Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Love always involves responsibility, and
love always involves sacrifice. And we do not really love Christ unless we are
prepared to face His task
and to take up His Cross. ~ William Barclay
Happy Easter! Selamat Hari Raya Paskah! 复活节快乐!
May the Risen
Christ continue to bless us with joy and peace!
There
was long procession from ground floor to Holy Family
Church at third floor of
the building on Palm Sunday morning mass. I sat outside of the front
Church as there were no more seats inside the Church. All the statues
were covered with purple garments after Sunday evening Mass.
There was movie “Passion of Christ” on Monday evening followed by a
short reflection.
The Church was full for the Holy
Thursday 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. A young woman and I talked and
prayed together before I left almost 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 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 till Saturday afternoon. I
just realized that several parishioners don’t eat meat on Holy Saturday.
Twelve persons, adults and babies,
were baptized during Easter Vigil Mass.
When the Fr. Lu sprinkled the holy water, the parishioners hold the snacks or
fruits or candies up to get the blessing.
Everyone got an Easter egg and every family can get a bottle of holy
water as it’s the time to get a new holy water. It’s a solemn celebration
even though the Church was very full including in front of the TV at the first
floor.
The parishioners got another Easter
egg during Easter Sunday Mass. The Church: inside, outside, the stairs to
4th floor and back sections were full.
Ten parishioners and I went to Xiao
Du – Chaoyang , Guangdong after Easter Sunday Mass. It’s around 4 hours drive from Shenzhen. Ms. Lin invited me to attend the sacrament of
matrimony of Ms. Zhuo. Both of them are
the volunteers of our youth gatherings.
Later on I knew that Ms. Lin didn’t tell Ms. Zhuo that I would go with
them. We had delicious牛肉丸汤(=meat ball soup) which is one of their specialty. I stayed at Ms. Zhuo’s home while the rest
stayed at the other two parishioners. The
house is similar to 岭南(=Lingnan)
architecture, with 6 rooms, front
parlor, back parlor, part of the roof is open, 3D colorful paintings on the upper part of the room doors, long altar, bathroom outside the house next to the place of their two pigs, sign on the front door as a Catholics’ home. We decorated the Holy Family Church Xiao Du on Monday morning followed by lunch. There were 18 parishioners of Holy Family Shenzhen attended the Sacrament of Matrimony besides the local parishioners. After dinner, we went to Ms. Lin’s home around 30-45 minutes drive as we wanted to go back to Shenzhen around midnight to avoid the traffic jam at highway due to Qing Ming Festival. We had 莲藕汤(=lotus root soup) and 肠粉(rice noodle roll), both are specialties of this area, before leaving for Shenzhen. We arrived at Shenzhen around 6 a.m. Fr. Lu, Fr. Shi, Sr. Qin, Sr. Guo, three parishioners, four non Catholics and I had lunch together and then I went back toHong Kong . Here is the link of the pictures of trip to
Chaoyang: share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0EbuWrFm4ZM2Pi
parlor, back parlor, part of the roof is open, 3D colorful paintings on the upper part of the room doors, long altar, bathroom outside the house next to the place of their two pigs, sign on the front door as a Catholics’ home. We decorated the Holy Family Church Xiao Du on Monday morning followed by lunch. There were 18 parishioners of Holy Family Shenzhen attended the Sacrament of Matrimony besides the local parishioners. After dinner, we went to Ms. Lin’s home around 30-45 minutes drive as we wanted to go back to Shenzhen around midnight to avoid the traffic jam at highway due to Qing Ming Festival. We had 莲藕汤(=lotus root soup) and 肠粉(rice noodle roll), both are specialties of this area, before leaving for Shenzhen. We arrived at Shenzhen around 6 a.m. Fr. Lu, Fr. Shi, Sr. Qin, Sr. Guo, three parishioners, four non Catholics and I had lunch together and then I went back to
That’s all about my Easter with
parishioners of Holy Family Church Shenzhen. It was a
moving, peaceful and joyful Easter celebration.
Now, short updates about the last
four months of 2015.
Several parishioners and I attended
the sacrament of Matrimony of Ms. Yue at Kuitan - Jieyang , Guangdong . Here is the link: http://anastasialindawatimm.blogspot.hk/2015/01/sharing-trip-to-jieyang-and-shanwei.html
There were two youth gatherings at Holy Family
Church on January – March,
here are the links: http://anastasialindawatimm.blogspot.hk/2015/01/sharing-fifth-youth-gathering-of-holy.html
and http://anastasialindawatimm.blogspot.hk/2015/03/sharing-sixth-youth-gathering-of-holy.html
I initiated a
Lenten Campaign at Holy Family Church Shenzhen by inviting the parishioners to
donate their Lent saving money in a plastic folder for our charity works. I also translated several of Free Daily Lent
Reflections by Fr. Robert Barron to Indonesian language and uploaded to my blog with their permission.
Ms. Dawn Araujo interviewed me for “Q&A
of Global Sisters Report” regarding my cyber ministry last January, here is the link: http://anastasialindawatimm.blogspot.hk/2015/01/q-with-sr-anastasia-lindawati-global.html
Our Maryknoll Family gathering was
held on March 18. It’s an annual gathering for all Maryknoll Sisters and
Society members in China
region. Fr. Charlie, Fr. Isaac, Fr. Jude,
Seminarian Andrew and 11 Maryknoll Society members attended the
gathering.
I helped two workshops at Maryknoll Society
House Stanley including accompanying one of the groups to Trappist Monastery
and the other group to Holy Cross Church
besides continuing to visit inmates both in Lowu Correctional Institution and Tailam Center
for Women in Hong Kong .
While in Hong Kong, I also attended
the New Year Mass and Barbeque with the Indonesian Community, open lecture on
Pastoral Care of Persons with Same Sex Attraction in the Catholic Church,
seminar on Consecrated Life, Final Profession of two Sisters of Congregation of the Sisters of St. Paul de Chartres, Synod
Questionnaire Q&A Sessions, Mass of 90th Anniversary of MCS, SVD
Mission Day, Lunar New Year celebration with the Indonesian Community, and
Farewell party of Jane.
with love and prayer,
Sr. Anastasia B. Lindawati, M.M.
Let’s do simple things with simple love to make God’s love visible
No comments:
Post a Comment