St Mary’s Cathedral celebrates feast day with Marian procession

SANDAKAN – St Mary’s Cathedral here celebrated the feast of the Assumption with a Marian procession on 15 Aug 2017.

It began with the tri-lingual recitation of the Holy Rosary and the blessing of the statue of Mother Mary by Bishop Julius Dusin Gitom at 6:30 pm at the Diocesan Pastoral Centre.

Over a thousand parishioners gathered for the procession and the outdoor Mass in front of the grotto. The statue of Mother Mary was carried in procession from the Pastoral Centre to the grotto.

Bishop Gitom presided over the Mass,  concelebrated with Father David Garaman, Father Christopher Ireneus, Father Thomas Makajil and Father Stanley Matakim.

In his homily, Bishop Julius explained that God has preserved Mary from original sin and chosen her to be the Mother of the Saviour.

“My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour”  (Luke 1:46-47) was the theme of this year’s 134^th Parish Day celebration.

The prelate reminded the people that this year marks the centenary of her apparitions at Fatima. Mary appeared at Fatima to the three shepherd children to tell them to bring the message of peace to the world. And her other message in Fatima is conversion. All need to be converted to God.

Pope Francis says that “hope is the virtue of those who experience conflict, those who are struggling between life and death, struggling between good and evil and still believe in the resurrection of Christ, still believe in the redemption of Christ.  And that is the victory of love.”

Due to the poor weather condition, the Eucharistic celebration was celebrated in the cathedral.