GOD IS LOVE

“God is love, and he who abide in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 Jn 4:16)

St. Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians, tells us without bandying words about that love is the greatest thing there is. (1 Cor 13:13) In a tribute to God’s great gift of love, we have made the words of St. John the theme of our first newsletter – “God is love”.

Pope Benedict XVI expounds on this in his first encyclical. “We have come to believe in God’s love (1 Jn 4:16):” he quotes, “in these words the Christian can express the fundamental decision of his life. Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” This is why our encounter with Jesus cannot fail to change our lives.

Jesus Christ – the Incarnate Love of God

Some would call Jesus’ life the most radical form of love. Christ, being the Father’s only Son, became one like us; yet being humbler yet, he freely accepted death on the cross. The Bible tells us that, as Jesus hung on the cross, the Father wept and turned His face away – He could not bear to see how cruelly we led His Son to death. How great is the love of God!

“When Jesus speaks in his parables of the shepherd who goes after the lost sheep, of the woman who looks for the lost coin, of the father who goes to meet and embrace his prodigal son, these are no mere words,” the Pope explains. “They constitute an explanation of his very being and activity. His death on the Cross is the culmination of that turning of God against himself in which he gives himself in order to raise man up and save him.”

Eros and Agape

In our world today, “love” has so many meanings. The most commonly portrayed form of love in movies and the media would be “eros” love – one born of erotic and bodily desire. Yet the Church gives us a different picture of love; “eros” is but one facet, as love is a function of the whole person, involving mind, body and spirit. Love may be born out of a desire to gain (“eros”), but “eros” alone cannot sustain love – true love transforms with a real discovery of the other person, moving past its earlier self-seeking, selfish character.

The Pope expresses this transformation in these words: “Love is indeed ‘ecstasy’, not in the sense of a moment of intoxication, but rather as a journey, an ongoing exodus out of the closed inward-looking self towards its liberation through self-giving, and thus towards authentic self-discovery and indeed the discovery of God – ‘whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it’, as Jesus says throughout the Gospels.”

In other words, when you love someone with “agape” or unconditional love, you hand your whole self to that person on a platter, but in giving yourself away, “freely” as Jesus did, you find yourself again!

“Agape” love, often thought of as biblical love, is wonderful because it is unconditional. It does not take into account how worthy a person is to be loved, for all are God’s children, and no one is unworthy of love.

It seems almost impossible to love so freely as God wants us to. Yet God does not demand of us a feeling that we are incapable of producing. St. Paul reminds us that God loved us when we were still sinners; indeed, each of us confesses during the mass that “I am not worthy”. But because God “loved us first”, and we experience God’s love, love can also blossom as a response in us, especially when we look on each other with the perspective of Jesus. Seeing with the eyes of Christ, we can love people whom we do not like or even know!

“No longer is it a question, then, of a ‘commandment’ imposed from without and calling for the impossible, but rather of a freely-bestowed experience of love from within, a love which by its very nature unites us to God; through this unifying process it makes us a ‘we’ which transcends our divisions and makes us one, until in the end God is ‘all in all’.”


By Audrey Wong

Fr. Bruno on life, love and joy

I’m happy to write a few lines for the 1st of this new newsletter that will surely help connect all the youths in our parish. And as I’ll soon leave for India (to study Tamil for 2 years before coming back to Singapore), I wish you all the best for what you have started and will start here for the youth, so that they can discover more and more how much God loves them.
It’s a never-ending journey, and it’s always amazing! Some people spend their life travelling around the world, or trying all the new things they can try (in whatever area you wish to imagine), actually they are all looking for the same thing: this Source that we come from, this Love without who we can’t live: the Trinity-God revealed in Jesus Christ!
Following my French bishop, I’d like to give you 3 points. I wish all of you to discover this beautiful life in you and be its witnesses!

1) God is life, love, joy.

If you hear something else from someone,

- either he is wrong:

Many people think that “God’s will” means suffering… No! God is only love, can only give love and can only wish love. (If you find something different in the Bible, that means those who wrote still didn’t discover the real God.) Now, if we really love, we can’t escape suffering… that’s a human truth! But we don’t look for the suffering; we look for life, love and joy.

- or you didn’t understand what’s real joy:

There’s a lot of misunderstanding about what the Church says (or should say) about sexuality. Sexuality should always be seen inside the larger sexual relationship between 2 persons wishing to share in all the dimensions of their being: it takes time!
But if you find that there is not enough life, love and joy in the Church, then we are waiting for you to bring some more!

2) Christian life always has 3 dimensions:

- Priest:

To pray, to celebrate God’s love in the sacraments and in all areas of life.

- Prophet:

To announce (and read, study) the Word of God, the Good News, to all!

- King:

To serve the society, our brothers and sisters.

We find them in the mass: the liturgy gathers us to listen to the Word of God (Bible) and give thanks (Eucharist), and sends us to the world!
We find them in the 3 focuses of Lent: prayer, fast, sharing. The relationship with God, with myself, with the others.

3) A simple “evening prayer” or “family prayer”

can be around these 3 words: thank you, sorry, please. And, as prayer is always a relationship, a 4th word: “I love you”! And then the silence in which you can hear the Word: “You are my beloved child. Come, follow me!”

Editors' Note - Apr 07

When we first came together to put together this newsletter - a newsletter of our own, by the youth and for the youth of Holy Trinity - we were faced with many doubts and difficulties, but by God’s grace we have come to publish our very first issue!

The word “Juvenis” means youth in Latin, and it is us, the youth, who are the future of the church. We recognise this great responsibility; hence, this newsletter aims to serve your needs as a thinking young Catholic.

In a tribute to God’s great gift of love, we have made the words of St. John our theme – “God is love”. After all, when everything is stripped away, this is what God truly is about – L-O-V-E.

So go on, spread the love! For only by abiding in God’s love can we live life to the fullest!

Yours in Christ,

Editorial Committee
The Juvenis

Musing on the Word : God is Love

“Do not bear a grudge against others, but settle your differences with them, so that you will not commit a sin because of them. Do not take revenge on others or continue to hate them, but love your neighbours as you love yourself. I am the Lord.”

(Leviticus 19 : 17-18)


The theme here is “God Is Love”, and although it seems a simple enough theme, God’s love has always been on a somewhat higher plane; we have never been able to fully comprehend it in all its form and splendour. That is because God’s love is unquestioningly forgiving and merciful, a quality most of us lack due to flawed human nature. As this passage shows us, it is not in the nature of God to hold grudges and live with hate, and this vengeful attitude is not what He wishes us to adopt.
One would suppose that the strength and forgivingness of His love has in part to do with His belief that people can change for the better, and that He should and would be more than happy to embrace anyone that repents. Our human nature, plus growing up in the society we are in now, has taught us in part to be somewhat sceptical of everyone, even loved ones, especially when they have betrayed our trust. Then again, if we think about it, He has probably been betrayed and hurt by more people and to a greater depth than we will ever experience, and yet he still finds it in Him to be able to forgive us, even if we betray His trust again and again.

We are all His children, and He dotes on us and will never want to see us be led astray. That’s why he will always keep His arms open to us so we can always return to Him. The knowledge that He will always accept us if we repent instead of shutting us out in anger is one big reason why, with Him, there is always hope for us. Of course, we should not take advantage of His forgiveness and make empty promises to repent, when all we will do is to shun Him away again. We should learn to be appreciative of His love for us by reciprocating that same love to others, to “love your neighbours as you love yourself”, and as Jesus said, “to love one another as I have loved you”.
Of course we will find it completely impossible to do so all the time, but we should always remember that it is not by our own effort but by the grace of God that we will be able to love. So ask for our Lord’s mercy and strength, give your friend a smile, and say that “sorry” you’ve been meaning to say for a while. You know you should, and you know He would like it.

Priest Talk

Fr. Bruno on life, love and joy

I’m happy to write a few lines for the 1st of this new newsletter that will surely help connect all the youths in our parish. And as I’ll soon leave for India (to study Tamil for 2 years before coming back to Singapore), I wish you all the best for what you have started and will start here for the youth, so that they can discover more and more how much God loves them.
It’s a never-ending journey, and it’s always amazing! Some people spend their life travelling around the world, or trying all the new things they can try (in whatever area you wish to imagine), actually they are all looking for the same thing: this Source that we come from, this Love without who we can’t live: the Trinity-God revealed in Jesus Christ!
Following my French bishop, I’d like to give you 3 points. I wish all of you to discover this beautiful life in you and be its witnesses!

1) God is life, love, joy.

If you hear something else from someone,

- either he is wrong:

Many people think that “God’s will” means suffering… No! God is only love, can only give love and can only wish love. (If you find something different in the Bible, that means those who wrote still didn’t discover the real God.) Now, if we really love, we can’t escape suffering… that’s a human truth! But we don’t look for the suffering; we look for life, love and joy.

- or you didn’t understand what’s real joy:

There’s a lot of misunderstanding about what the Church says (or should say) about sexuality. Sexuality should always be seen inside the larger sexual relationship between 2 persons wishing to share in all the dimensions of their being: it takes time!
But if you find that there is not enough life, love and joy in the Church, then we are waiting for you to bring some more!

2) Christian life always has 3 dimensions:

- Priest:

To pray, to celebrate God’s love in the sacraments and in all areas of life.

- Prophet:

To announce (and read, study) the Word of God, the Good News, to all!

- King:

To serve the society, our brothers and sisters.

We find them in the mass: the liturgy gathers us to listen to the Word of God (Bible) and give thanks (Eucharist), and sends us to the world!
We find them in the 3 focuses of Lent: prayer, fast, sharing. The relationship with God, with myself, with the others.

3) A simple “evening prayer” or “family prayer” can be around these 3 words: thank you, sorry, please. And, as prayer is always a relationship, a 4th word: “I love you”! And then the silence in which you can hear the Word: “You are my beloved child. Come, follow me!”

GOD IS LOVE

“God is love, and he who abide in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 Jn 4:16)

St. Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians, tells us without bandying words about that love is the greatest thing there is. (1 Cor 13:13) In a tribute to God’s great gift of love, we have made the words of St. John the theme of our first newsletter – “God is love”.

Pope Benedict XVI expounds on this in his first encyclical. “We have come to believe in God’s love (1 Jn 4:16):” he quotes, “in these words the Christian can express the fundamental decision of his life. Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” This is why our encounter with Jesus cannot fail to change our lives.

Jesus Christ – the Incarnate Love of God

Some would call Jesus’ life the most radical form of love. Christ, being the Father’s only Son, became one like us; yet being humbler yet, he freely accepted death on the cross. The Bible tells us that, as Jesus hung on the cross, the Father wept and turned His face away – He could not bear to see how cruelly we led His Son to death. How great is the love of God!

“When Jesus speaks in his parables of the shepherd who goes after the lost sheep, of the woman who looks for the lost coin, of the father who goes to meet and embrace his prodigal son, these are no mere words,” the Pope explains. “They constitute an explanation of his very being and activity. His death on the Cross is the culmination of that turning of God against himself in which he gives himself in order to raise man up and save him.”

Eros and Agape

In our world today, “love” has so many meanings. The most commonly portrayed form of love in movies and the media would be “eros” love – one born of erotic and bodily desire. Yet the Church gives us a different picture of love; “eros” is but one facet, as love is a function of the whole person, involving mind, body and spirit. Love may be born out of a desire to gain (“eros”), but “eros” alone cannot sustain love – true love transforms with a real discovery of the other person, moving past its earlier self-seeking, selfish character.

The Pope expresses this transformation in these words: “Love is indeed ‘ecstasy’, not in the sense of a moment of intoxication, but rather as a journey, an ongoing exodus out of the closed inward-looking self towards its liberation through self-giving, and thus towards authentic self-discovery and indeed the discovery of God – ‘whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it’, as Jesus says throughout the Gospels.”

In other words, when you love someone with “agape” or unconditional love, you hand your whole self to that person on a platter, but in giving yourself away, “freely” as Jesus did, you find yourself again!

“Agape” love, often thought of as biblical love, is wonderful because it is unconditional. It does not take into account how worthy a person is to be loved, for all are God’s children, and no one is unworthy of love.

It seems almost impossible to love so freely as God wants us to. Yet God does not demand of us a feeling that we are incapable of producing. St. Paul reminds us that God loved us when we were still sinners; indeed, each of us confesses during the mass that “I am not worthy”. But because God “loved us first”, and we experience God’s love, love can also blossom as a response in us, especially when we look on each other with the perspective of Jesus. Seeing with the eyes of Christ, we can love people whom we do not like or even know!

“No longer is it a question, then, of a ‘commandment’ imposed from without and calling for the impossible, but rather of a freely-bestowed experience of love from within, a love which by its very nature unites us to God; through this unifying process it makes us a ‘we’ which transcends our divisions and makes us one, until in the end God is ‘all in all’.”


By Audrey Wong

Musing on the Word : God is Love

“Do not bear a grudge against others, but settle your differences with them, so that you will not commit a sin because of them. Do not take revenge on others or continue to hate them, but love your neighbours as you love yourself. I am the Lord.”

(Leviticus 19 : 17-18)


The theme here is “God Is Love”, and although it seems a simple enough theme, God’s love has always been on a somewhat higher plane; we have never been able to fully comprehend it in all its form and splendour. That is because God’s love is unquestioningly forgiving and merciful, a quality most of us lack due to flawed human nature. As this passage shows us, it is not in the nature of God to hold grudges and live with hate, and this vengeful attitude is not what He wishes us to adopt.
One would suppose that the strength and forgivingness of His love has in part to do with His belief that people can change for the better, and that He should and would be more than happy to embrace anyone that repents. Our human nature, plus growing up in the society we are in now, has taught us in part to be somewhat sceptical of everyone, even loved ones, especially when they have betrayed our trust. Then again, if we think about it, He has probably been betrayed and hurt by more people and to a greater depth than we will ever experience, and yet he still finds it in Him to be able to forgive us, even if we betray His trust again and again.

We are all His children, and He dotes on us and will never want to see us be led astray. That’s why he will always keep His arms open to us so we can always return to Him. The knowledge that He will always accept us if we repent instead of shutting us out in anger is one big reason why, with Him, there is always hope for us. Of course, we should not take advantage of His forgiveness and make empty promises to repent, when all we will do is to shun Him away again. We should learn to be appreciative of His love for us by reciprocating that same love to others, to “love your neighbours as you love yourself”, and as Jesus said, “to love one another as I have loved you”.
Of course we will find it completely impossible to do so all the time, but we should always remember that it is not by our own effort but by the grace of God that we will be able to love. So ask for our Lord’s mercy and strength, give your friend a smile, and say that “sorry” you’ve been meaning to say for a while. You know you should, and you know He would like it.

By Russell Chander