St Priscilla’s parish in Michigan celebrates Monti Fest
Detroit: The feast day of the Nativity of Our Lady on September 8th was celebrated with great devotion and piousness on Sunday, September 10th at St. Priscilla Catholic Church, Livonia and was presided by the Bishop of Detroit, Donald Hanchon. Fr Theo D’Cunha, the parish priest of St Priscilla church and a palatine congregation priest, who hails from Mangalore, began this tradition of celebrating Monthi fest in Michigan, 10 years ago. This is the only church in Michigan that celebrates this feast and with much aplomb that sees a large gathering of people from all across Michigan who come together to celebrate this feast and honor Mother Mary’s important role in humanity, and to the salvation of mankind.
The celebrations at St Priscilla Church, commenced with a procession of lively music and singing of Mother Mary’s songs, while all the faithful, slowly marched around the parking lot, along with the statue of the Blessed Mother, and a parade of festival queens, with their escorts and decorated arches. All the faithful took part in the procession with great enthusiasm. At the end of the procession, everyone returned inside the church to offer flowers to the Blessed statue and mass began at 11:00 am. The homily by Fr Theo D’Cunha was true to the times, inspiring and touching. He shared stories of how Mother Mary had interceded him in his life.
At the end of the service, Bishop Hanchon gave a special blessing to the children and Rev. Fr. Theo thanked all those persons who had given their mite for the successful celebration of this feast. He specially thanked the choir, Arts & Environment ministry, the Social Ministry and the Knights of Columbus who worked hard to ensure the astounding success of the feast. He also wished all the faithful present, a happy feast and invited everyone for a grand reception following mass.
Reception in the parish hall began with Bishop Hanchon playing the ukulele and presenting a song for everyone gathered. He then cut the cake to our Blessed Mother. Fr Theo concluded the celebrations by urging the attendees to spread the significance of the feast to other members and hoped for bigger celebrations with more participation, each year.
