The rainy season has begun well in June and hopefully it will continue regularly in the month of July.
The school students have begun their academic year and getting acclimatized to the new class. They have entered into higher level books and study hours along with home-works. If the student studies well and regularly in the beginning of the year he or she will surely succeed. Monsoon is a good time to plant some flowering or fruit bearing plants.

Liturgically in the month of July feasts of various prominent saints are celebrated. 3rd of July is the feast of of St. Thomas. He is renowned among the apostles, chiefly because of his lack of faith which was dispelled when the risen Christ appeared to him. He proclaimed the Easter faith of the Church when he said: My Lord and my God. The tradition has it that he preached for the people of India. From the sixth century a feast of translation of his relics has been kept at Edessa on 3rd July.
July 6 is the feast day of St. Maria Goretti a virgin and martyr. She was born in Italy in 1890 in a poor family. she helped her mother in domestic chores in her childhood. She was a religious girl and much given to prayer. In the year 1902, while defending her virginity against a man, attempting to violate her she preferred to die rather than give way and was repeatedly stabbed with a knife. Young people and children are called to imitate her virtues, especially that of purity and holiness. The feast of St. Benedict is on 11 July. He founded a well-known monastery and wrote his Rule in Monte Casino and hence he has been called the Father of monasticism in the west. His medal and cross is used to ward off evil and in deliverance. On 26th July we celebrate the feasts of St. Joachim and St. Anne, the parents of Bl. Virgin Mary, also known as grandparents’ day. Let us attempt to study more about the lives of these saints and imitate their virtues in our day to day life hoping to be with them one day in eternal life.

Dr. Alfredo Antao