Pilgrimage to France

The District of Asia will be sending a group of over 100 pilgrims to France today, with Singapore having the largest delegation of more than 30 pilgrims. They will embark on a highly spiritual journey, visiting great Marian Shrines in France, which used to be the Eldest Daughter of the Church. They will join the rest of the 10 000 pilgrims from the Society of St Pius X and other affliated traditional Catholic religious orders all over the world next weekend in the magnificent and solemn Marian Pilgrimage to Lourdes, in honour of the Apparition of the Immaculate Mother to little Bernadette 150 years ago.

In your charity, please keep them in your prayers, and unite your prayers and petitions to the Blessed Virgin and the great Saints of the Church with those of the pilgrims.

St James the Greater, Patron of Pilgrims, pray for them!

Flying Padre

What an awesome short movie!

A Bowl of Noodles and 20 Cents

I received this story through the e-mail:

There was once a priest who was newly transferred to a parish in Perak. Some days after his arrival, finding the food brought to him a little too spicy for his palate, he went to the local coffee shop to have a nice meal of Chinese rice noodle soup. Of course, he wore street clothes, as do all the Catholic priests in Malaysia.

He sat down at one of the run down tables and began to read the morning paper. Soon enough, the hawker brought a steaming hot bowl of noodles to him. Not paying much attention, he paid for the noodles and the hawker put the change down on the table.

As he ate the first spoonful, he found the soup too watery and the noodles overcooked and soggy. He was disappointed with the dish, as after hearing the locals rave about it for the past few days, he had expected better. Well, to be honest, being from Penang where the food is glorious, he was bound to be disappointed no matter where he went. Anyway....

After finishing his meal, as he picked up his change, he realized that the man had returned him 20 cents extra. As he considered what to do, he thought to himself, "You'd better give the 20 cents back. It's not right to keep it." Then he thought, "Forget it, it's only 20 cents and anyway, the food was horrible and not at all what it was made out to be. Who's going to bother about 20 cents? And look, the man is so busy cooking. It might disturb him if I were to interrupt. Let me just take it as a gift from God and keep quiet."

So he made his way out of the shop. But as he passed the stall, he paused momentarily and then handed the 20 cents to the man and said, "Hey boss, you gave me 20 cents extra change".

The hawker smiled and replied, "You're the new parish priest right? I haven't been going to church for a number of years now because of a bad experience I had. I just gave you the extra change to see what you would do and whether you are also a hypocrite like the rest of them. I think I will be coming to see you soon."

The priest rushed back to the Church and fell to his knees before the Blessed Sacrament. "Sweet Jesus!", he said, in tears, "Judas betrayed you for 30 pieces of silver buy I almost sold you for 20 cents! My example might have caused a soul to be lost!"

Most non-Christians will probably never read the bible. But they will read us and all the other Christians they come across. Our lives and our actions will be only Scripture they will ever read and we are closest encounters they will have of the Lord Jesus.

What we say and more importantly, what we do will determine what others think of the Church, the Faith and Our Lord. Are we just hypocrites? Have we, through our words and actions, through our commissions and omissions, led others to have a bad impression of the Lord? Have we driven someone away from Jesus?I think we have all, at some point and some more than others, have been guilty of this. And for this sin, we need to beg the Lord's forgiveness and resolve to better represent the Lord who has made us, through our baptism, ambassadors of Christ. May we be Christ to others and let the Light of Christ shine through us.

Post Script: The priest, shaken by this experience, has taken to wearing his cassock and collar in public, both as a sign of his calling to others and, primarily, as a sign of his own calling and consecration to himself. His vesture reminds him daily, at all times, of his identity and his own vocation as a priest and as a Christian and reminds him that his actions as a minister of Christ and the Church are a sign to others as well. It reminds him that people, and God, are watching.

咩！

meh! meh! meh!

A friend of mine commented: "Why do you like to meh so much? Is it because God is your Shepherd, and you are His sheep?"

I have never thought of that!

As Catholics, we are the sheep and lambs in His fold. We ourselves are called to give all our heart, mind and soul - to offer our entire being - to our Lord God, Who sent His Only-Begotten Son, the Lamb of God, to be sacrificed for our sake on the Tree of the Cross.

Being the Second Sunday after Easter, or more commonly known as Good Shepherd Sunday, after the theme of the Epistle and Gospel of the Holy Mass celebrated today, Holy Mother Church reminds her children of the importance of true ecumenism - the calling of all men into the Catholic Church, in the flock of our Lord Jesus Christ, of Whom our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, is His current Vicar on earth.

The shepherd stave, or crosier, borne by the Good Shepherd in the image above, is similar to the ones carried by prelates of the Church. From the Catholic Encyclopedia, the learned Durandus and Barbosa tell us of the significance of these ecclesiastical ornaments conferred on bishops during their consecration:

(They) signify their authority to correct vices, stimulate piety, administer punishment, and thus rule and govern with a gentleness that is tempered with severity. (...) As the rod of Moses was the seal and emblem of his Divine commission as well as the instrument of the miracles he wrought, so is the episcopal staff the symbol of that doctrinal and disciplinary power of bishops in virtue of which they may sustain the weak and faltering, confirm the wavering in faith, and lead back the erring ones into the true fold. (...) The end is sharp and pointed wherewith to prick and goad the slothful, the middle is straight to signify righteous rule, while the head is bent or crooked in order to draw in and attract souls to the ways of God.

Throughout the history of Christianity, holy images or statues of Our Lord as the Good Shepherd can be found in many hallowed grounds, from dark catacombs to glorious Gothic cathedrals. It is indeed one of the most well-loved titles of our Blessed Lord.

God, Church and Soul