Last Saturday was my first time attending the-first-Solemn Mass-by-newly-ordained-priest. The priest was Fr Damien Lim, the first Singaporean priest in Opus Dei.
I thank God that He told me to come through other people. Initially I wanted to miss it, I felt that "Anyway, it's just another mass" because I had training on Saturday. However, when my friends in Opus Dei talked about the mass, I felt that this mass would be different. It was special.
It was very special indeed. Half an hour before mass, when the choir was practicing, I was already touched by the hymns that they sang. It was 'just' a normal hymn based on the new English translation. However, it was the first time I heard the whole choir sang the hymn really well and it was as beautiful as how it sounded in the videos on explanation of why we go back to chanting style in the new English translation mass.
Another thing that touched me was there were quite a lot of big families attending the mass. It was normal to see a family with 4 children in that morning. As I didn't understand it before I came to Singapore, a lot of my friends, including my roommate, still questioned me, "Why does the Church say 'No' to contraception?" That morning, despite all explanations that I 'learned' or that people told me, I saw the beauty of being generous to God: in responding to His call, including in family life. I saw the beauty of how Natural Family Planning that sounded very 'weird' for me a few years ago, yet it was totally a different spirit with contraception (it's not about natural vs artificial), was a beautiful way to be opened to what God wants. I remember Scott Hahn wrote in his book, Rome Sweet Home, "Having contraception is like you want to eat without being fat by vomiting the food after you eat." It's logical. With contraception, sexual intercourse is a matter of 'I get', not 'I give'. (FYI, he wrote this statement BEFORE he came back to Catholic church)
Every mass is beautiful, but this first-Solemn-mass-by-Fr Damien Lim was just soooo beautiful. The hymns, the people who attended the mass, the priests who held the Body of Christ and gave the Body of Christ to us without rushing, the silent moment after mass before everyone rushed off were beautiful :):)
Really really thank God :):)
I thank God that He told me to come through other people. Initially I wanted to miss it, I felt that "Anyway, it's just another mass" because I had training on Saturday. However, when my friends in Opus Dei talked about the mass, I felt that this mass would be different. It was special.
It was very special indeed. Half an hour before mass, when the choir was practicing, I was already touched by the hymns that they sang. It was 'just' a normal hymn based on the new English translation. However, it was the first time I heard the whole choir sang the hymn really well and it was as beautiful as how it sounded in the videos on explanation of why we go back to chanting style in the new English translation mass.
Another thing that touched me was there were quite a lot of big families attending the mass. It was normal to see a family with 4 children in that morning. As I didn't understand it before I came to Singapore, a lot of my friends, including my roommate, still questioned me, "Why does the Church say 'No' to contraception?" That morning, despite all explanations that I 'learned' or that people told me, I saw the beauty of being generous to God: in responding to His call, including in family life. I saw the beauty of how Natural Family Planning that sounded very 'weird' for me a few years ago, yet it was totally a different spirit with contraception (it's not about natural vs artificial), was a beautiful way to be opened to what God wants. I remember Scott Hahn wrote in his book, Rome Sweet Home, "Having contraception is like you want to eat without being fat by vomiting the food after you eat." It's logical. With contraception, sexual intercourse is a matter of 'I get', not 'I give'. (FYI, he wrote this statement BEFORE he came back to Catholic church)
Every mass is beautiful, but this first-Solemn-mass-by-Fr Damien Lim was just soooo beautiful. The hymns, the people who attended the mass, the priests who held the Body of Christ and gave the Body of Christ to us without rushing, the silent moment after mass before everyone rushed off were beautiful :):)
Really really thank God :):)
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