Following the Example of Mary, Our Mother of Prayer
The third day of the Triduum in honour of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was celebrated with Rosary and Holy Mass in Tamil and English, presided over by assistant parish priest, Rev Fr Konstend Gnanapragasam.
In reflecting on the day’s theme, “With Mary, Our Mother of Prayer” Fr Konstend echoed St Paul’s words to the people of Colossians as were proclaimed in the first reading, “… you must be rooted in Him and built on Him and held firm by the faith you have been taught, and full of thanksgiving.” (Col 2:7) He went on to say that to “be rooted and built on Christ” is what Mother Mary guides us to do.
Prayer is simply talking to God, just as one would to a friend. As children of God, we have been given the privilege to speak directly to God anywhere and at any time. In Mary, we see a role model for how we can do this, said Fr Konstend. Throughout Scripture, we see many instances where the Blessed Mother prays in the silence of her heart and out loud. We see it after the birth of her Son (Luke 2:19), after Jesus is found in the temple (Luke 2:51) and in her song of praise, the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55).
Jesus himself took the time to pray to the Father. As seen in the day’s Gospel reading (Luke 6:12-19), Jesus went out to the mountain to spend the night in prayer to God. While we are not forced to pray in this manner, the Lord invites us to pray in our own way. However, often times we find ourselves caught up in our day-to-day tasks and fail to prioritise prayer. In these instances, we can look to Mary who prayed by treasuring, pondering and storing the Word of God in her heart amidst the hustle and bustle of daily events. Nevertheless, while we should be talking to God as we go about our work, we must also set aside time strictly for prayer, where we ponder and meditate on the Word of God in silence and without any distractions.
We can do this in many ways, including visiting the Blessed Sacrament, reading the Word of God and reciting the Rosary. We therefore need to search and ponder what our commitment to prayer is and strive to fulfill it, said Fr Konstend. In all our struggles to be faithful to our commitment to pray, we ask our blessed Mother to intercede for us for the grace to pray and to be rooted in Jesus Christ.
At the end of Mass, Fr Dom addressed the parishioners and briefly shared about one of the fixtures in the newly renovated church, the kampung glass. He explained that there are glass panels installed on both sides of the church, with 10 panels on each side. Of these 20 panels, 16 are fixed with coloured glass, also known as kampung glass. The remaining four panels, which are currently fixed with dark-tinted glass, will be replaced with stained glass once sufficient funds have been collected. Fr Dom hopes to execute this during his current tenure as parish priest, but added that should that not be possible, the team overseeing the church renovation is to look into it when the time is suitable.
Finally, Fr Dom also shared that the parish intercessory team will take turns adoring the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament from 10 am to 3 pm the following day, Wednesday, 8th September. He invited everyone to send in their prayer intentions, which the team will offer up to the Lord. – KA