LENT- A PILGRIMAGE TO GOD’S SUFFERING LOVE

We begin the holy season of Lent with Ash Wednesday which falls this year on 5^th March. For many, this season means abstaining from certain food habits, spending more time in prayer, becoming generous by almsgiving etc. Is this Lent all about? Or is there anything more to it? How can we make a fruitful journey so that we are better prepared to celebrate Easter?

 Lent is a season that calls for deeper reflection on the benign sacrifice made by our Lord, because He loves us. His love is a sacrificial love and a love that knows no sacrifice, no pain and suffering is no true love because the language of love is self-denial and sacrifice.

As we embark on this Lenten journey to know this “suffering God” in a deeper way,the following reflections will shed some light to journey better.

 There are two ways that we can know God—through consolation and through suffering. Which one do we always choose? Humanly speaking, we don’t want suffering. We all have the natural tendency to shun life’s sufferings and embrace only life’s consolation. We don’t want to suffer. We will do everything to avoid it. But the Lord is telling us that to know Him better, we need to accept that His true identity is always connected with His suffering. What does this mean? 

It means that we can know God through His suffering love. And this God’s suffering love is the wounds, the thorns, the nailed hands and feet, and the pierced heart of God. Embracing all these pains seemed not enough to show His love for us. It is a kind of love which seeks to suffer for the sake of the beloved . .. a love which is willing to sacrifice everything, without complaint, without weary, without doubt. What really matters to God is not the pain but the beauty of the beloved and how to win the beloved’s love. It is like the story of young woman told by a storyteller.

 A young woman, deeply in love with her beloved, had not seen him for some time,and was missing him greatly. She also had a teacher whom she loved, and taught her many things. And so the young woman went to her. The teacher welcomed her,and handed her a huge basket of freshly picked strawberries. Then the teacher said, “Do you see that mountain?” The woman said yes. The teacher said, “Carry this basket of strawberries up that mountain.”And the teacher turned away.

Reluctantly,she hefted the basket into her arms and turned her steps to the high mountain.Slowly she wound her way up the difficult path, wondering what this assignment was about, why she had to do this, what was the teaching, maybe she had come to the wrong teacher, and so on and on. Grousing and grumbling, stumbling now and again, feeling the sun burn hot on her back, the basket of strawberries growing heavy, she nevertheless came to the top of the mountain, and found herself standing in a beautiful, peaceful, flower-filled meadow. The woman looked across the meadow, and saw her beloved moving toward her, gazing at her with eyes of profound love and a smile of sweet welcome. 

When the storyteller came to the end of the tale, He added to the teaching by telling some of the woman''s thoughts: “If I had only known that the strawberries were for the Beloved, that the journey was toward my Beloved, I would not have been so fussy or puzzled or grown so weary, or complained so much, or failed to notice the beauty of the mountain I was climbing.”

 To know God deeply is to be wounded deeply like God. We come to know God deeply not in our moment of consolation but in the moment of our great suffering. It is only at that moment that we may be able to answer profoundly the Lord’s question: “Who do you say that I am?”

  Lent is a journey; a pilgrimage to God’s suffering love. 

Wish you all a fruitful journey.

 Fr.Shyju Xavier

LENT- A PILGRIMAGE TO GOD’S SUFFERING LOVE

We begin the holy season of Lent with Ash Wednesday which falls this year on 5^th March. For many, this season means abstaining from certain food habits, spending more time in prayer, becoming generous by almsgiving etc. Is this Lent all about? Or is there anything more to it? How can we make a fruitful journey so that we are better prepared to celebrate Easter?

 Lent is a season that calls for deeper reflection on the benign sacrifice made by our Lord, because He loves us. His love is a sacrificial love and a love that knows no sacrifice, no pain and suffering is no true love because the language of love is self-denial and sacrifice.

As we embark on this Lenten journey to know this “suffering God” in a deeper way,the following reflections will shed some light to journey better.

 There are two ways that we can know God—through consolation and through suffering. Which one do we always choose? Humanly speaking, we don’t want suffering. We all have the natural tendency to shun life’s sufferings and embrace only life’s consolation. We don’t want to suffer. We will do everything to avoid it. But the Lord is telling us that to know Him better, we need to accept that His true identity is always connected with His suffering. What does this mean? 

It means that we can know God through His suffering love. And this God’s suffering love is the wounds, the thorns, the nailed hands and feet, and the pierced heart of God. Embracing all these pains seemed not enough to show His love for us. It is a kind of love which seeks to suffer for the sake of the beloved . .. a love which is willing to sacrifice everything, without complaint, without weary, without doubt. What really matters to God is not the pain but the beauty of the beloved and how to win the beloved’s love. It is like the story of young woman told by a storyteller.

 A young woman, deeply in love with her beloved, had not seen him for some time,and was missing him greatly. She also had a teacher whom she loved, and taught her many things. And so the young woman went to her. The teacher welcomed her,and handed her a huge basket of freshly picked strawberries. Then the teacher said, “Do you see that mountain?” The woman said yes. The teacher said, “Carry this basket of strawberries up that mountain.”And the teacher turned away.

Reluctantly,she hefted the basket into her arms and turned her steps to the high mountain.Slowly she wound her way up the difficult path, wondering what this assignment was about, why she had to do this, what was the teaching, maybe she had come to the wrong teacher, and so on and on. Grousing and grumbling, stumbling now and again, feeling the sun burn hot on her back, the basket of strawberries growing heavy, she nevertheless came to the top of the mountain, and found herself standing in a beautiful, peaceful, flower-filled meadow. The woman looked across the meadow, and saw her beloved moving toward her, gazing at her with eyes of profound love and a smile of sweet welcome. 

When the storyteller came to the end of the tale, He added to the teaching by telling some of the woman''s thoughts: “If I had only known that the strawberries were for the Beloved, that the journey was toward my Beloved, I would not have been so fussy or puzzled or grown so weary, or complained so much, or failed to notice the beauty of the mountain I was climbing.”

 To know God deeply is to be wounded deeply like God. We come to know God deeply not in our moment of consolation but in the moment of our great suffering. It is only at that moment that we may be able to answer profoundly the Lord’s question: “Who do you say that I am?”

  Lent is a journey; a pilgrimage to God’s suffering love. 

Wish you all a fruitful journey.

 Fr.Shyju Xavier

Feast of the Sacred Heart– a celebration of God’s love

Every year, on the last Sunday of September, we celebrate our Parish Feast – the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  This feast is a love-feast, a celebration of God’s love.

It is note worthy that we have never had a feast of Jesus’ sacred brain, even though it was hypostatically united to the Word of God. We never had a feast of Jesus’ sacred hands, even though they reached out and healed many, were nailed to the cross. We have never had a feast of the sacred feet of Jesus, even though they traversed the Holy Land to bring us the Good News. No, we only celebrate the feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, and do so for two reasons:

First, the heart, in biblical terminology, symbolizes the centre and entirety of a person. To say that a person has a good heart or has no heart is to talk about the overall character of that person. To focus on Jesus’ Heart is to focus on His entire Person.

Second, the heart is obviously an organ of love. To ponder on Jesus’ heart is to meditate on the love that flowed from the heart, pierced for our offences. The devotion to the Heart of Jesus is a devotion to the merciful love of Jesus. It is from this heart that we joyfully draw water from the springs of salvation.

But we also know that a heart can be broken, wounded, when love is not reciprocated. Speaking about the callousness of the people, God said, “ I took them in my arms; I drew them with human cords, with bands of love; I fostered them like one who raises an infant to his cheeks; yet, though, I stooped to feed my child, they did not know that I was their healer. My heart is overwhelmed, my pity is stirred.” (Hosea 11: 1-40)  Even then, he refused to punish, because “I am God and not a man, the Holy One present among you. I will not let the flames consume you.” (Hos 11: 9) Instead, he wanted to bring his people to conversion, so that they might receive his life, live in his love, and share it.

But just as with people of Israel who took God’s incredible love and saving deeds for granted, so have we. When Jesus appeared in the 1670s to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, the apostle of the Divine Mercy,  he said ,“Behold the heart that has so much loved men that it has spared nothing, even exhausting and consuming itself in testimony of its love. Instead of gratitude ,I receive from most only indifference, irreverence, sacrilege, and the coldness and scorn that men have for me in the sacrament of love.” The sacrament of love to which he is referring is the Holy Eucharist. That’s why Pope Benedict back in 2007, when he gave us his apostolic exhortation on the Eucharist called it “sacramentum caritatis,” or “the Sacrament of Love.”

Jesus said that in response to his pouring out his heart for us in the Eucharist, he received from most only apathy, impiety, frigidity, contempt, and desecration. These are unbelievable words! But it got even stronger. “What I feel the most keenly, Jesus lamented,“is that it is hearts that are consecrated to me that treat me in this way.” It applies to every baptised Christian, who through baptism has been consecrated to the Lord. It is one thing when so many in the world take Jesus’ gift of himself for granted, but when Christians, all the more Catholics, who know that the Eucharist is Jesus’ body, blood, soul and divinity, neglect him, who prioritize games, or work over him, it wounds him. That’s why in reparation for the offences against his heart, he asked for three different Eucharistic  devotions.  The first would be the feast of the Sacred Heart on the Friday after Corpus Christ, to unite the Sacred Heart specifically to the feast of Jesus’ Body and Blood. Second, he asked for people to come to Mass and receive him worthily on first Fridays, a day especially dedicated to the Sacred Heart.And third, on Maundy Thursday, he asked us to spend time in Eucharistic adoration as he was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane.

It is one of the great glories of our Cathedral Church that for many years now,Jesus, in the Blessed Sacrament, has been adored uninterruptedly, giving him the love he deserves and doing reparation for all the ways, not just in the Eucharist, people neglect him and wound him. If we wish to have a devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we need to recognize both the reality of his person as well as the depth of his merciful love in this great sacrament.

I also believe that Jesus teaches us even more the way we can love him and repair the damage done by ourselves and others. We just need to reverse what he himself said to St. Margaret Mary. Instead of treating him with indifference,we are supposed to make him in the Eucharist, the biggest difference in our life, as our true priority, as the ‘source and summit’ of our life, the fulcrum of our week and day. In contrast to those who treat him with coldness, we are called to treat him with passion, to be more enthusiastic about him that the most fanatical follower of a sport team is about his hometown squad, and to show it through the way we sing with gusto, pray the Mass, welcoming others with warmth and love. In response to those who treat him with contempt and scorn, we are called to treat him with grateful appreciation, even endless thanks giving. And in contrast to sacrilege, we are called to receive him as a holy temple fit for his presence, among other things. The devotion to the Sacred Heart is meant to transform us, to help us adore and receive Jesus in the Eucharist with precedence, piety, passion, praise and purity – in short, by treating him as he deserves.

One of my favourite scenes in the life of St. Margaret Mary is when Jesus mystically took her heart out of her breast, placed it in the burning furnace of his own heart, melted away all the impurities and frigidity, and returned it to her, so that she could love with the same fire with which Jesus loves the Father and others. As we celebrate the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, let us ask for the same heart transplant. “O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like unto thine!”

HappyFeast to all !!!

Fr.Shyju Xavier

Feast of the Sacred Heart– a celebration of God’s love

Every year, on the last Sunday of September, we celebrate our Parish Feast – the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  This feast is a love-feast, a celebration of God’s love.

It is note worthy that we have never had a feast of Jesus’ sacred brain, even though it was hypostatically united to the Word of God. We never had a feast of Jesus’ sacred hands, even though they reached out and healed many, were nailed to the cross. We have never had a feast of the sacred feet of Jesus, even though they traversed the Holy Land to bring us the Good News. No, we only celebrate the feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, and do so for two reasons:

First, the heart, in biblical terminology, symbolizes the centre and entirety of a person. To say that a person has a good heart or has no heart is to talk about the overall character of that person. To focus on Jesus’ Heart is to focus on His entire Person.

Second, the heart is obviously an organ of love. To ponder on Jesus’ heart is to meditate on the love that flowed from the heart, pierced for our offences. The devotion to the Heart of Jesus is a devotion to the merciful love of Jesus. It is from this heart that we joyfully draw water from the springs of salvation.

But we also know that a heart can be broken, wounded, when love is not reciprocated. Speaking about the callousness of the people, God said, “ I took them in my arms; I drew them with human cords, with bands of love; I fostered them like one who raises an infant to his cheeks; yet, though, I stooped to feed my child, they did not know that I was their healer. My heart is overwhelmed, my pity is stirred.” (Hosea 11: 1-40)  Even then, he refused to punish, because “I am God and not a man, the Holy One present among you. I will not let the flames consume you.” (Hos 11: 9) Instead, he wanted to bring his people to conversion, so that they might receive his life, live in his love, and share it.

But just as with people of Israel who took God’s incredible love and saving deeds for granted, so have we. When Jesus appeared in the 1670s to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, the apostle of the Divine Mercy,  he said ,“Behold the heart that has so much loved men that it has spared nothing, even exhausting and consuming itself in testimony of its love. Instead of gratitude ,I receive from most only indifference, irreverence, sacrilege, and the coldness and scorn that men have for me in the sacrament of love.” The sacrament of love to which he is referring is the Holy Eucharist. That’s why Pope Benedict back in 2007, when he gave us his apostolic exhortation on the Eucharist called it “sacramentum caritatis,” or “the Sacrament of Love.”

Jesus said that in response to his pouring out his heart for us in the Eucharist, he received from most only apathy, impiety, frigidity, contempt, and desecration. These are unbelievable words! But it got even stronger. “What I feel the most keenly, Jesus lamented,“is that it is hearts that are consecrated to me that treat me in this way.” It applies to every baptised Christian, who through baptism has been consecrated to the Lord. It is one thing when so many in the world take Jesus’ gift of himself for granted, but when Christians, all the more Catholics, who know that the Eucharist is Jesus’ body, blood, soul and divinity, neglect him, who prioritize games, or work over him, it wounds him. That’s why in reparation for the offences against his heart, he asked for three different Eucharistic  devotions.  The first would be the feast of the Sacred Heart on the Friday after Corpus Christ, to unite the Sacred Heart specifically to the feast of Jesus’ Body and Blood. Second, he asked for people to come to Mass and receive him worthily on first Fridays, a day especially dedicated to the Sacred Heart.And third, on Maundy Thursday, he asked us to spend time in Eucharistic adoration as he was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane.

It is one of the great glories of our Cathedral Church that for many years now,Jesus, in the Blessed Sacrament, has been adored uninterruptedly, giving him the love he deserves and doing reparation for all the ways, not just in the Eucharist, people neglect him and wound him. If we wish to have a devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we need to recognize both the reality of his person as well as the depth of his merciful love in this great sacrament.

I also believe that Jesus teaches us even more the way we can love him and repair the damage done by ourselves and others. We just need to reverse what he himself said to St. Margaret Mary. Instead of treating him with indifference,we are supposed to make him in the Eucharist, the biggest difference in our life, as our true priority, as the ‘source and summit’ of our life, the fulcrum of our week and day. In contrast to those who treat him with coldness, we are called to treat him with passion, to be more enthusiastic about him that the most fanatical follower of a sport team is about his hometown squad, and to show it through the way we sing with gusto, pray the Mass, welcoming others with warmth and love. In response to those who treat him with contempt and scorn, we are called to treat him with grateful appreciation, even endless thanks giving. And in contrast to sacrilege, we are called to receive him as a holy temple fit for his presence, among other things. The devotion to the Sacred Heart is meant to transform us, to help us adore and receive Jesus in the Eucharist with precedence, piety, passion, praise and purity – in short, by treating him as he deserves.

One of my favourite scenes in the life of St. Margaret Mary is when Jesus mystically took her heart out of her breast, placed it in the burning furnace of his own heart, melted away all the impurities and frigidity, and returned it to her, so that she could love with the same fire with which Jesus loves the Father and others. As we celebrate the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, let us ask for the same heart transplant. “O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like unto thine!”

HappyFeast to all !!!

Fr.Shyju Xavier

Lumen Fidei-the first encyclical of Pope Francis

One of the popes’ most important duties is to implement Jesus’ command to Peter to strengthen his brothers and sisters in the faith (Luke 22:32).

That’s one of the reasons why it is particularly striking that in the Year of Faith,we have an encyclical on faith written, as Pope Francis said, by “four hands” —his and Benedict XVI’s and fittingly signed on the feast of St. Peter and St.Paul.

One should not miss the significance of the date of its publication: he published it on the same day he approved the recommendations for the canonization of Popes John XXIII and John Paul II. These two were responsible for the two greatest papal attempts to strengthen the faith of the Church in recent memory,the Second Vatican Council and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, both of whose jubilees are the occasion for this special Year of Faith.

If there were an official motto for the Year of Faith, it would surely be the apostles’ plea, “Lord, increase our faith” (Luke 17:5). Lumen Fidei identifies four ways the faith of believers can be augmented and reinforced.

The first is in our capacity to see by the light of faith. “There is an urgent need,” the encyclical says, “to see once again that faith is a light” intended to illumine “every aspect of human existence.” Faith ultimately means to see things “as Jesus sees them, with his own eyes,” an eye transplant every believer needs.

The second intensification is in our hearing. Faith comes through hearing, St. Paul writes (Romans 10:17), and each of us needs to tune anew into the Good Shepherd’s voice speaking to us, calling us to follow him, and summoning us to become those who “hear the word of God and do it” with loving, trusting obedience (Luke 8:21).

The third growth is through the sense of touch. The encyclical challenges us to open ourselves to Christ’s love and to respond like the haemorrhaged woman in the Gospel (Luke 8:45) by reaching out in faith to touch him in return. This heart to heart contact happens above all in and through the sacraments.

The last maturation is in our memory. Faith, Lumen Fidei declares,is a living memory of the history of salvation preserved in the heart of the Church. Like Mary’s heart, our heart is called to ponder the meaning of these wondrous deeds, treasure them and unite God’s past miracles and future promises in a present full of confident hope.

Lumen Fidei seeks to strengthen our faith in each of the four ways so that we can more fully share in St. John’s outlook, “What we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life” (1 John 1:1), and can transmit that glorious living memory to others.

The encyclical also tries to fortify our faith by responding to various contemporary doubts, attitudes and idolatries that undermine believing. For the most part, Lumen Fidei doesn’t criticize or even mention these challenges by name, but rather shows what faith is, positively and attractively, enticing people away from these common snares.

We can mention some of the most noteworthy examples.

In response to the idea that faith is an outdated relic retarding mankind’s growth, the encyclical shows how Christian faith provides the foundation for fidelity in interpersonal relationships without which society would be debilitated by fear.

Against those who posit that faith seduces people to abandon the world and live for something which exists in  an uncertain future ,the encyclical emphasizes that raising hands in prayer strengthens them to build an earthly city founded not just on justice but charity and mercy.

In contrast to the secularism that organizes society as if God is distant or dead and makes utilitarianism the principle of justice in human relationships, faith makes God tangible and Christ-like love possible.

To the rationalists who believe truth is only what can be verified through the scientific method, Lumen Fidei proclaims that faith draws reason beyond formulae and opens knowledge to the wonders and richness of creation.

To those who look at faith as a burden, the encyclical testifies that faith is a treasure that makes us exceedingly rich, a good news of great joy meant to be shared , and a light capable of setting an often dark world ablaze.

For individualists tempted to privatize faith, the encyclical discloses how faith is personal but communal, bringing us into communion with the Holy Trinity and into the family of believers.

For those who try to reduce faith to doctrine and separate faith from life, the encyclical illustrates how faith is meant to be lived, as we see beautifully and compellingly in the lives of Abraham and Mary.

For Protestants tempted toward affirming salvation by faith alone, the encyclical shows how faith leads us to live in the Lord’s love to such a degree that it overflows in deeds of love.

Finally,for those who prefer to believe in Christ without believing in the Church, Lumen Fidei stresses the ecclesial dimension of the faith, that to believe in Christ means to believe in, care for, and build up his body he loves as his beloved bride.

To sum up, the encyclical not only strengthens and augments the faith of believers but reinforces how important faith is for humanity’s present and future. Lumen Fidei summons all those in the Church to take the bushel basket off the Light of Faith and set it on a lamp stand for the whole world to see.

Fr.Shyju Xavier

(Asst.Parish Priest)

Lumen Fidei-the first encyclical of Pope Francis

One of the popes’ most important duties is to implement Jesus’ command to Peter to strengthen his brothers and sisters in the faith (Luke 22:32).

That’s one of the reasons why it is particularly striking that in the Year of Faith,we have an encyclical on faith written, as Pope Francis said, by “four hands” —his and Benedict XVI’s and fittingly signed on the feast of St. Peter and St.Paul.

One should not miss the significance of the date of its publication: he published it on the same day he approved the recommendations for the canonization of Popes John XXIII and John Paul II. These two were responsible for the two greatest papal attempts to strengthen the faith of the Church in recent memory,the Second Vatican Council and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, both of whose jubilees are the occasion for this special Year of Faith.

If there were an official motto for the Year of Faith, it would surely be the apostles’ plea, “Lord, increase our faith” (Luke 17:5). Lumen Fidei identifies four ways the faith of believers can be augmented and reinforced.

The first is in our capacity to see by the light of faith. “There is an urgent need,” the encyclical says, “to see once again that faith is a light” intended to illumine “every aspect of human existence.” Faith ultimately means to see things “as Jesus sees them, with his own eyes,” an eye transplant every believer needs.

The second intensification is in our hearing. Faith comes through hearing, St. Paul writes (Romans 10:17), and each of us needs to tune anew into the Good Shepherd’s voice speaking to us, calling us to follow him, and summoning us to become those who “hear the word of God and do it” with loving, trusting obedience (Luke 8:21).

The third growth is through the sense of touch. The encyclical challenges us to open ourselves to Christ’s love and to respond like the haemorrhaged woman in the Gospel (Luke 8:45) by reaching out in faith to touch him in return. This heart to heart contact happens above all in and through the sacraments.

The last maturation is in our memory. Faith, Lumen Fidei declares,is a living memory of the history of salvation preserved in the heart of the Church. Like Mary’s heart, our heart is called to ponder the meaning of these wondrous deeds, treasure them and unite God’s past miracles and future promises in a present full of confident hope.

Lumen Fidei seeks to strengthen our faith in each of the four ways so that we can more fully share in St. John’s outlook, “What we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life” (1 John 1:1), and can transmit that glorious living memory to others.

The encyclical also tries to fortify our faith by responding to various contemporary doubts, attitudes and idolatries that undermine believing. For the most part, Lumen Fidei doesn’t criticize or even mention these challenges by name, but rather shows what faith is, positively and attractively, enticing people away from these common snares.

We can mention some of the most noteworthy examples.

In response to the idea that faith is an outdated relic retarding mankind’s growth, the encyclical shows how Christian faith provides the foundation for fidelity in interpersonal relationships without which society would be debilitated by fear.

Against those who posit that faith seduces people to abandon the world and live for something which exists in  an uncertain future ,the encyclical emphasizes that raising hands in prayer strengthens them to build an earthly city founded not just on justice but charity and mercy.

In contrast to the secularism that organizes society as if God is distant or dead and makes utilitarianism the principle of justice in human relationships, faith makes God tangible and Christ-like love possible.

To the rationalists who believe truth is only what can be verified through the scientific method, Lumen Fidei proclaims that faith draws reason beyond formulae and opens knowledge to the wonders and richness of creation.

To those who look at faith as a burden, the encyclical testifies that faith is a treasure that makes us exceedingly rich, a good news of great joy meant to be shared , and a light capable of setting an often dark world ablaze.

For individualists tempted to privatize faith, the encyclical discloses how faith is personal but communal, bringing us into communion with the Holy Trinity and into the family of believers.

For those who try to reduce faith to doctrine and separate faith from life, the encyclical illustrates how faith is meant to be lived, as we see beautifully and compellingly in the lives of Abraham and Mary.

For Protestants tempted toward affirming salvation by faith alone, the encyclical shows how faith leads us to live in the Lord’s love to such a degree that it overflows in deeds of love.

Finally,for those who prefer to believe in Christ without believing in the Church, Lumen Fidei stresses the ecclesial dimension of the faith, that to believe in Christ means to believe in, care for, and build up his body he loves as his beloved bride.

To sum up, the encyclical not only strengthens and augments the faith of believers but reinforces how important faith is for humanity’s present and future. Lumen Fidei summons all those in the Church to take the bushel basket off the Light of Faith and set it on a lamp stand for the whole world to see.

Fr.Shyju Xavier

(Asst.Parish Priest)