Samuel was sleeping in the temple of the Lord where the ark of God was. (1 Samuel 3:3)

Sunday January 17, 2021 Vol 152 No 02 16 Pages Rs: 50.00 Registered as a newspaper

“ R E G I S T E R E D I N T H E D E PA RT M E N T O F P O S T S O F S R I L A N K A” U N D E R N O. Q D / 1 0 / N E W S / 2 0 2 1“ R E G I S T E R E D I N T H E D E PA RT M E N T O F P O S T S O F S R I L A N K A” U N D E R N O. Q D / 1 0 / N E W S / 2 0 2 1

THE CATHOLIC WEEKLY OF SRI LANKA

Gampaha District in jeopardy; if Muthurajawela ‘development project’ continues

By T. Sunil Fernando, Roshan Pradeep and Shamal Niroshan

His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal R a n j i t h ,

Archbishop of Colombo warned of a risk of massive �looding of the entire Gampaha District if the proposed tourism projects in the surrounding areas

of conservation in the Muthurajawela wetlands and Negombo lagoon continues.

At a special media brie�ing held at the Archbishop's House, Borella under the title ‘Save Muthurajawela’ His

Eminence revealed that large scale of destruction is taking place in Muthurajawela in the name of development.

He said the country belongs to the people. Rulers, businesses or

Development should not interfere with the environment and the lives of the people

Let us protect our environment and safeguard Christian identity!

by Anton Jayasuriya, S. K. J. Kurera, Pascal Jayamanna

Let us work continuously and be vigilant until the Muthrajawela wetlands is once again identi�ied as a sanctuary, said His Lordship Rt. Rev. Dr. J. D.

Anthony, Auxiliary Bishop of Colombo.Muthurajawela wetlands, Negombo lagoon and the

ocean are God's gift to the people of that area. No one has the right to destroy these natural resources claim-ing to be development projects, the Auxiliary Bishop pointed out addressing a special

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity begins today

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity begins today with the theme - ‘Abide in My love and you shall bear much fruit.’ (John 15:5-9). It is an

annual event whereby Christian Communities through-out the world are invited to pray for one another and for greater Christian Unity.

Lux Aeterna

Rev. Fr. Ponweera Arachchige Anthony

Nimal, of the Archdiocese of Colombo, expired on Monday the 11th January 2021. Due to the ongoing pandemic situation, the Requiem Mass was held on Wednesday 13, January at the Sacred Heart Chapel at the Archbishop’s House, Borella followed by burial at Roman Catholic Cemetery, Hapugoda.

Globalization is an effort to dilute different

cultural groups

Exclusive interview with His Eminence

Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith See pg 9

Experience God's Love while enhancing knowledge by pursuing studies in Sacred Theology - Bishop Anton Ranjith

We should s t u d y S a c r e d

Theology not to collect the Diploma or the Degree and neither to enhance our knowledge of religion but to experience God's

Love and introduce God to others, said His Lordship Rt. Rev. Dr. Anton Ranjith Pillainayagam, Auxilary Bishop of Colombo.

His Lordship ex-pressed these views grac-ing as the Chief Guest at

the 38th Diploma Award-ing ceremony held at St. Joseph Vaz Deva Dharma Nikethanaya, Borella. The occasion also marked the commencement of the 2021 New Academic year.

Addressing the

recipients of the Diplomas and those present, His Lordship said that while appreciating the efforts and commitment made by the Diploma recipients in pursuing and enhancing

Rev. Fr. John Hettiarachchi of Colombo Archdiocese was called to Eternal Rest on Wednesday 13th January 2021.

May His soul Rest in Peace

➢ CONTD ON PG. 13

➢ CONTD ON PG. 13 ➢ CONTD ON PG. 13

➢ CONTD ON PG. 13

(Pic by Rev. Fr. Sunil De Silva)

➢ CONTD ON PG. 13

2 The Messenger January 17, 20212 Messenger January 17, 2021

The Lord called to Samuel, who answered, “Here I am.” He ran to Eli and said, “Here I am. You called me...” (1 Samuel 3:4-5)

The mission house which was a much felt need at St. John Dal Bastone church was declared open by His Eminence, Most Rev. Dr. Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo on 6th January 2021, amidst a gathering of Reverend Priests, Nuns and Building Committee Members.This unique and magni icent church is the irst

and only church dedicated to St. John Biotteconi or popularly known as St. John Dal Bastone hailing from Paterno, in the district of Fabriano, Italy. He was a Sylvestro Benedictine Monk who lived in the 13th century and was canonised in August, 1772.

The foundation stone for the Church was laid in October 1872, which happened to mark the centenary year of the canonisation of the patron saint. In 1881, the church building was completed and Sylvestro Benedictine Monks looked after the mission. Later it was administered from several parishes.

However, the shepherds did not have a proper facility for lodging and hence a project was launched in 2018throughtheChurchBuildingCommitteetoful ilthis long-felt need. This beautiful, two storeyed Mission House with a square area of approximately 4,500 square feet comprise of 4 bedrooms, 2 of ices, a halland dining area, pantry, kitchen, caretakers lodging and a waiting area. A garage was added subsequently along with the rosary stall. The project cost is estimated to be under Rs 23M.

Appreciation and gratitude goes to the former Parish Priest Rev. Fr. Sanjeewa Mendis for acquiring the land and laying the foundation for the Mission House project. Ground work, planning and collecting funds for this much needed building began in 2018 and the foundation stone was laid in January 2019. However, work got hampered in the post Easter Sunday attacks. Land registration and approvals were subsequently obtained during the latter part of 2019 and construction began. The project survived two disastrous events i.e. the Easter Sunday attack and the current COVID-19 pandemic.

The current Parish Priest Very Rev. Dr. Anthony Fernandopulle in his address during the opening ceremony said, “today our hearts are illedwith joy thatover lowswithinusaswecelebratethecompletionofthis Mission House Building Project. We are so proud of this accomplishment, it’s an accomplishment of the highest magnitude, a milestone to treasure in life”

A special mention must be made of the Building Committee Members, Engineers, Contractors, Workmen and Material Suppliers who were the source of strength and support during the project tenure. The entire project, would not have been possible if

not for the gracious support and donations from the parishioners. A thanksgiving Holy Mass was celebrated on the 8th January 2021 by His Lordship, Most Rev. Dr. J. D. Anthony, Auxiliary Bishop of Colombo.

As Theodore Isaac Rubin once mentioned “happiness does not come from doing easy work but from the afterglow of satisfaction that comes after the achievement ofadif iculttaskthatdemandedthebest”.

Pic. by Sajana Ranasinghe

New Mission House at St. John Dal Bastone Church, Talangama

Rev. Deacon Jerad Nihal Anselm Rodrigo will be ordained a Priest by His Lordship Rt. Rev. Dr. Raymond Wickramasinghe, the Bishop of Galle on 21st January 2021, at the Cathedral of the Queen of the Holy Rosary, Galle at 10.00 a.m. He will offer his irst Eucharistic Celebra-

tion on the 24th January 2021 at Holy Trinity Church, Duwana, at 08.00 a.m. He is the son of (Late) Mr. Jerad Sebastian Rodrigo and Mrs. Noel Jenista Uveis of Duwana, Negombo. He was born on the 13th December

1985 in Duwana, as the youngest in a family of eight children. He received his education at Sinhala Mixed School, Duwana, and Kochchikade Central College.

He entered the Minor Seminary, Kalegana, Galle in 2013. He started the Theological studies in 2010 at Deva Dharma Nikethanaya, Kurunegala and thereafter completed his studies at St. John Mary Vianney Seminary, Colombo in 2014. He was ordained a Deacon by His Lordship Rt. Rev. Dr. Raymond Wick-

ramasinghe, the Bishop of Galle at St. Francis Xavier Minor Seminary, Kalegana, Galle on the 15th February 2020. He had his diaconal ministry at the Calvary Shrine, Hiniduma, St. Joseph’s Church, Deniyaya and at the Queen of the Holy Rosary Cathedral, Galle.

A New Priest for the Diocese of Galle

By Godfrey Cooray, Senior attorney –at–lawAmbassador to Norway, Finland and Iceland

St. Sebastian was born in c. AD 256 Narbonne, Gaul (modern day France) to Luciana, a noble lady from Milan, Italy and killed in 288.

St. Sebastian was an early Christian Saint and a Martyr killed during the Roman Emperor Diocletian’s persecution of Christians.

In c.283 St. Sebastian joined the army of the Emperor. Due to his courage he was quickly appointed captain of the Praetorian Guards under Emperor Diocletian who was unaware that Sebastian was a Christian.

St. Sebastian succeeded in converting soldiers and prisoners at Tranquillinus and Martia, and many others. A lady called Zoe who had lost her power of speech requested St. Sebastian to help her. He prayed with her and made the Sign of the Cross over her. When she was healed many learned of what had happened and became Christians, too. The Emperor Diocletian heard about Zoe and other Christians and had them arrested to be put to death. He was angry at Sebastian and ordered his guard to kill him by arrows.

He was tied to a tree and shot with arrows, but this did not kill him. These arrows are still an important symbol of his sainthood. Miraculously he survived and was rescued by the widow of Castulus, Saint Irene of Rome, who nursed him back to health.

After his recovery he went to Emperor Diocletian to warn him about his sins and cruelty against Christians. Diocletian was astonished to see him alive and ordered

his guards to club St. Sebastian to death and his body to be thrown into the sewer. A pious lady, named Lucina removed his body and buried it in the catacombs.

The oldest record of the details of Sebastian’s martyrdom is in a sermon on Psalm 118 by 4th century Bishop St. Ambrose of Milan . St. Ambrose stated that Sebastian came from Milan from a noble family and that he was already venerated there. He is venerated in the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. According to records he defended the city of Rome against a plague. St. Sebastian is the patron of archers, soldiers, athletes and plagues.

In the Roman Catholic Church, St. Sebastian is commemorated on 20th January and on December 18th by the Orthodox Church. Saint Sebastian is the patron saint of the Catholic War Veterans of the United States of America. The Honour of Legion of the Order of St. Sebastian is the highest award given to the Catholic War Veterans.

The relics of St. Sebastian are placed in Rome in the Basilica San Sebastiano built by Pope Damasus. St. Sebastian was a youth of great faith and such faith was known to have brought Christianity to the Roman army. Hesacri icedhis life rather thandenyinghis religion.St. Sebastian’s story is one of strength, courage and dedication of a youngster who was devoted to God to the very end. He gained the glorious crown of martyrdom in the year 288, in Rome, Italy.

Most of his relics were placed by Pope Eugene II in the Basilica of San Sebastiano.

In 934 the Cranium skull of St. Sebastian was brought to Ebersberg (Germany) by Pope Stephen VIII. The relics of St. Sebastian in Ebersberg consist of the upper part of his skull.

St. Sebastian: Patron Saint of youth, soldiers, athletes and plagues

The statue represents the saint pierced by arrows of his martyrdom made of white marble

Basilica St. Sebastiano where relics are placed

This Gospel is full of in-sights into the unique-ness of Jesus. When John says,‘Iamnot ittokneeldown and undo the strap of his sandals’ which is the task of a slave he em-phasizes his unworthi-ness to that task since Jesus is so important.

Then we have the Fa-ther, declaring Jesus to be His beloved Son, this man from Nazareth and He is well pleased with him. Then the Spirit de-

scended upon him like a dove which indicates that Jesus belongs in the di-vine realm.

Jesus joins the queue of people for John’s bap-tism, wanting to share in their joys and sorrows. As he descended into the water, he entered into the depths of his own hu-manity. We might say that Jesus entered into that part of all of us which laughs and sings, cries, the despair of the sick

and suffering, the desires the best for oneself, and others; nothing human is foreign to him as he was baptized into the life of his people and the God of his ancestors. In the words of that medieval prayer, we ask, to help us; ‘to see you more clearly, to love you more dearly, and to follow you more nearly’.

Rev. Fr. Christopher Silva

Jesus help us to follow you

CorrectionThere has been a typographical error in reporting the total amount contributed to the Holy Childhood Sunday for the year 2020 in the Messenger on 10th January 2021. The total amount collected should read as Rs. 6,509,302.00 - Editor

3 January 17, 2021 Messenger

EDITORIAL

Email:ccpmessenger@yahoo.comWebsite:colomboarchdiocesancatholicpress.com Telephone: 011 2695984 Fax: 2692586 / 2670100

January 17, 2021

SINCE FEBRUARY 1869

The next day John was there again with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by,... (John 1:35-36)

By Rev. Fr. B. Anselm Shiran � What is Moral Life?

We see people reacting and responding to day-to-day situations in different ways. In the face of moral problems, a person automatically poses the question, “What should I do?” Whether we know it or not, they all point to one fundamental question: “What sort of person should I be?” or “Who am I?”WhatIdode inemyself as a person.

What I do, does not happen instantaneously. It happens because I choose to do and not to do certain actions. As long as I am in control of these actions, I am responsible for them. What I do is rooted in who I am. Accordingly, what I do expresses something of what I am: when I tell a lie, I am a liar; when I murder, I am a murderer; when I steal, I am a robber, etc. From the simplest of actions such as waiting in a line patiently for one’s turn to the most heinous actions such as killing aninnocentperson,wearede inedbywhatwedoandthe corresponding thought processes which give way to such actions.

My self-conception, my mental image of the ‘sort of person I am and am meant to become,’ matters spiritually and morally. How I envision life and its meaningin luencesthewayIact.‘Who’Iseemyselftogovern the way I respond to life and to the people and situations I encounter on my life’s journey.As Christians, we should not irst try to measure

out our lives as moral beings by living it under certain laws, rules, precepts, and commandments. For example, simply ful illing the obligation by going to Mass onSundays should not be seen as living a good moral life. Living a morally good life is rooted in our identity as Christians. In that sense, I choose to go to Sunday Mass, not because it is a law, but in order to adore God and to participate in the heavenly banquet and to pray with the community of believers with whom I am a member of the Church.

AsaChristian,therefore,the irstmoralquestionis“What does it mean for me to be created in the image and likeness of God and to live in Christ Jesus?” St. Paul answered this question when he wrote, “Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:5-8). At every moment Jesus in His self-emptying reveals the heart of God as well as our own identity as Christians.

� Biblical RootsCatholic theology does not see the Bible as irst

and foremost a book of ethics. It does not necessarily provide us with God’s own list of right and wrong. Scripture, however, reveals to us the mind of God for our behaviour. It offers us a new way of envisioning life. It calls us to a life that is in line with God’s plan for us. Rather than giving us outright solutions to all our moral decisions and problems, the Scriptures point us to the direction which we are called to take as a free response to God’s offer of love.

� God’s CreationAt the beginning of creation, human beings were

created differently from all other created things. This is characterized by the human experience of ‘solitude.’ Man is ‘alone’ (hence, his solitude) in this creation as a ‘person.’ He is aware that he is unique in it. That is one of the original experiences of man, which Pope St. John Paul II called ‘Original Solitude’. Man is alone in the created world means that he is a ‘person’ among other created ‘things,’ such as animals, plants, and inanimate objects. This original experience of man called him to a particular kind of life. That particular kind of life must de inehowhethinks,chooses,andacts.

Man is not created in a vacuum. He was created into a relationship with God. In the Book of Genesis, the creation of man is of particular importance in order to understand this very fact. In the second creation story, one inds a deeper meaning at playcharacterizing man’s special relationship with God, his Creator. In it, man is called āḏam. Interestingly, there is no distinction given in the original Hebrew text to the terms, ‘man’ and ‘Adam’. In both instances the word used is āḏam(compare Genesis 2:7 and 4:25 in the English translations. In Genesis 2:7 the term appears as ‘man’ and in 4:25 it appears as ‘Adam’, whereas in the original Hebrew text they both appear as āḏam).

This is particularly important to ascertain “With whom man had his original relationship? If āḏam does not necessarily denote a gender, then it denotes a generic form of ‘humankind’ that God created, represented in the story as āḏam. This is as if there is no gender differentiation (of male and female) in Adam in his original experience of existence. He truly and clearly represented both the male and the female. This shows that, in the beginning, humankind’s irst andfundamental relationship was with God, before it was with any other human being as if ‘man’ (humankind) was married to God. It is only later, when God created thewoman,man,forthe irsttime,iscalled‘male’(’īš- Genesis 2:24). In it, ‘woman’ is called ’iššah marking a clear distinction between male and female genders. Later, woman is also called ḥawwah(Genesis 3:20) which is translated into English as Eve.

Adam and Eve, however, did not listen to God’s Word. Exercising their freedom in a negative way, they wanted to decide for themselves what good or evil was. As proven by their sin, they refused to be responsible. LaterinthestoryofCainandAbel,the irstmurderisrecorded. The moral dilemmas that exist in and around us were thus epitomized.

Contd. on Pg. 12

Moral Life: Old Testament Roots

As God’s children let us build bridges and not wallsOn January 10, the Catholic Church celebrated

one of the most important feasts—the Baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, most people arenotfullyawareoftheimportanceandsigni icanceof events. St. Mark’s Gospel proclamation says: “At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on Him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you, I am well pleased.”(St. Mark 1;9-11). He became fully aware that the Father had a historic mission for Him and the Lord Jesus allowed the Holy Spirit to lead Him in doing God’s will. The Lord Jesus did only what the Father wanted Him to do and said only what the Father wanted Him to say. This happened all the way up to His suffering and death and the Resurrection opened the door for all who follow Him to have the reward of eternal life.

In January 9 Gospel, St. John says: “Jesus and his disciples went into the region of Judea, where he spent some time with them baptizing. John was also baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was an abundance of water there, and people came to be baptized, for John had not yet been imprisoned. Now a dispute arose between the disciples of John and a Jew about ceremonial washings.

So they came to John and said to him: “Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testi ied,hereheisbaptizingandeveryoneiscomingto him.” John answered and said: “No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said that I am not the

Christ, but that I was sent before him. The one who has the bride is the bridegroom; the best man, who stands and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made complete. He must increase; I must decrease.”(John 3:22-30)

The words “He must increase; I must decrease” are vital for us. In our internal spiritual journey, we need to be aware that gradually, “He must increase and I must decrease”. The “I” or ego in us needs to gradually decrease and Christ needs to gradually increase so that we could come to a point where we could say with St. Paul”Ihavebeencruci iedwithChristandInolongerlive, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). We need toadmitandbeaware thatweareheavily in luencedby worldly values by our self-centredness and by evil forces. When we confess this and surrender the truth of ourlivestoGodHewill illuswiththepoweroftheHolySpirit, so that the “I” or the ego will gradually decrease and Christ will gradually increase. Thus, we will have a growing desire to seek and do God’s will and to obey the most important commandment that Lord gives to us, “Love one another as I love you” ( John 13:35 and John 15:12)

Soon after the baptism, St. Luke’s Gospel tells us how the Lord Jesus was tested in the wilderness. “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end, he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’ Then the devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendour; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’” The devil then led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. For it is written: “He will command his angels to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’ Jesus answered, “It also says, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ When the

devilhad inishedall this tempting,he lefthimuntilan opportune time.” (St. Luke 4:1-13).

There is much we could learn in this episode in the life of the Lord Jesus. In the Jordan baptism the Lord Jesus had come to the awareness that He was the beloved Son of the Father. The devil tempts the Lord by saying, “If you are the Son of God……..” The same temptation comes to us also regularly as we need to re-assure ourselves that we are truly the Children of God. As we are told by St. Paul in the Letter to the Romans “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption as a son or daughter of God. And by Him, wecry,“Abba,Father.”TheSpirithimselftesti ieswithour spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ if only we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. (Romans 8: 14-17).In the irst temptation the devil also tempts the

Lord Jesus to abuse His power by turning stones into bread. This temptation comes to us also regularly. When God gives us power or puts us in positions of power we need to use that power to serve people and not to dominate or abuse them. As the Lord Jesus has said, “I have come to serve not to be served”Inare lection on baptism, Pope Francis has said we

remember our birthday and some of us even celebrate it, at least with a cake. He says it is more important for us to remember our baptism day which most of us have apparently forgotten. If so, let us refer to our baptism certi icateandcelebrate thatdaybecause itwas theday on which Lord anointed us. Evangelization needs to be part of our life and to do it effectively we need to constantly decrease while Christ increases in us. Then we could sincerely sing, “All power is given in Jesus’ name, on earth and in heaven in Jesus’ name and in Jesus’ name I come to you to share His love as He told us to. Freely, freely as we experience God’s unending, unlimited, unfailing, unmerited, and priceless love, freely we need to give it to others. Then if people throw stones at us, we could use those stones to build bridges and not walls.

3 The Messenger January 17, 20212 Messenger January 17, 2021

The Lord called to Samuel, who answered, “Here I am.” He ran to Eli and said, “Here I am. You called me...” (1 Samuel 3:4-5)

The mission house which was a much felt need at St. John Dal Bastone church was declared open by His Eminence, Most Rev. Dr. Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo on 6th January 2021, amidst a gathering of Reverend Priests, Nuns and Building Committee Members.This unique and magni icent church is the irst

and only church dedicated to St. John Biotteconi or popularly known as St. John Dal Bastone hailing from Paterno, in the district of Fabriano, Italy. He was a Sylvestro Benedictine Monk who lived in the 13th century and was canonised in August, 1772.

The foundation stone for the Church was laid in October 1872, which happened to mark the centenary year of the canonisation of the patron saint. In 1881, the church building was completed and Sylvestro Benedictine Monks looked after the mission. Later it was administered from several parishes.

However, the shepherds did not have a proper facility for lodging and hence a project was launched in 2018throughtheChurchBuildingCommitteetoful ilthis long-felt need. This beautiful, two storeyed Mission House with a square area of approximately 4,500 square feet comprise of 4 bedrooms, 2 of ices, a halland dining area, pantry, kitchen, caretakers lodging and a waiting area. A garage was added subsequently along with the rosary stall. The project cost is estimated to be under Rs 23M.

Appreciation and gratitude goes to the former Parish Priest Rev. Fr. Sanjeewa Mendis for acquiring the land and laying the foundation for the Mission House project. Ground work, planning and collecting funds for this much needed building began in 2018 and the foundation stone was laid in January 2019. However, work got hampered in the post Easter Sunday attacks. Land registration and approvals were subsequently obtained during the latter part of 2019 and construction began. The project survived two disastrous events i.e. the Easter Sunday attack and the current COVID-19 pandemic.

The current Parish Priest Very Rev. Dr. Anthony Fernandopulle in his address during the opening ceremony said, “today our hearts are illedwith joy thatover lowswithinusaswecelebratethecompletionofthis Mission House Building Project. We are so proud of this accomplishment, it’s an accomplishment of the highest magnitude, a milestone to treasure in life”

A special mention must be made of the Building Committee Members, Engineers, Contractors, Workmen and Material Suppliers who were the source of strength and support during the project tenure. The entire project, would not have been possible if

not for the gracious support and donations from the parishioners. A thanksgiving Holy Mass was celebrated on the 8th January 2021 by His Lordship, Most Rev. Dr. J. D. Anthony, Auxiliary Bishop of Colombo.

As Theodore Isaac Rubin once mentioned “happiness does not come from doing easy work but from the afterglow of satisfaction that comes after the achievement ofadif iculttaskthatdemandedthebest”.

Pic. by Sajana Ranasinghe

New Mission House at St. John Dal Bastone Church, Talangama

Rev. Deacon Jerad Nihal Anselm Rodrigo will be ordained a Priest by His Lordship Rt. Rev. Dr. Raymond Wickramasinghe, the Bishop of Galle on 21st January 2021, at the Cathedral of the Queen of the Holy Rosary, Galle at 10.00 a.m. He will offer his irst Eucharistic Celebra-

tion on the 24th January 2021 at Holy Trinity Church, Duwana, at 08.00 a.m. He is the son of (Late) Mr. Jerad Sebastian Rodrigo and Mrs. Noel Jenista Uveis of Duwana, Negombo. He was born on the 13th December

1985 in Duwana, as the youngest in a family of eight children. He received his education at Sinhala Mixed School, Duwana, and Kochchikade Central College.

He entered the Minor Seminary, Kalegana, Galle in 2013. He started the Theological studies in 2010 at Deva Dharma Nikethanaya, Kurunegala and thereafter completed his studies at St. John Mary Vianney Seminary, Colombo in 2014. He was ordained a Deacon by His Lordship Rt. Rev. Dr. Raymond Wick-

ramasinghe, the Bishop of Galle at St. Francis Xavier Minor Seminary, Kalegana, Galle on the 15th February 2020. He had his diaconal ministry at the Calvary Shrine, Hiniduma, St. Joseph’s Church, Deniyaya and at the Queen of the Holy Rosary Cathedral, Galle.

A New Priest for the Diocese of Galle

By Godfrey Cooray, Senior attorney –at–lawAmbassador to Norway, Finland and Iceland

St. Sebastian was born in c. AD 256 Narbonne, Gaul (modern day France) to Luciana, a noble lady from Milan, Italy and killed in 288.

St. Sebastian was an early Christian Saint and a Martyr killed during the Roman Emperor Diocletian’s persecution of Christians.

In c.283 St. Sebastian joined the army of the Emperor. Due to his courage he was quickly appointed captain of the Praetorian Guards under Emperor Diocletian who was unaware that Sebastian was a Christian.

St. Sebastian succeeded in converting soldiers and prisoners at Tranquillinus and Martia, and many others. A lady called Zoe who had lost her power of speech requested St. Sebastian to help her. He prayed with her and made the Sign of the Cross over her. When she was healed many learned of what had happened and became Christians, too. The Emperor Diocletian heard about Zoe and other Christians and had them arrested to be put to death. He was angry at Sebastian and ordered his guard to kill him by arrows.

He was tied to a tree and shot with arrows, but this did not kill him. These arrows are still an important symbol of his sainthood. Miraculously he survived and was rescued by the widow of Castulus, Saint Irene of Rome, who nursed him back to health.

After his recovery he went to Emperor Diocletian to warn him about his sins and cruelty against Christians. Diocletian was astonished to see him alive and ordered

his guards to club St. Sebastian to death and his body to be thrown into the sewer. A pious lady, named Lucina removed his body and buried it in the catacombs.

The oldest record of the details of Sebastian’s martyrdom is in a sermon on Psalm 118 by 4th century Bishop St. Ambrose of Milan . St. Ambrose stated that Sebastian came from Milan from a noble family and that he was already venerated there. He is venerated in the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. According to records he defended the city of Rome against a plague. St. Sebastian is the patron of archers, soldiers, athletes and plagues.

In the Roman Catholic Church, St. Sebastian is commemorated on 20th January and on December 18th by the Orthodox Church. Saint Sebastian is the patron saint of the Catholic War Veterans of the United States of America. The Honour of Legion of the Order of St. Sebastian is the highest award given to the Catholic War Veterans.

The relics of St. Sebastian are placed in Rome in the Basilica San Sebastiano built by Pope Damasus. St. Sebastian was a youth of great faith and such faith was known to have brought Christianity to the Roman army. Hesacri icedhis life rather thandenyinghis religion.St. Sebastian’s story is one of strength, courage and dedication of a youngster who was devoted to God to the very end. He gained the glorious crown of martyrdom in the year 288, in Rome, Italy.

Most of his relics were placed by Pope Eugene II in the Basilica of San Sebastiano.

In 934 the Cranium skull of St. Sebastian was brought to Ebersberg (Germany) by Pope Stephen VIII. The relics of St. Sebastian in Ebersberg consist of the upper part of his skull.

St. Sebastian: Patron Saint of youth, soldiers, athletes and plagues

The statue represents the saint pierced by arrows of his martyrdom made of white marble

Basilica St. Sebastiano where relics are placed

This Gospel is full of in-sights into the unique-ness of Jesus. When John says,‘Iamnot ittokneeldown and undo the strap of his sandals’ which is the task of a slave he em-phasizes his unworthi-ness to that task since Jesus is so important.

Then we have the Fa-ther, declaring Jesus to be His beloved Son, this man from Nazareth and He is well pleased with him. Then the Spirit de-

scended upon him like a dove which indicates that Jesus belongs in the di-vine realm.

Jesus joins the queue of people for John’s bap-tism, wanting to share in their joys and sorrows. As he descended into the water, he entered into the depths of his own hu-manity. We might say that Jesus entered into that part of all of us which laughs and sings, cries, the despair of the sick

and suffering, the desires the best for oneself, and others; nothing human is foreign to him as he was baptized into the life of his people and the God of his ancestors. In the words of that medieval prayer, we ask, to help us; ‘to see you more clearly, to love you more dearly, and to follow you more nearly’.

Rev. Fr. Christopher Silva

Jesus help us to follow you

CorrectionThere has been a typographical error in reporting the total amount contributed to the Holy Childhood Sunday for the year 2020 in the Messenger on 10th January 2021. The total amount collected should read as Rs. 6,509,302.00 - Editor

3 January 17, 2021 Messenger

EDITORIAL

Email:ccpmessenger@yahoo.comWebsite:colomboarchdiocesancatholicpress.com Telephone: 011 2695984 Fax: 2692586 / 2670100

January 17, 2021

SINCE FEBRUARY 1869

The next day John was there again with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by,... (John 1:35-36)

By Rev. Fr. B. Anselm Shiran � What is Moral Life?

We see people reacting and responding to day-to-day situations in different ways. In the face of moral problems, a person automatically poses the question, “What should I do?” Whether we know it or not, they all point to one fundamental question: “What sort of person should I be?” or “Who am I?”WhatIdode inemyself as a person.

What I do, does not happen instantaneously. It happens because I choose to do and not to do certain actions. As long as I am in control of these actions, I am responsible for them. What I do is rooted in who I am. Accordingly, what I do expresses something of what I am: when I tell a lie, I am a liar; when I murder, I am a murderer; when I steal, I am a robber, etc. From the simplest of actions such as waiting in a line patiently for one’s turn to the most heinous actions such as killing aninnocentperson,wearede inedbywhatwedoandthe corresponding thought processes which give way to such actions.

My self-conception, my mental image of the ‘sort of person I am and am meant to become,’ matters spiritually and morally. How I envision life and its meaningin luencesthewayIact.‘Who’Iseemyselftogovern the way I respond to life and to the people and situations I encounter on my life’s journey.As Christians, we should not irst try to measure

out our lives as moral beings by living it under certain laws, rules, precepts, and commandments. For example, simply ful illing the obligation by going to Mass onSundays should not be seen as living a good moral life. Living a morally good life is rooted in our identity as Christians. In that sense, I choose to go to Sunday Mass, not because it is a law, but in order to adore God and to participate in the heavenly banquet and to pray with the community of believers with whom I am a member of the Church.

AsaChristian,therefore,the irstmoralquestionis“What does it mean for me to be created in the image and likeness of God and to live in Christ Jesus?” St. Paul answered this question when he wrote, “Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:5-8). At every moment Jesus in His self-emptying reveals the heart of God as well as our own identity as Christians.

� Biblical RootsCatholic theology does not see the Bible as irst

and foremost a book of ethics. It does not necessarily provide us with God’s own list of right and wrong. Scripture, however, reveals to us the mind of God for our behaviour. It offers us a new way of envisioning life. It calls us to a life that is in line with God’s plan for us. Rather than giving us outright solutions to all our moral decisions and problems, the Scriptures point us to the direction which we are called to take as a free response to God’s offer of love.

� God’s CreationAt the beginning of creation, human beings were

created differently from all other created things. This is characterized by the human experience of ‘solitude.’ Man is ‘alone’ (hence, his solitude) in this creation as a ‘person.’ He is aware that he is unique in it. That is one of the original experiences of man, which Pope St. John Paul II called ‘Original Solitude’. Man is alone in the created world means that he is a ‘person’ among other created ‘things,’ such as animals, plants, and inanimate objects. This original experience of man called him to a particular kind of life. That particular kind of life must de inehowhethinks,chooses,andacts.

Man is not created in a vacuum. He was created into a relationship with God. In the Book of Genesis, the creation of man is of particular importance in order to understand this very fact. In the second creation story, one inds a deeper meaning at playcharacterizing man’s special relationship with God, his Creator. In it, man is called āḏam. Interestingly, there is no distinction given in the original Hebrew text to the terms, ‘man’ and ‘Adam’. In both instances the word used is āḏam(compare Genesis 2:7 and 4:25 in the English translations. In Genesis 2:7 the term appears as ‘man’ and in 4:25 it appears as ‘Adam’, whereas in the original Hebrew text they both appear as āḏam).

This is particularly important to ascertain “With whom man had his original relationship? If āḏam does not necessarily denote a gender, then it denotes a generic form of ‘humankind’ that God created, represented in the story as āḏam. This is as if there is no gender differentiation (of male and female) in Adam in his original experience of existence. He truly and clearly represented both the male and the female. This shows that, in the beginning, humankind’s irst andfundamental relationship was with God, before it was with any other human being as if ‘man’ (humankind) was married to God. It is only later, when God created thewoman,man,forthe irsttime,iscalled‘male’(’īš- Genesis 2:24). In it, ‘woman’ is called ’iššah marking a clear distinction between male and female genders. Later, woman is also called ḥawwah(Genesis 3:20) which is translated into English as Eve.

Adam and Eve, however, did not listen to God’s Word. Exercising their freedom in a negative way, they wanted to decide for themselves what good or evil was. As proven by their sin, they refused to be responsible. LaterinthestoryofCainandAbel,the irstmurderisrecorded. The moral dilemmas that exist in and around us were thus epitomized.

Contd. on Pg. 12

Moral Life: Old Testament Roots

As God’s children let us build bridges and not wallsOn January 10, the Catholic Church celebrated

one of the most important feasts—the Baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, most people arenotfullyawareoftheimportanceandsigni icanceof events. St. Mark’s Gospel proclamation says: “At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on Him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you, I am well pleased.”(St. Mark 1;9-11). He became fully aware that the Father had a historic mission for Him and the Lord Jesus allowed the Holy Spirit to lead Him in doing God’s will. The Lord Jesus did only what the Father wanted Him to do and said only what the Father wanted Him to say. This happened all the way up to His suffering and death and the Resurrection opened the door for all who follow Him to have the reward of eternal life.

In January 9 Gospel, St. John says: “Jesus and his disciples went into the region of Judea, where he spent some time with them baptizing. John was also baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was an abundance of water there, and people came to be baptized, for John had not yet been imprisoned. Now a dispute arose between the disciples of John and a Jew about ceremonial washings.

So they came to John and said to him: “Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testi ied,hereheisbaptizingandeveryoneiscomingto him.” John answered and said: “No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said that I am not the

Christ, but that I was sent before him. The one who has the bride is the bridegroom; the best man, who stands and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made complete. He must increase; I must decrease.”(John 3:22-30)

The words “He must increase; I must decrease” are vital for us. In our internal spiritual journey, we need to be aware that gradually, “He must increase and I must decrease”. The “I” or ego in us needs to gradually decrease and Christ needs to gradually increase so that we could come to a point where we could say with St. Paul”Ihavebeencruci iedwithChristandInolongerlive, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). We need toadmitandbeaware thatweareheavily in luencedby worldly values by our self-centredness and by evil forces. When we confess this and surrender the truth of ourlivestoGodHewill illuswiththepoweroftheHolySpirit, so that the “I” or the ego will gradually decrease and Christ will gradually increase. Thus, we will have a growing desire to seek and do God’s will and to obey the most important commandment that Lord gives to us, “Love one another as I love you” ( John 13:35 and John 15:12)

Soon after the baptism, St. Luke’s Gospel tells us how the Lord Jesus was tested in the wilderness. “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end, he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’ Then the devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendour; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’” The devil then led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. For it is written: “He will command his angels to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’ Jesus answered, “It also says, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ When the

devilhad inishedall this tempting,he lefthimuntilan opportune time.” (St. Luke 4:1-13).

There is much we could learn in this episode in the life of the Lord Jesus. In the Jordan baptism the Lord Jesus had come to the awareness that He was the beloved Son of the Father. The devil tempts the Lord by saying, “If you are the Son of God……..” The same temptation comes to us also regularly as we need to re-assure ourselves that we are truly the Children of God. As we are told by St. Paul in the Letter to the Romans “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption as a son or daughter of God. And by Him, wecry,“Abba,Father.”TheSpirithimselftesti ieswithour spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ if only we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. (Romans 8: 14-17).In the irst temptation the devil also tempts the

Lord Jesus to abuse His power by turning stones into bread. This temptation comes to us also regularly. When God gives us power or puts us in positions of power we need to use that power to serve people and not to dominate or abuse them. As the Lord Jesus has said, “I have come to serve not to be served”Inare lection on baptism, Pope Francis has said we

remember our birthday and some of us even celebrate it, at least with a cake. He says it is more important for us to remember our baptism day which most of us have apparently forgotten. If so, let us refer to our baptism certi icateandcelebrate thatdaybecause itwas theday on which Lord anointed us. Evangelization needs to be part of our life and to do it effectively we need to constantly decrease while Christ increases in us. Then we could sincerely sing, “All power is given in Jesus’ name, on earth and in heaven in Jesus’ name and in Jesus’ name I come to you to share His love as He told us to. Freely, freely as we experience God’s unending, unlimited, unfailing, unmerited, and priceless love, freely we need to give it to others. Then if people throw stones at us, we could use those stones to build bridges and not walls.

4 The Messenger January 17, 2021

Holy Innocents on the 28th of December.

3). St. Francis the founder:

Francis founded the Confraternity of “Penitents of the Holy Cross”. The members of this Confraternity were obliged to instruct the ignorant, to comfort and exhort the sick and the prisoners. St. Francis also founded the “Order of Visitation of Mary”. This order accepted widows and spinsters. He chose the rule of St. Augustine for the Order because it demanded less physical austerities from the inmates.

4) St. Francis de Sales as a Writer:

Although Francis wrote many books, he is best known as the author of the book “Introduction to a de-vout life”. This book and “Treatise on the love of God” are all-time spiritual classics. The �irst mentioned book was written particularly for lay people. This treatise proves to the world that genuine piety makes persons amiable, lovable, and joyful. It is interesting and edifying to note that Pope John XXIII had chosen this Saint as his life-long mentor. St. Francis de Sales declined the Cardinal’s hat when offered. In recognition of his treatises, he has been declared a “Doctor of the Church”.

Words to ponder:

“Thanks to his exemplary holiness, I have a sincere yearn-ing for modesty, humility and to maintain peace. More

than ever before I am convinced now that whatever little I do, I must do it with the purity of intention. This is the secret of saintliness. All those who came in contact with the Holy Bishop went away with the conviction that Sales was an ardent lover of peace” Pope John XXIII

of faith in Christ than in ancestral practices. The other factor which disturbed the Jews, as well as the Christians, was the destruction of their Temple.

Jerusalem Temple was constructed by King Solomon in 1000BC. Since its construction, the life of Israelites was interwoven with temple activities. Although it was destroyed �irst by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar in 586BC it was rebuilt again. The Judean rebel faction formed in 66AD mainly lead by the zealots during the Roman regime was constantly disturbing the Roman Administration. It was then the exasperated Roman Emperor Vespasian under the command of Titus and his socius Tiberius Julius Alexander sieged the rebels on 14th April, three days before Passover in 70AD. The indignant Emperor not only destroyed Jerusalem Temple but also devastated the city, and made life dif�icult for the people in Jerusalem.

This was the second destruction of the Temple, that brought intimidation, worries, and disturbances to all those peace lovers of the city persuading them to look for a peaceful zone to live in, outside the city of Jerusalem. Like the Jews of the diaspora who took with them their religious and cultural values, Christians too carried with them the Christian values. God always brings forth good out of evil. The exile of Christians became a powerful instrument of Christ in sowing the seed of Christianity in different parts of the world. Their exemplary life of unity, peace-loving spirit, respect towards one another, in the spirit of sharing and concern, and their steadfast faith made others attracted more and more to Christianity.

Slow but Steady Growth of the church established by Christ We learned in the previous article about the curiosity and restlessness of the Jews as well as the Gentiles on the arrival of the Messiah. It was the time they were in need of spiritual reform and urgently looking for a powerful spiritual reformer who could �ill their spiritual vacuum. The diverse philosophical values of the time that satis�ied the minds of the people did not last long or �illed their spiritual vacuum for they were of the opinion that all good things that emanated from the philosophical teachings were of human wisdom.

This enthusiasm [FR1] of different people to experience spiritual reformation with the arrival of the Messiah is what expressed by St. Paul in his epistle to Galatians. “But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law.” (Gal 4:4) It was in this context Son of Man was born and his new religion touched the heart of every rank and �ile of the society and all those listening to him were not only satis�ied within themselves but also disclosed this happiness to others. Thus, we �ind the new religion of Christianity proclaimed by Jesus Christ ignited a �lame in every heart of his listeners.

The Acts of the Apostles give us a clear picture of the steady growth of this early church. The �irst 7 chapters of the said book, express with every detail about the growth amidst frequent problems, dif�iculties, and challenges. It is mentioned that the church established by Jesus, subsequent to his demise began church’s activities with the selection of Matthias in place of Judas, counting the number of the Apostles to 12. (AA 1:26)

On the day of Pentecost, The Apostles received the gift of the Holy Spirit, were moved to proclaim the message of Christ boldly and many who listened to the inspiring

...he said, “Behold the Lamb of God.” The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus. (John 1:36-37)

by Rev. Fr. Athanasius Samarasinghe

St. Francis de Sales, Bishop and Doctor

LET US REFRESH OUR MIND WITH SOME SIGNIFICANT HISTORICAL SKETCHES ABOUT THE CHURCH

(To be continued)

sermon of St. Peter were encouraged to embrace Christianity and about 3000 people were converted. (AA 2:41) The newly converted Christians were �irm in their faith like their Apostles, and never feared any challenges that came across their way marching forward witnessing Christ their redeemer.

Early Christians individually and collectively helped their fellow Christian neighbors in need and became moral support to one another when they were faced with problems. When priests, captain of the Temple, and Sadducees were about to arrest the apostles and take them for inquiry for preaching about Christ, it is said there were about the 5000 converts had gathered together. (AA 4:4)

The news about Christianity spread rapidly, a good number of Jews and Gentiles were converted to Christianity. So much so we learn, as time passed the Apostles were not in a position to manage the increasing number of Christians, and they were compelled to look for new ways and means to take care of these speedily growing number of Christians. It was then they decided to appoint 7 deacons as helpers in their ministries, [FR2] [FR3] [FR4] predominantly to manage the crowd gathered for Agape. Initially this growing early Christian community was known as the sect of Nazarene (AA 24:5) and later on received the name proper as Christians. (AA 11:26, and 1Pet 4:16)

The life of Christians in Jerusalem was not always of a bed of roses but full of thorns too. They suffered within and without the church. Among Christians there were con�licts and misunderstandings. The Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians did not see eye to eye, owing to their cultural differences. Mainly the sect of Jewish Christians while practicing Christianity insisted strongly upon certain traditions of their forefathers to be observed. This created tension between the two clusters and it was solved in the First Church Council of Jerusalem in 50AD; apostles explaining to the Jewish

Christian leaders about the inconsequentiality of the Jewish practices. (AA 15:13-21) Paul and Barnabas, worked hard to convince the trouble makers by explaining to them the importance

St. Francis’ ChildhoodSt. Francis of Sales was born to a wonderful Christian family on 21st August 1567. At the family chateau at Thorens, Southwest Geneva. He was baptized as Francis Bonaventure. As he was a premature baby born in the seventh month, his childhood was plagued with ill health, and often his doctors despaired of his life.

Francis’ mother - Countess Frances of Sionas took particular care of Francis especially in protect-ing him from any evil habits. When he was still a child his mother trained him in all the Christian virtues. She taught him the prayers, read from the lives of Saints for him to emulate, and she even took him along with her when she visited the sick and made him to distribute the alms to the poor.

When he was six years old he began his educa-tion under a private tutor. He had an excellent memory coupled with solid judgement and assiduous applica-tion to study. Before he was sent abroad for further study under the care of a virtuous priest, he was once again instilled by his mother about the need of practis-ing virtues, meditation and the dread of sin. She often quoted to him those words of Queen Blanche to her son, St. Louis, King of France: “I would rather see you dead than hear that you had committed one mortal sin”.

2. St. Francis’ Higher studies

Francis joined the University of Paris to complete the courses in rhetoric, philosophy, and theology. He studied in Paris for six years and completed his stud-ies with great distinction. Besides spending time on his academics he also spent time in reading the Scriptures and in acts of piety.

Along with his preceptor Abbe Deage, he made fruitless efforts in overcoming his spiritual dryness. One day while he was praying at the Church of St. Stephen, he cast his eyes on the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary and implored her with tears to intercede on his behalf. He pleaded with her to be his advocate and asked her to pro-cure for him the grace to love God with all his heart. That very moment, the great heaviness looming over his heart was lifted, and he began to enjoy peace and tranquility.

Francis’ father summoned him from Paris and sent him to Padua to study law. He studied law for three years and emerged with a brilliant doctorate in 1591.

When he returned home he had a brilliant ca-reer carved out as the Counselor of the Parliament of Chamberry and a beautiful bride waiting for him. Both were arranged by his father. Francis very politely but �irmly declined both the offers, but he had no courage to tell his father about his desire of joining the priesthood. Finally, with the help of his cousin, Canon Louis de Sales persuaded his father to allow him to become a priest. Passing the minor orders quickly, he was ordained a priest in 1593.

As a priest, Francis began his great ministry of preaching. People admired his erudition his modesty and his conviction, when he preached. He was particu-larly successful in converting a number of Calvinists es-pecially at Thonon the capital of Chablais in Geneva.

When Granier, the Bishop of Geneva died, Francis was consecrated as the Bishop of Geneva on 3rd December 1602. By practising poverty and humility and with great commitment Francis discharged his duties as the Bishop of Geneva for the next twenty years. In the year 1622, his health began to decline, especially after Christmas. He suffered a stroke and died on the Feast of

(1567-1622)

By Fr. Reginald Lucian OMI

Series No: 2

5 The Messenger January 17, 2021 5 January 17, 2021 Messenger

Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them, “What are you looking for?”... (John 1:38)

Sun: 2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time Holy Childhood Sunday 1 Sam. 3: 3b-10,19; 1 Cor. 6: 13c-15a, 17-20; Jn. 1: 35-42Mon: Hebr. 5: 1-10; Mk. 2: 18-22Tue: Hebr. 6: 10-20; Mk. 2: 23-28Wed: Memorial s of St. Fabian, Pope & Martyr & St. Sebastian, Martyr Hebr. 7: 1-3, 15-17; Mk. 3: 1-6Thu: Memorial of St. Agnes, Virgin & Martyr Hebr. 7: 25- 8: 6; Mk. 3: 7-12

Liturgical Calendar Year B - 17th Jan.- 24th Jan. 2021Fri: Memorial of St. Vincent, Deacon & Martyr Hebr. 8: 6-13; Mk. 3: 13-19Sat: Hebr. 9: 2-3, 11-14; Mk. 2: 20-21Sun: 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time Pro-Life Sunday, “The Word of God” Sunday 1 Jonah 3: 1-5, 10; 1 Cor. 7: 29-31; Mk. 1: 14-20

By Very Rev. Fr. Ciswan De Croos

First Reading: 1 Samuel 3: 3b -10, 19Samuel is called by the Lord.

He thinks it is the prophet who is calling but the prophet directs him to the Lord. Samuel gave him-self to the Lord totally and fully, and the Lord was with him from then onwards.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 6: 13-15, 17-20

We all are bought at a price; as a result we all belong to the Lord. Our bodies are temples of the Lord. Therefore we all ought to live for the Lord. Not only our hearts and souls our bodies too should be dedicated to the Lord.

Gospel: John 1: 35-42When, Jesus appears John the

Baptist without any hesitation points to Him as the one who is to come, the Lamb of God. His followers followed Jesus and left everything and became Jesus’ fol-lowers. Simon Peter too joined them and was called the Rock by the Lord.

Re lectionThe Lord wants us to dedicate

our lives totally and fully to Him. In the process we ought to forget ourselves and point to the others who see the Lord in and through us.

For this reason we all must not only dedicate our hearts and souls but even our bodies too should be preserved and dedicat-ed to the Lord. We ought to do this at any cost for this is the only way through which we could totally and fully be dedicated to the Lord.

We see in the First Reading how Samuel is called. At the be-ginning he thought it was the prophet who was calling him, so thought the prophet. But later the prophet knew that it was the Lord who was calling. Once it was known Samuel was made to answer the Lord and the Lord spoke to him. And from the mo-ment Samuel answered the Lord the Lord was with him till the end. It was so important for Samuel to recognize the Lord and answer Him and thereby dedicate his life for the Lord, for the Lord to come and be with him. And the moment Samuel answered the Lord He came to be with him.

In the Second Reading we all are supposed to be belonging to the Lord for we are bought buy the Lord at a price. As we all be-long to the Lord our bodies too belong to the Lord. Therefore our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. In that case if we belong to the Lord we not only should dedicate our hearts and souls to the Lord, we ought to dedicate

our bodies too. For this reason we all ought to keep away from fornication. For

it says. “Keep away from fornica-tion. All other sins are committed outside the body, but to fornicate is to sin against your own body. Your body, you know is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you since you received Him from God.”

In the Gospel we see how John the Baptist with all humility points to the Lord the moment He appears before him. He even tells his disciples to follow Him. At the moment John the Baptist was well established, was popular and had a huge crowd around him. But he did not forget his mission, for he came to prepare the way for the Lord. He was supposed to intro-duce the Lord, the Saviour to the people. The moment he saw the Lord he did not hesitate to point to Him as the Lamb of God. It is so dedicated of him to forget himself and introduce the Lord to his fol-lowers. And not only introduce but also asks his followers to fol-low the Lord.

This is what we all must do in our day to day life. We all ought to dedicate our lives totally and fully to the Lord. Not only our hearts and souls even our bodies too should be dedicated to the Lord.

For this reason we should in no way attract the people to our-selves but we should live for the Lord and in and through us we should attract people for the Lord. We should do this with humility and dedication.

Aid Story 1At the palace of Versailles

Charles IX of France is taken to the Italian poet Torquato Tasso. “Tell me Torquaso who is the happiest person? “God! Your Majesty.” “Naturally, but I mean among men.” “The one who most resembles God.” “Perhaps among us mortals I am the one who most resembles God because of my power, my riches and my fame. Yet I am not happy.” “Your majesty you fail to resemble God by being the most virtuous of men.”

Aid Story 2A salt doll journeyed for thou-

sands of miles and stopped on the edge of the sea. It was fascinated by this moving liquid mass, so un-like anything it had seen before.

“What are you?” said the salt doll to the sea.

“Come and see,” said the sea with a smile.

So the doll wadded in. The fur-ther it went the more it dissolved till there was only a pinch of it left. Before that last bit dissolved, the doll exclaimed in wonder, “Now I know what I am!”

Second Sunday in Ordinary TimeHoly Childhood Sunday

St.JosephVaz,the irstandonlyApostleofSri Lanka spent his entire life spreading

the Word of God and bearing witness to the Kingdom of God through his own life. He worked tirelessly risking his own life to rebuild the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka whilst caring for thousands of the sick suffering from smallpox, a dreaded disease.

St, Joseph Vaz arrived in the country Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) during one of the darkest periods for Sri Lankan Catholics. The Dutch who ruled the country at that time had banned practising Catholicism as a religion in Sri Lanka. The country did not have Catholic priests for many years.

One of the priorities of the Portuguese who arrived in Sri Lanka in November 1505 was to promote Christianity among Sri Lankans. In 1554, King Buwanekabahu of Kotte sent a special delegation to Portugal requesting King John II to send a team of Franciscan Missionaries to Sri Lanka. The team arrived and carried out their Missionary workef icientlyandinanorganizedmanner.Missionaries from various Congregations successfully engaged promoting Christianity in Sri Lanka. During this period the Catholic populationgrewinasigni icantmanner.

Jaffna, the last stronghold of the Portuguese was captured by the Dutch in 1658 ending the Portuguese monarchy. At that time there were about 120 missionaries serving in the country. The Catholic population in the country too had greatly increased by this time.

Soon, as a diplomatic policy the Dutch declared a period of Catholic persecution. Among the rules imposed by them was the strict ban on Catholic priests. All the priests serving in their territories and areas ruled by the King of Kandy were deported by the Dutch.

Strict rules and regulations were imposed ensuring no Catholic priest will enter into the country or remain in the country.

Catholics in Sri Lanka were like a herd of sheep without a shepherd. It was during this crucial time that St. Joseph Vaz decided to come to Sri Lanka to rescue the lost and hopeless Catholics in the country.

The challenges he had to face were tough and large. But with his immense and never failing faith in God St. Joseph Vaz was able to overcomethemostdif icultsituations.

The Dutch who heard about this miracle worker launched a special mission to take him into custody and deport from the country.

Our beloved Saint entirely relied on the Divine intercession and overcame every obstacle he had to face.

He performed a successful mission in the village of Sillale in Jaffna. St. Joseph Vaz then visited Puttalam seeking the Catholics and granting them the Holy Sacraments. He helped offers to convert to Catholicism. He helped them organise as small Catholic communities. He gave the titles of Annavi, Muhuppu Annavi, Kovil Pillai and Kanakka Pillai to the lay leaders of these communities.

His desire was to commence his

missionary work in other parts of the country. With this hope he left for Kandy. During this journey, he was arrested on suspicion of serving as a spy for the Portuguese and i m p r i s o n e d at Bogambara Prison. In the prison he spent his time as a humble missionary and won the hearts of everyone there.

In 1697, there was a severe drought throughout Kandy and people there became extremely helpless. There was no water to drink and no food to eat. King Wimaladharma- Suriya made a humble request from St. Joseph Vaz to pray to God requesting for rain.

Accordingly, St. Jospeh Vaz gathered people in a place and set up an altar and placed a Cross thereon and prayed to God to glorify His Name by sending down rain. Before he rose from his knees, rain fell in abundance but miraculously not a drop of rain fell on him. The King thereafter gave him personal privileges never accorded to others, including the liberty not only to preach anywhere in his kingdom but also to go beyond it and visit the Dutch towns as often as he pleased. As a result many conversions from among the people of Kandy took place after this incident.

Many facts about this great miracle have been written in Oratorian articles and reports. Also this miracle is recorded in a document called ‘Vinitha Valliya’.

The best example for the unwavering courage of St. Joseph Vaz and his unwavering faith in God was the work he carried out during the outbreak of the smallpox epidemic throughout Kandy.

Medical facilities and services provided for the affected public were minimal. Therefore people lived in fear and without any hope of life.

With the outbreak of the epidemic the King and the locals left their homes and villages and ledtootherprovinces.Peoplewhowereinfected with smallpox had no access for any medical care or other services. The area was in a dire situation where there was no proper mechanism even to bury the dead infected by the epidemic.

It was during this terrible time that St. Joseph Vaz with the help of his fellow brother Fr. Joseph Karavallio and his dear colleague John started helping the smallpox victims.

Contd. on Pg. 13

St. Joseph Vaz: spreading the Kingdom ofGodwhilst ightinganepidemic

Rev. Fr. Anthony FernandopulleNational Secretariat for Joseph Vaz,

Apostle of Sri Lanka.

6 The Messenger January 17, 2021

...They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” (John 1:38)

2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time: Meditation (John 1:35-42) – Year B

Love Beats Boredom

Rev. Fr. Nilindra Gunesekera

“Dad, I’m bored”

A parenting columnist, Mark O’Connell, wonders whether his child’s ennui is a sign of his own failure

or an existential revelation. Why? This was his story. About a month ago, he walked into the living room

and saw his son lying on his back on the rug, gazing up at the ceiling. He gave the impression of having been in that position for some time – hours, perhaps days.

“What’s wrong?” Mark asked what he was doing.He made no response for several seconds and then

turned his head slowly and wordlessly in my direction.“Bored,” he said dully. His eyes were glazed, staring

through me rather than at me. “I’m really bored.”O’Connell was convinced this was something

else. It seemed to him that he had proceeded beyond restlessness, beyond the comparatively trivial desire to make something happen, and into what he suspected might have been an encounter with the meaninglessness of existence itself.

“Later that evening,” Mark recounts, as he was brushing his teeth and getting ready for bed, I asked him once more how he was doing. He told me again that he was incredibly bored.

“Well, you know”, I said, “boredom is the start of creativity.”

“No it is not,” he said, spitting a mouthful of toothpaste froth into the sink and reaching for the hand towel. “Boredom is the start of more boredom.”

Those words struck Mark to the core, “Was my son right? It was certainly a strong rejoinder from a seven-year-old. It made me laugh, a little forlornly, but it also struck me as casually profound. It revealed a certain triteness at the heart of my suggestion about boredom and creativity.”

Mr. O’Connell confessed that as a parent he does not think he was unusual in feeling irritated, and even slightly offended, by his child’s boredom. In a wonderful essay called “On Boredom”, Adam Phillips, a psychiatrist points out how often “the child’s boredom

is met with that most perplexing form of disapproval, the adult’s wish to distract him – as though the adults have decided that the child’s life must be, or be seen to be, endlessly interesting.” He continues: “It is one of the most oppressive demands of adults that the child should be interested in, rather than take time to �ind what interests him.”

Boredom phenomenonIt seems boredom, as we currently understand it, is

a fairly recent phenomenon: the term arose in English only in the 19th century. Its �irst use in literature is often credited to Dickens: in “Bleak House”, Lady Dedlock is variously described as “bored to death”, and “in the desolation of Boredom and the clutch of Giant Despair”.

The term’s pre-modern precursor was the concept of acedia, a word used by medieval monks to refer to a state of spiritual listlessness, manifested in an inability to pray or work. Whereas boredom describes a psychological state, acedia was a purely moral phenomenon. It was considered a vice because it was understood as an offense against God. To behold the splendour of His creation, the sheer wonder of one’s own presence within it, and to just not be awed? Unacceptable.

This father admitted traces of this moral content can be found in his response to his son’s boredom. A child’s boredom presents a peculiar challenge to a parent. Subconsciously it lands as a kind of underhand criticism: the world –and by implication, the person who brought the child into it– has been found badly wanting. Unacceptable.

Mark surmised that his irritation with his son’s boredom might also have something to do with an unacknowledged sense of loss. “One of the things you give up when you have children,” he believes, “is the opportunity for a particular kind of boredom: the boredom of having nothing to do. There is plenty of the other kind of boredom, that is born of having too many

things to do – playing Lego, changing nappies, packing school lunches every morning. It is not necessarily a bad thing, but there are times when I would love to have nothing to do but stare at the ceiling.”

Self-examination led O’Connell to conclude “television was the only palliative for his boredom, but, as with any addiction, it merely exacerbated the symptoms… For those of us who have avoided the worst effects of the pandemic –who have not lost our livelihoods, or contracted the virus itself, or witnessed friends and family suffer and die– the emotional keynote of this plague year has been boredom.” Perhaps, many of us are sick and tired of too many Zoom calls to enumerate and one endless Net�lix binge one day after another.

Love beats boredomWe cannot subscribe, however, as Christian

believers, to Heidegger’s idea that boredom is a state of “fundamental attunement” to the world, an undistracted encounter with reality itself (sic). Why? Because God puts us into the world to know, love, and serve Him, and so come to the happiness of paradise (cf. Catechism, 1721). Happiness or beatitude makes us “partakers of the divine nature” and of eternal life (12 Peter1:4; cf. John17:3). This is what gives meaning to life.

It is not right to say that we will be happy in heaven but not here on earth. As a modern saint puts it, those who will enjoy the eternal reward of unending bliss are those who are happy on earth. Now, a paradox arises: how can we be happy when there are lots of problems and hardships, let alone the spate of boredom?

Treatises are required to suf�iciently explain the answers but, for the moment, we limit ourselves to the issue of monotony. As we saw above, boredom could af�lict someone who is not doing anything worthwhile as well as persons who keep on doing similar activities repetitively. Mark’s son was “bored to death.” A mother with wonderful Contd on Pg 13

Today’s Gospel narrates of John the Baptist’s wit-ness to Jesus as the Lamb of God. In our medita-tion we place ourselves at the scene of the Gos-

pel, to re-live it, and to be nourished and challenged by it, today. It is the next day, the third day, and the third mention of ministry in the life of John the Baptist.

Picture in your mind John the Baptist standing with two of his disciples; we are the two of them. We were with John the Baptist when he baptized Jesus, too; but we did not witness the heavenly revelations at this event. So now, as the Gospel narrates, John points to Jesus and says to us, ‘Look, here is the Lamb of God’. The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus (John 1:35-37). The �irst part of the Gospel scene has ended but we continue our meditation. So, picture in your mind that immediately, we begin to follow Je-sus. We are excited because we feel as if we have moved from our static position of being passive spectators, and become active followers of the Lord. After a while, Jesus turns around and sees us following Him, and as the 2nd part of the Gospel states, Jesus asks ‘What are you looking for?’ The second part of the Gospel scene ends with this provocative question posed by Jesus. Now let us continue our meditation. What are we look-ing for in life? Is religion only a safety net? Just in case we stumble and fall of the trapeze of a ‘high-�lying life-style’? ‘What are you looking for?’ is a loaded question? It confronts our motivation! The Gospel records the in-nocuous answer thus: They answer, ‘Rabbi, where do you live?’ Jesus says, ‘Come and see’ (John 1:38-39). So, the Gospel narrates that they came and saw where He was staying; and they stayed with Him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.

The third part of the Gospel scene has ended, but we

continue our meditation. Picture in your mind that it is around 4 pm, and Andrew is also with us. So, together we go and look, and stay with Jesus that day. What then did we see? At the end of the day, we ask each other, ‘What did we really see? Did we see the Lamb of God or just another Rabbi? If we truly believed that Jesus was the Lamb of God, would we have addressed Him as ‘Rabbi?’ We argue back and forth among ourselves.

Later on in the afternoon, Andrew says to us, ‘I am going to �ind my brother Peter, and bring him to Je-sus. Would you like to come along, too?’ We say, ‘Yes’, and accompany Andrew. Now as the fourth part of the Gospel narrates, one of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's broth-er. He �irst found his brother Simon, and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which means Christ). He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him, and said, "So you are Simon the son of John? You shall be called Ce-phas" (which means Peter). (John 1:40-42).

The Gospel scene has ended, but we continue our meditation. We whisper to Andrew, ‘We aren’t quite so sure whether it was we who found Jesus or whether it was He who found us. Many questions keep popping up in our minds. For, instance, we only asked a Rabbi where He stays. It was He who invited us to come and see. The initiative was entirely His. It was Jesus who found us; not we’. Andrew replies, ‘Technically, you are right. I was only using a �igure of speech’. We reply, ‘Here in Israel, to ˋfollowˊ a Rabbi means to learn from, and model one’s life on Him. Physical following means walking the same path as the master. Yes, we have been walking behind Jesus these past two hours, but it is not with the conscious intent of walking the same path as He, by learning from and modeling our lives on Him. Hence, we cannot say that we have found the Messiah. For that matter, we hardly know Jesus, still. We have set

eyes on Him only today’. Andrew nods in agreement. Jesus looks back at us, and says ‘Ah! The Gentiles

have begun coming to me! But my hour has still not come (John 12:20-23). Then Jesus signals to us to come forward. Then, Jesus says to us, ‘You did not choose me. I chose you’ (John 15:16). Yes, I know every human heart. I am the ˋKnower of Heartsˊ (Acts 1:24). You did not �ind me; I found you. True discipleship �lows from my initiative. No one can come to me unless the Father draws him (John 6:44). You must understand this; for true discipleship involves a correct understanding of who I am’. Then Jesus points to Peter saying again, ‘This is Simon, the son of John. I know where he comes from. I have called him Cephas meaning Rock. I know what he will be in the future. But he must also learn who and what I am destined to be in the sight of God, and so must you. I know that Andrew told Peter ˋWe have found the Messiahˊ; but you have to change your understanding of the Messiah according to my under-standing of the Messiah. As John said, I am the Lamb of God because I will be sacri�iced. But are you willing to be sacri�iced with me? Will you hesitate in regret when you feel your personal agendas are not being ful�illed in the course of following me? A true disciple follows with conviction, and not because someone else insists; and such is often the case when one is born into a re-ligion. Only those who accept the cross as the way of salvation will know me as the Messiah. Until then you will be self-delusional, like the student in the parable of the cheetah: a teacher once described a cheetah as a large slender spotted cat, the fastest animal on land. The student thinks of his pet cat and says ‘I have one at home’. Likewise, you may rightly call me Messiah, but have wrong expectations of me until you carry my cross’.

7 The Messenger January 17, 2021

He said to them, “Come, and you will see.” So they went and saw where he was staying,... (John 1:39)

Apostolic Letter 'Patris Corde' of the Holy Father Francis On the 150th Anniversary of the Proclamation of

Saint Joseph As Patron of the Universal Church

With a Father’s Heart:That is how Joseph

loved Jesus, whom all four Gospels

refer to as “the Son of Joseph”.[1] Matthew and Luke, the two Evangelists who speak most of Joseph, tell us very little, yet enough for us to appreciate what sort of a father he was, and the mission entrusted to him by God’s providence. We know that Joseph was a lowly carpenter (cf. Mt 13:55), betrothed to Mary (cf. Mt 1:18; Lk 1:27). He was a “just man” (Mt 1:19), ever ready to carry out God’s will as revealed to him in the Law (cf. Lk 2:22.27.39) and through four dreams (cf. Mt 1:20; 2:13.19.22).

After a long and tiring journey from Nazareth to

Bethlehem, he beheld the birth of the Messiah in a stable, since “there was no place for them” elsewhere (cf. Lk 2:7). He witnessed the adoration of the shepherds (cf. Lk 2:8-20) and the Magi (cf. Mt 2:1-12), who represented respectively the people of Israel and the pagan peoples. Joseph had the courage to become the legal father of Jesus, to whom he gave the name revealed by the angel: “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Mt 1:21).

As we know, for ancient peoples, to give a name to a person or to a thing, as Adam did in the account in the Book of Genesis (cf. 2:19-20), was to establish

a relationship. In the Temple, forty days after Jesus’ birth, Joseph and

Mary offered their child to the Lord and listened with amazement to Simeon’s

prophecy concerning Jesus and his Mother (cf. Lk 2:22-35). To protect Jesus from Herod, Joseph dwelt as a foreigner in Egypt (cf. Mt 2:13-18).

After returning to his own country, he led a hidden life in the tiny and obscure village of Nazareth in Galilee, far from Bethlehem, his ancestral town, and from Jerusalem and the Temple. Of Nazareth it was said, “No prophet is to rise” (cf. Jn 7:52) and indeed, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (cf. Jn 1:46). When, during a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Joseph and Mary lost track of the twelve-year-old Jesus, they anxiously sought him out and they found him in the Temple, in discussion

with the doctors of the Law (cf. Lk 2:41-50). After Mary, the Mother of God, no saint is mentioned more frequently in the papal magisterium than Joseph, her spouse. My Predecessors re�lected on the message contained in the limited information handed down by the Gospels in order to appreciate more fully his central role in the history of salvation. Blessed Pius IX declared him “Patron of the Catholic Church”,[2] Venerable Pius XII proposed him as “Patron of Workers”[3] and Saint John Paul II as “Guardian of the Redeemer”.[4] Saint Joseph is universally invoked as the “patron of a happy death”.[5]

To be continued

Rev. Fr. Michael Rajendram - National Director, CNC for EDU & IRI

• The World Communion of Reformed Churches• The World Methodist Council• The Baptist World Alliance• The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)• The Mennonite World Conference• Some Pentecostal groups• The World Evangelical Alliance In 2009, Cardinal Walter Kasper published Harvesting the Fruits, a synthesis of the achievements and challeng-es of forty years of dialogue between Catholics, Angli-cans, Lutherans, Reformed and Methodists.In order to make known as widely as possible the result of its work for Christian unity, the PCPCU publishes on the Vatican website a bulletin called Information Ser-vice.(Courtesy - Of�icial Website of the Holy See –Vatican)

The origin of the Ponti�ical Council for Promoting Christian Unity is closely linked with the Second Vatican Council. • It was Pope John XXIII’s desire that the Catholic Church’s involvement in the ecumenical movement be one of the Council’s chief concerns. • Thus, on 5 June 1960, he established a “Secre-tariat for Promoting Christian Unity” as one of the pre-paratory commissions for the Council, and appointed Cardinal Augustin Bea as its �irst President. This was the beginning of the Catholic Church’s formal commit-ment to the ecumenical movement.At �irst, the main function of the Secretariat was to in-vite the other Churches and World Communions to send observers to the Second Vatican Council. Then, during the �irst weeks of the Council, Pope John XXIII placed the Secretariat on an equal footing with other conciliar commissions. The Secretariat thus prepared and presented to the Council documents on ecumenism (Unitatis redintegra-tio), on non-Christian religions (Nostra aetate), on re-ligious liberty (Dignitatis humanae) and, together with the doctrinal commission, the dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation (Dei Verbum).• In 1963, the Holy Father speci�ied that the Sec-retariat would be made up of two sections dealing re-spectively with the Orthodox Churches and ancient Ori-ental Churches on the one hand and with the Western Churches and Ecclesial Communities on the other.• In 1966, after the Council had ended, Pope Paul VI con�irmed the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Uni-ty as a permanent dicastery of the Holy See. Cardinal Bea continued in of�ice as President until his death in 1968. • In 1969, Cardinal Johannes Willebrands was named President to succeed him. Twenty years later, he retired and became President Emeritus. Cardinal Edward Idris Cassidy was then named President of this Ponti�ical Council. • In 2001 Cardinal Walter Kasper became President, and he was succeeded in 2010 by Cardinal Kurt Koch.

• In the Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus (28 June 1988), Pope John Paul II changed the Secretariat into the Ponti�ical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU).PURPOSEThe Council exercises a double role. First of all, it is en-trusted with the promotion, within the Catholic Church, of an authentic ecumenical spirit according to the con-ciliar decree Unitatis redintegratio. For this purpose an Ecumenical Directory was published in 1967-1970 and a revised edition issued in 1993 entitled Directory for the Application of Principles and Norms on Ecumenism.At the same time, the Ponti�ical Council is active in all areas that can contribute to promoting Christian unity by strengthening relationships with other Churches and Ecclesial Communities. It organizes and oversees dialogue and collaboration with the other Churches and World Communions. Since its creation, it has also cooperated closely with the World Council of Churches (WCC) based in Geneva. From 1968, Catholic theologians have been full members of the “Faith and Order” Commission, the theological department of the WCC.Similarly, it is the task of the Ponti�ical Council for Pro-moting Christian Unity - PCPCU - to name Catholic ob-servers at various ecumenical gatherings and in turn to invite observers or ‘fraternal delegates’ of other Churches or Ecclesial Communities to major events of the Catholic Church.At present, the PCPCU is engaged in an international theological dialogue with each of the following Church-es and World Communions: • The Orthodox Church as a whole• The Oriental Orthodox Churches• The Orthodox Syrian Church of Malankara• The Syrian Orthodox Church of Malankara• The Assyrian Church of the East• Old Catholic Bishops’ Conference Union of Utrecht• The Anglican Communion• The Lutheran World Federation

A Brief on the Ponti�ical Council for Promoting Christian Unity - PCPCU (Ponti�ical Council for Ecumenism)

8 The Messenger January 17, 2021

Your Eminence, One of the most important needs of the country at present is “Peace and Reconciliation”. Your solution to this issue is “one country, one rule” concept. How do you explain this to the Catholics of this country?

Answer: There is tremendous pressure on countries like ours by the international community to adopt to their “Globalization” concept. As part of this they try to impose ”one culture” concept, namely all the countries of the world have to think and act as one entity. This Globalization movement is trying to distance people from all religious af iliations.AnintegralpartofthisistheGlobal Village in which all the countries of the world adopt to one thinking pattern.

Different cultural groups view this globalization as an effort to dilute their identities. By “cultural groups’ what I mean are religious, ethnic and language groups. These different groups, in order to counter the efforts of the globalization movement, have begun to strengthen different aspects of their group identities.

Editor’s remarks: Sorry to interrupt Your Eminence, If I summarize what you have said so far, this globalization effort by the international community has forced some people to form groups on religious and ethnic basis. These groups are advised by their own learned and intellectual people. Some of these groups have turned out to be extremist in their approach. But you speak and act with an unbiased attitude.

Answer: I don’t see anything wrong among the groups who try to safeguard their identities, because it is an effort to defeat the slavish globalization attitude. However, if their genuine efforts go beyond the limits, there are those who would try to grab this opportunity to create disharmony among these groups. These outside forces will then try to interfere into their internal matters, and thus ful ill their hidden agendas.We, asthe leaders of these religious.ethnic and cultural groups, have to be prudent and act with caution, and guide the members so as to ensure that we should not leave room for these forces to dictate terms to us.Wehavetobeconsciousofthefactthatthere will be those who want to project the speciality of their religious or cultural groups above those of other religious or ethnic groups. This is what leads to extremism. They fail to understand that coexistence should be the factor that leads to unity, and thus safeguard their rights. This unity among the different groups is an obstacle for outside force to interfere with our identities.

Editor’s remarks: That means you do not see it wrong for minorities to stand up to protect their rights?

Answer: Yes, it is a fundamental right. Every minority group, either religious or ethnic, has its identity, and they have to protect it. But I think it is foolish to make one’s identity a cause for division. Peaceful coexistence is the need of the hour. The best example that comes to my mind is our struggle for independence. How wisely did our leaders act as one body, irrespective of religion or culture, without shedding even a drop of blood. This is a main reason for the British to grant us independence in 1948.

But what happened after this victory is very pathetic. Majority group claimed that its religion and culture should be safeguarded, and that the rights of the minorities could be neglected. This is how the separatist movements gained momentum, and the result is what we experience now, disharmony and chaos. The only means for us to get out of this sad situation is the understanding that both the majority group and the minority groups should respect their identities, while the minority groups should try to accept the rights of the majority group, and the majority should accommodate the rights of the minorities. This is what we call peace and reconciliation.

Question: Your Eminence, after the Easter Sunday disaster you fearlessly stood for the rights of the victims and demanded a free and fair investigation. Making use of your international connections you were able to help the victims and the affected families. In order to ensure that such disasters will not occur again, you often speak about framing the necessary laws to combat this terrorism. Can you please explain to us what exactly you mean.

Answer: This attack was a breach of the country’s law, yes, a very serious breach. 500 people were victimized while the majority of them died and the rest became invalids, some permanently. It is our duty to see that justice is meted out to them. But at the same time we acted with caution because there were those who triedtoin lameriotsbasedonreligion.

As Christians we should act with

prudence because there were instances in history that led to such extremism. The message of Jesus Christ is peace and love. He became a human to show us that it is possible to live in harmony amidst con licts. He showed us that throughbrotherhood we can achieve peace and reconciliation.Con licts and tensionsbetween these

groups are mainly created by outside forces. First they try to disturb the con idencethatonegrouphasonanother.After breaking the mutual con idencethey will create disunity. That is why the groups accuse each other saying: “They are the majority, we are only the minority” and “We are themajority andthey are merely a minority”. Thus the way to reconciliation is blocked, and all will end up in a stalemate.

Pope Francis in his encyclical “Fratelli Tutti” exhorts us to remember that we are all brothers and sisters with equal rights. The air we breathe and the water we use should be equally shared. Just as we protect ourselves, we should protect the lives of others.

The same principle applies to one’s own identity. That is why I always say that we should respect other religions, especially the religion of the majority. This is one of the ways we can establish con idenceononeanother.Ifwewintheircon idence then they will not block ourrights. If we neglect this need to respect other religions, we shall end up by being islands – religious islands, linguistic islands and ethnic islands, isolated and having no connections with each other. Such a situation will inevitably lead to war. If the minorities respect the majority and work closely with them, the majority would undoubtedly uphold the rights of the minorities. This is the greatest challenge we face now as a nation. Our response to the killer bomb attack of Easter Sunday was based on this principle, and everyone knows how it worked with success.

Editor’s remarks: Your Eminence, what you always say is that the government should identify the perpetrators of this attack, and not just punish anyone else.

Answer: What we expect from thecommissions looking into the attack is to know what made the attackers to do so; what force was behind this attack; what was their motive? If we can get a clear answer to these questions, we would be able to contribute whatever possible to ensure peace and reconciliation in the country.

Question: Your Eminence I know that you would not be willing to answer this

question. But in order that our people know what you do for the bene it ofour priests, may I ask why you visited our priests living in distant areas of the Archdiocese after the Covid 19 pandemic?

Answer: Most of our priests live alone in their mission houses. During the lock downs they spent months, living alone. But the identity of a parish priest is to gather the people and celebrate the Mass and other sacraments with them. But Covid 19 prevented this. That is why I went to meet my brother priests in about 5 deaneries. I met about 80 priests during these visits. Although Christmas programmes prevented me to continue this, I will de initely do so in the NewYear. I am their Bishop, and they are my brother priests. I have a duty to look after them. I will continue to protect them and help them to do their ministry with joy.

Question: During the lock downs the government instructed the private sector to pay their employees at least Rs. 14,500 as their salary. The Colombo Catholic Press and other Archdiocesan institutions come under this category. But Your Eminence instructed us to pay the full salary. If any institution didnothavesuf icientfundstheywererequested to obtain bank loans. The Catholic Press paid the full salary for 5 to 6 months of lock down, and the Christmas bonus as well. I am sure that other institutions did the same. What is your message to these employees in this regard.

Answer: It was because we did not want the families of these employees to suffer.Weknow thatdailywageearnersand their families suffered much. Weinstructed the institutions without suf icientfundstoobtainbankloansandpay the salaries. This we did under the teachings of the Catholic Church about social justice. At Parish level the cooks, gardeners and sacristans, too, were paid their full salaries,

Editor’s remarks: As their response, what would you expect these employees to do?

Answer: I call upon them to do a dedicated service to whatever institution they serve. I want them to consider their work as service to the Lord. In respect of the employees of the Catholic Press, I am very grateful to them for their cooperation and support to the management.

Interviewed by Rev. Fr. Camillus Fernando,

the Editor, Messenger, Gnanartha Pradeepaya,

and Director Catholic Press, Colombo.

GLOBALIZATION IS AN EFFORT TO DILUTE DIFFERENT CULTURAL GROUPS- His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith

Messenger8 9 Messenger January 17, 2021 January 17, 2021

... and they stayed with him that day. It was about four in the afternoon. (John 1:39)

For quite a while, we have been overwhelmed by the Corona Pandemic. It has not taken note of any of the man-made differences of caste, creed or race. All of us, irrespective of our differences, are obliged to take care of ourselves and others. TheWeek of Prayer for Christian

Unity is a time set apart for special prayer for deeper unity among all Christians. Let us be reminded that our Christian Discipleship does not permit us to ignore or be unmindful of the sufferings of those around us particularly of the poor and the less privileged.Ourpleaforunitymustbeofbene ittothosewho suffer around us. Corona Pandemic too should bind us together, impel us to help one another to ease the

pains of the others in charity while doing everything that is possible to avoid the spreading of the virus.

This week of special prayer is an apt moment to be reminded of the great virtue of unity among us disciples of the same Lord. The Gospels teach us the unique and ardent desire of the Lord and how earnestly He prayed for unity among His disciples (John 17: 20-22).

Let us be truly conscious of this in-depth desire of the Lord. He challenges us to do all we can to safeguard, foster and promote unity among ourselves. Such attempts will also help our nation as all of us in our country need to enhance unity among all sectors in our country as well.

Let us, therefore, pay greater attention to what unites us, to what we can do to enhance unity among us rather than what puts us asunder.

The Second Vatican Council, adopted "returning to the Sources" as its strategy of renewal realizing that it is good for all of us to be in touch with the very sources of our faith if we are to really and truly renew ourselves and move forward as believers.

All of us need to be in deep union with the Lord and betrulyconsciousofHisdeepaspirations.Weneedtounite ourselves with Him and join Him as He continues to bring unity among all of us being present and active in the Church and in the world of today.

Let us be deeply conscious that we believe in the God of Communion, the Father, the Son and the Spirit.

Rt. Rev. Dr. Norbert M. Andradi, OMIChairman

CNC for Ecumenism & Inter Religious Dialogue.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Unity Week thisyear begins with the theme - ‘Abide in My love and you shall bear much fruit.’ (John 15:5-9)

God of Love, through our baptism call us all to become a people belonging to Christ by surpassing all differences of caste, language, religion and race to involve insel lessserviceandtocreateanewhorizon through the out pouring of the Holy Spirit.We can bear much fruit only if

we remain faithful to the call of Jesus Christ that invites us ‘love one another as I have loved you.’

This week of prayer for Christian unity invites all churches join together

inprayertoful illthelastwillofJesus‘that all may be one’ (John 17:21). During this Week of Prayer for

Christian Unity, let us also remember all those people who have lost their lives due to Covid 19 and those who are continuously suffering due to this pandemic.

As per the saying ‘Lighting a candle is better than cursing the darkness’ despite the plenty of varying opinions and divisions let us strive for dialogue for unity in both prayer & action.

Let each one of us who call ourselves Christians and belonging to various & different traditions should examine our conscience and evaluate the efforts we have made towards Christian Unity.

Rt. Rev. Dr. Joseph Ponniah,Vice Chairman

CNC for Ecumenism & Inter Religious Dialogue

The Church Unity Octave was irst observed inJanuary, 1908. Celebrated in the chapel of a small Atonement Franciscan Convent of the Protestant Episcopal Church, on a remote hillside iftymiles from New YorkCity. This new prayer movement caught the imagination of others beyond the Franciscan Friars and Sisters of the Atonement to become an energetic movement that gradually blossomed into a worldwide observance involving many nations and millions of people.

Two American Episcopalians, Father Paul James Wattson and

Sister Lurana White, co-founders of the Franciscan Friars and Sisters of the Atonement, were totally committed to the reunion of the Anglican Communion with the Roman Catholic Church. As such, they started a prayer movement that explicitly prayed for the return of non-Catholic Christians to the Holy See. Needless to say,

such an observance would attract few of our separated brothers and sisters except for a small number of Anglo-Catholics and Roman Catholics themselves.

◆ This idea of a period of prayer

for Christian unity originated in a conversation of Fr. Wattson with an English clergyman, Rev. Spencer Jones.

◆ In 1907 Jones suggested that a day be set aside for prayer for Christian unity. Fr. PaulWattsonagreedwiththe concept but offered the idea of an octave of prayer between the Feast of St. Peter's Chair on January 18 and the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul on January 25.When Fr. Paul and Sr.

Lurana became Roman Catholics, Pope Pius X gave his blessing to the Church Unity Octave and

in 1916, Pope Benedict XV extended its observance to the universal church. This recognition by papal authority gave the Octave its impetus throughout the Roman Catholic Church.

Until his death in 1940 Fr.Wattsonpromoted theChurch Unity Octave, later known as the Chair of Unity Octave to emphasize its Petrine focus, through his magazine, The Lamp.

Some of the important historical antecedents to this Octave of Prayer.• In 1894 Leo XIII

encouraged Catholics to recite the rosary for the intention of Christian Unity.

• Again,in1897,hedecreed in Provida Matris that the days between Ascension and Pentecost should be dedicated to

prayer for reconciliation with our separated brethren. • The Lambeth

Conferences during this period also promoted prayer for Christian unity. • At that

conference, the bishops spoke of their desire that the conference support the observance of a season of prayer for the unity of Christendom.• In 1913 the Faith

and Order Commission of the Protestant Episcopal Churchpublishedalea letpromoting prayer for unity.• The preparatory

Conference on Faith and Contd. on Pg. 12

Brief on the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity…

Unity Week

Altar in Our Lady of Angels Chapelwhere irstChurch

Unity Octavewas celebrated in 1908

“Let us pay greater attention to what unites us And what we can do to enhance unity among us as Christians”

Message from Bishop Chairman of the Catholic National Commission for Ecumenism & Inter Religious Dialogue

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity has a history over 100 long years. Christians around the world take part in an octave of prayer for visible Christian unity. It is an annual initiative whereby Christian Communities throughout the world are invited to pray for one another and for greater Christian Unity. The traditional period for theWeek of

Prayer for Christian Unity is January 18-25, to cover the original days of the Feasts of the Chair of St. Peter (January 18) and the Conversion of St. Paul (January 25), and thereforehasasymbolicsigni icance.We, the followers of Christ are called

upon to form a vibrant and prayerful witness for Christian Unity by remembering the great wish and prayer of our Lord & Master Jesus Christ, namely “…that they may all be one… so that the world may believe that you have sent me..” (John 17:21)

In the above prayer for us to His Heavenly

Father, He desired for our unity - not only for a unity of the original Apostles - but also for all who have followed in their footsteps, generation by generation.

Today, we live in a society which is divided and is not that strong as it should be. In this context we, as the Body of Christ with its diversity of traditions are called to become a witness and means of healing and reconciliation.

As we observe and engage in the Unity WeekProgrammethisyear,withthetheme“ …Abide in my love and you shall bear much fruit..” ( John 15:5-9) let us examine our conscience both individually and collectivelyandbecomeaTrueWitnessingCommunity of Love of Christ in this beautiful land of ours which is multi ethnic & multi cultural.

May the Triune God in His Mercy bless & help us to bear much Fruit in our efforts in the process of the Ecumenical Unity!

Rev. Fr. Michael Rajendram.National Director,

CNC for Ecumenism & Inter Religious Dialogue

“Let us become a True Witnessing Community of Love of Christ in the context of multi-ethnic

& multi-cultural Sri Lanka..” Message from the National Director of the Catholic National Commission

for Ecumenism & Inter Religious Dialogue.

‘Let us become a people belonging to Christ by surpassing all differences &

involveinsel lessservice’Message from the Vice Chairman of the Catholic National Commission for Ecumenism and Inter Religious Dialogue

Continued from last week

9 The Messenger January 17, 2021

Your Eminence, One of the most important needs of the country at present is “Peace and Reconciliation”. Your solution to this issue is “one country, one rule” concept. How do you explain this to the Catholics of this country?

Answer: There is tremendous pressure on countries like ours by the international community to adopt to their “Globalization” concept. As part of this they try to impose ”one culture” concept, namely all the countries of the world have to think and act as one entity. This Globalization movement is trying to distance people from all religious af iliations.AnintegralpartofthisistheGlobal Village in which all the countries of the world adopt to one thinking pattern.

Different cultural groups view this globalization as an effort to dilute their identities. By “cultural groups’ what I mean are religious, ethnic and language groups. These different groups, in order to counter the efforts of the globalization movement, have begun to strengthen different aspects of their group identities.

Editor’s remarks: Sorry to interrupt Your Eminence, If I summarize what you have said so far, this globalization effort by the international community has forced some people to form groups on religious and ethnic basis. These groups are advised by their own learned and intellectual people. Some of these groups have turned out to be extremist in their approach. But you speak and act with an unbiased attitude.

Answer: I don’t see anything wrong among the groups who try to safeguard their identities, because it is an effort to defeat the slavish globalization attitude. However, if their genuine efforts go beyond the limits, there are those who would try to grab this opportunity to create disharmony among these groups. These outside forces will then try to interfere into their internal matters, and thus ful ill their hidden agendas.We, asthe leaders of these religious.ethnic and cultural groups, have to be prudent and act with caution, and guide the members so as to ensure that we should not leave room for these forces to dictate terms to us.Wehavetobeconsciousofthefactthatthere will be those who want to project the speciality of their religious or cultural groups above those of other religious or ethnic groups. This is what leads to extremism. They fail to understand that coexistence should be the factor that leads to unity, and thus safeguard their rights. This unity among the different groups is an obstacle for outside force to interfere with our identities.

Editor’s remarks: That means you do not see it wrong for minorities to stand up to protect their rights?

Answer: Yes, it is a fundamental right. Every minority group, either religious or ethnic, has its identity, and they have to protect it. But I think it is foolish to make one’s identity a cause for division. Peaceful coexistence is the need of the hour. The best example that comes to my mind is our struggle for independence. How wisely did our leaders act as one body, irrespective of religion or culture, without shedding even a drop of blood. This is a main reason for the British to grant us independence in 1948.

But what happened after this victory is very pathetic. Majority group claimed that its religion and culture should be safeguarded, and that the rights of the minorities could be neglected. This is how the separatist movements gained momentum, and the result is what we experience now, disharmony and chaos. The only means for us to get out of this sad situation is the understanding that both the majority group and the minority groups should respect their identities, while the minority groups should try to accept the rights of the majority group, and the majority should accommodate the rights of the minorities. This is what we call peace and reconciliation.

Question: Your Eminence, after the Easter Sunday disaster you fearlessly stood for the rights of the victims and demanded a free and fair investigation. Making use of your international connections you were able to help the victims and the affected families. In order to ensure that such disasters will not occur again, you often speak about framing the necessary laws to combat this terrorism. Can you please explain to us what exactly you mean.

Answer: This attack was a breach of the country’s law, yes, a very serious breach. 500 people were victimized while the majority of them died and the rest became invalids, some permanently. It is our duty to see that justice is meted out to them. But at the same time we acted with caution because there were those who triedtoin lameriotsbasedonreligion.

As Christians we should act with

prudence because there were instances in history that led to such extremism. The message of Jesus Christ is peace and love. He became a human to show us that it is possible to live in harmony amidst con licts. He showed us that throughbrotherhood we can achieve peace and reconciliation.Con licts and tensionsbetween these

groups are mainly created by outside forces. First they try to disturb the con idencethatonegrouphasonanother.After breaking the mutual con idencethey will create disunity. That is why the groups accuse each other saying: “They are the majority, we are only the minority” and “We are themajority andthey are merely a minority”. Thus the way to reconciliation is blocked, and all will end up in a stalemate.

Pope Francis in his encyclical “Fratelli Tutti” exhorts us to remember that we are all brothers and sisters with equal rights. The air we breathe and the water we use should be equally shared. Just as we protect ourselves, we should protect the lives of others.

The same principle applies to one’s own identity. That is why I always say that we should respect other religions, especially the religion of the majority. This is one of the ways we can establish con idenceononeanother.Ifwewintheircon idence then they will not block ourrights. If we neglect this need to respect other religions, we shall end up by being islands – religious islands, linguistic islands and ethnic islands, isolated and having no connections with each other. Such a situation will inevitably lead to war. If the minorities respect the majority and work closely with them, the majority would undoubtedly uphold the rights of the minorities. This is the greatest challenge we face now as a nation. Our response to the killer bomb attack of Easter Sunday was based on this principle, and everyone knows how it worked with success.

Editor’s remarks: Your Eminence, what you always say is that the government should identify the perpetrators of this attack, and not just punish anyone else.

Answer: What we expect from thecommissions looking into the attack is to know what made the attackers to do so; what force was behind this attack; what was their motive? If we can get a clear answer to these questions, we would be able to contribute whatever possible to ensure peace and reconciliation in the country.

Question: Your Eminence I know that you would not be willing to answer this

question. But in order that our people know what you do for the bene it ofour priests, may I ask why you visited our priests living in distant areas of the Archdiocese after the Covid 19 pandemic?

Answer: Most of our priests live alone in their mission houses. During the lock downs they spent months, living alone. But the identity of a parish priest is to gather the people and celebrate the Mass and other sacraments with them. But Covid 19 prevented this. That is why I went to meet my brother priests in about 5 deaneries. I met about 80 priests during these visits. Although Christmas programmes prevented me to continue this, I will de initely do so in the NewYear. I am their Bishop, and they are my brother priests. I have a duty to look after them. I will continue to protect them and help them to do their ministry with joy.

Question: During the lock downs the government instructed the private sector to pay their employees at least Rs. 14,500 as their salary. The Colombo Catholic Press and other Archdiocesan institutions come under this category. But Your Eminence instructed us to pay the full salary. If any institution didnothavesuf icientfundstheywererequested to obtain bank loans. The Catholic Press paid the full salary for 5 to 6 months of lock down, and the Christmas bonus as well. I am sure that other institutions did the same. What is your message to these employees in this regard.

Answer: It was because we did not want the families of these employees to suffer.Weknow thatdailywageearnersand their families suffered much. Weinstructed the institutions without suf icientfundstoobtainbankloansandpay the salaries. This we did under the teachings of the Catholic Church about social justice. At Parish level the cooks, gardeners and sacristans, too, were paid their full salaries,

Editor’s remarks: As their response, what would you expect these employees to do?

Answer: I call upon them to do a dedicated service to whatever institution they serve. I want them to consider their work as service to the Lord. In respect of the employees of the Catholic Press, I am very grateful to them for their cooperation and support to the management.

Interviewed by Rev. Fr. Camillus Fernando,

the Editor, Messenger, Gnanartha Pradeepaya,

and Director Catholic Press, Colombo.

GLOBALIZATION IS AN EFFORT TO DILUTE DIFFERENT CULTURAL GROUPS- His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith

Messenger8 9 Messenger January 17, 2021 January 17, 2021

... and they stayed with him that day. It was about four in the afternoon. (John 1:39)

For quite a while, we have been overwhelmed by the Corona Pandemic. It has not taken note of any of the man-made differences of caste, creed or race. All of us, irrespective of our differences, are obliged to take care of ourselves and others. TheWeek of Prayer for Christian

Unity is a time set apart for special prayer for deeper unity among all Christians. Let us be reminded that our Christian Discipleship does not permit us to ignore or be unmindful of the sufferings of those around us particularly of the poor and the less privileged.Ourpleaforunitymustbeofbene ittothosewho suffer around us. Corona Pandemic too should bind us together, impel us to help one another to ease the

pains of the others in charity while doing everything that is possible to avoid the spreading of the virus.

This week of special prayer is an apt moment to be reminded of the great virtue of unity among us disciples of the same Lord. The Gospels teach us the unique and ardent desire of the Lord and how earnestly He prayed for unity among His disciples (John 17: 20-22).

Let us be truly conscious of this in-depth desire of the Lord. He challenges us to do all we can to safeguard, foster and promote unity among ourselves. Such attempts will also help our nation as all of us in our country need to enhance unity among all sectors in our country as well.

Let us, therefore, pay greater attention to what unites us, to what we can do to enhance unity among us rather than what puts us asunder.

The Second Vatican Council, adopted "returning to the Sources" as its strategy of renewal realizing that it is good for all of us to be in touch with the very sources of our faith if we are to really and truly renew ourselves and move forward as believers.

All of us need to be in deep union with the Lord and betrulyconsciousofHisdeepaspirations.Weneedtounite ourselves with Him and join Him as He continues to bring unity among all of us being present and active in the Church and in the world of today.

Let us be deeply conscious that we believe in the God of Communion, the Father, the Son and the Spirit.

Rt. Rev. Dr. Norbert M. Andradi, OMIChairman

CNC for Ecumenism & Inter Religious Dialogue.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Unity Week thisyear begins with the theme - ‘Abide in My love and you shall bear much fruit.’ (John 15:5-9)

God of Love, through our baptism call us all to become a people belonging to Christ by surpassing all differences of caste, language, religion and race to involve insel lessserviceandtocreateanewhorizon through the out pouring of the Holy Spirit.We can bear much fruit only if

we remain faithful to the call of Jesus Christ that invites us ‘love one another as I have loved you.’

This week of prayer for Christian unity invites all churches join together

inprayertoful illthelastwillofJesus‘that all may be one’ (John 17:21). During this Week of Prayer for

Christian Unity, let us also remember all those people who have lost their lives due to Covid 19 and those who are continuously suffering due to this pandemic.

As per the saying ‘Lighting a candle is better than cursing the darkness’ despite the plenty of varying opinions and divisions let us strive for dialogue for unity in both prayer & action.

Let each one of us who call ourselves Christians and belonging to various & different traditions should examine our conscience and evaluate the efforts we have made towards Christian Unity.

Rt. Rev. Dr. Joseph Ponniah,Vice Chairman

CNC for Ecumenism & Inter Religious Dialogue

The Church Unity Octave was irst observed inJanuary, 1908. Celebrated in the chapel of a small Atonement Franciscan Convent of the Protestant Episcopal Church, on a remote hillside iftymiles from New YorkCity. This new prayer movement caught the imagination of others beyond the Franciscan Friars and Sisters of the Atonement to become an energetic movement that gradually blossomed into a worldwide observance involving many nations and millions of people.

Two American Episcopalians, Father Paul James Wattson and

Sister Lurana White, co-founders of the Franciscan Friars and Sisters of the Atonement, were totally committed to the reunion of the Anglican Communion with the Roman Catholic Church. As such, they started a prayer movement that explicitly prayed for the return of non-Catholic Christians to the Holy See. Needless to say,

such an observance would attract few of our separated brothers and sisters except for a small number of Anglo-Catholics and Roman Catholics themselves.

◆ This idea of a period of prayer

for Christian unity originated in a conversation of Fr. Wattson with an English clergyman, Rev. Spencer Jones.

◆ In 1907 Jones suggested that a day be set aside for prayer for Christian unity. Fr. PaulWattsonagreedwiththe concept but offered the idea of an octave of prayer between the Feast of St. Peter's Chair on January 18 and the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul on January 25.When Fr. Paul and Sr.

Lurana became Roman Catholics, Pope Pius X gave his blessing to the Church Unity Octave and

in 1916, Pope Benedict XV extended its observance to the universal church. This recognition by papal authority gave the Octave its impetus throughout the Roman Catholic Church.

Until his death in 1940 Fr.Wattsonpromoted theChurch Unity Octave, later known as the Chair of Unity Octave to emphasize its Petrine focus, through his magazine, The Lamp.

Some of the important historical antecedents to this Octave of Prayer.• In 1894 Leo XIII

encouraged Catholics to recite the rosary for the intention of Christian Unity.

• Again,in1897,hedecreed in Provida Matris that the days between Ascension and Pentecost should be dedicated to

prayer for reconciliation with our separated brethren. • The Lambeth

Conferences during this period also promoted prayer for Christian unity. • At that

conference, the bishops spoke of their desire that the conference support the observance of a season of prayer for the unity of Christendom.• In 1913 the Faith

and Order Commission of the Protestant Episcopal Churchpublishedalea letpromoting prayer for unity.• The preparatory

Conference on Faith and Contd. on Pg. 12

Brief on the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity…

Unity Week

Altar in Our Lady of Angels Chapelwhere irstChurch

Unity Octavewas celebrated in 1908

“Let us pay greater attention to what unites us And what we can do to enhance unity among us as Christians”

Message from Bishop Chairman of the Catholic National Commission for Ecumenism & Inter Religious Dialogue

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity has a history over 100 long years. Christians around the world take part in an octave of prayer for visible Christian unity. It is an annual initiative whereby Christian Communities throughout the world are invited to pray for one another and for greater Christian Unity. The traditional period for theWeek of

Prayer for Christian Unity is January 18-25, to cover the original days of the Feasts of the Chair of St. Peter (January 18) and the Conversion of St. Paul (January 25), and thereforehasasymbolicsigni icance.We, the followers of Christ are called

upon to form a vibrant and prayerful witness for Christian Unity by remembering the great wish and prayer of our Lord & Master Jesus Christ, namely “…that they may all be one… so that the world may believe that you have sent me..” (John 17:21)

In the above prayer for us to His Heavenly

Father, He desired for our unity - not only for a unity of the original Apostles - but also for all who have followed in their footsteps, generation by generation.

Today, we live in a society which is divided and is not that strong as it should be. In this context we, as the Body of Christ with its diversity of traditions are called to become a witness and means of healing and reconciliation.

As we observe and engage in the Unity WeekProgrammethisyear,withthetheme“ …Abide in my love and you shall bear much fruit..” ( John 15:5-9) let us examine our conscience both individually and collectivelyandbecomeaTrueWitnessingCommunity of Love of Christ in this beautiful land of ours which is multi ethnic & multi cultural.

May the Triune God in His Mercy bless & help us to bear much Fruit in our efforts in the process of the Ecumenical Unity!

Rev. Fr. Michael Rajendram.National Director,

CNC for Ecumenism & Inter Religious Dialogue

“Let us become a True Witnessing Community of Love of Christ in the context of multi-ethnic

& multi-cultural Sri Lanka..” Message from the National Director of the Catholic National Commission

for Ecumenism & Inter Religious Dialogue.

‘Let us become a people belonging to Christ by surpassing all differences &

involveinsel lessservice’Message from the Vice Chairman of the Catholic National Commission for Ecumenism and Inter Religious Dialogue

Continued from last week

10 The Messenger January 17, 2021

Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who heard John and followed Jesus. (John 1:40)

Did God cause COVID-19?

By Trenton Mattingly

There is probably not a single person in the past few months who has been left unaffected in some way by the spread of the virus called

COVID-19. And, unfortunately, it does not seem like the end is quite in sight yet. People are continuing to die, lose their jobs, have their normal routines disrupted, be kept separate from their loved ones that are most vulnerable, and miss out on signi�icant life events, like graduations. As a result, it is not surprising to learn that many are wondering where God is at in all of this or asking why God is letting something so destructive have such a strong hold on our world. In some cases, you may even hear people suggest that God might have directly caused this disease in order to punish human-ity for its sins. If any of these dif�icult questions have crossed your mind, let us explore the answers together. I think that the best place to start with questions of this sort is to re�lect on what causes suffering in the �irst place and, then, on the nature of suffering itself. If we take a look at where everything started – the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament – we learn that suffering and death entered the world as a result of humanity’s choice to disobey God. Because of this choice, a world that God had intended to never know the pain death

was suddenly introduced to it. All of creation, while still retaining its overall goodness, began to decay and express disorder. Had humanity never fallen, we probably never would have even heard of, or ex-perienced, something like COVID-19.

That being said, we must be very clear here: the en-trance of sin and death into creation did not, and does not, bring God pleasure. God did not desire this for us. St. Thomas Aquinas argued that God creat-ed the world in the �irst place because God is good and loving and, by their very nature, love and goodness are things that look and extend beyond themselves; they create. Goodness and love simply do not destroy, ex-ploit, or damage like sin does. Keep in mind that God is a perfect, complete being. If something is perfect, there is nothing that you can add or subtract to it to improve it or make it better. This means that God’s decision to create all that there is must be an entirely sel�less and truly benevolent act because it was not possible for Him to gain or bene�it from it.

I hope that this makes it very clear that God, as a

being of love and goodness that has sel�lessly gifted us our lives and the world that we live in, is simply not capable of causing evil, desiring evil, or taking pleasure in evil. This, of course, includes human suffering and the disorder that sin has brought into creation. None of these things brings God pleasure!

Why does a good God allow suffering?Although God does not like suffering, we clearly see

it all the time in our world, like thousands dying from COVID-19. Why is this? It must be acknowledged that, while God does not cause suffering and evil, He does, in His mysteriousness, permit evil. As human beings, we will never fully understand God’s reasoning for this, but we can absolutely scrape the surface. For example, the great thinker St. Ambrose of Milan reasoned that God, again, as a being of love and goodness, would only permit sin when He could use it to bring about some-thing greater. In other words, God can use sin as a tool to accomplish good things and further His plans for hu-manity. And, if we spend time reading Sacred Scripture, we can see that this is very clearly true time and time again.

For example, Moses and the Israelites wandered and suffered in the desert for forty years because of their sinful rejections of God. This is clearly not some-

thing that God wanted for them. But, God was able to use their miserable experiences in the desert to slowly teach the Israelites the dangers of sin and to rely upon Him more fully. I think we can see this exact theme most clearly when we take a look at Christ’s death. A completely inno-cent man being murdered through hanging him on a cross is objectively evil, wrong, and sinful. God did not want any of the people — whether it be Judas or Roman of�icials, that were involved in killing Jesus — to sin. God also did not want Christ to suffer. But, through Christ’s death, God brought about the salvation of humanity, opened the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven, conquered death, and made it possible for humanity to have eternal life. If God is capable of bringing good-ness out of bad situations like these, He can, and will, bring it out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Finding BalanceAs a clari�ication, we must be very careful

in how we understand these realities. It would not be good to tell someone who is suffering, or has suffered, through something like the effects COVID-19, or another tragedy, not to be upset because God will bring something good out of it.

This is because the good that God will inevitably bring out of suffering, evil, and sin may not always be some-thing that is immediately, or ever, evident to us. It is not good to minimize the dif�icult parts of life as if they were ultimately meaningless, because that simply is not true. It also is not good to treat sin and death as insigni�i-cant just because God can later bring something good out of it. When God created humanity, He did not desire for us to experience death. So, although God can bring good out of suffering, that does not make the suffering itself good. God takes no pleasure in our suffering and would have been much happier to never have had to bring good out of it at all. Think about all the Israelites, such as Moses, that died before entering the Promised Land. We can be honest and say that this, and other suf-ferings that the Israelites endured in the desert, truly, are very sad and worthy of mourning. This is genuinely sad because the Israelites had to suffer in the desert for forty years. God did not want this for them. It is also sad because so many of them never got to experience, at least during Contd on Pg 13

Saint Sebastian

Feast day January 20

Sebastian was the son a nobleman who was a Christian. He joined

the Roman army in the year 283 and kept his Christian beliefs secret so he could be a spy in the army.

Some Christians who knew the truth about Se-bastian brought a woman named Zoe to him. She had lost the power of speech. Sebastian prayed with her and she quickly recovered. As a result, many people who knew her became Christians.

Around the same time, Emperor Diocletian pro-moted Sebastian to be guard of the Praetorian Guard, a regimen that acted as the emperor’s own bodyguard. Diocletian hated all Christians and had no idea some-one in his trusted of�ice was leading a double life.

Some time later, the authorities discovered Zoe and some of her friends were Christians. They were arrest-ed and sentenced to death. It was too much for Sebas-tian. He went to see the emperor and announced he was a Christian too. Diocletian was furious. He ordered that Sebastian be put to death in a terrible way.

Sebastian was stripped and tied to a tree. His fellow of�icers used him as a target for archery practice, and arrow after and arrow were shot into him. A Christian woman named Irene came to rescue his body and was amazed to discover that Sebastian was still alive. She cared for his many wounds and nursed him back to health.

As soon as he recovered, Sebastian went and hid in a passageway and approached Diocletian as he walked by. Sebastian told him what he thought of his cruelty.

Diocletian was shocked to see him alive and said nothing. But as soon as he recovered, he ordered Sebas-tian to be put to death. This time Sebastian was beaten to death with heavy clubs and his body was thrown into one of the city’s sewers.

11 The Messenger January 17, 2021

‘Raising children together’ is a �itting topic in an in-creasingly individualistic world. It reminds us that par-enting is not just a mother’s job. It takes two parents. In fact, it takes more than that...it takes a village. Parents today have a lot more ‘scares’ to worry about... screen time, drugs, social media, sexting... and a lot more ‘ex-pectations’ to navigate in an era ruthlessly focused on grades, school/college admission, earning potential, and social acceptance. Parents who are already under tremendous stress and scrutiny need this ‘village’ of teachers, clergy, professionals etc... to come together and explore what more can be done as a community to support children emotionally, behaviourally and cogni-tively so they grow into resilient and optimistic young people.

Optimism is the force that motivates your child to create a positive future for him/herself. Resilience is your child’s capacity to bounce back when life throws a curveball. Babies are born with the ability to be-come optimistic and resilient - if provided with the right environment. This right environment includes positive role models (e.g.: parents, siblings, teachers, priests, prefects, peers etc.) community resources (e.g.: schools, youth groups, church etc.) and caring relation-ships (mothers, fathers, friends, siblings, teachers etc. ), which helps the child to build their inner strengths of self-control, thinking skills, con�idence, positive out-looks, responsibility and participation.

How do parents and others in the community raise children together to

build resilience and optimism?

1. Build a positive relationship with your childWhether you are a parent, a teacher or anyone else

who works with children, build a positive connection with your children as individuals. When parents take their children to psychologists, our antibiotic is as regu-lar as that given by a doctor for a bacterial infection. We prescribe ‘�loor time’ which is 10-15 minutes of daily play between parent and child. Put your phone off, for-get about your chores and give your child 100% atten-

tion for 10 minutes every single day. Why are we doing this? If we engage with our children daily, we build and maintain a positive relationship with them. This makes it more likely that they will listen to us, because they want to make us happy and not because they fear us. And this relationship is what will help you to get over tough times.

2. Navigate 21st Century Media In�luences as a family

A challenge that parents face today is that children do not have lots of siblings or cousins readily accessible to play with. Parents have other things to do and less help to do it. How do we keep children constructively occupied? Many parents solve this by letting their chil-dren spend many of their waking hours watching TV or playing computer or tab games. Yes, screens are useful tools to help children understand learnt material with passion and enthusiasm. But when you use screens in place of other ways of learning, it poses a problem, as you are depriving your child of opportunities. So, if they are playing a videogame and watching TV, chances are they are not playing with another child and they are not learning common social skills. They are not play-ing and getting needed exercise. Research indicates that engaging with screens shortens attention span. Screens are also so easy to use that children who come

to depend on them for fun are less likely to become mo-tivated readers.

What can we do to help children with screens? Just saying no is not the answer. Talk to your children and engage them in a dialogue about the pros and cons of screens – and its never too early to do this. Kids need to know why too much screen time is bad for them. Think about why children use screens. Is it because they are bored? Then you need to create a home-environment that nurtures activity outside screens. Do children use screens to connect with their friends? Encourage them to call a friend over. Sit with your child while they watch so you can help them to think critically about the con-tent and advertisements they are been shown. Make sure that all screens are kept in public areas. And im-portantly, make sure you model appropriate limits on your own use of media.

3. Keep to a regular routineOne of the easiest ways to limit screen time is to

provide your children with structure and routine. Reg-ular predictable routines help children feel safe. A calm, orderly and fun atmosphere, with regular meal and bedtime routines, will produce happier children. Hav-ing worked with families of teenagers where parental control is lot more restricted, I can guarantee that you are doing good preventive work by helping internalize these routines while they are still learning. Each family is different – so what works for my family may not work for yours. But it is important to develop a routine that works for you and try as much as possible to ensure that your children have regular times for meals, home-work and play every single day. Consistency is key.

Contd on next week

He �irst found his own brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah” ... (John 1:41)

by Rev. Msgr. Robinson Wijesinghe

Article 2 Journeying towards the discovery of renewal movementsin the Catholic Church

Second Vatican Ecumenical Council Having shared with you in the �irst article some of my experiences in my personal journey of discover-ing the depth of the Catholic faith and the vocation and mission inherent in it, we shall try to understand the development of the renewal in the light of some of the fundamental teachings of the Church on the Holy Spir-it: the Third Person of the Most Holy Trinity. I always confess with conviction that unless we understand as much as we could the mystery of One God in Three Persons: God the Father in His creative love, God the Son in His redemptive love and God the Holy Spirit in His sanctifying love, it is quite confounding to grasp the whole meaning of my life on earth. What is worldly cannot be disconnected from what is heavenly as God’s whole plan of salvation is revealed in our human his-tory. We discover God in relation to the human person and our human existence in relation to God. We often condemn what is worldly as if heaven can be achieved without this world. That which is worldly is not always sin. What God created is always good unless de�iled by the sin of the humanity [cf. Genesis 1:1-3:24]. We cannot, therefore, comprehend the heaven without un-derstanding the world. Similarly we cannot fathom the world unless without reference to the “heaven”. The Second Vatican Ecumenical Council in its Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gen-tium, no. 4 elucidates that “when the Son completed the work with which the Father had entrusted to him on earth, the Holy Spirit was sent on the day of Pente-cost to sanctify the Church unceasingly, thus enabling believers to have access to the Father through Christ in the one Spirit”. The document asserts that the Holy Spirit is “the spirit of life, the fountain of water welling

up to give eternal life (cf. John 4:47; 7:38-39)”. As Saint Paul af�irms in his First Letter to the Corinthians, the Holy Spirit dwells in the Church and in the hearts of the faithful as in a temple (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19). The Lumen Gentium articulates that “He prays in them and bears witness in them to their adoption as sons. He leads the Church into all truth and gives it unity in communion and in service”. He endows it with differ-ent hierarchical and charismatic gifts, directs it by their means, and enriches it with His fruits (cf. Ephesians 4: 11-12; 1 Corinthians 12:4; Galatians 5:22)”. The same Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, no. 12 goes on to explicate that “…the Holy Spirit not only sancti�ies and guides God’s people by the sacraments and the ministries, and enriches it with virtues; he also distributes special graces among the faithful of every state of life, assigning his gifts to each as he chooses. By means of these special gifts he equips them and makes them eager for various activi-ties and responsibilities that bene�it the Church in its renewal…(1 Corinthians 12:7)”. The document empha-sizes that “these charisms, the simpler and more wide-spread as well as the most outstanding, should be ac-cepted with a sense of gratitude and consolation, since in a very special way they answer and serve the needs of the Church”. We cannot, therefore, comprehend the char-ismatic renewals in the Church without this essential reference to the nature and mission of the Church in the world as well as to the vocation of the baptized.

The Catholic Charismatic Renewal The Catholic Charismatic Renewal began in February 1967 with the spiritual experience of renewal of some Catholic students who were on retreat at Pitts-

burgh’s Duquesne University in the United States of America. Apparently motivated by Protestantism and more especially by Pentecostalism, the �irst experience of this sort pertinently �its into the spiritual renewal awakened by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council (1962-1965). Dr. Valentina Ciciliot from Ca’Foscari Uni-versity of Venice in Italy, in one her research studies, says that “due to its emotional and shared spirituality and an intensive evangelization, the Catholic Charis-matic Renewal expanded dramatically, soon coming to the attention of the pontiffs. The Popes, she holds, perceived it as “an effective tool for the dissemination of the Catholic message, useful to some extent in com-peting with the rampart Pentecostalism in the Global South”. The experience of the “baptism in the Spirit” did not die with the Apostles. It continued to be part of faith life and traditions in various groups and com-munities throughout the history of the Church. The Catholic Charismatic Renewal is the latest of these ex-pressions of baptism in the Spirit and charismatic gifts. The centre of the renewal is the Holy Spirit. Its goal is to recreate the experience the Apostles had at the Pen-tecost: Praising and worshiping, Speaking in tongues, Proclaiming the Good News of the Risen Lord to the world.

Cardinal Léon Joseph Suenens The experience of Cardinal Léon Joseph Suen-ens, Archbishop of Malines-Brussels and primate of Belgium, one of the 4 moderators of the Vatican II, is decisive in the process of recognition of this latest new way of life by the Contd on Pg 13

Raising Children TogetherHealth related

Issues in Sri LankaBy Dr. Maxie Fernandopulle

Email: maxiefernandopulle@gmail.com

Nishalie Fernandopulle - Clinical Psychologist

12 The Messenger January 17, 2021

Contd. from Pg. 3Moal Life...

l The Covenant and the Ten CommandmentsA covenant is a solemn agreement or treaty between two parties establishing a personal relationship of love and �idelity between them. Israel, of course, is not an equal partner on the same level as God. The entire ini-tiative is God’s alone. Yet, this special divine election carries with it an awesome responsibility. It calls for an unconditional obedience: “You shall therefore hearken to the voice of the Lord, your God, and keep his command-ments and statutes which I enjoin on you today” (Deuter-onomy 27:10). All of Israel’s morality is a covenant morality. This special, privileged relationship serves as the foundation of Israel’s religious and moral life. God’s call to Noah, to Abraham, to Moses, and to all of Israel denotes the establishment of a ‘covenant.’ At Sinai God made this agreement with Israel: “You have seen for yourselves how I treated the Egyptians and how I bore you up on eagle’s wings and brought you here to myself. Therefore, if you hearken to my voice and keep my

covenant, you shall be my special possession, dearer to me than all other people, though all the earth is mine” (Exo-dus 19:4-5). The Law, including the Ten Commandments, was always considered a grace or a gift, ever before it was considered a restraint on human behaviour. All sin started when the people forgot about this grace. The Decalogue (or Ten Commandments) (Ex-odus 20:2-17; Deuteronomy 5:6-21) is the core of the Mosaic Law or Torah. It �lows from the covenantal re-lationship with God. They summarize the fundamental demands of God regarding His covenanted people. Its observance was meant essentially to be an act of love. As recorded in Sacred Scriptures, the Ten Command-ments express the will of God for the community of Is-rael. Divided into two tablets, they formulate the most basic duties toward God and the other members of the community. They are not meant primarily to be a code of individual conduct. Thus, individual sin was more than the transgression of a law; it was a breaking of the community’s covenant with Yahweh. The negative manner the Ten Commandments

are formulated is worthy of our attention. Instead of saying ‘protect other’s life’ the Ten Commandments say ‘You shall not murder.’ Why is such a negative command-ment necessary? This concerns all laws and command-ments. The law comes after a blessing or a grace. God deems life as a gift and a blessing. When it is not treated as such, He needs to give the law in order that we may not fail to consider life as a blessing. The law has only a functional operation in view of salvation. It functions in so far as it helps us move from the letter of the law to the spirit of the law, which is the blessing that stands at the beginning of every law. The commandment ‘you shall not murder’ has at its origin in the positive grace ‘life is a blessing.’ In this sense, mere adherence to the law does not save anyone. This is the deeper meaning of what St. Paul writes about the law in his letter to the Romans: “For ‘no human be-ing will be justi�ied in his sight’ by deeds prescribed by the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20). The Ten Commandments and all other laws remind us of the original blessing which stood as its origin and its purpose.

Contd. from Pg. 8Brief on the...

Order at Geneva in 1920 appealed for a special week of prayer for Christian unity ending with Whitsunday. • Faith and Order continued to issue “Sugges-tions for an Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity” until 1941 when it changed the dates for its week to that of the January Octave. • In this way, Christians, who for reasons of con-science, could not join with others in prayer services could share in united prayer at the same time. These various efforts while not attaining wide observance among the churches was to pave the way for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity which came to be observed widely throughout Christendom. The Decree told Roman Catholics in clear and unambiguous terms: “In certain special circumstanc-es, such as in prayer services for unity and during ecumenical gatherings, it is allowable, indeed desir-

able, that Catholics should join in prayer with their separated brethren. Such prayers in common are certainly a very effective means of petitioning for the grace of unity, and they are a genuine expression of the ties which even now bind Catholics to their sepa-rated brethren.” In 1993 the Ponti�ical Council for Promoting Christian Unity issued the Directory for the Application of Principles and Norms of Ecumenism and explicitly encouraged Catholics to participate in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. • Certainly in the 19th century, the desire for Christians to pray together was part of the spirit of the age among those alarmed by the divisions which weakened the power of Christian witness. • In 1846, for instance, the Evangelical Alli-ance was established in London and had developed both international and inter-church connections. The Alliance set aside one week beginning on the �irst Sun-day of the year, for united prayer by members of differ-ent churches to pray for renewal in the Spirit.

• In 1857,the Association for the Promotion of the Unity of Christians was founded with Anglican, Roman Catholic and Orthodox participation. • So today the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity belongs to all Christians who are sincerely interested in the ful�illment of Christ’s prayer “that all may be one.” • It is sponsored by the Commission on Faith and Order of the World Council of Churches and the Ponti�i-cal Council for Christian Unity. • Since the founding of the World Council of Churches in 1948, many other Christian denominations around the world have come to celebrate the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, and since 1968, the Faith and Order Commission of the WCC and the Ponti�ical Council for Promoting Christian Unity have collaborated to pro-duce materials for use over this eight-day period. (Taken from the Article “Brief History of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, January 18-25, 2020’ By: Rev. Thomas Orians, SA, Associate Director Gray-moor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute, New York)

13 The Messenger January 17, 202113 January 17, 2021The Messenger

Rev. Fr. Ponweera was born on 20th November 1951. He is the beloved son of the late Mr. P A. Don Thomas Ponweera and Mrs K. Matilda Agnes Jayawardana. He was ordained on 24th July 1982.

He served in the vineyard of the Lord as Assistant

Parish Priest in Uswetakeiyawa, Kotahena and as Parish Priest in Rawathawatte, Maththumagala, Kepungoda, Peralanda, Modara and Raddolugama. In 1990 he served as the Director Radio Lab, Kotahena. He was the Chaplain to the Sri Lankans in London in 2004. From 2009 to 2018 he served as Parish Priest in Mattakkuliya, Galwetiya – Wattala, Andiambalama and Sedawatta.

In a special message His Lordship Rt. Rev. Dr. Nor-bert M. Andradi, OMI, Bishop Chairman, CNC for Ecu-menism & Inter Religious Dialogue said that this is a time set apart for special prayer for deeper unity among all Christians.

“Let us be reminded that our Christian Discipleship does not permit us to ignore or be unmindful of the suf-ferings of those around us particularly of the poor and the less privileged. Our plea for unity must be of bene�it to those who suffer around us. Corona Pandemic too

should bind us together, impel us to help one another to ease the pains of the others in charity while doing everything that is possible to avoid the spreading of the virus.”

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity has a history over 100 long years. Christians around the world take part in an octave of prayer for visible Christian unity. The traditional period for the Week of Prayer for Chris-tian Unity is January 18-25, to cover the original days of the Feasts of the Chair of St. Peter (January 18) and the Conversion of St. Paul (January 25), and therefore have a symbolic signi�icance.

... “You are Simon the son of John; you will be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter). (John 1:42)

Contd. from Pg. 10Did God...their earthly lives, one of the most signi�icant good and beautiful things that was brought out of their suffering. Again, God did not want this for them. I will say it one last time: God takes no pleasure in our suffering and did not want humanity to experience it.

But, as always, we must �ind balance. Do not be afraid to lean into your sufferings, mourn, truly feel the pain that they bring you, and allow them to sanctify you. Christ suffered immensely during His earthly life, so, when we suffer, we are becoming increasingly like Christ. This said, do not let these sorrows completely overtake you. Despite all the sufferings and sadness that we all experience during our lives, God loves each and every one of us through every single moment of it. Suf-fering is not something that God wants for us and, one day will lift it from our shoulders entirely. St. Thomas More once said, “There is no sorrow that heaven can-not heal.” This is absolutely true. Sadness, pain, and sin are all parts of a world that is passing away; their time is running out. Ultimately, God has already conquered sin and death. He has won the battle for us! Do not for-get this amidst all the suffering you see in the world or you might just miss God transform it into something beautiful.

Church Authority. Motivated by Veronica O’Brian from Ireland, Cardinal Suenens, went in disguise as Fr. Michel Duboris from Belgium, to obtain �irst-hand experience in the charismatic communities in Ann Arbor, Michigan in USA in the spring 1973. This paved the way to gradual recognition of the new spirituality in the Church. The annual conference of leaders of the renewal was moved upon his suggestion from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana in USA to Rome in 1973. There the leaders of the new way of faith-life met for the �irst time Pope (Saint) Paul VI. Cardinal Suenens collaborated with a commission made up of theologians and leaders of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal [CCR] which produced 6 documents, known as the Malines Documents as guide-lines for the CCR [21-26 May 1974]: (1) Theological and Pastoral Orientations on the Catholic Charismatic Renewal; (2) Ecumenism and Charismatic Renewal; (3) Charismatic Renewal and Social Action: A Dialogue; (4) Renewal and Powers of Darkness; (5) Nature and Grace: A Vital Unity, (6) Resting in the Spirit. Pope Paul VI at the Holy Mass on the Pentecost 1975 thanked the Cardinal “in the name of the Lord I thank you for having brought the Charismatic Renewal into the heart of the Church. Pope Francis calls him “the great defender of the Charismatic Renewal”. The Cardi-nal explains that “the �irst error that must be avoided is including the CCR in the category of a Movement. It is not a speci�ic Movement; the Renewal is not a Move-ment in the common sociological sense; it does not have founders, it is homogeneous and it includes a great vari-ety of realities; it is a current of grace, a renewing breath of the Spirit for all members of the Church, laity, reli-gious, priests and bishops”.

To be continued….

Contd. from Pg. 11Journeying towards the...

Contd. from Pg. 6Love Beats...kids and a nice husband was so busy with daily household chores and then confessed that, honestly, she was bored with life.

Boredom is not a result of having nothing worthwhile to do in life nor doing similar routines day in and day out. It is rather triggered by an absence of meaning and of love. Do front-liners who are helping patients recover from COVID-19 ever get bored with their work? Not, if they �ind meaning in serving others. Thus, even if we do the same thing over and over again, if it is meaningful then there will be no feeling of monotony. Do sweethearts ever get sick and tired of hugging? Do mothers �ind kissing their babies boring? Why not? They love their partners and their kids. Love is the key to beat boredom in life. Let us do everything for the love of God and for the love of others for God’s sake.

Contd. from Pg. 1Gampaha in jeopardy if ...foreign entities have no right to destroy its natural re-sources claiming to be development projects.

“No development project can destroy natural re-sources of this country or disturb people’s lives. The Catholic Church will not hesitate to raise a voice against such wrong doings,” the Archbishop said.

Very. Rev. Fr. Shantha Sagara Hettiarachchi, Episco-pal Vicar, Ja-Ela region, Rev. Fr. Lawrence Ramanayaka, Rev. Fr. Mahendra Gunathilake and Parish Priests in the surrounding parishes of Muthurajawela were also present on the occasion.

Venerable Pahiyangala Ananda Sagara Thero of the “Surakimu Sri Lanka” national movement and represen-tatives of other environmentalist groups also attended the media brie�ing.

Contd. from Pg. 1Week of Prayer for...

Contd. from Pg. 1Let us protect our environment...meeting held to discuss the ongoing destruction at Muthurajawela.

The meeting was organized at Uswatakeiyawa by Rev. Fr. Amil Gomis and Rev. Fr. Nimal Jayantha Vidanarachchi Parish Priests, and was attended by the members of the parish council.

“They are trying to build concrete jungles and dis-place the innocent people. Development projects of this nature will only result in destroying the natural envi-ronment.”

His Lordship further added that “Catholics are not against the development of the country. But develop-ment projects should not be based only considering the economic bene�its. No development project will be

successful if it destroys the environment and interferes with the lives of people.”

During the discussion His Lordship pointed out that without a proper scienti�ic study the sanctuary which was under the wildlife department was transferred to a private company. How was this possible?

“It is no doubt that this will have an impact on our Catholics. We Catholics are at the risk of losing the Pubudugama Church.”

Pay close attention to developments taking place regarding the matter. We all have a responsibility. As Catholics we are obliged to take care of God’s cre-ation. Therefore it is our duty to save the wetlands in Muthurajawela.

In the same manner as we protect ourselves from the Corona pandemic, let us be watchful about the wrongdoings that are taking place in the name of devel-opment. Let us protect our narural resources!

Contd. from Pg. 1Lux Aeterna...

Contd. from Pg. 1Experience God's Love while...the knowledge of religion, he invited them to use that knowledge to nourish their spiritual life. "You should �ind time to devote yourselves for daily prayer, daily readings, meditating on the Sacred Scriptures and to attend the Holy Mass, whenever possible. At the same time effort must be made to inculcate good qualities and show love and sympathy to others and also learn to make sacri�ices", His Lordship admonished.

Rev. Fr. Gihan Gunatilleke, Director Faith Animation Team of the Colombo Archdiocese delivered the keynote address on "Small Christian Communities, and the Parish Renewal Apostolate.”

His Lordship handed over the Diploma Certi�icates in the presence of Rev. Fr. Reginald Lucian (Tamil Unit of the Deva Dharma Nikethnaya) and Rev.Fr. Sheron Dias, Rector, Deva Dharma Nikethnaya, and the distinguished gathering.

Contd. from Pg. 5St. Joseph Vaz....Solely depending on Divine providence St. Joseph Vaz cared for the sick. Accommodated them in huts specially put up for the purpose, and tended them bringing food, medicine and clothing collected by them. They washed the patients, cleansed them, administered medicines, fed and cleaned where the patients stayed and also buried the dead rendering the most menial services for which no person could be found anywhere either for money or for love.

St.Joseph Vaz then went from house to house at-tending to the abandoned patients in their own homes,

People believed he was a miracle sent by God to help them. They too began to believe in God and there was

immense faith in them. As we celebrated the Feast of St. Joseph Vaz at a

time terri�ied by the widespread of Covid 19 pandemic, let us pray to ‘Our Apostle’ to intercede for us during these dif�icult times.

Let us follow the example of St. Joseph Vaz in his immense faith and unfailing trust in Divine Provi-dence. While we look after our own safety, we must also keep in mind that that we have a responsibility for those around us. With minimal facilities, St. Joseph Vaz took care of the people affected by the smallpox epidemic. The celebration of the feast of our beloved Apostle will be meaningful if we follow his example in this crucial time.

Let us seek the intercession of St.Joseph Vaz with great faith.