Announcements 29th – 30th Dec 2012, The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph

1.     Administration (Rosters and Special Events)

a.     Special events roster for Jan has been published.

b.     Group 1 servers will be serving the Novena service on next Sat, 4^th Jan.

c.     All long term excuses lasting for more than 21 days, with the exception of that of full time national servicemen will EXPIRE on Mon, 31^st Dec.

                                               i.     If servers are applying for long term excuse lasting for more than 21 days, please fill in a new letter of excuse with CLEAR DETAILS.  It should be signed by one’s parents if one is under the age of 21.  The excuse will be subject to approval by the Spiritual Director.

d.     Servers are reminded that if they persistently do not turn up for duty without submitting excuse letters, or are displaying a lack of commitment will eventually be called up for an interview with the Executive Committee.

e.     Servers are reminded to be in the sacristy 30 minutes before all masses and Leaders 35 minutes before mass.

f.      As part of their spiritual formation and community building, servers secondary 1 and above are to have regular attendance for Friday night bible sharing from 830pm to 10pm.

g.     The following primary 6 servers will move on to secondary 1 in 2013 and have been posted to the following mass groups.  Any server who wishes to change to another mass group is to submit a written request signed by their parents.  Attendance ICs are to note these changes and edit the attendance sheets for 2013.

                                               i.     Group 1 (Sat 530pm)

1.     Joshua de Souza

                                             ii.     Group 3 (Sun 9am)

1.     Kristopher Go

2.     Zachary Chan

3.     Ivan Lee

4.     Martin Hernandez

5.     Jonah Teo

                                            iii.     Group 5 (Sun 530pm)

1.     Timothy Low

2.     Canteen and Chinese New Year Cookie Sales

a.     Sales will be held for 4 weekends starting Sat, 12th Jan.

                                               i.     Rosters have been published.

                                             ii.     Servers are required to report on time for duty.

                                            iii.     If servers are unable to turn up for duty, they are to swap timeslots with another server.

                                            iv.     Wear the servers’ t-shirt.

b.     Canteen will be held on Sun, 20^th Jan.  Servers are requested to consider what they would be contributing as an Executive Committee member will be contacting them soon.

3.     Sacristans

a.     Sacristans are once again reminded that they are not to leave keys unattended at any time and to secure the safe when locking up the church.  Persistent carelessness with these security matters will result in disciplinary action.

b.     Sacristans are reminded to commence setting up of the church no less than one hour before special masses (charismatic, wedding, funeral) and no less than 45 minutes before all other masses.

c.     Sun, 5^th Jan is the Solemnity of the Epiphany of our Lord.  The liturgical colour is white.  Please burn incense for all masses.

4.     New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day Mass (Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God)

a.     Rosters have been published.  Please check.

5.     Retirement and migration

a.     The following servers have made the decision to retire as of 1^st Jan 2013.  Please keep them in your prayers.  The Society would like to thank them for their years of service to the Lord and wishes them all the best in their future endeavours.  Retiring servers, please contact the Vestments IC Luke Yeo or Emanuel Lee to return your vestments (cassocks, capes and sashes) by Sun, 6^th Jan.  Vestment ICs to ensure.

                                               i.     Benedict Jacob (Normal retirement)

                                             ii.     Jacob de Jesus (Migration)

                                            iii.     John de Jesus (Migration)

                                            iv.     Joshua de Jesus (Migration)

                                              v.     Julian Lee (Normal retirement)

                                            vi.     Nicholas Rankine (Normal retirement)

                                           vii.     Shawn Wong (Seminary studies)

                                         viii.     Sherman Lim (Normal retirement)

6.     Cassock exchange

a.     The cassock exchange list is out.  All servers are to check that the current and new sizes of the cassocks are correct.  Please inform Luke Yeo or Emanuel Lee if they are not before Sat, 4^th Jan.

b.     Cassock exchange will take place over the next weekend, 4^th to 5^th Jan.  All servers on the list are to make arrangements to exchange their cassocks with the other server on the list on their own.  Cassocks should be washed and ironed before exchange.

c.     Please contact Luke Yeo or Emanuel Lee if there are any problems.  Servers on the list which are still using a poorly fitted cassock because they have neglected to change it by 31^st Jan will not be allowed to serve masses till they have made the exchange.

A Letter From Fr. Brian

Dearest Server & Family,

Warmest greetings of this holy Christmas season!

I would like to thank you for all your contributions you have made over these years in helping enhance the liturgical worship of our parish community. Your dedication to serving at the sanctuary has constantly made me of thank God for what Fr Gerard had initiated and has developed over the years through the dedication and contribution of the older servers.

As we move forward into a new year and in the midst the Year of Faith, I would like to take this opportunity to share with you the direction I hope to lead the society in the coming year. Just as you have all been committed to your faithful service in the sanctuary, I would like to now invite all of you to be committed to deepening the spiritual dimension of the Altar Servers Society. In order to do this, I would like to introduce several new aspects of spiritual formation.

I would like to shift the focus of the Altar Servers Society from being solely ministry oriented to being more community oriented. Through my own experience as an altar server in my younger days and now as a spiritual director of many ministries, I have come to believe strongly that merely being a functional ministry does not help many young servers to be good disciples of Jesus Christ which is the Church’s essential mission. 

Moving from a ministry-driven society to a faith based community, would help servers appreciate that their service at the altar is fundamentally a call from the Lord. Just as God continues to call everyone into His presence, God has called each server through their parents to not only serve Him but to know Him intimately.

It is my hope that when the each server is grounded in the fundamentals of Christian spiritual life, servers will begin to see the need to develop a deeper relationship with the Lord rather than merely fulfilling a duty that is required. The desire to serve the Lord faithfully and accompanying their brother servers in faith will thus flow from their growing intimacy with the Lord. 

Developing such a faith-based community will require servers to gather regularly to pray, serve and share. Thus, some little changes will have to be made in the months to come (these changes have already been mentioned to servers at announcements). These little changes include the following:

1. All servers will gather 30 minutes before every mass to recite the rosary
2. All servers in secondary education and above will gather on Fridays nights for breaking of the Word of God. (8.30pm to 10pm)

Besides these two changes, all servers must fulfil their basic duty of a weekday mass (two weekday masses when school terms end), a weekend mass and to attend servers' gatherings and meetings. Servers who have not been fulfilling their duties will be given a reminder letter.

To parents of servers, I hope you can help ensure that your son participates in these little changes and fulfils his duties. There may not be dramatic or visible fruits at the initial stages of these changes but I believe that in due time, through greater intimacy with God and walking with others, the servers will grow into young men following the heart of Jesus Christ. 

I thank you for reading and I pray that you will have a blessed Christmas ahead.

Yours in Christ,

Fr Brian D' Souza

New Year Roster

Christmas Mass

Announcements 22nd – 23rd Dec 2012, 4rd Sunday of Advent

1.     Administration (Rosters and Special Events)

a.     Special events roster for Jan has been published.

b.     Group 5 servers will be serving the Novena service on next Sat, 22^th Dec.

c.     Servers who have started their school holidays are to serve 2 weekday masses.

d.     All servers are to note that all Letters of Excuse that they submit are to be inserted into the plastic folder beside the sink.  Servers under 21 years old are required to obtain their parent’s signature.  Failure to do so will result in the form being rejected.

2.     Christmas Eve (Vigil) and Christmas Day (Nativity of the Lord)

a.     Please check to rosters and ensure that you serve at the right day and time.  Do not serve as and when you like.

b.     Bring cape and sash.

c.     Please report to the sacristy 45 minutes before mass and not the basement chapel as previously stated.  You are required to be punctual, as always.

d.     Duty leaders for each mass to lead in spiritual preparation using the weekend mass formats.

e.     Duty sacristans for each mass to set up 1 hour before the start of each mass.

f.      These masses are not counted as weekday masses.

g.     At masses on the Vigil and Christmas Day, at the words of the Creed Et incarnatus (and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate…) all, instead of bowing, are to kneel briefly taking the cue from the celebrant.  Stand up only when the celebrant stands up.  Duty leaders to brief all servers on this.

3.     New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day (Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God)

a.     Rosters have been published.  Please check.

4.     Christmas Gift Exchange

a.     All servers are to hand in their wrapped gift to any of the following council members latest by this Sun, 23^rd Dec.

                                               i.     Raphael Ng

                                             ii.     Nicholas Lim

                                            iii.     Luke Yeo

                                            iv.     Andre Dumont

                                              v.     Shawn Wong

b.     Please remember to write the name of the recipient on the wrapper.  All servers are urged to be considerate as the collecting of gifts is a tedious job and late submissions will make it difficult for leaders to ensure that each server can get their gift on time on Christmas.  Please also have some consideration for the server who will receive the present from you.  It will not be very pleasant for anyone who does not receive anything after serving their Christmas mass.  

c.     To the server who wrapped a gift for Phillip Bogaars, please contact Joshua Wong immediately at 96962163

Announcements 15th – 16th Dec 2012, 3rd Sunday of Advent

1.     Administration (Rosters and Special Events)

a.     Special events roster for Dec has been published.

b.     Group 4 servers will be serving the Novena service on next Sat, 22^th Dec.

c.     Servers who have started their school holidays are to serve 2 weekday masses.

d.     All servers are to note that all Letters of Excuse that they submit are to be inserted into the plastic folder beside the sink.  Servers under 21 years old are required to obtain their parent’s signature.  Failure to do so will result in the form being rejected.

2.     Christmas Gift Exchange

a.     All servers are to hand in their wrapped gift to any of the following council members by this Sun, 16^th Dec.

                                               i.     Raphael Ng

                                             ii.     Nicholas Lim

                                            iii.     Luke Yeo

                                            iv.     Andre Dumont

                                              v.     Shawn Wong

b.     Please remember to write the name of the recipient on the wrapper.  All servers are urged to be considerate as the collecting of gifts is a tedious job and late submissions will make it difficult for leaders to ensure that each server can get their gift on time.

Intercessory Prayers

Intercessory Prayers

Announcements 8th – 9th Dec 2012, 2nd Sunday of Advent

1.     Administration (Rosters and Special Events)

a.     Special events roster for Dec has been published.

b.     Group 3 servers will be serving the Novena service on next Sat, 15^th Dec.

c.     Servers who have started their school holidays are to serve 2 weekday masses

2.     Intercessions for Gift Bearers’ Retreat

a.     All appointment holders are to check the rosters to find out which days they have been assigned to lead intercessory prayers for the Gift Bearers Retreat from 13^th to 15^th Dec.  A mutual swap should be arranged if an appointment holder is unable to turn up for his assigned date.

3.     Trip to Universal Studios Singapore

a.     The trip to Universal Studios Singapore is on this Thu, 13^th Dec.

b.     Please return the ticket fees and consent form sealed together in an envelope by Sun, 9^th Dec, 1pm latest.

c.     Late submissions after Sun, 9^th Dec, 1pm will strictly not be entertained.  This is due to the deadline stipulated by Universal Studios Singapore.

d.     Please be in church by 830am on Thu 13^th Dec.  Latecomers will have to make their own way to Universal Studios.  All servers are to take the return trip back to church for evening mass.  Please bring all items as stated in the consent form.

e.     The following servers will serve the evening mass on Thursday and are to bring their mass attire.  Servers who are not going for the USS outing are encouraged to serve mass on Thursday evening.

                                               i.     Phillip Bogaars

                                             ii.     Ethan Galistan

4.     Year of Faith

a.     Sharing will be held this Friday, 16^th Dec for servers secondary 1 and above.

5.     Christmas Gift Exchange

a.     All servers are to hand in their wrapped gift the any of the following council members by Sun, 16^th Dec.  Please remember to write the name of the recipient on the wrapper.

                                               i.     Raphael Ng

                                             ii.     Nicholas Lim

                                            iii.     Luke Yeo

                                            iv.     Andre Dumont

                                              v.     Shawn Wong