Welcome to the Macau-China Bulletin: November 2010

Feast of St. Claret & the Universal Claretian Mission Day

Bishop Joseph Lai Presiding the Eucharistic Celebration

The feast of Claret, October 24, coincided this year with the universal Mission Day, an ideal opportunity for the congregation that takes “evangelization” at the core of its mission. The Congregation at the Festal Mass

In the feast-day celebration, the missionaries expressed the “spirit of communion” with the local church as we celebrated the feast-day of our founder St. Anthony M. Claret on the same day of Mission Sunday, with a Holy Mass followed by a shared lunch, with a very strong sense of "evangelization" and “communion.”

The Celebrants together with Bishop Joseph Lai

The Feast Day Celebrations began with the Concelebrated Eucharistic celebration presided by Bishop Joseph Lai, the Bishop of Macau. A Section of the Choir

In his homily, Bishop Lai stressed on the ever-growing need for the Evangelization Mission centered on the Eucharist. Frs. Alberto and Jojo join the Bishop in Cutting the Cake

The call to preach the Word of God is as relevant as it was in the earlier times. He used the example of Bishop Antony Claret, who chose to leave his home town and went as a Missionary to Cuba and the Canary Islands, to bring home the theme of evangelizing mission.

The Claretian Community of Macau - Frs. Jojo, Alberto, Ezakias and Jose together with Bishop Joseph Lai, Bishop of Macau

Bishop Lai exhorted the faithful of Macau to take up the mission of evangelization in all its seriousness as Macau has easy access to the Mainland China, where vast majority of the population are yet to hear about Jesus .

A gathering of about 300, consisting priests, nuns, benefactors, well-wishers and friends of the Claretians in Macau and Hong Kong added colour to the festivities of the day.

The 'Team Macau': Ian, Fr. Jojo, Tes, Fr. Rossa & Divine (all seated in the front row) with a group of friends

Fr. Domingos Yuen, the parish priest of St Lawrence Church and members of various pious associations like the Altar servers, the Choir, Mothers' Association etc. played their role well, sharing in our joy and making the day a joyous one.

A group of sisters from the Mainland China. Fr. John Ledesma, SDB (not in picture) guided a week-long retreat for them in Barbastro House in Zhuhai, China
A view from the Dining Hall

A group of friends from Hong Kong