I have always lamented the failure of Singapore's public transport to turn up when I most need them. And so, this afternoon, while trying desperately to catch First Friday mass and fulfiling my need to dutifully accompany my younger sister to go North of the border, I (silently) cursed the ever undependable public transport.
I wanted to attend 5:30pm mass at one of the 4 churches in town, all within "smokin' distance" of each other. Having arrived 15 minutes too late, I went to the next parish—St Joseph, and was happy to see that mass was for 6pm. Little did I know that this parish celebrates its Holy Hour every first Friday, and as soon as I got over the reluctance of having to sit through one whole holy hour (a pleasant surprise and a timely reminder that I should spend more time with Him), I broke into a wide grin :D
Eucharistic adoration was fantastic, especially so because there was sufficient time to sit down in quiet to prepare myself before it started. The following mass was said by a foreign priest—Filipino—as I found out later through his sermon, and boy, it was beautiful!
The pagan part of me was seething at being 'conned' into sitting for Holy Hour and Mass with a long homily, but the better part thanked the saints (whose statues were looking down upon the congregation) and the angles who must have intervened to delay the accursed public bus!
Fr. "Sam", the Filipino priest, talked about the preceding day's reading on the people of Israel tempting God in the desert, and a lot more about his personal conversations with our Lady. In earlier posts, I have written about how God is the one on whom we should put utmost trust in, and yet there are occasions when letting go is the last thing I'd intuitively do. Fr. "Sam" said, that when we do not trust in Him, we are putting Him to the test, because not trusting Him, we're not fully believing that He Can, and that's putting Him to the test. And finally, he sung the most beautiful prayer over consecrating of the bread and wine!
This has been a long post, and my thoughts aren't exactly coherent, yet I'd say that this minor incident is another Major illumination for me and it explained a lot of loose ends. And may it be the first of many Holy Hours to come :)
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