Malaysian clergy’s annual retreat in Stella Maris, Penang

PENANG : Fifty-one priests from all over Malaysia attended a week-long retreat at Stella Maris conducted by Bishop Luis Antonio G. Tagle of the Diocese of Imus, Philippine.

The retreat focused on the Year for Priests’ theme Faithfulness to Christ, Faithfulness of Priests. “It is to lead the priests to rediscover and appreciate vocation to the priesthood and to follow the fidelity of Christ,” shared Bishop Tagle.

“I hope that through this retreat, the priests will achieve a certain level of confirmation of their vocation through sharing and conversation. They should feel confirmed again in their vocation. “Part of the confirmation is to find new meaning and new energy in their vocation.

“I tell the priests that the Holy Spirit is part of their ministry, therefore they are accountable to the Holy Spirit. I also reminded them it is important to foster communion in the community through the Word of God, the Eucharist, the sacraments, our shepherding love and solidarity with the poor and neglected.

“The vision of the Peninsular Malaysia Church, which focuses on communion, solidarity and service in the Kingdom of God was brought up now and then through my talks.

“I see the realities the priests face here in Malaysia are completely different from the realities in the Philippines. Malaysia being multi-racial and Islam being the official religion is part of the reality one can't run away from. I appreciate very much how the priests live through these realities, especially in keeping their faith alive,” said the 52-year-old Bishop. — By Lucia Lai

Some comments:

Msgr Daniel Lim, Archdiocese of KL:

The retreat is very good in terms of spiritual content. The Bishop, although he has a background in theology, his talk is very down-to-earth.  He made his talk simple,  lively and interesting for us to understand easily. He started off with a text from the Bible, then a prayer based on the text and his talk that followed is based on the scripture text. I enjoyed very much his  talk because he intertwined very well his talk with his real-life experiences… all in a humorous way. He also touch on building of community based on the PMPC III documents. Indeed I find Bishop Tagle has a wonderful personality and I benefit a lot from his retreat.

 

Rev Philip Empalah, Diocese of Miri:

Bishop Tagle had been a rector in a seminary before, thus he understand priests very well. I like very much the way he brings the gospel alive in his talk. He does this by connecting his own life experiences to the scripture. He had taught us how we can help one another in union with building community. I find his presentation very helpful to me, as in a way, he taught us how to make our parish alive.

 

Rev Maiccal Sinnappan, Diocese of Penang:

The retreat has taught me to deepen the spirituality of my priesthood.  Bishop Tagle stressed on the  pastoral concern for people tantamount to living in the holy priesthood. He showed me that there are lots of room for improvement and rediscovering the true meaning of priesthood.  I can then personalize and concretize the meanings in my life. I had learned from Bishop Tagle’s talk that priests must cultivate the evangelical poverty and solidarity with one another and our duty is to  serve and not to be served. On the whole, I enjoy the Bishop’s talk very much, as, though he is a scholar, he came down to our level and ‘spoke our language’.