Before coming to the United States of America (USA), Thanksgiving didn’t mean much to me. While I caught glimpses of this holiday in American sitcoms, my understanding of it remained at that: distant and apathetic. My impression of Thanksgiving was limited to stuffed turkey, cranberry sauce, mash potatoes and sweet corn – delicious yet highly superficial. Similar to some of the holidays in Singapore, Thanksgiving was an occasion synonymous with good food and merry-making. Yet, akin to an increasingly commercialized Christmas, there has got to be something deeper and more meaningful to Thanksgiving right?
Tag: Chris
Updates!!
Hello everyone! 🙂 Our one year anniversary is coming up REAL SOON (it’s actually tomorrow!! WOOTZ!! 🎉). So instead of our usual article upload today, we’d like to give you all some new updates that can be expected from us in the upcoming second year of our blog!
New Writers!
We’re very happy to announce that we’ll have some new writers joining us on this Grace-filled journey with us! Over the coming year, we’ll slowly be introducing some of these new brothers (and sisters 🙆♂️) so do look out for them and keep them in your prayers as you have been keeping us in your prayers the past year! 🙂
Readers’ Involvement!
In line with our name, we’d like to create more conversations and discussions in our blog! As such, sometime in the year ahead, we will be calling out for new ideas and discussion topics (and maybe even articles, hmm 🤔) from you, our readers! So if you have any thoughts, prayers or edifying experiences you’d like to share with us, please do so!
New articles!
As always, you can look out for new articles every Wednesday! Following the warm reception of our themed months, we will continue to have such themes in the upcoming months. Look out for those! Furthermore, we will also be launching articles in… wait for it… MULTIPLE LANGUAGES!! That’s right!! In order to reach out to more people in a multilingual country (and beyond), we’ve decided to release articles in other languages – so stay tuned!
That’s all, folks! Keep a look out at our YouTube page for a very special video tomorrow to celebrate our first anniversary!
Poem: Dining in the Desert
In this special post, the three of us come together in a collaborative effort to weave our individual searches for Jesus together into a poem.
A/N: Blessed Wednesday everyone! To round off Odes to October month, Chris, Greg and I thought we would try writing a poem together. After giving it some thought, I struck upon the idea of modeling the poem after a Japanese collaborative style of poetry called “renga”.
You may notice that Greg’s first three lines take the form of the famous “haiku” – the three line, 17-syllable Japanese poem. A renga consists of a series of haikus linked together by a couplet – two lines of 7 syllables each. I thought the structured form of this poem would both impose healthy creative limitations (the challenge was to sum up the state of our current spiritual lives in a haiku), and aid some of us who had grave (and unfounded) doubts about our poetic abilities (*cough*Greg*cough*).
So over a long video call across various time zones, the three of us spent a light-hearted three hours listening to each others journeys and trying to fit our spiritual lives into 17 syllables, as well as finding ways to express where our spiritual lives overlapped, mainly in our combined desire to search for Jesus. Do let us know your thoughts on social media or if you ever wish to try a similar exercise with your community or loved ones. We hope you enjoy the read!
– Garrett
Greg:
I walk the desert
Relishing in a mirage
More real than the rain
Garrett:
Truth reveals reality
Turning desert to summer;
Lazy summer’s day
Seeker puts his satchel down
To hear the Lord’s words:
Chris:
“Why search for answers outside?
Can you find rest in me, child?”
New yet familiar
I cook a meal for Jesus
I am loved; He smiles.
Greg:
My meal and His Eucharist
We dine together and live
© 2018 Christ Centered Conversations/Gregory Adrian Gunawan
© 2018 Christ Centered Conversations/Garrett Christopher Ng
© 2018 Christ Centered Conversations/Christopher Chok
Poem Dialogue: Dag Hammarskjold
Chris writes a response poem-prayer to Dag Hammarskjold’s Markings.
Dag Hammarskjold, Markings
Give us
A pure heart
That we may see Thee,
A humble heart
That we may hear Thee
A heart of Love
That we may serve Thee,
A heart of faith
That we may live Thee,
Thou
Whom I do not know
But Whose I am.
Thou
Whom I do not comprehend
But Who hast dedicated to me
To my fate.
Thou –
Christopher Chok, Imprints
Grant us
A still soul
That we may touch You,
A contrite soul
That we may feel You,
A soul of Peace
That we may see You,
A soul of Truth
That we may know You,
Jesus
Whom I long to know
And Whose I’m loved.
Jesus
Whom I search all day and night
Yet Who has loved me into being
To this world.
Jesus –
Poem Dialogue: Alfred Lord Tennyson
Chris writes a response to Tennyson’s poem, “In Memoriam”
Alfred Lord Tennyson, “In Memoriam”
Be near me when my light is low,
When the blood creeps, and the nerves prick
And tingle; and the heart is sick,
And all the wheels of being slow.
The Ebb and Flow of Spirituality
Chris reflects on the wisdom that he has learnt from Richard Rohr’s books and talks about the movements of one’s spiritual journey
“Sooner or later, if you are on any classic ‘spiritual schedule,’ some event, person, death, idea, or relationship will enter your life that you simply cannot deal with, using your present skill set, your acquired knowledge, or your strong willpower. Spiritually speaking, you will be, you must be, led to the edge of your own private resources. At that point you will stumble over a necessary stumbling stone, as Isaiah calls it; or to state it in our language here, you will and you must ‘lose’ at something. This is the only way that Life-Fate-God-Grace-Mystery can get you to change, let go of your egocentric preoccupations, and go on the further and larger journey. I wish I could say this was no true, but it is darn near absolute in the spiritual literature of the world.”– Richard Rohr, Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life.
Recently, Richard Rohr has been a blessed companion on my walk with Jesus and my journey onwards towards Emmaus. Most, if not all, of Rohr’s ideas and issues raised in his various books have struck numerous chords in my heart. As of now, I’ve read “Falling Upwards”, “Immortal Diamond” and “Breathing Underwater” and all three books were so enlightening and filled with wisdom.
Distance, Detachment and Inner Freedom
Chris reflects on how important it is to hold on to our identity as children of God in the midst of a world of distractions.
Simon and his companions set out in search of him, and when they found him they said, ‘Everybody is looking for you.’ He answered, ‘Let us go elsewhere, to the neighbouring country towns, so that I can preach there too, because that is why I came’ … (Excerpt from the Gospel of the 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time; Mark 1:29-39)
“Everybody is looking for you.”
Hearing this verse at Mass the other day and pondering about it in prayer has allowed me to better introspect and in turn, gain a deeper awareness and appreciation of the importance of distance, detachment and inner freedom. To me, the implicit notion of this poignant phrase is one of expectation. Expectation not in the anticipatory Advent “Christmasy” manner but rather, other people’s expectations of Jesus.
