A Double Celebration

15th of August brings fresh to the minds and hearts of all Indians in India especially Catholics the Glorification of two Mothers, Mother Mary who is glorified in Heaven and the other Mother India who is glorified on earth. Now she is a Queen of Heaven and Queen of Earth.

Fr Thomas Kuriakose, SJ., Dean of Theology of Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth (JDV) celebrated the Mass for us in our Post Graduate chapel. In his homily, he said that the Catholic Church celebrated the feast of the Assumption of Our Lady which made obvious the power of God in raising Mary from the grave to the glory of Heaven and the national celebration which reminded us to use the freedom rightfully and act justly.

There were 60 youngsters who joined in our celebration. They are students of the St Francis Xavier’s College, Mumbai and who are doing their Master’s programme in Business Administration. They came for their weekend camp “get-together” and exposure programme in our college from 12th till 15th August, 2011 and animated the Mass for two days.

After Mass, all of us went up to the viewing deck of our PG block for the flag raising and to sing the national anthem as well. This is the 1st time all of them gathered together to host the national flag on this new block.

On this solemnity day also Frs Saji and Sylvester greeted everyone after the flag raising and singing of the national anthem. They also thanked and prayed for all those known and unknown who have shed their bloods for the Independence of India.

Our country will be celebrating our “Hari Merdeka”(National Day) on 31st August 2011. We obtained independence 10 years after India. I had the opportunity to read the 6-page message of India’s Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s speech delivered on the eve of their Independence Day. It was a very inspirational speech and I have not heard any of our politicians speak this well in Malaysia. I hope on National Days like this the memory of the martyrdom will live forever in our hearts and their sacrifices will always inspire every nation.