The Chinese New Year Mass in the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, Penang held a special twist as an ancestral table was set up beside the main altar. The ancestral tablet was placed on the table for the people to honour their ancestors. They do this by offering red candles, joss-sticks, fruits, flowers, tea – all of which held symbolic significance.
Oranges were blessed and given to all who attended the Mass, while ang pow (red packet) were given to children. A lion dance performance ensued in the church hall, after the Mass.
Cathedral of the Holy Spirit decked with CNY lanterns
Four priests to usher in the 'Dragon Year'.
Red candles and joss-sticks found a place within the Mass
Priests paying respect to ancestors
Tea offering
Tea for the ancestors
Offertory
Carts of Oranges wheeled out to be blessed
Blessing of the Oranges
Children receiving angpow
A fellowship of religion and culture
Gong Xi Fa Cai
Cherry on the cake
A communal leap into the Dragon Year
Wow, what a wonderful gesture and spiritual RESPECTS for one human being to another to embrace each others’ traditons and cultures going forward in the 21st century and beyond – Peace and honour amongst ourselves in our very multicultural, religious ways of life as “Great Love” human beings!
Beware of any falling away from the Truth. The Lord does not commend us if we fall away. We need to repent of the sin of offering to the idols.
Catholics of St. Thomas Church Kuantan had these cultural practices for CNY for some years already. So this is not new to us!
As an ex-Catholic, all these practices are familiar. i don’t call myself a protestant (actually this is the name given to believers who protested agst unscriptural priactices in the church during the time of Martin Luther), rather I call myself “Christian,” the name believers were first known by at the church of Antioch in Acts 11:26.
No I didn’t faint. That is not to say that we are not extremely saddened at such happenings. However, why this grief…can only be explained by a serious study of the Bible.
“Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” (John 17:3 NIV)
To know God is to know He is Holy.
Earlier in my search for truth, the incident in 2 Samuel 6:6-7 disturbed me a great deal. King David was most enthusiastic about moving the Ark of God into Jerusalem. He put the Ark on a cart, and when one of the attendants, Uzzah reached out to stablize the Ark when the oxen stumbled, he was instantly killed. Like David, I was so grieved over this incident. I sought the Lord and did much research on this incident. Then I began to understand much more about the Holiness of God. We have to worship God in the way He prescribes, not the the way we reason to be a good way.
A job well done as in the eyes of spirituality/divinity we are one and images like this are truly heart warming as in the final analysis we are ONE !!. A HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS YEAR OF THE DRAGON. Cheers – warrick
This is what I called Spirit Of HARMONY………
Good on you…. Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, Penang
This is the beginning of the new world we are living in. It is a great respect of all mankinds in the name of god.
Great
The Chinese Catholic community here at the Divine Word Missionary, Epping Road, Marsfield,Sydney,New South Wales , Australia have been practising the Chinese New Year ritual of ancestral tablets and joss sticks for a few years now.
Congrats! This is more meaningful to me, as I had benefited immensely, from a unbroken 11 year Catholic education in SXI! As a non-christian, i would have normally been assigned to the Ethics class, but I had a rebellious streak that “qualified” me to be sent to the christian class, where I attended mass, novenas, etc as part of the catholic regime, and I think I became more wholesome! The news of the mix, rekindled memories of my younger past!
Good article for sharing. I like it very much.
At St Michael’s Church in Ipoh (the Catholic one) we have been doing this for years. I think it started during Fr Pang’s tenure, maybe before. That would be in the 80′s!
Worship is for our Almighty God only. Ancestral tablets should be placed away from the altar of God. This is the sort of practice which is confusing the younger generation and we should read the bible and be guided by it.
I think the culture for Chinese New Year should not participate in Church. It is alright for the Chinese to celebrate Chinese New Year at home. Chinese New Year is a cultural celebration and nothing to do with religion. It will create a mixture of Christian religion and Chinese philosphy. This will create Christians to fall into mixture of supersitious cultural believes. I am a Chinese, because I believe in Christ and during Mass I will only follow strictly on Chritian services.
I am really appalled at what is happening to our Catholic Church.
To have a special altar set up inside the church and using joss sticks to pray for our ancestors is an act of desecration.During the Holy Mass,the priests and the congregation should fully focus on the worship of Jesus and nothing else.If the priests are so concerned over the worship of our ancestors ,then I suggest that they should go to the cemeteries and hold all that they think is necessary to pay respect to the dead.Remember we have our day for paying respect to the dead i.e. All Souls’ Day
This type of ancestral worship is mainly practised by the Taoists and Buddhists.I wonder whether the present generation are continuing this practice.Yet we find this theatrical and outdated practice being reintroduced in our Catholic Churches.
In order to maintain the sanctity of the Church,Catholic priests should hold all activities that are not part of the Holy Mass, outside the Church.Most of the Churches have halls which is appropriate for events like Lion Dances,cultural dances,songs etc.
I am not against cultural activities ,but there is a place and a time for all these.
I appeal to all priests and bishops in Malaysia to ensure that the Church always be kept `holy’.
Bravo! God is all peace loving and kind. Good on you to all fellows of St. Thomas, blessings!
I wish i was there to eat some of the blessed oranges!
Do what is right in the eye of God according to His Word not according to we think is good and right. Remember what is right in our own reasoning is against the Word of God.Check the bible