Holy Week and Easter
Claretian missions in Taiwan, Macau and Hong Kong are all concentrated on parish ministry in the respective dioceses. Here are a few visuals from the Holy Week and Easter celebrations in our missions:
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| The Priests of the Diocese of Hong Kong, together with their Cardinal and Bishops before the Chrism Mass on the Holy Thursday, at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception |
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| Fr. Alberto Rossa washing the feet of the faithful during the Holy Thursday Liturgy in Epiphany Parish, Mui Wo, Hong Kong |
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| Fr. Jijo leads the liturgy of the washing of the feet in St. Lawrence Church, Macau |
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| Priests in Procession before the Chrism Mass in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception |
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| Chapel of Repose in Our Lady Queen of Peace Chapel, Pengchau |
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| During the Way of the Cross on the Good Friday in Trappist Monastery, Lantau |
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| Way of the Cross in Trappist Monastery, Lantau |
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| Good Friday Celebrations in Lantau |
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| The English Community of Pengchau, after the Stations of the Cross on Good Friday |
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| Fr. Alberto Rossa during the Liturgy of the Passion of the Lord on Good Friday in Mui Wo |
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| Fr. Jojo leads the Easter Vigil Services in St. Lawrence Church, Macau |
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| Fr. Joshy James leads the Easter Vigil Services in Keelung Church, Taiwan |
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| Fr. Liju during the Easter Vigil services in Ruifang, Taiwan |
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| The Newly Baptised on the Easter Sunday with the celebrants in St. Lawrence Church, Macau |
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A 100 kms on foot in 10 days
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| With Fr. John Ledesma at the Church of Holy Sepulchre |
Together with Father John Ledesma SDB from Macau, Father Alberto went on a study tour cum pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the last part of April. During their study tour, they braved the scorching sun of April-May in Israel to walk through the paths that Jesus himself had walked, walking an average of 10 kms. every day.
They were part of an Italian group lead by Fr. Fernando Armellini, a famous scripture scholar and preacher. Fathers Ledesma and Alberto are involved in the project of translating the original Italian texts and videos by Father Armellini into Spanish and English.
During the past one year one of the pastoral projects of Fr. Rossa in Epiphany Parish was to make available the 200+ bible commentary videos of Fr. Armellini, originally done in Italian, with Spanish, English and Chinese subtitles.
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| At the Sea (lake) of Galilee |
He has spent 100s of hours in preparing the text and translating it into Spanish and English. A team of volunteers also help in translating the text into Chinese. All these videos with the subtitles are available in YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg_aElAOSJQC2j0YpW_Qv0w/videos?shelf_id=0&view=0&sort=dd
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| Sunrise at the lake of Galilee |
Hence the study tour to Israel with Fr. Armellini himself as a guide was a "rediscovering of all what I have learned through his videos, now in 360° canvas before your eyes", says Fr. Alberto.
His videos are also available in our parish webpage: http://epiphany.catholic.org.hk/home/armellini/
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A WYD Souvenir
The Claretian delegation from Hong Kong that participated in the World Youth Day 2016 in Krakow has recently brought out a souvenir - photo feature, to keep our WYD experiences for the posterity. Please click on the picture below for a pdf file of the photo-feature souvenir:
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72 birthdays and more...
Fr. Alberto celebrated his 72nd birthday in the Holy Land on 29 April. But the celebrations began a few weeks earlier in Mui Wo. Community members, friends and associates in an expression of love and gratitude, gathered in the parish, wishing him the Heaven's choicest blessings.
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| With the "Candle Light" charity members |
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| With the Vicar General, Fr. Dominic Chan and other priests of the Deanery |
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| With the members of the parish community of Mui Wo |
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Blame it on the Holy Spirit!
Ever since the the miracle on the day of the Pentecost, where Peter the Apostle was although speaking in Aramaic was understood by people of different languages, language was never considered a barrier for a missionary. Ever wonder how did the missionaries go around the world to preach the Gospel, without any clue of the language of the land? Indeed the Holy Spirit is still at work and Pentecost continues to be repeated.
But, Speaking and understanding Chinese is one of the hurdles that we come across in this part of the World. Fr. Alberto who understands little Chinese has an inimitable style of tackling the issue: He studies/surveys his audience well in advance and assumes the possible questions they would ask and gets prepared with the required responses. Here is one of such moments, which could lighten your hearts for the rest of the day!
Of late, his health was not very good and he was forced to meet the doctor twice a week. The Chinese doctor does not communicate a word in English and so he often goes with someone to assist him. On one occasion, the lady doctor asked him to show his tongue. The assistant translated the request and he opened his mouth to stretch his tongue out. On his next visit to the doctor, she asked him 你好嗎?
He immediately opened his mouth and stretched his tongue out! Only later did he realise that the doctor was asking him "How are you"? Ah dear Holy Spirit!
