He was one of us in our community earlier but now we
are proud about him for he is celebrating his first thanksgiving Eucharistic Celebration as
priest in our Claret Nivas community. Fr.Tharaka Dinindu Perera CMF who was
ordained and consecrated by Rt. Rev. Dr. Raimond Kingsly Wickramasinghe the
bishop of Galle on 18th of May 2017 in St. Joseph Church Wenapuwa.
Thereafter he celebrated his first thanks giving mass in his own soil, at Our
Lady of Madhu in Malcolony, Thethapola On 21st of May 2017. He is
the first fruit from that village. He celebrated other thanksgiving mass at St.
Xavier’s Church, Nuwaraellia on the 28th of May 2017 where he was
given with the diaconate ministry.
On 29th of May 2017 we,
Claret Nivas community, joyfully experienced the mysterious hand of God in the
person of Fr. Tharaka. The Eucharist started with the words of our superior,
who joyfully welcomed our newly ordained Fr. Tharaka CMF and gave short
introduction on the gift of missionary vocation. He concluded his introduction
advising him to lead a life of prayer and to live according to the Eucharist he
celebrates and to have focus at the crucified Christ. At the very outset of the
mass itself Fr. Tharaka mentioned that he was proud and very happy to celebrate
the Eucharist with us, which was once his dream (today that has come true)
particularly to change the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ and
to sit on the presidential chair in Claret Nivas.
The beautiful part of the
celebration is the homily, where he spoke from his heart. Our Lord Jesus
Christ, from his birth to death, underwent enough and more difficulties and
struggles yet he was always faithful to God and fulfilled the will of His
Father by serving people. Fr. Tharaka mentioned that the missionary/priestly
life is also with lot of difficulties but it is joyful when we face them with Christ
and fulfill the God’s will by serving the faithful with mercy and love. He had
been in the seminaries, both in Negombo and Kandy for fifteen years, which was
a long journey but each day was precious to discern the will of God and to
learn there, to be formed and to be forged for the mission of God.
He shared his beautiful experience of his
ordination day. Though he had prayed and made preparations he was tensed and
frighten before the mass. But the real joy he has felt during the time of
consecration which is unexplainable and cannot buy for any amount. It is the
real blessing. He witnessed that all his struggle, tense and pain were vanished
at that time. He too share his few unforgettable experiences in Claret Nivas,
when he was a student here. He was very correct when he said that when we join
the seminary, we were very fresh and our goal was only to become a priest but
on the process of our formation we were disturbed by many things and our goal
get divided. But he told that we need to persevere the same desire and
motivation to serve the people.
He did not fail to say that despite
of his unworthiness God has made him worthy. He narrated the two incidents
happened in his childhood. He too mentioned that we are human beings and making
mistakes are part of our life but if we do not learn a lesson from each mistake
then it is really a mistake. He is very happy that he has learned a lot of thing
during the time of his formation. He further expressed there are so many
incidents where he had felt the protection and guidance of God. He instructed
the missionaries who are in formation to be joyful in the formation period
specially to pray more and to participate in all the community activities
happily.
This celebration of thanksgiving was not only a
special day to Fr. Tharaka but also to all of us who are in formation. It is
really a day of inspiration to all the missionaries in formation to have a day
as such in our life too.
It is not only the dream of
Fr.Tharaka but the dreams of many who courage him and supported him. We do well
to take up the dreams of our elders, so that we can prophesy in our day and
once more encounter what originally set our hearts afire. We are heirs to the
dreams of our elders, heirs to the hope that did not disappoint our founding
mothers and fathers, our older brothers and sisters. We have inherited the hymn
of hope from our elders. Our elders, our fathers and mothers, dreamed and
courage us prophetically to carry on our dreams. They made us part of
this process. In their faces, in their lives, in their daily sacrifice we
were able to see how this praise was embodied. We too want to sing, “God does
not deceive; hope in him does not disappoint”. God comes to meet his
people. And we want to sing by taking up the prophecy of Joel and making
it our own: “I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men
shall see visions” (2:28).
MY DREAM IS FULFILLED WITH THE GRACE OF GOD...
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