Planning camp!

And they're off to Dominic Villa, Genting Highlands(or rather, at the foot of Genting!).

Look at Byron, the face of JOY for this planning camp.

This was taken just before they boarded the bus to Genting.

More will be post up later about the gist of the planning camp!

Planning Camp

CSS will be having a planning camp for it's members soon.

Suggested dates : 23-24th August or 30-31st August
Place : Genting Highlands
(Subject to change)

We're going to have an interactive session planning events for the next semester as well as have FUN in Genting!
Don't worry, CSS takes into consideration the tight budget we're living on now, and will be cost effective!

Do, drop us a comment either at the end of this post or on the cbox to air your views!
We really want to hear from you...FAST!

We're ONE year old!!!

Oh oh! What a sinfully delightful cake...


Byron's expression says it all... how good it tastes...
But what's with the cake? Why all of the sudden a cake in a CSS meeting? And why such a delightful chocolate-bits, strawberry-filled sponge cake...

BOTTOM'S UP PEOPLE. START FROM THE BOTTOM AND SCROLL UP. WHILE YOU'RE DOWN THERE SCROLLING UP, CLICK AND LET THE VIDEO BUFFER! HAVE A LAUGH (OR TWO)!

Family photo!

A symbolic picture.
CSS as one.
Our community discerns no skin-colour, no language, no appearance...
We're all belong to the same "troop of messengers in christ"

Everyone having a bite while watching the CSS video...

(Check post-script)

Look at the amount of food we had! Rice, meehoon, sandwiches, chips, rambutans, cake, popiah, sausage, jelly......woah, I'm hungry already...

1, 2, 3,
...Thank you lord....

Mr. James leading the prayer in a form of a song...
Parts by the girls and guys...made a simple yet meaningful and fun prayer-before-meal...

It's your turn to clown around!

Yes, that word....no no, the previous one...

Getting down to the knees to illustrate the word...

2nd Game. Charadese. Now, you can't speak, you can't draw. You can only ACT...

"Sunset Mass"

Bro. Sebastian helping out with the food. He brought us cake, so in the end, we had TWO CAKES for our BIRTHDAY! Haha...


Everyone had fun...
We have a new member, Veronica.(the front one) WELCOME TO CSS!

Eugene. (Both Eugene and Alex are Klang people...)
Interesting quote, :"I discovered that there're many pretty chicks in UCSI."
Laugh out loud...

Alexander, giving a short testimony of CSS in his campus...

Group members trying to guess the word...


Tomi was in-charged of the games on that day.
Interesting fact, ATOMIC without the A and C spells ...
He discovered it...



Rebecca, frowning at the given clue.




The 1st game. Peek-a-TABOO. You can't act it out. You can't draw it out. You can only speak it out!

The members that were present. We had friends from CSS MMU with us on that day...
Brother Sebastian giving a welcoming speech to everyone. The event started at 5.30pm, Malaysian time. (read 6pm)






P.S. Home-made video of CSS before 1 year old. All those things we did...(not vomitting, puking or pooing...)

Letter from the Chair in Sydney

Below is an email from Sue in Sydney...

Sorry it's a little late, but have fun reading...

Hey everyone,

I've got a bit of free time so I thought i'd share with you some thoughts n reflections of WYD 2008.

The first thing I realized is that faith is a life-long learning experience. Well, so is everything else, but this aspect really struck me when I got here and was exposed to so many things. You learn a little more about faith each day. Not faith as faith only in the bible or what you learn from Catechism, but faith thru actions and real life. If I were to complain about a 13 hour journey to Australia, there were people who took 35 hours to get there. If one were to complain about the tremendous amount of walking around, you should have seen the people who came in wheelchairs and crutches. Faith is such an amazing thing to unite all together. I tell you, although there were about half a miliion people around, all with different languages and cultures, the one thing which united us all was Jesus, and this was indeed one of the experiences I treasure. And seeing all these people, the same age as us, who probablly face the same challenges as we do in our lifes, but living it all up for God - that makes me realize that we should never ever give up. The same thing with CSS. It's our mission to live out a Christian life, and to witness to others. Being a witness was one of the major aspects that Sydney ppl got to experience. They remarked that Catholics were so cheerful, smiley, happy - and never complained! Hmm, an example. While working as a volunteer, there were days when there were communication breakdowns within the gates (25 gates!) So it happened that people who had to go thru Gate 1 were told to go to Gate 3 and cut thru..but Gate 3 was closed and so these poor people had to walk all the way back to my gate (Gate 24 - right at the other end!) and go thru another way to get to their gate. We're talking about almost 1.5 times the length of the pasar malam in cheras - one way! :S I mean, i imagined these people were gonna be so pissed and annoyed, and my teammates and I at the gates kept on apologizing. But they just laughed and said its ok, and they grabbed their bags, started singing and continued walking on. Now in my opinion, thats the true Catholic spirit!!

So yeah, never give up. You know how I used to be really worried about our attendance at gatherings? Now I know that instead of mainly worrying and fretting, we should just be living witnesses. And that's whats gonna matter in the end. Not our numbers, (it does count a bit too la!) but lets all work together to bring the message of Christ to our campus.

Ive got tons more of stories but it's really freezing here! Will share some more once I get back. Take care :)

Sue
ps: the pope says to focus on inter-ecumenical discussions!

Parable of the Sower

First note : Take care Sue, have a great time in Sydney during the World Youth Day! If you're seeing this post from Sydney, remember the CSS members in UCSI...as well as tokens from WYD(for us)! Ha!

Second Note : The month of July is the birth of CSS in UCSI. Though we are not sure which date exactly is our birthday, we declare the WHOLE month of July as our birthday! How nice it is...if our birthday is one month right? So, we'll be having a BIRTHDAY PARTY for OURSELVES soon. Details are as follow :
a) Date : 24th July 2008
b) Day : Thursday
c) Time : 5.30pm
More details about the theme etc. will be announced in the week to come. So check out the blog regularly!

Third Note : This week's Gospel touches on the PARABLE OF THE SOWER. With initial steps to increase spread our faith, I will share a thing or two as spoken by Fr. Lawrence Andrew of the St. Anne's Church, Klang.

"On that day, Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd stood along the shore. And he spoke to them at length in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep, and when the sun rose it was scorched, and it withered for lack of roots. Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it. But some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit, a hundred or sixty or thirty fold. Whoever has ears ought to hear.” Matthew 13 : 1-23

This parable can be said to represent the whole world, as well as individually. Let us take a look at it from both perspectives.

World :
God is the sower in this case. And the Earth is the place where the seeds are sown. If you look around us, there're large pockets of where Christianity has flourished, then whithered. Turkey for example, the birthplace of St. Paul(Tarsus in Turkey is the exact birthplace), was once a Christian community, but now majority of the citizens are Muslims. It can be said that, God sowed the seeds to these places, but, to quote : "Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep, and when the sun rose it was scorched, and it withered for lack of roots."
Upon challenges and hardships, Christianity whither in places like Turkey. Yet in other, such as, Mexico, Brazil, and Italy, Christianity is flourishing. But does it mean, if we're on "rocky ground" or "among thorns", we are doomed to fail as Christians?

Individual :
The first question to ask is not as above, instead it is: "Are we seeds of God?" We, as Catholics(or Christians in general) have to ponder whether are we willing to "take up the cross and follow him". How have we developed by faith since the end of our Sunday school era(yay!)? Have our actions reflected God's words?
If indeed, we decide, that we are the seeds of God, the next question is: "What can we do to grow, even among thorn bushes and rocky ground?" As seeds need water to germinate, and plants need sunlight to grow, how are we going to grow by faith as Christians? Read the word of God, stick to the 10 Commandments are a few that I can think of.
"So, we will grow by doing these even if we're placed in places like Turkey?"
The answer, I think, is yes. There're Christian communities even in countries largely populated by other religion. And the simple reason that they exist, is faith to God.

(Third Note is an analysis of what Fr. Lawrence has said by the moderator. Additional information have been added to make it easier for college students to understand. If you disagree with his opinion(moderator, not Fr. Lawrence), do leave a comment in the cbox. No bantering, we're all adults...Thanks!)

Fourth note : cssucsi.blogspot.com will be rolling out the new information of the new committee soon. Do be patient with me. Thanks.

Fifth note : There will be a planning camp for CSS in the month of August. Exact date has yet to be confirmed, probably during the semster break after the 22nd of August. Do keep in mind these dates and join us for this two day planning camp in Genting Highlands! Check the blog for more details soon...


Woah. It's only the 5th note and I ran out of things to say. How am I going to break the record of the longest piece of musical note ever composed?

p.s. The longest musical piece ever composed is »Organ2/ASLSP« by American composer/artist John Cage (1912-1992). The piece ends after 639 years, on September 4, 2640. Now, that's something!