By Lissy Maruthanakuzhy
Panaji, Sept 8, 2020: For everyone the Feast of the Nativity of Mother Mary is very important. Due to Covid-19 this year, people are forced to practice their devotions at home.
In Martha Mariam Church at Kuravilangad, a first century church, 80 Catholics were allowed to participate in the feast day Mass, according to a parishioner.
The Basilica of Mount Mary at Bandra in Mumbai, a melting point of devotees from all cultures and religions, organized Novena Masses online as the church remained closed, the church office informed the Matters India. “The feast day Mass 8 am too was online,” the office added.
The feast gave an occasion not only to pray and receive spiritual blessings. It was also an opportunity for many small scale business people to earn their living. They would come much before the novena and set up their shops of various kinds, according to Ladislaus D’Souza.
The ongoing pandemic and lockdown having ensured the doors of this famous shrine remain closed, numerous are those who’ve lost their annual chance of earning a little extra at and around the Mount.
For the Little Sisters of the Poor who look after aged people and the Franciscan Hospitallers of Immaculate Conception who manage an orphanage near Mount Mary Basilica, it was a favored time to receive donations from well-wishers.
D’Souza, a copy editor at St Pauls, Bandra, says: “I recall fond memories of the annual Feast of Our Lady of the Mount! Childhood experiences of attending Mass during the Octave followed by breakfast at the Convent cafe comprising of a huge slice of Cucumber cake called Oomra in my native East Indian dialect coffee and then a walk down the steps of the fair is something nothing can replace today! While we enjoyed we were also contributing to the sisters’ fund for the orphans.”
“Change has been constant and so there’s been a vast difference both in the Mass arrangements and the composition of the fair. However, what I miss most is the fervor in evidence both inside the Basilica and in the Shamiana that never failed to boost my spirits, making me want to return to the basilica to sit and gaze at Mama Mary, whose statue is one of the most beautiful in the world! Although Mount Mary’s Basilica in Bandra, Mumbai is just a little over a century old, the statue itself was brought by the Jesuits from Portugal sometime in the 16th century and set up in a chapel constructed for it on the present location, devotion to Mary slowly but steadily taking root.
“In 1700, however, Arab pirates plundered the shrine, making off with the statue’s right forearm that held a gilted object. The statue, thus disfigured, was replaced with that of Our Lady of Navigators from a side altar at nearby Saint Andrew’s. To cut a long story short, in time, probably when the Basilica was built, the original statue was fitted with a prosthetic hand bearing a representation of the Infant Jesus and reinstalled in its niche above the main altar, and the one of Our Lady of Navigators repositioned at its former location.
“Smitten by the very countenance of the statue during his 1964 India visit, Pope Saint Paul VI, sent a stunningly beautiful gold crown in 1972. The Basilica, which was titled a Minor Basilica on 5 December 1954 by Pope Pius XII, witnessed a glorious moment as I watched His Eminence, Valerian Gracias of happy memory, the first Indian Archbishop of Bombay and the first Indian Cardinal, placed the crown on Mary’s brow in a hair-raising spectacular ceremony!
“More than anything else, the ‘out-of-bounds’ situation has been nerve-wracking in that it has become frustrating at not being able to attend Mass and receive the Eucharist under the gaze of Our Blessed Mother of the Mount.
Meanwhile Della Lobo, a resident of Mapusa in Goa, “found it suffocating” to remain without receiving Communion for a long time. “Since 2016 I am regularly participating in Holy Mass. Now I realize how I take God for granted. Pandemic is an opener in many ways. Today I attended Mas live telecast and I feel happy. But a part of me is sad I was unable to receive Jesus sacramentally. We also had novena at home as the Parish priest sent us the prayers. I pray that God may have mercy on us, put an end to the pandemic and open the doors of the Churches.”
As per the tradition Mother Mary was born in 18 BC.