we may be able to produce beautiful music that people can enjoy to listen and bring happiness to their hearts. May we always give You thanks and praise to Your wonderful love that You have bestowed upon us.” Amen.

Desiderio Desideravi: Christ’s passion for all humanity

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In Apostolic Letter, Pope Francis takes us to the heart of the Eucharist in the Mass

If you translate the title of Pope Francis’ latest Apostolic Letter, Desiderio Desideravi, it reads “With desire I have desired”. The significance of a repetitive word may not be apparent to the English reader.

But in Latin, as in some Asian languages such as Chinese, Japanese and even Malay-Indonesian, it captures the essence of what it means. Desiderio Desideravi is taken from the Church’s Latin Vulgate of Luke 22:15, “et ait illis desiderio desideravi hoc pascha manducare vobiscum antequam patiar.” In English it is, “And he said to them: With desire I have desired to eat this pasch with you, before I suffer”.

To emphasise its meaning, the bibles of most Catholic dioceses around the world translate it as “I have ardently longed” (New Jerusalem Bible) or “I have eagerly desired” (New American Bible).

So, “With desire I have desired” can also be understood as a “passionate desire”.

It recalls the overwhelmingly successful movie, “Passion of the Christ”. Yup, that Mel Gibson movie. Not that he is a big fan of Pope Francis, as he has been stirring up discontent against the Holy Father’s motu proprio, Traditionis Custodes, that restricts celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass.

Since it was released in July 2021, there has been much unhappiness among TLM followers. They accused the Pope of being a heretic for tampering with the “Mass of the Ages”, among other things. This is the underlying reason why the Holy Father wrote Desiderio Desideravi, which is addressed to all Catholics — clergy, religious and lay.

Rubrics’ purpose in the Mass

With his usual depth, the Pope sees the outroar over the TLM as not just about the Latin language or Mass. It goes far deeper than that. In his Apostolic Letter, Pope Francis takes us back to the heart of what the Eucharist is about, beneath all the rubrics.

In essence, the Holy Father points to Christ’s two great commandments: The first and greatest is “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind”. And the second, “Love your neighbour as yourself”.

Both were not meant to supplant or justify the 10 Commandments (or ten thousand, as the Pharisees would have it), but to indicate what the entire Law was supposed to achieve. Christ did that because the Pharisees had reduced the Law to burdensome, hard-to-follow rules.

Rubrics guarantee the beauty of the Eucharistic celebration. Image: Unsplash, Josh Applegate

This is exactly what Traditionis Custodes’ opponents have done. They are obsessed with rubrics to the point of forgetting why they are there. In Desiderio Desideravi, Pope Francis reminds us of the role they perform in the primary reason why the Eucharist exists.

The rubrics guarantee the beauty of the Lord’s Last Supper in the Mass: that it performs all its purposes. This is because the Eucharist is full of symbolic language, as it is based on the Passover, which is replete with symbolism.

When Christ said, “Do this in memory of me”, the “this” didn’t simply refer to the acts of breaking bread and sharing wine. It refers to the entire Passover celebration. This is why we call Christ the “Passover Lamb”.

In Desiderio Desideravi, Pope Francis explains how Christ coopted the Passover symbolism for Himself.

The first element is a celebration of God delivering the Jews from Egypt. In the Last Supper, Christ elevates the symbolism to God delivering all of mankind from the clutches of the Devil. Pope Francis highlights that the Eucharist is meant to be for “every man from every tribe, every nation” (Rev 5:9, cited in Desiderio Desideravi, Para 4).

In the original Passover, the Matzah bread is broken to denote the parting of the Red Sea in Exodus. As Pope Francis narrates, the Eucharist has replaced this with the breaking of Christ’s Body and Blood on the cross in cavalry.

And all of this is connected by the desire of Christ to be God-with-Us. As the Pope explains, the core of the Good News is that Christ desires to share this Last Supper with every person in the world due to the intensity of God’s love for us. In this sense, the Eucharistic celebration is the embodiment and the manifestation of Christ, “more than just a representation” (DD, Para 9).

The Old and New Creation link

The Church, as an assembly, is part of this ongoing Supper until Christ’s Second Coming. Our participation in this unfolding of God’s love begins when we are baptised and inducted into the Body of Christ. Pope Francis shares that water in the baptismal rite is a symbol of life and rejuvenation all the way from Genesis, where the Spirit of God hovered over the waters of formless creation.

And since Jesus is also the Water of Life, the baptismal font is the Christian’s first experience of the same Paschal Mystery of the Last Supper. At the Eucharist, we are plunged into the depths of God’s love just as we are plunged into water at baptism. What is common to both is the experience of being totally immersed in something. Because since God gave his full passion and dedication to us, we are obliged to return the same.

In the event of the Passion, the Church bursts forth from Christ’s side on the Cross, just as Eve bursts forth from the side of Adam in Genesis. Here, Pope Francis applies the famous metaphor of the Church as bride of Christ in a fresh way. Although, as Christians, we are nominally familiar with regards to Eve as Adam’s bride, but we don’t quite automatically make that link on the lance that pierced Christ’s Body.

There were no bridal salons in Eden, after all! Nonetheless, Pope Francis use of this reminds us of the eschatological link between the old creation in Genesis and the New Creation made by Jesus in the Gospel.

The liturgy is an event where God is with Us as Jesus was with His disciples at the Last Supper.

With this understanding at the core, we can approach the Eucharist from a proper perspective. The Eucharist must demonstrate the transcendent beauty of the Last Supper and provide for the participation of all members of Christ’s Mystical Body.

Although the Real Presence is real, the other elements of the ritual are also symbolic, bearing the transformed symbolism explained earlier in this article. Even the bread and wine are, in a certain sense, symbols. Although they are the true Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist, they are also symbols of the entire Body of Christ, the Church.

Liturgy is where God is with us

Returning to the Apostolic Letter, the focus is on Christ, not on any individual Christian. The Liturgy, as an Event, is a free gift from Christ. It comes from God to man. It is not a performance of man for God. At the same time, it is a gathering. The physical bread that is broken as the Body of Christ is united again in the Mystical Body of Christ, which is that all believers are gathered to worship Him as one Body.

Pope Francis emphasises to us that the Liturgy is about the group, and not about individuals. If we forget this, then we fall into a Gnostic subjectivism, which is one of the results of secular post-modernism, with its focus on subjective feeling. Or else, we fall into a salvation-by-works neo-Pelagianism, where we believe a specific form of prayer achieves salvation.

In a sense, then, the Liturgy is neither made-for-us or made-for-God, but is an event where God is with Us as Jesus was with His disciples at the Last Supper.

The latter is the core problem with the opponents of Traditiones Custodes. They have focused too excessively on specific rubrics, such as the priest facing the altar instead of the people. In doing so, they have missed the spirit of the rubrics. Although Pope Francis does not make any allusions here, this is precisely the spirit of the Pharisees who chastised Christ for healing people on the Sabbath. It was for such that Christ provided the Two Great Commandments.

The key part of the Pope’s reflection is found in paragraph 31, where he comments that the point of the liturgical reform at the Second Vatican Council was to enable the Liturgy to allow Christians to “better grow in our capacity to fully live the liturgical action”.

With this in mind, the Church can consider how to help priests to properly understand what the Liturgy entails, which attains its perfection when it fully reveals the glory of God to all present. The rubrics are there to ensure perfection, so they cannot be improvised. And yet they are not totally irreformable, because liturgy is an art with its own intrinsic beauty. There is flow and pattern in the liturgy and all its various ritual gestures. This is the Art of Celebration, or Ars Celebrandi.

The rubrics are there to provide norms, just as when a professional artist trains his protégé in drawing forms and filling in colour.

This finally brings us to the position of the celebrant, who takes on Persona Christi at the liturgical celebration. The presiding role of the celebrant is itself a symbol of Christ’s presence at the Last Supper. And the rubrics are there to guide the priest on embodying this presence in the celebration, since this presence is the “highest norm” (DD, Para 57).

What we get ultimately is a unique channel of grace directly from Heaven to the entire body of Christ, where the celebrant – priest or bishop – is not the mediator of Lord Jesus, but His instrument or sign instead. And, in particular, he is the sign of God’s fathomless love for us.

Main Image: Unsplash, Ashwin Vaswani

Eph 5: How Husbands can mirror Jesus at Home

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What is leadership? In much of Antiquity and indeed, the Roman Empire where Jesus and his disciples preached, it was not particularly enlightened. Often, it was through the use of tools of intimidation like threat of armed violence and asymmetrical power (those who have it using it on those who don’t). You were considered lucky if the leader of your tribe or kingdom was noble and ruled through respect and love rather than fear.

In Jewish eschatology, the Messiah is the future Jewish king from the Davidic line as foretold in the scrolls of Isaiah. The expectation of Christ or Anointed was that He would also be a great political and military leader who would rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem, overthrow their Roman rulers and establish the Kingdom by conquering the enemies of Israel.

Pexels- Evelyn Chong

“The first will be last and the last will be first.”

Matthew 20:16

However, when Jesus came, He preached an “upside down world” – a new humanity built on service and sacrifice rather than dominance. That’s not to say that Jesus was militarily weak or did not have the will to fight either. After all, He did say to Pontius Pilate: “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?” What Jesus demonstrated was complete obedience to God’s will.

Why Ephesians 5 matters: How husbands and wives argue/fight is the key to lasting relationships

Often couples show a fundamental disrespect for each other when mild complaints like “You didn’t do the dishes” escalate into a general criticism such as “You don’t do anything for the family.” In a very human interaction, a husband listening to this response can only come back with equally hurtful retorts in “self-defence” and before you know it, the disrespect is rampant, nobody hears the other, and the true grievances go unheard and unresolved while you are stoking the embers of vengeance in your hearts.

This is the “old humanity” that Jesus calls us to leave behind, the old humanity that was dependent on power, meanness and violence (physical or verbal).

How the Gospels portrayed Jesus is mirrored in St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her

Ephesians 5:25

Male figures in the family have a high calling. All men are called to be leaders in their homes. It begins with St. Paul’s exhortation: “Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

Pexels – Josh Willink

The husband’s call to be Jesus at Home

In John 13:1–5, we see Jesus laying aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tying it around his waist, He then poured water into a basin and began washing the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. Even as He died on the cross, Jesus forgave the people who killed Him. In essence, the epitome of servant leadership.

In Ephesians, St. Paul has a conviction that how we usually behave and treat each other is superficial and he believes that true conversion comes from our new identity in Christ and it is from this well-spring of Christ-in-us that we as husbands must behave. In His time on earth, Jesus often used Jewish marriage customs as a beautiful allegory of God’s relationship with the church and this is how husbands must be to their wives.

Though it is never tacitly discussed, the Sacrament of Marriage, a lasting commitment between a man and a woman to a lifelong partnership, is on the level of the priesthood. In that sense, in the persona of Christ, husbands are to be of service to their wives and all the sacrifices that come with it (think Jesus turning His cheek – Matthew 5). This, however, should not to be mistaken for passivity but rather the acknowledgement that God will handle it.

In Scripture, we find many examples of what Jesus would do when someone wrongs Him. In John 18, Jesus is struck in the face by an official of the high priest. His response was to question why he was struck in the face. He asked the official to tell him what he said that was an untruth. 

John 19:3 shows that Jesus was struck in the face again when he was sentenced to be crucified. Looking far back into the Old Testament, we see David sparing Saul’s life again and again because 1 Samuel 26:9-11 tells us that David left the punishment of Saul to the Lord. Whether it is Jesus or David, the protagonists or antagonists in their lives are there by Divine Providence and thus, obedience to God (even unto death on the cross) and trusting God’s sovereignty over all aspects of your life, is the quintessence of Christianity.

“If you fight with your wife and win, what have you really won?”

Donnie Yen to the author during an interview

It is in biblical marriage that your old selfish self dies on the cross and husbands become mirrors of our Lord and Saviour. And what did Jesus say about the cross? “let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:26)

A Confession: My return journey home

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Christ’s love and healing powers in the Confessional turned my life around

I would have gone to Hell had I died in 2004. For over two decades, I had lived a life that was not consonant with my Catholic faith. I had ticked a few boxes that earned me a ticket there. The one that was like a millstone around my neck: adultery with a married woman from another country.

Travelling on this road to perdition, the U-turn came when she, a non-Catholic, was visiting me and bought a Rosary from the Carlo Catholic bookstore next to Saints Peter and Paul’s Church at Waterloo Street.

She asked if I could get it blessed for her. It was a weekday and I replied there should be a priest in church whom we could approach to do so. In the car park, I saw that the church door was opened and the logical first place to look for him.

My instinct was spot on.

As we walked through the door Father was indeed there. He was at the pulpit delivering the homily for the evening Mass. In referring to one of the readings that day the first words I heard him say were, “Come back to me!”

It stopped me dead in my tracks and the hairs on my back stood up. I whispered to my friend that I had to stay for Mass and took a seat in one of the pews. When Mass was over, I immediately approached Father that I urgently needed to go for Confession.

As I poured my heart out in the Confessional of what had become of me and my faith, Father listened patiently. I had expected a harsh admonishment. Instead, he gave me absolution and forgave all my sins. I can’t remember what he said after that, but it went along the lines of, “Go and sin no more and give yourself entirely to God”.

I was crying throughout my Confession, especially when Father, through the mercy of God, granted me absolution. In between sobs, I could only mutter that I would. When I got out of church, I informed her what we were doing had to stop. She agreed readily after witnessing what went on with me at and after Mass (She later reconciled with her husband and both attended RCIA and were baptised Catholic).

My parents brought my brothers and me up as good Catholics and they were hurt when they saw the life I was leading. They’d probably known about the sinful shenanigans that had enslaved their son. But they never gave up on me and it was their prayers to God that moved me to mend fences with Him through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

That moment began my journey of reclaiming and studying diligently my Catholic faith. It is almost 20 years since that wonderful day and this journey will continue until I die. This is why I am still a work in progress.

In looking back recently on my career as a journalist, writer and editor, I realise that God had been training and forming me to use my skills for Him. What I have is never mine, but His.

But in returning home to the Catholic Church, I had gone through many twists and turns. The pivotal moment came in 2015 when I decided to leave my fulltime job as a Senior Correspondent with MediaCorp’s Today newspaper that paid very well.

With bills to pay and aged parents to look after, I arrived at a point where I was not sure where my next paycheck was going to come from. That day, after driving through the gates of MediaCorp at Caldecott Hill for the last time I headed to the Adoration Room at Catholic Spiritual Centre in Punggol.

In prayer, I told Jesus that I am giving Him through His Mother my new career, which I had no clue what it was going to be. And I said to the Mother of God, “You are the Boss of my life, and more than ever before my career!”. I have since never had to go out looking for projects to earn my keep. Instead, I had people calling to commission me for projects. Up till today!

God, in turn, has filled up the rest of my life with His work, in parish ministry and now with The Asian Fishermen. I have no illusions the Devil is all hunky-dory with what has been happening in my life. He is going to come back with a vengeance to thwart my work for God.

But with the Almighty on my side and the Immaculate Conception, radiating God’s power, keeping a close watch over me, I am not afraid of the Devil’s shenanigans.

I have faith in this divine protection because of Christ’s promise to those who accept His commission to evangelise and get everyone to Heaven, “Fear not, I am with you always till the end of time!” (Isaiah 41:10, Matthew 28:20)

GOD FORGIVES ALL SINS IN THE SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION (CONFESSION)

I am not the first wayward Catholic who found his way to the Confessional and cried like a baby while pouring out my grave misdeeds, which are mortal sins that kill the soul. Many are burdened with the same type of sins as mine. Some are even worse.

They need not suffer in silence because Christ is waiting for them to come home because all the sins of the world cannot prevent us from returning to Him, if we are truly repentant and seek His mercy and forgiveness.

After I stepped back inside the Church, I’ve met others who have travelled on the same road home.

Their experience of crying while confessing their sins and receiving absolution is the same. Also, the feeling that God had shattered the Devil’s heavy millstone hanging around our necks and instantly healed their wounded souls. This relief from the heavy burden of guilt is indescribable.

But there are also others I’ve known who were scared of stepping into the Confessional because they fear admitting their sins, especially of procuring an abortion or being a party to the killing of innocent life, a child, in the womb, and adultery.

There is no foundation for harbouring this fear. Christ tells us that all sins can be forgiven (1 John 1:7–9, Mark 3:28, Matt 12:31-32)

God is the ultimate healer, the Supreme Doctor who can cure all ailments, especially those that sicken a soul, which is beyond the ability of human doctors. It is no accident, therefore, that the Catholic Church is called the hospital for sinners because Christ has given Her the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession).

In the Church He founded, He empowered His apostles, their successors and the priests they ordained to administer this beautiful Sacrament of His mercy and forgiveness. They do this in His capacity (in Persona Christi or in the Person of Christ). This is why we are in the very presence of Christ in the Confessional and in receiving His love for us to wipe out all our sins, even the grave ones, we break down in tears.

So, if you are Catholic and being weighed down by the burden of sin, don’t suffer in silence. Ask any Catholic priest for the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession) and let Jesus heal you in the Confessional.

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