Sharing: 2016 Trip to Jiangmen

      Sr. Agnes, Ms. Wu and I left for Jiangmen by boat on Nov 15.  We stayed with Immaculate Heart of Mary sisters at the Cathedral compound http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholic_Diocese_of_Jiangmen.  The compound consists of two floors ex seminary, three floors Bishop’s house (the windows are on renovation), four floors convent, the Cathedral, and one guard room.

 Sr. Agnes, Sr. Huang, Ms. Wu and I visited the leprocy center in Cangshan, around 2 hours by car.   We attended the Cantonese Mass and had lunch with all the volunteers.  When I visited in 2012, around 60 out of 80 residents are Catholics.  There are around 70 residents now.  We went back to Hong Kong the next day.

    I got information about Holy Family Church from Bishop Liang during my first trip to Jiangmen 4 years ago. 

        Here is the link of the pictures: https://www.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0EbuWrFm4ZM2eA&emid=shareprintviewer&linkid=link

Hong Kong， November 23th, 2016

Sr. Anastasia B. Lindawati, M.M.

Let’s do simple things with simple love to make God’s love visible

Sharing: 2016 Maryknoll Colloquium on Inter-Religious Dialogue

Two sisters and I went to Siem Reap on November 8th, 2016 to attend Maryknoll Colloquium on Inter-Religious Dialogue.  The Colloquium was held in Metta Karuna Reflection Centre (http://www.jrscambodia.org/Reflection_Centre/reflectioncentre.html).

Fr. Sebastian Painadath, SJ gave presentation on Religion and Spirituality, Hinduism including reading part of Bhagavad Gita and led the meditation and Mass.  Two years ago Br. John Beeching, MM gave me the eye-opening notes of Fr. Sebastian on “Polarities on Spirituality” so I was looking forward for this colloquium.  One of his books is Spiritual Co-Pilgrims: Towards a Christian Spirituality in Dialogue with Asian Religions and here is the link: http://www.amazon.in/We-are-Co-pilgrims-Towards-Religious/dp/8172148976

We had a chance to see the Siem Reap’s Incredible Phare Circus.  The story on that evening was the true story of their founders during the Khmer Rouge (http://pharecircus.org/symbolism-sokha/).  We had a dinner and enjoyed Traditional Khmer Dancing Show (http://www.koulenrestaurant.com/) besides visiting three temples:  Ta Phrom, Angkor Thom, and Angkor Wat (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Wat).  We also celebrated the foundation day of Metta Karuna Reflection Center and the Water Festival (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoUjt0rhyMM#t=558, http://www.tourismcambodia.com/tripplanner/events-in-cambodia/water-and-moon-festival.htm).

We visited St. John’ Catholic Church in Siem Reap on our way to the pier.  We visited St. Michael’s Catholic Church in the Floating Village on their boat.  The children, mostly Buddhist, a couple who are the catechists and several volunteers were waiting in the Church.  The children sang, ate porridge for lunch and received a gift from a Singaporean sister before went home.  We had Khmer language Sunday Mass celebrated by Fr. Kevin Conroy, MM after lunch.  We went around the Floating Village before going back to the pier.          

Fr. Sebastian asked me to put a red dot on the forehead of everyone (=bindi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bindi_(decoration)) as a blessing before attending the closing Mass with Indian culture.  At first, I was asked to do simple dance during the Mass but I was replaced by somebody else.  It's a privilege to be asked to bless everyone and for sure, it was more meaningful for me especially as Fr. Sebastian mentioned that he asked me because I just had my final profession of vows, a kind of celebration of my final vows.   

It’s a fruitful colloquium as it gives me better understanding about Hinduism, religion and spirituality besides the opportunity to exchange stories with the rest of the group: Maryknoll Society, Maryknoll Lay Missioners, Philippine Catholic Lay Mission and Maryknoll Sisters.   Thank you very much! 

          Here is the link of the pictures: https://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=c502495541de767f&sid=0EbuWrFm4ZM2ei        

Hong Kong, November 23^th, 2016

Sr. Anastasia B. Lindawati, M.M.

Let’s do simple things with simple love to make God’s love visible

Sharing: 2016 Trip to Fujian

I visited my cousins in Quanzhou the last week of October 2016 by fast speed train from Shenzhen.  It’s around four and a half hour.  Five years ago, I went by bus and it took around 12-13 hours. We also visited Fr. Lin at Quanzhou Catholic Church (https://www.flickr.com/photos/asianfiercetiger/14769491648), several temples nearby and Mount Ming Yuan.

A young man picked me up at Fuqing train station.  I was wondering how come Fr. Chen changed so much.  Later on, I just realized that I was communicating with a former youth of Holy Family Church Shenzhen named Chen instead of Fr. Chen.  They have same first and middle names!  We visited his elder brother, who used to live in Shenzhen too, and then the three of us visited the Cathedral in Fuzhou (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Dominic's_Cathedral,_Fuzhou). Finally, I could contact Fr. Chen and he said he was out of town.  It’s a holy coincidence that I met the two lay men Chen especially the younger Chen.  I also met two youth of Fuzhou and then stayed overnight at a home-Church in Fuqing.

The younger Chen accompanied me to visit a Church with Door of Mercy and attended Mass at another Church nearby.  After lunch at the Church, we visited the Memorial Hall and tomb of Rosa Lin (Yu Chen), a Song Xia lay missioner.  We met briefly with another Fr. Chen, whom I met in Hong Kong.  The elder Chen recognized his voice on the telephone as his pastor, a small world!        

Here is the link of the pictures: https://www.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0EbuWrFm4ZM2du&emid=shareprintviewer&linkid=link

          

Hong Kong, November 19th, 2016

Sr. Anastasia B. Lindawati, M.M.

Let’s do simple things with simple love to make God’s love visible

Article: A Winding path to Maryknoll

P.S. I was baptized at the Chapel of Saint Joseph Catholic Senior High School (SMAK Kolese Santo Yusup) Malang in 1989.  My home parish is St. Joseph Mojokerto.