FEBRUARY TIPCA NEWSLETTER

[melville dmello]

 FEBRUARY 2012 TIPCA NEWSLETTER

 Dear TIPCA members,
 We are well into the year 2012 with an extremely mild winter. In the next
 few months, many of our children will be receiving the sacraments of
 Reconciliation, or Communion or Confirmation. Seniors in High School will
 be busy deciding their next phase of life – University or Junior College.
 Many of us will be planning our next spring break outing or summer
 vacation. In the midst of all the worldly hullabaloo, let us not forget
 that the Lenten season starts on Feb 22 with Ash Wednesday – a day of fast
 and abstinence. The “stations of the cross” are held at all churches during
 Lent on Fridays… please do attend them. Let us make this Lenten season a
 good preparation for the great feast of the Church – that of Easter and the
 Resurrection of Our Lord on Sunday April 8th. This month of February, let
 us remember Our Lady of Lourdes feast on Feb 11 – an opportunity to go to
 mass on Saturday. Feb 11 is also designated as “World Day of the Sick” –
 Cardinal DiNardo will celebrate the Anointing Mass of the Sick at 10:00am
 at St Michaels Catholic Church. See your Church bulletin for further
 information.

 LAST MONTHS EVENTS: The first monthly mass of the year 2012 for January was
 held on Jan 8th, 2012 at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish. We had a decent
 attendance for the rosary and about seventy (70) people attended mass at
 4:30pm and social thereafter. The mass and social was sponsored by Jude and
 Heather Noronha. The choir included Jude Noronha on electric guitar and his
 daughter Samantha on piano. Samantha also sang a heart rendering version of
 “You raised me up” with a beautiful accompaniment by her friend Hannah on
 violin. It was truly moving. The food at the social was delicious and
 everyone was raving about the xacutti. We had plenty of folks from out of
 town, from the Middle East to Australia and New Zealand, whom we warmly
 welcomed. We had the monthly Catholic quiz – “Who did God call?” A lively
 session with a variety of answers with some of the questions as follows:
 “Come with me and I will teach you to be fishers of men” (Simon and
 Andrew); “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and God’s power will rest upon
 you” (Mary, the Mother of God); “From his birth, he will be filled with the
 Holy Spirit… He will go ahead of the Lord, strong and mighty like the
 prophet Elijah” (John the Baptist). Since this was the feast of the
 Epiphany and still the Christmas season, we had a Christmas game with five
 tables having to find out the Christmas carol from a line in the hymn given
 to them, and then each table had to sing that carol. We ended the game with
 the show stopper – “Twelve Days of Christmas” carol. The social concluded
 with another group game called “The Right and Left Game” – confusing but
 enjoyable. A great time was had by all who attended.

 The TIPCA community was called by the Diocese to assist as ushers at the
 Ordination of two new priests at the Cathedral of Sacred Heart, downtown
 Houston on SAT Jan 14. The mass was celebrated by Cardinal Daniel Dinardo
 and the majestic, beautiful ceremony for this blessed Sacrament
 (Priesthood) was also con-celebrated by over thirty priests from all over
 the diocese. A big thank you goes out to Stella Naik, Shekar Naik, Flavia
 DMello, Cedric Soares and Mel DMello for being ushers for this occasion.
 One of the newly ordained priests, Fr. Tom Hawxhurst will be assigned to St
 Laurence parish on Feb 1st.

 In the previous newsletter, I forgot to mention that the December monthly
 mass held on Sunday Dec 4th by TIPCA and ICH Kerala Catholics jointly was
 celebrated by Fr. KK and Fr. Chacko. Fr Chacko was our spiritual director
 for a long time at St. Laurence and was largely responsible for us having
 monthly mass. He celebrated his 40th year of being a priest in December.
 Our congratulations go out to Fr. Chacko and we pray that he will continue
 to minister to his flock for a very long time. TIPCA presented him with a
 gift check for $100/-.

 FEBRUARY EVENTS: The monthly mass for February will be held on SUNDAY Feb
 12th with Rosary at 4:00pm followed by mass and social starting at 4:30pm
 at St Thomas Aquinas Parish. This month’s mass has been sponsored by
 Sanford and Belinda Almeida for Sanford’s father Anthony Manuel Martin
 Almeida who passed away suddenly in December, 2011. Please attend so that
 we can together pray for soul and make the function a success. A special
 Valentine theme will be done for the social. DO NOT MISS IT.

Congratulations go out to the following high school kids who will receive their 

Sacrament of Confirmation at St Laurence Parish this month: Amanda Affonso 

(d/o Dominic/Assumta), Natasha Naik (d/o of Shekhar/Stella), Bradley D'Souza 

(s/o Alan/Maria), Marina Martins (d/o Melvin/Ursulla). We would like to recognise 

other TIPCA member kids who have received the sacrament of Confirmation this 

year. Parents please submit their names to us.

 Feb 28th TUESDAY and Feb 29th WEDNESDAY is the Divine Center Retreat
 conducted by Fr. Augustine from Potta and his duo choir of Glen and Teresa
 La Rive at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish FREE of charge. We are highly grateful
 to our TIPCA Spiritual Director Fr. KK for providing the St. Thomas Aquinas
 facility free of charge for this event. The retreat will be held each day
 - Session 1 from 2:00pm to 5:00pm and Session 2 from 6:00pm to 9:00pm.
 Please try and attend since each session will address different topics of
 interest to us. Our TIPCA community is encouraging all members to attend
 this retreat as our spiritual event for Spring 2012. Please bring other
 guests, specially those who need physical and spiritual healing. You will
 receive abundant graces and it will make a big difference in your life.
 We only request you to please submit your RSVPs to Ingrid DSouza at
 divineretr...@hotmail.com SEE ATTACHED FLYER FOR ADDITIONAL
 INFORMATION.

 APRIL 8, EASTER SUNDAY Please mark your calendars for the Annual Spring
 POTLUCK Picnic from NOON to 6:00pm. Each family is asked to bring a dish to
 share. Soft drinks, Napkins/cutlery will be supplied. Be prepared to enjoy
 family fun events including the Easter Egg Hunt for the kids. Location is
 yet to be decided. Please wait to hear further details from Stella Naik as
 soon as the venue has been confirmed.

 All TIPCA members should note that we shall NOT be having the monthly TIPCA
 mass in April because the second Sunday falls on Easter Sunday – an
 opportunity for all families to spend this great feast day with the
 family/TIPCA family at the above TIPCA picnic.


 MEMBERSHIP DUES
 Thus far, only 26 families have paid their annual dues for TIPCA membership
 of $30/- per family and $15/- for single people. We urge you to please pay
 the above immediately to our treasurer Anand Pinto, 531 Newington Lane,
 Sugar Land, Tx-77479 or to any of our TIPCA Committee members in person.
 All checks should be made out to TIPCA. Your dues help facilitate us in
 organizing all our functions by keeping costs to a minimum. By March our
 Web Master will be cleaning up our TIPCA electronic mailing distribution
 list. All paid members for the current year will be retained on the list
 and continue to receive the notifications issued by TIPCA. Please let us
 know ASAP if any paid member you know has been missed out so we can verify
 our records and action it immediately.

 TIPCA MASS SPONSORS
 If you are interested in offering memorial mass for a deceased or loved one
 or just a thanksgiving mass at a monthly TIPCA event, do let us know and we
 can add you to the list. TIPCA is always looking for sponsors for the
 monthly mass and social. So far for 2012, the following months are
 reserved:
 March 2012…………………Shekhar/Stella Naik family
 NO MASS in APRIL because of EASTER
 May 2012…………………..Open
 Jun 2012…………………...Open
 Jul 2012…………………….Open
 Aug 2012…………………. Frank/Ruby Saldanha family

I will be out of the country for the next few months. Please send all correspondence 

to our Vice President Stella Naik at tipca...@gmail.com or 281-762-7380.

 God Bless,
 Melville (Mel) DMello
 President, TIPCA
 281-207-6564