Happy Endings Recollection

"...if you wish to live well, spend the remaining days of life with death before your eyes." 
St. Alphonsus di Liguori

​It was a special 52nd birthday celebration for Fr. James McTavish as he gave a recollection on “Happy Ending” together with Fr Michael Cheong.
 
It was evident that this topic was quite unique and interesting judged by the number of registered participants on Zoom of around 350. This was part two of last year’s but nevertheless, this topic seems more relevant now during this time of pandemic. No one likes to face death whether it is ours or someone else’s but this recollection somehow really lifted a veil from our misconceptions on how we should view our mortality.
 
Setting our eyes on the goal and what we need to do to prepare for gives light to the words of St Anthony Mary Claret: “Choose now what you would wish to have chosen at life’s end.” If we choose well today, to opt living a life to the full, a life of love, then truly death is not something to fear. Our happy beginning today of choosing to change will make us look forward to a happy ending whenever that may be.
 
Fr Michael deepened on this topic by asking us to contemplate about how our life and our death can go beyond ourselves and ponder on the legacy we want to leave behind for future generations. What are the values we want to live now having in mind the perspective of the ones who will come after us? To make changes in our lives, the 3 main dimensions to tackle are spiritual, cultural and educational. In order to be more concrete and purposeful to change, he extended an invitation for each one to reflect on making a “Project of Life.” 
 
Based on the feedback, many seemed up for this challenge and this sparked more interest to learn more on how to go about it. The fruit was definitely that desire to learn more on how to be a true disciple of Jesus, to follow how he lived so that one day, people too can talk about how we lived for Christ. 

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With thanks to Emy Abaya and the WordNews team