By Evelyn Jock
A talk on the Liturgy of the Holy Mass was carried out on 21 and 22 February 2025 in St. Mary’s Cathedral with speakers from the parish clergy and religious coming to engage with the parishioners. A total of 100 plus parishioners, including those from outstation, such as St. Paul Ulu Dusun and St. Mark’s Church participated in this talk. The participants are currently serving as readers, commentators, lectors, altar servers, eucharistic minister of holy communion and laity.
On the evening of Friday, 21 February 2025, Rev. Fr. Simon gave an insight on the glorification of God through sacred music in the liturgy. Music helps parishioners unite with God as well as to bring the people to coalesce and participate with one another, in the mass. Sacred music is separate from spiritual music or music of the world that apostatize the church. It reflects and uses religious words, from texts in the bible such as God, noble and is used solely for the celebration of liturgy of Holy Mass. Fr. Simon gave an example of the “Our Father” prayer which is sung during Holy Mass. In the context of the traditional “Our Father” used during mass, the use of refrain is not suitable.
Deacon Ricky Boy Hasim presented “Adakah Misa itu Indah?” or ‘Is the Mass Beautiful?’. In reality there are people who find that the Holy Mass is boring, especially for those who attend mass only because it is an obligation. Deacon Ricky explained that the mass is indeed beautiful if one has truly prepared well for the mass and really wants to understand what the mystery of the holy mass is about. The mass is a celebration of the people of God who have come together and recognize Jesus as King. He also explained the sacred vessels such as chalice, ciborium, paten, cruets, purificator, and, etc. which are used during the mass. These sacred vessels were displayed on a table where the participants could view and touch them.
On Saturday morning, which falls on the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, the Apostle. Religious sister, Sr. Dorothy Aron explained who St. Peter was, and the Catholic Church started when Jesus handed the key to St. Peter and she also explained why Catholics should appreciate their faith. She explained that there is no point to hold a debate with unbelievers of the faith, ‘For those who believe, no explanation is necessary; for those who do not believe, no answer is possible’. As Catholics we enter into the mysteries of Jesus and we receive the sacraments which are blessings from God. She also explained that the Sacrament of Baptism is the first of all the sacraments in which the holy trinity lives in us and we become temples of the Holy Spirit. We also have Mother Mary, the Mother of Jesus, who intercedes in prayer for all of us. We should appreciate our Catholic which was established 2000 years ago by Jesus Christ, and today the Church is still standing.
The participants were encouraged to pray and sing along with the choir, for if the congregation do not take part in the singing, the choir has failed to lead the people to participate; they become merely performers and the congregation spectators. Techniques on how to use the microphones were shared by Mr. Cristopher Aban, person in charge of the Choir. Questions were raised by the participants and responded to by Rev. Fr. Mitchelly Kiun. Overall, the briefing on the Liturgy of the Holy Mass was very interactive and informative. There was an atmosphere of friendliness as mostly everyone knew each other and the interaction between the clergy, religious and participants were very positive.