President - Abigail!

The prospect of being President may seem overwhelming and downright scary. It embodies a certain sense of accountability – one that I wasn’t sure I was ready for, or even wanted to take up a year ago. Yet, God being God, was strangely persistent in His calling and through this amazing journey, I have gained so much more than I could ever give.

In formal constitutional terms, your role as the President is as follows:

   -          Take care of each ministry in COSDU

   -          Oversee and ensure the overall smooth running of COSDU

   -          Keep the Spiritual Directors informed of COSDU’s wellbeing

   -          Supervise and delegate tasks to committee members

   -          Chair and prepare AGM

   -          Call and chair committee meetings

   -          Liaise with the Archdiocese

   -          Attend AGM and other necessary training conducted by UMSU

In point form, things look much more straightforward, don’t they? I think the implication behind these points is that the role is not necessarily always tangible and you get to decide how much time and effort you want to invest into each aspect. It is a delicate balance. Allow the various ministries to overwork and there will be a burnout very soon; neglect deadlines and nothing gets accomplished. Undoubtedly, I have made mistakes along the way. Thankfully, I have had a great line of pillars supporting me – my fellow committee mates, Fr Thinh, Sr Delma, and most importantly, God.

Over the past year, I have truly learnt a great number of humbling lessons. Even though COSDU is a Catholic society, we sometimes can get so caught up in the things we are doing that we fail to reflect on God’s presence in our midst. I am certainly guilty of that. Being a perfectionist, it undeniably irks me when lines are crooked, circles are not perfect or plans simply collapse. But through God, I have learnt the value of serenity to accept God’s plans. For God is the real strength behind everything, not man!

Admittedly, you don’t have to take on a role in the committee to direct change for the better. Everyone can do it; we see this every day in the people around us. Nonetheless, leadership is, in its own right, a powerful concept. As the COSDU president, I have realised that you have to think before acting, simply because others DO look at you differently and judge you for being the leader of a Catholic group in a secular university. Yet at the same time, this role also carries with it the capacity to translate vision into reality. As Kim once remarked, the president of COSDU influences the vision of the committee, which in turn impacts on the direction that COSDU takes.

As such, I was initially very worried because I knew I had enormous shoes to fill. It troubled me that I didn’t have that ‘X-factor’ required of the president – I wasn’t holy enough, charismatic, or courageous… and I didn’t even have any vision for COSDU! But you see, I think we can all concede that Jesus was arguably the most effective leader of all times – so let HIM be the shepherd of this flock! Consequently, I now strongly believe that anyone who loves God, loves COSDU and is ready to dedicate a bit of time and heart to both is indeed prepared to be a leader in this unique family away from home.

Thus, I urge you to pray and discern if you are called to serve COSDU, this great ministry, as President. I am always happy to lend my support and encouragement.

God Bless,
Abigail 

Social Justice Coordinator - Christabelle!

Ever since I was a young child, I loved going to help others whether or not it took place locally or internationally. The feeling of being able to bring a smile to others in turn brought a warm sensation into my heart. One year after a trip to Cambodia and Laos, I decided that I wanted to do justice for the world.

Some may wonder, what is justice? Or how do you stand up for something? Does it entail you to going far away places, investing in lots of money and doing extremely great things? No.  Being a social justice coordinator doesn’t require you to be all that. It just requires a burning desire to want to serve and more importantly, to serve for God.

God made us to be little light bearers of Him, to spread His light and message around the world. However, this job never comes easy. Each day in living as a disciple of Christ, we get questioned on many things that we don’t have real answers to. Someone once asked me, “Why try when the government decides everything? God isn’t going to come down and literally fill the world with his presence. So belle, why bother? Really? Why bother?” That question caught me tongue-tied. I had no answer for her, I had no real evidence to show why I wanted to make this world a better place. All I knew was that I had a burning desire in me to make a difference. To make a difference for God’s glory.

My point being, social justice isn’t always going to be easy, social justice is going to be hard because people will doubt you, people will mock you, and you will be criticized for doing what you do. But never forget, Jesus went through all that, just 100x worse, and He made it through. He made it through and proclaimed the word of God.

Being a Social Justice coordinator would entail you to plan several social justice sessions/activites for COSDU, coordinating trips down to places like Little Sisters of The Poor to give COSDU an opportunity to give back to the community, probably take part in several volunteering stints outside such as tutoring the disadvantaged, raising funds for project compassion or even finding means and ways to help the homeless and starving. Through doing all these, it’s helped me to realize that I am just one very fortunate person amidst all the many others who are more disadvantaged than I am. Going to Cambodia and Laos truly opened my eyes to the things unseen and to the things left unspoken. It helped me to see God amidst the most fragile of mankind and the most broken.

Social justice may seem like something challenging or out of your comfort zone. But trust me, if you have the passion and the courage to do something for God and for the world, God will always be waiting for you with open arms to help serve Him. Who knows? Social Justice may just be for you, and you’ll only realize it if you give it a shot!

Therefore, I am urging all of you here to not let the face of unfamiliarity or difference scare you away. Instead, be courageous and not give up on a world that may sometimes seem unjust and broken because God will always be worth fighting for, and He will be there with you every step of the way. (:

Mass!

The highlight of my school week during school hours, the highlight of going for classes on any one day, is often mass.

This may sound a little cheesy, but it's true.


Just yesterday, I thought about going to mass on campus. I thought 'ah well, I should cook lunch, and it's pretty far from home, and I probably can't make it in time...'

But here and now, I'd just like to share a little part of my yesterday with everyone...


I was thinking about going to mass all day.
I felt like I was being prompted to go, and although I had those excuses well prepared and they were convincing enough to me, God didn't really give up.

A friend I had lunch with asked me if I wanted to go for mass at St Francis in the evening,
so imagine my reaction to that ("... Yeahh, that sounds about right.") :P
Resolving to go for mass with her, I went about the rest of the day doing my own thing, and soon became busy with everything else in life but God (something I considered to be a great paradox).

For the lack of better words, I chickened out a little and told myself it was okay not to go, but the most surprising thing happened next. Just as I was ready to message my friend and tell her that I probably wasn't going, another friend who was outside my apartment at that exact moment called me up and said she was going for mass! Doubtless, she asked me to join her. Surely you know how I reacted next : "... Yeahh, that sounds about right." :P

Even as I said it to myself though, it was not without a smile. And not without awe and amazement at how God tirelessly drew me to the church.

"Something always brings me back to you, It never takes too long; 
No matter what I say or do, I'll still feel you here, till the moment I'm gone."



In what seems like too long-winded a story, I meant to say...

I feel I have so much more to learn about the mass and the fruits as well as the beauty of it, as God calls me to.
What's so great about this mass on campus, is that it's really personal.

Kudos to Fr Thinh, we get a chance to find God even on campus, to enjoy a day of seeing our
brothers and sisters in Christ at mass, catching up over lunch afterwards if we are free...
Sometimes the place is packed, and sometimes there may only be a handful, but one thing's always constant and that one thing is the most important : God is always there.

It's a blessing to have mass there for us to go to, whenever we are free, and it's something I've really appreciated, so I thought I'd take a little time to talk about it.

If you weren't already aware of these masses, or haven't been able to go before this, now's the time to start. I assure you, it grows on you. ;)

Comm Retreat 2013! (:

Sorry for the late posts! Here’s a few coming your way guys, brace yourselves! (:

On the first day of this month, we began yet another journey down the road, not too far away from Melbourne city, to spend time together and reflect.

It was a beautiful 3-day, 2-night trip down to an amazing place off St Leonard’s Beach and we had a lot of fun. 

Some of us even made a trip down to the beach for the sunrise on Saturday morning. It was freezing and the wind was blowing really hard at us but the scenery was hauntingly beautiful; it was another moment in time where I was awed by the beauty in God’s creation. 

We also took turns cooking… Here are some pictures! :P

Fr Thinh joining us today.. Yummy chicken! :P'

The food and drink hoarders Kim and Reina ;P

So they weren't cooking. . . 

A beautiful sunrise Laura took while we stayed warm in the car~

So much Oil! >:O

Our Mighty President swinging by xD

Comm pic :DD

At other times in the trip, we also put our heads together for the upcoming events in the semester! I think we have a pretty exciting semester ahead guys. Are you as excited as we are? (x

Come And See~

It has not been long since I joined COSDU, and for that fact, since I came to Melbourne.

I do, however, recall the day I first came to COSDU. Being greeted by Father Thinh and Sister Delma, as well as the members warmly, I had wondered what took me so long to come and see.

A year ago, I arrived in Melbourne for the first time as a university student, wondering what the year ahead held for me. I checked out clubs, wondering whether I should join any, and I found a neat page of COSDU on the Melbourne university website :P

I had been uncertain, unsure. I had craved for a catholic community of friends, which had been pretty hard to find before this. Leaving Singapore and family, I had often found going to church alone hard. I prayed about it, and for a while wondered if my prayer would be answered.

I was initially apprehensive about joining this club, because I was not sure what we did in this club. I can still remember feeling hesitant and asking God, “Is this it?” Looking back I could not have imagined life turning out any other way. In the past, I had always gone to church with my family, and suddenly there was a slight emptiness in going to church by myself in Melbourne.

When I Did join COSDU however, it just felt right. Cheesy as it sounds, I couldn’t say it better : it felt like home, like family. The family and community I have, my brothers and sisters in Christ, my dear friends… Now whenever I go to church, I cannot help but thank God for bringing me to COSDU and for friends to go to church with each week.

COSDU has brought together God-loving people of different nationalities who could relate to each other and help each other along the way to stay on the path He designated for each and every one of us.

And as orientation approaches, when I think about the catholic students who will be walking around the campus, possibly as hesitant as I had been… I can’t help but hope that they can find the community that welcomes them with open arms – COSDU. 

Gratitude

Something good happened today, and I was filled with gratitude as well as this crazy urge to share my thoughts with everyone! :)  

I have been reminded, a lot, by people I know, of how important it is to praise and be grateful, regardless of the situation. And that in adopting a heart of praise and gratitude, our lives can be changed. 

I’ll be honest. It’s not the mystical enigma I thought it was for a while.

It’s the attitude we adopt, to look upon the life we are given by God’s grace. A while back, there was a talk about what God’s grace was – a gift we did not deserve (funny how things we hear in the talks can fit in place and help us in our lives huh. *hint hint* *nudge nudge* *wink wink* :P ).

Life. By God’s grace, we were given life. A chance to discover, to journey in Christ’s love, to know Him more and more, a chance to rehearse an eternity of heaven with God. We were blessed with the opportunity to know Him, to know one another, to find a community, to learn so much more about our faith and our God. I often wonder about what could have been if I were born elsewhere, if God had placed me in another family and if I may have never known God.

In adopting what some call the cloak of praise and gratitude, we learn to search for the blessings we receive by God’s grace (even something as simple as the fact that we are here, able to see and know of the catholic church) and to practise our faith. In fact, trying my best to praise even when I didn’t feel like I had the heart to praise is what brought me to this day. I didn’t understand how it works, but then someone explained it to me : it is the fact that even as we are troubled and in a state of mind that we can barely praise Him but still do, in trusting that He will make all right.  

I’ve seen how God has worked in my life as I learnt to do that, and the ‘chicken and egg cycle’ it can bring about : being joyful can make you grateful just as how the spirit of gratitude can bring you joy. Recognising the gifts we have is not just about the clichéd way of looking upon a half-full glass and being happy about it, in my opinion, but also about acknowledging that God Gave us this half-full glass and being thankful for it.

And in the joy the Lord has given me, I just wanted to share this quote I found as well as this prayer in my heart with my close friends : my brothers and sisters in Christ! :)) 

---

And the Lord God prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah,

that it might be shade for his head to deliver him from his misery.

So Jonah was very grateful for the plant.

Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing.

In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God.

— Saint Paul of Tarsus (3-67 AD), I. Thessalonians 5.16-18 (54 AD)

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Lord, I thank you for giving me this community of friendship and love, that I could have people by my side for the good and the bad times, as we grow together in love and faith, by Your grace. I thank you that you never abandon us, that you brought us together to help each and every one of us to grow, especially since a great majority of us are alone and away from home and family. 

 

Lord, bless those who have graduated, as they start to enter or have entered the workforce and begin to develop their career… as they leave behind university life as a student and possibly a community of friends and family in beginning this new adventurous chapter in their lives… as they grow a year older and wiser in Your love… Lord, help them never to forget the friends they made who helped them, in one way or another, to grow into the amazing people they are today, as well as to never forget You who sent them friends to journey with in faith – that even if they may not physically spend time with their friends (just as they would not physically spend time with You) they may always keep one another in their hearts.  

 

Also, Lord, bless those returning (or not) to their homelands, those enjoying their holidays and the opportunity you give us to spend more quality time with loved ones that You gave us to remind us of how much You love us. Dear Lord, as we approach the end of another beautiful year of knowing you and learning about ourselves and You, lead us into yet another beautiful one. 

Amen.

Graduation Mass

As our graduants close a chapter in their lives and begin a new one, our other members approach the end of a year and the beginning of another one – a year of exciting journeys to be accomplished. Though this sounds oddly like an adventure out of the movies, that is actually what I like to think of life – an adventure. An amazing roller coaster of a journey where we get to know God yet a little more, receive a few more of His gifts and graces and take a teensy step ahead, closer to our final destination : heaven. :)

It seems a little early for talk of heaven, but life is, after all, a practice for an eternity of happiness found in God and with God. We learn so much each day, by God’s grace – to love one another better, to love oneself better and to love God better. We grow and mature a little each day and we get better at accepting and following His will each day.

I have been told that it is pretty bizarre – the uncertainty of the future, especially that of a graduate. There are so many different things that one can branch out to be upon completing one’s degree, and the world is their oyster. Tonight, we celebrated with those of us who have completed their life as a student (including those who sadly, could not make it) and also those who have chosen to go back to their homeland. 

Amidst the heartbreak of separation who we have come to recognise as family but may not see much of anymore, we wished the best for them and will continue to keep them in our hearts as well as in our prayers. 

Our dear graduants, you will always be deeply treasured by COSDU and by God, wherever you are <3 :))