Migrant & Refugee Sunday

Today was the Migrant and Refugee Sunday in Church and it was just very gratifying to see the Church full-packed with people as well as with activities. Some people, specifically those with special roles, came in their national costumes (bet it was so cold for Barong Tagalog & Baro't Saya). Most had the festive mood before the mass even started. The choir was well-attended and Philippines very well-represented.

There were two co-celebrants with Fr. John and one of them was Fr. Crismark (?), a Filipino priest; the other one a Korean priest.

The kyrie was sung in Indonesian, Korean and Irish.

The first reading was in Korean.

The psalms was in English and was sung by a Filipino.

The second reading was in Indian language.

The Gospel was in English and was read by Fr. Crismark.

During the Homily, Fr. John reiterated that Australia, our country, is a migrant country and he couldn't have emphasized it more. We all have chosen to emigrate and how distinct we all may be, wherever we may have come from, no matter how small or big our eyes are, how white or black our colors are, we are all here to make it work and to respect the diversity of the cultures. He put it really very well and I actually had goose-bumps listening to his message.

The prayers of the faithful was in different languages, amongst which was in Filipino.

And the offertory was presented by, our best guess, the Dutch.

The Lord's Prayer was sung in the original Latin lyrics (for several weeks now so most of us are already familiar with the pronounciation, not enough to memorize it though!).

It was a beautiful celebration and an interesting experience for us. We are proud to be part of the community but it just makes it more difficult for us to decide to leave the council (we are house-hunting again and who knows where this will bring us this time around!).