Graces from attending Mass

This being the first Friday of the month, I'd like to post a short note about going to Mass. Specifically, for those who are struggling to go to Mass more regularly. Three years ago, I read this devotion to the Sacred Heart in which the faithful are asked to attend 9 First Friday masses for 9 consecutive months. How I found it difficult to be faithful to such schedule.. for once you've missed a first Friday mass, the 'cycle' is broken and you have to start anew... but nothing is ever lost! Years later, I'm stil struggling, but now, to attend the Mass daily.

Just yesterday, I struggled to tear myself away from my work to make it in time for Mass. Many excuses played in my head (I'm sure some of you are familiar with them!) about why I don't have to go to Mass that day...
1. It's not an obligation
2. So what if you miss one, there's another one tomorrow...
3. Perhaps prayer is sufficient in place of going to Mass?
4. Your disposition isn't good enough for mass...
5. The bus has just left and the next one will get you to the Church late!

Then I remembered something I read just the day before about how the Mass went on in a church after a parishioner died of heart attack. While I think it's perfectly logical to carry on the Mass, the article seems to carry an indignant tone that it was not stopped to 'respect the dead'. That same blog post then copied 15 GOOD REASONS for attending Mass:

1. The Mass is Calvary continued.
2. Every Mass is worth as much as the sacrifice of our Lord's life, sufferings, and death.
3. Holy Mass is the world's most powerful atonement for your sins.
4. At the hour of death, the Masses you have heard will be your greatest consolation.
5. Every Mass will go with you to judgment and plead for pardon.
6. At Mass, you can diminish more or less temporal punishment due to your sins, according to your fervor.
7. Assisting devoutly at Holy Mass, you render to the sacred humanity of Our Lord the greatest homage.
8. He supplies for many of your negligence and omissions.
9. He forgives the venial sins which you have not confessed. The power of Satan over you is diminished.
10. One Mass heard during life will be of more benefit to you than many heard for you after your death.
11. You are preserved from dangers and misfortunes which otherwise might have befallen you. You shorten your Purgatory.
12. Every Mass wins for you a higher degree of glory in Heaven.
13. You receive the priest's blessing which Our Lord ratifies in Heaven.
14. You kneel amidst a multitude of holy angels, who are present at the adorable Sacrifice with reverential awe.
15. You are blessed in your temporal goods and affairs.

So remember good people, every Mass counts! Every Holy Mass that we miss cannot be repeated again in terms of the graces we received. I'm posting this just in case it can help anyone of you attend ONE more Holy Mass in your life :)

Feast of St Thomas Aquinas

Once more the Church celebrates the feastday of St Thomas Aquinas.

Fr Z, in his podcast on the Eucharist, said that St Thomas Aquinas was specifically mentioned in the Code of Canon Law (the 1983 issue) as the one whom theologians should turn to in the study of philosophy. Such is the greatness of this Doctor of the Church and yet listening to any of his works still heard today in Benedictions of the Blessed Sacrament, "Adoro Te Devote" or "Pange Lingua", one cannot miss his unmistakeable humility and love for the Eucharist.

St Thomas is one of my favorite saints precisely because he showed that love for Truth is not, cannot be, against love for God—indeed not only they are inseparable, but love for Truth and love for God is one and the same. It is this love for truth and the great humility of his that probably made Pope St. Leo XIII designate him patron of all Catholic academic institutions throughout the world.

For an excellent introduction to this great saint, read GK Chesterton's "The Dumb Ox". If you haven't, pick it up at a library nearest you. I hope that you will either fall in love with the author, with the saint himself, or if the grace of God is strong, more deeply in love with God Himself.

Are you happy on the Internet?

Does the Internet make you happy? Are there things on the Internet that make you happy? Have you stopped doing something outside the Internet simply because doing them on the Internet is the best way to do it?

HELP my friends and I find out more about how youth (16 - 30 years old) feel about activities that you can do on the Internet. In order to participate in this 7-MINUTE survey, you need to be a STUDENT between the age of 16 to 30. You can be a high school student, college student or graduate student ANYWHERE.

We're participating in a small research project to study behavior and opinion about the Internet in general.

The link to the survey is here.

Since the survey intends to study about the youths in general, please pass this on to your friends who are STUDENTS between 16-30 years of age. Thank You! I'll post the result in a month's time.

Belated Epiphany

To tell the truth, I often prefer Advent over Christmas. Now, I know that Christmas is a great feast and that the magnitude of this mystery is the reason why the faithful prepare ourselves for its celebration for several weeks before the D-Day, known as the Advent period. Yet, Advent mirrors our life of journey and waiting, but Christmas... (I think) no one who is still alive can ever experience the fullest meaning of Christmas. For me it bode eternal salvation, which obviously, we cannot yet experience here.

This Christmas has been one full of struggles personally. The year 2007 has been an intense year, and I struggled to 'sync' my ups and downs with the rhythm of the Church's liturgical calendar, trying to introduce a drop of sensus Ecclesiae into my life. In a way, I imagine it felt very much like what the three Magi must have gone through in their journey to look for the Child.

'Vidimus stellam eius'
The star beckons the three wise men, just like God's call beckons. Along the way, perhaps sometimes they lost sight of the star, perhaps sometimes the terrain was hard-going; such that following a star from a distant land seems, to a rational mind, like a touch of summer madness. But left their palace they did. And so did I.

'et venimus adorare eum'
While the 3 magi did find the Child, I'm still on my journey. At this stage I must say it hasn't been too bad, but there had been moments of wariness and doubt. Doubt that the star wasn't some figment of my imagination. Doubt that what the star signifies is worth leaving my palace for. Doubt that I can find Christ at the end of the journey and not be distracted by curiosity in foreign lands.

I'm currently reading "The Tremendous Lover" by Eugene Boylan. In the first few chapters, he explored the theme of Redemption, and what will be at the end: [one] Christ loving Himself. I found a little 'epiphany' in Boylan's attempt to show the glory of God who is omniscient, of God who knows all things to come, and the outcome of all possibilities. And yet, His preference to let mankind live outside Paradise, suffering the consequence of the original sin, who were later redeemed by the Passion of His Son, must imply that (humanly speaking) amongst all possibilities, He sees that this universe, with its suffering, is the best way to restore the dignity and the glory of His creation. Meditating upon this 'choice' of universe, His choice of allowing us to suffer and become co-operators in our own redemption, I can say safely that I will never comprehend His scheme of things in this lifetime. Wherefore does this lead me?

While reading about classical argument for the existence of God, this question crossed my mind: can earnest employment of reason lead us astray? Just what does a Christian have that an agnostic (for agnosticisim is the best conclusion an erroneous reason could lead to) could not have in life? Hope. Hope that there is more for our souls than what earthly tribulation exacts from our bodies. A skeptic could say, if there is God, He has a funny way of introducing Himself. Why allow evil to exist in the world when He is omnipotent and could have easily got rid of it? But God's folly is greater than our wisdom. His ways are not ours, and God's logic, saves us at the end.

"Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace to men of good will."

"For, this day, is born to you a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David." -- Luke 2:11

Merry Christmas to everyone! (I'm going home!)

Back from Vietnam

Back from Ho Chi Mih City last night...

(All pictures courtesy of my friends —these are from KT— because I took no camera there!) More to come soon.

Going on a holiday, sort of

I'm off to Vietnam tomorrow morning for a week. Be back with more pictures and stories!

Drawing lines

This evening, browsing Google News, I clicked on a story headline simply because its title is so arresting: "Bush got it right on stem cells". Before this evening, I did not know who is Charles Krauthammer, the author of the story; so I didn't know whether he falls under the 'conservative', 'neocon' or 'leftist' inclination, but the title itself is simply provocative. It is very rare to hear President Bush being praised for anything these days.

In the last few weeks, anyone who's watching the bioethics field, or is simply curious about the latest scientific breakthrough, must have heard of some wonderful news about IPS cells (induced pluripotent stem cells)—which are essentially stem cells that did not come from embryos and therefore did not involve killing of anyone.

Soon after this breaking news, there came another piece of even better news: IPS cells that were not created using a protooncogene, which earlier was used and was feared to induce cancer in the subjects.

Since I'm not American and do not pay taxes to the US, I have no comments regarding her president; only that Bush was right to make the stem cell issue a moral issue and draw a line. The Catholic Church, whose teaching I subscribe to, is unambiguous on this issue: life begins at conception, therefore harvesting stem cells from embryos is equivalent to killing of innocent lives, always an intrinsically grave evil.

While Krauthammer himself is in favor of a more 'liberal' policy on ESC research, he rightly pointed out that the slope is very slippery. He reiterated the need to draw a firm line, and pointed the dubious examples of 'populist' politicians who kept continuously re-drawing and 'retreating' their positions. If nothing else, Bush earned a place in American history through this one policy.

What, thought, what if, the IPS breakthrough had not come about? Prior to them, there have always been other sources of "adult" stem cells, such as those that are obtained from umbilical cord blood cells. Bottomline is, no good end can ever justify evil means.

Friendship just isn't what it used to be...

... in fact, Anthony Esolen proclaimed it dead here.

Since the topic of friendship is still fresh in my mind, this brilliant article pinpointed exactly at what's ailing our friendships today and struck a chord. He warned about the loss of friendship, especially amongst men today. Genuine, affectionate friendship has become a victim to political correctness that changes the semantics of the communal language we use in the society. Gone are the days where men form friendships like Sam and Frodo, or King David and Jonathan.

No doubt about this: If you are a modern man, a half-man, many such ideas and loves have already died in you. For as much as you can admire them wistfully, from a half-understanding distance, you can be neither Frodo nor Sam, nor the man who created them. You dare not follow Agassiz, alone, to the Arctic. You will not weep for Jonathan. You once were acquainted with Enkidu, but that was all. Do not even mention John the Apostle.

While my short reflection about friendship doesn't run along the same thread as Esolen's, I realize that many times, our "lack of availability" stems precisely from a distorted notion of friendship and ultimately, of ourselves. During my teenage days, there were those amongst my friends who suddenly became 'unavailable' because they fancied themselves in love with the person they started 'going steady' with. Everyone else in the world is expendable except for that (current) special one, and friendship suffers as a result:

The libertinism of our day thrusts boys and girls together long before they are intellectually and emotionally ready for it, and at the same time the defiant promotion of homosexuality makes the natural and once powerful friendships among boys virtually impossible.

Go read the entire article here.

Friendship: that bittersweet cup

Friendship, is a notion that I took so much for granted that frankly, at this point of time, I cannot remember what it should mean. What does friendship mean? What does being a friend entail? Many times the mention of "Friend" leaves me cold, or jaded, or cynical. How many times do we say "friend" to conceal a more particular nature of our relationship with someone (whether it means closer or further)? For me, too many times.

I guess the reason why I wrote this post is that, being in friendship is not easy. Two reasons: expectations and fragility.

I recall with some sadness, several occasions when I had been let down, very much let down, by people whom I thought were friends. Part of this, naturally, has got to do with mismatched expectation. For a certain friend, being friends means you just have to be available 24/7 whenever they need a shoulder to cry on. For others, that's too much to ask even in a close friendship. In my better moments, I thought to myself, that if _that_ much (or rather, that little) is all that person has got to offer me, I'll take it up gladly anyway. "Give until it hurts," Mother Teresa once said, and nowhere do I feel this more keenly than in some friendships.

After all, it's not easy being a good friend! Another thing I associate with friendship, is both always having to, and, being able to say sorry! I have lost count of how many times I have to precede a conversation with "Sorry", simply because life or some other Passing Interest in my life, had taken up so much time that I forget this or that particular friend for many months or even years... So, for each time that I feel disappointed with a friend, I remind myself that there must be many more friends I am disappointing!

Few "self-improvement" atention is paid to developing friendships.. it is as if the world takes it for granted that everyone innately knows how to make and sustain friendships. Magazines publish articles on how to succeed better at your workplace, how to eat better, how to shop better, but hardly anything on how to be better friends. Perhaps it's true that as children we make friends naturally, but adult life definitely takes toll on friendship; and without much attention paid to our friendships, perhaps someday we may literally wake up to find we don't have real friends.

Another reason for this thread of thought, is that our life very much depends on our friendship with God. Even this relationship gets neglected in the same way that I decribe my neglect of mortal friends. How we treat our friendships is a reflection of how we treat our friendship with God. May there not be a day where we meet Our Lord and found that He does not recognize us as His friends!