3118 CIN Professions, jubilees
austraLasia #3118
China Province
celebrates profession, jubilees
HONG KONG 18 August
2012 --
16 August is an occasion for various Salesian Family
Celebrations for
China Province. This year they celebrated jubilees of
several SDB’s
FMA’s and SAL’s, and the perpetual profession of Brother
Carlos Cheung,
clerical student at Salesian House of Studies. A special
prayer meeting
was held the night before to pray for Carlos.
The Profession Mass was celebrated by Cardinal John Tong,
concelebrated
by Fr. Lanfranco Fedrigotti, new Provincial of China Province
and Fr.
Francis Hung, the Rector at SHS. During the Mass, Carlos made
his
perpetual profession witnessed by confreres, Salesian Family
members
and his parents and relatives. Carlos then thanked his parents
for
giving him the best in his life including faith. He thanked
his younger
sister for taking care of his parents when he entered the
aspirantate
in Form 3.
Cardinal John Tong, in his sermon, said it was difficult to
choose the
path of a vocation to holiness in this world, with its many
distractions. It was especially difficult to observe the three
vows.
Poverty is to trust God wholeheartedly and to share one’s
spirituality
and talents happily with others. Celibacy is to open one’s
heart
completely to God, allowing the abundant love of Christ to
enter. This
was a transformation of personal affection/love to the love of
others
and letting God’s kingdom come into one's life. Obedience was
to unite
with one’s superior so as to build the kingdom of God.
A pilgrimage group has just returned from Italy after 13 days
of
pilgrimage. A sharing session was held before the Eucharistic
celebration to share experiences. Fr. Fedrigotti told us that
Don
Bosco’s greatest characteristic is faith. Abraham is our
father in
faith, Our Lady is the mother of faith and Don Bosco is our
brother of
faith. He said that all of us should be full of faith and
offer to God
our weaknesses, and allow God to utilize our weaknesses for
his work.
Fr. Simon Lam, as the leader of the pilgrimage group, proposed
calling
the pilgrimage “Finding our roots”. We should know,
acknowledge and
cherish the roots of the church and the Salesian Society. The
pilgrims
discovered that the statue of Don Bosco in St. Peter’s
Basilica is
above the statue of St. Peter.
Another impressive moment for the pilgrims was the visit to
St. Luis
Versiglia’s home town. The village elders felt very blessed
and happy
as their faith was strengthened by the visit of Chinese
pilgrims. A
seed from his home town was planted in China 100 years ago.
And now,
the fruits were back to the home town to celebrate God's
graces.
Although a typhoon was approaching Hong Kong, many Salesian
Family
members joined the tea reception and banquet afterwards. The
joyful
atmosphere and performance were not affected that night.
