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.