Reflections on Ps 56 (Bro Cornelius Ching)

It is about a week and half into Lent. It is this time of the year when we take stock of our lives and prepare ourselves to celebrate the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Ps 56 asks us to take refuge in the saving hands of the Lord, the one who has always been our help. Maybe we do not really need the Lord to save us as if our lives depended on it, unlike the Israelites in the time of Moses. Generally, our lives are pretty stable and though there are ups and down, there is nothing much life threatening. But as I reflected deeper, I realize there is a deeper meaning.

We do need the Lord to save us. Lent is a period of purification and preparation. There will definitely be things and areas in our lives where we need the Lord to "save" us, be it from our habit of gossiping, laziness, ego and pride, or it could be that we do not devote enough time to prayer. It is in these aread that we need the saving arm of God to give us the strength to grow in holiness.

Let us then own these areas and admit that they are part of us. Next, we need to want to improve these areas. Then we must our faith in the Lord knowing that he will give us the strength to overcome these areas. Ina doing all these, we pray that by the time Lent is over and we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord, we can say from the deepest in our being,

"My heart is ready, O God,
my heart is ready.
I will sing, I will sing your praise."

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Stay tuned for the next post by Br. Martin Arlando on 01st Mar 2010.

Reflections on Ps 35 (Bro Terence Kesavan)

In the recent Superbowl, Budweiser came up with and advertisement about a group of plane crash survivors stranded on a deserted island. One of them managed to salvage the plane's radio, and there seems to be a glimmer of hope that they can make send out a distress signal and be rescued from the island.



But another guy finds the plane's beverage cart, and it is filled with budweiser beer. And we see the group lose interest in the radio, and start to drink, party and have fun. The beer company probably wanted to emphasize on how beer brings fun and enjoying in the now moment. But I don't think they realise that it also sends a message that beer drinking distracts people from the important things in life. Here being to be rescued off the island.

Similarly in life we can sometimes get distracted by the needs and pleasure of the present moment, and forget about the important thing in life - God and his promise of salvation. The psalms today remind us that sin and distractions cloud our lives that we lose sight or forget about God. The psalmist reminds us of all that God has and is doing for us and all mankind. Let us pray this morning, that our lenten practices of fasting, prayer and almsgiving will help us be in control of our earthly desires, and tune our "radios" to the salvation that God has graced us with.

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Stay tuned for the next post by Bro Cornelius Ching on 27th Feb 2010.

Reflection on 2 Cor 12: 9-10 (Bro Jude David)

We are all familiar with replacements. There must have been time in our lives when we have looked for replacements in vain because we are unable to fulfil a task or responsibility and there must have been times that we have also been asked by others to be replacements for them. If the replacement was for something enjoyable or interesting, for example, if it was to attend a privileged party or something we would consider a blessing, we would be delighted but on the other hand, if we were asked to replace someone for a task that would cause inconvenience or suffering, we would have many reservations about taking up the request.

If you needed to find a replacement, think of who would be the first people you would ask to replace you? They would be our friends. This would most clearly be seen in the office when we would rather approach a friend to help us cover a task than to ask a mere acquaintance. Replacement often goes hand in hand with friendship.

Every Friday, we remember the greatest replacement ever. God himself decides to become our replacement without even our asking; totally out of his gratuity, when Jesus Christ took our place upon the cross of Calvary and replaced us. We can imagine God saying to each of us, “Friend, I know you are too weak to pay the price of your sins so I will replace you!” The cross is about friendship because it is God’s hand of friendship stretching out to every human person as he replaces him or her upon the cross.

It is within this context that we can understand the sentiment of St Paul in 2 Cor 12: 9-10, “I am most happy, then, to be proud of my weaknesses, in order to feel the protection of Christ’s power over me.” For is being replaced by the only Son of God, I have come to experience so great a friendship. Let us always celebrate this greatest friendship in our lives!

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Stay tuned for the next post by Bro Terence Kesavan on 25th Feb 2010.

Reflectionson Lent: A time of Grace (Bro Peter Anthoney)

It is the time of the year again – Lent. Lent simply means another chance for us to find ourselves, to place ourselves in a right relationship with God our Father. Especially, if we due to our hurts and pain have taken a different path, away from the journey planned by the Father for us.

I remember getting lost on my way to a new destination. By my own effort and intellect I thought I could find the place easily but I was wrong, not only did I not reach my destination but I was quite lost in the street that was crowded with crossroads, junctions, split road, etc. It was then I realized that I needed help. When I finally let go of all that was holding me back and called for help I found my way quite easily and fast. I also realized it was also some effort from my part with the direction given; I still had a choice and freedom but having learnt my lesson and the spirit of humility that had crept into me I was feeling that now I had new strength and energy. It was also at this point too I realized that how much I have strayed away from God trying to prove myself worthy from my own might. At times we are like that, thinking that we know everything and tend to walk in our own ways.

As such we experience Lent as a moment of time, a moment when we turn back to God and slow down to recollect, reflect, and ponder while putting our life in order. We may have gone astray, went away from the Lord our God who is ‘Abba Father’. Now is the time for us to come back to the Lord and let go of our ego, and let God the Father to take control of us, direct us to the destiny where we suppose to arrive at. Let us listen with open and humble hearts to his life-giving words, to empower us to live our lives to the fullest. Let go and let God.

Reflecting this experience I see the season of Lent as a season for each one of us to take an inward journey within ourselves, to look deeper into our lives – moving on to bring ourselves to the light of Christ for ‘in you is the source of life, by your light we see the light.’ Psalm 36:9. We need to spend time or waste time in finding ourselves in the light of Christ, only then we will be the ‘light of Christ’ to the world around us. Like the psalmist of psalm 62, seek out our Lord and glorify him in our changing for without Him in our life our life will be meaningless without purpose, ‘Like a dry, weary land without water.’

O God, you are my God, for you I long;
For you my soul is thirsting.
My body pines for you,
Like a dry, weary land without water.
So I gaze on you in the sanctuary
to see your strength and your glory.
(Psalm 62)

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Stay tuned for the next post by Bro Jude David on 23rd Feb 2010.

Reflections on Wound-er & Wound-ed (Bro Jovita Ho)

‘And when you stand in prayer, forgive whatever you have against anybody, so that your Father in heaven may forgive your failings too.'

Mark 11:25

Building a relationship is never easy, maintaining it is even harder, and yet losing it is perhaps the easiest. In all forms of relationships, the main prerequisite that must exist is trust and forgiveness. Trust comes from a generous heart and forgiveness comes with a bruised ego.

Why a bruised ego? Think about it; can we accept forgiveness? Because when we accept forgiveness, it is to accept the fact that we are dependent on the other party to seek forgiveness from our part. This is contrary to what most of us might perceive then; that we are wrong and thus entitled to forgive when approach. When we forgive, a little part of us dies as well, just as that part of the person seeking forgiveness dies as well.



Is this notion wrong? Think about it then. What might possibly prevent us from seeking forgiveness and reconciliation? Pride. What might cause the unjust man to turn his back to God? Pride. What causes a just back to turn away from God? Pride. We simply trust too much of ourselves rather than relying on the graces that God Himself is ever-ready to grant us.


It is not easy to forgive at times and even harder still to accept the fact that we are in need of forgiveness. During this season of Lent, let us pray for the grace to accept that pride exists within each of us, and yet to temper this pride with humility and docility, and to recognize that besides being the wound-er, we are also the wound-ed in need of forgiveness and healing.

“Lord Jesus, help us to recognize our limitations and give us the grace not to limit you with our limitations, but instead grant us the grace to fall freely and out of control into your Father’s Divine Love, and help us to heal others and let others heal us too. Give us the Spirit of humility and docility for indeed, ‘the truth will set us free!’ Amen.”


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Stay tuned for the next post by Bro Peter Anthoney on 21st Feb 2010.

Reflections on Valentine's Day (Bro Gregory Chan)

I was one of the few seminarians who stayed in Singapore over the Lunar New Year holidays. Sunday was the 1st day of the New Year, & also Valentine's Day. I witnessed something extraordinary. I had just gotten on the travellator in Plaza Singapura when I noticed a young couple in front of me. The young lady held a bouquet of flowers in her hand & some presents. They were talking intimately when suddenly, while still on travellator, the young man got on his knees & said, "I love you. Will you marry me?" As he said this, the young lady burst into tears. She reached down & drew him to her.

I initially tried to get off the travellator to give them their personal space. However, there were people behind me & this small group of people burst into applause & cheers. I quite happily joined them. This led to my reflection. Very often I receive a lot of wishes over on Facebook. However, Valentine's Day is not just about wishes. It is about saying the 3 most precious words to the persons who are most important in our life. Very often, small talk and conversation tends to crowd out the three most essential words. The same thing in my prayer life too. I have so many things to pray for, so many petitions to offer up, so many worries to unload, that I sometimes forget to say these three most important words to our Lord.

The prophet Ezekiel tells us "I shall give you a new heart, and put a new spirit in you; I shall remove the heart of stone from your bodies and give you a heart of flesh." (Ez 36: 26) It is with this heart of flesh that we are able to say, "I love you" unreservedly. It is with these three life-affirming words that others find life so worth the living. For me, I must learn to say these words not just to my Lord, but also to others, to affirm them & to tell them how important they are to me, and most importantly that I love them, just as Christ loves them, in openness, in life-affirming & selfless love."

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Stay tuned for the next post by Bro Jovita Ho on 19th Feb 2010.

Together let us walk with Christ : Reflections based on Ps 142 (Bro Edward Seah)

I love walking. In fact I can spend the whole day walking. Most of the time I enjoy walking either because of the good purpose of the walk like when it is related to the ministry or for relaxation which is often intersperse with some contemplations. Once as a young brother, I was asked to take an oversea visitor for sight-seeing and we walked from Botanic Gardens to Marina Centre and the Esplanade. Little did I realise that while I enjoyed the long walk, my guest did not mainly because it was too long a walk besides our climate was just too humid for him. Yes, I could be more sensitive to his needs but then I was over enthusiastic about showing him my country.


Psalm 142 talks about the need to ask the Lord to ‘make me know the way I should walk’. Why do we need to ask for this intention? It is in order that we do God’s will in our walk of life. This Psalms suggests that we need to ask the good Holy Spirit to guide us to walk in ‘ways that are level and smooth’. When we walk under the guidance of the Holy Spirit we avoid walking in the flesh. For St Paul exhorts us in his letter to the Galatians when he wrote: ‘I tell you, be guided by the Spirit, and you will no longer yield to self-indulgence.’ [5:16]


As we enter the season of Lent, our Church invites us, through the Singapore Pastoral Institute, to walk with Christ. It reminds us that our life is like a pilgrimage: a journey we embark in a never ending circle of discovering who we are and where we are in view of God and our purpose of existence in his loving plan for us. The good news about being Church is that we do not walk alone for our faith-community connects with us in seeking the mutual renewal of our Christian living. Let us pray and support one another in this faith journey.

Yes, may we walk in the ways of Christ and with the help of God’s grace do our best to reflect His love in our relationship with one another. Live Jesus in our hearts!

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Stay tuned for the next post by Bro Gregory Chan on 17th Feb 2010.

Reflections on Ps 116 (Bro Benedict Chng)

As I reflect on Psalm 116, I know that God is here. I know this because He looked upon me with love and responded to my cry for help.

There is a time during my teenage years when I didn’t care!
I was not aware of any particular need for Him.
But then I hit bottom. Death itself reached out to embrace me.
There was no one else to turn to.
I cried out to God in my desperation.
I could almost feel His invisible hand encircle me and draw me to Himself.

Now I am convinced. God is here and I shall trust Him forever.
I will no longer wait for pain or suffering to drive me to Him.
I will walk in His course for my life.
I am committed to His purposes, and I intend to carry out that commitment.

I can never repay God for His ever-present love.
I can only dedicate my life to praising Him and to serving Him whenever I may be.
I am His servant and His son; I shall love Him forever.
I shall proclaim to all the nations “O praise the Lord for His love and goodness”.

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Stay tuned for the next post by Bro Edward Seah on 15th Feb 2010.

The Exodus of Life, it’s Truth and Relationship (Bro Alphonsus Dominic)

The past few weeks, I have been informed of the death of relatives of people that I am close to. Paying my last respect at their wake and at the funeral and on hearing the eulogies presented by their loved ones, got me to reflect deeper about the gift of life and the inevitable reality of death.

Although, the deceased were from various economical, social and intellectual backgrounds, they all shared a common factor. In the exodus of life, that common, crucial and fundamental factor that affected all the loved ones of the deceased is not wealth or status but relationships. It is the separation of an intimate relationship of love between a husband and wife, between parents and children and between siblings that causes that pain. Ultimately, it the all about the bond of relation that maters the most when it comes to losing a loved one.

As a matter of fact, the truth is that although, we humans are living in a materialistic world, we all need love and relationships more than anything for that is what is remembered and planted deep in our hearts. We might not realise or be aware of this but when crises arise, the awareness of this fact will stare blank at our face on how we have related with the people placed in our life.

In relation to our faith, Jesus said, “…I came into the world for this: to bear witness to the truth; and all who are on the side of truth listen to my voice.” - Jn 18:37. One of the aspects of what that truth represents is the relationship that Jesus has with His Father and as such that relationship leads to His salvific relationship with all humanity. This relationship is of such immense love that Jesus encourages us to follow Him as He says, “I give you a new commandment: love one another; just as I have loved you, you also must love one another”. – Jn 13:34.

Likewise, for ourselves as Christians, we are challenged to bear witness to the truth in our relationship with the Lord which leads to our relationship with others. Hence, when our time comes to leave this world and meet our creator face to face, we can be certain that we have listened to Jesus’ voice and lived our life fruitfully in a bonding relationship of love emitting the gifts and fruits of the Spirit from our being for the lives of our fellow brothers and sisters in giving glory to God.

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Stay tuned for the next post by Bro Benedict Chng on 13th Feb 2010.

Reflections on Ps 46 (Bro Samuel Lim)

There was a little boy who was trying to carry a huge sack of rice. He tried, but the heavy sack didn’t move at all. His father saw this, and asked him, “Son, are you using all your strength?” The boy said, “Yes, I am.” The dad replied, “No, you’re not. You haven’t asked me to help you.”

We call God our Father Almighty. Being Christians, we know beyond any doubt that he is Almighty, he is All-Powerful. And yet we always try to challenge him, as if wanting to prove to him that we’re stronger or more capable than him. Somehow we always prefer to take control of everything, to take things into our own hands, to depend only on our human strength, instead of allowing God to take over. Only when we’re out of resources then maybe we turn to God in desperation.

Ps 46 reminds us:
God is for us a refuge and strength,
a helper close at hand, in time of distress.
The Lord of hosts is with us,
The God of Jacob is our stronghold.

Let us be assured that God the Emmanuel is always with us; he is a helper close at hand. Let us, then, surrender our whole self to him as the Master of our plans; and not treat him merely as a backup plan.

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Stay tuned for the next post by Bro Alphonsus Dominic on 11th Feb 2010.

Holy Desire for God & Spiritual Growth- Reflections on Ps 62 (Bro Joseph Zhang)

Most of the time, desire is the beginning and the driving force of the things and actions that we strive for or do. If we have no desire to learn, study would become something that we are dread of; if we have no desire to win a race, we would not put much effort in the preparation; if we have no desire for a delicious meal at a certain place, we would not go all the way there to taste it.

In the same way, if we have no desire for God, we would not strive towards Him. Therefore, our desire for the knowledge of God and for the intimacy with Him is the starting point of our spiritual journey towards him. In fact, each one of us has the desire for God within as we are created for Him.

However, many a time our desire for God is choked by the thorns of worries of the world, the lure of riches and all the other passions in life. In order to break away from these obstacles and grow towards God and with God, we need to do some twists of direction in life despite the painfulness like the sunflower.



In the budding stage, the faces of most sunflowers will turn towards the east at the sunrise. Over the course of the day, they follow the sun from east to west, while at night they return to an eastward orientation. The sunflowers turn with the sun because of their desire for energy.

Our deep desire for God like that of Ps 62 will give us the patience to wait upon Him, and will give us the strengths to strive towards Him. Like the sunflowers, let our desire for God keep us turning to Him in all the days of our life.

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Stay tuned for the next post by Bro Samuel Lim on 9th Feb 2010.

A Gift for God- Reflections on Tobit Chap 13 (Br David Arulanatham)

Among the many skills I have acquired in my years of formation to the priesthood is one in my pastoral work. Whilst practicing pastoral charity I have to discern whether in whatever I am doing or responding to , ‘Am I responding from the need of the other or is it a projection of my own need”

Today in the Canticle of Tobit, the second psalm in our morning prayer we see the people in thanksgiving in experiencing liberation glorify God in these lines:

Many nations will come from afar
To the name of the Lord God,
bearing gifts in their hands,
gifts for the King of heaven.

The question that surfaced in my mind is what sort of gift or gifts God expects of us. As I reflected I recall the sacrifices of the old, in the Old Testament, specifically the animal offering that was supposed to be unblemished male simply meaning an animal that was healthy, strong and perfect.

I suppose today when we speak of gifts for the Lord our God then it has to be something that we should perceive to be his desire. His desire for us is to “be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt 5:48; Lev 19:2 – Be holy for I your God am Holy). As such our gift to give glory to God for all the goodness in us is a gift of our perfect self. A self-giving that is not one that distressed by the priests of Old Testament, the sacrifice of blind, crippled, lame and mutilated animals.

I suppose most of us are readily offering ourselves to God but how is our disposition, our true nature? Have we let go of our ego, and pride? Have we stopped being a ‘somebody’ to become a ‘nobody’, one who embraces docility and humility or are we striving to be powerful and mighty, all knowing or an intellectual glutton.

As much as God does not want us to be tired, worn out, exhausted, fatigued and over burdened God seeks us to be perfect and holy, whereby the people around us will see their God in us and will be inspired to enter into a relationship of intimacy with their God. Our gift will then be ‘a perfect instrument of God’ to bring others into that relationship of intimacy with God our Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.

Let our prayer then be,
“Lord may your kingdom be proclaimed in me as I dedicate myself as a gift to you by my way of living. Empower me to change from within me so that I could be your light for the world.”


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Stay tuned for the next post by Bro Joseph Zhang on 7th Feb 2010.

Reflections on Ps 139 (Br Aloysius Tan)

Not too long ago, I visited a friend at home. She had an adorable little dog. As I played with the little furry pet, my friend’s mother told me a lot of stories about it.


Among the things she shared was the dog’s bout with a stomach infection and (believe it or not!) a bad tooth that needed extraction. I was amazed that they could figure out which part of the dog was acting up when it could not talk. The mother smiled wisely and said that because the family members were close to the dog, they would notice if it didn’t act normally.

As she shared this doggie experience with me, two words rang out clearly in my head: CARE and RELATIONSHIP.

They care for their dog and they have established a close relationship with their four-legged member of the family. Because of this, they were alert to the needs of their pet based on their observations of its habits. Thus, they could tell when the dog was not well.

Today, our evening psalm, Psalm 139, reminds us that we have a God that CARES unconditionally about us and He also wants to have an intimate RELATIONSHIP with us.
He knows us through and through so He is able to lead us in our life journey.


He is able to challenge us with trials that we can bear.

He gives us tasks within our capacities and He will raise us up when we fall.

God is not a “master” who observes us in good condition or bad but rather He gets involved in our lives to enable us to experience His LOVE and CARE.

Today, as we pray this psalm, let us give thanks for this personal God who wants to CARE for us and get involved in our lives.

“O God, you search me and you know me!”

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Stay tuned for the next post by Bro David Arulanatham on 5rd Feb 2010.

Reflections on Ps 90 (Bro Martin Arlando)

An old lady and her granddaughter were sorting seeds preparatory to the spring planting. “Queer little promises, grandmother, aren’t they?” remarked the little girl as she examined the contents of a little packet in her hand. “Every seed is a promise, isn’t it?

“Yes,” replied the old lady. “Every seed is a promise, but as is the case with every promise, there are conditions that must be met before it can be fulfilled.










“God has given us promises of comfort for times of sorrow; of strength, for the hours of trial and temptation; of light, for the days of darkness. But we have to have the faith and fortitude to go ahead in those hard times.
“Until the little seed allows itself to be buried in the soil, and exposed to rain and wind and sunshine, its beautiful possibilities or promises will never be realized.”










The fulfillment of the covenant was the common ideal of the kings of Israel. However, this desire was realized only in Jesus, Who incarnated it. He alone is “the Holy One, Innocent, Immaculate”, but tested in all like us. (Heb 4:15) Thus, it is only Jesus Who can in truth proclaim this psalm. Nevertheless, today the Church puts these words in our lips: let us sing in union with Christ with the hope that, some day, this will be a reality in our lives.

As we begin a new day by praying this psalm, this assembly of Christians is invited to enter into the will of God – the right path, the way of perfection – so that our entire day may become a hymn of praise to Him. “I will sing to You, O Lord, with the actions of this day. My song is of mercy and justice.” Let us allow ourselves (the seed) to be soaked in God’s love and mercy. These should be our words this morning. Let us walk with blameless heart, always avoiding whatever is evil. “May our hymn be pleasing to Your ears, O Lord.”

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Stay tuned for the next post by Bro Aloysius Tan on 3rd Feb 2010.