THE USE OF MASS MEDIA FOR PREACHING
The General Promoter of the Order of Preachers visited our Priory on January 6, 2013. He was accompanied by Fr. Provincial Javier from Hong Kong. His stop in Hong Kong-Macau is part of his journey through the Region.
Fr. Eric Salobir, OP, stayed with us up to January 8 and conversed with the Dominican priests and the student brothers on issues related to the apostolate of the Order through Mass Media, particularly by the use of internet and online new stages of evangelization and preaching. He gave a talk to our students and invited them to write for the Priory’s web www.dominicansmacau.org As General Promoter, Fr. Eric is in charge of the web page of the Order www.op.org and of the monthly online publication IDI. He had some time to visit St. Paul’s School and the emblematic places and monuments of Macau.
Fr. Eric hails from Toulouse, France, and was ordained in 2006. He is a member of the Dominican Province of France. His next stop, after Hong Kong, will be Vietnam and the next, the Philippines. Â We wish him well. Have a safe and fruitful journey!
Vatican II says that the media of social communication “can contribute generously to the refreshment and refinement of the spirit, and to the spread and strengthening of God’s own kingdom†(Decree Inter Mirifica: On the Instruments of Social Communication, no.2).
On December 31, like everybody else, the Priory of St. Dominic said Goodbye to the year 2012 and Welcome to the new year of 2013.
On the last day of the year, our Fr. Provincial Javier, who was visiting us for a few days, greeted the community before lunch and wished it a Happy New Year. He used the beautiful lyrics of the Spanish song to Mary that our students interpreted very well “Santa MarÃa, ven†and invited us to change – for the better. After supper, we had some games and bingo directed by Fr. Prior Alex. By eleven, we had a Holy Hour presided and facilitated by Fr. Jose Luis. Just before midnight we said Goodbye to 2012 and welcomed 2013 with the eating of the 12 grapes and champagne in a joyous and fraternal spirit.
On January 1, 2013, we celebrated the first Eucharist of the Year in honor of Mary, the Mother of God and Regina Pacis, and prayed for peace in the world. 
Fr. Fausto presided the Eucharistic celebration and centered his homily on the Message of Pope Benedict XVI for the World Day of Peace entitled Blessed are the Peacemakers.Â
Within the Mass and after the homily, five brothers were admitted to the ministries of readers and acolytes: Peter Thoai, Sebastian Lee, Joseph Nguyen, Isaac Saw and Mariano Maung. Before the brothers and the lay faithful participating in the Eucharist, Fr. Provincial accepted the commitments of the new ministers in a simple and devout ceremony.
Tomorrow January 2 classes begin, like in other schools in Macau, at the University of Saint Joseph, where our students pursues their institutional studies, and at St. Paul’s School, which is run by the Dominicans.
By the way, the Priory of St. Dominic is presently composed of thirty members. Up to November 2012, we were seven priests and 22 simply professed student brothers. To these one more was added by the end of November: Bro. Francis Naw San, from Myanmar, who came to ourPriory from the Dominican Convent of St. Albert, Rosaryhill, Hong Kong, where he finished his Novitiate and made his first profession. Bro. Francis made his first simple profession on November 25 and came to St. Dominic’s the following day November 26, 2012. He is currently pursuing the institutional studies at the Catholic University of Saint Joseph. (FGB)
  The three challenges facing evangelization today were raised by the Master of the Order, Fr Bruno Cadoré OP, in his speech, delivered on Monday, the 15th of October, at the XIII Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, on the theme, “The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian faith,”
 According to him, the challenge of evangelization finds its joy and strength in contemplation. This insight made by mendicant Orders brings to light three of the challenges that evangelization faces. The challenge of knowledge; faced in dialogue with all seekers of truth, philosophers, scientists, researchers. Deploying the sciences and knowledge provides the opportunity to realize this “beautiful friendship between faith and the sciences†proclaimed by the Council. In faith one contemplates the mystery of the ongoing creation of God and his faithful call to the freedom and reason of man. In friendship we can, with men of science, discern the challenges in order to build together a world for man.
The challenge of freedom. In meeting with our contemporaries, believers and non-believers, it is necessary first of all to present the friendship of God with man, rather than formulating questions and answers that at times are not asked in the proper terms. Being led by God’s patience rather than relying on man, so that he learns to place his freedom at the height of his dignity and to contemplate the mercy of Christ, who precedes him, He who teaches his friends what he received from the Father.
The challenge of brotherhood. Religious communities desire to be places in which brotherhood constructed in diversity aspires to be transformed by the spirit of communion in “sacrament†of friendship of God with the world. And, because of this hope, they are challenged to broaden this hope of communion, tying their destination to the forgotten of the world, making of them the conviction of the Synod of 1971: “Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us as a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospelâ€.
