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Celebration Of St. Anthony’s Feast In Bannur And Our Lady Of Lourdes Church, Bhatka

Brs. Leo Max and Joseph Lakra

We arrived in the parish just two days before the feast. Father Prashant welcomed us when we arrived. It was Saturday and he had kept the mass in the evening for us at 5:00 pm. We had the Eucharistic celebration and, on that day, there were around 250 people. We were introduced to the parishioners and they were happy to see us coming from different places. We were asked to pray and bless the parishioners putting our hands over them after the Eucharistic celebration. This act of blessing is new to me and when I stood there praying and blessing each of them, I felt the grace of God among the people young and old. It was an hour of blessing and joy. One of the parishioners invited us to their house for meals and we went there for the meals. It was a wonderful time spending with them the children over there were with us talking to us. Their second son was happy to talked to us sharing how he goes to school and does things, like painting, dancing class and so on. Talking with them I had the feeling how the parents and children spend their time, which helps the children to express themselves. It was a wonderful experience to see many people coming to the church for the feast celebration. The devotion to the saint is very strong. There was also Eucharistic celebration in the sub station of the parish the previous day of the parish feast. The people in the sub station are not in particular place they are scattered here and there these people are those working in different fields, and the parish priest goes there to celebration the Eucharist.

The feast celebration went well people coming from different parishes and places. The whole ceremony was taken care by the parishioners. Even the arrangements, food, maintenance of the campus all were involved in it. They organised themselves and distributed the task among themselves and the parish priest was helped in managing the events. The wonderful act of the people over there really took me to another level. This is what we need to do with the people, love and respect them and the wonders take place. There were around thousand people for the Eucharistic celebration. After the Eucharistic celebration, all the people were given lunch which was also sponsored by one of the families. Everything was arranged and after the meals the responsibility to clear all the stuff they did by themselves without anybody’s interference.

The people have the sense of belongingness to the parish. We saw this from the time we arrived they all came and cleared the places like sweeping, cleaning and decorating the Grotto, the statue of St Francis of Assisi, the statue of St Anthony of Padua. Putting up all the necessary things in and out of the church. It was wonderfully done with some interactive moments while doing all this being with them and extending some help like carrying water throwing the dirt were few things, we (brs. Leo and Joseph) could do. We are very grateful to the minister provincial sending us over there to help a bit.

We also went to Bhatkal the next day to visit the parish church and did meet the parish priest, friar Prem D’Souza. He welcomed us showed us the friary campus. That evening the parish celebrates the feast of St Anthony and we too took part. We had procession after the mass carrying the statue of St Anthony. After the procession we had interactive moment talking to the youth and children. It was a wonderful day for us being in the parish. The next day after the Eucharistic celebration father Prem D’Souza took us to the hill and from there we went to the sea behind the friary. We spent some time over enjoying the beautiful scenic and peaceful view. In the afternoon we went to the Lighthouse on the other side of parish which is of four kilometres away. It is also a pilgrim place where the ship “Santa Cruz” In which the body of St Francis Xavier was set to sail to Goa spent overnight in the port. People come and visit that place and pray for various reasons through the intercessions of St Francis Xavier. We had good time spent over there.

Being in these two parishes we experienced the new environment of the people and places. It also made us to have to think how one can be with the people who are entrusted to for our ministry in different ways. Thanks to friar Praveen and Naveen George for all the arrangements and also to friars Prashant and Prem D’Souza for their hospitality and accommodation.

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