NEW YEAR 2017 MESSAGE FROM REV. FR. PETER CHINNAPPAN

NEW YEAR 2017 MESSAGE FROM REV. FR. PETER CHINNAPPAN

The Best New Year Gifts:

To your friend - loyalty;

To your enemy - forgiveness;

To your boss - service;

To a child - a good example;

To your parents - gratitude and devotion;

To your mate - love and faithfulness;

To all men and women - love;

To God - your life.

My dear Tamil Catholic Selvangale,

Wish you all a very Blessed and Prosperous New Year 2017!

We honor Mary today primarily because God honored her by choosing her to become the mother of Jesus, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, when He took on human flesh and became man, as stated in the Bible. The angel said to Mary: “You are going to be the mother of a Son, and you will call Him Jesus, and He will be called the Son of the Most High."  After the angel had appeared to her and told her that she was to be the mother of Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary visited Elizabeth. At Mary's greeting, Elizabeth said, "Why this great thing should happen to me that my Lord’s mother comes to visit me?” [Lk 1:43]. Hence, the Council of Ephesus affirmed in AD 431 that Mary was truly the Mother of God (Theotokos), and in AD 451, the Council of Chalcedon affirmed the Divine Motherhood of Mary as a dogma, an official doctrine of the Holy Catholic Church.

We also celebrate today the 50^th year of “World Day of Peace” which was promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1967. Pope Francis in his message for ‘World Day of Peace 2017’ has urged us to reflect on nonviolence as a style of politics and peace. We have published the entire message in our new website for your reading. 

I would earnestly urge you to pray for our community members who are going through a difficult time with regard to work, visa and permanent residence here in DFW area.  May God in whom we place our trust and Blessed Mary who intercedes unceasingly for our growth, continue to guide us and thus bring about unity, joy and peace!

I take this occasion to acknowledge and express my sincere gratitude to the out-going leadership team for their selfless and dedicated service for past two years. Our attendance has been increased steadily. Our spiritual journey has been strengthened and our faith is deepened. Thank you all our out-going leadership team. ‘Well done, good and faithful servant with a few things; I will put in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness’ Mt. 25:21

Finally, I wish to welcome the ‘New Leadership team’ to serve our community in a spirt of love, sacrifice and dedication. Both Mr. Anthony Venansius and Mr. Valstan Thomas had availed many hours of their precious time in conceiving and constructing our new website. I express my sincere appreciation and looking forward to work together for the development of our community anchored in faith and served with great sacrifice and witnessed in love.

Fr. Peter Chinnappan