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Udupi : Milagres Cathedral of the Udupi diocese at Kallianpur near here observed All Souls Day on Monday, November 1, 2020.

The observing all souls day also called Commemoration of the Faithful departed all over the world of Catholic Church. The Eucharistic mass was concelebrated by Very Rev Fr. Valerian Mendonca, Rector of the Milagres Cathedral along with Rev Fr. Canute Noronha Assistant parish priest, Rev Fr. Jossy Mascarenhas and Rev Fr. Brian Sequiera of Pilar Fathers’ Mini-Seminary, Kallianpur.

In his beautiful homily, Fr Canute Noronha said that it is through the words of scripture that we learn about the salvation through Jesus. We also believe that God’s word is powerful and relevant to the issues of today. One that comes readily to mind is that those who have died have passed over into another realm of consciousness, another world, and another reality. One of the psychological complexes that block us from transcending and finding release from our fear of death is guilt. Do this in remembrance of me. In remembering the Blessed Dead, let us also remember the one who was sent for our deliverance and liberation, to awaken us from our forgetfulness and to remind us of our origin beyond this world. To remember death is to the beginning. On All Souls Day we are reminded of that beginning. We are reminded of our essential task of renouncing the world, of transcending death and of the communion with our fellow spirits.

After the mass, all faithful proceeded towards the beautiful decorated and renovated large cemetery with lights and lots of flowers on the graves of the dead all over the cemetery. Very Rev Fr. Valerian Mendonca conducted the prayer services in front of newly build arc. In Latin culture it is also called the day of dead. They decorate the graves of the dead and remember the relatives and the loved ones that have passed beyond those graves. They call the spiritual connections with some spiritual and immortal part of those deceased whom they have loved or admired while in earthly life. The faithful of Milagres and surrounding parishes’ faithful as usual gathered at the cemetery.

This year for the first time, after the morning mass at 7am, faithful gathered for the prayers along with the clergy. The graves were decorated with flowers and lit candles on the graves of relatives and of their beloveds’ ones. Fr. Valerian Mendonca, Fr. Canute Noronha, Fr. Jossy Mascarenhas and Fr. Brian Sequiera sprinkled the Holy Water on graves throughout the cemetery. At the end Fr. Valerian blessed the cemetery with prayers.