The Kids Reflections

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Alan Phung
10 Years old. 5th grade

I would like to share my moment sabout the gathering on Saturday, October 13, 2007 at Holden, Bac Hoang-Hoan’s house; it was very blessed night for me. At first, we got to make a Rosary with string and beads with many colors; they were very neat. I chose five difference colors for every 10 beads to complete my Rosary; each color represented a prayer that I honored to one person who is either with me or I haven’t meet him/her yet. Here are the following 5 prayers on my Rosary:

1/ I pray for my mom with full of health, love and strength to taking care of me and my little sister.

2/ I pray for my grandmother who is been sick; I hope she’ll get well soon.

3/ I pray for my little sister to have a good behavior and not give me a hard time.

4/ I pray for all the soldiers to come home safe from the war because they protect our country.

5/ I pray for all the kids who are unfortunate, may they soon will find love and be happy.

When the American CLC came I felt glad and joyful that we had some visitors to fill the crowd. I also felt very excited that the president of the CLC was at the mass. Father John gave me and my friends a meaningful lesson about how to love my little sister by telling us about his childhood, I really enjoyed his story. I had the honor to read the second reading which made me feel very good inside because it was my first time reading scripture and saying the petitions. I felt very proud. Also, the kids got to sing America the Beautiful. It was fantastic. At the end of mass we did a play about Mary’s apparition at the Fatima with the 3 children, Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta. Alphong and I only helped with the curtain but I felt important as well because I was part of it. The skit was great and I could see all adults was enjoying it with a big applauses.

The food was also wonderful. I thanked the hands that made a delicious meal for us. After meal and during social time we set up a hunted house to scare the adults and I was glad they joined us for the scary time. It was really cool that we did it with all the parents and the American CLC.

We had a wonderful time at the gathering. The best part was getting together with friends and enjoying each other company in Christ. I hope that you will be a CLC member to experience the joy that I’m having right now. May God Bless Us All.

With Love,

Alan

Tiffany Tran of Connecticut
10 years old. 5th grade

Last month in Oct 2007, the CLC or Christian Life Community came to a meeting we have every month. All of the kids did rosaries, reflections and a play of Fatima. We all also had Mass that very day.

Rosary:

We all did rosary. The colors I picked for my rosary were pink, purple, light blue, white and brown. I picked these colors because they are my favorite colors. These colors made me feel happy, especially when these colors are combined together.

What made me think that our rosaries were special because all if took teamwork to make our rosary. God always taught us to be with one another, helping each other, and be in God’s community. Together, my friends and I made our rosaries together. Teamwork helped make our rosary beautiful. I didn’t care how the colors were combined; it was beautiful, because of teamwork!

Reflections:

After doing our rosaries, we wrote down 5 reflections on a pumpkin, I wrote:

1/ For my family, to be healthy, happy and full of love forever.

2/ For my aunts, uncles, cousins, let them be happy and be with God.

3/ For the hunger, and homeless, let these people be with God and find food and shelter in God.

4/ For animals and the world, for them to be happy and care for their families.

5/ For the saints, angels and God, let them look after us forever.

These reflections are very helpful to me. My parents have taught me to care for others and always believe in God.

Mary in Fatima:

After our reflections, we did a play. The play was about Mary in Fatima. I was the narrator. The story was about 3 kids: Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta. Behind these kids were about 78,000 people following them on Oct 17, 1917. Then out of nowhere, Mary appeared to them and showed them the underworld (hell). Everyone must pray the rosary to be in heaven with God. This play made me realize that praying the rosary will bring you up in heaven with God. Also if you pray for others, they will go up to heaven with God, because your prayers help them. Remember, when you die, people will pray for you. You then should pray for others like you.

Pray the rosary and believe in God!

Mass:

After all of our kids’ activities, we got together with our parents and the CLC group, and had Mass. My friends and I were the readers and singers. During the homily, the priest told us a story:

When the priest was 10 years old, he and his sister played together all the time. Then one day his friends came over, his sister wanted to play with them, but the priest said no. John (the priest now) and his sister had a fight and soon, John pushed her and she got upset. I made me think of my typical 10 years of life right now. I have 2 siblings, a brother and a sister. I usually get annoyed2, and get mad at them. The story was just like a story I would tell if I were a priest!

Benjamin Pham Nguyen
7 Year old 1st grade

I liked father John’s story about him and his sister when he was a kid. I liked to make my own rosary. I picked the yellow beads for my rosary because yellow is my favorite colors. I liked to go to Dong Hanh meeting every month so I can learn more about Jesus.

Alphonse Le of Massachusetts
10 years old, 5th grade

My reflection of a CLC Gathering is a great one to share. I can remember all of the major events that happened. Let me start at the beginning.

When I came in, Tiffany (Thuong), Travis (Nho), Jensine (Nhu), Yvonne (Yvan) and Ben were already there. When the adults went upstairs to start their meeting, baùc Chaâu Hoaøn stayed with us to prepare for presentations. At first, we all made rosaries. Threading beads into small holes was a tough thing to do for me since I’d never done it before. People who do knit or thread must be very careful as it require a lot of patience which made me think how impatient I am! When we were in the middle of making our rosaries, Alan came. He was late but I was joyous anyway. He then jumped right in to making rosaries. When we were done, baùc Chaâu Hoaøn gave us paper pumpkins to write our prayers on. The prayers were divided into sections. The first prayer was for the 1st section of the rosary and so on. Here are my prayers:

1/For Mom, Dad, sister, me and our belongings to be safe

2/ For Grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, and their belongings to be healthy

3/ For Friends and their belongings to be happy

4/ For Other people in the world who need help; for them to be peaceful

5/ For God, the saints, the disciples, the apostles, Mary, Joseph, and all Holy Religious

After we made our rosaries and wrote our prayers, we ate pizza and drank water for a snack. Some people went for seconds but I just ate one slice. While we were eating our pizza, Tiffany (Thuong) came up with the “Hello, This I” game. We pretended to be movie stars while talking gossip in a bizarre voice. The game kept going throughout the evening.

Then, after all of that, we rehearsed for our play. The play was about the presentation of Mary to the world and how she told everybody to pray the rosary. I was picked for curtain management in the play and so was Alan. Although that part was a minor one, I was glad since I do have a bit of stage fright. We kept rehearsing and rehearsing until all of the parents came down.

When the parents came down, they waited/rehearsed for the mass. The parents and children were waiting for the president of CLC United States and his associates to come. Unfortunately, we were informed that there had been a delay since the CLC president’s car ran out of gasoline!

When they did arrive, we started mass immediately. Tiffany (Thuong) and Yvonne (Yvan) were picked to read the first reading while Alan and I were picked to read the second reading. For the responsorial psalm, the children sung “As the Deer Long.”

Then we did our play. I personally think it was a big success.

After the mass was done, there was picture time. I then started the idea of instead of saying “CHEESE!” for pictures, I convinced everybody to say “CLC”!

Then we all started eating. I had my first taste of pate-chinois. While we were eating at the kid’s table, one of the president’s associates, Kitty, sat and talked with us. We were planning the scariest Halloween party ever.

After dinner, we invited almost everybody know to our “Terror Territory Zone.”

Everyone who went there said it was absolutely “scary” but that was just the beginning. Our main guest was, Kitty (the CLC treasurer), had revenge on us. too. So, we nicknamed her “The Green Goblin.” Soon after, everybody had to go home since it was the end of the day. I wished we could stay more but everybody had to go.

During the rosary making time, I felt joyful because I got to do arts and crafts with my friends. During the mass, I felt anxious because I got to read the second reading. During dinner, I felt thankful because I had food to eat while some people in the world don’t have anything to eat at all so they starve. During Terror Territory, I felt excited because I was part of the action. Overall, I had a great day. I also had a lot of things to be thankful for since there was no failures on anything at all. I can’t wait ‘til next year!

Thanks to friends who gave each other’s laughs. Thanks our parents who gave us plenty of opportunities which we take for granted “sometimes.” Thanks God for what you have done on me!

Yvonne Pham Nguyen
9 Years old 3rd grade

One Heart, One community

I loved the night that when we gathered together and had BLAST of fun and love, joy and laughter together. The other kids and I made our very own rosary and for our hard work, we got closer to Mary Mother of Jesus! After we did our rosary, coâ Chaâu Hoaøn taught us how to pray with the rosary and here are some of my prayers that I can remember:

1/ I pray for my dad to stay healthy and strong to keep our family strong.

2/ I pray for my mom for her sickness to go away and to take care of my brother and me.

3/ For Ben to be good and learn in school

4/ For my cousins and aunts and uncles to be happy in their lives

5/ I pray for my mom not to be sick and live for a long time

The food there was great! I thank you for all the food you (parents and the CLC members) made and I think you enjoyed the skit because of your loud applause! By the way, I was Mary in the skit, the most important member in the play, so I felt very proud to be Mary. I hope to see you (CLC NE members and Exco members) again soon, but for now God be with you!

Nhu Tran
8 Years old  3rd grade

When father John told a story about him and his three year old sister, he accidentally pushed her and she started to cry. Once his mother found out that father John had made her cry, he said to apologize. When we did a play, I was Lucia, my sister Tiffany was the narrator.

Here were my prayers for the rosary that I did:

1/ I pray for my mother to stay healthy

2/ I pray for my dad for him to do good

3/ I pray for my sister to do well in school

4/ I pray for my brother for him to get good grade

5/ I pray for my grandfather for him to stay alive

Travis (Nho) Tran
9 Year old  4th grade

In the month of Oct 2007, CLC gathered together. We gathered once or twice every month. We kids gather and do fun activities. This month, we did a play, made a rosary and the prayers that I wrote were:

1/ for my community, may they find healing and strength with God

2/ I pray for my family, especially my parents who work very hard taking care of me

3/ For those who had died. Especially my uncle who had died on Christmas 2006

4/ My friends, whom I love and care about

5/ For people in the war, especially in Iraq.

And the most important of all, we had mass. Mass was very important in CLC. The CLC meeting was so much fun. We hope you (friends Travis has not met) can join to learn more about God.