tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7853204965986587589.post7279288005131077655..comments2024-03-17T22:48:00.427+08:00Comments on Reflections and Ruminations: When a secular movie can give us an image of what a great grace our divine filiation given at baptism bestows upon us.Fr Luke Fonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03079016104331055895noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7853204965986587589.post-62854655223074882562017-03-14T16:20:00.865+08:002017-03-14T16:20:00.865+08:00Absolutely loved this movie. I'm not much of a...Absolutely loved this movie. I'm not much of a movie person either, but this movie is GOOD. Saw your post a while back but didn't have the space to comment. I would like to share some now.<br /><br />Unlike you, I didn't think about God, or his adoption of me as his child. But I cried buckets when Saroo found where he came from in India. How to explain feelings so complex and pure at the same time?<br /><br />When I was studying in the States, there was a time I felt beyond tired and wishing for the warmth and comfort of home again. Out of the blue, I made friends with a lovely grandma who needed help to cross the road. She proceeded to invite me to go to Waterfire with her, which was a memorial event for families in that area who had lost family members in the 9/11 attacks in 2001. She said her son would be my age if he were alive that year. And then she invited me to her other son's home and the short of it is, I felt so at home I feel asleep on their couch.<br /><br />Truly, looking back, I see God's hand through these warm, kind souls. They provided respite for my very weary soul at a time I needed it the most. <br /><br />I have lost contact with them. But I never forgot them. Never forgot how they made me feel. I have tried to find them again, but somehow have not been successful. Perhaps I should try harder. But I also feel compelled to pay it forward when the opportunity arises. <br /><br />They adopted me, if just for a day, and that made ALL the difference. <br /><br />Serenenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7853204965986587589.post-56118040965107300602017-02-23T21:01:16.812+08:002017-02-23T21:01:16.812+08:00"We never really choose God. It was God who ..."We never really choose God. It was God who chose us first (the primacy of grace),..... "<br /><br /><br />Previously, I would have debated vehemently the rationale of this statement for I knowingly chose to be baptized. Furthermore, I chose to follow a "western God", a weak & gentle/ docile God who allowed wicked men to torture & kill him.<br /><br />I had read, listened to talks & reasoned about all this before taking this momentous step- it was not so much a heart but a head decision. I guessed what really convinced was that this God was the only one in all the great world religions that walked in human history..............on a love mission to save humanity. So I was very sure I chose Him<br /><br /><br />However, over the years of trying to live the faith....it just struck me that there are many kinds of blindness & the most difficult to recognize is the one that's self-imposed i.e. when it is caused by the blinkers one has had on for so long that one gets comfortable, not realizing their presence. <br /><br /><br />Perhaps, it's the "I" that gets in the way of the eye that makes it well nigh impossible to see that He has been one's pilgrim companion all along and it is by His special favour or grace that one is gradually able to recognize this. And so, all of a sudden- one's world takes on a different perspective....a brighter hue, a richness as of velvety wine , washing away the dryness & deprivation....the desolation of silence. <br /><br />Perhaps that's what grace does... only thing is - one doesn't know how one merits it.<br /><br />I know you often tell us - it's unmerited-and now I do agree with you!<br /><br />God bless u, Fr<br /><br /><br />Tessa<br /><br />Tessahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04211998984286520369noreply@blogger.com