Sunday January 13, 2019 Vol 150 No 02 24 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 / 4 8 / N E W S / 2 0 1 9

THE CATHOLIC WEEKLY OF SRI LANKA

“Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God” (Isaiah 40,1)

ST. JOSEPH VAZ

January 16

American-born Fr. Benjamin Henry Miller, SJ, died on January 1. He was 93 years of age. He died in his

small but beautiful room in an old attic of St. Michael's College in Batticaloa. Fr. Miller documented forced displacement, communal strife, abductions, disappearances, killings, arrests and the recruitment of children as combatants, as well as rapes, in the Batticaloa region during Sri Lan-ka's 1983-2009 civil war and was awarded the Citizens Peace Award for 2014 by the country's National Peace Council (NPC). Dr. Jehan Perera, executive Director of the NPC, said that it was inspiring that Fr. Miller chose to come to Sri Lanka and make its people and their sorrows his own. He committed himself to not leaving them in their time of need. Perera said Fr. Miller courageously de-fended victims of human rights' abuses committed by the security forces, the secessionist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and other militant groups. During the ceasefire in 2002, the Sri Lankan Government ap-pointed him to be its nominee to monitor the agreement between the Government and the LTTE.

Champion of Human Rights mourned in Sri Lanka

Fr. Miller left the United States as a Jesuit stu-dent priest for Sri Lanka in 1948, just eight months

"In Sri Lanka in ealier times only the Priests and the Religious studied The-ology. The St. Joseph Vaz Deva Dharma Niketanaya was established to enable the laity to experience an in-depth study of the Dog-mas and eternal Truths of

St. Joseph Vaz Deva Dharma Niketanaya awards

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"Sri Lanka is castigated as a barbaric nation by some of those living in Europe in an attempt to discredit the reputation of our nation. It is quite disconcerting that these elements are doing their best to tarnish the image of our country by spreading rumors such as that, there is no coexistence among religions and ethnicities. We do co-exist in peace and harmony and the World Religions in the country play a pivotal role of catalyst in precipitating peace". Thus stated His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo at a function held recently to mark the launch of the biography of Ven Banagala Upathissa Thera, titled "Anjalikaraneeyo". His Eminence further expressed his views stating that "bringing in arms into the country manufactured abroad and making an effort to divide the nation is deplorable. If you wish you are most welcome to help us in our need. We tell the world, not to come here with the intention of disrupting the peace in our country."

“God’s gentle light shines in humble love”Pope Francis at Epiphany Mass

Pope Francis cel-ebrated Mass in St. Peter's Basilica

on the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord. The official English-language translation of the Pope's homily is below. Epiphany: this word indicates the mani-festation of the Lord, who, as Saint Paul tells us in the second reading (cf. Eph 3:6), makes himself known to all the nations, today represented by the Magi. In this way, we see revealed the glory of a God who has come for everyone: every nation, language and peo-ple is welcomed and loved by him. It is symbolized by

the light, which penetrates and illumines all things. Yet if our God makes himself known for

everyone, it is even more surprising how he does so. The Gospel speaks of a hum of activity around the pal-

ace of King Herod once Je-sus appears as a king. The Magi ask: “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews?” (Mt 2:2). They will find him, but not where they thought: not in the royal palace of Jerusa-lem, but in a humble abode in Bethlehem. We saw this same paradox at Christ-mas. The Gospel spoke of the census of the entire world taken in the days of the Emperor Augustus, when Quirinius was gover-nor (cf. Lk 2:2). But none of the great men of that time realized that the King of history was being born in their own time.

the Catholic Faith in our own language in a simpli-fied way. Through this our Laity now have the oppor-tunity to pursue advanced studies on Theology" said His Lordship Rt. Rev. Dr. J. D. Anthony, Auxiliary Bish-op of Colombo the chief

guest at the 35th Diploma Certificate Awarding Cere-

mony held at the Colombo Centre of St. Joseph Vaz Deva Dharma Niketanaya, Borella, recently. Continuing his ad-dress to the gathering His Lordship said, "Through the study of the deep con-cepts of Theology our laity have now an opportunity to live in a more mean-ingful and dignified way as faithful followers of Christ." Rev. Fr. Sheron Dias, the newly appointed Rector of the Theologate

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Catholic cartoonist Camillus Perera, who has attracted le-gions of fans in Sri Lanka with his drawings and has created over 20 characters, mostly drawn from his imagination, uses his illustra-tions to spread religious, political messages; feature-length movie 'Gajaman' due in March.

Gajaman comes to life

Perera’s father was so impressed with his son's sketches and cartoons in his younger years that he told him, "One day you will capture the attention of the world." The comment proved prophetic. Now Perera, a devout Cath-olic, is one of the most famous cartoonists in Sri Lanka.

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"Religion a catalyst of Peace"

- His Eminence

T. Sunil Fernando and Roshan Pradeep

2 The Messenger January 13, 2019

“Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her service is at an end, her guilt is expiated” (Isaiah 40,2)

"Seth Sarana" Scholarships to Children

"Seth Sarana" the Arch-diocesan Arm of SEDEC/CARITAS held an event under their on-going proj-ect of awarding scholar-ships and the distribution

of school bags and books to the children of low-in-come families at the Audi-torium of Aquinas College of Higher Studies, Borella recently.

His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo graced the occasion as the Chief Guest. When addressing the gathering of parents and children His Eminence mentioned "Children are the pre-cious gifts given to us by the Almighty God and their value should not be mea-sured according to

the financial situation or the wealth that the family possesses. They could rise up to higher positions in society by being studious, obedient to parents, taking

up responsibilities diligent-ly and by being honest and well-disciplined This event was organised by Rev. Fr. Lawrence Ramanayake Director "Seth Sarana" and attended by Rev. Fr. Mahendra Gunatilleke, National Director, Cari-tas Sri Lanka - SEDEC, Very Rev. Fr. Ciswan De Croos, Episcopal Vicar - Negombo Region, Rev. Fr. Gihan Ridley, Arch-diocesan Administrator, Lands and Properties and Rev. Fr. Susith Silva, Rector, Aquinas College.

T. Sunil Fernando & Roshan Pradeep

Golden Jubilee of Sacred Heart Confraternity, Delatura

Rev. Srs. Anne Gamage, Dileshika Niroshani Wilego-da and Madelene Bibera Nueza of Philippines made their Final Profession of Vows as Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary at St. Mary's Church, Bambalapitiya recently. His Lordship Rt. Rev. Dr. Cletus Chandrasiri Perera, OSB, Bishop of Ratnapura presided the Holy Eucharist.

Sriyani Gamage

Rev. Fr. Thilakasiri Fernando is blessing the sick people at a special healing service held at St. Nicho-las' Church, Bopitiya every last Friday of the month, assisted by Rev. Fr. Ananda Withana Parish Priest, Bopitiya. S.K.J. Kurera

Death Anniversary of Rev. Fr.Julian Tissera

First Death Anniversary of the Rev. Fr. Julian Tissera was celebrated at R.C. Maha Vidyalaya Hall , Katu-kurunda recently. The Chief Guest on the occasion was Rev. Fr. Terence Kithsiri Perera Coordinator for Biblical Renewal Apostolate, Rev. Fr. Prasanna Chris-topher Perera, Director "Marcsri" Katukurunda, Rev.Fr. Bernard Corera, Director Franciscan House, Mag-gona, Mr. Leonard Cooray, Mr. Anthony Silva, Rev.Sis-ters and members of Society participated. Picture shows Rev. Fr. Suran Attidiya Dean Kalutara presenting a gift to a poor family.The cel-ebration was held under the guidance of Julian Tis-sera Memorial Society at Katukurunda, Kalutara.

D.Anselm Fernando

Land donated to Church at Andiambalama

The threshing floor and land adjoining the "Go-nawila Agara" paddy field belonging to Holy Rosary Church, Andiambalama was donated to the Church by the owners recently. Picture shows Mr. Chamila Jayakody, hand-ing over the deeds pertaining to the 52 perch land to Rev. Fr. Ruwan Reid Liyanage, Parish Priest on behalf of the owners of the land.

Pic. T. Sunil Fernando

Book Launch at BeruwalaA book on faith titled "Har-da Sakciye Donkaraya" au-thored by Mr. Leonard Co-oray, Secretary Gnanartha Pradeepaya Writers' Asso-ciation was launched at a ceremony held in Beruwa-la Secretariat Auditorium recently. Mr. Chatura Malraj, Secretary Beruwala Pradeshiya Saba was the Chief Guest. Picture shows the author presenting the first copy of the book to Mr. Chatura Malraj.

D. Anselm Fernando

161 Feast of St. Mary's Church, Maggona

The Annul Feast of St.Mary's Church, Maggona was celebrated recently with the Festive Holy Mass pre-sided by Rev. Fr. Luke Nelson Perera, Procurator General Diocese of Chilaw. Picture shows the Chief celebrant being ac-companied to the Church by rev. Fr. Deshan Lasantha Perera, parish priest Maggona, Rev. Fr. Bernard Kure-ra, Franciscan House, Maggona and parishioners.

D. Anselm Fernando

Final Vows

Healing Service at Bopitiya

The Golden Jubilee of the Sacred Heart Con-fraternity of the Parish

of St. Roche's Church, Delatura was celebrated recently.

On this memo-rable occasion a special Holy Mass was presided

The Christmas Art on Page 1 of the Messenger published on December 23, 2018

was by Marian Casiechetty.

over by Rev. Fr. Chinta-ka Perera. Very Rev. Fr. Bertram Ranjith Epis-copal Vicar, Aposto-lates and Commission 2 Charity addressed the members. A re-newal of consecration to the Sacred Heart was conducted in the parish under the lead-ership of Rev. Fr. Thus-ith Pradeep Fernando Parish Priest. Memen-toes were presented to members who served in the Confraternity for over 30 years.

Anton Jayasuriya

3 The Messenger January 13, 2019

EDITORIALEmail:ccpmessenger@yahoo.com

Website:colomboarchdiocesancatholicpress.com Telephone: 011 2695984 Fax: 2692586 / 2670100

January 13, 2019

SINCE FEBRUARY 1869

“Indeed, she has received from the hand of the LORD double for all her sins” (Isaiah 40, 2)

St. Joseph Vaz, the Apostle of Christ

On January 16, the Solemnity of St. Joseph Vaz, Apostle of Sri Lanka, we listen to the last portion of the Longer Ending of

Mark (16,15-20). In the story, the disciples are commissioned as ‘Apostles’ – as those who are sent by the Lord. Those, who have just been upbraided for their lack of faith and hardness of heart, are now entrusted with preaching the Gospel. Is it not startling? It is both startling and encouraging. The more they preach the Gospel, the more their faith is strengthened and the less their initial doubts linger. Hence in the proclamation of the Gospel, what counts is not human merit but God’s amazing Grace. It was this amazing grace of God that motivated Fr. Joseph Vaz to take a steady decision to come down to Sri Lanka in its volatile and turbulent times. It was this amazing grace of God that strengthened him to battle with all the difficulties he encountered in his mission. It was this amazing grace of God that energized him to proclaim the Gospel in happy times and sad. It was this amazing grace of God that was the source of success of his mission. The disciples are instructed to proclaim the Gospel to all – Jews and Gentiles alike, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.” They are to evangelize all;

the Gospel is for all. The Gospel of Jesus knows no geographical boundaries. It knows no social taboos of caste, class or creed. It is rather the patrimony of all humanity. It was this universalistic thinking that guided St. Joseph Vaz always. He wanted to serve the Gospel selflessly. Hence he, first, became a diocesan priest in 1676. Without being confined to the geographical entity of Goa, he wanted to serve the Sri Lankan Church on the verge of sinking. Hence he became a missionary of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri. Having reached our shores as a coolie in 1687, he walked far and wide in the Island spreading the true Gospel of Jesus, once preached by the Catholic missionaries in the Portuguese period and yet, tarnished and tormented by Calvinism in the Dutch period. Do the disciples obey the Risen Lord? Yes, they do: “But they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.” Further the Lord, ascended and enthroned “at the right hand of God”, does not abandon His disciples. He continues to work. He reinforces them and gives them courage. He cooperates with their endeavours. He confirms the Message of His disciples and puts it more forcefully into effect through signs. The signs also show that His power and life are now given to them. They authenticate the disciples. This power manifests wider as they are now going into “the whole world” and “to every creature.” St. Joseph Vaz too preached the Gospel. He did it at a time both Buddhism and Hinduism had taken deep roots in the hearts of the people. It was also a time Calvinism had been forced into the hearts of the Catholics, evangelized once-upon-a-time by the Portuguese missionaries. Nevertheless the Lord confirmed the Gospel Fr. Vaz preached through accompanying signs. When Fr. Vaz landed in Jaffna, he was much exhausted and fell sick. But God looked after him through the faithful, who recognized him to be a

Catholic priest. He was arrested at Weuda as a Portuguese spy and subsequently imprisoned in Kandy. But God moved the heart of the Kandyan King and thus, Fr. Vaz was free to serve in Kandy. He secretly served the faithful living under the Dutch as well. The colonial masters tried their best to get hold of Fr. Vaz, this illegal trespasser. But God, the Lord of history, secured his life and mission. During the smallpox epidemic in Kandy, he took the risk of contagion and served the sick when everyone else left the city. God, the Lord of nature, opened the sky for rain, when Fr. Vaz interceded in time of severe drought. This was how the Lord confirmed the Gospel which our Saint preached in adverse times. What was the end-result of the missionary tours of St. Joseph Vaz? When the people of Judah were in Babylonian captivity, the Lord sent Second Isaiah. Through His Prophet, He breathed hope into the desperate hearts in Exile. He promised that He would bring them back to Zion, comfort them and redeem Jerusalem (Isaiah 52: First Reading). With the missionary endeavours of Fr. Vaz, the palpable sign of God’s mercy to us, Catholics, who had been converted to Calvinism, returned to the Catholic faith. Some became even martyrs, like Dom Pedro of Jaffna. The Catholic Church, dismantled and derailed by Calvinism and left to extinction, was saved. A new missionary impetus was given to the Church. The treasure of our faith that was in danger of being lost was rekindled. The sinking ship was finally salvaged. Though our Apostle died on 16th January 1711, “The labours he initiated were then completed by the Oratorians of Goa up until religious freedom was later restored and more missionaries could come to Sri Lanka” (Working Document: Year of St. Joseph Vaz, Archdiocese of Colombo). The thriving Church of today, situated in the sea locked island in the Indian Ocean, famed as the Pearl of the Orient, remains for posterity as the lasting impression of his Apostleship.

Rev. Fr. Anthony Fernandopulle

The president of the National Secretariat of St. Joseph Vaz, Most Rev. Dr. Vianney Fernando, presided over at the meeting held on 22nd

November, 2018. He has instructed to celebrate the Feast of St. Joseph Vaz on the 16th January, 2019 or on Sunday 20th January. The Feast will be celebrat-ed in honour of our beloved Apostle of Sri Lanka. St. Joseph Vaz is known as the Apostle of Kanara and Sri Lanka. He was born at Benaulim, Goa, on 21 April, 1651 as the child of Christopher Vaz and Maria de Miranda, fervent Catholics who were of modest means. Eight days later he was bap-tised in the Church of St John the Baptist. He grew up as a tall, thin and good-looking boy. He was seri-ous and earnest by nature, and had a tendency to-wards piety, and devoted much time to prayer. One day, while his father was opening the door of the house, behind which Joseph was kneeling absorbed in prayer, the little boy was inadvertently dashed against a wall but escaped unhurt. The Vaz family was fruitful in vocations. Jo-seph, his two brothers and a cousin became priests in the Oratorian Institute. In the mission and min-istry too, they had a common call: three of these priests became missionaries in Sri Lanka. Joseph began to show signs of a divine call quite early. He was affectionate, generous, disciplined and good in studies, and had a sense of order. When the boy expressed his desire to become a priest, his father willingly made the sacrifices needed to give him a proper education. After he completed his university studies in rhetoric and humanities, he did his studies in Phi-losophy and Theology at the Academy of St Thomas Aquinas, in Goa. In 1676 Joseph was ordained a priest at the age of 25. His love for Mother Mary was so total that shortly after his ordination he wrote a "Letter of Bondage" stating, "I, Fr Joseph Vaz, sell and offer myself as a perpetual slave of the Virgin Mother of God”. The Young priest was much appre-ciated for his preaching and spiritual assistance.

Before long he felt called to the apostolate among Catho-lics in Sri Lan-ka who were a b a n d o n e d and persecut-ed. However, the Church a u t h o r i t i e s gave him a dif-ferent task for now. Thus, in March, 1681 Fr. Joseph Vaz, accompanied by his nephew Joseph Carval-ho, left for Ka-

nara as the Vicar Forance of the Archbishop of Goa. Finding plenty to do in the new field, Fr. Vaz dedicated whatever time and money he had, to instruct the faithful, to build schools, to organize catechism classes, to administer the sacraments, to visit the sick, to help the poor, etc. In his efforts to get the erring back to the right path he was bitterly opposed and even attacked. In Mangalore he had to face various complicated and confusing questions of ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Through his humility, trust in God and prudence he handled them wisely and amicably. He then returned to Goa and began preparing to go to Sri Lanka. After facing many hurdles, Fr. Vaz and his servant John set sail from Tuticorin to Jaffna in Sri Lanka. The voyage was much troubled as a furious sea storm broke out and the crew lost control of the boat. Instead of four, they had to spend twenty days at sea and then, famished and exhausted, landed at Mannar instead of Jaffna. After they had recovered, the two reached Jaffna by ship. Fr. Vaz quickly adapted himself to the local culture and customs. He went about like a beggar,

with a stick and a small bundle in which were his vestments and the sacred vessels for Holy Mass. He paid scant attention to his meals, eating what was offered to him and dedicating himself to prayer. At the time the Catholics there had to hide their faith on account of the fierce opposition by the Dutch colonizers who were Calvinists. Fr. Vaz heard their confessions and took care of their spiritual needs. After a short period of hidden life there, he went to Sillalai, ten miles from Jaffna, where the Catholic faith was still strong. He learnt the Sinhala language and even compiled a Sinhala Dictionary. He practised and propagated the Catholic faith with such commit-ment and zeal that he was qualified as the perfect model of an apostle. It is said that one day a woman passing by saw Fr. Vaz with a little boy in his arms. Thinking it was her son she went to him, only to see Baby Jesus instead. Fr. Vaz requested her not to tell anyone what she had seen, and prompted her to pray to the Child for whatever she wished. She asked that neither rice nor children should ever fail in her house. Her wish was granted. After a much troubled but deeply committed and highly fruitful ministry in Sri Lanka, on 16 Janu-ary 1711, while in Kandy, Fr. Vaz left for his much deserved eternal rest. To all who knew him, his life seemed to be more supernatural than natural. On 21 January 1995 Pope St. John Paul II proclaimed him blessed. Subsequently Pope Francis raised him to be a saint of the universal church on 14th January 2015 at a ceremony held at Galle Face Green. While rejoicing in the Lord and thanking Him for the person of St. Joseph Vaz, we need to learn from his example and imitate his firm faith, deep humility, total commitment to Christ, spirit of sacrifice and self-denial, and total obedience to the will of God. Even if we cultivate only a quarter of the goodness he had, we shall certainly make a difference to the Church and to the world. May he intercede for us that we may become committed Christians and effective communicators of Christ.

St. Joseph Vaz – The missionary of Sri Lanka

4 The Messenger January 13, 2019

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RRENT COMMENTS

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N I allude to the recent ar-ticle by R.W.W appear-ing in the press under

the caption 'Right to vote'. Since the writer apparent-ly finds the Proportionate

Representation (PR) voting system as the main culprit for the existing political culture in our country, I wish to discuss the rationale for the PR system as opposed to the Westminster or the 'First-past-the-post' System.

1) Electing representatives to the national Parliament or the Legislature through voter franchise, demands a system that is universally and constitutionally 'fair and equitable'. For this purpose, it is critical that every valid vote cast by a Sri Lankan at a National election is given an equal value, whether it is cast in the South, North, East or the West. Being the National level election, ide-ally, the entire country should be voting as one elector-ate in order to elect representatives proportionately from the contesting parties to the National Parliament. The voters' decisions should be mainly based on a le-gally enforceable Election Manifesto put forward by the respective contesting parties to develop and manage the country as a whole for a given period of 05 years. If an elected Government, willfully back tracks on its perfor-mance or reneges on its promises, the voters should be able to resort to legal action as mentioned in my recom-mendations given below.

2) Under the 'First- past-the post' or the Westminster system which functioned before the advent of the decen-tralized Provincial Councils in 1987, the MPs being the main political contact were elected by the people voting from small, unequally populated electorates which dis-torted the equal value of the vote and the overall aspira-tions of the nation. The 1970 and 1977 election results which glaringly exposed the shortcomings of that sys-tem, paved the way for a much better and a fairer Pro-portionate Representation (PR) system. However, it is unfortunate that its objective was later subverted by an-nexing the politically expedient 'Preference Voting' (PV) method. This method opened an opportunity for MPs to 'cross-over' aided by a court decision, which led to a mockery of the voter franchise and made the tedious election process itself an exercise in futility! It must be borne in mind that through the 'District Party Merit list' mechanism, the original PR system envisaged to prevent any on-course changes in the balance of power through so-called 'back stabbing' by MPs who decide to betray their voters mainly for personal reasons and kick-backs than forging national imperatives. The 'District Merit List' paved the way to dispense with high cost bi-elec-tions. In this era of advanced communication, freedom of the press and right to information, robust 'Opinion polls' can be used to test the Popularity/Unpopularity of a Government

3) The much larger District electoral unit under the PR system discourages the much maligned 'MP chit' system and allows the MPs to discharge their 'Law maker' duty more effectively.

4) In hindsight, no voting system can be perfect, for in the first place, voting is not mandatory resulting in a large percentage of unpolled votes and in the second place, the decision of the voters spanning an age limit of 18 to 80 cannot be construed as logical and intelligent all the time! Thus, it is very much evident in Sri Lanka

as well as in other countries that if the non-voting and the rejected votes are reckoned, the final result can be diametrically reversed. In other words, the outcome can be different from the desired verdict of the people! The PR system attempted to make it as 'fair and equitable' as possible by having additional mechanisms such as Bo-nus seats and National list system. Thus, it is clear that only a PR system can justify the concept of 'equal val-ue' for every vote while sustaining Sri Lankan identity. It also mitigates the existing 'Confrontational' attitude amongst voters and politicians.

5) In my view, it is after putting a 'fair and equitable' voting system in place, that we should discuss the struc-ture or the type of governance that we desire. Having understood the fairness and the advantages of the most democratic PR voting system, we should also recogn-ise the unavoidable repercussions from the advent of a three tiered Decentralized Political Administration sys-tem in 1987 comprising National Parliament,Provincial Councils, and Local Government (Municipalities, Urban Councils and Pradeshiya sabhas) that have come to stay, not forgetting the tier of all-powerful Executive Presi-dency!

6) Considering the foregoing, I recommend the follow-ing steps in order to form a 'Peoples Government' as this is the ideal time for such a transition or a paradigm shift and it should not be missed.

a) Abolish Preference voting system at Parliamentary and Provincial council (PC) elections.

b) Re-introduce the 'Party list' system which was an in-tegral part of the original PR system, to Parliamentary and PC elections.

c) All civil rights activists/ organizations including the 'Paffrel', CMEV and 'Caffe' should pressurise the Political Parties with full backing from the mass-media to select and nominate educated, honourable, decent political professionals with high integrity, acceptable to the soci-ety to contest at the General elections. Towards this end, the Elections Commission shall lay down a robust set of eligibility criteria for Election candidates. Returning to the 'All Party March 12 declaration-2015' can be a good starting point. The next phase should begin after the publication of the respective Party nomination lists in the press. The voters have to be educated on the need to cast their vote to the party which fields candidates who best qualify to enter the Parliament. In this regard, the media can play a dominant role by publishing the pro-files of all candidates on a District wise basis.

d) Seal all types of loopholes that enable 'Cross-overs' which kill the spirit of the PR system. The sovereignty and the collective -conscience of the voter Principals are subverted by this unethical phenomenon which seeks to justify the conscience of paid representatives of the people.

e) Constitutional provision to be made for all contesting parties to legally register their Election Manifestos on the nomination date in order that they can be contested in courts for non-implementation. This is a sine-qua-non as the voter decision has to be guided mainly by the Party policies enshrined in their respective manifestos.

f) Constitutional provision to be made for an 'All Party'

Cabinet of 30 parliamentary members to be formed by applying the same PR arithmetic now being used to se-lect National list MPs. The Executive President should hold only the Portfolio of National Security and Defence. He would appoint the other Ministers consensually. By this method, the PR system brings about a permanent 'WIN-WIN' situation where all citizens including the politicians would forget their party rivalries after the elections and forge ahead as one truly Democratic Na-tion under a 'Peoples' Government' Since our broad eco-nomic, social, cultural and foreign policies are now very much in place, we would at most be electing the party who in our opinion can more effectively steer the coun-try forward, through an 'all-party' Cabinet of Ministers. The inclusion of TNA in the Cabinet will help to remove the perpetual suspicion they harbour about a so called 'Sinhala Government.' The entire election process would then turn out to be a routine, 05 yearly, peaceful exer-cise, sans fan- fare and extravaganza which an emerging country like ours can ill afford.

g) As the decentralized administration has come to stay with the long existing Provincial Councils flowing down to the local government, machinery, strengthen them to derive maximum returns from that huge investment thereby leaving the Parliamentarians at the centre to play their exclusive role of Law and Policy making and controlling the Country's finances.

h) Amend or remove all the obnoxious provisions, gov-erning the present Executive Presidency to ensure inde-pendence of Parliament.

i) After his /her election by the people, the Executive President should be neutral and act as a 'Statesman' looking after the entire citizenry of the country and therefore should not be allowed to promote any politi-cal party. ORIdeally, if the concept of running the Executive Presiden-cy, Legislature and the Judiciary as three independent institutions is to be implemented in its true spirit, the Presidential Elections should be contested by non-polit-ical, independent candidates qualifying under a specific set of criteria.

j) Fix the time period including the month for holding future Presidential and Parliamentary Elections. A cost reduction can also be achieved by having both Presiden-tial and Parliamentary Elections on the same day.

Conclusion We as peace-seeking, civic-minded, decent citizens yearn to see an end to this distorted system of confrontational politics by replacing it with a system of consensual politics; a system that breeds no politi-cal rivalry; a system that is fair and equitable and also a system that is cost-effective and productive enough to deliver a peaceful and a prosperous Sri Lanka. In this regard it must be stated that the civil society should form the nucleus of any effort to formu-late a system of Governance that best suits our country. Politicians as representatives of the sovereign people should only give the formal authority for implementa-tion of such proposals in keeping with the Constitution. We hope that sanity would prevail and the Government, would capture this golden opportunity of making 'Consensual Politics' a reality by implementing the aforesaid recommendations at the next Presidential /Parliamentary elections. Bernard Fernando

PR SYSTEM HAS COME TO STAY

Tania Joya was married for 12 years to the leading American in the Islamic State. Today she lives in

Texas, has renounced Islam and is soon to speak in a temple about de-radicalization. Less than six years ago, the British-born Mus-lim Tania Joya was living in Syria with her husband, an American-born convert to Islam who was becoming an increasingly influential figure in the circles of the Is-lamic State. Next week, she will be giving a talk about “countering the forces of violent extremism” at Temple Shalom, a Reform synagogue in Dallas, Texas. As far as Joya knows, her ex, the former Greek

Orthodox Chris-tian John George-las who for 17 years has gone under the name of Yahya al-Bahrumi, is still active in Syria with the Is-lamic State, where he is said to head the jihadist terror group’s English-

language propaganda operation and to be its most senior American recruit. For her part, Joya has re-nounced Islam, is becoming increasingly attracted to Jewish customs and rituals, took her sons to help dec-orate the sukka at Temple Shalom a few months ago, and says she intends to come to Jerusalem. The rapid transformation of Joya’s life — from a self-styled for-mer “hard-core” jihadist and dutiful spouse of an Is-lamic extremist, to a declared de-radicalization activ-ist — is so stark and improbable as to leave doubts, she acknowledges, in many people’s minds.

The Times of Israel

‘First Lady of ISIS’ now loves Jews, plans to visit Jerusalem

"A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the LORD!" (Isaiah 40,3)

5 The Messenger January 13, 2019

When a new year approaches it is customary to make resolutions. During the year we try to keep these resolutions, fulfill them and

try to live according to them. Time management gurus of the world instruct us to make, first thing in the morn-ing, a to-do list of what tasks we hope to accomplish that day. This list could be divided into three important spheres: family, work and personal. These are the three important areas of any adult’s life, male or female. We live as a family. We may be married and have a wife/husband and three or four children. It is important that we look after their comfort and welfare. Think about their needs. Are we spending quality time with them? Do we at least have one meal with them? Do you discuss with them their health, progress in school or at their work place? Do I earn and share my income to make them comfortable? Is there a parent-teacher meeting scheduled at school? Note them down in a diary, calendar or the planner. Do not forget their birthdays and their anniversaries. Do not neglect to help them with their studies or help your wife/husband with their household chores. Do you mark out some time to develop your spiritual life and that of the family? Can you allocate a few minutes for prayer? If these activities are not in your regular schedule write them down. Plan your work life. A certain amount of your time has to be allocated for activities pertaining to your work. For the survival of your family, you have to earn money. Going to work and earning a living is important. Do you go to work on time? Have you got to work over-time after your normal working hours? Plan all such

activities ahead and let your family know about it. Have you got to attend ongoing in-service programmes and classes to improve your working skills? Do you keep up with the new innovations that are happening in your sphere of work? Do you read and listen and attend pre-sentations to learn about the new innovations which could be applied at your work place? Do not forget your personal life. Your family and your place of employment need you to be healthy. Are you trying to keep yourself physically fit? Do you exercise? Do you walk, jog, or go to the gym regularly? Do you eat nourishing and healthy food? Do you drink enough water? Do you get adequate sleep and rest? It is important to keep yourself healthy for the sake of your family and be active yourself. If you have any plans to improve your family life, your performance at work or planning improve-ments in your personal life, jot them down in your planner and take action to act on what has been written down, planned and what has been accomplished. You can tick off the activities that you have accomplished in the list which will give you an enormous boost in self- esteem and satisfaction. If you have personal, family or work problems, self-improvement gurus teach us to write them down and to tackle them one by one. They also instruct us to try to solve them on the same day before you go to sleep. They advise us, “Do not take your problems to bed.” They have found out that the unsolved problems are one of the causes for insomnia which can ultimately give you anxiety and stress. They also teach us not to worry

about our past mis-takes and not to fear about what is going to happen in the fu-ture. Many of these fears for the future will never material-ize. Concentrate on the present and solve the problems that are presently at hand. While con-centrating on the present day-to-day problems and trying to solve them, think also about the blessings that God has given us in the past and the pres-ent. Think about your helpful and supportive wife. She is ever willing to support you, listen to your woes and your frustrations. What about the children that God has given you, their health, growth and education? Do we appreciate the home that you have as a place to go to for companionship, support and rest? What about the faith we have in God? What about His Son who is our brother who is with us to help. As Catholics we also have a Mother who loves her chil-dren and who intercedes for us before our Father. Are we not grateful for the inspiration that we can receive from the Holy Bible, the Sacraments in the Church that give us strength, courage and power? We have all these blessings and supports to make our new year 2019 a stunning success.

“Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!” (Isaiah 40,3)

Health relatedIssues in Sri Lanka

By Dr. Maxie FernandopulleEmail:maxiefernandopulle@gmail.comEmail:maxiefernandopulle@gmail.com

BiTS &PiECES

By Idam

2019

Anaphylaxis is an acute (sudden) life threatening reaction in a sensitive person leading to a seri-ous body reaction or response due to the release

of certain immunological or inflammatory substances. At least two organs of the body which are the skin, re-spiratory passages, heart included in the cardio vascu-lar system, nervous system, and the gastro intestinal system in the order of priority are affected. Allergy to drugs, food or insect stings are the most frequent causes. It can be a life threatening hyper sensitive reac-tion. 0.5 to 2% of the population experience this reac-tion. 0.3% die in the U.S.A. Average onset of the reaction is 5 to 30 minutes to an injection of a drug into a blood vessel or 2 hours after eating a food.

Common drugs: The commonest cause of anaphylaxis is due to drugs. Many drugs can be allergic to some in-dividuals. The commonest are the penicillins. There are a number of penicillin derived or based antibiotics. In case you have had an allergic reaction after consuming a drug, report back to the doctor. Get the name of the drug written in your medical record book or a card. Ask whether it is in the penicillin group. Next time you go to a doctor carry this record with you; show it before the doctor prescribes a medication. Along with the drugs vaccines, blood and blood products should be kept in mind to which some are allergic. 26% of anaphylactic reactions are to the penicillin group of drugs. Some people are allergic to dyes administered before scans or X-rays. If you are allergic to drugs and you have to take dye before a scan, the radiologist should be told and he will administer a drug after which the dye can be administered safely.

Foods: 45% of anaphylactic reactions are due to foods. The commoner foods are peanuts, shell fish, milk, eggs and preservatives. You will come to know by experi-ence. If you suspect it carefully take it once more and if you get a reaction do not take that preparation of the food again.

Stinging insects are the cause of 7.5% of anaphylaxis. The insect on the Sigiriya Rock are a typical example.

Others: Latex too can cause anaphylaxis. But remem-ber there are many other substances that you may be allergic to, which you will come to know through ex-perience. You can confirm it by challenging yourselves with it without being exposed to anything else. If a re-action occurs avoid it in future.

Who is at risk? Any person of any age is at risk. A person known to be allergic to something is more likely to get a reaction to another.

Features or manifestations of anaphylactic reactions In the respiratory or breathing system, diffi-culty to breathe, tight throat, hoarse voice, tightness in the chest, itchy mouth, nasal stuffiness are signs of ana-phylaxis. 70% of anaphylactic manifestations are found here. In the heart and vascular system, weak pulse, low blood pressure, shock, dizziness, altered level of con-sciousness are features and are seen in 45% of cases. In the skin, hives, swellings, flushing, redness, itching are seen in 80 to 90% of cases. In 30 to 45% of cases abdominal pain, cramps, vomiting and diarrhoea are seen. Anxiety and headache are seen in 10 to 15%. An-other commonly seen manifestation is (angioedima), where there is swelling of the face, eyelids, and the lips. Diagnosis: There has to be a high degree of suspicion. Because the manifestations are so variable and they can fit into many other disease processes. The manifes-tations may appear within a few minutes to hours after exposure to the possible allergen. Often it is acute or very sudden in the onset with skin manifestations. (ur-ticarial itchy swellings), flushing, angioneurotic edema, with respiratory, cardiovascular and abdominal mani-festations as described earlier. There will be a drop in blood pressure( pulse hardly felt), whistling noise when breathing in and out and a skin rash. Treatment: It is a medical emergency. If not treated prop-erly can lead to death due to shock and respiratory

failiure. If treated properly in time there will be a full recovery. Sometimes the manifestation may resolve but reappear after sometime. Therefore it is important to observe for sometime. To summarize as to what an anaphylactic reac-tion has -- Airway problems, Breathing problems, Cir-culatory problems, Disability, Exposure to an allergen. Call for help, Lie down the patient flat, Raise the legs, Give ADRENALIN, Take to a hospital. The emergency life saving drug is commer-cially available for anyone who may get an anaphy-lactic reaction, to keep at home and use it. It is called ADRENALIN AUTO INJECTOR.(brand names: Epiphen, Jext, Emerade).

The procedure to use the Adrenalin auto injector Hold the auto injector in the dominant hand. Remove the cap with your hand. Swing or jab the tip of the auto injector to the upper or outer thigh (with or without clothes) but avoid seams. Hold the injector in place for 10 seconds. Massage the injected site for 10 seconds. Phone for an ambulance. Do not inject into buttocks, veins, fingers, toes, hands and feet. Give oxy-gen if available.

Biphasic Anaphylaxis It is the situation where there is recurrence of symptoms of anaphylaxis within 1 to 72 hours with no futher exposure to the allergen, 20% of cases can recur in this manner. The usual recurrence is within eight hours. It is managed in the same way as an origi-nal reaction.

In the follow up

The incidence should be documented in writ-ing. There are specialist doctors who do skin testing for hypersensitivity for all possible triggers. Then the person can avoid such triggers. Finally, the possession of an ADRENALIN injector with the person who has had a reaction or gets recurrent reactions is an essen-tial requirement.

ALLERGIC REACTION ( ANAPHYLAXIS )

6 The Messenger January 13, 2019

“Every valley shall be fi lled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low” (Isaiah 40,4)

Incarnate Word During this liturgical season, we are celebrating the great mystery of the Son of God who became man, indeed, became a Child, for our salvation. Down through the ages, saints and theologians have endeavoured to ‘read God’s mind’ with regard to the Incarnation. It was not necessary that the Son of God should become man, not even for the sake of the Redemption. As St Thomas Aquinas has observed: God could have restored human nature in any number of ways (St. Thomas, Summa Theologiae, 3, q 1, a 2). The Incarnation is the ultimate expression of God’s love for mankind. The best reason for the Incarnation seems to lie in the awesome immensity of this divine love. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son (John 3:16).” By this lowering of Himself, God has made it easier for man to speak with Him. The whole history of salvation represents God’s reaching out to His beloved creatures. The Catholic Faith reveals to humanity all the goodness, mercy and love that God has for us (F. Fernandez, The Annunciation of the Lord). Right from the beginning of time God has been encouraging man to draw close to Him. The Incarnation is the culmination of this message.

From that moment on, the only-begotten Son would be a man like us. And He would remain a human person forever. The Incarnation was not a temporary condition. Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, would be perfect God and perfect man to all eternity. This is the great mystery we may well find overwhelming: God in His infinite love has taken man seriously. Due to His infinite love, God has given man the opportunity to respond to Christ, a full-fledged member of the human race. Remembering that ‘the Word became flesh,’ that is, that the Son of God became man, we must become conscious of how great each man has become through this mystery, through the Incarnation of the Son of God! Christ; in fact; was conceived in the womb of Mary and became man to reveal the eternal love of the Creator and Father and to make known the dignity of each one of us (St. John Paul II, Angelus at the Sanctuary of Jasna Gora, 5th June 1979).

Jesus is God made man As a result of many religious controversies over the centuries, the Church has sought to define the truths relating to the Incarnation. She has been zealous in this regard because she realizes that to defend the truth about Christ is to defend the truth about the human person. He Who is

“the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15), is Himself the perfect man. To the sons of Adam He restores the divine likeness which had been disfigured from the first sin onward. Since human nature as He assumed it was not annulled; by that very fact it has been raised up to a divine dignity in our respect too. For by His incarnation the Son of God has united Himself in some fashion with every man. He worked with human hands, He thought with a human mind; acted by human choice and loved with a human heart Born of the Virgin Mary, He has truly been made one of us, like us in all things except sin (Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et spes, 22). The Son of God became man, and He is perfectus Deus, perfectus homo: “perfect God and perfect man.” There is something in this mystery which should stir Christians.

Denying Christ’s divinity Though the divinity of Christ is stressed repeatedly in the New Testament, there are fundamentalist groups, sects, novels, etc. which deny the divinity of Jesus Christ. They claim that nowhere in the Bible did Jesus say He was God. In the interest of brevity, we can limit ourselves to the false claims of the Da Vinci Code novel. Some of the offensive claims of the Da Vinci Code

pertain directly to the Catholic Church. The remainder strike at the Christian faith itself. If the book’s claims were true, then all forms of Christianity would be false, except perhaps for Gnostic or feminist versions focusing on Mary Magdalene instead of Jesus. Catholics should be concerned about the book because it not only misrepresents their Church as a murderous institution but also implies that the Christian faith itself is utterly false. The Catholic Answers’ special report, Cracking the Da Vinci Code, observes that during the course of the novel it is alleged that the Catholic Church is perpetuating a major, centuries-long conspiracy to hide the “truth” about Jesus Christ from the public, and it or its agents are willing to stop at nothing, including murder, to do so. Dan Brown’s novel promotes erroneous undercurrents against the Catholic faith. Among others, it claims that Jesus is not God. Some sects also say nowhere in the Bible did Jesus ever say he was God.

Bible attests to Christ’s divinity But why was Jesus crucified, in the first place? Was it not because He claimed to be God, as per findings of the Sanhedrin trial? Our Lord’s opponents sought to kill Him because He “called God His Father, making Himself equal

with God” (John 5:18). When quizzed about how He has special knowledge of Abraham, Jesus replies, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58), invoking and applying to Himself the personal name of God – “I Am” (Exodus 3:14). His audience understood exactly what He was claiming about Himself: He was God. “So they took up stones to throw at him; but Jesus hid Himself, and went out of the temple” (John 8:59). Elsewhere, He said. “I and (God) the Father are one (John 10:30).” In John’s Gospel, Thomas falls at Jesus’ feet, exclaiming, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28) And Paul tells us that Jesus chose to be born in humble, human form even though He could have remained in equal glory with the Father, for He was “in the form of God” (Philippians 2:6). But obviously, for those who have decided not to believe in the divinity of Christ no amount of evidence from the Bible would suffice. On the other hand, for those who want to accept as our Saviour and Lord, countless Scriptural passages more than suffice. Here, finally, are some scriptural data for Christ’s claim to divinity (cf. P. Kreeft & RK Tacelli, Handbook of Christian Apologetics):

LIVING FAITHRev. Fr. Daniel Icatlo

JESUS CHRIST, TRUE GOD AND TRUE MAN

The Baptism of the Lord – Meditation (Luke 3:15-16, 21-22) – Year CBy Rev. Fr. Nilindra Gunasekera sss

Today’s Gospel narrates of the baptism of Jesus. We be-gin our meditation. Having received John’s baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, I remain on the banks of the Jordan, watching the others being baptized. Intermittently, John would shout, ‘Amen I say to you, there shall come one who is stronger than I’. Then he would continue baptizing again. After some time, John looks at the crowds and says in earnest, ‘I am not worthy to untie the thong of the sandal of the one who is to come’. Again he resumes baptizing people, and then once more he shouts aloud, ‘Now hear this. The ˋone who is to comeˊ has the win-nowing fork in his hand to clear the threshing floor’. And finally, he exclaims, ‘I baptize you with water, but he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. For his offer of the Spirit will purge the people, and there-fore, divide them. He offers one baptism, which has two effects, determined solely by the response to the bap-tism offered. The two effects of this baptism of the Spirit and fire are portrayed by the picture of sifting grain at harvest time. The winnowing fork sifts the wheat. The heavier usable grain falls on to the threshing floor but the chaff is blown away and will be tossed into the fire’. As John continues speaking, Jesus walks up to him and says ‘Baptize me’. John responds by saying to the people, ‘This is the lamb of God’. Now when all the people are baptized, after Jesus was baptized and while He was praying, heaven

opens and the Spirit descends in bodily form like a dove upon Him. A heavenly voice is heard, ‘This is my Son, my Beloved, in whom I am well pleased’. I see the vision and hear the heavenly voice. Jesus receives divine endorse-ment and is divinely enabled for His mission. I ask John, ‘What is the meaning of these signs?’ John replies, ‘God has rendered divine testimony to Jesus from heaven. The baptism is like an inauguration for Jesus’ mission. It is a messianic anointing. Angel Gabriel had made Je-sus’ messianic position clear from the very beginning (Luke 1:31-35). He would receive the throne of David. But here the divine testimony points to the Son as an ‘Isaac figure’ who would be sacrificed (Genesis 22:12) and therefore become a suffering servant’ (Isaiah 42:1). Then I ask John, ‘But why has Jesus in need of a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins? The Son of God is sinless, surely?’ John replies, ‘Jesus chooses to partake of my baptism for three reasons. First, it represents an endorsement of my ministry and message (Luke 20:1-8). Second, it shows how Jesus identifies Himself with the people as He begins His ministry. Third, in the Spirit’s descending, Jesus emerges as the ˋOne who is to comeˊ’. I say, to John, ‘I saw the heavens open, too’. John says, ‘Yes, it means that God begins to act. The picture is of God stepping out to address people. God is entering into your everyday world through Jesus. But there is some-thing more important that you should ask’. I say, ‘What is it, Venerable Prophet?’ John replies, “You must also

ask, ˋWhat does this revelation teach you?ˊ’ ‘Yes, indeed’, I reply. Then John says, ‘Have you not received the Holy Spirit? Yes, you have (Acts 2). Did you realize that it was the inauguration of your mission on this earth? But what have you done about it? Have you realized that when you were baptized, you were configured into Christ, the Isaac-figure, who would be sacrificed? Are you then not obliged to be another servant in whom God will be well pleased? Can you then continue in your self-seeking and hedonistic ways, expecting God to be pleasing to you’ I cringe in guilt at John’s words, and begin to ponder: ‘In this heavenly revelation, the God of Israel en-dorsed and legitimized the life and ministry of His only Beloved Son. The Heavenly Father thereby revealed the divinely ordained lifestyle of His Son. At baptism, God lays claim upon us as His children. Though the great-est of all prophets said that Jesus would come with win-nowing fork, for the axe is already laid at the root of the tree, did not the Lord associate with tax collectors and sinners? How should I respond to God’s mercy? For God speaks to me through the edifying lives of my parents, and teachers…Ah, yes! Henceforth, my Christian life shall be marked with zeal, as a token of gratitude for the sacrifices they have made on my behalf, in the name of Christ. I shall not be a lukewarm disciple’.

(Contd on Pg. 7)

7 The Messenger January 13, 2019

“The rugged land shall be made a plain, the rough country, a broad valley” (Isaiah 40,4)

Hilda of Whitby St. Hild of Streoneshalh, c.614 – 680

The attractive, 2013 novel “Hild” by British author Nicola Griffith is a history-fiction that illuminates the so-called Dark Ages in early Britain. It recon-

structs an often alien historical world attempting to destroy the myths of Medieval Womanhood by retell-ing the story of Hild, the seventh-century woman who would come to be revered as St. Hilda. It is a fictional-ized telling of the life of Hilda of Whitby, also known as Hild of Streoneshalh, a significant figure in medieval Britain about whose life there is very little historical documentation to the liking of our academic curiosity or scholarly research. But the powerful character we could construct through the little that has come down to us about her has proven sufficient to stir unending fantasies of many a novelist to explore the untold.

The Light of the World Griffith’s Hild is, according to her ambitious and canny mother, “the light of the world,” destined to lead her people into prosperity as the king’s seer. Just before Hilda’s birth, Hilda’s mother had a vision of light cast across Britain from a necklace - a vision that St. Bede (672 – 735 AD), writing in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, regarded as being fulfilled through Hilda. Her power unlike any magic or witchcraft nor-mally associated with extraordinary medieval women was that of observations, of reading cycles and patterns of behaviour, be they in weather, landscapes, or people, which is more scientific, intellectual or philosophi-cal than occultist or magical. She grows and develops into an adviser to the king at a time of enormous social change and war among English kingdoms, after the Ro-mans had left Britain in the mid fifth century AD and the Anglo-Saxons have moved in. Seventh century Britain is in transition. Small kingdoms are merging. Edwin of Northumbria plots to become over-king of the Angles using every tool at his disposal: blood, bribery, and religious belief. Into this world Hilda is born, the king’s niece: a child with a glit-tering mind, powerful curiosity, and will of adamant. King Edwin is cunning and ruthless, but Hilda is match-less. She carves herself a place as his advisor, a young woman at the heart of the violence, subtlety, and mysti-cism of the early medieval age. But kings do not trust anyone, even nieces. And at this level, the stakes are life and death for Hilda in the king’s court as his royal advi-sory. In the 1994 historic-fiction novel Absolution by Murder by Peter Tremayne the character Fidelma por-trays Hilda, as a sister to an Irish king, who is a feisty and independent Irish nun who attends the historical synod at Whitby in 664, where a formal debate takes place intended to settle major doctrinal differences be-tween the Celtic and Roman Catholic Churches. When the Abbess of Kildare, Fidelma’s (Hilda) mentor and chief representative of the Celtic tradition, is murdered immediately before her scheduled oration, Fidelma is called upon in her role as a renowned legal scholar and Irish advocate for the courts. She never ceases battling against old superstitions resurrected by storm, plague, and solar eclipse, but at last she receives a bishop’s blessing—from a man she trained herself as the abbess and founder of a reputed monastic tutelage sought after even by the elite and royals of the land. Between Love and Power

A different side to Hilda is revealed in Jill Dalla-day’s 2015 novel The Abbess of Whitby which combines historical record and fiction to imagine Hilda’s life be-fore she became a nun. Chosen as Eostre’s handmaid, Hilda will serve the fertility goddess for a year before being wed. Her future is predictable—until King Edwin claims her as kin and she learns that her father was murdered during her infancy. Her first love is given a command in Edwin’s forces and vanishes from her life, wed to her sister. The court is then baptized, ending the old fertility cult religion and Hilda’s role. Life looks bleak. She cannot stop wondering who killed her father. Suspecting Edwin, she challenges him, only to be mar-ried off to safeguard his northern frontier. Struggling in a loveless marriage, she is intrigued by the Iona priests making pilgrimages to spread Christ’s love. When home and family are lost in Oswy’s sack of Edinburgh, she finds herself in enemy hands, but meets the charismatic Aidan. Inspired and guided by him, she builds commu-nities to live and teach Christ’s love. She attracts follow-ers. Even her old enemy, King Oswy, entrusts his child to her, gives her Whitby, and seeks her help to reconcile

divisions in his kingdom. The 1991 novel The Song of Hild by Vibeke Vasbo is a story that portrays St. Hilda in multiple roles as mother, wife, queen, and eventual Abbess of Whitby. According to James Wiener until the year 647 AD, we know very little about Hilda. Because she was a prin-cess, it is possible she married, maybe even more than once. And maybe she was widowed due to illness or war. Hereswith, Hilda’s sister, became a nun in one of the convents located in the Seine basin (in France), when Hilda was about 33. We know that Hilda made her way to East Anglia, perhaps with the intention of joining her sister overseas. But by the end of the year, she was re-called to Northumbria by St. Aidan (c.590 – 651 AD), the renowned Irish missionary and Bishop of Lindisfarne.

A Woman in a Man’s World Each of these fascinating historical novels has weaved with fictional threads a colorful tapestry of a magnificent English woman with a charismatic per-sona, intellectual brilliance and political affluence that has vibe to rattle even the most robust modern feminist prejudices against uncompromising religious oppres-sion of women in the medieval times. Hilda has bravely navigated the difficult and often brutal world of men in order to ensure the survival of her children and of her-self. Social and racial tensions across the land are only aggravated by the rise of Christianity in a deeply pagan country, but it is Hilda’s unwavering faith in the new re-ligion that gives her something to cling to in the darkest moments both in her life and in the life of her country. Women in her time suffered rape, domestic abuse, and accusations of sorcery and witchcraft and of-ten in their tender age were bartered in marriage, used as political hostages to ensure the compliance of neigh-bouring kingdoms, or even murdered in battle for land, money, and even liberation. In a world of warring men it was up to women who were the ones to survive the battles in the end to tell a different story to their chil-dren if a different future had to be envisaged. Hilda was a woman who started telling this different story to her people in her society as a true visionary and a proph-etess. She firmly established the role of women as the peace-weavers, healers, leaders of their communities, by qualifying her role and contribution as integral to the spread of Christianity. Strangely many challenges and dangers Hilda and the other women of her times bat-tled with such as childbirth, violence, unemployment, exploitation of labour and misogyny are still problems women grapple with today. History attests to Hilda’s extraordinary pub-lic relations and skill in diplomacy as she traversed the English land meeting who is who of kings, monks, bishops, poets, and saints, as one could imagine a huge roster of characters whose trust and respect she had clearly won with her refined manner, royal lineage, el-egant persona, political affluence, witty rhetoric and inspiring wisdom. Hilda is a saint with flaws, but in her faults we see her beautiful womanhood, humanity and her compassion shining forth. Though separated from us by thirteen centuries, her song of joy in peace and tolerance between men and women still resounds pow-erfully today. (To be continued…)

Born: According to Ven. Bede in 614 into the Deiran royal household in the Kingdom of Northumbria, British Isles Died: on November 17, 680 AD (aged 66) in a mon-astery, fourteen miles from Whitby, at Hackness, Britain Nationality: British, in the tradition of Celtic monas-ticism in Iona, an English Princess, Abbess, Notable Achievements: Hosting & presiding over the Synod of Whitby, Founder of Monastic Communi-ties (including mixed gender communities), Legis-lator of monastic rules, educator of ecclesiastical authorities Main Interests: Scripture, Poetry, Culture, Politics, Ecumenism, Education, Tradition, Monasticism, Teaching

Fr. Anthony Nilantha Ediriwickrema Head of the Department of Philosophy

The National Seminary of Our Lady of Lanka

• The early creedal formula “Jesus is Lord [kyrios]” meaning, He is God: 1 Corinthians 12:3; Phil lippians 2:11.• The title “Son of God” (“Son of” implies “of the same

nature as.”): Matthew 11:27; Mark 12:6; 13:32; 14:61-62; Luke 10:22; 22:70; John 10:30; 14:9.

• The New Testament calls Him “God”: Titus 2:13; 1 John 5:20; Romans 9:5; Jn 1:1.

• Absolutely, universally supreme: Colossians 1:15-20.• Eternally preexistent: John 1:1; Philippians 2:6;

Hebrews 13:8; Revelation 22:13.• Omnipresent: Matthew 18:20; 28:20.• Omnipotent: Matthew 28:18; Hebrews 1:3; Revelation 1:8.

• Immutable: Hebrews 1:11-12; 13:8.• Creates (only God can create): Colossians 1:16-17;

John 1:3; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Hebrews 1:10.• Sinless, perfect: Hebrews 7:26; John 8:46; 2

Corinthians 5:21.• Has authority to forgive sins: Mark 2:5-12; Luke

24:45-47; Acts 10:43; 1 John 1:5-9.• Rightly worshipped: Matthew 2:11; 14:33; 28:9;

John 20:28; Hebrews 1:5-9.• Speaks the unique, forbidden divine name: John 8:58.• Called “King of kings and Lord of lords”: 1 Timothy

6:15; Revelation 17:14.• One with the Father: John 10:30; 12:45; 14:8-10.• Performs miracles: John 10:37-38; and throughout

all four Gospels.

• Sends the Holy Spirit: John 14:25-26; 16:7-15.• The Father testifies to Him: Matthew 3:17; 17:5;

John 8:18; 1 John 5:9.• Gives eternal life: John 3:16; 5:39-40; 20:30-31.• Foreknows the future: Mark 8:31; Luke 9:21-22;

12:49-53; 22:35-37; 24:1-7; John 3:11-14; 6:63-64; 13:1-11; 14:27-29; 18:1-4; 19:26-30.

• Is Lord over the Law: Luke 6:1-5. Jesus Christ, God-man. This is one of “the mighty works of God,” which we should reflect upon and thank him for. He has come to bring “peace on earth to men of good Will,” to all men who want to unite their wills to the holy will of God, not just the rich, not just the poor, but everyone: all the brethren (St. J. Escrivá, Christ Is Passing By). We are all brothers in Jesus, children of God, brothers of Christ. His Mother is our mother.

(Contd from Pg. 6)Jesus Christ ...

8 The Messenger January 13, 2019

“Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all mankind shall see it together” (Isaiah 40,5)

The Person of St. Joseph VazMuch has been said and

written on the Mission-ary Activities of St. Jo-

seph Vaz. Now we shall look at the person of St. Joseph Vaz "Outside" the orbit of his Missionary achieve-ments, both in India and Sri Lanka. On the day of his birth his father Christopher Vaz had witnessed an unusual sight - that of a bright star shining in the noonday sky. Thus he wrote in his diary "today a son has been born to me and one day he will be great," and "great" he did become. As a little schoolboy he would wear his Rosary around his neck and recite it on his way to and from school. At school, he was loved by both his schoolmates and teachers alike. He would nev-er hurt anyone either by word or deed. As a result, he was called the "Little Saint" and subsequently. "The Friday Boy" since he was born on a Friday, baptised on a Fri-day, ordained a Priest on a Friday and died in Kandy also on a Fri-day. From a very early age he was noted for his extraordinary piety, and soon became a bright student performing well in all his exami-

nations. Once back from school, he would help his mother in her daily household chores such as marketing, cleaning the house and fetching water for the household from a nearby spring, which exists to this day. Hence, he found very little time for prayer and sought permission from his Parish Priest to have the Church doors kept open for a longer period during the day. This request was turned down. Having no other option and determined to pray before the Blessed Sacrament, young Joseph would "slip" out of his room win-dow and head towards his Church around midnight while the entire Vaz household was "fast asleep." In those days there were no street lights and Joseph had only "total darkness" to accompany him to Church at that hour. While he was kneeling and praying on the steps leading to the Church, the huge doors of this Church would be "flung" open miraculously for him to go in and pray. However, Joseph

would not move from the steps in perfect obedience to his Parish Priest. Then a voice from within would beckon him to come in but Joseph remained on the steps. Sub-sequently, two angels would carry him bodily and place him at the Altar Rails from where he would pray until the wee hours of the morning when he would retreat homewards and be back in his room through the window just be-fore the Vaz family would "awake" for the day.

As the years rolled along, Joseph became a noted linguist, being proficient in English, Lat-in, Konkani (his mother tongue) Portuguese, Spanish, Hindi and Kannada. In the near future he

would achieve proficiency in Sin-hala and Tamil as well. Very soon he answered the Lord's "call" and entered the Seminary and was or-dained a Priest in 1685, shortly

after which he wrote his Letter of Bondage to Mother Mary. Here he removed his sandals, and, plac-ing them beneath the Altar, vowed never to have footwear on him. This he fulfilled to the letter, re-maining barefooted all through his life, both in India and Ceylon. Before he came to Cey-lon, he ministered to the faithful in Kanara (Mangalore). Here, the Hindus and Muslims plotted to kill him. Once, at twilight he was led up the Mudippu Hill on the pretext of a sick call. When he was on the "point" of being done to death he begged of his would-be-assasins to give him a couple of minutes for prayer. Thus he prayed to God to spare his life, not for the love of it, but to save the Catholics from per-secution in Ceylon. At that moment a thunderbolt struck the area as all his would-be assassins fled the scene leaving him all alone. From the spot where his knees touched the ground (solid rock) there emerged two water fountains, which exist to this day and many are those who have been cured of various ailments using this water. Shortly afterwards, Fr. Vaz founded the Oratory in Goa which "turned out" the first Indigenous Order of Priests and thus became its first Superior. During late nights, many of his fellow priests have testified that he would be

heard weeping aloud before the blessed Sacrament begging for an opportunity to enter Ceylon - the land of his dreams. His prayer was answered. Very soon he left Goa

never to return and entered Co-chin via Mangalore. Here he stayed with the Jesuit Fathers where on many occasions he was seen in Ec-stasy while in deep prayer - almost hanging in the air. From Cochin he went to Tuticorin where he studied Tamil. Finally, on the 20th of May, 1687 after a perilous sea voyage of around 3 weeks, he set foot on Sri Lankan soil at a spot now referred to as South Bar, just near the pres-ent Mannar Railway Station. Here began a Gigantic and Glorious Mis-sion, working single-handed for nine long years, followed by a few Oratorian Priests from Goa. During his near twenty-four years in Ceylon he led a life of absolute austerity. His food con-sisted of Rice broil (Canji), the food of the poor. This too, he never par-took of on schedule. However, he would see to it that all his helpers had their meals on schedule. His prayer life commenced daily after sunset and went on till late nights. He seldom had a full night's sleep and whenever sleep overtook him, he would rest on a couch for just a short while. If and when he had

to sleep, he slept on a mat and that too on the floor. The cassock he was wearing was "patched" all over (Fr. Robin Rodriguez's 207 Stories on Fr. Vaz) signifying abject poverty. For 24 long years, the all-powerful Dutch Government failed miser-ably to "lay hands on him", in spite of the huge Reward of Dutch Guil-ders he carried on his head. Even in Dutch territory he would get about freely in ministering to his "flock". He would "pierce" a cor-don of Dutch soldiers waiting for him in broad daylight. He was an adept at disguise. He would pa-rade the streets as a dhoby a bak-erman, a fish monger, a betel seller, a bangle seller, a pedlar etc., etc. He visited the lay faithful as often as he could. For this purpose he es-tablished the "Muppus" and "An-navis." In this context it could be said that he foresaw Vatican II (lay participation), almost two and a half centuries ahead. In Kandy, he built a hospi-tal for the sick, a Home for the El-

ders and a school for children. He established a close rapport with the Kings of Kandy, Vimala Dhar-masuriya II and his son Narendras-inghe, both of whom held Fr. Vaz in high esteem. Fr. Vaz would be seen in and out of the Royal Palace quite often. In fact at the request of King Vimala Dharmasuriya, Fr. Vaz translated a book on Ayurve-da from Portuguese to Sinhala at which the King was well pleased. Also, at the request of the same King, he brought down a miracu-lous shower of rain and ended a prolonged drought. Besides, dur-ing the smallpox epidemic in Kan-dy (1696) Fr. Vaz gallantly tended to these victims who were virtu-ally left to die in the Udawattekelle Forest Reserve. Fr. Vaz washed their sores with saffron water and fed them with Canji in Temporary Sheds, he had built for them. Once the epidemic was over, the King exclaimed that had it not been for the gallant services rendered by Fr. Vaz and his helpers, there would not be living a single subject in Kandy today. His treks through the

Vanni took him several days. As to how many days he "went" without food and water is still unknown. He tamed hordes of wild animals with his crucifix. In Madhu, he was called the "Sammanasu - Swamy" (Angelic Priest). Indeed, he was a personification of humility - he was humble to the core. He never ever had money with him, instead like Judas he had his Treasury of-ficer, who attended to all financial matters. He had politely rejected the Episcopate which was offered to him. He built a church in Mad-hu in 1694 and in all probability changed the tittle of Our Lady of Good Health to the present Our Lady of the Rosary. It was in the environs of Madhu that he once blessed a cobra that was about to "attack" him and ordered the reptile never to "attack" a Catho-lic Priest. To date, after around 323 years since, no Catholic Priest has died in Sri Lanka as a result of a snakebite as his blessing still seems to be effective. Similarly, he tamed a rogue elephant at Kunda-

sale with his crucifix, bringing the animal down on its knees. Fr. Vaz was also well known for praying "over" childless couples, all of whom were subse-quently blessed with children. Very soon, he may be declared as the Patron Saint of childless couples? During his last years in Kandy he underwent immense suffering as a result of an infected wound in his right ear. He bore this pain in silence as though it was a blessing sent by God. Fr. Jacome Gonsalves had this to say about his physical appearance. "He was but a bag of bones hanging on his skin. His ap-pearance reminds me of Job." Just hours before he died an old wom-an came shivering to his doorstep begging for any clothing. With the permission of his fellow Priests he handed over his blanket to her, his final act of charity, thus part-ing with his last earthly posses-sion, having nothing else to call his own and completely ready to meet his creator. On the night of 15th January, 1711,the Fathers intoned the "office" of the dying to which he clearly gave the responses. He then requested a lighted candle, which was promptly given. His last earthly message was that "no one can do at his deathbed, what he failed to do in his lifetime." As the first streaks of dawn "fell" on the city of Kandy on Friday 16th Janu-ary, 1711, this Man of God, Son of Goa and Apostle of Sri Lanka, clear-ly pronouncing the words "Jesus, Mary and Joseph," breathed his last in an aura of sanctity as his soul winged its way to his creator. Fr.S.G. Perera sums up his life beautifully in his "Historical - Sketches." "His was an achievement little short of marvellous, from whatever point you regard his work, it must be declared a marvel. The dangers and difficulties he had to face, the absolute lack of means or the strength and forces of the enemy or the extent of the coun-try and the distances, the want of proper means of communication, the helplessness of the people be-fore a bullying prosecutor and the physical weakness of this Apostle. From whatever angle you examine it and compare the inadequacy of the means with the grandeur of the result, you will be forced to confess that there is not in the his-tory of the Church in the East or any other quarter of the globe a parallel. Fr.Vaz was so humble a man, with such a low opinion of himself that he never spoke, never wrote, never described or narrated his experiences. We have scarcely a single letter of his about his work nor any account of it coming from his pen or traceable to his lips. His heroic deeds during the early years, when he "worked" all alone are unknown to us except in bare outlines."

St. Joseph Vaz - Feast Day January 16

Well known as the Apostle of Ceylon St. Joseph Vaz, a Goan Priest of India after joining

the Oratory of St. Philip Neri arrived in Sri Lanka as a missionary in 1687. The feast of this saintly visitor to Sri Lanka is celebrated on the 16th of January every year as St. Joseph Vaz died on the same day in 1711. Joseph Vaz was born on 21st April 1651 to Christopher Vaz and Maria de Miranda in Goa. He was known for his deep charity towards the poor and for his piety, and entered the island disguised as a labourer. This was due to the pathetic situation at that time faced by the Catho-lic community in Sri Lanka. St. Joseph Vaz began to convert people to Catholicism from Jaffna to Put-talam and then in the Kingdom of Kandy which in later years became his citadel and last bastion and the centre for his missionary activities. He was able to win the confidence of the Kandyan King Wimaladharmasuriya II and his son Nar-endrasinghe. St. Joseph Vaz worked tire-lessly with a group of close assistants to spread the Gospel in Sri Lanka where he

had to trek through jungle paths and face many adversities with great persever-ance, courage and fortitude. According to the Weslyan cleric W.H. Harvard many Kandyan areas were visited by the Roman Catholic Mission-ary clergy including St. Joseph Vaz, who holds a privileged place.The Catholics had a strong church during the Portuguese period but later as the Dutch governed the island for thirty years no priest was allowed to enter the country. People then were starved of spiritual nourishment. At that time there were 70,000 Catholics in Ceylon and evangelizing the Church was St. Joseph Vaz's vision and he had a few missionaries around him. There was a time when in order to enter the Kandyan Kingdom one should obtain clearance from the King of Kandy. When in Kandy St. Joseph Vaz started visiting the adjacent Kandyan villages of Gampo-la, Wahakotte, Kundasale and Matale and nearby villages surrounded with thick jungle. Separated by hills of shrubs, rough roads and roaming dangerous wild animals, the Catholic families lived in various places distant from each oth-er. There were Portuguese descendants who had sought refuge in Kandy when the maritime province of Colombo was captured by the Dutch. When in Putta-

lam St. Joseph Vaz found that caravans coming from Kandy carried the signs of the cross and pictures of Saints and rea-lised that the King of Kandy at that time although a Buddhist was well disposed towards Catholicism and not a persecutor of other re-ligions. Sadly every King was not found similar to King Wimaladharmasur-iya II and St. Joseph Vaz found himself in prison at Bogambara in Kandy, where he built his first chapel within the prison premises. In the garden of the prison he put up a small shed cov-ered with leaves,which became the first Church dedicated to God in Candia or Kandy. In the centre of it he erected an altar on which he placed a holy wooden cross and venerated it prostrated on the ground. With great consideration of his soul St. Joseph Vaz offered his first Mass on Christmas night in December 1692. Impressed, after observing the loyalty and piety of St. Joseph Vaz, the King at

that time later took kindly towards him, and allowed him to move freely within the Kandy City. As soon as he found him-self free St. Joseph Vaz with the help of other Catholics built a small Church in the Kandy City and placed it under Our Lady of the Conversion of Pagans. In Kandy St. Joseph Vaz began to preach and administer Sacraments and went around the Kandy City visiting those infirm and the dying. This Church in Kandy became the centre of activ-ity for St. Joseph Vaz until the Kandyan Buddhist clergy complained to the King about his activities. Soon in 1694 the pre-vious church was enlarged and renewed by St. Joseph Vaz and in 1696 as request-ed by him the first oratorian Fr. Ferrao arrived in Kandy. Soon many others fol-lowed and this church in Kandy was giv-en to the care of Fr. Carvalho. Once when St.. Joseph Vaz was away in Colombo his enemies forced the Kandyan King to get Fr. Carvalho banished, and subsequently this Church too was destroyed. During the reign of King Wimaladharmasuriya a serious drought prevailed for a time in the Kandyan King-dom, and knowing the spiritual abilities of St. Joseph Vaz the King made him to pray for rain. After erecting an altar in front of the King's palace and no sooner the prayers began it started to rain while

St. Joseph Vaz himself was spared from this great deluge. Thus the King was pleased and the bad weather was ap-peased. It is said that the Kandyan King

procured the services of a Buddhist monk to teach Sinhalese to St. Joseph Vaz for him to communicate better with the local natives. Those guards protecting the city on the request of superiors freely allowed St. Joseph Vaz to leave or enter the city whenever he wished. According to research made the small church built in Kandy by St. Joseph Vaz seems to have been at the foot of Ba-hirawa Kanda in Kandy and nearby to the Bogambara lake. It seems to have been close to the present-day Pillayar Kovil and the Police Headquarters. A discovery in the London museum of a manuscript written by a Kandyan Buddhist lay leader by name Yatiyagala Polwatte Vidane writ-ten 120 years after the death of St. Vaz in Kandy refers to the smallpox epidemic that prevailed in the Kingdom of Kandy from 1697 - 1698 and the heroic services contributed by St. Joseph Vaz towards its victims. The Church St. Joseph Vaz built, among others, was the venue for celebrating Mass on 8th September, the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Mass and other activities were held with the approval of the King and his Chiefs. During the reign of King Sri Vijaya Ra-jasinghe there was a great conspiracy by the Buddhists led by the second Adigar. He surrounded the church built by St. Joseph Vaz in Kandy and took the priest prisoner and destroyed the church in 1746, confiscating the property. Some other priests too were banished and they were welcomed by the Raja of Vanniya who offered them liberty to carry out their mission. Later some of the mission-aries were allowed to visit the Kingdom of Kandy but in spite of it the mission of Kandy could not be revived. The brief his-tory of churches in Kandy built by St. Jo-seph Vaz inspire devotees apart from his impeccable life to pray and work towards finding the place where he was buried so that it would become the focal point of devotion. St. Joseph Vaz was reputed and revered as a divine Saint during his life- span. It is not injudicious or presumptu-ous when always referring to St. Joseph Vaz as the Apostle of Ceylon. But after his death on January 16th 1711, and after ten or eleven successive generations of believers in this island specially in Kandy the local Church has always known him to be a Saint. St. Joseph Vaz the Apostle of Sri Lanka pray for those Catholics in Kandy and the rest of Sri Lanka who have recourse to thee. May you be the better exalted Saint to our world. Amen.

Kandy - the last bastion of a numinous SaintBy Roggy Corera

By Miran Perera

9 The Messenger January 13, 2019

“Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all mankind shall see it together” (Isaiah 40,5)

The Person of St. Joseph VazMuch has been said and

written on the Mission-ary Activities of St. Jo-

seph Vaz. Now we shall look at the person of St. Joseph Vaz "Outside" the orbit of his Missionary achieve-ments, both in India and Sri Lanka. On the day of his birth his father Christopher Vaz had witnessed an unusual sight - that of a bright star shining in the noonday sky. Thus he wrote in his diary "today a son has been born to me and one day he will be great," and "great" he did become. As a little schoolboy he would wear his Rosary around his neck and recite it on his way to and from school. At school, he was loved by both his schoolmates and teachers alike. He would nev-er hurt anyone either by word or deed. As a result, he was called the "Little Saint" and subsequently. "The Friday Boy" since he was born on a Friday, baptised on a Fri-day, ordained a Priest on a Friday and died in Kandy also on a Fri-day. From a very early age he was noted for his extraordinary piety, and soon became a bright student performing well in all his exami-

nations. Once back from school, he would help his mother in her daily household chores such as marketing, cleaning the house and fetching water for the household from a nearby spring, which exists to this day. Hence, he found very little time for prayer and sought permission from his Parish Priest to have the Church doors kept open for a longer period during the day. This request was turned down. Having no other option and determined to pray before the Blessed Sacrament, young Joseph would "slip" out of his room win-dow and head towards his Church around midnight while the entire Vaz household was "fast asleep." In those days there were no street lights and Joseph had only "total darkness" to accompany him to Church at that hour. While he was kneeling and praying on the steps leading to the Church, the huge doors of this Church would be "flung" open miraculously for him to go in and pray. However, Joseph

would not move from the steps in perfect obedience to his Parish Priest. Then a voice from within would beckon him to come in but Joseph remained on the steps. Sub-sequently, two angels would carry him bodily and place him at the Altar Rails from where he would pray until the wee hours of the morning when he would retreat homewards and be back in his room through the window just be-fore the Vaz family would "awake" for the day.

As the years rolled along, Joseph became a noted linguist, being proficient in English, Lat-in, Konkani (his mother tongue) Portuguese, Spanish, Hindi and Kannada. In the near future he

would achieve proficiency in Sin-hala and Tamil as well. Very soon he answered the Lord's "call" and entered the Seminary and was or-dained a Priest in 1685, shortly

after which he wrote his Letter of Bondage to Mother Mary. Here he removed his sandals, and, plac-ing them beneath the Altar, vowed never to have footwear on him. This he fulfilled to the letter, re-maining barefooted all through his life, both in India and Ceylon. Before he came to Cey-lon, he ministered to the faithful in Kanara (Mangalore). Here, the Hindus and Muslims plotted to kill him. Once, at twilight he was led up the Mudippu Hill on the pretext of a sick call. When he was on the "point" of being done to death he begged of his would-be-assasins to give him a couple of minutes for prayer. Thus he prayed to God to spare his life, not for the love of it, but to save the Catholics from per-secution in Ceylon. At that moment a thunderbolt struck the area as all his would-be assassins fled the scene leaving him all alone. From the spot where his knees touched the ground (solid rock) there emerged two water fountains, which exist to this day and many are those who have been cured of various ailments using this water. Shortly afterwards, Fr. Vaz founded the Oratory in Goa which "turned out" the first Indigenous Order of Priests and thus became its first Superior. During late nights, many of his fellow priests have testified that he would be

heard weeping aloud before the blessed Sacrament begging for an opportunity to enter Ceylon - the land of his dreams. His prayer was answered. Very soon he left Goa

never to return and entered Co-chin via Mangalore. Here he stayed with the Jesuit Fathers where on many occasions he was seen in Ec-stasy while in deep prayer - almost hanging in the air. From Cochin he went to Tuticorin where he studied Tamil. Finally, on the 20th of May, 1687 after a perilous sea voyage of around 3 weeks, he set foot on Sri Lankan soil at a spot now referred to as South Bar, just near the pres-ent Mannar Railway Station. Here began a Gigantic and Glorious Mis-sion, working single-handed for nine long years, followed by a few Oratorian Priests from Goa. During his near twenty-four years in Ceylon he led a life of absolute austerity. His food con-sisted of Rice broil (Canji), the food of the poor. This too, he never par-took of on schedule. However, he would see to it that all his helpers had their meals on schedule. His prayer life commenced daily after sunset and went on till late nights. He seldom had a full night's sleep and whenever sleep overtook him, he would rest on a couch for just a short while. If and when he had

to sleep, he slept on a mat and that too on the floor. The cassock he was wearing was "patched" all over (Fr. Robin Rodriguez's 207 Stories on Fr. Vaz) signifying abject poverty. For 24 long years, the all-powerful Dutch Government failed miser-ably to "lay hands on him", in spite of the huge Reward of Dutch Guil-ders he carried on his head. Even in Dutch territory he would get about freely in ministering to his "flock". He would "pierce" a cor-don of Dutch soldiers waiting for him in broad daylight. He was an adept at disguise. He would pa-rade the streets as a dhoby a bak-erman, a fish monger, a betel seller, a bangle seller, a pedlar etc., etc. He visited the lay faithful as often as he could. For this purpose he es-tablished the "Muppus" and "An-navis." In this context it could be said that he foresaw Vatican II (lay participation), almost two and a half centuries ahead. In Kandy, he built a hospi-tal for the sick, a Home for the El-

ders and a school for children. He established a close rapport with the Kings of Kandy, Vimala Dhar-masuriya II and his son Narendras-inghe, both of whom held Fr. Vaz in high esteem. Fr. Vaz would be seen in and out of the Royal Palace quite often. In fact at the request of King Vimala Dharmasuriya, Fr. Vaz translated a book on Ayurve-da from Portuguese to Sinhala at which the King was well pleased. Also, at the request of the same King, he brought down a miracu-lous shower of rain and ended a prolonged drought. Besides, dur-ing the smallpox epidemic in Kan-dy (1696) Fr. Vaz gallantly tended to these victims who were virtu-ally left to die in the Udawattekelle Forest Reserve. Fr. Vaz washed their sores with saffron water and fed them with Canji in Temporary Sheds, he had built for them. Once the epidemic was over, the King exclaimed that had it not been for the gallant services rendered by Fr. Vaz and his helpers, there would not be living a single subject in Kandy today. His treks through the

Vanni took him several days. As to how many days he "went" without food and water is still unknown. He tamed hordes of wild animals with his crucifix. In Madhu, he was called the "Sammanasu - Swamy" (Angelic Priest). Indeed, he was a personification of humility - he was humble to the core. He never ever had money with him, instead like Judas he had his Treasury of-ficer, who attended to all financial matters. He had politely rejected the Episcopate which was offered to him. He built a church in Mad-hu in 1694 and in all probability changed the tittle of Our Lady of Good Health to the present Our Lady of the Rosary. It was in the environs of Madhu that he once blessed a cobra that was about to "attack" him and ordered the reptile never to "attack" a Catho-lic Priest. To date, after around 323 years since, no Catholic Priest has died in Sri Lanka as a result of a snakebite as his blessing still seems to be effective. Similarly, he tamed a rogue elephant at Kunda-

sale with his crucifix, bringing the animal down on its knees. Fr. Vaz was also well known for praying "over" childless couples, all of whom were subse-quently blessed with children. Very soon, he may be declared as the Patron Saint of childless couples? During his last years in Kandy he underwent immense suffering as a result of an infected wound in his right ear. He bore this pain in silence as though it was a blessing sent by God. Fr. Jacome Gonsalves had this to say about his physical appearance. "He was but a bag of bones hanging on his skin. His ap-pearance reminds me of Job." Just hours before he died an old wom-an came shivering to his doorstep begging for any clothing. With the permission of his fellow Priests he handed over his blanket to her, his final act of charity, thus part-ing with his last earthly posses-sion, having nothing else to call his own and completely ready to meet his creator. On the night of 15th January, 1711,the Fathers intoned the "office" of the dying to which he clearly gave the responses. He then requested a lighted candle, which was promptly given. His last earthly message was that "no one can do at his deathbed, what he failed to do in his lifetime." As the first streaks of dawn "fell" on the city of Kandy on Friday 16th Janu-ary, 1711, this Man of God, Son of Goa and Apostle of Sri Lanka, clear-ly pronouncing the words "Jesus, Mary and Joseph," breathed his last in an aura of sanctity as his soul winged its way to his creator. Fr.S.G. Perera sums up his life beautifully in his "Historical - Sketches." "His was an achievement little short of marvellous, from whatever point you regard his work, it must be declared a marvel. The dangers and difficulties he had to face, the absolute lack of means or the strength and forces of the enemy or the extent of the coun-try and the distances, the want of proper means of communication, the helplessness of the people be-fore a bullying prosecutor and the physical weakness of this Apostle. From whatever angle you examine it and compare the inadequacy of the means with the grandeur of the result, you will be forced to confess that there is not in the his-tory of the Church in the East or any other quarter of the globe a parallel. Fr.Vaz was so humble a man, with such a low opinion of himself that he never spoke, never wrote, never described or narrated his experiences. We have scarcely a single letter of his about his work nor any account of it coming from his pen or traceable to his lips. His heroic deeds during the early years, when he "worked" all alone are unknown to us except in bare outlines."

St. Joseph Vaz - Feast Day January 16

Well known as the Apostle of Ceylon St. Joseph Vaz, a Goan Priest of India after joining

the Oratory of St. Philip Neri arrived in Sri Lanka as a missionary in 1687. The feast of this saintly visitor to Sri Lanka is celebrated on the 16th of January every year as St. Joseph Vaz died on the same day in 1711. Joseph Vaz was born on 21st April 1651 to Christopher Vaz and Maria de Miranda in Goa. He was known for his deep charity towards the poor and for his piety, and entered the island disguised as a labourer. This was due to the pathetic situation at that time faced by the Catho-lic community in Sri Lanka. St. Joseph Vaz began to convert people to Catholicism from Jaffna to Put-talam and then in the Kingdom of Kandy which in later years became his citadel and last bastion and the centre for his missionary activities. He was able to win the confidence of the Kandyan King Wimaladharmasuriya II and his son Nar-endrasinghe. St. Joseph Vaz worked tire-lessly with a group of close assistants to spread the Gospel in Sri Lanka where he

had to trek through jungle paths and face many adversities with great persever-ance, courage and fortitude. According to the Weslyan cleric W.H. Harvard many Kandyan areas were visited by the Roman Catholic Mission-ary clergy including St. Joseph Vaz, who holds a privileged place.The Catholics had a strong church during the Portuguese period but later as the Dutch governed the island for thirty years no priest was allowed to enter the country. People then were starved of spiritual nourishment. At that time there were 70,000 Catholics in Ceylon and evangelizing the Church was St. Joseph Vaz's vision and he had a few missionaries around him. There was a time when in order to enter the Kandyan Kingdom one should obtain clearance from the King of Kandy. When in Kandy St. Joseph Vaz started visiting the adjacent Kandyan villages of Gampo-la, Wahakotte, Kundasale and Matale and nearby villages surrounded with thick jungle. Separated by hills of shrubs, rough roads and roaming dangerous wild animals, the Catholic families lived in various places distant from each oth-er. There were Portuguese descendants who had sought refuge in Kandy when the maritime province of Colombo was captured by the Dutch. When in Putta-

lam St. Joseph Vaz found that caravans coming from Kandy carried the signs of the cross and pictures of Saints and rea-lised that the King of Kandy at that time although a Buddhist was well disposed towards Catholicism and not a persecutor of other re-ligions. Sadly every King was not found similar to King Wimaladharmasur-iya II and St. Joseph Vaz found himself in prison at Bogambara in Kandy, where he built his first chapel within the prison premises. In the garden of the prison he put up a small shed cov-ered with leaves,which became the first Church dedicated to God in Candia or Kandy. In the centre of it he erected an altar on which he placed a holy wooden cross and venerated it prostrated on the ground. With great consideration of his soul St. Joseph Vaz offered his first Mass on Christmas night in December 1692. Impressed, after observing the loyalty and piety of St. Joseph Vaz, the King at

that time later took kindly towards him, and allowed him to move freely within the Kandy City. As soon as he found him-self free St. Joseph Vaz with the help of other Catholics built a small Church in the Kandy City and placed it under Our Lady of the Conversion of Pagans. In Kandy St. Joseph Vaz began to preach and administer Sacraments and went around the Kandy City visiting those infirm and the dying. This Church in Kandy became the centre of activ-ity for St. Joseph Vaz until the Kandyan Buddhist clergy complained to the King about his activities. Soon in 1694 the pre-vious church was enlarged and renewed by St. Joseph Vaz and in 1696 as request-ed by him the first oratorian Fr. Ferrao arrived in Kandy. Soon many others fol-lowed and this church in Kandy was giv-en to the care of Fr. Carvalho. Once when St.. Joseph Vaz was away in Colombo his enemies forced the Kandyan King to get Fr. Carvalho banished, and subsequently this Church too was destroyed. During the reign of King Wimaladharmasuriya a serious drought prevailed for a time in the Kandyan King-dom, and knowing the spiritual abilities of St. Joseph Vaz the King made him to pray for rain. After erecting an altar in front of the King's palace and no sooner the prayers began it started to rain while

St. Joseph Vaz himself was spared from this great deluge. Thus the King was pleased and the bad weather was ap-peased. It is said that the Kandyan King

procured the services of a Buddhist monk to teach Sinhalese to St. Joseph Vaz for him to communicate better with the local natives. Those guards protecting the city on the request of superiors freely allowed St. Joseph Vaz to leave or enter the city whenever he wished. According to research made the small church built in Kandy by St. Joseph Vaz seems to have been at the foot of Ba-hirawa Kanda in Kandy and nearby to the Bogambara lake. It seems to have been close to the present-day Pillayar Kovil and the Police Headquarters. A discovery in the London museum of a manuscript written by a Kandyan Buddhist lay leader by name Yatiyagala Polwatte Vidane writ-ten 120 years after the death of St. Vaz in Kandy refers to the smallpox epidemic that prevailed in the Kingdom of Kandy from 1697 - 1698 and the heroic services contributed by St. Joseph Vaz towards its victims. The Church St. Joseph Vaz built, among others, was the venue for celebrating Mass on 8th September, the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Mass and other activities were held with the approval of the King and his Chiefs. During the reign of King Sri Vijaya Ra-jasinghe there was a great conspiracy by the Buddhists led by the second Adigar. He surrounded the church built by St. Joseph Vaz in Kandy and took the priest prisoner and destroyed the church in 1746, confiscating the property. Some other priests too were banished and they were welcomed by the Raja of Vanniya who offered them liberty to carry out their mission. Later some of the mission-aries were allowed to visit the Kingdom of Kandy but in spite of it the mission of Kandy could not be revived. The brief his-tory of churches in Kandy built by St. Jo-seph Vaz inspire devotees apart from his impeccable life to pray and work towards finding the place where he was buried so that it would become the focal point of devotion. St. Joseph Vaz was reputed and revered as a divine Saint during his life- span. It is not injudicious or presumptu-ous when always referring to St. Joseph Vaz as the Apostle of Ceylon. But after his death on January 16th 1711, and after ten or eleven successive generations of believers in this island specially in Kandy the local Church has always known him to be a Saint. St. Joseph Vaz the Apostle of Sri Lanka pray for those Catholics in Kandy and the rest of Sri Lanka who have recourse to thee. May you be the better exalted Saint to our world. Amen.

Kandy - the last bastion of a numinous SaintBy Roggy Corera

By Miran Perera

10 The Messenger January 13, 2019

“Every valley shall be fi lled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low” (Isaiah 40,4)

Incarnate Word During this liturgical season, we are celebrating the great mystery of the Son of God who became man, indeed, became a Child, for our salvation. Down through the ages, saints and theologians have endeavoured to ‘read God’s mind’ with regard to the Incarnation. It was not necessary that the Son of God should become man, not even for the sake of the Redemption. As St Thomas Aquinas has observed: God could have restored human nature in any number of ways (St. Thomas, Summa Theologiae, 3, q 1, a 2). The Incarnation is the ultimate expression of God’s love for mankind. The best reason for the Incarnation seems to lie in the awesome immensity of this divine love. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son (John 3:16).” By this lowering of Himself, God has made it easier for man to speak with Him. The whole history of salvation represents God’s reaching out to His beloved creatures. The Catholic Faith reveals to humanity all the goodness, mercy and love that God has for us (F. Fernandez, The Annunciation of the Lord). Right from the beginning of time God has been encouraging man to draw close to Him. The Incarnation is the culmination of this message.

From that moment on, the only-begotten Son would be a man like us. And He would remain a human person forever. The Incarnation was not a temporary condition. Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, would be perfect God and perfect man to all eternity. This is the great mystery we may well find overwhelming: God in His infinite love has taken man seriously. Due to His infinite love, God has given man the opportunity to respond to Christ, a full-fledged member of the human race. Remembering that ‘the Word became flesh,’ that is, that the Son of God became man, we must become conscious of how great each man has become through this mystery, through the Incarnation of the Son of God! Christ; in fact; was conceived in the womb of Mary and became man to reveal the eternal love of the Creator and Father and to make known the dignity of each one of us (St. John Paul II, Angelus at the Sanctuary of Jasna Gora, 5th June 1979).

Jesus is God made man As a result of many religious controversies over the centuries, the Church has sought to define the truths relating to the Incarnation. She has been zealous in this regard because she realizes that to defend the truth about Christ is to defend the truth about the human person. He Who is

“the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15), is Himself the perfect man. To the sons of Adam He restores the divine likeness which had been disfigured from the first sin onward. Since human nature as He assumed it was not annulled; by that very fact it has been raised up to a divine dignity in our respect too. For by His incarnation the Son of God has united Himself in some fashion with every man. He worked with human hands, He thought with a human mind; acted by human choice and loved with a human heart Born of the Virgin Mary, He has truly been made one of us, like us in all things except sin (Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et spes, 22). The Son of God became man, and He is perfectus Deus, perfectus homo: “perfect God and perfect man.” There is something in this mystery which should stir Christians.

Denying Christ’s divinity Though the divinity of Christ is stressed repeatedly in the New Testament, there are fundamentalist groups, sects, novels, etc. which deny the divinity of Jesus Christ. They claim that nowhere in the Bible did Jesus say He was God. In the interest of brevity, we can limit ourselves to the false claims of the Da Vinci Code novel. Some of the offensive claims of the Da Vinci Code

pertain directly to the Catholic Church. The remainder strike at the Christian faith itself. If the book’s claims were true, then all forms of Christianity would be false, except perhaps for Gnostic or feminist versions focusing on Mary Magdalene instead of Jesus. Catholics should be concerned about the book because it not only misrepresents their Church as a murderous institution but also implies that the Christian faith itself is utterly false. The Catholic Answers’ special report, Cracking the Da Vinci Code, observes that during the course of the novel it is alleged that the Catholic Church is perpetuating a major, centuries-long conspiracy to hide the “truth” about Jesus Christ from the public, and it or its agents are willing to stop at nothing, including murder, to do so. Dan Brown’s novel promotes erroneous undercurrents against the Catholic faith. Among others, it claims that Jesus is not God. Some sects also say nowhere in the Bible did Jesus ever say he was God.

Bible attests to Christ’s divinity But why was Jesus crucified, in the first place? Was it not because He claimed to be God, as per findings of the Sanhedrin trial? Our Lord’s opponents sought to kill Him because He “called God His Father, making Himself equal

with God” (John 5:18). When quizzed about how He has special knowledge of Abraham, Jesus replies, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58), invoking and applying to Himself the personal name of God – “I Am” (Exodus 3:14). His audience understood exactly what He was claiming about Himself: He was God. “So they took up stones to throw at him; but Jesus hid Himself, and went out of the temple” (John 8:59). Elsewhere, He said. “I and (God) the Father are one (John 10:30).” In John’s Gospel, Thomas falls at Jesus’ feet, exclaiming, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28) And Paul tells us that Jesus chose to be born in humble, human form even though He could have remained in equal glory with the Father, for He was “in the form of God” (Philippians 2:6). But obviously, for those who have decided not to believe in the divinity of Christ no amount of evidence from the Bible would suffice. On the other hand, for those who want to accept as our Saviour and Lord, countless Scriptural passages more than suffice. Here, finally, are some scriptural data for Christ’s claim to divinity (cf. P. Kreeft & RK Tacelli, Handbook of Christian Apologetics):

LIVING FAITHRev. Fr. Daniel Icatlo

JESUS CHRIST, TRUE GOD AND TRUE MAN

The Baptism of the Lord – Meditation (Luke 3:15-16, 21-22) – Year CBy Rev. Fr. Nilindra Gunasekera sss

Today’s Gospel narrates of the baptism of Jesus. We be-gin our meditation. Having received John’s baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, I remain on the banks of the Jordan, watching the others being baptized. Intermittently, John would shout, ‘Amen I say to you, there shall come one who is stronger than I’. Then he would continue baptizing again. After some time, John looks at the crowds and says in earnest, ‘I am not worthy to untie the thong of the sandal of the one who is to come’. Again he resumes baptizing people, and then once more he shouts aloud, ‘Now hear this. The ˋone who is to comeˊ has the win-nowing fork in his hand to clear the threshing floor’. And finally, he exclaims, ‘I baptize you with water, but he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. For his offer of the Spirit will purge the people, and there-fore, divide them. He offers one baptism, which has two effects, determined solely by the response to the bap-tism offered. The two effects of this baptism of the Spirit and fire are portrayed by the picture of sifting grain at harvest time. The winnowing fork sifts the wheat. The heavier usable grain falls on to the threshing floor but the chaff is blown away and will be tossed into the fire’. As John continues speaking, Jesus walks up to him and says ‘Baptize me’. John responds by saying to the people, ‘This is the lamb of God’. Now when all the people are baptized, after Jesus was baptized and while He was praying, heaven

opens and the Spirit descends in bodily form like a dove upon Him. A heavenly voice is heard, ‘This is my Son, my Beloved, in whom I am well pleased’. I see the vision and hear the heavenly voice. Jesus receives divine endorse-ment and is divinely enabled for His mission. I ask John, ‘What is the meaning of these signs?’ John replies, ‘God has rendered divine testimony to Jesus from heaven. The baptism is like an inauguration for Jesus’ mission. It is a messianic anointing. Angel Gabriel had made Je-sus’ messianic position clear from the very beginning (Luke 1:31-35). He would receive the throne of David. But here the divine testimony points to the Son as an ‘Isaac figure’ who would be sacrificed (Genesis 22:12) and therefore become a suffering servant’ (Isaiah 42:1). Then I ask John, ‘But why has Jesus in need of a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins? The Son of God is sinless, surely?’ John replies, ‘Jesus chooses to partake of my baptism for three reasons. First, it represents an endorsement of my ministry and message (Luke 20:1-8). Second, it shows how Jesus identifies Himself with the people as He begins His ministry. Third, in the Spirit’s descending, Jesus emerges as the ˋOne who is to comeˊ’. I say, to John, ‘I saw the heavens open, too’. John says, ‘Yes, it means that God begins to act. The picture is of God stepping out to address people. God is entering into your everyday world through Jesus. But there is some-thing more important that you should ask’. I say, ‘What is it, Venerable Prophet?’ John replies, “You must also

ask, ˋWhat does this revelation teach you?ˊ’ ‘Yes, indeed’, I reply. Then John says, ‘Have you not received the Holy Spirit? Yes, you have (Acts 2). Did you realize that it was the inauguration of your mission on this earth? But what have you done about it? Have you realized that when you were baptized, you were configured into Christ, the Isaac-figure, who would be sacrificed? Are you then not obliged to be another servant in whom God will be well pleased? Can you then continue in your self-seeking and hedonistic ways, expecting God to be pleasing to you’ I cringe in guilt at John’s words, and begin to ponder: ‘In this heavenly revelation, the God of Israel en-dorsed and legitimized the life and ministry of His only Beloved Son. The Heavenly Father thereby revealed the divinely ordained lifestyle of His Son. At baptism, God lays claim upon us as His children. Though the great-est of all prophets said that Jesus would come with win-nowing fork, for the axe is already laid at the root of the tree, did not the Lord associate with tax collectors and sinners? How should I respond to God’s mercy? For God speaks to me through the edifying lives of my parents, and teachers…Ah, yes! Henceforth, my Christian life shall be marked with zeal, as a token of gratitude for the sacrifices they have made on my behalf, in the name of Christ. I shall not be a lukewarm disciple’.

(Contd on Pg. 7)

11 The Messenger January 13, 2019

“The rugged land shall be made a plain, the rough country, a broad valley” (Isaiah 40,4)

Hilda of Whitby St. Hild of Streoneshalh, c.614 – 680

The attractive, 2013 novel “Hild” by British author Nicola Griffith is a history-fiction that illuminates the so-called Dark Ages in early Britain. It recon-

structs an often alien historical world attempting to destroy the myths of Medieval Womanhood by retell-ing the story of Hild, the seventh-century woman who would come to be revered as St. Hilda. It is a fictional-ized telling of the life of Hilda of Whitby, also known as Hild of Streoneshalh, a significant figure in medieval Britain about whose life there is very little historical documentation to the liking of our academic curiosity or scholarly research. But the powerful character we could construct through the little that has come down to us about her has proven sufficient to stir unending fantasies of many a novelist to explore the untold.

The Light of the World Griffith’s Hild is, according to her ambitious and canny mother, “the light of the world,” destined to lead her people into prosperity as the king’s seer. Just before Hilda’s birth, Hilda’s mother had a vision of light cast across Britain from a necklace - a vision that St. Bede (672 – 735 AD), writing in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, regarded as being fulfilled through Hilda. Her power unlike any magic or witchcraft nor-mally associated with extraordinary medieval women was that of observations, of reading cycles and patterns of behaviour, be they in weather, landscapes, or people, which is more scientific, intellectual or philosophi-cal than occultist or magical. She grows and develops into an adviser to the king at a time of enormous social change and war among English kingdoms, after the Ro-mans had left Britain in the mid fifth century AD and the Anglo-Saxons have moved in. Seventh century Britain is in transition. Small kingdoms are merging. Edwin of Northumbria plots to become over-king of the Angles using every tool at his disposal: blood, bribery, and religious belief. Into this world Hilda is born, the king’s niece: a child with a glit-tering mind, powerful curiosity, and will of adamant. King Edwin is cunning and ruthless, but Hilda is match-less. She carves herself a place as his advisor, a young woman at the heart of the violence, subtlety, and mysti-cism of the early medieval age. But kings do not trust anyone, even nieces. And at this level, the stakes are life and death for Hilda in the king’s court as his royal advi-sory. In the 1994 historic-fiction novel Absolution by Murder by Peter Tremayne the character Fidelma por-trays Hilda, as a sister to an Irish king, who is a feisty and independent Irish nun who attends the historical synod at Whitby in 664, where a formal debate takes place intended to settle major doctrinal differences be-tween the Celtic and Roman Catholic Churches. When the Abbess of Kildare, Fidelma’s (Hilda) mentor and chief representative of the Celtic tradition, is murdered immediately before her scheduled oration, Fidelma is called upon in her role as a renowned legal scholar and Irish advocate for the courts. She never ceases battling against old superstitions resurrected by storm, plague, and solar eclipse, but at last she receives a bishop’s blessing—from a man she trained herself as the abbess and founder of a reputed monastic tutelage sought after even by the elite and royals of the land. Between Love and Power

A different side to Hilda is revealed in Jill Dalla-day’s 2015 novel The Abbess of Whitby which combines historical record and fiction to imagine Hilda’s life be-fore she became a nun. Chosen as Eostre’s handmaid, Hilda will serve the fertility goddess for a year before being wed. Her future is predictable—until King Edwin claims her as kin and she learns that her father was murdered during her infancy. Her first love is given a command in Edwin’s forces and vanishes from her life, wed to her sister. The court is then baptized, ending the old fertility cult religion and Hilda’s role. Life looks bleak. She cannot stop wondering who killed her father. Suspecting Edwin, she challenges him, only to be mar-ried off to safeguard his northern frontier. Struggling in a loveless marriage, she is intrigued by the Iona priests making pilgrimages to spread Christ’s love. When home and family are lost in Oswy’s sack of Edinburgh, she finds herself in enemy hands, but meets the charismatic Aidan. Inspired and guided by him, she builds commu-nities to live and teach Christ’s love. She attracts follow-ers. Even her old enemy, King Oswy, entrusts his child to her, gives her Whitby, and seeks her help to reconcile

divisions in his kingdom. The 1991 novel The Song of Hild by Vibeke Vasbo is a story that portrays St. Hilda in multiple roles as mother, wife, queen, and eventual Abbess of Whitby. According to James Wiener until the year 647 AD, we know very little about Hilda. Because she was a prin-cess, it is possible she married, maybe even more than once. And maybe she was widowed due to illness or war. Hereswith, Hilda’s sister, became a nun in one of the convents located in the Seine basin (in France), when Hilda was about 33. We know that Hilda made her way to East Anglia, perhaps with the intention of joining her sister overseas. But by the end of the year, she was re-called to Northumbria by St. Aidan (c.590 – 651 AD), the renowned Irish missionary and Bishop of Lindisfarne.

A Woman in a Man’s World Each of these fascinating historical novels has weaved with fictional threads a colorful tapestry of a magnificent English woman with a charismatic per-sona, intellectual brilliance and political affluence that has vibe to rattle even the most robust modern feminist prejudices against uncompromising religious oppres-sion of women in the medieval times. Hilda has bravely navigated the difficult and often brutal world of men in order to ensure the survival of her children and of her-self. Social and racial tensions across the land are only aggravated by the rise of Christianity in a deeply pagan country, but it is Hilda’s unwavering faith in the new re-ligion that gives her something to cling to in the darkest moments both in her life and in the life of her country. Women in her time suffered rape, domestic abuse, and accusations of sorcery and witchcraft and of-ten in their tender age were bartered in marriage, used as political hostages to ensure the compliance of neigh-bouring kingdoms, or even murdered in battle for land, money, and even liberation. In a world of warring men it was up to women who were the ones to survive the battles in the end to tell a different story to their chil-dren if a different future had to be envisaged. Hilda was a woman who started telling this different story to her people in her society as a true visionary and a proph-etess. She firmly established the role of women as the peace-weavers, healers, leaders of their communities, by qualifying her role and contribution as integral to the spread of Christianity. Strangely many challenges and dangers Hilda and the other women of her times bat-tled with such as childbirth, violence, unemployment, exploitation of labour and misogyny are still problems women grapple with today. History attests to Hilda’s extraordinary pub-lic relations and skill in diplomacy as she traversed the English land meeting who is who of kings, monks, bishops, poets, and saints, as one could imagine a huge roster of characters whose trust and respect she had clearly won with her refined manner, royal lineage, el-egant persona, political affluence, witty rhetoric and inspiring wisdom. Hilda is a saint with flaws, but in her faults we see her beautiful womanhood, humanity and her compassion shining forth. Though separated from us by thirteen centuries, her song of joy in peace and tolerance between men and women still resounds pow-erfully today. (To be continued…)

Born: According to Ven. Bede in 614 into the Deiran royal household in the Kingdom of Northumbria, British Isles Died: on November 17, 680 AD (aged 66) in a mon-astery, fourteen miles from Whitby, at Hackness, Britain Nationality: British, in the tradition of Celtic monas-ticism in Iona, an English Princess, Abbess, Notable Achievements: Hosting & presiding over the Synod of Whitby, Founder of Monastic Communi-ties (including mixed gender communities), Legis-lator of monastic rules, educator of ecclesiastical authorities Main Interests: Scripture, Poetry, Culture, Politics, Ecumenism, Education, Tradition, Monasticism, Teaching

Fr. Anthony Nilantha Ediriwickrema Head of the Department of Philosophy

The National Seminary of Our Lady of Lanka

• The early creedal formula “Jesus is Lord [kyrios]” meaning, He is God: 1 Corinthians 12:3; Phil lippians 2:11.• The title “Son of God” (“Son of” implies “of the same

nature as.”): Matthew 11:27; Mark 12:6; 13:32; 14:61-62; Luke 10:22; 22:70; John 10:30; 14:9.

• The New Testament calls Him “God”: Titus 2:13; 1 John 5:20; Romans 9:5; Jn 1:1.

• Absolutely, universally supreme: Colossians 1:15-20.• Eternally preexistent: John 1:1; Philippians 2:6;

Hebrews 13:8; Revelation 22:13.• Omnipresent: Matthew 18:20; 28:20.• Omnipotent: Matthew 28:18; Hebrews 1:3; Revelation 1:8.

• Immutable: Hebrews 1:11-12; 13:8.• Creates (only God can create): Colossians 1:16-17;

John 1:3; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Hebrews 1:10.• Sinless, perfect: Hebrews 7:26; John 8:46; 2

Corinthians 5:21.• Has authority to forgive sins: Mark 2:5-12; Luke

24:45-47; Acts 10:43; 1 John 1:5-9.• Rightly worshipped: Matthew 2:11; 14:33; 28:9;

John 20:28; Hebrews 1:5-9.• Speaks the unique, forbidden divine name: John 8:58.• Called “King of kings and Lord of lords”: 1 Timothy

6:15; Revelation 17:14.• One with the Father: John 10:30; 12:45; 14:8-10.• Performs miracles: John 10:37-38; and throughout

all four Gospels.

• Sends the Holy Spirit: John 14:25-26; 16:7-15.• The Father testifies to Him: Matthew 3:17; 17:5;

John 8:18; 1 John 5:9.• Gives eternal life: John 3:16; 5:39-40; 20:30-31.• Foreknows the future: Mark 8:31; Luke 9:21-22;

12:49-53; 22:35-37; 24:1-7; John 3:11-14; 6:63-64; 13:1-11; 14:27-29; 18:1-4; 19:26-30.

• Is Lord over the Law: Luke 6:1-5. Jesus Christ, God-man. This is one of “the mighty works of God,” which we should reflect upon and thank him for. He has come to bring “peace on earth to men of good Will,” to all men who want to unite their wills to the holy will of God, not just the rich, not just the poor, but everyone: all the brethren (St. J. Escrivá, Christ Is Passing By). We are all brothers in Jesus, children of God, brothers of Christ. His Mother is our mother.

(Contd from Pg. 6)Jesus Christ ...

12 The Messenger January 13, 2019

“… and all were asking in their hearts whether John might be the Messiah” (Luke 3,15)

Living or just

breathing?“Any plans for the new year Little Bird…?”“Most people don’t have plans… they have only wishes and dreams”“How should I plan my new year?”“Resolve to live your life’ is my advice!”“What do you mean?...I’m already living…”“Are you sure?…just breathing is not living… You have to live a full life, a useful successful and joyful life…and that needs a lot of effort, determination, direction, courage and planning.”“Give me some direction Little Bird”“Show me your ten fingers ..I will give you ten points to remember..1. Be thankful and happy that you are alive. Mil-

lions of people who go to bed tonight will not wake up to see a new day…Determine to think positively and live a full useful life.

2. Don’t take your loved ones for granted. Tender care and smooth communication on a daily ba-sis is a must for a happy family.. Don’t live like strangers under the same roof. Our families are not going to live for ever. We all will have to go in different directions as time lapses. So, show love to your children, wife/husband be-fore it is too late.

3. Don’t waste a single minute. Every passing mo-ment is so precious and irretrievable…Wasting time curbs success. It’s a crime. Consider each day as the best day of your life.

4. Have no regrets about the past and no anxi-ety about the future. Regrets can’t change the past; anxiety can’t change the future. Only the present counts. The past should be a diary for reference.

5. Show gratitude to parents. Many ageing par-ents do not get enough attention and love from their own children. They may have all the modern comforts, but a single word of love, a tender good night kiss and a hug would mean much more to them.

Don’t be too busy to neglect your parents. 6. Love the loveless. There are orphans, neglected

people, sick people and people struggling with worries and problems. Try to be of some help to them, at least by some words of comfort.

7. Pay attention to your health. Today you’re par-tying, and tomorrow you may not be the same. Our greed, over indulgence in food, liquor and unhealthy habits invite ill health. Diabetes, obesity, blood pressure etc. are no fun. But most of these could be avoided if we control ourselves.

Remember… physical wellbeing is as important as our spiritual wellbeing.

8. Plan your work and work your plan. Don’t ex-pect magic.. Just wishing and hoping will not bring prosperity. Use all the available resourc-es, understand your capabilities and limita-tions and plan your future dreams intelligently in a practical framework.

9. Don’t believe everybody and everything. We fall into traps and troubles because we trust the wrong people. Be prudent and careful in dealing with people.

10.Last but not least , put God first in all things. Clock ticks, time flies, and the future is uncer-

tain. Remain close to God. He knows what is best for you.

Michael Angelo Fernando

The Archdiocese of Colombo has de-clared this year as the year of youth.

In a very inspiring and instructive article Rev. Fr. Crispin Leo, one of the former youth chaplains writes thus; “The Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops held in October 2018 has just concluded. The theme was youth, Faith and Vocational Discernment. All the participating Bish-ops from the Four Corners of the Globe were given a Preparatory Document which was an outcome of a dis-cussion and sharing of over three hundred International youth and youth chaplains. The Document given to the Pope was released on January 13, 2017. It is addressed to the youth. In keeping with the trend of the Universal Church, the Archdiocese of Colombo has declared this year as the Year of Youth. (Messenger, November 25, 2018 Pg 11) I have been a very active youth chaplain in my own right at St. Lucia’s Cathedral Parish twice. First as a Deacon I had to guide the Sinhala youth circle. Af-ter my ordination to the Priesthood, I was appointed as the Assistant Pastor to St. Thomas’ Church, Kotte. In my appointment paper it was stated that I was empow-ered to assist the Late Rev. Fr. Stanley Abeysekara in all matters pertaining to both the Parish of Kotte and St. Thomas’ College. He was the Parish Priest cum Rector of St. Thomas’ College, Kotte par excellence. Here in the Kotte Parish I had to guide the youth both in the college and the parish. After two and half years of my pastoral service at Kotte, the Servant of God the late Cardinal Cooray requested me thus; “Child can you please do me a favour?" Can you go to St. Lucia’s Kotahena again and help Fr. Raymond Peiris look after the English youth Front? His Eminence’s plea was very fatherly so I could not say no to Him. So, back again at Kotahena I had to get myself engaged in the activities of the Catholic English Youth Front. According to my observation, the Catholic Youth both in Kotahena and Kotte Parishes were not aggressive as the youth in some village parishes but they were well behaved well disci-plined and religious minded, and very cooperative with priests in the parish activities, while gaining the knowl-edge necessary to build up their character with Chris-tian values. Apart from the zonal meetings held every month the youth of Kotahena organized the Eucharistic service every second Sunday of the month. The Youth Mass as we used to call then, was very captivating and enchanting with their melodious singing and choral harmony. When a young priest assumes duties as a par-ish priest he has to look into various aspects of the par-ish administration. He cannot just lie low and attend to the bare minimum of religious duties only namely, per-forming Eucharistic Services on a daily or weekly basis, attending to spiritual welfare of the sick and elderly and conducting the Daham Pasala on Sundays, etc. He has to be the guiding light to the youth of the parish, because the youth of any parish are the future leaders of the Catholic Church and our country. They play a vital role by taking part in the religious and social activities of the Parish. If the parish priest attends to parish activities only with the participation of the youth, the Elders may begin to grumble that they are more or less neglected or marginalized. The Parish Priest has to strike a bal-ance in dealing with all the groups in the parish namely, the children, the youth and the Elders. “The new parish priest is always with young boys and girls. He has no concern for us. We are like a discarded penny”. §wmsj ;U f∞hs;=jlg .Kka .kafka keye' wms wj,x.= ldis jf.hs'ZZ This is a complaint made by the Elders. Therefore the parish priest has to be very tactful and move with every group and solicit their help in running the parish. The Parish Priest should identify various activi-ties of the parish and devolve responsibility to children, youth and elders, according to each group’s skills, ca-pabilities, naturally, the youth are physically energetic and strong. They could therefore help the priest in put-ting up Pandols for religious festivals and other similar events. This is not to say that youth are a work-force in the parish. The elders too could do Shramadana and the like along with the youth. Recently in the Negombo Region the youth and the elders participated in a clean-ing campaign along the sea beach where people had dumped their garbage and had polluted the area. The Negombo Deanery Fathers too participated in the clean-ing campaign with the youth of their parishes. Hats off to the Rev. Fathers and the Youth for they proved their

worth by participaitng in this grand project. In this Year of Youth, the Archdiocese of Co-lombo should implement comprehensive and cohesive programmes to educate the youth as to how they ought to develop their character with real Christian values. The Vatican Document follows the methodology of Jo-seph Cardinal Cardijn, who founded the Young Christian Workers movement (YCW) and paved the way for the Young Christian Student movement (YCS). The three faceted principles enunciated by Cardinal Cardijn are See, Judge, an Act which are used for the formation and guidance of the youth. The Catholic Church as universal body has al-ways been very liberal and understanding when dealing with the youth. “Do not allow the spark of the youth to be extin-guished, in the darkness of a closed room in which the only window to the outside world is a computer and smartphone. Open wide the doors of your life. May your time and space be filled with meaningful relationships with real people” (Pope Francis). The Catholic Church (specially in the Archdi-ocese of Colombo) in the recent past had allowed the youth to play in the church premises without disrupting the religious services conducted in the churches. During the Episcopate of Archbishop Nicholas Marcus Fernan-do there was lot of turmoil with regard to playgrounds situated in some church premises. In several parishes the parish priest and the youth had unnecessary clash-es due to the playgrounds. However much the parish priest advised the youth not to play during the religious services they did not follow his instructions and contin-ued to play as heathens at all odd hours. Some parish priests were fed up with their bad demeanour and left the parishes even without informing the parishioners. In some parishes the youth associations had been politically motivated and the M.P. of the area was using the youth for his political agendas. Sometimes the parish priest too was in a dilemma, as to what he should do. At such critical times the parish council and the par-ish community remain bewildered and leave the church authorities to do what they think is best. St. Cajetan’s Church Welihena had a volleyball court near the mission house and the parish priest had no privacy because the youth used to play in the evenings with flood lights. The late Very Rev. Fr. Joe Wickramas-inghe intervened in the matter as the Episcopal Vicar for the Negombo Region and had several discussions with the youth and came to an amicable settlement by shift-ing the volleyball court to some other premises. Their behaviour and reaction to the parish priest was awful. Very Rev. Fr. Manokumaran Nagarathnam was the Par-ish Priest at Welihena during this period. He will vouch for my statement of facts in this regard. The Dehiyagatha Parish too had a similar prob-lem. The Youth Associations had a playground just in front of the church. Late Rev. Fr. Godfry Fernando was the Parish Priest during that period. The Archdiocese decided to remove all the playgrounds situated in the church premises considering the sacredness of the church and its surroundings. The parish priest togeth-er with the parish council should find a suitable place other than the church premises for the youth to play. In implementing this new policy the parish priests had to undergo various hardships. The MPs of certain ar-eas had some control over the youth for their political agendas. There was political backing by the MPs both in Welihena and Dehiyagatha. The youth of Dehiyagagtha went to courts when they were forbidden to play by the parish priest. The courts gave a decision in favour of the parish priest. So the matter ended there, but the youth got antagonized with the parish priest. It took a long time to reconcile both parties. In some parishes the youth have their own agen-das, and the parish priests have to abide by their deci-sions. The youth associations have their bank accounts and they manipulate the finances according to their whims and fancies. Some youth continue as members even after their marriage and hold offices such as chair-man, secretary and treasurer. Actually though they call themselves youth, they are not youth but a mixed group. In Tudella when I was the Parish Priest there, the youth used to put up a coconut Pandol during the church feast. They used to collect coconuts from the

The Year of Youth (2018-2019)By Rev. Fr. Athanasius Samarasinghe

(Contd on Pg. 15)

13 The Messenger January 13, 2019

Girls, come and help us! Boys, come and help us!

Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child

Dear Mom, Dad or Guardian of our Young Evangelizers, Success-failure, joy-sorrow, anxiety, fear, anger are emotions native to every human being. As a child if you learn to take charge of your emotions instead of letting your emotions dictate your con-duct, you are emotionally intelligent. Emotional Intelligence Quotient (EQ) is given a higher priority over Intelligence Quotient (IQ), in the world today. While IQ is dependent on the knowledge and skills acquired by a child, EQ de-pends on how parents/ guardians teach the children to deal with their emotions. In order to teach the child, we ought to live it as well. Children learn from watching their elders. EQ mainly refers to how one is capable of handling one's feelings/ emotions and how well one can empathize and get along with other people. This key human skill comprises of self-awareness, self-discipline and empathy. One should be able to �irst understand, identify and control one’s feelings prior to reacting to a situation. Secondly, it involves the ability of in�luencing the emotions of others. Effective decision making, getting along with various kinds of personalities, ability to make friends, progressing in their tasks are the areas a child can develop through emotional intelligence. In order to develop this in our kids, we need to get into their shoes, to understand their situa-tions. Our kids should be comfortable to approach us and be open to us about their lives and experience. In addition, we need to be open with them as well and discuss about our emotions. Children should be helped in identifying the exact emotional feelings they are going through. One child might refer to his/her emotional state as ‘sad’, but that might not be the root cause. The child might be afraid or discour-aged of something. A child should not be taught to be an iron bar, which is all the time strong and he/she should suppress his/her weaker emotions. As elders, we raise the bar too high for our kids at times. We por-tray ourselves as “emotionally strong” in front of our kids. The kids ought to be aware that they are hu-man beings. It is all right to cry, it is all right to feel afraid and it is all right to fall. What they should be taught is not to linger over their negative emotions for too long and have the prudence to decide what they should do next. They should be taught to think wise and be con�ident about themselves. Gerro

Solemnity of the Week – St. Joseph Vaz (16th January)• Birth – April 21, 1651• Place of Birth – Benaulim, India• Death – January 16, 1711• Title – Apostle of Sri Lanka

Interesting facts:• In 1658, the Dutch, being adherents of the Dutch Reformed Church and fearing that Catholics would support the Portu-guese, began to persecute the Catholics, forbidding the practice of the Catholic faith within their territory.• Eager to serve the Catholics in Ceylon, St. Vaz presented his request to go to Ceylon to the eccle-siastical authorities. But, he was asked to serve the abandoned Catholics of Canara (Karnataka) in southwestern India• St. Joseph Vaz lived in Canara for 4 years. During that time he gave shape to the church of Mangalore, where he had reached in 1682. He built churches and chapels. In many villages, he opened a small school, appointed

a catechist, and made pro-vision by establishing con-fraternities for the mainte-nance of the church• In 1684 St. Joseph Vaz made his way back to Goa. There he founded a small community of Goan Priests at the Church of the Cross of Miracles. The Goa Oratory of St. Philip Neri is assumed to be the first fully native religious community of the Latin rite in Asia• In March, 1686, St. Joseph Vaz set out for Ceylon. In April, 1687, he disembarked to Ceylon in the guise of a poor beggar• In 1658, 120 Cath-olic missionaries had left Ceylon, and the churches were closed or destroyed. From 1658 to 1687 Cath-

olics were isolated: no priest, no sacraments, and no church• St. Joseph Vaz ar-rived in Jaffna. He started his life in Ceylon without any logistic support. With a rosary on his neck he begged from door to door for his survival. That was how he made contact with Catholics. Joseph Vaz was the first non-European missionary to come to Cey-lon. He came, not sent by civil, royal or ecclesiastical authorities. And he came in simplicity and poverty, without the support or protection of an institu-tional Church• St. Joseph Vaz had chosen Kandy as the centre of his apostolate to avoid the vigilance of the Dutch. But, as soon as the King, Vimaladharma-suriya II, was informed, St. Joseph Vaz was bound in chains and was conducted to a prison in Kandy, as he was seen as a foreign spy. St. Joseph Vaz had studied Tamil in Jaffna and now, in Jaffna, in the prison, he started to study the local language, Sinhala. In 1693

the king set the priest free• In 1696 there was a prolonged drought in Kandy. The king was very much distressed and asked the highest Bud-dhist religious leaders of his kingdom to perform their ceremonies to call down rain. But, it was to no avail. The king then asked St. Joseph Vaz to pray to his God and obtain rain for the kingdom. St. Joseph Vaz answered the king´s request by a prayer in the public square the next day. It brought such abundant rain that St. Jo-seph Vaz won the sympa-thy of the king, liberty for himself, and permission to bring more priests from the Goan Oratory• St. Vaz had spent 24 years of untiring labour in the mission of Ceylon• He left a marvel-ous legacy: 70,000 Catho-lics, 15 churches and 400 chapels. He translated into Sinhalese and Tamil, the local languages, various prayers and a catechism

Source – OMI World.org

Catholic LingoBaptism

Greek baptizein means to plunge or immerse. The “plunge” into the water symbolizes the burial into Christ’s death, from which the baptized person rises up by resurrection with Him, as “a new creature”. Hence, it is known as a Sacrament of initiation. This Sacrament is also called the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit, for it signifies and actually brings about the birth of water and of the Spirit without which no one “can enter the Kingdom of God”. “This bath is called enlightenment, because those who receive this [catechetical] instruction are en-lightened in their understanding . . . .” Having received in Baptism the Word, “the true light that enlightens ev-ery man,” the person baptized has been “enlightened,” he becomes a “son of light,” indeed, he becomes “light” himself. Incorporated into Christ by Baptism, the per-son baptized is configured to Christ. Baptism seals the Christian with the indelible spiritual mark (character) of his belonging to Christ. Given once for all, Baptism cannot be repeated.

Source – Catechism of the Catholic Church

Do-It-Yourself (DIY)Colour-Changing Flowers

Supplies:• White flowers• Vase or a receptacle to hold the flowers• Water• Food colouring

Method:1. Fill your vases (one for

each flower stem) with water2. Add the food colouring, about 10 drops of each

colour to each vase (For example blue colour in one vase, red colour in another vase)

3. Place a single flower in each of your colour-filled vases and set them somewhere they will be exposed to indirect sunlight

4. The process might take a few hours or days

Lesson Learnt Most plants “drink” water from the ground through their roots. The water travels up the stem of the plant into the leaves and flowers. The plant uses the water to make food. When a flower is cut, it no longer has its roots. But the stem of the flower still “drinks” up the water and provides it to the leaves and flowers. So, when you add food colouring to the water, the petals absorb that colour.

Source – Ozobot.com

GAMESSudoku

WORD HUNT

“John answered them all, saying” (Luke 3,16)

Find the way

14 January 13, 2019The Messenger

“I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming” (Luke 3,16)

By Rev. Fr. Don Anton Saman Hettiarachchi

SUNDAY WORD

Liturgical Calendar Year C 13th Jan. - 20th Jan. 2019

The Baptism of the LordGospel: Lk. 3: 15- 16, 21- 22 The Baptism of our Lord Jesus is present-ed to us. The people were wondering whether John the Baptizer was the Mes-siah. But when John Bap-tized Jesus the heavens opened and proclaimed that Jesus is the Son of God.

Re�lection Today we cele-brate the Feast of the Bap-tism of Our Lord. This feast invites all of us to look into our own Baptisms. Unfor-tunately for many of us Baptism has become just another ceremony. Many of us do not know what really happens in us at the Baptism. All we know is that the original sin car-ried into our lives from our birth and all other sins committed up to the time of our Baptisms are forgiv-en. Apart from these we are confronted with a threefold mission or vocations. In other words we are called to be priests, prophets and kings (Servants) The main func-tion of a priest is wor-ship. The priests are to offer sacrifices to the Lord. Therefore in Baptism all people are priests, and so they are called to worship and offer sacrifices to the Lord. Through the Eucha-

rist, through our personal and community prayers, novenas….etc, we are to worship the Lord. For that matter we are to offer our whole life as a sacrifice to the Lord. For this reason our lives should be un-blemished and spotless. The Priests that we see in cassocks are official priests. It is an office. In this case it is a universal priesthood. The duty of a prophet is to proclaim the Good News. He is to pro-claim the message of the Lord no matter how dif-ficult it may be. Whether it be to the king or to the people, whether it be ac-ceptable or not to the lis-teners, if it is the message of the Lord, the prophet is bound to preach it. There-fore, whenever it comes to the proclamation of the message of the Lord, whether by word or deed we exercise the prophetic role of our Baptism. Then comes the kingship in our Baptism. Some do not call this king-ship; because their only image of a king is that he reigns. They prefer to call this role as that of servant-hood. Whether we be kings or servants, what is expect-ed of our baptismal role is to serve the community. It calls for responsible living.

While we live in this world we come across a lot of responsibilities which we have to fulfil. As followers of Christ we have to fulfil these responsibilities in a Christian manner. There-fore by our very own Bap-tism we are bound to fulfill all our duties towards the community. Hence it is quite clear that, in Baptism we are called to be priests, prophets and kings. But in this threefold mission some will be called to be priests, some prophets and some others kings, each depending on God’s call and his own personal talent.

Aid Story 1 During the Eng-lish military campaign in India years ago, a cer-tain British general was disgusted with the pride and airs of a young Indian Rajah, a prince or minor chief. This young fellow was decidedly unsoldier like in his conduct and at-titude. He would not walk with the others but insist-ed on riding. Never would he lend a hand to help get the equipment over the rough hill. The general de-cided to teach this young prince a lesson. It was an extremely hot day.

As usual the prince was riding and just ahead of them some soliders were sweltering and straining to push a gun up a dusty road. “Do you see those men?” the general asked. “Yes I see them,” answered the prince. “Well,” de-clared the general, “One of them is the grandson of your empress.” It was the grandson of Queen Victo-

ria, Price Christian Victor, who was always eager to share the burden and give a hand. Later he laid down his life for his country in the South African war. The prince took the lesson and began to be more helpful and cooperative. To all who labour and to those who avoid labour or even despise la-bour, we can point out the

Prince of Peace, the Son of God toiling in a carpen-ter's shop; toiling, teach-ing, preaching, helping the needy and praying. Christ is the inspiration of all workers.

Aid Story 2 As an old man was walking down the beach he noticed a young girl ahead of him picking up starfish and flinging them into the sea. He asked her why she was doing this. The little girl explained that a star-fish which stands on the beach when the tide went out would die if left there in the morning sun. “But the beach goes on for miles and there are millions of starfish,” said the old man. “How can your efforts make any difference?” The little girl looked down the stretch of beach at all of the stranded starfish and then stared at the one in her hand. As she pitched it back into the salt water waves, she an-swered, “It makes a differ-ence to this one.”

Saying: While WAITING for the SECOND COMING of CHRIST, RECEIVE HIM in DAILY HOLY COMMUNION.

Very Rev. Fr. Ciswan De Croos

Sun: Feast of the Baptism of the Lord Is. 40: 1-5, 9-11; Tit. 2: 11-14; 3: 4-7; Lk. 3: 15-16, 21-22Mon: Hebr. 1: 1-6; Mk. 1: 14-20Tue: Hebr. 2: 5-12; Mk. 1: 21b-28Wed: Solemnity of St. Joseph Vaz Apostle of Sri Lanka Is. 52: 7-10; Acts. 20: 17-18, 28-32, 36; Mk. 16: 15-20Thu: Hebr. 3: 7-14; Mk. 1: 40-45Fri: Hebr. 4: 1-5, 11; Mk. 2: 1-12Sat: Hebr. 4: 12-16; Mk. 2: 13-17Sun: Second Sunday of Ordinary Time Is. 62: 1-5; 1 Cor. 12: 4-11; Jn. 2: 1-11

1. Today we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord – an event so precious to the Early Church and hence, treated in all Gospels.

2. John the Baptist gets a good response to his fiery preaching. People stream to the river, acknowledge their sins, repent and get immersed (Greek: baptizo) in the waters for forgiveness. So is Jesus dipped. Then the heavens are split open for the heavenly Voice, the Father, to speak to His Son.

3. The Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus. In the Bible, the Spirit precedes the Word:i. In Genesis 1, the Spirit (or wind or breath of God) hovers over the face of the waters and then, God speaks, “Let there be light.”

ii. The Spirit takes possession of prophets and then, they speak God’s Word.

iii. The Spirit hovers over the virginal womb of Mary (Luke 1,35 “The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you”) and then, the Word is conceived. Now at the Baptism, the Spirit descends first and then the Word is uttered, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” Similarly, the Spirit descends upon Him now and then, He will proclaim the Word, “He taught in their synagogues and was praised by all” (4,15). The Word follows the Spirit!

4. The Spirit descends upon Jesus, “in bodily form like a dove.” At creation, the Spirit flew over the waters like a

“You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” (Luke 3,15-16.21-22)bird. Now at the Baptism, the Spirit descends like a dove. The doors of the new creation are now wide open!

5. Then comes the Word, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” This divine pronouncement is a combination of two words: i. The word “You are my beloved Son” originates from Psalm 2,7 in which the Davidic King is made the adopted son of God at his coronation.

ii. Then the word, “with you I am well pleased” traces back to Isaiah 42,1: the Song of the Suffering Servant where the sinless sufferer atones for the sins of his people and saves them from God’s just punishment by his voluntary suffering and death. Now these two words are combined and pronounced to Jesus. What is then the meaning?

i. This Jesus, who is baptized, is truly Davidic King, Messiah and God’s Son.

ii. But He will exercise His kingship, messiahship and sonship only through suffering and death like the Suffering Servant.

6. Is it not embarrassing that the sinless Jesus queues up with sinners for a baptism of repentance meant for the forgiveness of sins? However, this historical action of Jesus is full of meaning:

i. It is a sign of His solidarity and identification with sinners, whom He has come to save. ii. It is also the occasion on which God solemnly acknowledges Jesus as His Son; declares His mission as Suffering, Dying Messiah; and equips Him for His ministry with the Holy Spirit.

7. At our baptism, we were declared God’s children and empowered to continue the mission of the Lord, the King on Calvary. The words “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” mean the Suffering and Dying Messiah. No cross, no crown. No pain, no gain. Today are we an embodiment of the Christ, crucified and in solidarity with sinners? Let this image of Christ revitalize our Church life, just as it energized the life of the persecuted Christians in the Early Church.

15 January 13, 2019The Messenger

after its independence from British colonial rule. He taught physics, history and English as well as coaching the soccer team at St. Michael's College. He was also Rector of the College from 1959 to 1970. The American priest learned the local Tamil language and served as a parish priest in the Batticaloa Diocese. Fr. Miller was one of the founders of the Bat-ticaloa Peace Committee and the Batticaloa Council of Religious that advanced peace initiatives during the civil war. The NPC said Fr. Miller also combated tuberculosis and other diseases through preventative education. He established a branch of the Federation of the Red Cross and, as a Rotarian, served as its president as well as on the National Rotary Council for Peace and Harmony. “In 1990, spurred by the murder of his fellow Jesuit Father Eugene John Hebert, he began single-handedly recording human rights’ violations in Batti-caloa,” the NPC said in a statement. “He travelled on his motorcycle to collect reports of disappearances, torture and killings. He used this data to inform the national and international communities about the atrocities that were taking place,” said the statement. “Father Miller’s work exemplified the universality of human rights and the duty to protect the rights of all human beings irre-spective of race, religion, gender or nationality.”

UCANEWS

“I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals” (Luke 3,16)

parishioners when the Novenas are held. The Parish Council told them not to collect coconuts when the No-venas are in progress. They did not listen to neither the parish priest nor the parish council. Just after the Feast when the coconuts from the Pandol are sold, the first thing they do is to go on a picnic with the moneys col-lected from that sale. They have no courtesy to invite the parish priest to join them in their trip. After the trip they handover the balance money to the priest and even that money is taken from time to time for their own purposes, so much so that parishioners used to call the youth association as coconut plucking youth association ^fmd,alvk iñ;sh&. I hope and pray that this practice is no more. Some youth are fossilized in their mentality and are not ready to change and they are very adamant.

(Contd from Pg. 12)The Year of ...

(Contd from Pg. 1)Champion ...

The artist, whose pictures are often inflected with po-litical messages, now ranks among the top four cartoon-ists in the country, joining the elite ranks of compatriots Aubrey Collette, Wijesoma and S.C. Opatha. This self-taught cartoonist was born and raised in Negombo, where he lived opposite St. Mary's Church and has spent more than half a century perfecting his art. His vocation began when he was a young school-boy, as he liked to draw cartoons and caricatures of his friends and teachers. Even though his principal disap-proved when he first saw Perera' s caricature of him — sitting by a table with a bottle of liquor on it — the older man was wise enough to recognize the boy's talent, and encouraged him to keep developing his skills. Now the 79-year-old grandfather runs a print-ing business in Colombo and is preparing for the release of Sri Lanka's first computer-animation picture, which has been in the works for the last eight years. It is due out in March and will feature Gajaman — the character that propelled him to fame. With this, Perera will realize another of his long-cherished dreams by seeing one of his creations spring to life on the silver screen. He said the action-packed nature of his Gajaman stories made the character ripe for a full-length movie. The script was written by Suneth Perera and required the use of 28 voices. It was produced by Studio 101 and revolves around social issues with a political twist. Perera said he picked this production team be-cause "they are very talented and I like their work."

UCANEWS

(Contd from Pg. 1)St. Joseph Vaz ...

(Contd from Pg. 1)God's gentle ...

(Contd from Pg. 1)Gajaman comes ...

All night vigil to bless the New Year

The St. Aloysius Gonzaga Youth Society of St. Anne's Parish, Wattala has organised an all night vigil and prayer service to invoke blesings for the New Year on January 19, 2019 at St. Anne's Church, Wattala. The Archdiocesan Faith Animation Team to-gether with Rev. Frs. Kalana Peiris and Gyom Nonis will conduct it.

Roshan Pradeep

'Introduction to the Holy Bible'The Department of Theology of Aquinas College of Higher Studies, Colombo 08 will be commencing a new short course on Saturday January 19, 2019 on the above theme. The course will span for 06 consecutive Saturdays from 8.30 a.m. - 12.30 p.m. at the Theology Lecture Hall. The lectures will be conducted by Rev. Fr. Lloyd Shanthikumar. The course fee is only Rs. 1000/= We warmly welcome you for this course and to obtain a valuable certificate from ACHS on 80% lecture atten-dance.Contact: Sr. Mary Kathleen: 076-5469912/2694014/5 or ext.229.

So it is very difficult to put into practice, see, judge and act principles of Cardinal Cardijn with such youth. They see things according to their own prospective. They judge things with a wrong mentality and their action becomes a reaction to what the church authorities say. They are really incorrigible. I do not say that all the youth belong to that category. There are some youth who are well behaved and disciplined. In this Year of Youth it is advisable to form a special committee of young priests as youth chaplains or coordinators. The youth activities of every parish should be monitored and guided according to the prin-ciples of Cardinal Cardijn. No doubt, it is an uphill task. There should be a very comprehensive and cogent pro-gramme for the youth of our parishes. We see through media how youth behave and how they kill their kith and kin. There is a complete breakdown of moral val-ues. The Catholic Church has a very big role to play in

this regard. We have to inculcate in the youth the true Christian values which uphold the dignity of human life. May the good Lord grant the necessary strength and in-spiration to our youth chaplains to guide our youth in the correct path during the coming years.

in his address highly valued the services of His Lord-ship as a lecturer and member of the Academic staff in the past at the institute. Students of Theology Institute branches of Kurunegala, Galle and Chilaw were present on the occasion. Rev. Fr. Anton Saman Hettiarachchi, Editor, Messenger and Scholar in Sacred Scriptures de-livered the Key-note address.

Again, when Jesus, some thirty years of age, made him-self known publicly, preceded by John the Baptist, the Gospel once more solemnly situates the event, listing all the “magnates” of the time, the great secular and spiritual powers: Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate, Herod, Philip, Lysanias, the high priests Annas and Caiaphas. And it concludes by saying that, at that time, “the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilder-ness” (Lk 3:2). To none of the magnates, but to a man who had withdrawn to the desert. Here is the surprise: God does not need the spotlights of the world to make himself known. When we listen to that list of distinguished per-sonages, we might be tempted to turn the spotlight on them. We might think that it would have been better had the star of Jesus appeared in Rome, on the Palatine Hill, where Augustus ruled over the world; then the whole em-pire would immediately have become Christian. Or if it had shone on the palace of Herod, he might have done good rather than evil. But God’s light does not shine on those who shine with their own light. God “proposes” himself; he does not “impose” himself. He illumines; he does not blind. It is always a very tempting to confuse God’s light with the lights of the world. How many times have we pur-sued the seductive lights of power and celebrity, convinced that we are rendering good service to the Gospel! But by doing so, have we not turned the spotlight on the wrong place, because God was not there. His kindly light shines forth in humble love. How many times too, have we, as a Church, attempted to shine with our own light! Yet we are not the sun of humanity. We are the moon that, despite its shadows, reflects the true light, which is the Lord. He is the light of the world (cf. Jn 9:5). Him, not us. The light of God shines on those who receive it. Isaiah, in the first reading (cf. 60:2), tells us that that light does not prevent the darkness and the thick clouds from covering the earth, but shines forth on those prepared to accept it. And so, the prophet addresses a challenging summons to everyone: “Arise, shine” (60:1). We need to arise, to get up from our sedentary lives and prepare for a journey. Otherwise, we stand still, like the scribes that Herod consulted; they knew very well where the Messiah was born, but they did not move. We also need to shine, to be clothed in God who is light, day by day, until we are fully clothed in Jesus. Yet to be clothed in God, who like the light is simple, we must first put aside our pretentious robes. Otherwise, we will be like Herod, who preferred the earthly lights of success and power to the divine light. The Magi, instead, fulfil the proph-ecy. They arise and shine, and are clothed in light. They alone see the star in the heavens: not the scribes, nor Herod, nor any of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. In order to find Jesus, we also need to take a different route, to follow a different path, his path, the path of humble love. And we have to persevere. Today’s

Gospel ends by saying that the Magi, after encounter-ing Jesus, “left for their own country by another road” (Mt 2:12). Another road, different from that of Herod. An alternative route than that of the world, like the road taken by those who surround Jesus at Christmas: Mary and Joseph, the shepherds. Like the Magi, they left home and became pilgrims on the paths of God. For only those who leave behind their worldly attachments and under-take a journey find the mystery of God. This holds true for us too. It is not enough to know where Jesus was born, as the scribes did, if we do not go there. It is not enough to know that Jesus was born, like Herod, if we do not encounter him. When his place becomes our place, when his time becomes our time, when his person becomes our life, then the prophecies come to fulfilment in us. Then Jesus is born within us. He becomes the living God for me. Today we are asked to imitate the Magi. They do not debate; they set out. They do not stop to look, but enter the house of Jesus. They do not put themselves at the centre, but bow down before the One who is the centre. They do not remain glued to their plans, but are prepared to take other routes. Their actions reveal a close contact with the Lord, a radical openness to him, a total engage-ment with him. With him, they use the language of love, the same language that Jesus, though an infant, already speaks. Indeed, the Magi go to the Lord not to receive, but to give. Let us ask ourselves this question: at Christ-mas did we bring gifts to Jesus for his party, or did we only exchange gifts among ourselves? If we went to the Lord empty-handed, today we can remedy that. The Gospel, in some sense, gives us a little “gift list”: gold, frankincense and myrrh. Gold, the most precious of metals, reminds us God has to be granted first place; he has to be worshiped. But do that, we need to remove ourselves from the first place and to recognize our neediness, the fact that we are not self-sufficient. Then there is frankincense, which symbolizes a relationship with the Lord, prayer, which like incense rises up to God (cf. Ps 141:2). Just as incense must burn in order to yield its fragrance, so too, in prayer, we need to “burn” a little of our time, to spend it with the Lord. Not just in words, but also by our actions. We see this in the myrrh, the ointment that would be lovingly used to wrap the body of Jesus taken down from the cross (cf. Jn 19:39). The Lord is pleased when we care for bodies racked by suffering, the flesh of the vulnerable, of those left behind, of those who can only receive without being able to give anything material in return. Precious in the eyes of God is mercy shown to those who have nothing to give back. Gratuitousness! In this Christmas season now drawing to its close, let us not miss the opportunity to offer a precious gift to our King, who came to us not in worldly pomp, but in the luminous poverty of Bethlehem. If we can do this, his light will shine upon us.

Vatican News

“After all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying” (Luke 3,21)

XVII January 13, 2019 Messenger

With the onset of Advent, prepa-rations for

Christmas would begin in most homes across the Island in colonial days. As an introduction, the white washing or lime washing of houses was done. Pen-talite and Robbialac were unheard of. The affluent would use distemper, a powder which would be mixed with the limewash. This was available in a wide variety of colours. Besides, roof leaks, if any would also be attended to. Once the whitewash-ing was over, the borders of the walls, about four or five inches in height, were painted with tar in order to enhance the appearance of the walls. Unlike the paints of today, tar would take at least a couple of weeks to completely dry. While leaning against the walls, little children would get the tar on to their feet. As a result, while walking all over the house they would leave marks of tar and it would be an ordeal for the elders to clean the tar on the feet of those children with Kerosene. Even household pets like dogs and cats would leave marks of tar all over the house thereby entailing more work for the elders in the house.

Once this was complete, all doors and windows would be paint-ed while the furniture would be polished us-ing varnish. Here too the fingerprints of children would be clearly visible. When completed, new curtains would adorn the doors and windows. The standard brands of tex-tiles freely available were Robia Voiles, Tobralco, Tricoline and Tootall all of British origin. New clothes for the entire household was a must in addition to gifts of cloth-ing to near relatives. New shoes for everyone in the house would complete the picture, the most sought after brands being John White and Buck and Tan. When the house looked spick and span, the garden would be cleaned of weeds and grass etc, so that this would be a con-venient launching pad for the fireworks display at Christmas. The fire crack-ers available were mostly of Chinese origin "Cheena - Patas" not forgetting a host of Roman Candles, Catherine Wheels (pinned on to trees) and Kurukun-das, which when lit would run around the garden like serpents. The Chinese, Crackers were such, that as children, we would hold them in our hands till they were completely burnt out. Today, if this is attempted we might end up minus our hands and limbs.

With all the above preparations and school holidays at hand we had to 'report' for Choir prac-tice every evening plus practices for the "Carol Party" which would tour the entire parish between Christmas and Epiphany. After Carol singing at every doorstep, accepting cash gifts was taboo. Instead, the Carol Party was well fed with a host of Christ-mas goodies like Peak Freen Cream Crackers, Dutch Edam Cheese, Ham Sandwiches, Bacon Rolls, Christmas Pies and Rich Cakes neatly wrapped. These, just could not be eaten after a heavy meal and were brought back home, only to be gobbled by all at home in spite of the late hour while the en-tire neighbourhood was fast asleep. As Christmas was fast approaching, the La-dies in almost every house were busy making Rich Cake and even wine. Wine making was not popular as at now because plenty of imported wines flood-ed the market, popular brands being "Martini", "Cinzano," "Masquato" and port wines of various brands. In the 'midst' of all these preparations the parish priest would keep on announcing from the Pulpit the need of early Confessions prior to Christmas. To many this "fell" on deaf ears since

they were all too busy at home. The net result was an unexpected rush for Confessions just before Midnight Mass. Going down memory lane, I just can-not recollect the priest in Church emphasising on the need of "sharing" our Christmas with the poor of the parish nor did our teachers at school empha-sise on this all important aspect of Christmas. Is it that my memory has failed me or is it that poverty was not rampant as it is today? The same applies of charitable associations of the parish appealing for used clothes, toys etc. Has this too "escaped" my memory? Come Christ-mas Day, as all roads lead to Midnight Mass, all dressed in their very best, the gents in full suit. The Ladies were conspicu-ous with their Hats, each edging out at different an-gels. All in all, the church resembled a "show" in a Theatre. It was the Tri-dentine Mass, "sung" at its very best accompanied with that Angelic Grego-

rian Chant. After Mass greetings were exchanged among practically every-one present. Once back home, a firework display could be witnessed. The entire family then feast-ed on light refreshments and wine to the "crack-ing" of Bon-Bons and Jolly Bomps. Santa would have left behind a whole bag of toys for the kids. Echoes of Christmas music could be heard from almost every Christian home. Unlike now, there were no Audio tapes or compact discs. The only source of music, other than the Radio was the Gramaphone. This music continued through-out Christmas Day. The grand finale to all the celebrations was the much awaited Christ-mas Lunch. The Christ-mas Table was incomplete without a Turkey. If one was too large for a family, two families would share one as stated in the Bibli-cal Passover Meal. Spiced Ham boiled in Beer was a "must". Imported Salt Beef and Spiced Lingus were delicacies. No Table was "complete" without a Dutch Breaudher and Edam Ball Cheese. Lunch was usually followed by a "Sing-Song" and as twi-light engulfed the Christ-mas celebrations the "Carol-Party" was eagerly awaited. This in most cas-es led into the late hours of the night after which another display of fire-

works brought the cur-tain down on Christmas celebrations. However, merry-making went on till Epiphany on January 6th. During this period visits to friends and rela-tives were common and they too "returned" these visits - both exchanging gifts among them. This then was Christmas in Ceylon dur-ing the British Colonial times, Since then many changes have taken place, may be, with the growth of population economic changes have taken place together with new social structures all of which seem to have eroded the Joyous and Religious at-mosphere that prevailed in Colonial Ceylon dur-ing the festive season. To those of us who belong to that generation, today's Christmas can in no way be compared with that of bygone years. All that remains externally as a vestige of the Colonial "Christmas" is the Crib and the Christmas Tree both of which have stood the test of time. Finally, it is the large scale "Commerciali-sation" of Christmas that has paved the way for the erosion of age old customs as a result of which the true spirit of Christmas, that of peace and good will seems to be relegated to the background.

Christmas Memoirs

Christmas in Colonial TimesBy Roggy Corera

Completion of the Church Building In 1905 Rev. Fr. I Crossrati the then Parish Priest took steps to replace the half round clay ridge tiles on the roof with flat type tiles. For the former type of tiles reepers needed to be close to one another and to fix flat tiles extra reepers had to be removed from the roof. The historical records indicate that the removal of extra reepers were accomplished in one day by villagers through the use of their collective strength of labour. During the time of Rev. Fr. Crossrati the rails round the main altar made out of ebony timber with wood carvings was fixed . These were donated by Gamameda Li-yanage Pelis Perera and his son Juan Perera of Mahawatte. The two railings above the altar with carvings in wood was donated by Ayurvedic Physician Akurudda Juan Ap-puhamy who lived at Pamunugama. The main church bell

in the current location was blessed in 1925 and it was donated by J.D. Marthelis, Gabriel Tissera and G. Henry Perera all from well to do families in Pamunugama. Their names are inscribed in the exterior of the bell. In 1926 Rev. Fr. M Gunasekara brought down from Europe statues for the Way of the Cross. They were well crafted and were installed in the church .A flag was also brought for the Society for the Devotion to Precious Blood from Europe. The cost was borne by Jayamaha Mudalige Cyprian Appuhamy who lived at Epamulla.In 1931 Very Rev. Fr. Theodore De Silva erected the altar of the Precious Blood. The altar was a replica of the mount Calvary. In 1937 the large clock visible from outside of the church and a smaller church bell adjoining the main church bell were installed. The smaller bell was synchro-nised with the clock to chime melodiously every half hour and quarter hour. The names of renters Tissera and Mar-thelis of Pamunugama are inscribed in English in the ex-terior of the bell. To indicate the hours of time louder, the toll of the main bell was used. The Church was lit initially with lamps with co-conut oil. The historical records indicate three lamps in a row within a thick glass containers were hanged in the gi-ant rafters. The coconut oil and the wicks were inside the lamps which made the church brightly lit and the lamps were known as “Glow Lamps”. The lamps were made from glass imported from France and were in the shape of globe. With the change of technology the church was lit with Petromax lamps which used Kerosene. After that

electrical power generators were used. Most elders still living remember the giant brass lamps placed inside the church. One such lamp was placed in front of the miraculous statue of St. Joseph which was located in the small altar. It was about 5 feet in height with three or four layers to light the wicks in coconut oil. The floor on which the lamp was located was fortified with a granite base. Another brass lamp was located near the main entrance close to where the statue of Mother Mary was placed. It was a giant brass lamp seven feet high with decorated arms. These lamps may have been used to light up the church in those days gone by. The giant lamp known as the Eucharistic lamp hung above the main alter comes to our mind .It could be lowered and raised with the help of brass chains and brought high aesthetic value to the church. These great artefacts have ben removed from time to time and we have lost track of them. From 1963 electricity from the main grid supply has been connected.The preaching pulpit made with wood carvings was at-tached to the wall in front of the altar of Precious Blood also comes to our mind. At a time when the sound ampli-fiers were not in use, the preaching pulpit served a valu-able service. When the necessity to expand pews arose, in order to accommodate them ,the pulpit with such high historical value was removed from the church.

To be Contd next week.

Contd. from last week

(Translated by Leo Samson from the Book "Kithu Helaye Balakotuwa" published by St. Joseph's Church Pamunugama, 2018)

A Window into Culture

Pamunugama: Its Historical Lines of Ancestry

by Dr. Roshinie Perera

“… heaven was opened” (Luke 3,21)

XVIII January 13, 2019Messenger

Shuttlers of St. Sebastian's College excelWins overall Men's Championship at Na-tional Junior Tournament The shuttlers of St. Sebastian's College, Mor-atuwa won the overall Junior National Championships. The final Matches were played at the Indoor Sports Sta-dium of Lumbini College, Colombo. Mr. Athula Wijesu-riya, Deputy Director of Education, President, Secretary and Officials of the Schools Badminton Association and Rev. Fr. Ranjith Andradi, Rector of St. Sebastian's Col-lege were present at the awards ceremony.

The Results were as follows:Under 13 Singles: Pulina Wellage - Champion Trophy, Senuka Samartunge - Runners upUnder 13 Doubles: Pulina and Senuka beat Ashendra and SangulaViduna and Janesh: Third Place

Under 15 Men's Doubles - Runners upUnder 11 Singles: Third Place The tournament was jointly conduted by Sri Lanka Schools' Badminton Association and Badminton Association of Sri Lanka.

“For today it is two years since I started te a c h i n g .” a n n o u n c e d Thelma.“Do you like it?” asked Myrna.

“Yes I feel responsible for opening the minds of my students. I start the day by telling them a little anecdote ending with a Thought for the Day. I know I hold their attention for it is a captive audience. I like to inspire them to think outside the subject” ex-plained Thelma. “You must be a popular teacher” remarked Myrna. “I feel that Teaching is a vocation but it is not well paid so lots of teachers don’t do a proper job. Anyway, for most subjects there is a vast syl-labus so there is no time to impart other knowledge” said Thelma. “I know. Besides, children are loaded with books to take each day to school. I think that most students have backache and shoulder pain” chimed in Paul. “It is good that the State provides books free for students and they are asked to look after them and return them at the end of the school year. Chil-dren are also given free uniforms so the burden on the parents is less” said Myrna. “I think that providing Free Education in Sri Lanka is a blessing. No wonder most Sri Lankans are literate and there is such a demand for newspapers and magazines” commented Thelma, adding, “Lank-ans are also aware of Politics and criticize politicians freely.” “So there is Democracy being practiced in Sri Lanka complete with strikes at the drop of a hat!” said Myrna. “Let us pray for Lankans to become mature and be contented” summed up Paul.

By Sirohmi Gunesekera

Inspiring

DMC Runners up

The Cadeting Team of De Mazenod College, Kandana won the Runners up Trophy at the 101st All Island Hermon Lose Cadet Championship held at Cadet Corps Headquarters at Rantambe. The Cadets then appeared for a group photo-graph with Hon. Ruwan Wijewardene, State Minister of Defence, Rev. Bro. Janaka Fonseka, Principal, Officers of the Cadeting Headquarters, Captain Frank Martheenu, Prefect of Games and Asitha Perera in Charge of Cadeting of the College. Anton Jayasuriya

The final preparatory Seminar for GCE O/L 2018 students was held in Sunday School Hall of St. Mary's Church, Katukurunda. Rev. Fr. Rasika Lawrence, Parish Priest celebrated Holy Mass and then individually blessed the stu-dents by praying and placing hands on their heads. Students from Moratuwa, Koralawella, Modera and Katukurn-da on the occasion appeared for a group pohotograph with the teachers and Parish Priest.

Asika Priyadharshana

O/L Students blessed

St. Sebastian's College under 11 shuttlers won the all Island Schools' trophy at the tournament worked out at Welege-dara Indoor Stadium, Kurunegala and Army Indoor Stadium at Boyagane. More than 1500 students participated in the three days tournament representing 120 schools, played as men's and women's event separately. Sebastianites who played under group "A" men's beat Lyceum International School, Wattala and won the Championship. Marketing Manager, Perera and Sons Company sponsors of the Tournament, Mr. Saman Wijesinghe, Secretary, Sri Lanka School's Badminton Association, President of North West-ern Province Badminton Association and Officials were present at the Prize distribution.

Dilimi Dias of Our Lady of Victories Convent, Moratuwa beat Hashini Ambalangoda of Visaka Vidayalaya, Colom-bo with Olympic fame 25/23 at under 19 Single's event.

Dilimi Dias Wins

Asika Priyadharshana

Sebastianites Win

Here I am on the ocean liner THE PACIFIC SKY in the Coral Sea on a pre-Christmas voyage from

Sydeney to New Caledonia. The memo-ries of how we celebrated Christams in Sri Lanka come back. The house was painted, the walls white-washed with low black tar edgings all round the rooms and the chairs were re-cushioned. The travelling tailor came home, measured the rooms, and made the curtains on our old Singer sewing ma-chine. Red Mansion polish was applied on the cement floor, which got a shine from a heavy handled brush. Cake making was a ritual, where my mother laid the rules and we offered to help. We ate a good many cadjunuts and raisins when no one was looking. There was the wooden ice-box with sawdust and a heavy metal cov-ering for slabs of ice. Two weeks before Christmas the children were taken in a hired car to Pet-tah's Main Street. The well known shoe store was TGM Perera's and we were fit-ted with the best shoes. Even Jamaliya's Show Store in Wellawatta took in orders for boots, the teenage fashion of the thir-ties. Before World War II, there was One and Co. This Japanese toy shop owned by a Mr. Numano had a wonderful array of toys from Japan. The Main Street tailor measured us, as we provided China silk for our shirts. The silk of course was bought in early November from the Chinese ped-dlers who plied their trade on bicycles. Some of the Chinamen carried their bun-dles on their backs, with a heavy stick for balance. Main Street in Pettah in the early thirties was very narrow. It had to

cope the tram lines and bullock carts. With our Christmas shopping included a visit to X.P.P. Paivas for lunch and ice cream. Round the corner was the Rupee Store, where for one rupee you could buy many things. Millers, Cargills, Simes and Whiteaways dominated the Fort shop-ping. We went to Hunters and Siedles and The Roche Brothers shops for many items. I cannot forget the shopping in the golden mile of Colpetty, Bambalapitiya and Wellawatta. The Wickremesinghe Broth-ers headed by George imported the famous Mende Radiograms from Germany. We cannot forget the well-known shops in Wellawatta: M.P. Gomez, A. W, Jansz, J.B. De Pinto, Nooranis, Jamaliya's Boot Works and many famous boutiques. As a boy I went with my father to A. W. Jansz's store near High Street. We bought Dutch Edam Cheese, as an accompani-ment for the Christmas breudher. I still remember Jansz bellowing to a tardy salesman: "What are you standing there shooting 'papaws'! Jansz sold liquor and all types of hardware. We bought wire-netting to build chicken coops. The shopping spree in Colombo included a visit to Pilawoos for a treat of buriyani. Elephant House played a sig-nificant part in booking Christmas cakes. Yet there was one last item that was in the shopping list: Fireworks. We gazed in wonder at the array of fireworks in the Fireworks Palace opposite the Fort Rail-way Station. Sparklers, Roman candles, sky rockets, Catherine wheels, squibs, crackers of every size were there in the showcase. Christmas was on. The cake was made and sent to the bakery. The ser-

vants were pounding and roasting, mak-ing string hoppers and pittu, cutting up A. W. Jansz ham, with cutlets and seeni sambol. Churches saw long queues at the Confessional. I remember well the Allied tropps celebrating Christmas in Ceylon. In the Seminary in St. Francis Xavier in Bambalapitya, the African troops came for Midnight Mass. In Bandarawela, the Italian prisoners of war, brought tears when they sang the Aadeste Fideles. As I look out now at a placid sea, the Christmas memories for an expatri-ate find no sequence. There were Christ-mas trees from up-country estates sent by train. Carol parties on Christmas Eve went about in lorries. Arthur Van Lan-genberg helped me to stage a massive Christmas pageant on Christmas Eve at St. Lucia's Cathedral Square in Kotahena. There were hundreds in the cast. The bautiful teenager Camille Cramer played Mary, as she was seated astride on a real donkey, led by a young doctor, who played Joseph. As Gerry Paul hit the Police drums, the donkey took off, with Joseph clinging to its tail, and the audience, including Mary in ripples of laughter. As midnight came, there was a never-ending sound of fireworks and sky rockets, that would surely have awo-ken the Christ Child. Carol parties came to the doorstep. At Kawdana, children in costume came aroung singing Sin-hala carols. A hand cart with an illumi-nated crib was the backdrop. They even brought a portable harmonium. Of course the homes saw fami-lies sitting for a feast of string hoppers, ham, breudher, cheese, mulligatany and cake. There were presents near the fami-

ly Christmas tree. The p o s t m a n , the dhoby, the baker, the fishmon-ger were the regular Christmas early birds. They all got cash, plus a tot of arrack or gin. As children we waited eagerly for the Sak-kili Band. These were the poor men and women who carried the night soil buck-ets, before the water closet and drainage era. Many householders were generous in the cash tips they gave them. An ex-tra pint of arrack helped them in their dance! The famous Kukul Charlie also made his trek down all the lanes. Those were the days when Donovan Andree dominated and enriched the local enter-tainment scene. Donovan brought down the Ice Follies. Soon night came once more. We lit our fireworks, saw the servants light-ing the big Roman candles and sky rock-ets. The radio blasted yuletide melodies. As my ship went on tis voyage, I was dreaming not of a 'White Christ-mas', but of the Christmases I spent in Sri Lanka. Nowhere in the world did I ever experience Christmas, as the Ceylonese prepare and enjoy it. I can still hear the hustle and bustle in Pettah, the cries of the street vendors and the pavement hawkers. The wailing of the mamma-pappa balloon, the rattle of the toy-carts, and the delicacies from the gram sellers are unforgettable. An Aussie Christmas is pea-nuts compared to a Christmas in Ceylon. I do not wonder why my parents christened me Noel, and my sister Noeline.

“… and the holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove” (Luke 3,22)

XIX January 13, 2019 Messenger

Christmas in the Good Old DaysBy Noel Crusz

Why was Christ born a Mendicant on Christmas Night?

Why was God, the Cre-ator of the universe

who controls it, opt to be born in the human world in poverty by the power of the Holy Spirit during the Christmas Night?. It was Mother Mary who real-ized before everyone that the one whom she has conceived is none other than the Creator of the universe and humanity. The Holy Bible also tells us that the Holy Family was filled with compas-sion for humanity and full of altruistic love, though a family in need in the ma-terial world. The Magnifi-cat, the song of praise by Mother Mary, clearly men-tions that birth of Christ was a tale of love for oth-ers who share things with others in need. The Magnificat says thus. "My soul pro-claim the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my saviour. For

He has looked upon his handmaid's lowliness; behold from now on will all ages call me blessed. The Mighty One has done great things for me, and Holy in his name. His Mercy is from age to age to those who fear him. He has shown might with his arm, dispersed the ar-rogant of mind and heart. He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted up the lowly. The hungry he has filled with good things; the rich he has sent away empty" (Luke 1: 47-53). Jesus proclaimed his earthly mission when He attended the syna-gogue at Nazareth where he had grown up on a Sab-bath Day, according to his custom. "He unrolled the scroll and found the pas-sage where it was written; "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad

tiding to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liber-ty to captives and recov-ery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord" (Luke 4: 16-19). Jesus born at Christmas night expounded his true mis-sion in Humanity thus."And raising his eyes to-ward his disciples he said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be sutisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you and denounce your name as evil on ac-count of the Son of man. Rejoice and leap for joy on that day!. Behold, your reward will be great in

heaven. For their ances-tors treated the prophets in the same way. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. But woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep. Woe to you when all speak well of you..." (Luke 6:20-26). For those who do not live the Word of God in their lives, but try to find the Kingdom of God through rituals and forms of worship, Jesus says thus, "Why do you call me Lord" but not do what I command?... I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, listens to my words and acts on them. That one is like a person building a home, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; When the flood came, the river burst against the home but could not

shake it because it had been well built. But the one who hastens and does not act is like a person who built a home on the ground without a founda-tion. When the river burst against it, it collapsed at once and was completely destroyed" (Luke 6: 46-49). Majority of fol-lowers of Christianity have deemed to follow the

Christian way of life. Those of them who are attached to wealth, riches, power and material possessions have declined to follow the "Sharing" embedded in the Christmas message. Jesus says only those who share their riches and wealth amongst these in need will inherit the King-dom of God at the last Judgement.

By Joe Sangapalaarachchi

Christmas Memoirs

“And a voice came from heaven” (Luke 3,22)

XX Messenger January 13, 2019

MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCISFOR THE CELEBRATION OF THE 52nd WORLD DAY OF PEACE

1 JANUARY 2019

Good politics is at the service of peace1. “Peace be to this house!”In sending his disciples forth on mission, Jesus told them: “Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house!’ And if a son of peace is there, your peace shall rest upon him; but if not, it shall return to you” (Luke 10:5-6). Bringing peace is central to the mission of Christ’s disciples. That peace is offered to all those men and women who long for peace amid the tragedies and violence that mark human history (Lk 2:14: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased”). The “house” of which Jesus speaks is every family, community, country and con-tinent, in all their diversity and history. It is first and foremost each individual person, without distinction or discrimination. But it is also our “common home”: the world in which God has placed us and which we are called to care for and cultivate. So let this be my greeting at the beginning of the New Year: “Peace be to this house!”

2. The challenge of good politicsPeace is like the hope which the poet Charles Péguy celebrated (Le Porche du mystère de la deuxième vertu, Paris, 1986). It is like a delicate flower struggling to blossom on the stony ground of violence. We know that the thirst for power at any price leads to abuses and injustice. Politics is an essential means of building hu-man community and institutions, but when political life is not seen as a form of service to society as a whole, it can become a means of oppression, marginalization and even destruction. Jesus tells us that, “if anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all” (Mk 9:35). In the words of Pope Paul VI, “to take politics seriously at its different levels – local, regional, national and worldwide – is to affirm the duty of each individual to acknowledge the reality and value of the freedom offered him to work at one and the same time for the good of the city, the na-tion and all mankind” (Octogesima Adveniens, 46). Political office and political responsibility thus constantly challenge those called to the service of their country to make every effort to protect those who live there and to create the conditions for a worthy and just future. If exercised with basic respect for the life, free-dom and dignity of persons, political life can indeed be-come an outstanding form of charity.

3. Charity and human virtues: the basis of politics at the service of human rights and peace Pope Benedict XVI noted that “every Christian is called to practise charity in a manner corresponding to his vocation and according to the degree of influ-ence he wields in the pólis… When animated by charity, commitment to the common good has greater worth than a merely secular and political stand would have… Man’s earthly activity, when inspired and sustained by charity, contributes to the building of the universal city of God, which is the goal of the history of the human family” (Caritas in Veritate, 7). This is a programme on which all politicians, whatever their culture or religion, can agree, if they wish to work together for the good of the human family and to practise those human virtues that sustain all sound political activity: justice, equality, mutual respect, sincerity, honesty, fidelity. In this regard, it may be helpful to recall the “Beatitudes of the Politician”, proposed by Vietnamese Cardinal François-Xavier Nguyễn Vãn Thuận, a faithful witness to the Gospel who died in 2002:Blessed be the politician with a lofty sense and deep understanding of his role.Blessed be the politician who personally exemplifies credibility.Blessed be the politician who works for the common good and not his or her own interest.

Blessed be the politician who remains consistent.Blessed be the politician who works for unity. Blessed be the politician who works to accomplish rad-ical change. Blessed be the politician who is capable of listening. Blessed be the politician who is without fear (Address at the “Civitas” Exhibition-Convention in Padua: “30 Giorni”, no. 5, 2002) Every election and re-election, and every stage of public life, is an opportunity to return to the origi-nal points of reference that inspire justice and law. One thing is certain: good politics is at the service of peace. It respects and promotes fundamental human rights, which are at the same time mutual obligations, enabling a bond of trust and gratitude to be forged be-tween present and future generations.

4. Political vicesSadly, together with its virtues, politics also has its share of vices, whether due to personal incompetence or to flaws in the system and its institutions. Clearly, these vices detract from the credibility of political life overall, as well as the authority, decisions and actions of those engaged in it. These vices, which undermine the ideal of an authentic democracy, bring disgrace to pub-lic life and threaten social harmony. We think of corrup-tion in its varied forms: the misappropriation of public resources, the exploitation of individuals, the denial of rights, the flouting of community rules, dishonest gain, the justification of power by force or the arbitrary ap-peal to raison d’état and the refusal to relinquish pow-er. To which we can add xenophobia, racism, lack of concern for the natural environment, the plundering of natural resources for the sake of quick profit and con-tempt for those forced into exile.

5. Good politics promotes the participation of the young and trust in othersWhen the exercise of political power aims only at pro-tecting the interests of a few privileged individuals, the future is compromised and young people can be tempted to lose confidence, since they are relegated to the margins of society without the possibility of helping to build the future. But when politics concretely fosters the talents of young people and their aspirations, peace grows in their outlook and on their faces. It becomes a confident assurance that says, “I trust you and with you I believe” that we can all work together for the common good. Politics is at the service of peace if it finds expres-sion in the recognition of the gifts and abilities of each individual. “What could be more beautiful than an out-stretched hand? It was meant by God to offer and to re-ceive. God did not want it to kill (cf. Gen 4:1ff) or to in-flict suffering, but to offer care and help in life. Together with our heart and our intelligence, our hands too can become a means of dialogue” (Benedict XVI, Address to the Authorities of Benin, Cotonou, 19 November 2011). Everyone can contribute his or her stone to help build the common home. Authentic political life, grounded in law and in frank and fair relations between individuals, experiences renewal whenever we are convinced that every woman, man and generation brings the promise of new relational, intellectual, cultural and spiritual en-ergies. That kind of trust is never easy to achieve, be-cause human relations are complex, especially in our own times, marked by a climate of mistrust rooted in the fear of others or of strangers, or anxiety about one’s personal security. Sadly, it is also seen at the political level, in attitudes of rejection or forms of nationalism that call into question the fraternity of which our glo-balized world has such great need. Today more than ever, our societies need “artisans of peace” who can be messengers and authentic witnesses of God the Father, who wills the good and the happiness of the human family.

6. No to war and to the strategy of fear A hundred years after the end of the First World War, as we remember the young people killed in those battles and the civilian populations torn apart, we are more conscious than ever of the terrible lesson taught by fratricidal wars: peace can never be reduced solely to a balance between power and fear. To threaten others is to lower them to the status of objects and to deny their dignity. This is why we state once more that an escala-tion of intimidation, and the uncontrolled proliferation of arms, is contrary to morality and the search for true peace. Terror exerted over those who are most vulner-able contributes to the exile of entire populations who seek a place of peace. Political addresses that tend to blame every evil on migrants and to deprive the poor of hope are unacceptable. Rather, there is a need to re-affirm that peace is based on respect for each person, whatever his or her background, on respect for the law and the common good, on respect for the environment entrusted to our care and for the richness of the moral tradition inherited from past generations. Our thoughts turn in a particular way to all those children currently living in areas of conflict, and to all those who work to protect their lives and defend their rights. One out of every six children in our world is affected by the violence of war or its effects, even when they are not enrolled as child soldiers or held hostage by armed groups. The witness given by those who work to defend them and their dignity is most precious for the future of humanity.

7. A great project of peace In these days, we celebrate the seventieth an-niversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in the wake of the Second World War. In this context, let us also remember the observation of Pope John XXIII: “Man’s awareness of his rights must inevita-bly lead him to the recognition of his duties. The posses-sion of rights involves the duty of implementing those rights, for they are the expression of a man’s personal dignity. And the possession of rights also involves their recognition and respect by others” (Pacem in Terris).Peace, in effect, is the fruit of a great political project grounded in the mutual responsibility and interdepen-dence of human beings. But it is also a challenge that demands to be taken up ever anew. It entails a conver-sion of heart and soul; it is both interior and communal; and it has three inseparable aspects:- peace with oneself, rejecting inflexibility, anger and impatience; in the words of Saint Francis de Sales, showing “a bit of sweetness towards oneself” in order to offer “a bit of sweetness to others”;- peace with others: family members, friends, strangers, the poor and the suffering, being unafraid to encounter them and listen to what they have to say;- peace with all creation, rediscovering the grandeur of God’s gift and our individual and shared responsibility as inhabitants of this world, citizens and builders of the future. The politics of peace, conscious of and deeply concerned for every situation of human vulnerability, can always draw inspiration from the Magnificat, the hymn that Mary, the Mother of Christ the Saviour and Queen of Peace, sang in the name of all mankind: “He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm; he has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly; …for he has remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children for ever” (Lk 1:50-55).

From the Vatican, 8 December 2018

Francis