Bro. C. Christudas, a lay evangelist from Marthandam, Kankaykumari District, Tamilnadu, celebrated his 25th year of evangelisation ministry recently. Bro. Christudas has produced a number of cassettes and CDs of Christian music. His latest, volume 11 of "Yesuvai Kanpom", (Let us look at Jesus), was released at this occasion.
Bro. Christudas has come to Sri Lanka a number times at the invitation of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (Tamil Stream) and has visited various dioceses including Kandy and Batticaloa.
A book containing c collections of songs of his eleven cassettes are available with us. However, the cassette and the CDs would become available only during the month of February when Bro. Christudas is to make a visit here.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Mother of Rev. Fr. Peter Subaraj CMFpasses away
Mrs. Matilda Vaz, mother of Rev. Fr. Peter Subaraj CMF passes away
We have just received information that Mrs. Matilda Vaz, spouse of late Mr. Britto Morais and mother of Rev. Fr. Peter Subaraj CMFm has passed away.
A memorial mass will be offered today (25th Jan, Friday) at the Church of Annai Vailankanni at Chekku Street, Colombo 13.
Rev. Fr. Peter Subaraj CMF is currently the parish priest of Chekku Street and has served as the Asst Pastor at St. Lucia's Cathedral.
We have just received information that Mrs. Matilda Vaz, spouse of late Mr. Britto Morais and mother of Rev. Fr. Peter Subaraj CMFm has passed away.
A memorial mass will be offered today (25th Jan, Friday) at the Church of Annai Vailankanni at Chekku Street, Colombo 13.
Rev. Fr. Peter Subaraj CMF is currently the parish priest of Chekku Street and has served as the Asst Pastor at St. Lucia's Cathedral.
CONVERSION OF SAUL
THE ROAD TO DAMASCUS
Fulton Oursler
Selection from A Treasury of Catholic Reading
The scene of St. Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus has been retold many times and is symbolical of the many conversions which have been effected by the grace of the Holy Spirit from that day until the present. The following excerpt adheres closely to the well-known account in the Book of Acts and is by a famous writer who himself entered the Church by the same road (1893-1952).
Saul never doubted he had actually seen Jesus. Years later, in the first letter he wrote to the Corinthians, he would rehearse the familiar history of Christ's death, burial, and Resurrection. He would remind the people of Corinth that the risen Christ had appeared to Peter and the rest of the twelve, that He had been seen by more than five hundred disciples at once, many of whom were still alive when that letter was being written. And then he added, with fervent humility and thanksgiving:
"And last of all, He was seen also by me, as by one born out of due time.
"For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the Church of God.
"But by the grace of God, I am what I am; and His grace in me hath not been void, but I have laboured more abundantly than all they: yet not I, but the grace of God with me."
Skeptics still scoff at this encounter. Nearly two thousand years away from evidence, with no testimony for their own theories, they dismiss Saul's conversion as an epileptic fit. The line of years from then to now quakes with countless epileptics, not one of whom has written a single letter that affected the world, nor converted peoples, nor captured the imagination of posterity. Only Saul did that; Saul, of whom no fit was reported before Damascus or since. No skeptic can dispute the complete change in life of Saul, or what suffering he endured for it.
In that one blinding, falling moment Saul became another man. The hunter of Christians, the heresy detective became in one instant full of yearning to be a Christian.
He had seen God. And trembling before that glory, stripped naked of his intellectual pretenses, he had cried out in the hope and fear of all believers:
"Lord, what would You have me to do?"
Saul let his soldiers lead him slowly toward the open gate of Damascus. Strangely, he felt no humiliation in being blind, helpless in the hands of underlings.
He was going into the city, as the Lord had commanded him, to wait to be told what next he must do. To him nothing else mattered.
One man in Damascus knew what Saul was trying to say. His name was Ananias and he is not to be confused with the liar of the same name. Here was a new part of Christian history with a new Judas and a new Ananias, accidentally serving as symbols of a better future.
Ananias had been instructed in the mercy and forgiveness of God. He knew that God will
Saul baptized! Now, there was a tale the Christians back in Judaea would find it hard to believe. By the grapevine that passed from Damascus to Joppa, from Nazareth and Capernaum even to Jericho, and through Galilee into Samaria and wherever the Christians were hiding in the underground, the word would go out that Saul, the persecutor, had been stricken blind near the western gate of Damascus; had seen the Lord Jesus and heard His Voice, had been healed of his blindness by a Syrian Christian, and that now he was himself a Christian.
Who could be expected to believe a wild story like that?
Yet it was literally true. Barely able to stand in the weakness of joints and waist and thighs that was the aftermath of his fall, Saul nevertheless held himself stubbornly erect and suffered Ananias to pour the water over him in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
In that moment Saul became truly, irrevocably, a new man. He was born again.
And he chose to mark that hour of transformation by shedding the Hebrew name Saul, by which all men knew him. He chose instead to be known by the name he had seldom used, his official name as a Roman citizen.
Instead of Saul, the man of Tarsus would from that day of baptism till the end of time be known as Paul.
Fulton Oursler
Selection from A Treasury of Catholic Reading
The scene of St. Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus has been retold many times and is symbolical of the many conversions which have been effected by the grace of the Holy Spirit from that day until the present. The following excerpt adheres closely to the well-known account in the Book of Acts and is by a famous writer who himself entered the Church by the same road (1893-1952).
Saul never doubted he had actually seen Jesus. Years later, in the first letter he wrote to the Corinthians, he would rehearse the familiar history of Christ's death, burial, and Resurrection. He would remind the people of Corinth that the risen Christ had appeared to Peter and the rest of the twelve, that He had been seen by more than five hundred disciples at once, many of whom were still alive when that letter was being written. And then he added, with fervent humility and thanksgiving:
"And last of all, He was seen also by me, as by one born out of due time.
"For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the Church of God.
"But by the grace of God, I am what I am; and His grace in me hath not been void, but I have laboured more abundantly than all they: yet not I, but the grace of God with me."
Skeptics still scoff at this encounter. Nearly two thousand years away from evidence, with no testimony for their own theories, they dismiss Saul's conversion as an epileptic fit. The line of years from then to now quakes with countless epileptics, not one of whom has written a single letter that affected the world, nor converted peoples, nor captured the imagination of posterity. Only Saul did that; Saul, of whom no fit was reported before Damascus or since. No skeptic can dispute the complete change in life of Saul, or what suffering he endured for it.
In that one blinding, falling moment Saul became another man. The hunter of Christians, the heresy detective became in one instant full of yearning to be a Christian.
He had seen God. And trembling before that glory, stripped naked of his intellectual pretenses, he had cried out in the hope and fear of all believers:
"Lord, what would You have me to do?"
Saul let his soldiers lead him slowly toward the open gate of Damascus. Strangely, he felt no humiliation in being blind, helpless in the hands of underlings.
He was going into the city, as the Lord had commanded him, to wait to be told what next he must do. To him nothing else mattered.
One man in Damascus knew what Saul was trying to say. His name was Ananias and he is not to be confused with the liar of the same name. Here was a new part of Christian history with a new Judas and a new Ananias, accidentally serving as symbols of a better future.
Ananias had been instructed in the mercy and forgiveness of God. He knew that God will
Saul baptized! Now, there was a tale the Christians back in Judaea would find it hard to believe. By the grapevine that passed from Damascus to Joppa, from Nazareth and Capernaum even to Jericho, and through Galilee into Samaria and wherever the Christians were hiding in the underground, the word would go out that Saul, the persecutor, had been stricken blind near the western gate of Damascus; had seen the Lord Jesus and heard His Voice, had been healed of his blindness by a Syrian Christian, and that now he was himself a Christian.
Who could be expected to believe a wild story like that?
Yet it was literally true. Barely able to stand in the weakness of joints and waist and thighs that was the aftermath of his fall, Saul nevertheless held himself stubbornly erect and suffered Ananias to pour the water over him in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
In that moment Saul became truly, irrevocably, a new man. He was born again.
And he chose to mark that hour of transformation by shedding the Hebrew name Saul, by which all men knew him. He chose instead to be known by the name he had seldom used, his official name as a Roman citizen.
Instead of Saul, the man of Tarsus would from that day of baptism till the end of time be known as Paul.
Sacerdotal golden Jubilee of Archbishop Oswald Gomis
GOLDEN JUBILARIAN - HIS GRACE ARCHBISHOP OSWALD GOMIS
His Grace the Archbishop Most Rev. Dr. Oswal Gomis, celebrates his Sacerdotal Golden Jubilee on 3rd February 2008. This occasion is of triple signicance ot the Archbishop as his 75th birthday fell on 12 December 2007, his Golden Jubilee of 50 Years a priest on 3rd February and the elevation to Episcopal Office in July 1968.
We, the Renewal Prayer Group at St. Lucia's Cathedral, send His Grace our greetings and assure our prayers and obedience to him at this memorable occasion. We are planning to present him a "Spiritual Boquet" which will include masses, recitation of rosaries, visits to the Blessed Sacrament etc.
Celebrations will be at the Cathedral Church of St. Lucy at Kotahena on 2nd February (Saturday) at 9.00 a.m.
While urging all members of the Charismatic Renewal to attend this service, we encourage our members who are interested (specially of the diaspora) in sending a greeting to send it to His Grace's Secretary Fr. Sunil de Silva at sunilde@sltnet.lk
His Grace the Archbishop Most Rev. Dr. Oswal Gomis, celebrates his Sacerdotal Golden Jubilee on 3rd February 2008. This occasion is of triple signicance ot the Archbishop as his 75th birthday fell on 12 December 2007, his Golden Jubilee of 50 Years a priest on 3rd February and the elevation to Episcopal Office in July 1968.
We, the Renewal Prayer Group at St. Lucia's Cathedral, send His Grace our greetings and assure our prayers and obedience to him at this memorable occasion. We are planning to present him a "Spiritual Boquet" which will include masses, recitation of rosaries, visits to the Blessed Sacrament etc.
Celebrations will be at the Cathedral Church of St. Lucy at Kotahena on 2nd February (Saturday) at 9.00 a.m.
While urging all members of the Charismatic Renewal to attend this service, we encourage our members who are interested (specially of the diaspora) in sending a greeting to send it to His Grace's Secretary Fr. Sunil de Silva at sunilde@sltnet.lk
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