Farmer of Hearts - How Not to Miss God’s Voice

In our reflection yesterday, we realized that our deepest yearning comes from God. It is the yearning for a mutual relationship between God and humans. This yearning is like a seed that, when carefully nurtured by us, God will ensure a hundredfold harvest for us. However, the envious devil does not want to see that we have an intimate relationship with our Heavenly Father. Therefore, it secretly s...

On this Friday, let us commemorate and meditate again on the passion of Jesus through praying, fasting, and the Way of the Cross.  We also invite everyone to encounter our Lord Jesus through Eucharistic Adoration and observing the Holy Hour. As we reach the ninth day of our retreat, you might wonder why the retreat content from the eight previous days doesn’t seem to be closely related to the them...

In yesterday's reflection, it was mentioned that performing acts of love is not our Catholic strength. Some of us may disagree. Isn't the Catholic Church the largest charitable organization in the world? That is certainly true! However, on a personal level, we really need to put in extra effort. What is emphasized here is the culture of "giving" . The world teaches us that it is important to save...

When speaking of Lent, for most believers, what stands out in our minds are the practices of repentance and prayer, fasting and self-denial. These long-lasting traditions in the Church are ingrained in the hearts of the faithful. Therefore, during Lent, many churchgoers practice self-denial and fasting in different ways, such as giving up their favourite food or entertainment as an offering to God...

The "Five-Loaves-and-Two-Fishes Moments" concept introduced in the past five days of reflection focuses on whether we can extend from self-centeredness to caring for the needs of others through our humble offering. If we do so as a community in Christ, with the participation of each member and through Christ, we can accomplish what is humanly impossible! Yesterday's reflection reminded us that the...

Yesterday, we celebrated the first Sunday of Lent. In the Gospel, there is a recount of Jesus being led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He had fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards He was hungry.  Then, the tempter came to tempt Him. By abstaining forty days from earthly food, He consecrated through His fast the pattern of our Lenten observance. Even thou...

The day when Jesus called Levi, the tax collector, the Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to His disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance.” (cf. Luke 5:27-32) In fact, we are all sinners, we are all...

We commemorate the Lord’s Passion on Fridays.  Let us fast and pray, today, with a pious and reverent heart, and meet Jesus in Eucharistic Adoration. We hope you did have a chance yesterday to bring the light of Christ to the family member whom the Heavenly Father has revealed to you.  No matter how it goes, do give thanks to the Heavenly Father for the inspiration and giving you the courage and o...

Yesterday, we brought up the concept of the “Five-Loaves-and-Two-Fishes Moments”, how God desires us to collaborate with Him and how He multiplies those contributions which may seem insignificant to us. Through our active participation,  God yearns to touch people’s hearts,  ease their burdens, and bring positive impacts to their lives through us.    You may also recall that today is the “Action D...

The Farmer of Hearts Lenten Online Retreat was first launched in Lent 2020, when the global Covid-19 pandemic began. Since then, we have already launched three online Lenten retreats, and we are about to begin our fourth! For those of you who are returning participants, thank you for journeying with us in the past 3 years! If you are new to this retreat, welcome on board! Together we have journeye...

In addition to Jesus, the Son of God, the other main actor in the “theo-drama” is the Mother of God, the Blessed Virgin Mary. Both, having completely reverted Adam and Eve’s sin of “pride”, have become the Father’s perfect followers who have also perfectly fulfilled the mission bestowed on them by the Father. The collaboration between the Son and the Holy Mother is the fulfilment of the Father’s w...

The chaos in our individual life, family, society, and even the entire human history are intricately connected to our sinful nature; at the top of the list is our “pride”. Our human condition and struggles due to pride began with Adam and Eve, and continue to the end of time. A renowned theologian, Hans Urs von Balthasar, suggested that there are two different dramas we can live out in life: an “e...

In the reflection on Day 37, we considered the possibility of falling into the condition of “burnout” when our life is extremely unbalanced and disorderly; not only does this negatively affect ourselves but also those around us and the entire community to which we belong.  Preceding this stage, we would  experience the undesirable condition of living in a constant state of “hurriedness” .  This is...

Having a “balanced life” is central to all Christians. In addition to balancing all three aspects of ourselves, body, mind, and soul, it is crucial that we also strive to strike a balance in our spiritual life. For some sisters and brothers, they may have preferences for certain areas of spiritual life or habits, which in turn causes them to favour the development of those areas of their spiritual...

Knowing how to take care of ourselves according to God’s design implies the caring of not only our body but also our spiritual wellness and needs of our soul, since both our body and soul are God’s gifts for us; gifts that deserve to be cherished and protected. Self-care, in general, includes three areas of needs: body, mind, and soul; they need to be cared for holistically and individually. Self-...

On Day 34, we reflected on the image of God as a giver without a bottomline; such is a unique trait of the Father. God willingly provides us with everything we need. In truth, He also wants us to participate in this work of giving. However, we are not God and cannot give without a bottomline. We are merely mortals, not God. Though we desire to offer our best to others, our family, and society, it’...

To achieve “order” in life, one must seek appropriate “priorities”. In yesterday’s reflection, we learned how to prioritize our lives through the words and examples of God the Father, Jesus, and Mother Mary. The Pharisees often say, “the most important thing to me is God”. If we say something is important, we cannot only talk the talk but we must also walk the walk; otherwise, like the Pharisees, ...

There is only one goal in Jesus’ life: the object is the Father and His mission is to fulfil His Father’s will. Indeed, life is not that complicated; Christ, living for this one goal, freely lets go of all other less important things: things that are of this world. Throughout His life, He willingly offered up the most precious things in life, including time, friendship, security, desire to be love...

It is not surprising that God’s intervention in our lives requires us to make way.  In addition to sweeping away our original plans and preferences , we also need to give up our time and will ; offering our desires to make way for the expression of God’s will in our life and to allow God’s kingdom to be present on earth and in our hearts.  As Jesus Christ our Lord has taught us in “The Lord’s Pray...

Stephen Covey, a well-known American management guru, once did a demonstration during a business class. He started to drop a handful of rocks of various sizes about the size of a fist, one by one, into a one-gallon mason jar. When he could no longer fit another rock into the jar, he brought out a bucket of gravel and started filling the gaps between the rocks in the jar. Then, he brought out a buc...

Before we know it, our retreat has arrived at Day 30, launching into its third part - the “Cornerstone of Our Lives”. In part two, the theme of “Priorities in Life” may have shocked you: Does it mean that everything in life, be it good or bad, is the same as the “many things” that come under the umbrella of “preference” and “attachment”; gradually evolving into “distractions”, resulting in “accumu...

The reflection on Day 27 focuses on God’s “everlasting promise” to us; one that empowers us to respond to God and God’s gift of life to us with an “unfading desire”.  The reflection on Day 28 examines how our “attachment” to people and things other than God can become a stumbling block for us as we strive to live the most wonderful and abundant life possible.  Today, we will focus on other types o...

A story goes like this: Two monks travelled on the road together. They met a lady on the road who needed help to cross a river. One of the monks carried her on his back, crossed the river, put her down, and continued on the road. After a while, he noticed that the other monk seemed to be upset. When asked, the other monk replied, "As a monk, you should keep a distance from women. How come you carr...

The two ultimate goals of this Lenten Retreat are: firstly, to help us distance ourselves from and eliminate the burden and distractions brought on by the “many things”; and secondly, to seek and choose, together, what Jesus urges Martha, the “better part”. One condition must be met in order to achieve these two goals, that is, we need to maintain a strong aspiration in our heart ; an aspiration t...

The reflections in the past few days might have reminded all of us that living out our Christian identity is easier said than done. However, please do not be mistaken! It is not the intention of these reflections to make everyone feel overwhelmed; rather, they are vehicles through which we may gain some clarity of the truth. Just as Jesus deliberated the true cost of being a Christian to His disci...