The Wedding Parade
YY and the Golden Carp
Tony – the new family member of Fr HuangThis was my first visit to Ilan [Yilan] 宜蘭. Thank God that Brother Sun accompanied us on that day. Our first stop was the waterfalls at Wufengci [Wufengqi] 五峰旗in Chiaoshi [Jiaoxi] Township 礁溪鄉 . There are totally three waterfalls. According to our plan we were going to visit all three waterfalls; but the road to the highest one was under repair and we could not visit that one. Consequently we had more time to spend in the Church, the Catholic Sanctuary of Our Lady of Wufengci, also dedicated to the Holy Chinese Martyrs (the official name is Queen of Chinese Martyrs Shrine). I said that this might be the arrangement of God.
There were only a few visitors in the Church, although it was just adjacent to the waterfalls filled with people. Was it not a reflection of the situation of our Church in the world? Were people just looking for what their eyes could see, but neglecting what their hearts would really desire to see? Nevertheless it was a quiet place, allowing us to pray easier.
After praying together in the shrine, we visited Rev. Huang, the Pastor. He was accompanied by three dogs: two black ones and one white puppy. The two big black dogs kept barking at us while the little white puppy played with us happily. According to Rev. Huang the three dogs were all stray dogs. The big black dogs might have bad experience with stranger and therefore treated stranger as enemy. The white puppy – Tony – was found just when it was born (found on the Feast of St Anthony, hence named after the Lost-and-Found Saint). It had only good experience in the shrine. Experience affects all creatures. I do not know whether the dogs may change their reaction to strangers in the future. I just thank God that I can escape from my previous bad experiences and would not treat strangers as enemy.
Our next stop was the National Center for Traditional Arts. There was a program called “Silver Carp’s Wedding Procession” presented outdoors under our enthusiastic Brother Sun. The actors – all elementary pupils – needed to sing and dance in thick costumes of folklore characters for nearly one hour in each show, and there were two shows each day: one in 11:00am and one in 2:00pm.
I was wet to the bottom just being an audience standing in the shadow of the buildings when I was enjoying this show. I could imagine how heated up the actors would be. Nevertheless they kept smiling, singing and dancing happily throughout the whole performance. I appreciate very much their attitude in carrying out their performance. I pray that I may work happily under bad working condition also. Thank God also that I am inspired all the times and hope that He keeps inspiring me in the future.
YY
30/6/2007
There were only a few visitors in the Church, although it was just adjacent to the waterfalls filled with people. Was it not a reflection of the situation of our Church in the world? Were people just looking for what their eyes could see, but neglecting what their hearts would really desire to see? Nevertheless it was a quiet place, allowing us to pray easier.
After praying together in the shrine, we visited Rev. Huang, the Pastor. He was accompanied by three dogs: two black ones and one white puppy. The two big black dogs kept barking at us while the little white puppy played with us happily. According to Rev. Huang the three dogs were all stray dogs. The big black dogs might have bad experience with stranger and therefore treated stranger as enemy. The white puppy – Tony – was found just when it was born (found on the Feast of St Anthony, hence named after the Lost-and-Found Saint). It had only good experience in the shrine. Experience affects all creatures. I do not know whether the dogs may change their reaction to strangers in the future. I just thank God that I can escape from my previous bad experiences and would not treat strangers as enemy.
Our next stop was the National Center for Traditional Arts. There was a program called “Silver Carp’s Wedding Procession” presented outdoors under our enthusiastic Brother Sun. The actors – all elementary pupils – needed to sing and dance in thick costumes of folklore characters for nearly one hour in each show, and there were two shows each day: one in 11:00am and one in 2:00pm.
I was wet to the bottom just being an audience standing in the shadow of the buildings when I was enjoying this show. I could imagine how heated up the actors would be. Nevertheless they kept smiling, singing and dancing happily throughout the whole performance. I appreciate very much their attitude in carrying out their performance. I pray that I may work happily under bad working condition also. Thank God also that I am inspired all the times and hope that He keeps inspiring me in the future.
YY
30/6/2007
