Volunteers preparing for feastday

Aug 06, 2015

By Marlina Sara
St Anne’s feast is a yearly event. Though we have been organising it every year, proper planning and execution starts as early as February each year. The committee is set up, meetings are held, plans are made and rehearsals are conducted to ensure a smooth flow.

Every year, we have a strong team of volunteers, not only from the parishioners of St Anne’s Bukit Mertajam, but also parishioners from nearby churches. The number of volunteers is estimated at 1,500 people, young and old. A week before that, there is gotong-royong to clean up the entire church grounds.

This year, the novena to St Anne was from July 24 to Aug 2. A Eucharistic Celebration for the volunteers was held on July 23.

Before the Mass, a flag-raising ceremony to mark the beginning of the feast to St Anne was held by parish priest, Fr Henry Rajoo. The Mass was celebrated by Msgr Bernard Paul.

In his homily, Msgr Paul said that volunteerism is a call to serve. In Eph 4:28, we are called to do honest work, so that we have something to share with those in need.

Msgr Bernard Paul summarised it as “puting others first.” “To share with anyone in need, we must be clear in our mind set. I want to present the A, B, C, D, E of volunteerism:

A stands for awareness. We must remind ourselves to be open-minded and be aware of people’s needs.
B is the big picture. We do not come forward to help with a personal agenda or for our personal gains. We must be reminded that only God’s agenda matters.
C is common sense. We need to ask ourselves, ‘Are we serving Christ or ourselves?’ Use your common sense to differentiate between right and wrong.
D is dedication. We must be dependable and disciplined and most importantly, we need to have passion for Jesus.
E is enthusiasm. We need to work with joy and have a cheerful heart. Serve with a smile. As Mother Theresa said, ‘Let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.’”