- Deepak Baptist with inputs from Patricia Daranjo
The Mission of Mercy Sunday was celebrated in our parish on 23 April 2017, the Sunday after Easter from 2:00 P.M. onwards.
The Feast of The Divine Mercy , commonly called Mercy Sunday was well celebrated in our parish. Needless to mention, our parish is blessed with active and devout members who added more meaning to the sacred occasion.
Mr. Raymond David led all those present into a deep soul search involving repentance, surrender and prayer.
At 3:00 P.M. the whole church recited the Divine Mercy chaplet in unison. It seemed as though the church was prostrate in unison to adore Our Lord. As Fr. Gregory celebrated the mass; he shared a very special message to the congregation based on the ABCs of God's Mercy
The Ministry for the Aged Unit of our church celebrated this day by providing lunch to its thirty beneficiaries which was provided by Justin James. In addition sarees, lungis and rosaries were also given to all the MFA members. Mahila Samity members were also given sarees and lungis.
Mercy Sunday was a day of spirituality and blessing as was testified by the tears on many parishioners’ faces; we can say that the Legacy of St. Faustina is being continued in faith and in her footsteps till all the souls are gathered under the Divine Mercy of our Lord.
- Ashley Cantophor
Kolkata : Every year, the celebration of the Divine Mercy Feast at Sacred Heart Church, Dharamtala attracts people in great numbers. Once again the nine day Novena was well attended and appreciated by all with inspiring homilies given by different priests on each day. People have testified and proclaimed publicly of the numerous graces and blessings received during these celebrations, year after year.
The CCCRS, under the leadership Fr. A. C. Jose sdb has done everything possible all these years to make the Mercy Divine Feast day celebrations fervent and spiritually powerful. Raymond Baptist led the CCCRS right through the work and all hard worked at all the stages of the Novena and the feast. People began to enter the Church from as early as 11.30 a.m. Soon the church was packed to its capacity. After the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, at 1.10 p.m.Cynthia Beck ably led the people into Praise and Worship preparing them for Adoration.The choir led by Francis Beck brought in a thunderous but inspiring effect to the whole service. The healing and deliverance service by Fr. Jose was really anointed and let the people to a great spiritual experience. Enough priests were available for all the faithful who desired to make their confession. A little before 3 P.M.the Divine Mercy Chaplet was recited by all the faithful that was followed by the solemn Eucharistic Celebration presided over by His Grace Archbishop Thomas D’Souza and con-celebrated by Fr. Soosai Manickam, Fr. Peter Duriaraj and two other priests.
His Grace, Archbishop Thomas, Fr. Soosai Manickam the parish priest and the whole parish have been instrumental in the successful and impressive celebration of this feast. His Grace Archbishop Thomas D’Souza’s homily was really very meaningful and touching. The Archbishop gave us a beautiful testimony of the Divine Mercy picture bleeding from the heart from the pictures kept in a convent in Kharagpur and he further exhorted all to seize the opportunity given by God to be reconciled with him by accepting the message of the Divine Mercy Revelation.
At the end of the Service the Archbishop released a beautiful souvenir on the Bible Convention for HEALING AND DELIVERANCE 2017 presented the first copy to Fr. Soosai Manickam and Fr. Jose offered the second copy to the Archbishop Thomas D’Souza while the third copy went to Fr. Peter Duriaraj A very emotional testimony was given by Fr. Soosai followed by a vote of thanks to the Archbishop and Fr. Jose and the CCCRS Members. The Chairman Mr. Raymond Baptist also gave a vote of thanks to His Grace, Fr. Soosai, Fr. Jose, the priests present there and each and every group and individual that made the day a great success. The services concluded with the kissing of the Relic.
- Dominic J. Azavedo
Kolkata: The Christians of Kolkata came on the streets of the city to display their unity as one follower of the Risen Christ. The Heads of the Churches and even the ordinary believers showed that we are united and we do not wish to live in the past in our differences. The Christians from all denominations walked down in procession with banners and flags and gathered at St. James’ Ground on Easter Sunday, 16th April, 2017 singing and dancing mainly from 4 designated centers: Bishop College, Beg Bagan; Sacred Heart Church,Dharamtala; Entally Baptist Church; and Union Chapel.
Earlier, letters of appeal were sent by Archbishop Thomas D' Souza of the Catholic Church, Bishop Ashoke Biswas of the CNI Church, Rev. Dr. Ivan Satyavrata, Senior Pastor of the Assembly of God Church,Kolkata. For the Catholics special appeals were also sent by Fr. Dominic Gomes, Vicar General and Fr. Timir Singha, S.J., Director of Ecumenism and Inter-Faith Dialogue in the Archdiocese of Kolkata.
There were present also Heads of other Churches: Very Rev. Movses Sargsyan of the Indian Armenian Spiritual Pastorate, Rev. Abraham of the Indian Orthodox Malankara Church, Rev. Sudip Biswas of the Baptist Church, Major Johnson of the Salvation Army, etc. From the Government side, there were Mr. James Kujur, Minister of Tribal welfare who came all the way from North Bengal, Mr.Solomon Nesa Kumar, D. C.Traffic and Mrs. Susmita Bhattacharya, Councellor.
There was melodious singing from Mrinalini & Group, Seed Ministry Lead Society, Worship Team,Roman Catholic Archdiocese and Worship Team, Diocese of Calcutta, CNI.
Rev. Shreeraj Mohanty, Vicar, St. James Church, welcomed and said the Opening Prayer. This was followed by singing bilingually the Congregational Hymn – Jesus Christ is Risen Today, Hallelujah. Rev. Sudip Biswas gave Easter greetings; while the Scripture Reading was done by Rev. Saikat Nath (CNI) in Bengali, Major Pande (Salvation Army) in Hindi and Mrs. Angelina Mantosh (Catholic Church) in English. A very meaningful Offertory prayer was said by the Catholic Archbishop Thomas D’Souza of Calcutta and Fr. Moloy D’Costa gave a short message saying that on Good Friday, men had their way while on Easter Sunday, God conquered all. This brought new life to the Apostles and all those who believed in the Resurrection. The Closing Prayer and Benediction was given by CNI Bishop Ashoke Biswas of Kolkata. Rev. James Gomez, (Joint Convenor with Rev. Martin A. Pakhare) did a good job as the compère and proposed the Vote of Thanks.
Mention was specially made of Mrs. Angelina Jasnani Mantosh who helped the organizers in many ways like inviting the dignitaries, getting the police permission for the processions to come from all the 4 Centers, arranging drinking water for the people, etc. Thanks to Mr. Francis Ganpat who got the Catholic Volunteers from different Churches and Fr. Timir for the necessary arrangements.
