“The poor are your masters, remember that. You should be very grateful to God that you are able to serve the poor.”

This was conveyed by Fr Dominic Santhiyagu, parish priest of City Parish, Penang to the Society of St Vincent de Paul members of City Parish, when they gathered to celebrate its patron feast-day on 27 Sept. About 20 non SSVP members joined them.

“St Vincent de Paul is a man of determination”, continued Fr Dominic, “try to be like him. Also, ask yourself, if you are an inspiration to others. Ponder on why is the society not growing – is it because you, yourselves are not inspiration to the others?”

He asked the members to pray for young people to come forward to serve the poor though their society.

Fr Dominc, after his homily said a special prayer for the members and blessed them with holy water. There was a fellowship after Mass, where members and non members joined in.

-          by Lucia Lai
(appeared in the Herald of 23 Oct. 2011)