For two weeks, our sisters had the opportunities to mingle with the students in the two varsities – Nanyang Technological University and National University of Singapore, participating in their annual Catholic Awareness Week.
This is one of the ways for our sisters to be inserted into the secular tertiary institutions, making our presence felt and at the same time, getting to know the young people. The sisters hope that through such participation, our interactions with young women in particular, a reawakening of vocation consciousness in them. In the midst of secularity, the catholic students put up information regarding the church?s stand on various current issues like, abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, etc.
They also demonstrated a ?mini sacristy?, displaying the different vestments, stoles, chalice, paten, etc explaining their significance and uses in the catholic worship and celebration. Our sisters, while sharing our mission through diffusion of books and audiovisual materials, also help out in answering questions of those who visited the booth. Through these 2 activities, the sisters met interested Buddhist, who was very knowledgeable about the catholic faith, Islamic student who seeks to find common ground between the 2 faiths and also even a Muslim from Pakistan.
All the encounters ended cordially and positively, demonstrating possibilities and each one?s desire for inter-religious dialogue in the daily context.