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| Family - World Marriage Day Dubai: World Marriage Day Celebrated Melissa Smith Report by: Urban Sequeira, St. Mary's Church,
Dubai Dubai Feb 14: World Marriage Day was celebrated in a very grand scale at St. Mary's Church Dubai on Monday, 12th February 2007 at 8.00 P.M. Just before the mass, a brief history and purpose on World Marriage Day was given by Thomas and Angela D'silva. Concelebrated High Mass started at 8.00 P.M. by all five priests with Fr. Freddie D'souza being the main celebrant.
The grand procession started from the main entrance door of the church with 49 couples, who completed 25 years and more of their married life joining the procession along with the altar servers and priests of the parish. The Papal Blessing placard was carried in the procession and placed in the sanctuary on a decorated stand. The first 15 pews were decorated with flowers for the occasion. "World Marriage Day honors husband and wife as head of the family, the basic unit of society. It salutes the beauty of their faithfulness, sacrifice and joy in daily married life" was the keynote made by Fr. Freddie in his opening address.
The Penitential Rites were conducted by a couple (Micky and Sandra) asking forgiveness from each other for the shortcomings in married life. Fr. Peter, our parish priest, gave a beautiful homily praising the married couples for their dedication and sacrifice in bringing up their children. He started with a small incident of a boy giving a bill to his mother asking for the payment for the various duties he performed. Whereas in married life, there is NO payment. A husband gives his total LOVE to his spouse and similarly a wife gives her total love to her spouse and in giving this total love the payment is done. He saluted all the couples who gathered for the Eucharistic celebration highlighting the sacredness of marriage. After the homily, all couples gathered renewed their marriage vows once again. As per the advance registration, there were 11 couples who completed 25 years of married life in the month of February. However, three couples came forward to the sanctuary and exchanged the rings.
The notable couple was – Rony and Aboline D'cunha who will complete 25 years of married life on the 19th of February. Our parish priest thanked them in a special way for their dedication and selfless service to the parish of St. Mary's Dubai. Rony D'cunha is the Chief Captain of the Volunteers Sodality and Aboline is the current Vice President of Parish Council. The complete proceedings were beautifully organized by the Marriage Encounter Group in Dubai who successfully celebrated World Marriage Day for the 5th consecutive year in Dubai Marriage Encounter Choir was in attendance led by charismatic person Nelson Miranda who, by their melodious singing, made the liturgy more meaningful.
The Highlight of the celebration was Felicitation of the Longest Married Couple, present at the service by Fr. Peter P.M. There was a surprise of surprises to everyone when Fr. Peter called out to the longest married couple to stand up and Peter and Zabel Menezes stood up to the thunderous applause of the congregation, who completed 62 years of married life. They were called to the sanctuary along with another longest married couple of our parish and a household name in Dubai – Fred Ellis and Mavis Ellis who completed Diamond Jubilee last month. They were offered gifts, flower bouquets and certificates by the Marriage Encounter Group.
The church was jam packed with couples witnessing the celebration of World Marriage Day. After the Mass, the Worldwide Marriage Encounter Group served refreshments to all those, who attended the celebration, which got over around 9:45 P.M.
Printed from www.mangalorean.com
Click here for a printable version (PDF, 199KB)
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