Our month-long Readathon commences today, on 30 April. Here, I would like to call upon you to take up the habit of reading with resilience and to make reading your regular activity. Marathon runners spend hours on their training, alone, but with determination, their will to succeed helps them run to their finishing line, compete a long distance of 42.9 km. Readathon has been promoted to engage you in a quiet, long journey to enrich yourself in the process of reading for life and to develop a reading habit.

When Jesus asks people to repent, to ask for forgiveness, he is not simply asking us to do something religious - rather, he is asking us to look at God, the people around and ourselves from a different perspective, from a different view. Repentance means "change of thinking” and maintaining an independent and reasoning mind is what we need to develop.

Lent reminds us the 40 days before Easter. In the Catholic Church, it is a special period when we remind ourselves of the time of Fasting. To fast means to set a time of ‘not eating’ or ‘not eating certain kinds of food’ or ‘to eat with self-control’. Fasting is an experience that enables us to have the sympathy for those who live in hunger.
During this period of Lent, it is important for us to exercise self-control, self-sacrifice in order to strengthen our spirit with God. We should learn to humble ourselves in order to be more conscious of our weaknesses, hence allowing more time and space to be reunited with God, to be closer to God’s love and develop the strength in having an independent mind in our reasoning and thinking.

What is one plus one There is no definite answer to this apart from 2. My alternate answer is 11 Why is it 11 The first one presents you and the other ONE is God. So you and God together are 11. Let me explain this further. As God’s child, you are not alone – God is by your side. And He alone is the one you could rely on because only He knows what you need.

My dear girls, do you remember the parable of the leper who was cured by Jesus In this story, the faith of the man saved himself. He knew that God alone had the plan for him. Unlike the usual way we ask God to grant us what WE want, this man entrusted God totally for His plan for him to be healed. The leper’s total faith in God saved him from the suffering and pain of the skin disease. How about you, my dear girls?

Jesus has expressed compassion for those who are in need. Jesus is loving and caring to us if we listen to him, do according to His will, be good, be loyal and dutiful. Jesus is always by our side and if we turn to the Lord for help and have trust in His plan, there is nothing in us which cannot be healed.

If you believe that you are God’s child and have faith in Him, then you can change yourself, and continue to learn well, to improve, to be effective and I believe success will not be too far away from you. It is our Faith in God and His Guidance that allow us develop self-confidence and thus, excel our potentials.

As no one is perfect, each of us should keep reflecting on ourselves to make progress and to make our life meaningful. But WHEN should we start our reflections The answer is NOW.

It is a terrible mistake to put things off until a later time, or we think until a better time. If we keep procrastinating, we’ll never get anything done and before we know it, it will be too late. There may be things that are difficult to stop, to start, to keep or to give up, but if there is a will for good deeds, God will always make the way. But the key is you must start them NOW.

Now is the time for renewal, to stop your wrong doing and to start your new commitment of self-enhancement for the goodness of the school, family and friends. Now is the time to strengthen your religious faith in God and be a true Holy Familian.

In your pursuit of excelling in work, you have to make the extra effort and this effort may refer to taking one more step to:

-try harder in answering questions in your examinations
-make good use of time allocated and not giving up
-take a more active role in class

Your one-more-step can make a difference between passing or failing and will definitely help you achieve your goal in life, in studies and in whatever you are to take.
Let us pray to our dear Lord to grant us the strength and determination to take ONE MORE STEP in order to reach our target.

Advent

This morning, we celebrate Advent, the 4 weeks before Christmas. Jesus asked us to stay awake and watchful of the signs, for no one knows the day when our master is coming. Therefore, we need to be prepared. We need to be self-reflective and take the initiative to do our best. As Christ is the light, make sure that God’s light has come to your heart to help you shine and glow.

The second purple candle of the Advent wreath represents the second week of Advent. This reminds us to take time to REPENT, to ask for forgiveness, to reflect upon our weaknesses and look for improvement.
Generally, at this time of the year, we are planning our Christmas celebrations. But this year, I would like you to reflect upon your way of preparation for Christmas. The Refrain in our School Song gives us the direction as to how we should prepare ourselves in receiving God in our heart.

This morning, we will light the third candle of the Advent wreath. This is the Pink candle which tells us to rejoice, to celebrate God’s blessing. The third candle also reminds us that we are closer to the celebration of the birth of Jesus at Christmas.

This is the 4th Week and also the last week of Advent. This week, we learn to bring back our faith in the Lord. We look forward to Immanuel - meaning “God is with us”. The wreath and our prayers provide us a way to enhance our special preparation for Christmas. Through the lighting of the Advent Candles, we learn to remain vigilant, watchful of our work and play so that we will not lose sight of the true meaning of Christmas.

Responding to Adversity

When adversity comes knocking on your door, how do you respond? Are you one of those that seems strong but becomes soft and loses your strength when problems arise? Or are you someone who gets better with time and changes the situation to suit your needs?

In fact, the happiest people don’t necessarily have the best of everything. They just make the
most of everything that comes along their way. My dear girls, the brightest future will always
be based on how you turn your past failures into energy and how you turn God’s given talents into your strengths that shine and glow.

Building Good Work Habits

Inside the church, when sunlight passes through stained glass windows, the radiance and brilliance of the stained glass lights up the church. Likewise, if you want to be bright and brilliant like the church filled with the colourful lights, you must learn to strengthen your source of light, in other words, your strengths and qualities.

To do so, you need to have good time management. Fill yourself with energy, spend time purposely and submit your work on time. With these simple good work habits, you can keep the good efforts and strive hard to achieve more for better performance.

Last but not least, a positive learning attitude is of paramount importance as this allows you to accept your weaknesses and work on them to further develop your talents for the goodness of all mankind.

Our mission as God’s children

As members of Holy Family, every one of us has a special mission and that is to be living examples of God’s children – children who are loving, caring of people in need, hard-working and ready to take up responsibilities.

God alone knows us best and has given us the unique gifts that we need for life. With our faith in God, we should not be afraid to look upon Him for guidance and take up responsibilities with courage and determination. In other words, let us gather our energy, talents and strengths to excel ourselves in our undertakings so that we can all help spread the good news of God’s love to the people around us.

The Challenge of Exams

School life is fun but not when we have examinations. But even after one has finished his/her schooling, the exams still continue. It is said that ‘Life is an examination’ but to do well in examinations, we need certain qualities.

Our success in the examinations of life is not measured by the high marks we get but by the effort we put in. To do well in all aspects in our life, we need to be confident, well-prepared and most important of all, we need to strike a balance between what we are good at and what areas warrant attention. With a positive attitude and hard work, we are bound to give meaning to the exams that lie ahead of us.

A new school term – a new goal to achieve. Every year, our goals are centred around our school theme and the theme for this scholastic year is ‘Excelling in Work'. To start with, the word ‘Work’ in this context encompasses our personal growth, academic pursuit and social commitment.

In order to excel in any particular field, hard work is essential but more important than that is our humility, modesty and confidence. We need to be humble to ask the Lord for his blessings to guide us towards our goal and by believing in ourselves, we will be able to shine in our work. Let us all work towards being conscientious and concerned for the needs of others and the world at large.