Surprising Grace

Over my holidays I read Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials", a gripping fantasy epic spanning more than a few worlds. The protagonist, Lyra, is a little girl of twelve who comes from a world where the souls of people appear as animals who are their faithful companions. She joins creatures as disparate as witches, angels and dwarf-like Gallivespians on flying grasshoppers who gather their forces to oppose the church and its Magisterium -- and -- to kill God. I had heard this series described before as an atheist tract, so I was surprised at how much its themes resonated with me. In the story, the being known as "the Authority" or "God" was the first angel created who, by deception and force, and through the agency of the church, subdued and placed all living beings under his authority. Through the ages, then, “God” and the church have stamped out all freedom, independence, joy, truthfulness and good feelings from the world. If this is really wh...

Our guest writer this week, Paola Terroni, a religious sister in the Society of the Faithful Companions of Jesus (FCJ), reflects on her ministry with the poor in Manila. My ministry is the coordination of the FCJ Learning and Development Center in Barangay Bagong Silangan, Manila, Philippines.  The people I work with live in very basic small dwellings next to one of the main rubbish dumps of Metro Manila.  There is high unemployment, and many people survive by scavenging what they can from the dumpsite and selling it.  Others have casual construction work, or are jeepney or tricycle drivers. Some people are fortunate enough to have good permanent work outside the area, but they are few. I love my work in the FCJ Center.  In spite of great poverty and hardship there is a wonderful spirit of joy and hope around.  The Center offers a variety of services; a weekly clinic, educational programs for women, children and young people including computer, leader...

A while ago I had the opportunity to spend some time with my family in Cambodia, where we explored the ancient temples of Siem Reap, of which Angkor Wat is perhaps the most famous. Those amazing stone edifices were built around a millennium ago, when the Khmer people were practising the Hindu religion, and later became Buddhist temples as the people's beliefs evolved. Wandering around those stone hallways, admiring the intricate carvings in the walls and arches, awestruck at the magnificent towers that lifted one's heart to worship, I felt a great curiosity about the ancient people who had built these shrines to the divine. Who were they? What were the stories that they had etched into the stone, and how had those stories influenced their lives and identity? At the same time, I felt an unexpected oneness with them in their yearning for the transcendent, their search for meaning in the mysterious universe they found themselves in, in the inexplicable joys and sorrows of...

This post was written on Saturday, 15 September 2018. A woman in Baggao, Philippines, where typhoon Mangkhut made landfall with winds of 205 km/h. ( Source ) As I write this, supertyphoon Mangkhut – what they say is the strongest typhoon of the year – is passing to the north of us. We have been expecting it for a while now – the weather these few days has been still, heavy and foreboding – and last night when we were asleep the rains and winds started. While we are not directly in the path of the storm, the power of the winds lashing the trees and houses is still awesome to behold. It also inspires fear. It strips away the illusion we usually have of control, and exposes our fundamental vulnerability before nature. My prayer this morning as I listened to the wind was a very uncomfortable one. I was uncomfortably aware that I was sitting safe and dry in a sturdy house with plenty of provisions to ride out the storm, but that countless other people in the same city were huddled ...

This blog entry is a modified version of a speech given by our guest writer Cheah Wui Ling at a WWII talk organised by the Singapore National Heritage Board in March 2017 at the Singapore Art Museum.  Together with my co-researcher, Pei Yi, I have been working on the Singapore War Crimes Trials Outreach Project  for several years now. Yet, the stories that these trials tell continue to shock, amaze, and inspire me. From 1946-1948, the British organised 131 war crimes trials in Singapore. Singapore served as a hub for British war crimes investigations, and trials subsequently held in Singapore dealt with crimes committed throughout the region, as far as the Nicobar and Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean. These trials contain many stories of the sufferings experienced by locals and Allies at during the Japanese occupation of Singapore. Ordinary men, women and children suffered greatly. However, many were not only victims but survivors and resisters. The trials tell stories...

  In the years since law school, I have learnt a lot more about making life choices. The spirituality of Saint Ignatius of Loyola has been a special treasure trove in that regard. Ignatius lived in the 1400-1500’s and founded an order of male Catholic religious commonly called the “Jesuits” (from whence hails Pope Francis). He is particularly known for developing a set of “Spiritual Exercises” that develops one’s relationship with the divine and helps one to make life choices. (Nowadays, the full Exercises are usually made in a silent directed retreat that lasts for a month, but it can also be adapted in different ways.) Within these exercises, he sets out a list of very practical “rules for discernment”. I first became acquainted with these “rules” around the time when I first felt an inexplicable desire to become a nun. Faced with a desire that I couldn’t really comprehend and that wouldn’t go away, I was determined to make a proper discernment on whether this was really th...

A while ago a few of us younger religious sisters and brothers were invited to share our “vocation stories” with a group of sisters who were discussing ways of accompanying young people discerning their vocations. The word “vocation” is commonly used in religious circles in its narrow sense, to mean a call to a state of life (i.e. marriage or religious life). But defined in a wider sense, it really describes one’s unique gift to the world. A friend once explained it to me this way: “Vocation is more than a role that you have, but something you are particularly called to do, that drives you. For example, your vocation might be to teach. But that doesn’t mean you have to be a teacher – it means you are drawn to teach in whatever situation you find yourself in – whether as a parent, co-worker or catechist…” How does one discover what their vocation is? It was clear from our discussion that this is a pressing question for young people today. And not just the young! Perhaps it is some...