Cross2Carry

Priests Dancing?!...

2009-05-17T22:06:00.000+02:00

Hahahahaha!....

iSay Amen to that!

(thanks to chiralcapers & the practicing catholic)

'Death' is Better!

2009-05-15T17:20:00.000+02:00

Someone said, "Forget 'Angels and Demons', go read 'Death of a Pope'"...

I think I shall go get this book and read it on my flight back to Singapore. It would certainly make that 12 hour non-stop journey a little better to go through!

Taking Care of Things...

2009-05-15T12:19:00.000+02:00

It has been spotty with my entries here lately. :-P The days are leading up to the exams, which are coming up next month and after my finals of final, I have to start packing and prepare leaving for home.

Meanwhile, there is always this waiting that can sap the enthusiasm and positivity of daily living, with all the anxieties and fears (real or imagined) that come with this. The current uncertainty of the flu problem that is enveloping the world doesn't help to lessen those nagging anxieties either. At this point, a portion of a stanza from T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets comes to mind:

But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always—
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flames are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.

All shall be well. There is some sense of peaceful acceptance of all that has gone by and what is to come next. This has nothing to do with giving in to some sort of 'happy' pessimism (sure, this sounds like an oxymoron but that is how I see it at this time) or embracing the unknown with no idea of what to expect. Rather, it is placing myself in the hope of God's goodness that He knows how to take care of things for me, especially those which I cannot possibly do myself.

Two Stars...

2009-05-11T00:03:00.000+02:00

The new Star Trek movie has just started making its round across all the major cinemas around the world. The reviews have been quite glowing and Trekkies are quite pleased with this rebooted version.

Me, I am a Star Wars fan, though I do like what I saw in the new Trek movie trailer. So, if you pit the Death Star with the Enterprise, who do you think will emerge victorious?...

Better late than never...

2009-05-10T23:54:00.000+02:00

Happy Mother's Day!

Church In Reality - Genius and Mystery

2009-05-08T17:50:00.000+02:00

I was somewhat busy with tying up the submission of my thesis and meeting up with the Dean over some lectio questions for the comprehensive exam that will be on the 19th June. Yes! It is the last stretch of activities before I fly off to Singapore towards the end of next month. Aahh.. could almost taste that glorious smell of the teh tarik and roti telur already! :-D

Meanwhile, I saw that the new movie based on Dan Brown's Angels and Demons is making its way around the cinema circuits around the world (did I tell you he and the cast were in Rome last week to promote the show?... never mind, I didn't even noticed). But, perhaps not to my surprise, it did not seem to create any waves of sensationalism or purported mass exodus of people from the Catholic faith as it did in the earlier film. I think the whole idea of the Church being that big, bad evil (galactic) Empire has begun to sound and feel lame and tiring. Kansas Catholic sort of round up my sentiments on this. I never read any of Dan Brown's book nor bothered to watch the movies. They are all laughable. I'd rather spend my money on watching comedies and Disney cartoons like this for instance than Brown's meanderings about old and stale conspiracy theories on the Church. Too bad my favourite Jedi Knight had to associate himself with the current Dan Brown's movie. Maybe he had to constantly use Force Mind Trick on himself to stay on acting there till it was all over...

Speaking of the Church, Amy over a Via Media provides us some good updates (via links) on the journey of peace by our Holy Father as he starts his Holy Land trip. I don't know how much he can bring about the needed peace and stability in that volatile area of Jews, Christians and Muslims living side-by-side, but it is a start. It is a concrete start of the Church's outlook in a world today to unite and bring hope to all. Certainly a far cry and a total opposite from all those tales spun by Dan Brown about the Church. Maybe that is why he needed to create a big and 'evil' caricature of the Church because the reality of who/what the Church is doesn't make him any money nor sell his books. The L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican’s official newspaper which reviewed the movie says it is “harmless entertainment” that “hardly affects the genius and mystery of Christianity."

Ever Closer...

2009-05-03T16:51:00.000+02:00

We've crossed into the month of May and edging ever closer to my departure date...

Having submitted my copies of the thesis to the Dean's Office and clearing up a few more forms here and there, I have now only to wait for my exams to come by and that final of finals (lectio coram) before I can heave big sigh of relief from all my studies here in Rome! Meanwhile, it had been quite a drag to continuing waiting all is out to its end and some days are literally long. Sure, there are classes to continue going till end May and some other studying that needs looking into, but the temptation to go and do something else less 'studious' creeps in, making it all sort of confusing. It also gives me some sense of suffering a guilty pleasure of sorts to be the only person in the Collegio student, apart from those who are currently doing their doctorate or have finished it, who is free and with nothing much left to work through :-D

Anyway, the days are getting hotter and summer is just about to make its way in, so I might as well 'enjoy' whatever I can from the last months here...

End is Nigh!

2009-04-25T21:18:00.000+02:00

I got back my thesis from my moderator and am now ready to have that bound and submitted by next week. I finished my last few assignments for the semester and now able to concentrate a more fully for the final stretch of exams and the lection cuorom. In short, I am in the final throes of my studies here at the Angelicum and my departure date is slightly more than two months away! :-)

The past week has been a flurry of activity to get those items done up and that accounted for the lack of updates here. My mind had been preoccupied with writing about the 'cost' of grace (if there is such a term) and how the medieval mystics are still able to hold ton to their 'humanness' without compromising on their contemplative lifestyle which they were called to lived out. We are such complicated creatures that comes forth many 'spiritualities' that shows us, in a telling manner, how we manage our desires.

Meanwhile, I am finally putting up a counter that will show the days remaining before I leave this crazy place. Counting down!...

Follow Me...

2009-04-18T11:18:00.000+02:00

Many people seems to be taken up by things that tinkle the senses and furnishes the opportunity to heighten one's presence before others. I am refering to all those sites that promote social networking but I fear, in reality, promote a greater tendency for self importance and maybe, even a hint of self superiority.

Perhaps, on its own, it may be a good tool of communication and form of evangelization in this 21st century where the Net already has set its imprint as too familiar a way of life for most people who have access to it, including myself. I also do not begrudge those who use such forms of communication as a way to form genuine and lasting friendships and communication over the Net or even across continents. However, I am not in any great urgency to make my footprint on the Net any bigger than it already is. In case you do not know, I do value my privacy! Hence, I shun all those sites that entice you to socially network. If anyone would like to be my 'friend' can do so through the 'Follow' button already available on the left column of this dubious blog. That is as far I am willing to enslave myself to this 'social' connectivity....

So, follow away! :-D

Easter Break...

2009-04-17T23:09:00.000+02:00

Just recovering after a 3D2N trip to San Giovanni Rotondo where I went with 3 other friends to visit the shrine of St (Padre) Pio. The photos are already available here!

It was quite fun taking this Easter break and just enjoying the sights of some places, even if that had to be a shrine that seems to be growing in popularity. Rotondo reminded me of Fatima (another pilgrim site I visited 4 years ago) in terms of its ambience and setting: peaceful and not to crowded along the sanctuary area. We went there last Monday and came back on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, I am always a sucker for the underdog and this one is no exception. An ordinary lady (and Catholic to boot!) from Glasgow who loves to sings but never really taken seriously. That is, until now (a little news byte is here). Her performance is on Youtube and this is a real surprise...

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T11:20:00.000+02:00

The Passivity of Christ

2009-04-10T10:49:00.000+02:00

We always seem to have this great need to want to be in total control, don't we? It is a distinctively human preoccupation. There is no greater need for this than during this period in time, when things and events are running out of control and people and world leaders running all over the place to seek answers and solution to the current world's ills. The more control and tighter rules, the better. To some extent, that may be needed, especially to curb our excessiveness and arrogance.

But what about control within the day-to-day living, namely the active state where we are generally in control of our normal lives and busy doing and going about our 'busyness' looking after our families and work or engaging in any other responsibilities within our scope of capabilities? What happens when that control is suddenly taken away from us and we no longer 'call the shots'?

I once had a conversation over lunch with another priest friend about my concern on how the Church is being harassed, 'persecuted' and not given its due respect these days and how the general concensus of what the Pope says concerning certain difficult matters on morals as been slighted, ignored or misunderstood. My friend then said something that struck me like a thunderbolt: "You are not thinking like God does".

Sure, the Church and her members are facing some of the harshest attacks the world has mounted in recent years, but that doesn't mean we are left beaten and lost and the end of the story for all of us. It is in this situation, that the Passion of Christ becomes a significant 'template', as it were, to use in approaching on the direction we should all move. Our God is not a silent God who leaves us on our own. He is in control and He will certainly have the final word. Meanwhile, as we do our part to make the world a better place for all, we must also respect the area of God's work where He will do His Part. Jesus, the Son of God, knew his Father explicitly that he faced his eventual death with a passiveness that made the soldier by the cross later to utter, "Surely, this is the Son of God!" (Mt 27: 54, Lk 23: 47, Mk 15: 38)

For all the activity that we can or should do, we must also allow, for an eventual point in time where we cannot do anything anymore. At that time, God takes over.

It may be about the Church or it may just be someting simple as with our own lives when we begin to lose our faculties and face the eventual end. To understand the Passion through the passivity of Jesus as given in the celebration of Good Friday today would bring us a long way to our understanding of letting go when the time comes. For all that is worth, I believe our Holy Father understands all this and continues on his way to be the sign of contradiction, that Jesus himself was, in the world today.

(update: the people of L'Aquila buried their dead today. We pray for those who have died and that God in his own mysterious ways will enfold and bring them into his kingdom of light and love)

Second Holy Thursday in Rome

2009-04-09T22:43:00.000+02:00

We are starting our Easter triduum already and I did my part by attending this morning's Chrism Mass at the Vatican with the Holy Father, Benedict XVI presiding. I brought along my digicam to take some video recordings of the event but I was seated together with my brother priests from the Collegio, a little to far from the altar and the view was mostly obstructed. The Mass was its usual 2+ hour long celebration, with the mandatory renewal of promise by all priests and the blessing of the Oils. If you look here, you'd probably get the similar idea of what happened at the Basilica of St Peter this morning for the Mass. The only difference is Frs Nick and Paul are not there and homily was on another topic...

Later, I also concelebrated with Fr Julian to celebrate the Mass of the Lord's Supper for our sisters at their chapel this evening at 5.00 p.m. We were wondering if there would be any 'washing of the feet' and how we are to proceed with it, seeing there were only sisters in the congregation. The problem was solved since they (sisters) said that there won't be any washing. :-D

After dinner, Fr Julian and myself took a little walk and journeyed to three neighbouring churches near the Collegio: Chiesa di Santa Maria del Riposo, Chiesa San Pio V and Chiesa San Leone Magno. What was striking in our visits to these churches there as they opened for adoration, were the crowds - mostly elderly and middle aged. Nonetheless, the place was generally filled with people and when there were any prayers going on by a group, it was done in a more quiet, meditative manner that was soothing and serene. It was a far cry from what I would be more accustomed to back in Singapore, where the silence is usually filled by some highly charged activities or singing/praying that reverberated through the church walls. Then again, all churches in Singapore get their usual crowds that would easily beat those churches which I went to earlier, so the increased noise factor isn't too surprising.

That's my round of activity for Holy Thursday and I shall put in a little reflection for Good Friday concerning being passive for the right reason. Have a blessed Triduum!

[picture: Giotto di Bondone (1267-1337), Cappella Scrovegni a Padova, Life of Christ, Washing of Feet]

Tremors!

2009-04-06T10:04:00.000+02:00

I literally felt the earth moved under my feet early this morning around 3.30 a.m.!

The whole room was making some kind of noise and I thought some animal, cat or rat managed to get in somehow and was causing a ruckus. Feeling totally disoriented having to be woken up in this manner, I jumped on my bed and quickly switched on the room lights to checked what was the matter. I then realised the building/room was swaying a little and a low rumble was felt. This went on for about 20 seconds or so and my heart was beating fast. Then it stopped and that was when I decided to get out my room, and so did my next door neighbour and a few more others on my floor. They felt the tremors too!

We were all perplexed as to what was all that about and walking around asking each other about the incident earlier. After a while, we went back to our rooms after seeing how there was nothing more happening, though some did go out of the building a while. I went back trying to sleep but couldn't as I was a little shaken. Before long, it was already time to get up and prepare for morning Mass. That was when the news got in: an earthquake of 6.3 on the Richter scale hit a region near ours, by the east of Rome, in the city of Aquila, killing scores and destroyed thousands of buildings there. News are still coming in about the disaster there.

Meanwhile, for myself, it was quite a new day to wake up to! :-P

update, 7 Apr 2009: latest news on the quake on Yahoo! News and some pictures of the devastated area.

(do pray for the people of Aquila during this difficult and tragic moment...)

Collegio's Palm Sunday

2009-04-05T10:25:00.000+02:00

Palm Sunday and we get through a reading today that recalls the Passion of Christ.

We, at the Collegio had a cool and pleasant morning to enter into the Holy Week with a short procession with palms... er.. olive... branches in our hands as we celebrate the first part with the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. This is my first Palm Sunday, celebrating the occasion in the Collegio. Last year I was at St Peter's Square with the rest of the people (and other pilgrims) joining in the Mass with the Holy Father.

The occasion this morning wasn't as grand and awesome as that at St Peter's, but it was still a good and solemn celebration where I had the opportunity to be with my brother priests as a community of sorts. The sisters who looks after our meals and laundry were also present in their brown habit of the Carmelites.

For the rest of the day, I am still in the early part of our Easter holidays here (2 weeks) and welcome the R&R that is ahead to 'recuperate' awhile...

(more pictures of the Palm Sunday Mass here)

Poor in Spirit

2009-04-04T16:57:00.000+02:00

We are fast approaching the 'hour' and soon all will be transformed, as hinted by the transfiguration on the Mount. Easter will beckon us in its glory, but only after we have gone through the Cross...

Well, 'transformed' as one will be if one has been able to follow the deeper insights of what the forty days of Lent wants to help us dwelve into, especially this particular year when we are faced with such great turmoil from the economic crisis. It is a turmoil enough to make us want to cry out why have we been forsaken. It is a turmoil that forces us to recognise that the glamour of greed is never really good nor acceptable. It is a turmoil that reveals to us our failings and worldly excessiveness for which we need to be accountable for. It is a turmoil where we now need to seek forgiveness and pardon for. For us, the faithful, it is the pardon and forgiveness that we turn to God and to one another.

Looking at this turmoil, it is not so much about giving up or letting go our material possessions, but really an attitude about who God is for us and what have we done with the providence He has abundantly graced us with. A German Dominican mystic, Johannes Tauler (1300 - 1361), has accurately pointed out in one of his sermons for the 5th Saturday of Lent, that

... It is far easier to help and advise the simple, because they do admit their failings and one can give good counsel to those who consider themselves sinful and who live in fear and humility.

It is a question of how much we are willing to strip ourselves of self-love and self-will and be 'poor in spirit'. Much of the world's woes have been the result of our arrogance of doing much of whatever we want just because we can. Time now to step back and take a hard look at ourselves and learn to swallow the bitter pill of humility and let the grace of Easter envigorate us towards a better future where the virtues of faith, hope and charity truly reigns in our daily lives.

Call to Blessedness

2009-03-26T09:37:00.000+01:00

As we come to the halfway mark of the Lenten period, perhaps you may have arrived to a point where you question the meaning and intention of it all because they all seem repetitious (done year in, year out) and nothing has ever changed (all has happened before, and all will happen again?...).

Even when we are diligently working out our Lenten practices, the common idea of putting this sprituality into practice tends to be that of cutting back on something or putting on hold our immediate wants and to be a little more generous in giving, especially to our poorer neighbours, etc. and all with regards the matter of almsgiving, prayer and fasting. For some, this can be seen as rather tiresome to our notion of life, especially when we can, once again, revert back to our so-called normality of living once Easter comes along and these Lenten practices will be put back into the cupboard until the next season comes again. This tension is certainly there, not in a very explicit way, but enough to give an uneasy feeling should you begin to question this practice that prepares Catholics for Easter (and beyond).

I suggest that we can recover the grand vision concerning our Lenten practices in order to see deeper and wider beyond our common understanding of just giving up or postponing our wants or in giving just because we are told to do so.

It starts with our own awareness of our first entrance into the faith at our baptism and our understanding of what this baptism has done for us and how it continues to impinge upon our daily lives even if we are not aware of it. It is simply a call to blessedness and to follow in the footsteps of Christ, the Blessed One. It is simply to live out our own blessedness which prayer, almsgiving and fasting becomes a daily affair without having to count or score points with anyone or with God - you could say, we just count our blessings!

Which is why this video clip is so relevant in our times...

Almost Up!

2009-03-19T10:23:00.000+01:00

Signs that my time of stay here is almost up:

a. summer is coming back and the days are getting longer.
b. hordes of tourists in and around town.
c. buses getting packed and crowded all day (see b).
d. my thesis is done.
e. I received a formal letter from the Collegio (cc'ed to me actually) informing me that my scholarship will end as soon as I finish my course in June and to leave by end of June.
f. The new listing for the students who are coming into the Collegio for the new academic year is up on the notice board (no one from Singapore this time round...)

But I am not complaining! I shall be glad to leave this place as soon as I am finish and done with what I have to do here. I have also managed to book a ticket online through Singapore Airlines which gets me back to Singapore soil on the early morning of Sat, 27th June ;-)

For now, just bidding my time and savoring my last few months of stay here...

We Are Not Clever Dogs or Animals with Bigger Brains!

2009-03-12T12:05:00.000+01:00

Struggling through your Lenten season and feeling a little lethargic and dry by it all? Take courage and hang in there! :-)

Wisdom

2009-03-05T11:24:00.000+01:00

In our Christian faith, wisdom is no stranger to our beliefs and occupy a prominent place in our Scriptures. Wisdom can be seen personified dramatically in a book of its own and reading what it has to offer there through the lens of our faith and with a prayerful attitude will certainly bring about much fruitful insights, where on other occasions these would be skimmed through. Of course, the greatest wisdom the world has ever known and in the flesh is Christ himself and his influence continue to be a point of attention and debate today.

However, in a practical sense, one also possesses the capacity of being 'wise' without the need to proclaim one's creed. This is because this virtue is always available to any one who makes that leap to the do the right thing by other people, to serve and help other people and not manipulate them and to be willing to learn from one's failures - things which persons within the top bureaucratic circles of any big organization (governmental or private) have, most of the time, been clueless about. The mantra that always seem to structure their work dynamics is: we have to follow procedures. Nothing wrong with procedures but overreliance on them breed mediocrity (and manipulation of other, etc) ...

Christ preached, which literally turned procedures (and others liken to it) upside down. Perhaps this Lent, we could ask for the grace of wisdom to help us to do the right thing, at the right place, at the right time, all the time!

Lenten Spirit

2009-03-03T12:00:00.000+01:00

No, I did not spend too much a time gazing for meteors, comets or NEO (near earth objects) to be blindsided by them! :-D

Just that I have been rather lazy again in updating my entries here. It is the whole cycle of going for classes, travelling to the University and back week after week with nothing much to excite or grab my attention. It is also Lent...

Speaking of Lent, the movement of the seasons do give some sense of urgency and change as we move from the cold and frigidity of winter to the bright and cheery (sort of) warmth of spring as summer slowly sets in. While we would not ordinarily grasp the implication in Singapore where the weather mostly stays the same, giving us the seasons of hot, rainy and the Singapore Sale, the change of season here in Rome does make Lent a little bit less tedious.

Which brings me to this thought, which I had earlier shared with a friend on the email, that Lent can give us this great opportunity - not to 'flog' and 'beat' ourselves incessantly with/for/because of our sins, many though they be, but - to offer ourselves to be agents of goodness in making life a little better to people around us (family, friends, neighbours and strangers in need). This I believe, is a much more challenging and concrete manner to grow in the Lenten spirit of prayer, almsgiving and fasting.

Into the Wee Hours....

2009-02-24T04:30:00.000+01:00

I stayed up past 4.00 a.m. today (from 23 - 24th Feb)! Why? See here!...

Basic Posture for Lent

2009-02-23T11:57:00.000+01:00

It is only 2 days away before we enter into the period of Lent once again. For Catholics, it is a period where we would have, just about, 40 days of this season for a spiritual retreat of sorts to get ourselves properly disposed for East er.

Whatever steps or activities that is done or achieved later, it is still important to take note that the basic posture in all of them is one of humility and this attitude of entrustment to the love and care of God. There is a tendency amongst us who would like to think that the more 'good works' we do, i.e. anything that falls under the general category of almsgiving, fasting and prayer, the more 'points' and 'favours' we can score with God and that we have done more than enough on our part with regards Lent and Easter. This kind of attitude is what is called today as semi-Pelagianism. It is simply the denial/rejection of God's grace and to say that we can achieve our 'requirements' solely by our own efforts.

This is perhaps fueled by our own societal approaches towards the kind of reward which follows a work well done, for example in exams, meeting sales targets, service awards, etc. In themselves, they are not wrong and is a way to bring about a sense of achievement and to acknowledge the contribution of an individual or group to the well-being of the community, society, or maybe even the world. However, in Christianity, that is not the end-all. I take the cue from the fourth weekday preface, where it states, "You have no need of our praise, yet our desire to thank you is itself your gift. Our prayer of thanksgiving adds nothing to your greatness, but makes us grow in your grace."

It is simple enough to do what we can during this Lent and to do them in honest love, dropping all those pretensiousness, especially for any spiritual activity we set out to undertake.

Simple Things

2009-02-20T16:25:00.000+01:00

Ah, the weekend is here!

For many, the weekend is an opportunity to slow things down a little after the hectic work week where we give our all (presumably) to either work or study or a bit of both. So, it would be best for one to really use this break to find and reorientate oneself in the midst of all the goings-on in life that is around.

Sometimes we lose our heads trying to make a living instead of starting to live. We forget our center where most of our important priorities are and we get all knocked around by other secondary or less important matter, until we forget where we came from or where we are to go.

My own weekend sort of started on Thursday as I do not have any classes on Thursdays and Fridays, but I do have a full morning class on Saturday this semester. Still, I treasure those off-days as they allow me to take stock of my presence here in Rome and acknowledging with glee that I have 4 more months left before I can take my leave from this place! It is simple things like this that makes all the difference in making my day.

Have a good weekend and cheers! ;-)

(by the way, I managed to check my results online for my 1st semester exams and I passed all my subjects!)

'Knowledge' on FORA

2009-02-17T10:30:00.000+01:00

In continuing the reflection on knowledge, I came across this wonderful video from FORA.tv, whose content and presentation simply engages the ordinary person to the 'bigger' story that is out there in a sense of awe and wonderment.

However, it is the final statement at the end of the video which says it all. For science, in this particular instance, to acknowledge its finiteness in such a humble manner is really a true and honest human gesture which blends very well with our Church's understanding concerning faith and reason.

The video can be accessed here in my astroblog (thought you just get to it instead of searching for it all over the main site).

'Knowledge' on Wordle

2009-02-13T12:30:00.000+01:00

Here's a wordle look at the previous entry and apparently, it got the message! :-D

(click on the picture to see a bigger version)

Double Edged

2009-02-13T12:10:00.000+01:00

If there is anything I can take away from these exams that I have endured so far, it is this: the more I study, the more I come to realise that I do not know. Yes, I have heard this somewhere before and no doubt, you have too. However, the implication that arises from this statement is one for a big pause....

Acquiring knowledge is part of a big thing among young, able-bodied Singaporeans who are in the midst of making a mark in one's life, in society and in the world. So, it isn't strange to note how much hard-work and monetary value one will be willing to put up on any manner to acquire knowledge that will boost one's status in life. There is nothing wrong with doing that in itself. We all have this capacity to form and upgrade ourselves in order to be of use to others and to society at large.

This here, then, is the catch. The knowledge that is gain or acquired must in one way or the other be able to be shared with others, besides ourselves and our families, and eventually leading to the total promotion of truth, justice and peace for all to enjoy. If such acquired knowledge simply serves oneself and demanding the entire universe to circle around one's life, it creates a utilitarian attitude that will serve no one in general and eventually degenerate to a life that hints of arrogance, pride and self-love. Remember, pride was the Devil's fall from Heaven...

Much of the miseries that we have before us in the world today happen to rise from such attitude of arrogance, pride, self love or a little of all of those. We do those things simply because we can and we use all our energy and acquired skills and knowledge to put up an agenda that promotes and serves our own personal needs and never that of our neighbour.

Knowledge is a double edge sword, indeed...

Memory Regained, Sorta...

2009-02-07T22:01:00.000+01:00

You know you have been studying a little too much (actually, how can one study too much, unless you are a glutton for pain?!) or that you have to bear the long and arduous wait of completing the next and final exam while all the rest have ended theirs, is when you begin to have a brain freeze and your mind begins to wander and make nonsensical ramblings like this blog entry....

One of the wanderings let to these Youtube pieces which I had came across in the past but did not pay much attention to despite the fact that the content there were hilarious and poke fun at ordinary life as seen through the eyes of a Filipina (a talented one at that, too). The one below, shows in 3+ minutes why I never have any accounts in facebook, Myspace, or other face-, throat- or my- whatever site, at all! I am already having my life being drained away by managing my email accounts (3, at the last count) and this dubious blog (and 2 others), with no need for any further bloodletting from those social networking sites!

I have also always wanted to know what happens when your GPS system in your car, suddenly decides to be extra helpful and starts to rope in your family to help....

Now, I guess I shall have to continue to wander back to those books piled up on my desk...

(thanks clapping trees, for the jog of my memory in that direction!)

'Free' Time

2009-02-03T21:17:00.000+01:00

If you are wondering about the silence lately by this blog, it is because I am still in the midst of exams and was also taken up by a new operating system (OS) from Linux which I have been playing around the past week on my laptop.

First off, I have already finished two papers and remaining with 2 more to go next week. After all this, the second semester will begin and I will prepare to end my course with another 4 subjects to do. Right now, I have a somewhat long break, which is providential, because it gives me ample time to revise, especially when the last two subjects are a little tougher to handle.

That brings me to the next point, in that I have also been busy with acquainting myself with a new OS that sits side-by-side with my current XP in the VAIO laptop. I have to choose which OS to use every time I restart or boot up my laptop. I have been playing around with the latest release of the Linux-Ubuntu OS and so far I have been very impressed with its clean look, robust handling of the system, user and graphical interface and best of all, it is free! It does have its minor little incompatibilies, like say, with my in-build webcam where I have to run a separate little script file to 'chmod' the video file 'somewhere' to make it work. Apart from that, I could do just about everything I have been doing all this while on the XP system.

A word on the term 'free' as used and understood by Ubuntu in its philosophy. It says:

At the core of the Ubuntu Philosophy are these core philosophical ideals:

1. Every computer user should have the freedom to download, run, copy, distribute, study, share, change and improve their software for any purpose, without paying licensing fees.

2. Every computer user should be able to use their software in the language of their choice.

3. Every computer user should be given every opportunity to use software, even if they work under a disability.

I can't argue with that! This philosophy stands upon and carries a deeper understanding concerning the meaning of the word 'ubuntu' which is a Bantu language of southern Africa. The famous son of South Africa, Nelson Mandela explained it as such:

A traveller through a country would stop at a village and he didn't have to ask for food or for water. Once he stops, the people give him food, entertain him. That is one aspect of Ubuntu but it will have various aspects. Ubuntu does not mean that people should not address themselves. The question therefore is: Are you going to do so in order to enable the community around you to be able to improve?

Basically it is an ethic or humanist philosophy focusing on people's allegiances and relations with each other. Every time I use Ubuntu, I feel as if I am connected in a very special, mysterious way to a community that wants to improve the way we live our lives, and at no cost...

Once again... Happy 'Niu' Year!

2009-01-25T20:30:00.000+01:00

It is Chinese New Year today! So, here is another go at wishing you all the best of the day's festivities can offer. Thanks for all your wishes and prayers too. As for my exams, well, here are the dates so that you can, as someone puts it, "... share in your (my) pain (in spirit) in the midst of our (your) merry making and binging":

Monday, 26th Jan, 10.50 a.m. - Inter-religious Dialogue
Tuesday, 27th Jan, 10.10 a.m. - Mary after Vat II
Monday, 9th Feb, 10.40 a.m. - Methodology on Spiritual Theology
Wednesday, 11th Feb, 10.00 .am. - The New Wine of Dominican Spirituality

Meanwhile, to all Chinese around the world celebrating this festival, have a good one!

(thanks ed and chris for the ecard and link!)

Oxen Trials

2009-01-23T10:31:00.000+01:00

The 1st semester is over and now exams are on the way. I have two coming up on Monday (26th Jan) and Tuesday (27th Jan), which isn't too far away! Following that I have two more on the 9th and 11th February.

While the tensions and stress are there for this necessary exercise of an academic process, I am somewhat philosophical and less pressured by it all, say, compared with my previous experiences with this necessary evil at the last semester. What I am looking forward and beyond all this, is the inevitable completion of my 2-year course here in Rome and the relishing of leaving this place for the sunny island state that is Singapore.

So, for those of you who are celebrating with some measure of gusto and revelry, the Chinese New Year festivities, and the holidays that come with it, remember those who have to bear the strains of studies and exams during this period, in a place where such celebration is non-existent or is muted.

Happy Chinese New Year to those that matter! :-D

Dedication...

2009-01-14T18:13:00.000+01:00

Sometimes, we talked about keeping the faith or being dedicated to living out our lives heroically for a certain cause. But would you do the same thing for a Rubik's Cube - for solving it, that is?

I know, I know. There are people - geeks, children, adults - who have solved the puzzle within minutes, days or weeks. So, what's the big deal in all this? Nothing, really. Except when you have a Graham Parker who finally solved the Rubik's Cube after 26 years of constant cracking at it!

"I cannot tell you what a relief it was to finally solve it," the 45-year-old from Portchester, Hampshire, said. "It has driven me mad over the years – it felt like it had taken over my life. I have missed important events to stay in and solve it and I would lie awake at night thinking about it. 'I have had wrist and back problems from spending hours on it but it was all worth it. When I clicked that last bit into place and each face was a solid color, I wept."

His wife is the real saint here, having to bear the terrible strain that Parker's obsession had put on their marriage. Parker had apparently spent somewhere in the vicinity of 27,400 hours playing with his toy, he claims it drove him mad and took over his life. While Parker wept with joy when he finally cracked the puzzle, I am very doubtful his wife did. But her willingness to stay in that marriage - that is dedication!...

Another dedicated group of artists managed to create art by a public beach guerilla-style. They managed to paint over a plain looking concrete block and changed it into a giant-size Rubik's Cube that now sits along the shore of the Maroubra beach in Sydney, among kids with surfboard, bleached hair and suntans. Apparently, this 'art' was created in the middle of a warm December night (last year), in what has been described as a 6-hour escapade involving two artists and a third "police look out".

Now, if we can translate all these into something more pronounced when we are dealing with matters of our own faith and lives with our God...

Lucky Stars?...

2009-01-09T09:58:00.000+01:00

After a session of about 5 days of retreat followed by the resumption of the classes two days ago, I am back into the midst of an academic endeavour to finish revising whatever I can before the exams come marching in during the last weeks of January. This is also in the midst of the usual classes that continue on unrelentingly.

The only consolation here is that, I am getting closer to the time when I will finish all this and head back for Singapore. This is not much to ask for or bask in, when one considers all the other sufferings and tragedies that are currently besieging the world today. When you consider youself within those who are fortunate to be in a relatively safe and peaceful country of abode, you might say that you are 'lucky'. This got me thinking....

At the recent Angelus (on Jan 1) and the homily during a Mass (Jan 6) in St. Peter's Basilica that celebrated the magi of the east (who arrived to Bethlehem following a star), Pope Benedict XVI mentioned two significant elements which have deep influences in the ordinariness of people's lives that are mostly overlooked.

Firstly, it is this 'lucky' business. The Pontiff had expressed his "fervent best wishes for peace and every good thing, with the grace of God". He stressed that only with this, i.e. grace of God, "we can always hope anew that the future will be better than the past." This simply means that Benedict XVI has rightly affirmed that hope, our hopes for the future, or in whatever useful we are undertaking or going to do, is not based on good luck or the "secrets of the markets," but instead in "we ourselves making the effort to be a little better and more responsible, so as to be able to count on the Lord's benevolence." He goes on to say that, "In Jesus Christ, he has shown to all people the path of salvation, which is above all a spiritual redemption, but which takes in everything human, also including the social and historical dimension." So, if you are in any reason to use 'good luck' in any of your wishes to anyone, just note that how poor and impoverish that greeting is, compared to what God's providence can already give.

Secondly, Benedict XVI affirms that the universe is not governed by a blind force, but by love, and people are not meant to be slaves to the cosmos. The Holy Father noted that 2009 marks the 400th anniversary of Galileo's first observations by telescope. This anniversary has also motivated UNESCO to proclaim 2009 an International Year of Astronomy. In his homily that Tuesday, the Holy Father has rightly placed the science of astronomy in its proper understanding and give askance to the nonsense that is astrology. Benedict XVI emphatically says that "... cosmic elements shouldn't be divinized, but on the contrary, in everything and above everything, there is a personal will, the Spirit of God, who in Christ revealed himself as love," affirming that people are not slaves of cosmic elements, "but are free, that is, they are capable of relating themselves with the creative liberty of God." So, next time you seriously read and follow diligently some horoscope or dwelve into some silly astrology mumbo jumbo, note that how totally impoverish you are compared to the superabundant power of God's grace that is already offered to you.

Whenever we are tempted to 'count on our lucky stars' why don't start to count on God's providence and abundant graces instead...

(thanks to lynette for the final link...)

A Blessed 2009!

2009-01-01T05:01:00.000+01:00

Happy New Year!

We have now crossed over to 2009!

It has already been a little over a year already since I first set foot here in Rome. It seems only like yesterday that I was packing my bags and flying off to the Eternal(ly crazy) City and now I have only 6 more months left before I can finish my tour of duty here and head back to Singapore.

Meanwhile, as we let go of 2008 and look towards 2009, I know for some, it may be an exercise in futility to look or hope for a more peaceful and tranquil year for the world in the midst of all the current strife and killing we see all over. Would 2009 be any different from 2008? Is it going to get worse instead? Is there chance for real peace to come about? Your guess is just as good as mine.

Whatever you may feel about the new year ahead of us, I believe we need to be more positive and constructive about it all and not fall into the trap of letting those bleak scenarios lead us into despair and pessimism. Yes, we all will certainly face some form of trials or difficulties. Perhaps some are already feeling it already. However, I am reminded of a very positive verse which is also abound with truth. It is found in chapter 8 of Paul's letter to the Romans. While he was encouraging them to keep to their faith and to know what life in the Spirit is all about, he ended with this consoling verse:

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8: 38 - 39)

So, keep on to that verse whenever you feel a little down and be assured that eventually all will be set right. We just do the best we can in our own small little way to contribute to make the world a little better place for all.

Have a blessed and fruitful New Year ahead and may the blessing of God's peace and love be with you all!

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T12:19:00.000+01:00

So, we are here and that special day of the Christ child is upon us! However, you may say, "So what's new about it? Isn't this the same, year in year out?" You can go on to say that the very meaning of Christmas isn't there anymore, or you could also wonder what the heck is the meaning of Christmas in the very situation of today's world?...

Those are good questions and there are certainly no easy answers. The situations that have already affected the world's economy and society at large does not give much justice to the words 'Merry' or 'Happy' that precedes the Christmas greeting. So, where do I even start? Perhaps with this one...

The profound clip from Peanuts is the starting point to our Christian appreciation towards the real understanding of Christmas and why it still matters to us today. It is a starting point that speaks of the 'mystery' and wonder of God's presence and activity in our world, a world that seems to be trying hard not to have anything to do with Him. In our race towards technological and scientific advancement, the trend towards being more rationalist that calls for rigorous proofs is the order of the day. Now, don't get me wrong. I am not anti-science. I am a computer science graduate and I know how science and faith can really work hand-in-hand to produce great and wonderful creations that move humanity towards a better life. It is a question of the sense within us of the openness to the mystery and wonder that is all around.

It is this sense that allows us to enquire and see the wonders that is beyond rational but not necessarily nonsensical. Today, we tend to inoculate our senses and yes, our children too, against that sense of mystery, awe and wonder that is necessary to accept the gift of faith in the first place. Our way of catechising in our Sunday classes have the unfortunate tendency of focusing on reasoning about God, using methods that favors the mind more than the heart. For the adult formation, it may also include archaeological finds, anthropological examinations and scientific argumentation. An interesting article here shows what it means to 'see' God and why Christmas is still relevant.

Whatever your own take is about Christmas, it cannot be denied that this celebration continues to be a lightning rod of religious and civil matters which provokes all sorts of reaction. Many, I am afraid, would be like those dwarfs in C.S. Lewis' Last Battle, the seventh and last of the Narnia Chronicles series, who have become cynical and kept themselves from seeing the truth (about the real Narnia), thereby placing themselves in a position to receive no help from anyone (even Aslan).

As I end this Christmas pilgrimage which started with the 'mystery' of the Christ child, I thank you all for your patient generosity in allowing me to ramble on for this long, and all your Christmas greetings too! Do have a peaceful and joyful Happy Christmas and may your New Year be blessed and fruitful!

(a larger view of the pic is here)

S: Advent Losers (or are they?...)

2008-12-23T23:14:00.000+01:00

Now, we are at the final Advent posting just before Christmas! In this entry, we have to speak up for the little guys. Those that have no say in a world that craves for power and might. Yet, the first Christmas message was given to them, the...

Shepherds! They are the ones whom the greatest news in the universe is told to, right after Joseph and Mary: Then an angel of the Lord stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone around them... 'to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord... you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger...' (Lk 2: 9 - 12)

It is said that good guys and the weak never win. They always end up last as total losers. So, to be on top, you need to be ruthless and don't give in to any signs of deficiency or feebleness. Be a Vader and embrace the dark side. I am sure that there are many of us who would be very tempted to do just that, especially when our priorities, whatever they may be, are threatened. We may want to rebel just so we can get what we want and bully our way right through to the top of the heap.

The shepherds have come to symbolised a sign which goes against all the might and the powerful which the world can throw at them. Yes, to be a shepherd is to be no one, nothing. They have no say and play no part in the world's arena of governance and politics of their time. Even in society, they are nobodies. They are the anawim, "the lost and the forgotten ones", to whom Jesus refers in his beautiful beatitudes on The Sermon on the Mount. Anawim is also the plural form of an Old Testament Hebrew word which is variously translated as "poor", "afflicted", "humble", or "meek". But it is to these people that God exalts and have a very special place in His heart.

As we end our Advent journey and get ready for Christmas, we are reminded again to reflect deeply where we stand with our faith. Do we find ourselves constantly wanting to claw our way to the top or do we practice humility which provides the ability to trust in the promise of God; "I will be with you always"? Trusting in that promise is a choice for one who returns good action for evil.

May you have a good, blessed, peaceful and joyful Christmas!

A: Winged Advent

2008-12-22T18:24:00.000+01:00

We have arrived at the penultimate entry before Christmas and about to, also, complete the traditional Christmas novena associated with this Advent preparation for the celebration of the birth of the Christ child. While figuring out which possible item of reflection/sharing to choose for the letter 'A', I have gone through a whole gamut of ideas but kept coming back to this same item.

I thought that it was an overused theme and would not bear a decent consideration or reading here. Yet, the series would not be complete without any mention of them and despite being overused or sometimes made to be overly fantastical or exaggerated, they do bear great tidings for they are...

Angels we have heard on high! Yes, angels are spiritual beings acting as intermediateries between God and men. Our Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) has entries which run from paragraph #328 - #336 and #350 - #352 that speak and teach about angels. In particular, the Church affirms its long tradition of belief that each of us is assigned a personal guardian angel: "From infancy to death, human life is surrounded by their watchfulness and intercession. Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd..." (CCC, #336). So, our belief in angels are not without merit and has always been a part of our faith. The Bible, right from the first chapters of Genesis right on till the very end of the last book of the Bible in Apocalypse (or Revelations), have angels in different forms interacting with God's people. The most well known one, during this period to reflect on, is none other than Gabriel, who was sent to a little town in Nazareth to announce to Mary the news that would eventually change the whole world.

Despite our spiritual and faith understanding of angels, this did not stop the secular world from appropriating angels into a manner that would serve their look and feel in the entertainment business or whatever that suit the circumstances. That is where we get these exaggerations and fantastical ideas and rendition of the hows, whats, whys and powers of the angels. Apparently one can even think of wanting to turn into a human! (after falling in love, that is). Whatever stories that center around angels in this entertainment industry, their depiction or portrayal usually have them with wings, like here and here, just to name a few dramatic ones. This perception may follow that which are already depicted in the arts. Whether they have wings or not, it is important for us to realize that their role and presence in our faith lives cannot be underestimated nor trivialised. A piece here by Joanne Turpin ought to help us get a better grip on who these angels really are for us.

Finally, while I was a hesitant to use this reflection on angels earlier, I was won over by a bookmark, from Blue Mountain Arts, given by a friend recently . On it has a poem by the Blue Mountain resident author and artist Douglas Pagels, entitled "May You Always Have an Angel By Your Side".

There is one already by your side...

M: Advent Maiden

2008-12-21T22:03:00.000+01:00

In choosing a theme for this, I cannot but say, what about...

Mary? In the whole history of salvation, the very name of the young maiden of Nazareth is always never far from the lips of anyone worthy of his or her Scriptural and theological background. The Mary issue has already garnered much heated debate as to her role and importance in the salvific plan of God for his people. The Church honours her and has given her the title of 'Mary, Mother of God and Mother of the Church' which was stamped in chapter 8 of the Second Vatican Council document, Lumen gentium, Dogmatic Constitution of the Church (21 November 1964).

This totally gave a whole new look, feel and understanding to the very appreciation of our Lady. No longer would she be misconstrued or misunderstood as a 'demi-goddess' or having special status which seemed even greater than her Son, Jesus Christ. The document clearly shows that Mary has a special place in our Church's life of faith because she shows us how to be, as a Body of Christ, a disciple (one who listens and do), a virgin (one who is holy and chaste) and a mother (one who is life-giving and caring). Mary can show us the way towards all of this because she was one of us, human herself. Mary also shows us the very promise of our own resurrection, mirrored by her Assumption.

As we make our way through our lives, those three dimensions which the Church sees in our Lady, will inevitably impinge greatly upon our conscience and thinking. These may be having an effect on us now. Whatever it may be, the person of Mary as presented in the Bible (however briefly it may be), honoured and celebrated accordingly in the Church's liturgy and being continually debated and discussed in theological, biblical, ecumenical and inter-religious dialogues, will always have an effect on our own lives as a reminder that we can be far more capable than what we usually think we are in fulfilling God's plan for us and for humanity. It only takes to say, like Mary, a fiat.

T: Advent Trio

2008-12-21T18:56:00.000+01:00

Now we come to the letter 'T'. It is the...

Three Kings! Well, they may not be actually three but let us just go along with the known tradition of these famous 'kings' that came to visit the Christ child, following the star (which was shared in the pre vious entry) that led them to their destination. From them, came the well known gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Now, I am not going into the known stories or legends about these three kings or 'magi' or 'wise men' as they are sometimes refered to. Instead I would like to take you on a little journey onto a less beaten track where the Three Kings could very well signify any one of us!...

This comes in a form of a lesser known poem of T.S Eliot, namely, The Journey of the Magi. Eliot wrote this poem after his conversion to Christianity and confirmation in the Church of England in 1927 and later published in Ariel Poems in 1930. It is an account of the journey from the point of view of one of the magi which carries with it, the themes of alienation and a feeling of powerlessness in a world that has changed. The poem, instead of being a celebration of the wonders of the journey or of creation, becomes largely a complaint about a journey that was painful, tedious, and seemingly pointless. The speaker says that a voice was always whispering in their ears as they went on, that “this was all folly”. The magus seems generally unimpressed by the infant, and yet he realizes that the incarnation has changed everything. He asks:
“. . . were we led all that way for
Birth or Death?”

In this poem, we can feel that the birth of the Christ was the death of Eliot's own world of magic, astrology, and paganism. The poem, in a symbolic way, highlights the recollections of Eliot’s own life that had, at one time, engaged in the primitive and the speaker may very well be Eliot himself.

The speaker can also be one of us. When faced with this question of what do we want to do with our lives, the difficulty of letting go our previous life to engage in a life which the Lord calls us to, becomes apparent. Sometimes when we do make that leap towards that conversion, it does not thoroughly brings about the hope of a new life for us, but instead merely tells us about the hopelessness of the previous life. So, we can become resigned rather than joyous, absorbed in the negation of our former existence but not yet physically liberated from it. Hence that line of question in that poem about 'Birth or Death'. Like the magus who questioned (were they led there for Birth or for Death? Or, perhaps for neither? Or to make a choice between Birth and Death? And whose Birth or Death was it? Their own or Another's?), we are made baffled by the apparent contradictions of it all, and left simply wanting to 'die'. Like the magus, we have reached the end of one world, but despite our acceptance of the revelation as valid (concerning our faith, God and conversion) we cannot gaze into a world beyond our own.

But all is not lost! One of the O, Antiphons which unfolded during this Advent has anticipated all this: O Rising Sun, you are the splendour of eternal light and the sun of justice. O come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. A similar rendition of this can be found in the 4th stanza of the famous Advent hymn O Come, O Come Emmanuel. The Advent preparation towards Christmas and the wearing or use of the penitential colors of purple in the liturgy during this period offers us this opportunity to reclaim our rightful spiritual heritage that the Christ child at Bethlehem wants to give through his birth. Whatever unease that we may harbour, let it be dispersed by the very Light that shines ever on, in leading us into our true, beautiful and authentic self ready to say, Maranatha!

S: Advent Cosmic Adventure

2008-12-20T14:40:00.000+01:00

So, what will the letter 'S' have to offer us today? Snow, sleigh rides, Santa?... None of them. It is going to be quite a cosmic offering that may very well boggle your mind! So, let us hear for...

Star! Ok, apart from the Christ child who is the main star of the coming Christmas celebration, the star here points to an object that is both enigmatic and fascinating. In some ways, it also give us a sense of the immensity of space and time which our puny minds may not be able to grasp even after a quick and dirty guide to any astronomy or physics manual/text books.

I am refering here to the Christmas Star of Bethlehem!

As universetoday puts it: "Regardless of your faith, the story of the 'Star of Bethlehem' is one of the most powerful and enigmatic symbols of Christianity. For centuries, scientists, scholars and historians have debated about the nature of this biblical light that heralded an event. Was it purely a divine sign, created miraculously to mark a special birth? Or was it an astronomical event in its own right?..." It is still a debatable issue and there are many who go with the theory, as there are many who would disagree. The full story (and comments) can be found here.

Our purpose, however, is not to figure out what that Star is originally, but more importantly to figure out what it is saying to us to day and how much we are willing to be led by it. Why do I say that? One of the incongruities that arise from this Star is that, it went before the Magi and led them directly from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. This is a distance of about six miles, in a direction from north to south. However, every natural object in the sky moves from east to west due to the earth's rotation. It also is difficult to imagine how a natural light could lead the way to a particular place of Jesus' birth. What this can come down too is: the Star of Bethlehem cannot be naturally explained by science, it was a temporary and supernatural light. After all, the first Christmas was a time of miracles, right?...

You may still not agree with all of this. That is alright. However, there is still this question of being led by 'the Star' to encounter the Christ in our lives today. God, in the past, has used different means and ways to help guide his people. He has not given up in guiding His people today in the varied means that are naturally and supernaturally open to God and how He chooses to appropriate them. The real mystery today is not about the origin of the star. It is really the question of why the Magi were chosen to follow the light to the Messiah and why we are given the same invitation today...

R and I: Advent Journey Continues...

2008-12-19T17:11:00.000+01:00

Continuing on the Advent journey towards Christmas, today we have the letters, 'R' and 'I'. Here goes...

Rejoice! Why 'rejoice?', you may ask. What's the point of rejoicing when the gloom of the world's crisis have pervaded all sense of our economic and political fabric of our life which has already taken a toll on people's livelihood. This follows from the previous entry which spoke of 'Hope' and where does one places that hope. St Augustine in his Easter homily or message aptly puts across that we, Christians, are an Easter people and 'Alleluia' is our song. Unfortunately, most of us carry our lives around with long faces that drag on the ground. Nothing seems to satisfy or astonish us anymore. We have closed our minds and hearts to the everyday wonder that God wants to show us and even offer us, especially those that can sustain and encourage us to continue to live courageously and holding life's tension in a noble manner, knowing that God is doing the rest for us. We rejoice because God is fighting on our side to give us the dignity of his children that we all are. We rejoice because we continue to possess the freedom to chose to stay sober and never give up our strength to see through another day and grow stronger and wiser by it all. We rejoice simply because we are given the opportunity to fulfil the Beatitudes that bind us closely to our Lord who first taught and lived by their principles to the end.

Invitation is not usually associated with the powerful or a despot. For them, everything will come down to coercion, at best, or forceful oppression, at worse. But for the child in the manger who will grow up to be the Lord and Saviour of all mankind, his style will always be that of a gentle invite into his world where the blind see, the lame walk, the prisoners set free, the hungry fed and the naked clothed. He continues to invite us, even today, to follow through this commitment as his disciples and 'friends'. For many of us, invitation can sometimes be a word that denote a sense of 'whimpiness' or 'weakness'. We want to be more assertive, even to the expense of other people's rights. We push our way through like a bull in a china shop, upsetting and destroying everything in our path. Such is our fallen human nature. The Christ child in the crib that you see in the church or in your homes would give you pause as to how a God that is Almighty, Omnipotent would want to be born as a helpless baby in a manger whose only defence are his parents, and if you follow the Christmas tradition, an ox and an ass/a donkey. This scene certainly is an invitation to ponder the silent power in being meek and humble before the powers of the world that would not hesitate to put it out of existence. The ultimate invitation, however, is that to the Banquet of the Lord where Jesus Christ will be our host. Would you still want to take a raincheck on an invite like that or would you immediately send in your replies in the affirmative?...

C and H: An Advent Journey

2008-12-18T22:49:00.000+01:00

I finished the last class for today and as of now till January 6th 2009 I am on a 2-week Christmas/New Year break. Fun, ya? :-D

Anyway, since we are on our way towards Christmas and there is a well-known practice of having a novena in preparation for the celebration of birth of our Lord, which began some two days ago, I thought I would use the remaining days to Christmas to bring some cheer and hope and not let the gloom and fear that is prevalent in this recent times to be the Grinch that steals the joy and power that is Christmas. I was also encouraged to do something like this because a friend had requested a homily on this blog for Christmas. I thought I would obliged, but not just with a Christmas homily (more on this later) but also some thoughts to the coming event which the Church celebrates in remembrance of God's greatest gift to humanity - Himself.

I am a little behind time with this, so, here's the first two instalment...

Christ is the reason for Christmas. Or so many message of homilies or sermons would say or preached. That is certainly true and would not be a strange phrase to hear for any Christian worth his/her salt. However, saying that is one thing but to really allow that phase sink into your whole being, to begin to grasp its implication for one's life and to savour the deep and profound meaning which can be easily missed is another thing altogether. Without getting all technical and too theological with it all, let us just say that with Christ in the very scheme of our salvation history, God broke into our fabric of time and space and became like one of us, in all things except sin. By doing so, our humanity has been deemed worthwhile and dignified to be divinized. All this done, not by our own merit but because God loves us so much. With and in Christ we are rightly and truly children of God! Have you ever thought, even for a second, what being a child of God is for you? Yet, we can sometimes continue to act and live out our lives as though we are no different than a can of Coke, sold to be consumed and later crushed and disposed of, like the rubbish it really is. Regain the dignity of being a child of God and don't be sell it away for 'thirty pieces of silver'!

Hope is one of the three theological virtues, faith and charity being the other two. In his opening paragraph of his Encyclical Letter, Spe Salvi (on Christian Hope), Pope Benedict XVI writes that "Redemption is offered to us in the sense that we have been given hope, trustworthy hope, by virtue of which we can face our present: the present, even if it is ardous, can be lived and accepted if it leads to a goal... great enough to justify the effort of the journey." The goal of course is eternal life. Depending on how you view the question of Christian hope, it can be life-changing, life sustaining - that is, being a message which shapes our life in a new and creative way - or it can be just "information" which can be set aside and be superceded by more recent information. The current economic crisis, that shows signs of a long ordeal ahead, have already affected many people around the world and has put a heavy burden in many a families. In this situation, it is easily to lose all hope or to feel as if all is lost. Much of our problems tend to come from our perception of having all our hope lie in wealth and power which has ultimately failed us and failed us horribly. Christian hope, on the other hand, is a Biblical hope in the Kingdom of God, not hope in the kingdom of man. This Christian hope is something infinite, something that will always be more than we can ever attain, because we are created for the infinite! While we may need greater and lesser hopes to keep us going day by day, these are not enough without the greater hope that surpasses all, namely God who can bestow upon us what we, by ourselves, cannot attain. What we hope in, will tell us whether we have 'place our bets' in the Kingdom of God or in the kingdom of man. Which will it be?...

Advent and Lucy

2008-12-13T10:24:00.000+01:00

We are now right smack in the middle of Advent and St Lucy (Lucia) reminds us about the frailty of life and the courage to face our trials despite the odds. It is odd to mix such sombre sentiment within the season that is moving towards the celebration of joy and peace. Nonetheless, Advent is a reflective period which the Church provides her faithful to consider upon the real meaning of life and where our priorities is to lie, namely in Christ Jesus.

It would be priorities that do not take things and people for granted.

There are many Christmas wish lists that can be seen all over, but, I dare say, there are none that really addresses the inner desire of anyone. With all the crisis we hear and see happening all over the world, be it economic or political, it would be too easy to soothe our fears and immediate needs with things that can help us forget our miseries for awhile.

We need to go beyond our comfort zones to see a greater need for that wholesome transformation which is more permanent. It is said that St Lucy is the patroness of eyesight. Perhaps, we should ask for a more discerning eye to the life we lead in our wish list and request St Lucy to pray for us...

See Previous...

2008-12-07T12:41:00.000+01:00

... oh! if you want to know what utter craziness of Italy is all about, well, consider the following. Their word for 'retreat' and 'advance/forward' is one and the same - 'Avanti!'... *shakes head*

Advent Ramblings

2008-12-07T11:55:00.000+01:00

The sun's out this morning but the air is still a little chilly.

As we moved into the 2nd Week of Advent, the surroundings of the Collegio begins to take a semblance of the Christmas festivity. They have put up a grand tree by the corridor entrance and several Santas could be seen hanging, one on the corridor lamp and another by the entrance to the refectory. Inside the refectory, they have decorated the place with some golden streamers and a medium size tree is placed in the middle with some half-finished decor which, I presume, would be more complete as we get closer to Christmas.

The crib will be put out later, I think next week, and that should balance the commercialised decor already prevalent around the Collegio. It is still a little strange, though, why we would go to an extent of using more secular decor rather than more Christian ones first, in a pontifical college as as this. Even one or more of the Christmas Christian symbol from any one of the mission country used would be a much better substitute than the overused secular ones (Santa, snowman, snowflakes, etc).

Anyway, I have no plans to travel anywhere outside of Italy this Christmas, except to a place up north for a few days with some priest friends sometime in the days after the 25th December. (more on this later) It is always a good and normal practice for me to just enjoy the holidays, in Italy, by just staying close to one's abode and experience the quiet and solitude it can offer despite this being in a place of utter craziness...

Have a good Advent and catch you along the way towards Christmas!

Tragedy

2008-12-06T11:20:00.000+01:00

It has been quite difficult the past week to penned any entry here because I couldn't find the proper words to relate to the series of events and experiences that unfolded which were tragic and sudden.

It began with my previous entry about not being safe anywhere in the world anymore, in the wake of the Mumbai attacks. This was followed later by the news of a Singaporean being killed in that attack. I found out, to my utmost surprise, that she was the wife of a former catechist I knew in my previous parish of Holy Family! Suddenly a face in the news began to take on a sense of urgency and familiarity which I haven't experienced before. It is as though someone in my family has died. Though I have never met Hwei Yen personally before, I knew Michael enough to know that he literally worshipped the ground that she walked on and to loose her suddenly like this, in such a tragic manner, is certainly devastating. CWM has some insightful thoughts on this, especially on the couple, himself a friend of Micheal and a parishioner of Holy Family, which says a lot for the love lost in a, somewhat, cruel manner.

Hwei Yen who died at such a young age of 28, prompts one to sober up quickly and pause a while to think on the magnitude of the loss. That she had a full life ahead of her, tragically cut short, and possessing a disposition that saw her as a bright, sensitive and loving person, makes her death all the more heartbreaking.

Like CWM I have no straight answers as to why this thing can happen to someone who was utterly unfortunate to be at the wrong place, at the wrong time.

No Safe Places....

2008-11-27T21:02:00.000+01:00

The recent militants' attack in the city of Mumbai, which was all over the news headlines on TV and papers today, is a stark reminder that the scourge of violence and terror never really went away despite numerous efforts to keep it contained or to eradicate it.

Will we ever see the end of such strife and violence?

Today, perhaps more than ever, there aren't any place in the world which is safe any longer. Terror seems to have gain an upper hand with shooting, killing and bombing being the order of the day. Human lives are no longer sacred but becomes statistical figures in the charts of the dead, wounded and maimed. This escalation of violence and terror show a disturbing trend in the world, that want to assert their place in the political arena, at the expense of lives of innocent people and those caught in the crossfire.

In the midst of all this, one can't help but intuit that the only group of people (war merchants?) who have benefitted from all this are those who deal in selling weapons to whomever wants them, whether for nefarious means or for a country's security. No amount of economic crisis will ever threatened their ricebowl and with wars and terrorism sprouting everywhere, these guys are really, in a perverse sense, laughing all the way to the bank...

Asian Mission...

2008-11-26T17:23:00.000+01:00

We had our Collegio Mission's day last weekend...

It's that time of the year, usually on the last Sunday of the liturgical year (Christ The King), where the folks here bring out their country's image in a form of an exhibition stand.

We have many priests(-students) here who hail from various parts of the world, where most of them are from the African continent. We also have those from India, Vietnam and some from South America. One mustn't also forget yours truly from that little island state of a red dot we call Singapore!

So, I joined forces with the Malaysian and came up with a decent exhibit display of our own. We had displayed just about all we could get our hands on, namely from previous years and complemented others from the Internet. What was lacking and our greatest wish was a real DURIAN that we could offer to any brave person who dared to take it! Instead, we gave out durian flavoured sweets...

More pictures here!

Chicken and Duck Talk!

2008-11-18T20:47:00.000+01:00

Living in a Collegio such as I am now offers some peculiar and yet fascinating encounters you would never get anywhere else. One of which, I will call the true blue 'chicken-duck talk'.

I was walking back to my floor which was upstairs from where I was and bumped into a priest-friend who is from Venezuela (South America). He was in the same batch of sorry students, like myself, who came to Rome last year for our studies. His mother tongue is Spanish and even with the Italian language course, which we all had to go through for 3 months in Terni (north of Rome), still speaks Italian with Spanish all mangled in together.

He was describing to me his experiences in a parish he went to for the summer break, some months back, where he had the opportunity to watch some satellite tv and tuned into the History Channel. As he was speaking in his usual Spanish-Italian mangled parlance, my mind was dissecting his speech trying to make sense of his Italian with my own basic understanding of that language and guessing a lot with his Spanish, where my only basic appreciation of it were 'hola' and 'buenos dias'. So, you can imagine my mind racing away with a feat of mental gymnastics even Nadia Comenaci would be proud of!

I managed to decipher that he was captivated by the History Channel's documentary on the history of space and the universe, which reminded him of the time when he had used my telescope during one clear and cool night in Terni last year. He also mentioned about the Big Bang, Einstein and Galileo. My priest friend, whom we had nicknamed as 'Maestro' (actually his name is Wolfgang Gonzalez), then went on to talk about the origin and the power of oil in the world today. Explaining that it came from the fossils of long dead animals which included the dinosaurs, he took out his little handphone with a plastic covering saying that this was made from the dinosaurs, because oil is used as one of the ingredients to convert to plastic (or something like that). I was too polite to laugh out loud at this, though he was, in a way, quite right. All this while, I was nodding and saying 'si! si!' with a smile and an occasional small comment in my poor Italian to indicate that I was following his train of thought.

At the end of it all, when we parted ways, I was wondering who was the chicken and who's the duck....

Great and Good News...

2008-11-16T11:54:00.000+01:00

I was reading up some news on the recent completed synod on the Word of God and came across this item about one of its propositions that is to be considered for the post-synodal document to be done later by Pope Benedict XVI (and also for steps in making the Word more accessible and relevant to our times).

It is Proposition 16, where the bishops asked for a review of the current Lectionary that we are using now. The question brought forth was: "Is the current selection and ordering of readings... truly adequate to the Church's mission in this historical moment?" The bishops were pondering whether the Old Testament could do with a little more attention.

This is a good question and also a very pertinent and fascinating one.

It is a good question because, it carries with it this sense of a need for people today for divine transformation and not just for intellectual answers. This is because the amazing anthology of books and letters we call the Bible is all for the sake of astonishment. The biblical revelation invites us into a real and new experience! Our problem is that we have made the Bible into a bunch of ideas, about which we can be right or wrong, rather than an invitation to a new set of eyes. In doing so, most people don't see or even expect anything good or new from the momentous revelation exuding from the Bible. We don't really believe that God could naturally know and love what God has created (us, too) or that we could actually love (or even like) God back. However the great wonder of the biblical revelation is that God is much different and better than we thought! God is not bad news but, in fact, overwhelmingly comforting and good news.

This is where the Old Testament comes in and the pertinent and fascinating part. The theology that spans the entire Hebrew Scriptures speaks about the "credo of five adjectives". This God that Israel (and Jesus) discovered is consistently seen to be: merciful, gracious, faithful, forgiving and steadfast in love. Sure, when we do ever even glance at the books of the Old Testament section, we can just wish that they could offer us some kind of "7 habits for highly effective people": just give us the right conclusions. Instead we have to plough through all those books of Kings, Leviticus or Chronicles. Then we have to read about the wars, weak and sinful people and kings, the killings and many other colorful scenes there that seemingly flaunt themselves against all manner of common sense, ethics and moral judgement that we (people of good will) hold on to today. We can also ask what is all of this in those books of the Bible got to do with anything that matters today?

This is why a lot of people tend to give up on the Bible and some don't bother with it. But, when we allow the texts of the Bible and especially those in the Old Testament to help us build an inner experience of how God works in our lives, we will begin to see how the texts charts our own human travail, tribulations and frailties. They offer us both the mature and immature responses to almost everything within the rhythm of human life and experiences, and we have to learn to know that difference. In life, there is no straight line to God, even though many of us wish and have been told that it should be.

In the Old Testament, indeed in the Bible, we see God using the wounded lives of very ordinary people who could never have passed the tests of the Roman canonization process for saints we have today. Moses, Deborah, Elijah and Esther were all, at least, involved directly or indirectly in murdering. David was both an adulterer and a liar. We have 'neurotic' prophets in the likes of Ezekiel, Obadiah and Jeremiah and an entire history of ridiculously evil kings and warriors. Yet, all these are the ones God works with!

From what we can glance at the Old Testament passages, we see that the Hebrews did not repress their reality. They did not distance themselves from their own contradictions or the contradictions of life, from the horror and pit of human history, i.e. harsh realities already presented in the stories of Job, their own experience of exodus and exile, and their constant invasion or occupation by foreign powers. Thus, the genius of the biblical revelation gives us permission to acknowledge concretely our own story at all levels and parts of our lives and experiences today, so that God will use all of these (yes, even the negative ones) to bring us to life and love. It is about transforming history and individuals so that we don't just keep handing the pain onto the next generation.

That's really great and good news!

(the reflections here were a collage of ideas and sharings from "Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality" and "Theology of the Old Testament")

Brrr....

2008-11-15T11:27:00.000+01:00

The sun is shining weakly outside. The clouds are making their presence prominently in the sky as they weave by, covering the sun now and then. The cold sets in as winter get to move in on us day by day. When the wind blows, it gets awfully cold and biting and the warmth of the bedroom is a small consolation for one who is not usually used to having to deal with a season like this.

I have to wear socks now on my feet even when I am in my room to keep them warm as possible. Having to also wear triple or quadruple sets/layers of clothing is the norm now. When it is time to go outside and brave the cold or rain (which happens often), I dread the journey which have to be made to the University and back for the sake of classes. It gets even dreadful should I have to attend a late evening class when it is also dark, rainy, cold and wet outside :-P uurgh!

The heaters in our rooms and around the Collegio will come on next week and we should be much more at ease from the cold that is slowly encroaching. The strange thing is that this heater thingy is government controlled and follow a certain regulated timing for their usage. It doesn't come on 24 hours daily (or close to that) but at certain strategic times in the day and a little more in the evening. Some smart fellows here overcame this by purchasing personal portable heaters and put them in their rooms. Unfortunately, their smartness overlooked the poor wiring system in the Collegio and these devices tend to overload the electrical system and we get 'trips' and blackouts now and then. The word just went out to all of us to refrain from using these portable heaters and to wait for the main heaters to come on next week.

So, meanwhile, we get use to the cold and endure the shivering in the night as we say hello to winter!

(I was fortunate to have a Sister from the laundry department giving me an unused comforter/quilt which was lying around. It is now being utilised well as an item that warms my bed as I go off to sleep... )

44

2008-11-09T20:57:00.000+01:00

It has been three days since I turned 44 and it became apparent to me that the number of my age is seen as something of a 'bad luck' in the tradition of Chinese superstition. Rendered in the Cantonese dialect, it literally means 'die, die'!

For me, however, because I never really bothered with such irrational fear of the unknown, there is only one way I see those numbers speak at this day and time that I am currently studying in Rome: die, die I must get back to Singapore by June 2009!

Over here are listing of some significance of the number 44. None about the Chinese superstition, though. Come to think of it, the president-elect, Barack Obama, is going to be the 44th President of the United States! Now, there's a lot of fodder you can cough up to use for another round of conspiracy theories...

Birthday Suspicions

2008-11-06T07:58:00.000+01:00

I went for morning Mass today, being my birthday and all, to give thanks to the Almighty for my continued existence and for all the abundant blessings received. I had almost wanted to sleep in late and celebrate Mass on my own later as I have no classes in the morning. Anyway, it is a practice for the community here to mention those who have birthdays or anniversaries of their sacerdotal ordinations at the intercessions during Lauds (morning prayer) that is incorporated with the Mass.

Well, my name was mentioned as 'Ong, Aloysius', having a birthday today, in the usual manner. However, it was only during breakfast later when another fellow priest came to wish me Happy Birthday that some more other priests realised and came over to greet me too. One even asked if an intercession was made during Mass because he did not hear it.

So, this confirmed my following suspicions:
a. Most of us (sometimes, myself included) tend to sleep through the Mass, especially the morning ones.
b. Many of us (again, myself) have not known many of our fellow priests despite living under the same roof for some time (with about 200 of us, it really is quite a challenge to know all well enough).
c. The intercession made can be too garbled to be understood (it happens sometimes as the acoustics in the chapel is horrible).
d. The Italian language is still very foreign for many of us (it would be, if you are forced to undergo it under duress of sorts).

God bless you all and have a nice day ahead! :-D

(pic from humancalendar dot com)

Yes He Did

2008-11-05T22:05:00.000+01:00

Well, I have lived through history in the making. I get to experience America vote in their first black African-American president.

This is something that can only happen now in America, after struggling with racial issues for a long time now. The catchphrase from the Obama camp has reached its climax with the day, 4th November 2008, when Obama brought to fruition his intention to become the 44th President of the United States: Yes, we can! It was mentioned that at class, when he was just a young boy then, he was asked what he wanted to be when he grows up and he answered - President of the United States. Shows you just how much determination and hardwork can get a person to become what he truly wants and strives for.

More than his determination and, not to mention his intelligence, is Obama's 'common sense' as mentioned in this interview on CBS by Maya Angelou, author and poet. The next 100 days into this presidency will see how much of that common sense will be able to pull the American people, and the other countries which America influences, towards a future where new opportunities can be made to sow peace, justice and a profound understanding of humanity that still struggles to know itself.

Hmmm... now, do I get to see a first black, African Pope in my lifetime then?.... :-D

Lazy

2008-11-02T11:03:00.000+01:00

Lately I have been staring into a blank piece of editing space, cracking my brain as to what I should write from the myriads of thoughts and images that run riot through my mind. This has made any blogging quite a uphill task.

Hence, the sharp drop in the recent availability of entries here lately.

That's not to say I have nothing interesting to speak about. I am sure I have plenty to share should I take the time to pick through those items lying around in my head and put them down in writing. Herein lies my problem. My mind has been proccupied with other matters that have caused some amount of distraction and anxiety, creating a pseudo writers' block.

Much of that distraction comes from my concern in not being able to focus properly on what needs to be done first and ending up doing nothing much. A sense of lethargy and procrastination creeps in to undermine further the situation at hand. I know I have that seminar paper to prepare and that thesis amendment (minor) to look into. Not having the urgency, thus far, to do either is causing me some frustration.

I have about an hour plus before I go for lunch. Maybe within this time, after I am finished with this I could make some headway as to what I should put down for my seminar paper. Or not! It has been a lazy day...

Catholic Carnival: The 196th

2008-10-29T17:37:00.000+01:00

Here are some rounds of insight into the various Catholic blogs around the blogosphere - carnival style!

(erm... I am on it over there!)

Can't Wait

2008-10-26T16:39:00.000+01:00

We just turned back our clocks today by one hour. That means the time difference between Rome and Singapore is now 7 hours instead of 6. This is the usual time adjustment which this part of Europe undergoes as it heads towards winter.

A friend commented that it would have been easier to just get up or start doing whatever that we have to do (get to work, school, etc), one hour later from the usual time. This beats physically changing all the clocks or watches you have! :-)

The only thing that hasn't change is my course schedule which would start again as the week begins anew tomorrow (it's Sunday evening as I write this). That means the usual traffic encounters, jampack buses and weathering the cold everytime I head out to the university. :-P

Some 8 months of this and I can say goodbye to all this for good. Can't wait...

Laughter Pt II

2008-10-21T17:24:00.000+02:00

It's an old piece but nicely goes with the one previously shared (thanks, L.A!):

Laughter Is Still the Best Medicine!

2008-10-20T21:28:00.000+02:00

It's been a little over a week and I have already begun my classes...

My schedule is somewhat lighter this semester as I have finished almost all the major courses last year and now can enjoy the fruits of a lesser stressed timetable. Meanwhile, I have a class on Dominican spirituality entitled "The New Wine of Dominican Spirituality: A Drink Called Happiness". My class professor for this subject, Fr Paul Murray, O.P., is also the author of the book of the same name, which is the reference text for the class lessons. If there is an apt review for this class it would come from the Angelic Doctor himself, St Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican too, who said that if a person in incapable of saying something funny, that person is morally unsound! Alright, I am paraphrasing too much here, but you have that quote in his Summa Theologica, II-II, question 168, article 4. Furthermore, we even have G.K. Chesterton mentioning that angels can fly because they can take themselves lightly.

What I am getting at here is, the need to NOT take ourselves too seriously! What is happening these days is that we take ourselves too seriously, when we should be taking God more seriously instead. This is also commented by the celebrated Catholic theologian, Han Urs von Balthasar who mentioned that those who are extreme progressives or extreme conservatives (those group of people who are at the ends of the spectrum), both tend to be fault finders, grumblers and think that they have the monopoly of infallible judgment - in short, they are fanatics!

What Aquinas, Balthasar and Chesterton are saying is that light-heartedness and humour do have a place in our Catholic tradition! Our moral life must be more able to be open to the rubrics of happiness. What we see more often is the influence of the rubrics of obligations instead. No wonder we never always look redeemed! Perhaps that may be one of the 'push' factor that discourages potential candidates to the priesthood. If we paint a morose and sombre picture of the priestly vocation, intentionally or unintentionally, we lose their interest, perhaps even scare them away!

Speaking of vocation and humour, here is another person who found his happiness and having a chuckle or two at the expense of the Wall Street traders. Henry Quinson, abandoned his life as a high flying Wall Street trader to join the Trappist monks at a cheese-making monastery in the French Alps at age 28. That was 20 years ago. Today he works as a schoolteacher, lives among the poor in France's multi-ethnic city of Marseille and looks at the financial crisis convulsing markets worldwide with detached amusement. When asked about the recent economic turmoil, he said, "I told everyone who asked me a year ago to get out of stocks. I don't know if they listened to me." He goes on to say, "Today, my annual teacher's salary is about the same as a monthly bonus I was earning as a trader. But I have much more power as a teacher than as a trader. Education is the only true wealth" (full story here).

So, be good, but don't forget to laugh once in a while!

Transient vs Essential

2008-10-11T10:31:00.000+02:00

A gospel commentary for the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, by the Pontifical Household preacher - Father Raniero Cantalamessa - has this to share:

"You go through life chasing after the thousand little things and never find time for the things that truly impact human relationships and can give joy (or deep sadness when neglected) in life. Thus, we see how the Gospel is, indirectly, a school of life; it teaches us to establish priorities, to attend to what is essential. In a word, to not lose the important for the sake of the urgent as happened with those who were invited to the wedding feast in our parable."

In a country like Singapore, this commentary can certainly be an accurate rendering of the kind of lifestyle which tends to rein over the families (generally) - we spend too much time chasing after little things.

The recent meltdown of the major banking institutions, which now led us to a worldwide recession, has also shown us how much we have ran after amorphous and fleeting values that the economy was put to built upon which eventually collapsed under its own weight of deception. It's utterly incredible how much trust we can put upon such ephemeral objects when the ones that truly matters, that stand right in front of our eyes, that live under the same roof and seeking attention and care, can sometimes be ignored!

"I said that the danger of neglecting the important for the urgent is also present in the human sphere, in everyday life... It is of the utmost importance that a man dedicate time to his family, be with his children, talk to them if they are grown, play with them if they are little. But then at the last moment there are always urgent things to deal with at the office, extra things to do at work, and he puts it off till another time, returning home too late and too tired to think about anything else."

It is familiar setting and one which unfolds everyday in many homes of our friends, neighbours and, perhaps even in our own family. The cost of neglect in families can be devastating and one which no bailout can provide, nor soothe. There is already a prominent shift in the way the world is heading, politically, economically, socially and technologically and how societies are coping with these global changes. In the midst of all these fluctuations, one thing has remained constant - this need to chase after the transitory at the expense of the essential. Hence the parable of the wedding feast in the 28th Sunday's gospel of Ordinary Time is the Word most fortuitous to take with us this coming week as we ponder our priorities and see how they affect our religious and human sphere of life.

The Carnival Is On!

2008-10-08T08:13:00.000+02:00

Another new edition of the Catholic Carnival just came on! Check it here.

If you want to contribute, you can go here for submission. Have a great day ahead! :-)

Feeling Buoyant!

2008-10-06T11:01:00.000+02:00

Aaahhh... one more week before my classes begin for the new academic year!

Meanwhile, the weather here has been getting colder as the weeks go by signalling the return of winter. The rains that dropped in now and again make the day a little more colder and wet! But I am not put down by all this, simply because I am now in my final year and can look forward to the day when I shall complete my tour of duty here and get to go back to Singapore later next year.

That thought has begun to bouy my spirits somewhat in a manner that I don't feel to down or burdened, say compared to the first few months when I arrived here last year of July. I have now gained a little more insight to this crazy city and able to cope with its peculiarities. Then there is this 'upgrade' that shows I am a 'senior' amongst the newbies that arrived recently and now moving into the 1st year studies. No, I don't bully them. It's just this understanding that I can help them get use to this place and acquainted to the style of living in this crazy city... :-D

mea culpa....

2008-09-30T10:49:00.000+02:00

I came to know of the new website of the Archdiocese of Singapore recently and surfed there to get a look at how it is.

I like the new layout and a better presentation of items there which takes one to the needed information within one or two clicks. Its look is much more breezier and lighter, easy to the eyes compared to the previous which was staid, uninteresting, too cluttered and always out-of date. However, I am rather puzzled and amused by one glaring omission on one particular information page (of the new website) which left me somewhat nonplussed. The page is here. Go take a look! I don't know if they have amended that item yet, but do you see anything strange there?.....

If you managed to catch the problem, congrats! We'll have kopi kau and kaya bread later and talk about the theological issues of the priesthood and why vocations in Singapore is moving at a snail's pace.

If not, well, never mind! We can still have our kopi kau and kaya bread later and talk about Clone Wars and wonder if Ahsoka has any connection with Shaak Ti and why George Lucas is giving me a headache with his prequels, sequels and pre-prequels.

Nonetheless, I would love to hear from you what you think should be done to address that problem. No, I don't want to inform the webmaster of that site just yet. It's more fun to keep it that way for awhile ;-) So, comment away... :-D

update (1 Oct 2008): aaww shucks! the webmaster has known of the omission and has already corrected it (thanks, medona). well, it was fun while it lasted. For a while, I though I could get away with being a non-entity and nicely slip away into the shadows... :-D

Back Where I Began

2008-09-28T21:09:00.000+02:00

I am now back and nicely sequestered in the Collegio after the summer's absence from here.

It took me these two days to unpack and tidy up my room before I can be satisfied with it being a temporary haven of home-way-from-home and a personal space I can call my own. Most of the stuff have been done up and after some back breaking moments of carrying and lifting, it's all completed.

Both the Convitto and the Collegio are different environment and setting, yet they both represent a place that allowed me to express some personal part of myself which continues to survey the journey of my faith and just how much I have responded, in kind ,to the experiences that they had brought about.

Back here at the Collegio now, I have this sense of excitement of the anticipation that points to the end of my studies come June 2009. While waiting for classes to begin, of which I'm not holding with bated breath, I am allowing the time to teach me also some patience and care. Patience to help me bear with the rigours of the studies later and for the people around, and care not to make life difficult for anyone unnecessarily, whatever that may be. Most of all, it is to be positive in all of this.

Convitto Farewell

2008-09-27T07:24:00.000+02:00

It's a familiar picture. Another chapter ends as one more begins...

I leave the Convitto this morning in a few more hours and my things are all packed and ready to go. Soon I will be back at the Collegio and awaiting for the semester to begin. Mixed feelings and some anxious anticipation run through my thoughts as this transition of the day slowly unfolds.

It's the weekend, I'll take it easy and so should you my friends. :-)

Summer's End...

2008-09-25T21:42:00.000+02:00

I can breathe a sigh of relief, now that I have finally registered for the courses of the coming academic year 2008/09... *whew* :-)

The past few days have been rather anxiety-filled with the thoughts of packing that needed to be done before I leave the Convitto and head back to the Collegio, registration for courses at the Angelicum and clearing a few other administrative things along the way. Now all the major work is done and I can concentrate more on the packing while waiting for Saturday where I leave for the Collegio.

Looking back at the past months and those times when I have been staying at the Convitto, I can't help but feel much grateful for the experiences and time I have spent here. I have made new and good friends, learnt of a good gelato stand, gotten used to celebrating the Masses in Italian, enjoyed the view of cluttered Rome and the night sky from the terrace and visited other fascinating tourist sights around the Angelicum/Convitto area.

More importantly, I managed to complete my draft thesis which I had set out to do and learnt to accept my temporary exile in a place that I thought would be deserted and devoid of the presence and rhythm of people and life. Now that I have to prepare to leave, I have a tinge of sadness of leaving behind friends and the conviviality of this place that, while not entirely perfect (then again, where in Rome, is any place perfect?), made my living here pleasant, peaceful and enriching.

I carry with me these special memories of my summer break here in the Convitto and may they continue to help me learn to be a better Christian.

Tour Guide

2008-09-23T14:18:00.000+02:00

I have been busy the past week because I had to play tour guide to some friends from Singapore who made a week's stop in Rome.

Needless to say, I had quite a time with them taking them around to see the sights and sounds of this so-called Eternal City. We did lots of walking around the area within the vicinity of the Convitto where I am staying (till this coming Saturday, 27 Sept) and where they were also putting up. So, it was the Trevi Fountains, Spanish Steps, Colosseum, Roman Forum, Basilica of St Peter of the Chains and Circus Maximus (where the chariot races used to be held).

I also brought them to the Vatican to catch the St Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museum. Along the way, there were pizzas, gelato and the crazy people of Rome which they slowly came to get used to. We had also opportune time to get ourselves into a Chinese restaurant (Grand Dragon) to savour their authentic Hong Kong cuisine! Frs Julian and Michael also helped and did their part to bring our visitors around that made the occasion and the company much more enjoyable and exotic. Imagine speaking and joking (making fun of the Italians, mostly) English, Mandarin and Cantonese in the midst of the Italians all around us... :-D

The visitors have since left for Florence (aka Firenze) to continue their rest of the trip while, now, I remain in the Convitto to rest and catch my breath from all that walking about the past week!

Soon, I will start my new academic year within a few weeks from now. That makes it closer to the time where I shall complete my tour of duty here and then head back - for good! :-) For now, I am just going to enjoy the rest of my remaining hols and just relak! ;-)

(pic above: from left - Christine, Pauline and Desiree. a big thank-you to all who have given me goodies and such which our friends from singapore brought to me!)

Side Trip & 'Carnival'

2008-09-23T13:53:00.000+02:00

Earlier last week, when I had some time off after finishing my draft thesis, I joined up with Frs Julian, Michael and three other nuns and when for a day trip to Lanciano where the site of the Eucharistic Miracle is situated.

The trip was pleasant and the company fun as we travelled by bus that was about an hour and a half ride there. When we arrived at our destination, the day was a little cloudy and it did drizzle a little but eventually the weather cleared. We had the opportunity to visit the church where the Lanciano miracle was housed and together with the other tourists there, took some pictures and prayed by the shrine. It was a relaxing outing and a good time well spent!

Meanwhile, on an informative note, here's a little 'carnival' which I participated in, so check out the items! :-) It may eventually replace my own CatholiCircus later... :-)

Have a good week ahead!

(pic - Fr Julian with Sis Salve and Sis Frances and the residents of Lanciano)

All is Well...

2008-09-14T18:31:00.000+02:00

I have been putting off, for several days now, doing an entry because I haven't found a significant thought to anchor upon, among all the other experiences that came and went during the past week.

I have been blessed with the situation of having finished my draft thesis, which went according to my summer holiday plans. That had taken some amount of thinking through and research, but the smoothness at how it all came together to form the draft I have now had been a very pleasant surprise. Right now, I have to wait for my moderator to go through it and, perhaps, it is this waiting period that can be quite an anxiety. That's because I don't really know how it will turn out.

Then there is the little political uncertainty and tension going on back in Malaysia where my family still resides. I send my brother an email to enquire if they are all well and whether they are threatened in any way by the recent happenings there. I received a reply a few days later saying that they are fine and all is as per normal. My brother is just a little miffed with the way the government is handling things. I don't blame him...

Later, I happened to flip through a daily devotional booklet which a friend passed on to me and I glanced upon an entry there that said, "Never falter, go forward so boldly, so unafraid. I am beside you to help and strengthen you. Wonders have unfolded. More still will unfold, beyond your dreams, beyond your hopes. Say 'All is well' to everything. All is well."

There's much comfort in those words. It is not so much that the words are piously devotional that make them soothing. It is more that they coincided with today's gospel's assurance that is enclosed in a statement that contains the very love of God for us and the reason why He wants to be with us. Our challenge today is simply to believe. On a wider scope of things, it also points to the call of our Holy Father who encouraged the more than 150,000 followers at mass this Sunday in the French shrine town of Lourdes to hold firm in their faith, telling them "love is stronger than evil" on the occasion of the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

I know there are events and happenings occurring elsewhere all over the world, even as I write this, whose situation may be much, much worst than mine. So, I really have no cause for complaint but to be more mindful of my place in the here and now and offer a helping hand to whomever in need and whenever possible.

Not Many Words

2008-09-10T18:39:00.000+02:00

No words enough to say what this day can mean to many. So, here's just this page....

Fundamental Truth

2008-09-08T10:51:00.000+02:00

If you ask me if we, as human beings, have forgotten our fundamental reason for existence, I would reply that we have not only forgotten but also, to a great extent, rejected it altogether.

When we follow our Christian tradition, we find a fundamental truth that takes us beyond all our cultures and human traditions which we tend to hold on to rather dearly. This truth, while undoubtedly Christian, does not claim its hold and grasp in the religion or faith that supports it but, rather exists on its own because it finds its identity in the mystery of the love and mercy of God.

The brilliance of the Genesis creation story gets us off on a good start to this understanding, namely that line which states, quite matter-of-factly, we are created in the "image and likeness" of God and all this done out of generative love (Gen 1:26 - 27, 9: 6). Paul in his letter to the Romans went further to point out that,"Ever since God created the world, God's everlasting power and deity - however invisible - have been there for the mind to see in the things God has made" (Rom 1: 20).

Now, if we, especially us Christians, would just try to believe what the OT writer and Paul is showing us, we would save ourselves thousands of dollars in therapy! When we really believe this fundamental truth and allow ourselves to soak in its implication, we will realize that our family of origin is divine, that our core is original blessing and not original sin. This then will tell us of a clear direction to go, for we have some place good to go home to. This is the good news that all the evangelists write/speak about. That's the meaning of the gospels!

Unfortunately, we sometimes give ourselves a bad name when we hold on to very negative views of humanity, with tragic starting points that says "total depravity" of the person and so on. This has led to some form of self-fulfilling prophecy where we become exactly what we feared might be true! Because of that, any good news would be unhearable (unbearable?) on the practical and human level.

This, then brings us to the celebration of the feast in the Church's calendar of The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Our Lady's birth and her subsequent role in God's continual creative plan in bringing about our soul's objective union with God, begins, in a small and almost insignificant way, this communication to reconnect people to their original identity "hidden with Christ in God" (Col 3: 3). St. Augustine connects Mary's birth with Jesus' saving work. He tells the earth to rejoice and shine forth in the light of her birth. As if to echo this sentiment, the opening prayer at Mass speaks of the birth of Mary's Son as the dawn of our salvation and asks for an increase of peace.

Today, God has a problem. He has great difficulty in giving Himself away. You would think everybody would want God. The opposite happens instead. We say that we are not worthy and would rather win the cosmic contest by our own efforts. A rebuff with a "thanks but no thanks!" attitude. However, the manner in which Our Lady handled the fundamental truth that was presented before her later, during the Annunciation goes against all forms of putting the cart (us) before the horse (God) and wanting to be in control. Mary did not even mentioned that she's not worthy. She just asked for clarification. She only asked "How" because that might ask something more of her. She never asked "if", "whether" or "why". Her answer in the Annunciation was an unquestioning yes to an utterly free gift.

Now, if we turn this around and say that the little woman in Nazareth had said and uttered that she was not worthy to carry that burden asked of her (like all other 'election' scene that had gone before her and also our own usual stock reply in this type of situation), I wouldn't be surprised the reply from the angel would be "Of course you are not! But that was never the question, anyway"...

(inspired from today's gospel and "Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality")

Following...

2008-09-05T00:32:00.000+02:00

If you feel you can show some of your 'love' for this blog, do put your signature and just be a follower by clicking the button on the left column as shown.

Only if you want to!... :-D

(I meant the item on the left column under Kah Ki Nang!)

CatholiCircus #6

2008-09-03T17:59:00.000+02:00

After a long hiatus, I thought I'd better bring back this little entry on the various blogs or news items of Catholic flavour which show the 'divine' goings on in and around your nearest neighbourhood within the Internet...

First off, let's see what miracles happened over at the WYDSYD08 which Catholic Writer had shared in his latest entry. Next, do you have a 'habit' of coming late for Mass and leaving early after that? aquietmoment has some thoughts on this...

Ever been on a pilgrimage to visit St Anne's? No, not the one in Punggol but the other one over at Malaysia. In Bukit Mertajam, to be precise! Catharsis has some fascinating scenes to share and with interesting pictures too! Meanwhile, if you like watching films, you would know how they can play a role in provoking a reaction or point you to an insight. The Dominicans here highlighted a particular movie that can do both...

Which would you prefer? Good luck or bad luck? Is there such a thing as 'luck'? Well, one can go on and on about all this from all sides of argument (philosophically, theologically, etc.) but here's a little post that looks at it from a view that could be a blessing in disguise!

Continuing, Curt Jester looks at the American media, and you begin to wonder if hypocrisy plays out as an art form or are they just sadly clueless about what it means to be right or wrong about moral issues. Lastly, here's something for all Catholic moms!

(if you know of any other interesting blog or sites of Catholic flavour to share, just drop in a note in the comments section)

Sunday's Potpourri

2008-08-31T10:18:00.000+02:00

It's been about four days already since the tooth extraction ordeal and save for the slight numbness and a small dull throb that remained, my gum by that area has recovered and spared off any infection problems. I can now chew a little better and eat a little more solid food.

Meanwhile, the Rector of the Convitto has came back and the kitchen is officially opened and functioning again. So, that means no need to go around searching and cooking our own food! :-) The experiences of doing that the past month has been quite interesting. It's amazing what you can do with such a limited amount and access of food and turn it into a meal that still feeds the body! :-D

There is still one more month or so before the new semester begins for my final year in the Angelicum. I am certainly looking forward to the time next year when I finish my course here and get to head back to Singapore! So, I am already counting the days... :-D

Meanwhile, I have already finished my draft thesis and only awaiting now for my moderator to patiently go through it. I hope there won't be too much drastic changes to it and that all will turn out relatively well. Nonetheless, I am sure there should be some amendment here and there which I shall have to deal with.

Oh, by the way, it's National Day back in Malaysia! That makes the country in their 51st year of existence after their independance. Merdeka! :-D

On another dimension altogether, the long and ongoing fight between Mac and PC continues and I was earlier considering whether I should change to a Mac later when I get back to Singapore. Then I came across this piece which pokes fun at both venerable computer companies which didn't help me make up my mind (language may be a leeetle rough as with any South Park presentation):

So, any ideas?...

Ouch!

2008-08-30T18:08:00.000+02:00

How would you feel to have a piece of your self being forcefully torn out of your being by someone whom you barely know but giving your complete trust to that person that he will perform the operation well?

I had to have a tooth extracted recently, a couple of days ago, in fact, and had to go to the dentist recommended by a friend from the Convitto where I am currently staying. The place was just two Metro stations before the Vatican and easily found. My left inner tooth on the lower jaw was suddenly showing signs of ache and a dull pain was already troubling that area since the past week. It was only early this week that my left cheek began to swell a little that I decided it was time I visit the dreaded dentist.

However, the ordeal that I had to undergo wasn't too bad, after all, as the whole thing took about an hour and a half: diagnosing (to see if the tooth was bad), X-raying (confirming that it was indeed bad and beyond saving), extracting (ouch!) and some attentive listening to intructions on what and how to tend the extracted area for the coming week for preventing infection (taking antibiotics, gargling with salt water, taking painkillers if necessary), before our next session for further check-up and post-op work.

So I was a little down and out the last couple of days and eating meals that resembled gruel, to help in my swallowing after that tooth extraction. Now, I am fine and all that's left of the incident is a bruised and darkened gum area that is slowly recuperating and an image of that extracted tooth shown to me that was once a greater part of my life. All 44 years of it!

Ouch!...

Slow Week

2008-08-24T10:44:00.000+02:00

It has been a slow week and the summer here is already showing some signs of slowly losing its momentum as it gives way to the encroaching fall. The sun rises a little much later than it used to be. It is also a week which I managed to catch my breath somewhat after finishing the final major chapter for my draft thesis - chapter 3. That chapter, detailing the contributions of John of the Cross, show how they can be put to good use in spiritual direction.

I still have one last item to write, namely the Conclusion to the thesis, which I should be able to do so by next week. After that, I would have completed my initial project with this thesis and able to enjoy the remaining holidays right on till the first week of October when the new semester begins.

For now, I am just enjoying the quiet and warmth of the Sunday and what else it has to offer...

Past - Present - Future

2008-08-18T09:13:00.000+02:00

Here I am writing my thesis and using contributions from an era that hark back several centuries, but not necessary outmoded nor irrelevant, to address a current situation that assists those seeking spiritual direction. It has certainly been a challenge to put into writing the ideas and teachings that evolve from Scripture, the saints and Church which overlap one another. That they complement, support and give life to one another is a fascinating and insightful exercise in faith and reason.

However, when someone decides to bring the future or some semblance of it, no matter how far fetch it could be, into the presence and can even make it so real and plausible, we have an insightful exercise of creativity that pushes the envelope of how we would want our future to be - maybe. Perhaps you be the judge of that...

Are You Tired....?

2008-08-17T18:57:00.000+02:00

Then maybe you can give this a shot...

Feeling Classic-y...

2008-08-17T08:21:00.000+02:00

Ahhh, what a little Bach or Beethoven can do to make the Sunday easier to slip into even as we note that Monday is over the horizon....

I did not get to sleep last night till close to 4.00 a.m. because I was following the lunar eclipse and doing up the pictures for the blog and for SLOOH. To top it all, I had to get up two hours later to prepare to celebrate the Sunday morning's mass, which was attended by - one - sister (Sis Helen). So, it was like a dialogue between the two of us as we incorporated Lauds into the liturgy. All in Italian too! So, I did feel a little 'kancheong' and the video below almost says it all:

However, if you prefer a much more calmer and steadier version of doing a Sunday that is more enjoyable, maybe this Bach-y would be more suited to your preference:

Have a pleasant Sunday and... play Bach! :-D

Lunatic!

2008-08-17T02:55:00.000+02:00

Saturday, 16th August was the night of the partial lunar eclipse which was visible throughout Europe and most of Asia. Not wanting to miss up on this chance to watch it, I spent some 2+ hours up on the terrace of the Convitto taking shots of the eclipse as it happened. You can check out the event over at my astroblog! :-)

Meanwhile, here's a teaser!

Have a good weekend!

080808

2008-08-10T19:10:00.000+02:00

It has come and gone! It won't happen again in another 100 years (or 1000 years for a perfect order like this)!

So, what did you do for 08/08/08? :-D

43 Years Old!

2008-08-09T11:14:00.000+02:00

To all back there in Singapore:

Happy

National

Day!

State of Mind

2008-08-08T10:47:00.000+02:00

I am doing up some reading for my chapter 3 of the thesis and not doing much writing yet. I haven't quite found the right starting words and sentences to begin the introductory section for this chapter. But, I am getting there.... ;-)

Meanwhile, the current state of my mind during this 'incubating' period is not one of idling in nothingness. For one, I do know that the Beijing Olympics starts today at 8.00 p.m. China time (1200 GMT). It promises to be a grand affair with the opening ceremony created by Zhang Yimou.

Second, I have been 'renovating' my desktop a little and came out with this piece of presentation:

The wallpaper is from deviant art while the icon tray below is from Rock etdock (clicking on the picture, you will see a better view of the wallpaper). The clock display on the top right corner is from DSCl ock. This turns the screen on my laptop into a showpiece unlike your usual bland XP or Microsoft presentation that usually looks, err.. bland. Imagine how it can turn out on your 21" flatscreen monitor!

Then, thirdly, I chance across this awfully fun site from zefrank who is an American online performance artist, composer, humourist and public speaker based in Brooklyn (NY). I think Alf will want to meet this guy! :-D I dropped into zefrank's Scribbler site and drew this as shown on the left.

I probably did this is a sudden fit of insight that says, after all that I purported to know, I still know nothing! :-D

Lastly, how did I chance upon zefrank? Well, I happened to passed by this site that presents a video streaming of talks by inspiring and visionary speakers. One of my favourite talks there are 'Classical Music with Shining Eyes'. This talk confirmed my already known idea that 'nobody is tone deaf'. The other is 'Do Schools Kill Creativity?' This is a good one to listen to, to see why even what the Singaporean government is doing to boost creativity is not really going the right way either. The idea coming from this talk is 'If you are not prepared to be wrong, you will never come out with anything original'. Have a listen to these talks and other talks there when you are free... ;-)

So, what do you do when you find yourself 'stranded' with nothing much to go on?... :-)

Human Spirit

2008-08-04T23:46:00.000+02:00

One of the recurring elements that keep coming up in the draft thesis which I am currently doing up is 'human spirit'. In spiritual terms, it refers to the human will and desire that move a person to reach a particular decision to do or make things happen.

It can be either good or bad depending on the circumstances which the decision is made on and it can be entirely undependable. When motivated to do good, the results can be rather impressive and uplifting. When it is led to do the bad, the results can be disastrous, catastrophic even! Whether good or bad, the human spirit is undeniably the driving factor that pushes a person to making something happening.

I wonder how many of us are motivated to make something happen? Are we even driven in any remotest way to do something that can change, not only ours, but also other people's lives? Do we have any drive or motivation in the first place? Do we just drift along like a plank in the ocean, led by the currents with no control of where we want or ought to go?

It's a difficult task indeed to discern the human spirit and how it works. Heck, we are sometimes blindsided by it and we end up getting into a mess we wish we hadn't. But when it works and carries with it the message of goodness, strength and sister/brotherhood the whole world seems to cheer.

Which is why films like this can go a long way to spread some cheer in a world that seems to have focused on taking instead of giving more...

(if you are wondering what I have been doing besides doing the thesis during this summer break, now you know!)

Stultify

2008-07-29T22:54:00.000+02:00

We had a short outage for our Internet connection in the later part of the afternoon today. Apparently, there were some repair/shifting works done at the University office where the server was kept and some connection(s) was either dislodged or taken out by mistake and wasn't put back in. A call had to made to the person in charged of the system to check and then rectified the matter. After all that, we just had to shake our heads and shrugged - "This is Italy..."

In another remark made during dinner today by someone living here as a student like myself, added to the litany of woes for living in Rome, which happens to be the capital of the country and true to its colours of also having capital honours for incompetency and utter decrepit service. I shall not repeat what he said but it goes to show just how incredible this city is or even how the whole country itself has managed to function for so long based on stupidity and absurdity. If 'stultify' had another name, it would be 'Italy'!

Then there was a point of discussion over dinner between the word 'anywhere' and 'everywhere'. What's the difference? An answer was offered in relation to our city of stay, even if it didn't seem quite accurate to me. So, anywhere shows a sense of limitation in reference to a place. However, for everywhere, that sense of limitation broadens or is non existence altogether. For instance, I can say,"I would rather be anywhere other than Rome" (I do really feel like that now) and that would be gramatically fine because it expresses that any place on planet Earth would be fine to be in except Rome. Now, to say that "I would rather be everywhere other than Rome" would take the cake because I could be in blooming Venus suffocating under sulphurous clouds and disintegrating under tremendous pressure but I would still be happy and smiling from ear to ear that I am not in Rome!

Oh, dinner over at the Convitto was at our usual place on the terrace where you can see some of the gorgeous sunsets over the utterly crowded and polluted city landscape...

The Progress...

2008-07-24T21:34:00.000+02:00

Someone was wondering whether I was hard at work with my thesis, because I haven't been updating lately. Well, I was really putting some dutiful work on my thesis, but there were many other occasions when I had to put that aside and went on to do other things....

I have managed to finish up my Introduction and Chapter 1 so far and now in the midst of Chapter 2. The work that went in and continues to be put in for this 'project' can sometimes be a little too consuming on my mind that I have to take a break now and then. I mean a real break: it may mean just putting aside the thesis for a few days and coming back to it again later.

The interesting thing about going through this exercise of doing up the thesis is that, I get to read up on information about the saints' lives, which are part of this project, that made me realise just how human and down-to-earth they really are! They also possess that incredible sense of awareness that they don't belong to themselves (or to the world, for that matter) but to the One who created them and sustained them in their lives.

For instance, reading this particular book on Teresa of Avila by Cathleen Medwick, I saw how this Spanish saint had to deal with the struggles of reforms and bitter in-fighting of her day and yet able to maintain such a mystical composure that would be responsible for her authoring such spiritual classics such as 'The Interior Castle' and 'The Life of St Teresa of Avila by Herself'. St Teresa has common sense (which, today, many seem to be lacking), humour and a penchant for everyday images which are shown in her writings, but above all, she is remarkable for her analytical abilities in probing the mystery of God's workings in the soul. One must not forget that St Teresa was the first woman saint in the Church who was proclaimed Doctor of the Church (by Pope Paul VI on September 27, 1970) among the three women Doctors that we have. The other two being St Catherine of Siena and St Therese of Lisieux.

So, the progress of the thesis continues and it still has some ways to go before I am done with it. Meanwhile, the summer break has been quiet enjoyable where I get to spent my time whatever way I see fit.

"Don't imagine that, if you had a great deal of time, you would spend more of it in prayer. Get rid of that idea; it is no hindrance to prayer to spend your time well." Teresa of Avila

The Days Continue...

2008-07-17T11:55:00.000+02:00

Still stewing my ideas for the second chapter....

I haven't done anything yet to continue towards the next chapter for my thesis on spiritual direction. But be assured, I shall get there soon! :-)

Meanwhile, I have to bear with the changes to my room as I had to be reallocated to another. This one is slightly smaller but had a great window view onto the streets below and, best of all, the skies! My first encounter with the night skies through the window of a Convitto room at a late hour of the night is mentioned here.

I discovered an interesting web service on the Net that helps you create your own site in the form and flavour you want for free. It's over at Webon. Give it a shot to see what you can do up within a few minutes. I did not create a new site there as I already have 3 to manage. However, I was really, really tempted to do so and almost gave in. :-P

As the summer holidays carry on, the days continue to be longer and the afternoons are spent coping with the heat that makes the occasion drowsy and tiring. That's the price one pays for remaining in Rome....

The Magician in all of Us?...

2008-07-13T16:25:00.000+02:00

It's Sunday and I finally managed to finish my Introduction and Chapter 1 of my thesis on spiritual direction!

So, for a little reward I shall allow this time to engage in some rollicking entertainment that shall put a big smile on your faces. Incidentally, this is also a special acknowledgement to all practising magicians out there (no, not the evil kinds in the black arts) who labour to give their audience a good time in sleigh of the hands and cunning trickery which fools the eye. In particular, here's to Alfie and his talents in this entertaining art which he sometimes uses to make the children laugh and wonder with awe...

So, take it away Pixar and Presto!

Saturday Workout

2008-07-12T06:45:00.000+02:00

I got up at an unearthly hour of around 4.45 a.m. just so I could be ready and prepare for a jogging session with Fr Julian this morning which began at 5.30 a.m. It was my first real jogging session in many, many months.

We jogged from our place at via degli Ibernesi to the Circus Maximus and did two rounds along the Circus. It was already bright when we headed out into the streets with some cars and people passing by. It is interesting to note that within a short stone's throw from the Convitto, there are already several historical monuments and sights: Circus Maximus, where the chariot races of ancient Rome were once held (think Ben Hur!), closer to the Convitto is the Trajan's Market and between these two is the infamous Colosseum.

Jogging pass these places is like going through a time warp all at once which lasted about an hour to the Circus and back. A good way to get a Saturday's workout! ;-)

WYD08 Soon!

2008-07-10T12:04:00.000+02:00

The grand Church event for the youths begins soon!

Considered the largest youth event in the world, the World Youth Day will be held in Sydney from Tuesday 15 to Sunday 20 July 2008. Major events and highlights for the occasion are found here. Before the official opening day, there are already many events to help prepare the participants from all over the world to get in full swing for the event.

Several groups from Singapore have already headed down and well-known Catholic blogger from Singapore has a few words to say about the conditions there now. I am sure there will be more in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, I am still slogging away in the Convitto putting my thesis together and checking that I am making sense. It is slow process but I am learning things als I go along. I am getting my fair share of referenced material to read and digest in order to write and present something for the thesis. That's life now...

Of Pizzas and Sciopero...

2008-07-07T21:59:00.000+02:00

I finished my first draft of the Introduction page of my thesis and had sent it to my moderator through the email for comments. While waiting, I am currently stewing ideas for the first chapter. I shall probably put something on paper the next day.

Meanwhile, the stay here at the Convitto has been quite interesting thus far and family-like atmosphere here made the entire experience of living with the religious setup such as this within the Dominican order very engaging and pleasant. Just the other evening, I followed a small group of us, consisting the sisters who manned the kitchen and three other priests (including Fr Julian), to a cosy little pizza restaurant just around the corner, within the vicinity of the Convitto for dinner. The Convitto's kitchen is closed on Sunday, hence our trip to that restaurant.

I had a fun time there finishing my Margherita (with sausage) pizza and cool beer along with the company at the table that had other types of pizzas. That's me on the far left, obscured and holding a glass of beer. Fr Carlos, the financial administrator, on my left is having a go at his pizza.The two sisters opposite me are the ones who help at the kitchen and stays in the Convitto also. After dinner, we went for some gelato and I had another theophanic experience with Italian ice-cream of melon, kiwi and strawberry flavour. I think coming to stay in this place isn't such a bad idea after all!... :-D

Today, while stewing my ideas for the chapters of my thesis, I did nothing else other than to stay in my room and around the Convitto. That's also because there was a major strike that was on. All the buses, trains and even their airline (Alitalia) were on sciopero, i.e. strike. The effects did not bother me because I did not have to travel anywhere. That's life here in Rome.

Like I said - it's a crazy city!

Stewed Dish

2008-07-03T22:42:00.000+02:00

Day 3 in the Convitto...

Today, I managed to do up the page structure for my thesis and started putting in the headings. That was it. Beyond that, I couldn't go on anymore because I couldn't find the right and proper starting words and statement that can begin the process of writing. Yes, I had read some references/books on the subject but nothing is 'clicking' just yet. So, I thought I'd let my mind stew over all the ideas, references, points and experiences (thus far), like a cooking pot on a slow boil, and wait for something that will pop up later on.

Meanwhile, I have also been getting a lot of ideas spinning off from an unexpected medium that was more an entertaining time passing but gave a lot of food for thought. That medium was the film/tv shows that I managed to view online (free) that reverberated with my inner senses which spoke to my heart.

One was New Amsterdam, a cancelled tv series in the States that tells the bizzare story of a New York homicide detective who is cursed with immortality. Apparently, he was a Dutch soldier in the year 1642 when he stepped in front of a sword to save the life of a Native American girl during a massacre of her tribe. The girl in turn rescued him by weaving an ancient spell that conferred immortality upon him. It was also prophesied that he would not age until he finds his one true love, and only then will he become whole and ready for mortality.

The idea of searching and capturing that 'true love' is also a theme that is very close to the life of a Christian for we all know that the one and only true love, if we allow ourselves to be utterly taken by the Truth, is none other than the One that represents all that is - God. However, human perception of true love interestingly reveals a lot of variety of what this can be or mean. Unfortunately because our desires are also mixed up or misunderstood, this 'true love' never lasts. The question then arises about finding that love: how do we know? Well, New Amsterdam offers a way out, albeit a human notion of it. But the series was abruptly cancelled and so I never got to see how they could develop this idea further. It would be interesting to see how the writers could offer an answer to this...

Then we have The Forbidden Kingdom. An American teenager who is obsessed with Hong Kong cinema and kung-fu classics makes an extraordinary discovery in a Chinatown pawnshop: the legendary stick weapon of the Chinese sage and warrior, the Monkey King. With the lost relic in hand, the teenager unexpectedly finds himself traveling back to ancient China to join a crew of warriors from martial arts lore on a dangerous quest to free the imprisoned Monkey King.

The best part of this movies is that we have both kung fu greats, Jackie Chan and Jet Li acting side-by-side showing off their martial art skills in the midst of all the other CGI effects which were just nice without being overwhelming.I gather from this story that it is about doing the right thing and finding that courage to go against the odds that always want to hinder your quest. That's our own struggle in life as a Christian isn't it? It is always better to look the other way, to take the easy way out, rather than stand and make it count for one's own faith. A Robert Frost 'Two Roads' poem comes to mind about making that difficult choice:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Lastly, we have August Rush. A movie that is described as magical and full of heart, it tells of a child music prodigy who was searching for his parents who had given him away at birth. It is a heartwarming tale that offers music as the soul of a person that can transcends time and space to bring about wonderful things, as long as you don't give up on it. As a Christian, we know our souls belong to God and He constantly sings to us to lead us to that wonderful place where we will find our position in the symphony of eternal life.

One of the comments about the movie went like this: "... if you are looking for a movie that will sing to your soul (and show you some beautiful eye candy as a bonus), look no farther... A trio of beautiful performances form the heart of this film, although the secondary characters are also crisply compelling. A day after seeing it, I find that specific shots of their faces still glow in mind like pieces of a mosaic. And the music is a genuine addition, as it should be in a film of this kind. I was genuinely moved." Yup, so was I.

So, the ideas are still being stewed and a good stewed dish of any kind means that I shouldn't rush things but enjoy its momentum, for something fascinating will eventually turn out...

(of those mentioned above, august rush wins hands down for being most moving! you may view these items here)

Convitto

2008-07-02T09:23:00.000+02:00

This is the second day at the Convitto.

I arrived here yesterday morning and slowly unpacked the necessary stuff in the room as I began to make myself a little comfortable here. After all, I shall be a semi-resident here for the coming three months.

My room faces away from the sunlight most of the time, which is a good thing, so the place here isn't that hot. I hvae brought a table fan along, so that helps a lot to further take the heat away, especially during the hottest part of the day in the afternoon. All in all, it is a blessing that I managed to acquire this temporary accomodation after a short time of searching. I know of others who do not want to go to a parish having a hard time getting an affordable place to stay during the summer.

I should be starting on my thesis soon but the slow and comfortable (read - lazy) pacing of the holidays can always lure my senses and will away from any writing and paperwork to something less strenuous. :-D So, it is really a struggle to get myself to start working!

The residents here are mainly priests who are studying in Rome, but they seem little more friendlier and open to others around them than most I know in the Collegio. Perhaps it is the lifestyle here under the Dominicans who run this place. Over breakfast, there was an intensive discussion over what is happening to Europe, especially in Italy, and how it is losing its soul to the god of money and privileges. Much of what were brought out already made me realized why I have never sat down well with what's been going on with the lifestyle and experiences I encountered the past year in Rome. I have said before that as a visitor or tourist, Rome can be a great place to visit, but to stay on here and get involved in the pace and style of living can be a quite a challenge.

Meanwhile, a friend from Singapore smsed and reported that the funeral Mass of the late Archbishop Gregory Yong had an overwhelming crowd of people and with the SJI bagpipes playing, to send the body off after the Mass at the Cathedral was over. The late Archbishop certainly was well-loved and a simple man. He had his faults, but his cheery disposition always helped smooth things over and he got along well generally with many of his flock who was under his care then. The 'people's archbishop' (as he was affectionately known) will be missed.

Fried Brains

2008-06-30T12:38:00.000+02:00

One more day left before I leave for my temporary place of stay for the summer hols. I had earlier, in the morning, sent a few more stuff there so that tomorrow I need not struggle to carry many things over apart from my bag of clothings.

Meanwhile, I am just enjoying the only period in time where I can do practically nothing and worry only about where to get the next meal for the day. :-) Of interest, I wandered over to a familiar site where I used to patronised when I once was attached to playing computer games. I saw a video of a well-known hack-and-slash game which garnered a lot of attention during the 90s when it first appeared and spawned a sequel which was equally a smash hit in the gamer's world. It now has returned with a title that is none other than Diablo III (what else?...). A sample video here is a testimony to the 'coolness' and attention-getting it continues to garner over the years. That it is being done by a world class game developer, Blizzard, gives this particular game a distinct premium.

Maybe I have too much time on my hands, or perhaps it is the awfully hot weather that is slowly frying my brains away, but I could use a game like that now and hack away my frustrations away from this crazy city I am currently sequestered in! :-D

CatholiCircus #5

2008-06-29T11:31:00.000+02:00

And since I have some time now, best I get on with another round of interesting Catholic blogs in and around the blogosphere. They are a mixed bottle....

Wonder how you can use your brains?... Well, look no more than at catharsis, a Singaporean-Catholic student who is studying archeology in Penang!

We have arrived at the beginning of the celebrations of the Year of St Paul. You may want to ask yourself some important questions concerning this as in sensibility.

Here's a good way to begin reflecting on a daily basis as to what you are doing with your daily life - from a Jesuit perspective. This one offers the keys to our faith and how to turn it on...

If you are wondering what Mass really is and whether you need to be more attentive to what it has to offer your faith, flagging or not, perhaps this little piece from catholicwriter may help direct you on the way.

Much have already been said about the possibility of cloning and pushing the envelope further with making hybrids - i.e. cloning humans with animals. Even Singapore seems to want to get in to the act! A reflection here by dominicansingapore will help put things in perspective. That it may come down to the boldness of Singaporean scientists or the passivity of Singaporean people is a very scary scenario...

Finally, here's a little sarcastic look at what being NOT a Catholic is all about. Careful that you do not fall into any of that category! ;-)

Have a pleasant Sunday and week ahead!

Sunday's View...

2008-06-29T10:03:00.000+02:00

It's a quiet and warm Sunday here....

Not to mention peaceful and a lazy one too! It's usually nothing much to do these past weeks as I have finished all the studies and work for the past academic year. The weather also makes one want to do nothing but laze around and watching the seconds go by. :-P

It is also the period where the new student-priests start entering the college as they prepare themselves to start their language course from 1st July. There are already quite a bunch of them coming in from all over, more so from the African countries. They are here and looking a little lost and trying to settle down to a new environment and getting use to the food here. They are what I was experiencing, same time last year. :-) Now that I am a little more experienced and mature with the ways and things around Rome and looking at the new batch of students, I can't help but sympathise with them.

Then there was the news that Archbishop Emeritus Gregory Yong had passed away peacefully on Saturday, 28 June at 2.40 p.m. (S'pore time). His body is now lying at St. Joseph’s Home till 29 June 2008, and will be at the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd on 30 June 2008. May his soul rest in peace.

Besides that, today, the 29th June signals my 5th sacerdotal anniversary! That's five fascinating years in the priesthood with no letting up of a big rollercoaster ride that would always bring about challenges and surprises. There were, without doubt, some tranquil moments of slow cruising but the curve ball that life usually throws at me, provides this need to be attentive and discerning all the time...

By next week, after Tuesday, I should be blogging from a new place where I am putting up, i.e at the Convitto in Angelicum. My packing is almost all done up. It's just the moving on Tuesday that should wrap up the shifting process and begin a holiday outlook from the place that is dedicated to the angelic doctor, St Thomas of Aquinas.

Scorcher!

2008-06-25T20:47:00.000+02:00

As I write this, the game has already started for the match between Germany and Turkey in the semis of the Euro Cup. Turkey has an uphill task of causing an upset to win against Germany tonight. But, it is not impossible. Who knows, the underdog may just get its day...

Meanwhile, who ever wins or loses, it isn't going to make much of a difference to the weather here in Rome. Today it was at a scorching 34+ deg Celsius! It was so hot that last night, my room felt like an oven. I couldn't sleep at all till a little after 3 a.m. So now I am a little drowsy, though, not enough to make me fall asleep on my desk writing this entry.

Most of what I need to do for today has been done and now I only have to cool down as the evening gives way to the night which is still about an hour away. I say an hour because right now it is already approaching 9.00 p.m. but the sun is still setting outside! By 10.00 p.m. it would then be sufficiently dark to say it is night. The heat convection that follows after the sun sets, makes the rest of the night utterly warm, hot and sticky to the body which is wondering how to get down to sleep. I know summer can be hot. But I didn't expect it to be THIS hot!

Oh, today would make it my count of being exactly one year here in Rome since I first set foot to this crazy city on 25th June of last year. Imagine! I managed to survive this far...

(update: Germany defeated Turkey, 3 - 2)

Hulk Smash!

2008-06-23T22:41:00.000+02:00

I went to watch the Incredible Hulk at the cinema this afternoon. I enjoyed it not because of the action and the special effects but importantly I could understand the entire conversation - it was in English! :-)

I also liked it because it managed to get across some level of connection with the green man that though he was that much of a hulk, he was also a really messed-up human being trying to find a way to return to normal. It was a good hour plus of pure adrenaline action and enjoyment as I soaked in the story, incredible as it was, and having the day not worrying about studies and exams.

Besides, it was also a good opportunity to get out of the summer's heat to enjoy the cool draught of the aircon in the cinema. It was the same cinema where I also saw Iron Man and Indiana Jones 4....

Passion

2008-06-23T10:48:00.000+02:00

"This is wonderful, it is impossible to find the words to express such an emotion," gasped Fabregas (Cesc, who is also playing for Arsenal as mid-fielder).

Late last night, I gotten the news that Italy lost to Spain on penalties (2 -4) and now they are out of the Euro Cup. I knew that someone in Singapore would be deliriously happy with this result as Spain happens to be her favourite team. I think she is having the same sentiment as Fabregas like one having pass a driving test for the 1st time...

It is interesting how a game like football/soccer can cause such great and varied emotions among all kinds of peoples of the world who may not know each other but share the same passion that transcends boundaries of place and even time.

I don't have that much zest or strong inclination for this game other than my constant support for the EPL team, Spurs, which had a slow 2007/8 season. But I don't underestimate the passion that underlies the support of the fans which keeps them coming back to the clubs and teams come rain or shine, in season or out. That seems to be the secret of this game, or any game - passion.

If one do not have such passion for this game, one would have gave up and gone for another that would interest one's short attention span. Bringing that a little further into life, passion may be the support that would give the extra boost in having one cling on to something or someone in spite of the odds that say otherwise. One of the Spanish saints, John of The Cross, has this incredible passion for God that allowed him to survive his most crushing and humiliating torture done upon him and by his own kind! Surviving inprisonment and much suffering, he managed to even write several poems that would earn him as Spain's wonderful literary artist and the loftiest poet of that country.

Do you have any passion for anything?...

Lazy Sunday

2008-06-22T21:31:00.000+02:00

Another quiet day with nothing much to do. It was a hot day as usual and my room during the course of the day could feel the heat building up making it felt like a microwave oven!

As I am writing this, Italy is playing Spain for the semis of the Euro2008. It doesn't interests me who eventually wins, though my heart goes out to the Spaniards. Animated shouts could be heard from the corridor nearby as the fans here cheer on their respective teams through the tv in some the rooms.

I am still nursing a flu and cough which are slowly tapering off. But the medication which I am taking caused some level of tiredness and lethargy, which was why I didn't really push myself in engaging in any hard activity, except to laze around and took some naps.

In the evening, like about now, it is much cooler outside but there is nothing much to do there much less to look at. The moon comes up late after 11.00 p.m. but by that time I am much inclined to wind down and get to bed. However, I may just do something with my scope in the room and have it trained on the night sky and watch some craters on the Moon. Perhaps...