BARODA DIOCESAN’S DAY OUT
On the 2nd of March, 23 of us, diocesan priests along with our Father and Shepherd Bishop Godfrey de Rosario went out for a picnic to Daman to share our togetherness.
Those present for the picnic were Bishop Godfrey de Rosario, Frs. Joel V.G., Oscar, Kilian, Alex, Brazil, Kanti, Pascal, William, Muthu, Uttam, Vincent, Dalsukh, Peter, Mark, Melvin, Julius, John Toppo, Paul, Joseph, Francis, Anthony, Balu and Lawrence.
As soon as all had gathered the day began with Lunch and then after siesta some of the fathers went visiting the Churches in Nani and Moti Daman, others went to the nearby places. All gathered at 6.15 for the Solemn Eucharistic Celebration. Bishop Godfrey de Rosario was the main celebrant. He preached on the aspect of community life and through various examples and anecdotes called on all present to ‘build communities based on love and forgiveness’.
After the Eucharist we joined in to play a game of Housie. Everyone enjoyed it and many won prizes sponsored by Fr. Joel. After the housie all shared in the Agape. There is was lot of fun, joy and a feeling of togetherness. The dinner was hosted in the honour of Fr. Brazil who had just completed 25 years of Priesthood. Congratulations song was sung and the toast was raised to his good health and many more years of fruitful priestly ministry.
The next day began with Eucharistic celebration, the main celebrant being Fr. Kilian Jesus Lopes. The theme of the Eucharist was “Community and Communion”. Fr. Kilian shared with all the thought that, communion in community is possible only if we have Jesus in our heart. The Jesus in me and the Jesus in the other is the same Jesus and thus together we form one Body of Christ. He said that it is impossible to build a communion if we do not have Jesus. He also gave practical suggestions especially to the younger priests on how to build communion in community.
After the Eucharist all had breakfast and then Fr. Joel, V.G. thanked all those present for making it for the picnic. He thanked the Bishop for his continual support and encouragement. He thanked Frs. William, Paul the core team members for the planning and execution of the picnic. He thanked Fr. Pascal in a very special way for making all the arrangements and seeing that we enjoyed every minute of our stay in Daman. He did go all out of his way to make the picnic a success.
Everyone present did feel and express that they indeed had a great day and it was filled with joy and togetherness. Everyone seemed to have forgotten the past and mingled with each other like brothers.
In the end, it was unanimously decided to have a day of prayer and recollection on the theme of “Psycho-Spiritual” development of priests.
We all want to thank Bishop Godfrey, Vicar General Fr. Joel, Frs. William, Paul and Pascal for all their love and hardwork to make the picnic a success and a day to express our togetherness.
Fr. Lawrence Louis Rodrigues
(SOCOM-BARODA)
Commission of Social Communications- Baroda
Dear Bishop Godfrey,
ReplyDeleteThere is growing dissent among the catholics here in surat and the main reason is Fr John Demello, we are urgently requesting you to help him, he is beyond change now and its getting bad to worse...you can ask the parishioners thru a questionaire also ask all the religious, we are totally fed up with this person, sorry but the holy week we all suffered with his shouting from the altar n treating our youth with no respect.
we humbly ask you to take a step.
we have now run out of patience and have restrained our youth from any violence.the press already have evidence of all his doings. the situation is really bad . please help
the concerned parishioners of SURAT