February 2, 2013 is the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple and the 17th World Day of Consecrated Life. On this second day of February, we had two celebrations: one at home and the other at the Seminary of the Diocese of Macau.
The Priory celebrated the Mass of the Presentation, presided by Fr. Prior Alejandro Salcedo, OP and concelebrated by all the priests of the Priory plus Fr. Fernando, our visitor from Myanmar. All the members of the community – thirty in all – are professed religious so all re-affirmed their profession with the offering of individual candles to Our Lady. Fr. Prior preached the homily and underlined the meaning of the presentation – the offering, the consecration of the Lord – and its importance through the ages.
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The presentation of Jesus in the Temple is an eloquent image of the total gift of one’s life for all those men and women who are called to represent “the characteristic features of Jesus – the chaste, poor and obedient one†in the Church and in the world, through the evangelical counsels (Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata, no. 1). The celebration of the World Day for Consecrated Life, which will be observed for the first time on 2 February (1997), is intended to help the entire Church to esteem ever more greatly the witness of those persons who have chosen to follow Christ by means of the practice of the evangelical counsels and, at the same time, is intended to be a suitable occasion for consecrated persons to renew their commitment and rekindle the fervor which should inspire their offering of themselves to the Lord (Blessed John Paul II, Message for February 2, 1997)
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The second celebration took place in the Seminary building. The liturgical celebration was held at the beautiful Seminary Chapel and included the following activities: common recitation of the evening prayer of the day, the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and the prayer of the Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The prayers, psalms, songs, and the brief and meaningful sharing of Bishop Jose centered on the World Day of Consecrated Life. About 140 religious women and men, including 18 Dominican sisters and brothers, took part in the liturgical celebration carried out in Chinese and English: nearly one hundred were women and over forty, men. This was most probably the biggest gathering of religious women and men in Macau so far. After the prayers, we all had a simple and plentiful dinner. The general comment on this powerful spiritual happening was: it was really meaningful and beautiful, a true agape that must be repeated – and not only on the Day of Consecrated life! (FG)
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