Moodubelle: “Compricho Aithar” (Confraternity Sunday) celebrated with devotion and grand procession

Report by Dr. Eugene D’Souza
Pictures by Anil Alva

Moodubelle, 04 January 2010: The Confraternity Sunday, locally known as the ‘Compricho Aithar’ in Konkani language, was celebrated with great devotion and a grand procession in St. Lawrence Parish Moodubelle in the evening of Sunday, 3rd January, 2010, as a spiritual preparation for the Annual Parish Feast that will be celebrated on Wednesday, 6th January 2010.

According to Fr. Joswey Fernandes, Parish Priest of Moodubelle, the Confraternity Sunday is the celebration of brotherhood of all the parishioners who come together to worship and thank the Lord for all the graces that he had showered on the people of the Parish and to bless the people during the year ahead. This is also an occasion to ask for favours from the Lord for the smooth conduct of the coming Annual Parish Feast. Before the celebration of the Annual Parish Feast, we honour Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament and take the Sacrament in procession through the streets and roads of the village and pray for the good health, happiness and safety of the villagers irrespective of their religion or caste.

The Confraternity solemn Mass was offered by nine priests with Rev. Fr. Joachim Fernandes, Professor of Indian Philosophy in St. Joseph’s Seminary, Jeppu-Mangalore as the Chief Celebrant. The theme of his Homily was “God With Us.” In this interesting Homily, Fr. Joachim explained with examples for the Old and New Testaments, how God was always with the people, helping them whenever they were in trouble such as the Israelites in the captivity of the Pharoes of Egypt and how Moses liberated them on the promise that God would be with him and the Israelites. Referring to the Annunciation of Virgin Mary, Fr. Joachim said that Archangel Gabriel hailed Mary and said that she was full of grace and the Lord was with her.

Further elaborating the main theme of the Homily, Fr. Joachim pointed out that the Lord has been with the people of Moodubelle Parish for the last hundred years, blessing them and guiding them. He also cautioned the people that it is not enough to grow horizontally in terms of material wealth and power and positions. It is important that they also should grow vertically in spirituality and grace being with the Lord.

After the Mass, the Novena in honour of St. Lawrence was conducted by Fr. Naveen Pinto, Assistant Parish Priest. Following the Blessing of the people through the Relic of St. Lawrence, the Blessed Sacrament was exposed and venerated by all the priests and the people.

The grand Confraternity Procession started at around 5PM, Altar Servers bearing the Cross in front, followed by Band from Udyavar playing tunes of different hymns, women, men, again Altar Servers bearing the banner followed by a number of small girls in white dress sprinkling flowers on the path of the Blessed Sacrament. The priests were at the end of the procession just in front of the decorated van on which Fr. Joachim Fernandes held the Blessed Sacrament high for the view of all the people who had lined by the side of the roads.

The path of the procession from the church through the road leading to the school-college complex and winding through the main road and back to the church through the main entrance tower was decorated with buntings and palm leaves. Shop owners had cleaned the patches of roads in front of their shops with water and paid respect to the Blessed Sacrament by observing silence. The rickshaws and buses had left the road clear for the procession to pass through smoothly. There was security arrangement to avoid any untoward incident.

The entire programme of the Confraternity Sunday with the solemn Eucharistic celebration and colourful procession went off very well. The faith of the parishioners in the Lord has been rejuvenated in view of the Annual Parish Feast.