Friday, March 30, 2012

Youth Station of the Cross on Good Friday at CMCC

The following is an announcement from Agnes Au of the Chinese Martyrs Catholic Church:

Dear friends,

There would be a Youth Stations of the Cross on Good Friday (April 6th) at the Chinese Martyrs Catholic Church (2755 Denison St.) which is presented by the young people in English. They need about 8 people to carry the cross and 2 to hold the candles at each station ( x 15 stations) and then pass to another group of people at the next station who feels that they want to be like Simon of Cyrene, ready to help Jesus to carry His cross or ready to pass on the Light of Christ.  All songs accompanying each station are chosen by a group of young musician. Participants can choose to just pray, or sing, or carry the cross or hold the candles. After the Stations, there would be the Divine Mercy Chaplet followed by about 30 minutes of Veneration of the Cross with Taize prayer music. So this is an excellent opportunity for the young people to appreciate Christ’s passion in whatever way or form they feel related to or comfortable with.

The Youth Stations of the Cross would start at 7:00 pm sharp and expected to end around 8:45 pm.

This is the first Youth Stations of the Cross dedicated to our young people – children, teens, students, university members, young adults etc. Please pass the invitation on to all the young members of the church and invite them to come and experience this unique Station of the Youth where they can express their gratefulness for Christ’s suffering in their own ways.

Jesus said “Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these” (Mt. 19:14).  Let all young people come forward or parents bring their children to keep Christ company on this special day when He died for us.  That’s the least we can do for Him.

In Christ,
Agnes Au

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

The Tenderness of Richard Nixon


Every day and every night I want to see you and be with you. Yet I have no feeling of selfish ownership or jealousy. In fact I should always want you to live just as you wanted — because if you didn’t then you would change and wouldn’t be you. Let’s go for a long ride Sundays; let’s go to the mountains weekends; let’s read books in front of fires; most of all let’s really grow together and find the happiness we know is ours.

With these words, Richard Nixon, a young lawyer and future president of the United States, won over the heart of Patricia Ryan, a typing and stenography teacher from Ely, Nevada. What strikes me the most about this letter that the young and love-sick Nixon wrote is not its sincerity, which belied the deceitfulness of an aspiring politician who would go on to create one of the ugliest political scandals in American history – the Watergate; nor its simmering affections, which almost boiled over from every single utterance; nor its tenacity, which perhaps was indicative of the dogged and unyielding political fighter that Nixon eventually turned into in the waning days of his presidency. What really impresses me about this letter is how Nixon, like many of us from the “older generation”, expressed his love for Patricia with some degree of reserve and taciturnity. It’s an art of expression that is literary and poetic; it’s a noble sentiment no longer entertained by modern day courtship which sees subtlety as a nuisance, has no patience for the mastery of spirit over carnal desires, and seeks sex long before the dating couple even meets.