A spiritually enlightening sunday afternoon...~*

Went to church today at 9am, had our group discussion (Breaking of Word aka BOW, which is pondering of the homily during church). A homily is a commentary that follows a reading of scripture from the Bible.

In the Catholic Churches, the Anglican Communion, and in the Eastern Orthodox Church, a homily is usually given during Mass (or Divine Liturgy for Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches) at the end of the Liturgy of the Word, which typically consists of three readings: a reading from the Old Testament, a non-Gospel reading from the New Testament, and a reading from the Gospels.

Bernard, our facilitator, just came back from Philippines!!! YiPeEee!~~* We got so much to catch up on, and will definitely have a good chat next thursday and friday's Feast day!

Anyway, after BOW, Aunt Christine, Shireen, Victoria and i went over to an Indian store in Sembawang for lunch...and we had a long and fruitful chat about our faith.. That session was totally amazing....Victoria, our RCIA facilitator, told us, "When 2 or more people gathers and talks about God, He will be around to guide us.." ;) That is so amazing... i believe He really did. =)

2 memorable stories i'm gonna share today during our session...


A sharing by Shireen, she told us there's this Father in St Joseph church at Bukit Timah. He's Fr. Edmund Chong. During one of his mass or his Catechism sessions, he mentioned during one of his reconciliation services, 2 men came for confession. Later on, he discovers that these 2 men are Charismatic church pastors. He asked them, "Why do you come for confession, since charismatic church never believes in confession?" Then, it was revealed that, these 2 pastors had done exorcism. And during the exorcism process, one of the pastors actually heard the devil rebuking to him, "In what position are you in, to drive me away? Have you not sinned yourself, You poor sinner..."

And she goes on to tell us, that there's certain books documented in the Vatican about exorcism, written into a book..which Shireen read it somewhere...think the book is called "Devil's Advocate"(not the movie!) or something along that line (i'm still trying very hard to get my hands on that book!!), which talks about 5 most famous and important exorcisms in history...There was one which talks about several priests needed to defeat a very strong demon...at the end, only 1 priest survived. And she goes on to say..."There's always a balance between the spiritual realm. The good and the evil, the light and the dark, and the most powerful disguise that demons has, is to proclaim that THEY do not exist. And that's when the Good cease to exist"....

When the strong demon started to question the priests during the exorcism, these evil beings will always know their attackers weakest link. One of the priests, before his priesthood, had sexual relationship with his ex-girlfriend, and subsequently, they broke up. The priest, after the exorcism, fell ill and within a few months, passes away. He didn't manage to resolve his personal guilt (Priest also need to do their own confession! The Pope confesses every week!), that's why he fell...that's why spiritual strength is very important, where confession and reconciliation with God is an essential part of it.

Victoria is a nurse for over 17 years, a mother of 2 pri sch kids, and she has seen much in her life in hospitals. Not a single hospital is spared from spirits lingering, as there are bound to be deaths in hospitals. Almost the entire staff in her hospital will have religions, mainly either Muslims or Christians (Catholics included), therefore they all experienced similar spiritual stuffs. So, whenever she felt uneasy or that there are spirits lingering and playing afool, she will say "In the name of Jesus Christ, Get Out of here!!" And the uneasiness will be gone. Only in God's name, we are able to drive evil away. She's really someone who is not afraid of spirits, as she is strong in her faith and she really goes for her confessions faithfully whenever she needs it! i must really learn from her...

Will blog about the importance of confession, reconciliation and healing in my next blog!! Too much to say now..

The next story comes from Victoria! I really love her...as she really enlightens me alot and strengths me in my faith towards God. True story!!!

There was a friend of hers, with a son born with ear defects. Since birth, the baby boy has been in and out of hospital for his ear infection. He was born with a disconnected ear canal, which lead to frequent ear infections. He has to get ear pus out from his ears regularly, or suffer from sever ear pains and infections. This went on for 2-3 years..until one night, the child was crying out loud in pain! Apparently, the pain was so excruciating, that he needs to be admited to hospital.

That night, the doctor had to remove alot of ear pus and inject the little boy with a strong dosage of pain killer. He then advised the parents to bring the child home, and come back the following morning as he can only get the ear specialist the next day.

The child's parents did not bring the crying child back home. Instead, they brought him to the Novena church, late in the night. There, at the foot of our Mother Mary where the gates to her status are closed, the crying child was thrown there. The weeping parents kneeled down and prayed all night... They surrendered their child to Our Lady, for her intercession to Jesus to save their child... (Novena church is a place where over 25,000 people pray weekly for miracles to happen, after 9 weeks of intercession prayers through Mary to Jesus..)

The next morning, when the child was brought to the doctor for diagnosis, he was puzzled and astonished! There was no more infection, the disconnected ear canal has miraclously connected!!! Such miracles are what science is unable to explain.. Amazing Grace from our Lady and our God! True life story!! Now the child is primary 6 and living well! =D

Of course, there are alot more amazing stories which i cannot type out all...all for you to experience and understand through the amazing grace of God.

Peace to All and Praise the Lord.

Amen.

My Evolution...~

Ok..as requested by Pin...to update my blog..hahaHaa~~*

Actually got too much in mind to consolidate..Everyday after school, when i get back home and prepared to write something online, i fell asleep...The kids (I always call them ladies and gentlemen in class! but at the back of my mind, they are really kids!! ) really deplete my energy levels...

Note: If i write without a proper struture, without a clear flow of thoughts, please pardon me. Because its 1.30am in the morning!!

Life's like Evolution

Recently, i caught up with one of my best guy friends back in sec sch days (he's Daniel). We had a catch up in westspring sec sch (he's the music teacher there as well), and got to know more about the schools current system...kids nowadays etc..

Generally, kids are kids..they are all the same, the past, present and even future. Just that we're in different generations, different ways to capture their attention. Last time there wasn't PSP, Laptops, computers, projectors to play around with.... Now, we have to fight against the appeal of technology (that means, fighting to get their focus onto us teachers!) and sometimes, join in the current wave (Daniel uses Youtube for teaching purposes!!)!

The things that never change, is how....bad students will always be noisy, naughty, loud, stubborn... but some of them will grow up to become street-smart people, and if their time of "Awakening" comes faster, they will do well in life. Why? Because their life didn't come easy. I realised alot of students in Normal Academic classes, Normal Technicals, come from broken families. Single parents, on the verge of divorce, gangsters as parents, uneducated parents who do not know how to teach their children for the past 13-16 years... all types. Things aren't present to them in a silver plate. They are not spoon-fed like most of the Singaporeans of today. That is why, i kinda enjoyed teaching them. Maybe because they reminded me of alot of my friends back in sec school, especially Anthony. hahaAHa~~*

My Life used to be like, a sunflower. Alot of sunshine, fun, laughter, outspokeness, loudness....everything looks bright and shinny on the surface.

As i enter into working society, things change. We are exposed to alot more different kinds of people, with different problems, all different on the surface, but deep down, we are all the same... alot of us, lacking the "nutrients" in life....

Worst of all, some people may not realise what they do not have (or require desperately), and instead, seek materials, luxuries to fulfill that emptiness in them, that "lacking of nourishments" in them...

"Before we know God, we must know ourselves" This is a statement made by Father Bruno during a sermon in church.... Before we are able to truly love ourselves, we should look inside of us to see what we are lacking, what we hate, or are angry at ourselves and heal it.

Then, we will start to be able to love ourselves, and in turn, be able to truly understand God's Love for us, and embrace God into our lives so dearly that we will never forsake him. =)

While doing the Easter flower arrangements, i was assigned to remove the petals of the newly arrived roses. I think it is destined for me to get this task. :)

Like white roses...we grew up..unpolished (Alot of people dunno white roses looks like this in the first place!!! We humans disguish ourselves well too!), and some, gets rotten on the outside (i have seen some really looks rotten and looks like it needs to be thrown into the rubbish chute instead..). Some faced with bad situations, mixed with bad companies,...all in all, perhaps a rough life like these "cabbage" looking roses..

When we take time to remove all the rotten, whithered parts, torn and tattered petals, and look deep down inside of it...It is actually, a pure, white, beautiful heart. Some looked beyond rotteness, and if you really take time to remove the spoilt parts, they are really beautiful...

I'll depict my Life now, as evolution into a pure white rose..

I'm not too rotten on the outside, but just growing on the inside (hopefully i am, with God's graces). Praying that i'll evolve into a beautiful pure white rose as well..

I'm starting to enjoy to stay at the back scene now, observing lives of different people changing, praying for various friends, and students for their evolution to come (my student's time of "awakening" takes time, but i'll pray for them), and especially some special ones out there, still lacking the nutrients they do not know and seeking toxins to poison themselves further (pray for them)...

Pray for all, to evolve into a beautiful pure white rose.

God's will be done.

Amen. (It means, "So be it", or "Let it be". It is of Hebrew origin, for God's will to be done, instead of having our wishes, because God always knows what's best for us.)