Sandakan : More than 500 faithful of St Mary’s Cathedral gathered at the Parish Hall to celebrate the Parish Family Day with the theme ‘Our Parish, Our Family’ in conjunction with the Feast of Holy Family this morning, Sunday 27th December 2009.
The feast of the holy family celebrates the family unit and the family of Jesus: Jesus of Nazareth, his mother the Blessed Virgin Mary and his foster father, St Joseph. The feast usually falls on the Sunday after Christmas and is not just on the holy family but also about our own families too.
Patrick Seah, representative of the Pastoral Council in his welcoming speech touched on the gist of obedience and faithfulness being the essence of the Christian faith to build the Kingdom of God, citing the examples of Mary and the great apostle Peter.
Fr Thomas Makajil, rector of the Cathedral urged all parishioners to live, share and love one another modelled on the holy family of Jesus. Our family life becomes sanctified when we live a life of the Church within our homes. He called on everyone to make each home a ‘family church’
– a Small Christian Community in line with the pastoral thrust of the Diocese.
After the speech, parishioners had a fellowship lunch to the accompaniment of beautiful carol songs presented by the The Youth Music Ministry (YMM) led by Christopher Aban.
DS