St Joseph Vaz Church, Mudipu
Christmas Celebration-2019
On the eve of Christmas, the celebration at St Joseph Vaz Church began with the singing of Christmas carols at 7.30 pm. This was a sort of spiritual preparation to welcome the birth of Jesus Christ, the prince of peace. The solemn Eucharistic celebration was presided over by Most Rev. Dr Aloysius Paul D’Souza, Bishop Emeritus of Mangalore along with Fr Benjamin Pinto and Fr Shaun Rodrigues. Bishop, in his homily gave a call to make a room for Jesus Christ in our lives. Being born in a manger, which represents the state of the world; Jesus sanctified this world. God in his simplicity reveals himself to mankind so that we all may imitate Jesus.Fr Benjamin greeted the entire parish community. Parish Pastoral Parishad conducted the liturgy. The melodious singing of the choir elevated the beauty of the celebration.
On 25th evening to manifest the joy of Christmas and a sense of unity ‘Parish Family Day’ was organized at 6.00 pm in the church grounds. The programme began with the prayer song led by the choir. Mr Roshan D’Souza, Vice President of PPP welcomed the gathering. All nine wards had put up a wonderful cultural programme of 15 minutes each wherein they exhibited their talents and manifested their togetherness. Songs sung for Konkani Natak Sabha competition were sung by children and elders. On this occasion, ICYM organized a photo-competition “Aanj Mudipu -2019” and thus children were honoured by Fr Benjamin Pinto. As Mr Roshan D’Souza, the Vice-President and Mr Marcel D’Souza, Secretary of the Parish Pastoral Parishad are completing their terms the entire parish community honoured them with gratitude for their selfless services. Moreover, Miss Sejal D’Souza, Kananthur was felicitated for securing the first place in the Diocesan level elocution competition organized by Catholic Sabha and also for bringing laurels in the filed of scout and guides. Two young men, Mr Rolvin D’Souza and Mr Feshwith D’Souza were honoured for directing and producing value based short films by Fr Shaun Rodrigues. Prize distribution of star and ‘crib of unity’ of the wards was done by Sr Joaquina Dias. On this beautiful evening Fr Benjamin Pinto,the Parish Priest gave his Christmas message wherein he encouraged and thanked all the wards for putting up a wonderful programme. Ashwin D’Souza, Veekshitha D’Souza and Kiran Cutinha compered the programme. Mr Marcel D’Souza proposed the vote of thanks. The curtains for the programme were drawn at 9.30 pm.
