Recruitment of Friends of Serra Club at
Church of the Holy Spirit

On the evening of 7 July (Friday), the Serra Club of Singapore was invited to share with the parishioners at the Church of the Holy Spirit on what Serra Club is all about. The event was themed “Family Wholeness – Battling Spiritual Warfare…after the Da Vinci Storm…” and was organised by the Parish Vocation Team.

The event started with a mass celebrated by Fr. Simon Pereira and he gave a very inspiring homily touching on the theme that family life is very important if we want to see an increase in vocations. Fr. Simon enlightened that when someone (both male and female) is called to the priesthood or religious life, the parents are very blessed as God is pleased with the parents. This is the joy of the Call, which is divine as it comes from God.

Fr. Simon went on to talk about the joys of his priesthood — celebrating the Eucharist and the humbling experience of sitting in the confessional. These showed him clearly the power of the Lord in the priesthood.

He went on to give a few reasons for the decline of vocations — materialism, lack of faith to take the plunge/risk and the government’s “Stop at Two” policy. Each family now have so few children and are reluctant to give them up to God. However, God still calls. Despite the policy, there are families who gave God two sons to be His priests — such as Msgr. Eugene Vaz and Fr. Ambrose Vaz, Frs. Lawrence and James Yeo and Frs. Adrian and Ignatius Yeo. Some even gave their only son to God such as in the case of Fr. John Bosco Pereira who has two sisters.

These families displayed a great spirit of sacrifice and love for the vineyard of the Lord and it is worth it. Yet, we know that family life now is in trouble. Families are not praying together but if parents can start praying together, that’s a beginning and if parents can talk to their children about faith development, we have a goldmine there.

The homily ended with the acknowledgement that the future of the Catholic Church is not looking too good due to the lack of vocations. Fr. Simon then urged everyone present to pray for the church, for our Archbishop and his intentions and for vocations. He also asked them to sign up to be “Friends of Serra Club” as those present have been chosen to be prayer warriors for the Archdiocese.

After the mass, Winnifer Choo, Vice-President for Programme of Serra Club, shared with the crowd on what Serra Club is all about and its objectives. She also encouraged as many as possible to sign up as “Friends of Serra Club” to pledge to pray at least one hour a month before the Blessed Sacrament for more priestly vocations, for our priests and seminarians.

Thanks to Fr. Simon’s exhortations, about 112 people signed up to become “Friends of Serra Club”. We even have one “Friend” as young as 10 years old who pledged to pray for more vocations.

Date: 7 July 2006
Time: 7pm
Venue: Church of the Holy Spirit, 248 Upper Thomson Road, Singapore 574371