Malacca Johore Diocese News Update #194

Thunderstorms expected nationwide. Floods, landslides and storms next. Emmy awards ended with Shogun sweeping the most awards.

Oct 18, 2024


Greetings dear friends of MJD
Thunderstorms expected nationwide. Floods, landslides and storms next. Emmy awards ended with Shogun sweeping the most awards. There are more and more international film submissions for the Oscars. Datuk Faridah Mercian recognised as pioneer in country’s performing arts at the 2024 Merdeka Award. Inappropriate running attires. More tourists, more refugees, more migrants, are we ready for culture shocks? A New Zealander starts schools for the marginalised in Malaysia. Storms come and go. Hot air remains hot air. Only good deeds prevail.

Painful Times: So much division, strife, anger and “evil piled upon evil” deeds. Justified or unwarranted! So much shouting! Slogans and shawls! PM decides but his ministry is unprepared. We open doors, but have no protocols, no hand-on experience and get caught with unprecedented “kekecohan”. Wars are evil. The women, children and innocent suffer. Collateral damage is no excuse. Violence breeds violence. Where there is hardness of heart, turn to prayer. Only prayer can move mountains. Continue with Pope Francis, who began a Day of Fasting and Prayer for World Peace on October 7, to declare Fridays, a prayer day for World Peace in your families, BECs and parishes indefinitely.

A Thought For The Week:
Big God or Small God?
A boy asked the father: How Big is God? Then the father looked up to the sky and seeing an airplane asked the son: “What’s the size of that airplane?” The boy answered: “It’s very small. I can barely see it.” So the father took him to the airport and as they approached an airplane he asked: “And now, what is the size of this one?” The boy answered: “Wow daddy, this is huge!”

Lesson from the Father: “God, is like this, His size depends on the distance between you and Him. The closer you are to Him, the greater He will be in your life!” How close are you to Him?

Announcements For The Week:
1. Pastoral statement from Bishop Joseph Hii, Episcopal President of Malaysian Catechetical Commission: The CBCMSB has endorsed the proposal to observe the First Sunday of August as Catechetical Sunday, instead of the earlier custom (last Sunday of January).

QnQ? Q ask: Can all our stress be eliminated?

1. Judith Moskowitz says it is impossible to eliminate all our stress, but science shows we can manage it better. She has researched a set of eight skills and practices to increase positive emotions and decrease anxiety.

2. The eight recommended practices are:
a) Focus on positive events — the something good today.
b) Savour the event — stop and look,
c) Gratitude for the small and big things,
d) Daily mindfulness by focusing on your breath and breathing in a quiet place
e) Positive reappraisal by seeing the silver lining in the unexpected,
f) Self-compassion by being less self critical and doing what makes you feel good,
g) Personal strengths by recalling what you are good at and empowers you,
h) Attainable goals by writing them down in a notebook to tick off.

3. Your first reaction maybe is, that it will never work. Skills are not magic.

See The Holy Spirit @ Work: The Holy Spirit is a great worker, not a ‘trade unionist’. He is a great worker, and He works in us, always. He does this work of explaining the mystery of Jesus, and of giving us this sense of Christ. Pope Francis

Something To Tickle You: God loves each of us as if there were only one of us. God never said that the journey would be easy, but He did say that the arrival would be worthwhile. God will meet you where you are in order to take you where He wants you to go. God's work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supplies. --Anonymous

Bishop Bernard Paul

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