Missionaries of the Poor founder marks 50th year
By Zyra Ponce
The founder of the Missionaries of the Poor (MOP), Father Richard Ho Lung, celebrated his golden jubilee of priestly ordination on July 4 at Heart of Mercy Monastery in Barangay Cararayan, Naga City.
The celebration was attended by Camarines Sur 3rd District Rep. Gabriel Bordado, Naga City Mayor Nelson Legacion, City Councilor Jess Albeus and other parish priests within and outside the city.
In an interview, Father Ho Lung reminisced his 50-years journey of being a priest. He said that he was involved in music industry 10 to 12 years before establishing the MOP. He said his love of music is a God-given gift where he evangelized through a lot of music and concerts together with his friends. These tunes are primarily Caribbean and Jamaican reggae music and became quite popular.
Fr. Richard Ho Lung
“One of the songs which I have written because I was angry how the rich … how they were not helping the poor a lot more so I wrote the song ‘Sinner”, Father Ho Lung said pertaining to one of his songs which became No.1 in Indonesia as well as in the Philippines. He added that it opened doors to a lot of ministries with homeless destitute.
“When that song became very popular, I was driven to … work for the homeless and destitute and the government institutions and there I saw the most awful property … people living in the government institutions and they were not fed properly, they mess themselves all the time, they had no clothing”.
He studied and achieved multiple diplomas and began to dedicate his mission for the poor through a small team he spearheaded in Jamaica. He further reiterated that he started a community, which became a risk beyond risk because Jamaica’s Catholic population during that time was only 1 to 2 percent.
Father Ho Lung said that their musical production worldwide has been affected by the pandemic.
He said that recently the MOP has started a weekly feeding program among the hundreds of individuals mainly composed of young children from Barangay Balatas. The activity is conducted every Saturdays of the week where they feed people, pray and sing songs together.
In addition, Father Ho Lung has commended the Naga City police personnel for their financial donations, which the MOP use to distribute food items to beneficiaries in Barangay Balatas.
“Filipinos,by nature, love community and that is taken away from them”, Father Ho Lung said.
He also reminded the youth to be very careful in terms of sensuality because it could be like an alcohol which is addictive. He called on everyone to be patient and prayerful.
“Be careful on this pandemic, but don’t let it control your life. Don’t make it run your life. Long life, short life has St. Paul says ‘If I die, I die in Christ. If I live, I live in Christ’. So if I live or if I die, doesn’t matter. It’s going to be in Christ”, Father Ho Lung said.
He reminded everyone to be cautious of Covid-19, but remain joyful and happy.
“Serve the Lord. Give Him glory and praise and thanksgiving”, Father Richard Ho Lung said.