MARUDI — More than 300 parishioners from the parishes of St Joseph Miri and St Michael Batu Niah visited the Good Shepherd Church in Marudi on 7 September.
The pilgrimage was organised in conjunction with the Extraordinary Year for Mission which began on 6 Jan and would end with the closing of Extraordinary Missionary Month in October.
Bishop Richard Ng of Miri was the main celebrant at the pilgrim’s Mass. In his homily, he asked them to recall their baptism through Christ. And having been reconciled to God by the death and resurrection of Jesus they were asked to go out and share the Good News of salvation with others.
The bishop also encouraged them to be guided in their mission by the four dimensions outlined by Pope Francis for the Missionary Year which he themed ‘Baptised and Sent’:
- To establish a personal encounter with Jesus through the Eucharist, prayer and Word of God.
- To meditate on the examples of saints and great missionaries of the Church.
- To participate in missionary formation through seminars and talks.
- To undertake missionary charity to support the poor and marginalised.
During their visit, the pilgrims also said their rosary prayer, had their confession heard and visited the exhibition booths and historical sites.
Marudi was chosen as the pilgrimage centre because the first Catholic mission by the Mill Hill Missionaries started in Marudi more than a century ago. The mission was later spread to Miri after discovery of oil on the coast by Shell in the early 1900s.
Sophia Soo
