“Change is the only constant in life,” said Heraclitus, and indeed the new year marked a change for many friars in our Custody. For example, there is a new parish team at St Mary of the Angels, and Friar Joseph Lee, the first in our Custody to reach 70 years of age, will be in Manila for a few months for a sabbatical programme.
I, however, continue as Custos, and I am hoping to deepen my intention for the Custody towards greater authenticity as Franciscans, as friars minor. Our Minister General, Friar Massimo Fusarelli, exhorted us during our Chapter last September to focus on strengthening fraternal life. As this is concretely expressed in having at least three friars in each community, we have had to suspend our presence in Penang because we do not have enough Malaysian friars for four communities in Malaysia.
This difficult decision has spurred my desire for our fraternal life to become more intentional. St Francis of Assisi espoused a fraternal life where brothers mutually care for one another and grow in their affective and spiritual maturity personally and communally. To encourage this in our communities, Friar Aiden Peter, as the new Moderator for Ongoing Formation, is considering fresh ideas to stimulate some change in the way we live out our community life.
This year, we are also grateful for our Custody’s spiritual heritage. On 26 January, we celebrated the 50th death anniversary of Blessed Gabriele Allegra, whom our Custody adopted as our co-patron together with St Anthony of Padua. Without Blessed Allegra, we Franciscan Friars might not be in this part of the world. It was his vision to set up the St Anthony Franciscan Sociological Centre in Singapore to offer a Catholic alternative to the Communist ideology that was gaining ground in the 1950s. Whilst tirelessly translating the Scriptures from the original Hebrew and Greek to Chinese and directing the Blessed Scotus Franciscan Biblical Institute in Hong Kong, Blessed Allegra still found time to come to Singapore in the early 1960s.
Turning back the clock several hundred years, we come to the time of St Francis of Assisi. This year we remember 800 years of his Transitus, his return to the Father by welcoming Sister Death. In Assisi, the Friars of the Basilica of St Francis will hold a month-long public display of the mortal remains of St Francis from 22 February 2026. I expound on this exciting event in the Feature article.
As I write this, I have just returned from a week-long meeting, from 5 to 8 January 2026, with the Religious Superiors from Malaysia and Singapore. We also had a joint meeting with the Bishops in our Conference of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. Speaking about change, I can see the deepening of friendship and trust among us Superiors in my six years as Custos. The level of cooperation and collaboration has been taken up a notch. This kind of change is not revolutionary; rather it is secure and organic, the kind that I know comes from an authentic space which can be sustained and is life-giving. I find this truly heart-warming.
I pray that all of us may experience this sort of change this year, especially in our spiritual life. May our Lenten experience be a graced opportunity to ground ourselves further in our Lord. Please pray for us friars as we continue to grow and strengthen our Franciscan presence and service of God’s people. May the Lord bless you and your loved ones!
The request Christ made from the crucifix to St Francis 800 years ago came up repeatedly at the 6th Asia-Oceania OFS-YouFra Congress in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. The simple phrase – Go and repair my Church – resonated with the Secular Franciscans (OFS) brothers and sisters of Asia and Oceania as they sought greater clarity and depth in their identity and mission.
In the Holy Mass that opened the congress, Kota Kinabalu Archbishop John Wong told all gathered that it is important to invert “Go and repair my Church”, to begin with “church” as a community of believers that needs constant conversion, then “repairing” oneself through repentance, and finally “go” and share what you have received from the Lord.
Over the six days, 23-29 October 2025, the 72 Franciscans (61 Seculars and 11 Clergy/Religious) spoke the common language of love and fraternity, despite hailing from several countries, including Australia, Korea, India, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, Timor Leste, Taiwan, Singapore, the Philippines, and Vietnam.
Fraternity is the fundamental call for all Franciscans – Secular and Religious. This is responding to Jesus’ call for all his disciples to be in communion, “that they may be one” (John 17:21) and this deep union is coming from Jesus’ acknowledgement that “the Father and I are one” (John 10:30).
Collective discernment saw the Congress members unanimously voting to conduct formation for leadership – local councils, ministers and formators – to help them understand what they have been called to do and to do it in a Christian and Franciscan way.
Whilst formation was a priority during the congress, other areas of importance discussed included Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) and vocation promotion. Much was said about engaging youths and YouFra in particular. The many entities seriously considering establishing a YouFra fraternity had the chance to learn from the rich experience of entities like Philippines and Vietnam which have YouFra numbering in the thousands.
With the Asia-Oceania delegates were Tibor Kauser OFS General Minister and Francis Park OFS Asia-Oceania Councillor, who helped steer the direction of the conversations and provided clarity on many matters. Tibor Kauser spoke of what it means to repair the Church, “Repair a fraternal life within self and others – but avoid repairing what is not even broken”. He also spoke about the role of the OFS fraternal animator for YouFra and the sense of belonging and responsibility in OFS and YouFra.
If you feel an inner prompting to explore the Secular Franciscan Order, do reach out to Singapore National Minister Janet Lim OFS (janetsfo@gmail.com) or Malaysia National Minister Marina Anjuman OFS (marinaanjuman7284@gmail.com).
On the holy night of Christmas in 1223, the quiet valley of Greccio became another Bethlehem. Francis of Assisi, with burning love for the Lord made flesh, desired to “make memory of that Child born in Bethlehem”, to see with his own eyes the humility of God lying in a manger, to make present again the mystery of God becoming man.
In a cave lit by torches and filled with song, Francis placed before the people a manger with hay, an ox and a donkey. There were no statues or decorations. He wanted everyone to feel the poverty and simplicity of that first Christmas night. It was an act of faith and of deep tenderness – a desire to make the invisible visible, to render present again the astonishing humility of God.
Upon the manger, he placed a portable altar for the Eucharist. There, the Child of Bethlehem was again laid before the people. There, the mystery of the Incarnation and the mystery of the Eucharist met. Through this holy night, Greccio became a new Bethlehem: heaven bent low, and God’s peace spread among those who came in faith and wonder.
The presence of the ox and the donkey, simple yet profound, holds a deep symbolic meaning. Though absent from the Gospel accounts, they appear in the prophecy of Isaiah: “The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib; but Israel does not know, my people do not understand” (Isaiah 1:3).
From the earliest centuries, the Fathers of the Church saw in these two animals a prophetic sign. The ox, a beast of burden accustomed to the yoke, represents the people of Israel, who bore the law of God. The donkey, untamed and wandering, symbolises the Gentiles, who lived outside the covenant. Both come together at the manger, united around the Child who is the Saviour of all.
In that humble cave, the ox and the donkey are not mere decorations; they announce the mystery of reconciliation. As Paul writes, Christ “is our peace, who has made the two one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility” (Ephesians 2:14). Before the manger, the walls that divide peoples, faiths, and hearts begin to crumble. Francis, who in 1219 had crossed battlelines to greet the Sultan with the peace of Christ, must have seen in these animals a living symbol of that same peace – a peace that unites Jew and Gentile, believer and unbeliever, reason and passion, earth and heaven.
The ox and donkey also speak of us. Before God’s mystery, we are often like them – slow to understand, stubborn, bound by instinct or routine. Yet in the presence of the Child, even the dull and unknowing awaken. Their eyes are opened; they recognise their Master. Thus, the manger at Greccio is not only a symbol of poverty but of illumination.
As Francis sang the Gospel that night – his voice trembling with tenderness, his tongue lingering on the sweetness of Jesus’ name – those who listened felt their hearts awaken. Thomas of Celano tells us that one of the faithful saw a child in the manger awakened from a “deep sleep” at the touch of the saint, adding “Thus Jesus was born again in the hearts of many who had forgotten Him.”
This is the miracle of Greccio. It is also the miracle of every Christmas.
Brothers and sisters, this Christmas, let the manger be our altar; let the Child be born in our hearts. Let the ox and the donkey – symbols of our blindness and hardness – recognise their Lord and bow before Him. Let us rediscover the tenderness of God who became small for our sake, for it is only by kneeling beside that humble manger that we find our peace, our joy, and our God.
