My regular article in today's Ming Pao newspaper with the topic: Mainland Chinese cheated in Australia 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

Interview:  Lawmaker Claudia Mo on Hong Kong’s press freedom and self-determination

“There’s hardly any media boss who’s not a member of the CPPCC or the NPC, and if you work for that sort of proprietor, as a journalist, a reporter, an editor, you know how to behave.”
   

Archbishop uses pulpits to slam Duterte's Philippines crime crackdown

Villegas said he is in "utter disbelief" over Duterte's campaign that has so far left more than 600 alleged drug pushers dead, many of them killed by unknown assailants or vigilante groups.

Chris McDonnell (UK blogger)

Afternoon stillness

Written after a visit to nuns of a small Benedictine house near Chester UK      

Isaiah 20-24

Trust in the Lord, not in military might. Israel is going the wrong way in forgetting God's protection.

It has no thought for its Maker,
no eyes for him who shaped everything long ago.

The reason why the earth is without rain and crops is that people have forgotten their Creator.

Lord, please increase my trust in you, and help all nations remember you

Psalm 146

My soul, give praise to the Lord.
I will praise the Lord all my days.

Put no trust in princes, in mortal men in whom there is no help.

Take their breath, they return to clay and their plans that day come to nothing.

They are happy who are helped by Jacob's God, whose hope is in the Lord our God, who alone made heaven and earth, the seas and all they contain.

It is he who gives bread to the hungry, the Lord, who sets prisoners free.

It is the Lord who gives sight to the blind, who raises up those who are bowed down.

It is the Lord who protects the stranger and upholds the widow and orphan.

It is the Lord who loves the just
but thwarts the path of the wicked.

The Lord will reign for ever, Zion's God, from age to age.

Lord, please increase my trust and faith in you

Recording 

James 2.1-13

Don't try to combine faith in Jesus Christ, our glorified Lord, with the making of distinctions between classes of people

Suppose two men come into your prayer meeting, one beautifully dressed and with a gold ring; the other poor and in shabby clothes

If you welcome the rich man, and look down on the poor man, you are making a big mistake

It was those who are poor according to the world that God chose to be rich in faith

So, never make distinctions between classes of people.
Everyone is your neighbor. Love your neighbor as yourself

There will be judgment without mercy for people who have not been merciful. But merciful people need have no fear of judgment

Jesus, help me treat everyone equally and fairly. No favorites

Recording 

 Matthew 13: 31 - 33; 44; 47 - 50

Jesus said to the people:

The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. It's the smallest of all seeds. But it becomes a big bush,  then a big tree that the birds live in.

The kingdom of heaven is like yeast which leavens flour.

The kingdom of heaven is like  treasure in a field. Someone finds it, then sells all they have to buy the field.

The kingdom of heaven is like a fishing net that catches all sorts of fish. Good fish are put in a basket. Useless fish are thrown away. So at the end of time, bad people will be thrown into hell.

Jesus, may your kingdom come, your will be done

Recording 

Mustard seeds:

On Islam and violence: Pope + Patriarch = Full Story

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

123: Recording

After the love that unites us to God, conjugal love is the “greatest form of friendship”.122

 It is a union possessing all the traits of a good friendship: concern for the good of the other, reciprocity, intimacy, warmth, stability and the resemblance born of a shared life. 

Marriage joins to all this an indissoluble exclusivity expressed in the stable commitment to share and shape together the whole of life. 

Let us be honest and acknowledge the signs that this is the case. Lovers do not see their relationship as merely temporary. Those who marry do not expect their excitement to fade. Those who witness the celebration of a loving union, however fragile, trust that it will pass the test of time. Children not only want their parents to love one another, but also to be faithful and remain together. 

These and similar signs show that it is in the very nature of conjugal love to be definitive. The lasting union expressed by the marriage vows is more than a formality or a traditional formula; it is rooted in the natural inclinations of the human person. 

For believers, it is also a covenant before God that calls for fidelity: “The Lord was witness to the covenant between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant… Let none be faithless to the wife of his youth. For I hate divorce, says the Lord” (Mal 2:14-16).

119: Recording

Nor must the critique of a misguided anthropocentrism underestimate the importance of interpersonal relations.

If the present ecological crisis is one small sign of the ethical, cultural and spiritual crisis of modernity, we cannot presume to heal our relationship with nature and the environment without healing all fundamental human relationships. 

Christian thought sees human beings as possessing a particular dignity above other creatures; it thus inculcates esteem for each person and respect for others.

Our openness to others, each of whom is a “thou” capable of knowing, loving and entering into dialogue, remains the source of our nobility as human persons. 

A correct relationship with the created world demands that we not weaken this social dimension of openness to others, much less the transcendent dimension of our openness to the “Thou” of God.

Our relationship with the environment can never be isolated from our relationship with others and with God. Otherwise, it would be nothing more than romantic individualism dressed up in ecological garb, locking us into a stifling immanence.

Trafficking of Nigerian women into prostitution in Europe 'at crisis level'

97: Recording 

Those who have fallen into this worldliness look on from above and afar, they reject the prophecy of their brothers and sisters, they discredit those who raise questions, they constantly point out the mistakes of others and they are obsessed by appearances.

Their hearts are open only to the limited horizon of their own immanence and interests, and as a consequence they neither learn from their sins nor are they genuinely open to forgiveness. 

This is a tremendous corruption disguised as a good. We need to avoid it by making the Church constantly go out from herself, keeping her mission focused on Jesus Christ, and her commitment to the poor.

God save us from a worldly Church with superficial spiritual and pastoral trappings!

This stifling worldliness can only be healed by breathing in the pure air of the Holy Spirit who frees us from self-centredness cloaked in an outward religiosity bereft of God. Let us not allow ourselves to be robbed of the Gospel!

Maybe my eyesight is going....I can't see what the problem is:
Who is to blame?  Flawed Chinese flag raised at Rio medal ceremonies

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 9th of the month, Jesus please bless the prisoners of Henan

And praying for one of the world's poorest countries each day of the month:
On this 9th of the month, Jesus please bless the people of Central African Republic

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)

"Only a fool says there is no God" 
 (Psalm 14)

Islam File    The New Translation

"Same-sex marriage" file

Queensland MPs must put the adopted child first, not same-sex couples

  
Critics see China’s fingerprints all over the turmoil at Hong Kong’s anti-corruption authority

Christine, former Hong Kong inmate, former HK asylum seeker, former drug user, now back in Philippines, living in parents' home, bravely fighting increasing pain from cervix cancer stage 4 ... asking for continuing prayers. Jesus, please tsunami Christine with your love!

Background photos and reports

Isaiah 13-19

God will punish the world for its evil-doing. Then  peoples' hearts will turn back to their Creator.

Then people will no longer worship idols made by human hands. Instead, people will look towards their Creator.

The nations will be converted and know the Lord. Egypt and Assyria will be blessed like Israel.

The Lord will give his blessing in these words: "Blessed be my people Egypt, blessed be Assyria my creation, and blessed be Israel my heritage".

Lord, please help all Middle East countries, especially Israel, Egypt, Iran and Iraq, to be friends

My recording of this reading

Psalm 145

I will give you glory, O God my king. I will bless your name day after day.

The Lord is great, worthy of all praise. His greatness cannot be measured.

Age to age shall proclaim your works, shall speak of your splendor and glory.

The Lord is kind and full of compassion, slow to anger, abounding in love.

How good is the Lord to all,
compassionate to all his creatures.

All your creatures shall thank you, O Lord, and tell all the world of your love.

The Lord is faithful in all his words and loving in all his deeds.

The Lord supports all who fall
and raises all who are bowed down.

The eyes of all creatures look to you and you give them their food each day.

The Lord is close to all who call him, who call on him from their hearts.

Let the whole world bless the Lord's holy name, for ever, for ages unending.

Thank you, Lord, for your love. Thank you for your love

Recording 

James 1.26-27

Don't go thinking you're "religious" while your tongue is out of control. That's the wrong idea of religion

Genuine religion, in the eyes of God our Father is this: coming to the help of orphans and widows, and staying clear of bad values

Jesus, help me control my tongue
...and help me do more to help the poor

Recording 

Matthew 13: 24-30, 36-43

Jesus told the people another story:

The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. An enemy came and sowed weeds in the same field.

When the good seed sprouted, so did the weeds. The man's servants asked if they should get rid of the weeds.

"No", said the man, "you might damage the good seed if you do that. Let them both grow till harvest time. Then burn the weeds."

Then Jesus explained his story:

"I am the sower. The field is the world. The good seed stands for people of good will. The weeds stand for people of bad will. The enemy is Satan.

At the end of the world, the Son of Man will send his angels to sort out the good and the bad people. Bad people will go to hell.  Good people will go to heaven".

Jesus, please protect good people from bad people

Recording 

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

122: Recording

We should not however confuse different levels: there is no need to lay upon two limited persons the tremendous burden of having to reproduce perfectly the union existing between Christ and his Church, for marriage as a sign entails “a dynamic process…, one which advances gradually with the progressive integration of the gifts of God”.121

Brendan Hogan

Addressing Maynooth
There's a lot of upset among people about the allegations that have been made against Maynooth Seminary

118: Recording

This situation has led to a constant schizophrenia, wherein a technocracy which sees no intrinsic value in lesser beings, coexists with the other extreme, which sees no special value in human beings.

But one cannot prescind from humanity. There can be no renewal of our relationship with nature without a renewal of humanity itself. There can be no ecology without an adequate anthropology. 

When the human person is considered as simply one being among others, the product of chance or physical determinism, then “our overall sense of responsibility wanes”.[96] 

A misguided anthropocentrism need not necessarily yield to “biocentrism”, for that would entail adding yet another imbalance, failing to solve present problems and adding new ones.

Human beings cannot be expected to feel responsibility for the world unless, at the same time, their unique capacities of knowledge, will, freedom and responsibility are recognized and valued.

96: Recording

This way of thinking also feeds the vainglory of those who are content to have a modicum of power and would rather be the general of a defeated army than a mere private in a unit which continues to fight.

 How often we dream up vast apostolic projects, meticulously planned, just like defeated generals! But this is to deny our history as a Church, which is glorious precisely because it is a history of sacrifice, of hopes and daily struggles, of lives spent in service and fidelity to work, tiring as it may be, for all work is “the sweat of our brow”.

 Instead, we waste time talking about “what needs to be done” – in Spanish we call this the sin of “habriaqueísmo” – like spiritual masters and pastoral experts who give instructions from on high. We indulge in endless fantasies and we lose contact with the real lives and difficulties of our people.

My faithful set of blue shirts, made in Zhaoqing (China) c. 2007, have well and truly worn out ....but I've been unable to get good replacements in HK (nearest type of material too thick for Summer, or too expensive). A few days ago here in Brisbane, I found what I was looking for in a St Vincent de Paul second hand shop: 2 lovely shirts, AUD$10 each ....and ..."buy two, get one free". So, 3 shirts for $20. Then I went to next door Red Cross second hand shop and got two more, also $10 each (but no free third shirt). Five shirts for AUD$40!

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 8th of the month,  Jesus please bless the prisoners of Heilongjiang

And praying for one of the world's poorest countries each day of the month:
On this 8th of the month, Jesus please bless the people of Sierra Leone

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)

This is important!

The Purse is Mightier Than the Pen 
by George Monbiot

There are many levels of bias in the media, but the most important is the bias against relevance

Editorial of Catholics for Renewal:
A Church united by Christian faith

Editorial focuses on some of the attributes and qualities needed by the institutional Church if it is to respond adequately to the scandal of Clerical Child Sexual Abuse, and looks beyond to our whole catholic faith.

Pope  suggests the way to beat secularism is by 'out-loving' it

The right way to resist secularism and to win souls isn’t to prevail in intellectual arguments, but to “out-love” the opponents of the faith and thereby draw people to the Church.

Why Hong Kong independence debate is vital for the city’s democracy

The CCP’s swift move to curb thoughts of independence and limit the rights of localists to run in elections is a prelude to more widespread repression that has always been in the cards. The independence advocates didn’t create this political firestorm; they only hastened it while they still have enough rights to fight back

Isaiah 10-12

Woe to legislators who issue unjust laws, laws which exploit poor people.

A day of reckoning is coming
when unjust legislators will answer to the Lord.

The Lord will send a good and just king to rescue the poor.

A shoot will spring from the stock of Jesse, on him the spirit of the Lord will rest, a spirit of wisdom and insight, a spirit of counsel and power, a spirit of knowledge, a spirit of love and respect for the Lord.

He will judge justly and the land will know peace.

The country will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord. Exiles will return to their homeland.

Then we will draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation, for great in our midst will be the Holy One of Israel.

Lord, please help governments to do more for poor people

My recording of this reading

Psalm 144

Blessed be the Lord, my rock,
who gives me strength for every situation.

He is my love, my fortress. He is my stronghold, my savior.

To you, O God, will I sing a new song, you who so often rescued David your servant.

Happy the people whose God is the Lord. Please continue to bless your people, Lord.

Let our sons flourish like saplings
grown tall and strong from their youth; our daughters graceful as columns, adorned as though for a palace.

Let our crops and stock be blessed. May there be no sound of weeping on our streets.

Lord, please help us love and honor you every day. Don't let us ever forget your love

Recording  

James 1.19-25

Be quick to listen, and slow to speak, and even slower to get angry. God's goodness is never helped by human anger

Accept and submit to the word which has been planted in your heart and can save your soul

Do what the word tells you. Don't just listen to it. Actively put God's word into practice in your life

Jesus, help me put your word into practice in my life each day

Recording

Matthew 13.1-23

One day Jesus told the people this story: A farmer was planting seeds in his field. Some seeds fell on the path. Birds ate them.

Some seeds fell on rocky ground.
They became sickly plants, without roots, and died.

Some seeds fell among thorns.
When they became plants, they were choked by the thorns.

Some seeds fell on good soil
and produced a rich harvest.

People who hear God's word without good will, are like the seeds on the path. They are easy prey for Satan.

People who hear God's word only superficially are like the seeds on rocky ground. As soon as difficulties come, such people easily give up.

People who hear God's word with one ear but with the other listen to the call of greed and pleasure are like the seeds among thorns. Greed kills the word.

People who hear God's word with good will and put it into practice are like the good seeds which produced a rich harvest.

Jesus, please help me be good seed! 

Recording 

American named to women deacons panel feels like she won Oscar

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

119: Recording

In family life, we need to cultivate that strength of love which can help us fight every evil threatening it. 

Love does not yield to resentment, scorn for others or the desire to hurt or to gain some advantage. 

The Christian ideal, especially in families, is a love that never gives up.

 I am sometimes amazed to see men or women who have had to separate from their spouse for their own protection, yet, because of their enduring conjugal love, still try to help them, even by enlisting others, in their moments of illness, suffering or trial. Here too we see a love that never gives up.

Obama commutes hundreds of drug sentences

115: Recording

Modern anthropocentrism has paradoxically ended up prizing technical thought over reality, since “the technological mind sees nature as an insensate order, as a cold body of facts, as a mere ‘given’, as an object of utility, as raw material to be hammered into useful shape; it views the cosmos similarly as a mere ‘space’ into which objects can be thrown with complete indifference”.[92] The intrinsic dignity of the world is thus compromised. 

When we fail to find our true place in this world, we misunderstand ourselves and end up acting against ourselves

This website's statistics for July 2016

May this little site continue to "punch above it's weight" in helping prisoners and other poor people ....and encouraging us to follow the example of Pope Francis in his concern for the world and the Church

93: Recording

Spiritual worldliness, which hides behind the appearance of piety and even love for the Church, consists in seeking not the Lord’s glory but human glory and personal well-being.

 It is what the Lord reprimanded the Pharisees for: “How can you believe, since you look to one another for approval, and are not concerned with the approval that comes from the one God? (Jn 5.44 JB translation) 

It is a subtle way of seeking one’s “own interests, not those of Jesus Christ” (Phil 2:21). It takes on many forms, depending on the kinds of persons and groups into which it seeps

Yesterday morning when I visited dear friends Jan and Kerry whose family once owned the property that is now Iona College where I am staying, they gave me breakfast (after I had been fasting before going for pathology appointment ...one of several check ups this week). Jan used two eggs for scrambling ....and both of them were doubles!  Not sure if this is a joke or a yoke...

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 5th of the month,  Jesus please bless the prisoners of Guangzhou

And praying for one of the world's poorest countries each day of the month:
On this 5th of the month, Jesus please bless the people of Chad

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)

By a Kenyan writer:

World turmoil as youth are cut off from communities    

What is going on? How do we make sense of this world?

Pope complains schools are telling children they can choose their gender 

‘It’s the epoch of sin against God the Creator.’ 

Photos of happy reunion on August 2 at Iona College chapel with Ray and Margaret Kelly whose wedding I was privileged to attend at the chapel on this day, August 4, 1979. Happy 37th Anniversary Margaret and Paul!

France farewells murdered priest 

Reconciliation was an overarching theme of the Mass, and Hamel's sister Roselyne told the congregation: "Let us learn to live together. The world has so much need for hope."

Isaiah 9

The people that walked in darkness has seen a great light. On those who live in a land of deep shadow, a light has shone.

For the yoke that was weighing on them, the rod of their oppressor, you have broken and removed.

For there is a child born for us, a son given to us and dominion is laid on his shoulders.

And he will be called Wonder-Counselor, Mighty-God, Eternal-Father, Prince-of-Peace.

Lord, Prince of Peace, thank you for the peace and hope and joy of your friendship and love

My recording of this reading

Psalms 140-143

Lord, save me from people who do evil, you who do justice for the needy.

I have no way out of this situation. And no one wants to help me.

Lord, I beg you tonight to make haste and give me an answer, for my spirit fails within me.

In the morning let me know your love for I put my trust in you.

Lord, please help people who are in big trouble

Recording

James 1.1-12

From James, servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Greetings to believers scattered around the world

You will always have difficulties and things going wrong. When they happen, praise God for them and patiently keep going

Blessed are people who stand firm when trials come. They have proved themselves, and will win the prize of eternal life which the Lord has promised to those who love him

Jesus, please give me patience and praise when life gets tough

Recording

Matthew 12.46-50

One day when Jesus was speaking to a crowd of people inside a house, his mother and brothers arrived at the house.

From outside the house they sent a message to say they would like to speak with him.

When Jesus heard they were there, he said "Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?"

Then holding out his hand towards his disciples he said
"Here are my mother and brothers. Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven, that person is my brother and sister and mother."

Brother Jesus,  please help me do the will of your Father in heaven

Recording

Pope taps pro-women deacon advocates to new commission

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

118: Recording

Panta hypoménei. This means that love bears every trial with a positive attitude. It stands firm in hostile surroundings.

 This “endurance” involves not only the ability to tolerate certain aggravations, but something greater: a constant readiness to confront any challenge. It is a love that never gives up , even in the darkest hour. It shows a certain dogged heroism, a power to resist every negative current, an irrepressible commitment to goodness.

 Here I think of the words of Martin Luther King, who met every kind of trial and tribulation with fraternal love: “The person who hates you most has some good in him; even the nation that hates you most has some good in it; even the race that hates you most has some good in it. And when you come to the point that you look in the face of every man and see deep down within him what reli-gion calls ‘the image of God’, you begin to love him in spite of [everything]. No matter what he does, you see God’s image there. There is an element of goodness that he can never sluff off…

 Another way that you love your enemy is this: when the opportunity presents itself for you to defeat your enemy, that is the time which you must not do it… When you rise to the level of love, of its great beauty and power, you seek only to defeat evil systems. Individuals who happen to be caught up in that system, you love, but you seek to defeat the system… Hate for hate only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe. If I hit you and you hit me and I hit you back and you hit me back and so on, you see, that goes on ad infinitum. It just never ends. Somewhere somebody must have a little sense, and that’s the strong person. The strong person is the person who can cut off the chain of hate, the chain of evil… Somebody must have religion enough and morality enough to cut it off and inject within the very structure of the universe that strong and powerful element of love”.114

c.f. the spin job here  
- no mention of the "h"/"G"  word .... ACP editor's  pro-rainbow policy

114: Recording 

All of this shows the urgent need for us to move forward in a bold cultural revolution.

Science and technology are not neutral; from the beginning to the end of a process, various intentions and possibilities are in play and can take on distinct shapes. 

Nobody is suggesting a return to the Stone Age, but we do need to slow down and look at reality in a different way, to appropriate the positive and sustainable progress which has been made, but also to recover the values and the great goals swept away by our unrestrained delusions of grandeur

Keep pushing, cracks are appearing

The edifice holding up harmful public policy ideas like abortion and same-sex marriage will crash over. This is because the edifice is rotten

92: Recording

There indeed we find true healing, since the way to relate to others which truly heals instead of debilitating us, is a mystical fraternity, a contemplative fraternity. 

It is a fraternal love capable of seeing the sacred grandeur of our neighbour, of finding God in every human being, of tolerating the nuisances of life in common by clinging to the love of God, of opening the heart to divine love and seeking the happiness of others just as (our) heavenly Father does.

Here and now, especially where we are a “little flock”, the Lord’s disciples are called to live as a community which is the salt of the earth and the light of the world. We are called to bear witness to a constantly new way of living together in fidelity to the Gospel. Let us not allow ourselves to be robbed of community!

10 years ago today

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 4th of the month,  Jesus please bless the prisoners of Guandong

And praying for one of the world's poorest countries each day of the month:
On this 4th of the month, Jesus please bless the people of Mozambique

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)

This is BIG NEWS! 
And notice that one of the commission members is Phyllis Zagano!

Pope sets us commission to study female diaconate

Duterte accused of 'reign of terror' in Philippines

One month into Mr Duterte's six-year presidency, around 500 drug suspects have been executed. Police are responsible for many of the killings.

One of the very few Filipinos prepared to speak out about the extra-judicial killings is Catholic priest Father Amado Picardal.

Chris McDonnell   (UK blogger)

A long time passing

This week is marked by two significant dates from 1945, the use of the atomic weapons first on the city of Hiroshima on August 6th and three days later on Nagasaki

Isaiah 7

A foreign king and his army attacked  Jerusalem. The king of Judah and his people were full of fear.

God told Isaiah to say to the king of Judah: "Keep calm, have no fear.  You will not be defeated.

The Lord himself  gives you a sign of his protection: a maiden is with child and will give birth to a son whom she will call God-with-us."

Lord,  please help me understand how you are God-with-me every day

Psalm 139

O Lord, you search me and you know me. You know my resting and my rising.

You know exactly what's going on in my life, all my ways are an open book to you.

Before ever a word is on my tongue, you know, O Lord, what I'm going to say.

Your knowledge is beyond my understanding, too high, beyond my reach.

It was you who created my being,
knit me together in my mother's womb.

I thank you for the wonder of my life, for the wonders of all your creation.

Lord, thank you for the gift of life. Please help me follow the path to eternal life

Recording 

Hebrews 13.8-21

Jesus Christ is the same today as he was yesterday and as he will be for ever

Do not let yourselves be led astray by strange doctrines that teach a different Jesus

Jesus died outside the city. Let us go to him and share his rejection.

Our life in this world is a temporary arrangement, like a tent. We look for a permanent home in the life to come

Keep doing good works and sharing your resources

God of peace, you brought  Jesus back from the dead to be our great Shepherd and Priest. Make me ready to do your will in any kind of good action

Recording 

Matthew 12.9-14

On another Sabbath Jesus  visited a prayer hall. A man with a withered hand was in the hall.

Some religious leaders asked Jesus, to trap him, "Is it lawful to heal a man on the Sabbath day?"
(The leaders taught that no "work" could be done on the Sabbath).

Jesus replied: "If one of your sheep fell down a hole on the Sabbath, wouldn't you lift it out?

A man is more important than a sheep. Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath."

Then Jesus said to the man with the withered hand "Stretch out your hand". He stretched it out. It was healed.

The religious leaders left the prayer hall and began plotting how to get rid of Jesus.

Jesus, please stop bad religious leaders from misleading people

Recording 

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

117: Recording

Here hope comes most fully into its own, for it embraces the certainty of life after death. 

Each person, with all his or her failings, is called to the fullness of life in heaven. 

There, fully transformed by Christ’s resurrection, every weakness, darkness and infirmity will pass away. 

There the person’s true being will shine forth in all its goodness and beauty.

This realization helps us, amid the aggravations of this present life, to see each person from a supernatural perspective, in the light of hope, and await the fullness that he or she will receive in the heavenly kingdom, even if it is not yet visible

Life after Kony - how Uganda's women are rebuilding their lives

113b: Recording 

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.

Jesus, please give Pope Francis a safe trip to Assisi tomorrow

91: Recording

One important challenge is to show that the solution will never be found in fleeing from a personal and committed relationship with God which at the same time commits us to serving others. 

This happens frequently nowadays, as believers seek to hide or keep apart from others, or quietly flit from one place to another or from one task to another, without creating deep and stable bonds. 

 This is a false remedy which cripples the heart and at times the body as well. We need to help others to realize that the only way is to learn how to encounter others with the right attitude, which is to accept and esteem them as companions along the way, without interior resistance. 

Better yet, it means learning to find Jesus in the faces of others, in their voices, in their pleas. And learning to suffer in the embrace of the crucified Jesus whenever we are unjustly attacked or meet with ingratitude, never tiring of our decision to live in fraternity.

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 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 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)

Islam File    The New Translation

"Same-sex marriage" file

My article published yesterday on one of South Africa's most popular blogs - warning people about the danger of drug trafficking to HK:

Two more SA women sentenced in Hong Kong for drug trafficking   

Letter in Portuguese from a Brazil woman in prison in HK - tricked by an African man - at this link (July 25)

Updates from HK volunteer Janny Law working in a poor area of Malawi

Isaiah 6

In the year 740 B.C., I had a vision of the Lord God in Heaven:

Above the Lord were 6 angels who cried out "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God. His glory fills the whole earth."

Then I heard a voice asking
"Whom shall I send? Who will be our messenger?"

I answered "Here I am, send me."

Then the Lord sent me to be a prophet to the people

Here I am, Lord, send me. I'm willing to do anything you want me to do

Psalm 138 

I thank you, Lord, with all my heart. You have heard the words of my mouth.

With the angels I will bless you. I will adore you in your holy temple.

I thank you for your faithfulness and love which are far above what we can understand.

On the day I called you answered. You increased the strength of my soul.

All earth's kings shall thank you when they hear the words of your mouth.

They shall sing of the Lord's ways: "How great is the glory of the Lord!"

Though I walk in the midst of affliction you give me life and frustrate my foes.

Your love, O Lord, is eternal.
Do not abandon us whom you have made. 

Lord, when we remember how much you love us and help us, 
every day of the year is a Thanksgiving Day

Recording 

Hebrews 12.18 -13.6

Your ancestors were at Mount Sinai when God spoke to Moses

But you already have one foot in the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, where millions of angels gather in praise

So, continue to live a life of love and hospitality.

Keep in mind those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them

Keep your marriage undefiled.

Avoid greed. Be content with what you have

Jesus, help me remember heaven....and people in prison

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

 Matthew 12.1-8

One Sabbath day Jesus and his disciples were walking through a cornfield. 

The disciples were hungry. They picked some ears of corn and ate them.

Picking corn on the Sabbath was regarded as unlawful by the Pharisees.  So the Pharisees said to Jesus "Your disciples are breaking the Sabbath law".

Jesus replied "Don't you remember what David and his followers once did when they were hungry? They ate the Temple bread which only the priests were allowed to eat.

Go and learn the meaning  of these words 'What I want is mercy, not superficial external offerings'.

I am Master of the Sabbath."

Jesus, Master of the Sabbath, please help me understand  that love is more important than law.

Recording 

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

116: Recording

Love hopes all things

Panta elpízei. Love does not despair of the future. 

Following upon what has just been said, this phrase speaks of the hope of one who knows that others can change, mature and radiate unexpected beauty and untold potential. 

This does not mean that everything will change in this life. It does involve realizing that, though things may not always turn out as we wish, God may well make crooked lines straight and draw some good from the evil we endure in this world.

113a: Recording

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

90: Recording 

Genuine forms of popular religiosity are incarnate, since they are born of the incarnation of Christian faith in popular culture. For this reason they entail a personal relationship, not with vague spiritual energies or powers, but with God, with Christ, with Mary, with the saints. 

These devotions are fleshy, they have a face. They are capable of fostering relationships and not just enabling escapism. 

 In other parts of our society, we see the growing attraction to various forms of a “spirituality of well-being” divorced from any community life, or to a “theology of prosperity” detached from responsibility for our brothers and sisters, or to depersonalized experiences which are nothing more than a form of self-centredness.

As I was about to board Qantas Flight 98 on Sunday night for flight to Brisbane, staff at gate changed my ticket to business class. I had not asked for change. But ever since I took tour groups to Australia a long time ago, one from HK and one from China ...and since I won a Qantas anniversary competition, the HK computer has often changed tickets

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 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 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)

What is the origin of the term “Couch Potato”?

Don't be couch potatoes, Pope urges young people

 Pope Francis has urged young people not to become couch potatoes but to get out and engage in social activism and politics to create a more just world.

He expressed his dismay over how the time and energies of many young people were swallowed up by their use of computers, smart-phones and video games.

Isaiah 5

My friend had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He planted choice vines in it and expected it to produce good grapes. But it produced only sour grapes.

That vineyard is Israel. Its owner is the Lord. That chosen plant is the people of Judah.

The Lord expected the people of Israel to produce justice. But those people have produced only bloodshed and injustice.

Those people have no time to think about the Lord. They have no interest in what he has done for them.

So they are consigning themselves to ruin. The vineyard will be trampled on and become a waste.

Invaders will attack Israel. The people of Israel will be taken into exile. All because they rejected the Lord.

"I am the true vine. My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that bears no fruit he cuts away.  Every branch that does bear fruit he prunes to make it bear even more" -  Jesus  (John 15.1-2)

My recording of this reading

Psalm 137

By the rivers of Babylon we sat and cried, remembering Zion. On the poplars that grew there we hung up our harps.

For it was there that they asked us, our captors, for songs. "Sing to us", they said, "one of Zion's songs".

O how could we sing the song of the Lord on alien soil? If I forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand wither.

O let my tongue cleave to my mouth if I remember you not, Jerusalem, above all my joys.

Lord, please help  people who have been exiled from their homeland

Recording 

Beautiful song based on the above words: (YouTube)
By the Rivers of Babylon 

Hebrews 11.1 - 12.15

Only faith can keep us going. Only faith helped Abraham and other famous people in the Scriptures to keep going

So many of them were weak people who were given strength by God, to be brave when life became difficult

With so many witnesses in a great cloud all around us, we too should keep running in the race we have started. We should get rid of  everything that slows us down

Keep focusing on Jesus. He is running beside us. His example going to the cross gives us courage

Try to live at peace with everyone. Don't let any seed of bitterness begin to grown and make trouble. This can poison a whole community

Jesus, help me remember your presence in my heart

Recording 

Matthew 11.25-30

One day Jesus prayed:

Father, Lord of heaven and earth, I am joyfully amazed at the way simple people understand and accept what I'm saying, while proud and clever people miss the plot.

And he said to the ordinary people:

Come to me, all you who are treated unfairly by unjust religious laws. I will give you peace and justice.

Learn from me, and you will know peace, for I am gentle and humble of heart.

Jesus, please help people who are suffering from unjust religious laws

Recording 

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

115: Recording

This trust enables a relationship to be free.

 It means we do not have to control the other person, to follow their every step lest they escape our grip. 

Love trusts, it sets free, it does not try to control, possess and dominate everything. 

This freedom, which fosters independence, an openness to the world around us and to new experiences, can only enrich and expand relationships. 

The spouses then share with one another the joy of all they have received and learned outside the family circle. 

At the same time, this freedom makes for sincerity and transparency, for those who know that they are trusted and appreciated can be open and hide nothing. 

Those who know that their spouse is always suspicious, judgmental and lacking unconditional love, will tend to keep secrets, conceal their failings and weaknesses, and pretend to be someone other than who they are.

 On the other hand, a family marked by loving trust, come what may, helps its members to be themselves and spontaneously to reject deceit, falsehood, and lies.

112: Recording

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?

89: Recording

Isolation, which is a version of immanentism, can find expression in a false autonomy which has no place for God. But in the realm of religion it can also take the form of a spiritual consumerism tailored to one’s own unhealthy individualism.

 The return to the sacred and the quest for spirituality which mark our own time are ambiguous phenomena. Today, our challenge is not so much atheism as the need to respond adequately to many people’s thirst for God, lest they try to satisfy it with alienating solutions or with a disembodied Jesus who demands nothing of us with regard to others.

 Unless these people find in the Church a spirituality which can offer healing and liberation, and fill them with life and peace, while at the same time summoning them to fraternal communion and missionary fruitfulness, they will end up by being taken in by solutions which neither make life truly human nor give glory to God.

Faster than Facebook or Whatsapp is Heavensapp .... it arranges things before they happen ...like yesterday morning. Before I went to 8.30 Mass at Yau Ma Tei I checked my email ... and saw a message from Janny Law in Malawi saying that a very poor family in her area was in need of urgent help. That was about 7.15am. Then after Mass, about 9.45, a kind parishioner put an envelope in my hand saying "This is for Malawi."
Disclaimer: on this website some weeks ago I had said Janny was helping some special families.
But yesterday's timing had a large dose of Heavensapp about it.
By 10.15 the donation had already been sent to Janny, via Western Union. 

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 1st of the month,  Jesus please bless the prisoners of Anwei

And praying for one of the world's poorest countries each day of the month:
On this 1st of the month, Jesus please bless the people of Congo

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)