A conversation with God

Go get yourself some popcorns as this is a really long. I would normally ask my friends to summarise long messages and until now never expected to type so many words (Guess now my fingers moves as much as my mouth). Yesterday was Maundy Thursday; today, Good Friday and tomorrow is Eve of Easter.

The Maundy Thursday preparation:

A group of us CHOICEEs decided to have to have our very own Malaysian Visita Iglesia. A total of over 15 (we needed 5 cars to move around) of us from various Choice weekends (CEKL78 to CEKL99) and not to forget a Choicee parent (A really cool parent, so cool that she would be mistaken for being your buddy). The team was split in 2, the ones that had leave and went for the 4pm mass at SFX and the ones who had to 'work hard' and go for the 8pm mass at Assumption.

The negative side of not taking leave and going for mass is that you do not get to have dinner and on the positive side we didn’t have to waste time looking for parking. We met up at our regular hangout Strawberry Fields Cafe and managed to stuff in about 6 to 8 people and and driver who went for the 5pm mass in 1 car (brought back some nostalgic memories). And met up with the rest again at Strawberry Fields Cafe.


The Churches we visited were:

• Assumption, PJ or St Francis Xavier Church, PJ (this is where we were separated by the 5pm and 8pm mass goers)
• St Thomas More, Subang.
• Church of Divine Mercy, Subang.
• St. Ignatius Church, Kelana Jaya
• Holy Rosary Church, Brickfields
• Our Lady of Fatima Church, Brickfields
• St Johns Cathedral, Kuala Lumpur

Conversation with God

There has been a book I was reading in recent time ‘Conversation with God’ (yes I have not finished reading that book yet). There were a few things which I read in that book that made me start reflecting and ponder upon.

• Who is God
• How does God communicate with you

The things that made me reflect and think deeper were:

1. Discussion with someone. (Will write more on this later la)
1. I was told by a newer Choicee that this was his first time that there been a follow up after his retreat and the team has not died out yet(looking at all the older Choicees), I have heard this before but its the first time it made me get into deep thought and think why are we able to do this after some time it came down to 3 things
1. My Big BOSS (The Father himself)
2. The PEOPLE:
3. Ability to adapt to others
2. Maundy Thursday Mass made me reflect on:
1. When Jesus washed his disciples feet
2. During the Eucharistic celebration
1. And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me."
3. Stripping of the altar. This is the first time it touched me and I felt a shiver down my spine (Also I think this is the first time I paid attention to it)
3. A friend asked why are we visiting 7 churches and not 8 or 10 or 4 or any other number
1. I only remembered
1. Very vaguely that the number 7 is a very significant number in the bible
2. That there was used to be people that walked to 7 different basilicas in Rome as penance
2. This made me want to find out more about the bible
4. My thoughts and and what was happening in my surrounding
1. For some odd reasons on the day was thinking to myself,
1. How do I be happy
2. How do I fight temptation
3. How to fight the wrong in me
2. This were the thoughts running in my mind and each of the 7 churches we visited had a different message to me just like the book I read ‘Conversation with God’
1. Assumption - My experience of Maundy Thursday Mass
2. St Thomas More - The floors were wet and slippery and I had to watch my steps.
3. Church of Divine Mercy. - The hall was partially dark and spacious and I felt like I had all the space in the world and the world was mine
4. St. Ignatius Church - What I was facing to me looked like a house behind the waterfalls which took me to my happy place, I suddenly heard sound of the waterfalls and felt the coolness. I was just happy.
5. Holy Rosary Church - As we reached Holy Rosary Church I was still in my happy mode and I was just questioning God “How can I be happy” and in response I heard the 3 people in front of me singing this hymn “God Of Mercy And Compassion” and this reminded me of my most recent confession where the priest told me if you love Jesus you would not sin.
6. Our Lady of Fatima Church - This place was packed, I don’t think I have ever seen this much of crowd in Church at midnight and this told me that I am never alone.
7. St Johns Cathedral - This was the funniest experience I had. Time for adoration was over. I was seated almost at the same place I was seated 6 years ago when I had prayed and asked God for something that made me happy and in sacrifice I would light up a hundred candles in his name and I had yet to do it after 6 years.

Conclusion & Makan time

I guess this was the conversation that God was trying to have with me since my last confession. God is within me and he loves me and to be happy is for me to live in HIM.

So anyways after the visiting 7 churches we were all exhausted and hungry (Yes of coz I was hungry I am growing child <horizontally>) so a few of us went out to eat and I got late for work on Friday.

The hungry children