Happy Holidays!!!

Thank you for visiting our webpage of reflections and your continued support and prayers for our seminary.

We re having our year end break and hence, we regret to inform you that the schedule of postings for the blog will only resume in Feb 2010.

Thank you once again and God Bless!

The BlogMaster

Reflections on the 1st Sunday of Advent (Bro Martin Arlando)

1st Sunday of Advent - Hope

All I want for Christmas is ….
Hope seems to be the center of our life more than often. We can say that to a certain extend it is a driving force in our daily lives. How? Well let me illustrate with a story :)
Many years ago there lived a very old man in North China. His house faced South and right in front of his door stood the two gigantic peaks of Taihung & Wangwu.



They blocked his way to the south. So he sat down with his sons made a solemn promise and then went out with his hoe. They made up their minds to hack away those two mountains.

A neighbor saw them set to work and shook his head, “How stupid can one get?” he screamed. “It’s absolutely impossible for you to carry away these mighty mountains.”

The old man smiled and said, “Well, when I die, my sons will carry on the work. When they die, my grandsons will continue it. Yes, the mountains are high but they won’t get any higher. But our strength can still grow. With every bit of earth that we carry away we come closer to our goal. It is better to do something, than just sit around and complain that those mountains keep out the sunlight.”

And with complete conviction the old man kept on digging.

Will this determination and hope disappoint us especially that now we are embarking into the season of Advent, a season of hope? At its core, it’s faith that Jesus will come again to bring us to into his kingdom. Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen. We put our faith and our hope in Jesus because we believe that he is faithful and loving. We believe that he will never abandon us. And so together with the psalmist of psalm 62 and 149 and the canticle of Daniel, let us praise God, the one we hope to meet soon. Sustained by God’s love, we can move mountains.

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Reflections on Ps 122 (Bro Peter Anthoney)

One day a man approaches a priest and asks how he could become a wise man? The priest gave a short description what entails to be wise and he continued, “Look and observe the wise bees and do as they do”.

They dwell in unity, in the swarm of its fellow bees and go forth, not in the stormy whether but in the calm and still weather, in the sunshine, towards all those bright colourful flowers in which sweetness is found. It does not rest on any flower, neither on any beauty nor on any sweetness; but it draws from them honey and wax, that is to say sweetness and life-giving matter and brings both to the unity of the hive, where they together work to produce fruits which would bear great gains and joy for the whole swarm.

So to become a wise man, a person with wisdom one has to be like the bees, to go forth with attention, reason and with discretion, towards all the sweetness which could be experienced according to the goodness that God has planned for each one of us and eventually return to be in the presence of God.

Likewise, the psalmist of psalm 122 recognises his communion with God and his community as he prays;

“I rejoiced when I heard them say “Let us go to God’s House”
Jerusalem the Holy city of God, where the tribes of the Lord go up.”

Like the bees he goes about doing his duty to enhance wisdom, courage and faith, gathers them back to be shared with his people, his community and together sets forth to praise and glorify God. We too are called to be like the psalmist and the bees, not to be alone and isolated but to be in a community, doing the will of the Father at all time

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Stay tuned for the next post by Bro Martin Arlando on 29th Nov 2009.

Reflections on the Invisible Christ (Bro Jovita Ho)

“Christ is the image of the unseen God and the first-born of all creation, for in him were created all things in heaven and on earth: everything visible and everything invisible.”

Colossians 1:15-16

When I was in Initiation Year, I had the opportunity to attend a series of sessions of Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, and during one of sessions, I was shown a short video, where a child of 5 or 6 years old was asked if he can explain what the Holy Trinity is all about. The child went to a drawing board complete with paint brushes and palates of colours and he started painting the whole picture green, and after doing so, he said “This is God the Father”, after that he painted over the green with yellow and then he said, “This is God the Son”, and lastly he took red paint and painted over the green and yellow, and after doing so, he said “This is God the Holy Spirit, and together they form the Holy Trinity.”



To us, if we can picture it, that painting was just a mix-mesh of colours and doesn’t tell us much, much less the Holy Trinity. However, for that child of 5 or 6 years old, he encountered the mystery of the Holy Trinity in a most personal and profound way.

Children seem capable of seeing the Invisible, almost as if it is more tangible and more real than immediate reality. Children are able to penetrate beyond the veil of signs and perceive their meanings as if no barrier existed at all between the visible and invisible. Whereas for us, if the thing is invisible, we grow suspicious about it and because it cannot be confirmed by sight and touch, we grow leery of it. Yet there are many things that are invisible; the air we breathe, the wind we feel and the electricity that runs through our lights and equipment.

We are thus invited to regain that wonder that we had lost. Jesus is visible, yet invisible in the Blessed Sacrament. For the unbelieving eyes, it is just a piece of bread, but for us Jesus is real in the Blessed Sacrament. Jesus remains invisible in the Eucharist so as to awaken the childlike wonder within us. His hidden mode is mercy for us. If we want to ‘see’ Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, then we need to regain our sense of wonder. For when we wonder, we are tuned into this Mystery that Jesus is drawing us into.



Let us cast our gaze onto Jesus and contemplate him with the eyes of our heart. Let us remain focus on him in the Blessed Sacrament and with filled with wonder, and Jesus will seem as if we have never seen before. Let us cast our gaze onto Jesus, for Jesus is present even when our hearts seems overwhelmed with other things. This gaze of love searches for Him and this search takes time, for as Scriptures says, “Be still and know that I am God”.

"When we are before the Blessed Sacrament, instead of looking about us, let us shut our eyes and open our hearts; and the good God will open his. We will go to him, and he will come to us, the one to give, and the other to receive. It will be like a breath passing from one to the other. What delight we find in forgetting ourselves that we may seek God!"

- St. John Vianney

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Stay tuned for the next post by Bro Peter Anthoney on 27th Nov 2009.

Reflections on Psalm 26 (Bro Gregory Chan)

In my younger days, when I still attended university, there were many public lectures. One of those lectures intrigued me. It was on “How to Write a Good Love Letter.” I still remember what the lecturer said: A good love letter had to be warm, sincere, humourous and vibrant. It used language which was vivid and imaginative. I remember one sample he read out: “Our love has the sweetness of freshly mown grass…”

I must confess I didn’t know at that time what freshly mown grass smelt like. Recently, I got acquainted with the lawn mower during Manual Labour. Now, I must admit that I’m not very good with the lawn mover and have only seen moderate success. However, I never fail to take the opportunity to smell what freshly mown grass is like. It has a fragrance, a freshness all of its own. Of course, it won’t be the same two days later.

My question is: does our love for the Lord have a freshness, a fragrance all of its own? Does it spring ever new? Or is it lost after a while, dried up and turning brown?

The Psalms this evening speak of a longing, a yearning for the Lord, to “savour” His “sweetness”, to “behold his holy temple”. (Psalm 26) Let our love for the Lord be ever new, fresh and fragrant always.

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Stay tuned for the next post by Bro Jovita Ho on 25th Nov 2009.

Reflections on Psalm 57 (Bro Edward Seah)

Before the year comes to an end, it seems quite many people are going through worries and stress before they hit the shopping malls to enjoy the pre-Christmas ‘lepak’ or festivities. For teenagers having their GCE ‘O’ and ‘A’ level exams, the great examination stress is almost coming to an end by now while the university and polytechnic students have just begun theirs.

Some of the university students have gone through almost a year of studies which were not of their preference and now hoping that their appeal for a change of course from next year will be successful. And lastly, the prolonged stress our twelve year olds as well as their parents are having as they now await anxiously for the release of the PSLE results to be followed by the choosing and then the posting of schools.

In times of great stress and sort of suffering what do we do? What do we do when the stress is over things which we cannot really change much now? People cope with stress and suffering in different ways. Some take up activities which only add more unnecessary sufferings to their lives. Some smoke, others drink, some eat or sleep more while others have sleepless nights.

In Psalms 57, we discover that the psalmist in his day of distress especially over his enemy, sought not on revenge or even self-pity but on refuge in the Lord. He recalled that his God was faithful and had always been his help. This God will save him even if his soul lies down among lions.

Perhaps in times of distress, we need to ask ourselves if our hearts are ready to trust our Lord Jesus while we do our best. Then instead of worrying we can spend some time praising our Lord and remembering his great love for us. God created us out of love and surely he did not create us merely to sit for examinations. Yes, take refuge in the Lord while we just do our very best.

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Stay tuned for the next post by Bro Gregory Chan on 23th Nov 2009.

Reflections on Ps 66 (Bro Benedict Chng)

Psalm 66 is a special Psalm for me because it is a call to celebrate the Discovery of God by the Israel as well as mine.

In Salvation history lesson, the bible describes Israel’s discovery of God. It began when the Red Sea stood still to let Israel exit from Egypt and climaxed when the Jordan River stood still to let Israel enter the Promised Land. What happened to Israel happens to us. Each and every one of us here has our God - Discovery moments, our God – Discovery experiences.

One of my God Discovery moments was in 1989 after graduation when I was trying to seek employment. For 11 months I was jobless, every week, I would eagerly send my resume to potential companies hoping for an interview. After going for several interview, I soon realized that companies were reluctant to hire fresh graduates because we were inexperience and also a high tendency to job hop after gaining some experience. The weeks slowly turn to months. The process of waiting was very truly restless, frustrating and demoralizing. More so when your contemporary have already gain entry into the job market. I felt rejected and trapped just like the Jews in Egypt.

Like the slaves, I too cried out to the Lord finally to break these chains and set me free. Our ever loving God indeed heard my cry and responded to my plead … in less than a month I had my interview and the rest is history.


Let us recall our God-Discovery moments and like the psalmist in the stanza “Let the people praise you O God. Let all the people praise you.”

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Stay tuned for the next post by Bro Edward Seah on 21th Nov 2009.