advent retreat and nicol david’s mum

this is a beautiful picture of a makeshift ‘altar’ with the advent wreath and on the background, a batik painting depicting advent. it was at the prayer room of the college general (seminary).

yes, i was away during the last weekend, for an advent retreat, entittled “which way to bethlehem?”, which was organised by our office. we had the session inside the prayer room, which is a comfortable air-con and carpetted room. most of us sat on the floor with cushions. some older people prefer to sit on chairs. for me, i was more comfortable sitting on the floor.

last sunday (27 nov.) was the beginning of advent – a new year in the catholic calendar. click on the link to find out what is advent if you have no idea what it is.

the college general is a lovely place as it was build on top of a hill. to get to certain places e.g. the chapel, lecture hall, art gallery, auditorium hall, one has to climb up short steps or sloping road. the chapel is situated the highest point and it is there that you can get a beautiful view of the scenery beyong the chapel, i.e. the seaside side. here is a picture i took from the chapel at around 7.00am. well, not a very clear picture since it was taken from my handphone. (i said i didn’t bring along my digicam at my post re: the meet. left the house on friday evening, and my house being so far away from the college, cannot possibly go back to get the digicam!).

there were 17 of us participants including helena (my ‘superior’ colleague who was the brain behind this program) and me. the facilitator was fr. gerard theraviam, a lecturer at the college. i share a room with mrs AM david, nicol david’s mother! here, you see a picture of her and me together. mrs david is a friendly, humble, and i must say devotional lady. btw, mrs david told me that for the first time, the government will sponsor her and her husband to hong kong for the world squash championship, in which nicole will fight for the world no. 1 title. let’s all pray for our malaysian idol to win ya!

the retreat was quite interesting. first time i attended a retreat actually. on the first day, we were shown a movie “the fourth wise man” starring martin sheen as the main star. sharing and reflection followed after the movie.

the retreat finished on sunday at 4.00pm but i cabut from the retreat at 12.30pm as i had to attend the bloggers/netizens meet. the retreat serve as a good start to the season of advent – a season of joy and hope and waiting… waiting for our saviour.

btw, our office has also come up with an advent reflection booklet. almost all parishes had bought the book from us, and some will either be selling the books to the people or give away free. click here to find out more about the book.