FEAST OF HOLY SPOUSES AND CHRISTIAN MEDITATION

FEAST OF HOLY SPOUSES AND CHRISTIAN MEDITATION

On January 19^th at 5 O’ clock am we started our journey to Sampran to attend the feast of Holy Spouses and for our course on Christian Meditation. Before arriving there we stopped by Hua Hin floating market and farm.  We really enjoyed there for some times. The market was not functioning that time. But we had our good times in the farm. From there we went to Zonta, the place of Fr. Dominic and stayed overnight there. Then on next day we went around Ratha Buri to see the beauty of the place. We went to the Scenery Vintage Farm. It was really beautiful. We saw a lot of sheep there and we had a lot of fun there with different games like shooting, basketball, throw ball, archery and so on. We really enjoyed there.

We reached at Sampran on 20^th of January. We helped the seminarians there to do some cleaning as part of preparation for feast. Then we had our interesting football match against seminarians. Though they defeated us in some games we all enjoyed them and the seminarians too. 

On 21^st we hanged around Sampran to see some interesting places like Ban Puan (pastoral centre of Bangkok arch diocese), St. Joseph school, and Blessed John Paul II memorial hall. We went also to the cemetery and visited the tomb of Fr. John Bosco and br. Paul Arthit and prayed for the eternal repose of their souls. Then we went to see the Sangtham College or Lux Mundi. It is the only collage of Philosophy and theology in Thailand. Seminarians from all the dioceses and religious congregations are studying there.

On 25^th of January was the celebration of the Holy Spouses Mary and Joseph. All the benefactors of our Congregation in Thailand came to attend the feast. It was a big and holy celebration. At 10.30 Am we had our Holy Mass. Fr. Winai was the main celebrant. He was assisted by ten of our confreres. After the celebration of the Eucharist there was special prayer to Holy Spouses and all those who attended Mass offered flowers to them. After the Mass there was grant lunch and some programs. Fr. PeterBancha andFr. Dominic were the masters of the ceremony. In the afternoon there was a big foot ball match between the Stigmatine seminarians and those who left the seminary before. Most of them had come to attend the feast.Our minor seminarians won the game.

On that same day evening at 7.30 pm we started our course on Christian meditation with Fr. Presert from Redemptorist fathers. We went to their house and attended the course. It was 5 session course. We completed the course in two days. Christian meditation is an “affective” method of prayer in which we pray with our heart. We learned a lot about it and practiced it at the end of all the sessions.