Our Lady of China Chapel in "Promised Land"
June 3, 2009
" Joshua also said to the people, "Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will perform wonders among you." (Joshua 3:5)
This June 19 marks the beginning of Year for the Priesthood that announced by our beloved Pope Benedict XVI to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the death of St. John Vianney. The Pope especially proclaims St. John Vianney as the patron saint of all the priests of the world. This is also a special year for St. John Vianney Catholic Church in Flushing where Chinese community have moved in and practice to live out the life of faith as “promised land” for three and half years.
First of all, at the Easter Vigil Celebration, we have 18 people who were baptized to become Catholics. These new members of our community are wonderful gifts that God grants to St. John Vianney in this special year. Now these new children of God begin to practice living out their life of faith not only at church, but also in their daily life at home and work place. Moreover, they are practicing to serve in the church as lectors, gifts bearer, ushers… to glory God...
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Catholic Music Minisry
February 7, 2009
Singing is praying. When one sings one prays twice - so said the great saint Augustine. While singing in the front of the Lord, we are in touch with the deepest center of our heart. Whatever moves there, comes out before our Creator as a loving offering to Him. The emotions of joy, grief, anger and frustration pour out in the presence of the Lord in loving trust and total self-surrender. In that ecstatic moment, we feel that gentle touch of the Divine wiping away the tears from our eye; we are filled with a new hope in the Almighty, guiding our destiny. (Select Divine Praises from index on the left. This is collection of songs from the English language retreat at Divine Retreat Centre) "Those who sing pray twice." Augustine reminds us that the words of our hymns are prayers and, when we sing them, we add to them a further dimension of honor and praise--we pray twice. Sung praise seems to be God's favorite form of prayer; fifteen times the Old Testament tells us to "Sing to the Lord." In addition, the Bible instructs us to come into God's presence with singing, make melody to the...
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Lay Ministry in the Parish ~~~ Natalia Fu
February 7, 2009
Reflection: 1) What was your understanding of the Church before you began this class?
2) From what was presented to you in this class, what was new or challenging to old ways of thinking or believing?
3) What are three insights you discovered in the course of the readings about the Church?
4) Because of this experience how will you change or live the mission of the church differently in the future? As far as I can recall, my entire life has revolved around the Church. Before my mother was married, she lived next door to a local Catholic Church in a small town in Taiwan, which eventually led her to become a deeply religious Catholic with close relations to the nuns, and priests who served the Church. After she married my father, she moved to a different town with only a few Catholics. With Catholicism being a largely unpopular religion in Taiwan during that time, my mother was the only Catholic in a large, traditional Chinese family. During my childhood, I had no idea why my mother was so devoted to a religion that was considered to be strange by many...
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Our Lady of Sheshan
February 7, 2009
May 24: Pray for the Church of China
Xaverian News - VIS
In his letter to the clergy, religious, and laity of the Catholic Church in 
China, Pope Benedict XVI proposed that May 24, a day dedicated to the liturgical memorial of Our Lady, Help of Christians, who is venerated with great devotion at the Marian Shrine of Sheshan in Shanghai, could be an occasion for the Catholics of the whole world to be united in prayer with the Church which is in China.
The Pope then asked the members of the Church in China themselves to keep May 24 as a day of prayer for the Church in China, and said that, on that day, the Catholics of the whole world in particular those who are of Chinese origin will demonstrate their fraternal solidarity and solicitude for you, asking the Lord of history for the gift of perseverance in witness, in the certainty that your sufferings past and present for the Holy Name of Jesus and your intrepid loyalty to His Vicar on earth will be rewarded, even if at times everything can seem a failure.
Our Holy Father wrote: I would like...
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