Beloved Parishioners in Christ
Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ!
As we enter into the last quarter of the year, let me wish you all great time ahead. May God bless you in all possible way.
The last quarter of the year has to be a time of introspection. How far, we as a Parish, has been able to join God’s Mission in God’s world. What is a Parish? Many a time, we perceive Parish as a small unit of the greater reality, Church. But a local parish is much more than that. Every local parish has the fullness of Church, why because Parish is the place and reality where People of God celebrates the life and salvation in Christ. Church understands herself as a community who remembers Christ’s death, celebrates his resurrection and hopefully wait for his second coming. This is reminded and celebrated on every Sunday in every Parish. Thus every parish inherits the nature of the Church from this repeated celebration on all Sundays. In the New Testament each worshipping community is called as a Church. But for a parish to be incorporated into the fullness of Church; a parish should engage into active relations with other parishes; a parish has to dynamically correlate with the space and time in which it is placed.
A Parish is not only for the people who find their name in the registers of the Parish. But it has to understand and accept the people and circumstances surrounding it. A Parish is supposed to show interest in the rights of communities around it and in the deliverance of justice to the people. A Parish has to ensure that the harmony that a Parish enjoys as the body of Christ has to be delivered to the world surrounding it. The two examples that Christ has given us is very apt and relevant in this context. ‘You are the light of the World’; ‘You are the salt of the earth’. A Parish has to lighten up all the darkness in which it is placed and speed up all sorts of growth and changes through this light. As salt dissolves and becomes invisible and gives taste, the Worshipping community is supposed to witness Christ not through its paraphernalia or gigantic institutions. Rather, through the gentle process of dissolving and self-giving, the worshipping community becomes a witnessing community. My dear sisters and brothers in Christ, I wish and pray that God may use us more in these days in delivering God’s kingdom on this world.
As we all know, the last quarter is full of activities. It is only through the whole-hearted support of all our members that we can carry on these tasks. I urge all our members’ support and presence in the activities of the parish. The Church enter into new liturgical year in the last week of October. Through the season of Advent we wait upon the Lord’s arrival. It is with the God-incarnate we enter into the new year.
May God bless us all
In His Office,
Rev. Johnson M. John