A well known writer Richard Garnett once said I quote “Love is the greatest gift that one generation can leave to another”. Our Grandparents are the best example to justify this saying. They are the treasures of our family. Their unconditional love and care towards their grandchildren will never fade with their age. There has been always a unique bond shared between a grandparent and a grandchild. On 26th of July The Church celebrated the Feast of Saint Joaquim and Saint Anne the parents of Mary and Grandparents to Jesus.  Keeping this memory alive we took this as an opportunity to celebrate this day along with our Catechism children on 29th of July. We invited all the grandparents from our Parish to celebrate this day with great joy. Thanking The Lord for the gift of our grandparents and to implore His blessings on us all the celebration began with solemn Eucharist. After the Eucharistic Celebration to quench their thirst we served them tea and snacks. To share in some lighter moments our Catechism children along with the Catechist had prepared a short Cultural programme. Our Post-Communion children with their echoing voices and our Pre-Communion little angels with a rose welcomed our grandparents. We believe that without cutting of the cake our celebrations our incomplete so, we had Mr. & Mrs. Furtado on behalf of all the grandparents who stepped forward to cut the cake and grace the occasion. The toast was raised by not just one Child but we had few of them surprising their grandparents with their lovely messages through their video clips. Our PPC Moderator Mr. Rosarito Coelho also shared his experience of being a Grandparent. As icing on the cake we had another grandparent Mr. Felix Dias with his song ‘Pornem Volter by Alfred Rose’. We had some video clips played which gave out a strong message i.e give love and time to our beloved grandparents. Mrs. Carmen Cardozo also shared her words of wisdom through a video clip. Followed by we had some rocking dance performances by our Catechism children and Catechist on a medley of old Konkani songs which took them down the memory lane of yesteryears. The Programme concluded with a Vote of thanks. This year this programme was first of its kind held in our parish and it was a grand success. Thank you to our Parish Priest Fr. Andrew Pereira and our Animator Fr. Gregory Cruz, all our Catechist and Catechism Children for all your support to make this day a memorable one for our grandparents and all of us.

By Janice Fernandes (Catechist)