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."