Nostra Fides Vol 3 2008

Nostra Fides Our Faith A Publication of SMU Fides Catholic Community For Internal Ciruclation Only Vol 2 2008 In communion with the Catholic Church headed by the Pope and in conformity with the teachings handed down to us from the Apostles, Nostra Fides aims to cover Catholic events on campus as well as other events that members of the community are involved in. Recent developments within the Church will also be covered.

What the Pope Said During World Youth Day 2008 “Grounded in the Apostles’ teaching, in fellowship, and in the breaking of the bread and prayer (cf. Acts 2:42), the young Christian community moved forward to oppose the perversity in the culture around them (cf. Acts 2:40), to care for one another (cf. Acts 2:44-47), to defend their belief in Jesus in the face of hostility (cf Acts 4:33), and to heal the sick (cf. Acts 5:12-16).”

World Youth Day 2008 (Sydney, Australia) by Geraldine Kuah

‘You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses.’ Acts 1:8

“Walk in Christ’s light daily through fidelity to personal and liturgical prayer, nourished by meditation on the inspired word of God. ... The Fathers of the Church loved to see the Scriptures as a spiritual Eden, a garden where we can walk freely with God, admiring the beauty and harmony of his saving plan as it bears fruit in our own lives, in the life of the Church and in all of history. Let prayer, then, and meditation on God’s word, be the lamp which illumines, purifies and guides your steps along the path which the Lord has marked out for you.” “And in obedience to Christ’s own command, they set forth, bearing witness to the greatest story ever: that God has become one of us, that the divine has entered human history in order to transform it, and that we are called to immerse ourselves in Christ’s saving love which triumphs over evil and death. Saint Paul, in his famous speech to the Areopagus, introduced the message in this way: “God gives everything – including life and breath – to everyone … so that all nations might seek God and, by feeling their way towards him, succeed in finding him. In fact he is not far from any of us, since it is in him that we live and move and have our being”

In life, we have several unforgettable experiences – birthdays, graduation, wedding and the list goes on. During my recent four-month school vacation, I have found another event to add to the list – Word Youth Day (WYD) 2008. WYD was established by the late Pope John Paul II in 1986 to reach out to the youth of the world. It is a pilgrimage where young people from all over the world meet and experience the love of God. WYD 2008 was held in Sydney, Australia. It was an eventful week, packed with numerous activities and workshops and culminated in a Final Mass celebrated by the Pope.

The theme of WYD 2008 can be found in Acts 1: 8 and the various events, workshops and catechesis sessions we attended served as constant reminders of how we, as pilgrims of peace, should open our hearts to the Holy Spirit so that we will be able to be God’s witnesses and carry out His will. I remembered attending the Opening Mass at Barangaroo, where I was greeted to a magnificent sight – hundreds of thousands of youths from all over the world, with their nations’ flags flying high, all gathered together to worship one God. Indeed, the Church is alive! One of my fellow Fides friend even commented that perhaps this is but a small glimpse of heaven.

With the huge turnout at Barangaroo, it was a perfect opportunity to meet people of different nationalities, languages and races. My friends and I exchanged souvenirs with pilgrims from Australia, America, Brazil, Canada, France, Poland, Germany, Hong Kong, Philippines, East Timor and even Myanmar! I truly enjoyed the little time I had to get to know my new friends, to know more of their culture and lifestyles and to exchange little words of encouragement and greetings. Apart from attending official WYD events, my friends and I had the privilege of having daily sharing sessions within our group and even masses celebrated by our Spiritual Director, Father Damian DeWind. I will like to take this opportunity to thank Father Damien for his spiritual guidance that made this pilgrimage so meaningful and enriching. Thank You Father D!

following messages, “Please pray for freedom in Myanmar” and “Peace in Myanmar”.

At this moment, I began to wonder why did I get myself all worked up over school and several other seemingly trivial matters when here, there are people worrying for their lives, their freedom, their safety. I felt embarrassed at how selfish and undeserving my prayers were compared to these people. I also learnt about humility through the daily catechesis sessions where we were challenged to listen more and talk less. Bishop Peter Ingham of Wollongong, Australia, highlighted during one of the sessions that to really listen to people is a courageous act because there is a chance that one might be transformed! When I heard this, I was reminded of the many times, when I had chosen not to listen to the advice of my family members and friends because I thought I was right, that I assumed I had the answers. I am sure many of you are familiar with the beatitude, Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. I was reading a book, Reason To Believe by Ron Tesoriero, purchased during WYD and was deeply touched by one excerpt. In the words of the Lord, “Blessed are the poor in spirit. Actually the meaning of these words in Hebrew is blessed are those who lack arrogance. The significance of this phrase has been misinterpreted. These words are meant to imply not that I praise solely those unattached to earthly goods but instead, to exalt the humble.” Once again, another great lesson in humility!

My greatest take-away from WYD 2008 has got to be the great lesson in humility. Being one among the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims attending WYD, there were many instances when I felt very “small”. I recalled the night before the Final Mass when we had to camp outdoors at Randwich Racecourse (the Australian equivalent of our Turf City). I walked past the Burmese contingent and saw that they had marked out their sleeping area using raffia strings. Several placards were attached to these strings with the

Although WYD has ended, its Spirit lives on. The end of WYD marks the beginning of our mission. The mission to be God’s witnesses and to go out to the world and proclaim his word, just like how the apostles did two thousand years ago.

My World Youth Day Experience by Winfrid Wong

We must muster the courage to Correct the Course The following are extracts from a a 25 August interview with Archbishop Malcom Ranjith, Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses ” (Acts 1:8) This had very little meaning to me before I left for Sydney. The week before I flew of was met with numerous challenges with faith and the question of life and our existence here. I attended the Days in the Diocese (Wollongong) and the actual World Youth Day itself. Wollongong is a 2-hour train ride to the south of Sydney. I was with Mustard Seed Community from St Francis Xavier’s Church. In exchange for nothing, the people who hosted us gave us nice rooms (some of with heated blankets!!), nice-home-cooked meals, brought us around Wollongong and even patiently waited for us while we took photos and participated in the carnival that was organized by the Diocese for 1500 WYD pilgrims from around the world. At times God’s love is simply in the small things.

One of the most memorable things that struck me during World Youth Day itself, was the people and the flags. There is simply a sense of awe and wonder for God and I recalled a line from Psalm 116, “O praise the Lord, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people.” At the final mass, Pope Benedict said that the “Holy Spirit is God’s way of giving his love to us”. These final words and the messages pieced together from the Days in the diocese, made up the story of my World Youth Day journey: “The Holy Spirit is love and it is God’s way of giving his Love to us through the people that we meet and only by letting go, opening our hearts and consciously making an effort to seek God can we fully ‘…receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses...’ through our acts of kindness.”

It is precisely the extraordinary rite liturgy which reflects some Asian values in all their depth. Above all the aspect of Redemption and the vertical perspective of human life, the deeply personalised relationship between God and the priest and God and the community are more clearly expressed in the old liturgy than in the Novus ordo. The Novus ordo by contrast stresses more the horizontal perspective. That does not mean that the Novus ordo itself stands for a horizontal perspective, but rather its interpretation by different liturgical schools, which regard the Mass more as a community experience. If established ways of thinking are called into question, however, some react discomfitedly. Holy Mass is not only a memorial of the Last Supper, but also the Sacrifice of Christ and the Mystery of our Salvation. Without Good Friday, the Last Supper has no meaning. The Cross is the marvelous sign of God’s love, and only in relation to the Cross is true community at all possible. Here is the real starting point for the evangelisation of Asia.

Mass must have moments of silence, of inwardness and personal prayer. Where there is ceaseless talking, man cannot be deeply penetrated by mystery. We are not to talk uninterruptedly before God, but to also let Him speak. The liturgical renewal has been affected, however, by the experimental arbitrariness with which Mass today is being freely performed as “do-it-yourself liturgy”. The spirit of the liturgy has, in a manner of speaking, been abducted. What has happened cannot now be undone anymore. The fact is that our churches have become emptier. Of course there are also other factors: the unbridled consumerist behaviour, secularism, an excessive image of man. We have to muster the courage to correct course, because not everything which happened after the reform of the liturgy was according to the intention of the Council.

Freshmen Orientation Camp 2008

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