The Barefoot Journey Home

  We have just celebrated two Marian feasts as a Church. Two weeks ago, we celebrated the Solemnity of the Assumption of our Lady. It was a day of obligation, at least in the Archdiocese of Singapore. Last Saturday, we celebrated the Feast of the Queenship of Mary. Next week, we will be celebrating the Nativity of our Lady.   It’s no secret that the topic of our Blessed Mother is one that potentially can spark off a lot of debate with our protestant brothers and sisters. And while this musing is not meant to spark off any form of debate or argument, I think it’s good for us to know about why the Church gives so much reverence to Mary. Our protestant brothers and sisters may tell us that that we Catholics worship Mary. And even if we tell them we don’t worship her, but we honour her, they’d probably tell us that the honouring of Mary is not in the bible, when actually it is, with all due respect to those who do not share the same faith as us.  A topic that is contested in ...

Let's be honest. One of the greatest gifts that the Lord has given us in this day and age is the gift of technology. This is especially so for us as Catholics. There is a great variety of online resources to aid us in our prayer life, and to be formed in the faith. From the encyclicals of the Church being made available to us with just a simple search on google, to the various YouTube Channels that aid Catholics in being formed in the faith, to applications such as Univeralis and CatholicSG, there really are a multitude of resources to aid us in being formed, as well as in our prayer life.  In a way, it is truly a blessing that this global pandemic is happening in this day and age, where technology is so advanced. Should it have happened in the past, these resources for prayer and formation would not be so easily available to Catholics, and we would be finding it much harder to be keeping our relationships with our God alive, especially if the Liturgies and Sacraments had to have b...

Last week, I came across a video on YouTube of an American Bishop "denying" a man and his daughter communion on the tongue. What seems to have actually happened in the video (and I could be wrong), is that the man and his daughter approached the Altar, got down on their knees, and reverently stuck out their tongues to receive the Eucharist. The Bishop then tried to ask them to stick their hands out instead, given the fact that our world is currently in the midst of a pandemic. The instructions in that particular diocese is that Holy Communion is only to be received on the hand, at least for now. The man and his daughter refused to do so, and the Bishop then proceeded to give Communion to the rest of the congregation. The man and his daughter remained there, refusing to stick out their hands.  As you might have expected, this video caused quite a stir. Many lay people from all over the world wrote in to express their aversion towards the Bishop for doing this. For most, they s...

I have always loved the Franciscan spirituality. Growing up in the parish of St. Mary of the Angels, I must say that I've always had a soft spot in my heart whenever the topic of the patronal feast of St. Mary of the Angels came into my conversations with people. This feast is called the feast of the Portuincula, which is celebrated by Franciscans all around the world on 2nd August. This feast grants a plenary indulgence to all pilgrims who visit any Franciscan Church in the world.  In order to earn this pardon, one would have to fulfil the following three conditions :  1. Receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation within eight days, either before or after visiting the Portuincula, or any other Franciscan Church in the world for the feast.  2. Participate in the great celebration of the Eucharist 3. Pray the Lord's Prayer, the Apostle's Creed, and pray a prayer for the intentions of our Holy Father The origins of the feast came in the year 1216, where our Lord and his M...