Praying for Christian Unity 'The Pope is calling us to hurry up, time is running out. One of the prayers for Christian unity is "Lord Jesus Christ who prayed that we might be one, grant that your Holy Spirit might unite us as one, so that we might be witnesses of you.... and help us to hope beyond all hope..."'

Hello...

I just came back from yet another youth festival, run by Youth 2000, an international organisation set up in 1989 in response to the Holy Father's call to do a decade of youth evangelisation leading up to the millennium, it was held at Walsingham, it's England's national shrine, an important place of pilgrimage for Catholics in England, I think I told you about it before at some point in time....

You know it's so exciting how much is happening this millennium, I see God so much at work this year, pouring out his blessings and his graces upon His people. This holiday has been a time of great blessing for me, the amount of learning and discovering that God has been giving me is just so incredible. I am very awestruck and at times moved to tears at how much God loves us, I am made so much aware that we are totally unworthy of God's love, and yet He still loves us as we are, and is constantly inviting us to come back to Him, constantly knocking at the doors of our heart, never giving up. His grace is so much, His desire to give us the best is so much, He is just waiting for us to ask, and He is ever willing to pour out His blessings. He really means it when He said, "Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened unto you". This time for me, can be said to be a time of great discovery of God's love for us, a kind of a spiritual journey, as I discover through many situations, God's providence and God's love for us all. God is just waiting to pour out His blessings, do not be afraid, for He really really is alive, and very much at work among us. He has won every battle, all victory belongs to Him, do not be afraid, God is very much alive, active, and at work among us, waiting for us to go back.

God has also given me the grace to experience the suffering caused by division, division in the church caused by sin, and the suffering that resulted from it. I think I need to explain a bit here. During the ecumenical conference in France, there were brothers and sisters from different churches, and nations, coming together to pray. We have people from parts of Africa, the Caribbean islands, the Baltic states, Eastern and Western Europe. It's amazing how some of them were from places that I have never even heard of, and I found out that French citizens are not confined to only people who are born or live in France. Till today, there are French colonies in some parts of the Caribbean islands and the people are French citizens! Amazing! Anyway, the place where the conference was held used to be a Benedictine abbey, but is now run by the Chemin Neuf community. It is one of those communities that rose out of the charismatic renewal, with people who are priests, singles, and married couples and families. A bit like the Sword of the Spirit community (SOS) that Jake and Raoul are from, just that the Chemin Neuf community are a Catholic community with an ecumenical mission, while SOS is an ecumenical community.

It's amazing how much work is being done for ecumenism. The Pope is calling us to hurry up, time is running out. One of the prayers for Christian unity is: "Lord Jesus, who prayed that we might be one, we pray to you for the unity of Christians, according to your means. May your Spirit enable us to experience the suffering caused by division, to see our sin, and to hope beyond all hope."

I wanted to highlight the point about hoping beyond all hope. It seems to me that one of the main obstacles to Christian unity is really human pride and sin. Division is sometimes political, the struggle for power and authority, and then humans put a theological reason for it. Until today, it is hard for unity because humans allow personal hurt and biases affect them, and pride with their church prevent them from being open to the truth. Instead of searching for the truth, we fight for our voice to be heard....

I would love to continue on, but if I do, I would be locked in this lab, so I will try to continue tomorrow, I have soooo much to share with you, I will keep you in my prayers for the coming LSS (Life in the Spirit Seminar). Pls do pray for me too, as I try to discern God's Will for the Catholic Society (Ed: she's been elected as pres. of Cathsoc in IC). I am taking it so seriously that I have even gotten myself a spiritual director, a priest from the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, the latest of the friars set up in 1987 by eight Capuchin friars desiring to work more definitively for personal and communal reform within the church. They have a web page at www.franciscanfriars.com

I am having big hopes and big plans for cathsoc. Hoping to establish something there, a place where conversion can take place, a place where upright men and women can rise up, and take courage to follow Christ.... committed men and women for Christ...

Pls do pray for me, I face many doubts and fears and attacks, but I know that Christ has the victory, and so I shall rely totally on Christ...but my greatest worry/fear etc, is that hearts might not be open to conversion, so that is what I am praying very hard for. ok, must go already, 3 mins left... Pls ask the LSS team, and CCPG team to pray for me and the people of Imperial College that God might raise up men and women for Him! God bless you my friend, and take care!

Love, Karen Goh