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.