By Lissy Maruthanakuzhy
Panaji, March 27, 2024: A chapel community in Panaji has organized the Way of the Cross for the homebound sick and elderly people in the capital of Goa.
The March 25 program by St Sebastian’s Chapel community at Fontainhas resonated with the Synod call to reach out to those in the periphery, said Father Roque D’Costa, the chaplain.
The Daughters of St Paul and Pauline cooperators helped organize the program.
Beginning the prayer in the chapel of the Daughters of St Paul, the community visited different families giving the homebound a feeling of oneness with the whole community, said Jovito Fernandes, one of the organizers.
“We visited 20 families who had homebound members. Some of them cried out of joy,” the Pauline cooperator told Matters India.
Fernandes also said the program helped bring the message related to Jesus’s passion to the plight of many suffering people in our locality. “It was a prayer for healing. We were with persons who experience the cross of suffering in their lives,” he added.
Father D’Costa commended the “very good initiative” and promised to plan it better in future.
In every family the priest introduced the person who was ill or elderly to the group before praying one of the Stations of the Cross. He also blessed each member of the family before leaving the house.
Sylvester Estibeiro, who has elderly parents, prayed one of the stations in his house. He also participated in the prayers in other families. “I thought I only experienced difficulty until I saw the situations in other families. It was very inspiring,” he told Matters India.
Aires Andrade, a community member, found the program as something new. “All my family members were very happy that my 90-year-old mother could participate in the Way of the Cross at home as she cannot go to the chapel,” he said and added the initiative has helped the homebound to become a part of the community.
The program started at 3:30 and ended after 3 hours and 15 minutes. Andrade wants the program to be done on different days instead of walking long distances on the same day.
Such a beautiful initiative! May God bless all those who were involved in any way!
Thanks for writing about it & sharing the idea, Sr. Lissy.
Excellent and thoughtful initiative. Congratulations
God’s words could reach the homebound sick and elderly people by conducting a Way or Station of Cross in this lent season, which was organized by the Sisters of St. Paul and Pauline cooperators along with the Chaplin of St. Sebastian, for the first time.
The sick and elderly people were blessed by having the same. It was a good initiative by the organizers for remembering the sick and elderly people. A big God Bless to the organizers.