IHM Triduum 2010

To me, today’s homily served as a very good wake-up call.

Father spoke about liturgy of the word being the word of God, and how it is important for us to listen and pay attention to the word of God. Indeed, that is the least we can do. Anything less than that, qualifies as being rude to God. He then moved on to preach about how many people come for mass only as a Sunday obligation, and do not live the mass in our lives at all. He stressed the importance of knowing the true meaning of mass and living the mass in each and every small way that we can.

Unfortunately, I am, indeed, guilty of all the above wrongdoings. I find it hard to pay attention to the liturgy of the word (especially with so many changes made in our parish). I must admit that there are times I give in to the heaviness of my eyelids, and coupled with the air-conditioned atmosphere and lazy Sunday morning feeling, I fall asleep. I give myself excuses, telling myself that everyone around me is doing the same, but the truth is, I am being rude to God. It is an undeniable fact.

All this while, my family has not been very involved in church activities. One could even go as far as to say that my family members, including me, are all “Sunday Catholics”. Church is something we go for every Sunday, for one hour, because we MUST, because we’ve been taught from young that we MUST, because we’ve been taught in cathecism classes the 4^thcommandment, to keep the Sabbath. Before this year, things were not so bad, because I was “bounded” to church, by cathecism classes. Yet, after my confirmation, I found myself slowly drifting away from church. Church and Mass were just like any other Sunday activity, to get it done and out of the way. The moment I stepped out of church, I forget everything about it, until it comes again the week after.

Recently, many things begun happening in my life, be it academics, family issues or my own personal life, they all made me realise I needed God, that I wasn’t at all strong enough to deal with it myself. Coupled with today’s homily, I received a wake-up call from God.

Marlene Grayce Goh

A Deck of Cards

I remembered this is a story & I do hope all NS guys out there , esp for our Dearest ones in TOL & YM when you are out there in your field pack or busking in the warmth of Christ for NDP in your sweaty uniform, you remember this story.

A young soldier was in his bunkhouse all alone one Sunday morning. It was quiet that day, the guns and the mortars, and land mines for some reason hadn't made a noise.

The young soldier knew it was Sunday, the holiest day of the week. As he was sitting there, he got out an old deck of cards and laid them out across his bunk.

Just then an Army Sergeant came in and asked, "Why aren't you with the rest of the platoon?"

The soldier replied, "I thought I would stay behind and spend some time with the Lord."

The sergeant said, "Looks like you're going to play cards."

The soldier said, "No sir, you see, since we are not allowed to have Bibles or other spiritual books in this country, I've decided to talk to the Lord by studying this deck of cards."

The sergeant asked in disbelief, "How will you do that?"

"You see the Ace, Sergeant, it reminds that there is only one God.

The Two represents the two parts of the Bible, Old and New Testaments.

The Three represents the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

The Four stands for the Four Apostles: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

The Five is for the five virgins, there were ten, but only five of them were glorified.

The Six is for the six days it took God to create the Heavens and Earth.

The Seven is for the day God rested after working the six days.

The Eight is for the family of Noah and his wife, their three sons and their wives, in which God saved the eight people from the flood that destroyed the earth for the first time.

The Nine is for the lepers that Jesus cleansed of leprosy. He cleansed ten but nine never thanked Him.

The Ten represents the Ten Commandments that God handed down to Moses on tablets made of stone.

The Jack is a reminder of Satan. One of God's first angels, but he got kicked out of heaven for his sly and wicked ways and is now the Joker of eternal hell.

The Queen stands for the Virgin Mary.

The King stands for Jesus, for he is the King of all kings.

When I count the dots on all the cards, I come up with 365 total, one for every day of the year.

There are a total of 52 cards in a deck, each is a week, 52 weeks in a year.

The four suits represents the four seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.

Each suit has thirteen cards, there are exactly thirteen weeks in a quarter.

So when I want to talk to God and thank Him, I just pull out this old deck of cards and they remind me of all that I have to be thankful for."

The sergeant just stood there and after a minute, with tears in his eyes and pain in his heart, he said, "Soldier, can I borrow that deck of cards?"

Please also let remember and take time to pray for all of our soldiers who are being sent away, putting their lives on the line fighting for us.