CHRISTMAS EVE 2010

Christmas time is a time everyone looks forward to. It somehow puts a smile on people who rarely part their lips for a smile or have the time to say a simple hello, yet at Christmas time they are full of joy. It was no different this Christmas eve. The only marked difference was that we had to celebrate Mass in the Visitation hall as the Church is undergoing restoration work. The number of parishioners that came for the Christmas Eve Mass far exceeded than normal numbers. Thanks to Fr. George’s far sightedness. He got the Church cleaned up and allowed parishioners to follow Mass from the Church hall projected to the inside Church.

The Visitation Choir led by the Choir Master Edward Felix Joseph, belted some of the popular Carols to set the parishioners in the Christmas mood prior to the Mass. The Mass was concelebrated by Fr. Julian, Fr, Andrew and the main celebrant was Fr. George. In his homily, Fr. George encouraged all parishioners to keep the spirit of Christmas throughout the year and not only at Christmas season. He said our happiness to share with the less fortunate only increased during Christmas time and we should be doing this the entire year.

In his announcement, Fr. George got the congregation excited when he said that he is going to reveal 5 surprises. Firstly he unveiled the icon of the Visitation Church, the meeting between Mother Mary and Elizabeth. It was a life sized statues who look so radiant in their meeting of each other. Fr. George said that the statue will be placed for 4 months at the ground level to give all parishioners the chance to touch and feel Mother Mary and Elizabeth before they are placed in their permanent place at the top entrance of the Church . The entire congregation sang the Magnificat (The Canticle of Mary - LK 1: 46-56) as the statue were incensed and blessed with the holy water.

His second surprise was that we have surpassed the target for the restoration fund by about RM567,255.02. With that, his third surprise was that we will not have any fund raising project in the month of January but will resume in February for which the purpose will be announced later. The other two surprises will only be revealed next year.

The Mass ended with the Hymn JOY TO THE WORLD and the exchange of greetings between parishioners.

Edited by Zeno Jerome

INFANT BAPTISM AT KG ASLI

On the 19^th December, 2010, 15 infants including one adult received Baptism at Gereja Maria Bonda, Kg Tekir, Labu, Negeri Sembilan. Among them were:

1. George Allwins Anak July

2. Apil Danish Anak Yeop

3. Yeremia Zaffriel Anak Amri

4. Vincent Sean Vinsens Anak Senoden

5. Faustina Juzaira Fazlin Anak Johari

6. Patricia Leez Adrinaz Anak Shamsul

7. Kent Khairul Razzuan Anak Mahmud

8. Brian Danny Anak Ismadi

9. Lucia Avnata Anak Zornee

10. Vienny Jojo Notellin Anak Lumpat

11. Banny Mirulhazany Anak Herman

12. Mikhail Firdaus Anak Herman

13. Lucia Haidatul El Yani

14. Alexandre Bin Mohsein

15. Masrosalia Miery Binti Mohsein

16. Yohannes Manta Anak Tepok (Adult – Conditional Baptism)

REJOICE IN THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT

Christmas is around the corner and children are getting into the Christmas spirit. The Tamil speaking children of Church of the Visitation had their final Christmas caroling rehearsal on the 18th December 2010 at the Visitation Hall at 2.00 pm. Past 4 weeks they have come together to have their practices in order to bring the spirit of Christmas and to spread the Christmas joy on the 24th December at 7.00 pm (30 minutes before Tamil Christmas Eve Mass). This team is organised by the Tamil Choir Mistress, Ms Irene Soosaimanickam.
Wishing You A Merry Christmas!

Are You Ready?

As I was going around for homebound visiting, I came across this car. Look at how rusted and horrible it is. It must have been abandoned for some time to come to this state.

If you consider for a moment... could this also be the state of your soul? Some may have come to this state after a long period of neglect... not going for regular confession (some go only once or twice a year, some after two or more years, some after many many years), committing sins without repenting and refusing to change one's life.

Christmas will soon be here. Now is the time to make a choice... "What benefit is it to anyone to win the whole world and forfeit or lose his very self? - Luke 9:25" What would you choose?

Christmas Campaign 2010

As Christmas approaches the Christmas Campaign for the Poor of the Visitation Church gathered at the Wisma Vistation of Seremban on 11 September 2010 to give a helping hand to pack the sundry goods and other materials before distrusting to the low income group and with the special needs. This project has started 3 months ago running parallel with the Church restoration fund raising. The committee members did conduct a survey in remote areas where the poor live with the cooperation of the Parish Integral Human Development (IHD) and BEC leaders. The objective of this Christmas Campaign is to share the Christmas spirit with the marginalised and the poor irrespective of race and faith. About 40 members including the Catholic Students' Society (CSS) and Youth-2-Youth came to pack the sundry goods and other materials as well whereas school uniforms, shoes and stationery will be added in the form of vouchers valued of RM100 for their children on the day of distribution. The food parcels will be distributed to 111 families. While this exercise takes place, the members will sing carols and bring Christmas cheers into their homes.

This Christmas Campaign for the poor was initiated by by the late Fr Limat in 1966. This year chair person is Spencer Sequerah.

Altar Servers Camp 2010

Visitation Church Altar Servers organised a camp on 8 Dec 2010 - 10 Dec 2010 for 3 language groups (English, Tamil and Mandarin). Talks and activites were conducted to encourage and help our altar servers to bond more closely with each other and to become more aware of their duties. Let us continue to support our altar servers and encourage them, with the hope that some may one day answer God's call to the priesthood or religious life.

December Snow 2010

The Tamil Youth of Visitation Church, Seremban presented a Christmas concert titled 'December Snow 2010' in aid of the Church Restoration Fund Raising on Saturday, 11 Dec 2010 at the Catholic Center, Seremban at 7:30 pm. The event was organised and coordinated by the Tamil Speaking Youth. Tickets were sold for RM50 per family and about 250 families attended. Among the distinguished guests were YB John Fernandez & YB Gunasegaran, both from DAP Party. There were songs, dances and sketches related to Christmas. There was also a special draw where prizes were awarded:

1st Prize: Gold Chain
2nd Prize: Gold Ring
3rd Prize: LCD Television

There were also about 20 other attractive prizes and hampers.

The event ended around 10:30 pm.

This was the last event for the fund raising project for the year 2010.

Rahang Chapel Christmas Party 2010

This year, the Rahang Chapel organised a Christmas Party quite early on 7 Dec 2010. Residents from the surrounding area came to participate in this party and quite a sizable crowd turned up, including several Orang Asli from Kg. Belihoi. Several Christmas carols were sung by different groups. A parishioner dressed as santa claus brought excitement to the kids. This was followed by dinner and other activites.

Youth Camp

Sunday School activities for 2010 came to an end with a Youth Camp held on the 4th of December for Form 1 to Form 4 youths at the Catholic Center, Seremban. Themed "Youth Alive", it was animated by Mr Eric Brian from Church of Assumption and attended by 130 youths. The Ice Breakers and Praise & Worship sessions were conducted by the Y2Y facilitators.
The one-day camp consisted of 4 sessions namely Foundations of My Faith, Youth: Alive, Well & Kicking, A Christian's Call: Love and Our Commitment. The youths learned about love, how difficult it is to love and how to love someone more than one's self. They were also reminded that God loves us unconditionally. They also discovered that they needed to dig deep and find God in themselves first so that they can grow in their faith. Only then can they really understand and carry out their commitments to the Church.
Apart from this, they learnt to be creative, patient and work as a team through the activities conducted by Eric. The camp also gave the youths an opportunity to make new friends and to get to know each other better. It was indeed a fun and enjoyable camp. A big thank you to all who made this camp a success.

(Composed by Hevareena Jeganathan)

Nascent Vigil

On the evening of Nov. 27 which was the eve of Advent, around 100 parishioners gathered for a prayer vigil immediately after the sunset Mass. We had a very simple prayer in respond to the call of the Universal Church to pray for all Nascent Human life. We prayed in order to invoke divine protection on every human being that is being born and to thank God for the gift of life we received from our parents. Nascent refers to unborn human life and it also refers to “promising”, “growing” and “hopeful”. There was a slide show presentation on abortion and also about the unborn child who need the protection and care of its parents. "Pope Benedict XVI invites us to focus both on the hope and promise of new life in Christ that we celebrate at Christmas and also to acknowledge the sad fact that worldwide there are an estimated 50 million abortions performed each year. Lives are simply thrown away. Many people in our time have truly become "hypnotized" to this reality." In his sharing, Fr George reminded us of the great gift of life from God that each and every human life represents and invited everyone to pray during these days of Advent for all those who have sinned against life. He also urged everyone to turn to Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Patroness of unborn children to intercede for the protection and good health of children growing in the womb.