Marco Carvalho
Two different pilgrim icons of the Sacred Heart of Jesus are touring Macau since early October, with local Catholics being urged to promote, encourage and pray for vocations. The visit of the Pilgrim Image of the Sacred Heart provides the families – that have joined the initiative – moments of joy, evangelization and prayer, thus contributing both to the development of a vocation culture and to the encouragement of the devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus among local households.
This newly-founded network of Catholic families sees a beautiful portable shrine of the Sacred Heart of Jesus move from home to home on pilgrimage, spending three days every month with each family. During those three days, the participating households are invited to pray for vocations and to promote the spirit of devotion to the Sacred Heart. The monthly visits take place under the spiritual guidance of Father Daniel Ribeiro. The Dehonian missionary suggests different moments of prayer and different themes for reflection for each month: “We currently have two pilgrim images moving from home to home. These images remain two to three days in each household. The aim of this initiative is to urge local Catholics to pray for vocations,” the parochial vicar of the Cathedral of the Nativity of Our Lady told O Clarim. “This pilgrimage started in early October and will continue until June, when the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus takes place,” the Brazilian missionary adds.
This month, the families that joined the initiative were invited to pray for Adriano Agostinho and Bosco Chan Pak Lam. Both seminarians will be ordained Deacons by Bishop Stephen Lee on December 30th in a ceremony that will take place in Macau’s Cathedral.
The monthly visits began on October 6th, when 11 families came together to launch the the initiative. The interest shown by other households led to the formation of a second group of participating families. The initiative, which was originally promoted by the Portuguese-speaking Catholic community, was also adopted by the Chinese-speaking Catholic community, one of the project’s promoters told O Clarim: “In our own group we have families of several different nationalities and the prayers and considerations are both in Portuguese and English. The Chinese community also joined the initiative and organized their own group to receive the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus,” the same source said.
“In June, when the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is celebrated, we will organize a special novena and families who wish so will be able to consecrate themselves to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. God willing, we will continue with this initiative for much longer,” our source – who humbly requested not to be identified – concludes.
Follow
