Q. What is your feeling over these few months as a young priest?

‘By this, all men will know that you are my disciples if you have a love for one another”        (Jn 13:35)?’  By this very statement, I can say that I am extremely thankful to God for having chosen me to be his instrument in the priesthood, and, to the people of God who have been continuously strengthening me in my vocation through their prayers.

Q. What were your expectations and were they fulfilled in your ministry?
Do you feel let down in your priestly ministry because of the pandemic?

As a priest, I have been taught to rely entirely on God’s providence, and thus, I always keep my expectations low, and with this in mind, I find that I am still able to find some kind of joy and fulfilment at the present time despite the current circumstances of a raging pandemic, where pastoral works which are central to my ministry have been curtailed to a large extent and that too, in a large parish such as Klang. Aside from this, I am now no longer discouraged as I was initially, at the start of my priesthood, because I couldn’t wait to minister to God’s people, and now I have realised, that, it is more important to be a priest than to do my priesthood, as we are also called to be ‘Another Christ’ as aptly said by St Teresa of Calcutta.

Q. Do you look up to certain priests as your role model?
Which ministry are you drawn into - biblical, liturgical, catechetical.....?

In a similar vein, whilst hoping to forge my path throughout my priesthood, I tend to admire the Christ-like qualities found in all my brothers in the priesthood. Amongst them specifically I would like to mention Father Michael Chua and Monsignor James Gnanapiragasam. Both priests have a deep desire for the Liturgical, Catechetical, and Biblical ministries — ministries towards which I find myself drawn, which nourish my earnest desire to impart the right knowledge to God’s people in facilitating their understanding of their faith and thus helping them to deepen their relationship with God.

Q. Given a chance, would you like to continue your studies at some future date?

Hence, if given a chance, studying church dogma in depth would be something that I would like to pursue in the future. The more I come to know about God’s truth, beauty, and goodness, I am certain that with the grace of the Holy Spirit, I hope to be able to potentially help elevate the faith of God’s people and thus have them possibly become the fruit-bearing fig trees that they are meant to be.

After all, “be compassionate just as my Father in heaven is compassionate”, is what I am going to strive to do as much as possible during this sacerdotal journey of mine for it is the theme of my priesthood.