Dear Reader,

I wish you and your family all the graces and blessings that Jesus can ever shower upon you through the intercession of St. Sebastian.

You are holding a very festive issue of PORMOLL, power-packed with the warmest wishes, blessings and prayers from and to all parishioners. Added to this are the useful and handy advertisements to support and perpetuate PORMOLL. In the air is also the aura of Carnival, which marks the end of all festivities and the beginning of Lent with Ash Wednesday.

To me it seemed like January walked by without time to make a decent resolution for 2021. But that should not deter us to make a simple resolution for Lent, which with God’s Grace will make an imprint on you and create a new and better version of you.

The Resolution is – MAKE TIME FOR JESUS.

• With enthusiasm, set a fixed time in the day to sit and talk to Jesus about your day. Recount to Him all the blessings, challenges, sorrows, victory over self and the tiniest details that come to mind. Talk as you would to your best friend. Picture Jesus listening to you attentively without any criticism.
• As you read this, Lent would have begun. On some days, more the better, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you, what it meant for Jesus – to be betrayed, abandoned, and denied by His near ones. Ask about the pain of being scourged, have thorns piercing through His scalp, the weight of the cross and most of all the intensity of pain as nails were hammered repeatedly on each hand and both feet together; then to hang for 3 hours on the Cross.
• As a spectator, as if from a distance, observe the silence and dignity of Jesus and Mother Mary. Remember that this was done for you, dear reader, personally, to deliver you from hell and open the gates of heaven – for all eternity.

Making any resolution and keeping it, is a sign of Integrity. It is about being honest and true to yourself. Let us make 2021 a year of Integrity. St. Joseph was such a man, for us to imitate.

My prayer for you is that you will commit to time with Jesus and soon begin to fall deeply in love with Jesus, making Him the center of your day and your life. Showers of blessings on you and your family.

J. Rodrigues