By Fr Kenneth Pereira for BISMumbai

On 25 June 2023, the parish of St Dominic Savio (Wadala East) celebrated Laity Sunday. In past years, the parish used to participate in the deanery celebration of Laity Sunday by sending a handful of representatives to the deanery-level programme held at Dadar. This year, they thought of doing it differently. In order to get fuller participation, they had the programme at the parish level itself.

At the 10:30 a.m. Mass, Fr Kenneth Pereira, the parish priest, kept the focus of his homily on the two-fold privilege of the laity: to be witnesses of Christ in the secular sphere and to be builders of a more vibrant parish community through active participation in the various cells and associations of the parish. 

After the homily, the leaders of all the lay associations of the parish were called to the altar, blessed by the congregation, and given an ornamental cross by the parish priest in recognition of their leadership in the lay arena. The leaders of fifteen such associations received the leadership cross: The SSVP, PLT, Legion of Mary, Bombay Catholic Sabha, Altar Servers’ Mentors, Youth Mentors, Sunday School Catechists, Music Ministry, Eucharistic Ministers, and other ‘cells’ of the parish.

It was the intention of the parish priest to do more than honour just the leaders of the lay associations in the parish. And so, after the Mass, all active members, from all associations and cells, assembled in the parish hall for an enjoyable get-together with games and snacks. Fr Pereira addressed the assembly, expressing his appreciation for the active role played by the people present—with much hard work and dedication—in making the parish a vibrant community and encouraging them to try and enthuse more people to get involved in serving the parish community through the diverse cells and associations.

Fr Pereira then conducted two delightful sedentary team games. The first game was titled ‘Gospel Maths’, and the second game was about unscrambling the diverse titles of Jesus. The participating teams vied with one another to claim the prizes that awaited the winners and the runners-up.

The get-together ended with all the attendees lustily singing ‘Bind us together, Lord’. There was a good spirit of camaraderie all through the get-together—with youngsters and oldies teaming up together—and it culminated in a big ‘group photo’ with lots of smiling faces at the end of the programme.