Feast of Saint Therese of Lisieux in Rehovot


The Catholic community in Rehovot celebrated the feast day of its patron saint, Saint Therese of the Child Jesus popularly known as the "Little Flower" last Saturday, October 1, 2016. Maribel, coordinator of the community, reports.

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The celebration was most welcome especially during these troubling times when life seems to be quite difficult for many people and nations brought about by instability, lack of peace and the economic turmoil afflicting the world, which might cause many to lose faith in their countries and their governments. It is in this light therefore that celebrating the Feast Day of St. Therese proved significant because she lived her life with complete trust in God's providence, even during very difficult circumstances.

The occasion started with the celebration of the holy mass officiated by Father Andrew Wong, SDB and con-celebrated by Father Matthew Coutinho, SDB, Father Karol Kulpa, SDB and Father Vicente Supranes, CP and assisted by Salesian Deacon Vu Duchuan. Also present to assist the community were Salesian seminarians Brothers Javier Orengo and Andrea Lupi. In his homily, Father Andrew highlighted the outstanding virtues of great humility, evangelical simplicity and complete confidence in God's will lived by Saint Therese and practiced in her life which earned her to be declared by Pope John Paul II as "Doctor of the Universal Church" and one of the greatest saints in modern times. Also present to grace our occasion were the officers and staff of the Filipino Embassy in Tel Aviv, including the Consul General Pamela Bailon, Vice Consul Judy Razon and the new Cultural Attache, Geraldin Gamoso as well as Sister Regina Cobrador and other friends from Our Lady Woman of Valour Pastoral Centre.

Holy mass was followed by a short program where songs and dances were presented by different groups, including the Filipino community in Rehovot, Couples for Christ, Tel Aviv and Rehovot, The Visayas Mindano Organization Rehovot and the foreign students at the Weizmann Institute.

It was a meaningful, unifying and fun-filled celebration as displayed by the support, enthusiasm, cooperation and participation of everyone involved. The community's generosity is simply overwhelming as everyone took the initiative to help in all the works needed, from the preparation to the cleaning up and after care of the venue. Voluntary contributions of money, food and other items needed for the activity just kept on coming in. Everyone tried to share his or her creativity to do the make-over of our simple and humble place of worship. As we all knew, we do not have the luxury of time to religiously attend to all of these concerns and seeing everyone coming home early from work and working together to get things done was truly heart-warming. The atmosphere was very festive and reminiscent of our traditional Filipino fiestas where food and delicacies were served for everyone to share and enjoy.

As one of the popular quotations of St. Therese goes: "You know well enough that the Lord does not look at the greatness of our actions, not even at their difficulty, but at the love with which we do them". We envision this celebration to continue not as a show for people to see but as an act of love to give honour and praise to our patron saint and for the glory of God. May we emulate the example of St. Therese of the Child Jesus and continue doing ordinary things with extraordinary love.

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