Where did the time go? Where did my innocence go? (Okay, don’t answer that question) Around this time two years ago, despite being a part of the 13th Ex-Co, I hardly had anything purposeful on my mind. A quick look back at my posts from August 2003 sees me more concerned about the upcoming Star Trek 2nd Ed CCG tournament and my 21st birthday rather than anything of crucial importance.

Today I find myself back in the Ex-Co, albeit a different position, but all of a sudden, I’m stressed because my quizzes are next week and there’s so much to take in. I’m stressed because the mid-semester recess is coming up and plans to spend them well are hardly forthcoming. I’m stressed because the 15th Ex-Co seems burnt out just two weeks into our term.

When I last blogged about the 15th, we had just come fresh from our Day of Recollection at San Damiano Friary. We were enthusiastic, excited and ready to move headlong into our various ministries. It had seemed like everything was in place to effect change and renewal within the CSA. Two weeks later and I’ll admit that the fire’s still there, somewhere… but the drive and determination now lie hidden under several things - a lack of clearer direction, a lack of ground support and (perhaps something I felt most acutely) a lack of general experience.

But, I get ahead of myself, of course.

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That’s us last Wednesday after our Investiture Mass. The new 15th Ex-Co. I’m standing on the right of Archbishop Nicholas Chia, the closest I’ve ever gotten to the man, I believe.

That was the day we officially announced our theme of “Christ, Our Light”, based on the Gospel passage from John 8:12, and our mission to be “lights” for NTU and for all. For just as light reaches out to everything in sight, discriminating nothing, we too should be inclusive and open to everyone, spreading our faith to all.

It seemed so logical, so sensible to me, and I believe, to my Ex-Co. But I suppose it was foolish of us to think that everyone would see it our way. In the end, people were questioning how we planned to fulfill this mission. People demanded concrete steps. I’ve never been one for clear, realistic direction, unfortunately, and I rather not think of the chore of doing it anyway.

Being President was never going to be easy, I always knew that. I just didn’t think it’d be this rough so early in the term.

That being said, however, I’m not going to go all bitter and bitch and moan further, like I’m wont to do. I’m beginning a prayer routine for myself that hopefully will allow me to be more in tune with what the Lord wants.

Hahaha… inaccuracy! Why don’t you tell me how accurately it describes me?

You are nurturing, kind, and lucky. Like mother nature, you want to help everyone. You are good at keeping secrets and tend to be secretive. A seeker of harmony, you are a natural peacemaker. You are good natured and people enjoy your company. You put people at ease and make them feel at home with you.

Isn’t it so cool? Much thanks to alanna who spent all of a day doing it!

Still trying to figure out why the width of the post can’t get bigger though… Direcow?

aka 15th Ex-Co update Week #1.

Well, it is week #1, even though we only became the 15th Ex-Co last Wednesday night.

This past Saturday was the Ex-Co Day of Recollection, a time-honoured annual tradition that sees the outgoing Ex-Co (in our case the 14th) preparing a day of prayer, food and fellowship to give the incoming Ex-Co (i.e. us) a chance to bond with one another and to be ready for their year-long service as members of the CSA Executive Committee.

The day really began with lunch at Jurong Point. I was glad that most of my Ex-Co agreed to meet up. I had been worried that the 11.30am meeting time would have been too difficult for many, especially, those who, like me lived on the other end of the island (it turns out I was not the only late one). But we managed to spend a good 45 minutes over lunch, just chatting and getting to know one another, which I felt was the real reason why I got all of us to meet.

We then headed down at 12.30pm to the Church of St Mary of the Angels in Bukit Batok. The bus ride had been awkward, to say the least. I guess we were all bursting with silent excitement, yet were somehow able to keep ourselves from going crazy. But when we got off SBS service 174, I guess you could say that was when the fun began. We huddled noisely, glad that the rain had lightened up, and headed to the main church. I gave Gregory Loo, my Mass Officer, a quick rundown of the area - it was the first time he’d been to the parish, and soon, it was time for the program proper to start.

(Heading down to the San Damiano Friary always felt like a homecoming, somehow. It was originally built to house the Sisters from the Order of St Clare, but as they had not been given permission to start a chapter here, it was eventually turned into the living quarters of the Franciscan Friars. Before they moved in, however, there was one Vocation Weekend that I attended last year, and thus became one of the first to actually stay in the building.)

But anyway, I digress. The programme organised by the 14th Ex-Co began with an opening prayer and then we played several games and sang a couple of songs that were supposed to help us settle in. “Supposed”, being the keyword, of course. Having attended several CSA activities in the past couple of months, I dare say I’m feeling too old for some games. I mean, I turn 23 this year! We then participated in a “role-play” of sorts that tried to teach us the importance of living up to your responsibilities and commitments, because everyone’s actions do have repercussions on others.

After all that, we started to get down to the serious stuff (finally! I thought). It started with a sharing by Ria, followed by one from Dominic. By this time, Lisa was already so overwhelmed with emotion that she started tearing, and I guess that triggered me, because my eyes were wet by the time Dom had finished. And then it was time for my predecessor, Agustin, who shared about the struggles that her Ex-Co faced. As I looked around at my ex-co’s faces, it was hard to imagine what was going through their minds. I wasn’t sure if they knew the whole story about what happened behind the scenes, or even if they did, if they could empathise. Nonetheless, it was a welcome reminder that the journey as an Ex-Co isn’t easy.

The 15th Ex-Co was then prayed over by members of the 14th, and I received the vision of St Peter’s lack of faith, as told in the Gospel according to Saint Matthew (Chapter 14, Verses 22-34). How apt, I thought. Then the Lord spoke to me in the words of the song - “If you pass through raging waters, in the sea you shall not drown… Be not afraid”. Wow. Talk about being apt.

But that wasn’t enough convincing from the Lord, oh no… The prayer session was followed by a short address by Father Clifford Augustine, who is our chaplain and spiritual director. And then, we headed down to the church building for Mass. The Gospel Readings also came from Matthew (Chapter 16, Verses 13-20).

Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

And I knew that doing this - being a part of the 15th Ex-Co - was part of His Will.

There’s a new category for future posts on this blog. And they’re pertaining to my new role in the NTU Catholic Students’ Apostolate.

For the record, on 17th August 2005, at approximately 9pm, I was elected as President of the 15th Executive Committee of the NTU CSA. The remaining 10 committee members were also elected that same night.

From now on, I will be posting weekly updates on the status of the CSA and personal thoughts of the week gone past. They will all be categorised under “Fifteenth”.

It’s been a while since I’ve been out with the gang, especially since I had to forego watching The Island (and Scarlett Johanssen~!!!) in favour of the Double Ordination almost two weeks ago. Nonetheless, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was as worthy a show as any of our time and money.

More to come… hopefully.

So it turns out that I didn’t watch the National Day Parade last night because I was out watching the fireworks up close instead. However, from the looks of it, this year’s NDP seems to have bucked the trend of the economical parade from the last couple of years. Five simultaneous gatherings at all the cardinal points of the island is quite an impressive feat for a country as small as ours.

And the fireworks… wow. They’ve to be seen to believe. Even outside Marina Square where I was, the gathered crowd didn’t bother to hide their excitement and awe of the whole presentation.

But if you want grandiose ceremonies that belie the apparent normalcy of the people involved, look no further than the Catholic Church. As I watched two old acquaintances get ordained into the priesthood on Sunday night, I was reminded once again of something I heard a couple of years ago.

“When two people get married, only a section of the church is filled and they’ll be lucky if they can get a decent choir to sing for them. When a priest gets ordained, the church is filled to the brim and you’ll marvel at the quality of the choir.”

Indeed, I’ve never experienced anything like the Sacerdotal Ordination of Valerian Cheong and Damien de Wind. The first ordination I attended was Father Aloy’s two years agoand while that was grand enough, I suppose the fact that it was held in the relatively older St Bernadette’s kinda took something away from it. This time around, however, it was in my home parish, the Church of the Holy Family, and great pains were taken to have the rites done as perfectly as possible.

I suppose it is to the credit of the Church to insist on the perpetuation of several aspects of the faith, including the whole ceremony of the Invocation of the Saints, where those to be ordained prostrate themselves in prayer while the rest of the congregation ask for mercy from God through the intercession of the saints. Powerful stuff and very moving, too. It’s all part of this great mystery of turning ordinary people into someone just a little less ordinary.