Attur Basilica Feast 3rd day: ‘By accepting the poor, let us be part of God’s grace’- Bishop K A William
Karkala: “As we are the children of God all human beings are our brothers and sisters. As such it is the responsibility of the well-to-do to take care of our less fortunate brothers and sisters. Those who accept the poor and marginalized are really blessed”, said Dr K A William, Bishop of Mysore in his homily quoting the Holy Gospel during the Vespers celebration, on January 23, the third day of the annual feast of St Lawrence Basilica, Attur-Karkala.
A large number of pilgrims participated in the feast masses, 11 of them, offered at different times throughout the day.
Soon after the Vespers service at 6:00 pm on Tuesday, 23 January 2018, Bishop Gerald Isaac Lobo felicitated Pramod Madhwaraj, Udupi District In-charge Minister, Vinay Kumar Sorake, MLA of Kaup Constituency, Gopal Bhandary, former MLA of Karkala and Rishikesh Sonavne, ASP of Karkala for their service for the Basilica. Janardhan Tonse president of Udupi district congress, Vignesh Kini District secretary of Youth Congress, Congress IT cell leader Neeraj Patil and others were present.
On January 24 evening Chikkamagaluru SP K Annamalai, Dakshina Kannada District minister in-charge Ramanath Rai and others will be felicitated.
For the annual feast of St Lawrence Basilica, Attur-Karkala, devotees not only from coastal Karnataka but also from other parts of Karnataka such as Chikkamagaluru, Madikeri and Mysore had arrived. There is a historical reason for the influx. After the death of Tipu Sultan, those Canara Christians who had been taken to Srirangapattana, but survived, while returning to their native place, many of them had settled down in places such as Chikkamagaluru and started working in coffee estates. However, they used to make it a point to visit at least once a year to their ancestral place. As most of the ancestors had been the devotees of St Lawrence, they used to visit the old church dedicated to St Lawrence at Attur-Karkala. As they used to get their wages at the end of the month, they did not have enough money to spend throughout the month. In order to enable these people to participate in the festivities associated with the church of St Lawrence, the annual feast was celebrated during the last week of January as these devotees could save enough money to spend during the festivities of Attur. Even now many devotees arrive on the previous day, stay overnight, attend the masses and return home with goodies purchased from various stalls and shops at the festival venue.
The feast masses of St Lawrence Basilica tomorrow, Wednesday, 24 January 2018 will be as follows:
Masses in Konkani language at 6:30 am, 8:00 am, 10:30 am, 1:00 pm, 2:30 pm, 4:00 pm, 7:00 pm, 10:00 pm and 11:30 pm. Masses in Kannada at 1:00 pm, 5:30 pm and 8:30 pm.
The main solemn feast mass will be offered by the Bishop of Mangalore, Dr Aloysius Paul D’Souza at 10:30 am.
