First, I would like to say that I have learnt many things during the 2-day camp. Not only that, we also had the privilege of meeting the students from St John’s Cathedral and Good Shepherd Church. I have to say, it was quite amusing to see a few familiar faces among the whole lot of them… Some of them were seen to be nervous on the first day. But that fort wall broke during the ice breaking session after breakfast in the formation house.

TOB Part 2 had 7 sessions all together; 4 sessions on the first day and 3 sessions the next. The first 3 sessions talked about the stages of humanity which is Original, Historical and Eschatological Man. This three explains about how humanity was before The Fall (Original Sin) and what humanity has developed into before the life that will come into place after the Second Coming.

The fourth session was about vocation. It talked to us about what God has called and planned for us to do. Sometimes, we have to understand that vocation is the thing that we are made to BE and NOT the thing we are made to DO.

Marriage was the fifth session and this was about a call to vocation. The vocation to marriage is written in the very nature of man and woman by the hands of the Creator and it’s a sign that points us to heaven which is also a path to sanctification. After The Fall, selfishness took over self-gift (“What I want” over “What you need”), broken marriages and divorces along with domination and lust. A married couple represents Jesus and the Church.

The other call to vocation brings us to the other session which is being a celibate for the kingdom. CELIBACY points to the authentic development of the image and likeness of God in its Trinitarian meaning. Celibates made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven. And one must understand that being a celibate is not a rejection of sexuality but is actually in union with Christ and his Church. The final session is about living the TOB. We learnt how to integrate the TOB into a life of authentic love, radical holiness, active life of service and evangelization. In order to integrate is through a life of prayer. It all begins when we acknowledge that our need is God himself and it progresses into entering the dialogue of the Trinity in which it will finally focus the shift from us to God.

And with that, I end my testimony. A big shout out of gratitude to our parish priest, Rev. Father George Packiasamy, our Catechetical Coordinator Ms. Michell, our confirmation teacher Ms. Priscilla and to the TOB facilitators for all of their hard work.

THANK YOU.

by Divina Ng Wai Ching

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Theology of the Body (TOB).
Last weekend we had a two-day camp for our pre-confirmation students on the Theology of the Body (TOB). There were about 47 students (28 of them from St. Joseph’s Church, 17 from the Cathedral of St. John, KL and 2 from Good Shepherd Church, Setapak). The facilitators were from PJ and KL parishes who have dedicated their services in presenting TOB to our teenagers.

In the spirit of Lent, our Catechism teachers under the supervision of Mrs. Michelle Wong and Mrs. Priscilla Gregory, have planned this TOB programme for our students. Basically, this TOB session is to strengthen our teenagers’ knowledge with regards to respecting the human body and the wholesome approach to human sexuality. I am very impressed with participation of our students. It is my hope that this TOB programme will help them in their future when they prepare for marriage in order to build strong families with deep fidelity and faith in God.

Fr. George Packiasamy.