Our Lady of Lourdes

Recently it was feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes, so you might be asking, who is Our Lady of Lourdes. This is one of the many names given to Mother Mary, this one specifically to an apparition of her in Lourdes.

The feast day is on the 11 of Feb, because it was believed that on that very day about 150 years ago, was the first apparition of Our Mother Mary where a little 14 year old girl, said she saw a lady in a cave. That girl is Saint Bernadette Soubirous.

The story in brief is that the girl and her sister went collecting firewood, there they saw the spirit like apparition, when they told the story to the town, they received corporal punishment! Harsh isn't it? But laws back then were way different than times now. Later on she decided to go back with holy water to see if it was evil or not. Long story short, the apparition told her to come back and that she will make her happy in the next life, as more of the story unfolds, more and more people become increasingly interested in it, at a point, our Lady asked Bernadette to dig and drink from the water from the ground, that same water was used to cure a lot of people, miracles, don't they just make you feel happy. Later on sometime the Apparition revealed herself to be the Immaculate Mother Mary.

This is a shrine at Lourdes, reading about it makes me wanna go there myself, maybe drink a little of that Holy Water. Amazing isn't it, you can't find stories like these anymore in our days. Even so the pressure from critics now, and tabloids, media can be just overwhelming. So if instances like this did happen i wonder how long it would carry on. Our Lady appeared at Lourdes 17 times over a span of one year.

I'm beginning to think that something like this, grasp by media attention would defeat it's purpose, having cameras at the location of the apparition, would not make it special, everyone in the world can see it, well doubtful since the apparitions appear to a select few. But miracles on a giant scale would of course have to question the public views on religion.

It kinda makes you wonder that how some people can be so narrow minded to choose not to believe even though the signs are all there. Miracles have still been happening, very few reported, but none the less the proof is still there. Why do you think we still have Saints being canonized to this very day!

It just goes to show how secular this society has become, and what it's products are. I guess the important thing is to not be closed minded and not to fall victim to societies secularism and live with an open heart, mind and soul

the Beatitudes

So, a new year, new dawn. How would we live our lives? A week or two ago in mass the gospel was the beatitudes, i was on Children's Liturgy duty that day, so here i am trying to do the impossible, teaching kids something some adults can barely grasp fully on, the beatitudes. I say this probably cause it's so open ended and there can be so many interpretations.

the Beatitudes are found in Matthew 5:3-12

Anyway these are like some guidelines given to us by Jesus, but how are we suppose to live them? join me now as i explore the beatitudes!

Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

In general, i think this means to be humble like, i don't think Jesus is forbidding us to be wealthy, but reminding us that we must be humble at heart and not brag? i know, i'm not very deep.

Blessed are they who mourn,
for they shall be comforted.

those who suffer will eventually be comforted. maybe. eventually. in heaven. OH, here's an idea, mourning is probably a sign of having feelings for others, so that means, empathy! not being self centered but also think about others.

Blessed are the meek,
for they shall possess the earth.

this kinda just reinstates my idea for the first beatitude, meek = humble in spirit. which now confuses me even more. for i don't think two beatitudes mean the same thing. So they must have different meanings. which comes back to.. what is "poor in spirit"? The word poor often makes us think about money, so in a sense, poor people don't ask for much, they're happy with a roof above their heads, fresh water and food to eat. So i guess it might be telling us to be happy with what we are given and don't ask for so much. Let's stick with that for now.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice,
for they shall be satisfied.

there's no deep thought here in my opinion. Justice. is maybe something this community lacks. there is no justice with corruption, stealing, cheating and all that. abide by the rules :)

Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall obtain mercy.

mercy, need i say more?

Blessed are the pure of heart,
for they shall see God.

purity of the heart. what could this mean? this one could probably be open ended, is a heart pure after committing a sin of it's free will? Does sexual thoughts, revenge and all that make a heart impure even though the deed is not committed? If we look at it this way, it is almost impossible to have a pure heart. So what could Jesus mean with Pure of Heart. If we think of pure, ( well by we i mean i) we think of purity, like we want the purest gold like 24 karat. if it's 18 karat. it's not pure. Well, if we think about it that way 24 karats are only 99.9% pure. we still have 0.1% impurities. But nowadays we can't find anything thats really "pure", we give 99.9% purity the title pure. So if we think about it this way, an impure heart might still be able to become pure.

Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called sons of God.

World Peace is something that a lot of people dream of, especially beauty queens (<- click on link, you will not regret it!). We say dream because some dreams do not become reality, as much as we want this we know it's not going to happen with all the hate in the world. But does that mean we stop trying? Answer: No. who knows, if you can touch just one person with trying to make peace, maybe that person will do the same. And the train of peace continues, eventually the world will be full of peacemakers.

Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice sake,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

And now we come to our final beatitude, the word justice has already been said, so what makes this justice different from the other? It's hard to tell really, hunger and thirsting is kinda a form of suffering in my opinion. So..how? maybe there's an emphasis on Justice because there is no justice in our world today? Well, i guess maybe the first time it's mention justice is the need for us to want justice, yearn it. And this mention is probably for us to act upon it!

**

So with these in mind my friends, let's try to make an effort :)

Discipleship

What is a disciple? Loosely it's defined as someone who follows a teacher. Basically a student of a mentor. Although true, the word disciple has been often linked with Christianity. Probably being since Jesus started off with 12 Disciples, now more known as the 12 Apostles, and later more and more being his disciples, following his teachings. All in all, Jesus was probably the greatest teacher to have walked on earth. Having thousands of Disciples. Now every follower of Christ is known to be his Disciples.

But what does it mean to be a disciple? To be a disciple is not to be static. It's sometimes easy to just live with what we know and not what to learn more and assume we know everything we need to. But that's wrong. Discipleship is a learning process. If we knew everything we wouldn't be disciples! We would be mentors.

Also, being a disciple means much more than learning. We must follow, in the footsteps. Disciples want to be the as good or even better than the mentor. Although impossible in this case, we must still try our best. Maybe it isn't important to you, but how would it be if someone were to be acting like you and making you look like a fool in public. So act like a disciple!

Baptism

With the new year, dawns new goods, tv shows, resolutions, and a brand new blog (reconstructed anyway). One thing that is also renewed is religion!

How you may ask? I mean. New religion? well no. The religion is still the same. But at the start of the year. The Catholic Church has a celebration so we renew our vows we did during Baptism.

Baptism, simply put, its when we are reborn into Christianity. We say our vows. Many of us probably have it done at birth but in the Catholic church there are many rites. Normally for those born into this religion, we go through confirmation which is a sense absolutes our baptism. For older people, those not baptised at young, and baptised at a time they're old enough to understand everything. They pretty much go through both at the same time.

The point being is. God is wonderful. I believe each minute he lets us live is a minute that we are reborn. Its only done once a year where we renew our vows but everyday we're alive we should be grateful and repent. yessir.

So the question really is. what do you want to make out of your gift of life? are you going to just sit there, watching tv, playin games, collecting toys or are you going to try to make a difference in the world we live in? or at least in your life. Think about it. The choice is yours. :)

Merry Christmas? and a Happy New Year

Hello dear Sports fans, I know, I know. So once again i've neglected the blog. WELL guess whaaat! i'm back! (for good?).

after much contemplation, it has come to my attention that this blog should start fresh, anew. New year and a New start. thats right folks! If you noticed, the blogpost did not start with a "my secret". That's right. if you're deduction skills are as good as mine. Which i will assume is. I've decided to go over the covers.

Also to redo the layout so that this blog can have a new look. The colours are starting to hurt my eyes.

On a side note. It's christmas. well the feeling is still there since the decorations, sales, and what not is still up.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

so best part about Christmas?

I'm sure everyone enjoys the company, the presents, the holidays, the spirit, the caroling.

it's all fun in the sun! or lack of sun, wherever you're from.

But, with the spirit of Christmas, it's important to know whats the most important part about it!

As you can all guess, the birth of baby Jesus.

I'm pretty sure it didn't happen exactly as the picture above portrays it. But Nevertheless, it is only that we pay our respects to the greatest being that walked on this earth.

with that in mind. let's try to not make this Christmas, or what's left of it all about ourselves. It's a time for giving, spread the love. a little love can go a long way :)

~~~~~

before i wrap this up, just want to let you guys know what juicy stuff you can be expecting once the new year arrives. Since i'm on holidays, i've done quite a few games, collected quite a few toys, watched a few series! and had a transforming christmas. hint hint. so you can all expect greatness

my secret prayer

Welcome to another (probably my first) of my the Catholic religion 101. Well, this is probably more generalized than specifically to the Catholic religion. But either way, i think it's important to understand what prayer really is about!

Why do we pray? good question. And have i got a good answer for you! Let's first talk about love.

Love, when you love someone, be it your family, girlfriend, friends, and what not, you want to stay in touch, keep updated and stuff right. And we do this through so many means, talking, phone calls, emails. If we love God, it's only right we do the same.

I look at it this way. prayer is like a cellphone, think about it! We don't have a phone number or an email address we can call God with, so we do this through prayer, and how convenient is that, it's free of charge and you can do it anywhere anytime!

What do we prayer about? well, what would you like to talk to God about, that's really the question. Prayer should come natural, Prayer is not something you have to do just because your parents told you to *cough cough*, well most of the time it starts of that way, but you should really understand what prayer is. But anyway, some of the generally always used in prayer, (a tip for prayer beginners) is asking for God's grace, help, forgiveness, thanking him, praising him...

Besides that, there's always the classic prayers that everyone loves, The Our Father, The Hail Mary, Glory Be, Fatima's Prayer, Angel of God.

And here are some other prayers i've found useful in my life, and i'm sure you would too.

Prayer to St. Jude

Prayer to Our Mother of Perpetual Help

A prayer i believe is a means of building up our relationship with God, which makes total sense, as when you get to know someone the more you guys talk the more you get to know that someone. And one thing about prayers is, don't be discouraged if you don't think you prayed correctly or had some mis-perfections in your prayer. No one is perfect like God. I think praying is like building up a Gunpla, each prayer is a different part, sometimes you might have cut it wrongly, or chipped it a little, something wrong, but with more practice, you get better at it, and when you look at the whole gunpla, it's probably not as bad as you think it was. Same as prayers, the more you do it, the better you get at it, and somehow it'll work out. And hopefully by the end of your life on earth, you'll have a shelf full of gunplas! and by that i mean prayers!

So with that in mind, remember to prayer everyday!

my secret patron saint of hungary day

If you didn't know, Monday was the day of Patron Saint, Saint Stephan I of Hungary

I'm not sure he looked like that, but here's what wikipedia says about him, he wasn't always born St Stephan, that name isn't really Hunagarian, you namsang? heh. Apparently my parish priest told me he was like asian, well Mongolian, a lot of Hungarians in his time. late 900s were Mongolian, thats why if you go to hungary you can see a lot of slit eyed folk. So anyway, his real name was Vajk, and i just found out, he was the FIRST king of Hungary, how's bout that for some history lesson!

Ok, now i kinda remembere why he was canonized, he brought basically the religion, and growth of religion in Hungary, set up many Churches and stuff, he also dedicated quite a bit to Mother Mary if i remembered.

Although nothing exciting, he still did a lot of good in this world! if only more kings were like him, well by kings i mean leaders. I don't think we have much kings anymore, and even so they don't own much power.

May he rest in peace.

my secret dinner with the bishop

so, last night, we had dinner with the bishop. He's a retired bishop. and what is interesting is that he is such a big humanitarian, even for his age! it's amazing. one thing that stands out about this bishop, is the way he says grace. Its always the same quirky grace. which i find amusing.

so this blog post will be about saying grace before meals.

I cant find the one the bishop says but it roughly starts like this,

"When Catholics meet to dine and cheer,

They eat good food, and sometimes beer!"

something like that laa.

haha and another one which i find amusing, is from the cartoon, of that french little girl, cant remember but the grace goes like this

"We love our bread, we love our butter, but most of all, we love each other"

ahh this is good to be tried at weedings.

"For sumptuous food and tender roast,
For the invitation from our gracious host;
For [bride's name] whom [bridegroom's name] loves the most;
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen"

cute right?

i donno why the fond changed.

but it cant be helped.

i dunno how to change it back!

haha

peace outttt~~

my secret prayer to St. Jude

if you all didn't know.

St. Jude is the patron saint of hopeless cases and desperate situations.
I'm pretty sure you'll find this prayer as handy as i have found it :)
you have to be really dedicated if you want to pray it.
I don't know much about St. Jude and probably should dig some stuff up. but nevertheless we all need someone to look after us.

i have the prayer card for this prayer. and this is what it says.

This prayer may be said in times of great affliction or when one seemed deprived of all help, and of cases despaired of. Novena prayer must be said six times each day for nine consecutive days. You will receive your intention before the nine days are over no matter how impossible it may seem. Believe in St. Jude and Pray with Fate.

Novena Prayer

May the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus be adored, and loved in all the tabernacles until the end of time.
Amen.

May the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus be praised and glorified now and forever.
Amen.

Blessed be the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
Blessed be the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Blessed be St. Jude Thaddeus, in all the world and for all Eternity.

St. Jude pray for us and hear our prayers. Amen.

(Say this prayer, followed by Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be).

Prayer to St. Jude

Most Holy Apostle, St. Jude, faithful servant and friend of Jesus, the church honours and invokes you universally, as the patron of hopeless cases, of things almost despaired of, Make us, I implore you, of the particular privilege given to you, to bring visible and speedy help where help is almost despaired of. Come to my assistance in this great need that, I may receive the consolation and help of heaven in all my necessities, tribulations, and sufferings, particularly -(make your request here)- and that I may praise God with you and all the elect forever. I promise, O Blessed St. Jude, to be ever mindful of this great favour granted to me by God and to always honour you as my special and powerful patron, and to greatfully encourage devotion to you. Amen.

my secret prayer book

in our changing times. life has lots of ups and downs.
with today's modern lifestyle. thinking. and all that.
we find ourselves living a more and more comfortable lifestyle but also a more tempting one where we tend to think about enjoying life more.

one thing we must always. always. as good Catholics. or Christians for the matter, is to pray.

and really. what better way than to utilise the modern societies technology. the internet. click for prayer book.

if you clicked. what you are looking at is a forum. a prayer book by Catholics for Catholics of the gaiaonline community. since it's kinda really hard nowadays to be spreading the joy in rl (real life) online ways actually help. especially if you are hard on time.

if you can't see the book. just join gaia. it's free. warning. it's addictive. but this forum is pretty tight.
it's got a lot of views of Catholics of all ages. and it's not so overpopulated that if you only check it once a week it'll suffice.

anyway short post this time. kinda got a headache :(

my secret st. patricks day

If you all didnt know. today. 17th march. is St. Patrick's day. i didn't know myself
haha. until i went to mass. St. Patrick is well, duh, a Saint. but his day is celebrated for all the wrong reasons! with lots of drinking, and green beer. gross. he is actually celebrated because he is the St that brought Catholicism to Ireland!
a true hero.

Since it's a Feast day, i thought i make a post relating to religion.

Something the priest said, which i think is something good to blog about. when St. Patrick was 16. he said he still hasn't had a REAL relationship with God.
his father was a deacon and his Grandfather was a priest. the thing to note here. just because you go to church, doesn't mean you have a relationship with God. you have to make the effort. prayer, and trying to do his will. having conversations with God, even though sometimes you don't feel like he's replying, but he's there. he listens :)

and whats important to remember is! it's never too late to have a relationship with God. God loves us all very very very very much. and no matter how old, what you look like, colour of your skin, he'll accept you if you want to have a relationship with him.

just thought i should let you'll know :)
Praise the Lord.

my secret lent

today is one of the days of this Lenten season.
if you don't know what lent is, its the season where we prepare ourselves for the Lords death and resurrection.

notable things about lent that Catholics do, every friday we don't eat meat. and during lent we are suppose to give up something we love. like a sacrifice.

but as my priest explained, it's not just about giving up something we like. there's a reason to that! we don't giving up simply to sacrifice. but we suppose to give it up so that we can become closer. spend more time. concentrate on God. I think generally younger generations just give up for the sake of Lent but don't really know why we give up. it's like, "oh, i'll give up computer games. so instead i'll kill that time i used to play computers games by watching tv." If it's like that. then maybe we haven't really observed it properly.

I myself am tryin to give up something for Lent. not just Lent but for life. i'm shy to mention. but i think almost every guy has done this before. ahem

even though modern day society says it's okay to do it. and it's healthy, prevents cancer or something. It's still a sin. and it separates me from God. Every Lent i've tried but failed miserably, but this time i think there's a difference :) tommorow i'll be a week clean! although i haven't been clean the whole of lent :(
But i think it'll be good. cos the less i sin, the more closer i can get to God :)

so with that in mind. well for next Lent, or the remainder of Lent. do something about it!

my secret choir (2)

IF you read and noticed. i didn't talk about my choir at all.
well my choir anyway.
so to elaborate since i'm in a better state of mind.
i joined choir. and it's a rewarding experience, singing praises to God.

but what i think the choir lacks is, hmmm, how do i put this.
well what i want to do, is change the way the choir works.
we need more committed members instead of just 4 or 5 people showing up at the proper time and everyone else coming 5 mins before mass starts.

i think the song selections are not suited for a congregation of youth, university students. if we want to attract people, we can't really stay like this.

we need to sing psalms!

ok, well i dont really mind the songs, but the songmaster is over enthusiastic sometimes i feel, i admire it, but he chooses songs that barely the choir can cope with, so how is the congregation gonna feel? and it happens almost every week.

coup d'etat anyone?
haha

well. one of my targets this semester is to get new members into the choir and to make it a more vibrant, dynamic experience so that more people would be interested and join us in singing praises to our God :)

my secret choir

i reckon one part of church life. is to be active in church.
i mean. just to go to church is one thing. but it's important to be spiritually active as well. joining groups, choirs, whatever makes you happy.

If you haven't joined any. one thing you get out of this is satisfaction. you know the satisfaction when you build a gunpla. it's better. you feel like you're actually affecting someone. changing lifes. even if it's only yours. like making a difference. and if you dont feel like you are. then do something about it!

as a student or working life, i know sometimes you get caught up in the rush of things. busy life. no time to commit. but it's important we find some time off. to relax. spiritual retreat. go for a bible class. even if it's just one class. or join the choir to sing. be out of the box.

well, for me. i feel like the community of students are not very enthusiastic in church. so i'd like to make a change. even if it makes one or two people more enthusiastic in coming to church. i think i'd be happy :)

well the moral of the story is to join more church activities!

ps. sorry if it's not that deep. i really wanted to do a deep one but i got caught up in the day and im over exhausted :(

my secret prayer

I think, what a lot of Christians need to pray more. prayer is very powerful.
and God listens, he really does. :) and trust in what he does. he truly knows what is best for us.

true story, it happened to me.
As a young Catholic, i think the most hardest thing is to fight off temptation, as temptation is everywhere around us. temptation might as well change it's name to "university life".

But what is important is we need to find people from that university. other Catholics. so that you know you're not alone. that is really important. as a priest told me just the other day. yesterday, for that matter. build your faith together.

just the other day. while i was praying. something truly amazing happened. too amazing to be coincidental.

in essences, i was praying for God to guide my life. after praying, i proceeded to finding my rosary, and once i found it i wanted to hang it on top of my bed. but what happened was, the rosary fell behind my bed :(
it was a bit troubling to get it out. i had to move the bed. my hands weren't long enough. so i had to use a pen. but point aside.

i found many other stuff behind my bed. stuff the previous tenant left behind, a picture, an envelope, and a postcard. i'm not sure why. but i went on to reading that postcard. at the end of the postcard was a scripture.

Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in Him with all your heart,
acknowledge Him in all your ways,
and He will guide your paths.

i have to admit. i was truly in awe at that moment when i read it.
God listens to us. he truly does.
so i encourage all of you. in time of doubt, fear, need, sadness, happiness, whatsoever
Pray :)

my secret Mother of Perpetual Help

Mother Of Perpetual Help.

she's not really a secret. she's everyone's mother!
this picture is really interesting. every friday my university church group has like rosary and then a bible session. for lent it's a Station's of the Cross then bible session thingy. and this is what we studied.

so basically from what i learnt. this picture is an icon. so it is actually talking to us. Mary is showing us the way. in actuality, one hand is carrying Jesus. and the other hand is showing us Jesus. Pointing to him.

Jesus is scared in the picture. you can tell by his hands grasping Mary's hands and that one of his sandals fell off showing him in a state of fright.

Jesus is scared because. the angels behind him. one is holding a cross. and the other is holding 2 spears. one with the sponge soak in vinegar. basically it's the Station's of the cross thingy.

From the cross. Jesus told us that Mary was our Mother.
Temptation is probably one of the biggest problems with todays community. i believe. as society potrays a lot of the temptations as "it's okay, everyone does it" it's normal. but all in all. it's still a sin. don't let society get into your heads fellow Catholics! strive. pray hard. go confession. Pray to Mary especially. she will help us and show us the way.

my secret life as a Catholic

since it's sunday. it seems like the right thing to talk about religion.
might seem a bit odd that i'm totally going off the norm talking about food and religion. not my usual oh gunpla and anime!

well i'm full of surprises ;)

one thing i always wanted to blog about is. how i respect true Catholics. when i say true. i mean like seriously true. as in play by the book 100%. without a single cheat or a shortcut.

Being a Catholic, a conservative religion it's so hard to stay true to it. now-a-days i think there are many Cafeteria Catholics .

But it's so hard to become true as society has changed in so many ways. homosexuality has become somewhat accepted in communities. masturbation is normal. you hear stories of kids as young as 14 having sex.

anyway the point is. i remember watching a show long time ago. someone was dying. and wasn't a Christian and on his deathbed, the last few days, he wanted to go to heaven. so he started doing lots and lots of good deeds. but someone told him, if a a single good deed makes you climb a stair to heaven, you would not have climb enough stairs in this lifetime. you only can make it to heaven through perseverance and goodworks.

somehow i cant seem to get the right words into that phrase. my grammar skills can be compared to a french talking in portugese. (not some french that damn pro at portugese la. like he learn for 3 months. its an analogy. ) err. back to topic.

well i think you would get my point.
even though its hard to live a Catholic life. it's reward does not lie on earth.
so persevere. and if you find it hard and others critise you. remember that there are others out there who go through similar things that you do. and do what Jesus would.