[stephenkhoo]

was early to day and arrived at cathedral and saw msgr lau and had a chat. i learn from msgr lau that changrai wood from malaysia is good for water resistant . must wood are cheap kapo wood so if get into contact with water may get termites. use kerosene to treat it.

another i learnt was how to overcome cold, there was an incident when he was caught in the rain as a seminarian when walking to paya lebar from ponggol to view the runway building. what happened was a hot cup of water and sugar and brandy and he got well, same for his sore throat. he did the same in Rome and had brandy to keep warm. So it works.

honestly he inspires me because he is so knowledgeable about Christ and his teaching as well as his daily affairs or current issues. He is someone you can speak with anything under the sky. I am always amazed by his wealth of knowledge and memory work something he is gifted and like a seasoned writer he can tell you every details of every single topic. how amazing! like a walking dictionary and a walking bible. very thankful he is someone so approachable and friendly in any situations. If you visit him at the rector's house please visit his office! its stocked up with wonderful stuffs and so impressive that he can repair clocks and old mechanical stuffs. If you ask me I would call him the modern day Galileo Galilei very very amazing so much I learn from him everytime I meet him.

[stephenkhoo]

one more thing i asked msgr lau what he thinks of the pay for ministers well he gave a pretty concrete example of the late hon sui sen who was our ex finance minister. He was holding on to board member of many companies and was drawing a high income but when he became finance minister he had to give up those perks and pay. that was one driving reason why lky had the idea to use money to attract top talent especially for ppl with calibre and capability like the late hon sui sen.
apparently lky agreed to let the family of the late hon sui sen to stay indefinitely at the govt house in chancery lane because of his sacrifice and devotion to the state as an appreciation but it seems they moved out after that. well of course we can now easily compare the current crop of ministers who many seem to disagree having been put to the test before but nevertheless i still feel that serving a nation as a public servant goes beyond monetary reward but passion to serve and always a service. one good example is our late president ong teng cheong.
i am not being biased in any situation but i still believe putting the candidate to the real test and if he/she cannot deliver honestly the person should make way for someone who can do the job better hence benefiting the state and people

[stephenkhoo]

I also asked him about the cathedral situation and it seems it has stablised well now they only need to do repair to the back columns. it seems the ground is stable somehow miraculously there is no need to do major piling. the column of triangle at the entrance is supported by a beam above 6 columns. the beam is wood inside encased in concrete and when the engineers analysed the wood has become dust so now they inserted rods to strenghten the front. msgr said St Michael was holding on the the beam until the engineers repaired. i would never think of that but i understood now how God works in this world. He always does the work and he will get it done. This is about trusting in God and having Faith in him. I am also amazed and indeed in awe when I hear from msgr the structure has stablised as i remember vividly they needed 40mil to rebuild or pile the ground.
Isn't it thought all ages that God is working with us and most importantly I believe it has to be done for him and his Glory so that we know and acknowledge God loves us.

[stephenkhoo]

Do you know how to pray?

Well for me I just pray the way most people will do natually but I was told by a redemptorist priest that praying is like entering into a romantic relationship with God. Wow! Honestly I don't know how to do it because I cannot see God or touch God however I think it means being totally honest and even if the gravest sin we have to confess and just say to God. Its very difficult for me until now. Why? Ego. Always wanting and worrying how I am perceived, I dont think I can do it 100%. We live in a totally secular world to the sense things around us make us less and less in touch with God. One example is mobile phones. With mobile phones, we don't even use it as a phone but a messaging tool as convenince, words and thoughts are now easily transmitted yes.. its convenient and simple and instantaneous but take the effort to write a card on birthdays or christmas or new year. we simply send or take someones else message and fwd. it has become convenience. similarly when we attend mass nowadays for me I dont even read the missal to prepare for the word of God. Why? because i know there is a projector, I dont bother to find out the readings. Sigh! when for 2000 years there wasn't a bible for the early christians right up to the printing age. even then only the rich or learned had the bible. hence you know why readings are kept as a tradition or lectors. because no one had the bible so they rely on hearing the word in mass.now we have airconditioned, mass booklet or projectors. i really thank God for these graces and gifts and this is the peace we are enjoying now thanks to the God's graces and guidance. Sometimes i feel ashamed for not paying attention to mass readings or sermont.

[stephenkhoo]

Memories Of My Father (Benedict Hon Sui Sen )
CatholicNews Archives - Snippets from the Past


One of the earliest reflections of my father was walking with him and mother to Mass. We were going to the Sacred Heart Church along Oxley Rise and he stopped to pluck some flowers for me.


While he was a boy in school, he would win prizes for Bible knowledge and for Catechism. I loved looking at lavishly illustrated Bible he won as a prize, full of line drawings of Biblical figures.

Deep Faith
He learned his faith to some depth - knowing doctrine, the bible and some of the encyclicals and Thomistic philosophy. He loved teasing us questions like, "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?" Like all good Catholics, there was a time when he seriously considered a religious vocation, he told me he wanted to be a Christian brother.

His humility was such that I had some vague idea that he was fairly brilliant as a scholar, but didn't know that he topped Malaya for his Senior Cambridge. His old classmate Br Michael of the La Salle Brothers told me about it only three years back when he came down from Kuala Lumpur on a visit to Singapore.

He was scrupulous about attendance at Sunday Mass. If arrived late, he'd stand at the door and say, " It's after the Gospel. Let's go to another Church." And so we would - just to be on time for a later Mass. He was equally scrupulous about being in the state of grace before receiving Communion.

In my teens, I joined the Legion of Mary. When he became the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, I wrote to Frank Duff, the founder of the Legion, about it. Frank Duff would be interested, I knew, because he himself gave up a high post in the Finance Ministry in Ireland to give full time to the Legion.

Message
Br Duff replied, saying, "Tell your father that Our Lady has chosen him to aid her son in looking after the welfare of your country." I remember he read the letter and smiled. Unlike Frank Duff, he stayed in his job, while his wife and four daughters joined the Legion. Mrs Hon (my mother) and I are still in the Legion. (As I type this, she is at her Legion meeting, despite the fact he had barely left us for one week).

He was at the World Bank when I wrote to him, asking him for a dowry to enter the convent. He was taken aback. He told me I was too young -at 16 - and advised me to wait a while to test myself. I could make up my mind later - and it would be a much more mature mind then, so he wrote in reply.

He missed the Latin Mass tremendously - he had learned Latin in school and understood it - and the use of "thee" and "Thou" in prayers which were words meant only for God.

On the other hand he considered meatless Fridays archaic and would joke while we happily ate laksa and crabs on Fridays. "Trust the Fishermen's Union to think of this rule!" (St Peter was a fisherman.)

Of late, I had been arguing with him at length over the changes in the Church especially in the attitude towards sin and guilt. He could not believe that anything which was considered wrong in his day could ever be right in mine. Before he died, I was much inclined to agree with him.

I was having trouble drafting out this account of him, sitting on his bed, trying to capture the essence of his faith. He never spoke much about it but it was a visible thing. He was always at peace with himself and others, the Prime Minister had said to us after he passed away, and it was true. But there was something more to it than that.

It was then that my mother handed me a letter from Fr H.A. Myers of the Novena Church, whom my father asked for before he died. Fr Myers had heard his confession, given him the Sacrament of the Sick and then the Eucharist.

Letter
What Father wrote supplied very well the words I could not find to sum up what his faith was. I would like to share it with you:


Dear Mrs Hon and Family,
I am writing these few lines, hoping they will find you and your family at peace.
Looking back over the past few days, there is one thought that has been particularly on my mind, which I would like to share with you all.

I am sure you noticed when you were all present during the Sacrament of the Sick and Holy Communion, the great spirit of faith shown by your late husband and father.

It was a deep, intense, childlike faith - a faith that recognised the presence of Christ, the Comforter of the Sick, and Christ, the Divine Food of the Soul. It was a faith that recognised and welcomed Christ as he came to him.

I experienced the presence of that faith very clearly that evening, and the memory of it has been with me ever since, and will be for a long time yet to come. And I am grateful to God for giving me such a soul-lifting experience.

Need I assure you of my prayers, and 1 know I will share in yours.

May God grant him peace, and may the Mother of Sorrows comfort those from whom he has been taken.
H. A. Myers



It moved me greatly to know that Fr Myers was moved by my father's faith. He expressed what I saw and felt too when my father received his last Sacraments.

Our thanks to all of you who have been praying for him and who have supported us all so greatly by doing so. Please continue to remember him and us in your prayers.

By Joan, Daughter Of Benedict Hon Sui Sen

The Catholic News, Sunday, October 20, 1983 (page 3)

[stephenkhoo]

Hon Sui Sen

By Mukunthan, Michael written on 17-Apr-1999
National Library Board Singapore

Comments on article: InfopediaTalk

Benedict Hon Sui Sen (b. 16 April 1916, Balik Pulau, Penang, Malaysia - d. 14 October 1983, Singapore) was the Minister of Finance from 1970 to 1983, the first Chairman and President of the Development Bank of Singapore, the first Chairman of Economic Development Board, and Member of Parliament for Havelock constituency. He was one of the pioneers responsible for shaping Singapore's economic development soon after independence.

Early life
Hon received his early education at St. Xavier's Institution in Penang, Malaya, topping the Senior Cambridge examination in 1932. His Catholic education so inspired him that he had intentions of joining the Brotherhood. In 1935, he won a scholarship to Raffles College and made his way to Singapore where he studied the pure sciences. He graduated with a Class 1 diploma in Science in 1938. Married to Annie Voon during World War II at the Sacred Heart Church in Singapore, Hon was an avid reader of a wide range of literature and liked listening to classical music.

Accomplishments
Hon devoted 44 years of his life to Public Service. In 1970, Singapore had only a handful of suitable leaders to guide the infant economy. Dr Goh Keng Swee had been moved to the Ministry of Defence from the Ministry of Finance and Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew was initially in a quandry as he sought for a suitable replacement until he decided on Hon. Although he had little formal training in economics (his only official exposure being an attachment to the World Bank in 1960) he managed to more than double Singapore's per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from S$2,462 in 1970 to S$5,752 in 1982 and raised Singapore's official reserves six times over.

Among Hon's many roles and accomplishments were establishing Keppel Shipyard and Sembawang Shipyard as competitive, international dockyards in the maritime business. As the first Chairman and President of the Development Bank of Singapore, he is credited for making it the largest commercial bank in the Republic. Most important to Singapore was his role in establishing the Economic Development Board and in working out the master plan for the Jurong's development under the EDB.

Career
1939 : Joined the Civil Service and appointed to the Straits Settlement Civil Service as a Police Courts Magistrate.
1957 : Commissioner of Lands.
1961 - 1968 : Established the Economic Development Board and was its first Chairman.
1968 - 1970 : Chairman and President, Development Bank of Singapore.

He also was the Chairman of nine other companies including National Iron & Steel Mills Ltd, Jurong Shipyard Ltd, Sembawang Shipyard (Pte) Ltd, Keppel Shipyard (Pte) Ltd, Neptune Orient Lines Ltd, Jurong Shipbuilders Ltd, Singapore Electronic & Engineering Ltd, the Insurance Corporation of Singapore Ltd, Singapore Petroleum Company. He also was Director of Intraco.

Politics
1959 : Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance.
11 Aug 1970 - 13 Oct 1983 : Minister of Finance until his death.
1970 - 1983 : Member of Parliament for Havelock constituency.

Awards
1962 : Meritorious Service Medal
1967 : Distinguished Service Medal
1969 : Conferred the nonorary deegree of Doctor of Letters by the University of Singapore.
1982 : Named Economy Minister of the Year by Euromoney magazine.
1984 : Posthumously awarded The Order of Temasek for distinguished service.


Family
Father: Peter Hon Boon Poh, rose from being a corporate accountant to gain wealth in the tin mining industry and began to invest
in rubber and coconut estates until the Depression led to a decline in the family wealth. He then turned to operating cinemas.
Mother: Catherine Loh Soon Yin
Brother : Louis Hon, elder brother
Sisters: Margaret Hon, Theresa Hon (younger sisters), Martha Hon, youngest sister.
Wife: Annie Voon See Chin. They were married soon after the bomb raids of World War II started.
Daughters: Joan Hon, Elizabeth Hon, Vivien Hon and Brenda Hon

He died of a heart attack in October 1983.


Author
Michael Mukunthan



References
Hon, J. (1984). Relatively speaking. Singapore: Times Books International.
(Call no.: RSING 320.95957 HON)

[stephenkhoo]

http://stars.nhb.gov.sg/stars/public/sea...&total=183

[stephenkhoo]

honestly I cannot believe I found this speech. The late Mr Hon was there at my sister's day care opening ceremony and I clearly saw him. I did not hear his speech but saw him walking around looking at the place. It was so long ago and yet i remember it clearly. Time flies now my sister is already married with kids.


  HSS19821106.pdf (Size: 1.34 MB / Downloads: 3)

[stephenkhoo]

Met Msgr Lau again this morning at cathedral so I told him about Miss Khoo having the 25 deg right and 50 deg left, well he said to do 3 things

(1) rub the both palm against eyes closed and let the warm rest on eyes for a min

(2) put forefinger a foot in front between both eyes in line of sight then focus it, then focus at a distant object then back again

(3) then roll eyes round left to right and right to left


He said he managed to reduce his deg from 450 to 250 then 150.

[stephenkhoo]

So you can see to me Msgr Lau is not only a priest but only a mentor to me... every conversation is meaningful and life learning experience....