GUNG HAY FAT CHOY!

"Happy Lunar New Year of the Rat"

Dear friends and visiting guests: WELCOME!

Feb. 8th marked the beginning of the New Lunar Year 4706. In the Chinese Calendar it is known as "The Year of the Rat".

Lunar New Year is a time for rejoicing, for re-connecting with ourselves and with our families. To Asians it is a sort of special blend of the Western traditional celebrations of "Thanksgiving" and "Easter".

At the very heart of the "Lunar New Year Celebrations" there seem to be present two specific elements:

• The remembrance of ancestors and

• The prayer or the young generation, when elders ask for “good luck” and “prosperity”; past (the memory of the ancestors) and future (Young generations) find harmony in the actual present (adulthood).

The many cherry blossoms adorning the Church (they are fresh!), are intended not only to beautify the Church, but also to symbolize that life can be compared to a huge tree, known as “Cosmic Tree”. In it the ancestors are symbolized by the roots (invisible, but strong underground), the adults are symbolized by the trunk and its branches, while children are its buds.

The invisible, but life-giving sap that flows from the roots to the buds is what is called in Chinese: "Chi" which could be rendered into English with "Life" or, using a Christian terminology: "Holy Spirit".

The "Sky-God" is hovering over this "cosmic tree" which is the world, watering it with rain, and warming it up with the rays of sun.

With firing of the fire-crackers people intend to scare off the wild animals (Sickness, illness etc.) attacking the tree and trying to destroy it.

These rites celebrate the beginning of Season of Spring right in the mist of winter, emphasizing how life has to be found in the mist of death.

This universal truth is learned not from “sacred Books” but by observing the laws of nature.

People noticed how trees, before shedding their leaves in Autumn, make sure that buds are in place, ready to bloom in following Spring.

Farmers came to understand that life is always victorious over the power of death.

People also noticed how those trees which keep their foliage have flexible branches and/or needle-leaves.

One more basic truth was then discovered, that is: in the long and perilous journey of life “one has to travel light”; it means that one has to “let it go of regrets for the past,  worries for the future.”

One has to learn how to be rooted in the present. It is in the present moment that life/God can be found.

Important truths about the nature and meaning of life are thus convened through these celebrations.

As Christians we welcome them as a providential preparation to the Gospel of Christ and we intend to share them with our fellow men and to pass them on to our children as a precious legacy of the past.

The bookmark, which you will be distributed after the “ancestors’ ceremony”, shows a little “rat” which seems to enjoy the abundant food scattered around it (symbol of prosperity). The writing is from Rom.12,12: “Rejoice in hope, endure in affliction, persevere in prayer"is our well-wish and action-program for the year ahead.

Fr. Michael