"Same-sex marriage" file

Islam File    The New Translation

117. Neglecting to monitor the harm done to nature, and the environmental impact of our decisions, is only the most striking sign of a disregard for the message contained in the structures of nature itself.

When we fail to acknowledge as part of reality the worth of a poor person, a human embryo, a person with disabilities – to offer just a few examples – it becomes difficult to hear the cry of nature itself; everything is connected. 

Once the human being declares independence from reality and behaves with absolute dominion, the very foundations of our life begin to crumble, for “instead of carrying out his role as a cooperator with God in the work of creation, man sets himself up in place of God and thus ends up provoking a rebellion on the part of nature”.[95]

One of the aims of this website (see top of page) is to encourage people who are battling big sicknesses, especially cancer

Below is one chapter from an inspiring book - Nothing is Impossible with God - by Kathryn Kuhlman

I hope this story about a man healed of cancer gives much  hope and encouragement to keep on praying for healing

Joshua 2 (a)

Joshua sent two men as spies to explore the Jericho area. In Jericho they went to the house of Rahab the prostitute.

The king of Jericho was told about this and he sent men to capture the two Israelites.

But Rahab hid the men and told the king that they had already gone.

Rahab said to the men in their hiding place on her roof:

"I know that the Lord has given you this land. My people are afraid of you. We have heard how the Lord dried up the sea for your crossing out of Egypt. We have heard how you defeated the two kings Sihon and Og.

Since I have shown you kindness,
I now ask you to show kindness to my family, and spare their lives when you attack this city."

Joshua 2 (b)

The men agreed and told Rahab
to tie a scarlet cord to her window
so the Israelites would know her family were inside.

Rahab helped the men go down from the window by a rope.

The men stayed in the nearby hills for three days until it was safe to leave.

The men returned to Joshua and told how the people of Jericho
were already trembling at the thought of an Israelite attack.

Lord, please bless all women and girls caught up in prostitution

Recording

Acts 14.8-18

In Lycaonia, there was a man who had never walked in his life, because his feet were crippled from birth

As he listened to Paul preaching, Paul noticed him and saw that he had the faith to be cured

Paul said in a loud voice "Get to your feet! Stand up!" The crippled man jumped up and began to walk

The local people thought that Paul and Barnabas must be gods, so Paul said to them "We are only human beings like you. We have come with Good News to help you turn from empty idols to the living God who made heaven and earth. It is he who sends you rain and who makes your crops grow"

Jesus,  help people turn away from idol worship

Recording

Recommended: check these readings early morning, think about them during the day, check them again at night. This habit gives us extra energy, courage, motivation, peace and compassion for each day

Mark 12.41-44

Jesus sat down in the Temple area and noticed people putting money into a donation box to help the poor

Many rich people put in a lot of money.

A poor widow put in two small coins

Jesus said to his disciples  "That poor widow has donated more than all the other people, for they put in money they had left over, but she  put in the only money she had"

Jesus, please make me more generous in helping poor people

Recording

c.f. Monbiot: Nothing to See Here

(c.f. my file: The New Translation)

STRAIGHT TALK - Please Allah help Zanzibar end this mess safely

Key words in this article: CCM was not prepared to hand over power through the ballot. This in fact is what happened on the mainland: CCM cheated to make sure the opposition did not win. People in Zanzibar, unlike those on the mainland, are standing up for their rights.
Mainland media conspicuously quiet about mainland fraud/cheating etc. 

154 (a): The preacher also needs to keep his ear to the people and to discover what it is that the faithful need to hear. A preacher has to contemplate the word, but he also has to contemplate his people. 

In this way he learns “of the aspirations, of riches and limitations, of ways of praying, of loving, of looking at life and the world, which distinguish this or that human gathering,” while paying attention “to actual people, to using their language, their signs and symbols, to answering the questions they ask”.

My regular article in today's Ming Pao newspaper
with the topic: South China? Sea
is on Ming Pao website - click "Australian in HK".
Free access to article with recording today from about noon to 8pm HK time. Text without recording

Please join me in praying for one part of the world each day of the week:

Sun: Africa        Mon: Europe & Russia     Tues: South Asia      Wed: East Asia  
Thurs: S.E. Asia & Pacific       Frid: South America       Sat: Central & North America 
  
Jesus, today, Tuesday, please bless the people of South Asia

And praying for prisoners in one part of China each day of the month:
On this 3rd of the month, Jesus please bless the prisoners of Gansu

And praying for one of the world's poorest countries each day of the month:
On this 3rd of the month, Jesus please bless the people of Burundi

And praying for one Islam-related intention each day of the week:
Jesus, please pacify Boko Haram 

This website's Tanzania File
(stopping Africans from being tricked into bringing drugs to HK)
- letters  from Tanzanian inmates  in Hong Kong prisons

This website's South America file 
(stopping South Americans from being tricked into bringing drugs to HK)
- letters  from South American inmates  in Hong Kong prisons

This website's HK Asylum Seekers' File
(stopping South Asians from being "people smuggled" to HK)

"Same-sex marriage" file

Islam File    The New Translation

116. Modernity has been marked by an excessive anthropocentrism which today, under another guise, continues to stand in the way of shared understanding and of any effort to strengthen social bonds.

The time has come to pay renewed attention to reality and the limits it imposes; this in turn is the condition for a more sound and fruitful development of individuals and society. 

An inadequate presentation of Christian anthropology gave rise to a wrong understanding of the relationship between human beings and the world. Often, what was handed on was a Promethean vision of mastery over the world, which gave the impression that the protection of nature was something that only the faint-hearted cared about. Instead, our “dominion” over the universe should be understood more properly in the sense of responsible stewardship.[94]

c.f. Readings for All Souls Day

Isaiah 25: 

On Mount Zion in Jerusalem, the Lord will prepare for all peoples
a banquet of rich food, a banquet of fine wines.

On this mountain he will delete Death.

The Lord will wipe away the tears from every cheek.

Lord, you are my God, I extol you, I praise your name.

You, Lord, are a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in distress.

Lord, please give hope and courage to people who are sad and troubled in the world today

Recording of this reading
for English students

Psalm 27:

The Lord is my light and my help, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life, before whom shall I shrink? Though an army encamp against me, even then would I trust.

There is one thing I ask of the Lord, for this I long: to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.

It is your face, O Lord, that I seek. Hide not your face. I am sure I will see your goodness in the land of the living.

Hope in the Lord, hold firm and take heart. Hope in the Lord!

Lord, please increase my remembering, my longing and my hope

Recording

Philippians 3.20 - 41

Our homeland is in heaven. We wait for the Savior from heaven who will transfigure these wretched bodies of ours into copies of his glorious body

He will do this by the same power he has as C.E.O. of the universe

So, do not stop running but remain faithful in the Lord

Jesus, please increase my longing for heaven

Recording

Mark 16.1-8

Jesus died on Friday afternoon.
Early on Sunday morning, Mary of Magdala and two other women went to Jesus' tomb to anoint his body with spices

They had been wondering how they would roll away the large stone, but when they arrived, the stone had already been rolled away

When they went into the tomb, they saw a young man in a white robe and they were full of awe. But he said to them  "Do not be afraid. You are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here. He has risen from the dead. Go and tell his disciples he  will see them in Galilee"

Jesus, when life seems hopeless, like a dead body in a tomb, please help us remember how you rose from the dead....and you can help us "rise" from any "hopeless" situation

Recording

Faith is about knowing Jesus Christ!

Today’s Gospel reading tells us that it is the “little ones”, the Lord’s “Anawim” who have received the secrets of the Kingdom of God

153, below, has many ramifications for the Church's pastoral practice!

153 (b): It can also happen that we look for excuses to water down the clear meaning of the text. Or we can wonder if God is demanding too much of us, asking for a decision which we are not yet prepared to make.

 This leads many people to stop taking pleasure in the encounter with God’s word; but this would mean forgetting that no one is more patient than God our Father, that no one is more understanding and willing to wait. He always invites us to take a step forward, but does not demand a full response if we are not yet ready. He simply asks that we sincerely look at our life and present ourselves honestly before him, and that we be willing to continue to grow, asking from him what we ourselves cannot as yet achieve.

10 years ago today

2005-11-02 Hong Kong Shatin friends- one day return trip....visited Ricci, Bakhita &
Mazenod Centres

For this time of All Saints and All Souls:

The old time pastor was galloping down the road, rushing to get to church on time. Suddenly his horse stumbled and pitched him to the ground.  In the dirt with a broken leg, the pastor called out, “All you saints in Heaven, help me get up on my horse!”

Then, with superhuman effort, he leaped onto the horse’s back and fell off the other side.

Once again on the ground, he called to Heaven, “All right, just half of you this time!”

Please join me in praying for one part of the world each day of the week:

Sun: Africa        Mon: Europe & Russia     Tues: South Asia      Wed: East Asia  
Thurs: S.E. Asia & Pacific       Frid: South America       Sat: Central & North America 
  
Jesus, today, Monday,  please bless the people of Europe & Russia

And praying for prisoners in one part of China each day of the month:
On this 2nd of the month,  Jesus please bless the prisoners of Fujian

And praying for one of the world's poorest countries each day of the month:
On this 2nd of the month, Jesus please bless the people of Niger

And praying for one Islam-related intention each day of the week:
Jesus, please pacify ISIS 

This website's Tanzania File
(stopping Africans from being tricked into bringing drugs to HK)
- letters  from Tanzanian inmates  in Hong Kong prisons

This website's South America file 
(stopping South Americans from being tricked into bringing drugs to HK)
- letters  from South American inmates  in Hong Kong prisons

This website's HK Asylum Seekers' File
(stopping South Asians from being "people smuggled" to HK)

"Same-sex marriage" file

Islam File    The New Translation  

113 (b): If architecture reflects the spirit of an age, our megastructures and drab apartment blocks express the spirit of globalized technology, where a constant flood of new products coexists with a tedious monotony. 

Let us refuse to resign ourselves to this, and continue to wonder about the purpose and meaning of everything.

Otherwise we would simply legitimate the present situation and need new forms of escapism to help us endure the emptiness.

HK's media is increasingly pushing the Beijing line concerning the present South China Sea dispute. Why? Because any media which does not kowtow to Beijing will not attract advertisements from companies which do business in China. My thoughts: South China? Sea

Deuteronomy 33-34

Before Moses died, he blessed  the twelve tribes of Israel.

Moses then went up Mount Nebo, opposite Jericho, where the Lord showed him the whole land that the Israelites would possess.

Moses was buried in the land of Moab.

After the people mourned Moses for 30 days, Joshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom, since Moses had laid his hands on him.

From that time there has never been a prophet like Moses, the man who knew the Lord face to face.

Dear God, thank you for the life of Moses. May civic and church leaders be more like him, filled with love for you and for the people

My recording of this reading

Psalm 148

Praise the Lord from the heavens,
praise him in the heights. Praise him all his angels, praise him all his spirits. Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, shining stars.

Let them praise the name of the Lord. His word gave life to all of them.

Praise the Lord from the earth,
sea creatures and all oceans. Praise him fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy winds that obey his word. Praise him all mountains and hills, all fruit trees and cedars.

Praise him all animals, wild and tame, reptiles and birds in the air.

Praise him all earth's kings and peoples, earth's princes and rulers. Praise him young men and maidens, old people together with children.

Let them praise the name of the Lord. He is the praise of all who love him.

Lord our God and Creator, you are worthy of all praise

Recording

Acts 13.13-52 

Paul and Barnabas went to another Antioch, Antioch in Pisidia. Out of jealousy, the local Jewish leaders there stopped Paul from preaching to the Jewish community

Paul and Barnabas then turned their attention to non-Jewish people, and so the word of the Lord spread through the whole countryside

But the Jewish leaders kept up their campaign, and had Paul and Barnabas expelled from Pisidia

Jesus, please don't let Gospel workers be expelled

Recording

Mark 12.28-30

In Jerusalem a religious leader asked Jesus "Which is the most important commandment?"

Jesus replied "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart. And you must care as much about others as you care about yourself.

These are the two most important commandments. All other commandments  depend on  these two."

Jesus, please help me love you with all my heart, and care for others as much as I care about myself

Recording

Chinese Christians wary amid lull in cross removals

Ghostly hotels and half-finished factories: Beijing's urban relics

(Rosies is an Oblate apostolate)

John Allen

How to tell if Pope is losing confidence in Cardinal Pell

Was a letter about Vatican hiring aimed at conservative Cardinal George Pell, who raised a ruckus at the synod of bishops? Time will tell.

Francis’ Pastoral Revolution rolls on with two big picks in Italy

The pope tapped ideologically center-left clerics known for their social activism to head two of the country’s most important archdioceses in Bologna and Palermo.

Donald Cozzens' review of  biography of Archbishop Raymond  Hunthausen

c.f. The unjust treatment  of Bishop Bill Morris

151 (b): The Lord wants to make use of us as living, free and creative beings who let his word enter our own hearts before then passing it on to others. Christ’s message must truly enter and possess the preacher, not just intellectually but in his entire being.

 The Holy Spirit, who inspired the word, “today, just as at the beginning of the Church, acts in every evangelizer who allows himself to be possessed and led by him. The Holy Spirit places on his lips the words which he could not find by himself”.

10 years ago today

2005-10-30 Sunday night meal at Mazenod Centre

Chinese state media carries report on internet freedom survey, removes reference to who came last

Please join me in praying for one part of the world each day of the week:

Sun: Africa        Mon: Europe & Russia     Tues: South Asia      Wed: East Asia  
Thurs: S.E. Asia & Pacific       Frid: South America       Sat: Central & North America 
  
Jesus, today, Friday,  please bless the people of South America

And praying for prisoners in one part of China each day of the month:
On this 30th of the month,  Jesus please bless the prisoners of Shanghai

And praying for one of the world's poorest countries each day of the month:
On this 30th of the month, Jesus please bless the people of Haiti

And praying for one Islam-related intention each day of the week:
Jesus, on this Muslim day of prayer, please bless all Muslims!

This website's Tanzania File
(stopping Africans from being tricked into bringing drugs to HK)
- letters  from Tanzanian inmates  in Hong Kong prisons

This website's South America file 
(stopping South Americans from being tricked into bringing drugs to HK)
- letters  from South American inmates  in Hong Kong prisons

This website's HK Asylum Seekers' File
(stopping South Asians from being "people smuggled" to HK)

"Same-sex marriage" file

Islam File    The New Translation

113 (a): There is also the fact that people no longer seem to believe in a happy future; they no longer have blind trust in a better tomorrow based on the present state of the world and our technical abilities.

There is a growing awareness that scientific and technological progress cannot be equated with the progress of humanity and history, a growing sense that the way to a better future lies elsewhere. 

This is not to reject the possibilities which technology continues to offer us. But humanity has changed profoundly, and the accumulation of constant novelties exalts a superficiality which pulls us in one direction. It becomes difficult to pause and recover depth in life.

Ka-Ching- pokies documentary reveals what makes the machines so addictive

Watch Australians change their minds as they watch Ka-Ching!

They're rigged, they're addictive and they're everywhere. For the first time, the masterminds behind pokie machines reveal how they're programmed for addiction

Deuteronomy 32 (a) 
The Song of Moses: 

Listen, O heavens, and I will speak; let the earth hear the words on my lips. May my teaching fall like the rain, my speech descend like the dew, like rain drops on the young green, like showers falling on the grass.

For I shall praise the name of the Lord. O give glory to this God of ours! The Rock - his deeds are perfect, and all his ways are just,
a faithful God, without deceit,
a God who is right and just.

My recording of this reading

Deuteronomy 32 (b)

Those whom he begot unblemished have become crooked, false, perverse. Is it thus you repay the Lord, O senseless and foolish people? Is he not your father who created you, he who made you, on whom you depend?

Remember the days of old,
consider the years that are past; ask you father and he will show you, ask your elders and they will tell you.

When the Most High gave the nations their heritage and disposed men according to his plan, in fixing the boundaries of the nations, he thought first of Israel's sons.

Recording

Deuteronomy 32 (c)

For Israel was the Lord's possession, Jacob the one he had chosen.

God found him in a wilderness,
in fearful, desolate wastes; he surrounded him, he lifted him up,
he kept him as the apple of his eye.

Like an eagle that watches its nest,
that hovers over its young, so he spread his wings; he took him,
placed him on his outstretched wings.

The Lord alone was his guide
and no other god was with him.

Dear Lord, thank you for life and all your love and care

Recording

Mark 11. 15-19

When Jesus arrived in Jerusalem, he went to the Temple. In the Temple there were money changers and people selling pigeons

Jesus tipped over their tables and drove them out of the Temple.

He said to them "My house is a house of prayer for all the peoples of the world, but you have turned it into a place for robbery"

Jesus, protect  all places of prayer from corruption

Recording

Love your neighbour: What Abbott gets wrong about the Gospel

From newsletter of 
Fr Jerry Novoty O.M.I.

Watch the video the abortion advocates don't want you to see: Dr. Levatino testifies before congress using evidence from Live Action investigation. It's obvious why abortion advocates in Congress would want to hide our video. The video exposes the brutal violence committed against the innocent preborn and the outright lies told to desperate women daily in abortion mills across the country.

How porn turns men into little boys

Famous Chinese Christians

Ukawa furious over Union presidential election results

151 (a): We are not asked to be flawless, but to keep growing and wanting to grow as we advance along the path of the Gospel; our arms must never grow slack. What is essential is that the preacher be certain that God loves him, that Jesus Christ has saved him and that Jesus' love always has the last word.

 Encountering such beauty, he will often feel that his life does not glorify God as it should, and he will sincerely desire to respond more fully to so great a love. Yet if he does not take time to hear God’s word with an open heart, if he does not allow it to touch his life, to challenge him, to impel him, and if he does not devote time to pray with that word, then he will indeed be a false prophet, a fraud, a shallow impostor. 

But by acknowledging his poverty and desiring to grow in his commitment, he will always be able to abandon himself to Christ, saying in the words of Peter: “I have no silver and gold, but what I have I give you”.

After a long trip to Hei Ling Chau drug treatment centre yesterday, to unwind, after my meal last night I went for a walk in the neighbourhood and discovered a park I hadn't seen before: a small park for animals to romp and roam. Last night it had a big group of dogs ...of all sizes ....playing like children! ......no sign of any other creatures (except the dogs' owners)

Please join me in praying for one part of the world each day of the week:

Sun: Africa        Mon: Europe & Russia     Tues: South Asia      Wed: East Asia  
Thurs: S.E. Asia & Pacific       Frid: South America       Sat: Central & North America 
  
Jesus, today, Thursday,  please bless the people of S.E. Asia & Pacific

And praying for prisoners in one part of China each day of the month:
On this 29th of the month,  Jesus please bless the prisoners of Chongqing

And praying for one of the world's poorest countries each day of the month:
On this 29th of the month, Jesus please bless the people of Mauritania

And praying for one Islam-related intention each day of the week:
Jesus, please pacify Al-Qaeda

This website's Tanzania File
(stopping Africans from being tricked into bringing drugs to HK)
- letters  from Tanzanian inmates  in Hong Kong prisons

This website's South America file 
(stopping South Americans from being tricked into bringing drugs to HK)
- letters  from South American inmates  in Hong Kong prisons

This website's HK Asylum Seekers' File
(stopping South Asians from being "people smuggled" to HK)

 "Same-sex marriage" file

Islam File    The New Translation

112. Yet we can once more broaden our vision. We have the freedom needed to limit and direct technology; we can put it at the service of another type of progress, one which is healthier, more human, more social, more integral.

Liberation from the dominant technocratic paradigm does in fact happen sometimes, for example, when cooperatives of small producers adopt less polluting means of production, and opt for a non-consumerist model of life, recreation and community. 

Or when technology is directed primarily to resolving people’s concrete problems, truly helping them live with more dignity and less suffering.

Or indeed when the desire to create and contemplate beauty, manages to overcome reductionism through a kind of salvation which occurs in beauty and in those who behold it. 

An authentic humanity, calling for a new synthesis, seems to dwell in the midst of our technological culture, almost unnoticed, like a mist seeping gently beneath a closed door. Will the promise last, in spite of everything, with all that is authentic rising up in stubborn resistance?

Australia's first 100pc renewable energy utility company to launch in SA

Morocco poised to become a solar superpower with launch of desert mega-project

Deuteronomy 31

Moses said to the people:

"I am 120 years old and can no longer come and go as I will. The Lord has told me I will not cross the Jordan."

Moses then said to Joshua in the presence of all the people:

"Be strong, stand firm. You are going with this people into the land promised by the Lord.

The Lord himself will lead you; he will be with you; he will not fail you or desert you.

Have no fear; do not be disheartened by anything."

Dear Lord, please help me remember that you are with me every day. Please don't let anything or anyone dishearten me

Psalm 127

If the Lord does not build the house, in vain do its builders labor.

If the Lord does not watch over the city, in vain does the watchman keep vigil.

Success comes not from earlier rising or from going later to rest,
but from the Lord's blessing.

Success is from the Lord who blesses the womb of  his beloved while she sleeps.

Truly, children are a gift from the Lord, a blessing, the fruit of the womb.

Lord, many people these days don't want children. Please help such people understand that children are a blessing

Recording

Acts 13.1-3

In the church at Antioch in Syria, the following were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, Manaen and Paul

One day while they were offering worship to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said "I want Barnabas and Paul set apart for the work to which I have called them"

After fasting and prayer, the leaders prayed for Barnabas and Paul with the laying on of hands and sent them off on a missionary journey

Holy Spirit, help me be attentive to your guidance

Recording

Mark 11.1-11 

Jesus sat on a donkey colt for the trip down the hill from the Mount of Olives into the city of Jerusalem

Big crowds accompanied Jesus down the hill. People spread their clothes on the road as a sign of honor.

People cut branches from the trees and waved them singing
"Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.  Hosanna in the highest!"

Jesus, may you be warmly welcomed  by every place and every person in the world

Recording

Chris McDonnell (Wed UK blogger) 

A bumpy ride

To those countless people whose hope in the outcomes of the Synod directly affects their Christian experience of faith in Jesus of Galilee, we pray that doors will not be closed and discussion ended

c.f. Robert Mickens: The pope has smoked out his opposition

South Africa: Dear Jacob Zuma, this time white people haven’t made us angry. You have

150. Jesus was angered by those supposed teachers who demanded much of others, teaching God’s word but without being enlightened by it: “They bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves will not lift a finger to move them”. 

The apostle James exhorted: “Not many of you should become teachers, my brethren, for you know that we who teach shall be judged with greater strictness”. Whoever wants to preach must be the first to let the word of God move him deeply and become incarnate in his daily life. In this way preaching will consist in that activity, so intense and fruitful, which is “communicating to others what one has contemplated”.

 For all these reasons, before preparing what we will actually say when preaching, we need to let ourselves be seasoned by that word which will also season others, for it is a living and active word, like a sword “which pierces to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerns the thoughts and intentions of the heart”. 

This has great pastoral importance. Today too, people prefer to listen to witnesses: they “thirst for authenticity” and “call for evangelizers to speak of a God whom they themselves know and are familiar with, as if they were seeing him”.

10 years ago today

2005-10-28,29  After school at Ricci + new babies + Saturday night meal at Marco Polo Centre

Yesterday at Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre, when I was visiting a section for drug addicts, I asked one man whose face seemed familiar "Have you been here before?". To which he replied "This is my first time ..............................this year"

Please join me in praying for one part of the world each day of the week:

Sun: Africa        Mon: Europe & Russia     Tues: South Asia      Wed: East Asia  
Thurs: S.E. Asia & Pacific       Frid: South America       Sat: Central & North America 
  
Jesus, today, Wednesday,  please bless the people of East Asia

And praying for prisoners in one part of China each day of the month:
On this 28th of the month,  Jesus please bless the prisoners of Beijing

And praying for one of the world's poorest countries each day of the month:
On this 28th of the month, Jesus please bless the people of Lesotho

And praying for one Islam-related intention each day of the week:
Jesus, please pacify Al-Shabaab 

This website's Tanzania File
(stopping Africans from being tricked into bringing drugs to HK)
- letters  from Tanzanian inmates  in Hong Kong prisons

This website's South America file 
(stopping South Americans from being tricked into bringing drugs to HK)
- letters  from South American inmates  in Hong Kong prisons

This website's HK Asylum Seekers' File
(stopping South Asians from being "people smuggled" to HK)

  "Same-sex marriage" file

Islam File    The New Translation

111. Ecological culture cannot be reduced to a series of urgent and partial responses to the immediate problems of pollution, environmental decay and the depletion of natural resources. 

There needs to be a distinctive way of looking at things, a way of thinking, policies, an educational program, a lifestyle and a spirituality which together generate resistance to the assault of the technocratic paradigm. 

Otherwise, even the best ecological initiatives can find themselves caught up in the same globalized logic.

To seek only a technical remedy to each environmental problem which comes up is to separate what is in reality interconnected and to mask the true and deepest problems of the global system.  

I spent yesterday at a women's prison, much of the time praying with women suffering from serious illnesses. 

In the presence of one woman I felt I was the novice and she was the master as regards spirituality - such was her love for God, her love for the Bible, her concern for others.

It's not all that difficult to be concerned about others "less fortunate than ourselves" when our life is going smoothly.

But to show concern at a time when we ourselves are carrying a heavy cross - this is a special grace

Deuteronomy 29-30 (a)

Moses called the whole of Israel together and said to them:

"Keep the words of this covenant and observe them, and you will thrive in all you do.

Let there be no man or woman among you, no clan or tribe, whose heart turns away from the Lord your God to go and serve the gods of the nations.

If ever you are scattered from the land God is giving you, God will bring you back when your hearts turn back to him.

The Lord will circumcise your hearts until you love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul.

Deuteronomy 29-30 (b)

This law I enjoin on you today is not beyond your strength or beyond your reach.

It is not in heaven, so that you need to wonder 'who will go up to heaven for us and bring it down to us so that we may hear it and keep it?'

Nor is it beyond the seas, so that you need to wonder 'who will cross the sea for us and bring it back to us, so that we may hear it and keep it?'

No, the Word is very near to you.
It is in your mouth and in your heart for your observance.

Recording

Deuteronomy 29-30 (c)

See, today I set before you life and prosperity, death and disaster.

If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, if you love the Lord your God and follow his ways, if you keep his commandments, his laws, his customs, you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you are entering to make your own.

But if your heart strays, if you refuse to listen, if you let yourself be drawn into worshipping other gods and serving them, I tell you today, you will most certainly perish; you will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

Recording

 Deuteronomy 29-30 (d)

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today: I set before you life or death, blessing or curse.

Choose life, then, so that you and your descendants may live in the love of the Lord your God,
obeying his voice, clinging to him.

For in this your life consists, and on this depends your long stay in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob he would give them."

Dear Lord, please help more and more people to choose life and blessings...and not to turn their backs on you

Recording

 149 (b): Nor should we forget that “the greater or lesser degree of the holiness of the minister has a real effect on the proclamation of the word”. As Saint Paul says, “we speak, not to please people, but to please God who tests our hearts”.

 If we have a lively desire to be the first to hear the word which we must preach, this will surely be communicated to God’s faithful people, for “out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks”. The Sunday readings will resonate in all their brilliance in the hearts of the faithful if they have first done so in the heart of their pastor.

10 years ago today

2005-10-27 Evening English classes at Ricci Centre - thank you Greg, Lucy, Sabrina, Damyn  & Zoe

Please join me in praying for one part of the world each day of the week:

Sun: Africa        Mon: Europe & Russia     Tues: South Asia      Wed: East Asia  
Thurs: S.E. Asia & Pacific       Frid: South America       Sat: Central & North America 
  
Jesus, today, Tuesday, please bless the people of South Asia

And praying for prisoners in one part of China each day of the month:
On this 27th of the month, Jesus please bless the prisoners of Tibet

And praying for one of the world's poorest countries each day of the month:
On this 27th of the month, Jesus please bless the people of Uganda

And praying for one Islam-related intention each day of the week:
Jesus, please pacify Boko Haram 

This website's Tanzania File
(stopping Africans from being tricked into bringing drugs to HK)
- letters  from Tanzanian inmates  in Hong Kong prisons

This website's South America file 
(stopping South Americans from being tricked into bringing drugs to HK)
- letters  from South American inmates  in Hong Kong prisons

This website's HK Asylum Seekers' File
(stopping South Asians from being "people smuggled" to HK)