Kundukulam March/April 2017 Report

Dear Fr. Larry, Shawn, the staff and the children of the school and the community of St. Joseph’s Moorhead,
 
We send our joyful greetings to you all in the name of the risen Lord.

We render you all thousand thanks: The parish faithful, staff, school children from both primary and high school and the St. Vincent de Paul Society are all greatly indebted to you for the excellent job you do for the development of your sister parish at Kundukulam, India with lots of sacrifice and hard work. God bless all your good deeds. We are all well aware of your free will offering done through the Lenten soup suppers and various activities of the staff, school children and the parish community. The parishioners of Sacred Heart, Kundukulam could really feel the vibrations of your spiritual exercises done for us via Eucharist and Rosary. We assure you of all our gratitude and prayers and we regularly remember you and pray for all your families. May the risen Lord bring you good health, peace and happiness throughout this year!
 
 
The present climatic conditions: The Tamil Nadu government declared a drought on January 10, 2017, after 144 farmers ended their lives between October and December 2016. It is an unprecedented situation. It is the worst season ever over the last 140 years according to the Indian Meteorological Department (TMD) records. In many parts of the State, the day temperature scaled 40 degree Celsius. It is very warm and the humidity is extraordinarily high. People from many districts face a very severe water problem. We request you to pray for summer rain.
 
Summer holidays for schools: The children have completed their annual exams and are excited to enjoy the holidays. The schools will reopen on June 1, 2017. The year ten and the year twelve students are waiting for their public exam results which are to be published by the Government towards the end of the third week of May. They hope to get good results and are willing to choose different academic status depending on their interest. Some students wished to go for engineering and some to health studies and many for a degree in arts and science.
 
St. Vincent de Paul Society: The parish St. Vincent de Paul Society, with its limited number, does a great job in caring for the poor and needy in the local as well sub-stations. They do visit the sick and the troubled people and console them with God’s word and possible deeds. The local leaders of Vincent de Paul try to attend the district meetings in the diocese and encourage the sub-station faithful to participate in the local meetings regularly. God bless them!
 
Parish pilgrimage to Veeramangalam - a sub-station: Veeramangalam is one of the substations of the parish, 11 kms away from Kundukulam. This year on March 19, on the feast day of St. Joseph’s, nearly 400 people participated in the pilgrimage. They included children, youth, elders and the local nuns. Most of them walked 11 miles in the hot weather. It was a very inspiring spiritual experience along with the lay evangelists (totaling seven) who joined us and animated the pilgrimage with biblical preaching and singing. Their homilies touched the hearts of the ordinary village people. The sub-station people were very happy to organize sumptuous vegetarian meals for four hundred pilgrims. At the end, everybody was satisfied with the arrangements made and appreciated the organizers. On the whole, this pilgrimage touched the lives of many and initiated the faithful to follow the Lenten season more meaningfully in order to celebrate the Paschal feast more seriously. The Parish priest, Fr. John Britto, thanked Veeramangalam faithful for their wonderful love and concern shown towards the parish pilgrims through their generosity and willingness to accept to have the pilgrimage done in their village.
 
Kodimangalam -St.Sebastian Church Construction Project---an Update: It is so marvellous to see the quick development in the construction of St.Sebastian Church for the little, poor community existing at Kodimangalam village. The photos sent to you will indicate the works done so far. The village people still remember the smiling face of Shawn while visiting them. They are all grateful to you the community of St. Joseph’s, Moorhead. We are very sure with your generous heart and in the course of time we should be able to complete this project. It is an important project for this poor community. The parish priest and Fr. Dr. Michael Raj, the finance officer of the Diocese are very much interested in this project. The simple people of Kodimangalam will never forget the community of St. Joseph’s, Moorhead, for its timely and generous help which will be marked in their hearts.
 
While remembering and thanking you all, we humbly request you to continue to pray for our community and request your love and concern.
 
We assure you all of our prayers. God bless!
 
Yours sincerely,
 
Fr. Dr. John Britto