[Christian Perspectives]

God is creator of Heaven and Earth. If I have Him, I have everything - Former Miss Asia

INDIA: On the sidelines of a five-day programme on the Word of God, held at the headquarters of the Mission Sisters of Ajmer at Ajmer in Rajasthan, recently. SAR News correspondent Mariola Sequeira spotted a charming Mumbai-based woman from the show business engrossed in prayer. Fascinated, Mariola caught up with the former Miss Asia, Maureen Motwani, to learn from her the secret of her radiant living.

Excerpts from the interview:

SAR News: Good evening, Maureen. I am happy to meet you. I am told you were a former Miss Asia. When was that?

Maureen: In 1979, there used to be a ‘Miss Young India’ and a ‘Miss India’. Not like how it is now. So in 1979, I won the Miss Young India and represented India at the Miss Asia beauty pageant in the Philippines.

And then again in 1988, I contested the Femina Miss Bombay, then Miss India and went on to the Miss World. I was the only girl who contested the Miss Young India and Miss India.

SAR News: I did not get your full name.

Maureen: I used to be Maureen Lestourgeon. And now I am Maureen Motwani.

SAR News: What was the turning point in your life that brought you to commit yourself to God’s Word? Could you share with us the secret of that glowing radiance on your face?

Maureen: I have always been in the Lord, so to speak. But I did not know the power that the Word had, in spite of being born and brought up in a Roman Catholic family. As a matter of fact, I have been so much in show business. I had the opportunity to be with Sri Ravi Shankar of the Art of Living Foundation.

I am an Art of Living teacher. I even travelled with him to the UN Peace Summit. But I really understood the word when I met Brother Johnson. I remember the date. I went to my first retreat on December 10, 2006.

I had an eye problem and I was diagnosed with swelling in my lungs and lymph nodes. And I was told by the doctors at Leelavati Hospital, Nanavati Hospital and Dr. Farook Upadhya (later of Breach Candy) that I would have to be on steroids for the rest of my life.

Now, I am one person who eats correctly, works out, that I won’t put on weight.

And then I heard Brother Johnson speak the Word. And when I went to this retreat, I saw and experienced the power of God. How the Holy Spirit touches you when you call out.

I knew in my heart that day that I was healed. And when I went back to Dr. Upadhya, he just looked at me. He said, “Nothing is wrong with you”.

And at every time in my life, where there is a situation, all I have to do is just look up to heaven and say, ‘Jesus, the most powerful name, in heaven and on earth’. It is when you come to the Lord, your life is so fulfilling.

Today, I can look back, and that whole past of mine is gone. I don’t care whether I was a Miss India or a Mrs. Motwani, or whatever. I have the Lord and I have the whole world, because He is the creator of heaven and earth. And if I have Him, I have everything.

SAR News: What do you do for a living?

Maureen: I have a business - manufacturing cosmetics. With the grace of God, it just runs on its own. And I say, He is my chairman. So, if He is my chairman, the business has to do well. Because the Lord says that when you surrender to Him, ‘How’ is not important. So I never ask Him ‘how’.

SAR News: What message do you have for us, women religious of today?

Maureen: You used the word ‘religious’. That is man-made.

SAR News: I mean nuns.

Maureen: The nuns, for me or a layperson, anybody is God’s child. The day we understand that and surrender to Him, we don’t need to ask that ‘how’ again.

SAR News: Is there anything you want to tell us, the Mission Sisters of Ajmer, in particular?

Maureen:I know the Mission Sisters of Ajmer do so much of work. They go out into places that are beyond everybody’s reach.

SAR News: How do you know that? Where have you met them?

Maureen: Well, one reads a lot. You see them. And again, being from a Catholic background, I want to tell the Mission Sisters of Ajmer one thing. Just go out and say, “Lord, here I come”. Because the Word says, “The whole of heaven will back you, when you take God’s word. God cannot be a liar. Just say, “Here I come.” And, “I can do everything in Christ who strengthens me.”

Courtesy: SAR News

Fr. Poruthota, diamond plus one priest, still active in the Vineyard

E. Weerapperuma

BOUND TO Serve: Rev. Fr. Ernest Poruthota celebrates his 76th birthday on Friday, August 31. He celebrated the Diamond Jubilee of his birthday and marked his Golden Jubilee of Priesthood last year. Hence Fr. Poruthota is Diamond plus One priest of God, still very active and serve the Kirimetiyagara Mission as its Parish Priest today.

We thank God Almighty for giving us a workman in the Vineyard of the Lord, founded by Jesus Christ, through His Passion, Death and Resurrection. We join the well-wishers to praise God and pray that Fr. Poruthota may be granted good health and wisdom to serve longer years in the Sri Lanka Church for there is none like him, there will be none like him to compare with.

Although I decided to write about him, I do not know him well. What I know of him is very limited and a few things personally experienced. Hence I refrained from writing a piece to the felicitation volume, which came out last year, although there was a request to contribute an article on “Fr. Poruthota and I”. But lately I thought, I should write about this Diamond plus One Priest, with whom I had a few dealings.

This writer, as a `journalist in the making’ long years ago in his teen, sent a very small news item to the Gnanartha Pradeepaya, the Catholic Weekly. It was in 1962 January, and the news appeared as a part of the `Aehuna’ column of January 14, 1962. I was thrilled because, the one responsible for the column had used my name to begin the news item in his column.

At that time I had no knowledge of the person behind the column. But one day when I casually met late Norbert Mawalage, who was a member of the Pradeepaya editorial staff, he told me that Fr. Ernest Poruthota was the compiler of that column. I knew about him reading through his writings and had not seen him in person at that time. That ends there.

In the late 1960s I got the opportunity to assist Fr. Poruthota on one Christmas night as a scholastic. I remember going with him in his Vespa scooter to St. Rita’s Church. That was the beginning of my personal contact with him. My meetings and dealings were brief and were mostly issue-based meetings, except one and only one.

It was in the year 1972, I went to Fr. Poruthota seeking a very personal favour. He was the Parish Priest at Peliyagoda Mission.

My participation at several seminars conducted by late Galle Bishop Don Sylvester, as Director of Catechism in the Colombo Diocese and by seminars and workshops conducted by Fr. Poruthota himself on the threshold of Television being introduced to Sri Lanka, impressed me and I had begun to appreciate his work.

These seminars were held at the Auditorium of the Aquinas College, Colombo and a few years later I enrolled myself as a student of the College to follow the First Journalism Course conducted by veteran journalist R.L. Michael.

The personal favour I was seeking was, a job. Someone had whispered that if I could get Fr. Poruthota to speak to Rev. Fr. Raymond Peiris, the then Dalugama Parish Priest, (presently the Bishop of Kurunegala Diocese) I could get a job at the Tobacco Company, Colombo.

Though I was not a very close associate or a member of the inner circle of Fr. Poruthota, I went to see him with hopes. There were a few young men like me, working in the Mission House. I was a bit shy and hesitant to come out with my request in the presence of those young guys.

Some how I managed to tell him what I wanted. His unexpected reply baffled me and dashed all my hopes. I lost all my regards, and all what I thought of him crumbled down. He refused my request. “What is the difference about you and the rest of the youth? I cannot treat you as a special case (Monawada oyai anith ayai athra thiena wenasa oyata visesayen salakanna).

I was hurt and was feeling a sense of burning. I was helpless. With a firm decision not to see him again, I went to Fr. Peiris directly and he said that he could not help me because those who had obtained employment on his recommendations had destroyed the trust he had placed in them.

I stop going to see Fr. Poruthota seeking his help to obtain a job. Although the reply was harsh and heart burning, I appreciated the fact that he was being very frank. He was blunt and I liked that for there was no deceiving.

With all that I must say he was kind enough to send me a letter of recommendation subsequently and that letter is still with me. He lavishly had used adjectives to introduce me in his letter of recommendation ‘To Whom It May Concern’.

Although he did not help me when I wanted, he started sending post cards with his ‘A.PO’ signature, inviting me to Friday Film Shows conducted by the OCIC at the Paul VI Centre, Fort. While we enjoyed viewing films of yesteryear the Centre turned to be `a meeting point’ of people.

Some of them have hit the ladder of fame. Sunil Mihindukula former Sarasaviya Editor and presently at the `Silumina’ Editorial, Ashley Ratnavibhooshana (People’s Bank), Lesly and Susantha Tissera, who worked as the Coordinator to Fr. Poruthota were among those I used to meet.

Award winning cameraman Andrew Jayamanne, late Leslie Boteju who was an officer at the media unit of the Central Bank, well-known vocalist Dayarathne Ranatunga and heap of others were among those I distantly saw in and out of the OCIC Office.

I never spoke to Fr. Poruthota, even though I went to enjoy films at the Centre. I continued writing to Gnanartha Pradeepaya, Bakthi Prabodanaya, Duthaya (edited by Fr. Poruthota) and to local newspapers at intervals. I was also editing a Christmas Magazine “Pathuma” a publication of the Wattala Pradeshiya Lekaka Haula.

I also used to meet some of my OCIC friends at the Deepa Printing House at Thorana Handiya. My writings would have impressed Fr. Poruthota and he carried a few of my articles “Duthaya” magazine edited by him. Years later as Episcopal Vicar of Colombo Fr. Poruthota invited me to translate the Encyclical “Laborem Excens” of His Holiness Pope John Paul II.

In between his post cards came at intervals to participate at meetings dealing with several issues important during that period.

This sort of dealings helped me a great deal to come a long way to the position of a journalist today and I thank Fr. Poruthota for his refusal to help me, find a job, a job, that would have sent me to the limbo of the unknown, and I would have wasted my God given talents to serve my country and my people who have appreciated my writings, if by chance had I chosen a profession, that would make me unhappy right-through.

Fr. Poruthota has been very methodical. I may not agree with all what he says or he does and I would not share all his views. But he deserve our appreciation for he says what he has to say, and does what he thinks right even if others do not agree with him.

I said he is very methodical. Yes, go to any parish he had served or serving at present. The parish community would vouch and they would say that they appreciated the way he acted.

If he goes out from the Mission House,there is a note about his absence. The note would state the probable time of his return and would request the visitor to give reasons for his visit, if the request is something urgent, he would attend to it immediately on his return. The visitor has to give details about the location where he lives. This is something very rare you see in other Parishes.

People are not kept waiting. They can state their purpose of visit, give relevant details and those would be duly attended. Fr. Poruthota has divided his time for his Mission work and other works he is involved and the congregation is made aware of it.

Fr. Poruthota’s contribution to the Sri Lanka Film Industry is unique and immeasurable looking from a side of the clergy. He was responsible along with Colombo Archbishop Rt. Rev. Dr. Oswald Gomis to have introduced the OCIC in 1972.

He was the National Director OCIC from 1972 to 1982 and with blessing of late His Eminence Thomas Cardinal Cooray from 1977 he added novelty to felicitation ceremonies to fete artistes and recognise the services of those involved in the film industry.

With all his Mission work he had found time to edit several books on Cinema and do research, dive into the past of Sinhala Cinema, the Radio, Television, and various TV channels in operation.

In all these he had followed the instructions issued by the Church and hence there was no conflict. In his own way he has gone several steps further than late Noel Cruse (Earlier Fr. Noel Cruse OMI) in bringing the cinema as an accepted form of inculcating and appreciating Christian values.

He is also one of core men who introduced and encourage adopting Sinhala Culture, customs, rites and rituals along with indigenous decorations and music to make the Church part and parcel of this Sinhala soil.

He joined those pioneers to declare that we are part and parcel of this country and have the right to share the heritage of the Sinhalese and we are not alien and foreigners.

Fr. Poruthota is a follower in the foot steps of Blessed Joseph Vaz, Our National Saint, Fr. Jacome Gonsalves, Bishop Edmund Peiris OMI, D.J. Anthony OMI, Marcelline Jayakody OMI, Fr. Andrew Peter Fernando OMI, Fr. Don Peter and many others who laboured in this soil to make Christianity something indigenous, akin to the polity of this land.

Fr. Poruthota was felicitated with the conferring of honorary titles “Vishwa Prasadini “ and “Desha Nethru”. He was a man able to get along with Buddhist clergy and was able to get their help in Church work.

The visit of the very First Pope, Pope Paul VI, to Sri Lanka soil on December 4, 1970, Fr. Poruthota was able to get the assistance of late Kalasuri Ven. Mapalagama Vipulasara Thera, to vividly manifest the Sinhala art and culture decorating the Altar where the Holy Mass was offered at the Katunayake Air Port Grounds.

Moving with the mighty he was able to get the Government of the day to put out the first edition of “Catholic Social Teaching”, which includes several encyclicals of the Popes from Rerum Novarum to Octogessima Adveniens.

Pope Paul VI visit during the Premiership of late Sirimavo Bandaranaike, William Gopallawa our First President and R.S. Perera our Minister of Information.

Fr. Portuthota was born a son, to School Principal and author of several books P. Joachim Fernando and K. Mary Margret Peiris on August 31, 1931 at Marawila, Poruthota, in the Chilaw Diocese.

His full name is Poruthotage Raymond Ernest Alexander Fernando. He is the first born and then followed by three girls and youngest brother Anthony E. Separinus (ILO Asian Director).

He entered St. Aloysius Seminary in 1944 and was ordained a Priest of God in 1956. He began his writings to print media by editing the “Children’s Page” in the” Gnanartha Pradeepaya” in 1949.

The Dinamina, a Lake House publication carried his first article on December 23, 1957. He has authored several books including “Wruththiya Samithi Viplawaya” (1957), “Gihiya”, “Vathikana Kathikawatha”, “Kithunu Peraliya”,”Bhavyawadaya ha Lankawa”, “Surawa”, Several volumes of “Chitrapati Varshikaya” and the two volumes of “Katholika Samaja Darshanaya”.

These stand as a living monument to his dedicated work as a priest. May the Good Lord help him in his mission and future work. May you live long to serve the flock of the Lord.

September Events

Centenary celebration at the Shrine of Our Lady of Matara

The Catholic community will celebrate the centenary celebration of Our Lady of Matara on September 9, at 8.00 am with a festive High Mass offered by Galle Bishop Rt. Rev. Dr. Harold Antony Perera. A special commemorative stamp will be issued on the same day. There will be Holy Masses from 4.00 am to 6.00 am for the devotees who wish to attend early morning Holy Masses.

The hoisting of the flag tree will be on August 30 at 4.00 pm and there will be Novenas till September 6, daily at 4.00 pm.

On September 7, there will be Holy Hour followed by Eucharistic procession and Benediction officiated by Papal Nuncio Archbishop Rt. Rev. Dr. Mario Senari, along with Vicar General Galle Diocese Very Rev. Fr. Nihal Nanayakkara and the unveiling of the replica of the Matara Matha will follow.

There will be a Geetha Bhavana session and release of the Centenary Volume organised by the Daham Pahana Committee on the same day. On the Vespers day, September 8, there will be a procession with the statue of Our Lady of Matara followed by blessing.

***************************

Feast of St. Mary’s at Tudella

The feast of St. Mary, Our Lady of Refuge, at Tudella will be celebrated on Sunday, September 2, with a festive High Mass offered by Rev. Fr. Rohan de Silva, Director Catholic Press, Colombo. The Vespers will be sung by Rev. Fr. Susith Silva.

***************************

Feast of Our Lady at Welivita

The Feast of Birth of Our Lady will be celebrated on Sunday, September 9, with festive High Mass offered by Rev. Fr. Dennis Iddamalgoda OMI. On Tuesday, August 28 at 7.00 a.m., there will be a special Holy Mass for the repose of the souls of the departed, who were members of the Welivita Mission.

On Thursday, September 30, the hoisting of the flag tree at 5.30 pm. and Novenas will be held till September 7 daily at 6.30 p.m. Rev. Fr. Sagara Jayamanne will be the preacher. On Friday, September 1, at 9.00 a.m., Holy Mass will be offered for the sick.

On Saturday September 8 procession with the statue of Our Lady will commence at 3.00 pm and wills be followed by Vespers at 7.00 p.m. Episcopal Vicar Colombo West Very Rev. Fr. Ivan Perera will officiate at the evening prayer.

***************************

Feast of St. Mary at Katukurunda,

Moratuwa Catholics will celebrate the Feast of Our Lady on September 8 with a festive High Mass offered by Rev. Fr. Sriyananda Fernando. Hoisting of the flag tree will be on Wednesday, August 29, at 5.00 pm and there will be Novenas at 6.30 pm daily.

Vespers will be sung by Very Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Fernando, on Friday, September 7 at 7.30 pm. There will be Holy Masses from 5.30 am to 6.30 am and the procession will be at 5.00 pm on the feast day.

***************************

Feast of St. Mary at Kalahugoda, Minuwangoda

Kalahugoda Catholics will celebrate the Feast of St. Mary, on Sunday September 9, with a festive High Mass at 8.00 am. A Holy Mass will be offered on Saturday, September 8 at 7.00 pm.There will be a procession at 5.00 pm and will be followed by Vespers at 7.00 pm on the same day followed by procession. On the feast there will be a Holy Mass at 6.00 am.

***************************

Madu Matha feast at Katulanda

Katulanda will celebrate the feast of Madu Matha on September 9 with a festive High Mass at 8.00 am. The flag tree will be hoisted on Friday, August 31 at 5.00 pm. On Saturday, Vespers will be sung at 7.30 pm. There will be a Holy Mass at 5.00 pm on the Feast Day for the benefit of those coming late.