Fr Sunny Chung celebrates his fourth sacerdotal anniversary

Fr Sunny Chung (pic), the assistant rector of the Cathedral Parish, celebrated his 4th Sacerdotal Anniversary, Friday August 1 at St Mary’s Cathedral.

Aug 14, 2014

By DaliusLL
Fr Sunny Chung (pic), the assistant rector of the Cathedral Parish, celebrated his 4th Sacerdotal Anniversary, Friday August 1 at St Mary’s Cathedral. This special day was marked with him accompanying the Rector in blessing and officiating the Marian Bookshop located at the ground floor of the Parish Building before proceeding to the Cathedral for the Mass.

Fr Chung presided over the 6:30 pm Mass with Fr Thomas Makajil, the rector and Fr Phillip Muji, the assistant rector as co-celebrants.

During his homily, Fr Chung shared on God’s calling him to the ministry of the priesthood. Firstly, he recalled how at the tender age of eight, his pious grand-aunt had foreseen that he would be a priest one day. Secondly during his youth ministry days in St Joseph's Church, Papar, he was touched by the late Fr Amandus. Though advanced in age, he kept serving the Church diligently. He came to realize then, that the Church was in dire need of younger priests.

At that time, he was hoping and praying that God would call his friends in the youth ministry to the priesthood. However, as time went by, his friends were getting further and further away from the Church due to other commitments. One day, an announcement was made in the Church about a vocation seminar. He responded just to get the feel of it. Instead, he was the one God called and he fell in love with this sacred vocation.

Although he faced many trials and challenges during his formation journey towards the ministry of priesthood, he never gave up because he always relied on and drew strength from God.

After Mass, Fr Thomas thanked the family members of Fr Chung who came all the way from Papar, religious Brothers of St Gabriel, the Franciscan Sisters, the Good Shepherd Sisters and all parishioners who came in support of Fr Chung. He thanked the Lord for the gift of Fr Chung to the priesthood. He prayed that Fr Chung would continue to serve in the Diocese of Sandakan and particularly in St Mary’s Cathedral for many more years to come.

The parish organised a potluck dinner after Mass with Bishop Julius Dusin Gitom as guest of honour.

During the dinner, parishioners were entertained with a slide show of Fr Chung’s ordination to the priesthood by the Cathedral Parish SOCCOM and presentations from the Youth, the Chinese and Indonesian community. The event concluded at 10.00pm with a closing prayer led by Bishop Julius.

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