Bulletin Announcements - September 13th

Patron's Feast Day and Triduum (2nd - 4th October)

In conjunction with St.Theresa's Feast day, there will be a triduum celebration at our chapel. We invite each family to contribute a minimum sum of RM50.00 or whatever you can afford. Your support is highly sought after as it will facilitate the smooth running of the event. Contribution envelopes are available at the chapel entrance. Kindly drop the contribution envelopes in the collection bag during mass.

Contribution in kind is also highly sought after. List of items required is placed on the notice board. Those who wish to contribute, kindly see the Treasurer at the chapel entrance after mass.

Infant Baptism - Every 3rd Sunday of the Month
Contact Persons :- Mr. Maurice (Eng.) - 017-3962977
Mr. George Mool (BM) - 016-2871712
Ms. Mary (Tamil) - 06-7997450

RCIA: Mr. Anthony Chia (Eng) - 016-3569168
Mr. George Mool (BM) - 016-2871712

Home Stay/ Foster Programme
As you are aware, we have many college students in our midst. Some of whom will not be able to return for the holidays. We hope that some parishioners will be able to open their homes to these students for the duration of the holidays. If interested, please give your names and contact numbers to Mr. Stanly. Students who wish to have home stay may also register.

Nilai Chapel College Students Gathering
September 13th, after 6.00 pm mass
All college students studying in Nilai and the vicinity are welcomed

Please register with your respective College representatives

Colleges
MIAT: Shaun Mirandah (017-7256657)
Inti: Claire (016-9373179)
Nilai: Kevin Mirandah (017-7774816)
KTT: Ricky (014-3727513)

Gotong Royong - Cleaning of Church
September 12
4 pm

Feast Day Committee Meeting After Mass
September 13

All Committee members are required to attend. Those interested in helping with the Feast Day preparations, you are most welcomed to attend.

Take Up Your Cross and Follow Me

In this Sunday's gospel, we will hear Jesus throw this challenge: "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me."

Here's a little video slide show that reveals the purpose of the cross in our lives.

Welcome to all new College students

A warm welcome to all our new intake students from the surrounding colleges in Nilai and its vicinity. The community of the Chapel of St. Theresa, Nilai, wishes to make this your home away from home.

The Chapel liturgical committee frequently undertakes recruitment drives to get readers, responsorial psalm cantors, choir members and musicians to make our weekly liturgy truly participative and alive. If you are interested, please contact the Commentator on duty for the day.

Several of the Colleges in the vicinity already have Catholic Students Societies or fellowships, which you may be interested to join. You may get in touch with the following persons for details of meetings and events.
MIAT: Shaun Mirandah (017-7256657)
Inti: Claire (016-9373179)
Nilai: Kevin Mirandah (017-7774816)
KTT: Ricky (014-3727513)

We also are trying to initiate a home-stay programme for students who will not be able to return home for the holidays and may wish to experience the comforts of a Malaysian home with all its hospitality. Please contact our Chapel Committee Chairman (refer to side bar)

Feel free to send an email or post a comment on this blog if you wish to interact with our Chapel Administrator, Fr. Michael Chua.

Pesta Gereja Maria Bonda, Kampung Orang Asli (Orang Asli Village Celebrates Feast of Mary, Patron of Chapel)

Komuniti Orang Asli di Kampung Tekir, Jalan Labu, akan merayakan Pesta Gereja Kecil mereka yang di letakkan dibawah naungan Bonda Maria, pada 13hb September. Ini adalah sempena Pesta Kelahiran Bonda Maria pada 8hb September.

Gereja Maria Bonda mempunyai sejarah yang melebihi 100 tahun. Pada masa sekarang, terdapat 3 komuniti Orang Asli yang berumat Katolik dibawah jagaan paroki Gereja Visitasi, Seremban, iaitu, Kampung Orang Asli Tekir, Kampung Orang Asli Sebir (kedua-dua di Jalan Labu) dan Kampung Orang Asli Belihoi (sepanjang jalan Seremban-Mantin).

Pesta Kelahiran Bonda Maria mengingatkan kita tentang identiti dan maruah peribadi kita. Tuhan Allah telah memilih Bonda Maria sebagai ibu kandung Yesus sejak dari permulaan. Oleh sebab, gadis Yahudi ini telah menyahut seruan Tuhan maka seluruh dunia dan manusia sejagat dapat menikmati keberkatan penyelamatan.

Pada hari yang mulia ini, marilah kita bersyukur kepada Tuhan atas kurniaannya, khususnya, Bonda Maria . Kita juga ingin bersyukur kepadanya atas nyawa setiap insan didunia ini, kerana setiap insan juga merupakan kurniaan daripada Tuhan dan diletak disini dengan tujuannya tersendiri.

(The Orang Asli Community of Kampung Tekir, Jalan Labu, celebrates the Feasts of Our Lady, the patron of their 100 year old village chapel on Sunday, September 13, 4.00 pm)

Gadong Chapel's Feast of Annai Vellangkanni - Our Lady of Good Health

Our sister Chapel of Annai Vellangkanni in Gadong, under the pastoral care of the Church of Visitation, Seremban, will be celebrating its Patron's Feast with a Triduum.
Sep 11th (Frid) 7.30 pm Mass
Sep 12th (Sat) 7.30 pm Mass
Sep 13th (Sun) 11.00 am Mass (Feast Day)

The actual Feast of Annai Vellangkanni coincides with the Feast of the Nativiy of the Blessed Virgin Mary on September 8. As Annai Vellangkanni is also called "Our Lady of Good Health", her shrine has also been called the Lourdes of the East.

The Story of Mary's Apparition in the town of Vellangkanni

Our lady of Good Health, popularly called "Our Lady of Vellangkanni" is in the small town of Vellangkanni (5000 residents) located on the shores of the Bay of Bengal. It is located 150 miles south of Madras in Tamil Nadu and 5 miles south of Nagapattinam. Our lady chose this place to dispense her miracles to mankind. A strong oral tradition attests to Our Lady’s apparitions at Vellangkanni. The tradition is built around the following three significant events:

First Miracle: Hindu Boy and Annai Vellangkanni

Sometime during the sixteenth century, Our Lady with her infant son appeared to a Hindu boy carrying milk to a customer’s home. While he rested under a Banyan tree near a tank (pond), Our Lady appeared to him and asked for milk for her Son and the boy gave her some. On reaching the customer’s home, the boy apologized for his lateness and the reduced amount of milk by relating the incident that occurred on his way. On inspection, the man found the milk pot to be full and realized that something miraculous had happened. That man, also a Hindu, wanting to see the place where the apparition occurred, accompanied the boy.

When they reached the tank, Our Lady appeared once again. On learning that it was Our Lady who appeared to the boy, the residents of the local Catholic community became ecstatic. The tank where the apparition took place is called "Matha Kulam" or Our Lady’s tank.

Second Miracle: Crippled Boy and Annai Vellangkanni

Some years later Our Lady appeared again. This time to a crippled boy who was selling buttermilk near a public square on the outskirts of the same village of Vellangkanni. She asked him for buttermilk for her infant Son and the boy compiled. Our Lady asked the boy to inform a certain wealthy Catholic man in the nearby town of Nagapattinam of her appearance. Not realizing that his crippled leg was miraculously cured by Our Lady, the boy rose up and began his journey. The man also had a vision the previous night in which Our Lady asked him to build a chapel for her. Together, the man and the boy returned to the site of the miracle.

This time Our Lady appeared to both. The man erected a thatched chapel for Our Lady at the site of Her second appearance. This chapel became a holy place of veneration to Our Blesses mother and She was called henceforth, Mother of Good Health ("Arokia Matha").

Third Miracle: Portuguese Ship and Annai Vellangkanni

A few years later, Our Merciful Mother rescued a few Portuguese merchant sailors from a violent storm, which wrecked their ship. When the merchants reached the shore of Vellangkanni they were taken by local fisherman to the thatched chapel. To give thanks and pay tribute to Our Lady, they built a small permanent chapel on their return trip. On subsequent visits they improved on it. The merchants dedicated the chapel to Our Lady on September 8th to celebrate the feast of her nativity and to mark the date of their safe landing to Vellangkanni.

Today, the celebration of this feast is an annual festival which lasts for 9 days and draws more than a million and a half pilgrims. Vellangkanni attracts more pilgrims than any other sacred shrine in India. Not only do multitudes of Catholic travel there throughout the year but many non-Christians visit as well. Hundreds of miraculous cures are reported every year.

A video of the car procession at the Shrine of Annai Vellangkanni, India

Faith is Relationship

Twenty Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Many of you are familiar with your catechism. Let’s try. Who made you? God made us. Why did God make you? To love him, know him and serve him and be with him in paradise for all eternity. Who is Jesus? Jesus is God’s only son. Our Saviour and our Redeemer. Some of you are also able to list down the ten commandments.

Is this what faith is all about? Does faith mean memorizing our catechism? Today’s readings tells us that faith is more than mere statements of belief. Faith is more than learning our catechism. Faith is more than just knowing about God and Jesus. There is a big difference between knowing about something and really knowing that thing. Knowing about something or someone means that we have all the facts and information about that thing or person. But knowing someone means that we have a very special and intimate relationship with that person. The first has to do with knowledge alone. The second involves a relationship.

Therefore, our faith must not only remain at the level of knowledge. Our faith is first and foremost a relationship with God and with Jesus. In today’s gospel, we see the story of how Peter recognizes that Jesus is the Christ, the Anointed One of God. As the story develops, we come to understand that this recognition is only at the level of knowledge. Peter knew about Jesus but didn’t really knew him as a person. Jesus, therefore, sees the need to explain who he really is and what his mission entails. Jesus tells Peter for the first time that he must suffer grievously, be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and finally be put to death. But after three days he will rise again. This is the part which Peter couldn’t understand. Peter was satisfied with the knowledge that Jesus was the Christ but could not accept the fact this Messiah must suffer and die.

Jesus corrects his understanding and further explains that if one is to become his disciple, if someone wants to have an intimate relationship with Jesus and not only be satisfied with knowing about Jesus, that person must be prepared to follow the same fate of Jesus. Faith of a disciple requires that he must be prepared to renounce himself and take up his cross and follow Jesus.

Therefore, our faith as Christians isn’t only about knowing our Catechism. Our faith isn’t only memorizing a set of beliefs. Our faith calls for conversion. It calls for commitment and finally it calls for action. St. James challenges us to show our faith through our good deeds. It is not enough to say that we have faith. Faith is proven through the lives we live. Faith is proven by our readiness to accept the cross of Jesus and follow him. Faith is proven when we are prepared to lose everything, even our lives knowing that “anyone who loses his life for Christ’s sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”

This is the faith which we profess. It is dangerous and a powerful thing to believe in God and Jesus, but it is also a rewarding thing to have the faith of a disciple. Today, let us examine our own faith. Is our faith only a faith taken from the catechism books? Is our faith only a safe kind of faith that tries to avoid trouble or the cross? If this is the kind of faith that we have, we are challenged to go deeper and further. We are challenge to think in God’s way and not man’s (taken from the gospel). We are asked to renounce ourselves, take up our cross and follow Jesus along the way of the cross, but also the way to eternal life and glory.

Vatican's Youtube Channel

Check out Vatican's latest youtube channel bringing you the latest news and information.

http://www.youtube.com/user/vatican

Here, the Pope speaks about how the internet can be the "new way of speaking to God."



Other Catholic webchannels:

H2ONews
The Catholic Community Television Network (CCTN)
Catholic News Agency (CNA)