Journey2gether

Hello everyone,

It was good to see you in class yesterday (though we had quite a shocking attendance esp from the gals – only 4 showed up?! Hmm… I wonder if it’s becos they donno that class has resumed this weekend, or if they have travelled to H1N1 affected areas and are being responsible citizens who are locking themselves at home before they go out again?)

Anyway, just a few admin matters first….

H1N1

For those of you who have recently travelled to H1N1 affected countries (Mexico, Melbourne, Malaysia, New York, etc) please stay at home for at least 7 days (even if you feel well) before you come for class. This is what our Singapore Govt encourages all citizens to do as well. Even if you’ve not been to any of H1N1 affected countries, if you’re not feeling well/ having a fever, etc, please DO NOT come for class. Just give any one of your catechists a call/sms and let us know you’re not coming and why, but you MUST produce a letter from your parents (we will verify with your folks so don’t even THINK abt forging your folks’ signature or faking a letter, ok?!) so that your attendance will not be affected.

Attendance for Term 1

For the benefit of those who did not turn up for class yesterday, I shared in class that a few of you have very poor attendance for the first half of this year (I think you know who you are). If you are serious about getting confirmed in Con 4, PLEASE buck up and turn up for class regularly. Remember you have to fulfil 80% of your attendance should you wish to proceed to Con 3 and be confirmed at the end of your 4 year journey. On the other hand, if you feel that you are not ready, or it takes a lot from you to drag yourself to class every Saturday, then we recommend that you have a chat with your parents and should you decide to drop out of catechism, please ask your parents to write a letter to us (your catechists) and to Fr Fred/Fr Greg to state your intentions. We will not force you to stay on if you don’t want to.

Syllabus for Term 2

For term 2, we will be covering “Sacraments”. For those of you who donno what that is, it is “an outward sign of an inward grace”. Sounds chim? Well, come to class and find out more! For the next few weeks, we will be delving into each sacrament – Baptism, Reconciliation (Confession), Holy Communion, Confirmation, Matrimony (Marriage), Holy Orders (Priesthood), Annointing of the Sick. If you have any questions on any of the Sacraments, now is the time to ask! We may not have the answers to every question,  but we will try our best to clear your doubts, or even ask the priests or find out from CCC (Catechism of the Catholic Church).

We also welcome Ryan, our new classmate who has joined us from Holy Family Church, starting from Term 2. Ryan has been very participative and enthusiastic in class yesterday. This can be evidently seen in his small group discussion with Jeremy and Naomi, when discussing about the poster to design for a Christian Fair. On the other hand, we had 2 “telepathic grps” yesterday who communicated via telepathy (duh!) with one another in their grps about their designs for the poster (if you know what I mean) We will be breaking all of you up from your usual cliques to provide opportunities of getting to know all of your classmates (some of you don’t even know their names after 1.5 yrs of being in the same class! Tsk tsk!). Please also try to open up and share (ie. TALK “in a spiritual way” words quoted from Jerome) with one another during your small grp sharing. Don’t be shy! =)

That said, may you have a good first week in school after a well-deserved holiday. We’ll see you all in class next week (with your Bible/ Journal) when we share about the Sacrament of Baptism!

~ Marlene