Boroko: John Cardinal Ribat celebrated the Chrism Mass on 30th March at St Joseph’s Church, Boroko. 38 priests, few religious and lay faithful were present for this unique liturgical celebration.
Maintaining the COVID-19 restrictions of masks, sanitizing and social distancing, the priests and faithful of the Archdiocese of Port Moresby, joined in prayer for their priests as they prayed specially for an alleviation of the critical situation that we are in.
In his homily, Cardinal Ribat encouraged his priests to take on pastoral ministry, evangelization of people and formation of the faithful with joy and commitment. Quoting the Holy Father, Pope Francis, he said that he prefers, “a church that is bruised, hurting and dirty, because it has been out on the streets, in remote isolated rural areas, rather than a Church concerned with being at the centre and caught up in a web of obsessions and procedures”.
Being the year of St Joseph, he reminded the priests and the lay faithful of the qualities of St Joseph emphasising in a special way, that God has a plan for us and that like St Joseph, we need to be persons of action and fulfill God’s plan in our lives.
Finally, in this year of the Laity, he invited all of us as baptized Christians to live our faith and be witnesses as priests, religious and laypersons.
He concluded his homily thanking the priests and the people for the tremendous effort put in to organize the Funeral mass of our founding father Sir Michael Thomas Somare. He prayed for prevention and healing as COVID-19 is surging and that the rollout of the vaccine will bring in prevention and healing.
The liturgy was animated by the Holy Spirit seminarians.
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