Holy Spirit parishioners urged to Thrive, Thrive, Thrive

Jun 26, 2014

By Gregory R. Warrier
This year, the celebrations for Pentecost, the Feastday of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, began on Monday June 2 with a Novena to the Holy Spirit at the Family level. The next day the Novena prayers were at the BEC level.

Starting Wednesday June 4 the celebrations continued at the Cathedral, in three languages simultaneously. Fr Gregory Hon, OCD, from Singapore preached in English; Fr James Yeh, OCD from Taiwan preached in Mandarin while Fr Arul Sagayaraj Mariadass, OFM from Melaka Johor Diocese preached in Tamil.

At the Pentecost Vigil, Masses were also celebrated at three centres. After Mass, everyone adjourned for a pot-bless Agape meal. Then at 8.30pm High Praise was celebrated followed by Breaking of the Word by Msgr Bernard Paul, the Parish Priest.

On Pentecost Sunday, the Cathedral was filled to capacity for the multi-lingual Feastday Mass. The main celebrant was Rt Rev Sebastian Francis, Bishop of Penang together with Msgr Bernard Paul, the Parish Priest, Fr Gregory Hon, OCD, Fr James Yeh, OCD and Fr Arul Sagayaraj Mariadass, OFM.

In his homily, Bishop Sebastian spoke on the main theme of the feastday celebrations — Thrive! Thrive! Thrive! which means to flourish, blossom and prosper. “In order to achieve this, we need to surrender to the Lordship of Jesus who sanctifies us. We must remember that we are called and chosen to be His disciples and therefore we will thrive.”

“Today I invite everyone to worship the Jesus who has ascended and is seated at the right hand of the Father and is now interceding for everyone. He is the one who will send the Holy Spirit. The Spirit will remain with the Church until the end of time and prepare us for the second coming.”

Bishop Sebastian then moved on to the mission “to live and share the Gospel with everyone”. He mentioned some of the challenges that we are facing today.

1. The crises in the Middle East
2. The decision on the ‘Allah’ issue on June 23
'3. The effect of the coming El Nino.
4. Personal challenges.

“We need to surrender all these and other challenges to Jesus Christ and make Him our personal saviour. We need to know Him” said the prelate.

At the end of the Mass, Msgr Bernard Paul spoke briefly about the project to make the parish a colourful parish and invited everyone to contribute a floral collage of their family that will go on the walls of the Cathedral. He also spoke about the SCORE programme that is to be launched soon.

After Mass, everyone joined in the Parish lunch.