After two pandemic and epidemic years, We Malaysians celebrated our 65-years of “Hari Merdeka” with the theme “Keluarga Malaysia Teguh Bersama”. We showed our patriotic spirit by lots of preparation – displaying the Malaysian flags and the long-waited parade took place too. Likewise, we at St. Joseph’s Church, Sentul decorated the whole church premises with both the Malaysia and Wilayah Persekutuan flags. This is a sign of unity in diversity as we put our difficult and challenging moments aside and came together “As One” to make this day a meaningful and joyful celebration.

While Malaysians and other nationalities gather at Merdeka Square to witness and manifest the works of our hands and the people who are working towards the growth of this country; we, parishioners and the migrants from Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Pakistan had a triple celebration – the Merdeka Mass, the commissioning of the 35 BEC leaders and our beloved Rev. Fr. Frederick Joseph’s 22^nd sacerdotal anniversary.  We began the mass with the BEC leaders marching to the foot of the altar with their BEC banners and after the homily the BEC leaders made a promise to serve the BECs with great commitment and dedication from their hearts. After the concelebrated mass by Fr. Frederick Joseph and Monsignor James Gnanapiragasam, the BEC leaders carried their BEC banners together with the parishioners marched towards the church grounds and sang the “Negara Ku” and the recessional hymn to Mother Mary to ask for her continuous support and care for this fascinating country especially our Catholic community.

We then adjourned to the hall to celebrate Fr. Frederick’s sacerdotal anniversary. We had Emmanuel Gerard from the servers ministry, Teren on behalf of Tamil Apostolate, Bosco voice of the Myanmar community and Mary Bernadette representing the BECs to affirm and acknowledge Fr. Frederick for his speedy works on enhancing the lives of the migrants, spirituality of all BECs and ministries through formations and the upgrading of the church premises. Bro Emmanuel and Bro Alfred worked tirelessly and did a 5-minute montage of Fr. Frederick’s calling to the priesthood and his mission. May God continue to bless our parish priest with knowledge, wisdom, peace, courage and love so that he continues to shepherd us to become disciples of the Lord. Thereafter, we had a wonderful and great fellowship with spicy and delicious nasi lemak and coffee. The fellowship ended at 1.00pm and all went back home with great smiles and joy on their faces.

We thank God for this beautiful and blessed day.

Thanks

Gabriel Moses
Chairman,  Parish Pastoral Council

 

சுதந்திர நாள் திருப்பலிக் கொண்டாட்டம்