College Chaplain
Dear friends,
One more week you will finish second term of this academic year. You will have time to rest from your daily routine, but I hope and pray that you will not take a rest of your prayer life, of your personal relationship with God.
Last two weeks I visited many classes and celebrated the Holy Mass with some classes. I always remind them that they are attending the mass and worshipping God, our Heavenly Father on behalf of the whole school, and praying for themselves and for our faith community especially for our Marian College students and staff.
Thank you all those who got involved in the celebration of the Holy Mass. Hopefully, I can have more chance to say the Holy Mass with all classes and the whole school soon.
While visiting classes, I mentioned the story of David and Goliath, I found many of you knew that story or that movie. This story teaches us the power of prayer and hope.
Do you know this story in the Bible? It is from the first book of Samuel, chapter 17 in the Old Testament. I cut it short for you to read it.
One day the war between the Israelites and the Philistines broke out. Their armies went into the battle. Goliath, a giant, challenged the Israelites to send anyone to fight with him, if anyone lost the battle, the whole country would become slaves. The Israelite king, Saul and his army trembled, but David, a Jewish teenager, who was anointed by God through Samuel the prophet, said to the king, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”
Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”
But David said to Saul, The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”
Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.”
Then David took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached Goliath, the Philistine.
David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”
Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell face down on the ground.
David trusted in God’s protection in every situation of his life and he gained God’s favours.
Pope Francis meditated on this story and taught us “Bringing everything to God.”
Pope Francis said that, like David, there is one golden thread that runs through all our lives: PRAYER.
“David teaches us to let everything enter into dialogue with God: joy as well as guilt, love as well as suffering, friendship as much as sickness,” he said. “Everything can become a word spoken to the ‘You’ who always listens to us.”
David, concluded Pope Francis, knew solitude but “was in reality never alone!”
“This is the power of prayer in all those who make space for it in their lives,” he said. “Prayer makes us noble: it is capable of securing their relationship with God who is the true Companion on the journey of every man and woman, in the midst of life’s thousand adversities.”
I encourage you all, friends, to say pray for yourself, your families and friends, especially those in difficult times. God bless you all and see you all next term with new hope and a new goal.
Fr Paul
College Chaplain