by Clara Fernandes
Kuwait, Sep 10 : Mary conceived without sin as a special grace because God had selected her to become the Mother of his Son. Her birth is a cause for great joy as it is considered the `dawn of our salvation’. As the Mother of God, Mary is radiantly beautiful. She is totally pure, modest, chaste, humble and obedient. So on her birthday the 8th of September we venerate her for the gift of Jesus, she gave to mankind. The Nativity of Mother Mary which is popular known as `Monti Fest’ is widely celebrated in the coastal regions of India such as Goa, Karwar and Mangalore and her devotees all over the world.
This feast also includes the feast of the new harvest. The Nine Days of Novena on various themes on mother Mary were conducted by the Konkani units in Ahmadi Parish as a preparation for the feast day. As this is also a family feast the parishioners of Our Lady of Arabia Church, Ahmadi gathered together as one family to the feast of nativity on 7th of September 2012 during 10:45 AM Konkani Mass. The devotees from all over Kuwait flocked in large number to venerate our Mother.
Rev. Fr. Noel Almeida the spiritual director of the Konkani community led the procession to the altar along with Guest Priest Fr. William Miranda.
The celebration began with blessing the new harvest, offering of flowers to Mother Mary and followed by the Eucharistic celebration.
A very effective homily was rendered by Fr. Noel on family and the role of women in the family and in the society where she lives in. The melodious choir led by Jasmine & Rony D’Cunha helped the people to participate better during the liturgy.
After the Mass Fr. Noel thanked all Parishioners for their varied support and cooperation in preparing and carrying out the celebration. He gave special thanks to Mrs. & Mr. Joe Pereira for arrangement of sugarcane and the harvest, Mr. Philip Machado for the flowers, and Mr. Rony Fernandes and family for providing and people with vorn and water on the feast day and snacks on few days of the novena.
The celebration ended with the blessing of the Blessed Sacrament. The new harvest and vorn were distributed to all people and the children received the sugarcane on their way back home. Due to the efforts and zeal of the members of the Konkani Community of our Lady of Arabia the celebration was a grand success.