Blog moving
I doubt anyone is reading this. But here it is: I am moving to http://brother-william-ng-ofm.blogspot.hk/
posted by Brother William OFM at 6:06 AM
1 comments
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Friday Morning Prayer for 9 February 2007: St Valentine / The Love of Jesus
The theme for today’s Morning Prayer is about love. Well, the love of Jesus, to be precise. But it is the love of Jesus that forms the basis of all human loves. As you can see from the title at the top of the page, we want to talk about love today because next Tuesday is Valentine’s Day – or the Feast of St Valentine. There is a saint by that name and there are various stories about how St Valentine has become associated with boyfriends and girlfriends and falling in love. You may find out more about that on First Class, if you log on to the Student Learning Area, there is a new forum known as Friday Morning Prayer.
Today, I would like to introduce a poem to you. Please follow the reading as printed in your hymnal to be read by Mr Mckenzie
I See His Blood Upon the Rose by Joseph Mary Plunkett
I see his blood upon the rose // And in the stars the glory of His eyes,
His body gleams amid eternal snows, // His tears fall from the skies.
I see his face in every flower; // The thunder and the singing of the birds
Are but His voice – and carven by His power // Rocks are His written words.
All pathways by His feet are worn, // His strong heart stirs the ever-beating sea,
His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn, // His cross is every tree.
Not too many difficult words here.
3rd line: Amid – has the same meaning as “among.” It must be lovely to live in the countryside: having your home amid trees and farm must be better than amid high-rises and skyscrapers.
3rd line: Gleam: When eyes gleam, they shine in a way that expresses a particular emotion. The line “His body gleams amid eternal snows” means “His body shines among the snow.
7th line: Carven = carved: made by cutting: E.g., He carved her name on a tree. Her name is carven with love on a tree. Another example: For Halloween, people put a candle in carven pumpkins.
10th line: Stir = to mix a liquid by moving something like a spoon in a circular pattern: You can stir some sugar into the coffee to make it sweet. Another example: My heart stirs when I see how the national flag is flown everywhere on October 1.
10th line: Beat = to make a regular movement or sound: e.g. My heart beats faster than normal when I am excited. I need to take a rest now because my heart is beating very fast. So: Ever-beating sea = the sea with waves making a regular sound
11th line: Twine = to wrap round an object several times E.g. The vine twines around the branch. You can see that in the picture provided. Don’t confuse this word with the word TWIN vs TWINE.
So you understand the words, do you understand the poem? Let’s examine the first sentence again: I see his blood upon the rose And in the stars the glory of his eyes... Why would the poet see blood on a rose? I can think of two possibilities: One: Someone was hurt by a rose; perhaps a thorn has pricked his finger and his blood stays on the rose. Two: The poet is talking about someone whom he loves very much. This person has died and seeing a rose would remind the poet of this person. Yes, that would be the reason. Can you guess who this person is? If you remember at the beginning of the talk, I have told you today’s morning prayer is about the love of Jesus. So, the poet is saying: When he sees a rose, he would see the blood of Jesus. That’s why all the “his” in the poem should have been “His”. Can you please change that if you have a pencil handy? The poet would make that connection because, I guess, Jesus’ blood is red, and each drop of blood is similar to a rose petal. And, most importantly, the love of Jesus is as beautiful as a rose.
We can use this same idea to understand the rest of the poem: The stars in the sky would remind Plunkett, the poet, of the eyes of Jesus. The gleaming snows would remind Joseph Mary, our poet, how the body of Jesus shines. When the poet says: “His body gleams amid eternal snows” is really saying “When I see how the snow in winter gleams, it is like seeing the body of Jesus gleams”. And so on with rain, thunder and birds’ singing.
The climax is the last line: His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn, // His cross is every tree. You may remember that before Jesus died, someone gave him a crown made of thorns to wear. Imagine that would be very painful; but because of his love for us, Jesus endured the crown. So thorns become a symbol of Jesus’ love and that’s the reason the poet would see how the crown of thorns of Jesus would twin / mix with thorn on a plant.
Indeed, when you love someone, you would always think about him / her. And because you carry his or her memory with you so much, it is very natural for you to be reminded of this person by just about anything. So, from this poem, we know Joseph Mary Plunkett loves Jesus very much. But the truth is that Jesus loves us first. He carries us in His Sacred Heart. All our love for Jesus is only a return of His love. In the Bible, St John write: “We love because he first loved us” (1 Jn 4:19).
My dear friends, when you love someone deeply deeply, you would naturally see his / her presence everywhere. Can you see Jesus? Hopefully, today, you would see, you would hear or even you would touch Jesus – perhaps in every rose, in every tree and in each smiling face that you meet.
Let’s listen to the poem one more time and then we would pray together. [POEM] Please look up at the screen and say the prayer together. I would invite the prefects to step forward and look at the screen.
O Lord Jesus, we thank you for Your love for us. Please make us see your blood upon the rose and in the stars the glory of Your eyes. O Lord Jesus, open our eyes so we could see Your body gleams amid eternal snows and Your tears fall from the skies. O Lord Jesus, please make us see your face in every flower. O Lord Jesus, please open our eyes so we could see Your crown of thorns twined with every thorn, and that Your cross is every tree. We ask you to bless this day as we begin a new day of learning. You live forever and You are King eternally. Amen.
Today, I would like to introduce a poem to you. Please follow the reading as printed in your hymnal to be read by Mr Mckenzie
I See His Blood Upon the Rose by Joseph Mary Plunkett
I see his blood upon the rose // And in the stars the glory of His eyes,
His body gleams amid eternal snows, // His tears fall from the skies.
I see his face in every flower; // The thunder and the singing of the birds
Are but His voice – and carven by His power // Rocks are His written words.
All pathways by His feet are worn, // His strong heart stirs the ever-beating sea,
His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn, // His cross is every tree.
Not too many difficult words here.
3rd line: Amid – has the same meaning as “among.” It must be lovely to live in the countryside: having your home amid trees and farm must be better than amid high-rises and skyscrapers.
3rd line: Gleam: When eyes gleam, they shine in a way that expresses a particular emotion. The line “His body gleams amid eternal snows” means “His body shines among the snow.
7th line: Carven = carved: made by cutting: E.g., He carved her name on a tree. Her name is carven with love on a tree. Another example: For Halloween, people put a candle in carven pumpkins.
10th line: Stir = to mix a liquid by moving something like a spoon in a circular pattern: You can stir some sugar into the coffee to make it sweet. Another example: My heart stirs when I see how the national flag is flown everywhere on October 1.
10th line: Beat = to make a regular movement or sound: e.g. My heart beats faster than normal when I am excited. I need to take a rest now because my heart is beating very fast. So: Ever-beating sea = the sea with waves making a regular sound
11th line: Twine = to wrap round an object several times E.g. The vine twines around the branch. You can see that in the picture provided. Don’t confuse this word with the word TWIN vs TWINE.
So you understand the words, do you understand the poem? Let’s examine the first sentence again: I see his blood upon the rose And in the stars the glory of his eyes... Why would the poet see blood on a rose? I can think of two possibilities: One: Someone was hurt by a rose; perhaps a thorn has pricked his finger and his blood stays on the rose. Two: The poet is talking about someone whom he loves very much. This person has died and seeing a rose would remind the poet of this person. Yes, that would be the reason. Can you guess who this person is? If you remember at the beginning of the talk, I have told you today’s morning prayer is about the love of Jesus. So, the poet is saying: When he sees a rose, he would see the blood of Jesus. That’s why all the “his” in the poem should have been “His”. Can you please change that if you have a pencil handy? The poet would make that connection because, I guess, Jesus’ blood is red, and each drop of blood is similar to a rose petal. And, most importantly, the love of Jesus is as beautiful as a rose.
We can use this same idea to understand the rest of the poem: The stars in the sky would remind Plunkett, the poet, of the eyes of Jesus. The gleaming snows would remind Joseph Mary, our poet, how the body of Jesus shines. When the poet says: “His body gleams amid eternal snows” is really saying “When I see how the snow in winter gleams, it is like seeing the body of Jesus gleams”. And so on with rain, thunder and birds’ singing.
The climax is the last line: His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn, // His cross is every tree. You may remember that before Jesus died, someone gave him a crown made of thorns to wear. Imagine that would be very painful; but because of his love for us, Jesus endured the crown. So thorns become a symbol of Jesus’ love and that’s the reason the poet would see how the crown of thorns of Jesus would twin / mix with thorn on a plant.
Indeed, when you love someone, you would always think about him / her. And because you carry his or her memory with you so much, it is very natural for you to be reminded of this person by just about anything. So, from this poem, we know Joseph Mary Plunkett loves Jesus very much. But the truth is that Jesus loves us first. He carries us in His Sacred Heart. All our love for Jesus is only a return of His love. In the Bible, St John write: “We love because he first loved us” (1 Jn 4:19).
My dear friends, when you love someone deeply deeply, you would naturally see his / her presence everywhere. Can you see Jesus? Hopefully, today, you would see, you would hear or even you would touch Jesus – perhaps in every rose, in every tree and in each smiling face that you meet.
Let’s listen to the poem one more time and then we would pray together. [POEM] Please look up at the screen and say the prayer together. I would invite the prefects to step forward and look at the screen.
O Lord Jesus, we thank you for Your love for us. Please make us see your blood upon the rose and in the stars the glory of Your eyes. O Lord Jesus, open our eyes so we could see Your body gleams amid eternal snows and Your tears fall from the skies. O Lord Jesus, please make us see your face in every flower. O Lord Jesus, please open our eyes so we could see Your crown of thorns twined with every thorn, and that Your cross is every tree. We ask you to bless this day as we begin a new day of learning. You live forever and You are King eternally. Amen.
posted by Brother William OFM at 6:39 PM
0 comments
Friday Morning Prayer For 2 February 2007: Candlemas
Tongue warmer: How many days ago was Christmas?
Good morning! That was a very interesting question. How many days ago was Christmas? It was exactly forty 40 days ago. In the church calendar, we name this day: Candlemas. Christmas is the Mass of Christ. Candlemas is naturally the Mass of Candles. Why? Today, if you go to church, there is a special ceremony with candles. (We have one candle here.) In northern Europe, young women and girls would even wear crowns of candles. Kind of difficult to balance I imagine.
Anyway, the origin of the feast is like this: According to the Bible, 40 days after Jesus was born, Mary and Joseph took Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem. Imagine this: Jesus being the true light brightened up the dark Temple. So to remember that Jesus is the true light, we celebrate Candlemas with lots of candles. Some of you may not know the story so please listen to Fr Roberto / Mr Mckenzie. You can follow the story on page _ of your hymnal. Please pay attention to the words in BOLD letters.
Listen to the Word of God. A Reading from the Gospel according to St Luke.
The time came for Joseph and Mary to perform the ceremony of purification, as the Law of Moses commanded. So they took the child to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. They also went to offer a sacrifice of a pair of doves or two young pigeons, as required by the law.
At that time there was a man named Simeon living in Jerusalem. He was a good, God-fearing man and was waiting for Israel to be saved. The Holy Spirit was with him and had assured him that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's promised Messiah.
When the parents brought the child Jesus into the Temple to do for him what the Law required, Simeon took the child in his arms and gave thanks to God:
"Now, Lord, you have kept your promise, and you may let your servant go in peace. With my own eyes I have seen your salvation.”
The child's father and mother were amazed at the things Simeon said about him.
Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother, "This child will be a sign from God which many people will speak against. And sorrow, like a sharp sword, will break your own heart."
The Gospel of the Lord.
All: Praise to You Lord Jesus Christ.
Thank you. This story is the basis why we have the feast Candlemas today. Now, a little poem here. This poem is written by Eve Forti, and it is called The Offering. You are going to see that this poem is retelling the Candlemas story in a poetic way. Instead of telling a story, the poet tries to talk to one of the person in the story: Simeon, the old man who took Jesus in his arms. Please listen to it – and please take a special note to the underlined words.
Poem: The Offering by Eve Forti
Old Man, you've sown the years longing for the harvest, hoping for the green shoot to appear.
Fragrant with perfection, He is here: wanting to be purified, waiting to be crucified.
And His mother, offering her Lamb, gives Him to your open arms
so you can finally die in peace knowing that the Promised One is born.
In gratitude you will whisper that her heart will break.
I don’t think I need to explain each and every single word to you and you can still understand a lot about both the poem and the original Bible story. Now, I would like you to take some time to match the poem with the story. I think it is not difficult if you try to match the keywords together.
Let us take 20 seconds to do this. [PAUSE] Let’s check the answer now:
Paragraph 1 in the Bible story matches with Paragraph B of the poem. The keyword is purification. Purification comes from the word PURE, very clean. To make something pure is to purify. E.g. You cannot drink water from the river unless it is purified. That means purification would make the water safe to drink.
Paragraph 2 in the Bible story matches with paragraph A of the poem. The keyword is waiting – and in the poem, the poet uses the phrase “longing for”. To long for something means to wait for something. E.g. Almost all students long for summer holidays.
Paragraph 3 in the Bible story matches with paragraph C of the poem. The key phrase is “in his arms”. Compare these two sentences: (Bible) Simeon took the child in his arms. (Poem) Mary gives him to your open arms. Well, I think Mary gave Jesus to Simeon’s open arms so Simeon took him in his arms. To take something in your arms means to carry something with your arms. Naturally you have to open your arms first.
Paragraph 4 in the Bible story matches with paragraph D of the poem. The key phrase is “in peace”. In the Bible, Simeon said he could now go in peace and that means exactly dying in peace. The author in the Bible story uses the word “go” instead of “die.” Some people do not like to hear the words “to die’ or “death”. Can you think of one word that means “in peace”? Yes, peacefully. E.g. My grandfather died peacefully. He died in peace.
Finally, paragraph 5 in the Bible story matches with paragraph E of the poem. Besides the phrase about how a sword would break the heart of Mary – that is obvious. In paragraph 5 of the Bible story, Simeon said to Mary. In the poem, the poet said: you will whisper. WHISPER means to speak softly. E.g. In the library, you are not supposed to talk at all. If you really have to talk, please whisper; otherwise, the library will become noisy.
To end our prayer – let’s say a prayer. I will say the beginning and you have to join in at the end.
Let us pray: O Heavenly Father, today we celebrate Candlemas and we thank you for giving us Your Only Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ who is the true light. We long for His love we long for a world full of life and joy. Please teach us to live in peace with each other, especially those we find difficult. Please teach us to open our arms to welcome everyone. We end now our prayer with the prayer that Your Son has taught us: Our Father…
Good morning! That was a very interesting question. How many days ago was Christmas? It was exactly forty 40 days ago. In the church calendar, we name this day: Candlemas. Christmas is the Mass of Christ. Candlemas is naturally the Mass of Candles. Why? Today, if you go to church, there is a special ceremony with candles. (We have one candle here.) In northern Europe, young women and girls would even wear crowns of candles. Kind of difficult to balance I imagine.
Anyway, the origin of the feast is like this: According to the Bible, 40 days after Jesus was born, Mary and Joseph took Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem. Imagine this: Jesus being the true light brightened up the dark Temple. So to remember that Jesus is the true light, we celebrate Candlemas with lots of candles. Some of you may not know the story so please listen to Fr Roberto / Mr Mckenzie. You can follow the story on page _ of your hymnal. Please pay attention to the words in BOLD letters.
Listen to the Word of God. A Reading from the Gospel according to St Luke.
The time came for Joseph and Mary to perform the ceremony of purification, as the Law of Moses commanded. So they took the child to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. They also went to offer a sacrifice of a pair of doves or two young pigeons, as required by the law.
At that time there was a man named Simeon living in Jerusalem. He was a good, God-fearing man and was waiting for Israel to be saved. The Holy Spirit was with him and had assured him that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's promised Messiah.
When the parents brought the child Jesus into the Temple to do for him what the Law required, Simeon took the child in his arms and gave thanks to God:
"Now, Lord, you have kept your promise, and you may let your servant go in peace. With my own eyes I have seen your salvation.”
The child's father and mother were amazed at the things Simeon said about him.
Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother, "This child will be a sign from God which many people will speak against. And sorrow, like a sharp sword, will break your own heart."
The Gospel of the Lord.
All: Praise to You Lord Jesus Christ.
Thank you. This story is the basis why we have the feast Candlemas today. Now, a little poem here. This poem is written by Eve Forti, and it is called The Offering. You are going to see that this poem is retelling the Candlemas story in a poetic way. Instead of telling a story, the poet tries to talk to one of the person in the story: Simeon, the old man who took Jesus in his arms. Please listen to it – and please take a special note to the underlined words.
Poem: The Offering by Eve Forti
Old Man, you've sown the years longing for the harvest, hoping for the green shoot to appear.
Fragrant with perfection, He is here: wanting to be purified, waiting to be crucified.
And His mother, offering her Lamb, gives Him to your open arms
so you can finally die in peace knowing that the Promised One is born.
In gratitude you will whisper that her heart will break.
I don’t think I need to explain each and every single word to you and you can still understand a lot about both the poem and the original Bible story. Now, I would like you to take some time to match the poem with the story. I think it is not difficult if you try to match the keywords together.
Let us take 20 seconds to do this. [PAUSE] Let’s check the answer now:
Paragraph 1 in the Bible story matches with Paragraph B of the poem. The keyword is purification. Purification comes from the word PURE, very clean. To make something pure is to purify. E.g. You cannot drink water from the river unless it is purified. That means purification would make the water safe to drink.
Paragraph 2 in the Bible story matches with paragraph A of the poem. The keyword is waiting – and in the poem, the poet uses the phrase “longing for”. To long for something means to wait for something. E.g. Almost all students long for summer holidays.
Paragraph 3 in the Bible story matches with paragraph C of the poem. The key phrase is “in his arms”. Compare these two sentences: (Bible) Simeon took the child in his arms. (Poem) Mary gives him to your open arms. Well, I think Mary gave Jesus to Simeon’s open arms so Simeon took him in his arms. To take something in your arms means to carry something with your arms. Naturally you have to open your arms first.
Paragraph 4 in the Bible story matches with paragraph D of the poem. The key phrase is “in peace”. In the Bible, Simeon said he could now go in peace and that means exactly dying in peace. The author in the Bible story uses the word “go” instead of “die.” Some people do not like to hear the words “to die’ or “death”. Can you think of one word that means “in peace”? Yes, peacefully. E.g. My grandfather died peacefully. He died in peace.
Finally, paragraph 5 in the Bible story matches with paragraph E of the poem. Besides the phrase about how a sword would break the heart of Mary – that is obvious. In paragraph 5 of the Bible story, Simeon said to Mary. In the poem, the poet said: you will whisper. WHISPER means to speak softly. E.g. In the library, you are not supposed to talk at all. If you really have to talk, please whisper; otherwise, the library will become noisy.
To end our prayer – let’s say a prayer. I will say the beginning and you have to join in at the end.
Let us pray: O Heavenly Father, today we celebrate Candlemas and we thank you for giving us Your Only Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ who is the true light. We long for His love we long for a world full of life and joy. Please teach us to live in peace with each other, especially those we find difficult. Please teach us to open our arms to welcome everyone. We end now our prayer with the prayer that Your Son has taught us: Our Father…
posted by Brother William OFM at 6:39 PM
0 comments
Friday Morning Prayer for 26 January 2007: The Most Precious Blood of Jesus
Tongue warmer: Introducing Fr Roberto to everyone and guessing how tall Fr Roberto is and where he is from.
Good morning everyone! I am very pleased to introduce one of our Franciscan brothers to you. He is Fr Roberto and you may have guessed it correctly about his nationality. Fr Roberto is Italian, and the name Roberto is the Italian form of Robert. Just like Maria is another form of Mary. Fr Roberto will be with us from time to time, mostly on Fridays, our English Speaking Days and you can talk to him in English just about anything. So, on behalf of everyone here at St Joseph’s, a very a warm welcome to you, Fr Roberto.
You were guessing how tall he is. Let him tell you the answer.
[1.97m]
Thank you. That's pretty impressive.
Let’s start today’s morning prayer with a song that we sang last time. Please turn to page 7 of your hymnal. Let’s sing verse 1 altogether. [SING] Let’s learn the second verse. Please repeat after me. Please sing after me. [HYMN] Let’s turn back to page 19.
Please write down the word in verse two that rhymes with find. Five seconds. Yes, it’s kind. Look up and see on the screen are words that also rhyme with find: blind, hind, mind, rind. But how about this word? WIND. Does it rhyme with FIND? Well, it can rhyme! Because there are two ways to pronounce the word WIND. It is wind, which does not rhyme with the word FIND meaning the moving air, as a noun, but as a verb, it is wind, rhyming with the words such FIND and BLIND.. E.g. The river winds through the valley means There are many curves and bends in the river that runs through the valley.
Now back to our hymn. Please take a look at the line: Grace and life eternal in that blood I find. In poetry we sometimes mix the word order, we do not follow the normal word order so we can make words rhyme at the end. The meaning of the verse Grace and life eternal in that blood I find means I find grace and eternal life in that blood. That blood of course refers to the blood of Jesus. If you still remember, that’s what we talked about last Friday. In the Bible, there is a story about how Jesus’ blood came out from his body. Let’s have Mr Mckenzie read it for us.
Listen to the Word of God. A Reading from the Gospel according to St John.
One of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to You Lord Jesus Christ.
One of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear…Can you tell what does the word his refer to? Yes, it refers to the side of Jesus, as you can tell from the pictures. The soldier and his spear [SPEAR] can be seen in the picture at the bottom. The picture above has an angel using a cup to collect the blood that came out from Jesus. Why would Jesus die on the cross? Because he loves us no matter how much people do not love him. People do not like him, even to the point of putting him to death. That’s why we say his compassion is infinitely kind. Having compassion is being kind. But now, the author of this song said it is not just kind compassion but infinitely kind compassion.
Can you try to match the new words for today with the words and phrases on the right hand side?
I will give you 15 seconds. Here are the answers:
Eternal = Lasting forever: E.g. Jesus gives us eternal life, a life that is everlasting.
Blest = Blessed: My grandfather said that he has been very blessed all his life: although he is not very rich, he always enjoys good health and a happy family.
Compassion = A strong feeling of sadness for the bad luck of others: My compassion goes to Jane because her mother dies recently.
Infinitely = Very much: African countries owe a lot of money, almost an infinite amount. There is no end. Faced with such an infinitely large amount of debt, African countries are very poor.
Pierce = To make a hole: Joseph went to Red Cross to donate blood and the nurse used a needle to pierce through his skin in order to draw blood from his vein.
Mercy = Kindness: Although Peter failed in his exam, his teacher was merciful to him and gave him another chance to retake the exam.
Finally, let’s say the prayer at the bottom of page 19 together. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Lord Jesus, when the soldier pierced Your side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. In Your Most Holy blood, we find grace and eternal life.
For Your infinitely kind compassion, we give You thanks. Please help us to be thankful always for Your love and teach us to be as loving as You are to us.
We ask this for You are God and King for ever and ever. Amen.
St Joseph, Pray for us. St Francis, Pray for us.
Good morning everyone! I am very pleased to introduce one of our Franciscan brothers to you. He is Fr Roberto and you may have guessed it correctly about his nationality. Fr Roberto is Italian, and the name Roberto is the Italian form of Robert. Just like Maria is another form of Mary. Fr Roberto will be with us from time to time, mostly on Fridays, our English Speaking Days and you can talk to him in English just about anything. So, on behalf of everyone here at St Joseph’s, a very a warm welcome to you, Fr Roberto.
You were guessing how tall he is. Let him tell you the answer.
[1.97m]
Thank you. That's pretty impressive.
Let’s start today’s morning prayer with a song that we sang last time. Please turn to page 7 of your hymnal. Let’s sing verse 1 altogether. [SING] Let’s learn the second verse. Please repeat after me. Please sing after me. [HYMN] Let’s turn back to page 19.
Please write down the word in verse two that rhymes with find. Five seconds. Yes, it’s kind. Look up and see on the screen are words that also rhyme with find: blind, hind, mind, rind. But how about this word? WIND. Does it rhyme with FIND? Well, it can rhyme! Because there are two ways to pronounce the word WIND. It is wind, which does not rhyme with the word FIND meaning the moving air, as a noun, but as a verb, it is wind, rhyming with the words such FIND and BLIND.. E.g. The river winds through the valley means There are many curves and bends in the river that runs through the valley.
Now back to our hymn. Please take a look at the line: Grace and life eternal in that blood I find. In poetry we sometimes mix the word order, we do not follow the normal word order so we can make words rhyme at the end. The meaning of the verse Grace and life eternal in that blood I find means I find grace and eternal life in that blood. That blood of course refers to the blood of Jesus. If you still remember, that’s what we talked about last Friday. In the Bible, there is a story about how Jesus’ blood came out from his body. Let’s have Mr Mckenzie read it for us.
Listen to the Word of God. A Reading from the Gospel according to St John.
One of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to You Lord Jesus Christ.
One of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear…Can you tell what does the word his refer to? Yes, it refers to the side of Jesus, as you can tell from the pictures. The soldier and his spear [SPEAR] can be seen in the picture at the bottom. The picture above has an angel using a cup to collect the blood that came out from Jesus. Why would Jesus die on the cross? Because he loves us no matter how much people do not love him. People do not like him, even to the point of putting him to death. That’s why we say his compassion is infinitely kind. Having compassion is being kind. But now, the author of this song said it is not just kind compassion but infinitely kind compassion.
Can you try to match the new words for today with the words and phrases on the right hand side?
I will give you 15 seconds. Here are the answers:
Eternal = Lasting forever: E.g. Jesus gives us eternal life, a life that is everlasting.
Blest = Blessed: My grandfather said that he has been very blessed all his life: although he is not very rich, he always enjoys good health and a happy family.
Compassion = A strong feeling of sadness for the bad luck of others: My compassion goes to Jane because her mother dies recently.
Infinitely = Very much: African countries owe a lot of money, almost an infinite amount. There is no end. Faced with such an infinitely large amount of debt, African countries are very poor.
Pierce = To make a hole: Joseph went to Red Cross to donate blood and the nurse used a needle to pierce through his skin in order to draw blood from his vein.
Mercy = Kindness: Although Peter failed in his exam, his teacher was merciful to him and gave him another chance to retake the exam.
Finally, let’s say the prayer at the bottom of page 19 together. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Lord Jesus, when the soldier pierced Your side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. In Your Most Holy blood, we find grace and eternal life.
For Your infinitely kind compassion, we give You thanks. Please help us to be thankful always for Your love and teach us to be as loving as You are to us.
We ask this for You are God and King for ever and ever. Amen.
St Joseph, Pray for us. St Francis, Pray for us.
posted by Brother William OFM at 6:37 PM
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Friday Morning Prayer for 19 January 2007: St Anthony
Good Morning! If you come from 1A, 2A or any of the A classes, I am sure you know who the patron saint of your class is. Yes, it is St Anthony. Mr Tang has been sharing with you about St Anthony for the past few days. Why we talk so much about him this week? In 1946, 60 years ago, on 16 January, the Catholic Church made St Anthony into a “Doctor of the Church.” St Anthony is a doctor of the Church, that means he understood religious knowledge very well and his teaching is very valuable even for today.
As you can see on page 15 of your hymnal, St Anthony has once given a sermon and he talks about Jesus like this:
“The humanity of Christ is like the grape because it was crushed in the winepress of the Cross so that his blood flowed over the whole earth…. How great is his love!”
St Anthony talks about the humanity of Christ. HUMANITY is the human quality. We all know Jesus is God but he is human at the same time. God loves us so much that Jesus has become human to live among us. The interesting thing is that St Anthony says that Christ’s humanity is like the fruit, grapes. When you think of grapes, you may think of wine that is made from grapes. Now why would St Anthony use grapes as a way to describe Christ’s humanity? Being God, Christ would not have body or blood, unless he first becomes human. You see Christ died on the cross for us. When he died, his blood flowed from his body. Blood is a red liquid, very much like grape juice or red wine, which is made from grapes.
To make wine from grapes, one has to step on grapes to get the juice. We put grapes in the winepress first. You can see a little picture of a winepress on page 15 of your hymnal. That’s why St Anthony talks about the cross as a winepress. Grapes are crushed, squeezed in the winepress to make juice that makes wine; similarly it was on the cross that so his blood flowed.
Let’s learn a new song: The hymn we are going to sing today is Glory be to Jesus. There are several words, which I would like to go over with you:
Bitter: We say something is bitter when it has an unpleasantly sharp taste. We describe an experience to be bitter when it causes deep pain or anger. For example: Susan puts sugar into her coffee. Without sugar, black coffee is too bitter for her. // Calvin’s mother died recently and it was a bitter experience for him.
Pour: We pour a liquid when we make a liquid flow from or into a container. For example, Susan puts some sugar into her coffee first, then she pours milk as well. // We say: “Oh, it is pouring rain” when it rains so hard that it feels like water is being poured from the sky.
Sacred. We say something is sacred when we want to say it is holy. You may remember the phrase: The Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Vein. A vein is a tube in the body that carries blood. For example, Last week, Veronica went to Red Cross to donate blood and the nurse put a needle in her vein to draw the blood out.
Let’s look at the first verse of the hymn Glory be to Jesus. Please repeat after Mr McKenzie.
1. Glory be to Jesus, who in bitter pains / Poured for me the life-blood from His sacred veins!
Can you write down the word that rhymes with pains? (Veins)
Let’s turn to page 7 and learn this new song. Please now turn back to page 15 and say the prayer together.
(Everybody together) In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
O Lord Jesus, in bitter pains You have poured out your Most Holy Blood to save all humanity. Your blood flowed over the whole earth as a result of your holy love for us.
All: We thank you for your love that brings us new life.
Please help us to remain united with Your love.
All: We thank you for your love that brings us new life.
We ask you to help those who have to face bitter pains since you have gone through bitter pains on the cross.
All: We thank you for your love that brings us new life.
Please help them to experience the sweetness of your love.
All: We thank you for your love that brings us new life.
We ask this for You are God and King for ever and ever.
All: Amen.
St Joseph
All: Pray for us.
St Francis
All: Pray for us.
Thank you. In the Student Learning Zone on your First Class, you will see a transcript – that is the text – of all the morning prayers in English. There are some extra activities for you to do. If you do those activities, I promise you a little souvenir.
As you can see on page 15 of your hymnal, St Anthony has once given a sermon and he talks about Jesus like this:
“The humanity of Christ is like the grape because it was crushed in the winepress of the Cross so that his blood flowed over the whole earth…. How great is his love!”
St Anthony talks about the humanity of Christ. HUMANITY is the human quality. We all know Jesus is God but he is human at the same time. God loves us so much that Jesus has become human to live among us. The interesting thing is that St Anthony says that Christ’s humanity is like the fruit, grapes. When you think of grapes, you may think of wine that is made from grapes. Now why would St Anthony use grapes as a way to describe Christ’s humanity? Being God, Christ would not have body or blood, unless he first becomes human. You see Christ died on the cross for us. When he died, his blood flowed from his body. Blood is a red liquid, very much like grape juice or red wine, which is made from grapes.
To make wine from grapes, one has to step on grapes to get the juice. We put grapes in the winepress first. You can see a little picture of a winepress on page 15 of your hymnal. That’s why St Anthony talks about the cross as a winepress. Grapes are crushed, squeezed in the winepress to make juice that makes wine; similarly it was on the cross that so his blood flowed.
Let’s learn a new song: The hymn we are going to sing today is Glory be to Jesus. There are several words, which I would like to go over with you:
Bitter: We say something is bitter when it has an unpleasantly sharp taste. We describe an experience to be bitter when it causes deep pain or anger. For example: Susan puts sugar into her coffee. Without sugar, black coffee is too bitter for her. // Calvin’s mother died recently and it was a bitter experience for him.
Pour: We pour a liquid when we make a liquid flow from or into a container. For example, Susan puts some sugar into her coffee first, then she pours milk as well. // We say: “Oh, it is pouring rain” when it rains so hard that it feels like water is being poured from the sky.
Sacred. We say something is sacred when we want to say it is holy. You may remember the phrase: The Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Vein. A vein is a tube in the body that carries blood. For example, Last week, Veronica went to Red Cross to donate blood and the nurse put a needle in her vein to draw the blood out.
Let’s look at the first verse of the hymn Glory be to Jesus. Please repeat after Mr McKenzie.
1. Glory be to Jesus, who in bitter pains / Poured for me the life-blood from His sacred veins!
Can you write down the word that rhymes with pains? (Veins)
Let’s turn to page 7 and learn this new song. Please now turn back to page 15 and say the prayer together.
(Everybody together) In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
O Lord Jesus, in bitter pains You have poured out your Most Holy Blood to save all humanity. Your blood flowed over the whole earth as a result of your holy love for us.
All: We thank you for your love that brings us new life.
Please help us to remain united with Your love.
All: We thank you for your love that brings us new life.
We ask you to help those who have to face bitter pains since you have gone through bitter pains on the cross.
All: We thank you for your love that brings us new life.
Please help them to experience the sweetness of your love.
All: We thank you for your love that brings us new life.
We ask this for You are God and King for ever and ever.
All: Amen.
St Joseph
All: Pray for us.
St Francis
All: Pray for us.
Thank you. In the Student Learning Zone on your First Class, you will see a transcript – that is the text – of all the morning prayers in English. There are some extra activities for you to do. If you do those activities, I promise you a little souvenir.
posted by Brother William OFM at 6:37 PM
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Friday Morning Prayer for 15 December 2006: 10 more days till Christmas
Good Morning! Welcome to another Friday Morning Prayer and today is the last Friday Morning Prayer of December. You may remember that we are now in the time of Advent (the four weeks before Christmas), and actually there are only 10 more days left till Christmas. First, I would like all of you to listen to a passage from the Bible. You can look at page _ of the hymnbook.
Listen to the Word of God. A Reading from the Gospel according to St Matthew: Watch out, then, because you do not know what day your Lord will come. If the owner of a house knew the time when the thief would come, you can be sure that he would stay awake and not let the thief break into his house. So then, you also must always be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you are not expecting him. The Gospel of the Lord. [All: ]Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ.
Do you know who the Son of Man is? Jesus is the Son of God but he calls himself the Son of Man as a sign of being humble. There is a 19th Century saint in France by the name of St Therese and she has made a statement like this. It is printed on page _ of the hymnbook.
"It's said in the Gospel that God will come like a Thief. He will come to steal me away very gently. Oh, how I'd love to aid the Thief!... I'm not afraid of the Thief. I see him in the distance, and I take good care not to call out: 'Help! Thief!' On the contrary, I call to him, saying: 'Over here, over here!"'
Do you recognize this picture of St Therese? You may have seen it in the lobby just outside the entrance to the school hall, above the computers at the Ground Floor IT Gallery. In the Bible, Jesus asks us to be ready just like someone to take caution, to take care, not to let the thief break into the house. Advent is the time to prepare for Christmas. It is not just a time make preparations for Christmas parties but it is also a time to be ready for Jesus’ coming. Jesus came to humankind at the first Christmas 2000 years ago; Christmas is coming again in 10 days time; and one day, Jesus will come back to us.
Jesus says we have to be ready as if a thief would come at an unexpected time. We know Jesus is not a thief. But Jesus will come at a time that we do not know, very much like a thief. We call this kind of writing a metaphor. A metaphor is a word or a phrase, which describes something by referring to something else that has similar characteristics. For example: 'The city is a jungle' is a metaphor. We know the city is NOT a jungle, not a forest, without animals, but the city is like a jungle because the jungle is full of excitement just like the city is. So to say 'The city is a jungle' is a metaphor.
St Therese says: Jesus will come to steal me away. She is playing with the metaphor of the thief. Jesus says we have to make ourselves ready because we do not know when the thief would come. The original metaphor is using the idea that both Jesus and the thief would come at an unexpected time. But St Therese says Jesus is a thief because Jesus will come to steal me away. So the metaphor is using the idea that Jesus and the thief would come to steal things. The thief would steal valuables from our house just like Jesus would steal us because we are valuable in his eyes too.
So how shall we get ready? If we know a thief is coming, we would not sleep and stay awake. The words associated with waiting are being alert and watchful. [alert] [watchful] Being alert and watchful is being quick to see, understand and act. For example: I'm not feeling very alert today - not enough sleep last night! I didn’t see the teacher coming into the classroom. If a driver is not watchful, traffic accidents may happen. So by being alert and watchful would be a way to prepare for Christ’s coming. One way to be alert and watchful is to know what our goals in life are. Another way to be alert and watchful is to pray always.
Let’s pray now by using the prayer at the bottom of page _ of the hymnbook. Please say the parts in bold letters.
It is time for us to wake from our sleep: the day of our salvation is near.
All: Lord, may your kingdom come!
Prepare us for the coming of your Word by opening our hearts to receive him. R.
Throw down the walls of hatred between nations, clear the way for those who work for peace. R.
Lord, keep us ever alert and watchful as we await the coming of your Son, so that, faithful to his teaching, we may go to meet our Saviour. We make our prayer through our Lord. Amen.
To end our prayer, let’s sing O Come, Divine Messiah. Just to go over some words which you may know already: Divine (holy), triumph (victory), flee away (go away). And I would also ask you to pay attention to the rhyming of the words: waits the day and flee away.
Listen to the Word of God. A Reading from the Gospel according to St Matthew: Watch out, then, because you do not know what day your Lord will come. If the owner of a house knew the time when the thief would come, you can be sure that he would stay awake and not let the thief break into his house. So then, you also must always be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you are not expecting him. The Gospel of the Lord. [All: ]Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ.
Do you know who the Son of Man is? Jesus is the Son of God but he calls himself the Son of Man as a sign of being humble. There is a 19th Century saint in France by the name of St Therese and she has made a statement like this. It is printed on page _ of the hymnbook.
"It's said in the Gospel that God will come like a Thief. He will come to steal me away very gently. Oh, how I'd love to aid the Thief!... I'm not afraid of the Thief. I see him in the distance, and I take good care not to call out: 'Help! Thief!' On the contrary, I call to him, saying: 'Over here, over here!"'
Do you recognize this picture of St Therese? You may have seen it in the lobby just outside the entrance to the school hall, above the computers at the Ground Floor IT Gallery. In the Bible, Jesus asks us to be ready just like someone to take caution, to take care, not to let the thief break into the house. Advent is the time to prepare for Christmas. It is not just a time make preparations for Christmas parties but it is also a time to be ready for Jesus’ coming. Jesus came to humankind at the first Christmas 2000 years ago; Christmas is coming again in 10 days time; and one day, Jesus will come back to us.
Jesus says we have to be ready as if a thief would come at an unexpected time. We know Jesus is not a thief. But Jesus will come at a time that we do not know, very much like a thief. We call this kind of writing a metaphor. A metaphor is a word or a phrase, which describes something by referring to something else that has similar characteristics. For example: 'The city is a jungle' is a metaphor. We know the city is NOT a jungle, not a forest, without animals, but the city is like a jungle because the jungle is full of excitement just like the city is. So to say 'The city is a jungle' is a metaphor.
St Therese says: Jesus will come to steal me away. She is playing with the metaphor of the thief. Jesus says we have to make ourselves ready because we do not know when the thief would come. The original metaphor is using the idea that both Jesus and the thief would come at an unexpected time. But St Therese says Jesus is a thief because Jesus will come to steal me away. So the metaphor is using the idea that Jesus and the thief would come to steal things. The thief would steal valuables from our house just like Jesus would steal us because we are valuable in his eyes too.
So how shall we get ready? If we know a thief is coming, we would not sleep and stay awake. The words associated with waiting are being alert and watchful. [alert] [watchful] Being alert and watchful is being quick to see, understand and act. For example: I'm not feeling very alert today - not enough sleep last night! I didn’t see the teacher coming into the classroom. If a driver is not watchful, traffic accidents may happen. So by being alert and watchful would be a way to prepare for Christ’s coming. One way to be alert and watchful is to know what our goals in life are. Another way to be alert and watchful is to pray always.
Let’s pray now by using the prayer at the bottom of page _ of the hymnbook. Please say the parts in bold letters.
It is time for us to wake from our sleep: the day of our salvation is near.
All: Lord, may your kingdom come!
Prepare us for the coming of your Word by opening our hearts to receive him. R.
Throw down the walls of hatred between nations, clear the way for those who work for peace. R.
Lord, keep us ever alert and watchful as we await the coming of your Son, so that, faithful to his teaching, we may go to meet our Saviour. We make our prayer through our Lord. Amen.
To end our prayer, let’s sing O Come, Divine Messiah. Just to go over some words which you may know already: Divine (holy), triumph (victory), flee away (go away). And I would also ask you to pay attention to the rhyming of the words: waits the day and flee away.
posted by Brother William OFM at 6:36 PM
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Friday Morning Prayer for 8 December 2006: Christmas is coming… 17 more days!
Warm-up: What would you be doing at Christmas? And how are you preparing for it?
Good Morning! Yes, 17 more days till Christmas! Aren’t you excited? I am. Welcome to another Friday Morning Prayer with me, Brother William. I feel like I must introduce myself again because I have noticed many students do not know who I am. So one more, I am Br. William. The short form for Brother is Br. So instead of writing Brother William, you can just write Br. William. The poet for today is by the name of Sr. Maryanna. The short form for Sister is Sr. The poem is known as Advent Prayer, an appropriate topic for today. If you remember from last week, we call the four weeks period before Christmas Advent. Please listen to Mr Mckenzie. Please pay attention to the meaning of the poem. Please try to think of to whom this poem is addressed. The poet, Sr. Maryanna is speaking to someone. Who is that person? [POEM.]
This poem is addressed to Our Lady, Mary, Mother of Jesus. The word thee in line 2, meaning you, refers to Mary and Him refers to Jesus. We know it has to be Jesus because this poem is about preparing for Christmas. The birth of Jesus is the focus of Christmas and the letter H in Him is capitalized because Jesus is God.
Although this poem is addressed to Mary, this poem is about Jesus and us. It is about making a room in our hearts of Jesus, as said in the fourth line. The word shrine means a very special house, mostly religious. It can be a church but it can be a temple too. For example: In Thailand, there are many famous shrines of Buddha where Buddhists go to worship. Some Chinese families keep a shrine to honour their ancestors at home, usually a red shelf with candles.
The first line of this poem talks about the foolish folk of old, i.e. the people in the past. If you remember the story of the birth of Jesus, this line refers to fact that when Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem, they couldn’t find any room to stay. My dear teachers and students, do we all have a room in our hearts for Jesus? I hope we have the same desire to hold baby Jesus in our hearts.
Now, some interesting things about the English of this poem: Do you still remember what rhymes are? Rhymes are words that have similar sound.
The first language arts feature, which you should learn, is rhymes. The last word of each line rhymes with each other. The word be of the first line and the word thee of the second line rhyme with each other. Similarly, the word heart of the third line rhymes with the word apart of the fourth line. Can you all tell me which word in the fifth line rhymes with the word prayer in the sixth line? Yes, it’s care. Good! That means the proper pronunciation of the word prayer is not pray-er, like play-er but simply pr-air. Like air, stair, care, prayer. Let’s say these words altogether: air, stair, care, prayer. In the last stanza – that is the last paragraph of a poem – we have the rhyming words: start and heart. So the rhyming pattern of the poem is aa-bb-cc-bb: where aa means the words: be and thee; bb means the words heart, apart and start; and, cc means care and prayer.
The second language arts feature is the choice of words. You can see the modern equivalents at the right hand column.
Like foolish folk of old I would not be,
Who had no room that night for Him and thee.
See, Mother Mary, here within my heart
I've made a little shrine for Him apart;
Swept it of sin, and cleansed it with all care;
Warmed it with love and scented it with prayer.
So, Mother, when the Christmas anthems start,
Please let me hold your baby – in my heart.
I would not be like foolish folk in the past who had no room that night for Him and you.
See, Mother Mary, I have made a little church for Him here in my heart.
I have swept it of sin, cleaned it with all care, warmed it with love and made it smell good with prayer.
So, Mother, when the Christmas songs begin, please let me hold your baby in my heart.
From the hymn: O Come, Divine Messiah
Sweet Saviour haste (v.), come, come to earth; = Sweet Saviour come quickly, come to earth.
E.g. If you do your homework in haste (n.) (great speed), you will make mistakes.
In her haste to get up from the table, she knocked over a cup.His father had just died and he didn't want to marry with haste.
Let us pray.
Let your grace, Lord, light our journey in this life to the end.
Help us to prepare our heart for you.
Support us to sweep our heart clean, to cleanse our heart carefully,
to warm our heart with love and to make our heart smell good with prayers.
Please support us now and always as we wait, longing with all our hearts, for the coming of Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.
Good Morning! Yes, 17 more days till Christmas! Aren’t you excited? I am. Welcome to another Friday Morning Prayer with me, Brother William. I feel like I must introduce myself again because I have noticed many students do not know who I am. So one more, I am Br. William. The short form for Brother is Br. So instead of writing Brother William, you can just write Br. William. The poet for today is by the name of Sr. Maryanna. The short form for Sister is Sr. The poem is known as Advent Prayer, an appropriate topic for today. If you remember from last week, we call the four weeks period before Christmas Advent. Please listen to Mr Mckenzie. Please pay attention to the meaning of the poem. Please try to think of to whom this poem is addressed. The poet, Sr. Maryanna is speaking to someone. Who is that person? [POEM.]
This poem is addressed to Our Lady, Mary, Mother of Jesus. The word thee in line 2, meaning you, refers to Mary and Him refers to Jesus. We know it has to be Jesus because this poem is about preparing for Christmas. The birth of Jesus is the focus of Christmas and the letter H in Him is capitalized because Jesus is God.
Although this poem is addressed to Mary, this poem is about Jesus and us. It is about making a room in our hearts of Jesus, as said in the fourth line. The word shrine means a very special house, mostly religious. It can be a church but it can be a temple too. For example: In Thailand, there are many famous shrines of Buddha where Buddhists go to worship. Some Chinese families keep a shrine to honour their ancestors at home, usually a red shelf with candles.
The first line of this poem talks about the foolish folk of old, i.e. the people in the past. If you remember the story of the birth of Jesus, this line refers to fact that when Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem, they couldn’t find any room to stay. My dear teachers and students, do we all have a room in our hearts for Jesus? I hope we have the same desire to hold baby Jesus in our hearts.
Now, some interesting things about the English of this poem: Do you still remember what rhymes are? Rhymes are words that have similar sound.
The first language arts feature, which you should learn, is rhymes. The last word of each line rhymes with each other. The word be of the first line and the word thee of the second line rhyme with each other. Similarly, the word heart of the third line rhymes with the word apart of the fourth line. Can you all tell me which word in the fifth line rhymes with the word prayer in the sixth line? Yes, it’s care. Good! That means the proper pronunciation of the word prayer is not pray-er, like play-er but simply pr-air. Like air, stair, care, prayer. Let’s say these words altogether: air, stair, care, prayer. In the last stanza – that is the last paragraph of a poem – we have the rhyming words: start and heart. So the rhyming pattern of the poem is aa-bb-cc-bb: where aa means the words: be and thee; bb means the words heart, apart and start; and, cc means care and prayer.
The second language arts feature is the choice of words. You can see the modern equivalents at the right hand column.
Like foolish folk of old I would not be,
Who had no room that night for Him and thee.
See, Mother Mary, here within my heart
I've made a little shrine for Him apart;
Swept it of sin, and cleansed it with all care;
Warmed it with love and scented it with prayer.
So, Mother, when the Christmas anthems start,
Please let me hold your baby – in my heart.
I would not be like foolish folk in the past who had no room that night for Him and you.
See, Mother Mary, I have made a little church for Him here in my heart.
I have swept it of sin, cleaned it with all care, warmed it with love and made it smell good with prayer.
So, Mother, when the Christmas songs begin, please let me hold your baby in my heart.
From the hymn: O Come, Divine Messiah
Sweet Saviour haste (v.), come, come to earth; = Sweet Saviour come quickly, come to earth.
E.g. If you do your homework in haste (n.) (great speed), you will make mistakes.
In her haste to get up from the table, she knocked over a cup.His father had just died and he didn't want to marry with haste.
Let us pray.
Let your grace, Lord, light our journey in this life to the end.
Help us to prepare our heart for you.
Support us to sweep our heart clean, to cleanse our heart carefully,
to warm our heart with love and to make our heart smell good with prayers.
Please support us now and always as we wait, longing with all our hearts, for the coming of Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.
posted by Brother William OFM at 6:35 PM
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Friday Morning Prayer for 24 November 2006: St Cecilia
English Tongue Warm-up: Who is your favourite singer? What types of songs do you like best?
Ms Ching: Good morning to you all. Why do we talk about music today? It is not just because I am a music teacher. Music is the theme for today’s morning prayer because this past Wednesday, 22 November, was the feast of St Cecilia. St Cecilia is the patron saint of music and all musicians. A musician is someone who plays a musical instrument. MUSICIAN. You may remember what a patron saint is. The patron saint of this school is St Joseph. Your patron saint prays to God for you! My name is Cecilia and St Cecilia prays for me. As the patron saint of musicians, St Cecilia prays to God for all the musicians.
Mr McKenzie: If you remember, on 3 November, I read you a poem by John Donne. Today, I am going to read you another poem, printed on page 25 of your hymn book. This poem, Hymn to St Cecilia, is written by W H Auden, a modern English writer. [POEM]
Ms Ching: Thank you. This poem originally has seven stanzas but we have only introduced three of them to you. STANZA – is a paragraph in a poem. You can see that above each line, the rhyming sounds are indicated. We can see that, for each stanza the last word of the second and the fourth lines rhyme. Like in stanza 1, the words psalm and calm rhyme with each other. Can you find out the word in stanza 2, that rhymes with prayer?
Mr McKenzie: That’s air. But actually, there are rhymes even within one line. For example, in the third line of stanza 1, swan and on rhyme with each other: like a black swan as death came on.
Ms Ching: You may also see from the picture printed, St Cecilia is shown to be playing an organ. She was born in the 3rd Century. That’s why in stanza 2, W H Auden talked about an organ – an organ is a musical instrument that can play very loud music, usually in a church.
Mr McKenzie: No one is sure if St Cecilia actually has constructed, has made, an organ. But we know for sure before St Cecilia was killed by the Roman soldiers, she sang a song. Singing and music makes praying even more powerful. That’s why Auden says: the organ enlarged her prayer. We know what large is. Enlarge means making something large. Two years ago, we enlarged the school by building the new wing that is in front of you now. So by saying the organ enlarged her prayer is a way of saying music makes praying powerful.
Ms Ching: St Cecilia was killed because she was a Christian. At that time, the government would not allow people to be Christians. We say that someone is a martyr when she dies for her religious faith or political beliefs. MARTYR. So we say St Cecilia was a martyr. You may also be familiar with the Seventy Two martyrs of the Yellow Flowers Hill -- Huang Hua Gang (黃花崗).
Mr McKenzie: Martyr can also be a verb, meaning kill. We can say St Cecilia was martyred. Seventy two men were martyred during the Guangzhou Uprising.
Ms Ching: The second stanza in the poem says: “the notes from the engine thundered out on the Roman air.” Here the engine means the organ, and organ music is usually very powerful and loud, so it is like thunder. Because St Cecilia was so brave to be martyred, her death became like organ music, so loud and powerful.
Mr McKenzie: Where do martyrs get their strength to be so brave? In the Bible, the Lord said: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you.”
Ms Ching: You may remember the word: eternal we learnt last time. God’s love for us is eternal – lasting forever, that is everlasting. Let’s say the verse of the week together. [REPEAT VERSE] Martyrs find their strength and can be brave enough to die for faith because they can experience the everlasting love of God.
Mr McKenzie: Lord Jesus Christ died for us – because he loves us with an everlasting love. We are going to say the prayer together. At the end of the prayer, we say that Christ lives and reigns forever and ever. To reign [REIGN] means to rule like a king. Christ lives and reigns forever because he is God.
Ms Ching: So let’s say the prayer on page 25 together now. [bell] In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. We praise you, Christ our Saviour…. Amen.
Mr McKenzie: St Joseph, [pray for us]; St Francis [pray for us]; In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Brother William Ng OFM
brotherwilliam@gmail.com
http://friday-morning-prayer.blogspot.com/
Ms Ching: Good morning to you all. Why do we talk about music today? It is not just because I am a music teacher. Music is the theme for today’s morning prayer because this past Wednesday, 22 November, was the feast of St Cecilia. St Cecilia is the patron saint of music and all musicians. A musician is someone who plays a musical instrument. MUSICIAN. You may remember what a patron saint is. The patron saint of this school is St Joseph. Your patron saint prays to God for you! My name is Cecilia and St Cecilia prays for me. As the patron saint of musicians, St Cecilia prays to God for all the musicians.
Mr McKenzie: If you remember, on 3 November, I read you a poem by John Donne. Today, I am going to read you another poem, printed on page 25 of your hymn book. This poem, Hymn to St Cecilia, is written by W H Auden, a modern English writer. [POEM]
Ms Ching: Thank you. This poem originally has seven stanzas but we have only introduced three of them to you. STANZA – is a paragraph in a poem. You can see that above each line, the rhyming sounds are indicated. We can see that, for each stanza the last word of the second and the fourth lines rhyme. Like in stanza 1, the words psalm and calm rhyme with each other. Can you find out the word in stanza 2, that rhymes with prayer?
Mr McKenzie: That’s air. But actually, there are rhymes even within one line. For example, in the third line of stanza 1, swan and on rhyme with each other: like a black swan as death came on.
Ms Ching: You may also see from the picture printed, St Cecilia is shown to be playing an organ. She was born in the 3rd Century. That’s why in stanza 2, W H Auden talked about an organ – an organ is a musical instrument that can play very loud music, usually in a church.
Mr McKenzie: No one is sure if St Cecilia actually has constructed, has made, an organ. But we know for sure before St Cecilia was killed by the Roman soldiers, she sang a song. Singing and music makes praying even more powerful. That’s why Auden says: the organ enlarged her prayer. We know what large is. Enlarge means making something large. Two years ago, we enlarged the school by building the new wing that is in front of you now. So by saying the organ enlarged her prayer is a way of saying music makes praying powerful.
Ms Ching: St Cecilia was killed because she was a Christian. At that time, the government would not allow people to be Christians. We say that someone is a martyr when she dies for her religious faith or political beliefs. MARTYR. So we say St Cecilia was a martyr. You may also be familiar with the Seventy Two martyrs of the Yellow Flowers Hill -- Huang Hua Gang (黃花崗).
Mr McKenzie: Martyr can also be a verb, meaning kill. We can say St Cecilia was martyred. Seventy two men were martyred during the Guangzhou Uprising.
Ms Ching: The second stanza in the poem says: “the notes from the engine thundered out on the Roman air.” Here the engine means the organ, and organ music is usually very powerful and loud, so it is like thunder. Because St Cecilia was so brave to be martyred, her death became like organ music, so loud and powerful.
Mr McKenzie: Where do martyrs get their strength to be so brave? In the Bible, the Lord said: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you.”
Ms Ching: You may remember the word: eternal we learnt last time. God’s love for us is eternal – lasting forever, that is everlasting. Let’s say the verse of the week together. [REPEAT VERSE] Martyrs find their strength and can be brave enough to die for faith because they can experience the everlasting love of God.
Mr McKenzie: Lord Jesus Christ died for us – because he loves us with an everlasting love. We are going to say the prayer together. At the end of the prayer, we say that Christ lives and reigns forever and ever. To reign [REIGN] means to rule like a king. Christ lives and reigns forever because he is God.
Ms Ching: So let’s say the prayer on page 25 together now. [bell] In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. We praise you, Christ our Saviour…. Amen.
Mr McKenzie: St Joseph, [pray for us]; St Francis [pray for us]; In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Brother William Ng OFM
brotherwilliam@gmail.com
http://friday-morning-prayer.blogspot.com/
posted by Brother William OFM at 6:34 PM
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Friday Morning Prayer for 3 November 2006: Death, Be Not Proud!
Good morning! Last Tuesday, we celebrated Halloween. As you may know, Halloween has its roots in a Christian feast in the Church calendar. In the Catholic Church, November 2 is All Souls Day, a day when Christians remember and pray for the dead. Somehow, the ideas of dead people and ghosts got mixed up and now we have the silly idea of ghosts – real and unreal – going around, frightening people. Really, when people die, they do not become ghost – I repeat, dead people do not become ghosts. Today, Mr McKenzie would like to read you a famous poem on the theme of death. [POEM]
The first thing that you may have noticed just by listening is the rhyming pattern. Rhyming means having similar sounds: tree, me, three, key; cold, told, bold, sold; are examples of rhymes. If we look at the last words of the first four lines: thee, so, overthrow, me; you will see that the first and the fourth words rhyme with each other and the middle two rhyme. So, we call this pattern an ABBA pattern. In the left-hand column, the pattern is given to you.
Second, words like Thee, Thou, Soonest, Shalt are old English words. This poem is written in old English because the poet (someone who writes poems) lived in the 16th Century. You can see from the right hand column that in modern English, these strange words are words that you are familiar with. Let’s examine the first line: Death, be not proud, though some have called thee mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so. In simple English: Death, do not be proud, although some have called you mighty and dreadful, for you are not so. Even if you don’t understand every single word, can you guess who the THEE / THOU (-meaning you) is in this poem?
Yes, it is death. The poet John Donne is speaking to death, as if death is a person who can make a conversation with him. In poetry, we call this personification, pretending a non-human object to be a human person. We know death is not a human person, death cannot be proud. But by asking death not to be proud, John Donne is pretending that death is a human person who could be proud. Here, John Donne is really talking about his own ideas of death. Can you guess where John Donne got this idea? I would now like you to listen to a passage from the Bible. The words mortal and immortal are important to understand the meaning of this passage: We describe something to be mortal when something has to die. Similarly, “immortal” describes things that can last for a long time or even forever. For example, We will all die one day because we are mortal beings. Lydia “Fatty” Shum is one of the immortals of Hong Kong television. When something that can last for a long time or even forever, we can also use the word eternal (the second last line at the bottom of the page). E.g. Mary is eternally cheerful. No matter what happens, she always looks at the bright side. Peter got an A in his exam because he eternally works hard. [Scriptures]
John Donne is speaking to death as St Paul did. St Paul also talks to death, asking death where its victory is and where its power to hurt is. Paul asked this question not that because he hopes to find the victory of death or the power to hurt. Paul knows very well that because of Jesus Christ, death does not win over us. So, we cannot find death’s victory or power to hurt. Because Christ has died for us and has risen for us, death is no longer something we need to be afraid of. That’s why we can be brave when facing death or dead people, or even ghosts. This is precisely the reason why on All Souls Day and during all of November, we remember the dead. Instead of being afraid of ghosts and dead people, we can even pray for them. So let us now pray altogether. Let’s say the prayer together printed on page 15.
The first thing that you may have noticed just by listening is the rhyming pattern. Rhyming means having similar sounds: tree, me, three, key; cold, told, bold, sold; are examples of rhymes. If we look at the last words of the first four lines: thee, so, overthrow, me; you will see that the first and the fourth words rhyme with each other and the middle two rhyme. So, we call this pattern an ABBA pattern. In the left-hand column, the pattern is given to you.
Second, words like Thee, Thou, Soonest, Shalt are old English words. This poem is written in old English because the poet (someone who writes poems) lived in the 16th Century. You can see from the right hand column that in modern English, these strange words are words that you are familiar with. Let’s examine the first line: Death, be not proud, though some have called thee mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so. In simple English: Death, do not be proud, although some have called you mighty and dreadful, for you are not so. Even if you don’t understand every single word, can you guess who the THEE / THOU (-meaning you) is in this poem?
Yes, it is death. The poet John Donne is speaking to death, as if death is a person who can make a conversation with him. In poetry, we call this personification, pretending a non-human object to be a human person. We know death is not a human person, death cannot be proud. But by asking death not to be proud, John Donne is pretending that death is a human person who could be proud. Here, John Donne is really talking about his own ideas of death. Can you guess where John Donne got this idea? I would now like you to listen to a passage from the Bible. The words mortal and immortal are important to understand the meaning of this passage: We describe something to be mortal when something has to die. Similarly, “immortal” describes things that can last for a long time or even forever. For example, We will all die one day because we are mortal beings. Lydia “Fatty” Shum is one of the immortals of Hong Kong television. When something that can last for a long time or even forever, we can also use the word eternal (the second last line at the bottom of the page). E.g. Mary is eternally cheerful. No matter what happens, she always looks at the bright side. Peter got an A in his exam because he eternally works hard. [Scriptures]
John Donne is speaking to death as St Paul did. St Paul also talks to death, asking death where its victory is and where its power to hurt is. Paul asked this question not that because he hopes to find the victory of death or the power to hurt. Paul knows very well that because of Jesus Christ, death does not win over us. So, we cannot find death’s victory or power to hurt. Because Christ has died for us and has risen for us, death is no longer something we need to be afraid of. That’s why we can be brave when facing death or dead people, or even ghosts. This is precisely the reason why on All Souls Day and during all of November, we remember the dead. Instead of being afraid of ghosts and dead people, we can even pray for them. So let us now pray altogether. Let’s say the prayer together printed on page 15.
posted by Brother William OFM at 6:34 PM
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Friday Morning Prayer for 27 October 2006: St Bonaventure
Good Morning! Yes, that was a typing mistake: Instead of A reading from the Gospel according to St Luke, it's actually A reading from the Letter of St James. Let’s hear what St James would like to tell us. [READING]
You may see from the heading on page 46, the theme for today’s prayer is about St Bonaventure, the patron saint of all the B Classes. Why today? Seven centuries ago in 1267, on 23 October, on St Bonaventure finished his studies and received his Doctoral degree at Paris University. He became a Doctor. Here, I don’t mean he was a medical doctor but someone who has studied a lot, many years at university. A doctoral degree is a PhD. Some of you, when you finish secondary school, you may study at a university and after 4 years of university education, you will get a Bachelor’s degree. 2 or 3 more years of studying will give you a Master’s degree and five or six more years will give you a Doctoral degree.
Well, does studying a lot make a person smart and clever? Is being smart and clever the same as being wise? From the Bible reading of today, we hear that wisdom is pure, peaceful, gentle and friendly. Wisdom is the noun for the word “wise”. We call someone wise if he or she is full of wisdom. Being wise is more than being smart and clever. St James told us wisdom is “free from prejudice and hypocrisy”. These two are words describing really bad behaviour. How bad? If you are prejudiced, that means you show an unreasonable dislike for something or someone. For example: Although Norman, who has an Indian background, could speak fluent Cantonese, he has a hard time finding a job in Hong Kong because many people are prejudiced against South Asians. Hypocrisy describes someone who pretends to believe something that they do not really believe. For example: He's such a hypocrite: He always tells other people about the importance of honesty but he himself lies about his income to get welfare benefit from the government.
True wisdom is not just doing good deeds – i.e. doing good things. Bonaventure is well remembered not just because he was a scholar. He loved studying but he loved God even more. Let’s listen to his prayer to Jesus that he has written. [READING] From this prayer, we see how he really loved Jesus. Just take a look at the words in bold. Bonaventure used words dealing with food to talk about God. From the second paragraph, His soul may hunger after Jesus who IS the bread of angels, the refreshment of souls. Jesus is sweet and full of taste. The underlined “you” in the third paragraph refers to Jesus. Besides being bread, Jesus is like water. We know this from words like fountain and thirst.
Before we say the prayer together, I would just introduce some difficult words which you may find difficult. Please repeat after me: from the first paragraph: pierce (to make a hole), serene (peaceful), from the second paragraph: savour (taste), from the third paragraph: attain (achieve), meditate (think deeply), tranquillity (peace), fragrance (good smell). Now, let us all say the prayer together slowly. Everybody, OK? [PRAY TOGETHER]
To close our prayer, let’s sing Play Before the Lord on p. 8 of your hymnal.
You may see from the heading on page 46, the theme for today’s prayer is about St Bonaventure, the patron saint of all the B Classes. Why today? Seven centuries ago in 1267, on 23 October, on St Bonaventure finished his studies and received his Doctoral degree at Paris University. He became a Doctor. Here, I don’t mean he was a medical doctor but someone who has studied a lot, many years at university. A doctoral degree is a PhD. Some of you, when you finish secondary school, you may study at a university and after 4 years of university education, you will get a Bachelor’s degree. 2 or 3 more years of studying will give you a Master’s degree and five or six more years will give you a Doctoral degree.
Well, does studying a lot make a person smart and clever? Is being smart and clever the same as being wise? From the Bible reading of today, we hear that wisdom is pure, peaceful, gentle and friendly. Wisdom is the noun for the word “wise”. We call someone wise if he or she is full of wisdom. Being wise is more than being smart and clever. St James told us wisdom is “free from prejudice and hypocrisy”. These two are words describing really bad behaviour. How bad? If you are prejudiced, that means you show an unreasonable dislike for something or someone. For example: Although Norman, who has an Indian background, could speak fluent Cantonese, he has a hard time finding a job in Hong Kong because many people are prejudiced against South Asians. Hypocrisy describes someone who pretends to believe something that they do not really believe. For example: He's such a hypocrite: He always tells other people about the importance of honesty but he himself lies about his income to get welfare benefit from the government.
True wisdom is not just doing good deeds – i.e. doing good things. Bonaventure is well remembered not just because he was a scholar. He loved studying but he loved God even more. Let’s listen to his prayer to Jesus that he has written. [READING] From this prayer, we see how he really loved Jesus. Just take a look at the words in bold. Bonaventure used words dealing with food to talk about God. From the second paragraph, His soul may hunger after Jesus who IS the bread of angels, the refreshment of souls. Jesus is sweet and full of taste. The underlined “you” in the third paragraph refers to Jesus. Besides being bread, Jesus is like water. We know this from words like fountain and thirst.
Before we say the prayer together, I would just introduce some difficult words which you may find difficult. Please repeat after me: from the first paragraph: pierce (to make a hole), serene (peaceful), from the second paragraph: savour (taste), from the third paragraph: attain (achieve), meditate (think deeply), tranquillity (peace), fragrance (good smell). Now, let us all say the prayer together slowly. Everybody, OK? [PRAY TOGETHER]
To close our prayer, let’s sing Play Before the Lord on p. 8 of your hymnal.
posted by Brother William OFM at 6:31 PM
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Thursday, October 19, 2006
Poem for Friday 20 November 2006
Students, please listen to what I have to say:
“Seek your ADVENTURE!” not just on Day A.
Think outside the BOX! That means be creative!
From Day B onwards, be innovative!
C is for COURAGE and there is no more fear!
Follow your CONVICTIONS that you hold dear.
Let’s say: “I can DO it! You just wait and see!”
That’s faith in yourself, starting from Day D.
Manage your time wisely! Why not make a plan?
So NO more EXCUSES – I know you can!
I trust everything will be FINE and okay.
So try your best: “Your FUTURE starts today!”
No quitting in this school – O certainly not!
Never GIVE up but GIVE it all you’ve GOT!
GOD will GIVE you strength and bless SJSS.
Your teachers love you – expect nothing less.
posted by Brother William OFM at 1:56 AM
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Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Friday Morning Prayer for 29 September 2006
Feast of St Michael the Archangel
Good morning! Time really flies! It’s already the last Friday in September. For three Fridays this month, we have celebrated three feasts: the Feast of the Birth of Mary (8/9), the Feast of the Holy Cross (14/9), and today, the Feast of St Michael (29/9), the angel. Michael is not just any angel. He is the archangel. Archangel means the angel leader. The suffix “arch” is added for something greater. For example, the US thinks that the communists and Iraq are their enemies. But the US has invaded Iraq because they think Iraq is their greatest enemy. The US thinks that Iraq is their archenemy. Anyway, if your name is Michael or Michelle, that means you have Michael as your patron. A Happy Feast Day to all the Michael’s and Michelle’s!
To start off today’s morning prayer, let’s read the Psalm on page 32 of your prayer book. The Psalms are Poems found in the Bible. [Psalms = p is silent! Say: S-AH-Ms] Please respond the part saying all. You may remember the word protector which we learnt last week. Protector: someone who protects. Defender: someone who defends. Trust: believe in and rely on. [Psalm 91]
Just two quick questions for you: In the psalm, almost every sentence has a “you” in it. Like: in the first verse: “The Lord will defend you.” “You have made the Lord your defender” in verse number 2, etc. And also in the response: “You are my defender and protector.” Can you guess who the “you” is in these cases? Well, the answer is simple. In the verses, the poet is talking to you, the reader, the audience, us. So really, the poem is about: “The Lord will defend us/me.” “We/I have made the Lord our/my defender” But in the response, the poet now talks to God. So we are saying: “God, you are my defender and protector.
Now – shall we sing Amazing Grace on Page 9 of your hymnbook? We will sing verse three only. [Song] Quite a few interesting things about this song which I would like you to pay attention to. The first line:
“Thro’ many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come” means
“I have already come through many dangers, toils and snares”
In poetry, we often find sentence structure a bit unusual than what we would come across in normal situation. I am sure you know what dangers are. If you do not know what toils and snares are, please take a look at the second part of verse 3. It’s about “how grace hath brought me safe and grace will lead me home”. It’s old English here: hath brought means has brought. So this song is saying: “the grace of God has brought me safe and will lead me home after I have come through many dangers, toils and snares.” So we may safely guess that dangers, toils and snares are similar in meaning – or at least, things that do not make us feel safe! Indeed, the word toil means hard work. For example: Sophia gets very good results in her HKCE exams after five years of hard toil. [TOIL] A snare is a trap. Some people use a snare to catch small animals. The business world is full of snares for those who are not careful. It is easy to be tricked or fooled. [SNARE] Let’s sing the song again, now that we know what this song means.
Today, we celebrate the feast of St Michael the archangel, because God has given us St Michael and all the other angels to protect and defend us. St Michael and all the angels are God’s servants and they are here to help us. So let us say the prayer on page 32 to express our trust in God. Please make the sign of the cross and say the prayer together aloud. [Say: IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, AND OF THE SON, AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. AMEN.] Do not just make the sign without saying the words. [Prayer]
Thank you. I will see in you two weeks because next Friday we are having the Feast of St Francis – next Friday: a holiday for students.
Brother William Ng OFM
brotherwilliam@gmail.com
for transcript of today’s Morning Prayer
http://friday-morning-prayer.blogspot.com/
Good morning! Time really flies! It’s already the last Friday in September. For three Fridays this month, we have celebrated three feasts: the Feast of the Birth of Mary (8/9), the Feast of the Holy Cross (14/9), and today, the Feast of St Michael (29/9), the angel. Michael is not just any angel. He is the archangel. Archangel means the angel leader. The suffix “arch” is added for something greater. For example, the US thinks that the communists and Iraq are their enemies. But the US has invaded Iraq because they think Iraq is their greatest enemy. The US thinks that Iraq is their archenemy. Anyway, if your name is Michael or Michelle, that means you have Michael as your patron. A Happy Feast Day to all the Michael’s and Michelle’s!
To start off today’s morning prayer, let’s read the Psalm on page 32 of your prayer book. The Psalms are Poems found in the Bible. [Psalms = p is silent! Say: S-AH-Ms] Please respond the part saying all. You may remember the word protector which we learnt last week. Protector: someone who protects. Defender: someone who defends. Trust: believe in and rely on. [Psalm 91]
Just two quick questions for you: In the psalm, almost every sentence has a “you” in it. Like: in the first verse: “The Lord will defend you.” “You have made the Lord your defender” in verse number 2, etc. And also in the response: “You are my defender and protector.” Can you guess who the “you” is in these cases? Well, the answer is simple. In the verses, the poet is talking to you, the reader, the audience, us. So really, the poem is about: “The Lord will defend us/me.” “We/I have made the Lord our/my defender” But in the response, the poet now talks to God. So we are saying: “God, you are my defender and protector.
Now – shall we sing Amazing Grace on Page 9 of your hymnbook? We will sing verse three only. [Song] Quite a few interesting things about this song which I would like you to pay attention to. The first line:
“Thro’ many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come” means
“I have already come through many dangers, toils and snares”
In poetry, we often find sentence structure a bit unusual than what we would come across in normal situation. I am sure you know what dangers are. If you do not know what toils and snares are, please take a look at the second part of verse 3. It’s about “how grace hath brought me safe and grace will lead me home”. It’s old English here: hath brought means has brought. So this song is saying: “the grace of God has brought me safe and will lead me home after I have come through many dangers, toils and snares.” So we may safely guess that dangers, toils and snares are similar in meaning – or at least, things that do not make us feel safe! Indeed, the word toil means hard work. For example: Sophia gets very good results in her HKCE exams after five years of hard toil. [TOIL] A snare is a trap. Some people use a snare to catch small animals. The business world is full of snares for those who are not careful. It is easy to be tricked or fooled. [SNARE] Let’s sing the song again, now that we know what this song means.
Today, we celebrate the feast of St Michael the archangel, because God has given us St Michael and all the other angels to protect and defend us. St Michael and all the angels are God’s servants and they are here to help us. So let us say the prayer on page 32 to express our trust in God. Please make the sign of the cross and say the prayer together aloud. [Say: IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, AND OF THE SON, AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. AMEN.] Do not just make the sign without saying the words. [Prayer]
Thank you. I will see in you two weeks because next Friday we are having the Feast of St Francis – next Friday: a holiday for students.
Brother William Ng OFM
brotherwilliam@gmail.com
for transcript of today’s Morning Prayer
http://friday-morning-prayer.blogspot.com/
posted by Brother William OFM at 12:57 AM
0 comments
Friday Morning Prayer for 22 September 2006
Playing before the Lord and praying to the Lord
Good Morning! As Mr Mackenzie says, the pr- sound and the pl- sound are not easy to distinguish. I notice that when I ask students to do dictation of the Hail Mary. Many students would write: “Holy Mother of God, play for us sinners” rather than “pray for us sinners.” I know Mr Mackenzie is very strict with blends. The PL sound and the PR sound should be distinguished well.
Every time at the end of each school prayer, the leader would say “St Francis” and everyone would respond by saying “Pray for us.” However, so far, I have never heard anyone mispronounce the word and say: “play for us” instead. Well, that makes sense, doesn’t it? You would not want to invite St Francis or St Joseph to play for you. If they play for you, that means you don’t get to play yourselves but they will play on your behalf. (So, don’t say “play for us.”) However, when we ask St Joseph or St Francis or any other saints to pray for us, it doesn’t mean we don’t pray to God ourselves. Instead, everyone, including all fellow Christians on earth and all the saints, should pray to God together.
Speaking about praying and playing, why don’t we sing the song on page 8, “Play before the Lord.” Please note that we will sing it without repeats. That means after the second last line, we will jump to where it is labelled “II” “telling of all His Ways.” [SONG]
Please note that the title of the song is NOT a misprint. It IS Play Before the Lord, not Pray Before the Lord. Why? Really, we do not exactly pray before the Lord. Instead, we pray to the Lord. But surely we can play before the Lord. So what do we play before the Lord? Does the author mean we play basketball or football before the Lord? Can you guess why does the author of this song say “play before the Lord”?
I will give you some clues: please take a look at the other lines. There is a keyword that appears several times. Now, I will give you all ten seconds to talk to your friends about what is being played before the Lord. [10 seconds] Aha – I can hear that someone over there in 7A has guessed the meaning correctly. Yes, the author is really talking about playing music or playing a musical instrument. Why? The clues are musical words like “singing” and “melody” which appear several times: I will sing to Him my melody. Let us sing before the Lord. Let us sing to Him. Sing, people of God. Often in examinations, you will find questions of this kind: asking things only hinted about. Upper form students know this very well and are well prepared for this, right?
I would also like you to take a look at the third line where it says: “Let us sing before the Lord” and the fifth line where it says: “Sing! People of God!” Do you know the differences between “Let us sing” and “Sing! People of God!” When I say: “Let us sing” – I am inviting you – the listener – to sing with me. That’s why I say let us sing. When I say: “Sing! People of God!” I am asking or ordering the People of God to sing.
The word “Sing” is a one-word sentence. The meaning is very clear even though there is no subject. It is like: your teacher may say to you: “Stand up!” “Keep quiet!” It is not at all like saying: “Would you mind standing up?” At first, she may say, “I would appreciate very much if you could keep you quiet.” When that doesn’t work, she may have to yell at you at the top of her lungs: “Keep quiet!” We call this kind of sentence structure imperative. We use imperative when we order or invite someone to do something directly. So, let us now sing the song through again. Sing! Students of St Joseph’s, sing! [Song]
Please turn to page 28. The Bible passage chosen for this morning expresses how St Paul lives for God. St Francis, who feels the same love of Christ, would have said the same thing too. [Bible reading]
Note that on the third line: St Paul said: “I might live for God.” Although St Paul was talking about himself, these concepts can be applied to St Francis too. St Francis used to be selfish. He lived for himself. But he changed and lived for God, rather than living for himself. Why he changed? He has discovered the goodness of God. We are going to say the prayer written by St Francis. You will find lots of descriptions of God. Please pay attention to the underlined words: you see the word “good” appears four times. St Francis thought that God is so good that he couldn’t think of other ways of saying “good” but repeating it.
There are some more underlined words towards the bottom of the page. Let’s go over them before we start the prayer. Please repeat after me: protector = someone who protects, haven (not heaven) = harbour, eternal = forever and ever, almighty = very powerful, merciful = kind, full of mercy, saviour = someone who saves.
Brother William Ng OFM
brotherwilliam@gmail.com
http://friday-morning-prayer.blogspot.com/
Good Morning! As Mr Mackenzie says, the pr- sound and the pl- sound are not easy to distinguish. I notice that when I ask students to do dictation of the Hail Mary. Many students would write: “Holy Mother of God, play for us sinners” rather than “pray for us sinners.” I know Mr Mackenzie is very strict with blends. The PL sound and the PR sound should be distinguished well.
Every time at the end of each school prayer, the leader would say “St Francis” and everyone would respond by saying “Pray for us.” However, so far, I have never heard anyone mispronounce the word and say: “play for us” instead. Well, that makes sense, doesn’t it? You would not want to invite St Francis or St Joseph to play for you. If they play for you, that means you don’t get to play yourselves but they will play on your behalf. (So, don’t say “play for us.”) However, when we ask St Joseph or St Francis or any other saints to pray for us, it doesn’t mean we don’t pray to God ourselves. Instead, everyone, including all fellow Christians on earth and all the saints, should pray to God together.
Speaking about praying and playing, why don’t we sing the song on page 8, “Play before the Lord.” Please note that we will sing it without repeats. That means after the second last line, we will jump to where it is labelled “II” “telling of all His Ways.” [SONG]
Please note that the title of the song is NOT a misprint. It IS Play Before the Lord, not Pray Before the Lord. Why? Really, we do not exactly pray before the Lord. Instead, we pray to the Lord. But surely we can play before the Lord. So what do we play before the Lord? Does the author mean we play basketball or football before the Lord? Can you guess why does the author of this song say “play before the Lord”?
I will give you some clues: please take a look at the other lines. There is a keyword that appears several times. Now, I will give you all ten seconds to talk to your friends about what is being played before the Lord. [10 seconds] Aha – I can hear that someone over there in 7A has guessed the meaning correctly. Yes, the author is really talking about playing music or playing a musical instrument. Why? The clues are musical words like “singing” and “melody” which appear several times: I will sing to Him my melody. Let us sing before the Lord. Let us sing to Him. Sing, people of God. Often in examinations, you will find questions of this kind: asking things only hinted about. Upper form students know this very well and are well prepared for this, right?
I would also like you to take a look at the third line where it says: “Let us sing before the Lord” and the fifth line where it says: “Sing! People of God!” Do you know the differences between “Let us sing” and “Sing! People of God!” When I say: “Let us sing” – I am inviting you – the listener – to sing with me. That’s why I say let us sing. When I say: “Sing! People of God!” I am asking or ordering the People of God to sing.
The word “Sing” is a one-word sentence. The meaning is very clear even though there is no subject. It is like: your teacher may say to you: “Stand up!” “Keep quiet!” It is not at all like saying: “Would you mind standing up?” At first, she may say, “I would appreciate very much if you could keep you quiet.” When that doesn’t work, she may have to yell at you at the top of her lungs: “Keep quiet!” We call this kind of sentence structure imperative. We use imperative when we order or invite someone to do something directly. So, let us now sing the song through again. Sing! Students of St Joseph’s, sing! [Song]
Please turn to page 28. The Bible passage chosen for this morning expresses how St Paul lives for God. St Francis, who feels the same love of Christ, would have said the same thing too. [Bible reading]
Note that on the third line: St Paul said: “I might live for God.” Although St Paul was talking about himself, these concepts can be applied to St Francis too. St Francis used to be selfish. He lived for himself. But he changed and lived for God, rather than living for himself. Why he changed? He has discovered the goodness of God. We are going to say the prayer written by St Francis. You will find lots of descriptions of God. Please pay attention to the underlined words: you see the word “good” appears four times. St Francis thought that God is so good that he couldn’t think of other ways of saying “good” but repeating it.
There are some more underlined words towards the bottom of the page. Let’s go over them before we start the prayer. Please repeat after me: protector = someone who protects, haven (not heaven) = harbour, eternal = forever and ever, almighty = very powerful, merciful = kind, full of mercy, saviour = someone who saves.
Brother William Ng OFM
brotherwilliam@gmail.com
http://friday-morning-prayer.blogspot.com/
posted by Brother William OFM at 12:50 AM
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Friday Morning Prayer for 22 September 2006
Playing before the Lord and praying to the Lord
Good Morning! As Mr Mackenzie says, the pr- sound and the pl- sound are not easy to distinguish. I notice that when I ask students to do dictation of the Hail Mary. Many students would write: “Holy Mother of God, play for us sinners” rather than “pray for us sinners.” I know Mr Mackenzie is very strict with blends. The PL sound and the PR sound should be distinguished well.
Every time at the end of each school prayer, the leader would say “St Francis” and everyone would respond by saying “Pray for us.” However, so far, I have never heard anyone mispronounce the word and say: “play for us” instead. Well, that makes sense, doesn’t it? You would not want to invite St Francis or St Joseph to play for you. If they play for you, that means you don’t get to play yourselves but they will play on your behalf. (So, don’t say “play for us.”) However, when we ask St Joseph or St Francis or any other saints to pray for us, it doesn’t mean we don’t pray to God ourselves. Instead, everyone, including all fellow Christians on earth and all the saints, should pray to God together.
Speaking about praying and playing, why don’t we sing the song on page 8, “Play before the Lord.” Please note that we will sing it without repeats. That means after the second last line, we will jump to where it is labelled “II” “telling of all His Ways.” [SONG]
Please note that the title of the song is NOT a misprint. It IS Play Before the Lord, not Pray Before the Lord. Why? Really, we do not exactly pray before the Lord. Instead, we pray to the Lord. But surely we can play before the Lord. So what do we play before the Lord? Does the author mean we play basketball or football before the Lord? Can you guess why does the author of this song say “play before the Lord”?
I will give you some clues: please take a look at the other lines. There is a keyword that appears several times. Now, I will give you all ten seconds to talk to your friends about what is being played before the Lord. [10 seconds] Aha – I can hear that someone over there in 7A has guessed the meaning correctly. Yes, the author is really talking about playing music or playing a musical instrument. Why? The clues are musical words like “singing” and “melody” which appear several times: I will sing to Him my melody. Let us sing before the Lord. Let us sing to Him. Sing, people of God. Often in examinations, you will find questions of this kind: asking things only hinted about. Upper form students know this very well and are well prepared for this, right?
I would also like you to take a look at the third line where it says: “Let us sing before the Lord” and the fifth line where it says: “Sing! People of God!” Do you know the differences between “Let us sing” and “Sing! People of God!” When I say: “Let us sing” – I am inviting you – the listener – to sing with me. That’s why I say let us sing. When I say: “Sing! People of God!” I am asking or ordering the People of God to sing.
The word “Sing” is a one-word sentence. The meaning is very clear even though there is no subject. It is like: your teacher may say to you: “Stand up!” “Keep quiet!” It is not at all like saying: “Would you mind standing up?” At first, she may say, “I would appreciate very much if you could keep you quiet.” When that doesn’t work, she may have to yell at you at the top of her lungs: “Keep quiet!” We call this kind of sentence structure imperative. We use imperative when we order or invite someone to do something directly. So, let us now sing the song through again. Sing! Students of St Joseph’s, sing! [Song]
Please turn to page 28. The Bible passage chosen for this morning expresses how St Paul lives for God. St Francis, who feels the same love of Christ, would have said the same thing too. [Bible reading]
Note that on the third line: St Paul said: “I might live for God.” Although St Paul was talking about himself, these concepts can be applied to St Francis too. St Francis used to be selfish. He lived for himself. But he changed and lived for God, rather than living for himself. Why he changed? He has discovered the goodness of God. We are going to say the prayer written by St Francis. You will find lots of descriptions of God. Please pay attention to the underlined words: you see the word “good” appears four times. St Francis thought that God is so good that he couldn’t think of other ways of saying “good” but repeating it.
There are some more underlined words towards the bottom of the page. Let’s go over them before we start the prayer. Please repeat after me: protector = someone who protects, haven (not heaven) = harbour, eternal = forever and ever, almighty = very powerful, merciful = kind, full of mercy, saviour = someone who saves.
Brother William Ng OFM
brotherwilliam@gmail.com
http://friday-morning-prayer.blogspot.com/
posted by Brother William OFM at 12:47 AM
0 comments
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Friday Morning Prayer for 15 September 2006
Good Morning! Last week, we celebrated the Birth of Our Lady. Today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Cross. The word FEAST means festival, just like the Mid-Autumn Festival, which we will celebrate very soon. Let’s start off today’s Morning Prayer with a Bible passage on page 24. [READING]
From this reading, we understand three things. First, Jesus is HUMBLE. We say someone is humble when someone is not proud; someone does not believe that he is important, and he always tries to lower himself. For example, Jane is a humble student. She has excellent results in her exams but she does not go around and tell everybody. She keeps a low profile. Despite her good results, she does not look down upon her classmates who do not do as well as she does. Jesus is such a person. He is the Son of God. Being the Son of God, Jesus could enjoy a lot of privileges, good things. But he gave up all he had, as the Bible says, and he became a human being – just like you and me.
The word humble is an adjective and we can use the word humble as a verb. In the prayer section, we say Christ humbled himself. We say that Christ humbled himself, meaning Christ made himself humble. So if you get 100 marks for your dictionary, your teacher may ask you not to laugh at other students who are not as smart as you are. So we can say: your teacher asks you to humble yourself. Your teacher asks you to be humble.
Second, the word obedient is an adjective, meaning doing what you have been told. We say someone is obedient when someone obeys rules and orders. Obedient – spelt with a “t” – you have an adjective. Obedience – spelt with “ce” – you have a noun. Both words come from obey. To obey means to listen to and follow rules and order. In the Bible passage, we say Christ walked the path of obedience, meaning Christ was very obedient.
Finally, we notice the word cross. I am sure you understand what the cross is. Christ died on the cross for us – even it was very painful for him. He did it because he loves us very much. That’s why we have the festival, the feast, of today: Feast of the Holy Cross. The actual date of the Feast of the Holy Cross is 14 September, yesterday. The origin of this feast is quite interesting. There was a Queen Helena who was the mother of the King, the Roman Emperor Constantine many years ago. Queen Helena loved Jesus very much because Jesus loves every one of us deeply. Christ loves us so much that he died on the cross. So, Queen Helena went to the Holy Land, that is today’s Israel, to look for the cross on which Jesus died. It was many years ago on this day that Queen Helena found that cross.
Think for a moment, Jesus died on the cross – and I can tell you it is not pleasant to die in that way. But Jesus was humble and obedient. He humbled himself and he obeyed God the Father. Well, we all have our crosses to bear: not a real cross, but hardships or difficulties that we have to face in life. Going to school everyday may be a cross to you. Having a naughty little brother or a noisy baby sister may be a cross for you. Do you know what my cross is? You can find that out if you log on to the Friday morning prayer blog at http://friday-morning-prayer.blogspot.com/
I don't think I have only one cross but many crosses to bear... I will just name one. I have poor vision. My left eye is long-sighted and by right eye is near-sighted. As a result, I cannot see three-dimension well. That's why I am not good at ballgames. Even with glasses on, I cannot see clearly with my left eye only.
If you are reading this now, that means you have logged on to our friday-morning-prayer website! Congratulations! I am pleased that you are here. The first five students who come to see me would get a little gift. When you come to see me, please say: "I have visited the morning prayer website. Please give me the promised gift."
Let us now have some music. Please turn to page 9: All Flowers Will Sing. I am sure if all flowers will really sing, but I do hope all of you will sing. [Song] We will just sing the 3rd verse.
Notice in the third verse, we sing: “every cross that we encounter can become our golden wings.” In simple English, it means every cross that we face can make us fly. For Jesus, his cross is his “golden wings” because God raised him to the highest place. “Every time we embrace it, everlasting peace it brings.” Here the “it” refers to the cross. Christ embraced his cross because he was humble and obedient. My dear students, please do not be troubled by the cross that we have to take up. Christ has endured, has persevered, has taken up his own cross and with his help and following his example, our own crosses can become golden wings for us.
So let us pray – (The prayer is on page 24) – let us ask Lord Jesus to bring us to the glory of his kingdom. Please respond clearly and loudly.
Brother William Ng OFM
brotherwilliam@gmail.com
http://friday-morning-prayer.blogspot.com/
From this reading, we understand three things. First, Jesus is HUMBLE. We say someone is humble when someone is not proud; someone does not believe that he is important, and he always tries to lower himself. For example, Jane is a humble student. She has excellent results in her exams but she does not go around and tell everybody. She keeps a low profile. Despite her good results, she does not look down upon her classmates who do not do as well as she does. Jesus is such a person. He is the Son of God. Being the Son of God, Jesus could enjoy a lot of privileges, good things. But he gave up all he had, as the Bible says, and he became a human being – just like you and me.
The word humble is an adjective and we can use the word humble as a verb. In the prayer section, we say Christ humbled himself. We say that Christ humbled himself, meaning Christ made himself humble. So if you get 100 marks for your dictionary, your teacher may ask you not to laugh at other students who are not as smart as you are. So we can say: your teacher asks you to humble yourself. Your teacher asks you to be humble.
Second, the word obedient is an adjective, meaning doing what you have been told. We say someone is obedient when someone obeys rules and orders. Obedient – spelt with a “t” – you have an adjective. Obedience – spelt with “ce” – you have a noun. Both words come from obey. To obey means to listen to and follow rules and order. In the Bible passage, we say Christ walked the path of obedience, meaning Christ was very obedient.
Finally, we notice the word cross. I am sure you understand what the cross is. Christ died on the cross for us – even it was very painful for him. He did it because he loves us very much. That’s why we have the festival, the feast, of today: Feast of the Holy Cross. The actual date of the Feast of the Holy Cross is 14 September, yesterday. The origin of this feast is quite interesting. There was a Queen Helena who was the mother of the King, the Roman Emperor Constantine many years ago. Queen Helena loved Jesus very much because Jesus loves every one of us deeply. Christ loves us so much that he died on the cross. So, Queen Helena went to the Holy Land, that is today’s Israel, to look for the cross on which Jesus died. It was many years ago on this day that Queen Helena found that cross.
Think for a moment, Jesus died on the cross – and I can tell you it is not pleasant to die in that way. But Jesus was humble and obedient. He humbled himself and he obeyed God the Father. Well, we all have our crosses to bear: not a real cross, but hardships or difficulties that we have to face in life. Going to school everyday may be a cross to you. Having a naughty little brother or a noisy baby sister may be a cross for you. Do you know what my cross is? You can find that out if you log on to the Friday morning prayer blog at http://friday-morning-prayer.blogspot.com/
I don't think I have only one cross but many crosses to bear... I will just name one. I have poor vision. My left eye is long-sighted and by right eye is near-sighted. As a result, I cannot see three-dimension well. That's why I am not good at ballgames. Even with glasses on, I cannot see clearly with my left eye only.
If you are reading this now, that means you have logged on to our friday-morning-prayer website! Congratulations! I am pleased that you are here. The first five students who come to see me would get a little gift. When you come to see me, please say: "I have visited the morning prayer website. Please give me the promised gift."
Let us now have some music. Please turn to page 9: All Flowers Will Sing. I am sure if all flowers will really sing, but I do hope all of you will sing. [Song] We will just sing the 3rd verse.
Notice in the third verse, we sing: “every cross that we encounter can become our golden wings.” In simple English, it means every cross that we face can make us fly. For Jesus, his cross is his “golden wings” because God raised him to the highest place. “Every time we embrace it, everlasting peace it brings.” Here the “it” refers to the cross. Christ embraced his cross because he was humble and obedient. My dear students, please do not be troubled by the cross that we have to take up. Christ has endured, has persevered, has taken up his own cross and with his help and following his example, our own crosses can become golden wings for us.
So let us pray – (The prayer is on page 24) – let us ask Lord Jesus to bring us to the glory of his kingdom. Please respond clearly and loudly.
Brother William Ng OFM
brotherwilliam@gmail.com
http://friday-morning-prayer.blogspot.com/
posted by Brother William OFM at 11:01 PM
0 comments
Friday Morning Prayer for 8 September 2006
Good morning. Welcome to the first English Day of this school year. What a wonderful coincidence that we have the first English Day on the Birthday of Our Lady! We remember the birth of Mary on this date not because it is really her birthday. Christians for many centuries pay a special tribute to Our Lady on this date. Just like Jesus was not really born on 25 December, we are quite sure Mary was not really born on 8 September. But because both Jesus and Mary are real historical persons, they must have been born at some point in history. The main thing is not when Jesus or Mary was born but the fact that they were born and were born for a purpose.
To celebrate this feast, let us sing Hail Queen of Heaven on page 7 of your HPB. This is a new song. We will sing just the first verse. Since most of you do not know this song, allow me to teach you this song line by line. [Song]
Now let us hear a story – printed on p.20 in your Hymn and Prayer Book. At the end of the reading, please respond “Praise to you Lord, Jesus Christ.” [Story]
I would like you to notice three things about this story. First, the message that Gabriel said to Mary has become the prayer that is known as the Hail Mary. The first half of the Hail Mary is the greetings of the angel: “Hail! Mary full of grace the Lord is with you.” Each time we say the Hail Mary, we are repeating the greetings of the angel Gabriel. The word “Hail” is the same as saying Hello.
Second, as I have underlined the words for you, Mary was troubled and afraid when the angel Gabriel spoke to her. We usually use the word trouble as a noun. Your parents might have warned you before you leave the house: “Be good and don’t cause any trouble today!” If you do cause trouble, your teacher may arrange to meet your parents. If that is the case, you are in trouble. But here, the word trouble is used as a verb. We say Mary was troubled that means she was afraid and she wondered what was happening. When was your last time that an angel would visit you and speak to you? You may be as troubled and afraid as Mary, if an angel knocks at your door. At the beginning of the new school year, especially if you are new to this school, or if you are facing public examinations, you may be troubled by schoolwork or you may be afraid of the new school environment or new teachers. You may have many questions and there are many things you may not understand. In this story, Mary wondered about the message of the angel. That means she did not understand. When you have a question about why something happens. You can say: I wonder why. When you have a question about when something is going to happen. You can say: I wonder when. If you remember, just now at the beginning of morning prayer, I said, “What a wonderful coincidence that we have the first English Day on the Birthday of Our Lady!” You may know the word wonderful. Here wonderful doesn’t mean full of questions – it means something great and amazing.
Finally, please notice the last part of the message of the angel. Gabriel said, “For there is nothing that God cannot do.” There is nothing that God cannot do. This is a double-negative sentence. It is a good idea to avoid using double negatives because it may be confusing. If I say, don’t put up your hands, if you do not understand me. You have to think twice or listen twice to understand what I mean. However, we use double negative here to emphasize the fact that because God is God, there is nothing that He cannot do meaning God can do everything. Because God can do everything, we need not be afraid or troubled.
If you turn back to page 7, the song we just sang, we can say a few things using the words we have just learnt. Let’s concentrate just on the second line: Tossed on life’s sea, I claim thy care, (“thy care” means “your care”) save me from peril and from woe. Both of the words “peril” and “woe” are bad things. Peril is the same as danger and woe means unhappiness or sorrow. So facing life’s peril and woe, you will naturally be troubled and afraid. You may wonder when these peril, woe, danger, unhappiness and sorrow would end. You may wonder why such bad things are happening to you. Luckily, we remember that there is nothing God cannot do. So He will protect us and guide us through life, even if the sea of life is full of troubled waters. Mary, as our song suggests, is the Star of the Sea, she will pray for us.
Please say the response.
Brother William Ng OFM
brotherwilliam@gmail.com
To celebrate this feast, let us sing Hail Queen of Heaven on page 7 of your HPB. This is a new song. We will sing just the first verse. Since most of you do not know this song, allow me to teach you this song line by line. [Song]
Now let us hear a story – printed on p.20 in your Hymn and Prayer Book. At the end of the reading, please respond “Praise to you Lord, Jesus Christ.” [Story]
I would like you to notice three things about this story. First, the message that Gabriel said to Mary has become the prayer that is known as the Hail Mary. The first half of the Hail Mary is the greetings of the angel: “Hail! Mary full of grace the Lord is with you.” Each time we say the Hail Mary, we are repeating the greetings of the angel Gabriel. The word “Hail” is the same as saying Hello.
Second, as I have underlined the words for you, Mary was troubled and afraid when the angel Gabriel spoke to her. We usually use the word trouble as a noun. Your parents might have warned you before you leave the house: “Be good and don’t cause any trouble today!” If you do cause trouble, your teacher may arrange to meet your parents. If that is the case, you are in trouble. But here, the word trouble is used as a verb. We say Mary was troubled that means she was afraid and she wondered what was happening. When was your last time that an angel would visit you and speak to you? You may be as troubled and afraid as Mary, if an angel knocks at your door. At the beginning of the new school year, especially if you are new to this school, or if you are facing public examinations, you may be troubled by schoolwork or you may be afraid of the new school environment or new teachers. You may have many questions and there are many things you may not understand. In this story, Mary wondered about the message of the angel. That means she did not understand. When you have a question about why something happens. You can say: I wonder why. When you have a question about when something is going to happen. You can say: I wonder when. If you remember, just now at the beginning of morning prayer, I said, “What a wonderful coincidence that we have the first English Day on the Birthday of Our Lady!” You may know the word wonderful. Here wonderful doesn’t mean full of questions – it means something great and amazing.
Finally, please notice the last part of the message of the angel. Gabriel said, “For there is nothing that God cannot do.” There is nothing that God cannot do. This is a double-negative sentence. It is a good idea to avoid using double negatives because it may be confusing. If I say, don’t put up your hands, if you do not understand me. You have to think twice or listen twice to understand what I mean. However, we use double negative here to emphasize the fact that because God is God, there is nothing that He cannot do meaning God can do everything. Because God can do everything, we need not be afraid or troubled.
If you turn back to page 7, the song we just sang, we can say a few things using the words we have just learnt. Let’s concentrate just on the second line: Tossed on life’s sea, I claim thy care, (“thy care” means “your care”) save me from peril and from woe. Both of the words “peril” and “woe” are bad things. Peril is the same as danger and woe means unhappiness or sorrow. So facing life’s peril and woe, you will naturally be troubled and afraid. You may wonder when these peril, woe, danger, unhappiness and sorrow would end. You may wonder why such bad things are happening to you. Luckily, we remember that there is nothing God cannot do. So He will protect us and guide us through life, even if the sea of life is full of troubled waters. Mary, as our song suggests, is the Star of the Sea, she will pray for us.
Please say the response.
Brother William Ng OFM
brotherwilliam@gmail.com
posted by Brother William OFM at 11:00 PM
0 comments
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Friday Morning Prayer for 2006-04-28
T
Friday Morning Prayer for 28 April 2006
Good Morning, Mr Kwok, Teachers and Students!
Please look up – I would like to direct your attention to the Easter banner above me – no, no, no, not the Social Science Academic Week banner, but the one even further up. Can you see? It says: Christ is risen, alleluia. Please say it altogether. Christ is risen, alleluia.
Let’s hear just the Form One students say it. How about Form three students?
Your RE teacher may have told you – the Hebrew word Alleluia means May God be praised. Praise God! When we want to praise God, we may want to show a bit of cheerfulness, right? For example: You got a hundred marks for your dictation and your teacher would praise you for a job well done. If your teachers says Well done without smiling, you may wonder. So, when we praise someone, we may want to show a bit of happiness.
Now – why do we want to praise God? Because Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. Jesus died but lives again and even lives forever. We praise God because we are able to live with him forever and ever too!
Now let us pray. Please respond by saying the phrase: Christ is risen, Alleluia. When you hear me say: O God of life, we praise you. Then you all say: Christ is risen, Alleluia. OK?
+ God of mercy, you have raised Jesus from the dead. We ask you to give us the same new life. We remember those who are sick and ill. O God of life, we praise you.
R. Christ is risen, Alleluia.
God of mercy, you have raised Jesus from the dead. We ask you to give us strength to meet today’s challenges. We ask you to bless our fellow students who are sitting for their A-Level and HKCEE exams. O God of life, we praise you.
R. Christ is risen, Alleluia.
God of mercy, you have raised Jesus from the dead. We ask you to give us joy. We remember our families and friends. We ask you to bless them. O God of life, we praise you.
R. Christ is risen, Alleluia.
God of mercy, you have raised Jesus from the dead. We ask you to give us wisdom. We remember our teachers and the rest of the school year. May we all learn the wisdom of life. O God of life, we praise you.
O God of life, we praise you.
R. Christ is risen, Alleluia.
We make this prayer and all our prayers through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.
St Joseph…. St Francis…
Please make the sign of the Cross and say “In the Name” together.
posted by Brother William OFM at 7:14 PM
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Friday Morning Prayer for 2006-04-07
As you all know, this week and next week are our English Week. (Don’t ask me why – there are two weeks but we only say English Week. Never mind.) Next Friday, you are going to have your Easter holiday. Isn’t that wonderful? The week right before Easter is known as Holy Week. 聖周During Holy Week, we remember what has happened during the days before Jesus died on the cross.
This year Holy Week happens to be English Week as well. Let me compare these two important events.
First, last Monday, for English Week, we had English Olympics, It was very joyous, noisy and exciting, wasn’t it? For Holy Week, on Sunday – that is this coming Sunday – we remember the day that Jesus went to Jerusalem, riding on a donkey. People welcomed him by waving palm branches. It was also very joyous, noisy and exciting because the people (wrongly) thought that Jesus would help them to become independent from the Roman Empire. However, it was not fun at the end because these people became dissatisfied with Jesus and made him die on Good Friday.
Second, yesterday, as part of the English Week, we had English Tea. I wish I had been there to share nice company, wonderful conversation and good food. I surely hope there will be more English Teas in the future. Next Thursday, a week from today, it’s Holy Thursday. On Holy Thursday we remember the day when Jesus had his Last Supper with his friends, his disciples, his students. Similar to English Tea yesterday, Jesus shared nice company, wonderful conversation and good food with his friends. This was Jesus’ Last Supper before he died on the cross. So, Christians celebrate Mass彌撒or the Eucharist聖餐to remember Jesus’ death on the cross.
Finally, there was the Easter Egg Hunt on Tuesday. Did you participate in it and run around the school to look for Easter Eggs? Were you happy to find the eggs? Next Sunday, it will be Easter Sunday. On Easter Sunday, we remember how people ran around Jerusalem to tell people that Jesus has risen from the dead. Jesus came back to life three days after death on the cross. When people found out that Jesus is alive again, people were happy, just like finding the Easter Eggs.
So you see, English Week is similar to the Holy Week in some ways. I hope you would enjoy the rest of the English Week. And for Holy Week, I hope you will take the time to think about, to reflect on the love of Jesus for all of us. He loves us so much that he was willing to die on the cross. Take the time to think about the new life that Jesus gives us. Only he can give us new life because he was raised from the dead. He came back to life after dying on the cross. So let us pray and commend our lives to God.
~ Brother William OFM
posted by Brother William OFM at 7:13 PM
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Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Friday Morning Prayer for 2006-03-10
T
Good Morning, Mr Kwok, Teachers and Students!
You may all know that we have already begun the season of Lent. LENT. Lent is the forty days before Easter. Every morning each class receives a donation box. We all make a donation of Lent.
Lent is a period in which Christians prepare themselves to celebrate Easter, which is at the end of these forty days. Lent is the past participle for the word TO LEND. But here, LENT has a different meaning. The original meaning of the word LENT comes from an old English word, Lente, meaning Spring. In Latin, Lent is simply “The Forty Days”, which is Quadregesima, quite a long word. In Chinese, we simply call it the Period of Four Ten-days（四旬期）.
So what do we do during Lent? Every morning, we pass around a donation box to collect money. Most Catholic schools would do the same thing. Some churches would even give each Catholic their own personal donation box. We give money to the needy as a way of being merciful. MERCY. Mercy means kindness so being merciful is being kind. When we help others, we are being merciful.
We do works of mercy and show kindness because we want to be like God who is merciful and kind. That’s why in the song on page 17, we call God – the God of mercy. The word mercy is very useful. If you have forgotten to bring your homework and when your teacher wants to punish you, you can ask for MERCY. That means you want the teacher to forgive you. Is your teacher going to forgive you for all your big and little mistakes? Well, I wish you luck on that one. However, God always forgives us because He is God of mercy.
So let us sing the song on page 17, we will first sing verse one and then, we will pray the Our Father together, asking God for His mercy. Let’s pray that all of us would become more and more merciful towards each other in this season of Lent.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
God of mercy and compassion….
Our Father in heaven, Holy be your Name, Your kingdom come,
Your will be done on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Do not bring us to the test but deliver us from evil. Amen.
St Joseph, pray for us. St Francis, pray for us.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Brother William OFM
posted by Brother William OFM at 11:24 PM
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Friday Morning Prayer for 2006-03-03
T
Please take out your Hymn and Prayer Book.
Good Morning Mr Kwok, Teachers and Students!
Today is the last day of school for our Form Seven students. They are leaving us to prepare for their Advanced Level Examination. The Advanced Level Examination is the last major public examination to sit for as a teenager. You see, this is quite an important examination. The result of this examination determines if you are going to further your studies or you have to start looking for a job. If you are going to further your studies, the result will determine what kind of courses you are going to follow and where you are going to study: either a university or an IVE. Well, this sounds very important. But believe it or not, taking examinations or even studying is not the most important thing in life. You may ask, why do we have to take examinations or why do we have to study at all?
Well, we study to learn about how to look, how to live, how to love. The knowledge that you have received, that is the things that you have learnt at school, by doing projects, writing reports, doing experiments and reciting passages by heart etc, should become wisdom: wisdom to help you to look at the world around us, wisdom to live a meaningful life and wisdom to love God and others. Indeed, wisdom is far more important than knowledge.
In any case, I hope all of you will remember that studying is not just to receive knowledge but also to learn the wisdom of life. One wise thing you should have learnt at St Joseph’s is to pray always.
So let us now pray for God’s protection for the Form Seven students as they leave St Joseph’s to prepare for their Advanced Level Examination. We pray that they would study hard and the exam results would truly reflect their ability and efforts. And, we pray that God would give us all wisdom, wisdom to look at the world around us, wisdom to live a meaningful life and wisdom to love God and others.
Let us say one Our Father together. I invite all the students, especially the Form Seven students to say the prayers loud and clear, since this is the last morning prayer for these F.7 students.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Our Father in heaven, Holy be your Name, Your kingdom come,
Your will be done on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Do not bring us to the test but deliver us from evil. Amen.
Now let us sing the song on page 5 of your prayer book. We will sing the first two verses.
St Joseph, pray for us. St Francis, pray for us.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Brother William OFM
Please take out your Hymn and Prayer Book.
Good Morning Mr Kwok, Teachers and Students!
Today is the last day of school for our Form Seven students. They are leaving us to prepare for their Advanced Level Examination. The Advanced Level Examination is the last major public examination to sit for as a teenager. You see, this is quite an important examination. The result of this examination determines if you are going to further your studies or you have to start looking for a job. If you are going to further your studies, the result will determine what kind of courses you are going to follow and where you are going to study: either a university or an IVE. Well, this sounds very important. But believe it or not, taking examinations or even studying is not the most important thing in life. You may ask, why do we have to take examinations or why do we have to study at all?
Well, we study to learn about how to look, how to live, how to love. The knowledge that you have received, that is the things that you have learnt at school, by doing projects, writing reports, doing experiments and reciting passages by heart etc, should become wisdom: wisdom to help you to look at the world around us, wisdom to live a meaningful life and wisdom to love God and others. Indeed, wisdom is far more important than knowledge.
In any case, I hope all of you will remember that studying is not just to receive knowledge but also to learn the wisdom of life. One wise thing you should have learnt at St Joseph’s is to pray always.
So let us now pray for God’s protection for the Form Seven students as they leave St Joseph’s to prepare for their Advanced Level Examination. We pray that they would study hard and the exam results would truly reflect their ability and efforts. And, we pray that God would give us all wisdom, wisdom to look at the world around us, wisdom to live a meaningful life and wisdom to love God and others.
Let us say one Our Father together. I invite all the students, especially the Form Seven students to say the prayers loud and clear, since this is the last morning prayer for these F.7 students.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Our Father in heaven, Holy be your Name, Your kingdom come,
Your will be done on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Do not bring us to the test but deliver us from evil. Amen.
Now let us sing the song on page 5 of your prayer book. We will sing the first two verses.
St Joseph, pray for us. St Francis, pray for us.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Brother William OFM
posted by Brother William OFM at 11:23 PM
0 comments
Friday Morning Prayer for 2006-02-24
Good morning Mr Kwok, teachers and students.
For those who are in form 4 or above, you may remember me. For those who are in form three or below, you may be wondering who I am. I am Brother William, a Franciscan brother who was teaching here three years ago. I used to teach English, Music and of course, RE (that's religious education, in case you don't remember).
I have been away for the past two years to do further studies. I am very glad and thankful to come back to the big happy family of SJSS, although I am not going to be a regular teacher. You know what, during the time that I was away, I really missed saying morning prayer with you, singing songs and sharing stories about God and life. Therefore I am very happy to be back in your midst. Many students have asked me what I am doing here. Well, to make a long story short, I am the same Brother William, although I am not doing the same work as before.
Two days ago, it was announced that the Bishop of Hong Kong, Bishop Joseph Zen, will become a Cardinal of the Church. As a cardinal, he will be allowed to vote for the Pope. He is the same Bishop Zen, although he may not be doing the same work as before.How about you? Are you the same as the one of yesterday? Would you tell your teachers that it is not the same you who has forgotten to bring certain homework or class work to class?
For those who are in form 4 or above, you may remember me. For those who are in form three or below, you may be wondering who I am. I am Brother William, a Franciscan brother who was teaching here three years ago. I used to teach English, Music and of course, RE (that's religious education, in case you don't remember).
I have been away for the past two years to do further studies. I am very glad and thankful to come back to the big happy family of SJSS, although I am not going to be a regular teacher. You know what, during the time that I was away, I really missed saying morning prayer with you, singing songs and sharing stories about God and life. Therefore I am very happy to be back in your midst. Many students have asked me what I am doing here. Well, to make a long story short, I am the same Brother William, although I am not doing the same work as before.
Two days ago, it was announced that the Bishop of Hong Kong, Bishop Joseph Zen, will become a Cardinal of the Church. As a cardinal, he will be allowed to vote for the Pope. He is the same Bishop Zen, although he may not be doing the same work as before.How about you? Are you the same as the one of yesterday? Would you tell your teachers that it is not the same you who has forgotten to bring certain homework or class work to class?
posted by Brother William OFM at 11:22 PM
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Friday Morning Prayer for 2006-03-17
T
Good Morning, Mr Kwok, Teachers and Students!
I am sure you are looking forward to the holiday on Monday, right? I hope you remember why we are having a holiday. Yes, it is the FEAST OF ST JOSEPH. FEAST is another word for festival. Traditionally, March 19 is the actual date of the festival, the feast. Since March 19 is a Sunday this year, so we are going to celebrate the Feast of St Joseph on Monday.
In a few moments, Mr Mackenzie will tell you something about the Feast of St Patrick, which happens to be today. But as your Brother-in-Residence, let me remind you something about St Joseph.
Joseph is the husband of Mary and since Mary is the Mother of Jesus, so Joseph is the father of Jesus. But we all know that Jesus is really the Son of God. So, Joseph is not the real father. He is Jesus’ foster father. And Joseph has been a very good father for Jesus, looking after and taking care of both Jesus and Mary. I am sure Joseph has been very loving towards both Jesus and Mary.
St Joseph has a special place in our school because our school is called St Joseph’s School. Since our school is called St Joseph, it means St Joseph is our patron. A patron is someone a person chosen to be a supporter. If your name is Joseph or Josephine, then St Joseph is your patron saint too. To have a patron saint means that St Joseph prays for everyone whose name is either Joseph or Josephine or those who study at a school with the name of St Joseph. There are three schools in Hong Kong with the same name. They are St Joseph’s College on Hong Kong Island, St Joseph’s Anglo-Chinese School in Kowloon and us here in Ma On Shan. All the students in these St Joseph’s schools ask St Joseph to pray to God on our behalf. Since Monday is the Feast of St Joseph, it is the Feast Day of these schools. That’s why students from these St Joseph’s schools, including you, are going to have a holiday on Monday!
Let us pause and think for a minute to think about why we have St Joseph as our patron saint. St Joseph is a popular saint because of his many excellent examples given to us. I will just tell you one. Although he is not the real father of Jesus, Joseph has taken very good care of Jesus and Mary. In this way, Jesus has a very good upbringing and is well prepared for his future work. Joseph is not the saviour but Jesus is. By taking good care of Jesus, Joseph is preparing Jesus in his great work as a saviour. Perhaps we can take very good care of those around us, because we may be helping others to do great work too. So let us pray to God, asking Him to give us the grace to be like St Joseph who can take good care and be loving to our family members. Let us say one Our Father altogether.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Our Father in heaven, Holy be your Name, Your kingdom come,
Your will be done on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Do not bring us to the test but deliver us from evil. Amen.
Brother William OFM
Good Morning, Mr Kwok, Teachers and Students!
I am sure you are looking forward to the holiday on Monday, right? I hope you remember why we are having a holiday. Yes, it is the FEAST OF ST JOSEPH. FEAST is another word for festival. Traditionally, March 19 is the actual date of the festival, the feast. Since March 19 is a Sunday this year, so we are going to celebrate the Feast of St Joseph on Monday.
In a few moments, Mr Mackenzie will tell you something about the Feast of St Patrick, which happens to be today. But as your Brother-in-Residence, let me remind you something about St Joseph.
Joseph is the husband of Mary and since Mary is the Mother of Jesus, so Joseph is the father of Jesus. But we all know that Jesus is really the Son of God. So, Joseph is not the real father. He is Jesus’ foster father. And Joseph has been a very good father for Jesus, looking after and taking care of both Jesus and Mary. I am sure Joseph has been very loving towards both Jesus and Mary.
St Joseph has a special place in our school because our school is called St Joseph’s School. Since our school is called St Joseph, it means St Joseph is our patron. A patron is someone a person chosen to be a supporter. If your name is Joseph or Josephine, then St Joseph is your patron saint too. To have a patron saint means that St Joseph prays for everyone whose name is either Joseph or Josephine or those who study at a school with the name of St Joseph. There are three schools in Hong Kong with the same name. They are St Joseph’s College on Hong Kong Island, St Joseph’s Anglo-Chinese School in Kowloon and us here in Ma On Shan. All the students in these St Joseph’s schools ask St Joseph to pray to God on our behalf. Since Monday is the Feast of St Joseph, it is the Feast Day of these schools. That’s why students from these St Joseph’s schools, including you, are going to have a holiday on Monday!
Let us pause and think for a minute to think about why we have St Joseph as our patron saint. St Joseph is a popular saint because of his many excellent examples given to us. I will just tell you one. Although he is not the real father of Jesus, Joseph has taken very good care of Jesus and Mary. In this way, Jesus has a very good upbringing and is well prepared for his future work. Joseph is not the saviour but Jesus is. By taking good care of Jesus, Joseph is preparing Jesus in his great work as a saviour. Perhaps we can take very good care of those around us, because we may be helping others to do great work too. So let us pray to God, asking Him to give us the grace to be like St Joseph who can take good care and be loving to our family members. Let us say one Our Father altogether.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Our Father in heaven, Holy be your Name, Your kingdom come,
Your will be done on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Do not bring us to the test but deliver us from evil. Amen.
Brother William OFM
posted by Brother William OFM at 11:20 PM
0 comments
About Me
- Name: Brother William OFM
- Location: Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Brother William is a Friar Minor, born and raised in Hong Kong. Currently, he is stationed in Hong Kong, serving as a Novice Master.
Links
- Ma On Shan St Joseph's Secondary School
- SJSS is a Catholic School, See: Catholic Church - Hong Kong
- SJSS is run by OFM - Hong Kong
- OFM -HK belongs to OFM - Worldwide
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