St Mary's Cathedral Parish Day

Sandakan : Weather permitting; the Cathedral Parish of St. Mary’s celebrates the Feast of the Assumption in a big way. The celebration was held on the 14-08-2009 with an outdoor Mass at the Grotto on the St. Mary’s Cathedral Ground.

Traditionally, this has been a “big” occasion with elaborate preparations for it and it is also the day the Parish celebrates its Parish Day. It is also the only Church function that presents an opportunity for public demonstration of ones’ faith in the procession that precedes the Mass. At the same time, it is also the only Mass in the whole liturgical calendar year that is celebrated together in the three main languages.

His Lordship Bishop Julius Dusin Gitom assisted by the Fr Thomas Makajil, the rector and his assistant, Fr Paul Lo celebrated the Mass. So it was a “tri-lingual” Mass celebrated in Bahasa Malaysia, English and Mandarin.

The faithful gathered at the St. Mary’s Parish Hall at 7.00pm. The celebration began with the solemn recitation of the Rosary in 3 languages followed by a short ceremony of the Crowning of the Statue of Our Lady, The Blessed Virgin Mary. The procession started from the Parish Hall making its way to the Grotto through the main access road of the Cathedral.

On the following morning, 15-08-2009, a jogathon to raise fund for the parish was held in front of the Parish Hall. This was participated by many age groups and it was an activity planned for the Parish Day Celebration.

The highlight of the Parish Day celebration was the dinner, which was held on the 16-08-2009 in the St. Mary’s Parish Hall. This was a potluck and partly subsidized dinner by all the groups of the Parish. His Lordship, Bishop Julius was the Guest of Honor for the event. Groups from the Parish including the sub parishes gave presentations during the occasion. The Sunday school children also took part in the presentations. For this year a catchy theme of “Christ for all & all for Christ” was chosen for the celebration.

Article by Terrence Ngui and photos by Bell