Catholic Asian News

March 2020

Reconnecting

with God

What Should I Do for Lent?

Come Back to Me

Giving Without Expectations

Seeking

God During Lent RM5.00

PP3727/11/2012 (030927) | MCI (P) 061/04/2019

Contents

March 2020 Communicating faith

EDITORIAL

Behold

The Favourable Time

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IN FOCUS

The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

The ‘Ups’ Of Lent

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Lent isn't just about Fast and Abstinence and Penance

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Reconnecting With God

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What Should I Do For Lent?

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Editorial Team Rev. Dr. Clarence Devadass: Editor in Chief Rita Vias Magdalene Ng Darlyn Goh Ann Savarimuthu James Lim Hilary Patric Narcis Dempsey Fernandez

COVER STORY 20

Come Back to Me

- John 1:29

COLUMN Giving Without Expectations

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Social Dimension: Penance More Than Lenten Practice

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App Review: Reimagining Examen

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Ask a Catholic a Question: Explaining Lenten Practice

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Youth Column: Love Conquers All

37 FRONT COVER

March 2020

with God

What Should I Do for Lent?

Come Back to Me

Giving Without Expectations

Seeking

God

During Lent RM5.00

PP3727/11/2012 (030927) | MCI (P) 061/04/2019

Cover photo: ©123rf.com

During these 40 days, let me put away all my pride. with God Let me change my heart Come Back and give up all that is not good within me. Let me love God with all that I am and all that I have.

Reconnecting What Should I Do for Lent? to Me

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Disclaimer

Travelogue: Back to Basics at a Children's Chapel

Reconnecting

Correspondence Address

The views expressed herein do not neccessarily represent those of the Editorial Team

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EDITORIAL

IN FOCUS

The Favourable Time

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Rev. Dr. Clarence Devadass Editor in Chief editorcanews@gmail.com

t’s Lent again! Well, it’s about time... after all the festivities and not to mention the feasting, some fasting will do good to the body. For all those who made resolutions at the beginning of the new year to go on a diet, now is your chance to lose those extra kilos. But then again, Lent must surely be more than just fasting to shed the extra weight. On Ash Wednesday, St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians speaks of ‘the favourable time’ and in the context of the season that we are in, it is indeed a favourable time to make some effort to change something in ourselves.

Every year we are reminded of prayer, fasting and almsgiving for Lent. For years we would have been faithful to these practices but yet we realise that there must be something more to Lent that takes effect on us. For 46 days we focus on the passion, death and culminate in celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. This is indeed ‘the favourable time’ to reflect deeper on the mysteries of our faith.

However, Lent should not just be about looking inward at ourselves only. There is a communal dimension that must be reflected on too. The whole idea of reconciliation that we are called to during Lent is not just with God but also with the people around us and surely with the cosmos too. The journey that we make in Lent is from death to life and from darkness to light. In the same way, the journey of reconciliation is both from self to God and also self to others. In fact, we cannot make good with God without first making good with our ‘neighbours’.

During His public ministry, Jesus repeatedly taught (cf. Mark 11:25 and Matthew 6:14-15), that forgiveness from God calls for recognition of our own sinfulness.

Genuine repentance opens our heart to the wrong we do others and the selfrighteousness with which we bind them.

THE ‘UPS’ OF

Lent

by Msgr. Richard Hilgartner

Lent requires discipline. And part of the “discipline of Lent” is sacrifice. But what is the point of it? Are we merely called to self-discipline as a means of self-improvement? Or is it only a matter of suffering through some difficult sacrifice?

Giving something up for Lent is only one part of a larger call to engage our faith more fully and more devoutly during the 40 days of Lent: that call is a call to prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

Or, to put it another way, to lift up, to give up, and to take up.

The core of Pope Francis’ message for Lent this year is about reconciliation: “This year the Lord grants us, once again, a favourable time to prepare to celebrate with renewed hearts the great mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus, the cornerstone of our personal and communal Christian life. We must continually return to this mystery in mind and heart, for it will continue to grow within us in the measure that we are open to its spiritual power and respond with freedom and generosity.” He proposes a reconciliation that is based on the mystery of the passion and death of Jesus.

The whole journey of Jesus from Gethsemane to Golgotha was for the purpose of reconciliation – to reconcile humanity with God by taking the sins of the world on His shoulders to the cross. The cross for us must also be a sign of that reconciliation which must inspire us to be reconciled with others.

For this to happen, “keep your eyes fixed on the outstretched arms of Christ crucified, let yourself be saved over and over again. And when you go to confess your sins, believe firmly in His mercy which frees you of your guilt. Contemplate His blood poured out with such great love, and let yourself be cleansed by it. In this way, you can be reborn ever anew.” (Pope Francis, Christus Vivit #123)

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When we participate in the Way of the Cross during Lent, let us then keep our eyes fixed on the outstretched arms of Jesus – that is how much He loves us and that is why He endured the pain of the cross so that man can be reconciled with God and we in turn, with one another.

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A Time of Sacrifice

The Significance of Lenten Practices

The Gospel reading proclaimed on Ash Wednesday (Mt 6:1-6, 1618), the start of Lent, lays out the threefold practice of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, but it does so with a clear admonition regarding what ought to motivate such practices: “Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them” (Mt 6:1).

In prayer, we lift up our hearts to the Lord. We express our praise and gratitude, we present our needs, and we open our hearts, surrendering to God’s will and power to save. This is particularly important in Lent, as we strive to set right our relationship with God. Prayer helps us do that by keeping open communication with God—we talk to God and we await and listen to God’s response.

As we present our needs, we recognise our dependence on God and grow in our trust in His promise to provide for what we really need.

On Ash Wednesday, when Catholics readily identify themselves in public with the sign of the cross marked in ashes on their foreheads, Jesus’ challenge is filled with irony. He challenges His listeners—and the faithful today embarking on their Lenten journey—to reflect not only on what they do, but also on why they do it.

If the only purpose of sacrifice—of giving up something—is to be able to say that one is in fact doing something for Lent, or if that sacrifice is merely about self-improvement, then we’ve missed the point. If it is only a matter of bragging rights, as if to say, “Look at this difficult sacrifice I am offering,” then one is guilty of the very hypocrisy that Jesus condemned.

This is why the tradition of our Lenten practice of sacrifice is really part of a three-pronged approach to this time of spiritual renewal and rebirth. It is only when all three are part of the formula that the real renewal and conversion intended in Lent can happen.

Jesus’ Own Sacrifice The Gospel of the first Sunday of Lent each year (Mt 4:1-11, Mk 1:12-15, or Lk 4:1-13) presents us with an intimate look at the heart and mind of Jesus. He is alone in the desert—we are told He fasts and is tempted by Satan. There are no eyewitnesses to these events; we take them as revealed to the Gospel writer, truly inspired by the Holy Spirit. Jesus teaches us about living a life of holiness, which includes sacrifice, and sacrifice means resisting temptations.

His fasting does not make Him weaker, but in His sacrifice He is strengthened all the more to resist Satan’s temptations. At the beginning of Lent, the faithful are encouraged by Jesus’ example of discipline and strengthened by our solidarity with Him during our own 40 days “in the desert.”

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Prayer keeps our sight focused on God, so that the more prayerful one’s life is, the more one is aware of God’s call, His plan, and His promise. A life rooted in prayer is a life lived in the context of God’s grace. In this regard, prayer sets the stage for what must follow it, so that our actions flow from and reflect what is experienced in prayer.

Prayer keeps our sight focused on God, so that the more prayerful one’s life is, the more one is aware of God’s call, His plan, and His promise.

In other words, our relationship with God is rooted in prayer, but expressed and manifested in actions. In Lent, this is made particularly clear in the various forms of Lenten discipline. The Letter of James expresses a similar sentiment: “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?” ( Jas 2:14). In the same way, prayer without works could amount to the hypocrisy that Jesus chastised in His preaching.

During Lent, there are many ways to take up the challenge of prayer. Many people commit to attending Mass more frequently (perhaps attending daily Mass), and parishes often have additional opportunities for prayer during Lent, such as prayer groups, the Liturgy of the Hours, and devotional practices such as the Stations of the Cross and eucharistic exposition and adoration.

Others commit to building in more significant time for personal prayer, reflection, or meditation, perhaps by reading Scripture, praying parts of the Liturgy of the Hours, or praying the rosary.

All of these provide opportunities to focus one’s attention on what the Lord is saying and where He is leading, as we are reminded in the Collect (Opening Prayer) on the first Sunday of Lent: “Grant, almighty God, through the yearly observances of holy Lent, that we may grow in understanding of the riches hidden in Christ and by worthy conduct pursue their effects.”

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What about Fasting?

Faith in Action

In fasting, we give up what we don’t really need in the first place. In the Christian tradition, fasting is seen as a means of preparation, of waiting, and of penance. Voluntary acts of selfdenial are a means of demonstrating devotion, but they also prepare us for what is to come. We fast for one hour before receiving holy Communion at Mass in order to prepare our hearts, to focus our attention, and literally to awaken our hunger for the Lord, the bread of life.

It is almsgiving—taking up—that makes the giving up work.

Almsgiving is understood as giving money or good, to aid the poor (see Catechism of the Catholic Church #2447, 2462), but in a broader context almsgiving can also be understood to include other kinds of charitable acts of service. We take up works of charity (almsgiving) in order to walk more clearly the path of service and love the Lord calls us to walk. In this regard, we remove the excess by giving up in order to engage more freely in what we are really called to do.

Church law dictates two particular days of fasting as a means of penance: Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. In addition, the custom of the Paschal fast as an extension of the Good Friday fast through Holy Saturday until the Easter Vigil is a means of preparation and anticipation of the celebration of the Lord’s resurrection at Easter.

A second form of fasting is known as abstinence, in which we deny ourselves some particular thing, as a way of practicing self-discipline. Church law asks the faithful to abstain from eating meat on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and the Fridays of Lent, and the custom of giving something up for Lent is a way for each individual to choose some particular form of abstinence as a means of self-discipline.

Some might choose to abstain from a particular delicacy or favourite food, while others might choose something less tangible, but just as helpful: giving up or cutting back on watching television, playing video games, or time spent on social media.

Sometimes it seems as if the most difficult part of Lenten discipline is fasting, and if the giving up isn’t replaced by something more fruitful, then it might be just a hardship for the sake of the hardship, or it might be replaced by something equally meaningless. For example, if I give up chocolate, only to replace it by eating ice cream, then there is no real benefit. Or, if I give up or cut back on watching television, but that is merely replaced by video games or time spent online, then to what end am I really giving something up?

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We take up works of charity (almsgiving) in order to walk more clearly the path of service and love the Lord calls us to walk.

Preface III of Lent expresses this relationship: “You will that our self-denial should give you thanks, humble our sinful pride, contribute to the feeding of the poor, and so help us imitate you in your kindness.”

Clearly, then, our sacrifices make room for being charitable. So perhaps someone might give up the daily stop at a local coffee bar and contribute what is saved to charity, or one could cut back on watching TV or social media in order to make time to be present to someone in need, to perform some charitable deed, or when that is not possible, to dedicate some time to study, reflection, or prayer, especially prayer for others’ needs.

The Virtuous Life The ultimate goal of the discipline of Lent is not only to do penance (see CCC #1434) but to do so as a means toward a life of virtue. “Whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Phil 4:8). Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving together orient and focus one’s attention toward virtue.

The cardinal virtues—prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance—are foundational for the virtuous life, and these things lead us beyond ourselves and the “things of this passing world” to the values and cares of the kingdom of heaven and “the things that eternally endure” (Preface of Lent II).

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The purpose of Lent is not merely to engage in these practices for the sake of themselves.

Lent is about fostering ongoing conversion and renewal of our life in Christ. It is a means of preparation for the celebration of Easter, and it is a means of preparing for the Paschal feast of heaven.

Preface I of Lent reminds us what it is all about: “. . . Your faithful await the sacred paschal feasts with the joy of minds made pure, so that, more eagerly intent on prayer and on the works of charity, and participating in the mysteries . . . they may be led to the fullness of grace . . . .”

The journey of Lent provides an opportunity to walk more closely with Jesus, who desires our presence, sometimes more than we desire His. In our lifting up, giving up, and taking up, may we be vigilant in our sacrifices and strong in resisting temptation, and so get all the more “caught up” in the love of God through His Son’s cross and resurrection.

LENT is like a long 'retreat' during which we can turn back into ourselves and listen to the voice of God, in order to defeat the temptation of the Evil One. It is a period of spiritual 'combat' which we must experience alongside Jesus, not with pride and presumption, but using the arms of faith, prayer, listening to the word of God and penance.

In this way we will be able to celebrate Easter in truth, ready to renew the promises of our baptism.

- Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI

Msgr. Richard Hilgartner is the Executive Director of the Secretariat of Divine Worship, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. (https://www.franciscanmedia.org/the-ups-of -lent/)

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Lent isn't just about

Fast Abstinence Penance and

These virtues align themselves with the disciplines of Lent: prudence and fortitude flow from prayer, justice is manifest in our almsgiving, and temperance is demonstrated in fasting. The threefold disciplines of Lent help to foster and strengthen these virtues in the lives of the faithful.

by Bishop Thomas Gumbleton

The Season of Lent isn’t all [about] fast and abstinence and penance. In fact, the most important part is what happens after the 40 days, at Easter, when Jesus is raised from the dead and then shares with us His new life. And then it goes on for seven weeks as we prepare for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. And so really, this season now is the season of Lent, Easter, and Pentecost.

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And so, I think it’s very important not just to think of it as this time of penance. That’s very important, but that’s only a means to an end. See, what’s really important, and what we’re preparing for, is a renewal of our baptism. Maybe some of you noticed when you came into church and dipped your hand in the baptismal font in the back, there’s no water there; it’s dry. See, we’re preparing now to bless new water at Easter, the new water that gives us the life of Christ.

And perhaps what gives us an idea of what we have to do to reform and change our lives so that we’re ready to make a new covenant with God through the renewal of our baptism at Easter, but we have to look at what Jesus did, and what happened to Him in the desert. St. Mark, in the Gospel today, merely mentions how the devil tempted Him during those six weeks.

But all of us, I’m sure, remember the account in Luke, and especially in Matthew, of the time in the desert — the temptations. Remember the first temptation? The devil tells Jesus, pointing to some stones, “Turn those stones into bread.

Now, if you are the son of God, you could have whatever you want. Change the stones to bread.” Remember what Jesus said? He said, “No one lives by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

And so, during this season of Lent, we are preparing for a renewal on the part of every one of us — a renewal of our covenant with God that was made for most of us at the time we were infants.

But now we have the opportunity to make it very much personal, real, for me, for myself, that I enter into this covenant with God through the renewal of my baptismal promises.

On Holy Saturday night, those who have been preparing for baptism catechumens receive that sacrament that night. And all of us then, at that time and on Easter Sunday, have the opportunity to renew our own baptismal promises, and what happens at baptism is something that is very important for us to be aware of. In the first letter, or the only letter Paul wrote to the Church of Rome, Paul tells them, “Don’t you know that in baptism, which unites us to Christ, we are all baptised and plunged into His death.” Plunged into His death — we have to undergo death with Jesus.

See, material things are important, of course. We need them; part of our human life. But we don’t live by bread alone. It’s not just our material things and material wealth that gives us life. No, it’s by every word that comes from the mouth of God — try to discover who God is, what God says, how God is revealed to us, especially in Jesus.

And so, during this time of Lent, we try to moderate by fasting and penance our use of material goods, our enjoyment of them to some extent, so that we become more deeply aware.

It’s not money, wealth, the things of the earth that are going to give us fullness of life, but it’s the word of God, and so we try to listen deeply to that word of God, especially in prayer.

And that’s one of the important things we do during Lent is to try to be more faithful to our daily prayer, and not in the sense that we’re asking God for this or that. Yes, we need many blessings, but more that we’re trying to listen to God during this time of Lent.

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Photo: © 123RF.com

“By this baptism in His death, we were buried with Christ, and as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of God, so we begin to live a new life. If we have been joined to Jesus by dying a death like His, so we shall be by a resurrection like His brought to new life.” See, and that’s what we’re preparing for during this season of Lent.

These six weeks are a time when we try to be united with Jesus, who, as we heard in the Gospel, was driven into the desert by the Holy Spirit to spend those six weeks in prayer, in quiet communion with God, in penance. Very austere life, of course, in the desert. And we try now for these six weeks to be deeply joined with Him.

During this time of Lent, we try to moderate by fasting and penance our use of material goods, our enjoyment of them to some extent, so that we become more deeply aware. It’s not money, wealth, the things of the earth that are going to give us fullness of life, but it’s the word of God...

And so, we refrain from some of the normal activities of Lent and we try to spend more time in prayer. But then Jesus was also tempted, you remember: “Throw yourself down from the pinnacle of the temple, because in the Book of Wisdom, it

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said God will raise you up, protect you.” What the devil was trying to get Jesus to do was to be sort of an exhibitionist, to try to be a wonder worker to draw people to follow Him by the marvelous things He would do.

Jesus is asking us during this time of Lent, to give more time to prayer, to be more sincere and authentic.

But that wasn’t the way of Jesus, and so He said “No,” to Satan.

He refused to become just a wonder worker. His work, His role in the world, and His role for each of us, is much more important than that. Not that we follow Him just because He’s a wonder worker, a miracle worker. We try to follow Him because we get to know who He really is, and what He’s asking of us.

Then, you remember the third temptation. The devil says, “If you’re really the Son of God, then I will give you all the kingdoms of the earth, make you powerful, strong, dominating everything.” And it’s at that point that Jesus simply says, “Begone, Satan! Leave!” Jesus would have nothing to do with that because, and this is a very hard thing we have to learn, Jesus came into the world to show us that we don’t change the world, we don’t transform the world into the reign of God, by power or might or violence, but only through love. Only through love can we transform the world.

And so, Jesus is asking us during this time of Lent, to give more time to prayer, to be more sincere and authentic. See, not just to be one who gets attention by doing extraordinary things. And finally, to try to follow, or model, our lives on His, where He gave up power and might and domination in order simply to love. Pour forth upon all of us, upon all of creation, the love of God, and it’s that that will transform the world.

And that’s the message that I think in the time in which we live it seems we need to hear more deeply than anything else, because there is so much violence in our world, so much use of power and domination, military might, thinking we can change the world somehow through the use of that kind of power. And Jesus shows us it’s only by love that we really change the world.

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In John’s Gospel, at one point, Jesus says, “I, when I am lifted up,” and He meant when I’m lifted up on the cross, “I will draw all to Myself,” and that’s what love can do.

That’s how love will transform each of us individually, our families, our communities, our world. We draw through love. And so, during this season of Lent, I hope we will understand that this is a time of preparation.

It’s a time of undergoing change through penance and almsgiving and prayer in order that we can really be renewed through the celebration of Easter and renew our baptismal covenant. Be plunged once more into that death of Jesus so that we will rise to new life, and then be inspired with the Holy Spirit to go out and transform our world into the reign of God, and the way of life that Jesus shows us.

But He was pierced for our transgressions: He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed.

- Isaiah 53:5

Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, a retired auxiliary bishop of the Detroit archdiocese, is a leading voice for peace, justice, and civil rights in the United States. He is also a founding member and past president of Pax Christi USA, the American Catholic peace movement and a founder and former president of Bread for the World.

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Reconnecting With

God

by Elizabeth Rozario

Another year has passed and swiftly we have entered 2020 and the Year of the Rat. I had hardly caught my breath from celebrating Christmas and Chinese New Year before being approached to serve in preparations for Holy Week, which then reminded me that Lent is the season to observe and commemorate the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, Son of God. The period of Lent parallels the forty days that Jesus spent in the wilderness after His baptism.

A

s a child, I was taught that Lent was a period of “sacrifice” so that we could then celebrate Easter with a clear conscience and great joy. I remember my father making his ‘sacrifice’ for forty days and his glee at the end of Lent, when he would celebrate the conclusion of said sacrifice. Likewise, I would feel the same glee on Easter Sunday after abstaining from meat or sweets for Lent.

Unfortunately, there have been many years when Lent for me has passed with no sacrifice or reflection, other than singing in the choir during Holy Week which was actually quite fun and no real sacrifice.

Since then I’ve grown to realise that Lent is for reflecting on what it means to be a follower of Christ or how to be a better follower of Christ. As a season, Lent calls us to ‘Come Back To Him’ particularly when we have taken Him for granted and assumed that we have fulfilled our Christian duty by going to mass regularly and given to charity.

What does Jesus want for us? He wants us to be the best version of ourselves which we can possibly be but how can we know what is the best possible version of ourselves?

Of course, being a rational human being I’ve often been arrogant enough to think that I know what the best possible version of myself ought to be – a good Christian, a good daughter, a good sister, a good boss, a good employee, a kind and generous friend and the list goes on.

How foolish this is, since it is my own definition of “good, kind, generous” which I am supposedly living up to, and not Jesus’ !! In other words, all this foolishness is only me telling Jesus what I think He wants for me!

I discovered that instead of me assuming that I knew what Jesus wanted for me, I had to make time to listen to Jesus.

For a few years now, I have been attending Christian meditation meetings and trying to meditate regularly, having found that meditation brought some peace and calm when I did it. I must admit that until November last year, I was irregular and intermittent in my practice of meditation even though I had been told that I really needed to meditate twice a day for 20 minutes each time.

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Last November, I attended a seven day silent retreat in Penang where I had to stop talking completely, and quieten down externally and internally. I didn’t think I would survive it but to my surprise at the end of the seven days of silence, I was happy to talk but at the same time I missed the quietness and calm which I had begun to feel inside of me. I finally realised that this was what listening to Jesus meant and no words were required. During this week with its daily rhythm of meditation, contemplative walks, eucharist and meals I discovered meditation as the “pearl of great price” which I would want to hold forever. I also discovered that it was possible to be in silence with perfect strangers and yet feel connected to them

HOW TO MEDITATE

by Fr. John Main

Sit:

Sit down. Sit still and upright.

Close your eyes lightly. Sit relaxed but alert.

Say:

Silently, interiorly begin to say a single word.

We recommend the prayer-word

Recite it as four syllables of equal length.

MARANATHA

Listen: Listen to it as you say it, gently but continuously.

Do not think or imagine anything, spiritual or otherwise.

Return: If thoughts or images come, these are distractions at the time of meditation, so keep returning to simply saying the word.

Persevere: Meditate each morning and evening for

between 20 and 30 minutes.

Since then I have tried faithfully to meditate twice daily for 20 minutes each time, and slowly but surely, I know that each day is changed when I try to be present to Christ within me. Every “quiet time” is a challenge, filled with stray thoughts and distractions but it makes a difference to my day, to how I interact with the people around me and how I plan my activities. There are days when I slip and miss my quiet time, and that is when I realise how much I miss it and need it. This is my reconnecting with God, which happens every day and not just at Lent.

For those looking to do something different in the coming Lenten season, I hope you will consider setting aside some quiet time each day to just be present to Christ in meditation, and meditate with a group once a week if possible. Many of us keep rushing around doing things for Lent instead of spending more time with Him whom we are meant to remember and celebrate. .

What Should I Do for Lent?

Pope Francis’ 10 Tips

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Get Rid of the Lazy Addiction to Evil “[Lent] is a ‘powerful’ season, a turning point that can foster change and conversion in each of us. We all need to improve, to change for the better.

Lent helps us and thus we leave behind old habits and the lazy addiction to the evil that deceives and ensnares us.”

Do Something That Hurts

“Lent is a fitting time for selfdenial; we would do well to ask ourselves what we can give up in order to help and enrich others by our own poverty. Let us not forget that real poverty hurts: no self-denial is real without this dimension of penance. I distrust a charity that costs nothing and does not hurt.”

Lenten Message, 2014

General Audience, March 5, 2014

Elizabeth Rozario is a parishioner of the Church of St. Francis Xavier, Petaling Jaya, and is active in her BEC and serves in the music ministry.

She is also a member of the World Community for Christian Meditation (WCCM). Having retired, she‘s a happy gardener who grows mostly edibles, enjoys baking yummy things, loves to explore new places but always returns home to her books and plants.

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Don’t Remain Indifferent “Indifference to our neighbour and to God also represents a real temptation for us Christians. Each year during Lent we need to hear once more the voice of the prophets who cry out and trouble our conscience. God is not indifferent to our world; He so loves it that He gave His Son for our salvation.”

Lenten Message, 2015

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Pray: Make Our Hearts Like Yours!

“During this Lent, then, brothers and sisters, let us all ask the Lord: ‘Fac cor nostrum secundum cor tuum’: Make our hearts like yours (Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus). In this way we will receive a heart which is firm and merciful, attentive and generous, a heart which is not closed, indifferent or prey to the globalisation of indifference.”

Lenten Message, 2015

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Take Part in the Sacraments

Prayer

“Lent is a favourable time for letting Christ serve us so that we in turn may become more like Him. This happens whenever we hear the word of God and receive the sacraments, especially the Eucharist. There we become what we receive: the Body of Christ.”

“In the face of so many wounds that hurt us and could harden our hearts, we are called to dive into the sea of prayer, which is the sea of God’s boundless love, to taste His tenderness. Lent is a time of prayer, of more intense prayer, more prolonged, more assiduous, more able to take on the needs of the brethren; intercessory prayer, to intercede before God for the many situations of poverty and suffering.”

Lenten Message, 2015

Homily, March 5, 2014

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Fasting

Almsgiving

“We must be careful not to practice a formal fast, or one which in truth ‘satisfies’ us because it makes us feel good about ourselves. Fasting makes sense if it questions our security, and if it also leads to some benefit for others, if it helps us to cultivate the style of the Good Samaritan, who bends down to his brother in need and takes care of him.”

“Today gratuitousness is often not part of daily life where everything is bought and sold. Everything is calculated and measured. Almsgiving helps us to experience giving freely, which leads to freedom from the obsession of possessing, from the fear of losing what we have, from the sadness of one who does not wish to share his wealth with others.”

Homily, March 5, 2014

Homily, March 5, 2014

10 Evangelise

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“In the poor and outcast we see Christ’s face; by loving and helping the poor, we love and serve Christ. Our efforts are also directed to ending violations of human dignity, discrimination and abuse in the world, for these are so often the cause of destitution. When power, luxury and money become idols, they take priority over the need for a fair distribution of wealth. Our consciences thus need to be converted to justice, equality, simplicity and sharing.”

“The Lord asks us to be joyous heralds of this message of mercy and hope!

It is thrilling to experience the joy of spreading this good news, sharing the treasure entrusted to us, consoling broken hearts and offering hope to our brothers and sisters experiencing darkness.”

Lenten Message, 2014

Lenten Message, 2014

Help the Poor

Photo: © 123RF.com

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Source: https://focusoncampus.org/content/what-should-i-do-for-lent-pope-francis-10-tips

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COVER STORY

COVER STORY

A Time of Reconciliation and Restoration of Relationships

COME BACK TO ME

by Fr. Philip Adede

LK

“Remember this. When people the fire continues to give warmth,

The lyrics of the song, “Come Back to Me”, reflects God’s deep longing for His children to be with Him once again, “Long have I waited for your coming home to me and living deeply our new life.”

far from light, the light continues to be bright in itself but they are in darkness.

This is also the case when people withdraw from God”.

(St. Augustine)

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It is not only sin that keeps us apart from God but fear as well. Christian faith is based on a loving God. However, how many of us believe in a distant, fierce and judgmental God whom we fear to build a relationship with?

Our Father Longs for His Children to Return Home

When people choose to withdraw

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It is in this darkness and isolation that God reaches out to us like a mother who goes out everyday to search for a lost child.

Come Back to Me, Chapter 14 of the Book of Hosea is about exhortation to repentance and promises of comfort to the penitents.

choose to withdraw far from a fire, but they grow cold.

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The period of Lent offers Christians an opportunity to reflect on their relationships with God in a deeper way and the role played by sin in keeping us away from that loving relationship with God. In reflecting on our relationship with God we are bound to reflect on our relationship with ourselves and others. Sin wounds us, our relationship with each other and ultimately with God. Sin leads us into darkness, sorrow, desolation and isolation from those whom we love most.

Lent is a period to return home to the Father and live deeply a new life of love and oneness with God. When we return to the Lord, “He will refresh us with his comforts, so that our souls shall be as watered gardens.”

In Is. 58:11, God draws us to Himself, out of the abundance of His love. God expects and desires the repentance of sinners, He is well pleased with it as He takes no pleasure in the ruin of a sinner. God meets the penitent with mercy, He harkens and hears the prayers of the penitent. God goes out of Himself, incarnation, to reach out to a penitent sinner.

After prophet Hosea has rebuked the people of Israel for their sins, turning away from God’s covenant, He focuses on directions in repenting, encouragement to the repentant taken from God’s longing to receive sinners and comfort that God gives to penitent sinners. The call is to return to the Lord, take steps towards the Lord. Don’t let fear keep you from the Lord.

When we return to the Lord we must let go of our old ways and be committed to new life with God, a life of love and forgiveness which after receiving and experiencing, we are called to share with our brothers and sisters.

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Opening our Hearts and Welcoming Those Returning

Jesus Walks With Us On Our Road to Emmaus

The story of the Prodigal Son is the greatest illustration on the love and compassion of God. God loves the prodigal son and his elder brother equally, one in his weakness and the other in his bitterness.

God’s love for us is not a reward for our being good but our being good is a consequence of being loved. This story reminds us that we are not only restored to God but to the family of God’s people too. We are called to create a welcoming community for those who return to the Lord as we can be like the first-born son who refuses to welcome back his brother.

There are times we feel like walking away from our faith because we have been deeply disappointed, discouraged, once our firm faith has been shattered like the two disciples on their way to Emmaus. This late evening experience can come to us at any time. In my life as a priest I encounter Christians whose faith and hope have been shuttered because of death of a loved one, terminal sickness, loss of job, divorce or separation, abandonment; they decide to move from Jerusalem (Church, place of crucifixion) to Emmaus (place of escape and human consolation). Yet in all these situations, Jesus walks with us yet we are unable to recognise Him. Jesus does not leave us when our faith is shuttered, He journeys with us in our desolation and pain to restructure our faith.

Even though the first born says he is always with the father the reality is that he has grown too cold and distant to enjoy the love and compassion of the father, he no longer sees himself as a son but as a servant. In the sense that father reaches out to him, outside the homestead to plead with him to come home. Let lent be a period when we open our hearts, homes and communities to those who chose to return to the Lord. This is done practically through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) programme of preparing to receive the newly Baptist at Easter. Like God, let us embrace and welcome those who return to the Lord.

In returning to the Father we experience the deep compassion of God that compels us too, to be compassionate to others. Jesus challenges us to, “Be compassionate as your heavenly Father is compassionate.” In John’s gospel, the institution of the Eucharist is replaced by Jesus washing of the feet of His disciples. According to John, the Eucharist is the reaching out to one another, across the divide of gender, race, status, religion and even ideology, to let God’s embrace enfold everyone equally.

To be compassionate as the Father is, calls us to never be content but reach out to our brothers and sisters who are not among the fold of God’s warm embrace. The family or Church is never complete when even one of her members are separated. Like the parable of the woman who has lost one coin could not rest until she found it. Lent is a period for us to reflect ways in which we have been contented or have even rejoiced when some members of the church, family or community walked away from the fold. We need to put our boots on and go to the streets in search of that lost wholeness.

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Through the word of God, Jesus helps us to see that whatever situation we may be going through, the humiliation of the cross, is integral part of our faith. This is fully revealed in the breaking of bread; when God Himself becomes visible in the Eucharist. In recognising Jesus in the broken bread, our eyes of faith are opened, and we begin the journey back to Jerusalem with a deeper understanding of God, Christ and the church. As the mystics say, we have to go through the 'dark night of the soul' as we sort out through death of what is precious to us religiously, so as to recognise the compassionate embrace of God in a new and deeper way.

Jesus continues to walk daily by our side from Jerusalem to Emmaus to bring us back to Jerusalem. Since Jesus is faithful to us, we as His family will have to continuously repent, return back to God, open our hearts to welcome our returning brothers and sisters and reach out to invite those who do not know His love to know

Him. As Christians, believing in the risen Lord, we need to continue the journey of faith beyond the lentern period.

A few years ago at the parish, we had a serious infestation of jiggers (tiny sand-fleas) mainly on elderly people who were mostly living alone. As a lentern campaign, the parish organised a reach out programme to assist these elderly people. The catechumen who were preparing for baptism also joined in. We would go out to clean the houses of the affected, help them wash, get treatment and offer them food. Two months later, when I went for a house blessing in one of the villages, I met a group of the newly baptised coming from one house of the elderly having cleaned and given her some food. The conversion we go through during Lent carries us through in fervent prayer, fasting and more so acts of charity in the community.

Lent prepares us to be better Christians; like the newly baptised who during Lent learnt to reach out to the needy, the post resurrection experience made them see this as part of daily life of a Christian. Like the two disciples, we hasten to return to Jerusalem to share the joyful experience of encountering the risen Lord by walking alongside our brothers and sisters in their pain and suffering through acts of charity so that they too may experience the joy of the risen Lord.

Let us hear God singing to us, “Come back to me with all your heart, long have I waited for you.” Let us not tarry but hasten to return home to our Father who runs out to meet us and reclaim our rights as sons and daughters of God. Fr. Philip Adede, a Mill Hill Missionary, worked for several years among the Karimojong community, an ethnic group living mainly in the north-east of Uganda.

Currently he is the Mill Hill representative in Kenya and Uganda.

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I

n all our sharing, it is not the amount of the gift that matters, it is how much of yourself you give with the gift. Whether we give out of an abundance of wealth or out of extreme poverty, our giving should reflect Jesus’s sacrifice as well as His trust in God to provide what we need.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines "charity" as "the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for His own sake, and our neighbour as ourselves for the love of God".

The two terms "love" and "charity" are frequently used interchangeably, and with good reason, since the virtue of charity is in fact a kind of love. However, the two are not identical; not all forms of love are also charity. What sort of love is charity, then? Quite simply, charity is the Love of God, in which we are able to participate, able to share of one’s self, able to share what we possess and do it without hesitation or preconceived misgivings. Faith, for instance, is a share in God's act of knowing, whereby the believer knows what God knows.

Hope is a share in God's desire; the person with the virtue of Hope wants the same thing God wants, that is, for the person in question to make it to union with God in Heaven. Charity too is a mode of participating in God's action, the highest mode, for with charity we share in God's act of love. We are able to love the way God loves.

GIVING WITHOUT EXPECTATIONS

The two chief characteristics of God's love are, therefore, selflessness and sacrifice. Consequently, in the virtue of charity, our love must embody these two attributes. Of course, the fact that we must be selfless does not imply that we can never consider our own needs and desires. After all, the virtue of hope is based on fulfilling one's own need: "I want to get to Heaven; I need to get to Heaven." Hope is the desire for supernatural good insofar as it will make oneself happy. This is, in itself, completely appropriate, but it must also be complimented by charity, which is the desire for supernatural good insofar as something which will make God and neighbour happy.

The “Soul” of our Christian Mission

by Dr. Jude Selvaraj In today’s culture we are judged by our money and our possessions.

What we have, and what we do with what we have, is a very real part of who we are. Money represents our time, it defines our work and it marks the value of our talents. When we are asked to give, our emotions are stirred, we feel as if we are under attack and we become defensive. We all have our own unique financial circumstances and responsibilities.

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Photo: © 123RF.com

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus warns us that if we are not careful, our possessions, be it the wealth we have amassed or the physical objects, would not just be a part of us, it would become all of us. These materialistic fortunes could replace the cross as our symbol of life. The best way to keep this from happening is to consciously and freely share and expect nothing in return!

The virtue of giving without expecting anything in return, is a kind of love that motivates the Christian to do what is right in order to bring about the happiness of God and neighbour. In giving and sharing, we say to God and neighbour, "I will try to make you happy, I will try to serve you, I will make your good my priority."

Of course, such a selfless attitude always involves sacrifice; in fact, the proof of giving is measured by sacrifice. What does all this mean practically?

How can we concretely practice a selfless and sacrificial love? Well, the first step is to stop thinking about our faith, our religion, and our lives as Christians, as if it was just about us. We have to keep in mind that our number-one purpose in life is to serve God, to please Him and so we must not evaluate our spiritual life based on whether we get anything out of it.

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We are supposed to have frequent prayer and frequent reception of the sacraments not based primarily on what we personally get out of it, but because it pleases God, because it makes Him happy. Charity means a willingness to sacrifice our time and energy and preferences in order to go to God in prayer and in the sacramental life of Mass and confession in order to show our love for Him. That's the key point: we're not just doing this for ourselves, but for our Creator, Our Loving Father.

Consequently, whether we have genuine charity for our neighbours depends on whether we are willing to give selflessly and sacrificially for their sakes. "A new commandment I give you: love one another as I have loved you," Jn 13:34, that is, selflessly and sacrificially.

It also means that we must learn and practice the Works of Mercy, both corporal and spiritual. The Seven Corporal Works of Mercy are those which care for the bodily wants of our brothers and sisters. They are:

• Feeding the hungry • Giving drink to the thirsty • Sheltering the homeless • Clothing the naked • Ransoming the captive • Caring for the sick and imprisoned • Burying the dead

The chief opportunity for us to lend material aid to those in need is in giving alms; our financial donations to help the poor is a critical aspect of fraternal charity, and is a work pleasing to God. Our Lord Himself declares how closely He associates Himself with the poor to whom we are generous, "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me."

Mt 25:40.

Perhaps one of the most important applications of the virtue of “giving of oneself ” to daily life regards the institution of marriage, especially when we are

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SOCIAL DIMENSION

faced with increasing number of divorces. Charity demands that if we get married, we continue to love and serve our spouses even if we feel like we can't stand them another second. It is a shame that in today's society, marriage, like religion, is so often treated as something a person sticks with "as long as it works for him." Then, when the relationship between spouses becomes unpleasant, the standard response is simply to quit.

The Catholic understanding of marriage, by contrast, is one whereby the spouses learn the art of charity through service and sacrifice. The husband should not think about how the wife should be satisfying him, but how he should be laying down his life for her. The same goes for the wife. And of course, this will involve great pain and difficulty.

The model of the sacrament of marriage is based on Christ sacrificial love for the Church and to think of a marriage apart from sacrifice is like thinking of Christ apart from the Cross, for such a relationship will be empty and will lack an enduring foundation of charity.

To quote Pope Francis: “All of us, in truth, are called to water ourselves upon the rock that is the Lord and to quench the world’s thirst with the charity that springs from Him.”

Penance More Than Lenten Practice

by Dr. Jared Staut

Lent is a time of penance, but does penance have a role in the Christian life throughout the year? St. Benedict said in his Rule that the life of the monk should be a perpetual Lent, though few have strength enough for it! Lent does highlight and intensify the role of penance, but as we are making our Lenten practices right now, we should also be thinking how our lives can bear the fruits of Lent throughout the year.

Penance is an essential and even obligatory part of the Christian life.

This can be seen in the fact that Confession requires the performance of penance and in the mandated days of fasting and abstinence. Beyond these expressions, penance has played a large role in the Christian life, primarily through reparation and meritorious suffering, although this centrality of penance has been eclipsed in our time. The lessening focus on penance is nothing short of a spiritual and cultural crisis that must be addressed for renewal.

Therefore, we are called in this act of “giving without expecting anything in return” or “charity” to become “missionaries of Christ sacrificial love and love” to ourselves, our families, our neighbours and everyone we come in contact with on a daily basics.

“We ask for smallness of heart, full availability, and docile humility. It pushes us to fraternal communion between us and our courageous mission in the world.”

Pope Francis

Dr. Jude Selvaraj is a physician currently on sabbatical in Kannur, Kerala.

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SOCIAL DIMENSION

SOCIAL DIMENSION

Really this decline in penance is of very long standing. The origins and development of Lent itself show this increasing laxity. Lent originates in the period of intense preparation before the Easter Vigil, when the elect would engage in long periods of prayer and penance.

The practice spread to the rest of the faithful and extended to its current length. Originally, Christians fasted the entire day and practiced abstinence throughout Lent, although the length of the daily fast gradually shortened throughout history. Nevertheless, even sixty years ago it entailed at least some fasting and abstinence every day.

Currently, here are the prescriptions on penance from the Code of Canon Law. Notice how every Friday and all of Lent are considered days of penance: Canon 1250: All Fridays through the year and the time of Lent are penitential days.

Canon 1251: Abstinence from eating meat or another food according to the prescriptions of the conference of bishops is to be observed on Fridays throughout the year unless they are solemnities; abstinence and fast are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and on the Friday of the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

In response to the Church’s requirement of penance, we can ask—what is the logic of penance and why is it so important to the Christian life?

Most generally, penance is integral both to reparation for our sin and also of merit by which we perform acts of charity. Both of these endeavour are linked to our participation in the Cross of Christ. As 28

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St. Thomas says: “In order to secure the effects of Christ’s Passion, we must be likened unto Him” (Summa Theologiae III, q. 49, a. 3, ad 2). St. Paul says it more mysteriously: “ Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of His body, that is, the Church” (Col 1:24).

The only thing lacking in Christ’s suffering is our participation in them, a participation which conforms us to Christ who offered Himself out of love. Paul also tells us: “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God” (Rom 12:1). In penance, we offer ourselves in love, sharing in Christ’s sacrifice of His body.

That is the general logic of penance, but we can also look more particularly at a number of reasons why we do penance.

First, Jesus instructed us to do so and described penance as strengthening our life of prayer.

During the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 6), Jesus gives us an overview of penance and the right disposition to practice it, emphasising almsgiving, prayer, and fasting, the three major penances emphasized in Lent. That Jesus envisioned His disciples fasting after His death is clear: “The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast” (Mt 9:15). Jesus also related that fasting adds power to spiritual works, particularly the expelling of some demons that could only be “driven out by anything but prayer and fasting” (Mk 9:29). Jesus, of course, also gave us the example of fasting, especially during His 40 days in the wilderness. We can also look to the Acts of the Apostles as evidence that the early Church followed Jesus’s example (cf. Acts 14:23).

Second, we all have to make reparation for our sin.

But sin also injures and weakens the sinner himself, as well as his relationships with God and neighbour.

Absolution takes away sin, but it does not remedy all the disorders sin has caused. Raised up from sin, the

sinner must still recover his full spiritual health by doing something more to make amends for the sin: he must “make satisfaction for” or “expiate” his sins. This satisfaction is also called “penance” (CCC 1459).

Even when sin is forgiven, if contrition is not perfect, there is still temporal punishment due to that sin. If penance is not done for this temporal punishment, the effects of sin and the punishment due to it must be cleansed in Purgatory. (Indulgences provide relief for this punishment, and stand in place of penance. It was central to the piety of the Middle Ages to offer Masses for the souls in the purgatory, with even priests dedicated completely to this work of mercy.

Third, prayer and penance can be an apostolate.

The Catechism describes how we are united together in Christ and must assist one another spiritually: “The Christian who seeks to purify himself of his sin and to become holy with the help of God’s grace is not alone” (CCC 1474).

The divine mercy devotion emphasises prayer in reparation for sin, especially by recitation of the chaplet of divine mercy: “Have mercy on us and on the whole world.” St. Faustina heard, in private revelation, Jesus asking her to “gather all sinners from the entire world and immerse them in the abyss of My mercy” (206).

Just as Jesus related in relation to the expelling of demons, penance makes this prayer for sinners all the more powerful. Our Lady of Fatima told the three children: “Pray, pray very much. Make sacrifices for sinners. Many souls go to hell, because no one is willing to help them with sacrifice” (Our Lady of Fatima, July 13, 1917). This is the heart of her message both at Lourdes and Fatima: to pray the rosary and to make sacrifices for sinners, “especially those in most need of mercy.”

Some ways to make penance a part of your life: • Make a fuller Lent. We can make the most of it and also try to make Lent a general time of penance. It is good to give something up, but our Lenten practice should go beyond one particular thing. It is a penitential season.

• Pray for the dying. Referring back to the quote from Our Lady of Fatima, she asked us to pray for the salvation of sinners who have no one to pray for them.

• Return to the age old practice of offering things up! This is a great way to unite our daily actions to the priestly mediation of Christ.

• Take the Friday penance seriously. It is clear in Canon Law that we should perform penance on Friday. This has always been practiced through abstinence from meat, but the US Bishops allow us to substitute another penance.

• Intentionally do penance for your sin, even beyond the penance you have been given in Confession (especially if it does not “correspond as far as possible with the gravity and nature of the sins committed” CCC 1460 ). You can think of it as doing your purgatory on earth.

• Embrace simplicity. Penance can be very simple. Eat less. Eat less extravagantly. Spend less time online and for entertainment and more on prayer.

It is odd that there was more penance when life was harder. Now there is less when life is easier.

We could say that penance is more necessary than ever before as our society is moving further and further from God. We can do our part in restoring things by uniting not only our life but the lives of others to the redemptive power of the Cross through embracing a fuller life of prayer and penance.

Source: https://thosecatholicmen.com/articles/penance-more-than-lenten-practice/

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APP REVIEW

APP REVIEW

APP Review

Reimagining Examen T

he Examen is one of my favourite prayers but I don’t pray with it very often, simply because of sheer laziness. But after discovering this App, there is no excuse! If you are someone like me who would go to bed only to start thinking of the day you just had and end up sleeping way later than planned, this App is the perfect companion. The Reimagining Examen App offers a modern take on St. Ignatius Loyola’s 500-year-old prayer. So what exactly is the Examen? It is a short prayer that can be prayed at any time. St. Ignatius thought that the Examen was a gift that came directly from God, and that God wanted it to be shared as widely as possible.

It is one of the most powerful spiritual practices aiding us in looking backward and reflecting. When we pray the Examen, we look back at a portion of the day or the entire day. We reflect on and identify where we were most aware of or working in concert with God’s presence. We also look back and identify where we missed the opportunity to notice God working or to work with God. Years ago, Mark Thibodeaux, SJ, created the prayer App before he even knew it. The novice director for the Central and Southern provinces jotted down themed Examens in a Word document that he would pray from on his iPhone and eventually, his Word document turned into the Reimagining the Examen App. “Because of my own experience of using it, I just knew this would work,” Thibodeaux said. “And younger people are even more engaged with iPhones than I am, so it was a need I knew people had.” The App is based on Thibodeaux’s book, Reimagining the Ignatian Examen published by Loyola Press which offers 34 adaptable versions of the Examen.

When I first downloaded the App, I was greeted by the sound of waves in the background but what caught my attention the most was the words on the front screen which said ‘Today’s Examen; Uncovering Hidden Truths’. Instead of exploring the App further, I started praying and reflecting instantly, unplugging everything and allowing myself to be guided by the 5-step reflection.

I took my time on each screen and by the time I was done, it was actually a good 20 minutes! Instantly I felt that it was a much needed time with God. I miss praying the Examen so much! What’s great about this App that I found so helpful is that when I was praying with my phone, I was 30

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not using it for anything else, I did not think about checking my texts or social media, particularly because the App takes up the entire screen and hides notifications. The sound of the waves in the background also kept me in the mood. I found out later that in the ‘Settings’ section, it offers a variety of soothing background music such as the sound of the rain, wind chimes, campfire and even instruments such as piano, guitar and choir! The language used is simple but inviting and together with its minimalistic theme and fonts, the App creates a warm feeling.

Exploring the App further. I found that it is short and simple, broken down into digestible steps, but limiting it to the same five steps each day greatly narrows the content to which one is exposed. The variety of the App enables the user to be exposed to diverse prompts for prayer. Given that we are constantly changing in our surroundings and exposed to different challenges, people who have

been praying with the Examen for years can also gain new perspectives on this prayer.

The App can also be adapted to the user’s particular needs and situations so users can pick the reflections that best fits their current state of being. Users who do not have a clear idea of what to pray about can choose an Examen at random or simply the Examen of the day. With thoughtful reflections on life such as relationships, death, fear of attachment, pending decisions, gratitude, inspiration and so forth, users of the App can review their day with God wherever they are with step-by-step guidance. Overall, I think the Reimagining the Examen App is an excellent tool for all who wish to pray and reflect the events of the day in order to be aware of God’s presence in their lives and discern His direction.

Reviewed by Darlyn Goh CANews Editorial Team

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TRAVELOGUE

TRAVELOGUE

Back to Basics at a

Children's Chapel

by Vanitha Nadaraj

A

t a tiny chapel dedicated to children, I came to the realisation that I needed to go back to having childlike faith in Jesus, to go back to the basic lessons that He teaches us through His Word, and not allow anything to complicate my spiritual journey.

The children, who were all seated in the front left of the altar, stood up and sang with him. Then Fr. V.A. Michael, parish priest of the Church of St. Paul the Hermit, who was the con-celebrant, decided that the adults too should join the children and told us all to stand up.

It was the final mass of the nineday Holy Infant Jesus feast day celebration and the celebrant was about to start his sermon. Instead of doing that, visiting priest Fr. That was when the Sebastian Arputharaj decided whole atmosphere to teach the children a song he Fr. Sebastian Arputharaj conducting the flag- changed for me. It was composed the night before. He raising ceremony on the first day of the Holy Feb 2 and we were at Infant Jesus feast day celebration on Jan 25. then got them to dance like how an English Mass that his “dance master” King David danced before was to close the feast day celebration. I was the Lord (2 Sam 6:14). prepared for the usual comfortable order of the Mass and to pray silently at the Holy Infant Jesus Chapel in Kuala Selangor. But now I was up on my feet, with 1,000 or so believers, singing, clapping, waving and swaying.

Somewhere between the singing and the clapping, I started to cry and I could not stop.

I had come to the chapel a week earlier, on the first day of the feast day celebrations, with a heavy heart. I was finding it hard to continue holding on to God’s promises and was feeling lost and uncertain. Fear of the future had started to creep in and my faith had dipped a little.

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of whom come every year. The I then realised that I should go back chapel itself can only hold to basics in my walk with our Lord, about 50 people and during that I needed to change and become the feast day is reserved for like little children (Matt 18:2-4). I Adoration. needed to have the same simple faith as the little girl who walked The grounds of the church up to sing the psalms. She probably is meant to make children was struggling with nervousness but comfortable. There is a she got herself up on that stage and treehouse, some cabins by the in front of the huge congregation, side, swings and play areas. The knowing that God would see her temptation to sit on one of through it all, and He did. She started the swings was so great but I a little bumpy but continued on and fought the urge. did a commendable job for one so placing a garland on the statue young. The same kind of faith that Children of the Holy Infant Jesus at the tent where Maybe I should have indulged each child who went up to the masses were held for the nine days. and relived some of my microphone to lead the believers in rosary and prayers, and in singing during the nine childhood memories. And at the same time days. They did it all with confidence, knowing remember some of that childlike faith I had when God had their backs. The irony of it all. That I I first accepted Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. should get new insights into having the faith of a child during a Mass animated by children, at a It was so simple then. The world seemed so chapel dedicated to the Holy Infant Jesus, and at fresh and new and everything I did seemed to the only chapel/ church in Malaysia dedicated to be exciting because I would examine my motives and see if it was all in accordance with the children. teachings of Jesus and would vehemently obey The Holy Infant Jesus Chapel in Kuala Selangor God’s precepts as best as I could. Over the years, is one of the 11 chapels that come under the the freshness and the eagerness got weathered by administration of the St. Paul the Hermit uncertainities and fears.

Church in Bestari Jaya which is about 20km away. The masses, novenas and rosary prayers for The Gospel reading for the Mass on the the nine days were held just outside the chapel previous day (Saturday, Feb 1) got me thinking. to accommodate the 1,500 or so pilgrims, many The reading was Luke 2:22-40 and it was about how the Holy Spirit showed Simeon that he would not die until he has seen “the Christ of the Lord”.

A treehouse on the chapel grounds.

In his sermon, Fr. Sebastian asked if we were as excited to see Jesus as how Simeon was when the child Jesus was brought to the temple by His parents. He said that only if we went to Jesus with complete faith, could we receive complete and real transformation.

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Question: I saw what that kind of transformation might look like. A parishioner, who owns an event equipment rental company, had offered to erect tents, install sound system, projectors, and supply chairs, fans, lighting and mobile air-con units for that nine days as his offering to our Lord. He went about making sure the rubbish disposal was taken care of, the food stations were organised well, and the candlelight procession went smoothly. He closed his shop during the nine-day celebration and was not afraid of losing all that Chinese New Year business. He knows God will see to all his needs.

Fr. Sebastian also said that we are to let go of all selfish desires and to seek Him alone. This kept ricocheting in my mind and was reminded of God’s commandment to love Him with all my heart, mind, body and soul and to love my neighbour as myself. It made me think that I should take my eyes off myself and look towards God and find ways to serve others.

I saw this through those from other chapels under the St. Paul the Hermit Church who chipped in to help the Holy Infant Jesus Chapel.

The feast day was run like a well-oiled machine.

There were no glitches in the sound system, in fact it was loud and clear. It was so good to hear prayers being recited and children singing from the car park across the road and as we walked past the oil palm trees and headed for the

Pilgrims and parishioners lighting candles near the grotto at the Holy Infant Jesus Chapel in Kuala Selangor.

AQ ASK ALL M CC UU COO O LCATHOLIC UM MNN NSS S YOUTH SOCIAL DIMENSION A QUESTION YOUTH

TRAVELOGUE

Every year during Lent I'm asked why Catholics fast and abstain. How can I explain our Lenten practice?

Candelight procession after Mass. Believers walked out of the church on to the side road and then to the main road and made their way back to the church through a path in between oil palm trees.

chapel. The food stations were so cleverly placed and there were no long queues of hungry faces.

And to show that this was truly a celebration at a children’s chapel, ice-cream was served and at the corner was a huge inflatable platform for children to jump on.

There was a team from the St. Anthony Chapel in Coalfield that was seeking donation to build their new church on a recently-obtained piece of land. Some of them were helping the Holy Infant Jesus Chapel with Mass offering recording and collection. All these parishioners from other chapels and churches showed that we belong to one body and serving one another ought to be in our DNA. Before leaving the chapel, my husband and I went to the chapel to say a quiet prayer before the Eucharist. As I bowed down I told myself that from then on I need to come before God with complete faith and that if I found myself lacking in faith, I need to go back to being a child before Him. To be like the nervous child who sang before the huge congregation, who stood there behind the rostrum and did what she knew she was supposed to do for God, knowing that God had her back.

Vanitha Nadaraj spent almost all her working life in the media industry. Her work experience includes being a journalist, public relations consultant, copywriter, lecturer, and trainer. She is also a fellow of the Konrad Adenaeur Foundation at Ateneo de Manila University where she received her MA in Journalism.

E

xplain that Lent is the 40 days before Easter in which Catholics pray, fast, contemplate, and engage in acts of spiritual selfdiscipline. Catholics do these things because Easter, which celebrates the Resurrection of Christ, is the greatest holy day of the Christian year (even above Christmas) and Catholics have recognised that it is appropriate to prepare for such a holy day by engaging in such disciplines.

The reason Lent lasts 40 days is that 40 is the traditional number of judgement and spiritual testing in the Bible (Gn 7:4, Ex 24:18, 34:28, Nm 13:25, 14:33, Jon 3:4). Lent bears particular relationship to the 40 days Christ spent fasting in the desert before entering into His public ministry (Mt 4:1-11). Catholics imitate Christ by spending 40 days in spiritual discipline before the celebration of Christ’s triumph over sin and death.

Fasting is a biblical discipline that can be defended from both the Old and the New Testament. Christ expected His disciples to fast (Mt 9:1415) and issued instructions for how they should do so (Mt 6:16-18).

Catholics follow this pattern by holding a partial fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

Abstinence from certain foods is also a biblical discipline. In Daniel 10:2-3 we read, “In those days I, Daniel, was mourning for three weeks.

I ate no delicacies, no meat or wine entered my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, for the full three weeks.” Catholics use a practice similar to Daniel’s when, as a way of commemorating Christ’s Crucifixion on a Friday, they abstain from eating meat on that day of the week during Lent. The only kind of flesh they eat on Friday is fish, which is a symbol of Christ.

Even the Ash Wednesday practice of having one’s forehead signed with ashes has a biblical parallel. Putting ashes on one’s head was a common biblical expression of mourning (1 Sm 13:19, Est 4:1, Is 61:3; see also Est 4:3, Jer 6:26, Ez 27:30, Dn 9:3, Mt 11:21, Lk 10:13). By having the sign of the cross made with ashes on their foreheads, Catholics mourn Christ’s suffering on the cross and their own sins, which made that suffering necessary.

Source: Catholic Answers (https://www.catholic.com/qa/why-do-catholics-practice-fasting-andabstinence-during-lent

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FEASTING

Lent should be more than a time of fasting.

It should also be a joyous time of feasting.

Lent is a time to fast from certain things and to feast on others.

It is a season to turn to God. Fast from judging others; feast on the goodness in them.

Fast from emphasis on difference; feast on unity of all life.

Fast from apparent darkness; feast on the reality of light.

Fast from thoughts of illness; feast on the healing power of God. Fast from words that pollute; feast on phrases that purify.

Fast from discount; feast on gratitude.

Fast from anger; feast on patience.

Fast from pessimism; feast on optimism.

Fast from worry, feast on divine order.

Fast from complaining; feast on appreciation.

Fast from negatives; feast on affirmatives.

Fast from unrelenting pressures; feast on unceasing prayer.

Fast from hostility; feast on non-resistance.

Fast from bitterness; feast on forgiveness.

Fast from self-concern; feast on compassion for others.

Fast from personal anxiety; feast on eternal Truth.

Fast from discouragement; feast on hope.

Fast from facts that depress; feast on truths that uplift.

Fast from lethargy; feast on enthusiasm.

Fast from suspicion; feast on truth.

Fast from thoughts that weaken; feast on promises that inspire.

Fast from shadows of sorrow; feast on the sunlight of serenity.

Fast from idle gossip; feast on purposeful silence.

Fast from problems that overwhelm; feast on prayer that supports.

Love

Conquers All From the Garden to the Cross

by Darlyn Goh

We know the drill. It’s Lent. We wear ashes on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday. We give up our sweet indulgence like ice cream and candy, comic books or cartoons, and eat fish every Friday during this period of 40 days before Easter. That would have been the case if I had grown up observing Lent.

I did not. I knew about it during my brief study at Sunday school but it was very much foreign in our household. As I got older and my time spent in church grew beyond Sunday school, Lent became more concrete to me. My first memory of learning about Lent was when one of my university friends said to me, “No chocolates!”. Slowly unravelling its meaning and practice, I got to know Lent like I got to know a new friend. I learned that Lent is about doing and a time to do more than usual, pretty similar to Advent though much tougher! It requires some sacrificing but this was my favourite bit that I liked a lot; Lent was about sacrificing our ego to forgive and ask for forgiveness.

William Arthur Ward

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Soon enough, the secret was out. I learned that Lent is not a time to do more, to add more things in our daily lives, but instead to slow down. We do it to increase our awareness of God’s love for us and our ability and desire to love Him and others as He loves us. Every so often we try hard to focus on what we think we need and want rather than just being thankful for what we have and ways to be a blessing to others. But there’s more of course.

I learned that Lent is our time and in fact our gift as the Church, to see how important we are to God and how much we are loved by Him. We are such a delight to God that the very thought of us prompted Him to become one with us in our humanity so we could see ever more clearly His love. This is our time to see and be reminded.

What we see on the cross when Jesus is crucified is the unconditional, self-giving love of God wonderfully expressed in Jesus’ words spoken to Nicodemus; “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” John 3:16-17.

We are also to embrace the words of John 15:12-14, “My command is this: love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for Joan one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command”. What we can reflect from these scriptures is that when we look at Jesus dying in agony on the cross after being falsely accused, whipped and mocked, we are witnessing the extent of God’s love for us. He came to love us with His last human breath on the cross in the face of rejection, misunderstanding and abandonment.

The punishment that should be ours is God’s way of love and forgiveness, and it was laid on His Son. His death provides the perfect sacrifice for each one of us; for our failures, our selfishness, our pride and our rebellion against God. How undeserving are we of such unconditional love! This is it; we are called to manifest this unconditional love by 38

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putting other people’s need ahead of our own and to sacrifice for others, just like He did for us.

I talked to three of my Catholic friends, Joelle, Sierra and Joan about what they thought about unconditional love.

Joelle, 27 - I am stubborn and when I feel defeated, I start to question everything and finding every reason why things do not work out the way I expect it to. I know it can be exasperating to the people around me. However, after meeting my partner, I realised that in moments of weaknesses like this, he never fails to show me his kindness by listening to me without judgement, convincing me that I am worthy of great things. He never once looked at me as a handful. Despite of how occupied he may be, he puts in the time and effort to make me feel better, with no complaints. I truly believe that it is Jesus who is guiding him to express unconditional love and compassion in those moments and I am so very grateful to have Jesus at the center of our relationship. I believe to truly live a meaningful life; we should attempt to emulate the life Jesus led, filled with patience and love.

Joan, 25 - I had a normal life growing up; studied as hard as I could and tried to keep up with life. Although I seemed like a happy person, constantly laughing and smiling but deep down, I was struggling with low self-esteem. I’m not a religious person, but as a kid, I’ve always prayed especially when I was struggling.

Depression and anxiety had been with me for as long as I can remember. I didn’t tell anyone about it so I lead a double life; being an extroverted self during the day then crying myself to sleep at night.

One day I told my mentor. and he was very open about it and never judged, and instead reminded me be to kind and honest to myself and others.

It was last year when he asked me: “Do you want to be happy?” I replied “yes” without hesitation.

After meeting my partner and seeing life from his point of view, was when I realised the definition of “unconditional love”. My friends and mentors do care for me, just like family. They wished I could see my own self-worth. It was then I realised that God was always there looking out for me, through the eyes of my family, my partner and friends.

I’ve decided to get help for my mental health. There are still bad days from time to time, but it is much more bearable now knowing there are people who care for me and reminding me I’m never alone.

Sierra, 26 – When I think of Sierra unconditional love, I think first of my grandmother. There was a time when my legs were always swollen and Grandma would always massage them with ointment even when she’s tired. The sight of her down my feet will always stay in my mind. During my undergraduate studies, she’d also skim on her food so she can help pay for my tuition fees. Which grandma does that?? I carry these memories close to my heart because they are perfect examples of unconditional love. I’ve also experienced it with my partner.

Knowing that I grew up in a household that often uses verbal abuse and punishment, he reminds me often that I do not have to be punished just because I made a mistake. These reminders are one of the purest acts of love as far as I know because it makes me feel safe and that I can be loved no matter what. Sunday School taught me when I was little that Jesus died on the cross because He loves us but I never thought anything further than that. Unconditional love for me was always a very ‘human’ act. But thanks for the reminder!

From the brief sharings of my friends, I know that unconditional love very much centres around the people whom we are most engaged with in our lives. We crave and desire for it because it is part of who we are. It is usually in situations of distress when acts of unconditional love are significantly

prominent in our eyes. But we must remember the words Peter said in Luke 5:8, “Leave me Lord for I am a sinful man,” that we may rise above our awareness of our unworthiness seen in our doubts and fears to respond to it and become that love for those Jesus entrusts to us.

From the sharing it also makes me think that we do lots of great things but we do not know or remember where the inspiration comes from.

How are we innately so kind? Great things like hosting a soup kitchen for the poor down to simple, humble acts of kindness like taking out the trash without being told to or holding the door for someone who’s got his hands full at the supermarket… how often do we remember that it is Jesus’ example that is guiding our acts of love?

It is Jesus’ death on the cross that inspires us and releases love for all of us. It is the source of love which flows freely into us when we open our hearts. Infinite and limitless. We are given so that we can give. We are loved so that we can love. That is the message of the cross. That is the message of Jesus giving Himself to us in the Eucharist and forgiving our sins in the Sacrament of Penance repeatedly. From the garden to the cross, Lent takes us on a journey to recognise and remember not only His sacrificial love, but to be uplifted, inspired, and renewed in faith by it.

Darlyn Goh completed her Bachelor and Master’s Degree at Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) majoring in classical vocal performance and subsequently, music research in the field of choral music education.

Apart from performing, Darlyn also teaches voice, piano, choir and music classes for children with special needs. She has also taught at Universiti Putra Malaysia and Universiti Teknologi Mara. Her interest in education expands in seeking out independent projects with aims to cultivate motivation amongst young people.

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