Golden Jubilee Celebrations - Parish St. John Bosco

By Jessica Li, ASC

Taipei, Taiwan, 19 March 2017 -- During these day our parish remembered the first Eucharist celebrated by the Salesian missionaries in Taipei Bosco's Hall, that time it was amidst rice fields.

Father Lin (林蔭清) and Father Wei (魏岳山) accepted the mission from Provincial and came to Taipei without knowing where they will stay or to settle down. This is to fulfil the dream of Don Bosco who had a dream about the future of the Salesians in China: "One chalice filled with sweat and another filled with the blood of Salesians." With his dream many Salesian missionaries were sent in many different groups out to Asia to contribute with their work and suffering.

During the homily our parish priest, Fr. Alphonsus Cheng shared about God's promise to David: "When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom."

Don Bosco missionaries for the young people, in order to achieve his dream, they traveled through the Ocean, first to Macau, later to Hong Kong and finally to this beautiful island of Taiwan. Our missionaries first set foot in Tainan (Salesian Technical School and Parish) then came to Taipei in 1964, they couldn't find the location to settle. With faith that God leads kind hearted people's help, they settled in one temporarily rented place, and then in 1967 finally moved to this new building, with kindergarten, expanding the Salesian establishment. At that time, who will know this church will sit in Taipei's bustling banking business area?

But are we the successors of Salesian missionaries who have the same ambition and the spirit of creativity and exploration? Based on this foundations we must rely on unswerving faith, optimism, holding on to Hope. Although we lack of religious, but we have a dedicated church, as long as there is ambitious team spirit, the courage to fight, we can still continue to bring dream to the future. May God Bless those missionaries and the predecessors of the past, and to continue to bless our church to start another milestone, to seize the opportunity to pursue another 50-year dream in the future. Amen."

In these days we have also celebrated the Feastday of our Assistant parish priest Fr. Joseph Fan (Vietnamese missionary) who has been serving the parish for more than twelve years. Time flies so fast, I still remembered he first came to our parish, he was always smiling and friendly. We could always go to him for anything when we are in need, when we are out of ideas, when we need a priest to back us up. He is also a "Bridge" for Parish Priest and Parishioners, now and also in the past. And his spirituality and homilies have improved tremendously during these many years. Now working with him, we see another side of Fr. Joseph – as our elder brother.

Related articles: AustraLasia 4310, 4291, 4284 (III)

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