Surprising Grace

(This post is continued from How to Discern a Vocation to Religious Life: Part I ) Of course, we aren’t always in touch with what our deep desires are in the first place. What often preoccupy us are the shrill and incessant voices of what I will call our “surface” desires (for chips and chocolates). One of the things that helped me in my process of discernment, then, was cultivating my awareness of what was going on inside me. (I’ve written about this before in a blog post on getting in touch with the daily “movements” of our hearts .) To continue the story then: once the two-month period I had given myself had passed, besides gathering information about various congregations of religious sisters, I also started a practice known in Catholic circles as “spiritual direction”, in which I talked to someone regularly about my spiritual life, and this person helped me to notice and become more aware of how I was experiencing God’s action in my daily life. In addition, I went to retrea...

A while ago a reader of this blog asked me, “How did you discern that religious life was for you?” As we have talked a little about discerning life choices here on this blog, I thought I might post my response here too and add to that conversation. Do feel free to leave comments or write back about your own thoughts or experiences. ***** Dear Reader, Your question reminds me of a rather interesting conversation my community had earlier this year at the dinner table when one of our sisters said that someone had asked her, “How do you know if you are called to religious life?” The four of us at the table started sharing our own stories of coming to that awareness. We were each from different countries, with age differences spanning 45 years, but surprisingly enough, while the details of each person’s journey varied widely, we noticed some common threads running through each one. The first was that each of us at some point felt a desire for religious life. While some peop...

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.

A while ago, I heard that a prominent government official known for promoting productivity in government had been baptised into the Catholic Church. “He can now take on a new ministry of promoting productivity in the church!” a friend of mine joked. This rather incongruous statement made me stop and think. IS productivity a value of the church? Productivity is certainly a national value in my native Singapore – right there at the top of the list along with efficiency, effectiveness, etc. We want government to be effective, which it generally is. In general, public services in Singapore work, public transport gets you places, and the economy generally runs like a well-oiled machine. All these are well and good; the results of a culture of productivity. But we can also see, I think, some of the dark side of productivity when it becomes both a national and personal obsession. When I ask people how they are these days, the invariable reply is, “Oh, busy as usual.” Working freneti...

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...

"Humility" is a much-prized Christian virtue (though perhaps somewhat less practiced!). So I remember being surprised when once I mentioned this in a conversation with a friend who was not a Christian and he was puzzled. "Is humility a good thing?" he asked. "Isn't it better to be proud?" When Afra sent me the reflection posted here on Thursday , then, I was curious and asked her what "humility" meant to her. "It is not thinking less about myself," she said (quoting), "but thinking about myself less. It also means that God's love is enough. My life is for God and others." Another explanation someone else insightfully gave me once was that: "Humility is accepting the truth about yourself". So, understood in this way humility isn't about having low self-esteem, or putting ourselves down, or letting ourselves be walked over like doormats -- which would NOT be a virtue! Rather, it has something to do...

Our guest writer this week is Afra. One day a friend said to us jokingly, “You know…I am a humble person.”  Another friend added spontaneously, “…and proud of it!”  Hearing this, all of us roared in laughter.  Such is the paradox: how come you claim to be humble yet at the same time be proud (or boastful) about it? That piece of conversation stayed deep within me.  There is truth in it: when it comes to be that I am proud to be humble, I am not humble anymore then.  So, how can I have a humble heart? I remember a story about a saint  who, when he was given the gift of miracles, chose that he might do a great deal of good without ever knowing it.  And it was granted.  His shadow had the power to cure disease, soothe pain and comfort sorrow.  Wherever he went, people walked behind him or waited for his shadow and they were healed. What a grace to be able to ask that! I don’t think I am near to being a humble person yet. I know that I...