The Faculty of Christian Studies of the University of Saint Joseph celebrated its first Faculty Day on December 3, 2013, the feast of Saint Francis Xavier with a Solemn Mass in the Chapel of the Seminary of Saint Joseph.
The Mass was presided by the USJ Rector Fr. Peter Stilwell and concelebrated by eight more priests, including five Dominican brothers who are this semester part of the teaching staff of the only Faculty of Theology in Macau. The brothers are: Frs. Javier Gonzalez, Ambrose Mong, Edmond Eh, Jarvis Sy and Fausto Gomez. The homily was preached by the Dean of the Faculty, Fr. Joao Eleuterio.
The faithful attending the Holy Eucharist were mainly the lay staff of the Faculty and the students, the majority of which are our student brothers and the postulants of the Dominican sisters of the Dominican Missionaries of the Rosary. The Dominican students and postulants animated the Mass with appropriate songs. Fr. Jarvis, the USJ Chaplain the liturgy.
Fr. Joao chose St. Francis Xavier as the Patron of the Faculty because he is the great missionary in this part of the world, the patron of the Church’s missionary work, and the patron of China. In his homily, Fr. Eleuterio invited us to be inspired by the zeal and commitment of the great Jesuit missionary.
By the way, the yearly open house celebration of the Jesuits in Macau is also on the day of St. Francis Xavier. The main event was the evening High Mass presided by the Bishop of Macau, Most Reverend Joseph Lai presided, who was accompanied at the altar by about fifty priests from the Society of Jesus and other religious and secular priests. The Mass was held also at the beautiful baroque Chapel of St. Joseph Seminary, which keeps relics of the Jesuit saint. It was attended by a great number of religious sisters from different congregations and lay faithful that filled up the church.
Two student brothers of our St. Dominic Center of Studies were awarded scholarships by the University of Saint Joseph on November 12, 2013. The awarding ceremony was held at the chapel of St. Joseph Seminary in Macau.
The two student brothers granted scholarships were Brother Joseph Tran Van Huong and Brother Francis Naw San of the USJ Faculty of Christian Studies. The program was opened by Professor Peter Stilwell, Rector of the University, who congratulated the scholars and expressed the gratitude of the university to the donors of the scholarships. Two awardees, Kornelius Bardata and Sandra Ng Ka Man, expressed their gratitude on behalf of the sixty six awardees from the various faculties of the university. The different donors presented the individual certificates to the students.
Besides the University of Saint Joseph, the other twenty three donors from different social, cultural and academic institutions of Macau, plus some generous individuals, offered the USJ community scholarships directed to cover fully or partially the tuition fees of the higher education students.
The 2013 Scholarship Award Ceremony was attended by a good number of professors and students of the university. The program closed with a group photo of all the participants in front of the impressive baroque chapel.
A simply professed Dominican student brother finished his institutional studies with the presentation and defense of his thesis at the Seminary Hall on November 14, 2013. He presented his work before a tribunal of three professors of the Faculty of Christian Studies of the Catholic University of Saint Joseph.
Brother Peter Phan Ngo Xuan Thoai, OP defended successfully his thesis entitled New Evangelization in the Digital World: A Dominican Approach. Brother Peter who is from Vietnam developed his work in three parts: evangelization in the present time, the Presence of God in the Digital World, and a Dominican approach to the new evangelization in the digital world.
The panel of interrogators was composed of the following: Professor Joao Eleuterio, Chairman; Professor Arnold Monera, Chief Examiner, and Professor Fausto Gomez, OP, Supervisor. After his presentation and defense, the candidate was awarded the honor of Summa Cum Laude.
Brother Peter Thoai, fraternal and joyful congratulations for a work well done!
SPEDIFY which stands for “Saint Paul Educational Infrastructure for Yunnan†project is an independent and non-profit organization aiming to favor the children of small ethnic minorities who are living in long term poverty-stricken districts to be able to receive the most basic education, to promote social concern and support educational matters and to establish a bursary foundation for the ethnic minorities of Yunnan.
Under this vision and as in the past years, Saint Paul School, once more, held on October 12 the “Charity day†fund-raising activity. It was a day when parents, students, teachers and friends of the School came together as one big family, everybody contributing in every possible way to the success of the event.
I would like to thank God for the beautiful day He granted us and to all those who in one way or another made the day so enjoyable and entertaining and help us to reach our target. I am glad to let you know that we all managed to raise the amount of MOP 607,789.50. Once more, thank you very much for your self-sacrifice help and for your open-hearted contribution (AS)
