Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
The Meaning of Easter is HOPE, the Spirit of Easter is LIGHT,
the Essence of Easter is LOVE, the Promise of
Easter is LIFE
Happy Easter!Selamat Hari Raya Paskah!复活节快乐!
May God’s unconditional love continue to fill our
heart with joy and peace!
May God’s unconditional love continue to fill our
heart with joy and peace!
I left a little bit early from financial literacy
program at Pathfinders on Holy Thursday and arrived at Holy
Family Church
on time for Mass. There were quite a lot of people at the
border. The Church was full for the Mass. After the Mass, there was time for private adoration
in the Church for a while then the Blessed Sacrament was reserved at the temporary
small chapel. It was the office which was
cleared up and decorated to reserve the Blessed Sacrament. Several parishioners, young and old, stayed
till the next morning. I left right
after midnight.
Several other parishioners come and go for adoration in
front of the Blessed Sacrament since early Friday morning. It is a customs in mainland
not to eat breakfast for Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. The stations of the Cross was held at 3.00
p.m. followed by Liturgy of the Word, veneration of the Cross, and Holy
Communion. The parishioners who sat at
the first six rows were kneeling when approaching the cross, then the rest
started to kneel at the six rows.The Blessed Sacrament was
returned to the temporary small chapel after Holy Communion and the altar was
stripped again. Several parishioners
still come and go for adoration even stayed till the next early morning and it continued
till afternoon. After the liturgy, one
of the parishioners treated our pastor, several of choir members and me for
dinner.
I helped to move our religious articles store to
first floor on Saturday afternoon and sat with the Sunday school children
during Easter vigil Mass, to remind them to be quiet. They sang two songs after Mass, which was
around 11.00 pm. 16 persons, adults and
babies, were baptized. Everyone got an Easter egg. It’s a solemn celebration even though the
Church was very full. One of the children
sat on my lap, and also on two other mothers’ lap, during the Mass as the
reserved seats for Sunday school children was limited. There were two big buckets of holy water as it's the time for the parishioners to replace their holy water.
I helped to
move our religious store to 2 and a half floor on Sunday morning and then sat behind
the Sunday school children during Mass. The children are more quite that
morning. The parishioners got the
stereofoam Easter eggs, which was decorated by the Sunday school children, or
artificial Easter egg. The Church:
inside, outside, the stairs to 4th floor and back sections were full. The Sunday school teacher treated one of
the volunteers and me for dumpling. During Easter vigil Mass and Sunday morning Mass, when the Fr. Lu sprinkled the holy water, the parishioners hold the snacks or fruits or candies up to get the blessing.
There was evening Mass followed by praise and
worship on Easter Sunday. The (inside) Church was
full even though it may be the second or the third Mass for several
parishioners.
That’s all about my second Easter in Shenzhen. It was a moving, peaceful and joyful Easter
celebration, reminded me, again, to think outside the box amidst all the
limitations that I faced. Ms. Gigi
sent an agape gift “Pondering the Word: Anawim Way ” which provide a good
meditation till Pentacost.
Now, short updates about the last four months of
2014.
I attended the priesthood ordination of Fr.
Heribertus, SVD, Fr. Rano, SVD (both Indonesians) and Fr. Melchior, SVD at
Christ the King Chapel Hong Kong on January 5.
Srs. Maureen, Agnes and I
went to see the play “The Soongs: By Dreams Betrayed” which was written and directed
by our sister, Sr. Joanna Chan on Jan 7, 2014:
http://www.hkrep.com/en/press/20131129/
Our Maryknoll Family gathering was held on February
23. It’s an annual gathering for all
Maryknoll Sisters and Society members in China region for the Lunar New Year
celebration. There were around 13
Maryknoll Society members from several missions.
Our Sunday school organized an outing with the
parents at a public park near our Church on March 1. There was time for potluck lunch, games, and
faith sharing.
Several parishioners, Fr. Lu and I visited Huidong Leprocy Center
in March and then went to the beach nearby.
It’s the first time for all the parishioners.
I helped
four groups in Maryknoll House Stanley for January-March, here is the link:
http://anastasialindawatimm.blogspot.hk/2014/02/article-january-and-february-programs.html
and http://anastasialindawatimm.blogspot.hk/2014/04/sharing-walk-to-emmaus-61.html
, and went to Yuci-Shanxi to share about Maryknoll Sisters and my vocation
story (here is the link: http://anastasialindawatimm.blogspot.hk/2014/02/letter-lunar-new-year-2014.html).
Our beloved Sr. Rose D passed away last Feb 22. Maryknoll
Convent School
arranged a memorial mass on March 17. It
was a tribute for a dedicated teacher, who spent most of her mission life in Hong Kong . As we
lived together for several months before she left for New York , I could witness how passion she
was. Mr. Richard and team transit in
Shenzhen so I arranged a praise and worship with our parish praise and worship
team. Unfortunately, I was in Hong Kong .
I still continue to visit inmates both in Lowu Correctional
Institution and Tailam
Center for Women. I attended the annual presentation certificates for
the inmates, who were graduated from public examination, on March 19. It’s a moving ceremony especially as one of
the inmates and her mother shared their stories. One of the inmates from Kenya , whom I met,
was one of the graduates so she asked me to take a picture with her. It’s the only time for the inmates to talk
with their family members without using the intercom nor separated by
glasses. Fr. John
Wootherspoon, then asked me to help to edit the Indonesian version of his
booklet “Doctor Jesus”, here is the link: http://www.doctorjesus.org/.
Joanna, my former school mates in Guangzhou ,
and I visited Order of St. Clare (OSC)
Portiuncula Monastery of the
Blessed Sacrament at Lamma Island
to have adoration and meet Sr. M. Fides, OSC then visited Fr. Frank Elsinger
and enjoyed the beach on Apr 4.
Seven sisters, who are ministering in Shenzhen from
different parts of China ,
and I had a gathering at St. Paul ’s
Church-Nantou on Apr 7. We, including
Fr. Zhang, had hotpot lunch prepared by three parishioners, followed by
adoration and sharing.
I organized the first youth day at Holy Family
Church on April 12, here
is the link: http://anastasialindawatimm.blogspot.hk/2014/04/sharing-first-youth-day-at-holy-family.html.
During our evaluation meeting, we decided to organize youth gathering every
three months according to the top requested topic on survey.
The 4th round of Financial Literacy
program at Pathfinders will be finished on April 24. It was planned for three rounds but the Women's
Foundation can still get the funding and Pathfinders can still find
participants so we started the 4th round.
with love and prayer,
Let’s
do simple things with simple love to make God’s love visible
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