Maryknoll in Hua Hin: #5

Every year Maryknollers from various parts of Asia travel to southern Thailand for an annual retreat and meeting. Click below for news of each day’s activities.

• Tuesday (7 January 2020) — Travel Day

• Wednesday (8 January 2020) — Retreat Day

• Thursday (9 January 2020) — Retreat Day

• Friday (10 January 2020) — Retreat Day

• Saturday (11 January 2020) — Retreat Day

Epiphany Gathering

Every year on the Sunday when Epiphany is celebrated, Bishop Olivier invites parish leaders, sisters, brothers, and priests to a gathering. He gives a talk and updates on what is happening in the diocese, there are some performances, and then all are invited to eat together.

Bishop Olivier addressing the gathered leaders in the hall at the pastoral center.
Always there are traditional dances associated with large gatherings.
This year the bishop gave bags of rice grown in church projects to each of the participants.
The sisters serving in Cambodia don’t get as much recognition as the priests but this year all the sisters present were invited to the stage to sing some Christmas carols for the assemblage. These are the Salesian Sisters (L) and the Missionaries of Charity, the two groups for which I have mass every week.

Notable Quotes

“It is not enough to offer someone a sandwich unless it is accompanied by the possibility of learning how to stand on one’s own two feet. Charity that leaves the poor person as he is, is not sufficient. True mercy, the mercy God gives to us and teaches us, demands justice, it demands that the poor find the way to be poor no longer.”

~ Pope Francis

Outdoor Creche

This year the Church of the Child Jesus in Boeung Tum Pun decided to enlarge their Christmas creche as part of their Christmas awareness outreach for the neighborhood.
They developed a whole village, even with a running stream. Already they are making plans for next year when they want the figures to be larger.

What time is it?

A website called WaitButWhy.com is a quirky little creation that offers interesting facts and viewpoints on a somewhat-regular schedule. Now at the beginning of the “20s,” it offered up this perspective on relative time perceptions.