By Diana Marie
KUCHING — The Blessed Sacrament Church commemorated this year’s Gawai Dayak, or the Harvest Festival, with a pre-Gawai Mass on 25 May 2024, celebrated in a modest yet meaningful Mass of worship, music and dance showcased by parishioners.
The Church was engulfed in a sea of colours as the faithful from all walks of life gathered in their respective traditional ethnic attire in the spirit of the upcoming harvest festivities. The unique sounds of traditional melody accompanied the Mass, capturing the joyful celebration of thanksgiving for the year’s bountiful harvest received from the Lord.
The celebration began with Holy Mass celebrated by Fr Leonard Yap. It was also the Sunset Mass of the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. In his homily, Fr Leonard reflected how we are all happy because we ‘believe’. He said that starting and ending our daily tasks with the sign of the cross signifies a personal relationship with the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit; the ‘advocate’ that enables us to love one another freely, fully and faithfully. This Trinitarian communion of persons in love is tangibly experienced in our families, parishes and communities.
Fr Leonard called on parishioners to give thanks to God for the many blessings we enjoy and share them with the less fortunate in society.
“When we celebrate Gawai, we must remember all the blessings that we receive from the Lord that makes us and our families children of God and God’s dwelling place. May this Gawai be a time of gratitude and thanksgiving to God for giving us our families, our jobs, our relationship with others, our health, and the peace and harmony we enjoy whilst enabling us to share with everyone in our society. Spread the message of hope and love,” he added as he thanked the congregation for the virtue of everyone being together with each other in such events.
Before the end of the service, Fr Leonard blessed the bottles of tuak or Ai Pengayu, and new rice, as symbols of the harvest brought by parishioners, wishing everyone a Happy Gawai. The Mass ended with a cultural dance and light refreshment for parishioners.
