Pumpkin Carving Fun

In the spirit of All Hallows Eve, the familiar smells of cinnamon filled the air once again at Newman House.

For this Halloween themed cell, QCCC members embraced their artistic sides to bring character to some plump pumpkins. Before the carving began, one of our members shared some facts about the importance of Catholic symbols. Symbols allowed for a variety of people to decipher particular messages, even if they did not speak the same language. By learning about a variety of symbols, members understood the importance of communication when carrying out a design on the pumpkin.

After hearing about these symbols, everyone used their creative side to make intricate pumpkin patterns. It was tough to carve with some of the larger knives, but precision became crucial in finishing the final products. After a few hours of work a minion, mustached man, Ding Dong, and the Superman symbol appeared on the pumpkins.

While the pumpkins were carved, a couple members prepared some delicious cinnamon coated pumpkin seeds for everyone's enjoyment. These pint-sized snacks accompanied mugs of hot apple cider, chocolate chip cookies and chocolate marshmallow pops. The snacks were a good source of energy after a few hours of intense carving and allowed everyone's sweet tooth to be satisfied. The night concluded with pumpkin group pictures, allowing for the pumpkin handiwork to appreciated by all.

Hope everyone had a great Halloween and All Saint's Day!!!!!

Our Lady of Medjugorje

In the summer of 2014, one of our very own QCCC members, Janice, travelled to Medjugorje for the annual Youth Festival. Along with some interesting stories of Our Lady of Medjugorje and great memories, Janice brought back souvenirs blessed by some local priests! Through Janice's personal reflection and sharing of her journey, we learned about the love our heavenly mother and how it pours onto us every day. As one of the prayer cards states, "If you knew how much I love you, you would cry for joy". We will undoubtedly face challenges and anxieties in our every day lives. Especially during these difficult times, may we learn to turn to Mary and ask for her grace and intercession. Through her, our love and relationship with Christ will grow stronger, and our journeys of faith will be guided by their footsteps. 

Welcome to the Family

♫ Welcome to the family
We’re glad that you have come
To share your life with us
As we grow in love
And may we always be to you
What God would have us be
A family always thereTo be strong and to lean on ♫

The beginning of the school year is an especially exciting time for QCCC. We get the chance to reconnect with our QCCC family and welcome new brothers and sisters into our very special community. As a bonus, the delicious curry fishball tradition is kept alive every first cell of the year, attracting people from all across campus.







The lyrics of the song "Welcome to the Family" is an excellent summary of what the QCCC family is all about. QCCC is very special because we truly rely on one another during our time here at Queen's. Our relationships with one another are strengthened through our common goal of discovering ourselves and our faith. Flooded by His blessings, we grow to love one another more each day, and soon discover that there will always be people beside us to lean on.



To our new family members, QCCC is very blessed to have you join us as we walk our journey of faith together. May God fill your hearts with peace and many blessings.

QCCC 藉他的愛Set the World on Fire!

The Eastern Canadian Chinese Catholic Living Camp (ECCCLC), often known as Ga Tung (GT, 加東) is the the main annual highlight of young Chinese Catholics living in Ontario and Montreal. This year, QCCC had a great turnout at the camp, and we had our own Oil Thigh photo to prove it. 

The theme of this year's GT is "藉他的愛Set the World on Fire". Through talks given by our awesome speaker, Brother Edmund Lo, and various reflections and activities, we discovered how to listen and discern God's voice through the Examen prayer and Ignatian Contemplation, make sound decisions and actions, and live a healthy Catholic lifestyle as witness of our Faith.

QCCC is glad to see the immense dedication that the Chinese youth have put into their faith. Our own members were involved in roles such as liturgy, house team, music and media. Kudos to one of our alumni, Mikey, for being the guitarist for the two campfire nights!

Our own chaplain, Father Raymond, even made a guest appearance during one of the mornings. He had much praise to express in his latest article in the Catholic Register which you can read here .

We hope everyone had a great time at GT and had a great summer. We hope to see all of you back at Newman House starting this upcoming Friday! Three cheers to curry fishballs!

Ok Bye.

I haven’t even started writing and I’m already tearing up…

The day we will all eventually experience one day (well, another four years for some…JANICE!) has finally come. It’s the most bittersweet cell for QCCC; lots of food, lots of laughs, and a few tears shed. As all our members and a few of our alumni gather officially together as QCCC for the last time this year, we part farewell to our beloved graduates, Steph, Gillian, and Leivin. As per QCCC tradition, our members put together a goodbye song, and warm and fuzzy scrapbooks of memories for our grads.

We concluded our bittersweet night with a personal year-end sharing from each of our members. We talked about our journey of faith, the struggles faced in school and personal life, our first time at a QCCC cell, and how we have all grown so much in our faith this year. We heard words of encouragement from our graduates and alumni, and spoke about how much the QCCC family means to some of us.

As the school year comes to an end and our graduates depart, we recalled all the saints we introduced to QCCC Saintspiration this year. We called on them and asked for their intercession for the many different aspects of our lives.

With the closing prayer said and all our intentions brought up, we continue to pray for our graduates as they embark on their future endeavours. We wish them the best and that God may shine His light on them every step of the way.

Blinded By His Blessings

As our highly anticipated friends and visitors from Toronto stepped foot into Newman House, the room was suddenly filled with the familiar aroma of GT. What does GT smell like? You’ll have to find out yourselves at GT 2014 in early September! 

There was no better way to show how much we are blinded by God’s blessings every day than for the entire GT Committee to drive three hours to Kingston to share a night of laughs, sharing, and reflection with us.

Our activity tonight required some careful treading as we experienced searching for others behind a blindfold. This very disability alone reminds us how much we take our gift of sight, and all the small things we have for granted. We receive so many blessings every day of our lives, and we often get blinded by them and forget about the source of all our blessings. Students and those in the work force are often overwhelmed with school or an extremely quick-paced schedule that they forget to leave some time for God and prayer. It’s important to reflect not only on our suffering and personal struggles, but also on all the blessings of happiness, friends, and family that God has granted us with.

Sometimes we face very difficult times and we ask why our loving and merciful God is putting us through it. We have to remember that God works on a completely different schedule and has a unique plan for each one of us. His plan for us isn’t always the way we want it, and His blessings are truly in disguise sometimes.

Here’s a song for y’all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CSVqHcdhXQ&feature=kp

#BlogPost #QCCC #40LentenDays

It’s that time of year again where we all crave our favourite things—whether it be our favourite foods or our favourite activities. It’s also the time we can eat our friend’s favourite food in front of them but they can’t do anything but just look at you in #tears and #sadness.

But of course, most importantly, it is the Season of Lent; a season of prayer, almsgiving, and sacrifice. During the Lenten Season, we recall the suffering of Christ, His death, and His resurrection. This is a time where Christians are called to repent for our sins as we reflect on each additional wound we add onto Jesus’ body for every time we sin. It is also a time for deeper prayer and reflection as we walk the Stations of the Cross together with Jesus and experience his journey of pain and suffering.

The children of QCCC made colourful Lenten chains to guide us on our Lenten journey. These chains consisted of ideas written by our fellow QCCC members, which helped us stay on track this Lenten season through tasks of almsgiving, sacrifice, and prayer. With ten tasks to a chain and a cut-out cross to complete it, we all brought home with us a colourful personalized rosary. We also welcomed all our alumni to walk with Christ this Lenten Journey by completing the QCCC Lenten Challenge.

Go in peace, to love and serve the Lord…and don’t forget to upload your pictures to our Facebook album with #QCCC #40LentenDays!

Did Someone Make Fish for Dinner?

What better way than to celebrate Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year with taking a selfie with Pope Francis?

The evening was definitely a fishy scavenger hunt as the Jesus Fish led us around Newman House. Our activity brought out both the crazy and creative sides of our members as we embarked on a journey to find Pope Francis and Father Raymond and take selfies with them. Taking awkward family pictures, and showing crazy facial expressions on a roller coaster were just some of the highlights of the photo scavenger hunt. Let’s not forget about the photo in a photo in a photo in a photo in a photo…? Photoception.

The scavenger hunt reminded us about the persecution of Christians in the early Church. Early Christians used the Jesus Fish, Ichthys, as a secret symbol of Christianity. This Greek word is an acronym that translates directly into English as “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Saviour”. A series of the fish symbols were used to point Christians toward underground Churches when they were illegal in the early Church.

We looked at the persecution of Christians and of the Holy Catholic Church, which is still very evident in our world today. We also reflected on the persecution and struggles we face as Christians and as messengers of Christ in our growingly secular society. Our discussion brought up excellent strategies that may make our duty as Christians much easier: expanding our personal knowledge on the faith, spreading the Good News together in groups such as QCCC, and most importantly through prayer.

“Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:10). With this very teaching Jesus leaves us, let us now go out and be fishers of men!