Alice Mary 6th Death anniversary 2019

Alice Mary 6^th Anniversary

It has been 6 years since she left us. The pain may have faded but her memories still remain vividly in our hearts and minds. Whenever we are gathered as a family, we never fail to talk about her. This gives us great courage and inspiration to continue doing right in whatever we do.

Joseph P. Kenedy said, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going”. Mdm Alice would have gone through some extremely difficult times as a homemaker keeping the family together. But being a woman of steel, it was the toughness in her that made her go on to achieve the impossible.

Whenever we visit her grave to place flowers and light candles, it is not just a ritual to honour her but an expression of her place deep in our hearts. It is also gives as an opportunity to reflect on the wonderful time we had with her here on earth.

Mother Alice may be gone but she has left us a great legacy, a legacy of hard work, discipline and compassion that is extremely difficult to follow as these values hardly exist in the world today. She has footprints in our hearts that will be hard to erase. We know she is somewhere watching us, and we hope she continues to guide us and our family in our own struggles to uplift ourselves.

How we wish she was with a little longer for us to say good-bye. Well God had better plans for her to be with Him. We pray that the Lord grant her eternal rest in His home.

May her soul rest in peace.

The BW Gang

(Tina,Justin,Chris,Mala,Loli) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L0GAccOqLE&t=5s 

Sunday Catholics

“'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with. ... And the second is   Love your neighbor as yourself." (Mathew 22:36-40) 

 

Something to seriously ponder on what we are doing every Sunday.

We need to update our mindset, if we want God to be on outside.

May be the message of Jesus in "The Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10 25-37) can enlighten us to understand what we are religiously doing every week without fail.

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

²⁵ On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
²⁶ “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
²⁷ He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’^[a]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^[b]”
²⁸ “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
²⁹ But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

³⁰ In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. ³¹ A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. ³² So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³ But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. ³⁴ He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. ³⁵ The next day he took out two denarii^[c] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
³⁶ “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
³⁷ The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”


 The parable of the Good Samaritan is a wonderful story of how we should treat others. Jesus finishes this parable by saying "go and do ...
 https://www.crosswalk.com/family/career/the-parable-of-the-good-samaritan-5-lessons-learned.html

Christmas 2018

 Being a loved one to someone who needs love

An old friend of mine who is unemployed, lonely and lives all all by himself, recently lost his brother due to illness. His siblings came from far and wide for the funeral and left soon after leaving him sad and lonely.

Then there is another elderly friend who was suddenly taken seriously ill, leaving his wife all alone with hardly any loved ones at her side. She was not only lonely and fearful but did not know what to do in that tragic situation.

The next case is about an elderly woman who was living with her children and grandchildren but felt lonely as they all were too busy to give her some time.She was lonely despite being in a crowd. 

There are indeed many unfortunate people who are in our midst who are lonely with no family or friends to call loved ones. Christmas does not mean anything to them. As we prepare to share our joy of Christmas with our family and friends, let us remember those who are lonely without their family and loved ones. Let us try to understand how it will be Christmas without money, food, shelter and most importantly without family and loved ones.

This Christmas let us try to become a ‘loved one’ to someone who doesn’t have any. As we celebrate the humble birth of Jesus in a stable among poor shepherds, let us adopt His humility to share our joy with those who don’t have it for some reason.

In the midst of all our celebrations, let us not forget there many around us, who have lost the need for celebrations in their lives. To them we extend our heartfelt greetings for a joyous and blessed Christmas.

“It’s Christmas every time you let God love others through you…..” Mother Teresa

Merry Christmas

Augustine 100th memorial

 100th Day Memorable Prayer

                                                                 Bro.Augustine Theseira                    (29.8.1944 – 2.4.2018)

1.Introduction

Lord we thank you for bring all of us here today to remember and pray for our late bro. Augustine, who left us 100days ago.

Lord you know how our faithful bro. Augustine was to you during his life on earth. We are gathered here to pray for his soul, Look on him with mercy and forgive him of all his sins. Grant him eternal rest in your house in heaven.

As we pray the rosary we ask our Lady, our heavenly mother to intervene for the salvation of the soul of our brother Augustine.

We also pray for the family of our late brother Augustine. We ask God to bless, guide and guard them always.

2. Recital of the Holy Rosary – Glorious mystery

3. A tribute to a friend

One of the most painful things in life is when someone close to you in your heart, one who loves and cares for you, suddenly passes away. The passing of Bro Augustine inflicts that feeling of sorrow, not only in the hearts of his loved ones but also in the hearts many of us gathered here to pray  for his soul and cherish his memories when he was with us.

I got to know the late bro. Augustine or Augi as we fondly called him, for the last 10 years as members of our BEC and for the last 6 years I got to know him more closely as a friend, a doctor and a comrade in serving the poor and needy in our midst, in the TBC group. I got to know him even better when he became a companion at the TUDM bar where we had some highly ‘spiritual’ sessions.
  

It is 100 days now since he left us but he seems to be still alive in our hearts. We have sent him off with mixed feelings, sad as we will miss his company and happy as he will be with his Creator in heaven where he waits for us to join him one day.

During the time I knew him I would describe Augustine as a man with 3 main virtues:

1. Gratitude - He never forgot those who helped him when he was down and goes out of his way to repay his gratitude in whatever small ways he can.

2. Loyal friend - He was a loyal friend who never deserts you when you are of little use to him.

3. Obedient and faithful servant of God and his church - He has unshakable faith in God and always obedient to the laws of the church till the very end.

As a friend he always showed his concern for me and my family. He calls me regularly and never fails to visit me and my family regularly, in particular during festivities to personally send his greetings to me and my wife. He never fails to enquire about my children wherever and whenever he meets me or my wife. He was eagerly waiting my sons to complete their training but unfortunately he had to go just before they finished.

With the passing of Augustine my wife and I have lost a good and caring friend, we will miss his well- wishes and prayers for our good health and wellbeing. I will miss his greetings during festive periods and I will definitely miss his company at the spiritual sessions at the bar. 

We pray for his soul and also for his family. We realise how Josephine will find life tough and lonely without him by her side. She will need time to adapt to her new life without her beloved husband. We ask God to grant her the strength and courage to move on. 

We pray for Sharon and Rodney who have lost a wonderful and loving father. We pray for Angeline and little Glory for the loss of a good father in law and grandfather. I know how it feels to have lost a father who was so caring and was always there for them during difficult times in the family. 

Although Augustine is gone but he will continue to live in their hearts till the end as they continue to carry on with his legacy.

As his friends let us too cherish the fond memories of him and adopt his good values into our own lives. That is the best justice we can do to give a little meaning to our friendship and comradeship with him.

We ask God to grant him eternal rest and may his soul rest in peace

3. Reading of Augustine’s favourite prayer

 Blessed Mother Teresa’s Prayer

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centred.
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies.
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you.
Be honest and sincere anyway.
What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight.
Create any way.
If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, will often be forgotten.
Do good anyway.
Give the best you have, and it will never be enough.
Give your best anyway.
In the final analysis, it is between you and God.
It was never between you and them anyway.

4. Concluding prayers

 Lord we thank you letting Bro.Augustine come into our lives. He was not only a great husband to Josephine, a wonderful and caring dad to Sharon and Rodney but he was also a good friend to all of us. He lived a life of holiness and kept all your commandments to the best of his ability during his life.

Lord we offer the soul of our bro.Augustine to you. Please look with mercy and grant him eternal rest to be with you and your angels and saints in your heavenly home.

Rest in peace dear friend.

5. Concluding Video tribute to Augustine - The Final good bye