CCE Catholic News Broadcasted LIVE for the first time !!!

I'm extremely happy... CCE Catholic News went LIVE just a few hours ago.

With a little help from my husband Patrick we broadcasted LIVE an event to educate Catholic voters from my parish The Church of St Thomas More Subang Jaya, on their rights as voters and what they should do to help the country have as clean and fair an election as possible.

I am so proud of a few Catholic priests who have been very vocal about fighting for social justice. Proud of our dear Fr Simon, of course. Cute and courageous.

It's late now, so I shall just end the post. Will update with more stories on our new LIVE streaming capabilities and the soft launch of our android app on PlayStore another day.

Just look to the right of this blog for footages of the recorded LIVE broadcast.

Over and out and have a blessed Easter!!!

P.S. Click to watch the video on the right side of the blog.
Prep For Elections Part 1 and Part 2

Yes, I know it's been a long time since I blogged. Apologies to all those who follow the rantings of this soon to be 40-years-young Cradle Catholic. Life has truly been an adventure.

Now in this post of mine, I just wanted to share a video made by one of St Thomas More's 11.30am choir members.

Her name is Marilyn and she hails from Philippines.

Talented in singing and music, she has really given a boost to our choir. Of late, she has contributed yet again through her initiative of creating videos of the songs we sung during mass, including the psalms.

I was really very touched by her efforts and I have nicknamed her the techno evangelist. From her actions, all the songs and psalms can now continue to touch our lives even after the mass has ended.

Especially during challenging times when we need the comfort of the Word of God in song. This is the first of her videos I am posting on my blog. Why?

Because one of our parishioners said some of the youths were very touched by this particular song when it was sung during mass last Sunday

Do take note, that Marilyn just used a tiny MP3 recorder/player to record the singing, so the quality may not be so good.

Marilyn is not the composer of the song. I just wanted to clarify as her name appeared below the song. I think this happened as she uploaded the song into Facebook and I just copied the link onto my blog. I wanted to clarify this to avoid any copyrights issues.

But you know God uses the simple and imperfect things and people to touch His people. Hope this post will bring a smile in your heart today.

Have a superbly blessed day,
Hazel

Location map of Church of St Thomas More, Subang Jaya, Malaysia

 

If you have been touched by attending mass in our church, we hope you will give back generously to help us settle the over RM4mil loan from our Archbishop. 

Please click the Donate Button like the one shown below, located on the right hand side of this blog. 

Thank you for your generosity in advance.

May God bless you always.

First major St Thomas More Feast Day celebrations in Subang Jaya (2010)

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This year 22 June 2010 was special. How and Why? Well, it's the first time our parish celebrated in a big way our Parish Feast Day.

Although, we did it last year with Fr OC celebrating mass a day earlier on Sunday (as the actual feast day fell on a Monday on 2009), it was a Sunday mass. The homily was of course powerful as Fr OC himself, a qualified lawyer, had always been a fan of the saint.

My vivid memory was about the part when he said (Fr OC) - in not so many words that if it came down to it, we should "hate" even our family members if they will prevent us from loving our God. Sounds harsh right? Well, if you don't already know the story ... his most beloved daughter Meg begged her father Thomas More to take an oath that would declare an earthly king, head of the Church instead of Christ's appointed successor the Pope.

True to his Faith and conscience, Thomas More rejected even his most loved daughter's pleading request, and ended up with his head chopped off. How many of us can do this? Perhaps, (in shame) not even me, when cornered to such a point.

This year, again, we invited yet another lawyer Fr Michael Chua. He gave a powerful and long homily reminding us how important TRUE JUSTICE AND PEACE is, especially in Malaysia and that when we are challenged as Catholic-Christians (remember the hoax SMSes to take down your Rosary or risk having your windscreen smashed), we should remind ourselves how St Thomas More responded.

Apart from the resounding message from this saint which is absolutely apt for Malaysia today, we also treated our eyes to two beautifully painted Stations of The Cross by our very own artist Christie Das. In fact, all fourteen stations will be her masterpieces. At this point of the post Fr Simon Labrooy told us after mass that all 14 stations had been successfully sponsored as part of the church's fund raising activities.

For me personally, it was indeed a great milestone in my journey of being a parishioner of this church. Those of you following my blog would have read earlier that I've somehow gotten the job of script writer for a play which will be staged on the life of St Thomas More as part of the opening celebrations of our new church building.

After almost two months of research and writing, the script was finally completed just before March ended and auditions and rehearsals started early April. As there was another major play being staged, most of the talent pool had gone there...

Due to God's great providence, we still ended up with a team that would do quite a good job, we felt. Then, three weeks into the rehearsals, our Music Director whom, we depended a lot upon, due to his vast experience in this field, decided to quit the team due to personal reasons.

As this a volunteer project, his departure was beyond our control. In desperation, I prayed one night that God will truly help us out of this terrible situation as we needed a few very important songs to complete the tale of Thomas More in the next few days when the rehearsal resume.

The most remarkable thing then happened. It was about 11pm then. My husband, who was quite worried about the entire situation had retired to bed. Out of the blue, I felt like penning some thoughts down. And then it happened ... a tune for the St Thomas More theme song came to me. I know it is truly divine inspiration, cos' on my own strength - I have no such talent.

I then reflected his life and the different aspects of who Thomas More was ... to cut a long story short by about 2.30am I had the theme song roughly recorded. Then I looked at the other important part which needed to be expressed and it was that  heart wrenching moment when Margaret, fondly known as Meg to Thomas More, wrote to her father, begging him to change his mind and take the Oath of Supremacy.

That, my research showed, was one of the most, if not the most painful moment of Thomas More's life- that his daughter, whom he considered his kindred spirit, could not understand what she was asking of him.

And so from 2.30am to about 4.30am, Meg's Letter was composed. It was roughly recorded by 5.30am, by 6am I was so dead tired I slept. However, the moment I heard Patrick waking up, I was up, excited to share my new songs and yet not knowing whether he would approve of them (he's got high standards).

Somehow he felt the songs and we started calling friends who played the piano to play for us and thank God, Christine Das (yes, she's my earth angel) answered the call. Yes, besides being an artist, she is a great pianist. She brought the exact emotions to Meg's Letter.

What affirmed me that God had truly inspired the song, as some people later told me (including Christine) - the song reminded them of their relationship with their own father and it touched them deeply (some to the point of tears).

Back to the feast day... it was indeed a proud moment when my joint composition with God - Hymn to St Thomas More was played in church. What confirmed for me that it was from God was that it coincided with Fr Michael Chua's homily and it felt like it was a summary of what he had preached.

I really can't wait for the play to open when we move into our new home. As Erasmus (STM's best friend) would say, it would be my pleasure to tell the tale of my friend Thomas More.

Come join us spread this message of Thomas More to all Malaysians... May Allah's name be praised always!!! Amin!

(At this point of writing ... God has continued to send the right talent to help us ... slowly but surely. He sent us a really creative set designer who happens to be Christine's husband, a talented tailor, a swell sound engineer/technician, a fabulous choir master, a very efficient secreatary, a innovative creative designer, a very dedicated co-producer, who is also our backbone when we are busy with other areas. Dedicated cast who are internalising their lines and taking on important characters with an important message for all. Our team is getting better despite some minor hiccups along the way .... if you are reading this post, please continue to pray for us.... we definitely need it... Amen)

Happy St Thomas More Day!

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I'm so happy that we are celebrated our very first feast of St Thomas More yesterday (a day earlier cos' it was a Sunday).

St Thomas literally lost his head for his faith when he was not in favour of his friend King Henry VIII's decision to divorce his queen and later to take an oath to renounce the Pope as head of the Church.

Fr OC Lim, who is a great fan of this saint, was aptly invited to celebrate mass.

May St Thomas More continue to pray for all the politicians and lawyers of our country. We surely need his prayers and intercessions especially for politicians in Perak (very sad that my homestate has become infamous due to a new species called the Perak frogs).

God bless!

P.S. In conjunction with this feast day, yours truly has specially designed a red Rosary keychain which doubles up as a wrist band (for those with small wrists - usually women + children). Check it out by visiting: http://creativecatholiccentre.blogspot.com/

Help Us Build Our Church this 1 May 09

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Come Friday (1 May 2009), we, parishioners of St Thomas More (STM) will celebrate our annual Family Day. Our very first as STM parish.

Being Workers' Day and a public holiday, most of us are encouraged to take our minds and hearts off our daily grind -blood, sweat and tears - and instead refocus on spending time together as a domestic family as well as the Body of Christ, celebrating mass in the morning, followed by makan (feasting) and games.

Every year, our respective BECs (neighbourhood small groups/cell groups) and ministries also take the opportunity to raise funds for our yearly activities. Yes! This is the time of the year when the bulk of funds flow in (well for most BECs and ministries anyway).

This year, I personally feel, our parish has a common vision and mission. That is to raise over RM10 million (just about USD 3 million - we accept all kind donations from our universal brethren throughout the world) so that we can finally have a permanent place of worship.

You see, before we became a parish (which was very recently this year - I can't really remember the exact date), we were just a chapel community known as Capel Kurnia Kristus (CKK - Chapel of Christ's Blessing, literally translated).

Just to sidetrack, our Archbishop Datuk Murphy Pakiam, prefers chapels to be named in Bahasa Malaysia (our national language) while saint names or Marian names are given to parishes.

Perhaps, His Grace, chose the name of St Thomas More for our parish because he (St Thomas)was a politician who stood up for justice until it cost him his life. Well, we in Malaysia definitely need such a role model for our politicians, especially now, with the kind of Perak "frogs" emerging (heartbreaking because it's my homestate).

Btw, who needs television anymore with the many Kisah Benar (true stories) happening around us, of which an international Mongolian spy was blown up into pieces after being at the wrong place, with the wrong person, at the wrong time. Many "famous" people were also ending up in the missing persons lists for short spurts and extended periods (for some, perhaps permanently). Only God knows and time will tell. We certainly live in interesting times. Great stories to tell our children and grandchildren.

Back to the original story, CKK started off as just a small group of Catholic families celebrating mass together in Subang Jaya sometime in 1981. Then it grew when the USJ areas opened up and the congregation, through God's Grace, started to celebrate mass regularly at two double-storey shoplots in USJ 11 sometime in 1995. As the numbers grew, as well as its activities, CKK officially moved into our current location in SS13, Subang Jaya (close to the Sunway area) since year 2000 (location map above). I was told recently, that the very first mass celebrated in our present home was sometime in 1999.

Ever since then, we celebrate mass in a badminton hall which is now part of the Sri Sedaya private school. Every Sunday, as early as 6am, a very committed team of people will dress up the hall and transform it into a church - equipped with the stations of the cross, altar, chair for the presider and the works in time for the 8.30am mass, while another team strips it down at about 1pm after the 11.30am mass.

I must say I'm proud of this odd arrangement at times as it shows our unity, creativity and persistance to hold on to the dream of one day celebrating mass in a permanent and visible church building.

As I write this post, I'm glad to say that the map above will soon be obsolete. We were informed that piling works for our new church building (located in the industrial around the area near USJ3, 4 and USJ 12), had already began. In fact, most of us were overjoyed when Fr Simon Labrooy, our new parish priest showed us an artist impression of our new home at the end of the Easter Vigil and Easter morning masses. It really wowed me (and I think the rest of the congregation).

Fr Simon's heartfelt prayer (and I think for most of us too) was to celebrate Easter 2010 in the brand new STM building.

The only thing left to make that prayer a reality is of course the extra RM9.5million. According to the financial report on the building fund we have ONLY raised about RM487,477.63 as at Feb.
Dear friends, fellow Catholics, near and far. We appeal to your generosity to help us build our church.

Besides pledges from STM parishioners, we had and are continuously raising funds through different activities. Will post them regularly as they come up.

As I mentioned earlier, our Family Day is a great event to help us cos' all proceeds will go towards building our new home. Every nasi lemak (SS19B BEC - my former BEC) or corn-in the-cup (Choir) you eat or game (Putra Heights BEC) you play will help us build our church, brick by brick.

For me personally, I shall be offering Knotted Rosary making classes - in line with praying the Rosary in May. Shall post more about it very soon (must advertise a bit la).

So bring your friends and family to STM this Friday morning. Join us for mass at 8.30am (if you can). Food, fun and games will commence from 9.30am and is estimated to end by about 1pm. Pls call me to book the coupons at RM10 a book.

To me, the new STM church will not only be a good thing for us parishioners, but actually a BIG victory for all Malaysians Catholic Christians and even non-Catholic Christians.

In times when getting approval to build a church is so hard to come by, STM will indeed be a great sign of our Almighty Allah's Awesome Power and Glory.

Amin!