However, when I got back to work on the 27th, I overheard a colleague saying: “You can stop playing Christmas songs now” or rather, “You can start playing (another festivity coming up in January) songs now”.

I was like HELLO! It’s only the 2nd day of Christmas! We still have 10 days left!

A Catholic would (should) know that the official Christmas season starts on Christmas Day and ends twelve days later on the Feast of the Epiphany…thus the song “12 Days of Christmas”…but did you know that that song wasn’t just to remind us that the season is 12 days long? No. Rather, I just found out that “The 12 Days of Christmas is a catechism song that was originally meant to teach the faith to children!” - I’ve Jeff Cavins to thank for sharing this very interesting fact! =D

However, I did stumble across the meaning of the 12 “things” given on the 12 days of Christmas some Christmasses ago, which I’d forgotten until I read it again…but let’s see if you ever thought of them. =)

In summary (for further explanations please visit  Jeff Cavins on his website) they are:

Partridge in a Pear tree: Jesus Christ.

Two Turtle Doves: Jesus’ natures & the Testaments.

Three French Hens: the Trinity/Faith, Hope and Charity.

Four Calling Birds: the Gospels

Five Golden Rings: are the first five books of the Bible

Six Geese a Laying: Six days of creation

Seven Swans a Swimming: the Seven Sacraments/gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Eight Maids a Milking: the Beatitudes

Nine Drummers Drumming: fruits of the Holy Spirit

Ten Ladies Dancing: the Ten Commandments

Eleven Pipers Piping: the eleven Apostles (excl. Judas)

The Twelve Lords a Leaping: the twelve basic beliefs of the Catholic Church

WOW! Kudos to the guy who came up with the song!

For most of my life, I never put a second thought into it, but now I know better – and so do you! =D

So, BLESSED CHRISTMAS EVERYONE & HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012!

That means it’s the end of this Liturical Year.

Next Sunday will be the 1st Sunday of Advent, the start of the new Liturgical Year.

But this time, it will be more than just any start of any new year. Come next Sunday, 27th November, we will start using the New Translation of the Roman Missal.

Which means today was the LAST Sunday we will be celebrating Mass as we have celebrated it since 1973 – for me personally, the way I celebrated Mass since Day 1! I don’t know about you, but I’m kinda melancholic…

BUT I am excited for the New Translation! =)

And the responsorial psalm today was Psalm 23, one of my fave psalms – The Good Shepherd. And a little girl when asked to recite it hits it on the spot!

“The Lord is my shepherd, that’s all I (need to) know.”

Have a Blessed Week all & see you next (liturgical) year! =)

Anyhow, I bet some people will find it more difficult than others to accept the change!

As for me, I’m excited to be in the times of change.

The New Translation will greatly increase our understanding & appreciation of Mass…how can one not be excited?!

Also, this November 27th, 2011 will be written down in history and I can tell my (future) children & grandchildren that I was there when it happened. =)

As a normal member, I never realised the amount of effort the committee needed to put in…

I’m starting to sense what my roles are now though we’ll need a proper committee meeting soon to clarify some stuff.

Hopefully, it won’t be too overwhelming. LOL.

God, use me for your glory!

We had our Vicariate Young Adults’ Election for the VYA Committee 2011/2012…

We were only supposed to vote for 3 people and pick the Top 4 to hold the 4 Executive Positions: Chairperson, ViceChair, Secretary & Treasurer…

When the votes were counted though, there was a tie between 2 people for to make the Top 4…

One of them was me.

However, no amount of re-voting between the 2 of us could break the tie, so we were almost made to do the whole “rock-paper-scissors” thingy in a round of “sudden death”…but I guess when He calls, HE CALLS!

In the end, there is now 5 people in the Executive Committee, with another Secretary position made…

So yes…from here on marks my journey as Secretary in the VYA…

Lord, please guide me in this new calling to serve You more. Amen!

Home is where the heart is…and the family’s heart is still in Seria…which is why, crazy and illogical as it is, they’re insisting that we celebrate Christmas Eve (mass is at 11.30pm!) and Christmas Day (mass is at 9am!) there. By the time we return on the wee hours of Christmas Day, we’ll have to go back again…Home-less for Christmas… :S

And the family is not even complete – 1 bro is still in Seria, staying with friends, absolutely unliking the idea of staying here in Bandar. :/ In consolation, at least we’re all still in the same country and although far, it is still reachable…Praise the Lord for sending me to work here 2 years ago…

And I thank God that inspite of this trying time, at least we still have a roof over our heads…

A HOMELESS CHRISTMAS
Where do you hang your stocking
in your little cardboard home
which you have insulated
with some discarded foam?

Even if you had a chance
and it was given you for free
where underneath your bridge
would you put your Christmas tree?

How does it feel to hold your
“will work for food” sign
as most people drive by
to go home where they dine?

Do you wonder at the people
and think it is so odd
they ignore your desperation
while arguing about God?

Do you know you’re like Jesus
and he was just like you?
There is no room in the inn
so he was homeless too.

- Larry R. Linville

Come to think of it, this might be the closest feeling to Christmas the family would ever experience – very close to feeling what Joseph and Mary must have felt, that first Christmas, when there is no room for them at any Inn…

IF I WAS THAT OLDER SON, I would have felt betrayed that my Father appeared to care more for my “wild” brother than me, the obedient one…unloved by my Father, who never threw any party for me unlike what the Father did when my younger brother returned…jealousy…anger…hurt… dissapointment…if being good doesn’t get me my Father’s love, maybe I should stop being good…

Maybe I should become like my brother…maybe I should sin more…in order that I can experience my Father’s love…Afterall, as is said, “…there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent…”(Luke 15:7) that when a sinner repents, God will forgive him…therefore, in order to experience God’s forgiveness, I should sin…

And that always bothered me…because I know I don’t want to sin…and yet I feel “underchanged” cos if being a sinner who repents and being good both find favor with God (perhaps even more so with the repentant sinner) might as well I do sin…

But then a friend shared during our Faith Formation last night that Mother Mary, sinless as she is, called God her SAVIOUR**.

Now if Mary, the Mother of God, unblemished, without sin acknowledges that she needed saving…who are WE to think otherwise?

The truth is, the Older Son has always been with the Father, and all that belonged to the Father belonged to him…unlike his younger brother who fell from that union with the Father, needed to be saved…the Older Son was already saved from the very beginning…saved from actually falling into sin in the first place!

Now that really gave me a whole new way to look at my life…true, while I don’t claim to be sinless, I sin less than some people…it is not about me! Instead, it is about God who saved me from falling into sin in the first place – keeping me away or making me strong enough to say NO in the face of temptations…in fact, I only very recently found out how the family found Christ when I was just a young girl (and that I wasn’t BORN into a Catholic family as I had always thought…)…I was PRE-saved from the very beginning…and after 27 years of my life, I only now realised it…WOW!

*Luke 15: 11-32

**Luke 1:47

25″Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?

26″Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 28And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

31″So do not worry, saying, `What shall we eat?’ or `What shall we drink?’ or `What shall we wear?’ 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” - Mathew 6: 25 – 34

Monday nights are reserved for Bible Studies in the Parish.

I first started with Exodus (that was last year) and we recently finished with “Epic: A Journey through Church History” and now we’re just starting with “The Great Adventure: Psalms, The School of Prayer”.

Absolutely excited!!!

Then, tomorrow night & Wednesday night we have Taize practice.

The actual Taize itself will be on Thursday for the confirmandiis, their parents and sponsors.

On Friday, heading to Toyota Classics with some friends.

On Saturday, having a farewell thingamagic for a friend and sending her off to the airport at midnight cos her flight is 2am on Sunday!

Busy busy week ahead!

But I’m looking forward to it!

I’d just like to say THANK YOU for all the wonderful things you have done, is doing and will continue to do for me. THANK YOU for the oh so many gifts and blessings you have poured upon me, unworthy as I am…

Indeed Lord, you know what has always been in my heart…for as long as I have remembered, I have always had this desire…but I have always pictured it only as that – MY desire! But recently O Lord, I am not sure, but could it be that YOU are showing me that it is YOUR will?

Even as subtle as my “suggestion”, an inner prayer, a part of that desire, for a “band” was “answered” – and not quite how I imagined it – in fact, it was a whole lot better than I could ever have imagined it to be! – with the forming of the Taize Team, a team of young adults, friends, who come together, under the guidance of our beloved Bishop nonetheless, to glorify your name in psalms!

In the beginning I didn’t quite see it O Lord, but after countless times singing and praying and praising with the psalms, only then did I realise, it wasn’t about the singing anymore…it was much deeper than that. It is about singing not for oursleves or for others, not for man, but singing TO YOU, singing love songs TO YOU O God! And I realised that only NOw, after I’ve personally learnt to use my voice to glorify YOUR name, did it all fall into place…

Months ago, no, YEARS ago, I always told myself I had a good voice. Indeed I was very proud of myself and would wish and wish that people would tell me I had a good voice. And you know what, NO ONE ever did! So, I started to wonder, maybe I dont have a good voice, maybe I was just being vain…but in my heart, I knew I still loved singing…so while that desire to sing still remained, my “self-pride” was humbled (and come to think of it, I dont know at which point exactly this happened either) so when it came the time that we had Taize nights, everytime I sang, I was secretly praying that my voice helped people connect with God and was not a distraction instead! Cos personally, I really cant stand horrible singing!

Still, during the earlier Taizes, I tend to hog the mike, or sing more solos, with the presumption that I CAN sing and have a good voice! Yet, NO ONE affirmed me, and in once instance, was even told to back off from the mike. Ehehe. So yeah, it was a learning experience for me. A humbling experience. Until the most recent Taize just past, instead of hogging people’s parts, I actually volunteered to give my part up (as much as I really didnt want to cos of my desire to sing) – that in itself shocked me! But our leader, who is an awesome guitarist/singer/cantor said “NO, you must be the anchor!” so I kept my part…

And that Taize night was routine (for me), and like most Taize nights, I feel Your presence…but that was it. After that night, we’ll all be back to our everyday lives (of which singing has nothing to do with it at all!) and we “keep” our voices to praise you in the next Taize night…except this time, it was NOT the case…

A day later, on the 40th Anniiversary, a friend and I went for the evening mass. We were kinda late so the church was full! The only place left was the choir pew and the choir allowed us to sit there provided we sang with them! Hehe. So yeah, we did, for the entrance hymn, but that was as far as I went. I sang, yes, but I did not stand up with the choir (unlike my friend) haha…and IMMEDIATELY after Mass ended, Sister, who was seated behind us (she was part of the choir too) tapped me on the shoulder and asked,

“You have a really nice voice! Would you like to join the Choir? Our practice is at 8pm Fridays.”

I was dumbfounded. I had always, always wanted to join the choir…but this was not how I imagined the possibility of joining the choir to be like. If anything, if anyone were to invite me, I would have thought it would be our Taize guitarist, the professional cantor!

Of course, still quite in shock, I gave all sorts of reasons why Friday might be a bit tricky for me, but I left the option open…

And the following day, an auntie texted me,

“Morning Mar, you sang so sweetly during Taize nite. Puji Tuhan for the beautiful voice”

and again, I was shocked. NO ONE has ever said anything about my voice, EVER! And now in 2 days, 2 different people pointed it out…

I replied with “Thanks so much! All Glory To God!”

and continued my day as normal…

And then just THIS evening, after daily mass, a friend of mine introduced me to another auntie saying,

“This is Mar. She’s the one with the nice voice I told you about”

To which I replied, “Ehh?” in disbelief.

And she continued to tell me how she’d always wanted to tell me that but kept forgetting and that she thinks I have this gift and that I should consider pursuing it and use it to glorify You, O God.

3 different people, 3 different ways…are You trying to tell me something God? Is this YOUR calling?

Cos as much as it is, as it has always been, my desire, to sing, to use my voice, to praise You O God, let it not be MY desire but YOUR will be done!