Renewal for a New Year

What better way to start the night off with a paper bag of QCCC love? Cookies for everyone! 

As we unfold into the New Year, we learned about St. John the Baptist and reminded ourselves the meaning behind Baptism. Baptism is the first Sacrament we receive and is a symbol of renewal, cleansing, and peace. It is important to be reminded of this Blessed Sacrament frequently because through our Baptismal vows, we get closer to God. As Catholics, we are called to live each day sharing Jesus’ love with others. God picked us each by hand to enter His family, and it is our role to make this large family grow by strengthening our relationship with everyone we encounter on our faith journey.

As Singspiration ended with us “trading our sorrows” and “trading our sickness”, we traded all that bad stuff for a pleasant birthday surprise. We surprised our Supreme Leader Janice with the ultimate combination: mocha cake, with iced mocha to drink, and a lot of QCCC love. Our very first QCCC gif was also born on this very special day.

We somehow ended the night with a very long and intense conversation about all the awesome TV shows and Disney movies we watched as kids. 

Brings a tear to my eye… :’)

QCCC Board Games Night

“Uh…that thing that…you know…ugh…this one’s too hard…PASS!”

After a very frosty Christmas break in the GTA for many of us, QCCC kicked off our first cell of 2014 with a board games night! This allowed for a more relaxed evening (unless you were scheming something in Saboteur, or frustrated with Taboo) and a good bonding time for the QCCC family. The night helped us to ease into second semester a little less stressfully. Time really flies when we’re having fun!

Christmas Potluck and Secret Santa!

QCCC celebrated the coming of Jesus with our annual Christmas potluck and social in December. This year was especially special because we broke many years of QCCC tradition and changed the location from Newman House to Angela House! The warm and cozy atmosphere with Christmas decorations, smell of food baking in the oven, and super comfy couches allowed everyone to spend their night feeling cheerful and at home. The night was filled with laughs as we played card games, charades, and caught up with some our very own QCCC alumni. 

After food filled our tummies and escargot clogged our arteries (mmm.. grease!), we shared our love with our QCCC family in a much anticipated Secret Santa gift exchange. Gifts ranged from board games to fuzzy slippers to books, and to personalized wine. These thoughtful gifts really filled our hearts with warmth, and reminded us of the spirit of giving.

We would like to especially thank our alumni for coming back for our Christmas cell despite their busy schedules. They continue to support us after their time here at Queen’s, and show us that the flame of QCCC continues to ignite in their hearts. QCCC is not only a community, but also a family that will live alongside us forever.

QCCC Movie Night: The Way!

In an effort to chill and relax for the upcoming examinations, QCCC decided to host a movie night, featuring the movie The Way, thanks to the brilliant suggestion of Terence, one of our beloved alumni. The Way is a movie that talks about a father who receives the bad news that his son has died on the Way of St. James pilgrimage in Spain. On seeing his son's belongings and collecting his remains at the morgue, he decides to set off to complete the journey which his son never got to finish. On the way, he meets a group of eccentric pilgrims, including an aspiring Irish author suffering from writer's block, a Canadian who wants to stop smoking and get over her abortion and a Dutch man who wants to lose weight. They all share the joys and pains of this long journey, culminating in the celebration of a mass at the renowned Camino de Santiago cathedral. As enjoyable as it was, it was also a great reminder to us Catholics that life is a long journey; we should set our personal goals to get the most out of it, and that God has paved the road for us. It is up to us to follow this road.

For this week's Saintspiration, one of our members shared about his views on St. Albert Magnus, and we played a game of Taboo using words related to the life of this saint. He is the patron saint of students, natural scientists, medical technicians and philosophers and is one of the only 35 Doctors of the Church. Since next week's cell is Christmas-themed, it should be pretty obvious which saint will be featured next week. No prizes for guessing!

With that, we're left with one more cell, the oh-so-exciting Christmas Cell, where we get to meet alumni and indulge in a potluck and take part in the annual tradition of Secret Santa!  Check your emails because we've change the location! We hope to see you there this Friday!

QCCC at The Loo…

…as in Waterloo! This past weekend, QCCC made a trip to Waterloo for the annual JUCCC Local Visit. From four quarrelling families to priests preaching at bus stops, it was an incredible day to say the least! Students and alumni from McMaster, University of Toronto, Waterloo, Western, and Queen’s came together to share their faith through activities, talks, music, and friendship. We started the day off with some fun icebreakers presented to us by UTCCC. Then it was off to touring the Waterloo campus and their uncreatively named buildings, where everything is just named after the subject department (where’s the fun in that?) Despite this, everyone had a lot of fun seeing the campus main attractions, which included their geese. These geese could really give our Kingston squirrels a run for their money. 

 After lunch, QCCC hosted a new and improved version of family feud. Family Won, Family 2-2, Family Lumber Tree, and Family Ching-Chong pitted their wits against one another to solve answers to questions like the most common names in the Bible and things men talk about that women pretend to be interested in. Father O’Mahony gave an inspiring talk about Pope Francis and we all learned that there was a chance the Pope could be calling any of us up just to say hi. MCCC led the Bible sharing portion of the day, giving us a chance to reflect on the things that we had learned throughout the day, and what we could bring with us to our CCCs back home. LCCC ended the day with singspiration, where everyone joined in song and music to praise and thank God for bringing us together for the day. 

Thank you to Waterloo for hosting Local Visit this year and all the CCCs for their effort in making this possible. If you missed this year’s Local Visit, don’t sweat it because our JU Retreat is coming up in February next year! Make sure you don’t miss out on this chance to meet some truly amazing people!