13,000 devotees attend festive evening mass at Infant Jesus Shrine

13,000 devotees attend festive evening mass at Infant Jesus Shrine

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, Jan 5, 2012: The annual Infant Jesus Feast was celebrated at Infant Jesus Shrine in Bikarnakatte on Jan 14 Saturday. The festive mass, which was held at 6:00 p.m., was celebrated by Dr. Aloysius Paul D’Souza, the bishop of Mangalore Diocese, and the homily was delivered by Fr. Praveen Leo of St. Joseph’s Seminary. 

Around 13,000 people participated in the festive mass. A nine-day novena, masses, and special prayers, which commenced on Jan 5, marked the beginning of the festival. Seven masses were celebrated on each day of the novena—four masses in the morning and 3 in the evening. The evening masses were shown live on TV and online. On the third day of the novena, special masses were conducted for kids and on the 10th day, a mass was held for the sick. 

The Mangalore Diocese is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year, as per which the festival was celebrated under the theme of “glowing with faith, lamps of light.”

The Carmelites of Infant Jesus Shrine also organized a blood donation camp on Jan 12. 

On the day of the feast, 7 masses were held in the morning, four in Konkani and one each in English, Kannada, and Malayalam. A special mass for the sick was conducted at 10:15 a.m. At 1:30 p.m., an inter-religious prayer service was held in Kannada by Fr. Vijay Kumar, Fr. Nelson, Fr. Joy Painandath, Fr. Biju, Fr. Abraham, Fr. John Sequeira, Fr. Andrew D’Souza, Fr. Vijay Kumar, and Fr. Maxim Noronha. 

Around 2000 people attended each mass.