All Night Vigil

The Novitiate held the annual All Night Vigil on Saturday, 12 April to pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

Friends of the Novitiate and parishioners from St Ignatius gathered in the Center for Ignatian Spirituality and Counselling for this gathering. Also present with the good sisters from the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary.

The Vigil began at 9pm with a Mass concelebrated by Jesuit Frs Philip Heng, Paul Goh and Colin Tan. In his homily, Fr Philip invited us to reflect on God's invitation to be more fully ourselves in whatever vocation we live by responding more totally to God's love.

After Mass, we welcomed the Blessed Sacrament into our midst. Then, at hourly intervals, different groups led the faithful in prayer. The prayer sessions took took different forms, from contemplation to charismatic prayer. At the end of each prayer session, there was time for quiet prayer and reflection.

The Vigil ended at 6.00am with Morning Prayer. This was led by the Jesuit Novices. A hearty breakfast for all who stayed the night followed!

Here is a reflection from Lance Ng, who helped out with a prayer session the Companions led:

I'd just like to share this short little para that I came up with about coincidence and "God-incidence," which was inspired by a talk given by Fr Richard Ambrose.

"Nothing that happens is a coincidence,
Everything that happens is for a reason,
If GOD allows it to happen,
It's a God-incidence!"

I truly felt God's wonderful hand a work that evening, right down to the "boo boo" that ocurred out of the switch of laptops during one of the prayer sessions. As I reflected the events of the evening, I realized that this "boo boo" was a learning lesson because I notice the grace of God working through Aunty Dorothy... the serenity, the peace and graciousness she had throughout the unfortunate incident. For me, her example is a lesson in what it takes to make us God's light in this world. From the eyes of faith, this is truly a gem of a God-incidence!