Infant Jesus Feast at Pushpashrama
The decade began with a bang as the spiritual preparation for the feast of Infant Jesus started right after the first day of the year. The annual feast of the Infant Jesus 2020 began with the triduum from the second of January. The whole shrine and its premises was decked up with colorful illuminations. The theme for the feast was inspired from the Pope Francis’ Post-synodal exhortation ‘Christus Vivit’. The Theme was “Christ lives, Christ saves and Christ loves.” In honor of this feast, three days of intense spiritual preparation was organized with the retreat by Bro. TK George, Fr. Roman Pinto and the Yesu Sparsha Team.

The triduum began with the mass on the 2nd of January at 6:30 AM celebrated by Fr. Pradeep Pinto. The theme for the day was ‘Christ Lives.’ In the evening i.e. at 5:00 pm, the hoisting of the flag officiated the celebration. This was followed by the mass in Tamil by Fr. Belavandra Sagayaraj. After this followed the retreat by Bro TK George up to 8:00 pm. The holy Eucharist which followed this was celebrated by Fr. Roman Pinto who delivered the homily based on the theme. There was also a healing session after the Holy Communion and after the mass, food (Annasantarpane) was served for all the people. The mass was accompanied with the choir sung by the OCDS.

On the third of January, the mass in the morning was celebrated by Fr. John Lobo OCD and the evening mass in Tamil and Kannada was celebrated by Fr. Thangaraj and Fr. Roman Pinto respectively. The rest of the activities went on like the previous day. The theme for this day was ‘Christ Saves.’

On the fourth of January, the mass in the morning was celebrated by Fr. Diogo Proenca OCD and the evening mass in Tamil and Kannada was celebrated by Fr. Anthony Mani and Fr. Roman Pinto respectively. The theme for this day was ‘Christ Loves.’ The youth along with the brothers lent their tender voices for the mass through the choir.

Thus after three days of thorough preparations, the annual feast began as the day dawned with the Malayalam Mass celebrated by Fr. Jinto Thomas MOC. The shrine looked all beautiful and grandiose with flowers of different hues adorning altar, the statues and the shrine. The Malayalam mass was followed with English Mass at 8:15 am celebrated by Fr. John Sequeira OCD and choir was led by Sir Felix and his group. After this followed mass in Konkani celebrated by Fr. Deep Fernandes OCD and the shrine resounded with beautiful voices of the brothers who sang with all their hearts for the mass. After this, was the mass in Tamil celebrated by Fr. Vincent of the Mysore Diocese and then followed the mass in Kannada by Fr. Ronald Cardoza of the Chickmagalur diocese. The shrine was filled beyond its capacity for these masses which anticipated the healing session held by Bro. TK George which involved charismatic session and healing up to 3:00 PM. Annasantarpane was served for people who joined for Tamil and Kannada masses respectively.

At 4:30 pm, the shrine was filled with devotees for the festal mass during which the history of the Infant Jesus devotion and the list of the donors was read. More than 25 priests concelebrated for the mass of which the main celebrant was Fr. Patrick Johannes Rao of the Chickmagalur diocese. The mass involved a creative enactment on the theme ‘Christ lives, Christ saves and Christ loves’ at the beginning of the mass. There was also the installation of the Bible and Fr. Patrick broke the Word of God with an inspiring homily. After the mass, there was a theru procession which is basically the procession of Infant Jesus statue around the neighborhood of the shrine. The Theru was indeed beautifully prepared and attracted large crowds of varied religions and beliefs. After this followed the Eucharistic Benediction which culminated the feast for the year.