Christian Perspectives

St. Anthony’s – Batagama 125th Jubilee celebrations

Turning right at the Rilaulla Junction on the Colombo-Negombo Road and proceeding a kilometre one would find St. Anthony’s Church, Batagama. On the left at a higher elevation. June 13 marks the 125th Jubilee of this church.

The faithful of Batagama realised the need to transform the original cadjan roofed church of 1851 to a bigger and more permanent structure. Their humble supplications were answered when Rev. Fr. Thosi and Rev. Fr. Sathangelo laid the foundation stone to the present church in 1875. The construction was completed in 1888. On June 13, 1907 the Archbishop of Colombo His Lordship Rt. Rev. Dr. Anthony Coudet (OMI) consecrated the new church.

Around 1921, the Parish Priest of Weligampitiya Rev. Fr. Figaradi had the sacristy constructed.

Batagama became a new Parish on May 1, 1937 under the stewardship of Rev. Fr. Yasmarrot. The Batagama Convent of the Good Shepherd sisters was also constructed during this period.

Under the able stewardship of Rev. Fr. Moise (OMI) 1956-1976, branch churches were established, the wide flight of steps in front of the church was constructed and the Dhaham Pasala was started. The church celebrated its 75th Jubilee on October 11, 1964 with the participation of the Auxiliary Bishop of Colombo Rev. Dr. Anthony de Saram.

Rev. Fr. Peter Revel was appointed the Parish Priest of Batagama in 1987. On his request, the 100th Jubilee festive mass was celebrated by the Auxiliary Bishop of Colombo Most Rev. Dr. Oswald Gomis on June 13, 1989.

the new Mission House was completed on February 27, 2002, under the guidance of Rev. Fr. Jayanath Bertram Fernando.

The incumbent Parish Priest Rev. Fr. Bernard Nishantha Wilathgamuwa set in motion many spiritual and social development programmes in the Parish with the proclamation of the 125th Jubilee year celebrations. The faithful were encouraged to build their faith through meaningful programmes held at regular intervals throughout the jubilee year, so that they could celebrate this anniversary in a more spiritually rich environment.

The church and its surroundings got a face lift with the construction of the new altar and sanctuary, the relocation of the statue of St. Anthony above the altar, the reconstruction of the wide flight of steps leading to a beautifully constructed portico. The landscaping and paving of the surrounding area has enhanced the serenity of this hallowed church.

While thanking Almighty God for the countless blessings, showered upon the Batagama Parish and its faithful through the powerful intercession of St. Anthony, we implore the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the continuous intercession of our Patron St. Anthony for ages to come. Programme on June 13 at 7 am

Vespers will be chanted by Most Rev. Auxiliary Bishop Emmanuel Fernando.

June 13 at 8 am

Festival high mass is to be celebrated by His Eminence Malcom Cardinal Ranjith.

There will be other masses at 5.30 am, 6.30 am, 11 am and at 12 noon (in English). The chief celebrations of the final festive mass will be by all priests in Batagama Parish at 5 pm attended by all Rev. Parish Fathers in the area followed by the procession carrying the statue of St. Anthony winding its way along the gaily decorated streets.

The Batagama Parish Council extends its sincere gratitude to parishioners and devotees of the surrounding villages for their invaluable cooperation.

Rev. Frs. Who served the Batagama Parish

Rev. Fr. Yves – OMI (1937-1939)

Rev. Fr. R.D. Charles

Rev. Fr. Jerome Silva – OMI

Rev. Fr. Louis Wolf – OMI

Rev. Fr. SCR Nand Moyse – OMI

Rev. Fr. Anthony Perera

Rev. Fr. Peter Stanislaus

Rev. Fr. Don Hettiarachchi

Rev. Fr. D.S. Stanley Wedasinghe

Rev. Fr. Noel Dias

Rev. Fr. Benedict Joseph

Rev. Fr. R. Cyril Kurugama

Rev. Fr. Mahesh Ganemulla

Rev. Fr. Peter Ravel Pulle

Rev. Fr. Julian Tissera

Rev. Fr. Joseph Perera

Rev. Fr. Jayanth Balagalla

Rev. Fr. Linton Joseph Fernando

Rev. Fr. J. Bertram Fernando

Rev. Fr. Indra Ratnasiri Fernando

Rev. Fr. Nishan Bernard Wilathgamuwa

R S A Rangala Vice President Batagama Parish Council
 

Rosarian Monastery at Tewatte completes 65 years

The Rosarian Contemplative Sisters will celebrate the 65th year of the Monastery at Tewatte, Ragama on September 8 this year.

The Monastery was set up in the present locality after the indigenous Congregation of the Contemplative Sisters of Holy Rosary was found by Rev. Fr. B A Thomas OMI on September 8, 1948. This Congregation of the Sisters is found to give greater Glory to God through life of prayer with adoration of the Holy Eucharist and live a contemplative life with Mary, the Mother of God, who lived at Nazareth in silence.

The members of this Congregation experience God, the invisible Lord in the community through Divine Providence in their lives. The community of Sisters invites those looking for meaning in life to join them in prayer and work to experience God. Those keen are invited to offer their beautiful lives to reconcile the broken world with God. For more information call 2958552 (Ragama) or 031 2278001 (Negombo, Kochchikade).

Building unity with ethnic and religious groups

Priyanka Kurugala in Zurich

The Sacred Heart Church, Wiedikon, Zurich is conducting many programmes to build unity among Sri Lankans belonging to various ethnic and religious groups living in Switzerland, Rev Fr. for the Tamils in Switzerland Christopar Anthonithas Dalima said.

Buddhists monks, Hindu Priests, Movlavis and people belonging to all faiths are invited for these multi religious programmes, he said during a meeting organized by the Swiss Hindu Buddhist Association headed by President T Logeswaran.

According to the reverend, there are a large number of Sri Lankan Catholics who live in Switzerland with a Majority of them been Tamils. Sinhalese too have a sizable population.

The dialogue between these groups, conducted frequently has helped to build up unity and understanding, he added.

Father for the Tamils in Switzerland Dalima said, his Church was organizing some special cultural and educational programmes as well, especially targeting the children.

Awareness programmes are also being conducted targeting elderly people, he said.

Elderly people are unaware about the cultural difference between the two countries Sri Lanka and Switzerland, he said.

Education for living in a multi cultural society is very important for the people who have migrated from one country to another, he added. 

WEEKLY DEVOTIONS:

The seven annual feasts of Israel

Altars in the time of Moses were found in several places, proving to us that God had taught His people how to worship Him. There were many altars that were found that were not made to worship Jehovah- as of all times, a good thing was also polluted and true worship was not followed.

Imitating God’s instructions to contaminate true worship was always Satan’s way of confusing people. It is happening now and it happened even then.

The first person to build a true altar of worship was Noah. This he did to give thanks to God because of protecting him from the flood and keeping him and his family together with the animals safe, so that they could have a new beginning. When Noah gave this thank offering to God, it was a sweet savour unto God and we find that God responds to Noah with a covenant signified by a rainbow.

When we read the lives of Abraham and the patriarchs we see that from Abraham to Jacob they all had the habit of giving thanks to Jehovah by building an altar and making sacrifices to thank God for His leading, protection, provision etc.

This clearly indicates to us that people who built altars and gave a sacrifice during this time believed in the existence of God and had faith in Him.

As the Israelites were being led from Egypt to Cana, we read that God tells them to build an altar to give thanks to Him. It was therefore not something new that God commanded them, they would have been aware of Noah and the Patriarchs having built an altar of thanksgiving. The difference being that now Israel would have an altar designed by God Himself to say thank you to their Lord God who had done so many awesome deeds in leading them out of Egypt.

Once the Lord gave instructions for the tabernacle and all its contents to be designed, the Israelites had to keep many feasts, this God did to remind them as to how he led them so that they will have a thankful heart and keep their hearts focused on an almighty God who is able to do great things for them and thereby have faith to be led by Him throughout their lives.

We know the first generation of people who came out of Egypt were not a thankful lot - 38 years of wandering in the desert had completely eradicated the old generation (except for Caleb and Joshua) and a new one had come forth. Now God wanted this generation to have a thankful heart which in turn will make them have faith and be faithful to Him.

It is good for us to study the Seven feasts that the Israelites had to celebrate throughout the year.

This annual cycle of feasts helped Israel to remember the leading of God and be a light unto their future pathway where God is given the centre place in their lives.

Out of the 7 feasts the first 3 of them had to be kept in the first month of their calendar, Abbib (March-April). The Weeks offering or Pentecost in the month of Sivan (3rd month -May-June). There were other feasts too but these 7 which shows us God’s direction in worshipping Him to enable Israel not to forget how He had led them from captivity which in turn will help their hearts to be thankful and thereby encourage their faith in Him.

1. Passover - reminding Israel of their

2. Unleavened - deliverance from egypt

3. First fruits - thank offering for

4. Weeks - god’s provision (Also referred to as Pentecost)

Passover - slaying a lamb and eating together with bitter herbs and bread without yeast.

Unleavened Bread - Eating bread made without yeast.

These two festivals took back Israel (1) when the Angel of Death passed over the doors which had the sign of a lamb’s blood indicating that the house belonged to an Israelite and therefore death should be passed over.(2) Israel had to leave Egypt in a hurry and therefore could not allow the yeast to rise.

First Fruits - Presenting sheaf of the first of the barley harvest making grain offering and burnt offering.

Weeks - Joyful time, offering first fruit of the wheat harvest.

The next 3of the annual offerings were done in the month of Tishri (Sept/Oct)

5. Trumpets - Looking forward to a good announcement

6. Day Of Atonement - The Only feast that was not joyous but confessing one’s sin and getting right with God.

7. Tabernacle - Anticipating entrance into the promised Kingdom blessings an Israelite this meant a land flowing with milk and honey

Today, as we look at these 7 annual feasts, we can categorize them as belonging to the three tenses.

The Past: The feasts of the Passover and Unleavened Bread fall into this category, where Israel was redeemed from the clutches of Pharaoh and Egypt.

The Present: The feasts of the First fruits and Weeks showed Israel of the daily provisions that Israel enjoyed by being under God’s tender care.

The Future: The feasts of the Trumpets, announcement of warning or good tidings, Day of Atonement, a temporary dealing with their sins, expecting the true Lamb of God to come down and take away the sin permanently. 

The word ‘atonement’ in Hebrew is ‘kippurim’ from the word ‘kaphar’ meaning ‘to cover over’. The sacrifice made on the Day of Atonement only gave a ‘covering over of sin and not totally taking over. Israel had to look to this as a future event.

Feast of the Tabernacle - The tabernacle indicated to the Israelites to look forward to a new Kingdom, where the promise of a land with milk and honey was given to them, a description of Cana.

Whilst it is important for us to study and understand God’s leading of Israel and what these festivals meant, for us Christians of today, all these festivals are replaced by ‘The Lord’s Supper’. Again, Jesus asked us to do this in remembrance of Him. We humans so easily forget what the Lord has done for us, don’t we? We too have to be nudged into constantly remembering all Christ’s leading in our lives as often as possible.

The Past: Like the Israelites we too were under the yoke of bondage and had to be redeemed by the blood of our Passover lamb. We must always think about what this means to us. The time without Christ in our lives has to be remembered so that we can truly be thankful to God for salvation.

The Present: We can truly lead a victorious life with Jesus our Good Shepherd who leads us day by day. We can also be honestly thankful for God’s daily provision, both physical and spiritual. We are protected by God and are the apple of His eye. We can praise Him for His presence with us because of what Christ has done on the cross. The Lord’s Supper does remind us of the many blessings we can enjoy because of the fact that Jesus crushed Satan’s head by His heel as he completed His work on the cross as the Saviour of the World and has offered us an inner peace and tranquility that only can be brought about by the salvation He has offered us, even as we are thankful that the body and blood of Christ has been paid to wash away our sins

The Future: The Lord’s Supper certainly enables us to expectantly await His return when every knee will bow and every tongue confesses that Jesus is Lord. Even as the trumpets blast at His coming and the Tabernacles from heaven comes down:-

Revelation 21:1-5

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, THE TABERNCLE of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things e are passed away.

And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.

Even as the Israelites of old kept a remembrance of all what God had done in their lives The Lord’s Supper should remind us of all what Jesus Christ has achieved on the cross of Calvary for us, and one should constantly keep Christ as the centre of one’s life.

Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, help me to remember what you did to save the Israelites during the time of the Exodus. Through these 7 feasts you taught them to have a thankful heart, may I too remember and partake of the Lord’s Supper as often as I can to remember what you have offered to me.

Help me to take time to apply the privileges that I have been bestowed with through your act of dying on the cross and shedding your precious blood. Father, I give my life to you and offering of thanksgiving, and ask you to place a desire in my heart to do this, right throughout the year - Help me to think of my past, present and future in the light of what you did on that cross for me. My Saviour I want to always keep you as the Centre of my life. Thank youJesus. Amen.