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Fr. Hyacinth assumes his second term as a Prior of Saint Albert in Hon Kong.

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Fr. Hyacinth has assumed his second term as a Prior of Saint Albert the Great on January 15, 2019, at  07:00 am. Fr. Hyacinth 3

Homily of Fr. Hyacinth:

Dear brothers

Today, we celebrate the feast day of our brother St. Francis de Capillas, the Protomartyr of China. He was a Spanish friar who volunteered to join the Province of Our Lady of the Rosary to do mission work in the Far East. After working as a missionary in the Philippines, he was assigned to the Dominican missions in China, specifically in the Province of Fujian. Caught during the bloody war he was arrested and tortured as he was thought to be a spy and was martyred in the city of Fu An. image.png

It is a very meaningful day for all of us and thus I have chosen this day to officially begin my service to the community as Prior. I have chosen this day to do so for the following reasons: Exactly fifteen years ago, in 2004, I was received to the Order and began my novitiate. I was one of the lucky ones to be received into the Order after almost fifty years since the last Dominican friar was expelled from Chinese soul.

Secondly, it is to remind myself that I have to remain true and faithful to my original aspiration, that is to respond to the missionary vocation as a Dominican friar and as a son of the province. It is truly a grace to be called to be a preacher and to share the same vocation with S. Francis de Capillas who willingly offered his life for the sake of preaching the Gospel to the Chinese people. It is my honor and also yours to share this great charism and let us earnestly do our best in manifesting the glory of God through our words and through our actions. Let us not forget that the greatest honor we can give to S. Francis de Capillas to the great martyrs that preceded us is to be faithful to our vocation and to remain always faithful to His love.

Today, I shall begin my second term as prior to this community. It is not a position of authority and power but a position to serve and to see to it that there is fraternal love among the members of our community.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the brothers, for your continuous and unconditional support. With your trust and fraternal warmth, I am encouraged a lot to accept the office for another term to serve you all. As Fr Bruno Cadore, OP MO had said in his homily during the mass of the Holy Spirit, the prior’s main occupation is to see to it that the community is able to respond to God’s call, to be constantly renewed in God’s grace. I hope I can do this service, but in order to do so, I need each and every one of you to collaborate and to open yourselves to the motions of the Holy Spirit.

Lastly, I humbly ask God, on whose help and mercy we rely on, to bless us and the whole community so that we can love each other and work together, to create a healthy space in order to fulfill what had been entrusted to us: the ministry of forming our future brothers in both the communities of the novitiate and the student brothers as well as our educational apostolate at Rosaryhill School.

Let us never fail to invoke the Blessed Virgin Mary, S. Albert the Great our Patron and our Protomartyr, S. Francis Capillas to intercede for each of us. Thank you.

By Fr. Jarvis Sy, OP

(original text)