Last week was Divine Mercy week. Yippee! Uh, sorry?
Yeah anyway, there were a bunch of people who wanted their divine mercy picture blessed by Msgr. Daniel. It's good to have it blessed you know. Makes it more, holy. Right.
But today we're not going to talk about that. What we're talking about is HRC's PARKING PROBLEMS!
I'm sure many of you are already well aware of the problems we are facing in the parking sector. (that's if you even bother coming to church, you lazy #$@)
Yep, that's right. The ongoing construction work next door practically wiped out a good 60% of parking spots, which I'm sure, caused alot of people to frequent other churches instead.
Parking can be a real hassle too, especially when you've got this whole bunch of people rushing out after church service.
Stampede!! Hey, isn't that Bridget's dad? Hi Uncle! Guess what. You're on camera!
Now there are probably alot of guys like Bridget's dad whose car are more likely to be stucked due to the large amount of cars in the puny church compound.
What to do? So many cars but so little space. Everytime I come to church also tulan because of the parking problems. I'm more likely to end up like these guys here, parking in the middle of the road because of my time innefficiency.
Yes, I like to be fashionably late.
Everybody has to wait for somebody but it's not like anybody would realise that. Some people are real slow in doing their business, but what to do. Must bersabar with them la. This is church ma. You can't possibly ask an old aunty to walk faster to her car right?
Any ideas?
As usual, the YOUth was on duty to provide music for both the Easter Vigil midnight mass and Easter morning mass.
The alter servers assisting Msgr Daniel with The Service of Light..
Just to share a bit from Msgr Daniel Lim's homily on Easter Vigil.. He told a story of a farmer who owned a small plantation and a horse stable. When his son was old enough to help out in the farming works, the farmer requested his son to feed the horses early in the morning, before the sun rises, when it is still dark. There is a long straight path about 100m that leads from the farmer's home up to the horse stable. Left and right of the path are crops.
So on the first day the boy was to feed the horses, the father and son woke up early in the morning. Standing in the porch of their home, the boy's fear grew as he looked towards the long path that was in total darkness. The little boy then expressed his fear and insecurity to his father. The farmer then handed his son an oil lamp, and asked him how far he could see. "About half way along the path.." said the little boy as he held up the oil lamp towards the dark path. So the farmer encouraged his son to go along, to as far and the light from the oil lamp shined. So the little boy went, slowly fading into the long path.
About half way through the long path, the farmer shouted out to the son," how far can you see now?". "I can almost see the gate of the stable" shouted the little boy in reply. "Go on then, to as far as you can see" encouraged the farmer.
Then as the little boy arrived at the gate of the stable, the boy shouted out to his father, "Father! I am at the gate!". "Go on, open the gate and go into the stable!" replied the farmer to his son.
"I'm in now. What do I do next?" asked the little boy. And the farmer continued to guide his son to accomplish his task.
The moral of the story is.. we do not know what will happen tomorrow. We can only see as far as the light shines before our eyes now. And often, we worry about the future in our decisions we make today, whether it is our studies, career, marriage, family etc. Will I pass my exams? Am I on the right career path for myself? Is the one I am to marry meant for me? Am I able to bring food to the table for my family? These are among the many doubts we face in our daily lives. But the season of Easter brings the message of HOPE. Christ is our Light in our lives and he guides us to where we ought to go. Like how the apostles' faiths were all shattered when Jesus, their leader was crucified on Good Friday. But how triumphant and joyful they were upon knowing their Saviour has risen!
And as a usual custom for our parish, we have the blessing of palms at the main entrance of the church, followed by a procession around the church compound..
"All Hail King Jesus!!"
Peeping from inside the church..
Holy Week Mass Times:
Holy Thursday (20th March 2008) - 700pm (English & Mandarin)
Good Friday (21st March 2008) - 230pm (Mandarin) / 700pm (English)
Holy Saturday/Easter Vigil (22nd March 2008) - 730pm (Mandarin) / 1030pm (English)
Easter Sunday (23rd March 2008) - 830am (English) / 1030am (Mandarin)
For those who missed out the previous penitential services, more for this week.. taken from Church of the Holy Rosary's 09.03.08-16.03.08 bulletin.
Thousand apologies for not covering the Youth Bible Sharing that took place on 3rd March 2008. Technical difficulties experienced due to political campaigning.. :P
Hi all... long time no posts here. Below is the penitential services for Lent 2008 for a few churches (taken from Church of the Holy Rosary's 24th Feb 08 - 2nd March 08 bulletin).
Some photos of the gathering that took place after Christmas Eve mass at the ever-welcoming Uncle Paul and Aunty Susan's place.. As usual, there was so much food and drink..
Notice Fiona staring at Charles, while he is still smiling. Don't piss her off..
The "greedy" and "hungry" bunch crowded round the makan table..
While the "cooler" people lepak in the living area with their glass of wine..
Another picture of the 2 ladies that were the main choir singers..
The sugar cottage (made famous by Henzel and Gretel) that soon was punctured at the roof by none other than Phelan..
All in all a cosy and warm Christmas gathering..
Thanks to the hosts again!
Christmas 2007 has come and gone (at press time).. All the hard work that we have been putting in has finally been paid (or still hutang? I'm not sure la).. The pictures in this post does not do justice what us carolers went through, but at least better than nothing.. Next year, besides singers, guitarists, percussionists, we will need camera women/men to snap more shots. I think Jennifer and Marisa took a lot of shots.. share share la..
This year, our collection amount is not as much as last year's but we did pretty well I guess.. Will leave it to Andrew to announce it to everyone.
List of carolers 2007, in no-particular order:-
1. Fiona Chuah
2. Louis Chew
3. Edwin Koh
4. Michelle Tan
5. Kenneth Ho
6. Andrew Ho
7. Daniel Ho
8. Daniel Khoo
9. Alvin
10. Stephanie Ng
11. Philen Ng
12. Claudine Lee
13. Marisa Lee
14. Jennifer Lee
15. Prenny Ng
16. Teng
17. Ming Lee
18. John Sek
19. Jemmima Soh
20. Kevin Theseira
21. Elizabeth Teng
22. Geraldine Teng
23. "Little sister" Teng
24. Elizabeth's friend 1
25. Elizabeth's friend 2
26. Caryn Liew
27. Annemarie
28. Andee
29. Charles Teh
30. Regina Teh
31. Oliver Teh
32. Paul Chuah
33. Joshua Tan
34. Juliana Wang
Did I miss out anybody? If I did please say so..!
As usual, makan is the "most important" activity during caroling. Here you can see the youths feasting at the Bukit Bandaraya BEC Christmas Party..
Kevin, " Take one more photo and you'll end up like the curry chicken on my plate!".. And you can see Louis looking from the corner of his eye..
A pretty crib at the party..
Self-proclaim leng-luis of the caroling bunch..
Hartamas BEC Christmas Party.. As you can see, the black t-shirt people in red hats in the background happen to be our youths, and as usual, crowding round the makan table..
Young starlets that sing better than us.. belting out their rendition of "Thank You Lord for Christmas".. accompanied by Paul Ng on guitars..
My gosh..!! What's this fella doing? The last I remembered this was a church blog??
Once again, the usual suspects crowding round the makan table at the marsh-mellow boy's house..
Hmm.. we do look a bit disorganized and messy in this photo.. but what the heck, we all come in different shapes and sizes anyway..
Special thanks to Marisa, Jennifer and their mom for wrapping up the pretty presents; Fiona for calling and texting the carolers; Juliana for the Johnson & Johnson gifts and printed booklets; Caryn for the booklet cover design and binding and re-conditioning the collection box; and all the drivers, carolers and homes that we visited!
Merry Christmas everybody!!
LADIES and GENTLEDIES!
Yes people, our carolling session for the year 2007 has already begun! So if you want to join us, it is still not too late. Better late than never, anyway!
Upon confirmed registration, you will be provided with the HRC Youth's Carolling Kit! Yes, you heard me right. You will be given free stuff, even though you are a complete stranger to us!
So what's in the carolling kit anyway? Simple. A HRC Youth Ministry T-shirt (which would probably cost about RM20)...
...a carolling X-mas hat, and a fully new and refurbished carolling booklet (which you can see from the previous post)! Now ain't that a steal or what?
All it would cost you is RM(Time + Voice). Cheap only ma..no integers involved also!
First stop...Aunty Susan & Uncle Paul's place!
It was so happen that Phelan and little Sammy were going to celebrate their birthday next week. So Aunty Susan decided to throw one big party to cater for her childrens' birthday, as well as to start off our carolling agenda.
One of a kind birthday cake for Phelan. I've always thought I've seen 'em all. Once again, I've been proven wrong.
Note to self: I'm going to adjust my human clock and push it 1/2 hour later...since Malaysian timing means everybody WILL be late anyway! I was told to go there at 9.30pm, mana tau everyone only started coming about 10.10pm!!
There you have it...Malaysians. Can't live with them, can't live without them.
Our group consist of about 15 happy-smiling-go lucky carollers. But wait, that's the problem! When got practice that time...got nobody. When the real thing starts, people start popping out of nowhere! No, not like popcorn that kind lah.
It was a good thing the 20-something crowd were pretty sporting as well. So much so as to light the candle while we were singing. Awww, so touching. Suddenly it felt as though we were performing for a live concert. Except that, our singing...err...
Eating is always one of the best part of carolling from house to house. And I'm glad to say, Aunty Susan's place always lives up to my expectation! (Aunty Susan is gonna have to maintain this standard next year too, yah?)
Look at that ham! Err, is it ham ah? I also dunno what I eating. Just wack down only.
Always remember to pray before your meal! Look, we were even blessed with the presence of Jesu- I mean, Louis...who positioned himself nicely on the table under the photo frame. How apt.
Here we can see that Kenneth just couldn't resist taking a bit out of little Sammy's cake. Look, he's even more excited than Sammy that he even pushed her aside and booked the 1st row seating!
Yes, we all know what kinda cake to get for Kenneth's birthday next time, ya?
Guess what? Once again the spotlight is on Kenneth. This time, it's on his head!
Well if you've noticed, Kenneth has regain some hair on his head, as opposed to the previously miniature bald patch (no offense la Kenneth! haha).
Looks like the Yun-Nam haircare treatment is effective after all?
GOLD BULLIONS!!! Oh wait, saw wrongly lah.
Look, "someone" even donated a gazillion one cent coins! Going to be outphased next year already lah...still want to throw on us meh! Think we MPPJ meh? Haha.
And once again, Kenneth gets himself under the spotlight.
Kenneth seems to be under the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.
Tirelessly scooping up the one-cent coins, the 2 partners in crime had to pay for their crimes of
throwing money away on the floor. Aiyo, next time throw paper money lah. Don't so kiamsiap!
Next stop...where?
