Mar 2008 – San Francisco EV Concert 美國三藩市「我們就是見證」祈禱音樂會

2008年, Prism於三月二十九日(星期六)晚上七時在三藩市St.Anne下層禮堂舉行了「我們就是見證祈禱音樂會」。今次音樂會的籌備過程,對Prism來說是一個感恩旅程。我們非常感激支持Prism的朋友,更加感謝天主一直眷顧,保守着我們。靠着天主和大家的幫助,音樂會才得以順利完成。

自從完成2007的活動後,很多朋友都支持Prism的工作及理念,並鼓勵我們籌備更多類似的活動,好讓福音能夠傳播給更多年青人。三藩市總教區華人宗徒事務處的負責人,許純娟修女有見及此,便立刻和我們商議下一個音樂會的大小事宜。多得她的支持和幫助,我們除了能夠在短時間內租借場地,更誠邀遠自香港的韓大輝神父 (現任總主教),專程由香港飛底三藩市,來到我們中間作分享。

雖然2007年的音樂會得到好評,但致力於「為天主做得更好」的Prism當然不能原地踏步,故步自封。這次的音樂會的選曲、編曲、和視覺效果比過去的都要多元化,不同種類及語言的歌曲為我們在準備上增加了挑戰性。除了音樂,我們更加插了一些舞蹈,希望令人知道我們也有活潑好動的一面呢! 在流程方面,有鑒於以往的音樂會都是青年有青年唱,神父有神父講,令整體欠缺連貫性。有見及此,主講神父便和我們編了一個劇,藉着神父和青年的對話來介紹歌曲和傳達天主的訊息。為成就以上種種的理念,我們要投放更多時間練習。但為求讓觀眾更加投入和了解我們所傳播的信息,我們卻樂此不疲。雖然練習的過程很辛苦, 但大家並沒有因此而放棄,反而付出更多的時間和努力, 開開心心的吵吵鬧鬧卻不失認真地反覆的練習,希望把最好的呈現給觀眾。

我們一開始準備了一首柔和悅耳的英文詩歌 “We Have Gathered” 來歡迎大家參加這個聚會。緊接著便是由勁歌熱舞組成的環節「來!讚美主!」。除了全新創作的主題曲「我們就是見證」之外,我們更重新編排一首大家耳熟能詳的傳統聖詩「與基督同行」作為Praise and Worship歌曲。為的是表現出公教青年在創新之餘,也了解傳統的寶貴呢!

緊接下來我們的特別嘉賓–韓大輝神父出場了!MC 化身成為一個充滿疑惑的迷失少年,與韓神父的輕鬆對話,配合歌曲來討論天主的訊息,在環節「信靠主!」中,韓神父為我們分析人生的迷失和信德的益處。環節「彼此相愛!」韓神父便介紹一套令我們喜樂平安的生活態度(心靈純潔,生活樸素,凡事以和為貴)。神父與迷失少年的對話輕鬆惹笑,深入淺出,與歌曲的內容環環相扣。神父的講道更是簡潔精闢,發人深省。最後的環節是「泰澤祈禱」和「聖神降臨」。韓神父首先解釋泰澤祈禱的來源和意義,然後我們以平靜和諧的泰澤歌曲去與主溝通,祈來求聖神降臨到我們心中。好讓我們能夠給在人生旅途上發光發熱,為主作證。

今次祈禱音樂會我們除了擔當了郵差的角色﹐將天主的信息傳到參加這個聚會的人之外,成員本身也是福傳的受惠者。我們都感到之前充滿着挑戰的練習、籌備、和相處換來了許多,包括友情上的增長、宗教上的思考、音樂上的進步等等, 一些基督新教的成員也藉着參加Prism對天主教得到更深的認識和了解,更有本身無宗教信仰的成員亦從而決定參加慕道班。無論是成員或觀眾,天主教徒或非教徒,我們都希望這次活動能夠堅定眾人的心,重新認識天主﹐。然而,祈禱音樂會只是一個傳福音的開始﹐往後的工作陸續有來﹐我們要做好天主的見證者﹐讓天主亦在每一個人心中佔了一個重要位置。就像音樂會其中一句台詞所說的: 「其實在我們走的這一條人生路, 耶穌一直都在我們中間.」音樂會過後大家又要回到自己的崗位, 走自己的人生路. 我們希望大家在日常生活中時時與天主同在,繼續為主作見證!

The “We are Witnessess” Evangelization Concert was carried out successfully on March 29th, 2008 (Saturday) 7pm at San Francisco St. Anne’s church basement. This concert preparation is a praising journey to Prism. We appreciate for all the support from friends of Prism, and mostly we appreciate for God’s caring and blessing. With the support from God and friends, the concert was carried out successfully. Since the 2007 concert, many people join to support Prism’s work and mission, and suggested us to prepare all kinds of events to let more young adults benefit from the gospel. San Francisco Chinese Ministry’s in charge, Sister Hui, notices the potential, and then immediately discuss all the details with us on planning for another concert. Because of her great support, we were able to rent a venue in a very short time, and to invite Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai from Hong to join us in San Francisco for a sharing.

Although we did get lots of good comments from the concert in 2007, we cannot stay at the same level. Our mission is to do better for God; we need to improve ourselves from our previous concerts. This time, the song selection, arrangements and visual effect has put in a level of aspects compare to our previous concerts. Moreover, we’ve added dancing to different kinds and languages of songs, which made it more challenging for us during preparation. We hope that all these improvements can show audiences our active and cheerful side.

From our past experience, young adults’ singings and the father’s talk don’t quiet synchronize with each other in our program. Therefore, our guest speaker and us have decided to create a storyboard. Through the conversations between Father and young adults, they can help bring out the songs and the messages that we want to pass to our audience. To achieve this concept, we will need to put extra time and effort in practicing, but if this can help our audience to be more involved, and it is all worth it. No member has complaint a bit on the extra preparation works; on the other hand, everybody was willing to put out even more effort to make things work better. We had lots of fun practicing over and over, just so that we could deliver our best on the stage.

In the beginning, we prepared a soft and soothing English poet song, “We Have Gathered” to welcome everyone who came to the concert. Then, follow by pop music with dancing performance, “Come praise God!” Besides the all-new theme song, “ We are the Witnesses”, we have a new rearranged song that everybody is very familiar with from our hymns, “Walk with the Lord” to sing as our Praise and Worship. Our goal is to show how creative young adults are and at the same time, how they cherish our traditional hymns.

The next session would be to introduce our special guest, Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai. Emcee switched his role and became a youth that was full of curiosity about religious, through conversations with our speaker and adding songs in between to discuss god’s message. In the program “Believe and rely on God!”, Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai helped us analyze the benefit of being lost and beliefs. In the program “Loving each other!”, Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai taught us how to live peacefully and cheerfully (simple way of thinking, simple life styles and always to put peace in priority). Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai talks to the lost young adult with ease, explaining the profound in simple language, and use descriptions from songs to help him in understanding better. Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai’s explanation on religious doctrine was succinct penetrating, makes people awaken to the truth. Our final programs were, “Taize Prayer” and “Arrival of Holy Spirit”. Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai explains the story and the meaning behind Taize Prayer, then he brings everybody into a very quiet atmosphere and start singing Taize Prayer’s songs to communicate with our God, and to pray the Holy Spirit will come to each of our hearts. So that everybody can give heat and light on their journey of life, and be a witness.

In the concert, we have not only act as a messenger to spread God’s good news to our audiences, but we have also benefit from this evangelization. All of us felt that we have received so much from our challenging preparation process, practices and bonding with each other. We have build up our friendship, our spiritual mind and musical, etc. Some Christian or non-Catholic members have also understood better and deeper about our faith through joining Prism, and decided to join RCIA afterwards to become Catholics. Doesn’t matter if our members or audiences are Catholics or non-Catholics, we all hope that through this event, we can help our audiences to be more firm on their faith, and renew their way of understanding God. After all, evangelization concert is only the beginning of evangelization, and then the follow up work is more to come. We need to be the best witness for our God, so that God can be the most important person in each one of our heart, just like one of the dialogs in our storyboard script: “Actually, on this path of life that we are walking, God is with us all along.” After the concert, everybody will need to go back to his or her reality’s position and walk our own path of life. We hoped that everybody could be with God in their daily life, and continue to be our God’s witness.