Kanajar: Parish Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes Church Celebrated

By Anil Alva
Bellevision Media Network

Kanajar, 01 December 2010: Parish Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes Church celebrated in a grand manner on Wednesday 01st December 2010. It was the culmination day of 5 days celebration - the annual parish feast and Thanksgiving Day. The theme was “My soul glorifies the Lord”.

 

Rev. Fr. Pascal Menezes, the Parish Priest of Kota and ICYM Director for Udupi District was the main celebrant of the feast mass. He preached a beautiful homily saying though Kanajar parish is small but it shines like a bride because of the strong devotion of the people who live here. He explained about the qualities of a mother and asked everyone to love and respect our mother. It will lead us towards our heavenly mother. Eleven priests concelebrated at the Eucharist.

 

 

At the end of the Mass. Rev. Fr. Alwyn D’Cunha, the parish priest thanked one and all for the great success of the events and expressed his heart full of gratitude to God. Before the Mass The Parish Pastoral Counsel members and the Murdoms were honoured by giving candles to Murdoms.

 

More than 1500 Catholics of Kanajar and neighbouring parishes had come for the celebration. Besides them there were a lot of people from other religion who had come to honour Lourdes Saibin.

 

Vespers day (Besp) celebrated at Kanajar

 

By Kanajar Online & Pics by Sinchana Digital

Kanajar, 30 November 2010: Vespers day (Besp) in preparation of the Parish Feast was celebrated on Tuesday, November 30th evening by Kanajar parish community with all grandeur.  This was the 4th day of the celebrations in Kanajar which started with the last week’s celebration of head-load gift offerings (’Hore Kanike’).

 

Earlier in the evening, the celebrations and Vespers service commenced sharp at 6.30 PM with the blessing of the chariot of ’Lourdes Saibin’ (Mother Mary) followed by candle lit procession by devotees singing Marian hymns. More than 2000 people joined the procession and Vespers day celebrations. The candle lit procession timed well with the setting sun to light up the surroundings.

 

After the procession there was solemn Vespers mass in the church. Fr. Herald Pereira the parish priest of Paladka Church was the main celebrant of the ceremonial mass. In keeping with the custom of Vespers day, the main celebrant preached a beautiful homily in Kannada and Tulu as like every year there were large numbers of people belonging to Hindu community attended the Vespers service.

 

A total of eight priests from Karkal Deanery and guests priests concelebrated in the Eucharistic celebration. Rev. Fr. Pascal Menezes the Parish Priest of Kota church conducted the melodious choir.

 

 

The festive joy was increased by the beautiful illumination of the renovated church and the beautiful Grotto of our Lady of Lourdes. The illumination work was done by M/S Jyothi Sounds and Electricals Kanajar was attracting all the people. The church was also decorated with flowers. The Mass was followed by spectacular fireworks, which was a real feast to the eyes.

 

There were many stalls of ICYM, YCS and Altar Boys along with other variety of shops of various items and eatables in the church compound. The delicious ice cream of ZAM ZAM added taste to the festivity.

 

During Mass, before Mass and after Mass lot of Hindu and Muslim devotees of ’Lourdes Saibin’ (Mother Mary) came to the Church and lighted the candles. Many people were seen taking the water which was falling from the feet of Our Lady of Lourdes – the newly erected Grotto.

 

A lot of people who attended the celebrations were seen capturing the moments of the festive celebrations at the beautiful church with their cameras.