Friday, August 24, 2012

Quality time with my God daughter.

When I was growing up my Baptism Godparents were unknown to me. If you asked me how they looked like I can't even remember.

Perhaps, it's a Malaysian Chinese Catholic scenario. My first Holy Communion and even Confirmation was just a big deal during mass but after that there was no big family and friends gatherings to celebrate the event.

It is only after my marriage into a Catholic Malayalee family since 2001, that I realised what I've missed out all these years.

I discovered that all the Sacraments of the Church are celebrated afterwards with a big family and friends party either at home or in a restaurant with lots of pomp and splendour.

Mary Isabelle, my little three-year-old cradle Catholic, I'm so happy for you that so far you have had a great start.

I also discovered that many of my husband's family members have good to great relationships with their Godparents.

Compared to my almost non-existant relationship - it is to me, FANTASTIC!

Unfortunately, I have not been a very good Godparent. One reason, I think is we, Patrick and I, have too many Godchildren - both adults and children.

Doesn't help that my personality type is introverted and that I enjoy my own company the best.

However, this recent long Raya holidays, I've decided to start building relationship with at least one Godchild at a time.

So I made a date with Kimberly, one of our countless gifts from God, to go out and watch a movie last Tuesday.

It was a long overdue date which we were supposed to do for her birthday in January. As usual, things got busy and the date was delayed.

We watched The Wimpy Kid 3, a story about a teenager who was too much into video games and not into outdoor sports, a trait his dad wanted him to have.

It was funny and both of us laughed a lot. It also gave me the opportunity to explain some Americanised expressions to Kim.

After the movie, we had lunch at McDs and also her favourite dessert - ice shavings.

                                          Kim and I at McDonalds after the movie.



    
           Kim enjoying her favourite Sesame flavoured ice shavings after lunch...yummy.


But what I most treasured most was the moment she started to open up to me. Although it was just a few personal sharings about her life, but I was happy to be her listening ear.

I suddenly remembered what the facilitator of Mary Isabelle's Baptism told us, that Godparents play a very important role because sometimes when children find it hard to communicate with their parents, Godparents are the ones they can turn to.

Thank you Lord for that wonderful affirmation.

I was glad Mary Isabelle had some quality time with her Godmother that day too.

You see, Kim is my Godchild and Mary is Kim's parents' Godchild.

That itself is a story for another blog entry.






Wednesday, August 8, 2012


Yes, I know it's been a long time since I blogged. Apologies to all those who follow the rantings of this soon to be 40-years-young Cradle Catholic. Life has truly been an adventure.

Now in this post of mine, I just wanted to share a video made by one of St Thomas More's 11.30am choir members.

Her name is Marilyn and she hails from Philippines.

Talented in singing and music, she has really given a boost to our choir. Of late, she has contributed yet again through her initiative of creating videos of the songs we sung during mass, including the psalms.

I was really very touched by her efforts and I have nicknamed her the techno evangelist. From her actions, all the songs and psalms can now continue to touch our lives even after the mass has ended.

Especially during challenging times when we need the comfort of the Word of God in song. This is the first of her videos I am posting on my blog. Why?

Because one of our parishioners said some of the youths were very touched by this particular song when it was sung during mass last Sunday

Do take note, that Marilyn just used a tiny MP3 recorder/player to record the singing, so the quality may not be so good.

Marilyn is not the composer of the song. I just wanted to clarify as her name appeared below the song. I think this happened as she uploaded the song into Facebook and I just copied the link onto my blog. I wanted to clarify this to avoid any copyrights issues.

But you know God uses the simple and imperfect things and people to touch His people. Hope this post will bring a smile in your heart today.

Have a superbly blessed day,
Hazel