Pics:Dayanand Kukkaje
Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (SP)

Mangalore, Feb 12: The feast of Our Lady of Lourdes was celebrated in an atmosphere of devotion and celebration at Jeppu parish in the city on Monday February 11.

Our Lady of Lourdes is a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary, invoked in honor of the Marian apparitions which are said to have been experienced by various individuals on different occasions around Lourdes, France.

The devotees of Our Lady of Lourdes gathered at the grotto at St Joseph Nagar where a statue stands. Prayer was performed near the grotto. A procession, which was taken out from St Joseph Nagar at 6.30 pm, moved towards St Joseph Church, Jeppu. Priests and nuns, as well as devotees in large numbers from the surrounding institutions like Holy Rosary Convent, Infant Mary’s School and convent, St Antony’s Ashram, St Joseph’s Workshop, St Joseph Seminary and neighboring parishes took part in this procession, carrying candles and reciting the rosary distributed to them. There was a solemn mass at 6.45 pm.

‘White Flowers’, a leading organization from Jeppu, which functions under the able leadership of Vijay Alfred, had organized this entire programme, thereby giving the dedicated devotees of Our Lady of Lourdes a celebration to remember. This organization, which works for the social welfare of the parish and the society, has been in existence since the last three decades.