IHMYC Seniors' Retreat 2008

The retreat was a huge success! Many thanks to all the youth cats who actually put aside them during this busy weekend to come down and participate in the sessions! :D

The first session was the creation of one's soul country. This country was to reflect the many good and bad events in our lives, ups and downs, and we could represent these with marshes, bogs, forests, trees, plateaus and other wonders of nature. We were provided with paper and art materials to create this soul country. Many people came up with different ideas for their own countries - some countries looked like a calculator, some was divided into 16 squares exactly depicting 16 years on earth, some were collages, and some were real geographical maps and one was even a 3D map with trees that could stand! The variety of maps certainly impressed Sr Susan, our retreat mistress.

The second session was on Saturday morning, where we recognized the gifts that each and every one of us were blessed with. On a piece of paper, we wrote down our gifts of being, gifts of doing and gifts of having. "I am... I can... I have..." After that we shared our discovery of our gifts with groupmates, which was followed by a large group sharing where everyone talked about their feelings during sharing.

Next up was affirmation. A piece of paper was stuck to our backs and we went about in silence, writing good remarks about people on their pieces of paper, reaffirming them. Even people who had to leave the retreat for various reasons got a piece of paper for others to affirm them! We were then given reflection questions on our affirmations and our gifts, and most of us went to journal about our feelings and the questions. All the affirmations we read made us feel warm and fuzzy inside.. Aww!

Lunch and an hour of study time was up next. At 3pm, Sr Susan and all the retreat participants gathered back in Prayer Hall A/B for the next session. We penned down our hopes and prayers for our follow retreat participants. Most people hoped that their friends would be able to cope with their new lives in new schools, whilst others prayed for IHMYC as a whole that we may grow in faith together.

By this time, the Y1s were due to arrive anytime! Marissa gave us instructions to prepare a skit depicting different bible passages, and the Y1s were incorporated into our different groups. Some of these passages include the one about the widow giving her all to the church treasury, Zacchaeus climbing a tree in order to see Jesus, an official's son being healed, and the ten bridesmaids of which five were foolish. There were several memorable moments, some of which were unfortunately not captured on camera ):

Everyone went for anticipatory mass together on Saturday evening and some Y1s joined us. Silence was imposed until the next session began at 9pm. Pochinello made his appearance.

This session was easily the most serious and emotional session for a lot of the YCs. The seniors acted out a skit featuring Pochinello and the woodcarver, and Sr Susan led us in a meditation to find out what this woodcarver (God) is saying to us in order to help us let go of any heavy burdens we might be carrying. All the answers from the woodcarver went into a beautiful piece of architecture where everyone could appreciate the replies from God. Due to the emo-ness of this session, we had a cheer-up party after that..

An ICE CREAM PARTY! A surprise was sprung on all those in the food room! Two boxes of neopolitan ice cream and two bars of Cadbury chocolate awaited us! :D It was an utterly scrumptious dessert. Totally unexpected, it was the best ending to a day that we could have. Everyone went off on their own activities from there feeling full and satisfied. The entire camp was feeling rather high - giggling fits ensued in the shower, and nobody was really ready to sleep until Roy insisted that we had to. [Cat class the next day!]

The last session was on Sunday morning before the last cleanup and catechism class. It was the missioning of the youth catechists - all of us were given a slip of paper to keep, with a unique bible quote on it. It related to our calling as catechists and as disciples of Christ. From there, we finished our clearing up and officially broke camp. And of course, we went to fulfill our calling!

Thank you once again, everyone, for coming down! Especially many thanks to..
Sr Susan for being our retreat mistress
Justin for being the most fantastic one-man-logistics ever
Roy, Jac, Carol, Rene, Marissa for presenting the sessions
and of course,
God for keeping everyone safe and sane. :D

Senior's Retreat Pictures

Upcoming MCC workshop!

Hello everybody!

Thingy: MCC Workshop (on the catechesis)
Time: 2pm - 6pm
Venue: Prayer Hall A/B

It's compulsory for all YC to attend this workshop! Please do make your bestest effort to come down, the workshop will be very useful in helping us for catechism class. If you really cannot make it, please sms Roy and state your reason (which must be VALID!) for not going for the workshop.

Hope everyone's week will go on smoothly!

April's Holy Hour.

This time round, it is going to be MASS! To commemorate our first quarter of praying together as a Youth Ministry. (Mass is the highest form of prayer still, remember? (: ) Just for this month cos it's special.

Date: 24 April 2008
Time: 8pm-9pm
Venue: Main Church

Sooooooo. We're in-charge of the Readings, Psalm and the Prayers of the Faithful. 3 people for the 3 different roles will do. Please let Carolyn know before the next YC session which you may want to volunteer for. Thanks!