City Parish, Penang
Our Lady of Sorrows (OLS), Assumption (AC), St. Francis Xavier (SFX), St.John Britto (SJB)
Parish house and Secretariat is at Church of Our Lady of Sorrows:
33 Jalan Macalister, 10400 Pulau Pinang
T: 04-2261502
F: 04-2284519
Email: cityp2@tm.net.my
Parish Priest : Rev. Michael Thoo
Assistant priest: Rev. Dominic Santhiyagu
Secretariat Opening Hours
Mon - Fri:
9.30 am - 11.30 am (Christine Choong)
3.00 pm - 5.30 pm (Margaret Sim)
Satiurday:
10.00 am - 6.00 pm (Lucia Lai)
1.00 pm - 6.00 pm (Margaret Sim)
Sunday:
10.00am - 6.00 pm (Margaret Sim)
1. (Main Church) Our Lady of Sorrows (1888)
33 Jalan Macalister, 10400 Pulau Pinang
T: 04-2261502
F: 04-2284519
cityp2@tm.net.my
Tue/Wed : 7.30 am
Thu/Fri : 6.00 pm
Sat. Novena: 6.00pm
Sat. Sunset Mass: 6.45 pm (English)
Sunday Masses :
8.30 am (English); 10.00 am (Mandarin)
Filipino Mass : 11.15 am (1st & 3rd Sunday)
Bahasa Mass - 11.30 am (2nd Sunday)
2. (Mass Centre) Assumption (1786)
3 Lebuh Farquhar, 10200 Pulau Pinang
T: 04-2610088
Sat. Novena: 6.00pm
Sat. Sunset Mass: 6.30 pm
Sunday Mass : 10.00 am (English)
3. (Mass Centre) St. Francis Xavier (1957)
52-K, Penang Road, 10000 Pulau Pinang
Sunday Mass : 6.00 pm (English)
4. (Mass Centre) St. John Britto (1969)
139 Sungai Pinang Road, 10150 Pulau Pinang
Sunday Mass : 8.00 am (Tamil)
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Familes need to affirm one another |
| Posted by Diocese of Penang (pgdiocese) on Jun 11 2008 |
8 June 2008
PENANG: “The Family Ministry is the most challenging ministry in the church,” proclaimed Martin Jalleh (pic) to the 80 odd people who turned up at the Church of Our Lady of Sorrows to listen to his session on ‘Aiming towards an affirming, appreciative and accepting family.’
This Family Reflection session organised by City Parish was held on May 19 from 8.00am to 12.30. Half of the participants who turned up were from other parishes. The session was a way for City Parish to reach out to other parishes in offering formation to build up pastoral works.
In explaining that affirmation means ‘to strengthen’ and appreciation means ‘to value’, Jalleh said, we need to affirm and appreciate one another especially among family members. A few words of affirmation will work wonders, he said, and proceeded to give an example of Tiger Woods, the famous golfer.
Before he became famous, his father had said to him “Tiger, you can shake the world. There’s nothing that you can’t do.” This affirmed him so much that he moved on to become such a successful and well-known golfer.
Jalleh also showed a video about the unconditional love of a father towards his disabled son to stress that unconditional love is not easy. Most humans love with conditions but God loves without conditions. God’s love is not based on what we do. Human love is based on what we/they can do.
Throughout the session, a few other videos on affirmation and also love of Mother Mary were shown.
Affirmation, Jalleh said occurs when one person is the source of unconditional love and emotional strengthening for another person. From the perspective of Christian awareness, this capacity to love is essential in order to live out the commandment of Jesus to “love one another.” (John 13:34, 15:12).
He explained that God is an affirming God. His affirmation of his Son can be seen during Jesus’ baptism when the voice of God was heard “This is my beloved Son in whom I’m well pleased” (Mark 1,11), and again during the transfiguration, a voice thundered from the cloud, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” (Mark 9, 7).
At Jesus’ baptism, even before he began his ministry works and performing miracles, God the Father already affirmed Jesus the Son. This is what parents must do, Martin stressed. “Affirm your children all the time. Don’t wait for them to do something good, and only then you affirm them.”
Jesus, in turn, is also an affirming person. This can be seen in the gospel, where he affirmed Zaccheus, the Samaritan Woman, Mark and Peter.
How does God affirm us? He simply calls, chooses and commissions us to be faithful disciples, in spite of our unworthiness. Parents, on the other hand, said Jalleh, usually do not affirm a child when the child has done something wrong. This is not the way for parents to bring up a child, Jalleh cautioned the many parents present. “No matter what a child does, or even before he does something, it is important for you to affirm him.”
Martin reminded the people again that God always loves us and when we discover the belovedness by God, then we will see the belovedness of other people and call that forth. In this way, we can begin to see in other people, especially our families, the uniqueness in them and learn to bless them with the six heavenly A’s — words of affirmation, acceptance, affection, appreciation, approval and attention.
— By Lucia Lai
Last changed: Sep 18 2008 at 9:20 AM
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