MEMBAKUT: Akhirnya selepas 44 tahun setelah pentahbisan pertama di St Patrick Membakut pada tahun 1980, seorang pemuda ditahbis sebagai paderi Fransiskan (OFM) pada Ogos 11, 2024.
Akhirnya selepas 44 tahun setelah pentahbisan pertama di St Patrick Membakut pada tahun 1980, seorang pemuda ditahbis sebagai paderi Fransiskan (OFM) pada Ogos 11, 2024.
Lebih 1,500 orang dari Keuskupan Keningau, Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan dan Sarawak menyaksikan ritus pentahbisan imamat yang dipimpin oleh Uskup Cornelius Piong.
Friar William Nelson Evarinus Sipalan (OFM), 42, mengambil petikan Yesaya 6:8 sebagai tema pentahbisan: Setelah itu, ku dengar suara Tuhan berfirman, “Siapakah yang akan ku utus? Siapakah yang mahu pergi bagi kita” Maka kata ku, “Ini aku, utuslah aku!”.
Dalam ucapannya selepas ditahbis mengatakan, Friar Nelson mengatakan, “Saya telah mendengar panggilan Tuhan dan dengan hati yang terbuka, saya menjawab, “Here am I. Send me! Saya berdoa agar Tuhan terus memberi saya kekuatan dan kebijaksanaan dalam menjalankan tugas imamat ini dengan penuh kasih dan dedikasi.
Orang kuat sempena Misa Pentahbisan Imamat Friar Nelson, Fr Boniface Kimsin yang juga paderi paroki St Patrick, Membakut mengatakan, “pentahbisan imamat anak watan dari Kg Sinoko, Membakut pada hari ini merupakan sejarah kerana sudah 44 tahun tidak ada pentahbisan imamat di paroki ini.”
Friar Nelson ialah paderi ketiga di paroki ini. Meskipun Fr Saimon William merupakan paderi kedua dari Membakut namun pentahbisannya diadakan di Kota Kinabalu,” jelas Fr Boni yang juga berharap pentahbisan imamat Fr Nelson dapat mengobarkan semangat para belia agar berani menyahut panggilan Tuhan.
Friar Nelson dilahirkan pada Mac 8, 1982 oleh pasangan Evarinus Sipalan dan Stehphanis bte Binsin. Beliau merupakan anak keempat dari sembilan orang adik-beradik.
Sebelum menyertai Fransiskan, Friar Nelson bekerja dalam industri perhotelan selama 12 tahun di resort antarabangsa lima bintang.
Melalui inspirasi daripada karya rohani Sto Fransiskus dari Assisi, Friar Nelson terdorong untuk menyertai Ordo Friars Minor (OFM) sebagai postulan pada Januari 5, 2015 di St James the Marches Johor Bahru.
Selepas banyak berdoa, dalam tahun ketujuh beliau sebagai Fransiskan, Nelson memutuskan untuk menyerahkan hidupnya sebagai Friar Fransiskan dengan melafazkan kaul kekal pada Julai 9, 2022 di Gereja St Aloysius di Limbanak, Penampang.
Friar Nelson telah memimpin Misa Kudus pertamanya di St Philip, Kg Sinoko, Membakut.
Kini, Friar Nelson melayani sebagai pembantu paderi paroki di St Ann Kota Padawan, Kuching, Sarawak bermula Ogos 15, 2024 yang lalu.
PACE BENE, Papar – Retret tahunan keluarga besar The Secular Franciscan Order (Latin: Ordo Franciscanus Saecularis; OFS) telah diadakan pada 2-4 Ogos bertemakan “Mengasihi dan Melayani” (To Love and To Serve) di Pace Bene, Papar.
Friar Cruzender Alex, OFM, selaku pembimbing retret dibantu oleh Sr Dariah Ajap, FSIC dan komiti penganjur bekerjasama dalam melancarkan perjalanan retret tersebut.
Retret tahunan itu dihadiri oleh perwakilan dari pelbagai paroki, walaupun dengan latar belakang yang berbeza, namun semangat dan sukacita jelas terpancar di wajah mereka. Ditambah lagi dengan penyertaan daripada seorang warga emas yang bertongkat dari kontinjen St Mary, Sandakan, telah menginspirasikan para ahli OFS untuk terus menghidupi persaudaraan dalam kalangan keluarga Fransiskan mahupun dengan alam semesta ciptaan Tuhan.
Berdasarkan tema tahunan, tiga soalan menjadi renungan peribadi para ahli; bagaimana saya dapat mengamalkan kerendahan hati dalam interaksi harian saya? Apakah tindakan kecil kasih dan pelayanan yang dapat saya masukkan dalam rutin harian saya? Bagaimana saya dapat lebih mendukung dan mengasihi saudara-saudari saya dalam Kristus?
Kemuncak kepada retret ini adalah acara Fransiskan Joy pada malam Sabtu di mana setiap kontinjen membuat persembahan pentas mengikut kreativiti masing-masing.
Suasana dewan menjadi hening seketika apabila tayangan video semasa lawatan kepada mangsa banjir di daerah Penampang dan aktiviti menghantar sumbangan makanan ke St Theresa of Infant Jesus, Kg Kolopis dimainkan.
Acara kemudian diteruskan dengan persembahan tarian mongigol dari etnik Rungus oleh kontinjenHoly Family Church, Telipok. Tidak ketinggalan, Friar Cruz juga telah membuat persembahan nyanyian duet bersama ahli OFS dari kontinjen Tuaran. Persembahan mereka mendapat tepukan gemuruh daripada ahli OFS yang pertama kali mendengar kelunakan suara Friar Cruz.
Retret diakhiri dengan sesi soal jawab dan ucapan daripada Marina Anjuman, National Minister OFS.
My name is Friar Gerald Tan OFM, and I am one of a handful of lay friars in the Franciscan order in Singapore.
In 2020, the year I made my solemn profession of religious vows, I discerned that the Lord was not calling me to the priestly ministry – in other words, not to become an ordained friar – at least, in this foreseeable season in my life as a fully-fledged Franciscan friar.
Choosing the path of becoming a non-ordained religious – what we call a lay friar or Franciscan brother – came to me as a surprise. It was as though the Lord threw a spanner in the works!
Earlier on my discernment journey, although I had been aware of the option of not moving into the ordained state in religious life, I did not understand why anyone would make such a decision and miss out on the “full package” of being ordained.
Being ordained a priest always seemed to be the default choice, since those who are not ordained undertake the same duration of seminary studies as those on the path to ordination.
Others felt it was a waste not to go “all the way”. At first, I believed this too, thinking ordination was the only option. I also feared that if I did not get ordained, I would be seen as lousier, lesser, or in the Singapore lingo, “CMI” (cannot make it).
But closer to my solemn profession, I realised that these “scripts” and socio-cultural beliefs were not at the core of my discernment. This was not about missing out, but instead, about a deep and personal call from the Lord Jesus, and through deeply knowing myself in responding to that call.
Later on, in my journey of formation and discernment, I realised that becoming a priest was just one of the expressions of ministry to God’s people as a Franciscan friar, as there are many other ways that a religious can be called to serve God’s people based on their personal gifts, talents, qualifications, and the needs of the community.
One key question I asked myself during my discernment was, “Do I have the stirring and desire to administer the sacraments?” To be honest, I did not.
I did, however, feel a growing desire to accompany and journey with others through their faith and personal struggles, especially through spiritual direction and other forms of individual and group accompaniment.
This desire to be available to others led me to minister to God’s people, without being an ordained minister of the Church, in four ways.
The first was through being formally trained in the ministry of spiritual direction, which I undertook in 2022. I regularly meet young adults for monthly spiritual direction sessions, and also direct individuals in their personal or silent retreats.
Secondly, I was appointed the local vocation director for the Franciscan Friars in Singapore. This allows me to journey with young men and to help them listen to and discern God’s will and vocational call for them, be it to the Franciscan order, or otherwise.
Thirdly, my theological and spiritual direction training allowed the Lord to use me to journey with young Catholic couples preparing for marriage within the Church.
Finally, a unique way for me to minister to others was through hairstyling, after taking up haircutting courses for men and women.
The Lord inspired me to do this through a YouTube video documenting the ministry of a Friar-barber in America.
Applying this in the local context, I was able to merge the aspect of spiritual direction with the bond between hairstylist and regular patron.
This helped me to bring God into the everyday life of His people, providing a safe space and time for them to share whatever they wanted with me, while getting a nice haircut in the process!
“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is, when brothers live in unity!” (Ps 133:1)
What more can you ask for when Franciscan friars from all over Asia come together and the conversations and care flow so naturally between them? That is what happened when the participants of the Asian Franciscan Formators’ Training (AFFT) gathered in Manila for the two-week Opening Residency Programme held from 16 to 29 June.
As programme coordinator, I watched this beautiful reality unfold with gratefulness and amazement. These eight friars from Indonesia, Myanmar, Malaysia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam had interacted for three months in Zoom tutorials and online forum discussions, but this was the first time the entire group had met in person. Two of the participants are from our very own Custody of St Anthony – Friar Aiden Peter and Friar Cosmas Francis.
The in-person gathering was planned as a time of fraternal bonding and mutual sharing because formation does not touch only the intellect. The formation of formators must touch the heart, where love abides. The raw material of our spiritual life is our personal experience of God, of love from our family and loved ones, and our experiences of joy, sadness, fear and anxiety. These emotions, whether positive or negative, must be embraced to properly discern our vocation as Franciscan consecrated persons.
The trainers for the two in-person modules – Group Facilitation and Empathic Listening – ensured that the participants had plenty of experiential learning. The friar participants took to these interactive activities easily and had much fun while doing so!
In the feedback session, the participants expressed gratitude for the time together and shared that they had found the fraternal connection very life-giving. They said that they felt more empowered to become better formators and were grateful to the benefactors and friends of the friars for their continued support and prayers.
On the Custody front, all our friars gathered at the beginning of July for a five-day retreat in Cameron Highlands with Friar Paul Rout OFM, an Australian Franciscan Philosopher teaching in the United Kingdom. The Custody friars have a retreat together every three years to connect deeply with God, and to talk about our spiritual lives and what connects us as Franciscans. This is imperative as our intimacy with God impacts our relationships with our fellow friars and the people we minister to.
In July, our two postulants, Jonathan Ng (Singapore) and Maximillian Alexson (Sarawak), had a unique opportunity during their seminary break for a pastoral exposure in another entity. They spent some time in the Cebu Province serving alongside the friars there in their various ministry outreaches to the poor and marginalised, and in inter-religious dialogue. Jonathan also spent some time in June with the Myanmarese refugees in Kuala Lumpur, and he shares his reflection on this experience in this issue of St Anthony’s Bread.
All in all, we are grateful to God for the many varied experiences and ministries we friars have. And we are always grateful to you, our benefactors and friends, for your continued trust in us to serve and encounter those whom God sends our way. Please continue to pray for us as we pray for you and your loved ones.
