Team Herald
PANJIM: Ahead of festive season, the Archbishop of Goa and Daman Filipe Neri Ferrao has appealed to its faithful to be focused more on the Spiritual celebration of Advent and Christmas rather than getting into an extravagant display.
In a circular issued to the clergy, religious and lay faithful of this Archdiocese, the Archbishop has suggested reaching out to the poor and needy during the festival celebration.
“Dearly beloved, a genuine, Spirit-filled celebration of Advent and Christmas has never called for the extravagant display of external merry-making that has increasingly characterized our Christmases, dictated more and more by today’s commercial concerns,” the circular mentioned.
“It is my earnest wish that the restrictions imposed by the ongoing pandemic may help us to focus on what is essential, indeed necessary, for us to celebrate the Feast of our God Immanuel in a way most befitting to Him, that is, by turning our attention to the other and to his needs, reaching out to others in our own families, neighbourhood groups and parishes and thus welcoming into our lives the Lord who, in the words of a well-known hymn, “comes, comes, ever comes”,” the Archbishop added.
He further advised the faithful to avoid too many lights and decorations; the money could, instead, be channelled towards the needy.
“Think of moving from external illumination to lighting the lives of people,” he said, while appealing for small sacrifices to be made in the family and the savings (in cash or kind) to be given to the poor and the underprivileged in the parish.
He added that for the past two decades or so suggestions have been made several times for a more communitarian and participatory celebration of Advent, Christmas and New Year, with a view to create greater fellowship among all. “This year, however, such a celebration will not be possible, due to the unprecedented situation in which we all are because of the COVID pandemic,” he added.