City Parish, Penang
Our Lady of Sorrows (OLS), Assumption (AC), St. Francis Xavier (SFX), St.John Britto (SJB)
Parish house and Secretariat is at Church of Our Lady of Sorrows:
33 Jalan Macalister, 10400 Pulau Pinang
T: 04-2261502
F: 04-2284519
Email: cityp2@tm.net.my
Parish Priest : Rev. Michael Thoo
Assistant priest: Rev. Dominic Santhiyagu
Secretariat Opening Hours
Mon - Fri:
9.30 am - 11.30 am (Christine Choong)
3.00 pm - 5.30 pm (Margaret Sim)
Satiurday:
10.00 am - 6.00 pm (Lucia Lai)
1.00 pm - 6.00 pm (Margaret Sim)
Sunday:
10.00am - 6.00 pm (Margaret Sim)
1. (Main Church) Our Lady of Sorrows (1888)
33 Jalan Macalister, 10400 Pulau Pinang
T: 04-2261502
F: 04-2284519
cityp2@tm.net.my
Tue/Wed : 7.30 am
Thu/Fri : 6.00 pm
Sat. Novena: 6.00pm
Sat. Sunset Mass: 6.45 pm (English)
Sunday Masses :
8.30 am (English); 10.00 am (Mandarin)
Filipino Mass : 11.15 am (1st & 3rd Sunday)
Bahasa Mass - 11.30 am (2nd Sunday)
2. (Mass Centre) Assumption (1786)
3 Lebuh Farquhar, 10200 Pulau Pinang
T: 04-2610088
Sat. Novena: 6.00pm
Sat. Sunset Mass: 6.30 pm
Sunday Mass : 10.00 am (English)
3. (Mass Centre) St. Francis Xavier (1957)
52-K, Penang Road, 10000 Pulau Pinang
Sunday Mass : 6.00 pm (English)
4. (Mass Centre) St. John Britto (1969)
139 Sungai Pinang Road, 10150 Pulau Pinang
Sunday Mass : 8.00 am (Tamil)
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City Parish leaders attend Stop, Look & Go retreat |
| Posted by Diocese of Penang (pgdiocese) on Sep 12 2008 |
20 July 2008
PENANG: Stop, Look & Go was the theme of a retreat for the parish leaders of City Parish on June 21.
Thirty-two parish leaders converged at the College General for the retreat which was conducted by assistant parish priest, Fr Dominic Santhiyagu.
Fr Dominic first explained that a retreat is a time of revelation and salvation. Once in a while, everyone needs to be alone in prayer. Even in the bible, we see how Moses spent 40 days alone in solitude and prayer (Ex 34, 28) and how Elijah spent 40 days in the wilderness (1 Kg 19, 8).
When we come for a retreat, Fr Dominic said that the most important disposition to have is the longing for God. We should feel rested and relaxed and withdraw from preoccupations, with an attitude of listening and the need to be reconciled. Only then can we feel the interior silence and stillness and can thus be open to ‘conversation’ with God.
At the Stop segment, Fr Dominic said that this is where we stop and take a look at ourselves for self evaluation. One effective way of doing it is to use the ‘SWOT’ method (strength-weakness-opportunity-threat)
Before the participants were let off for 15 minutes silent reflection, Fr Dominic showed some optical illusions to bring out the point that we will see only what we want to see. Then, with some scripture verses as a guide for reflection, participants broke off on their own individually for some quiet reflection in the huge, spacious ground of the College.
Moving on to Look, Fr Dominic said this is where we discover ourselves in God — through transforming encounters. He gave two examples of transforming encounters in the Bible. The first was the encounter between Moses and Yahweh. Moses encountered God in the burning bush at Horeb. Then he was sent on a mission to “Deliver my people from Pharoah.” (Ex 3, 7-12).
Before this, Moses had murdered an Egyptian and fled his country to become a shepherd. After his ‘burning bush encounter’, he had transformed to become a deliverer of people.
St Paul also had a transforming encounter with Christ in Damascus. Paul at first was a very well known persecutor of Christians. Then he was blinded by a bright light from heaven in his encounter with Jesus. Subsequently he regained his sight through Ananias (Acts 9: 3-18, 22:6-13). He was then transformed as a missionary to the Gentiles and became one of the greatest preachers.
During the personal reflection, the participants were asked to recall their own ‘burning bush’ experience and reflect on St Paul’s conversion and who was/is the Ananias in their lives.
On the final segment Go, Fr Dominic focused on going out on a mission and keeping the faith alive. To function as parish leaders, he said, it is important for us to keep our faith alive while we are doing God’s mission. We do this by being committed to our mission and sharing our faith experiences. He then showed the difference between kingdom values and maintenance values in the course of our ministry works. In the kingdom value, we look to our ministry as an ‘empowered ministry’ while in maintenance value, we simply look to it as a ‘nice ministry.’ Also in kingdom value, we concentrate on our ‘availability’ while in maintenance value, it is on our ‘attendance.’
Again, participants were given reflection questions with scriptural text for personal reflection.
The session came to an end after the personal reflection, following which everyone adjourned for tea and fellowship.
— By Lucia Lai
Last changed: Sep 18 2008 at 9:19 AM
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