Growing in Faith Together
We have been gifted with each other. God’s love binds us together in a supernatural way from our baptism where we learned to call God, our Father. We are one body in Christ (Romans 12:5).
In celebration of our 63rd birthday as a parish, our 3-day Triduum brought home the message of growing in faith as a community, and to see our gifts like diamonds of great value, to polish them to make them shine for God.
Our speakers at the Triduum held from 25 to 27 September, Mathew Jonas Joseph and Jordan Hong inspired us to look at our faith as a journey. “We are a community called to Transformation,” shared Jonas. We need to allow Christ to peel away our layers, like an onion, and reveal our true potential. Together we can move from being faithful followers to disciples of Christ. Jordan spoke of the belief that Jesus will grant us the grace we need to remain in community, having struggled Himself (Hebrews 4:15-16). It is to believe that God has a plan for us and that we each have a unique role to play in the community.
Priscilla Tan, 74, shared how she met Aaron, a visitor to our church on the third day of the Triduum. She welcomed him warmly and together they had some fellowship after the Eucharistic Celebration. Aaron came back with his young kids for our feast day celebrations on Sunday, 29 September. “I was so happy to see him again,” said Priscilla as she related how his kids enjoyed the free popcorn.
Priscilla Tan (light blue blouse) sharing a photo from the fellowship after the Triduum
Not only was the popcorn free that day, all the food was donated by the ministries who had teamed up to host the stalls and to absorb the cost. So there was no need to buy tickets to get your food or to win prizes at the games stalls. There were altogether 9 food stalls and 7 games stalls, and hands-on workshops too. The choirs hosted a CSM version of the gameshow “Don’t Forget the Lyrics”, even singing Old MacDonald had a Farm for the little ones. A love offering box was available to accept donations from generous parishioners and visitors.
“The Feast Day carnival was a beautiful celebration filled with joy and community spirit. The collaboration between the ministries not only allowed us to connect with so many wonderful people but also sparked creativity and teamwork. The vibrant atmosphere and the smiles all around truly captured the essence of our faith and unity as a community,” shared Limya Shibu, 21, Syro Malankara.
Check out more photos on CSM Flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/churchofstmichaelsg/
A memorable breakfast spread for a memorable celebration.
Mouth-watering local favourites like nasi lemak, satay, chicken bryani were on the menu too.
Games were a big hit with the kids and what is a carnival without a dunking machine!
Check out successful dunks in our CSM Flickr album.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/churchofstmichaelsg/albums/72177720320719238/
Jacob Hong, Chairperson of Feast Day Organising Committee, explained that the aim this year was to encourage people to spend just 1 minute more in church. “What surprised me was that so many people stayed back after each Eucharistic Celebration, indicating that the people indeed do want more here in our parish.”
CSM went one step further to invite the neighbourhood to the feast. On Saturday morning, 28 September, a day before our Feast Day, about 30 parishioners, mainly youths, set out from the church to take the joy of the carnival out into the streets. Aptly named Strangers Showdown, they played games with strangers they met, like scissors-paper-stone, airplane flying competition, and knocking down a waterbottle with a football. “Evangelising can be daunting but it can also be as simple as playing a game and spreading joy to others,” said Jacob.
Strangers Showdown – A double-pronged initiative to do an outreach to the neighbourhood and welcome them to our feast day celebrations. Scissors-paper-stone anyone?
Two Hands-on workshops
Our Petals ministry are purely self-taught, hence the flower arrangement and floral card-making workshop allowed our parishoners to learn the skill of flower arrangement, showcasing that whatever skill level they are at, it can always be done to make something beautiful.
Floral card-making and flower arrangements had many creative minds snipping happily away.
The St Michael Chaplet Rosary-making saw some 60 parishioners and visitors eager to make their very own rosary. It was a cozy number as the ministry members organising the workshop could have intentional conversations with the participants as they made the rosary. The rosary had the St Michael colours of turquoise and gold.
CSM Parishioner Vanessa Tan, 39, could see that her son Scot and his cousins Hailey and Oliver were having a good time at the rosary workshop. “They enjoyed the process of making their very own rosary. It was enjoyable and a good way to familiarise themselves with the rosary,” Vanessa enthused.
Rosary of St Michael’s Chaplet in colours of turquoise which represents protection, tranquility and hope, and gold for wisdom and power.
Our Parish Priest, Fr. Terence Pereira, in his homily for our Feast Day Eucharistic Celebration, reminds us to pray to our guardian angels, they are behind us as we offer our gifts to our Lord during the Offertory. The battle for our souls continues to rage on. We need to defeat Satan by the decisions we make.
We have to be awake, if not, we fall.