Interloper View

For Christians, Easter is the day when Jesus rose again, three days after he died on the cross. During mass today, our priest asked us a question, what do we do in the 50 days of Easter season. Our priest mentioned that we Catholics are very good at celebrating suffering, during the 40 days of Lent season, many make sacrifices and our churches come up with many programs. However, nothing is done for the 50 days of the Easter season. In fact, I have never really thought of the Easter season except for the first day of Easter (known as Easter Sunday). What we do for Lent is for us, helping us to join the suffering of Jesus. Easter is the celebration of Jesus’ triumphant return to God, our father. So how do we celebrate Easter, celebrate our resurrection with our Lord Jesus Christ? Our priest asked if any of us have ever experienced resurrection and also for examples, none of in the congregation could. He then shared with us, for the poor and homeless, when members of the church ...

What occupies our thought most is what our mind will focus on and get good at. Recently I realized that I have allowed myself to get distracted and am no longer focusing on my goals. I used to ask myself the following question, “Is what you are doing useful?” I have allowed too many distractions into my life - movies and comic/manga, computer games which do not benefit me in any way. Some distractions may be good to help us relax but I just realized that many of these activities seem to occupy more and more of my waking hours. None of them help me achieve my goals. These are the goals myself back in 1999 but somehow along the way I got sidetracked. Faith in God Physical and Mental Health Financial Security Self Improvement Now that I have come to this realization, it is time to take charge of my life again and redirect my focus and control the things that occupy my mind most. 

Palm Sunday just passed this weekend. It is the week we celebrate the sacrifice of Jesus for us - dying on the cross for our sins. As part of the celebration, some members of the church came out with a sketch. This was delivered as part of a song. The story is told from the point of view of Simon, the person who was asked to carry the cross for Jesus on the way to Mount Calvary. The costumes was well done and the whole sketch great. Simon had taken his two children to see the lamb and had just entered the city when he saw the crowd shouting for the crucifixion of Jesus. Here are some of the photos taken during the sketch. Caught a video towards the end but unfortunately my phone did not capture the song and it is rather noisy.

I recently visited the Chapel of Immaculate Conception in Sungai Batu (Stone River). I was told that many miracles have taken place there. The chapel is isolated and difficult to get to. Luckily, members of a nearby church gave us direction to the location. I was unable to find the location of the chapel on Google but found a few blogs by others sharing their visit. For those of you who want to go the chapel, the coordinates are: 5.653000, 100.496000 The location on Google map: The chapel may be locked and you will need to call the caretaker (Mr. Francis – 013 4569984) to open it if you wish to pray. Note that the caretaker only understands Malay language. History of the chapel - found at the entrance of the chapel Based on the history, the chapel was originally built in 1935 by the estate management to cater for the needs of the Catholics there but was removed in 1981 by the government to make way for development. In 1987, one of the parishioner donated ...