ARTICLES
“Non Parlare, Guarda! – Speak Not, Behold!”
Many years ago now, during my first visit to Assisi, I found by chance a book written by Italian poet and artist Umberto Verdirosi entitled “Behind the Canvas”. On one page, entitled “Il povero cristo” in Italian and “The encounter” in English, is a painting of a...
The Transitus of St Francis of Assisi
Catholic News Singapore
Let’s Talk About Our Imminent Future
Rising sea levels. Droughts. Floods. Disrupted food supply. The severity and urgency of climate change is upon us. Yet, do we see the need for change in our lifestyle, the way we produce and consume? Pope Francis, in his encyclical Laudato si‘, calls all of us to take...
DISappointment
What caught your eye when you first saw the title of this article? Did you spot the word “appointment” first or did you see the word “disappointment” in its entirety? Disappointment may be an apt way to describe 2020 – a year that has been unpredictable, tumultuous...
A Reflection on Stigmata of St Francis of Assisi
A video reflection by Friar Derrick on the Feast of the Stigmata of St Francis to the staff of Mount Alvernia Hospital and Assisi Hospice of Singapore.
Anthony – Theologian After the Heart of Francis
St Anthony’s humility accompanied his popularity through the ages. Many of us pray to him when we lose things and we may even call him “Doctor of the Church” and not know why. What many do not know is that Anthony had a licence to teach licentia docendi. St Francis,...
A New Way of Looking at the World
St Francis of Assisi is well known for his love of poverty, but he was not born into poverty. In fact, he was born into wealth and privilege, and once dreamt of glory on the battlefield. He thought these were the things that would bring him happiness. It was not...
Passing as a Pilgrim with St Francis
Caught up in life and its vicissitudes, we can begin to believe the great myth of human ego that this earthly life lasts forever and then, when Sister Death draws near to us, we are lost in panic, lost in pain. We are simply lost, and we hold out against her, not...
“Death, where is your Sting? Death, where is your Victory?”
St Paul almost seems to be taunting death with these two questions in his first letter to the Corinthians. And I am wondering how many of us have the audacity to do that. The culture of death seems to be around us where the voiceless have no right to life and...
St Clare and the Path of Purification
In particular, I notice that Clare lives and suggests discernment as a path of purification: purification of the gaze, of the heart, and of the will. Purification of the gaze The starting point is the reality in which we find ourselves; the reality that “we...