"We are often so proud that we uphold the true and promote the good... but often we forget that ethics must also be informed by beauty.
I look at our parish and see that we've struggled in many ways to try to be a parish which is informed by the vision of Christ and the vision for Christ. In so doing, we've forgotten that the vision of Christ for the world is not just good and true but must also be beautiful. For a long time, unfortunately, our vision of what is beautiful is obscured much by the question of Judas. "Shouldn't this money be used for the poor". A good question and also an important one. But unfortunately the so-called "Judas solution" does not make the world a better place. It does not lengthen our vision but only shorten our horizon to the immediate and the earthly. The vision of a new world is informed by what is other-worldly, if you accept that this world is temporary.
Furthermore, if you remember the definition of Sacrament: Outward sign of inward grace. Now that we've this "beautiful" church, the outward sign is an inspiration to transform our inner reality to conform with the external beauty of our church. It is not just what is true and good that inspire us. Beauty forms the third trilogy in the movement towards integrity and wholeness.
May this then be our inspiration to allow God to make of us, a beautiful community.
God be praised. Many things could not have been done if the beauty is not already inside so many of you.
In the Lord, I humbly remain,
Padre"
You will have noticed our church's new ceiling has decorations and our dear Padre's explanations of the decorations are as follows:-
Fleur de lys or fleurs de lys...the Lilies. - As a religious symbol, it may represent the Trinity. In iconography it is associated with the Archangel Gabriel when he appeared in the scene of the Annunciation. it is also associated with the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Fleur de lys is the one on top on the ceiling and also the lilies appears as the border of the current stained-glass pictures in our church, if anyone notices....
The "spidery" thing on top of the sanctuary is the Baldachinno. It is not new in the sense that the old ceiling already has the feature of a baldachin. Remember the rectangular drop from the ceiling? It acts as a "canopy" over the sanctuary. The early history of the baldachinno is obscure, but it probably originated in the desire to give to the primitive altar table a more dignified and beautiful architectural setting... The most famous of the baldachinno is to be found in St Peter's Basillica.
With the renovations in the Church completed, the moving back of the pews and other furniture and fittings are in progress. Many parishioners have also organized themselves into 'clean-up' teams to clean up the re-occupied church. Our dear Padre wishes to thank all of you 'beautiful people' for continuing to make our church and our community a beautiful sacrament for Christ.
As we are able to move back for Palm Sunday celebration, we thank God for all the good things in life. We were able to complete the major replacement of roof, ceiling and all the associated mechanical & electrical services within the high level ceiling space within record time of 7 weeks. We are sure we are on God's side...... He is the greatest project manager.
We also thank God for the Consultant team of Architect, Structural Engineer, M&E engineers and the able main contractor and his various trade sub contractors. They all worked hard within this extremely short construction period to complete the roof and related renovations so that we can celebrate our Holy week in this beautiful church.
As we all know, the renovation is being done in 3 phases, and we will embark into our 2nd phase soon after the Easter season. That phase will include the upgrading of front porch, our coffee morning fellowship area and the construction of a direct access road from Jalan Gasing into our upper concourse - the roof of our present porch. There will be a ramp access for the physically challenged persons to access the front porch on wheel chairs. 3rd phase will be beautification of the surrounding area, and the re painting of the external of our church building etc.
Our Padre thanks all the donors. With the savings of the past 3 years and your donations of the last 4 months, we are able to pay for the 1st phase. Kindly continue to be aware of our further fund raising to complete the rest of the work we had started to do, for His greater glory...
