Pics: Joshwa D'Souza
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (JS)
Mangaluru, Dec 15: Bishop of Mangaluru diocese Dr Aloysius Paul D'Souza on Thursday December 15 inaugurated the new church building of Mother of God Church, Shaktinagar here.
The new church building was inaugurated in the presence of Fr Walter D’Souza, parish priest, other parish priests and parishioners.
Bishop Dr Aloysius led the mass, while director of Mangala Jyothi, Fr Boniface Pinto delivered the homily.
Fr Boniface Pinto in his homily said, "This beautiful place of worship has been built with the efforts, contributions and sacrifices of many people. A place where the Lord listens to His disciples becomes a place of worship. Why do we need church? Church is to worship and praise the Lord, not individually but as a community and family. We all pray to the Lord for ourselves, our families, community and the whole mankind. Church is also to plead for Lord's forgiveness for the sins that we have committed. By offering prayers we get closer to God.
"It is not enough if we have a church. We need to pray and praise the Lord with utmost devotion and happiness. We should thank the Lord for all the blessings and favours He has bestowed on us. We should thank Him for having given us this beautiful church in this parish here. This is a sign that Lord resides with us all the times. Today we need to ask ourselves - do we really pray with devotion in the church? A church gets its beauty not by its structure or design, it does so when all the parisheners get together with one heart and pray in the church. The parishoners and priest of this church have built a beautiful church along with the parish."
Fr Mathew Vas, Fr Victor Machade, Fr Santhosh Rodrigues and others were present.
Shaktinagar parish under Mangalore diocese is dedicated to Mother of God and was established in the year 2003. Due to the increasing number of parishioners in the community, the church faced constraint of space especially during Sunday congregation. Thus, a need for a bigger church was felt by the parish council and the parishioners. Accordingly, the new church building was constructed and was inaugurated today.