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Sun, 09 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I don’t really like social network services, especially Facebook, though I am using Twitter. Those social network services just push any useless feeds, which they claimed to be personalized based on our surfing behaviour. However, they are just like junk food, which MAY favour my appetite. That’s why I prefer RSS news feeds, which I choose my own preferred websites (especially blogs) and follow the news.

During the lent season (today is Easter Sunday), I try my best to spend more time on spiritual readings, in order to strengthen my faith. There are too many temptations in the world, and there are a lot of challenges from the atheism. That’s why I spend more time to read the articles from Catholic Answers.

Catechism and the Pope

Sun, 05 Aug 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I am neither theologian nor bible scholar. But just a Catholic layperson and would like to share my opinions.

The most recent hot issue is the changing of the Catechism about death penalty by Pope Francis. Then throughout the Twitter, I can see there are a lot of debates on this issue, including some people criticising the Pope.

Therefore, in this post, I will share some of my understandings.

Regarding the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), according to USCCB Question 17,

Prayer life

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

There are three ways of prayer according to Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Vocal prayer 口祷
Meditation 默想（运用思维、想像、情感、渴望）
Contemplation 心祷

What is the difference between meditation and contemplation? The following part is a summary from here.

Contemplative prayer is more passive or sublime experience of God. Meditative prayer is more from our work of seeking God (though with the aid from God). Contemplative prayer can be distinguished as the pure work from God.

Grace, grace, grace, which I always confused

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

When I read Catechism, the term “grace” is quite confusing. There are at least four types of grace I read: sanctifying grace, habitual grace, actual grace, and special grace. So, recently, I tried to solve my confusion by going through these differences. By reading the Catechism again and again (the related part only), and also some other resources, so, I simplify them,

Sanctifying (or deifying) grace = 圣化恩宠, permanent state of grace. Habitual grace = 常居的恩宠（宠爱）, is also sanctifying grace. Actual grace = 现时的恩宠（宠佑）, transient help to act (intervention of God), different from habitual grace. Also called “gratuitous grace” in Summa Theologica. Special grace = 特别的恩宠（神恩）, also charism, oriented to sanctifying grace. Considered actual grace.

Catholic particular judgement in programming (for fun only)

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000

[sourcecode language=“c”] int particularJudgement(State* state) { if(state->grace > state->sin) { if(state->punishment) { return PURGATORY; } else { return HEAVEN; } } return HELL; } [/sourcecode]

Prayer Clock and JPrayer Clock 0.1.2 released

Mon, 31 May 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Prayer Clock and JPrayer Clock 0.1.2 are released. Anyone who likes, you can download. And the source code is also available. Feel free to edit.

Novena to the Holy Spirit

Fri, 14 May 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The Novena to the Holy Spirit is started on Friday, 6th Week of Easter. We can start the prayers by today.

However, in my Prayer Clock, I have mis-calculated the day. Please, if you are interested, download the prayers.xml from my site.

Prayer Clock 0.0.6

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Just to announce that the Prayer Clock 0.0.6 is released.

I have redesigned the algorithm and the data structure. Besides that, some features are added such as “Prayers” item that allows the user to show different prayers. The followings are some screenshots:

GTK+ in Windows.

GTK+ in Ubuntu Linux. Very nice, right?

Since Easter is coming, hopefully I have time to add in Divine Mercy Novena.

Prayer Clock

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Written by using C and C++, depends on GTK+ and Expat. I spent about 3 days to study GTK+ and Expat since never used them before. I wrote this application because sometimes, I want to say a prayer, especially Angelus. But I need the prayer to read and also a reminder. So, I decided to wrote this program, at the same time I can also learn about GTK+ and Expat. And I decided to open source it as a contribution to Catholics.

Wedding at Cana

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Today’s Gospel reading is very nice. And it is so meaningful. I like it very much.

When they were ran out of wine, Mother Mary said to Jesus, “They have no wine”.

This is how we should pray. We always pray to God that, we want this, we want that, we want a car, we want a house, we want money, we want a happy life, etc. We always ask for God what we want, because we think that we know what we need. But God knows better than us. God knows what we need. “They have no wine”, and Jesus knew what he should do.

A prayer of St Teresa of Jesus (Chinese)

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Just read the Chinese version Catechism of the Catholic Church, this is the prayer of St Teresa of Jesus:

何事扰你意？何物乱你心？
万般皆易逝，唯主不移真。
心有天主者，坚忍百事成。
夫复何所求，有主心意称。
(圣女大德兰)

About the case: "Muslim Men Spying in Catholic Churches "

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0000

My friend sent me a URL. Then I read it. And I feel sad for what has happened.
There are several blogs related about this case

http://ksstanley.blogspot.com/2009/07/police-report-lodged.html
http://andrew4jc.blogspot.com/2009/07/sacrilege-profanation-of-eucharist-in.html
http://mucked-in-a-jam.blogspot.com/2009/07/al-islam-muslim-reporters-spying-in.html
http://mahaguru58.blogspot.com/2009/07/al-islam-undercover-operation-at.html

About this case, the followings are my personal opinions:

What is happened, is already happened. What we need to do, is to prevent this type of sacrilege happened again. Use the peaceful way. Do not perform flaming through Internet.

Besides that, is sacrilege happened every where? I am not sure. But we know, if we commit mortal sin, we should not receive Holy Communion. Do we commit mortal sins? We also need to look into ourselves.

Free will and decision making

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

The TV series, “Lost”, is very interesting (for me). In the season 5, the main characters were time travelling to the past. And the story said, whatever they did, they will not change the history. Right, it is same to my personal concept about time travelling. Because I personally do not believe the existence of parallel universe.

But, in the episode “The Variable”, the story changes my concept. A main character said to another, we are variables, we have free wills, we have reasoning, we can make decision. That is why, in the episode, they want to change the history. If time travelling to the past really happened in our world, can we change the history?

Soul

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Long time ago, when I was reading the bible (Chinese version, Studium Biblicum), there was a commentary in Genesis 1:26-28, which explains about the human.

人相似天主是按灵魂说的相似天主有理智、意志和记忆。[Studium Biblicum commentary Gen 1:26-28]

Translated to English (by me): “Man is similar to God, is according to the soul which is similar to God, who has rational thinking, mind, and memory.”

Therefore, recently I searched from the internet about the “rational thinking, mind, and memory”. Then I found that, actually these three attributes are “memory, understanding, and will”. They are the faculties of a soul, according to St Augustine of Hippo.

All Souls Day

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Today is special, because All Souls Day falls on Sunday. Just go to church on Sunday as usual, you will celebrate the All Souls Day.

Besides that, according to Richert (2008), we can gain a special plenary indulgence for the souls in Purgatory today. That is nice.

Translation difference between Studium Biblicum and English bible

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Last Sunday, the Gospel described about two brothers, first one rejected to work, but later went to work. And the second one, accepted to work, but later did not go to work. This is English version. And you can refer it here (Mt 21:28-32).

But if you were attending the Chinese mass, the Gospel described the two brothers in reverse order. The Chinese version (Studium Biblicum) states that the first one accepted to work, but didn’t go to work, and the second one rejected to work, but later went to work. You can refer it here.

Civilization 4 quote I like most

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

When I played Civilization 4, there is a quote I like most

Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.
by: Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

This is really true. If we eat unhealthy food, surely we will be unhealthy. If we eat healthy food, surely we will be healthy. When we eat, we digest the food, and the nutrients become part of our body. That is why we are growing when we eat. How wonderful is our body.

Novena to Saint Jude

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0000

When my father was in the hospital, I prayed the novena to St Jude.

1st day of the novena, all of us thought that he was getting well. But he looked very sleepy those days.
2nd day of the novena, my father suddenly left lung collapsed, and doctor said that the brain would have some damage. And he was unconscious.
3rd day of the novena, at the morning about 4.00 am, my father’s blood pressure suddenly dropped down. And doctors used dopamine to control his blood pressure. He needed the ventilator for breathing. And doctors said that he got pneumonia. He was still unconscious.
4th day of the novena, he became conscious.
5th day of the novena, he did not use ventilator.
6th day of the novena, about 3.00 am, his SpO2 (oxygen) dropped. He could not breathe by his own. The nurses used ambubag to help him to breathe. Once there was no ambubagging, his SpO2 will drop immediately. This happened until 7.00 am, the ventilator was used to support his breathing.
7th day of the novena, he was sent to ICU.
8th day of the novena, he looked better, but sad.
Last day of the novena, he looked better.

Intentions of the Holy Father

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I always heard that, we need to pray for the intentions of the Holy Father. Then I always pray like that without knowing what are the intentions of the Holy Father.

Finally, I found that, there are different intentions for every month. If you want to know what are the intentions of the Holy Father of this month, you can visit here.

Angels' names

Sun, 25 May 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Once, I wondered, why and how do we know the angels’ names. Because I think, why do angels’ speak Hebrew? Or the names like Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael are named by human beings?

Finally, I know the answer after I read the sermon of Pope St Gregory the Great (here). The names are revealed to the human beings because of the meaning of each name. The names were known in Hebrew, but the meaning of each name is universal.