PANAJI
Days after inaugurating the decennial Exposition of the relics of St Francis Xavier at Old Goa, church authorities are geared up to begin on Sunday the novena in preparation for the feast of the sixteenth century Spanish saint slated to be celebrated on December 3.
Novena masses will be held in Konkani beginning from 6 am and then at 7.15, 8.30 am and 9.45 am. At 11 am, a mass will be held in Tamil and at 12.15 am in Malayalam.
Later in the afternoon there will be Konkani masses at 3.30 pm where the 10-year pastoral plan (2024-33) of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI) headed by Archbishop of Goa and Daman, Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrao will be unveiled.
It will be followed by another Konkani mass at 5.15 pm.
The last mass everyday of the Novena will be at 6.15 pm in English.
Meanwhile, on Saturday, Fr Patricio Fernandes, SJ, the rector of the Basilica of Bom Jesus, presided over the Maddi ceremony as per tradition.
Fernandes later told the media that all arrangements for the Novena masses and eventually the feast of St Xavier on December 3 are in place.
The masses will be held in the especially erected pandal in the foreground of the Basilica.
