昔日文章

No one knows how long the summer vacation will be for this year since there is a lot to catch up at school after the pandemic（大流行病）. Everyone is facing different changes and challenges in life, students or adults. There may be summer classes throughout（貫穿）July. Gianna used to join the yearly（一年一次）summer camp organized by her parish（堂區）for the altar servers（輔祭員）. Each camp in the past still brings her the best memories of all because she could be with her best friends from church, people who serve（事奉）Mass with her for a few years. Three whole days away from families, playing at the retreat campsite meant a lot to youngsters（年青人）. Whether it rained or shined, each summer camp turned out to be wonderful.  As Gianna is a longtime（老資格） participant in the Altar Servers Summer Camp, she is being requested to be the game coordinator （協調人）for this year. She is thrilled（興奮）to try because she knows the soul（靈魂）of a camp is how the games are conducted（進行）. They have to be fun yet（而）meaningful（有意義）. It will take her a lot of time to think of something that will work well. Also, while planning, she needs to talk with a few other coordinators on the venue limitation（場地限制） ,duration（時間）, age of the participants and so on...  Gianna takes pride in（感到自豪）being accounted（被認為）as capable（有能力）. Yet, she was told that she needed to get all things planned, but there is a high possibility（可能性）that the camp cannot be held due to the Covid 19 preventive measures or availability（有空）of students who have shortened（縮短）summer holidays. This dampens her enthusiasm（潑冷水）to help.  What would you do if you were Gianna?  I'd reject to take up the post because my hard work would be wasted, which meant my time and effort would be for no use. Let someone less busy do it.  I'd gladly come up with the most appropriate games. Even if the camp would be cancelled in the end, my talent is from God, doing the planning this year could keep me well equipped （裝備）to serve Him in upcoming camps or other activities. 

Nora and Liam always spend their lunch hours in the library, they are library helpers. Due to their passion （熱愛）for reading, they have a strong sense of belonging（歸屬感）in the library. One of the roles （職責）of Nora and Liam is to alert （提醒）students when a book on the waiting list is returned by inputting（輸入）update information into the school computer. They help to sort the returned books by categories（種類）and the school librarian, Miss Sezto, is responsible to put them back on shelves.  Due to the Coronavirus Covid-19, the school was closed for months, like all other schools in Hong Kong. Now students can go back to school, but the library is still closed. Miss Sezto has been out of town（出埠）and was able to come back to Hong Kong only very recently（近期）. She has to go through a quarantine（檢疫隔離）period of fourteen days. This is a preventive measure（預防措施）from the Hong Kong Government. Without Ms. Sezto, the books students returned are piling（疊放）up in heaps（一堆堆）on the floor. No one can walk through. Seeing this, the principal suggested closing down the library after the first week of school. What a dismay（氣餒）to Nora and Liam. They always have a thirst（渴望）for reading.  Putting the books back on the shelves will simply provide a solution to the situation, but should Nora and Liam voice out（提出）to volunteer? They are students after all. Who should they speak with? What would you do if you were Nora and Liam?  I must know my place（懂分寸）in the first place. As a student, if I put back the books and made a mistake, I would be severely（嚴重地）blamed by whoever uses the library. Miss Sezto would not thank me for helping because it would be more work for her to rectify（矯正）my mistake(s). Also, it would be so very awkward（尷尬）to go directly to the principal as he did not even know me at all. I’d choose to keep my mouth shut and go to the nearest public library instead.  There might be other students who also wanted to use the library. Though the principal might not know me before, I had nothing to lose to speak my mind（說出我的想法）. Or I could ask my class teacher to ask the principal for me.   

Fletcher comes from a devoted（虔誠）Protestant（基督教）family while he attends（上學）a Catholic school. His parents chose that school obviously（明顯）not for the religion（宗教）, rather it was for the high reputation（聲譽）and the renowned（有名的）academic level（學術水平）. Fletcher at times attacks some of the Catholic teachings discreetly（謹慎地）.  One time Fletcher was debating with his good friend Sassher about the term“Christians（基督徒）”He believed that only Protestants were supposed to call themselves Christians, but he sometimes heard the principal and teachers addressed（稱呼）themselves as“Christians”instead of “Catholics（天主教徒）”. He strongly felt that that was incorrect（不正確）. Sassher was hoping to explain to him that as long as one is a follower of Christ, he would be a Christian, regardless of（無論）any Christian denominations（基督教派）.  That discussion somehow drove Fletcher to open up（吐出） his disagreement with Catholics over respecting Our Lady. He insisted that the Bible taught us to worship one and only one（唯一）God. He felt the practice of praying to Mary was totally out of place（不合適）.  What would you do if you were Sassher?  I would tell my Protestant friend how our Church positions（擺位）Our Lady Mary and the rationales（依據）behind. I’d also tell him of all the Marian（聖母有關）apparitions（顯現）and miracles, how she loves us… If I could not convince him, I would invite him to ask any of our teachers at school, or even the headmaster. It would be so wrong not to respect the mother of God. I had to try very hard.  Though I am not a mother, I could feel the bonding（關係） between Mary and Jesus. I am sure Jesus would be very happy when we respect His mother and ask her for help. So instead of arguing further, which would be very difficult, and winning a discussion would not mean anything, I would ask Our Lady Mary to soften（軟化）the heart of my good friend so he could feel her presence（臨在）too. 

Due to Covid 19, Hong Kong students became very thirsty for school（渴望上學）. At long last, after several months of closing down everything, Manfred was able to wear his uniform again and he could not hide his smile while lining up during the morning assembly（早會）. On the first day of school, faint jabbering sounds enlivened the whole classroom（微弱喋喋不休的聲音使班房充滿生氣）for the whole day. Uncharacteristically（一反常態）teachers let students talk as much as they wanted to, well, it was a great chance to catch up with one another.  During all these months, all schools used virtual classroom（虛擬教室）to teach and assign homework so as to stay in connection with students. It was actually more work for Manfred than having physical classes（實體課堂）. He needed to research on a few projects and catch up on reading many chapters for different subjects. While chatting with his good friend King Man, Manfred learned that due to not having a computer at home, King Man was not able to do any of the school work at all. Moreover, he missed all the lessons too. King Man's family belongs to the grassroots（草根階層）and both his parents are illiterate（沒受教育）. Oh dear, that would be a big deal（大件事）. Although the principal announced that there would be no examination for this term, King Man may not be able to make it if he is promoted to a higher form. King Man asked Manfred for help, but Manfred simply had no clue（毫無頭緒）where to start with all the eight subjects. What should Manfred say to his friend then ?  What would you do i f you were Manfred?  I’d tell my friend that there would be no way that he could be able to catch up. He should explain to all the teachers about his miserable situation and beg for a waiver （取消）on his assignments so he would not have anything to worry then.  I’d explain how much time and effort I spent in completing all the assignments and I’d be willing to spare time with my friend over the summer vacation. Meanwhile he must seek teachers’ help alongside（與）with mine. I’d let the teachers decide what would be the best actionable steps.