Ministry with Dallas Tamil Catholics - A report to Rev. Bishop Greg Kelly - Dated August 2023

Our History 

Arockia Annai-yin Dallas Tamil Catholic Association is a part of Holy Family of Nazareth Catholic Church’s multicultural ministries. It was founded by Rev. Fr. Peter Chinnappan, then the associate pastor of All Saints Catholic Church, Dallas, Texas. The first gathering with Holy Eucharist in Tamil was celebrated on August 15, 2006, with due permission from Most Reverend Charles V. Grahmann then the bishop of the Diocese of Dallas. There were only five Tamil Catholic families who were the founding members of Dallas Tamil Catholics (DTC). Eventually, the number of families increased. Initially our Tamil Mass was celebrated in various parishes in the Diocese of Dallas. But then, to make it a monthly celebration, we needed a permanent place of worship. Prior to Holy Family of Nazareth Catholic Church, Irving, about nine years ago, Tamil Mass was celebrated for a period of three years at Holy Cross Catholic Church, The Colony, in the Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas. DTC is supported by priests and families who speak Tamil in and around the DFW metroplex. It was in 2013, when Rev. Albert Becher, having consulted with and approved by the Parish Pastoral Council, was pleased to share the sanctuary at Holy Family of Nazareth, Irving, to celebrate Mass in Tamil. The Tamil speaking Catholics over 60 families became a part of their multicultural ministries. Today, DTC has more than 200 families. Holy Family of Nazareth Catholic Church became the permanent abode for Our Lady of Good Health (Arockia Annai/Vailankanni Madha). The installation of the statue of Our Lady of Good Health took place on December 8, 2018. Fr. Albert Becher blessed and dedicated the statue of Our Lady of Good health to HFN. 

Letter of Permission

Our Vision: To strengthen our faith, inculcate/nurture our faith into our families through the celebration of the Holy Eucharist in Tamil, and to catechize our children and bring them up with social, ethical, spiritual, and family values and thus form a strong faith-filled and a vibrant Catholic Community. 

Mission: The DTC Community wishes to reach out to all Tamil Catholics in and around the DFW metroplex, to share our social, cultural, traditional, and spiritual values and celebrate our life together as one family. We wish to involve every Tamil Catholic family to worship and participate in our traditional celebrations, such as Adoration, Lenten Retreat, quarterly All-Night Adoration, Novena to celebration of the Birthday of our Blessed Mother on September 8th, and Enthronement of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Although we had planned to have second Mass, due to pandemic we could not continue but for the last three years we are celebrating Mass on the second Saturdays of the month in addition to the Fourth Saturday Mass.

One Faith

The invisible God, from the fullness of his love, addresses men as his friends, and moves among them, in order to invite and receive them into his own company. The adequate response to this invitation is faith. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. As confessed in the Apostles' Creed, celebrated in the liturgy and lived in observance of God's commandments and in prayer, Faith is man's response to God, who reveals himself and gives himself to man, at the same time bringing man a superabundant light as he searches for the ultimate meaning of his life.

One Hope

Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ's promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. Hope of the New Heaven and the New Earth - At the end of time, the Kingdom of God will come in its fullness. After the universal judgment, the righteous will reign forever with Christ, glorified in body and soul. The universe itself will be renewed. The Church will receive her perfection only in the glory of heaven, when will come the time of the renewal of all things.

One Love

God is Love and love is his first gift, containing all others. God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. This love (the charity) is the source of the new life in Christ, made possible because we have received power from the Holy Spirit. Prayer and Christian life are inseparable, for they concern the same love and the same renunciation, proceeding from love; the same filial and loving conformity with the Father's plan of love; the same transforming union in the Holy Spirit who conforms us more and more to Christ Jesus; the same love for all men, the love with which Jesus has loved us.  

The following is the list of coordinators and ministry lead. 

Administration / Leadership Team 

1. Chief Coordinator– Sudha Louis
2. Associate Coordinator – Arockia Anbarasan
3. Anbiyam Ministry Lead (BCC group) – Phillip Maria
4. Sacred Liturgy Ministry Lead – Annie Mark
5. Divine Ministry Lead – Antony Sundar
6. Youth Ministry Lead – Priya Rajesh
7. Religious Education Ministry Lead – Leema James
8. Social and Entertainment Ministry Lead – Prabhu Francis
9. Fellowship Ministry Lead – Paul Stephen
10. Fellowship Ministry Lead – Murugesh Ponnaiya

A special note: 

Since we are parish-based organization the leadership team plays a very important role in the planning and executing all activities and without the team, I could not have done anything to our community. We have a monthly meeting on conference call. The leaders are selected two each from our BCC groups. The Chief coordinator attends all the meetings of Parish Pastoral Council (PPC) and our Associate Coordinator attends all the finance council (PFC) meetings of Holy Family of Nazareth, Irving.  

The priest offers the following Services/ Ministry to Dallas Tamil Catholics in the metroplex of DFW:

Mass / Celebration of the Holy Eucharist

1. Every Second and Fourth Saturdays. Every second Saturdays, we have Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament after the Mass followed by a light dinner. All Masses are preceded by the recitation of the Holy Rosary /Divine Mercy Chaplet or Stations of the Cross during Lent.

There will be a procession followed by Mass in Tamil starting from September First thru Nineth. 

On the 8^th day there will be an hour and half of Adoration and healing service instead of Mass. Each day’s liturgy is entrusted with BCC groups 

On December 31, there will be an hour of adoration at 10pm and followed by Mass at 11:30:00 PM and end by 1:00AM. We begin the Adoration first to thank the Lord for all good things we received in the past year and asking for God’s grace for the years to come. After adoration, all the petitions we received throughout the year will solemnly be burnt.

Overnight Adoration 

Once in three months, we have overnight adoration; starting on Friday at 9:00 pm and ending with Mass on Saturday at 5:00am. There are more than 30 -50 members stay over the entire night. Some of them come for a couple of hours and go home due to their infants at home. But in total a hundred to hundred fifty people participate in the adoration.

Weekly Prayers 

The Spiritual Power house of our community is Adoration and Prayer. There is a team of adorers, who either gather at. St. Ann, Coppell for adoration or pray on conference call on every Tuesday Morning. The petitions are collected from the petition box at the altar of Our Lady of Vailankanni, Holy Family Catholic Church, Irving and prayed over them. No petitions placed at the feet of Our Blessed go without being prayed over them week after week. We burn all the petitions papers before the Holy Mass on the eve of every New Year

Travelling Statue of Our Lady of Vailankanni   

There are two statues of our Lady of Vailankanni, taken by our families for a period of nine days to pray the novena prayer to our Lady of Good Health. The Sacred liturgy coordinator makes the schedule for the entire year. There are many positive remarks from those families who take the statue and feel so enriched in their spiritual life and many prayers are being answered. Blessed Mother unites our families and encourages them to have daily family prayer. 

Enthronement of Sacred Heart of Jesus 

On every Friday, we have either enthronement or renewal of Sacred Heart of Jesus. This devotion is very popular in India. The family invites few families or the BCC group to which the family belongs. It is always after 7:00PM and during which I bless their homes. Probably I might have done a little over 1500 times.

Basic Christian Community BCC (In Tamil it is called Anbiyam) Prayer Meetings: 

We have a prayer meeting in each BCC group for about an hour and half. Each BCC group schedules the meeting according to their convenience. Scripture / Reflection and some thought-provoking questions for their daily Christian living, are sent from the chief coordinator after I approve the reflection. The meeting normally ends with a fellowship. BCC groups assist in all the events of community gathering and all the activities of Holy Family of Nazareth, Irving. 

Lenten Retreat 

We invite priests from other dioceses in the US or from India for a three - days Lenten Retreat. We normally start on Friday evening and end with Mass on Sunday either with the parish Mass or Tamil Mass as facilities are available. There is a good and active participation in the retreat. Three age groups are attending the retreat at the same time in three different locations. Adult, Youth group and children 12 and below. Safe Environment cleared adult volunteers help the community during the retreat.

Caroling during the season of Advent 

We have over 200 families in DFW metroplex. Almost 80% families are active and the remaining families participate once in a while. We cover almost 100 families during the advent season and during which their homes are blessed. It is our custom that each home should be blessed during Easter season but, we do it here during caroling time

Baby Shower 

It is our custom that the priest gives a special blessing to the mother during her pregnancy. Either the BCC families or the entire DTC families are invited to bless the mother and father with a kind of ceremony. I have compiled prayers for this occasion. The mother, father and the community pray for the safe delivery of the child.

Bereavement Prayer meeting 

If there is someone dies in India, the entire DTC families share a word of sympathy and express condolences and prayers. Some families bring food to the grieving families for a week. After the burial it is our custom to set aside, a day of remembrance of the departed soul. Normally it takes place either 30^th or 40^th day. The family offers Mass in the morning in their respective parishes and have prayer meeting in the evening.

New Home Blessing 

Since DTC families are first generation of immigrants, when they buy a house, it is our custom that any new house should be blessed before they move in. This takes place normally on Saturdays morning. 

 Visit to the Sick 

Whenever someone is sick, the priest will visit and entire community will pray for them and praying for the recovery. During the Covid 19, (the entire pandemic time) we had prayers every night on conference/virtual prayer meeting at 8.00pm for almost 8 months. The children were very much involved during the virtual prayer meetings. Families from Canada, New York, Singapore even from Australia joined us in our prayer meeting. The priest visits our sick people or in the nursing home or in the hospitals

Natural disaster and Pandemic time 

In 2017 when hurricane hit Houston area, our volunteers provided both material and financial assistance to the flood victims and also accommodated displaced families in our homes. 

During the pandemic DTC families contributed towards the program called “Feeding the Starving”. We had a priest in India who took care of identifying starving people and feeding them every day about 350 people for a month. Our people are very generous to give to the church or the needy.   

Youth Ministry

 Our youth group helps Sisters of Charity during the Advent season to distribute food to the poor. They also collect lots imperishable food and give to the sisters. Our youth group goes for a Christmas carol singing to St. Joseph’s house for seniors and entertain them. They also feed them and distribute to some gifts to them. They have bible quiz, games, and leadership programs periodically.

Sri Lankan Tamils

There are over 35 families from Sri Lanka displaced due to civil war. They are part of our group.    They participate in all our events. They also pray on conference call on Tuesday’s evenings.

Collaboration and participation in all the parish programs 

 

Our community has always taken part in all the parish activities like ministry fair, fund raising both for school and parish, Fall festival, multicultural liturgy and Holy Family Feast etc., Christmas and Lenten mission, Lenten dinner on one the Fridays, Holy week and Easter celebrations.

Our contributions to the Parish 

1. More than 40 families have registered as parishioners and contribute through auto pay. Some of them contribute to both their domicile parishes and Holy Family. This is because they live in different cities in the DFW metroplex. 
2. Our DTC has contributed towards the renovation of parish storage room in the parish hall.
3. Construction of the Rosary stations and planting of little magnolia trees around the church and in the parking lot. 
4. DTC has also given funds for church’s audio system and outdoor speakers. 
5. DTC bought the votive candle unit for Our Lady of Good Health. 
6. Our community has pledged to improve or have a new audio system as part of the current renovation.
7. All collections both from the offertory and from votive candles go to the parish. 
8. All our accounts are maintained by the parish.