Divine Mercy (Part 1)

Hi folks, still got about 1.5 hours to my next class at 4pm..so have some little time to blog....today this morning on the train I continue to read about the diary of Saint Faustina and here some of the key points. First of all, before I proceed any further, I would like you to know something about this image...

This image has been revealed to Saint Faustina and later on, on one occasion, Christ himself has specifically told Sister Faustina that if she negelct the painting of this picture and the entire works of Divine Mercy, not only she has to answer for her own soul but also a multitude of souls...as written in the following passage...it was at this part of the story that I found it so moving and emotionally touch....and at this point , I paused for a long while at this part of the book and began to feel for our dear saint...I found myself unable to carry on reading from here this morning...and here is where I stopped:

I was moved at this point...St Faustina was entrusted with such a heavy responsibility by the Lord and if were I in her shoes, I may have freak out..

You can see from here that the Lord's words are clear, direct, no-nonsense type, and certainly no small talk business like "Hi How are you?..that sort of thing..

To be continued...

AlbertY

This is no ordinary diary....and here is why...

Wow has been busy lately...so no time to blog. But anyway I am fine just in case you are wondering how I am lately, I am fine, thank you...lately I have stumbled upon this book (a diary actually) but it is indeed no ordinary diary...

As a matter of fact, when I first started reading this book, I have my doubts like nay other person but I have now overcome my doubts and have believe without reservation what is written is true and have indeed taken place...first of all Sister Faustina has been canonise a saint in 2000 by Pope John Paul II. So that helps a lot for an ordinary folk like me to accept it.

A bit of background to this book... a 600 page book, light and easy on the mind, bought at a cost of $21 (available in the Catholic Bookshop at Queen Street) no many copies left, this book like I said is no ordinary idary coz whatever is written comes directly under the guidance of Jesus, Himself. Words spoken by Him, is highted in Bold. So in essence, this are truly God's words (coming directly from God Himself) to a very ordinary nun. and of course this nun is none other than Sister Faustina from Poland. Born 1905 and Died in 1938 at the age of 35 from tuberculosis.

She is really the chosen one by Jesus Himself to disseminate messages and the devotion of Divine Mercy. She is able to see and holds a direct communication with Jesus , Himself practically everywhere and anytime. also include in her visions are her guardian angel which one led her to see the souls in Purgatory, she is also able to see Mother Mary in quite a number of occasions (including this one when she saw Mother Mary visiting souls in purgatory..and also the following Jesus explains why the need for purgatory:

and on top of that one nite she dreamt of St Therese of Lisieux (my favourite saint) and hold a conversation with her. In that dreamt, St Therese revealled to her that she is a sain and now is in heaven. Sister Faustina then her whether she (Sister Faustina) will be goin to heaven and St Therese reply yes indeed and then sister Faustina go on by asking St therese whether her parents are in heaven, she reply yes...! so beautiful indeed!

But she suffered a great deal in the sense that a lot of sisters in her own religious community (Mother Superiors included) did not believe her and thought that is a hallucinating and a lunatic...how sad it was...and here what Jesus told her in the following of the non-believers:

But eventually she draw strength from our Lord Jesus which was constantly beside her all the time. How encounraging. This book is commanded by our Lord Jesus to sister Faustina to write down diligently whatever He tells of her.

A total of 6 notebooks, this book is not about the life of Sister Fautina, it is direct messages coming from Jesus, Himself. So the messages in there is very direct, short, and no small talk or whatsoever. If you think that God does not speaks directly to man in this modern times, this book proves otherwise.

On another occasion, Jesus paints the vision of His second coming and that is a scary...here it is

To be continued....still reading notebook 1.

P.S. Church of Divine Mercy is now coming up at Pasir Ris...

Prayer to St Therese and St Faustina:

St Therese and St Faustina, I humbly ask of you to take my soul to heaven when I die..I do not want to go to purgatory..I am scared.

You have a nice day!

AlbertY

Our Little Year End Holiday

Dear All

Bert has been very very busy since it's going to be the start of the new term, and he is now loaded with extra duties. I guess we shouldn't be complaining as that would mean he would still have a job which we are very fortunate to have, seeing how the financial crisis is unfolding and that Singapore is in a technical recession. Of course we are worried, as no one knows what the future will hold. But then, we thank the Good Lord and Mother Mary for each day and the blessings they have given us.

As we did not have any holiday last year being Tiffany's P5 preparation year for this year's PSLE, we decided to have a short holiday this year. As the economy didn't look too good, and the regional countries are all in turmoil, we had our "overseas" holiday at Sentosa, the island at the most south tip of the Asia continent.

We spent 3D2Ns at the Rasa Sentosa Resort over the Deepavali weekend. It was really a leisurely holiday as we spent most of the time eating and sleeping!!! We simply lazed around in the hotel room chomping on snacks (on the beds AND most importantly, mommy's NOT complaining), calling in dine-in service, and when we feel like it, we just go out for some attractions. 

Places we visited on 1st nite were Merlion and Underwater World. Best to skip Merlion. The Underwater World's tunnel has more giagantic fishes so it's quite worth the visit that we went through the travellator twice. Felicia got to touch the sting ray and the shark in the touch pool. She was so scared to touch the shark (or some blackish fish hiding partially amongst the rocks) on the head. The head was nearest to her as she's too short to reach out to touch it's tail. She was afraid the fish would bite her. So when the sting ray came near and Bert and Tiffy touched it, I quickly called Feli to touch the sting ray and the shark looking fish. She was so so happy. The shark felt rough whereas the sting ray was soft and slimmy.

Next day, very early in the morning (Tiffy woke us up at 6:30am), Tiffy quickly chased us up for breakfast so that we could get the 1st 10am show to 4D magix. The previous nite when we were there, the queue for the show was super-duper long. So there was no queue when we bought the tixs. The girls found the show a bit scary, especially for Felicia, who are holding to my hand very tightly. She even took off her 3D glasses at one point, hence I missed some parts of the show...what a pity (for me lah). So when Bert asked me if I felt this or that, I had to tell me, no I didn't cos I was like slanted towards Felicia and stealing glances at her to see if she was alright. I think Bert found it enjoyable.

Next we went to Cineblast. It's a rollercoaster "ride" on a space-ship like seat. We had sat this before but it was located elsewhere in Sentosa, and the show was different. The girls enjoyed this one much more than the 4D, but attendance in Cineblast was miserable...only we 4 and another Philippino couple. Anyway, I told the Philippino guy operating the theatre that the girls prefer the Cineblast to the 4D magix, and Tiffy told me the guy looked so happy. So glad to have made the day for someone. I mean, if you have something nice to say, and it doesn't involve too much effort anyway, just so it. It could help the person through the day.

We next went to Dolphin Lagoon...the highlight for Felicia. She was talking about the dolphines that last time we visited them...I think about 3 years ago? At that time, the 2 girls were quite small still and they got to touch the dolphines. This time, I got the whole show on video, so the girls can remember it better. The lucky 2 volunteers from the audience had the chance to pat the dolphin and stroke their underbelly...the comment from the Australian lady of her experience was "it was magical". I could also feel the magic too...especially when the whole experience was played to such nice music.

Later, we had a 1h bike ride along the bike trail. We lost the trail along the way, so backtracked a little, and spent quite a bit of time pushing our bikes as either the place was crowded, or else it was dangerous (in our opinion) to ride the bikes. Anyway, after reading the maps along the road, we managed to get back to the lost trail. Tiffy was very observant. She spotted a monkey and a white pea-hen along the way. I missed seeing the animals as I was busy concentrating on the road!

In the evening, Felicia played on the water slides at the hotel. She was getting a bit big because of her height, but fortunately, the staff were not strict, so she and other bigger children (plus some mothers) slid down the slides. The last time we were there, we saw a monitor lizard entering the pool for a swim. That's when we all evacuted the pool. Luckily (or is it unluckily) nothing eventful happened this time round.

On the last day (Deepavali day), we decided to catch 1 more attraction before checking out. Since the girls are afraid of Fort Siloso, we went to the Butterfly and Insect Kingdom. It seemed quite run-down from the outside with no tickets issued (only a receipt!) and we thought it's just a museum of dead butterflies and beetles. To our surprise, they had a walk-through butterfly garden. I remember there was also one at the Singapore Zoo. Can't remember if there are any other butterfly parks. Anyway, the butterflies at Sentosa didn't like to land on our hands unlike the other places (can't be sure if it's the zoo) where they happily and readily landed on our hands. If you are lucky to have them land on your hands, you'll find them very feathery light, like a slight breeze blowing on your hands.

Surprisingly, we enjoyed the Butterfly park. On the whole, I think the girls enjoyed themselves. As for Bert and I, it was an enjoyable, relaxing holiday. Only thing was, there is a great washup when we got back!! There was not enough drying area for the 3 days wash, plus the weather didn't help much too...cloudy most of the time.

Bert hopes to find some time to blog. He's currently reading the life of St Faustina...the saint that gave us the Divine Mercy. Shall tell you more about it next time.

Love Theresa & Albert

Fine Balancing Act of Disciplining Kids

Dear All

Last night we had a little tiff with Tiffany. It was over a matter of her submission of her swimming cert to her school as this was her external cca for last year - for her school records, as she doesn't have any cca. (She had a couple like violin, classical indian dance and adventure club, but they were all like at most 1 year or so, and doesn't have any cert to proof her attendance. However luckily they were organised by the school, so perhaps they'll have records of her attendance). Anyway, it was important for her as part of her primary school leaving cca records, otherwise she would not have any ccas recorded for primary school.

Since today was the 1st day of school after a week's break (due to PSLE marking), she dropped a bomb on us by saying she can't find the cert and student companion with the note to teacher. And this matter has been dragging for like 3 weeks already, before the PSLE started till now.

I mean, she can be laid back, but to the extend of her own matter, it was disappointing to us that she doesn't take her personal matter seriously...this is her only cca for P5 and she doesn't even have a cca in P6 due to the pressures of studies.

Hence, I blew my top at her. I had been following up on her on this matter for 3 over weeks and now she tells me she's lost it! Bert was more mad than me. I didn't realised he hit her and confiscated her MP3 player till he apologised to her this morning. I myself felt so bad last night. She was already asleep. One of her eyelid had eyelash thickened with dried tears. I was so afraid she'll run away because she was mad with us. I was so tempted to keep her ezlink card, but on second thoughts decided not to. In case she does decide to run away, at least she has money and not be dependant on others, and she can easily come home to us.

Anyway, she suddenly remembered she had already submitted her cert and note from us to her teacher. I mean, this just got me madder...she had unnecessarily brought this onto herself. After Tiffany had gone to sleep and Feli sat up with me to watch TV, she was leaning her ear to my chest and commented my heart was pumping very fast. I told her perhaps it was due to my anger with Tiffany. I have to watch my health too. I asked Feli what to do, and my fear that her sis will run away. Feli told me she was worried too that Tiffy would run away and told me to apologise to Tiffy and best to keep her ezlink card. I asked Feli to ensure her sis took the school bus home with her today. I then teased Feli that wouldn't she be happy to be without a sis since they both are always arguing. Do you know what she said? "No, I want my sister. Or else I have no one to fight with!"

This morning, I told Tiffany how much I love her. She says she knows yesterday when I brought them out to Centrepoint. I was supposed to get something for myself for my birthday present, but because things were not cheap and not to my liking, I ended up buying halloween t-shirts for them, and letting them eat tea-time at Long-John Silvers and buying nothing for myself. She realised how much I love them and especially her (she got 2 t-shirts and Feli 1, and she got what she wanted for tea-time as I was concerned she didn't have a good lunch yesterday).

I told her my fear she'll run away, but she assured me she won't. I told her we were angry with her behaviour, and she was so sweet, she said she'll try harder to remember things better from now on.

Disciplining is a fine balancing act. We love our kids so much we always want the best for them, yet we are afraid we are too hard on them, we will "push" them away from us. At times like this, I pray to Mother Mary and Papa Joseph for their help and guidance in guiding our children the Godly way.

Just my VERY chonghay sharing and 2 cents worth of thoughts. Thanks for reading thus far.

Love Theresa

Just Came Back from Birthday Party

Dear All

Our girls had attended their 1st birthday party sleepover at Tiffany's classmate's 12th birthday. It was held at the safra Changi Coast bungalow. It was the very 1st time Felicia slept away from Bert and me. I came back the next day (which is today, Mon 20 Oct) morning to join the children for a day of fun. As the pool was only opened after 12noon, the children were moping around. After waiting for 3 more friends to join the group of 4 (including the birthday girl) which stayed over night (the birthday girl's parents couldn't accommodate more as there were only 2 bedrooms each with only 2 single beds), we went down to the pool to swim in the hot sun (around 2pm). After a short dip in the play pool, deep pool and jucuzi pool, we headed back to the bungalow for a cool refreshing bath. After tea break, we had bowling at 4:30pm. It was a long time since I had bowled and was happy to clock 186 points. Tiffany had a spare whereas I had none, and not even a strike. Felicia was disappointed most of hers entered the gutter. It was a pity they didn't have the gutterproof thingy.

The kids later had some time at the arcade. There wasn't much to do at the arcade. I found the staff there to be quite unfriendly and the cost of the stay exorbitant (around $200+ per day for weekends and $100+ per day for weekday) as if you pay a bit more, you can get to stay at a hotel for this price. The lady at the pool issuing the towels was kinda rude to my friend when she asked if the kids could swim first as her hubby had to go back to the bungalow to get the pass. The lady at the arcade where I bought the tokens from was quite sourfaced. Even the guy from whom we ordered takeaways at the bowling alley was very slow in his service (it was a young guy too) and he looked most unhappy to serve us. I think he was a foreign worker, and the 2 ladies were chinese-ed aunties. Even the guys issuing the bowling shoes were slow motion. I guess work at this place must be very slow-motion and slow business.

Anyway, the most important thing is, that the birthday girl enjoyed herself, and the children did too. The bungalow is quite nice as it had only been renovated 2 months ago. The aircon was powerful and cool. The golf course looked beautiful that even the girls liked to just look at the scenery.

We only just came back around 9pm today. The 2 girls didn't get much sleep, so they have already hit the sack.

Love Theresa

Feeling the recession blues

Dear All

I believe the majority, if not all of us, are feeling the effects of the bad news that keep coming at us. First the inflation, then the fall of so-called long-standing banks. Closer to home, the increase of electricity tariffs at a shocking "high-jump" of 21%. We are also slammed with higher public busfares. Now the latest is increase in school busfares.

Meals outside, even at foodcourt, are at least $17+ for the 2 girls and me, not even counting Bert. If we stay at home, we also incur high cost due to use of TV and PC (read as electricity bills). If we go out, we get hit by high public transport cost and expensive (and not that filling) meals and, if we are out, we tend to spend more too.

Today, I brought the girls to eHub at Downtown East. We ate "cheap" - chicken rice, then stick to a budget of $15 on arcade games.

Wanted to go bowling as there was a discount for offpeak and for kids, however, the salesgirl said all lanes were full. Feli was upset, so we went back later (like 15 mins later), and found a mini bowling lane. It's kinda cute. It's half the normal lane-length and the balls are smaller and without finger grip holds. It operates by inserting $2 coins for a game of 5 rounds. So I let Feli play that just to appease her. Tiffy tried 2 throws and I one. It is definitely not easy to keep the ball in the lane, and the skittles were tied to strings from the "ceiling" of the chute. So interesting.

After we left, we noticed a long queue at the sales counter, and the guy in front of the queue was making payment for a lane. I was a bit upset that only a while ago, this same salesgirl told me there was no lane available. Tiffy told me it didn't make money-sense to give us the lane since I only letting the 2 girls to play. I thought she made sense. Anyway, think of it this way, I save $3 per kid and $1.20 per pair of shoes i.e $8.40 verse $2 for the mini game.

I try to explain to the girls we mustn't anyhow spend. They wanted to get these little figurines with a lighted base below. It costs $10 for 3 tiny figurines. But the batteries were exorbitant...3 batteries are needed at 50c per battery, and they only last at most 2 - 3 months!! If I get the batteries, I need to buy the whole set of 10 batteries, so that was another $5. It's so ridiculous to throw away $15 just on these figurines, which most likely will be thrown aside by the kids in a couple of days.

The next few weeks when the school hols really start, would be a challenge on our pockets. The kids would want to go out, and the temptation is so high to just spend on unnecessary stuff. Especially in the present climate where we are bracing ourselves for a recession and looming retrenchments for many people, we do not know how things will pan out. Things of this world change so fast overnight. People also have such short-term memories too. How great it is to know that our God is ever steadfast and constant in His love for us. Where things of this world is so transient and fragile, we turn to God for our strength and hope. Pray that our LC family and all our family members be protected from this current state of affairs.

Love Theresa 

The Exams are Finally Over

Dear All

Long time didn't blog. Feli's exams are finally over 2 days ago. The girls are on holiday since yesterday till next Wed for PSLE marking. It's only the 2nd day at home and the girls are already bored! What shall I do with them?

Anyway, Tiffy's birthday party went pretty well. 6 classmates came out of 11 that were invited. They were Andrea, Cassandria, Hannah, Deanna, Claire and Kimberly. They are all very sweet and nice girls. Poor Tiffany fell at the exercise park and hit the back of her neck on the rung of the metal ladder. We didn't know till after the bbq when she told us about it. No wonder she was so quiet during the dinner. 

My mum, Bert and I had great fun bbqing the food. We realised that my mum is a great cook. She knows exactly when the food is ready. As the group was small and the replies came in so late, I decided to season the food myself. We had variety but all in small portions. We had grilled prawns, sotong, corn on the hob, porkchop, chicken wings, sausages, chicken and beef satay and of course, the kids favourite, toasted marshmallows. The girls came to toast whilst we were still cooking the last few batches of food, so my mum ended up cooking some of the marshmallows for them. And Tiffany told me that ma-ma toasted the marshmellows just right...melted just right to be stringy.

Unfortunately, only 1 girl brought her swimming costume, so I had to scrape 1 game. Luckily I still had 3 land games to play. Surprisingly, 12 year olds still love games, and are excited about getting prizes too! The last few 12 year old birthday parties I had attended with Tiffany didn't have any or much party games and hardly any prizes. I just thought of arranging some at the last minute, just to add some fun, and the girls enjoyed themselves.

Now that Tiffy and her classmates/friends would be split up next year, I decided to allow her to go out with her clique of friends. I had seen them and some of their parents, so I think, as Tiffy said, to not be so controlling. I guess when the kids get older, we must learn to let go and let them grow. It can be painful and worrying for us as parents, but like the story of the butterfly emerging from the cocoon...if we help the butterfly by tearing up the cocoon, the butterfly would be stunted and cannot function normally. The emerging process is important to squeeze out the water in the body and wings of the butterfly otherwise the wings would be shriveled and its body too heavy to fly.

On a side point, I was saddened when my mum told me my dad couldn't sleep last night. It seemed he was perhaps sad that my mum was sad that they are growing old. She then patted him to sleep and asked him to pray to Mother Mary and Jesus and always think of them. When I told this to Feli and asked her why we must die? You know what she said? She told her it's because Jesus is lonely in heaven and wants us to be with him. She also said not to be sad as one day we will be with kong-kong in heaven after all of us are gone. I believe God speaks to us through the mouth of babes.

Love Theresa

PSLE Ends Today!

Dear All

Today's the last day of the dreaded PSLE for Tiffany. Yesterday's chinese paper was a killer for her. Hopefully she'll pass. Yesterday, she also had no more steam left to go through science. Partly cos of study fatigue. I too am feeling it so I try to let her be.

Bert says I now can relax. But it's not over yet, Feli's exam is this Fri and I'll be also busy preparing for Tiffy's birthday party this Sat. I know I'm crazy to hold the party in the midst of Feli's exam, but I think Tiffy deserves a break and anyway, Feli's only in P2 so can let her relax a bit. She still has a long way to go (in terms of exam stress lah).

Tiffy is now out with her friends "partying". Feli groused it's not fair that che che can go out and she can't join them. Seems like the older girls have some outing plan during the Nov/Dec hols and Feli is not included. I know how she feels being the youngest in my family during my growing up years. However, my older sis, though she teases me alot, still brings me for most of her outings with her friends. So I've told Tiffy to try to include Feli in some.

Pray that Tiffy finds today's science paper a breeze. She needs a good grade in order to pull her aggregate up since she has no confidence in her chinese paper.

Please continue to help us pray that Tiffany passes all her papers and get a decent aggregate to get into the 4 year sec programme as St Anthony's Cassanian Sec.

Thanks for all your prayers.

Love Theresa & Albert

PSLE begins

Dear all

In the midst of kang-chong mothers calling me, I inevitably passed on the kang-chongness to poor Tiffany. It's most unfortunate that she accidentally stood up on her double-decker and hit the top of her head on the ceiling this afternoon when she got irritated with her sis. She was nursing a painful head the whole afternoon. She hurt herself once before a few days before her exam and was resting at home and I was coaching her then, and she did pretty well then. So I told her she'll do well tomorrow, so as to give her some solace and comfort. She was not a bit nervous this evening until I started to remind to pack extra pencils (must be 2B), pens, erasers etc etc. and going through the important points to look out for in both situational and continuous writing (i.e. letter writing and normal compo). She got so nervous that her head pounded and she couldn't sleep. I made a big mistake there. I had passed on my anxiety to her. So I had to remain calm and told her not to worry as she's very well prepared and English paper is her strongest subject so it would be a breeze tomorrow.

I am actually very worried about maths and especially chinese. Language is such a tough subject. It's either you know or you don't. And even if you know, it's so subjective it's hard to score. It's the little extra marks that mean so much to her...I just wish for her is to get a pass. Anything more is an extra bonus!

Please pray for her. English tomorrow (3 Oct), Maths (6 Oct), Chinese (7 Oct) and Science (8 Oct).

Meantime, I still cannot neglect Feli as her exams starts just 2 days after Tiffy ends her i.e. 10 Oct!! So you can see that it's a tough year for me, coaching 2 kids with 1 doing a national exam, at the same time. I don't mean to scare you, but somehow we humans can juggle and adapt to situations. I just try to take it one step at a time and play it cool..

Thanks for all your prayers.

Love

Theresa