Surprising Grace

As someone living and working in another country and culture, I have become quite familiar with the experience of “difference”. Some days I hardly notice it, having lived, breathed and moved in its shadow for so long. But at other times it still impinges, unwelcome, upon my consciousness: when I walk into the lunchroom and don’t understand the conversation with its jokes and innuendoes; when I try to make awkward conversation in Tagalog with the lady I buy vegetables from; or when my opinions on how we should live together as community seem to conflict with those of others. The first few months of working in the place where I have my ministry now was an especially interesting experience. As a Singaporean with a background in law, newly venturing into research and advocacy on social issues in the Philippines with colleagues who were sociologists, I felt quite often like a fish out of water and unsure of myself. One day as I was relating this to a companion, she asked, “Well, what d...

Here we are again at that strange, blessed in-between time, between the old year and the new. I always appreciate this interval between the busy-ness of Christmas and the welcoming of the new year – a kind of fallow space in which to gather the blessings of the year that has passed, and listen to the new hopes and dreams emerging in our hearts for the future. It is a time for gratitude, and also for renewing our commitment to what truly matters. As I looked back over this year, this passage from Rainer Maria Rilke’s “ Letter to a Young Poet ” spoke particularly to me: You ask whether your verses are good. You ask me. You have asked others before. You send them to magazines. You compare them with other poems. … I beg you to give up all that. You are looking outward, and that above all you should not do now. Nobody can counsel and help you, nobody. There is only one single way. Go into yourself. Search for the reason that bids you write; find out whether it is spreading out its ro...

This poem is by Agustina Hartini fcJ and translated by Audrey. The original Indonesian is below. Good Shepherd, When I see the way you walk, I am amazed When I hear the way you talk, I am hypnotized When I follow your steps… I stagger to left and right But your gaze is enough to make me rise again And keep walking with you My name is Hartini; you don’t need to change it to win my heart. ***** Gembala yang baik Saat ku lihat caramu berjalan, aku terkesima Saat ku dengar caramu berbicara, aku terhipnotis Saat kuikuti langkahmu, . . .  aku terbanting ke kanan dan ke kiri namun cukup dengan tatapan matamu membuat aku bangun kembali dan berjalan terus bersamamu Namaku Hartini, tak perlu Kau menggantinya tuk dapatkan hatiku.

The “Paschal Mystery” is one of the central concepts of the Christian faith. The phrase is used to describe what Christians understand as the suffering, death and eventual resurrection to new life of Jesus Christ. In this way, it also describes the movement from suffering and death to resurrection and new life that we experience in our lives and in our world. In this reflection, our guest writer Leonard Mah S.J. reflects on this movement in his own life. ******** What has the Paschal Mystery got to do with our daily lives? We too are also called to experience and participate in the Paschal Mystery of Christ in our own personal way in our daily lives! It is said that we need to go through our own personal Paschal Mystery before some true quality change and conversion can take place in us. How does this happen? Like Jesus, we too are called to experience and share in his sufferings. Most of us may be tempted to only want the Easter experience: sharing only in the good thing...