Blessing of Religious Items

Some time back, by a blessed and most fortuitous chance and through the good offices of Mark, the need of a parish far away for a new Marian statue for a grotto that was going to be built was made known to some faithful here in Penang.

Once this was known, good souls here rushed at the chance to help out to glorify God and His saints. Within the day, word was spread and within two days, a substantial sum was collected, exceeding our expectations. With cash in hand, we let our imaginations run wild and soon came up with grandiose conceptions of an outdoor altar where Mass can be celebrated before the grotto. We also ascertained that an altar cross was needed, as was a processional cross.

On the 2nd day, a group made the trip to the local Catholic shop to source for these items. After having made it known to the non-Christian proprietor that these articles were destined to a faraway Church, we got a hefty 30% discount! Wow... more money for us to spend =))

We also managed to collect a healthy sum for some painting to be done.

The result of that largess can be seen below.

The crucifix, I thought, would be a great altar crucifix. If placed in a stand, it can be used for the adoration on Good Friday as well.



The Marian image I selected for the grotto was a bit unusual and according to the request of the parish priest, under whose auspices this project is undertaken. It is an image of Our Lady of Victory where she is depicted crowned and cradling our Lord Jesus. I think Our Lady of Lepanto will bless the community which honours her greatly.

Seeing that family is an important these in the Malaysian Church and how the breakdown of families is a particular concern is some areas of society, the group also decided to honour the Holy Family that by their patronage, families will grow closer together and practice the Christian virtues.

The blessing was done in the Chapel of the Stella Maris seaside retreat house where the priests were having their retreat.

The image above is of Our Lady of the Jubilee, the Malaysian conception of Our Lady, dressed in traditional Malay attire. Before her is the Child Jesus, also in traditional Malay attire, cradling the world in His hands.

The photo below shows the crucifix in the chapel.






In the photo above, Fr. D is unwrapping the crucifix for the blessing.



The ceremony begins with the singing of hymns.





The celebrant was His Grace, Archbishop Emeritus Anthony Soter Fernandez of Kuala Lumpur. His Grace was using the Rite of Blessing of a Crucifix and the Rite of Blessing of an Image of the Virgin from the Book of Blessings.





The service was concluded with the singing of some hymns.





Archbishop Soter poses with Fr. D and with the people. I hope that through the medium of these images, the people of that parish might come to grow closer to God and to His saints that their merits and prayers may sustain and protect them.







I leave you with this image of the tabernacle, from the chapel. I'm glad it's veiled properly.

So, if you know of a parish that needs something, why don't you just pass the message along. You never know what might happen.

Pope meets Darth Vader

Ok, he didn't really meet with Darth Vader but King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia/Groucho Marx lookalike contest winner.

If you didn't get the Darth Vader bit, perhaps you can watch this:


This would not be King Abdullah's first meeting with the head of the Christian church as he had met Queen Elizabeth, the Supreme Governor of the Church of England before coming to Rome.


King Abdullah is also titled Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques (meaning the mosques in Mecca and Medina) so it was interesting watching him meet with His Holiness, the earthly leader of the Christian Church.



Here's the AP report.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI lauded the contributions of Christians in Saudi Arabia — a kingdom that embraces a strict version of Islam, restricts worship by other faiths and bans Bibles and crucifixes — in the first meeting ever Tuesday between a pope and reigning Saudi king.

Benedict and the Vatican's No. 2 official raised their concerns during separate meetings with King Abdullah, the protector of Islam's holiest sites.

The Vatican counts 890,000 Catholics, mainly guest workers from the Philippines, among the estimated 1.5 million Christians in Saudi Arabia. Christians are barred from opening churches in the desert kingdom where Islam's holiest sites, Mecca and Medina, are located.[But this doesn't stop Muslims from opening mosques everywhere, even in Rome. They even have the gall to ask to worship in the Cathedral of Cordoba with the flimsy excuse that it was once a mosque during the Muslim occupation of the Iberian peninsula. It's time some reciprocity is shown. It would seem they want equal rights when they're the minority but deny the same rights to other when they're the majority and in power.]

"The Vatican authorities expressed their hope for the prosperity of all the inhabitants of the country, and mention was made of the positive and industrious presence of Christians," said the Vatican communique on the meetings, referring in diplomatic language to the religious plight of non-Muslims in the kingdom.

Benedict greeted the king warmly, grasping both his hands before heading into 30 minutes of private talks in his library.

At the end of the meeting, Abdullah presented Benedict with a traditional Middle Eastern gift — a golden sword studded with jewels — and a gold and silver statue of a palm tree and a man riding a camel. The pope admired the statue but merely touched the sword. [The Saudi Flag is adorned with a Sword, the Sword of Islam. I think the King should be quite handy with it, if you get what I mean. Here's Wikipedia's explanation of the Arabic words:

The script on the flag is written in the Thuluth script. It is the shahada or Islamic declaration of faith:

لا إله إلا الله محمد رسول الله

la ilaha ill allah muhammadun rasul allah

"There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is his Messenger"]

Look what I got you!

Holy Crap! Is that the real sword of Islam?

He gave Abdullah a 16th century print and a gold medal of his pontificate.

Islam is the official religion of Saudi Arabia, and the kingdom requires all Saudi citizens to be Muslims. Only Muslims can visit the cities of Mecca and Medina.

Under the authoritarian rule of the royal family, the kingdom enforces Sharia, or Islamic law. It follows a severe interpretation of Islam known as Wahhabism that rejects the possibility of diplomatic relations with a Christian entity. This interpretation would prohibit a Vatican embassy in Saudi Arabia on the grounds it is equivalent to raising the cross inside Islam's holiest places.

The Vatican maintains diplomatic relations with 176 states and institutions, including many in the Islamic world. Before the king's meeting with the pope, a Saudi official said the Vatican has not asked to have a diplomatic mission in the kingdom or to have diplomatic relations.

And a Vatican official said Saudi Arabia has never asked for such a relationship. The official, who asked that his name not be used because of the sensitivity of the issue, said Saudi Arabia is effectively a theocratic state but that the Vatican believes it must speak out for the rights of believers.

It is forbidden to practice Christianity publicly inside Saudi Arabia, and it is illegal to bring symbols from religions other than Islam into the country. Bibles and crosses are confiscated at the border.

Now, about those persecuted Christians in your country...

Some Christian worship services are held secretly, but the government has been known to crack down on them, or deport Filipino workers if they hold even private services.

The Vatican has said it wants to pursue a dialogue with moderate Muslims after the pope angered the Muslim world in 2006 with a speech linking Islam to violence.

He later said he was misunderstood and regretted offending Muslims. He has since met a number of Islamic leaders and a year ago visited predominantly Muslim Turkey.

The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano said the Vatican hoped the meeting with the Saudi king would produce a "sincere" dialogue on Christian worship in the country.

The Vatican said the talks were "warm" and allowed a wide discussion on the need for inter-religious and intercultural dialogue among Christians, Muslims and Jews "for the promotion of peace, justice and spiritual and moral values, especially in support of the family," a statement said.

Benedict has said he wants to reach out to all countries that still do not have diplomatic relations with the Vatican. Those countries include Saudi Arabia and China.

Abdullah had visited the Vatican twice before, as crown prince and deputy prime minister.

Who knows, one day the King might see the Light and come to stand under the banner of the Risen Christ in truth. Deo volente.

Know Popery

After having read about it in Fr. Ray's blog, I went looking around for these photos to amuse you. It seems that our 'separated brethren' in Lewes as well as in other parts of England such as Cliffe have these processions culminating in grand bonfires where the Pope (who was Paul V at the time) is burned in effigy together with Guy Fawkes to commemorate the failed Gunpowder Plot. The Lewes event is the more famous as they even have their own bonfire council.

Those of us who are papist to the core are not amused.

Effigy of Pope Paul V,
waiting in the grounds of Jireh
Chapel (Free Presbyterian
Church)

View Alex Farran's map

Taken in (See more photos here)

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Taken in (See more photos here)

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Taken in (See more photos here)

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Taken in Lewes District, England (See more photos here)

50°52' 30" N, 0°0' 13" E50.8749320.003604

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Taken in Lewes District, England (See more photos here)

50°52' 30" N, 0°0' 13" E50.8749320.003604

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Taken in (See more photos here)

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Taken in Lewes, England (See more photos here)

50°52' 12" N, 0°0' 44" E50.8701110.012102

Wonder what would happen if Muhammad were traipsed around and burned. If the spirit of fairness, perhaps the good folk of Lewes should give it a try and see if our Mohammedan friends are as tolerant as the Catholics.

Read more about it here.

The short end

I was very, very, very, very incensed during All Souls day (and not in the good way, if you know what I mean), so much so, that I almost violated the Wizard’s Third Rule (que fans of Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series).

When I was younger, there used to be a Mass said at the cemetery on All Souls Day, for the repose of the Holy Souls. It was a great practice and the Mass also prompted many people, who would otherwise stay away, to come and join in the ceremonies. Somewhere along the line, for reasons best known to God, it became a liturgy of the word. But still with the sound system, the prayers could still be heard throughout the cemetery and the people could join in. And then, it evolved into a para liturgy. And then, some years back, the priests + bishop just waltzes in, blesses their own pre assigned areas and leave. All this in the space of 15-20 years. But at least in previous years, all the graves we systematically blessed. If you stand next to a grave, sometimes, it gets even more than one blessing as priests who see you will drop by.

But this year, it was less systematic and many graves, among them the grave of my grandfather where my grandmother and I stood in the rain waiting, were not blessed.

Talk about being pastoral. Yeah, yeah, I know that it does not have to be that way, the priest (Singular) can just stand in one spot and wave the Holy Water, but still with that many of them, could it not have been done right? Pastoral? Needs of the people, etc. So many things are justified in the name of being pastoral. But not in this case. Why? Perhaps they have something better to do than perform their priestly duty? I don’t know and I’m approaching the point of not really caring anymore. Should anyone raise the matter, they’ll get laughed off as being dense and not understanding Catholic theology.

I’m not sure it’s worth it to be buried in a Catholic cemetery anymore. At least, we can be reasonable sure that the old Western Road cemetery is consecrated properly and I do have a plot there. But if I did not, would I want to go through all the extra hassle? For what? With things progressing the way they are, would even these minimalist observances still be carried out in the future? Your guess is as good as mine.

Besides the fact that most funeral Masses are now mini canonization ceremonies, even All Souls, when we’re supposed to pray for the Church Suffering in Purgatory, is now becoming more and more about us and how we fell and relate than about the Holy Souls. How did we go so wrong?

Sigh… perhaps getting enrolled in the Purgatorian Archconfraternity is not such a bad investment after all. Click here for more.

All Saints

It's been a busy week. I was up late last night and attended a morning Mass at seven for the Solemnity of All Saints, so I'm a bit sleepy and kinda blur. One great thing I noticed this morning was that it's great that in Malaysia at least, many of the people still take care to attend Holy Days of Obligation and the Church was full, and will be at the Mass in the evening as well is my previous recollections are correct. Many other Churches including the Cathedral will have at least 2 or 3 Masses and even perhaps one during the lunch break to accommodate those who wish to attend. I don't recall whether there was an anticipated Mass last night but in my parish, that used to be an option. The evening Mass has now been transferred to the evening of the actual feast itself. I'm not sure how appropriate this is since First Vespers was celebrated the night before.



All of us are called to be saints but specifically, we commemorate today that great cloud of witnesses, as the Book of Hebrews calls them, that surround God's Throne in Heaven, those who have already run the race and kept the faith. These same men and women had endured all we have endured, and then some. They understand our joys, pains and sorrows and so we invoke their aid, prayers and intercessions before God, for ourselves and for the Church Militant so that we may all join them, the Church Triumphant, in Heaven.

vToday is also the feast of our potential and our goal and so I wish all of you a Happy Feast. If you have the time, perhaps you'd like to read this post about the biblical justification of the Communion of the Saints and how our understanding of this effects our perception of God.

Tomorrow is another long day with Mass in the morning followed by the blessing of our parish cemetery. In the evening, I'll be visiting the Western Road Catholic Cemetery, our diocesan cemetery, where my grandfather and great grandfather are buried.

My previous post on the cemetery can be found here.

Anyway, Happy All Saints and may the prayers of the saints be with you.

The End was almost nigh

This man could have sent us all over the edge, but didn't

Remember his name:Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov.

24 years on - The man who saved millions of lives

Sat, 22 September 2007

The date is 1 September 1983 and the Cold War between the Soviet Union and USA is in full gear, when from the New York skies Korean Air Lines Flight 007 flies from JFK, destination Seoul, South Korea. In the middle of the flight, while accidently passing through Soviet air space, Soviet fighter jets appear getting close the aircraft. The Soviets, who didn't know the plane contained civilians, warned the pilot that they will shoot down the aircraft if it doesn't identify itself, and the pilot, for some unknown reason, doesn't respond. Reports say the pilot never actually received the information, although theories about this are still unclear. An hour passes as the fighter jets still accompany the aircraft, and the orders from Soviet military is to shoot down the aircraft just as the plane was leaving Soviet airspace. The Soviet fighter jets shot down the plane, with the aircraft plunging 35,000 feet in less than 90 seconds, killing 269 civilians, including a US congressman. Hell broke loose. As the Soviets tried to defend their 'mistake', US President Ronald Raegan described the Soviets actions as "barbaric" and "a crime against humanity that must never be forgotten". The tension between the two mega-powers hit an all-time high, and on 15 September 1983 the US administration banned Soviet aircrafts from operating in US airspace. With the political climate in dangerous territory, both US and Soviet government were on high-alert believing an attack was imminent. It was a cold night at the Serpukhov-15 bunker in Moscow on 26 September 1983 as Strategic Rocket Forces lieutenant colonel Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov resumed his duty, monitoring the skies of the Soviet Union, after taking a shift of someone else who couldn't go to work. Just past midnight, Petrov received a computer report he'd dreaded all his military career to see, the computer captured a nuclear military missile being launched from the US, destination Moscow. In the event of such an attack, the Soviet Union’s strategy protocol was to to launch an immediate all-out nuclear weapons counterattack against the United States with nuclear power, and immediately afterwards inform top political and military figures. From there, it would be taken a decision to further the military offensive on America. Stanislav Petrov The bunker was in full-alarm, with red lights all over the place as the missile was captured by the Soviet satellites via computers. Petrov wasn't convinced though. He believed that if the US attacked, they would have attacked all-out, not just sending one missile and giving a chance for them (the Soviets) to attack back. Petrov figured something didn't make sense, as strategically, just one missile from the US would be a strategic disaster. He took some time to think and decided not to give the order a nuclear attack against America, since in his opinion, one missile didn't make sense strategically and it could easily have been a computer error. But then, seconds later, the situation turned extremely serious. A second missile was spotted by the satellite. The pressure by the officers in the bunker to commence responsive actions against America started growing. A third missile was spotted, followed by a fourth. A couple of seconds later, a fifth one was spotted... everyone in the bunker was agitated as the USSR was under missile attack. He had two options. Go with his instinct and dismiss the missiles as computer errors, breaking military protocol in the process or take responsive action and commence full-blown nuclear actions against America, potentially killing millions. He decided it was a computer error, knowing deep down that if he was wrong, missiles would be raining down in Moscow in minutes. Seconds turned to minutes, and as time passed it was clear Petrov was right, it was a computer error after all. Stanislav Petrov had prevented a worldwide nuclear war, a doomsday scenario that would have annihilated entire cities. He was a hero. Those around him congratulated him for his superb judgment. Upon further investigation it resulted that the error came from a very rare sunlight alignment, which the computer read as missile. Of course, top brass in the Kremlin didn't find it so heroic, as he broke military protocol and if he would have been wrong, risked millions of Russian lives. He was sent into early retirement, with a measly $200 a month pension, suffering a nervous breakdown in the process. Due to military secrecy, nobody knew Petrov's heroic judgment until 1998, when a book written by a Russian officer present at the bunker revealed that World War 3 was closer than people thought, and a nuclear holocaust was avoided by a close shave. Petrov reminisces what could have been if he didn't get that extra shift that night Even though the Russian have little sympathy to the man who saved millions of American lives, the United Nations and a number of US agencies honoured the man who could have started a nuclear war, but didn't. In 2008, a documentary film entitled 'The Man who saved the World' is set to be released, perhaps giving Petrov some financial help, thanking him for the incredible part he had in keeping the US and the USSR out of a full-blown war. Without knowing on the cold Moscow night back in 1983, a badly paid 44 year old military officer saved the world, and made himself one of the most influential persons of the century in the process, saving more lives than anyone ever did. Most of today's people don't know it, but today's world as we know it, is like it is because of Stanislav Petrov.

H/T: Dprice