Joseph Masilamany

For Mercy and Cynthia, St. Jude is more than a patron of lost causes; he is a friend who walks with them through life’s uncertainties, a quiet witness to faith born out of struggle.

The quiet town of Rawang in the Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur came alive this week as hundreds of Catholics and devotees gathered at the Church of St. Jude for the annual novena and feast-day celebration in honour of the patron saint of hopeless causes.

In a world often dimmed by division and despair, Asia’s festivals of light remind us that every faith, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Taoist, and Christian, shares a single flame: the hope that darkness will never have the last word.

In Malaysia, caring for creation has become more than a moral choice; it is now a living expression of faith. Across dioceses, Catholic communities are translating Pope Francis’s Laudato Si’ into daily acts of stewardship, integrating ecological awareness into prayer, education, and parish life.

October is “Respect Life Month”. On October 10, “World Day Against the Death Penalty”, Malaysian Pannir Selvan Pranthaman was laid to rest after he was hanged in Singapore two days earlier.

The world today observes the World Day Against the Death Penalty, a day to reflect on the sanctity of life, justice, and the growing call for abolition. But for one Malaysian family, the occasion has taken on a deeply personal meaning.

From September 29 to October 1, 2025, generations of cardinals, archbishops, priests, bishops, religious, and seminarians from across Asia returned to the place where their journeys began, College General, Penang.

For faith does not happen in the cloud. It happens on the ground where people still reach out to hold one another’s hands, whisper a prayer, and believe that even in an age of machines, the human heart remains the oldest, most sacred technology of all.

Every year, as the eighth lunar month draws near, Chinese communities across Asia prepare for one of their most beloved celebrations: the Mid-Autumn Festival.

As a little boy in my family home in a rubber plantation in Johor, 7 pm daily meant kneeling in the living room as the candles flickered before a small altar, hosting the Cross and several statues of saints, and of course, the Blessed Virgin Mary.