Vidimus Dominum

When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek. Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy servant away in anger: thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. Psalm 27:8-9

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

SFX Vocation Retreat: Testimonial & Thanksgiving

+ JMJ

It has been a while since I returned from the Major Seminary Vocation Retreat, here's a short testimonial and thanksgiving letter:

Praised be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the beloved!

Father Rector, William Goh, mentioned in his first talk during the retreat that there must have been an impetus- divine or otherwise- that made all of us sign up for and attend the retreat. I think he is very right. Thorugh the illumination of the Holy Spirit, we have been blessed with the Lord's sanctifying grace; making us worthy spend an entire weekend basking in His presence.

Faithful readers of this blog, Deo Juvante, and Holy Vocations, would know my impetus for signing up for the retreat; so I shan't dwell on it here...

I've visited the Major Seminary, the Redemptorist Seminary, as well as the Carmelite Friar's Monestary on several occassions. Each time, it is a sense of peace and belonging. The fraternal warmth and charity displayed by both the brothers and formators have made my stays very pleasant. Time and time again as I vist the Seminary, I feel a sense of affirmation and belonging. How many people are likely to feel the same? I mean, being 'isolated' in the forests of Ponggol.

Before the retreat as I was discerning the chrisms, I didn't know if what appealed to me was due to my personal want(s) or desire(s), or if it was something that God wanted. It has been hard for me to discern between what God wants and what I am so attracted to personally. Therefore, it was by providence that Fr. William Goh shared some information that allayed some of my confusion(s) and mixed feelings.

After the retreat, I was affirmed that (those who read my post 'Fiat Volunta Tua' would have come across the following quote) "the priesthood is not for us or for our personal satisfaction and delight. Rather, it is for the service of the Church and souls: God calls men to be priests so that he will be able to make himself present "in the flesh" in the Eucharist for all who need him. He makes men priests so that all who need their sins forgiven can go to them and be cleansed of their sins. He makes men priests so that the sick can be strengthened with the Sacraments, so that his word will be preached, so that people will receive hope and be renewed through their work and service... He makes priests so that the poor and abandoned may be administered to.

Therefore, I shouln't let my own emotions get in the way of my discernment.

I would like to thank:

• God the Father for giving us the opportunity to discern His will together as one body; united in the Christ that cannot be divided,
• Rev. Fr. Willaim Goh (Rector and Formator); though I didn't get a chance to speak to him personally. God had indeed used him as an instrument in answering some of the doubts and queries in my heart.
• I also thank God for the Seminarians, especially Br. Jude David who had sent me many messages, inviting me to the retreat; I wouldn't have gone otherwise due to my heavy workload.

To quote Dominic Hutt (one of the retreatants) in his testimony, may we all someday "sing praises and walk through those seminary doors".

Amen. So I hope. So may it be.

Pro Eccelesia et Pontifice,
J-PDM
St. Rita of Cascia

Labels: Photos, Priesthood, Retreat, Seminarians, Seminary, Testimonials, Thanksgiving, Vocation

# posted by Vidimusdominum : Tuesday, May 22, 2007  3 Comments

Monday, May 7, 2007

Annual Diocesan Vocation Retreat

Dear readers,

I'll be heading for the annual Diocesan vocation retreat this weekend after being invited by a Seminarian friend. It will be held at Saint Francis Xavier Major Seminary in Ponggol.

The retreat commences on Friday (11th May '07) at 1930hr and ends on Sunday (13th May '07) at approx. 1700hr with the celebration of the Sunday Eucharist and High Tea.

Do keep me in your prayers as I continue to discern the Lord's call.

A prayer for the retreatants:

Almighty God, Loving Father & Creator of all.

Your Son, Jesus, sufferred & died on the cross that we might live.

Help us use this Precious Gift of Life in ways

that would bring much honour & glory to you.

Give us the strength & the courage to rid

ourselves of all fears that we may may respond toYour CALL,

to love & serve Your people.

Bless & protect our Holy Father, our priests,

deacons, religious and lay ministers.

Bless us too & help us make the right choices in life,

and through the powerful intercession of

Our Blessed Mother & the Holy Spirit,

we may continue to participate in Your plan of Salvation.

We pray in the name of Jesus, Your Son. Amen!

St. John Vianney, St. Alphonsus, St. Ignatius, St. Francis of Assisi, St. John of the Cross, pray for us.

Note: Blogging resusmes after May 13.

Labels: News, Personal, Prayer, Priesthood, Retreat, Seminary, Vocation

# posted by Vidimusdominum : Monday, May 07, 2007  3 Comments

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About Me

I'm an independent and conservative person who has a consistently positive demeanor. I'm easy to get along with as long as you are not intensely socially awkward... Though I'm mostly introverted unless I am in a comfortable crowd, I can open up very quickly to those who care to strike a conversation. For better or for worst, there are times where I enjoy being away from everyone just to be alone with my thoughts. Though I'm not judgmental, I do draw conclusions based on the things people say or the way they act. I can be blunt if I am not dancing around an issue. My Catholic faith plays a big part in the playing fields of my life. Reserved yet spontaneous, optimistic yet realistic, serious yet goofy, that's me- or at least that's what I think!

Contact

I remain faithful to the Roman Catholic Church and her magisterium. At any point should I stray of the path of revealed truth, please do not hesitate to:
E-mail Me

Pledge

To be an orthodox witness for Christ Jesus and His Holy Roman Catholic Church through: Fidelity to Divine & Ecclesiastical Traditions, Reverent Adoration of the Eucharist, Ardour for the Gospel, and Deovtion to Our Blessed Mother.

Holy Mass


"A man who fails to love the Mass fails to love Christ. We must make an effort to "live" the Mass with calm and serenity, with devotion and affection. And this is why I have always suspected that those who want the Mass to be over with quickly show, with this insensitive attitude, that they have not yet realized what the sacrifice of the altar means" (St. Josemaria Escriva)


"At that hour of the Sacrifice, at the words of the Priest, the heavens are opened, and in that mystery of Jesus Christ, the choirs of Angels are present, and things below are joined to things on high, earthly things to heavenly, and the service is both a visible and an invisible event" (St. Pope Gregory the Great)


"... He would rise again to be our perpetual Host of propitiation, the Host of our Communion, the Host of our Adoration. Heaven was enraptured at the sight of this mystery. The Most Holy Trinity contemplated it with love. The angels, struck with awe, adored it. And with what rage were not the demons seized in hell!" (St. Peter Julian Eymard)


"It would be easier for the world to exist without the sun than without the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass." (St. Parde Pio)


The Mass: Core of our Faith
Testimony of Catalina On The Holy Mass
Cardinal Newman's Declaration
VIDEO: History of the Mass

Modern Rite

• A Defence of the Pauline Mass
• Basic Texts for the Roman Catholic Eucharist
• Pauline Mass Text (Latin)
• New ICEL Translation (WEF: ?)

Classical Rite

• Watch a 1941 Tridentine Mass
• Introduction to the Tridentine Mass
• Tridentine Mass FAQ
• Participating in a Traditional Mass
• A Pictorial Guide
• Tridentine Mass Text (Latin)
• Traditional Latin Mass
• Tutorial on the Tridentine Latin Mass
• Why Latin?
• Gregorian Chant Is Returning from Exile.
• The Reform that the Church Needs
• Gregorian Impossible

Singaporean Papist

QuoteWorthy

True knowledge is being struck by the arrow of Beauty that wounds man, moved by reality, how it is Christ himself who is present and in an ineffable way disposes and forms the souls of men. (Pope Benedict XVI)


"The beauty of the liturgy is part of this mystery; it is a sublime expression of God's glory and, in a certain sense, a glimpse of heaven on earth. ... Beauty, then, is not mere decoration, but rather an essential element of the liturgical action, since it is an attribute of God himself and his revelation. These considerations should make us realize the care which is needed, if the liturgical action is to reflect its innate splendour." (Pope Benedict, Sacramentum Caritatis)


"...we ought to get back to the dimension of the sacred in the liturgy... the essential in the liturgy is the mystery, which is realized in the common ritual of the Church; all the rest diminishes it. Men experiment with it in lively fashion, and find themselves deceived, when the mystery is transformed into distraction, when the chief actor in the liturgy is not the Living God but the priest or the liturgical director." (Pope Benedict XVI in sermon to Chilean Bishops, 13 July '88)


"Who's going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, and the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops act like bishops, and your religious act like religious." (Abp. Fulton Sheen)


On Ad Orientem: "... When a general leads his troops into battle does he face them? When a representative of the people approaches the Ruler on their behalf does he face them? When a priest is going to the Lord on behalf of his people should he face them? When the priest is acting as the intermediary between the people and God he faces the Altar. When he is dispensing the gifts of God, or speaking to the people, he faces the people." (Fr. Joseph Santos)


"Bad theology is supported by bad liturgy and together they spawn bad morality. As Catholic clergy and as baptized members of the Church, we ask that across the board, our shepherds enforce the universal laws of the church; to protect and serve the people of God by ensuring that every ordained deacon, priest or bishop will act morally, properly and pastorally; defend the deposit of faith as taught by the Magisterium; and insist that reverent and proper celebrations of the sacred liturgy be done everywhere, from seminaries to parishes to cathedrals." (Confraternity of Catholic Clergy)

"Christ’s Cross is an eternal paradox. A life brutally cut down in the fullness of maturity. A failed, naked and abandoned man, his life ebbing in the death rattle of a slow and horrible agony ... Everything about the Cross beckons us to the pit of despair; and yet there, precisely in the densest and bitterest darkness, Christ realizes the most luminous and meaningful act open to a man, offering himself to his Father and each one of us in an act of perfect love. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (Fr. Marcial Maciel)



Blogs of Note

• Athanasius Contra Mundum
• Catholic Restorationists
• Catholic Church Conservation
• Causa Nostrae Laetitiae
• Dappled Photo Projects
• De Fide Catholica
• Domine, da mihi hanc aquam!
• Filipino Flavor
• In Veritate Ambulare
• Juventutem Blog
• Lumen Gentleman Apologetics
• Musica Sacra
• Pontifications
• Recapturing Our Catholic Patrimony
• Rorate Caeli
• Sacramentum Vitae
• Saint Peter's Helpers
• Scripture & Catholic Tradition
• Shout in the Piazza
• Shrine of the Holy Whapping
• Te Deum Laudamus
• The Cafeteria Is Closed
• The Curt Jester
• Traditional Latin Mass
• The Hermeneutic of Continuity
• The Inspired Traditionalist
• The Orthodox Roman Catholic
• The New Liturgical Movement
• The Roman Sacristan
• The Rule
• Threshold of Hope
• What Does the Prayer Really Say?
• Whispers in the Loggia


Sacerdotal Blogs

• Dappled Things
• Godzdogz
• Life's Crosses*
• My Spiritual Journey*
• Overhead in the Sacristy
• Saint Mary Magdalen
• The Hermeneutic of Continuity
• The Potter's Clay*
• Tidbits
• What Does That Prayer Really Say?

Friends

• Anti-Precussion Phobia
• Dominus vobiscum
• Exsurge Domine
• Psalmus 42
• In principio erat Verbum
• Memoirs of an Orthodox Neophyte
• Spirited Mistress
• The Cassock And Cotta
• The Sleepless Eye
• War In The Pocket
• Un Roi, Une Loi, Une Foi
• Unam Sanctam
• Victorious in God

Catholic Links

• Ask Father Question Box
• Cannonlaw.info
• Catechism of the Catholic Church
• Cantica Nova
• Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines
• Congregation for the Clergy
• Catholic Online
• Catechism of the Council of Trent
• Coalition Eccelesia Dei
• Code of Canon Law
• Douay-Rheims Bible Online
• Eternal World Televison Network
• Father Thomas Byles of the Titanic
• Fatima Network
• Foederatio Internationalis Una Voce
• Fish Eaters
• Keep the Faith
• New Advent
• Official Site of the Holy See
• Official Site of the Archdiocese of Singapore
• Papal Encyclicals
• Parallel Latin/English Psalter
• St. Francis Xavier Major Seminary, Singapore
• TAN Books
• The Catholic Liturgical Library
• The Franciscan Archive
• The Unbound Bible
• Thesaurus Precum Latinarum
• Tridentine Latin Missal
• Vaticanum Secundum
• What the Cardinals Believe

Defend TRUE Religion!


"When we have to reply to anyone who has insulted us, we should be careful to do it always with gentleness. A soft answer extinguishes the fire of wrath." (St. Alphonsus)


Traditional Catholic Apologetics
Scripture Catholic
St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology

Traditional Societies

• Canons Regular of the New Jerusalem
• Fraternity of St. Vincent Ferrier
• Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest
• Institute of St. Philip Neri
• Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter
• Society of Saint John
• Society of St. Pius X

Church Suffering



O Immaculate Mother, Queen of Heaven, hear the cries of your suffering children in purgatory and intercede for them at the throne of the Almighty. Behold in them, O Mother most faithful, the image of your Divine Son Who offered Himself in their behalf. Recall His bitter passion and death, and see in them His very sufferings. We feel confident, then, O Mother of Mercy, that you will obtain their liberation; so that they, in union with you and the choir of Heaven, may contemplate the Beatific Vision in heaven forever. Amen.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord; and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.

Catholic Priests


We need them in life's early morning,
We need them again at its close;
We feel their warm clasp of true friendship,
We seek them when tasting life's woes.
At the altar each day we behold them,
And the hands of a king on his throne
Are not equal to them in their greatness;
Their dignity stands all alone;
And when we are tempted and wander,
To pathways of shame and of sin,
It's the hand of a priest that will absolve us--
Not once, but again and again.
And when we are taking life's partner,
Other hands may prepare us a feast,
But the hand that will bless and unite us--
Is the beautiful hand of a priest.
God bless them and keep them all holy,
For the Host which their fingers caress;
When can a poor sinner do better,
Than to ask Him to guide thee and bless?
When the hour of death comes upon us,
May our courage and strength be increased,
By seeing raised over us in blessing--
The beautiful hands of a priest.

More About the Priesthood




"The priest is the minister of Christ,
an instrument, that is to say,
in the hands of the Divine Redeemer.
He continues the work of the redemption
in all its world-embracing
universality and divine efficacy,
that work that wrought so marvelous
a transformation in the world."


• Encyclicals and Decrees of Popes on Priestly Vocations
• Dress Code of Priests
• Homosexuals and the Priesthood
• The Spirituality of Diocesan Priests
• All Male Clergy?
• The Black Cassock
• A Visible Sign: The Roman Collar
• Ordination Homily (Video)

A Prayer for Priests


O Jesus, Eternal Priest, keep all Thy priests within the shelter of Thy Sacred Heart, where none may harm them. Keep unstained their anointed hands which daily touch Thy Sacred Body. Keep unsullied their lips purpled with Thy Precious Blood. Keep pure and unearthly their hearts, sealed with the sublime marks of Thy glorious priesthood. Let Thy holy love surround them and shield them from the world's contagion. Bless their labors with abundant fruit, and may the souls to whom they have ministered be here below their joy and consolation and in Heaven their beautiful and everlasting crown. Amen.

Sancte Michael

Sancte Michael Archangele,
defende nos in prælio.
Contra nequitiam
et insidias diaboli
esto præsidium.
Imperet illi Deus,
supplices deprecamur.
Tuque princeps militiæ caelestis,
Satanam aliosque
spiritus malignos,
qui ad perditionem animarum
pervagantur in mundo
divina virtute in
infernum detrude.
Amen.

For An End To Abuses

Lord Jesus Christ, in Your infinite love You instituted the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass at the Last Supper. In the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, You continue to pour forth the same graces and spiritual blessings that once flowed from the Sacramental Fountain of Your opened side. Lord, we thank You for manifestating Your Divine Love for us by becoming Sacramentally present in the Eucharistic Species. We beseech You, our Almightly Lord and King, to defend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass from all abuses and sacrileges. Arise Lord, and deliver us, we humbly pray, from these detestable and abominable acts of impiety that threaten the blessed memory of Your sorrowful passion, cruel death, and glorious resurrection. Send forth Your Holy Spirit to illuminate the hearts of all Your priests. Give them a spirit of reverence, humility, patience and love. Enkindle in their hearts a more fervent love for the Eucharist. Lord, You are the True Light of the world, radiate Your Light now to dispel the traps and snares that the evil one has set before Your priests. We pray especially pray for Your priest(s), N., the shepherd(s) to whom You have entrusted the duty of the salvation of souls. O Lord, grant all of us true faith. May we always celebrate the Eucharist in reverence, love, care, devotion, and orthodoxy. St. Peter Julian Eymard, St. Francis Fasini, St. Padre Pio, St. Josemaria Escravia, St. Benedict, and all ye other Eucharistic Saints, pray for us! Amen.

-Paul Domingo Molina

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All these should go without saying, but sometimes, as GK Chesterton said, "Common sense can be suprisingly uncommon."

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