Fr Xavier Writes 10th March 2024

Parish Pastoral Council – Formation Group minutes can be viewed below from Monday 23rd April 2024

This weekend we celebrate the great feast of Pentecost – the ‘birthday of the Church’. I say ‘celebrate’ and yet there is a sense, I believe, that we fail to recognise the enormity and importance of Pentecost. As we know and as our First Reading this weekend reminds us, Pentecost is when the Apostles received the gift of the Holy Spirit. Upon receiving this gift, promised by Jesus before his Ascension into heaven, the Apostles were empowered to go out to all who were in Jerusalem at that time and proclaim the Good News. At one moment in time the Apostles, who previously were ‘laying low’ for fear of the Jews, were given the gift of speech and the courage to witness all they had learnt from Jesus. The Holy Spirit itself is often referred to as ‘the forgotten God’ and yet week after week in our reciting of the Creed at Mass we refer to the Spirit as ‘the Giver of Life’.  The Sprit is our Advocate, the one who gives us the words to speak and the courage to witness to others. As St Paul says in his letter to the Romans: ‘The Sprit comes to the aid of our weakness; when we do not know what prayer to offer, to pray as we ought, the Spirit himself intercedes for us, with groans beyond all utterance; and God, who can read our hearts knows well what the Spirit’s intent is’. (Ch. 8 vv 26-27). Let us therefore call on the Holy Spirit to inspire us and embolden us to proclaim that Jesus is our Lord and Saviour, the Messiah.

As we listen to His prayer on the night before He died, we see that His thoughts were on how helpless His friends would be without Him. He voices His concern for their welfare, knowing that because of their mission they will encounter opposition and hatred in the world. He prepares them and did not pray that they would be spared these trials and sufferings, but that they would remain faithful in spite of opposition. These parting words of Christ are meant for us, just as much as they were for the apostles. We have been taken into this prayer of Jesus, as he has chosen us to share in His work; our calling is to be missionaries, dedicated to the truth of God’s word in the way we live and by our behaviours in the smallest of our acts of compassion. In our lives often, on occasions when we run into difficulties, we think God has abandoned us. It would be helpful in times of trouble if we could remember that God did not offer a release from problems, but the ability to cope with them, provided we turn to Him for comfort and help.  The gospel ends with a prayerful appeal to remain true to our Christian roots - to be consecrated to the truth. This means that we are to have a value system, not dictated by the prevailing spirit of the age or the trends of society, but based on the gospel message. We should cling to the Lord even in the midst of sufferings, struggles and the tragedies of life that occur, as they inevitably do. We would be selling ourselves short if we were ever prepared to ignore this call to believe more firmly and take our mission seriously. Happy weekend.

The Diocese of Kumbakonam is well placed in serving the people’s needs - social, economic, political and cultural – irrespective of religion, creed or language. We have registered two charities with their office that are responsible for outsourcing resources and responding to the demands of the people of all walks of life, targeting the marginalised and those on the periphery, the children, women, poor, aged, differently able, migrants and refugees. Above everything else, our Lord Jesus asks us and commands us to love one another. The model and standard for Christian behaviour is this love, which Christ has shown for us on the cross. The one requirement attached to receiving this gift of God’s love is the undertaking that we share it with others. To experience Christ’s love, we have to root out selfishness and start thinking about others more than ourselves. As disciples, we are called to be persons of others, following the example of Jesus. Love is a form of self-sacrifice, which demands us to give, not just of the things we possess, but of ourselves, our time and our talents. Wherever there is love, God is present. This is the message that has to be preached by word and example. The most effective way must surely be to treat everyone as a friend, giving them the respect they deserve. God’s love surpasses anything we can ever imagine. Each one of us is loved individually and intimately. ‘As the Father has loved me so I have loved you.’ We do not deserve God’s love and we cannot earn it by ourselves. God has declared His choice, taken us on and loved us from the beginning, even before we were born. It is His love for us that led Him to send His Son into the world to take away our sins. In moments of trial and stress, when people are hostile, it is important to remember that Christ’s own love was not limited to the people He liked, and we should close our minds to thoughts of revenge. Fulfilling the commandment of love draws us into the family of God. Finally, we will be judged only by the amount of love we have shown. Therefore, let us love one another.  Have a great and loving week ahead.

The pastoral mission in the diocese of Kumbakonam is well organized, coordinated by the director of the Pastoral Centre. Fifteen commissions are in operation: Evangelisation, Catechetics, Liturgy and Children, Women, Laity, Parish Council, Ecumenism and Dialogue, Basic Christian Communities, Bible, Youth, Family, Retired Govt. Officials, Vocation and Clergy, Society of St Vincent de Paul and Legion of Mary, Charismatic Movement, Scheduled Caste and Tribe. Some of the commissions do operate individually, headed by a Priest, except the Women commission, which is headed by a Religious Sister, while some are coupled together for operational convenience, depending on the volume of work they undertake. Each commission is committed to giving a monthly and periodical report to the Curia and this will be published in the newsletter of the diocese each month. The commissions are quite active and they keep the parishes busy all the time with visits, discussions, planning, programmes, celebrating and reporting. In the art of farming and cultivation, pruning plays an important role. Experts remark that it is surprising the amount of dead wood one can shake out of a very good tree and plant after a hard winter or dry season, and they stress the necessity of pruning and cutting back branches in order to produce fruit. In many ways, our lives are no different from a garden -the gospel is telling us that it is amazing the amount of dead wood that can be found in a good life. To get the best out of our lives, we need caring and cultivation in getting rid of weeds and briars, which, if left unchecked, will choke and destroy Christian growth. This means cutting away what is useless and nourishing what is good. The good fruit that we are expected to bear is love of our neighbour, in word and deed. This is the test of our genuineness because it has the stamp of the love of Christ imprinted in it. There is nobody without fault and even the best of people can be torn apart on their weaker side. The decision to live love has its price and we should not minimise the difficulties involved. The practical love of our neighbour will more than make up for a multitude of our own sins. If Jesus is to have an effect on the world, it is through His followers living in such a way that people will see the hand of God at work in the most ordinary situations in our lives. The best contribution that we can make to the wellbeing of the Church is to allow Christ’s love to seep into our own lifeblood. If we live in Christ and He lives in us, the fruit we can bear is beyond imagining. God demands a lot from His children, in expecting them to make the Church a vibrant community by living good and fruitful lives.  Have a fruitful week ahead.

Between today’s ‘Good Shepherd’ Sunday and Pentecost, we are invited, as a Diocese, to come together for four weeks of prayer to the Holy Spirit, to grant us a missionary spirit through the raising up of new vocations to all walks of life in the Church, and especially to the priesthood. Please take one of the leaflets available in the pews, to read more on this call to prayer. In his message for this, the 61st, World Day of Prayer for Vocations, Pope Francis says ‘Each year, the World Day of Prayer for Vocations invites us to reflect on the precious gift of the Lord’s call to each of us, as members of his faithful pilgrim people, to participate in his loving plan and to embody the beauty of the Gospel in different states of life…..Our life finds fulfilment when we discover who we are, what our gifts are, where we can make them bear fruit, and what path we can follow in order to become signs and instruments of love, generous acceptance, beauty and peace, wherever we find ourselves.’

The Diocese of Kumbakonam in the state of Tamilnadu in India covers the whole district areas of Perambalur, Ariyalur where the avocation of life of Catholic people is as agricultural labourers, barring a few having a small landholding, but these parts are rainfed and some with irrigation from open wells. The diocese shares some parts of Trichy, Thanjavour and Thiruvarur districts, where the supply of water for irrigation is from the river Cauvery and its tributaries. This is the fertile delta region of the river Cauvery. In both these areas, most of the Catholics are daily wage workers and some of them are small landholders. Overall, the diocese is rural-based and no cities are in its boundary and so people are simple, poor, pious, church going and much involved in church activities. The picture of Christ as Good Shepherd tending his sheep is a favourite in Christian circles and people have been comforted and consoled by His seeking out the lost sheep and carrying it on his shoulders. The image provides inspiration, as it expresses the type of care, compassion and guidance which Christ offers to all of us. This instils hope in us and increases our confidence. Even when sin causes us to wander and stray, the Good Shepherd is there to come to our rescue. We can ask ourselves how we are responding to the closeness of the love and care God has for us. Is it evident by word and example that Christ is the cornerstone of our life, or have we kept him at a safe distance? We, in turn, need to be caring and draw close to those we meet. Sometimes, we deceive ourselves by keeping people at arm’s length, with obligations to nobody. Caring for one another is shown by discreet acts of kindness, like making a phone call, giving an understanding look, greeting someone or an unexpected gift - all of which say, ‘I am with you’. It offers hope to a friend, to continue on the road of life with a tiny flame of confidence in their heart. Our call from baptism is to have hands to help others, feet to hasten to the poor and needy, eyes to see misery and ears to hear the sighs of our friends in sorrow. This is what being a Good Shepherd really means. Have a caring week.

The Diocese of Kumbakonam was born on 1st Sep. 1899, bifurcated from the Archdiocese of Pondicherry and was entrusted to the Paris Foreign Mission Society (Missions Étrangères de Paris) and now we have our indigenous Bishops. The diocese is keen on the pastoral ministry and care of the people and eventually there were lots of conversions in the missions and we have two social service centres doing the development works. In education, the diocese has 123 schools, of which 13 are Higher Secondary (till year 12), 2 technical schools, 1 school for those with hearing or speech impairments. In health ministry, there are 2 leprosy hospitals, 8 general hospitals, 20 dispensaries, 2 homes for the aged and 2 for differently able. We are in Easter season, celebrating Christ’s victory over death. Yet, today,the readings focus on the necessity of repentance, conversion and the avoidance of sin. There are no shortcuts to eternal life - death and resurrection must take place in each of our lives. We must die to self in order to live in God. Sin must be avoided at all costs. Resurrection must take place here and now in the life of every Christian. True life is not something we achieve overnight but is a gradual transformation that takes place within us, as we turn away from the deed of darkness and live for God. In the gospel, Christ opened the minds of the disciples to understand the scripture. They were to be witnesses, preaching penance for the remission of sins. Our minds and hearts should be opened and it’s our turn to be witnesses to the gospel. The first disciples could not keep the good news to themselves but hurried to share it with those who had ears to listen. If we are to be witnesses to Christ’s gospel we must stop living in a halfhearted manner and show forth the resurrection in our lives. Drawing close to Christ implies truly Christian behaviour and being of one mind and heart with Him. May we strive to be true witnesses to the Risen Christ. Have a Great week ahead.

Happy Easter and best wishes for Divine Mercy Sunday. Herewith I shall give a paragraph of my background in each newsletter, since some of our parishioners were interested in knowing some details. As you all know, I am a diocesan priest of Kumbakonam in Tamilnadu, which is heading for its 125th year in September this year, with 262,462 Catholics (as at 2021), 4.4% of the total population, in 93 parishes having 174 diocesan priests and 94 religious priests, along with 647 female religious sisters working in the diocese. There is an old French saying which states that ‘God often visits us but most of the time we are not at home’. In today’s gospel, when Jesus appeared to the apostles while they were at prayer, Thomas was not at home. The others tried to convince him, as best as they could, that they had seen the Lord, but his reaction was doubt. All that went on at the Last Supper and the death of Jesus on the hill of Calvary had crushed Thomas, leaving him disillusioned, angry and deeply wounded and not easily able to trust again without a proof. It's consoling because our path of faith in the Lord is often a slow walk-through moment of doubt and confusion, creating a rift between ourselves and God. Is it any different from our reaction and lack of faith when our life is shattered by a death in the family, the loss of a job etc? The loud doubts Thomas echoes lurk in all of us. Jesus respected Thomas’ honesty and met him at the very point of uncertainty. God understands our situation, too, in moments of crisis and despair. Doubt for Thomas proved to be a growing point of faith, made stronger when tested.  As descendants of first believers, our faith should have life in his name, as it made real impact on the lives of early Christians. They took it to heart and reached out, related and encouraged one another in a prayerful spirit of neighbourliness. There is no greater example of faith than to live with others in a common spirit of friendship, harmony and love. May we strive our best to express our faith in love of our brethren. Have a great Divine Mercy Sunday