Last Post of the Trip to Indonesia....Singapore 2

So after about 10 days of going to a mall or shopping of some sort, I was in need of

going to a church. I guess that is the friar in me, but the first chance we had to explore Singapore I hunted for the Catholic Churches in the city. To the right is a picture of the first church I found, the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd for the Archdiocese of Singapore. To my surprise all of the services are done in English. While I was there I went into the cathedral's office and spoke with the secretaries there. I was trying to see if there were any Co

nventual Franciscans in Singapore, but there were only OFM friars there and their place was a bus ride and a train too far away.

After going to the Cathedral I walked two blocks to Sts. Peter and Paul. To the left is a picture of the inside of that church. I thought it was cool two big year of St. Paul banners in honor of Pope Benedict declaring this year the year of St. Paul (one on each side of the main sanctuary). Sts. Peter and Paul in addition to their main church had a pretty interesting Adoration Chapel. It is open from 8am to 9pm daily, no shoes or sandals are allowed, and there is only one pew in the room with a bunch of pillows. What made encouraged me to stop there is the fact that all these shoes were outside this building in the middle of Singapore. From what my sister told this is not an uncommon custom in Asia, to remove your shoes at a sacred place. The one pew that I mentioned is against the back wall directly across from the monstrance. Below is a picture of the chapel as well as a close up of the monstrance. It was a wonderful quite place in the middle of a pretty big city.

Next I w

alked another block and a half to St. Joseph's Church. The church had some interesting architecture to it. So that is why I picked a picture of the outside of it (to the left). The church felt as though you were entering a castle when I walked into to. And if you are wondering about that sky blue around the edges of everything, that is the same on the inside. Traditionally Catholics tend associate blue with Mary, but at this church blue is the color of St. Joseph. I was amazed at how many Franciscan statues and stain glass window this church had, five in total but four of them were o

f St. Anthony. There were three prominent statues of him scattered around the church. The last picture from my sightseeing is from Sacred Heart Church (to the right). I was blessed to make it on time for their 5:30pm Mass. The mass was in English so nothing really was really different about the liturgical worship there. I did notice that after the Memorial Acclamation (Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again) half of the people stood and the other half remained kneeling.

Th

e last three pictures are from our flight from Singapore to Los Angeles. Thankful the trip coming back to the states was shorter than going to Indon

esia. To the left is a picture of Pete, Nancy, and Mike on the plane. They had the worst luck with their TV screens, every time they tried to use it the thing did not work and when they changed seats the TV screens there did not work either. If I remember correctly they $75-100 each to purchase something from the duty free shop on the plane. The sunset you see is of our arrival in Los Ang

eles. Though we left Singapore the evening of Friday July 11th and we arrived in Los Angeles on the evening of Friday July 11th. Going to Indonesia we lost Saturday all together, but on the trip home we were blessed to celebrate Friday twice. Well not really blessed but I am trying to positive about that Friday that never seemed to end. Here is a picture of me with my hoody on! I know it is summer but on planes it is cold so a bundle up in my hoody to stay warm no matter what season it is.