Mangaluru: NRI Christmas Day celebrated at Cordel Holy Cross Church
Mangaluru, Dec 26: A one-of-its-kind, Christmas Day was celebrated at Holy Cross Church, Cordel. On the occasion of post centenary golden Jubilee of the Church, various programmes were organised for the parishioners.
On December 24, NRI Christmas was celebrated with the NRIs of Holy Cross Church who are spread across the globe. There were more than 150 NRIs from various countries like USA, Qatar, Oman, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Israel, Iran, Thailand, Australia, Gabon, Canada, Czech Republic, etc. A beautiful procession was carried out with NRI families before the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. The NRIs were honoured and felicitated with blessed candles. It was a special celebration in honour of all our parishioners who are working abroad and the joy of being one big parish family was much evident in the proceedings of the celebration.
Fr Paul Sebastian D’Souza – assistant parish priest was the main celebrant. Fr Clifford Fernandes preached the sermon and he stressed on the special occasion of the birth of Jesus. He called on the parishioners to be kind and considerate and be aware of where one comes from and history. He called upon the people gathered to be humane towards each other. “God wants dwells amongst us and in the Old Testament God spoke to Prophets through light, sound, wind, dreams, etc. God has his own plans and he fulfils his plan when the right time comes. From time to time, God sends various people to speak to humankind and we need to recognise the presence of God in them. Where there is peace, harmony, love, etc. there we can the glory of God. What does God expects from us? He expects us to be caring, sharing, helping the needy and he calls us to walk on the righteous path,” he said.
The Holy Eucharist was concelebrated by Fr Ivan Peter Cordeiro – assistant parish priest, Fr Walter Mendonca, Fr Richard Fernandes, Fr Ronald Rodrigues – guest priests and deacon Norman Mathias and Br Joel Monteiro were present along with Ruth Castelino – vice president of the parish council, Anil D’Sa – secretary of the parish council, finance committee members and the members of the parish council were present. More than 6000 faithful attended the Eucharistic celebration. The special attraction is the 22-ft tall Christmas tree that attracted a lot of crowds and served as a photography and selfie spot. The ICYM members prepared a beautiful crib depicting a meaningful message. The sweetness of the festive season was shared by distributing cake to all present at the celebration.
