CLOSING OF THE 800TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEATH OF OUR FATHER ST. DOMINIC
On 6 January, 2022 the Dominican Family in Macau solemnly celebrated the closing Eucharist of the celebration of the 800th Anniversary of the death, dies natalis, of our Father St. Dominic. Representatives from the Dominican sisters joined the Friars at St Dominic’s Priory in giving thanks to God for the great gift of St. Dominic, the apostolic and evangelical man. The celebration of the anniversary started on January 6, 2021 and closed on January 6, 2022, the very significant day of the Epiphany or the manifestation of Jesus, the Son of God and the Son of Mary, to the world. He is lumen gentium; our Father Dominic, lumen Ecclesiae. “Preaching Christ, Dominic continues illuminating the world with the multitude of preachers: the Dominican Family,” said Fr Fausto Gómez in is homily. “May he bless us abundantly.”
We celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family. The Sacred Readings invite us to meditate on the meaning of the Family of Nazareth and on our own family. In Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14, God sets a father in honor over his children; a mother’s authority he confirms over her sons. In Colossians 3:12-21, “Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience”, and in the Holy Gospel of St. Luke ( 2:41-52), “Each year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, and when he was twelve years old, they went up according to festival custom.”
We meditate on the Holy Family, on our family.
The family is in crisis today: separation, divorce, abortion, domestic violence, child abuse, pornography, wounded families, broken families, no family. Even the concepts of marriage and family are often ambiguous with the growing reality of same-sex marriages, single-parent families, and so on. The Christian family is also negatively affected by the secular views of man, gender ideology, family and society.
Still, for most people, the family is the number one value in their lives. For us Christians, in particular, the family is a sacred reality, a domestic Church, a community of life and love, the main school of our values and virtues, of prayer. The Old Testament writers recommend the practice of the virtues of obedience, piety, respect, compassion. The Fourth Commandment, “Honor your father and mother”, asks us to respect our parents. To respect them means to revere them, to esteem them, to love them, to care for them all their lives, particularly when they are old.
For us, the Holy Family of Nazareth continues to be the icon and inspiration of our families. On the day of the Feast of the Holy Family, we are asked to contemplate, venerate and imitate the Sacred Family of Nazareth: Jesus (called the son of a carpenter), Mary (the Mother of Jesus, the wife of Joseph and housekeeper) and Joseph (the carpenter of the town, Jesus’s custodian and head of the Holy Family).
I remember the wonderful meditation of Blessed Paul VI on his visit to Nazareth on January 5, 1964. The Pope told us then to continue learning the lessons of Nazareth. What lessons? Nazareth teaches us first on family life: its meaning, its beauty, its core which is communion in love. Nazareth teaches us, second,on silence: on the love of silence, such an admirable and needed habit, particularly today when we are disturbed by so much noise, by so many different voices in the digital world. The silence of Nazareth teaches us on the need for recollection, for interior and peaceful space; on the need to listen to good teachers, to our parents and brothers and sisters and, above all, to God. Nazareth teaches us, in the third place, on workand on the dignity of workers, of all workers. It teaches us about the importance of work in our life (as in the life of Jesus and Mary and Joseph), and its creative and redemptive dimension. We remember today the tragedy of unemployment and the terrible effects it causes in so many families!
Family is conjugal love, and parental and filial love. Its center is the children: we remember them here in this Eucharist with great love! We bring to our attention the vast number of children who are victims of violence, who are made objects of trade and trafficking, or forced to become soldiers and workers. We remember with sadness and hope infants killed in the womb, displaced, due to war and persecution. (Cf. Blessing Urbi et Orbi, December 25, 2014).
Bowing beforethe Crib we learn the lessons of genuine family life, silence and work. Above all, we learn the perennial lesson of love: we learn that we are loved and understood. After all, a house is where you live, a home, where they understand you.
A painter wanted to paint the most beautiful object in the world! He went to a big park to ask people: What is the most beautiful thing in the world for you? He asked a soldier: Nothing is more beautiful than peace: living together in peace! Then he asked a young couple: Love is the most beautiful thing: it makes the world go round. Then he asked a priest: Faith is the most beautiful thing: it moves mountains. The painter asked himself: How do I paint peace, and love, and faith? After a silent pause, he answered himself: I know what the most beautiful thing in the world is: my family, my home. It is here where I experience peace, love and faith. Jesus, God and man, found at Nazareth as a human being – peace, love and faith through the 30 years he lived at home with Mary and Joseph.
Indeed, the family, our family is the best thing in the world for each one of us. We thank God for the Holy Family, for our family. We offer this Eucharist for our families (for the members who have left us and those who remain with us), and also for broken families. We ask the Sacred Family of Nazareth to help us become more good members of our respective families: loving, caring, and sharing!
We give thanks to God for the unique, incomparable gift of family, of our family.
The Community of Friars Preachers in Macau gathered this morning to honor the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. A child is born in Bethlehem, alleluia; o come, rejoice Jerusalem, alleluia. Let grateful hearts now sing, a song of joy and holy praise, to Christ the newborn.
Following our community custom, which is the tradition in our Province, Brother Aloysius Thurein Htun, OP., on behalf of all the student Brothers greeted our Prior, Fr. Paul Fan, OP., followed by our Subprior Fr. Javier Gonzalez, OP., on behalf of the Fathers. It is important to mention that Fr. Paul is our new Prior, which fills us with joy and hopes because the new generation is taking offices of great responsibility; the example is palpable: the guidance of such a dynamic and complex community as our priory is. A community that as a family accepts and loves one another as brothers around our Prior.
Brother Aloysius reminded us that Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year; that is the time for all of us to show gratitude and to acknowledge the presence of one another in our community. Addressing Fr, Paul, Br., Aloysius said that it is nice to have a Prior who, like a tender father, guides this community which is our home; this is particularly necessary since we are far away from our own families. To this idea, Fr. Javier added: As religious, far away from our native homes, we remember with affection our relatives and beloved ones. They continue to be in our hearts and prayers.
Fr. Paul, a prayer of this community for you: May God blessings of peace be upon you not only during this season, but also during the entire year (and years as Prior) enabling you to carry out those meaningful words you adopted as program on your taking of office: the Prior should not consider himself happy because of the power he exercises over the community, but because of the charity with which he serves (LCO, 299).
Peace and good health, strength and joy, happiness without alloy, is our prayer and wishes for you, Father Prior and for all the members of the Province of Our Lady of the Rosary.
Since 1914, when the Catholic Church established the World Day for Migrants and Refugees, every year it is celebrated throughout the world. This year 2019, upon the initiative of the Diocese coordinated by the Catholic Pastoral care for Philippine migrants, here in Macau the celebration took place on Sunday, 27th of October. The venue was Saint Paul School.
His Excellency Stephen Lee, the bishop of Macau, began the program of activities in the morning with the celebration of the Holy Eucharist at the school main auditorium. Ten priests from different nationalities, Orders and Congregations, concelebrated with him.
Before the Mass there was an entrance procession, led by migrants from several nationalities present in Macau, to the image of Our Lady placed near the stage, while a song was performed by a Philippines choir. It was a sign and expression of trust in our Mother Mary, our refuge. To our Lady we brought our worries, our difficulties and problems, trusting always in her. Then we proceeded with the Mass, which was attended by more than a thousand people from different nationalities who reside in Macau, as well as by local people. The main choir members for this Mass were the Dominican Brothers and Sisters.
During the homily, the Bishop talked about the challenges that migrants face in Macau. He said something like this: You may feel excluded and mistreated by the local people, and so forth, but remember you are Christians, children of God; therefore, you should not retaliate these things to them because God never excludes or mistreats you. Moreover, you may worry about your families or feel isolated and lonely because of being away from your family and from your own countries, but remember that you are here with a mission, working to support your family and help the local people to become more charitable. Bishop cited an example he had seen. A family started to be converted to the faith because the housemaid brought their children to Sunday school. The children shared their faith with their parents and eventually they were converted. If I am too exaggerated, the Bishop said, you are not only migrants: you are missionaries; therefore your role is to shine with your faith.
After the Mass, lunch break: an agape-fellowship was served with cuisines from Vietnam, Myanmar, Indonesia and the Philippines. Moreover, the Brazilian community also brought cakes for dessert.
At 1:30 pm we gathered again in Saint Paul School auditorium for the performances of the different artists in representation of 11 countries and communities, including Portugal, Brazil, East Timor and Venezuela. All in all there were 150 performers. Some nationalities performed some of their traditional dances, such as Burmese bamboo dancing, Indonesian dancing, etc. Other groups sang and danced, reflecting in their singing and dancing different life-styles of society nowadays. For instance, some people travel by air while others had to walk barefoot on the ground. Some people seem to be happy, while others are depressed with the difficulties and problems that they face in their lives; some people seem to be satisfied with what they have, while others are never satisfied, and so on.
In conclusion, the World Day for Migrants and refugees remind us that we may have many different cultures and languages but we all belong to one human race. Hence, we should not exclude anyone from our society, whether he or she is newly arrived or permanent resident, because God never excludes anyone. This day is not only for migrants but it is for all of us to come together and celebrate the day of our humanity.
On October 5th, 2019, we had the opportunity to receive in our Priory of Saint Dominic Father Samuel Agcaracar SVD, who was in Macau as a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Religious Studies of the University of Saint Joseph. Father Samuel came to our house to share the table and his knowledge with our community. On Saturdays, the Students at Saint Dominic Priory use to gather in the hall to continue learning different topics in order to complement our philosophical and theological formation and to nourish our lives as Dominican Friars.
This Saturday was the moment to learn about Missiology, one topic that will never exhausted because, as we have learnt, our Province is not a Province with missions, is indeed a Missionary Province, therefore we must keep updating our knowledge and experience on what is the main feature of our Province.
Father Samuel developed his lecture on two documents really important of the Church: “Maximun Illud†(Pope Benedict XV) and “Evangelii Gaudium†(Pope Francis I). After talking about highlighted aspects of both documents he finished his speech pointing out there elements that every single person that considers him or herself a missionary ought to take on account: (1) to be a lover of God, (2) to be a lover of people and (3) to be a lover of cultures.
The first element is the most important, the other two cannot exist without the first, but at the same time we show our love for God through our actions, namely, loving people and the diverse cultures throughout the world. How can we go out to preach the Word of God if we do not love the people to whom we are addressing? How can we address the people if first of all we do not know their culture and if we do not give the value that they deserve?
Father Samuel’s lecture was a wide-open invitation to embrace the world and to overflow it with the Word of God. This invitation, in my opinion, is extremely necessary in our continuous discernment within the Dominican life in the Province of Our Lady of the Rosary. To be a lover of God! Is an exclamation and it ought to be always our exclamation; but to love people and cultures, I dare to put it in question marks: each time that we think on our missionary vocation it is important to ask ourselves “do I love the people?†and “do I love the cultures?†When the answer to these questions be an unquestionable “yes†we can say “I am a missionaryâ€. If the answer is in doubt, let us go back to the Source of all our actions, let us go back to Jesus – who sent us, and is sending us every day, to proclaim His message – and ask for strength and humility to embrace the world with all that it contains.
Thank you Father Samuel. You will be always welcome in our house.
