Haha...another one day's trip by the 'magnificent 7' to the Church of St. Anne Port Klang, that started its annual Novena to its patroness from July 16 in conjunction with the Feast of Saint Anne.
Though a relatively small Catholic Church in Port Klang, it has its charm and magnetic force. Annually, the Church of St Anne attracts droves of worshipers and thankful believers during its annual 9-days Novena to its patroness, Saint Anne and its Feast day.
Address:
Church of St Anne
Jalan Tunku Badar
Kawasan 13
42000 Port Klang, Selangor.
(Tel: 603-3168 8530)
Check its website for more details.
We didn't go on the actual Feast Day that fell on Sunday, July 26 though, but attended Novena that was followed by Mass for senior citizens on Thursday, July 23. The 2009 Novena theme was 'Towards a spirituality of communion' and the theme for Thursday's worship was 'Cultivating deep and genuine friendships.
The main Celebrant that day was Fr. Mari Arokiam of Church of St. John Mary Vianney in Tampin and assisted by Fr. Lawrence Andrew, the parish priest of St. Anne Church. The former gave a wonderful homily on promoting genuine friendships based on the 3As, that is, acceptance, appreciation and affirmation and to be initiated within the domestic church amongst family members and then outwards to others.
Shared with us too a touching email he had received about 'Who you are (I am) makes a difference", irrespective whether you're young or old, small or large, rich or poor, high-ranking or ordinary. It holds true no matter who you are.
He ended by encouraging us to support the St Anne kindergarten extensions building fund with these words, "Give and spend, God will send" and elaborated that God loves a cheerful giver!
2 Corinthians 9:6-11 from the Good News Bible says,
- Remember that the person who plants few seeds will have a small crop; the one who plants many seeds will have a large crop.
- Each one should give, then, as he has decided, not with regret or out of a sense of duty; for God loves the one who gives gladly.
- And God is able to give you more than you need, so that you will always have all you need for yourselves and more than enough for every good cause.
- As the scripture says, "He gives generously to the needy; his kindness lasts forever".
- And, God, who supplies seed for the sower and bread to eat, will also supply you with all the seed you need and will make it grow and produce a rich harvest from your generosity.
Nevertheless, our group of seven (Steven, Sook Wan, John and Mary B., Michael, my other half and I) decided to proceed to Telok Gong for lunch.
Hehe....lost our way there, the chief navigator must be getting 'younger'? ;-)If I recalled correctly, we reached the Restoran Makanan Laut Telok Gong Sdn Bhd (formerly known as Coconut Flower Seafood Restaurant) almost 2.15 pm. We were really famished and could eat a cow, so to speak! Haha...every dish ordered were polished almost immediately and lunch was over in a jiffy!! :-)
What shocked us though was the bill totaled RM152 for a small dish each of mee hoon (12/-), steamed fish (42/-), river terrapin (38/-), mantis prawn (15/-), egg omelette with small oysters (15/) and miscellaneous. A bit too expensive for the quantity served! No more going to that eatery again, for sure!
Nonetheless, that insightful and inspiring sermon by Father Mari at Church of St Anne, Port Klang, has left its mark in my heart.
P/S: Coincidentally, about 2 weeks after the trip to Church of St Anne in Port Klang, my beloved brother sent me an email with the power point presentation of 'Who I Am Makes A Difference' and put a big grin on my face!! :-D Love to share below this inspiritional quotation, without the images, of course!
Who I Am Makes A Difference (by Helice Bridges)
A teacher in New York decided to honor each of her seniors in high school by telling them the difference each of them had made.
Using a process developed by Helice Bridges of Del Mar, California, she called each student to the front of the class, one at a time. First she told them how the student made a difference to her and the class. Then she presented each of them with a blue ribbon imprinted with gold letters which read, "Who I Am Makes a Difference."
Afterwards, the teacher decided to do a class project to see what kind of impact recognition would have on a community. She gave each of the students three more ribbons and instructed them to go out and spread this acknowledgment ceremony. Then they were to follow up on the results, see who honored whom and report back to the class in about a week.
One of the boys in the class went to a junior executive in a nearby company and honored him for helping him with his career planning. He gave him a blue ribbon and put it on his shirt. Then he gave him two extra ribbons, and said, "We're doing a class project on recognition, and we'd like you to go out, find somebody to honor, give them a blue ribbon, then give them the extra blue ribbon so they can acknowledge a third person to keep this acknowledgment ceremony going. Then please report back to me and tell me what happened."
Later that day the junior executive went in to see his boss, who had a reputation of being kind of a grouchy fellow. He told him that he deeply admired him for being a creative genius. The boss seemed very surprised. The junior executive asked him if he would accept the gift of the blue ribbon and would he give him permission to put it on him. His surprised boss said,"Well, sure." The junior executive took the blue ribbon and placed it right on his boss's jacket above his heart. As he gave him the last extra ribbon, he said, "Would you do me a favor? Would you take this extra ribbon and pass it on by honoring somebody else? The young boy who first gave me the ribbons is doing a project in school and we want to keep this recognition ceremony going and find out how it affects people."
That night the boss came home to his 14-year-old son and sat him down. He said, "The most incredible thing happened to me today. I was in my office and one of the junior executives came in and told me he admired me and gave me a blue ribbon for being a creative genius. Imagine. He thinks I'm a creative genius." Then he put this blue ribbon that says "Who I Am Makes A Difference" on my jacket above my heart. He gave me an extra ribbon and asked me to find somebody else to honor.
As I was driving home tonight, I started thinking about whom I would honor with this ribbon and I thought about you. I want to honor you.
"My days are really hectic and when I come home I don't pay a lot of attention to you. Sometimes I scream at you for not getting good enough grades in school and for your bedroom being a mess, but somehow tonight, I just wanted to sit here and, well, just let you know that you do make a difference to me. Besides your mother, you are the most important person in my life. You're a great kid and I love you!"
The startled boy started to sob and sob, and he couldn't stop crying. His whole body shook. He looked up at his father and said through his tears, "I was planning on committing suicide tomorrow, Dad, because I didn't think you loved me. Now I don't need to."
Other slides that were included:
- Please know that I think you are important, or you would not have received this in the first place.
- Who you are does make a difference, and I wanted you to know that.
- I'm passing the blue ribbon to you.
- Have an awesome day, and know that someone has thought about you today!
- And the young boy and his classmates learned a valuable lesson. Who you are DOES make a difference. You are under no obligation to send this on to anyone...not to two people or to two hundred. As far as I am concerned, you can delete it and move on to the next message. But if, you have anyone who means a lot to you, I encourage you to send him or her this message and let them know. You never know what kind of difference a little encouragement can make to a person.
Thank you so much, my dearest Brother, for the affirmation.
A movie on 'Who I Am Makes A Difference' at Inspirational Flash Movies.
No comments:
Post a Comment