by Fathers Ashwin Mal & Dinesh Vasava for BISMumbai

Disembarking at Ramganj Mandi Railway Junction enroute Delhi, and proceeding onto Suket in Kota District South-East Rajasthan – made up of rugged inhospitable terrain which however allows a flourishable thriving of Ashwagandha [the inestimably vital ayurvedic root]; renowned for its quarrying/mining/processing of natural limestone [Kota stone]; and for it’s massive coriander seed produce; farther beyond Khairabad [famed for the Shri Falaudi Mataji Mandir] – lies Salawad-Khurd, a small hamlet housing the 105 year old Parish Church of St. Michael the Archangel-cum-Don Bosco Secondary School located at Mikhelpura, managed by the Salesians of Don Bosco of the Province of Bombay [INB].

On 05 January 2020, this community of believers was privileged to welcome 02 newly ordained MumbaiSalesian priests, Fathers Jerome Aruldass and Xavier Bandya to preside at the solemn Epiphany Eucharist. Even as the infamous infants’ death is making headlines and heads turn, at the main Kota city, the newly ordained priests were like the wise men who travelled from the East to discover the newborn infant Christ, far removed from the glare of the limelight in Jerusalem, all those many starlit nights of yore!

Father Bandya in his homily said, “the three kings who sought the Christ, depict the nature of individuals based on the gifts that they presented to the infant in the manger.” Immediately after the Eucharist, a short felicitation and interactive session ended with group photos on the school stage.