Father Francis Sermon today (19 Feb 2011) Mass

Dear All

Today's gospel was on Jesus' teaching, adding a loving dimension to the teachings of Mose's. Instead of an eye for an eye, Jesus says if a person slaps you on one cheek, give him the other cheek as well. Jesus teaches us that God's wisdom is beyond man's wisdom and understanding. Why should we love our enemy? Loving those who are loveable is easy. Even the pagans do that.

Father Francis shared that there are 3 steps we should take in order to love our enemy.

1) Pray and ask God and Jesus to give us the Grace to Forgive our enemy

2) Then, pray for our enemy, as everyone is a child of God

3) Put ourselves in our enemy's shoes, to better understand why they did things the way they do. Try to see them as God would see them..children of God.

The starting point to WHY we should even take these 3 steps is simply because we are the temple of God.

He shared with us a few examples of people who struggled with their enemy and overcame their struggles. One was a lady (can't remember her name) who suffered during WWII. She then went around USA preaching forgiveness...that everyone should forgive their aggressor in order to be reconciled. Then, one night, when she was at the carpark, a man approached her and extended his hand meekly in a gesture of plead. To her horror, she recognised him as the most horrendous prison guard who tortured them during WWII. She couldn't even lift her hand up to accept his hand. Then she prayed silently and asked God for the GRACE to FORGIVE this man. Immediately, she was filled with peace and could take his hand and TRULY forgive him. Then she could take the next step to pray for him.

Another example was President Lincoln before he became president. There was a particular man (can't remember his name again) who was always critical of Lincoln and whatever he did. When Lincoln became president, the first thing he did was to make this man one of his important ministers. When asked why he did that, he replied that he was the best man for the job. His critic became his most loyal supporter. When asked how do he destroy his enemies, his reply was, if you make him your friend, you don't have any more enemy.

I was pondering about Father's sermon, and was wondering how to forgive someone who keeps on hurting you? They may either do it because they are unaware or perhaps intentionally. If you look at Jesus suffering on the cross, He chose to forgive His enemies (He prayed to the Father to forgive them for they do not know what they are doing when He was dying on the cross) even when they are jeering at Him! Humanly speaking, we find Jesus quite silly to do that, right? But as I ponder further, if Jesus didn't do what he did, then he wouldn't be sinless and can't go to heaven.

I believe this call for us to forgive our enemy is for our own good. Everyone has free will to make their own choices and decisions in life. What God want's from us to choose not to sin by giving an eye for an eye to our enemy. If we do, we are no better than them. By changing ourselves, our attitudes and our hearts, we are freed of the bondage of sin. We are then 1 step closer to heaven, as we battle with our daily challenges and temptations in life. We only need to turn to God and ASK, and we will receive.

On a further note, I told the girls, exams are coming, so in addition to studying (which is pretty difficult especially after the CNY) they need to ASK God to help them, and then only when they ask, He will surely hear and answer them. We all need prayers besides putting in efforts of our own, otherwise our challenges in life can be too daunting.

Love Theresa

Breakfast Menu

Dear All

This year, the girls are both in the morning school. This year is the first time that Feli has to stay on in school 3 out of 5 days. As their schools will be demolished, they are now at the holding schools, which are further away from home. They have to wake up at 5:20am to catch their 6:15 school buses. Hence, the need to make sure they have the most important meal of the day.

Then, Bert came across a microwavable egg maker. He bought it from Shop & Save along the aisle where you can find all kinds of knick-knacks hanging from the shelves.

The egg-maker is easy to use. The only draw-back is it can only hold 1 egg at a time. But the best part is, you just crack an egg, drop it into the yellow container, pierce the yolk with a fork, then close it loosely with the white lid and microwave on high for 35 secs. Since my eggs are direct from the fridge, I will place the container at the edge of the turn-table and microwave for 35 secs. Then scoop it out onto your bowl and add dark soya sauce and pepper to taste. Taste just like the tradition boiled ones that my mum used to make for me when I was little :)

Another quick breakfast is to make pancakes. The batter can be made the night before. The original recipe has proper measurements, but my weighing scales are packed neatly into my cupboards somewhere and it's so troublesome to weigh out just small amounts. So I use my handy tablespoon and teacup to measure things out.

Pancake recipe (that the girls says tastes just like MacD. hotcakes!)

5 heaped tablespoon full of self raising flour (or 100g)

6 flat teaspoons full of fine sugar (or 3 tablespoons)

1 beaten egg

half a teacup of milk (or 125ml)

Mix the flour with the sugar well. Pour in the beaten egg and mix it up. Next pour in the milk and mix it. The batter should be a thick liquid-like mixture. I add a half teaspoon of vanilla essence myself for the nicer aroma.

You can then keep your batter to make your pancakes fresh the next morning.

I usually scoop 3 tablespoons of batter in the frying pan at a time to make 1 pancake. You can use cooking oil or margarine. The batter can make between 5 - 6 pancakes, more than enough for the 2 girls. The pancakes cook fast. You eat it with margine and maple syrup or by itself, as it is already sweet and smells delicious.

Bon appetite....go try it lah!

Love

Theresa