BY RODRICK DESURI
Auki
The Buma Catholic Parish, Diocese of Malaita, in Malaita Province celebrated its Patron Saint Feast Day, ‘Descent of the Holy Spirit Day’.
Pentecost is a major Christian holiday celebrated 50 days after Easter.
Often called the “Birthday of the Church”, it commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other followers of Jesus, which empowered them to begin their public ministry and spread the gospel.
Buma Catholic Parish celebrates the event every year. It was previously celebrated with sports, educational activities, and gospel talks to engage the youth and prevent them from becoming involved in social activities.
This year and last year were different, as the event was organised meaningfully with Christian faith and no sports activities were organised.
Bishop Jacob Aba SM of Auki Diocese was the main celebrant during the feast day celebration.
During Holy Mass to mark the event, Bishop Jacob Aba SM reflected on faith, love, and belief, which the apostles have followed to preach the teachings of Jesus.
He said that because of faith, love, and belief, they dispersed and preached the word of God without fear, even though a few had unstable faith.
He also challenged the parishioners’ faith, love, and belief.
“I want to reiterate the challenge that I mentioned on Friday when I came to celebrate this feast day with you.
“That your fire has been extinguished, while it should be strong like the faith, love, and belief that the apostles had,” he said.
He urged the parishioners to begin reigniting their fire to strengthen their faith, love, and belief within their own families, communities, parishes, and diocese.
He said before solving any challenges in the community and parish, they must first address their own challenges within their families.
“You must first restore and resolve challenges and issues in your own families with faith, love, and belief before solving the challenges and issues in the communities, parish, diocese, province, and country as a whole,” he said.
During the feast day celebration yesterday, a total of 410 candidates received the sacrament of confirmation.
The candidates received the sacrament after seven weeks of training and preparation by their community catechists.
The celebration concluded with feasting, speeches of acknowledgment, tokens of appreciation, and entertainment from various groups.
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