A heaven out in the skies

A prayer set on high

The flow of ink,

 keys in brilliant creativity-

 an awesome fountain,

this ocean,  life teeming:-
powerfully 

transforming the barren plains

with   joyous sounds of new life formed
 carefree, abundance

Oh! such marvels  in store!

A palette full of colours
The splash of happy scenes,
vibrant colours lift the  horizons
A perfect picture
a world of words and paints
That only an author, an artist
could model and construct...

A land  of  fruits and plenty,
crowns of contentment,
splendid in a land
where power lies in the stroke
of a pen-
and dreams stands tall
vibrant and alive
Magnificent! Fulfilled-
a living  force to be reckoned with!
-MarieLee-

Proverbs

Bread gained by deceit is sweet to a man

but afterwards his mouth will be full of gravel-Proverb 20:17

Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart. Proverbs 21:2

Lone Star

A lone star set on its course-
the master of the galaxy.
A  voyage predestined ;
paths charted-
And yet, vulnerable,
neither shield nor armour!

The storm and tempest, 
the searing heat,
cold -crippling, desolation;
And the pirates of the seas-
Oh Master!
I'm but a lone voyager,
out in the open seas!

A course, 
So fraught with challenges
The elements ,
the anxieties of the unknown- 
Day and night
knocking and rocking 
at my tranquillity...

My heart grows faint,
solitude gets to me.
My sight dimmed
It's just me and the
big, wide, blue seas.

Oh! for a worthy soul mate, 
A gallant,faithful heart,
Strength,I could turn to,
To shield, combat and 
vanquish 
the darkness - the fears
the setting sun..
Calm the tempestuous seas
Clothing me with  serenity,
Eden! Peace, 
Oh!  that you cherish me!
-MarieLee-

Trust & Believe

As I found a fading and weakening of  confidence in self , friends and those around me ;   He sends me this beautiful message:

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord
He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out it roots by the stream
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit..
-Jeremiah 17:7-8-

I will try Lord, one step at a time.Keep that trust growing Lord... let me never lose my God.

Thoughts for the day.

Will there still be faith at the ending of time? How would you  define  Faith  when that time draw near?? Will it still be believing in God,  bonding with God, belonging to One God, OR faded  and jaded by the noise and the pollution of the world??   Faith will you still be there bridging man with God??

Opinion-Allah

A failure of basic human rights- misguided coveting of a terminology used for years on end by Christians, and others -(Allah to refer to God)  as sole right of one community- I feel for our Bahasa speaking Christian brethren who only know God as Allah since birth. 

We are all created by one God,  no matter what name we are called by- Christians, Muslims, Buddhist, Hindus and the list goes on. Does God belong to just one community? Can anyone restrict the Might of God  to  just one society/community? We are all given the freedom of choice, to choose whichever path we want to journey back to God. Home is the same destination. Back to GOD as we know Him by.

The basis of the restriction  of the Allah term is the unfounded belief that Muslims are so weak and not grounded enough in their faith that mere terminology could CONFUSE and sway them-could turn them away from their faith. Again, my lovely Muslim friends, I feel for you...you are certainly made of better stuff than that!!I have lots of Muslim friends who went to a convent school like me, and till today, they are firm in their faith..something so natural that we expect nothing less of them. You have your beliefs and I have mine, ..we understand and respect each other AND we are great friends!

I have plenty of admiration for my Malay friends. In fact  in our good old times, there was and still is (among the older generation)  the mutual respect of one another, - religion and culture..., we were so comfortable in each other's company-something SO missing in our nation today!! in the very breath of your life. You do not confuse  God with another , just because of a similar term. We do not own God. He owns us. What is important is the grounding of solid religious Belief  you grew up with and you identify yourself with. NO ONE, NOTHING  CAN TAKE AWAY YOUR FAITH OR WHO YOUR GOD IS, IF YOU KNOW HIM WELL ENOUGH; IF YOU ARE CONFIDENT IN YOURSELF LET ALONE TERMINOLOGY. 

Politics! What have you done to our beautiful nation?? Will you not rest till you have taken away the peace and harmony of our lovely homeland?

Let not  terminology divide us. Dear God, do not let this issue take away our friendship as well!!

Marian Rally 2013 Venue Kelana Jaya Stadium -13th October 2013

Marian Rally 2013 - Venue-Kelana Jaya Stadium

Day: 13^th October  2012 .Time:  8.30-1.00p.m.

The Marian Rally, this morning was a phenomenon! Organised buses from churches under the Kuala Lumpur Archdiocese, was reportedly - 120 bus loads.  I was told, from OLL -8 buses, but I thought I saw a bus marked "9" at the parking lot of the stadium!

Besides the organised groups from different parishes, thousands came on their own, bringing their families with them. Scores of migrants were among the faithful. The Stadium was packed to the brim-all three sections were a tight squeeze . It was literally a sea of faces, exactly  how  the Archbishop HG Murphy Pakiam  expressed it-WOW!!!

Your Truly took a walk around the stadium;  even the passage ways were packed like sardines. The crowd spilled over to the open field ,  before the beautiful statue of  Our Lady and the  celebration stage where they sat reverently under the scorching sun for  the Eucharistic celebrations and who said it would rain? Would the Holy Mother let her children get wet??  It was a bright and sunny day, with the bonus of strong cool breeze! Now, isn’t that just like a loving  Mother. No rain, but sun, good weather and a strong  breeze as a bonus, so that those who came  in   honour  of the Blessed Mother  may not get toasted or sun burnt. Indeed, Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with Thee!!

The rosary was recited in 20 languages, that was something- extraordinary!  Besides English, Bahasa, Mandarin, Tamil, Myanmar, Vietnamese, Igbo,  Bidayuh , the list goes on, it was also recited in Latin, German, Korean!

Helpers, (ministers?) accompanied by ladies dressed in white with a blue sash led a beautiful  Statue of Our Lady  prayerfully, round the stadium. Profound moments!    As she stopped in various sections of the stadium, facing the faithful, they raised their hands in homage and had private prayerful moments with her .

Many also took advantage of the occasion to go for the rite of reconciliation. There were many stations but each had big crowds. Yours Truly was her usual self, looking for the shortest queue, never mind  which priest,, better if it is  someone not  known to her  but the wait was still  around an hour. Visualize the crowd!~!

Not easy hearing confessions  people, frankly, some  really had loads to unload.  YT  has a habit of  observing.... thank God for listening ears. Yours Truly saw tired faces or was it tired ears?? So who says listening is easy? But then listening to confessions is one of the focal responsibility of a priest, something very healing in our catholic faith and listening with full attention is crucial. Always bring to  mind, the words of the Lord to Peter.

 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Matt 16:18-19

Certainly,  we do need more priests to share the burden and the healing of  the spirit and soul. Going for confessions is basically healing and well-being

Mass was an absolute marvellous experience. In a  mass celebration of this magnitude, sometimes there is a danger of detachment- ritual  without the heart and the feel  but today’s mass was just brilliant, extraordinary. Bishop’s homily  turn hearts back to God , believe and have faith again. Plenty of likes for his lovely message in simple language which could be easily understood by all and appreciated. The holy mother is truly a shining example of trust in God and because she believed and had the faith to say “yes” , we  were blessed with  salvation.

A mother prays and intercedes for her children and we , the people of this world are her children.  While Pope Francis leads  a crowd ( believed to be around  20,000 people  in Rome ) consecrating the world to Our Lady of Fatima, over here,  our Archbishop  His Grace Murphy Pakiam  in following the Pope's example,  leads a similar rally of at least 10,000 (YT was told 12-13,000) faithful in consecration prayers of our nation to the holy mother.  

At the end of the Eucharistic celebrations, Bishop beautifully thanked his “crew”  all who had worked so hard to make the event a success.  Yours faithfully was particularly touched-(it actually warms the heart) when he acknowledged the  hard work and commitment of lay people, the working people  who worked so hard behind the scenes to make this huge event a success that it was. I could still hear the thunderous applause ringing throughout the stadium! Astounding! How beautifully  he puts it -"he should ask" Msgr Marek   let  the Pope know what wonderful lay  people, he has over here.  That calls for a huggie of appreciation. And how skilfully too, he calls for more young men to come serve the Lord. He urges young people to get married, have children, that their sons  may  devote their lives  to serve the Lord. The Lord needs more  shepherds for his growing  people. 

Let us join Pope Francis and our Archbishop  to thank God for Mary, and  look to the Holy Mother for guidance and fortifying of  our faith..

Is there life after death? Many say, indeed there is...most people start thinking the spirituality when they are at the last lap of their journeying.  The silver and the greys suddenly find themselves, exploring and reaching out to God and seeing the faces of their neighbours for the first time. Before that, they were just another life-form without identity, without  faces, and names, detached , not connected.. They are blind to the cries and the calls of people around them. Then when evening comes, they look for familiar faces, only to find none, because they were too much of a hurry burry earlier and did not bother to  stop and reach out to others

Do not worry so much about life after death, that you forget the actioning of good in the everyday. Rituals and the rules, without the good action is worthless. 

Concentrate on the conscience, the charity and love, having faith in the everyday living Live life well in the today, because that goodness  leads to beautiful scenes  further down the road. Friends you will have, if you spent some time nurturing and cultivating. Care you will have, if you have been caring and well-being you will have if you have loved others and yourself well. 

Good Advice is a gift to be valued.

Better is a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king, who will no longer take advice...abstracted from: Ecclesiastes 4:13

Old is gold, supposedly with tons of salt and yet many become set and rigid in their thinking and actions to a degree of being arrogant even  stubborn. I've eaten more salt than you have eaten rice is a common utterance to win the war of words and satisfy the ego. 

Friends, salt is only valuable if you  add an appropriate quantity  to other food, meat or vegetables, for the taste and the preservation. Too much and you probably will get sick over time. 

Salt on it's own and left on the shelf is mere exhibition without the worth and in time, it loses its saltiness and its value.

Blog formal or informal language?

There are serious blogs and there are blogs intended to bring in interesting read , the enjoyment plus the information. 

I'm a blogger with a preference for the latter. My aim, is to provide information and a little laughter and for that reason, I use very informal terms to give  similar meanings and message but the choice of words give rooms for a little debate...you laugh at the terms used.. you chew and you reflect....you just do not swallow everything whole....You look for the message behind the words, why were such words used?. You  visualise for example  a person with a whistle, making decisions...and the like. I like to open the windows and doors of minds and give fresh insight. 

Interactive blogs like mine, do away with formal style and language. It is different from factual and serious blogs. It is different from academic text and materials. It is alive, and active, not passive, not dead.. Writing is all about the read and the audience. We really must move with the times and do away with a little of the traditional rules which makes everything  oh! such a ......YAWN !!

Wisdom of choice

Wisdom is better than jewels, and all that you desire cannot be compared to her.

Wisdom dwell in prudence and find knowledge and discretion. Proverb 8:11-12

Wisdom of choice, wisdom of prudence,discretion, discernment . It makes a difference a great difference to the attainment of contentment and the satisfaction in your life. What is happiness to you? How do you see happiness? Would you agree with me that it is more spiritual than material? Loved, Cherished, Calm, Serenity, & at peace?