Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday is the first day of the Lenten season. On this day all the faithful, according to ancient custom, approach the altar before the priest, dipping his thumb into ashes previously blessed and marks the forehead with the sign of the cross, saying the words: "Remember man that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return." The ashes used in this ceremony are made by burning the remains of the palms blessed on the Palm Sunday of the previous year.
In the blessing of the ashes four prayers are used, all of them ancient. The ashes are sprinkled with holy water and fumigated with incense.

There can be no doubt that the custom of distributing the ashes to all the faithful arose from a devotional imitation of the practice observed in the case of public penitents. But this devotional usage, the reception of a sacramental which is full of the symbolism of penance

In the books both in the Old Law and in the New that the men who repented of their sins bestrewed themselves with ashes and clothed their bodies with sackcloth. Now let us do this to signify that we ought to repent of our sins during the Lenten season.

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Session on Communication with God

On Sunday, We started off with a game of Drawer and Describer...

Then we shared and learnt about:

Different levels of communication
Level 1 – Clichés (How are you?)

Level 2 – Facts (So hot lately…)

Level 3 – Opinions (I think you draw very well..)

Level 4 – Feeling (I feel proud of you for being brave)

Level 5 – Heart (These are things I find hard to open up and talk about)

Concluding Sunday's session:

Communication with God is necessary. And the best thing is that GOd Listens to us all the time. It doesn't matter who you are, where you're from or what you need. God Listens......

Prayer is a gift of God. "Gift" is a good word to describe prayer, because praying is not something we can do of ourselves. " We do not know how to pray as we ought," scripture says. Prayer is a gift God must give.

And God gives that gift generously, without consideration of our worthiness or our unworthiness. Sinners as well as saints can pray. People of every religious tradition receive the gift. In fact, every human being is able to pray. The Catholic Catechism reminds us of that by entitling its opening section on prayer The Universal Call to Prayer. (2566-2567)

Yes, all are called to pray. All receive the gift. And, surprisingly, sometimes those thought to be "ungifted" pray best and are graciously heard. That's the lesson Jesus taught in his parable about the Pharisee and the Publican who together went up to the temple to pray. The Publican, an outsider who thought himself unworthy of approaching God in prayer, was found more pleasing by God than the Pharisee, a professionally religious person, who prayed so effortlessly.

Prayer, then, is God's gift to the strong and the weak, to the smallest child and frailest of the old. It's given to those who say, " I'm not really religious; prayer is beyond me." It's given to everyone, no matter who you are.
That's not to say we can't refuse to pray or we can't neglect it. Like any gift, prayer must be received. If someone gives you a beautiful piece of clothing, you may use it or not. You may take it and wear it. Or, you can throw it in the back of your closet and never look at it again. The piece of clothing becomes a gift unused. "If you knew the gift of God," Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well. A Gift was there before her eyes, but she was blind to it.

How tragic to go through life leaving the gift of prayer unused!

How to Pray?

1. The Sign of the Cross

2. Thank God

3. You Prayer intentions or what you want to say to God

4. Thank God

5. The Sign of the Cross

* We also learnt to pray the prayer that Jesus taught us and the Hail Mary. See the links below to what the prayer means:

The Prayer Jesus Taught Us

The Hail Mary and the Rosary

Glory Be
Glory Be To The Father,
And To The Son, And To The Holy Spirit,
As It Was In The Beginning,
It Is Now And Ever Shall Be,
World Without End. Amen.

Jeri Appreciation Day



O God, our times are in your hand: Look with favor, we pray, on your child, Jeri, as she begins another year. Grant that she may grow in wisdom and grace, and strengthen her trust in your goodness all the days of her life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

This is dedicated to our Birthday Auntie Jeri!! heeheee
No la.. She's still YOUNG... AT HEART....
hee!!! We still love you no matter what!!!


For all the hardwork you have done for us.....


And the friendships we have.....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JERI!!!!

yest's session had less sponsors than usual cos some went to attend a very special day for MR VINCENT CHAN hehe! BIG CONGRATS TO YOU AND CORRINE!!! (and the monkey is so so so so so so cute la =D!)

but nonetheless the rest of the sponsors and inquirers in church still had loads of fun!! special thanks to Session I/Cs bernard and elaine :)!!

aft watching a touching and sweet korean mtv which had a reallllly sad ending, we broke up into groups and shared on how much we would sacrifice for our loved ones :).. haha some honest pple admitted "not much" while some others were really wei da and said that they would go all out and give up their pair of eyes, like the guy in the mtv :)..

following this it was game time!!!! haha all of us were supposed to get to the other end of the room, but we couldnt move our chairs, and neither could our feet touch the floor! HOW CAN RIGHT! ya so we were all sitting there racking our poor brains and aft a while bernard decided to offer us some chairs which led to the other end of the room..

i felt the most heartwarming thing was that EVERYONE was willing to take off their shoes and step across the chairs to reach to the end of the room despite the initial unwillingness of some :).. SPORTSMANSHIP AND TEAM SPIRIT ALL THE WAY :))!

haha then bernard explained briefly on the rationale of the game and video and brought out the theme of the session: WHY DID JESUS DIE FOR US?

and during one of the bible readings there was the ultimate UNINTENTIONAL JOKE OF THE DAY hahaha!! maybe everyone who was not present yest shld ask doris what happened exactly hehe but in short our God is one happening and cool God!! YO! YO!

HAHAHA =P!

i think this was a really exciting and enriching session HIPHIPHOORAY :)! i hope the inquirers managed to learn that, in a nutshell, the presence of sin brings us further away from God, and due to His unconditional love for us, He sent Jesus his only son to act as a "bridge" between Man and God :)..

btwbtw there were three more new inquirers yest :)!

***********

Disclaimer: Before reading on, the following entry may sound absurd, loserly, unpractical, the most unrealistic, bimbo-ish, drama and superly random nolink outofpoint diskernect but PLEASE BE UNDERSTANDING hahaha..

YESTERDAY WAS THE ONE OF THE HAPPIEST MOMENTS IN MY LIFE =D!!!!!!!!!!!!!

haha aft class and lunch a few of us (elaine, freddie, ilona, philip, michelle) decided to go to somerset to do some shopping, where we walked from john little to taka.. AND THEN my friend msged me to tell me that MY FAV STAR OF ALL TIME was going to appear at centrepoint for some roadshow!!

and i got REALLLLLYYYY excited, so though they were initially intending to go to paragon starbucks for a drink, they decided to be nice and follow me all the way back just so i could see MY FAV STAR OF ALL TIME :)..

when we arrived at centrepoint, we all went to coffeebean where i had perfect view of the stage cos of the higher platform there :)... then aft a while they left elaine and i at coffeebean to star-watch while the rest of them went window shopping..

THEN towards the end of the roadshow they invited the public to go up and shake hands with the cast of the new show! ahh ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh!!! but i was really shy and didnt dare esp since elaine couldnt acc me as she had to take care of the bags =X.. then freddie called me to ask me to hurry GRAB MY CHANCE but i was really not planning to go up and embarrass myself hahaha..

but then they specially came down again all the way just so elaine and ilona could acc me up on stage! how sweet was that right!! I WAS REALLY REALLY REALLY TOUCHED by these gestures cos though they may seem very insignificant IT MEANT ALOT TO ME! and i really went up TO SHAKE HIS HAND VERY TIGHTLY AND FOR QUITE LONG!! hahahahaha...

(and he said happy new year to me!! HAHAHA!!)

if that wasnt enough, freddie and philip still sacrificed their image to stand in the crowd to help me take photographs hahaha :)..

and prob cos it felt as if everyone went so out of the way to help me i actually felt crazy and mad enough to wait for them to come out of the backstage aft the roadshow and i actually walked up to him and asked if i could take a photo with him la ohmygosh ohmygosh!! but too bad the usher didnt allow it =( hmphh.. so this was the best that elaine could take (DONT LAUGH!) :

but just in case everyone thinks im some crazy person living in daydreams I AM NOT OKAY! haha just that since i dunno how long ive just been wanting very very much to take a photo with him (photoshop edits not counted -_-) but i nv made an effort to specially attend any of the roadshows or whatever haha..

but yes.. this experience really did make me feel that strong rciy community spirit and no matter what crazy or random thing you really wanna do, these pple will still do it with you.. THANKS EVERYONE ALOT ALOT :).. actually this feels more than just a star-chasing thing la im really really touched and really really happy =D..

some of us on our way to Botak Jones for dinner and to watch spore-thailand match :)!!

GOD BLESS :))!!

A Special Occasion for Vincent & Corrine

Today is the 4th day of February in the Year 2007.
Our Sponsor, Vincent, has signed the papers to be officially Man and Wife in the eyes of the law in the Republic of Singapore... The rings were exchanged and the papers were signed. This was held at the Seletar Springs Condominium, where the couple will build there nests in time to come.

Corrine looked fabulous with all her make up and stuff.. As for Vincent, As usual, LAZY PIG.... with just a little tinge of makeup.... A serious little tinge. Take a look.... NO TIE!!! hahaa..... Nonetheless, the happy couple happily proceeded on with the ceremony.



And so it was complete............

Congratulations to Mr and Mrs Vincent Chan. May God Bless you both and guide you and shower his blessings on both of you. May He let his light shine on both of you and give you peace. CONGRATULATIONS to the new couple!