CHRISM MASS 2022

Kolkata: The Priests of the Archdiocese of Calcutta under its shepherd Archbishop Thomas D'Souza, gathered together to celebrate the Priesthood of Christ popular known as Chrism mass, at the Cathedral of the Most Holy Rosary on 07 April 2022. The Chrism Mass is one of the most solemn and important celebration of the Christian liturgical calendar. The ancient Christian Apostolic Tradition described it as a ceremony taking place during the Easter Vigil at which two holy oils were blessed and one was consecrated. Maundy Thursday is the usual day in which this Mass is celebrated in a diocese or archdiocese. Archbishop of Calcutta Thomas DSouza welcomed all the faithful, priests and religious to the solemn celebration.

Their were gathered around 200 priests, 5 deacons and several religious and lay faithful. The Archbishop while commenting on the significance of the day also explained the importance of the blessing of oils and its use in the daily life of the Church. He also stressed on the fact that pandemic has taught humanity the lesson of inter dependency on one another and the importance of every human individual. Archbishop recalled a quote of Pope Francis "Joy is an echo of our inner holiness." He exhorted all the priests to continue the mission of Christ by obeying the command of Christ; "DO this in remembrance of Me". He gave the example of Fr Stan Swamy who broke his life for his people. Archbishop thanked the priests for their dedicated life as priests in the archdiocese. He called on all the priests to apply the words of the gospel reading; "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has sent me...". 

Archbishop enumerated the four pillars i.e. Closeness to God, closeness to Bishop, closeness to brother priest and closeness to our people, given by Pope to all the priests and appealed all the priests to live faithfully in their daily ministry. After the final blessing the newly elected superior general of Missionaries of Charity, Sister Joseph Michael and other jubilarians were felicitated. The vote of thanks was proposed by Mr. Francis Chen. The priests and other invited guests were served with delicious meal. 

New Plan Activated for SCC in Midnapore Deanery.

 FR. DOMINIC GOMES VG 

On 21st and 22nd March 2022, 51 Parish Coordinators, Animators and veteran members of Small Christian Communities from 11 Parishes participated in a residential workshop held as a part of the ongoing process of SCC growth in Midnapore Deanery. Last year on 19-20 October an SCC Orientation workshop was conducted for over 60 participants who had gone back with very detailed parish action plans. Unfortunately the Christmas season that was followed by Covid 2nd Wave restrictions in January 2022 slowed things down considerably.  In mid-February Fr. Dominic Gomes, Vicar General visited Kharagpur and had a very fruitful meeting with Fr. Reginald Fernandez Dean of Midnapore and other parish priests and SCC coordinators with a very significant outcome – 13 Parishes and Sub-stations in the Deanery were clustered into six different Zones primarily based on the proximity of the Parishes and six Priests were each given charge to guide SCC in the Parishes in these six Zones. 

Barring two parishes who had Lenten Retreats on 21-22 March, it was attended by all those who had participated in the October workshop where the 4-Marks of SCC based on the 4 pillars of One, Holy, Catholic & Apostolic Church were explained in detail and 7-Step Gospel Sharing was elaborately demonstrated in group work and interactive sessions. This workshop was held in the backdrop of the re-formed SCC operational structure with the purpose of providing advanced inputs on re-vitalising SCCs through a systematic growth plan focusing on family participation.

As always the program started with a Solemn Bible procession and enthronement. The three lessons of focus for this workshop were - God’s plan for marriage and family; Forgiveness and handling conflict with love in the family; and SCCs Evangelize family. The methodology followed was fully participatory as the participants worked in four groups first reading aloud the inputs, accompanying Bible readings, and Church Teachings from the three lessons material in English, Bengali and Hindi, and then after reflection and discussions based on the questions provided with the lessons the groups prepared and presented their reports. Different members of the Diocesan Resource Team (DRT) facilitated each step of the process, and provided supplementary learning inputs at the end of the reporting sessions for the three lessons.

On the second day (Sunday) Holy Mass was celebrated by Fr. Dominic Gomes and concelebrated by Fr. Reginald Fernandes Dean of Midnapore. The concluding part focused on a stock taking-cum-planning exercise with 10 parishes setting up immediate targets of what they would do till the end of April 2022. This session was led by Fr. Reggie who has been constantly following up with the Priests designated to the six newly formed Zones and his enthusiasm has imparted a great impetus to the SCC growth efforts in the Deanery. The reports of the Parish after a round of discussion and planning in group.

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