First of all, sorry for the lack of updates... Here's a little update about an activity last Saturday.The Sunday School teachers organised a First Holy Communion seminar on the 20th October 2007. It was held in the Blessed Sacrament Church Parish Hall.
A lot of students from all kinds of ages came to the seminar. Just name it, there’s 10 year olds, 6 year olds and even 16 year olds. One thing that I know from that part, God doesn’t care how old you are. You are never too old to receive your first ever Holy Communion.
At 8:15am, Aunt Rebecca, Carl’s mum, took the stage. She told the youth to about the toilet and other ‘stuff’. She even told them to leave their nametags on their chairs whenever they go toilet or outside of the hall so that they know who are having trouble with their war in the toilet.
Then, Aunt Florence took charge….
Yep, that’s her… She’s the one who got us VIP tickets for the Phua Chu Kang dinner on Oct 15, THANK YOU!!!!!! K, back to the story…
She was explaining a few things about our faith and God’s love. Unfortunately, some people were still in their sleep mode, so she called a few people to come up front. She asked them ‘simple’ questions like…
Aunt Florence : “What is that bread that Father held during mass??”
Cute kid : “Emm… don noe…”
She asked a few more questions…
Aunt Florence : “What is the communion to you?”
Blur kid : “…………………………….”
Aunt Florence : “Well??”
Blur kid : “Don noe………”
Aunt Florence : “My Goodness, what did you learn during Sunday School???”
From that situation, you know that there are some youth who still do not understand much about their religion. Some people say they are Christians because they were born as one, or because their parents are Christians. Those reasons are foolish reason….
These children will be exposed to a lot of influence in the near future. It’s really good that their parents allow them to go to this kind of seminars. Hopefully, they will return to their homes with a new heart and renewed spirit.
One positive side that I gain from them is that they are very honest people. If they don’t know the answer, they will just say, ‘I don’t know’. They are not ashamed to say that because it is the truth. Now, how often do we do that in our lives?
Aunt Florence called over Claudia. She wore pink.
She said she loves Jesus so much, more than anything in the world. There’s this saying, “Time will prove your love”. After a few years, will she say the very same words again? Pity, as we get older, we tend to care too much about things that are visible and important. Truly, Claudia’s sharing showed the innocence of a child.
Aunt Florence also shared about WWJD (What Would Jesus Do). As a Catholic, we should try to live the way Jesus did. During his life time on Earth, his faith never faltered. He does not judge people by their cloths, sickness and looks. He loves others. He even asked God to forgive us when He was crucified on the cross, God’s love is so great.
K, back to the story! She also shared about her family. One time, her sister broke a glass. Aunt Florence took the blame instead because she doesn’t want her sister to get beaten up. She loves her sister so much until she even lied to her parents. Is that a sin? She said she lied for the greater good, what do you think?
Then, the seminar took a 15 minutes tea break. The food are SOOoooOOo nice… Got nugget, got sausages, got mee also… What can I say, life as a blogger is getting free food.. ^^
After the tea break, I gave a bit of promotion work. I reached out to the youth and openly invited the young guys to become altar servers for the Lord. Hope more young servers will join us in the future.
Then, Aunt Florence thought them how to hold their hands during communion...
Loraine was then invited to give her sharing about her life. She’s 13 years old, the daughter of Aunt Florida. She shared about how she got a death-threatening disease and she nearly lost her eye sight… I always see her at church but didn’t know her past. I was really touched to hear her sharing.
To sum it all up, her message was keep Jesus alive in you every second of your life.
She also thought about receiving the Holy Communion. She said to take it slowly and prayerfully, don’t bite because it will make the Holy Spirit upset. The only bad thing is that she put her paper in front of her face a lot… Can’t see her cute eyes nia…
Anyways, Aunt Florence then called me once again to show the kids how to genuflect. Funny, I did it like almost every week but some how I had doubts on which knee to kneel on. Haa.. guess I got stage fright that time… Carl pandai pandai take picture of us lerr.. Good one man!
She also stressed the importance of coming to church. She called upon a kid named Victor. Victor’s not planned to come to the front but he gave quite a sad sharing. His parents can’t come to mass with him so he usually goes alone. We all prayed for his family. It’s very sad to see parents unable to go and celebrate the Eucharist with their children… May God bless his family…
After that, she told us about the breaking of the bread. The priest does it every time during mass and she stressed that it is vital for the young ones to know the meaning of the breaking. Jesus broke the bread during the last Supper and clearly said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in memory of me”. The host that we receive during communion is Jesus’ body specially broken for us.
She also wanted the youth to feel what she felt. She felt the warmth of God during a mass in the past. She was so tired so she fell asleep for about 20 minutes. During her rest in the spirit, she heard a different music than the one that the choir was singing. She commented that that music was the most beautiful music she had ever heard. She wants us to feel what she felt too…
Lunch break was near but the lunch were not ready yet. Aunt Florida came to the front and shared about how she felt during her first Holy Communion. She wondered how the host would taste like, like sweets? Like durian? Like mango?
After she received it, she was never taught about what to do after that. So, she knelt down and just said, “Jesus, now I receive you, you can do what you want with me”.
She also sang a song, the Donut song. Here’s the lyrics:
Life without God’s love is like a donut,
A donut,
A donut,
Life without God’s love is like a donut,
With a hole in the middle of your heart.
Sorry, I didn’t record the song, but you can always come to Blessed Sacrament Church during Sunday masses at 10am and ask her (the pianist) to sing for you. ^^
Everyone was so happy. Everyone plucked their fingers to the beat. Didn’t know Aunt Florida was that fun… HAHA..
After that, we had LUNCH!!! YUM YUM YUM!!
Then, Aunt Florence asked Carl’s sis, Sonia, to set up the DVD Player. Next up, is a video presentation.
Aunt Florence asked all of us to say a decade of the rosary before the presentation
First up is St. Bernadette
The story tells about a young girl who met with Virgin Mary near a grotto. She was told to ask the Bishop to build a chapel there. Although no one believed her, she never give up to do what the Virgin Mary told her. In the end, she had to eat weeds and drank mud.
These actions resulted in flowers where the weeds had been and healing water where the mud had been. Everyone believed her…
The story also informed us to pray the rosary for the sinners.
Secondly is the story of Noah’s Ark…
This story is about God’s punishment towards man. Unfortunately, got electricity problem… So, only can watch a bit… But if you want to read more, check out Genesis Chapter 6-9 from your Holy Bible.
Then, Aunt Florence invited 4 girls up front. They were the oldest First Holy Communion participants. So, she thought they could understand the story more… They were so shy… ^^
Well, only Elizabeth gave a confident answer. She’s the tallest and wore a white shirt.
Then, the kids are divided to two groups. Each group will have their time at the prayer room to adore the Blessed Sacrament Church. For some of them, it was a new experience. It’s good that they are exposed to the Blessed Sacrament at such a young age.
After that, all of us are treated to ICE CREAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Carl got 3 big containers full of ice cream left, bet he’s enjoyin it.. ahaha.. It’s his money anyway…
After eating / drinking ice-cream (melted nia…), they are briefed about confession. Then, they go confession. Sorry, cannot take picture, had to go back… ^^
Finally, the seminar ended with the last child to complete his penance at 5:40pm. It has been a very long day…
More photos by clicking
here.
