Sports Day 2009

Hey!

My school had Sports Day at MPSJ last Saturday...

I didn't take part in any events, not even marching, but I just went there to hang around...didn't take many photos either...just a few...

The band marching into the field at the start of the event

Some pictures of the contigents gathering in the middle of the field

The band performing

It started at 7.30 but I went there only about 15 minutes late...
Once I reached there Rushan, Dipan, Emily and a few other prefects stopped me from going in because I was wearing bermudas...well, I didn't know that it's not allowed, since it's a public place and not school...

So my mum had to bring my track pants for me to change...
After going in I just hanged around...

*fast forward*

The marching started at about 8.30...and lasted until 9 something after they sang the Negaraku, speeches etc....

Then they had the field events...

The last time I saw the scoreboard Purple House was leading, then it went to second place...but anyway I don't know the final result, I went home early...

After official opening ended, I hanged out with Zi Xiang, Yi Shuen, Choong Hou, Velu, Kar Fai and a bunch of other people...sorry can't remember all of you...

In the end I went home at around 10.30, gave Zi Xiang a lift home...

Not much difference for this year's Sports Day, just the usual stuff...

~An athelete who runs in a race cannot win the prize unless he obeys the rules. --- 2 Timothy 2:5~

Pascha

A 2008 Easter Vatican first-day-cover. Credits to William.

Pascha?

It means Easter in Latin...

As you know it, Easter was last Sunday, which marks the end of Holy Week...

Holy Week is the last week of Lent, the week in which Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday are celebrated...

It began last Tuesday, when the Chrism Mass was celebrated in the Church of St. Francis Xavier, PJ...it is trditionally celebrated on Holy Thursday(but it was celebrated on Tuesday this year) to commemorate the Last Supper Jesus had with with disciples before his crucifixion...

The archbishop who presided over the Mass...a little blurr...not enough light...

See all those people wearing white over there? All of them are priests...

The archbishop consecrating the Chrism oil, which will be used for my Confirmation next year...

The Chrism oil in those two containers after consecration...

And recently the church had a renovation...they built a new roof and ceiling...

The new ceiling

The ceiling above the altar

Another angle

The top row is the altar and the bottom row is the entire hall with the main doors at the far end...compare the pics...before renovation, on the left(taken in December 2008) and after renovation, on the right...nice right?

A stain glass in the church depicting Mother Mary and a few other saints

And then the next event of Holy Week was on Friday, Good Friday...my dad and I only went to the Church of St. Thomas More, the church which I regularly go to...my mum didn't go because she has back problems and she can't be sitting for too long...

Went there at about 7 p.m. for the Way of the Cross(Via Crucis) prayer and Mass...it lasted til about 10 o'clock...the Mass was quite long as there was the narrative of the Passion according to the Gospel of John(the entire story of Jesus' crucifixion) and the veneration of the crucifix...and then we bought some hot cross buns after church...the next event coming up is.....Easter!

The altar in my church...note the crucifix covered with purple cloth for Good Friday...can't really see clearly...

Here's a clearer picture...taken from Wikipedia...

And on Easter Sunday, my whole family went to the Church of Divine Mercy in Shah Alam...went to three churches within a week...not something done very often...anyway, my grandmother also came along because she was officially becoming Catholic...before this she was baptised in an AOG church...so she didn't have to go for baptism again...she was officially accepted into the Catholic Church and she took Holy Communion on Easter...and she's also going to receive her Confirmation soon...so now she's officially Catholic...didn't take many pictures of the Mass because there wasn't enough time...

My grand mother, wearing white, sitting beside my mother

Grandmum

The altar in the Church of Divine Mercy

The Resurrection

That's all for Holy Week...both Holy week and the season of Lent ended as Easter begun...

God bless all of you!!!

~Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song. --- Pope John Paul II~

Goodbye

This is not a goodbye as in 'goodbye someone's dead and gone'...

This is a goodbye for...Miss Shaileen, who is now my former English teacher...

She left the school last Friday after teaching for just four months...

And recently I found out that she was teaching us for these four months voluntarily - for free, without pay...

She was one of the best, and most fun teacher I ever had this year(seriously, I'm not just praising her because she's leaving the school)...she's different from other teachers - she doesn't come into the class and talks, talks, talks and then gives homework, homework and more homework...ok, maybe she does give us a whole bunch of homework because of the homework quota, but she never presses on it too hard and make us all stressed up...classes with her were fun too, and she was often lenient...she isn't like the other teachers who make Form 4 unlikeable...she's a memory of From 4 school life that one will not forget...wish she could teach us for a longer time...she said she's going to university after this...not teaching anymore...

Before she left she took pictures with us...most of the students brought cameras to school that day...and we also bought a card for her...it was a huge one...almost half her size...the last English lesson with her was spent saying goodbye...

Ms. Shaileen and me

And now 4 Amanah has to deal with our new English teacher, Pn. Ung...she just taught us a few lessons, can't tell whether she's ok or not...just have to let time tell...Ms. Shaileen said that she's quite friendly, but Ms. Shaileen was talking about Pn. Ung as a friend, who knows whether is she still quite as friendly as a teacher, what more as a discipline teacher...she was quite strict with the rules for the first few times she taught my class...hope everything turns out well...







~There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens. ---Ecclesiastes 3:1~

JP II

Today's the 4th death anniversary of the late Pope John Paul II, he was 84 years old.It was Divine Mercy Sunday 4 years ago on his death day.

A short biography of him:
-Birth name : Karol Józef Wojtyła
-Birth place & date : 18 May 1920/Wadowice, Poland
-Papacy began : 16 October 1978
-Papacy ended : 2 April 2005
-Predecesor : Pope Paul VI
-Successor : Pope Benedict XVI
-Second longest reigning pope(26 years) after Blessed Pope Pius IX(31 years), followed by Pope Leo XIII(25 years)

Among some of his oustanding features of his papacy include his worldwide travels(129 countries) which makes him the most well-travelled pope and his role in the fall of communism in Eastern Europe begining in Poland and spreading throughout Europe and ended up in the fall of the Soviet Union(something like a domino effect, he pushed the first domino tile in Poland). He is also one of the popes who canonized the most number of saints. A great pope indeed, the Catholic Church grew rapidly around the world during his papacy as he also introduced the World Youth Day, a non-denominational Christian event held on an international level every 2-3 years once. He did many other things too, writing many encyclicals and too many other things to list down.

Pope Benedict XVI waived the five years waiting period after his death for the beatification process to begin, stating that this is an exceptional case, that means the process begin not long after his death. Currently he is still at the first stage, thus giving him the title 'Servant of God'. Hopefully he will be given the title 'Venerated', 'Blessed' and finally canonized as a saint soon. Pray for his canonization, then maybe I'll get to make him my patron saint!

Pope John Paul II lying in state during his funeral

~But as it is written: "What eye has not seen, and hear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him." --- 1 Corinthians 2:9~