Author Archives: SAO Student Organisations

St. Joseph our protector and guide to Jesus

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Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, who is St Joseph? This man lived 2000 years ago, we never see Him but at least we see His photos and hear His story. But wait a moment, we receive and see His love to the Church and Legionaries. He is the patron of the Church and Legionaries. When I prayed the novena of St Joseph, there is a sentence saying when Herod wanted to kill Jesus, God sent the Angel to St Joseph only as a messenger. The rest of the salvation mission was trusted to St Joseph and immediately Joseph did everything needed to save Jesus and Mary. Joseph’s love is very big, he was willing to sacrifice and he did not count. As it is stated in the spiritual reading, we cannot separate the historical life of Jesus with His mystical life continuing in the Church, St Joseph’s love for us is also big.
We learn from the Gospel that Joseph is a silent man, he worked without any notice and reward. Moreover, he never complained. I think we could learn this aspect from St Joseph, sometimes in our ministry we want to be praised and appreciated and we grumble when we are not appreciated. It is indeed normal and human to do so, maybe we can deny ourselves and follow St Joseph’s example. St Joseph is meritorious but the amount of praise and reward given to Him is too small. Incarnation occurred when a virgin said yes but incarnation would not continue if a man did not take action. If the man did not take action then Jesus would fall to Herod’s hand.
Our love to Mother Mary cannot be separated from our love to St Joseph because Mary loves Joseph so much. Joseph took care of Mary and Mary respected Joseph. Both show us how to love and the meaning of love. Their love is not egoistic but self-giving. They toiled together for sake of kingdom of God. How wonderful it is when every couple and family follow Mary and Joseph’s example.

Last but not least Joseph experienced the happiest death. He died in the arm of Jesus and Mary. I am sure that this is our expectation also. We want to be welcomed to the kingdom of God by Jesus and Mary. Let us trust our Legionaries to St Joseph and deepen our love to him.

Feeling special? You are NOT! And here’s why.

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Spiritual Reading

“Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’” (Luke 15: 25-32)

FIGHTING PRIDE. Praying the rosary can help remind us to be humble. 

Allocutio

You have been working hard, staying at your office even after working hours. You have done everything your boss asked. You have remained loyal to your company for many years. Do you think your company should give you a well-deserved promotion? No.

You have read all the assigned texts. You have participated well in class discussions. You have spent sleepless nights to work on your projects. Do you think your professor owes you an A? No. Not really.

We are all familiar with the spiritual reading above, a passage often cited to describe God’s love and mercy. But I chose it for a slightly different message, for this parable puzzled me the first time I heard it.

The older brother, I thought before, was right in feeling hurt. He stood by his father all the while, and yet when his brother, who had done so many wrongs, decided to come back, his father decided to have a lavish party. Isn’t that unfair, I thought? Surely, the older brother, the good son, deserved the party more than the prodigal son. So I thought.

But I was wrong.

And until know, I am trying hard to get it right.

The older brother’s anger came from a sense of entitlement. He felt that after working hard, and being loyal to his father, his father owed him an acknowledgment that the older brother felt he never got.

This sense of entitlement refers to feeling that others owe us something. It is something I, and many of us, grapple with on an almost regular basis. Of course, knowing our rights is not a bad thing. But rights are different from obligations. When we feel that others are obligated to do something for us, to provide us with what we want, we get into the trap of entitlement.

Why is it a trap?

Entitlement opens the door to negative emotions and can lead us to sin. Here’s why:

1. It can make us feel frustrated. It lets us create expectations that make us vulnerable to disappointment. This can lead to anger. For example, when we message our friends, and they don’t respond immediately, we get disappointed and start thinking that our friends owe us to respond quickly, since we have been good friends to them. But that might be an unreasonable explanation.

2. It can make us dependent on others by making us more focused on what we deserve than on what we can and should do. This can lead to sloth.

3. It can make us think we deserve what others have, and this can lead us to comparing ourselves with others. For example, we might start asking: If we work as hard as others, why do they make more money than us? This can lead to envy and jealousy.

4. It can make us ignore that others also have their own free will by focusing just on ourselves. Love, for example, becomes more of a trade, that if you love someone this much, you expect to be loved back just as much. Love is felt, not imposed. Love should be multiplied, not divided. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs” (Corinthians 13:4-7).

5. It can make us ungrateful. We think what we have is because we deserve it. We mistake pleasure for joy.

6. Finally, it can make us challenge our faith. For example, it might lead us to think that because we have prayed this much, we have done good things, the Lord owes us something. He does not. The Lord does not owe us any obligations. His love for us is much bigger than that. But with a sense of entitlement, we might fail to see that.

So how do we deal with it?

1. We should focus on gratitude. We must be thankful for what we have. We have to remind of ourselves of this all the time. Sometimes, when we pray, we focus too much on asking for what we need, that we forget to offer thanks. The Lord does not owe us anything, but He continues to bless us every day. We have to be constantly grateful.

2. We must remind ourselves to always be humble. Thinking that we deserve something from others is being prideful. See, even the Lord, who is all powerful, shunned feelings of entitlement. Mother Mary, since she was to carry the Lord in her womb, surely deserved a comfortable life. She could have obligated God to provide her with a nurse, or a helper, or a comfortable place to give birth, or with a nice dress, so that she can always look presentable as the mother of our Lord. She did not. She embraced humility instead.

3. We must remind ourselves that we are all blessed with free will, and obligating others contradicts this. Our rights are not more important than others. Our rights end where others’ begin.

4. We must constantly remind ourselves that we are not special. A cliché goes to describe someone as being “one in a million” to mean someone is special. That’s still not special. There are how many one million in six billion? Some 6,000. So one in a million isn’t special. Because we are all special. And if we are all special, one of us cannot be more entitled than the other.

It is not easy, and this is a personal battle I deal with almost every day. But the next time I hear the parable of the prodigal son, I will remember not how the older brother felt, but how we should trust the Father to know what we deserve, more than we think we do. (ET, 16/11/15)

Sacrament of Penance (by MD, 12 Oct 2015)

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Sacrament of Penance

The Catholic Sacrament of Penance (also known as the Sacrament of Reconciliation) has three elements: conversion, confession and celebration, in which we meet Christ in his Church ready and eager to absolve and restore us to new life.



And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” (John 20:22-23).









Names:

  • It is called the sacrament of conversion and the sacrament of Penance, since it consecrates the Christian sinner’s personal and ecclesial steps of conversion, penance, and satisfaction.
  • The sacrament of confession, since the disclosure or confession of sins to a priest is an essential element of this sacrament.
  • It is called the sacrament of forgiveness, since by the priest’s sacramental absolution God grants the penitent ‘pardon and peace.
  • The sacrament of Reconciliation because it reconciles sinners to God and then to each other.

Reason:

  • Because human commit sins – the offenses against God as well as faults against reason, truth and right conscience; the deliberate thoughts, words, deeds, or omissions contrary to the eternal law of God.
  • In other words, sin is willfully rejecting good and choosing evil.

Writing to the Corinthians, Saint Paul reminds us that just as sin came into the world through Adam and Eve, so too grace and new creation come to us through Jesus Christ. As in Adam all people die, so in Christ all shall be brought to life – a fullness of life, a new creation already beginning in us through grace.


How is the Church able to forgive sins?
  • It was when he gave the Holy Spirit to his apostles that the risen Christ conferred on them his own divine power to forgive sins (John 20:22-23).

Why do we continue to need forgiveness if we are already saved?

  • The new life received in Christ does not abolish the weakness of human nature or our inclination to sin. 
  • “If we say, ‘We are without sin,'” Saint John wrote, “we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us”.
  • Even though we are baptized into new life, we must continue to return to the sacrament of Penance to cleanse ourselves of sin and receive God’s mercy.

Why do we need to go to a priest for confession?

  • The sacrament of Penance is Christ’s gift to the Church to ensure the forgiveness he so generously extends will be made available to every member of the Church.
  • The graces of Christ are conferred in the sacraments by means of visible signs– signs that are acts of worship, symbols of the grace given and recognizable gestures through which the Lord bestows his gifts, through the outward sign, i.e., the extension of hands and words of absolution pronounced by the priest.

In the Sacrament of Penance we find God’s unconditional love and forgiveness, from which we are called to love and forgive each other.

Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick – MD, 19 Oct 2015

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I got a free ticket to go for this adrenaline-seeking attraction in Sentosa, called the ParaJump. It is supposed to be as simple as taking a plunge from 15m high platform. I was elated when I got the free ticket, with so much excitement inside of me to try it out. But once I reached the platform, my heart started pounding much faster than usual. When it was finally my turn to take the fall, my legs gave way. I was trembling, and almost asked the staff to let me go back without doing it. In the end, I needed some minutes to calm myself down & some  guidance plus a bit of “push” from the staff before “falling” successfully.
What I’ve experienced during this ParaJump game is somewhat similar with our experience with sickness and Jesus, in our own journey of life. At first, we are always excited to be alive, to live our life. At the glimpse of what sickness could do to us (perhaps by witnessing other people gotten sick) sometimes would make us worry too. When we are the one facing it, we would try thousands of ways to run away from the suffering it inflicted. And so, the Church has this one sacrament for us, to give us peace & courage to deal with the difficulties that accompany serious illness/old age, just like the “push” that the staff from the ParaJump attraction gave me.
So, where is this Sacrament coming from? From today’s spiritual reading (“Healing of a Paralytic”, Mark 2 : 1-12), we learned that Jesus comes to heal the whole of a person, body (“He said to the paralytic, “I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home” “, verse 11) and soul (“When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Child, your sins are forgiven” “, verse 5). Notice that Jesus’ healing is primarily directed towards the healing of the person’s soul, as he forgave the paralytic’s sins first before enabled him to walk again. The Church today also continues Jesus’ body-n-soul healing ministry through various ways, for example by church sponsored hospice care, catholic hospitals, etc but most importantly & primarily is by the conferment of the Sacrament of Anointing of The Sick, which was described in the New Testament from James 5:13-15.
Notice the following words from St James “… prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven“. This is exactly the same with what Jesus himself did to the paralytic in today’s spiritual reading. How about the physical healing that the paralytic was also granted? From the story, we know that right before Jesus physically healed the man, he was scolding the scribes present there for they were accusing  Jesus of blasphemy (because of his sins forgiving action). Jesus then healed the paralytic, “But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth” (verse 10). It was apparent that Jesus wanted to show these scribes some lessons, perhaps hoping to increase their faith as well, by physically heal the paralytic. It is apparent that, Jesus physical healing of the paralytic is actually aimed to aid in His spiritual healing for those who had little faith in Him. 

Now, before we could understand how Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick continues Jesus’ healing ministry, let’s take a closer look on the Rites of this Sacrament. As described in James, this Sacrament could only be given by priest/bishop (“presbyters of the church”) and must be done in communion (sacrament celebrated by community/family of the sick,not only 1-to-1 between priest & the sick). If possible, it is best to be preceded by Sacrament of Penance and followed by Sacrament of Eucharist. If not possible, it would then be celebrated by liturgy of the word (preceded by act of repentance), and then followed by conferment of the sacrament to the sick with the following principal elements: the “priests of the Church” in silence – lay hands on the sick; they pray over them in the faith of the Church; they then anoint them with oil blessed by bishop, while saying “Through this holy anointing may the Lord in his love and mercy help you with the grace of the Holy Spirit. May the Lord who frees you from sin save you and raise you up.”.
Now that we’ve known the Rites of the  Sacrament, we could see how Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick continues Jesus’ healing ministry. What are the things that Jesus, through the Church, hopes to give by this Sacrament? According to Cathecism of the Catholic Church (CCC), there are 5 hoped-for effects:
  1. The uniting of the sick person to the passion of Christ, for his own good and that of the whole Church; 
  2. The strengthening, peace, and courage to endure in a Christian manner the sufferings of illness or old age; 
  3. The forgiveness of sins, if the sick person was not able to obtain it through the sacrament of Penance; 
  4. The restoration of health, if it is conducive to the salvation of his soul; 
  5. The preparation for passing over to eternal life
Looking at how marvelous is the hoped-for effects of this sacrament, let us starting from now on, advocate this Sacrament to be received by our sick friends & families, so that they too, could experience Jesus’ healing power, and in turn, be courageous to live their life despite their sickness.

Sacrament of Matrimony – MD, 12 Oct 2015

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Sacrament is (1) a sacred sign (2) instituted by Christ (3) to give grace. Sign means it signifies something greater than itself, sacred because it is instituted by Christ and Christ is really and truly present in the sacrament, grace means the undeserved gift of God Himself.

Why is marriage a sacrament? It is a sign of God’s love, of God’s desire for unity with the church, it is made by God not man-made, and it gives grace (God Himself) to the couple, the family, and to others around them.

Why is marriage important? It is the single most indispensable foundation for happiness in all societies and in most individual lives (Cathechism). It affects the well-being of individuals. Healthy family produce good people and good Christians. Most of today’s societal problem can be traced back to unhealthy marriage and family life. Important also because Acts 18:8 = From the beginning, the core of the Church was often constituted by those who become believers, together with all their household. CCC 1655 = These families who became believers were islands of Christian life in an unbelieving world. To witness to Christ by being countercultural to the culture of death and instant gratification. Just like the SR says, we must give witness to Christ by our marriage.

Most marriages will not succeed without God. There will be tension about who is the boss? God is the boss. Why need to bring God into marriage? Because God Himself is the author and designer of marriage and the Creator of the man’s and the woman’s life and the life of their children. The spouses are only His “procreators”. Sex is a “mystery” because in it we share in God’s power of creation. If we consider sex in any other way, it is not in line with what God wills it to be. Image of the perfect union of the Holy Trinity. Fulton J. Sheen: it takes 3 to get married.

History of marriage: the first command that God gives to man is to be fruitful and multiply (Gen 1:22) What is the future of marriage? Scripture concludes with a vision of the wedding feast of the Lamb (Rev 19:7), Christ the bridegroom and the Church His bride. Marriage now is a foretaste of heavenly joy.

Why God instituted marriage? Because God is love. God created man out of love and calls him to love: the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being, for man is created in the image and likeness of God who is love himself. God’s love is absolute (unconditional, gives everything) and unfailing (eternal). This is why marriage is a gift of one’s whole life and for the whole of one’s life. Spouses say to each other what God says to us in Christ: “I give you my ALL.” Mutual self-giving. Whole of one’s life: indissolubility, permanent, forever, eternal. What therefore God has joined together, man shall not divide (Mt 19:6). The two become one flesh, one living body, which can only be broken by death. Divorce is a kind of suicide: killing that one living body. Therefore discern to choose your partners wisely. Dating is like a seminary for marriage.

Man and woman are equal in value, different in nature, and complementary in purpose. Man is for woman and woman is for man. Each exists for the other not for self. Marriage in a sinful world: threatened by discord, a spirit of domination, jealousy, infidelity, and conflicts that can escalate into hatred and separation. Not because of the nature of marriage but because of sin. Man cannot heal the wounds of sin on his own effort, need God, and that’s another reason God instituted the sacrament of marriage. Advantage of marriage: CCC 1609 = marriage helps to overcome self-absorption, egoism, pursuit of one’s pleasure, and to open oneself to the other, to mutual aid and self-giving. Marriage is a school of saint-making! By sacrificing, tolerating and forgiving your spouse’s faults.

In all sacraments we supply matter and God supply the mystery, the supernatural grace. Eg. Eucharist: we provide bread and wine, God provide transubstantiation. Marriage: we provide the flesh, our bodies; God provides the immortal soul, both the soul of the new “two-become-one” organism and the soul of each child conceived in it.

Effect of sacrament of matrimony: the spouses receive the real presence of Christ, in fact the very life of Christ in our souls. Christ gives strength to love each other with supernatural love: to forgive one another and to bear one another’s burdens, to take up the cross together and follow Him.” The truest test of love is sacrifice. Almost all marriages fail because they fail the test of sacrifice. Sacrifice is usually difficult and irksome. Only love can make it easy; only perfect love can make it a joy.”

Why must be open to having children and reject artificial conception and contraceptives? CCC 1652: By its very nature the institution of marriage and married love is ordered to the procreation and education of the offspring and it is in them that it finds its crowning glory. God has given us the creative power, don’t hide our talents, create more people of God to make heaven more joyful. If we only care about our own salvation and started to prevent people from going to heaven (even future people who are yet to be borne), we desire our little private heaven, which is actually hell.

The Eucharist should be at the heart of a Catholic wedding celebration because it is the consummation (completed) of the “New Covenant”, or marriage between Christ and his Bride, the Church.

Why must profess publicly that we are married? To help us be faithful to our marriage.

In conclusion, there are 4 characteristics of a Catholic marriage: total fullness, total freedom, fruitfulness, faithfulness.

Marriage is a “task”, a vocation, a calling, fully as much as the priesthood is. It will not work if we do not work at it.

Bringing LIGHT to the world

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BRINGING LIGHT TO THE WORLD

Mark 16:15 to some of us can be a rather difficult commandment to live by; “… Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Gospel to all creation.”

Scenario #1:
“I don’t know what to tell people about my faith leh…” or “How to explain to people why I pray to Mary? I don’t know.”
Scenario #2:
Eating with your non-Catholic friends. *Thinking to oneself* “Should I make the sign of the cross? Wah, like paisei (embarrassing) leh. Later they laugh at me”
Scenario #3:
Talking with friends about my religion. “I better not say so much about my faith, if not like say I Jesus-siao (crazy). I don’t want to shove my religion down people’s throat.”
Scenario #4:
“Where got time to talk about Jesus, my family and work so busy liao, how to talk about Him? Siao-eh!”
Are you able to identify with any of this scenario? Well, fear of rejection, busy schedule, being introverted, afraid of being called “extremist”, are some of the many reasons why we Catholics tend to shy away from this commandment of God. Even for us Legionaries (members of the Legion of Mary), though we have weekly allocation to do personal contact, proclaiming the Gospel can be a rather terrifying experience for us. But that shouldn’t stop us from bringing LOVE to all creation right? After all, that is what the Gospel is all about: That God is LOVE and that we should love one another.
Here are some VERY PRACTICAL ways we Legionaries bring Love to all creation and we would like to share them with you:
1) Greet people in DOTA games. How often to you see people being call a NOOB in games? Or that people insult each other mothers or fathers? Be kind during your DOTA game is one way we can bring LOVE to all creation.
2) Practise your faith. How do people know that the Jesus, the Light of the World, is within you? When you practise your faith like praying the rosary at home, making the sign of the cross before you eat, stay away from saying cuss words.
3) Be surrounded with like-minded people who wants to serve the Lord (Like the LEGION OF MARY :)) Because at times when you need encouragement or advice, having friends like that will help a lot in your spiritual journey.
4) Make a catchy caption for social media post about the spiritual article that inspire or touch you. 
5) Be PATIENT. Sometimes we get to eager about sharing the Gospel with others that we become too pushy and hence the expression of ramming religion down into peoples’ throat. So wait for God’s time, wait for the prompting from the Holy Spirit.
So after seeing the 5 practical ways of sharing the Gospel, share with us your experience or even better, other ways of bring Christ to the world.
Amen.

Phone without battery by Arliando

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Allucutio, 12 June 2015

Spiritual reading: Matthew 5: 13-16

Jesus said to His disciples:
“You are the salt of the earth.
But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned?
It is no longer good for anything
But to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
You are the light of the world.
A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden
Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket;
It is set on a lampstand,
Where it gives light must shine before others,
That they may see your good deeds
And glorify Your heavenly Father.”
Dear brothers and sister, in the previous session Gerald reminded us about God, our source of light. This suddenly reminds me about Fr. Chris’ homily in Wednesday mass. He asked whether you could buy iphone without battery. Of course you can’t, even if you manage to buy it you can’t use it without battery. The homily helps me to reflect on the life of a legionary. A legionary is a useful and powerful ‘device’ but without the ‘battery’ it will be useless. So what is the battery?

The battery is our relationship with God. We can’t do anything outside of Him. So if a legionary wants to bring God’s light to the world, he/she must first enjoy the light and the Source. This relationship or encounter with God can be achieved by prayer life. Honestly, I am a weak person. Sometimes, I was lazy to pray. I prefer to play, study, or do other things. Of course those activities are good but when these activities take away our prayer time then it would be pitiful. I am amazed with our bishop. Every day he wakes up at 4.30 am to pray and have meditation until 6.00 am. In the afternoon, he also has middle prayer and examen. In the evening, he does the Vespers and also have community Holy Hour twice a week. Frankly speaking, I feel that his lifestyle is too holy for me. But what I can learn from him is the dedication to pray. Actually when we pray, we don’t lose time but we have opportunities to talk with God, examine our conscience, or enjoy His presence.

Next, our life is like a mirror. It is supposed to reflect the glory of God. But as we know, we are sinful. If the mirror is dirty, it can’t reflect light so the mirror should be constantly cleansed from dirt or other contaminants. This can be achieved by the frequent reception of the Sacrament of Confession/Reconciliation.

Lastly, St. Augustine said that he who prays well lives well; he who lives well dies well; and to he who dies well all is well. So your prayer life will determine your spiritual life. But don’t worry, our Mother will always sit besides us to pray with us and for us.

Suffering In The Mystical Body (Maria Dolce – 17 Apr 2015) by Kristo

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Allocutio 17th April 2015

Spiritual Reading: Legion Handbook pg 56-58, point 3: Suffering in the mystical Body

I received a blue and white cross on the last CPG prayer meeting of the semester. A thought comes to my mind: Mary is so intricately connected with the cross, suffering as Jesus was suffering, until the cross itself becomes blue and white, Mary’s favourite colours.

Indeed, Mary shares in her Son’s suffering so intimately as the spiritual reading says, “At the foot of the cross stands a figure, so desolate that it seems impossible for her to continue to live.” She has suffered so much with Jesus and that’s why we can look to Mary to know more about Jesus’ suffering and sacrifice for us, in order to better understand His great love for us. Love hurts, and only through understanding the hurts we can understand the great love. That is also why we meditate on the five sorrowful mysteries in the rosary, to have better insights about Jesus’ suffering with the help of Mary.

The Legion handbook also says, “Suffering is a grace… to confer power… never merely a punishment of sin, but medicinal in character.” Suffering is a gift from God, a gift that allows and strengthens us to fight our sins. Suffering is a sign that we are constantly battling our sins, because it is painful and very difficult to reject evil and sin since we are so accustomed to sin, living in a sinful world, addicted to sin so much so until sin has become second nature to us. It’s painful for an alcoholic or smoker to give up their addictions. It’s hard to say ‘no’ all the time, so we must constantly fight to say ‘no’ daily, one day at a time. That’s why rejecting evil and sins is akin to a marathon until we die.

Suffering is also a way to bring us back to Christ, as the handbook says, “in order to conform them ever more perfectly to His own likeness.” When we suffer we realise our weaknesses and our need to depend on God, prevents from committing a greater sin of pride, and therefore, in this way, little by little we are being transformed to be more and more like Christ.

“Suffering must have its place in every fruitful life… gives life its completeness” I guess we cannot deny that without suffering there is no achievement. Like without studying for exams, we cannot score well. Without suffering in child birth and throughout pregnancy, there is no child. Without suffering in bringing up a child, we cannot help the child to live a holy life. We sometimes like to feel good after suffering, to feel that our efforts pay off. But this is not a good motivation to persevere on in our suffering. Like Jesus, our motivation must be out of love for others. Jesus didn’t suffer on the cross so that He himself can feel good about himself after saving humanity, but because He loves us. So we too, we shouldn’t go to MOC or pray the chain rosary so that we can feel good after doing good works, but because we love the residents in MOC and we love the person we are praying the chain rosary for. Let us ask God to help us purify our intentions.

It is a “privilege to suffer with Him,” because when we suffer with Jesus, we will also share in His glory and resurrection. This is why “pain can be a joyful sign” and a “sense of suffering is a sense of Christ’s presence.”

So let us embrace our suffering and not shun them away so that we can become closer to Jesus in His suffering, and ultimately share in His joy. A good way to embrace suffering is to pray:

“Unite our sufferings with yours, O Lord”

Or for the more “adventurous”:

“Grant me a suffering to save a soul”

Every soul has a price tag that needs to be paid for the salvation of the soul. Christ already paid the price of all souls. But we are still constantly being saved from our sinful habits. Let’s pray that by suffering we can help to pay the price for the salvation of some souls. But I am not suggesting that we become masochists, but surrender ourselves to whatever sufferings God gives us in life because God knows our limits of endurance and He will never let us suffer more than we can endure. Embrace our sufferings willingly and joyfully so that others might be saved as Jesus has given as an example by staying on the cross despite being tempted by the thief to come down from the cross.

Let us surrender all our sufferings and crosses in life to Mary so that she could help us carry them in this life joyfully and patiently. She will make our heavy crosses blue and white, sweeter and easier to bear.

Why Acies ? (Maria Dolce – 20 Mar 2015) by Ika

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1.       Promise

I was just browsing through the internet, looking for some inspiration for today’s allocutio, when I stumble upon this article about the “Ultimate Secret of Weight Loss Journey”. The article was written by Heidi Powell, a physical trainer, who, with her husband, also hosts “Extreme Weight Loss”, USA’s ABC reality TV show that challenges obese people to lose their weight. I clicked open the article, hoping to see some advices on physical exercise that maybe I could try on myself, but instead I was left baffled after finished it off. Why? Instead of talking about exercise, diet, etc, the author said that the weight loss success of their TV shows’ participants, and more generally the success of everything else, is contributed by one thing. PROMISE. More specifically, a promise to oneself that is always kept under any circumstances. The author mentioned that the first rule for all “Extreme Weight Loss” participant is to commit a certain exercise regime that they would do on a daily basis without fail. The promise can be as small as “exercising 30 minutes a day”, but they have to really do it, no excuses are allowed. After proving that they could do it, the amount of exercise would then be added little by little (under the same rule of “no excuse” to skip it), and that’s how those participants lose half, or even more, of their weight at the end of 1 year. It was striking to me as I realized that only by successfully committing ourselves to a small promise, we could improve ourselves and in the end, achieved a bigger, more significant success.  

2.       Annunciation

Now, let’s talk about Annunciation. Why Annunciation? Because in our spiritual reading today on Acies, it is said that Acies should be celebrated near the Feast of the Annunciation. (I hope you guys do realize this, unless you were falling asleep just now. :P). Let’s try to picture this miraculous event in our head. An angel came to Virgin Mary, proclaiming that God on high has chosen her to become the Mother of the Incarnated Words, and what did she say in reply? “I am the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to Your Word.”  What a promise.
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Wait, a promise? Why?
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Because in that answer, she proclaimed her promise to the Lord that she would be whatever God wants her to be. A rather short, simple, easy promise. Seems easy, and yet, it showed Mary’s great faith in the Lord to face all the difficulties & pains that she would go through as Jesus’s Mother. Simple promise, and yet, it marked the beginning of our salvation.
A great thing, as great as our salvation, was started with this humble promise from a virgin, a no-body from Nazareth.

3.       Back to Acies

And now we are back to Acies. An annual celebration in which each legionary is asked to renew their promise to Mother Mary. An event which is highly regarded by LOM’s founding father, to the extent that he suggested “…..any legionaries who can attend, and yet fail to do so, have little or none of the spirit of the Legion in them. The membership of such persons is not an asset to the Legion…..”
Isn’t it clear now, why the Acies is to be celebrated near the Feast of Annunciation? Just as Mary was making promise to God, we were also making legion promise on the day we were accepted as a full member of the Legion. And now in the Acies, we are called to renew it, to once again proclaim what we have promised.
Isn’t it clear now, why our legion promise is so important that we are called to renew it once a year? Though each of us is a no-body, though each of us is sinner just like anyone else, though we are weak and always in need of God’s merciful blessing, our promise is as important as Mary’s promise to God is. Without our promise (and us keeping that promise faithfully, of course), Mary would not be able to channel out God’s grace, which she had received abundantly from her Son, to the whole humanity. She needs our consent, our cooperation, and our help, to bring back humankind to her Son. She needs us. No matter how small or seemingly insignificant each of us is.  Only by our promise, by us keeping that promise faithfully, we could help bring salvation to the world.