ROA ( Rite Of Acceptance )

29 June 2013 is one of the important date for 3 of our inquirers.

Its the Rite Of Acceptance, the day our inquirers take the first step to accept Christ and that the community will help them follow in the footsteps of Christ.

After ROA, They will now be part of this community, and the whole Catholic Church will be praying for them until they get baptized.

In  conjunction to this big day, our inquirers had a small interview with our spiritual director, Fr Kenny Tan. This interview helps our inquirers to prepare themselves as they take their first step to accept Christ. 

On 29 June 2013, inquirers were brought to St Mary's room for some interesting activities. 

Stations were set up by the sponsors and inquirers were tasked to complete all the stations. 

Some of the stations were, Land mine, transportation, spider web. 

Take a look at our inquirers!! 

terence, superman? 

Inquirers were asked to proceed to room 105 as the proceed on with their reflection.

Sharing questions: 

1. How was the process of the walk?

 - How did they feel during the walk? 

 - What if they were to do it alone? 

2. How did the presence of one another affect them?

Also, inquirers were given time to write down their commitments that they will do to deepen their relationship with God. 

After session, the entire RCIY attended mass together as a community as 3 of our inquirers ( Terence, Malcolm, Grace) went through the Rite Of Acceptance. 

Congratulation, Our inquirers are now known as catechumens 

Have a blessed week ahead. 

CHARIS (22 June)

RCIY spent their day at the Charis forum, listening to talks on mission trips and watched a concert, performed by children and young adults from Thailand, Cambodia, etc as well as Singapore's School of Dance. It was an eye-opener for all in this exhibition as the some of the inquirers are interested in these mission trips after this fair! 

Heavenly Father, if these inquirers are called to go for mission trips, let Your will be done unto them. Give them the courage and strength to put their hearts and desire in helping those children and to bring hope and joy into this world, to them. I ask this through Christ our Lord, Amen. 

RCIY Camp (7-9 June)

Those 3 days of camp brought all of us joy, tears, frustration, peace and hope. Below are some of the inquirers' reflections:

"The first game that I'm going to reflect on is the Car + treasure hunting. Although it is tiring at times, but it was fun. All of us were handicapped and it was difficult to help the team at times as one of us was blind folded and one of us can't talk. Some of the items were just in front of our eyes. Especially the marker outside. But overall it was fun! :D I learnt that God is always there for us, giving us answer and helping us.  

The second game that I'm going to reflect on is the dinner (exercises + sharing food). This game was fun though my team was last in position. I could see that everyone was trying their best to get first place or second place and trying to avoid third place haha. I'm so happy that everyone was willing to share their food and I don't need to eat just the rice alone! Haha sharing is caring!! I also bonded a lot with the inquirers! :) 

Overall the activites were fun and enjoying too! Thank you sponsors and the inquirers for making it so enjoyable! :) "

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"Although I came on the second day, I missed a few activities but at least I get to experience some. I liked the last game with the coupons as it was challenging and fun at the same time. It was challenging because it was hard to think of a song to sing as a few of us don't know the lyrics to the song and some of us don't want to sing. It was fun too, a lot of us enjoyed the game and we all laughed at our dances and everyone liked the songs too (well not everyone)." 

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"Last week camp was awesome. I had lots of fun, learn alot of things such as trust and faith. I realise that life will be better, if you choose to make it better. Never had such a great time this year because of studies and school work. This is one of the moments that I could enjoy myself this year and I got all the sponsors and inquirers to thank. Thank you."

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"The camp had taught me a lot of things spiritually. Through many obstacles, the presence and spirit of God was experienced. Not only did I feel God's presence, I also bonded a lot more with other RCIY inquirers. Every activity in the camp had a little game. Even a simple thing such as a breakfast was made very enjoyable. What I liked the ultimate most about the camp was the Polar Bear game!! :) I found Mass very fascinating! In this camp I understood many things about God, other inquirers, sponsors & myself :) I would like to thank the sponsors for organizing this camp :) this camp has made a big impact in my life." 

The inquirers had grown spiritually over those few days of activities and sessions, forging stronger friendships and ofcourse deepening their relationship with God.

O Lord, as we go forth to continue to search for You, give us Your grace to always sustain and grow in our relationship with You. I ask this through Christ our Lord, Amen.

Session 4: Building a relationship with God (Listening)

To start off, lets thank Elaine, Daryl and Cheuktow for their wonderful session & prayer.

Inquirers were asked to gather in their sharing groups to recap and recall with each other what they've learnt the previous week. 

Recall: Session 3 (Communicating with god through prayer)

Sharing question:

1. Have you prayed to god during the past week

Activity for the day:

Puzzles. A bag filled with puzzle pieces from 4 different puzzle set were left with daryl and placed in front of the room. Inquirers were supposed to come forward and pick their puzzle pieces from that bag.

Along the way, there were many distractions around (Loud music, sponsors moving around, messing up inquirers’ puzzle, missing puzzle pieces) 

Sharing question(s):
1. How was the activity?
2. What tactics did you use?

3. Has god answered your prayer?

4. How we feel when we realized that god did not answer our prayer?

5. How do we listen to god? 

What is a bible? 

(Some of the answers given by our inquirers)

1. Gods' Stories

2. Basic instruction from god before leaving Earth

3. Gods' teachings 

One way to listen to god is through reading the bible. In order to allow our inquirers to better able to listen to god and build a relationship with him, they were each given a bible. 

Inquirers were introduced to some parables found in the bible.

Matt 14: 25-33 “Jesus walks on the water and, with him, Peter” Page 1164

John 11: 32-44 “ The resurrection of Lazarus” Page 1259

Matt 9: 27-31 “ Cure of two blind men” Page 1157

One thing to take away from today’s session: Build a relationship with God and the people around you.

Heavenly Father, I thank you for this beautiful sat afternoon and I thank you for providing us with such a fruitful session. As we continue to learn how to build and strengthen our relationship with you and with the people around us, may you give us the peace and patience to listen to your words.  Dear lord, may I also ask you to continue to watch over us in the coming week as we look forward to the bonding day on 1st June and may each and everyone of us have great week ahead. And so, i ask this in your most precious and holy name, Amen. 

'Contacting' God through prayers

Session began with an activity of Taboo, which hyped everyone up, including the sponsors!

<The Inquirers>

vs

<The Sponsors>

After the activity, we broke into our sharing groups and shared our prayer experience, with these questions as a guide:

1. Have you prayed before?

2. If yes, what was your experience like?
    If no, why not?

A verse from the Gospel according to Matthew was shared too.
Matthew 7: 7-14
"Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. Everyone who asks receives; everyone who searches finds; everyone who knocks will have the door opened. Is there anyone among you who would hand his son a stone when he asked for bread? Or would hand him a snake when he asked for a fish? If you, then, evil as you are, know how to give your children what is good, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him! So always treat others as you would like them to treat you; that is the Law and the Prophets. Enter by the narrow gate, since the road that leads to destruction is wide and spacious, and many take it; but it is a narrow gate and a hard road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

The inquirers also shared about how this particular verse speaks to us and our thoughts about it.

Closing off with a prayer, many announcements were made and there will be lots of events coming up in June! :D

"O Lord, I thank You for gathering us today, sharing our forms of prayers. As we continue to pray to You this week, with the help of the Holy Spirit in this feast day of Pentecost, help us to lift up our worries, desires and happiness to You. I ask this through Christ our Lord, Amen."

The Journey of Faith

After the opening day where we had fun, it was time for the inquirers to have their first session: building the relationship with God on faith. The sponsors invited Brother Gabriel to conduct the session and he shared with us many stories that helped us to understand the concept of faith. Faith is a never ending journey.

"Faith is something that we cannot see, touch, smell, hear or taste; it is what we believe in." 

After which, we broke into our sharing groups and discussed the following questions: 
For Catholics,  
1. What is faith to me?
2. How has it changed my life?

For Inquirers:
1. What kind of faith will you like to have or hope to have?   

Session closed off with a prayer and most of us proceed to Mass. 

"Dear Lord, we thank You for bringing us to You through the RCIY. As we continue this journey of faith with You, allow us to experience Your presence whenever we offer our prayers to You. Please continue to watch over us as we welcome the coming week with an open heart and grant us Your wisdom and patience for those who are having their exams and in work. I ask this through Christ our Lord, Amen."

 

RCIY Opening Day!

4 May: RCIY Opening Day

It was the day we start our new process of sharing God's love and words. Some of the inquirers were so excited about the new process that they arrived at the church before the notified time of 230pm! Well done! 

In the 2 hours we got to spend with each other, everyone got really comfortable with each other and had so much fun. During the games, the inquirers were so enthusiastic that they were so steady in the forfeits! From Who is the celebrity to Hunter-fire-earthquake to Human Bingo to the MRT game, the atmosphere became lighter, friendlier and warmer. These games helped us to know one another better, to remember one another's names and of course to break off the awkwardness among all of us. For this, we thank You, O Lord, for guiding Brandon (our games IC) through the preparation of the games, allowing him to come up with such fun and meaningful games so as to help us know each other better. 

Iris, our coordinator, giving a warm welcome to the inquirers.

Father Kenny, our Spiritual Director, explains what RCIY is.

Daryl, our other coordinator, gives an overview of the bus-stops of RCIY.

First game: Who is the celebrity?

Second game: Hunter, fire, earthquake!

Third game: Human Bingo

Fourth game: MRT game

Lastly, we had our sharing session. We broke into small groups and introduced ourselves, wrote down things that the inquirers already knew about the Catholic faith and what they would like to know through this process of RCIY. 

Iris explains what sharing is.

Closing off with a prayer, the opening day had come to an end. Most of us went for mass together and I'm glad that this day started well good and I hope that there will be more memories to come (: 

"Heavenly Father, as this entry comes to an end, I thank You for gathering all the inquirers together on that day and allowing us to experience Your presence through our interactions with one another. As we look forward to the future sessions and camps, please continue to watch over us, fill us with Your wisdom, love and patience. And so I ask this through Christ our Lord, Amen."

You and I can make a difference!

If each grain of sand were to say :
One grain does not make a mountain,
There would be no land.

If each drop of water were to say :
One drop does not make an ocean,
There would be no sea.

If each note of music were to say :
Each note does not make a symphony,
There would be no melody.

If each word were to say :
One word does not make a library,
There would be no book.

If each brick were to say :
One brick does not make a wall,
There would be no house.

If each seed were to say :
One seed does not make a field,
There would be no harvest.

If each of us were to say :
One person does not make the difference,
There would never be love and peace on earth.

You and I do make the difference.

Begin today and make the difference.

~ Author Unknown ~

No Time!

I knelt to pray but not for long,
I had too much to do.
I had to hurry and get to work
For bills would soon be due.

So I knelt and said a hurried prayer,
And jumped up off my knees.
My Christian duty was now done
My soul could rest at ease.

All day long I had no time
To spread a word of cheer.
No time to speak of Christ to friends,
They'd laugh at me I'd fear.

No time, no time, too much to do,
That was my constant cry,
No time to give to souls in need
But at last the time, the time to die.

I went before the Lord, I came,
I stood with downcast eyes.
For in his hands God held a book;
It was the book of life.

God looked into his book and said
'Your name I cannot find.
I once was going to write it down...
But never found the time'

God's Promise

"God has not promised skies always blue,
flower-strewn pathways all our lives through;
God has not promised sun without rain
joy without sorrow, peace without pain.

But God has promised strength for the day,
rest for labor, light for the way,
grace for trials, help from above,
unfailing sympathy, undying love."

Lyrics to Everybody Said (But Nobody Did) :

Chorus:
Everybody said that anybody could do
The important things somebody should do
Everybody knows that anybody could do
All the good things that nobody did

Well the preacher came to me and said what I ought to do
If I wanted to make my religion true
He'd do it himself but he really didn't have the time
He said that the duty was mine

Repeat Chorus (x2)

Well the deacon came by and said give me a hand
If you want to be going to the promised land
Here is something that I don't have time to do
So I better give it to you

Repeat Chorus (x2)

Well I'm too busy so I tell everybody
The work's got to get done by somebody
It could be done by anybody
But nobody, nobody, nobody did

Repeat Chorus (x2)

All the good things that nobody did (x2)

Scriptural Reference:
"The Lord has assigned to each his task." 1 Corinthians 3:5

BULLDOGS AND POODLES

BULLDOGS AND POODLES

The story's told of a bulldog and a poodle who were arguing one day. The bulldog was making fun of the poodle, calling him a weak little runt who couldn't do anything. The bulldog said, "I challenge you to a contest. Let's see who can open the back door of their house the fastest and get inside." The bulldog was thinking he would turn the doorknob with his powerful jaws,
while the poodle was too small to even reach the knob of his back door. But to the bulldog's surprise the poodle said, "I can get inside my house faster than you can. I accept the challenge."

So with the poodle watching, the bulldog ran to the back door of his house and jumped up to the doorknob. He got his teeth and paws around it and tried to turn it, but he couldn't get enough grip on the knob to do it, so he finally quit in exhaustion. Now it was the poodle's turn. He just did what he'd been doing every day for the last several years. He went up to the door and scratched a couple of times, then waited patiently. Within a few seconds his master not only opened the door, but picked him up in his arms, patted him on the head affectionately and carried him inside.

The difference was in the relationship. Some of us are bulldog Christians. It's all grunting, growling and trying to please God. While all God asks us to do is, "Draw near to Me and I will draw near to you."

Juliet's Touching affirmation

Sigh, it's so ironic that my first post is going to be copied from someone's email......


Hmm... I was thinking that I'm gonna write an affirmation email this morning once I reach the office. But Steven was faster than me!! And yeah lah Steven, it was an attempt to touch your sexy back... you realised liao can don't say out so loudly in public? I'm very shy one leh... *blushex*

Anyway, just to share some thoughts with everyone else... was actually quite unsure about going for the retreat because although there are quite a number of familiar faces, but there's still a sense of unfamiliarity and I was apprehensive because I wasn't sure if I could "blend" in.But thanks Bernard, on the very first night, when we did the Mandala, he turned around to me to invite me to sprawl between him and Elaine just by opening up a space, patting it and saying simply, "Eh! Togetherly!" . To Elaine for inviting me to supper (because I was too shy to invite myself). I realised that this is a group that accepts and invites.

Thanks Elaine, Joy, Greg for listening to my sharing of my dad's conversion story, to Joy, Greg, Ilona and Jiazheng for listening to my job ethics dilemma story. To everyone who listened attentively and supportively as I shared and cried at the same time on the second night (argh... totally unglam!~). I could really sense the silent support. And thanks to Eric Tan who approached me to affirm me and give me his two cents after my sharing. I realised that this is a group that listens and supports.

Thanks to Kevin who checked with me on the first night if I feel alright and inviting me to speak to him if I want to after the retreat. To Steven who suggested buying Mutabak back for me (don't worry, I felt alright hanging out with two pairs of lovebirds! we had fun too! haha!) and Freddie who try to ignore his cigar calls because "Don't smoke lah... if not Juliet will feel very left out leh!" and he with Bernard who reminded me that I should sleep if I'm tired because I may not be used to being a night owl like they do during our overnight Bridge. I realised that this group is sensitive and cares for the feelings of others.

Thanks to Joy, Elaine, Steven, Dennis, Thaddeus for your sincere sharing about your labyrinth walk. Your sharing were particularly meaningful to me (hey Joy, your sharing in particular, made me more appreciative of my mum's love for me, thanks!). I realised that this is a group that trusts (us with your deep sharing).

Thanks Eric Tan for sharing the salad because he knows I also miss my vegs, for sharing the roti john with me because I probably can't finish it, thanks Elaine for sharing Milo with me when there weren't enough cups. I realised that this is a group that shares.

Thanks Steven, Eric, Ignatius, Michelle, Freddie, Dennis, Bernard, Elaine for the Bridge sessions. Bridge is my archilles' heel lahh... cannot resist one, so thanks for playing with me. I realised this is a group that plays together.

Thanks Eric Sng and Michelle for your sincere sharing about not being able to open up easily and why you've been away for a while (respectively) . We all take time to grow, just allow God to mould you in His time. I realised this is a group that's true and honest.

Thanks Greg, Ignatius and Eric Tan for being our "official resident drivers". You didn't have to, but you did. And double thanks to Ignatius who initiated driving me back because he remembered I've once mentioned I stay near him. I realised this is a generous group.

Thanks Thaddeus for your very lame milk-joke that made Elaine laugh like mad and Freddie for your many many jokes (even you falling asleep in Mass can be so tickling!). Greg and Elaine for the oreo-condense milk concoction for Iggy and Steven for your multi-layered present for him and "guess-the-present" clues. I realised this is a group that has a sense of humour.

Thanks Eric Sng for suggesting the counting of the tiles for the perfect square that we've to create and the insights that you mentioned about the pentagram (can sense Steven's tensed feelings ease immediately! ). To Greg and Steven who shared what made them love their jobs (I feel damn inspired!). I realised this is a group that shares knowledge and experiences readily.

Thanks Steven for the previous email of affirmation and Elaine for sharing that she appreciates my support during the walk in the park. I strongly believe that affirmation helps an individual grow and it is the input that we all need to walk another extra mile for another person the next time. It's free and super powerful fuel basically! I realised this is a group that affirms.

There are probably many many other incidents from the retreat that are significant to me but I don't want to bore everyone with a too-long email (considering this is my first post on this yahoo group, I'm not usually so lo so one, ok?). I really really appreciate every act, big or small, that reflects wonderful traits and values that are shining through in the group.

To end off, I'd also want to thank everyone for letting me know that my desire and struggle to build a relationship with God is not isolated - it's really great to know that we all share the common desire to walk closer with Him, no matter how tough it may be sometimes. But team, I'd like to point out that, even if God still doesn't seem THAT present/tangible to you during this retreat, perhaps you'll like to walk through the retreat in your mind again, think about your many interactions with everyone, and then perhaps, like me, you'll see a piece of Jesus in each fellow sponsor's face too.

-Jul

Ignatius' 20th Birthday!