By Ivy Chai
KUCHING — The Emmaus Servant Community at Blessed Sacrament Church Parish remains true and committed to its mission statement to Love & Serve.
In spite of the many lockdowns because of the COVID-19 pandemic since March 2020, the weekly Emmaus prayer meetings resumed in the last few months of 2020, via Zoom. Online ‘pray over’ sessions after these meetings, commenced a few months ago, with the inaugural ‘ministering night’ held last April.
It has been the Community’s practice to invite the parish rector who assumes the position of Head Shepherd of Emmaus Community, to give talks at prayer meetings. Emmaus is grateful to its new shepherd, Fr Patrick Heng who has, over the past three months, shown his commitment to his new flock with his interesting reflections on the Scripture Reading of The Pharisees and the Tax Collector; a Talk on St Joseph in conjunction with the Year of St Joseph, and topping it off with a delightful insight of Pope Francis’ Apostolic Letter PATRIS CORDE (With a Father’s Heart) on 25 August. This is Pope Francis’ personal reflections on the Patron of the Catholic Church.
Father Patrick Heng has shown us that “God does not judge nor listen only to those who can say their prayers well.” God listens and answers to the sincere prayer of the heart, even the simplest one. This can be within or outside the confines of the Church and her environment.
He says, “Prayer is our human response to God. Prayer is faith in action. An honest prayer from the heart can be the hardest prayer of all.”
Emmaus prayer meetings (English) are held over Zoom @7.30pm on Wednesday (opens with the recitation of the Divine Mercy chaplet). The Emmaus Chinese group hold separate sessions @7.15pm (with Rosary) on Friday.
