One of the few times I revisit the Church is during midnight mass, for Christmas sometimes for Easter as well. The difference between the normal everyday masses is that these masses are attended by the masses, its fun playing with words sometimes. The major differences are the mass is celebrated than more than a single priest, the choir has been practicing more than once, the lights and the atmosphere is charged with positivity.

Every ones just waiting for the mass to get over to celebrate the joy of Christmas. The mass can go on for a good three hours but we pray that it ends faster, this one was a little more than two hours which is the normal time taken.The church is the Our Lady of Health Church at Versova (Originally a fishing village in a little corner of Bombay), which is blessed to have a massive quadrangle which can support a huge number of people outside. The parishioners are quite helpful and active in the community that help in decorations, sound and contributions.
The main parts of the mass are the readings where a man or woman comes up to read a passage from the bible, the sermons which is delivered by the priest. The Sermons could be made interesting or extremely boring as its a speech given by the priest. The Father who gave the speech this time was quite interesting for the first time I came across a Priest talking about energy and vibrations. The Elevation, when the bread and wine is supposedly converted into the body and blood of Christ, it still tastes the same, its like a faith thing.Something that bothers me is that most of the monetary contributions for the masses go to the holy land which make me wonder what happens with all this money. A beautiful enterprise, that’s what I feel, religion is truly a marvelous money churning industry.Anyway, we were entertained by two cute kids playing during the mass close to where we were sitting, children are a source of countless joy its amazing what they can do. I guess the secret to living a wonderful life could be retaining some child like behavior.I usually am outside the church except this year, outside you can find a group of people who, well, have already begun their celebrations before mass is over. This post is definitely late but it will be a good addition to the culture section.After the mass everyone kisses each other wishing them Merry Christmas, this is the time I try to escape by just wishing my family members and scoot off, to avoid bumping into all the people who you were avoiding by not going to Church throughout the year.

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Tags: Christmas Mass, Mumbai, Our Lady of Health Church, Versova