Christmas at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Kanajar
Ignatius D'Souza, Kanajar
Daijiworld Media Network - Karkala
Karkala, Dec 25: Christmas, the feast marking the birth of Jesus Christ was celebrated at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Kanajar here on Friday December 24.
The Christmas celebrations began on Christmas Eve at 7 pm with the parish choir singing traditional Christmas carols. The carols were followed by the Eucharistic celebration at 7.35 pm, offered by Dr Valerian D’Souza, who was the main celebrant. Dr Ronald Tellis, native priest of Kanajar, who is now professor at Allahabad Seminary and Fr Alwyn D’Cunha, parish priest of Kanajar concelebrated at the Eucharist.
Fr Alwyn D’Cunha preached the homily and in his message he told the congregation that Jesus always loves all of us not only in our happy times but also when we go through difficult times in our lives. He gave examples and asked the congregation to live a Christian life and how we should welcome Jesus in our hearts.
After the communion, the packed church venerated baby Jesus. Fr Alwyn D’Cunha, parish priest wished everyone a happy Christmas and invoked the blessings of baby Jesus on all parishioners. He asked to convey his wishes to family members of parishioners who are living abroad.
Later, Christmas messages written in paper slips were distributed to the entire congregation along with the Christmas cake. Selected messages were read and lucky winners with right message were given gifts. The Santa Claus was the main attraction and he gave away gifts and also his message to all the gathered. ICYM members conducted American Housie and Santa Claus gave the bumper prize of the Housie game which was won by Flavy Aranha.
After the Holy Mass, parishioners greeted each other and participated in a game of guessing the weight of the Christmas cake.