Sea of Devotees including Devappa Swamiji Throng for Infant Jesus Annual Feast
Mangaluru: The Annual Feast of Infant Jesus was celebrated at 6:00 pm at the Infant Jesus Shrine, Carmel Hill, Bikarnakatte here, on January 14.
A large number of devotees attended the festive mass at the shrine, devotees offered prayers to seek divine intervention and blessings. Masses were held throughout the day in different languages, devotees were seen flocking the shrine since morning.
The Solemn Mass was celebrated by the Bishop of Bellare Dr Henry D’Souza along with Provincial OCD, Fr Charles Serrao, Superior Fr Joe Tauro and other priests. Masses in Konkani, Malayalam and Kannada were held from 6:00 am. to 1:45 pm. In preparation for the Annual Feast, 9-day Novena Prayers were held from January 5.
Bishop Dr Henry in his homily said, “Today we are celebrating the feast of Infant Jesus at the Carmel Hills. Infant Jesus has made the people visit the Carmel hill from all over the world and today entire Mangaluru is gathered on this hill to celebrate the festival”.
Bishop Henry further said, “God sent his only son to save us from our sins. Jesus calls us to serve our neighbours and not to hate them. We need to serve the society with love, peace, forgiveness, and try to bring unity in the society. A little bit of mercy makes the world a much better place. I believe that if we want to be happy, compassion is something that we should practice daily. We need to think about how we can alleviate the sufferings of others. Not just sometimes, but most of the times, I think that by doing that we can become happier. Happiness comes with empathy, we all think we have some form of empathy, but often we are just thinking of ourselves. When we start to relate to others we start to have empathy towards the society. Once you have found empathy for a person, you think of the best you want for that person and obviously, you don’t want to see the person suffer for any reason”.
While concluding Bishop Henry said that instead of going against anyone we have to show mercy to others. When our Father is merciful, we have to be merciful to our neighbours and the society. Infant Jesus is blessing all of us and he is uniting all of us. Let all the devotees be the channels of forgiveness where there is anger, love where there is hatred and unite everyone’s hearts to build a healthy society.
Dharmadhikari of Dakshina Vaishnavi Math Hubballi Devappa Ajjanavar was present for the mass. When one year ago Devappa Ajjanavar saw infant Jesus in his dream, he was eager to know as to whose face he had seen in his dream. After some days, he saw a TV serial related to Infant Jesus “Heegu Unte”, and realized that the face which he saw in his dream was of Infant Jesus. He then decided to attend the annual feast of Infant Jesus and reached Mangaluru. Devappa Swamiji attended the entire mass and also wanted to receive the communion.
Bishop Dr Henry launched the Infant Jesus App on the occasion. Superior Fr Joe Tauro delivered the vote of thanks.
