February 24 was a day of grace for Myanmar Jesuit Mission. It received the gift of a new local Jesuit priest with the ordination of Stephen Mar Tay. Fr Mar Tay is only the fourth Myanmar Jesuit priest. It was also a day of joy for the faithful of Fr Mar Tay’s parish, St Teresa parish in Ta-nan-U-kwe, Dimoso, Kayah State. His ordination coincided with the parish’s Golden Jubilee, for which a three-day celebration had been arranged.
A stage was erected at the side of the church to accommodate all the people who came for the ordination and jubilee Mass. The ordination was on the first day, after the blessing of the Golden Jubilee monument by Bishop Stephen Tjephe of Loikaw Diocese. A troop of musicians played traditional musical instruments to accompany the procession. A large number of them played homemade horn flutes fashioned from bamboo, metal or PVC tubes of different sizes. Others played traditional drums, gongs and cymbals.
Concelebrating at the ordination Mass were the retired bishop of Loikaw, Bishop Sotero Phamo, Bishop Peter Hla of Pekong Diocese, Bishop Raymond Sumlut Gam of Banmaw Diocese and about 50 priests including Jesuits.
The second day, Sunday, February 25, was the peak of the jubilee celebrations. It began with a solemn morning Mass to welcome the new priest. About 20 children received their First Communion during the Mass and about 15 youth received the Sacrament of Confirmation from the bishop.
Fr Stephen Martay SJ and his mother
That evening, Fr Mar Tay was solemnly welcomed in his village as the first priest to come from the village. The procession was accompanied by traditional music from the entrance of the village all the way to the Marian shrine in front of the village church. Every hundred metres or so, the sound of gunfire was heard, a ceremonial act to solemnise the procession. After the prayers at the shrine, the procession continued to Fr Mar Tay’s family house where he blessed all the assembled faithful. The evening celebration concluded with dinner hosted by Fr Mar Tay’s family.
On the third day, February 26, Fr Mar Tay celebrated his first Mass in the grounds of the village chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary. The Mass was held early in the morning when the day was still cool, and the green open space and the faithful villagers sitting around the altar created a beautiful ambience for the joyous celebration.
Fr Mar Tay described his ordination as an experience of grace. “People prayed together around me. It was a very touching moment,” he said. “My friends and relatives came from far away.”
Fr Mar Tay is the eldest of four siblings. He has two younger brothers and a younger sister. Before joining the Society of Jesus, he studied at a diocesan intermediate seminary where he heard about the Jesuits from his fellow seminarians. He joined the Jesuit candidacy programme with 13 other young men. Four of them took First Vows, but only Fr Mar Tay has continued in the Society.
He did his juniorate and philosophy studies in Manila and his theology studies at the Gregorian University in Rome. He returned to Myanmar for his regency, during which he took care of the Jesuit candidates and taught English at Campion Institute in Yangon. He was ordained a deacon in Rome last year.
Fr Mar Tay will be going around six villages in Dimoso until mid-March to visit his people who belong to the ‘Kapu’ sub tribe of the Kayan ethnic group. Then, he will return to Bhamo, where he has been assigned as assistant parish priest in St Michael’s Parish. He had served there as a deacon for several months.
