Several
volunteers of Holy Family Church and I organized a pilgrimage to Wei Zhou
Island on Aug 16-19, 2018. 
Forty
three participants from Shenzhen including Fr. Joseph Lu, seminarian Joseph Lin,
several volunteers and I left Holy Family Church on Aug 16 morning. Fr. Joseph Lu led the prayer followed by singing
together. Ms. Chen was the MC, Ms. Huang
led the ice breaking games and Ms. Luo led the prayers during the trip. Mr.
Liu and Mr. Cai were the photographer and videographer while Ms. Liang and Mr. Wu
took care the meal and accommodation. Several
volunteers wore my design T-shirt “Love.”
After around 10 hours bus ride, we arrived at Zhanjiang-Guangdong Province. After supper, we attended the evening Mass at Zhanjiang Cathedral. One of the parishioners gave short introduction about the Cathedral, (http://directory.ucanews.com/dioceses/china-zhanjiang/197). Bishop Paul Su and Fr. Joseph Lu concelebrate the Mass, while several youth to be the reader and cantor of the responsorial Psalm. Bishop Paul Su praise the reader and cantor.
Due to the typhoon, our ferry was
delay for six hours so we stayed longer in Zhanjiang. We went to Beihai-Guangxi Province around
3 hours by bus after lunch. Fr. Joseph
Lu celebrated Mass at Beihai Cathedral. Fr.
Wang gave short introduction about the Diocese (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholic_Diocese_of_Beihai).
After seventy minutes of ferry
ride, we arrived at Wei Zhou Island (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weizhou_Island). Several passengers got sea sickness.
We attended morning Mass celebrated
by Fr. Mo and Fr. Lu. Our youth was the reader and cantor at Mass. After
breakfast, I led the session on “Young People, the Faith and Vocational
Discernment.” I asked Ms. Chen to read
the Chinese version of “Seven Key Words of Working Document of 2018 Synod of Bishops”
and asked seminarian Joseph Lin, Fr. Mo and Fr. Lu to share their vocation journey.
I closed the vocation journey sharing by sharing my vocation journey besides sending
the scan of my sharing on the book “My Teens, My Angels” to this pilgrimage group
chatting. I prepared several questions for
small group sharing and asked them to write a letter to Pope Francis. Please
don’t be surprise to see they looked at their cell phones during sharing because
I posted the working document and the questions for the small group sharing on this
pilgrimage group chatting too. We left for St. Mary’s Church after the
session. Both Churches were tourist
destinations.
After lunch, we split to 4 groups
to see around. Our group went to
Crocodile Hill and Shiluokou.
Fr. Mo invited Seminarian Lin and me to have supper with two sisters and
the parish council. Fr. Mo
was assigned to Wei Zhou Island (not always stay in the island) two years ago. There was a priest, first after twenty years,
prior to him for two years. All the
villagers and several villagers in surrounding village are Catholics but many
of them are not practicing Catholics. Several
of us ride the electric motorcycle went around the island.
Fr. Mo asked us to be the reader,
cantor and choir for the Sunday Mass. He
and the parishioners praised the reader, cantor and choir. The sister, parish leader and several
parishioners sent us off by singing several songs.
We have smooth ferry ride on the
way back to Beihai. After 12 hours bus
ride, we arrived in Shenzhen.
I stayed in Shenzhen several days
prior and after the pilgrimage to have pilgrimage preparation meeting, attend
the Feast Day Mass of Assumption besides visiting parishioners. I also visited my relatives in Quanzhou on Aug
10-14, 2018. I have two great grandnieces
from my paternal auntie, who was left in Quanzhou when my paternal grandparents
moved to Indonesia.
Here
is the link of the pictures: https://www.flickr.com/photos/11848830@N02/sets/72157694758078770/
Hong Kong, Aug 25,
2018
Sr. Anastasia B. Lindawati, M.M.
Let’s
do simple things with simple love to make God’s love visible
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