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Sunday, March 14, 2010
ALIVE! Article by Wyman
We sent this to the Parish Link! ALIVE! & Post-Event Reflections A Youth Event held in February 2010
Last 27 February, the OLPS Youth Ministry conducted an event for all its youth groups to come together with the intention to enjoy godly fellowship with each other as a community and to mature in our spiritual lives. The theme for February’s event was “ALIVE!” and the topics presented during the event focused on seeking happiness in harmony with God while going about our daily lives.
The program started with light refreshment allowing everyone to mingle around before we got to play an exciting icebreaker called “Human Bingo”, which was conceptualized by some members from Genesis Ministry. After which, Father Fredrick Quek, Spiritual Director for the youth ministry, gave a short talk to help all the youths to open their heart and minds and think about what it means to be “Alive”.
The night proceeded on with the screening of a short Art film called “Shaking Tokyo” which featured the life of a Japanese “hikikomori”. Hikikomori is a Japanese term to refer to the phenomenon of reclusive people who have chosen to withdraw from social life, often seeking extreme degrees of isolation and confinement because of various personal and social factors in their lives. Watching this short film helped us to reflect what is being “Alive!” after all, as many of us are living, but we may not be living life to the fullest.
Finally, we ended the night with quiet prayer and music, led by the Youth Music Ministry.
As a participant of this event, I found attending this event very fruitful and meaningful as I am now more aware of my relationship status with God, as well as about myself as a person. The event made me realize that my lifestyle actually separates me from God as I am sometimes too “comfortable” with daily routines in my own life, which makes me insecure and fearful to any “change that threatens it”, thus I eventually withdraw myself from God and the people around me – just like a “hikikomori”.
Nevertheless, I have learnt that God endlessly encourages me to be courageous and to trust in him, and to sacrifice some of my “worldly securities” in order to find Him. I believe that it is worthwhile to do so as when I find God each time in different areas of my spiritual life, I will also find His Love in every aspect and form. Perhaps chasing after God’s love keeps me “Alive” with God!
Overall, everything went smoothly and everyone gained something out of it. Being in a community that puts in effort to pray together and accept one another positively brightens up my day even when I am going through tough times. It always reminds me that there are still people who love me regardless of who I am. As such, I consider myself blessed. With such valuable treasures that God has given to me: my friends, I also consider them as my second family.
Last month we were focusing on being "ALIVE" but interestingly, this post is an interesting take on Death.... a topic that comes up during the time of lent when we focus on dying to "ourselves" and becoming alive in Christ!
I believe Christ must have endured a harsh death, but was so ever eager to return to our FATHER in heaven. What about you? Do you wish to return to your Master? Is your Master truly Jesus? or is something else our masters? DO we have many masters? (e.g. our worldly desires, greed, lust, fame, pride, unforgiveness, etc)... Drop all of that and focus on JESUS!!!
~DEATH~ A view to the future....for those who are afraid of death, the final experience on Earth.
WHAT A WONDERFUL WAY TO EXPLAIN IT .
A sick man turned to his doctor as he was preparing to Leave the examination room and said, Doctor, I am afraid to die. Tell me what lies on the other side.'
Very quietly, the doctor said, 'I don't know.'
'You don't know? You're, a Christian man, and don't know what's on the other side?'
The doctor was holding the handle of the door; On the other side came a sound of scratching and whining, And as he opened the door, a dog sprang into the room And leaped on him with an eager show of gladness.
Turning to the patient, the doctor said, 'Did you notice my dog?
He's never been in this room before. He didn't know what was inside. He knew nothing except that his master was here, And when the door opened, he sprang in without fear.
I know little of what is on the other side of death, But I do know one thing...
I know my Master is there and that is good enough.'
May today there be peace within you. May you trust God that you are exactly Where you are meant to be. I believe that friends are quiet angels Who lift us to our feet when our wings Have trouble remembering how to fly.
Just wanted to let you know that the OLPS Youth Ministry is once again organising the Lenten Vigil 2010 this year.
Helmed by our beloved bro David Cheong, we have a great programme lined up for you. In addition, you'll see all other groups in the parish (such as Neighbourhood Groups, Family Life, Mandarin Group, etc) all coming together to help out in this parish-wide event!
So make a date with us on 27 MARCH 2010 at 11:00pm overnight till 6:00am. There will be Palm Sunday Mass celebrated at 5am with a PALM procession from the canteen to the Main church.
It will be spectacular!!!
Of course, the most enjoyable part as with every Lenten Vigil is TRYING TO STAY AWAKE. Rest assured, while you are struggling to do so, it will be a totally fun event, to see your friends trying to stay awake too...
Let's do so... stay awake with Jesus and reflect on what his Last Words were, to prepare ourselves for the Holy Week that will come after this Vigil nite!
LENTEN VIGIL 2010 LAST WORDS 27 - 28 March (Saturday overnight) 11:00pm to 6:00am next morning VENUE: OLPS Main Church TICKETS: Available at OLPS Foyer over 13, 14, 20 & 21 March.
If you like, please pray for the youths (especially David!) as we have our prep session tonight (12 March) and prepare towards the 27th.
If you wanna join us at the CHOIR LOFT during the song segments, please do so also (Kindly notify beforehand - you can reply this msg to me).
Cheers!
God BLess
Sam
on behalf of the Youth Ministry @ OLPS!
Last Friday for YMM, we used the Third Sunday of Lent readings and reflection questions from the Walking With Christ: Lent 2010 handout for our session. The question“What is my attitude towards death? How do I come to terms with the fact that my life will end one day?” particularly struck me, as I realised I had a lot to say about it particularly in light of a few small recent occurrences.
FASCINATION, VANITY, SELF-FULFILLMENT
My answer to that question comes in three parts: fascination, vanity, and a want for self-fulfillment. Fascination because, for as long as I remember first wrapping my head around the concept of death, I have always wondered how it’d feel like; what the moment your heart stops feels like; whether you’re aware of it if it happens in your sleep; what runs through your ethereal head once you know you’ve kicked the bucket; how it feels to leave your world behind; whether the afterlife is anything like we’ve imagined it to be. This is probably one of the biggest mysteries of our lifetime, due to its nature of not, in fact, happening in our lifetime, giving no one the ability to compile enough accounts of it to say for sure.
Indeed, all we have are the few accounts of individuals who have experienced momentary “clinical death”, only to be shot back to life. Nikki Sixx, bassist of Motley Crue, experienced a two-minute death after overdosing on heroin the night of December 22, 1987 (coincidentally, the night I was born). He was successfully brought back to life by paramedics, and described feeling weightless and hearing white noise, but eventually being able to view the scene as a third party before being suddenly tugged back into himself. Others have described seeing tunnels of light; some have also agreed with the third-party experience. Listening to these accounts, however, I always wonder if any are simply made up for storytelling’s sake. And there are simply too few and far-between of them to establish something for sure.
VANITY
Next, the vanity part: this is borne both of my insecurity and of my long-standing rock diva aspirations. I have been terrified for the longest time of leaving without a trace, not being remembered in a positive light. I want to publish a book, I want to move people, I want to record songs, I want to have great kids, I want to appear in newspapers and television, in small part because there is a darkness within me that is terrified of dying without a legacy; not being remembered a decade later.
SELF-FULFILLMENT
The self-fulfillment part of this has a few ties to its vanity sibling. In preparation for death, I want to ensure my life is lived with no regrets and no leftover aspirations – this includes the published book, recorded songs, and beautiful family as well. This also includes expressing anything that needs to be expressed to others before there is no further chance to. I’m still working on that. It struck me on Friday, the day after my grandfather’s brother’s funeral, that my grandfather comes from a family of 19 children. And of that 19 children, my grandfather is the only one still alive. It’s a crazy thought, because how lucky could I possibly be, right? It was a wake-up call both to just how much God looks out for me, and of the pressing need to be open about necessary feelings before it’s too late.
Two weeks ago, I overheard a conversation between my boss and some people we work with. They were discussing a recent documentary that suggested that in order to preserve the life of our planet, we should all become vegetarian so as to save our animals and, by way of cycle, the rest of life on earth. My boss shrugged it off, saying he was going to die before the world ends anyway, and so shouldn’t need to bother. My boss is a man who doesn’t believe in religion, and doesn’t want any children of his own. He therefore can’t be blamed for such a mindset, but as I listened to him I felt rather sad for him. When he dies, he will have nowhere to go, and will not be carried on by anyone living, either.
In Milan Kundera’s book, The Unbearable Lightness Of Being, he calls to mind the German adage “einmal ist keinmal”, which translates to “what happened but once, might as well not have happened at all”. He suggests thus that if we have but one life, we might as well not have lived at all, that our lives and all we live through is insignificant unless we can keep being reborn after we die, so that eventually, we’d get our mistakes totally right. This insignificance is part of the unbearable lightness that he speaks of; a complete counter-theory to the heaviness of our lives as Catholics. It is interesting to note, however, that in his book he views lightness as positivity and heaviness as negativity.
And why do I think a Catholic life is a heavy one? Because it is simply not light. We know a Catholic life is not light, not insignificant, because “einmal ist keinmal” absolutely does not apply to Jesus Christ, whom we know lived and gave up His one life for the sake of all our lives after Him, and whom we model our own lives after. We know that it is not light because everything we do in our life counts towards the moment we die. The Walking With Christ Lenten handout agrees: “Instead of worrying why earthly life is imperfect and eventually ends, it is more important to concern ourselves with living life well – so that we can share eternal life with God.” It is this attitude towards death that people like Milan Kundera and my boss will never understand.
To thus answer the question of how I come to terms with the fact that my life will one day end, I do it by being as Catholic and heavy as I can, by doing my best to not allow regret, and by being “alive” (as touched on in our recent Youth Fellowship) as opposed to just living. I also do it by accepting that death is inescapable, and most importantly, by trusting that God always knows what’s best for my life and the lives of those around me.
Okay, I just really wanted to share this with anybody.
I've finally completed the design for this year's Lenten Vigil Poster!
For some of you out there (graphic designers esp.) designing a poster or creating a layout can be a synch.
But for me, having been trained in the visual arts, the logic of graphic design just stresses me out! Maybe it's the fact that a poster actually has to carry a meaning and convey information and messages. These elements that can be changed in an artwork. But in a poster or magazine spread, these elements are fixed!
However, i'm still very thankful to God, for helping me get through this job. So i'm proud of it and hope that you like it as well. Even if you don't, it's alright. :)
If we sail into the right place at the right time, this is the way to "fish"... ho ho ho!
Just like how we are called to be "fishers of men" - do we know where to go, at the right time and right place? For that, we can only have to pray and ask God each time and "wait upon the Lord".
"Waiting upon the Lord" always sounds difficult, but trust me, once you have a developed a deeper prayer life with God, you "will" kinda know when He is pleased with us and peace prevails (e.g. during a period of "consolation"), versus when there is "desolation" (a period where we are "far" from God due to sin, lack of prayer, etc).
The next vid-clip is about a happy penguin - Watch:
The boat is like God isn't it? Always there... waiting for us to run to Him and be saved and safe. Yours,
Samantha
