Vincentians celebrate Patron’s feastday

Oct 14, 2015

By Lucia Lai
The small, quaint chapel of St Vincent de Paul at Selama was abuzz Sept 27, when 300 people from all over the country gathered together to celebrate the feastday of St Vincent de Paul.

There was a Eucharistic Celebration, followed by fellowship. The Eucharist was celebrated by Fr Simon Anand, from the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes, Ipoh. In his homily, Fr Simon stressed that we should not attempt to ‘contain’ God as He is everywhere, and in everyone.

“When the Israelites built a temple for God, they believed God was present in the temple only” he said, “thus, out of the temple, they did not live a good life as they believed God was not out there. When the temple was destroyed, they felt that God had been defeated and started questioning where God was. That was when God raised up good men, known as prophets. The prophets were a sign to them that God is a God of life, not the God of a building.”

Referring to the gospel reading, where Jesus’ apostles complained that there were people casting out demons using his name, Fr Simon said that in this gospel, again we are told not to try to contain Jesus.

“Jesus is in everyone. If we are bringing Jesus to the people, it doesn’t mean the people do not have Jesus in them. Jesus is in everyone, especially in the poor, and even in sinners, so when we approach them, they deserve our respect. Let us acknowledge the presence of Jesus everywhere, and recognise Jesus in everyone we meet.”

Andrew Yong, from the Diocesan Council of Penang, in his speech, thanked Fr Simon for being the celebrant and for the strong message he gave in his homily. Fr Simon was then presented with a token of appreciation.

Yong also thanked the chapel land owner, Philip Chong and family, for their generous and faithful support every year.

Dunstan Dominic, vice-president of the National Council said he was glad to see this tradition of celebrating the feast annually at the chapel. He noted that the feast celebration had been progressing from parish level to state level, then diocese level and now finally, national level.

National Council president, Watson Peters could not be present but sent his message through Andrew who read it.

Watson said that he was pleased to note that Vincentians from all over the country had taken so much time, effort and money to be present for the feast of our patron. He was very pleased as this showed that Vincentians are faithfully continuing the tradition of this annual pilgrimage that has grown from a small localised event to an annual national event.