Parish Priest Message

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ

Loving Greetings to you All,

Serious athletes prepare diligently, professional actors rehearse painstakingly and good teachers do their homework meticulously. Before starting his public ministry, Jesus went into desert to prepare for his mission. Like Jesus, as we begin this Holy season of Lent, let us prepare our hearts now, so that we may celebrate Easter in a worthy manner. Let us purify our hearts with his Word.

The famous philosopher Socrates says. “The unreflected life is not worth living.” We are all human beings, more than that, we are all Christians. We must reflect Christ in our

qualities. So that, we are worthy to be called as real Christians. This season of Lent invites us to reflect upon the passion and death of Jesus for our sins and to repent for our sins. And this season specially calls us to keep fasting and praying as the sign of taking part in the sufferings of Jesus Christ.

The purpose of fasting is to loosen to some degree the ties which bind us to the world of material things and our surroundings as a whole, so that we may concentrate all our spiritual powers upon eternal things. We tend to think of fasting as less eating of food. But we can fast from anything else. Like for example: if we love music and decide to miss a concert in order to spend time with God this is fasting. Another example is when, as friends, we need to be together, we will cancel all other activities in order to make this get together possible. There’s nothing magical about fasting. This is just one way of telling God that our priority at the moment is to be alone with Him, sorting out whatever is necessary that we have cancelled the meal, party, concert or whatever else we have planned to do in order to fulfill this priority.

Prophet Joel states, “The Lord says, Return to me with all your heart with fasting and weeping." (Joel 2:12) It is very easy for us to stand before the lord with fasting and weeping. But are we able to stand before him with pure heart? The heart which is filled with love and forgiveness like Jesus? That is the question placed before you and me.

To be pure in heart we need the qualities of love and forgiveness. We could see it in the life of Jesus, who was full of love and forgiveness. And while he was hanging on the cross he was able to love and forgive the persecutors. And the same Jesus tells all of us to love and forgive our enemies as he loves

us and forgives us. Are we ready to do like him? If we are not able to do that, there will not be any meaning in our Lenten observances. It will be mere ritual act and it will be a spirituality without God. Above all Lenten season is a holy season that should help us to ‘reform’ our lives and firmly believe that Jesus can save us.

We all know that Lent is a time of extra prayer, fasting, charity and repentance, but it’s also a time for joy and reflection. We reflect about the past time, we joyfully look forward to a better relationship with Christ in the days to come, and we train ourselves again on how to be good Christians in a not so good world. We inflict discipline in our lives through more prayer, fasting and charity, with the intent that we become better people. And we reflect on the state of our heart and ask for God’s forgiveness.

By boosting our prayer lives and deepening our faith, a little extra time each day, we are in effect “giving up” that much extra time, we might have spent doing something mindless, with little value beyond a quick bite of comfort pie.

FAST have a tendency to be oriented toward things like giving up food or television. But there are many other creative ways we can welcome God's healing touch, by "giving up" negativity and "filling up" positivity.

Fast from anger and hatred. Give your family an extra dose of love each day. Fast from judging others. Before making any judgments, recall how Jesus overlooks our faults.

Fast from discouragement. Hold on to Jesus’ promise that He has a perfect plan for your life.

Fast from complaining. When you find yourself about to complain, close your eyes and recall some of the little moments of joy Jesus has given you.

Fast from resentment or bitterness. Work on forgiving those who may have hurt you.

Fast from spending too much money. Try to reduce your spending by ten percent and give those savings to the poor. Spend extra time for personal prayers.

Fasting in this way as much as possible will surely bring abundant blessings.

Wishing you all Peace, Love, and Happiness during Lent. Fr. Maxim Cardoza, OFM. Cap.

Volume 3 Issue 3 March 2020

We invite your Spiritual Messages, Articles & Special Activity Photos of Prayer Groups & Communities Please Contact Editorial Team OR Parish Office.

Spiritual Penance We are at the favorable time and the days of Salvation (1Cor 6:2); and the Salvation is closer too us now than when we first believed (Rom 13:11). It is a time when we must have taken up several bodily penances like, fasting, abstinence, alms giving and penitential pilgrimages. They do help us a lot in keeping in focus our intent to change our lives and be converted from our wayward lives of the past. But the Blessed Lord cautions us about not making them a spectacular show lest we lose the reward kept in store by the Father who sees in secret (Mt 6:1-6, 16-18). In fact, Jesus is drawing our attention to the spiritual condition that should accompany our bodily forms of penances. In other words, the Lord is keen not very much on our exterior forms of penance, rather on our interior attitude of penance.

While we fast from bodily food, we need to fast from self-presumption, self-conceitedness, self-righteousness and pride. If our bodily fasting is not supported by such spiritual fasting our bodily fast will be in vain. Abstinence from meat and so on must be supported by spiritual abstinence

from anger, vengeance, revengefulness, jealousy, envy and so on. Our almsgiving must be endorsed by corresponding spiritual giving of sparing time for someone lonely, paying attention to the neglected members of our family, reaching out to those are less fortunate than we are first in our own family circle. How much are we able give quality time to our family in prayer and meals? Penitential pilgrimages should induce us to let go beyond things that paralyze us morally, emotionally and relationally. How much are we able to move forward from our habitual harmful and damaging ways?

To make our bodily forms of Penance Spiritual, St. Francis De Sales proposes three norms: 1. They are to be observed wholeheartedly not out of compulsion or grudgingly. 2. They are to be observed not through vanity rather through humility and charity. 3. Do them all fixing our gaze on the Lord and making sure that they please the Lord and thus be pleasing to God.

Let us be united in prayer and penance that we may become more pleasing to God!

Fr. Divakar OFM Cap.

1. What were ‘stacte’, ‘onycha’, and ‘galbanum’?

2. Who is the only woman mentioned in Paul’s letter to

Philemon?

3. Who is the father of John the Baptist?

4. From which tribe of Israel did the Apostle Paul Come?

5. Where were the disciples first called Christians?

Mar 16,17,18 : Annual Retreat In English

Mar 19 : Solemnity of St. Joseph

Mar 25 : Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord

Mar 2-6 :Marriage Preparation Course In Malayalam

Mar 26 : Wedding anniversary Thanksgiving Holy Mass 7.15 pm

Mar 26 : Baptism Seminar - Our Lady of Arabia Hall

Your answers along with your name, age and contact

details shall be submitted at the parish office on or before

1st April 2020.

Dear Parents, Encourge your children to participate in Voice of

St. Paul’s Monthly Bible Quiz.

Church Events

BIBLE QUIZ MARCH-2020

Do You Know . . .

Wedding Anniversary Holy Mass celebrated during the month February-2020

Blessed Devasahayam Pillai Feast Celebrated by Tamil Community on 24-Jan-2020

Photo Corner

St. Sebastian’s Feast Celebrated by Malayalam Community on 17-Jan-2020

Lenten Retreat in Konkani held during 10-14 Feb 2020

Lenten Retreat in Malayalam Held during 17-21 Feb 2020

Malayalam Community Souvenir Penuvel Release New Altarservers Installation held on 23 Feb 2020

Highlights

Family Fest : 7 Feb 2020

Editorial Team: Fr. Maxim Cardoza OFM Cap, Jerry Gomez (Chief Editor), Jean Zibbin, Shibu Thomas, Shital Mohan, Suresh Saldana

Media Team Food Stalls & Safety Cordination Team

Parish Council

Services Team

Volunteers

Stage Programme Team

Decoration Team (JY)