Islam File    The New Translation

"Same-sex marriage" file

YouTube - Sharing by a Chinese prisoner in Italy.  In Italian with Chinese subtitles
   

China's Cultural Revolution - 50th anniversary unmarked by state media

YouTube: China under Mao
 - The Cultural Revolution

In this week after Pentecost,
 let's each day pray the beautiful
  Pentecost Sequence

Job 32-39

Job's three friends had no more to say. But a young  man named Elihu, decided to join the conversation.

He said to Job "How can you claim to be innocent and yet say that God is persecuting you without cause?"

As Elihu continued his speech, suddenly  the voice of God himself was heard.

God asked Job "Have you ever given orders to the morning for day to begin?  Have you ever arranged the stars in the sky?

Was it you who gave all the animals their various powers?
Who do you think you are?"

Dear God, when we are confronted by the mystery of suffering and evil, please help us realize that these things do not come from you

Psalm 51

Have mercy on me, God, in your kindness, and cleanse me of my sin.

My offences truly I know them.
What is evil in your sight I have done.

But in my defence please don't forget that sinfulness is part of the human condition, part of our DNA.

A pure heart create for me, O God. Put a steadfast spirit within me.

Give me again the joy of your help. With a spirit of fervor sustain me.

Lord,  you will not spurn a humbled, contrite heart

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

Colossians 3.1-2

Since you have been brought back to true life with Christ,
focus on heaven, where Christ is, sitting at the Father's right hand

Let your thoughts be more on heavenly things, less on the things that are on earth

Jesus, please help me think more often about heaven.....since that's where I hope to spend all eternity! Help me understand how this present world is just a temporary arrangement

Recording 

 John 11.46-54

The religious leaders had a meeting to decide what to do about Jesus.

They said "If this man keeps on doing miracles, everyone will follow him. Then the Romans will see him as a threat, and they will wipe out our nation"

The main  leader said "It is better for one man to die for the people, than for the whole nation to be destroyed"

These words had more meaning than the leader realized, since Jesus was to die not just for the nation, but for the whole world

Since the leaders wanted to kill him, Jesus went to a remote area near the desert, and stayed there with his disciples

Jesus, please help me better understand how your death saved the world

Recording 

 Recommended by
 a reader in HK

The Killing Machine (60 Minutes)
Lara Logan accompanies a French Catholic priest on a mission to expose a genocide perpetrated by ISIS that has taken the lives of at least 5,000 Yezidi in Iraq.

President-elect vows to kill criminals and reintroduce hanging in Philippines

The Joy of Love - Pope Francis' letter - on love in the family      Full English text

38:   (Recording of 38:) 

We must be grateful that most people do value family relationships that are permanent and marked by mutual respect. 

They appreciate the Church’s efforts to offer guidance and counselling in areas related to growth in love, over-coming conflict and raising children.

Many are touched by the power of grace experienced in sacramental Reconciliation and in the Eucharist, grace that helps them face the challenges of marriage and the family. 

In some countries, especially in various parts of Africa, secularism has not weakened certain traditional values, and marriages forge a strong bond between two wider families, with clearly defined structures for dealing with problems and conflicts.

 Nowadays we are grateful too for the witness of marriages that have not only proved lasting, but also fruitful and loving. All these factors can inspire a positive and welcoming pastoral approach capable of helping couples to grow in appreciation of the demands of the Gospel. 

Yet we have often been on the defensive, wasting pastoral energy on denouncing a decadent world without being proactive in proposing ways of finding true happiness.

Many people feel that the Church’s message on marriage and the family does not clearly reflect the preaching and attitudes of Jesus, who set forth a demanding ideal, yet never failed to show compassion and closeness to the frailty of individuals like the Samaritan woman or the woman caught in adultery.

47b:   (Recording of 47b:) 

Real relationships with others, with all the challenges they entail, now tend to be replaced by a type of internet communication which enables us to choose or eliminate relationships at whim, thus giving rise to a new type of contrived emotion which has more to do with devices and displays than with other people and with nature. 

Today’s media do enable us to communicate and to share our knowledge and affections. Yet at times they also shield us from direct contact with the pain, the fears and the joys of others and the complexity of their personal experiences.

For this reason, we should be concerned that, alongside the exciting possibilities offered by these media, a deep and melancholic dissatisfaction with interpersonal relations, or a harmful sense of isolation, can also arise.

15b:   (Recording of 15b:) 

A second area is that of “the baptized whose lives do not reflect the demands of Baptism”,[12] who lack a meaningful relationship to the Church and no longer experience the consolation born of faith. 

The Church, in her maternal concern, tries to help them experience a conversion which will restore the joy of faith to their hearts and inspire a commitment to the Gospel.

Yesterday on my way home after visiting Christine (in nursing home, fighting cancer ...thank you for prayers ... continuing to get a little stronger) I saw a sick ambulance ....propped up on the back of a tow-truck while a "doctor" examined its stomach ....complete with flashing lights

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 17th of the month, Jesus please bless the prisoners of Shaanxi

And praying for one of the world's poorest countries each day of the month:
On this 17th of the month, Jesus please bless the people of Malawi

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

Letters from (mainly African) inmates in Hong Kong prisons - and other drug trafficking items:   2016

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

Photos of Pentecost Sunday thank you Yum Cha yesterday for dedicated group of St Paul's Yau Ma Tei altar servers

True story from Hong Kong:
at a Pentecost Sunday English Mass yesterday with a congregation of hundreds of Filipinas, a priest (not myself) as a way of linking Pentecost and the Ascension, at the start of his sermon asked the congregation "Who can remember what we celebrated last week?" At which hundreds of people enthusiastically answered "Mother's Day"!

YouTube: (with lyrics)

Welcome Holy Spirit 

1,699,000 views

In this week after Pentecost,
 let's each day pray the beautiful
  Pentecost Sequence

Job 25-31

Bildad then reminded Job that God's power is beyond human understanding.  No one should question God's actions.

Job replied: "I swear by God who denies me justice that as long as I have breath, I will live a life of innocence.

I remember how I have always lived as a friend of God: how I helped the poor, the orphan, the dying, the widow, the blind, the lame.

I remember how I made a pact with my eyes not to linger on any other woman but my wife.

I remember how I have never put my trust in riches or fame. I have always trusted only in the Lord.

Yet now people laugh at me and make fun of me. They avoid me and even spit on me.

When will God answer me?"

Dear God, please help me to imitate Job's way of life

My recording of this reading

Psalms 49-50

I will turn my mind to a parable,
with the harp I will solve a problem.

The problem is: why do bad people prosper and succeed?

The answer: at the end of their lives bad people will have to face death and judgement, just like everyone else.

When we are rich, we often lack wisdom. Wealth blinds our minds and hearts.

Let's not forgot God and his laws.
Let's try to be good and lead good lives

Lord, please help me understand the meaning of life

Recording 

Colossians 2.9-18

In Christ's body lives the fullness of divinity. In him, you too find fulfillment

In baptism, you were buried with him and then raised to new life.
Our real life is life with and in Christ

Be careful of people who are always going on about some vision they have had, giving such visions more importance than Christ himself

Jesus, may my focus always be on you

Recording 

John 11.1-44

Lazarus and his sisters Mary and Martha lived in the village of Bethany. When Lazarus became very sick, the sisters sent a message to Jesus "Lord, your dear friend is very sick"

By the time  Jesus and his disciples arrived in Bethany, Lazarus was dead and buried for 4 days

Martha said to Jesus "If you had been here, my brother would not have died"

Jesus replied "I am the resurrection and the life. If anyone believes in me, he will have life after death"

Jesus said to Mary and Martha "Where have you put him?"  Jesus cried as he went to the tomb. The tomb was a cave with a stone at the entrance

Jesus said "Take the stone away". Then he called out in a loud voice "Lazarus, come out!"

The dead man came out, wrapped in burial clothes. Jesus said "Unwrap him and let him go free"

Jesus, you are the Resurrection and the Life. Please give eternal life to my friend (....name...) who died recently

Recording 

   Darlene Starrs (Blogger from Canada)

The Joy of Love - Pope Francis' letter - on love in the family     Full English text

37:  (Recording of 37:)

We have long thought that simply by stressing doctrinal, bioethical and moral issues, without encouraging openness to grace, we were providing sufficient support to families, strengthening the marriage bond and giving meaning to marital life.

We find it difficult to present marriage more as a dynamic path to personal development and fulfilment than as a lifelong burden. 

We also find it hard to make room for the consciences of the faithful, who very often respond as best they can to the Gospel amid their limitations, and are capable of carrying out their own discernment in complex situations.

We have been called to form consciences, not to replace them.

3 arrested at HK airport for drug trafficking

47a:   (Recording of 47a:)

When media and the digital world become omnipresent, their influence can stop people from learning how to live wisely, to think deeply and to love generously.

In this context, the great sages of the past run the risk of going unheard amid the noise and distractions of an information overload.

Efforts need to be made to help these media become sources of new cultural progress for humanity and not a threat to our deepest riches.

True wisdom, as the fruit of self-examination, dialogue and generous encounter between persons, is not acquired by a mere accumulation of data which eventually leads to overload and confusion, a sort of mental pollution.

My comment: Making a film about Erick Liddell without mentioning his Christianity is like making a film about David Beckham and not mentioning his football

Solace and Fury as Schools React to Transgender Policy
“Parents are not going to send their 14-year-old daughters into the shower or bathroom with 14-year-old boys. It’s not going to happen.”
(...the radical Gay agenda ...no sexual differences allowed...
c.f. What is the "Gay Agenda" in America?)

15a:   (Recording of 15a:)

In first place, we can mention the area of ordinary pastoral ministry, which is “animated by the fire of the Spirit, so as to inflame the hearts of the faithful who regularly take part in community worship and gather on the Lord’s day to be nourished by his word and by the bread of eternal life”.[11]

In this category we can also include those members of the faithful who preserve a deep and sincere faith, expressing it in different ways, but seldom taking part in worship. 

Ordinary pastoral ministry seeks to help believers to grow spiritually so that they can respond to God’s love ever more fully in their lives.

Birthdays are good for you. Statistics show that people who have more of them, live longer!

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 16th of the month,  Jesus please bless the prisoners of Qinghai

And praying for one of the world's poorest countries each day of the month:
On this 16th of the month, Jesus please bless the people of Afghanistan

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

Letters from (mainly African) inmates in Hong Kong prisons - and other drug trafficking items:   2016

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

10 min YouTube: The Day of Pentecost (good!)

Mary prays for outpouring of Holy Spirit (John Paul II)
"Just as in the Incarnation, the Spirit had formed the physical body of Christ in her virginal womb, now in the Upper Room the same Spirit comes down to give life to the Mystical Body"

Hudson Taylor: “Since the days of Pentecost, has the whole church ever put aside every other work and waited upon Him for ten days, that the Spirit’s power might be manifested? We give too much attention to method and machinery and resources, and too little to the source of power.”

The forgotten Paraclete (2013)

In this week before Pentecost, 
let's often pray each day:

Come Holy Spirit, 
fall afresh on our world!

To prepare for Pentecostst (May 15) lelet's reflect on the Holy Spirit:

The dove: At the end of the flood, whose symbolism refers to Baptism, a dove released by Noah returns with a fresh olive-tree branch in its beak as a sign that the earth was again habitable. 

When Jesus comes up from the water of his baptism, the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, comes down upon him and remains with him. The Spirit comes down and remains in the purified hearts of the baptized. 

In some churches, the Eucharist is reserved in a metal receptacle in the form of a dove (columbarium) suspended above the altar. 

Christian iconography traditionally uses a dove to suggest the Spirit. 
-  CCC 701     

How a compassionate HK barrister showed great initiative to help his client change his plea from "guilty" to "not guilty"  If the "guilty" plea had proceeded, the man would have spent about 9 years in prison (after cuts).
Instead, the man was acquitted, after the barrister had the man's IQ tested, showing he had almost zero IQ  .... highly vulnerable and easily tricked. What a difference a good barrister can make!

Job 22-24

Eliphaz then said that God was punishing Job because justice demanded that Job be punished for his sins.

Job replied: "I know that God sees everyone and everything.
God sees every step I take.
But I cannot contact him.

He has filled my life with sadness and fear, and yet he doesn't answer my prayer."

Dear God, in times of darkness, with Jesus we pray "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?"

My recording of this reading

Psalms 47-48

All peoples, clap your hands, cry to God with shouts of joy. For the Lord, our Creator, we must love and honor, great king over all the earth.

Especially in his holy city is the Lord worthy to be praised. Praise is fitting in Mount Sion, our earth's most sacred site.

O God, as we pray in your temple, our hearts meditate on your love.

May peoples and rulers everywhere acknowledge and love you as Creator of the Universe

Let all the peoples praise you,
Lord. Let all the peoples praise you

Recording  

Colossians 2.6-8

You must live your whole life according to the Christ you have received - Jesus the Lord

You must be built on him and held firm by the faith you have been taught

Make sure no one deceives you with any teaching based on the principles of this world instead of on Christ

Jesus, please protect people from false teaching

Recording   

Today's Gospel:

John 14.8-21

At the meal, Jesus said to his disciples "To have seen me, is to have seen the Father. I am in the Father, and the Father is in me

Whatever you ask for in my name, I will do it, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you love me, you will keep my commandments

I will ask the Father and he will give you another Friend to be always with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth who will be living in your heart

If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him and make our home in his heart"

Father, Jesus, Spirit of Truth - three Persons, one God  - thank you for living in my heart

Recording  

Duterte aims to visit Vatican, apologise to Pope

The Joy of Love - Pope Francis' letter - on love in the family      Full English text

34:   (Recording of 34:) 

When these factors affect our understanding of the family, it can come to be seen as a way station, helpful when convenient, or a setting in which rights can be asserted while relationships are left to the changing winds of personal desire and circumstances.

Ultimately, it is easy nowadays to confuse genuine freedom with the idea that each individual can act arbitrarily, as if there were no truths, values and principles to provide guidance, and everything were possible and permissible.

The ideal of marriage, marked by a commitment to exclusivity and stability, is swept aside whenever it proves inconvenient or tiresome. The fear of loneliness and the desire for stability and fidelity exist side by side with a growing fear of entrapment in a relationship that could hamper the achievement of one’s personal goals.

Kenya says it will shut world's biggest refugee camp at Dadaab

Dadaab - how 600,000 refugees got caught up in Kenya’s electioneering

HK law enforcement to travel to Vietnam as part of bogus asylum crackdown

44:   (Recording of 44:) 

Nowadays ... we are conscious of the disproportionate and unruly growth of many cities, which have become unhealthy to live in, not only because of pollution caused by toxic emissions but also as a result of urban chaos, poor transportation, and visual pollution and noise.

Many cities are huge, inefficient structures, excessively wasteful of energy and water. 

Neighbourhoods, even those recently built, are congested, chaotic and lacking in sufficient green space.

We were not meant to be inundated by cement, asphalt, glass and metal, and deprived of physical contact with nature.

Amnesty petition to stop imminent executions in Indonesia

I have signed this petition

012:   (Recording of 012:) 

Though it is true that this mission demands great generosity on our part, it would be wrong to see it as a heroic individual undertaking, for it is first and foremost the Lord’s work, surpassing anything which we can see and understand. 

Jesus is “the first and greatest evangelizer”. In every activity of evangelization, the primacy always belongs to God, who has called us to cooperate with him and who leads us on by the power of his Spirit. This conviction enables us to maintain a spirit of joy in the midst of a task so demanding and challenging that it engages our entire life.

 10 years ago 

2006-05-08,09,10,11 Visit to Zhaoqing poor areas by Hong  Kong PIME friends Joanna and Sandra

Sleep-deprived and internet-mad, HK last in healthy living survey of Asia

Yesterday 8.30am to 4pm was spent at my desk, trying to catch up on mail, email and other office jobs. Then I went to a local hospital to visit some inmates ....one of whom (Dorothy, fighting cancer stage 4) showed me some lovely letters she had received from inmates in a number of prisons. One letter, from Olivier at Lo Wu Women's Correctional Institution, had these lovely lines:

Shhh, shhh ...it's a secret....shhh ....I heard the Father tell the Son ...and the Son told the Holy Spirit....and the Holy Spirit told the angels....to look after you today, tonight, tomorrow and every day and every night, filling you with heavenly peace. Shhh, it's a secret, just say "Amen" !

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 13th of the month,  Jesus please bless the prisoners of Jiangxi

And praying for one of the world's poorest countries each day of the month:
On this 13th of the month, Jesus please bless the people of Mali

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

Letters from (mainly African) inmates in Hong Kong prisons - and other drug trafficking items:   2016

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

    

In this week before Pentecost, 
let's often pray each day:
Come Holy Spirit, 
fall afresh on our world!

To prepare for Pentecost (May 15) let's reflect on the Holy Spirit

The finger is another symbol of the Holy Spirit.  It was by the finger of God that Jesus cast out demons. If God's law was written on tablets of stone "by the finger of God," then the "letter from Christ" entrusted to the care of the apostles, is written "with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts." The hymn Veni Creator Spiritus invokes the Holy Spirit as " the finger of the Father's right hand."  - c.f. CCC 700 

YouTube from a reader in Australia: The Islamisation of the UK. Muslim population doubling every ten years. Disturbing....

With a check on Paul Weston

Job 20-21

Zophar then said it was unreasonable for Job to think that his situation was an exception as regards God's justice.

Job replied: "I can't help asking why do wicked people prosper while good people suffer?"

Dear God, please help us to understand the mystery of good and evil

My recording of this reading

"God could not have given humans or angels the gift of free will without the possibility of them choosing and causing evil. To say that God is responsible for our evil is like saying parents are responsible for the evil of their children" 
 - Dan Rethson 

Psalm 46

God is for us a refuge and strength, in time of distress he is a helper close at hand.

Therefore we shall not fear even though the earth should rock, even though the mountains fall into the sea.

The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our stronghold.

Come and consider the works of the Lord and always remember his words:

"Be still and know that I am God".

 Lord, help us to be more aware of your presence, especially when we are in trouble

Recording

Songs based on this psalm
(YouTube):
A Mighty Fortress is our God
and
Be Still and Know that I am God

Colossians 1.24 - 2.2

As I sit in my prison, I am at peace in my suffering, offering up my suffering to Christ for the sake of his body, the Church

God chose me to reveal to you his sacred message: Christ, your hope of glory, is among you

My aim is to bind you together in love, and to keep you growing in your knowledge of God's plan for your lives

"Bind us together, Lord, Bind us together, With cords that cannot be broken, Bind us together, Lord, Bind us together, Bind us together in Love"  (YouTube)

Recording

John 10.23-38

When Jesus was walking in the Temple, some religious leaders said to him "If you are the Christ, tell us plainly"

Jesus replied "I have told you, but you do not believe me. The miracles I do in my Father's name also witness to who I am. The Father and I are one"

The leaders picked up stones to stone Jesus and said "We will  stone you for blasphemy. You are only a man and you claim to be God"

Jesus replied "If I am not doing my Father's work, then do not believe me. But if am doing my Father's work,  you must know that the Father and I are one. He is in me and I am in him"

Jesus, please help more people believe that you are the Son of God

Recording

The Joy of Love - Pope Francis' letter - on love in the family      Full English text

33:   (Recording of 33:) 

On the other hand, “equal consideration needs to be given to the growing danger represented by an extreme individualism which weakens family bonds and ends up considering each member of the family as an isolated unit, leading in some cases to the idea that one’s personality is shaped by his or her desires, which are considered absolute”.¹² “The tensions created by an overly individualistic culture, caught up with possessions and pleasures, leads to intolerance and hostility in families”.¹³

Here I would also include today’s fast pace of life, stress and the organization of society and labour, since all these are cultural factors which militate against permanent decisions. We also encounter widespread uncertainty and ambiguity. For example, we rightly value a personalism that opts for authenticity as opposed to mere conformity. While this can favour spontaneity and a better use of people’s talents, if misdirected it can foster attitudes of constant suspicion, fear of commitment, self-centredness and arrogance.

Freedom of choice makes it possible to plan our lives and to make the most of ourselves. Yet if this freedom lacks noble goals or personal discipline, it degenerates into an inability to give oneself generously to others. Indeed, in many countries where the number of marriages is decreasing, more and more people are choosing to live alone or simply to spend time together without cohabiting. We can also point to a praiseworthy concern for justice; but if misunderstood, this can turn citizens into clients interested solely in the provision of services.

Xi Jinping, China’s debt time bomb, and the art of saying nothing

43:   (Recording of 43:)  

 Human beings too are creatures of this world, enjoying a right to life and happiness, and endowed with unique dignity.

 So we cannot fail to consider the effects on people’s lives of environmental deterioration, current models of development and the throwaway culture.

11:   (Recording of 11:) 

Saint Irenaeus writes: “By his coming, Christ brought with him all newness”. With this newness he is always able to renew our lives and our communities, and even if the Christian message has known periods of darkness and ecclesial weakness, it will never grow old. 

Jesus can also break through the dull categories with which we would enclose him and he constantly amazes us by his divine creativity.

Whenever we make the effort to return to the source and to recover the original freshness of the Gospel, new avenues arise, new paths of creativity open up, with different forms of expression, more eloquent signs and words with new meaning for today’s world. Every form of authentic evangelization is always “new”.

Yesterday at Central Pier before my regular visit to Hei Ling Chau Island (18C - Correctional Institution) I had a cup of Cappuccino for HK$8 at a shop that charges $30 something. Method:  take a packet of Good Day Cappuccino (from Indonesia ...costs c.$3), then buy a cup of hot water - for $5 - from the shop ...then stir (with your own spoon) ....and enjoy the extra taste that comes from knowing you are drinking a bargain!

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 12th of the month,  Jesus please bless the prisoners of Jiangsu

And praying for one of the world's poorest countries each day of the month:
On this 12th of the month, Jesus please bless the people of Guinea-Bissau

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

Letters from (mainly African) inmates in Hong Kong prisons - and other drug trafficking items:   2016

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

To prepare for Pentecost (May 15) let's reflect on the Holy Spirit
- today: The Hand

The Church has kept this sign of the all-powerful outpouring of the Holy Spirit  by having the priest at Mass extend his hands over the bread and wine as he says "Let your Spirit come upon these gifts to make them holy"  ^{- c.f.  CCC 699}

The hand is another symbol of the Holy Spirit. Jesus heals the sick and blesses little children by laying  hands on them. In his name the apostles will do the same. 
Even more pointedly, it is by the Apostles' imposition of hands that the Holy Spirit is given. The Letter to the Hebrews lists the imposition of hands among the "fundamental elements" of its teaching. 

In this week before Pentecost, 
let's often pray each day:
Come Holy Spirit, 
fall afresh on our world!

Chris McDonnell   (Wed UK blogger)

The radical priests

Daniel Berrigan and his brother Philip, with seven other Catholic protesters, used homemade napalm to destroy 378 draft files on May 17, 1968. They became known as the Catonsville Nine

Job 18-19

Bildad then said that Job's suffering was caused by his sins.

Job repeated that he was innocent of any wrong-doing. He added:
"I am sure of three things: my God lives, my God will rescue me, and I will see my God's face."

Dear God, I believe you live
and that someday I will see your face

Psalms 42-45

Like a deer that longs for running streams, so my soul is longing for you, my God.

My soul is thirsting for you, the God of my life. I think of you all the time, here in my land of exile.

People make fun of us here in exile. They taunt us saying "Where is your God?"

Yet no matter what happens we will hope in you, for you are our saviour and our God.

No matter where we are or what happens to us, our hearts will long for you, like a bride longing for her groom.

Lord, no matter what happens, may I always hope in you

Recording 

Colossians 1.15-20

Christ is the image of the unseen God. In him were created all things. All things were created through him and for him

Before anything was created, he existed. He holds all things in unity

The Church is his body. He is its head God wants all things to be reconciled through him who brought peace by his death on the Cross

Jesus, God the Son become man, may our world find reconciliation and peace in you

Recording 

John 10.23-38

When Jesus was walking in the Temple, some religious leaders said to him "If you are the Christ, tell us plainly"

Jesus replied "I have told you, but you do not believe me. The miracles I do in my Father's name also witness to who I am. The Father and I are one"

The leaders picked up stones to stone Jesus and said "We will  stone you for blasphemy. You are only a man and you claim to be God"

Jesus replied "If I am not doing my Father's work, then do not believe me. But if am doing my Father's work, you must know that the Father and I are one. He is in me and I am in him"

Jesus, please help more people believe that you are the Son of God

Recording 

The Joy of Love - Pope Francis' letter - on love in the family     Full English text

32:   (Recording of 32:) 

“Faithful to Christ’s teaching we look to the reality of the family today in all its complexity, with both its lights and shadows… Anthropological and cultural changes in our times influence all aspects of life and call for an analytic and diversified approach”.⁹

Several decades ago, the Spanish bishops noted that families have come to enjoy greater freedom “through an equitable distribution of duties, responsibilities and tasks”; indeed, “a greater emphasis on personal communication between the spouses helps to make family life more humane”, while “neither today’s society nor that to which we are progressing allow an uncritical survival of older forms and models”.¹⁰

It is also evident that “the principal tendencies in anthropological-cultural changes” are leading “individuals, in personal and family life, to receive less and less support from social structures than in the past”.¹¹

On this day in 1610 Matteo Ricci died in Beijing after 27 years of pioneering service in China

42:   (Recording of 42:) 

Greater investment needs to be made in research aimed at understanding more fully the functioning of ecosystems and adequately analyzing the different variables associated with any significant modification of the environment. 

Because all creatures are connected, each must be cherished with love and respect, for all of us as living creatures are dependent on one another.

Each area is responsible for the care of this family. This will require undertaking a careful inventory of the species which it hosts, with a view to developing programs and strategies of protection with particular care for safeguarding species heading towards extinction.

010:   (Recording of 010:) 

The Gospel offers us the chance to live life on a higher plane: “Life grows by being given away, and it weakens in isolation and comfort. Indeed, those who enjoy life most are those who leave security on the shore and become excited by the mission of communicating life to others”.

Consequently, an evangelizer must never look like someone who has just come back from a funeral! 

Let us recover and deepen our enthusiasm, that “delightful and comforting joy of evangelizing, even when it is in tears that we must sow… And may the world of our time, which is searching, sometimes with anguish, sometimes with hope, be enabled to receive the good news not from evangelizers who are dejected, discouraged, impatient or anxious, but from ministers of the Gospel whose lives glow with fervour, who have first received the joy of Christ”.

Each time I visit prisons, my trusty trolley goes with me (carrying Bibles and other items). Every two or three years I need to buy a new trolley. That time happened last Monday night ....old trolley now on reserve bench. New trolley had its first outing yesterday - when I visited Tai Lam Women's Reception Centre from 9.20am to 5.20pm. But new trolley not happy. It seemed to say "how come for my very first outing I had to spend all day in prison?"!

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 11th of the month,  Jesus please bless the prisoners of Hunan

And praying for one of the world's poorest countries each day of the month:
On this 11th of the month, Jesus please bless the people of Eritrea

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

Letters from (mainly African) inmates in Hong Kong prisons - and other drug trafficking items:   2016

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