Sharing from Father Timothy (23 Aug 08)

Dear All

We started to attend the novena service at Holy Trinity as we felt the girls, especially Tiffany, needs to be brought closer to the Church and Her ways. It was also timely to let them experience the novena, and this has brought solace and calm to Tiffany.

Last novena's sermon was about a fervent christian man who believed strongly that his church was the only true way. Members of his christian church had to evangelise every weekend. They go house-to-house and he saw how his fellow christian members force the gospel truth onto non-believers. This went on for about 5 years, and he soon began to see that they way of witnessing for Christ was UN-Christ-like in everyway. When non-believers do not take kindly to their witnessing, they are verbally abused and put into a defensive position. He soon turned to the Catholic church for direction. He found that to witness for Christ, it should never be intrusive, but a way of life. We witness for Christ in the way we live out our christian values in our daily lives, in very little daily insignificant actions. He soon converted to a catholic as he found our way of witnessing is what Christ would have done.

When I was working, I realised that being a Catholic among non-Catholics can be daunting. Your every action is scrutinised as whether it is a christian way or otherwise. Even non-believers remind me not to eat meat when it's a Friday. When I order fish, they would question me as they think no meat means vegetables. I then explained to them why we do such abstainance. When we are forced by such circumstances to explain our faith that I realise I know so little about the various rituals and whether my explanation is doctrinally correct. Anyway, I am comforted in the fact that I don't really need to understand everything in order to know that I am on the right faith and path. For which other faiths can show good fruits, like the numerous saints that we have. And these are people who do not see yet believed...and by their conviction and unfaltering faith in Christ and Mother Mary, plus the numerous thanksgiving letters from the novena, I can see that our Catholic church is very much alive and God's Spirit is moving.

Love Theresa