Author Archives: SAO Student Organisations

A Holy Hour – Novenia Oerip

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Spiritual Reading 

A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew 26:36-43
Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” 37 And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” 39 And going a little farther he fell on his face rand prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” 40 And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? 41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 42 Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” 43 And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy.


An Hour of Power An HOUR that Makes Your Day

“Could you not watch one hour with me?” (MT. 26:40)  The Lord speaks to the disciples when they are overcome by sleep while he is wrestling with the passion which he must undergo.  Are you often like them?  Do you often seem to be asleep spiritually in all the tensions and frustrations of daily life?  This is because you are blocking the love God has for you.

You are created to be so completely in love with God that each moment of every day has divine meaning.  You are created to know yourself, the world, and others from the divine point of view.  Christ is pouring out his love for you much as he did when he wrestled with the passion in the garden, and yet you are so preoccupied with other things that you do not notice.
The only remedy for this spiritual torpor is prayer.  This is not just vocal prayer, although vocal prayer is important.  But the prayer which alone can heal must involve a communion of hearts of a regular basis, just as a good marriage must involve more than just words.  A good marriage must also involve a communion of hearts on a regular basis.
One time-honored practice of spiritual communication is the holy hour in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament.  The origin of the holy hour is the question Christ asked his disciples in the Garden: “Could you not watch one hour  with me?”  If you are in the midst of spiritual torpor or just wish to grow in the spiritual life, you must spend time with God. 

Bishop Sheen was a person who popularized the holy hour. When people asked him what inspired him to do so, he said that it was a young chinese girl. When the priest was imprisoned in his ownhouse, he saw the Communist broke open the tabernacle and threw a ciborium down with all the hosts inside of it spilled out on the floor. He counted the hosts and there were 32 of them. At the night a girl came into the church snuck by the guards and she prayed for 1 hour before the host for reparation of the desecration of the Eucharist. Each night, at the end of the hour she would lean down and receive a host by her tounge. On the last night, when she had received the last host, one of the guard saw her leave and followed her and then sent her to death. He was so moved by the girl’s devotion to the blessed sacrament and said that if the girl could risk her life for 32 days then he could spend 1 hour in everyday of his life in front of the blessed sacrament.
What is a holy hour?

A holy hour is spending time with God.  Just as communication not only involve speaking but also listening, the holy hour means listening; in this case it means listening to God.   The holy hour places one in the presence of God to do just that. LISTEN.
Why should it be done in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament?

A holy hour can be done anywhere where you can bring your own self before the presence of God.  There are several reasons for  recommending that this be done in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament.  The first is that this is an extension of the Eucharist in which Christ gives himself as our Living Bread for our spiritual life.   The second is because it is normally a place without distractions.  The third is that in Holy Communion your soul is permeated with God like wax melted into wax.   There can be no deeper presence of God here on earth than the one brought to us in transubstantiation.  This is why it called the “Real Presence.” 
What do I do during a holy Hour?

A holy hour is not a project to be accomplished but an exercise of love.  You can read a spiritual book, say the Rosary, perform some act of piety which means something in your life, or you can just DO nothing. St. John Vianney is reputed to have asked a man who sat quietly for hours before the tabernacle what he was doing.  The man replied, “I do not know.  I look at him and he looks at me, and we are happy together.”
Just rest with the Lord.  The important thing is to realize that you need time apart from the liturgical prayer of the Mass and even obligatory prayers like the Liturgy of the Hours for priests where you experience God’s personal care for you alone.
Many people think there is a plaster of Paris image to which they need to conform and they try to look like the statues they see in the church.  They do not want to talk about negative or hurtful things in God’s presence because they think that this is unfitting.  You cannot be like that.  You must bring the REAL YOU before God.   This means yourself with all the hurts, the warts and the strengths.  You must ask God to heal you of your faults and help you to use your strength for his goodness. 
How can I pray?

Normally, the classic method of experiencing the loving God and his providence for you takes four forms.  The first is the recalling of some mystery of grace, which can either be found in Scripture, in the lives of the saints, or in a spiritual or theological book.  This is reading (lectio).  Once you place some mystery of grace before the eyes of your heart, then you apply it to your own life in some trouble or weakness, then you apply this mystery to some gift of God’s goodness you have received either in yourself, from another, or from him.  This is meditation (meditatio).   You yourself respond to this desire for healing or knowledge of gifts received by a sighing of the heart, which may or may not be put into words.  This is prayer (oratio).   Finally, you rest in the goodness of God with the knowledge that God loves you so much to aid you in healing or shower you with his blessings.  This is contemplation (contemplatio).

“O God, you are my God; for you I long, for you my soul is thirsting; my body pines for you like a dry weary land without water.  So I will gaze on you in the sanctuary to see your strength and your glory.  My soul shall be filled as with a banquet.”  (Psalm 63)
Our Lord is a precious, wonderful and loving redeemer. He longs to touch and heal each of us in His love. He longs to give us His light and life. Remember what our Lord says,”Come to Me, all of you who are weary and find life burdensome and I will refresh you”.

LUKEWARMNESS – Luan

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Reading: Mt 5:13-16
“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 to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.”
Allocutio: LUKEWARMNESS
Lukewarm = tepidity: only moderately warm, not hot, not cold.
– Porridge is not hot à not good to eat.
– Working without enthusiasm à not as productive
– No desire for holiness à no will to fight against temptation.
Lukewarmness in spiritual life is “the devil in disguise” (Francis F. Carvajal).
Lukewarmness is the lack of “heat”: that heat is (1) desire for holiness, (2) love for God and divine things, (3) struggle against temptations, and (4) joy and cheerfulness in trying circumstances.
Lukewarmness is not a sin, but it opens the door to all temptations and risks ourselves to fall.
– It gives up without struggling, and then we easily commit venial sins, and then mortal sins.
– It is also against the teaching of Jesus: He never accepts us to be “part-time” Christians, there is no “neutral state” in our faith. “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” – Mt 12:30. 
– It triggers the love for easiness and love for one’s self rather than the cross and the divinity of God – meanwhile Pope Francis call for the youth to get out of their comfort zones. 
Signs of lukewarmness: 
– Decreasing effort in going to Mass, receiving Holy Communion, praying and doing Apostolates; trivializing these efforts and doing them routinely.
– Shame and reluctance to go for Confession.
– Showing no effort of corrections of venial sins and self-defects.
– Thinking that one’s self has been holy or overworked, even though he has not.
– Daring not to speak about God and spiritual matters to appropriate people.
How to fight against lukewarmness?
– Humility, ask God for forgiveness; sincerity to go to confession or asking for help from Spiritual Director.
– Desire for holiness, being self-aware about spiritual life by doing daily examination of conscience. Will to fight against venial sins.
– Discipline and mortifications.
– No loss of hope in our Lord when we fail, “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new” (A. Einstein). Calling to mind the communion of Saints and the intercession of Mother Mary. “If you make mistakes, say sorry to God, go for confession, then try again.” (quoted from a friend).
Conclusion: “Life is like riding a bicycle, to keep your balance, you must keep moving” (A. Einstein). Our relationship with God is to cycle up to the top of a mountain to meet Him at the summit – if we don’t move forward, we will fall backward.

Its Fruits are Intense Idealism and Action – Christofer Kristo

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Spiritual reading: 
(Handbook pg 64 – Its fruits are intense idealism and action)
The most wonderful thing for me in the Legionary promise is the realisation that I am unworthy, but is called to serve, to be an instrument of God’s mighty purposes, sustained by His power.
3 promises we make in the Legionary promise
  1. “Desiring to be enrolled this day as a Legionary of Mary.”
  2. “I so declare my entire dependence on her… as her soldier and her child.”
  3. “I take my place in the ranks of the Legion, and I venture to promise a faithful service. I will submit fully to its discipline.”However, these only form a small part of the whole Legionary promise. The rest of the parts are God’s promises to us:
If we submit ourselves to God, He promised us that:
  1. “my poor acts may be sustained by your power”
  2. We will “become an instrument of your mighty purposes”
  3. “Her heart and mine are one”
  4. We will “do great things”
  5. “Your power overshadow me
  6. We will “save the world”
  7. We “may be pure in Her”
  8. “Christ my Lord may likewise grow in me through you”
  9. We “may bring him to the world and to the souls who need Him
  10. We will battle victoriously against sin, the most defiant Goliath, which the Spiritual Reading says is unbelief and sin
  11. You will receive me–and use me—and turn my weakness into strength this day”
  12. We will “work Your will”
  13. We will “operate the miracles of grace
  14. We will “renew the face of the earth, and establish Your reign, Most Holy Spirit, over all.”
How great are God’s promises to us if we but only give ourselves willingly and freely to Him. I am not belittling the (our) promise, but acknowledging that from our meagre 5 loaves and 2 fishes, our 3 promises, God could amplify them, transform them into something bigger for the greater glory of God.
The second paragraph of the promise contains some declaration of our faith and knowledge about Mary. When we say this, we acknowledge Mary and her power, and her role as the administrator of gifts, virtues, and graces to whomever she pleases and when she pleases. From this acknowledgement of who Mary is to ourselves, we indicate that we are free to take the promise, that we are not forced to take the promise, rather it is a sincere response after we acknowledge who is Mary, desiring to be united to her after knowing her.
One phrase that struck me was “Without her, we cannot love or know you.” Mary knows Jesus best because she has lived with Jesus, she has brought Jesus up from an infant, to childhood, and to adulthood. No one knows Jesus better or loves Jesus better than His mother, Mary. That is why if we wish to know Jesus better, to be closer to Jesus, we must ask Mary’s help to reveal to us great truths about Jesus.
When we freely commit ourselves to a higher call, our spiritual reading says that “the few who respond to the call to high endeavour will persevere, and little by little their spirit will communicate itself to the many.” Indeed, the higher the call, the higher the commitment, and the more we must persevere. When things become inconvenient, we must not give up and persevere on. 
The devil doesn’t like us to be close to Mary and to Jesus, that is why the devil is always trying to separate us from Jesus and from Mary, and this is why we are in a constant battle and war against the devil. However, with Jesus’ and Mary’s help we can conquer the devil and nothing can separate us from God. For example, the distractions and the feeling of tiredness that we have while praying the Rosary, is the devil’s trick in preventing us from saying the Rosary. So we must ask God to help us concentrate and persevere through the Rosary before we pray the Rosary. Another example would be the guilt and shame that we feel when we want to go for confession after committing the same sins again and again. We might feel afraid and ashamed as we approach the priest to confess the same sins again. However, this is also the devil’s way of preventing us from obtaining salvation. We must know the truth that God never tires of forgiving, rather it is us who sometimes is tired of confessing our sins. We may sin again, but we must always turn back to God after we sin. In the end, God’s promise us that He will “secure your triumph” in the battle against sin. 
I think Ven. John Henry Newman summarises my message today: “Fear not little flock, for He is mighty who is the midst of you, and He will do for you great things.” With such great promises of God if we lay our lives before Him, there is only one true answer to that call: “Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord, Be it done unto me according to Your word.” 
Amen.

The Eucharist – Wilson Poh

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The Eucharist (A deeper understanding)


What is the Eucharist? It is a sacrament and a sacrifice; a non-bloody sacrifice. Jesus was not just establishing a covenant, but He himself is the covenant. In the Old Testament, the covenants were all a preparation or a foreshadowing of THE covenant. Let us see how the covenants in the Old Testament were being fulfilled in Christ:
Old Testament
New Testament
1
Genesis 9: 12-17
12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come:
13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 
14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 
15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 
16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
17 So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”
Revelation 4: 3
3 And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne.
2
Genesis 22
Abraham was offering his son to God at Mount Moriah, but was stop by an angel.
Gospel
Jesus was sacrifice for our sins at a mount call Calvary.
3
Exodus 24:8
8 Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”
Mark 14: 22-24
22 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body.”
23 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it.
24 “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,” he said to them.

Why did Jesus say, “It is finished” at the cross? What is finished? The work of redemption? Not true because Jesus hasn’t been raised from the dead yet. Why did Jesus ask His Father to, “Take this cup away from …” Him? What is the connection?

First we have to understand the liturgy of the Passover meal. Why the Passover meal? Because we know from Luke 22:15 that the Last Supper is a Passover meal: 15 And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.

During a Passover meal, 4 cups of wine will be drunk. Each of these cups represents four distinct promises made by God:

1.       Cup of Sanctification (I will bring you out of Egypt)
2.       Cup of Deliverance (I will deliver you from Egyptian slavery)
3.       Cup of Redemption (I will redeem you with My power)
Before the last cup is drunk, a psalm is being sung.
4.       Cup of Restoration (I will take you as My people)

The third cup, the cup of redemption was drunk after grace is given. It is done in conjunction with the prayer spoken over the bread (Mark 14: 23-24): 23 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it. 24 “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,” he said to them.

After this we know from verse 26 of Mark chapter 14 that they sung a hymn (the hallel psalm – Psalms 113-118): 26 When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
What did Jesus at Mount Olives? (Gethsemane is a garden at the foot of Mount Olives) He prayed very earnestly to His Father. What did he pray? In verse 36 it writes, “36 “Abba,Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”” What is this cup that Christ talks about? Why does he refer to his death and suffering as a cup?

Now let’s move forward to John 19:28. 28 Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” Don’t you think Jesus was thirsty before that? And Jesus says that he was thirsty in order to fulfil the scripture!

In verse 29 of John 19, “29 A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips.” The hyssop plant is used to sprinkle the lamb’s blood on the door post before the Angel of Death passes over. The 4thcup, the Cup of Restoration was drunk when Christ drank from the sponge. “It is finished” is the Passover meal. The sacrifice of the Passover Lamb of God occurs not at Calvary, but at the upper room.

So what is so important that it is a Passover meal? In the Old Testament, if you slain the lamb and sprinkle the blood on your door post, your first-born son will….
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Die! Why? Because you need to eat the lamb. Who do Jesus say he is? He is the bread of life. What should you do? You should eat Him, His flesh and drink his blood! Only then you will have life!

Story of the whale who ate everything

One day a small sized blue whale was swimming around the sea. He became very hungry and started to look for something yummy.

So hungry was the whale that he ate a rusty pail. And the whale got a little bit bigger.

So hungry was the whale that he ate his own mail. And the whale got a little bit bigger.

Then the whale went too far: He ate a jar, a guitar, a chocolate bar, and a bright red car. It was truly bizarre.

So the whale got bigger than any whale have ever been. He became so big that he couldn’t even swim. And become so terribly sad that he was lost his big whale grin.

Then one day an anchor was dragging by. And even though he had become so big, the whale thought, “I’ll give it a try”.  But the anchor got stuck inside of the whale. He pulled and pulled and he started to fail. But it was too late, the boat put up its sail.

Then something real strange started to happen. The anchor had hooked all the thing within. And pulled up everything out from his head to his fin. Now that small blue whale swims in the sea just eating normal whale food such as algae. He finds it tasty and it makes him so happy.

Reflection

Sometimes we become too hungry with our own ambition, our own agenda, our own goals that we fill ourselves, our time with all these activities. Our minds are tired, our schedules are so packed that we don’t have time for God. The Eucharist is like the anchor the whale ate. It will help you order yourself to seek God first and this seeking of God first, you will find happiness. Like the whale 🙂

Reference

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mj5OD2jDGU&list=FLyyraG1L3210SxO3iCzPNFQ&index=5


ACIES 2015 (21st March)

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I am all yours,
my Queen, my Mother,
all that I have is yours
Oops! Hehe…
+ Eric… 
That orange glow radiating from their faces!

“Father, teach me how to be holy like you.”

The beautiful ladies from the NUS LOM Praesidium

Willcyn  and Felix

Legionaries gone “wild”

“Hey… is that a Yeo’s drink? – Stevi

Jeremy from the Mandarin Praesidium (also an NTU student) and our beloved Luan

Yeo’s model

Beautiful smile ladies 🙂

Show the camera some love people!

That’s the way!

Photobombing

The Legionaries from NTU
Legionaries from NUS

Legionaries from MHL
“Can I have…” – An
Eric 🙂

Now… the beautiful ladies from NTU

The boys from NTU… looking much better than the girls. Hehehe.

Funny faces everyone!
Beautiful flowers in St. Ignatinus

Be it done to me according to your word. My beloved Mother and our brother Jesus!

Please take a sit and enjoy nature.

The last but never the least. The source of our Life, Jesus.

Here’s One Fear We Don’t Have To Be Afraid Of

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Spiritual Reading
“Then he said to his disciples, ‘That is why I am telling you not to worry about your life and what you are to eat, nor about your body and how you are to clothe it. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Think of the ravens. They do not sow or reap; they have no storehouses and no barns; yet God feeds them. And how much more you are worth than the birds! Can any of you, however much you worry, add a single cubit to your span of life? If a very small thing is beyond your powers, why worry about the rest?” (Luke 12: 22-26)
Allocutio
I am a very anxious person. I worry a lot. I have many fears. I was assigned to give today’s allocutio. This task made me afraid.
Fear is a survival instinct. For us humans, fear serves as “a basic survival mechanism that signals our bodies to respond to danger with a fight or flight response.” It is an emotion that prepares us to react.
What are you afraid of? Think back to the last time you felt fear.
Your heart raced faster as it pumped more blood to your muscles to allow you to run faster. Your body increased the flow of hormones to your brain to allow you to focus on the threat you are facing, and store that in your memory.
This cognitive process allows us to remember dangerous situations from the past and be prepared, if needed. For example, a child remembers the day a dog attacked him. He heard the dog bark, he looked back, and saw a dog approaching, its mouth wide open.
But it is also the same cognitive process that triggers fear when the child hears a dog bark, even if it is a different dog this time, or a dog from a movie, or a ring tone, or a friend mimicking his favorite pet.
So while fear is a survival mechanism in the short run, it can be harmful in the long run.

One thing that I do often, which is closely related to fear, is worry. Being the paranoid person that I am, I worry about almost everything. I worry about my safety. I worry about my work. I worry about what other people think of me. Why is my friend not responding on Skype? Why did my colleague sit at the far end of the table, away from me? Why are my superiors calling me for a meeting?
Worrying is very stressful. And just like fear, it has physical manifestations.
I still clearly remember one time I was on a bus, rushing for a press conference I needed to attend as a newspaper reporter, and as I was worrying about missing the event, the stoplight changed into red. The bus screeched into a full stop as pain stretched from my stomach to my throat. As a reporter, who was constantly worried about everything, I had developed an awful case of gastric reflux.
Fearful of this task to deliver today’s allocutio, I turned to the Bible. What does the Bible say about fear and worrying?
I am a media researcher, and to some extent, what we see in the media contributes to our worries. We see images of war, disasters, accidents, injustice, and corruption.
We fear for our safety, for our lives, for our loved ones. We purchase insurance premiums, sturdy locks and alarm systems, and others even arm themselves.
But this fear, these worries, arises from putting too much faith on people, too much value on things, instead of putting our trust in the Lord.
There is one kind of fear that is quite different, something that is positive, and that is the fear of God.
In an article, Father Raniero Cantalamessa said that fearing God is different from being afraid.
It is the absence of this fear, the fear of God, the “beginning of all wisdom,” that allows fears, worries, and anxiety to clog our hearts and preoccupy our minds.
So what did I do to control my fear of my assignment for today?
First, I decided to not waste my energy on worrying, and instead channeled my focus into actually preparing. I read the handbook to understand what the Allocutio is for.
In our spiritual reading, the Lord told his disciples: ‘That is why I am telling you not to worry about your life and what you are to eat, nor about your body and how you are to clothe it. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.”
My assignment today is not to impress you, not to make sure I don’t stutter or mispronounce words. My assignment is beyond that.
Second, I prepared by trusting the Lord, knowing that my fear of Him is bigger than any fear, or worry, or anxiety. I decided to confront my worries and my fear. I stopped making excuses and embraced this task.
In Philippians 4:6-7, it is said: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Finally, I messaged some friends on Whatsapp, and their kind words helped extinguish my fear. Proverbs 12:25 says: “An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up.”
So, the next time we feel afraid, let’s just read Psalm 34:4. For it says: “I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.”
By Edson C. Tandoc Jr.
References

Karaoke outing

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Especially for Gibran who is most of the time late for meetings. Hehehe.
Gibran: I’m sorry guys that I am late. I have a meeting with my professor.
Everyone: It’s too late to apologise.
An going crazy with this song from One Direction.

Ika is too shy the start the karaoke with the famous song from the Black Eye Peas. She wants her dear Felix to sing with her, but he is also shy. Wah lau, damn lousy like you Felix.

Felix rooted to the couch, singing his song.

The duo of Edson and Wilson singing the world famous, “I don’t want to miss a thing” by Aerosmith.

I’m yours