Timeless

Time.

The Beginning and the End.

The Alpha and Omega

All time belongs to Him

Christ Yesterday and Today



For those of you who do not know, the following verses above were taken from the Easter Vigil Text, the 1st part of the celebration: Service of Light.

All time belongs to God.

But alas time waits for no men. Time flies past without any conscious thought and next thing I know its my Promos coming up in about 3 to 4 weeks. As usual I have not really anything much to preparre..ahem retention ahem...

*crosses fingers*

But being the "meticulous student" I am, I am of course distracted by my other things. Church, leisure etc etc...

I missed a lot of Cathechism classes lately :X If I retain again I might as well not get confirmed at all. =.="

And the new boys have started pouring in. This Sunday would be our last training sessions before they actually start to serve weekday masses.

We split them up into 2 groups, one to train and one to learn to don their attires properly

Well for one thing the first training session was ok but there was a little incident.

Not gonna mention any names...

But apparently one trainee server pointed his middle finger at a parent, due to the parent disturbing and poking him, as said by the server. Apparently the parent of one of another server saw the boy disturbing his child, which led her to manhandle him.

This of course warranted immediate disciplinary action by the Mentors a.k.a Greg, Nick, Chris, Damien, Josh, Daryl and me. So after the training session, he was summoned back into the vestry where Greg gave him a little counselling.

If it was me I would immediately have been kicked out without any questions asked. :P

Fortunately, the boy realized his mistake and apologized. His parents was also informed about this.


The second week was one when the mentors displayed their authourity. During the 1st half of the session we were joined by ex-server Michael Chow, Damien and I, divided them into their original groups. Most of the other mentors like Greg, Nick, Joshua and Dannel could not make it due to prior commitments

Damien and Michael were being stern on that occasion so as to ensure high levels of discipline and full attention. They trained the first group. We were pretty shocked at their lack of knowledge of mass responses. There were a few incidents, but one which was most memorable was when after The Lord's Prayer was said, the new boys followed up with a Hail Mary. This blatant error caused Damian to lose his cool and he (for lack of a better word) shouted at them
and it was a very uncomfortable 10 minutes or so listening to him lecture with raised voice, in front of the parents.

For myself, it was extremely disturbing for me to know that the young boys did not really know or understood the type of responses to be proclaimed. But deep within me, I somehow think it is because that Damien and Michael were being stern, so they were afraid to respond for fear of making a mistake and getting scolded. But seriously, the incident mentioned in the above paragraph warranted a real good scolding.

Damien and Michael said that this also really reflects on their religous upbringing at home.

I was tasked to train the 2nd group, who were watching group 1 first

I must admit I was not feeling myself on that day, due to my very bad cough (which I am still sick with) and my reluctance to actually shout at them. As a mentor, I do not really know where does the line of my authourity lie, and I wish to gain the respect of the new boys by giving them some first. When I accidentally forgot a part and made a mistake, Damien helped me and took over me. I really was not feeling well (I still am not) and I was grateful for his help.

We could only train them for an hour or so because we had to let them take their measurements at the foyer. Those who were done with their measurements went back to the main church, sat in the PEWS and were lectured once again by Damien, about basic mass responses.

Things ended off in a rather moody note as the new boys went home perhaps, to reflect upon their religion and their calling in the society.

And a week from now I am going to have 2 servers with me. These 2 new boys (one of them who is my junior at school) have just moved house and also changed their parish from the Church of the Sacred Heart to our parish. They were servers over there, and they asked to be able to serve here.

Sigh, as mad as this might sound, I AM going to miss serving a 1 person mass on Sunday 6pm...It is pretty fun come to think of it, for the past 9 months. But if I am sick and unable to make it, and if Father Patrick is celebrating that particular mass, the repercussions on the society would be very dire.

Somehow by His Grace, (not Archbishop. God's Grace) I have not sustained any injuries serious enough for me to be not able to serve mass. And I am really thankful for that.

Anyways, now as the days come closer by our society would be enlarged by a considerable number. There might be problems over communication, authority etc etc. But we'll take them as they come along.

'nuff said for servers...




ID 4!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oli's really getting the hang of the game...I'm about to expire my 3rd card....My AE 86 is almost full tuned...And I am considering what would my 3rd car be...(considering the Honda Integra Type R DC 2 or the Honda S2000 AP1)

At school, I am finally able to put my server responsibilities to rest with regards to serving mass, and finally able to join the Legion formed choir. It is still in its early stages. And most people in there do not have musical background. We are practising really hard for the upcoming exam mass on Thursday 27 September.

Oh and speaking of which, it would be my sister's birthday on that day. :D

25 going on 26 this year, she is an October Bride to Be. (Better go practise my reading on Corinthians Chapter 13)

We are going to Aston's Prime a more sophisticated version affiliation of Astons' Specialties which is already booming with business on a daily basis

That day also happens to be the feastday of St Vincent de Paul, where there are many branches of the society named after him, all in aid of the poor.



I think all in all, that's has been my life for the past 2 to 3 weeks summed up.

Exams coming...looking forward to the upcoming wedding and holidays.

Time waits for no men

Carpe Diem

Seize the Day.

God Bless!