The End!

I've decided that it's the end of this blog!
Blogspot is too painful and troublesome to update.
Anyway, go and check the blog http://catholicapologist.wordpress.com/

Wordpress so much better is than blogspot, I can assure you that!

Ciao all!

What if the Atheists are right?

Lifehouse - Everything 'Skit'

It brings tear to my eyes...

Jaguar!

A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no children appeared . Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag’s side door! He slammed on the brakes and backed the Jag back to the spot where the brick had been thrown.

The angry driver then jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against a parked car shouting,“What was that all about and who are you? Just what the heck are you doing? That’s a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?”

The young boy was apologetic. “Please, mister…please, I’m sorry but I didn’t know what else to do,” He pleaded. “I threw the brick because no one else would stop…” With tears dripping down his face and off his chin, the youth pointed to a spot just around a parked car. “It’s my brother,” he said. “He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can’t lift him up.”

Now sobbing, the boy asked the stunned executive, “Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He’s hurt and he’s too heavy for me.”

Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. He hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into the wheelchair, then took out a linen handkerchief and dabbed at the fresh scrapes and cuts. A quick look told him everything was going to be okay. “Thank you and may God bless you,” the grateful child told the stranger. Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the boy! push his wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk toward their home.

It was a long, slow walk back to the Jaguar. The damage was very noticeable, but the driver never bothered to repair the dented side door. He kept the dent there to remind him of this message:

“Don’t go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention!” God whispers in our souls and speaks to our hearts. Sometimes when we don’t have time to listen, He has to throw a brick at us. It’s our choice to listen or not.

Thought for the Day:
If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it.
If He had a wallet, your photo would be in it.
He sends you flowers every spring.
He sends you a sunrise every morning Face it, friend - He is crazy about you!
God didn’t promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow, sun without rain, but He did promise strength for the day, comfort for the tears, and light for the way.
Read this line very slowly and let it sink in…
If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it.

Circus

Just now, I talked to my friend about my plan of writing a book. I told her that I want to write spirituality book about Circus and how we could learn from them. But she thought I was having fever! That was RUDE! Actually, I can't blame her, it sounds a little bit funny. I'll write an introduction in the next few paragraphs.

The whole idea about the Circus started when I listen to Don't Cry Out Loud by Diana DeGarmo.

Baby cried the day the circus came to town
'cause she didn't want parades just passin' by her
So she painted on a smile and took up with some clown
While she danced without a net upon the wire
I know a lot about her 'cause, you see
Baby is an awful lot like me

Don't cry out loud
Just keep it inside, learn how to hide your feelings
Fly high and proud
And if you should fall, remember you almost had it all

Baby saw that when they pulled that big top down
They left behind her dreams among the litter
The different kind of love she thought she'd found
There was nothin' left but sawdust and some glitter
But baby can't be broken 'cause you see
She had the finest teacher-that was me-I told her

I tried to reflect on the song and get to the scenario. It gives me a whole new perspective of Circus. I'm no longer the audience, but I am part of the troupe. I imagine them travel around as a community (a troupe) and they create larger community with the audience. So they are able to bring people together (to watch them perform) and when they perform they invite the audience to have the sense of unity through togetherness, laughters, applause, etc.

When we come back* to Mass, we might not know who the person sitting next to us but we come as a community of God's people. Singing/reciting in unison expresses the sense of unity in the Church. As we are amazed with the Circus, we should also be awed (correct verb?) with what happens on the altar. We are brought back to the Calvary! foot of the Cross! What happened 2000 years ago is happening again at Mass. I don't think anyone could understand fully how this happens. Not too worry, it's a mystery of faith. We shouldn't try to understand it with our brain. We should give our full attention to what happen; how the bread and wine change to body and blood of Christ during the consecration.

In the Circus, my favourite is Flying Trapeze. It's simple perfomance and yet elegant. They don't even need to talk when they do the acts, yet people still pay full attention to them. Well, they really need to work together, because there's a danger that the flyer could fall. So between the flyer and the catcher there must be trust. The flyer have to trust the catcher completely; that he will be able to catch, thus prevent him from falling. When there is mutual trust, the flyer could fly freely without being afraid that the catcher will fail to do his job.
Reflection: Can we trust God completely that he will be able to catch us when we fall? Do we still have doubt in mind when we 'fly'? Or we don't trust Him at all that we refuse to fly freely?

You might not be able to relate with the Flying Trapeze, don't worry, because there is always a clown! People love clown, probably because they could see themselves in him. A failure, a joker, you name it! The clown implicitly tells us that it's okay to fail, to make mistake, to laugh at ourselves. Actually, the clown doesn't do the perfomance alone. He needs audience (community) to support him, he'll be a BIG failure if he fails to bring smile and laughters to the audience. The audience is made up of different people who come for different reasons. There are people who come to laugh at the clown, but there are those who come to laugh with the clown because they could see themselves doing the foolish things that the clown does.

After writing so much, I don't know whether you can understand what I wrote. If you could understand half of it, then it's more than good already. =)

*I used the word 'come back' because we are sent out to the world in the Mass (Go...), thus when we attend Mass, we actually come back to Mass.

~The End~ (?)

I just finished posting my last entry to the BlogFest. Time flies! It has been a wonderful and frustrating 5 weeks. There were times I was so stressed up (Week 3!), but most of the time it's been great. I would like to quote Karl Keating, the founder of Catholic Answer, "To the extent any good comes from it, the credit is God's. To the extent any harm comes, the blame is [mine]. [I] hope there will be much good and little harm."

I wanna thank everyone, especially the people in-charge and fellow participants. I definitely enjoyed myself participating in this BlogFest. I learnt alot, especially about Catholicism and the art of blogging.

I may continue blogging here in the future as writing has been my passion since I was young. It's just, my handwriting isn't good so I didn't write a lot (because no one will read it!). However, technology changed everything. With Computer, Internet, and Weblog, I can share my thoughts easily with others. Thank you all! =)

God loves you,
Vincent

Week 5 #2: Response!

Week 5!

Phew.. the topic was hard to write and even harder to response, a reason being is how should I response to people's relationship with God? But as I read the entries by the participants, there are things that I could relate to.

When I read Achillia's entry, there are phrases that caught my attention immediately.

"countless ups and downs"
I experience the ups and downs every a few months. In the past, I got discouraged easily when I had the 'downs' and thus I became distant from God. As I discovered more about God, I've learnt that God will allow the devil to tempt us and we must be able to depend on Him and ask Him to give us the graces, the strengths that we need to overcome the temptation. Well, it's either you make it or you break it.

We also need to remember when we have the 'ups' because these moments remind us what God has done in our life, hence we could regain our faith during the bad time. From here, we will know that God never leaves us. God never failed to save me when I was in the darkness.

"On the way to...a short conversation"
I know that I'm not the only one and now I have a proof. Yippie! =) I often talk to God also when I'm on the bus to school. Usually it starts like this "God, I have a plan to do ... today, do You think it's good? If no then please reveal to me Your plan" or just telling Him whatever I have in mind, since He knows everything. No point lying to God, right? =p

Recently, I learnt how to use a song to communicate with Him, it's even interesting, because I like to sing (but I don't have a good voice to be in choir =p) and the lyrics are beautiful. For example: "Angels among us" by Alabama. The chorus goes like this

Oh.. I believe there are angels among us,
sent down to us from somewhere up above.
They come to you and me in our darkest hours
to show us how to live, to teach us how to give
To guide us with the light of love.

Isn't it beautiful? I love to sing it when I feel down, then I'll start thinking of my guardian angels and all the 'angels' that I have encountered in my life. Sometimes, a sincere smile could bring happiness to others; it is the simplest act that 'angels' could do. Don't you want to be angels for others too?

"enjoy the beautiful moments"
Life in Singapore is very fast, sometimes I don't even know why I do things so quickly. When I was in sec 3, I was famous for eating my lunch in 3,5 minutes (my friend actually used stopwatch to measure it! -.-"). Because of the fast pace, we often forget to realise the beautiful things that God has given us. When we are too busy with life, let us remind ourselves to stop and smell the flower.

"I would just recite the official Our Father quickly"
There are times when we couldn't pray and just recite the common Catholic prayer; Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be. It's not wrong, especially when we encounter spiritual dryness and to pray is the most difficult thing to do. Well, don't forget to be on our knees and ask Him to help us to pray, to experince Him and His great love. Sounds weird, but it works.

(All photos are from personal collection)