October 01, 2024
My dear Collaborators,
It gives me immense joy to write to you as we celebrate the Feast of St Therese of the Child Jesus, Patroness of our Diocese today, October 01. From the many things that we can learn from this great Saint, one of the four women Doctors of the Church, is to be humble. St Therese taught us her “little way”. To follow this way, St Therese said, “we could offer our small sacrifices joyfully to Jesus throughout each day. We could go out of our way to be kind to difficult people; if our feelings our hurt, we could offer them to Jesus, instead of holding a grudge”. St Therese suffered a painful death with tuberculosis, but never complained or took her eyes off Jesus; rather, she fully united herself with Him. She died at the age of 24. May St Therese of the Child Jesus, Patroness of our Diocese intercede for us today and always.
The Church Universal is all set to begin the Second Session of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops from tomorrow (October 02 to Sunday, October 27, 2024) to continue the work of the Synod on Synodality on the theme: “For a Synodal Church: communion, participation and mission. The Synod participants are in the midst of a two-day spiritual retreat concluding this evening. May I request you to pray the Synod Prayer daily in the Church so that the Holy Spirit may guide and inspire the delegates to respond effectively to the evolving needs of being a synodal and missionary Church.
The month of October is also called the Rosary Month: I am sure our parishes will foster the devotion to Our Lady by motivating and enthusing our parishioners to pray the Rosary. Some parishes may also have the Statue of Our Lady going from house to house and/or praying the Rosary. Please encourage the parishioners to pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life.
The Principals and Managers of the English Schools are going to meet tomorrow, October 02 at Bishop’s House, Nashik to see how best we can form the Diocesan Board of Education. Fr Francis Swamy SJ, Resource Person, will surely guide all our Principals in these our challenging times how to imitate Jesus, Teacher par excellence, and show us the way to form the much-needed Board of Education.
We will have a recollection for all the Diocesan clergy and the Religious men at St Anne Cathedral, Nashik on Thursday, October 10 from 10.30 a.m. to 1.00 p.m. followed by lunch. The Priest’s Council will have a meeting for about an hour immediately after lunch on the same day. May I request all the Diocesan Clergy and the religious men to attend the recollection and the members of the Priest’s Council to attend the meeting.
Mission Sunday will be celebrated in the Church on Sunday, October 20. As is the practice, envelopes will be given to you on Thursday, October 10. May I request you to distribute the envelopes to your parishioners and motivate them to contribute generously to the cause of the Missions. The Holy Father’s message on Mission Sunday is being attached herewith.
We have already launched the new website of our Diocese on Sunday, September 08, the Birthday of Mary, our Blessed Mother. It is heartening to note that we have a number of visitors viewing the website. May I request you to send the link https://www.nashikcatholicdiocese.org across to as many of your friends as possible so that the people will appreciate the good work being done in our Diocese. I would be happy if you could also send a short report of interesting news (Feast Mass, School Annual Days, inauguration of a significant event, yatras, Blood Camp, Youth Days, Seminars, etc.) along with two or three high resolution photographs to nashikdiocese@gmail.com and we will surely upload the same on the Diocesan website. Reports could be sent either in Marathi and/or English.
I am happy to inform you that I have completed visiting most of the parishes and the religious Communities in our Diocese, with the exception of just three parishes. I will complete these by mid-October. It was a joyful experience for me visiting you and listening to your experiences, and I returned each night thanking the Lord for having gifted you to me. I thank you for all the selfless work you are doing in your parishes and religious Communities. May I earnestly request you to visit your parishioners in a systematic manner, give them a listening ear and try to alleviate their burdens. Please note that we are witnesses of Jesus and we need to love our people in the way Jesus did. I am confident of your wholehearted collaboration.
The month of October has a number of Liturgical Feasts: October 01, St Therese of the Child Jesus; October 02, The Memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels; October 04, the Memorial of St Francis of Assisi; October 07, the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary; October 15, the Memorial of St Teresa of Avila; October 17, the Memorial of St Ignatius of Antioch; October 18, the Feast of St Luke; October 28, the Feast of Sts Simon and Jude.
May the month of October enable us to be devotees of Our Lady so that we become missionaries of Jesus accompanying our parishioners and all those entrusted to our care closer and closer to Jesus who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
God bless you and with every good wish,
Yours in Christ,
+Barthol Barretto Bishop, Diocese of Nashik