Assumption of Our Lady & Last day of Tiff's Aurals

Dear All

Thank you so much for your prayers for Tiffy. She found her chinese and english aurals easy. It seemed that she was lucky as she got the easily chinese and english aural sessions, that is according to her tuition teacher. I guess her chinese aurals on the bus-stop is easier than that at the entrance of the zoo. I believe its your prayers and our petition with our lady of perpetual help that is helping her. Please continue to pray for her, as like in the olympic games, she's only at the preliminary rounds, and still has the hits, quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals to go through. She's had a very long day today, what with getting up at 6am for the english aurals followed by Assumption Mass at 1pm and then tuition at 4pm. She pleaded for a good break, knowing that she still has to complete at least 4 -5 assignments from school and work from tuition teacher and going for another tuition class tomorrow morning. She said she hates PSLE, but so do I :(

Today's sermon at the Assumption Mass by Fr Johnson Fernandez was touching. An editor working for a USA communist paper in the 1950s (that was when the Pope instituted the Feast Day of the Assumption) pored over numerous articles about the catholic faith for the main purpose of tearing it down in the newspaper. As he learned more about the catholic faith, he realised intellectually that this could be the truth. However, he could not profess his faith in his heart. Something was holding him back.

One day, when he took the train as usual and got off the usual station for work, he suddenly noticed the name of the station "the cathdedral" and somehow was led to enter the church. He sat at the last pew and didn't know what he was doing there when he saw a teenaged girl with a troubled face walk down the aisle all the way to the statue of Our Lady, knelt down and prayed. After some time, the teenager got up and left, and the editor noticed that the troubled look on her face was gone and was replaced with peace.

He wanted that peace, so he did what the girl did, went to the statue of Our Lady and knelt down, but he didn't know how to pray or what to say. He mumbled something that he thought was appropriate then, and after that left the church feeling at peace. He tried to recall what he mumbled and he realised it was lyrics from a popular song then something like "Oh sweet lady". From that day on, the editor became a great writer for the catholic faith. I can't recall his name but I think his surname sounded like "Welsh".

I found this story very moving. The point of the sermon is that anyone can go to our lady for help. It's not restricted to ladies or mothers. Everyone can go to her confident that she will help them. Fr Johnson also explained that the Assumption of Our Lady is not our assuming she has gone to heaven. It means she had died like Jesus Christ, but like Christ, her body is spared from corruption and taken to heaven. The Feast day is also a reminder to us that we also share in the resurrection of the body and to be with the Lord in heaven if we remain faithful to God like Mary did.

That's my sharing for today. Please, continue to pray for Tiffany's preparation for PSLE. She needs lots of prayers. Thank you for your prayers and may Mother Mary protect you and your family always.

Love Theresa