We were just getting over the hospitalization episodes of our daughter Hannah, 2 years old, in the month of August and our son Joshua, 4 years old, in the month of September. We were beginning to enjoy and make memories with our newborn Pete. Joshua’s school had just reopened after the Dussehra holidays and he returned home with a cough. It got worse by the end of the day and Hannah too contracted the illness. Continue reading
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
~ Matthew 28:19-20
A Christian Life Seminar (CLS) program was conducted in Hamirpur, at Sacred Heart Cathedral, Rourkela, Orissa from May 14, 2019, to May 19, 2019, in Hindi. The CLS began with a prayer and the new couples and handmaids were addressed by the Parish Priest of Hamirpur. Continue reading
As the aeroplane began its descent into the sand pit that was to be my home for the next 7 and a half years, I had a sinking feeling in my heart. As much as I wanted to explore the world as a flight attendant, I didn’t want to be so far away from my family and friends in an unknown land. My first day in my new home in Qatar was very lonely and a tad bit scary. As a 20-year-old, fresh out of university, I had not fully learnt how to be a responsible adult. Almost overnight my life had changed. I had moved away from family in times preceding the invention of Whatsapp and high-speed internet (if you can remember those frustrating dial-up days). Calling to talk to them was hard and really expensive. The one thing that did not change was my regular partaking of the Eucharist. The church and the Eucharist were the things that were a constant in my life and something I could hold on to. Even though the closest church was about 40 minutes each way, I made it a point to go for Mass at least once a week. However, without the backing of the community, my personal prayer time and my spiritual life, in general, began to stagnate. My spiritual life began looking somewhat like my surroundings: dry and without much life. Continue reading
With the grace of God and the endeavour of the service team, the CFCI Kolkata chapter was able to organize a 2-day Marriage Enrichment Retreat (MER) program in Bengali. Amidst a lot of barriers, we were determined to have it and God was with us as we prepared and conducted the entire program. It was a blessing that we started it on a very auspicious day, Palm Sunday, the 14th April 2019, where we all attended mass at St. Patrick’s Church, DumDum and moved on to Proggaloy retreat centre, Barasat. Continue reading
