It’s just an interesting connection in my life… two people I got to know in Toronto, who were both in RGS Band, but who hadn’t kept in touch with each other for years, and with whom I got to know deeper in large part because of their new journeys into Catholicism… which began in Toronto!
SHIQI
I will forever remember her as the little angel of hope that God sent me all the way from Singapore during one of the lowest points in my life. That inexplicable feeling we both had when we faced each other with hearts burning with joy that God had brought her to Toronto just so we could receive a message from the other that we needed.
Here was a friendship neither one of us had done anything to build, and yet we could reach each other with a depth, an understanding, and a love that neither of us could understand. God was trying to prove a particular point to me, and He did so with Shiqi… and with such a bang too! :)
JING JING
Who would have thought grocery shopping in Toronto’s Chinatown would open the door eventually to so many deep sharings? I was pleasantly surprised to find someone other than myself who had such a high threshold for deep intellectual discussions about life… for it seemed almost amusing that for a period of time, virtually all our conversations were deep and meaningful philosophical explorations.
Then, more of life happened to both of us, and before we both knew it, a deeply spiritual dimension was added to our sharings, and we started attending mass together… and now Jing’s going to embark on RCIA (the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) in the fall at St. Patrick’s Church in Toronto! :D
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Another funny coincidence, it seems it’s not meant to be for me to attend RCIA with either Shiqi or Jing because I was in Toronto and Shiqi in Singapore when she attended hers (and I couldn’t attend her baptism either), and now I’ll be in Singapore when Jing’s going through RCIA in Toronto!
And now it seems Shiqi and Jing has been ‘reunited’ because of their respective journeys and in part because of me… which I think is pretty cool! :P
Wherever we are, wherever we may go, these friendships are different because they’ve been touched by a fire not of our making. And these are friends to whom I can exhort: Let’s trust God with our friendship, and let’s always keep our gaze focused on Him! For we know even as we share our vulnerabilities and journeys with one another that God alone is the Healer and the One who fulfills our deepest needs and desires! :)
Journey of the Heart 