I wanted to update you guys on what's been going on recently that's keeping this blog so uncharacteristically quiet. Firstly, I've been rather ill recently with the flu and a fever. I'm also losing my voice. The timing is horrible, as we're moving into Holy Week.

On that note, the schola, which sang for 2 Masses on Sunday last week, will be singing on one of the Palm Sunday Masses as well as one of the Good Friday liturgies (almost wrote Mass there).

The Sunday morning Mass was done ok, despite the fact that the practice the previous night was disrupted by the earth shattering news that the Opposition have captured 5 Malaysian states (with the government retaining the other 7, some with small majorities) and the government losing its 2/3 Parliamentary majority.

For those of you who are wondering what's the big deal, the same government has been ruling Malaysia since Independence and the only other time it lost it's 2/3 majority in Parliament, inter-racial unrest and rioting occurred with the Malays killing the Chinese and Parliament suspended. In the aftermath, the Malays implemented the New Economic Policy which institutionalized racism in Malaysia and discriminates against the minority Chinese, Indian and Native Borneo population. That policy still stands today and spawns corruption, nepotism and gross inefficiency and mismanagement of the economy and country forcing the emigration of large numbers of talent who felt cheated and left out. Yet, even in 1969, the government lost only 2 states compared to 5 this time.

Some schola members were afraid of coming to practice because they feared unrest and rioting by the Malays who lost power. After practice, I was awake the whole night monitoring the news on the outcome of the elections. And in the morning, our organist abandoned us. But still, a capella, we did ok with 6 out of 9 members turning up. One had to be dispatched to take care of the annual Breakfast for the Elderly which we were organising. More on that later.

The evening Mass saw only FOUR out of NINE members present. I have words for those blooming #$%^ who did not turn up. Anyways, it did not turn out that badly as we have a strong and solid foundation, so even a less than 50% turnout was ok.

Palm Sunday is up next. And Good Friday. I have decided to sing the Lamentations of Jeremiah the Prophet on Good Friday during the Veneration of the Holy Cross with Crux Fidelis, Adoramus Te Christe, O Sacred Head and whatever I can cobble up in time thrown in. All the songs will be sung a capella.

Anyway, that's the update for today. Sorry, no graphics as I'm not too well and I have to rush off for a tuition class I'm giving for my confirmation class kids who will be sitting for the SPM (that's the equivalent of the O-Levels for you Brits and the SATS for my American friends) this year.

And, did I mention that I'm preparing for the 2nd Last Confirmation Camp coming up in 2 weeks of which I'm the main facilitator...? I think I just got sicker.

God help us all.

Pope to Youth: Look to Eucharist for True Immortality

Marks 25th Anniversary of San Lorenzo Center

VATICAN CITY, MARCH 9, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Those looking for the fountain of life should look to the Eucharist, the only true source of immortality, says Benedict XVI.

The Pope said this today upon celebrating a Mass marking the 25th anniversary of the San Lorenzo International Center, attended by an international group of 200 young people.

Pope John Paul II inaugurated the San Lorenzo International Center, located near St. Peter's Basilica, on March 13, 1983. During the inauguration the Polish Pope expressed the hope that the center become "a forge for the formation of authentic young Christians who are capable of bearing coherent witness to the Gospel in today's world."

Benedict XVI put aside his text for the homily and offered a meditation on the meaning of life and death in light of this Sunday’s Gospel on the resurrection of Lazarus.

The human being is not only a biological being, the Pope explained, speaking at the Church of San Lorzenzo in Piscibus, which forms part of the center.

“Although he is part of the this great biocosmos, man transcends it because, certainly, man is always man with all his dignity, even if he is in a comatose state, even if he is an embryo; but if he only lives biologically not all of the possibilities of his being will be realized, which open new dimensions,” he said.

The first dimension is that of knowledge, the Holy Father continued, a knowledge that in man, as distinct from animals, is identified with a “thirst for the infinite.”

We all aspire to “drink from the fountain of life itself,” he said, and to do so we entrust ourselves to the “second dimension of human nature,” which is love.

Social being

Benedict XVI continued, “Man is not only a being that knows, but he lives in a relation of friendship and love. Beyond the dimension of knowledge and truth there exists, inseparably from the latter, the relational dimension. Here one draws closer to the fountain of life, from which one wants to drink to have life in abundance, life itself."

Science, the Pope added, and medicine in particular, represent a great struggle for life, but they cannot satisfy the desire for eternity that is proper to man, not even if the pill of immortality is discovered.

The Holy Father said, “Let us imagine what would happen with an immortal biological human life: a world grown old, a life that would no longer leave room for young people, for youth, for this newness of life.

"So, this cannot be that immortality [that comes from] drinking of the fountain of life, which we all desire."

The only true medicine of immortality is the Eucharist, he said, and the certainty of being loved by God.

Celebrations

Benedict XVI made special mention of the Emmanuel Community, “who for 20 years has with great fidelity coordinated various initiatives.” He also praised the involvement of young people of various movements and communities and mentioned.

The Pontiff’s Mass began a series of celebrations of the Center’s 25th anniversary that will culminate on Palm Sunday, March 16, with the youth pertaining to the center attending Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square, presided over by Benedict XVI.

On Thursday, Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity will preside over a Eucharist celebration to be followed by a prayer vigil and adoration until midnight.

The community of Taizé will organize another vigil on Friday, presided over by Brother Alois Loser, prior of the community.

On Saturday, a gathering will be held on the theme of the history and mission of the San Lorenzo International Center to be attended by Cardinal Rylko and Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, who promoted the foundation of the center.

Malaysia goes to the polls

Tomorrow, Malaysia goes to the polls in the 12th General Election.Though the ruling UMNO Malay dominated National Front of Prime Minister is sure to retain power, a tide of discontent from the minority Chinese and Indians indicate that the Opposition will whittle away the National Front's huge 90% majority in the previous parliament.

The Malaysian General elections are free (except for the members of the Armed Forces), but not fair. It's free because the general populace are not coerced into voting for specific candidates. But it's not fair because the supposedly impartial Elections Commission plays with the electoral boundaries and moves government supporters into opposition strongholds to tilt the balance. The media is also highly and insultingly biased against the opposition with almost no coverage on opposition events except to highlight negative reports. As penetration of the internet is limited to the educated urban classes, most of the country which relies on TV (2 channels which the government operates the remainder owned by the ruling coalition) and and the newspapers (which are owned by the political parties of the ruling coalition). These report ridiculous and ludicrous things about the opposition and make leaders the ruling coalition out to be Obama-like Messiahs.

Scare tactics also abound with the ruling party threatening the Chinese with then loss of political representation and raising the spectre of an Islamist win.

And thus, the election is not fair as the people can't make an informed choice.

There are many hot issues which have agitated the Chinese and Indians as well as the non-Muslims. Bodies have been snatched by Islamic authorities who claimed that deceased people have secretly converted to Islam. Mobs have gathered around Catholic Churches because of rumours that Malays were converting (it was actually First Holy Communion for 100 ethnic Indian kids), 100 year old Hindu temples were torn down because they did not have permits, which makes no sense since at their foundation 100 years ago, Malaysia did not yet exist and who were they supposed to get the permits from? The statue of a Chinese deity scheduled to be built was ordered to stop work after complaints from local Muslims and a religious edict by the local Muslim religious leader saying all statues were haram or forbidden in Islam. This has implications for Catholics as well. We have also had ministers from the ruling coalition raising a Malay daggers in an act of asserting Malay supremacy. At that same congress of the ruling party, many racist, inflammatory and downright seditious speeches were made.

If you're not aware, ethnic Chinese and Indians are second class citizens of this country, despite having been born here. If you're Chinese are have an ancestry dating back to the first Chinese settlements in Malacca in the 1500's and an Indonesian, Arab, Pakistani or Filipino Muslim gets his PR, then his kids will be first class citizens while your kids remain second class citizens in this system of institutionalized racism.

Hindu protesters being gassed.

Protest rallies by NGO's asking for free and fair elections have been met by force from the government with water cannons and tear gas and similar rallies by Indians protesting their marginalization have had a similar but more severe response with their leader detained without trial under Malaysia's draconian Internal Security Act.

NGO's in a rally for free and fair elections.

So, as you can see, the non-Malay ground is very agitated and election rallies by Opposition parties have seen huge amazing turnouts. But will this translate into votes?


At the first rally I was at, despite it being a work day the next day and poor publicity, there was easily 2-3 thousand people. The ruling coalition, with star speakers such as component party leaders, the imcumbent Penang Chief Minister and even the Prime Minister himself could only garner a crown of 5 thousand. And the word is that most were party members bussed in from outside and the locals who attended thought they were attending a concert by a popular artiste.

The open field where the rally was held was awash with red, the DAP colour. The rain which soaked us did dot dampen our spirits as the crowds swelled even larger.

Courtesy of TVSmith

On the wrap-up publicised rally I attended yesterday, the crowds swelled to 60,000 people and the atmosphere was electric. More than 120,000 Malaysian dollar was collected. Almost everyone I knew was there. The speakers were entertaining an energetic whipping up the crowds into frenzy by highlighting the many ills and problems of the government.

The DAP secretary general being born aloft by supporters.


It was billed as the largest and most successful election rally of the Democratic Action Party, an offshoot of the ruling Singapore People's Action Party.


Hopefully the voice of the people will be heard. God help us all.

Photos courtesy of theMalaysianInsider.

More coverage here.

Schola update

As some of you might be aware, our parish happens to have a little schola cantorum that has been singing for about half a year now. It was a rough start but things are getting a bit smoother as time goes by. As our parish has 6 choirs for the Masses in English, we don't sing every week and it makes life a bit easier.

We now have 9 members (7 male voices and 2 female voices), not all of whom can carry a tune in a bucket, and not all of whom are punctual, rehearse their parts at home, read neumes or standard musical notation or turn up for practices. Which makes my life as the director a living hell.

Anyway, I just wanted to update y'all that we'll be singing at this Sunday's morning Mass (which is very tight because we're doing the Novena on Saturday night and have the breakfast for the elderly to take care of on Sunday morning which means key people will be leaving the choir half way) as well as one of the Sunday Masses on Palm Sunday as well as one of the Good Friday Presanctified liturgies.

Do pray for us. Trust me, we'll need all the prayers we can get.

PS
Any song recommendations anyone? I've lined up the usual suspects, Attende Domine, O Sacred Head, Adoramus Te Christe etc. I plan to do a purely vocal Good Friday program.

The best I've ever had

Airline food that is. On one of my connecting flights, I had the best cake ever. It was a small piece (too small if you ask me) of some kind of a nougaty/caramely thing. DEEELICIOUS.

And on my flight back to Penang, for dinner, I had the most delicious airline meal ever. 2 pieces of lamb medallion with spaghetti and vegetables. Scrumptious. MMmmmm. The lamb was tender and not over done, the sauce was well spiced with basil and other herbs and the pasta wasn't overcooked and soggy. Great. The best airline meal I've ever had and as a frequent flyer, I eat lots of crap. It's a meal that one would expect at a restaurant and I was very pleased.

Until....... mid bite,

I realised it was Lent. Crap.

Anyway, it was a Thai Airways flight. Sigh...

Voyaging

Am in Thailand now... will be back on Wednesday... till then, be happy!

Conga

Every leap year, on the feast of St. Conga, the Pope leads the college of cardinals in the Rite of the Holy Line Dance through the Vatican.