Recent events

These few weekends have been busy, going to the parishes for book display and at the same time promoting 366 Days with the Lord. It is such a joy when people came forward to get this Liturgical Diary, expressing their desire to be more in touch with the word of God daily. Many have been getting this for the past few years. We just hope that many more people will feel this thirst.

Last Sunday, I also had the opportunity, for the first time in my life, to give a little presentation to a small group of young working adults in Christ the King Church. They were producing a magazine for the parish, which looks very impressive, well lay-out, with nice, wide contents about the life in the parish. I touch on the Spirituality of being a Christian Communicator, emphasising each baptized Catholic's role and duty to share in the mission of Jesus, being sent out to proclaim the Good News to all people, and the need of a deepening personal relationship with Jesus, who is our model and the Perfect Communicator. I do not know how much I brought across the message but trust that the Holy Spirit is the one to touch they hearts and give them the encouragement to persevere in this great mission which they had begun.

Today, I was in a convent school for book display and was amazed to see that many students have at least 2 or more badges on them besides their own names--prefect, prefect buddy, librarian, PE monitor, sports leader, most helpful student..... What surprised me was 2 students were having a button with Toilet Ambassador. What do they do? I still couldn't find out because the student concerned just smile at us when we showed interest. For whatever reason or motivation, we just hope that this is a form of encouragement for each student.

Lk 12:39-48

"The servant who knew his master’s will

but did not make preparations nor act in accord with his will

shall be beaten severely;

and the servant who was ignorant of his master’s will

but acted in a way deserving of a severe beating

shall be beaten only lightly.

Much will be required of the person entrusted with much,

and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more."

This part of today's gospel reading struck me and keep me pondering. In fact, I was rather preoccupied and even a bit fearful with these words of Jesus. The priest at Mass mentioned: we all know the will of God, but are we acting according to His will?

How much preparation did I make? How often do I act in accord with His will, but instead with my own will? Am I ignorant to His will especially in my daily living as a religious?

On the consoling side, just when I was reflecting these in chapel, I came upon these words:

There is nothing to be afraid, let us not leave space to angiush or distrust. Resort to Mary, the "faithful servant" of the Lord: the Queen of Heaven is ready to support us in this earthly pilgrimage.

Non c'è da aver paura, non lasciamo spazio all'angoscia o alla sfiducia. Ricorriamo a Maria, la "serva fedele" del Signore: la Regina del Cielo è pronta a sostenerci in questo pellegrinaggio terreno. (Messa Meditazione)

366 DAYS WITH THE LORD 2008

Liturgical Biblical Diary

Every year around this time, our community will begin the annual promotion of the Liturgical Biblical Diary, known as 366 Days with the Lord (hey, it's the leap year in 2008). As the name suggests, it is not an ordinary diary and at the same time, it is not a Bible by itself. Following the Church's liturgy, it contains the daily gospel reading, accompanied by reflection done by Fr. Harold Buetow, a diocesan priest in Brooklyn. He has a number of books on homelies and pastoral talks. As this is a good way to encourage people to get in touch with the Word of God daily, we the Daughters of St. Paul in Singapore has make this an annual project and it is a great joy to see that each year, there is an increasing number of people asking for this diary as this shows the hunger for the Word of God.

Book displays in schools - Part 2

The second school we visited was a girl school. We can see a bit of different. The girls really read. More books were diffused and we can see their enthusiasms.

The 3rd school we went, on the other hand, was all boys and just like the previous one, the reading power is good too. We can see that the parents do give their encouragement for the children to get good books.

Book displays in schools - Part 1

These past 3 weeks, I have been going to 3 elementary schools with our novice, Lynette, for outreach. It has been an interesting experience after quite a long period of "out of touch" with school children.

The first school was a mixed mission school in a neighbourhood, what we call "heartland". A number of students did buy books but most were interested in little bookmarks. In this school, we discovered the young "entrepreneurship" in them. We noticed a group of boys carrying bags of water with some little blue "jelly balls" in it. We found out that one of them was selling seeds which they called "water-baby". They were supposed to grow in water and multiply at a certain size. What interest me most was, the boy who did the selling bought it at a low price from some stores and he was selling to his schoolmates at 1 for 5 cents, they will get one free if they buy 20 cents. We can see that he did "earned" quite a lot of money out of it.

Since one month.....

It has been a month since I last written. Have a bit of a problem in connecting to the internet with my laptop.

Thanks for all your prayers, our General Chapter has come to an end and if some of you have been following, our Superior General, Sr. Maria Antonieta Bruscato was re-elected. It is not easy to hold this responsibility, we are grateful to her for saying her 'Yes' to God and to the Congregation and I do ask you to continue to keep her in your prayers.

some information of our new general government

Community of Singapore

I would like to share a bit about my community here in Singapore, even though some may have known the reality here.

We were founded in 1994, and before this year, we already have 3 perpetual professed sisters and one postulant. Till today, we have 5 perpetual professed Singaporean sisters, 1 junior professed and 1 novice. God has blessed our community with vocations even though we are small.

These 2 weeks, there has been quite a bit of movements here. Together with my return, we have our new junior professed sister, Karen, who made her first profession in Boston on 30 June. We also have Lynette, our second year novice, who is here with us for her 4 months' apostolic experience. Then, we have Sr. Lioba, a Korean perpetual professed sister, staying with us and studying English. So, in the whole community, we are altogether 8, and frankly speaking the whole house is full--we have no more spare room for visitors.....

However, Sr. Wendy will be leaving us sooooooon, very soon, that is, next Tuesday. She will be staying in LA for a couple of months to take up some apostolic updating.

That's all for now.....

9th General Chapter of the Daughters of St. Paul

With the whole of our congregation, I would like to invite everyone of you, first to join us in prayer as we begin an important event--our 9th General Chapter on August 20, Monday. For more information and to journey with you, you may visit our website at: 9th General Chapter

Evans Almighty

2 weeks ago, I got the opportunity to go for a movie preview on Evan Almighty. Thought it is a nice film focusing on family but with religious theme--similar to Noah's Ark. Maybe you can read the review written by Sr. Rose Pacatte, Daughter of St. Paul from LA--A Film Study Guide for Catholic Christians.

Happy National Day, Singapore

Today, our country, Singapore, is celebrating her 42nd birthday. Yes, we are a young nation, and we have come quite a long way to achieve what we are now. Though a small country, God has given us many gifts and blessings.

Singapore National Day Parade