Catholic Awareness Week in NUS is just next week and i’m gonna try my best to lend my full support for the event, simply because i am a CAW baby.
Although many Catholic students on campus join the Catholic Students’ Society (CSS) through its Freshmen’s Orientation Camp (FOC) or through its booth at the matriculation fair or through friends even, i was one stubborn mule who took a full two years before allowing myself to be embraced by this wonderful community.
For the first two years of my university life, i meet CSS on an annual basis - through CAW. Whenever CAW drew near, i felt being awakened to that very special identity which was so intimately bestowed upon me through baptism - a child of God, a young Catholic boy (having been baptised only less then). I felt drawn to this community but also (unfortunately) intimidated by these people because of their maturity in the faith. But of course, they were nice and approachable people, only that my low self-esteem then didn’t allow me to feel ok around fellow Catholics very deep in their faith.
I remember CAW 2006 was an exceptionally huge one where the Central Library booth had various artefacts - different portrayals of Mother Mary in different cultures and much more. Besides being awestruck by the whole display (if i’m not wrong i came back again) the befrienders also played a big role in shaping my experience with the booth. The first person i probably met was Albert. He sincerely told me that he ain’t the expert and was pretty much eager to refer me to an ‘expert’ in the faith but it didn’t really matter. His sincerity and his company while i walked through each artefact, exclaiming at each one of them, was enough to help me to identify that experience as a glowing example of ‘Catholic hospitality’. I remember meeting Justin Yip too, although i’m quite sure he doesn’t remember since we never talked about it! hahaha.. i had no soul patch then as well.
CAW 2007 was the booth outside the central library i guess? I remember going to the booth with that same feeling… like i’m making one of those trips home to a relative i haven’t met for a long long time… like meeting semi-strangers, a distant relative and yet feeling that homey warmth in my heart. I met Felicia Yong and it was so easy to open up and share about my excitement about coming to the booth.
It was the befrienders that made the booth alive and filled with God’s love and that human touch was what kept me coming back and telling myself i must join CSS soon. I think i would have been quite disappointed if i didn’t have a befriender walk with me through the booth. it sounds like a very simple thing but after all i was a young needy Catholic boy and i needed a brother or a sister to
walk with me and be my hero. 2nd semester into CSS and the only regret was that i didn’t take that step sooner because i found in CSS many treasures & gifts. In CSS, i found a community that strives to love God even in the littlest of ways and to love each other in the most intimate of ways. In CSS i encountered God through the people who have loved me as a brother even though they never knew me.
In CSS i found a home in NUS, a place of rest, a place where even the littlest Catholic boy like me have a seat with God and His CSS family.
i met my heroes and they’re still walking with me
walk with me, be my hero… someone out there is calling out to us & i wanna make sure i’ll be there.
http://www.nuscss.org/bemyhero/
Ignatius 'Pinoy' Fu
