ABEng.Com FCG Blog
Monday, February 26, 2007
Breaking News: No CG for Week 7!
Hey guys!
Yes, that time of the semester has come: The Midterm Week of Hell.
In this period, time ceases to have meaning, day and night meld into one, and sleep is but a distant memory as coffee begins to substitute water and every other sentence is punctuated with a yawn.
As such, there'll be no CG this week, as everyone's busy as hell (pardon the phrase).
However, as this is the season of Lent, do remember the pillars of Lent:
Fasting, Prayer and Charity.
And remember, when stressed and frustrated, always remember that turning to God should always be a first resort, not last!
in His love,
ryan.
Yes, that time of the semester has come: The Midterm Week of Hell.
In this period, time ceases to have meaning, day and night meld into one, and sleep is but a distant memory as coffee begins to substitute water and every other sentence is punctuated with a yawn.
As such, there'll be no CG this week, as everyone's busy as hell (pardon the phrase).
However, as this is the season of Lent, do remember the pillars of Lent:
Fasting, Prayer and Charity.
And remember, when stressed and frustrated, always remember that turning to God should always be a first resort, not last!
in His love,
ryan.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
CG 5 - Keeping the Flames Burning!
CG5 - Wednesday Valentines CG
To keep our hearts aflame from last week's CAW and in preparation for lent, today our CG focused on living a Christian life. By doing so, we can still continue on our outreach not by informing others about our Catholic faith, but by our day to day actions which can be so much more influential as a testimony of our faith to others. We can also explore areas in our life that are empty and find ways to improve them which can be constructive to our faith. For example, if we feel a certain emptiness in our prayer life, we can commit ourselves to at least praying every night without dozing off or we can improve in our school work as a form of sacrifice in forgoing activities we find more enjoyable and fulfilling our vocation as students.
We refered to the bible passage Romans 12:9-21 for today which talks about the mark of a true Christian. It starts off with "Love must be completely sincere. Hate what is evil, hold on to what is good. Love one another warmly as Christian brothers, and be eager to show respect for one another. Work hard and do not be lazy. Serve the Lord with a heart full of devotion. Let your hope keep you joyful, be patient in your troubles, and pray at all times. Share your belongings with your needy fellow Christians, and open your homes to strangers." It also says "Of someone has done you wrong, do not repay him with a wrong. Try to do what everyone considers to be good."
Next we reflected upon the passage and from the passage, what inspiration did we receive for our Lenten resolution. Some of us may not believe in resolutions but making resolutions that will help build our faith is after all a good thing or if not, we can take this opportunity to reflect upon areas in our life that we can build up for lent.
From the passage, we can see that working hard is also a form of Christian living and we can improve it by concentrating on our studies and simply getting down to work for all those suffering from inertia especially after the draining CAW. It may be a high order to follow exactly what a true Christian is called to do but as a form of growth, we all can be more aware of ourselves and try to follow the teachings from the passage as close as possible. The passage also ends with "Do not let evil defeat you; instead, conquer evil with good." Thus we can also see that we are called to love our neighbours and show good to our enemies even when they hurt us. In such cases, try to calm down and remember what a true Catholic should do!
We also introduced the Prayer Buddy system! We are grouped in 2s or 3s and are asked to meet every week to pray for each other or maybe even share with each other issues that concern our faith. Prayer Buddies are meant to be a source of strength and support for one another. Especially in times of lent when we are faced with difficulties in fulfilling our resolutions, we can turn to our prayer buddies for support and prayer to hang on! Prayer Buddies! Do meet up and journey together yes? You may not know what wisdom your partner can offer to help in your prayer life!
CG ended with the song Prayer of St. Francis:
Make me a channel of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
Where there is injury, your pardon, Lord.
And where there's doubt true faith in you.
Make me a channel of your peace.
Where there's despair in life, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness, only light.
And where there's sadness every joy.
O Master, grant that i may never seek.
So much to be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved, as to love, with all my soul.
-> As we can see from this song, living a Catholic life will also mean a sacrifice of self for others and striving to be the light in the darkness of despair, hatred and injury. So let us all pray to be a channel of peace for ourselves and for one another :) . At the end of the day, know that "in dying that we are born to eternal life". This will happen when we depart from this world but also when we "die" to ourselves in the spirit of self-sacrifice, we make ourselves worthy for the kingdom above! However, let us strive to be sacrificial not just for the rewards in heaven, but also for the Love of God!
And we ended the day with dinner at Clementi and had a hearty meal at the coffee shop, meeting up with some of the CSS scientists also. A Valentines knowing more about God and with fellowship with the Abengs!
With Valentiney Love,
Dan Tan
To keep our hearts aflame from last week's CAW and in preparation for lent, today our CG focused on living a Christian life. By doing so, we can still continue on our outreach not by informing others about our Catholic faith, but by our day to day actions which can be so much more influential as a testimony of our faith to others. We can also explore areas in our life that are empty and find ways to improve them which can be constructive to our faith. For example, if we feel a certain emptiness in our prayer life, we can commit ourselves to at least praying every night without dozing off or we can improve in our school work as a form of sacrifice in forgoing activities we find more enjoyable and fulfilling our vocation as students.
We refered to the bible passage Romans 12:9-21 for today which talks about the mark of a true Christian. It starts off with "Love must be completely sincere. Hate what is evil, hold on to what is good. Love one another warmly as Christian brothers, and be eager to show respect for one another. Work hard and do not be lazy. Serve the Lord with a heart full of devotion. Let your hope keep you joyful, be patient in your troubles, and pray at all times. Share your belongings with your needy fellow Christians, and open your homes to strangers." It also says "Of someone has done you wrong, do not repay him with a wrong. Try to do what everyone considers to be good."
Next we reflected upon the passage and from the passage, what inspiration did we receive for our Lenten resolution. Some of us may not believe in resolutions but making resolutions that will help build our faith is after all a good thing or if not, we can take this opportunity to reflect upon areas in our life that we can build up for lent.
From the passage, we can see that working hard is also a form of Christian living and we can improve it by concentrating on our studies and simply getting down to work for all those suffering from inertia especially after the draining CAW. It may be a high order to follow exactly what a true Christian is called to do but as a form of growth, we all can be more aware of ourselves and try to follow the teachings from the passage as close as possible. The passage also ends with "Do not let evil defeat you; instead, conquer evil with good." Thus we can also see that we are called to love our neighbours and show good to our enemies even when they hurt us. In such cases, try to calm down and remember what a true Catholic should do!
We also introduced the Prayer Buddy system! We are grouped in 2s or 3s and are asked to meet every week to pray for each other or maybe even share with each other issues that concern our faith. Prayer Buddies are meant to be a source of strength and support for one another. Especially in times of lent when we are faced with difficulties in fulfilling our resolutions, we can turn to our prayer buddies for support and prayer to hang on! Prayer Buddies! Do meet up and journey together yes? You may not know what wisdom your partner can offer to help in your prayer life!
CG ended with the song Prayer of St. Francis:
Make me a channel of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
Where there is injury, your pardon, Lord.
And where there's doubt true faith in you.
Make me a channel of your peace.
Where there's despair in life, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness, only light.
And where there's sadness every joy.
O Master, grant that i may never seek.
So much to be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved, as to love, with all my soul.
-> As we can see from this song, living a Catholic life will also mean a sacrifice of self for others and striving to be the light in the darkness of despair, hatred and injury. So let us all pray to be a channel of peace for ourselves and for one another :) . At the end of the day, know that "in dying that we are born to eternal life". This will happen when we depart from this world but also when we "die" to ourselves in the spirit of self-sacrifice, we make ourselves worthy for the kingdom above! However, let us strive to be sacrificial not just for the rewards in heaven, but also for the Love of God!
And we ended the day with dinner at Clementi and had a hearty meal at the coffee shop, meeting up with some of the CSS scientists also. A Valentines knowing more about God and with fellowship with the Abengs!
With Valentiney Love,
Dan Tan
Monday, February 12, 2007
cg 5!!!!!!!
1 wk of no cg..dun u all miss it?
Hi there...To all my Bro and Sis in Christ!!!CAW week has been really great! im sure u all agree! =D It has ended on a high note with the CAW rally on sat. N the theme--which im sure u all already know..n its enforced in u..its hearts on fire!!!!!!! CAW has enabled us to know more about our faith and to reach out to our friends.
We still have gotta keep our hearts on fire..keep the flame within us burning!!!! we are the light to the world! It is though us that God's work can be done!
I invite all of you to come for a wonderful session of cg the theme being TO KEEP THE PASSION (FLAME) BURNING!
this coming tuesday and wednesday.
Venue: One of the SDE classroom (If unsure of the place, startpraying when u get lost or call the cgls for efficiency: Ferdy NRyan for tuesday cg...Dan N Dwi for wednesday cg)
Date: 13th and 14th feb
Time: 615 pm
(Try and come early though...can share about what'shappening and cool in your life, if there's any!!! )
Love,
Esther hugggz
Hi there...To all my Bro and Sis in Christ!!!CAW week has been really great! im sure u all agree! =D It has ended on a high note with the CAW rally on sat. N the theme--which im sure u all already know..n its enforced in u..its hearts on fire!!!!!!! CAW has enabled us to know more about our faith and to reach out to our friends.
We still have gotta keep our hearts on fire..keep the flame within us burning!!!! we are the light to the world! It is though us that God's work can be done!
I invite all of you to come for a wonderful session of cg the theme being TO KEEP THE PASSION (FLAME) BURNING!
this coming tuesday and wednesday.
Venue: One of the SDE classroom (If unsure of the place, startpraying when u get lost or call the cgls for efficiency: Ferdy NRyan for tuesday cg...Dan N Dwi for wednesday cg)
Date: 13th and 14th feb
Time: 615 pm
(Try and come early though...can share about what'shappening and cool in your life, if there's any!!! )
Love,
Esther hugggz
Friday, February 2, 2007
CG4 - Come Follow Me!
CG4 - Wednesday CG
This week's CG we focused on the talents we can use for our community and the care that we can extend to others. The numerous opportunities we can use to spread God's love. Like how the apostles could drop whatever plans and work they have and serve as disciples of God, we too can follow in their footsteps and follow our God and his ways of love!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We first started off with a prayer and next, reflected upon a time when someone else has helped us and what it felt like. It would feel undeniably good that when we need help or are stressed over issues in our life, someone comes along and aids us or just be there for us. Similarly, we can within our means, reach out to others and provide comfort to the communities we belong to.
Next, we reflected on the possibilities we have, in our lives, to help others, keeping in mind how it felt like when we were helped ourselves. Be it in a small way of helping someone in our day to day activities or by undertaking a charity project. Sometimes in our lives, we are inspired to help a certain someone or just be helpful towards others that come our way. All we need to do is to get down to it. Opportunities always knock. It is up to us to answer them!
As it was said in Dwi's reading, "All around us, every day, there are countless opportunities to show we care. Opening the door with a smile for a stranger... and in our homes we can show a sincere interest in the lives and activities of our family... There are thousand different ways to do it. Start with the next person you encounter. Don't wait for the change you want to see in the world. Be the change."
And as Fr. Fred also once said, we are to do things constructive to our lives, things that bring us closer to God. These can be small things like helping a friend. Things that can make others feel glad and can also lead us closer to God. So, spread the Love!
Thank you once again wed CG for your constructive sharing and see you guys the week after!
With brotherly love,
Dan Tan
This week's CG we focused on the talents we can use for our community and the care that we can extend to others. The numerous opportunities we can use to spread God's love. Like how the apostles could drop whatever plans and work they have and serve as disciples of God, we too can follow in their footsteps and follow our God and his ways of love!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We first started off with a prayer and next, reflected upon a time when someone else has helped us and what it felt like. It would feel undeniably good that when we need help or are stressed over issues in our life, someone comes along and aids us or just be there for us. Similarly, we can within our means, reach out to others and provide comfort to the communities we belong to.
Next, we reflected on the possibilities we have, in our lives, to help others, keeping in mind how it felt like when we were helped ourselves. Be it in a small way of helping someone in our day to day activities or by undertaking a charity project. Sometimes in our lives, we are inspired to help a certain someone or just be helpful towards others that come our way. All we need to do is to get down to it. Opportunities always knock. It is up to us to answer them!
As it was said in Dwi's reading, "All around us, every day, there are countless opportunities to show we care. Opening the door with a smile for a stranger... and in our homes we can show a sincere interest in the lives and activities of our family... There are thousand different ways to do it. Start with the next person you encounter. Don't wait for the change you want to see in the world. Be the change."
And as Fr. Fred also once said, we are to do things constructive to our lives, things that bring us closer to God. These can be small things like helping a friend. Things that can make others feel glad and can also lead us closer to God. So, spread the Love!
Thank you once again wed CG for your constructive sharing and see you guys the week after!
With brotherly love,
Dan Tan
