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Feature News | Friday, February 03, 2017

From China to South Florida: ‘Xin Nian Hao’

Annual Mass for New Year puts Chinese culture, Church diversity on display

FORT LAUDERDALE | Jodi Ho, 17, a Chinese American, read the first reading in English at the annual Chinese New Year Mass and Ancestral Veneration at St. Jerome Church.

“This is the year of the rooster,” said the teenager.

Her parents are from Hong Kong and her mother is the vice president of the Archdiocese of Miami Chinese Apostolate. “We wish each other Xin Nian Hao — New Year goodness. This Mass puts our culture on display.”

Father Peter Lin, spiritual director of the Chinese Apostolate, celebrated the Mass Jan. 29 along with Father Curtis Kiddy, St. Jerome’s pastor, and Father Scott Circe, vice rector of St. John Vianney College Seminary in Miami.

For the third year in a row, Father Circe brought half of the seminary’s student body to the Mass, to experience the diversity of the Catholic Church.

Father Lin said that there are about 120 Chinese American families in the archdiocese. He celebrates a weekly Sunday Mass in Mandarin Chinese at St. Jerome and another at St. Thomas University on the first Sunday of each month. The three priests wore red vestments, the Chinese color for happiness. After Mass, Father Lin venerated ancestors at a table set up for the tradition.

Father Lin, who also serves as chaplain to seamen at Port Everglades, delivered his homily in Mandarin, telling animal fables about the New Year. “Basically, I said that happiness is found in God, and not in things,” he said.

At a reception afterward in St. Jerome School’s cafeteria, apostolate members ate Chinese food, watched members of the Coral Springs Chinese Association perform traditional lion dances, and played games, including one where lucky winners received a red envelope containing money. The envelopes were hidden under diners’ seats.

Seminarian Patrick Lambert said that he loved seeing the universality of the Church.

“I had no idea of what the priest was saying in Chinese,” he said. “But I knew that Jesus Christ was there and these are my brothers and sisters in Christ. The people are incredibly hospitable. Even though the language was totally foreign to me, I still felt at home.”

Julianna Agon came to the Mass with her sister and brother-in-law. Agon said that her mother, who helped organize the apostolate, was born in Hong Kong and her father was born in Cuba.

“This is the actual aspect of one body,” she said. “The people here are very helpful to each other, including my mother.” 

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