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By Michael Hii in Evangelising
21 December 2011 at 11:31
Tuesday
10 July 2012 at 2 minutes ago
Travelling TIPS
Written by
Michael Hii. Inspired by Fr Anselm Phang’s article “Travelling
LIGHT” (The Apostles 3 April 2011) and his homily on 31st March and 1st
April.
This Article
was published in the SPP weekly bulletin “The Apostles” on 17 April
2011, Palm Sunday of Lent, Year A.
For the past
one and a half years we have been travelling much, especially to Singapore. And
with God’s guiding light, we chose a small hotel next to St Peter and Paul
Church as our “home” in Singapore. While the new Apostolic Nuncio to Singapore
Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli
stays at the Catholic Welfare Services Building and thus making him a “True Blue
Parishioner” of SPP, we consider ourselves parishioners of SPP too, albeit
“Visiting Parishioners.”
True to its
small size, the rooms of the hotel are really small. Little
space to put the luggage bags, little room still to move around. Out of
necessity, we are forced to travel light, we were well known for bringing the
whole house while travelling, but now… we have to travel light, but not too
light.
Life is a
journey, a pilgrimage. As a pilgrim we need a few basic baggage for our journey. Too many will burden us, too light will make life difficult as we journey towards
our ultimate destination - Heaven.
Jesus told us
very clearly the basic baggage we need to carry with us.
Baggage Number
One: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul
and with all your mind.’ (Matthew 22:37).
For most
people, it is quite easy to love God, especially when we are in need of this
and that, or face with great challenges in life, we
quickly remember our God and love Him very much by praying very hard to Him.
But when the Church needs us to offer our services such as Choir, Warden,
Sunday School, most of us will offer many excuses: no
voice, no time, not qualified and so forth. Are we carrying the very basic
Baggage Number One? Are we loving God with all our
heart and soul and mind? If not, our luggage for our pilgrimage may be too
light!
Baggage Number
Two: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’
(Matthew 22:39) We all know the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke
10:25-37), often we are blind to our “neighbour”
in need, we only worry about ourselves, our own wellbeing, neglecting those
around us who are in need, some desperately needed help for food and shelter,
or clothing, but for some, perhaps just a listening ear, a pat on the back.
Often we are too busy going our own way, no time to notice them, let alone “love”
them.
One year ago,
we spent 40 days at SPP, attending the daily 3pm Divine Mercy Devotion and the
5.30pm evening Mass. It was a retreat by Divine Providence. We were so Touched and Comforted by the Merciful Lord that we
brought back to Kuching the Divine Mercy Devotion. With the blessing of our
Parish Priest Fr Vincent Chin, St Peter’s Church started the Daily 3pm Divine
Mercy Devotion on Friday 18 June 2010 and our Divine Mercy Apostolate was launched with a Mass and Benediction on the Feast Day of
St Faustina 5 October 2010. Ever since we started in
June last year, we have been praying fervently and unceasingly, 7 days a week,
even during Public Holidays, Christmas and Chinese New Year. Truly our DMA
people have shown their love for God with all their heart, mind and soul. On
the other hands, there were people telling us not to start the Divine Mercy
Devotion, it would not last and it would surely fail. These people also love
God, but not with all their heart, mind and soul. We can only pray for them.
Jesus tells us
to do work of mercy. To love our neighbours, we
identify people in needs and organize visits to their homes, bringing clothing,
food stuff and other necessities to help them. Last year Advent we visited one
poor family, this year on the Second Sunday of Lent (20 March 2011) we visited
one desperate mother of seven children, aged 7 months to 19 years old, her
husband is nowhere to be found, leaving her to fend for herself and the
children. When 30 odd people visited her with toys, gifts, food stuff, milk,
clothing and cash, she was moved with awe. We brought her our good wishes and
sang hymns for her. We nearly collapsed her little hut which was overloaded
with visitors. Truly we will never forget this Lent.
Travel light,
but not too light.
We need to
bring at least 2 baggages:
‘Love the Lord
your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all
your mind.’
And
‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’
Michael Hii
3 April 2011
This Article
was published in the SPP weekly bulletin “The Apostles” on 17 April
2011, Palm Sunday of Lent, Year A.
Paul Voon Hi Mike. Thanks very much for the sharing.
Yes, we need only to carry to luggage; Love God and Love one another. Have a very Blessed Christmas. paul
Michael Hii Thanks Paul,
the Double Commandment is not easy to live out, especially the poor and needy
"neighbour" part... Thanks to SKUP and DMA,
we are able to organise WOM visits to some desperate
"neighbours".
*************
10
July 2012