St Ignatius Parish celebrates 30th anniversary

“We love you like crazy!” These emotive words from a team of Redemptorist priests were directed often to parishioners of St Ignatius Church (SIC, as well as to the priests concelebrating Masses during the Redemptorist Mission Month in July 2018, coinciding with the 30th Anniversary Celebration at SIC. As their preachings were interspersed with personal testimonies, accounts of real-life experiences and anecdotes, spiced with doses of wit and humour, it can be safely assumed that the attendees could relate to these experiences.

Focusing on the theme Celebrating Family of Faith, Hope & Love, Fr Patrick Massang (Vice-Provincial, Singapore & Malaysia Redemptorists), Fr Simon Pereira (Novena Church, Singapore) and Fr Terence Wee (Novena Church, Singapore) celebrated daily Masses at homes of BEC members, visited the sick, the elderly and the home-bound and held numerous formation talks to help families reconcile, bond and stay connected. They also preached at SIC’s weekend Masses of July 28 and 29 with SIC parish priest Fr Andrew Wong CDD and Assistant Parish priest Fr Lawrence Ng CDD as conclebrants.

As the numbers were much smaller compared to Mass in church, there was much more rapport and banter between priests and BEC members at the home Masses. For instance, Fr Simon regaled BEC SS25 St Emmanuel members in sharing his encounters with the supernatural. Fr Simon had jokingly forewarned that those who listened may not be able to sleep but members took up the challenge nevertheless. The great thing is that good will always triumph over evil and God is supreme over all.

Fr Terence focused mainly on the Mandarin-speaking community where weekday Masses and a formation talk were held at the Roof Top of Costantini Community Centre. Amongst other things, the Redemptorists reminded families about the sacredness of human life; the dignity of the human person made in the image and likeness of God; the importance of the Eucharist, prayer and forgiveness and, critically, the place of God at the centre of family life.

Also contributing to the celebration were Redemptorist priests Fr Joseph Stephen (parish priest, Church of Our Mother of Perpetual Help, Ipoh), the main celebrant at the Mass on July 25, and Fr Robin Lomangkok, a concelebrant at one of the weekend Masses. Fr Michael Raymond OFM Cap (Custos of Malaysia-Singapore Capuchins) gave a talk on the Child Protection Act on July 7.

A nine-day Novena with Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration was held from 13 to 22 July to prepare parishioners for this year’s celebration. Another nine-day Novena was held from 23 to 31 July with the rosary and recitations of the Litany of St Ignatius of Loyola, followed by Mass. Anointing of the Sick was held after the penultimate Mass on 30 July. At the culmination of the celebration on Tuesday 31 July, SIC was fully-packed for the Memorial of Saint Ignatius of Loyola — patron saint of SIC — with a multilingual Mass at 8 pm. A procession comprising representatives of church ministries and BECs filed into church before the Mass. In the congregation was a group of visitors from Sabah in bright orange T-shirts.

Fellowship was shared after Mass to celebrate 30 years of spiritual growth.

Article reproduced from Herald Malaysia online