It’s the new year and I hope you feel you are embarking on something meaningful this year with the Lord. Sometimes we wonder if we are in the same rut year in year out. But I can assure you that our lives can be full of meaningful surprises if we take time to recollect and discern.
For me, I will be six years as Custos in September, when the friars from Singapore and Malaysia will gather at Chapter (a religious meeting) and elect a friar to be the Custos for the next three-year term. It could be me, or it could be another friar, as the Lord guides!
Ongoing formation has been the area of special attention for me, and I pray that we friars will go from strength to strength in being more authentic and audacious in our life, fraternity and mission. Our brothers have been working hard in their areas of responsibility and dedicating time to fraternal life and prayer.
Already this year, we have had the Under-5s Retreat in Bandung, Indonesia led by Friar Esmond Chua. Under-5s are friars who have been professed or ordained five years and less. Since 2022, we have met online every two months for formation, and once a year, this group goes away for a short period of retreat. Indeed, this ongoing formation is very important and meant to accompany our young friars with intentional care and guidance. In January, we also had the New Forms Meeting (Asia) in Vietnam. It was an exciting time of exchange among friars from all over Asia about the creative ways we are bringing the Good News of salvation and hope to God’s people, especially those living in the peripheries.
In February, the Ministers (Provincials and Custos) from SAAOC (South Asia, Australia, Oceania Conference) will have our annual meeting in Singapore. We will be sharing updates on our various projects particularly the Asian Franciscan Formators Course (AFFT) which finished its first run in December, the Asian Fund-raising team to aid Asian projects, areas in mission territory that require more friars, and other matters close to our hearts as Asian Franciscans.
Finally, in the six issues of St Anthony’s Bread this year, we are putting the spotlight on our fraternities in Singapore and Malaysia. We will be asking our friars to introduce their fraternities and their members to you, our readers and supporters. Perhaps the writer will share their way of life, and the way they live out the Franciscan mission. We begin with this issue and the San Damiano Franciscan Centre located within the Franciscan Bukit Batok Complex. We hope that these feature articles will help you better understand our Franciscan Charism.
I wish all of you, our friends and benefactors, a very blessed Chinese New Year! The Year of the wooden Snake is said to be a time of transformation, renewal and spiritual growth, and it is indeed life-giving for us Catholics to think about the Chinese zodiac in this way. May this new year truly be a time of spiritual promises fulfilled for us all.
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