St. Thomas Day Ecumenical Celebration in Toronto The origin of Kerala's Chris-tians dates back to 52 AD, when St. Thomas the apostle came to the re-gion landing in the port of Cochin. He visited different parts of Kerala and converted local inhabitants in-cluding many from the upper sect known as Namboodiri Brah-mins. St. Thomas es-tablished Churches in seven places in Ker-ala: Kodungallore, Palayur, Paravur, K o k k a m a n g a l a m , Niranam, Chayal, Korakkeni, Kollam, and a chapel (half church-"Arappalli") at Thiruvankottu. Over time, the churches grew and the Christian population that has grown today is known to be de-scended from the early St. Thomas Christians who were the first con-verts. After a number of years, there are Christian denominations that have formed after separations and reunions. Because all the Christian denominations are linked together in the Christian faith even though they are separate rites, many of the churches come together to celebrate St. Thomas day through ecumenical
gatherings. For around 25 years in Canada, ecumenical gatherings have been taking place twice a year with the participation of over 12 churches who share the ecumenical passion. In celebration of St. Tho-
mas and his work, the ecumenical churches present songs and dances to glorify God in a wonderful and unified atmosphere. This year ecumenical was celebrated on July 30th with the in-volvement of almost all the 12 churches,
including our Malankara Catholic Mission Toronto. Our mission pre-sented 2 songs (one Malayalam and one in English) which was a won-derful experience for everyone. Not only was there the participation of adults, there was a great input by the children of our parish through instrumental and vocal contribu-tions. We are proud to be St. Tho-mas Christians and gladly use the blessed opportunity to praise and glorify God. We thank Achen for en-couraging us to partake in the won-derful occasion.
GENERAL INTENTION That all teachers may know how to communicate love of the truth and instill authentic moral and spiritual values. MISSION INTENTION That the Christian communities of Asia may proclaim the Gos-pel with fervor, witnessing to its beauty with the joy of faith.
Saint of the Month — St. Augustine St Augustine of Hippo (Nov 13, 354 – Aug 28, 430), also known as St. Augustine, St Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, was the bishop of Hippo Regius (present day Annaba, Algeria). He was a latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Ro-man Africa Province. St. Augustine is the pa-tron of brewers because of his conversion from a former life of loose living, which included parties, entertainment and worldly ambitions. His complete turnaround and conversion has been an inspiration to many who struggle with a particular vice or habit they long to break. His writings were very influen-tial in the development of West-ern Christianity. This famous son of St. Monica was born in Africa and spent many years of his life in wicked living and in false be-liefs. Though he was one of the most intelligent men who ever lived and though he had been brought up a Christian, his sins of impurity and his pride dark-ened his mind so much, that he could not see or understand the Divine Truth anymore. Through the prayers of his holy mother and the marvellous preaching of St. Ambrose, Augustine finally became convinced that Christi-anity was the one true religion.
Yet he did not become a Chris-tian then, because he thought he could never live a pure life. One day, however, he heard about two men who had suddenly been converted on reading the life of St. Antony, and he felt terrible ashamed of himself. "What are we doing?" he cried to his friend Alipius. "Unlearned people are taking Heaven by force, while we, with all our knowledge, are so cow-ardly that we keep rolling around in the mud of our sins!" Full of bitter sorrow, Augustine flung himself out into the gar-den and cried out to God, "How long more, O Lord? Why does not this hour put an end to my sins?" Just then he heard a child singing, "Take up and read!" Thinking that God in-tended him to hear those words, he picked up the book of the Letters of St. Paul, and read the first passage his gaze fell on. It was just what Augustine needed, for in it, St. Paul says to put away all impurity and to live in imitation of Jesus. That did it! From then on, Augustine began a new life. After his conversion to Christianity and baptism (AD 387), Augustine developed his own approach to philosophy and theology, accommodating a variety of methods and different perspectives. He believed that
the grace of Christ was indis-pensable to human freedom, and he framed the concepts of original sin and just war. When the Western Roman Em-pire was starting to disinte-grate, Augustine developed the concept of the Church as a spiritual City of God (in a book of the same name), distinct from the material Earthly City. His thought profoundly influ-enced the medieval worldview. Augustine's City of God was closely identified with the church, the community that worshipped God. In the Catho-lic Church and the Anglican Communion, he is a saint and pre-eminent Doctor of the Church, and the patron of the Augustinian religious order; his memorial is celebrated 28 Au-gust, the day of his death.
Newcomers’ Meeting - Let’s live and grow together... On a warm Saturday eve-ning on the 20th of August, Fr. John Kuriakose called in all the new comers’ and their families to our parish. The objective was to help the newcomers get inte-grated well into the day to day church activities and help each other. The evening started with a photo shoot of the families to build the e-directory of the church members. 19 families participated and a total group of around 40 people attended the gathering. Like St. Thomas the Apostle who went far to setup a church, the members have trav-elled far to build a home in Canada. This was the introduc-tory message from Achan and opened the floor for discussion. The participants intro-duced themselves to the group. During the group dis-cussion that followed, members
brought out the various chal-lenges and struggle they went thru while settling into the new country. Job search was the primary concern for the new comers and there were detailed discussion on how the members could help each other. There were a lot of good words from newcomers about how they were warmly welcomed into the church community by the existing members. This was
quoted as a speciality only to our church. The next discussion was how to connect members online. Brother Jobin, our web administrator had been able to take part in listening to the suggestions made about how our church web-site could lev-erage the knowledge base of our church to help newcomers. An active blog page or portal was recommended to ensure quick
dissemination of informa-tion. Experienced people like Francis and Alex gave valuable inputs to the newcomers about how they had overcome similar challenges. Fr. John closed the meet-ing by emphasising the fact that we were a community with a mission which will instil reli-gious values for the entire com-munity and our children. To ef-fectively bring this benefit, members were invited to be ac-tively involved in church meet-ings like the monthly prayer, catechism and the upcoming retreat. The evening was brought to close with prayer and dinner. Fr. John has triggered a fire of togetherness for the newcomers and they have all confirmed to keep the glow burning forever.
- Renish T.
Coffee Sponsors Sep 4 Saji & Laly
Sep 11 Saji & Laly
Sep 18 Vincent Thomas
Sep 25 Alex & Omana
Date Candle 1 Candle 2 Marbahasa 1 Marbahasa 2 Bell Readings Thurible
Sep 4 Samson Christopher Neil Reuben Lynn
Sep 11 Reuben Samson Deepak Christopher Neil Lynn Br. Jobin
Sep 18 Samson
Sep 25 Neil Reuben Samson Deepak Christopher Lynn Br. Jobin
His Exc. Abraham Mar Julios and His Exc. Jacob Mar Barnabas visited Toronto Mission In the last couple of months, we were truly blessed to have the presence of two of our beloved Bishops in our par-ish. His Excellency Most. Rev. Dr. Abraham Mar Julios, Metro-politan of Muvattupuzha, had come to Toronto for mission preaching and visited our par-ish and celebrated the Holy Qurbono with us on July 31st. He is currently initiating many
projects in the diosece of Muvattupuzha such as the Ca-thedral and many more. He has reminded us of the constant work of God, which the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church is doing, and inspired us to do more of what we can for the Kingdom of God. His Excellency Most Rev. Dr. Jacob Mar Barnabas, Apos-tolic Visitor to Extra Territorial
Region in India, had come to Toronto for mission preaching, as well, and visited our parish and celebrated Holy Qurbono with us on August 8th. His Ex-cellency had also joined the monthly meeting for the MCYM, wherein he contributed his ex-perience of the MCYM in E.T.R. and his wisdom and thoughts on how the MCYM can be bet-ter. He explained how our youth must shift from a social para-digm to that of a more spiritual one. We also understood from him, that the Church relies on our generation to be more active in spirituality, on a personal and communal level. After His Excellency’s sharing with us, I believe all of us could feel the great love our Church has for us. The MCYM Toronto truly appreciated the presence of our beloved Bishops in our parish.
- Neil T.
Liturgy of the Month
Week Gospel Readings Epistles Old Testament Readings
Sep 4 Luke 18: 18-30 The Rich Man
Jas 1: 2-8 Heb 13: 1-6
Deut 9: 25-29 1 Sam 12: 16-25 Isaiah 40: 1-11
Sep 11 Luke 21: 34-38 The Need to Watch
Jas 2: 18-26 2 Cor 11: 12-15
Gen 4: 1-7 1 Chr 29: 1-19
Isaiah 43: 16-28
Sep 18 Mark 13: 24-31 The Coming of the Son of Man
