Church – Page 31 – Welcome to Cambodia, and…..

My Mistake

I usually try to post some more substantial content on Sundays but yesterday was really chaotic. I prepared the photos in the post below this one but then forgot to put them here on the website. Sorry!

A Sad Funeral…continued

Cambodia doesn’t have funeral homes because 94% of the people are Buddhist and are cremated within twenty-four hours after the body stays at the family home overnight. Because Mr. Uchenna was to be buried, we had a funeral at the mortuary in the hospital. Mr. Bede Uwalaka was a lector for the scripture readings.

The cemetery was in the next province and it took us almost two hours to drive there. After the coffin was placed in the shallow grave, the family and friends began to fill the grave with dirt and then the job was finished by this cemetery worker.

After the grave was filled, a worker immediately smoothed out a thin concrete cover the grave.

Mr. Austin Koleyoke (right, with white shirt), the president of the Nigerian association in Cambodia, then spoke to those who had come to the cemetery and thanked them for their presence and their tribute to their deceased brother.

A Sad Funeral

Recently one of our Nigerian parishioners was killed in an auto accident and today we had his funeral outside at the mortuary before driving to a burial site in a neighboring province. He leaves behind his Khmer wife and a five-month old son and a stepson.

Things to come…

This is the small chapel at St. Joseph Church where the English community will move in a week or two. We need to find a way to mount a projector and screen visible for the whole congregation, without destroying the esthetics of the chapel.

It’s going to be different!

We are going to have to move from our present hall where we celebrate mass to this small chapel at St. Joseph Church, probably in a couple weeks. We had planned the move at the beginning of the year but that was before social distancing started, so tonight after our 5:30 PM mass, we moved a bunch of chairs over to the chapel so we can arrange them tomorrow in different configurations to see how many people we can accommodate there with our new reality. [Thanks to all the parishioners who helped us move a chair or two!]

Restarting the English Masses

This is the third weekend we have offered masses on Saturday evening and Sunday morning for groups of twenty parishioners. Click here for more on the Sunday morning mass.

Health and Spirituality

Today at a priests meeting, Bishop Olivier showed us a new gym or exercise room he has set up at the pastoral center. It will be useful for the seminarians living there and also for all the guests who come for retreats and meetings.

Reopening the English church

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This weekend we had three masses, two on Saturday and one Sunday morning, each with less than twenty people, the first time our English community has met in more than three months. Click here to see some photos from the start of our gathering again.

Sunday of the Spirits

Today is Pentecost Sunday for Christians. Last week on the day of the Ascension, Jesus handed over his mission to the apostles before ascending into heaven. Today Jesus imparts his Spirit to guide and strengthen the apostles in their mission to the ends of the earth.

The Khmer culture attends to the spirits also.

In the pictures above, a dental assistant at a dentist’s office first says a prayer, holding sticks of incense (L), and then she puts the incense (M) in the shrine on the right side of the entrance. Then she puts more incense in the holder to the left of doorway.

White people. Do Something.

An excerpt from a statement by the heads of seven committees of the US Catholic Conference of Bishops:

We are broken-hearted, sickened, and outraged to watch another video of an African American man being killed before our very eyes. What’s more astounding is that this is happening within mere weeks of several other such occurrences. This is the latest wake-up call that needs to be answered by each of us in a spirit of DETERMINED CONVERSION.

Racism is not a thing of the past or simply a throwaway political issue to be bandied about when convenient. It is a real and present danger that must be met head on. As members of the Church, we must stand for the more difficult right and just actions instead of the easy wrongs of indifference. We cannot turn a blind eye to these atrocities and yet still try to profess to respect every human life. We serve a God of love, mercy, and justice.

“Determined conversion” could work….