The miraculous chapel of Candelaria, Pilerne, Goa

 

The miraculous chapel of Our Lady of Candelaria, Pilerne, Goa

The steps up to the chapel on the hill

As children we were taken to the miraculous Our Lady of Candelaria chapel on the hill. I hated going as we had to climb so many steps up to the chapel! But if Dad said we go, there was no discussion. The chapel was tiny and the statue nothing spectacular to us children, but any intention Dad or Mum made was almost instantly granted to them. I remember Dad had given my Uncle next doors house to the army to help him and his young family get rent to live on. However soon the family grew to eight kids and the family needed the house back to live in. The army refused and Dad ran around from office to office to beg for it to be returned. With no hope in sight he went to Candelaria and begged Our Blessed Mother and the house was returned in a few months.   

The chapel is much bigger now

Over the years the chapel has been expanded by the faithful giving donations towards its renovation and expansion. It was the feast when we were visiting and it was such a special visit for me as all my memories came flooding back. We walked the distance from our home in Furtavaddo and that was a pretty distance. This time we happily drove by car and then were worried about parking! 

Protective wall and tower

We went because the young Parish priest has become an old friend and gave our Steve such a wonderful taste of what his ministry will be like when he is ordained. That's when I felt a sense of peace, that my Steve will be happy in his chosen path. I left it all at the feet of Our Lady of Candelaria on the hill. 

Adoption need not only be children or animals!

                           

Adoption of two Tabibuea Roseas on Hayes rd

Our Rosea in Hoskote

Two young  Rosea trees were planted at the top of our Hayes Road. Then in typical BBMP fashion they are left to die with no maintenance. Thats when we decided to adopt them and water them till they could manage by putting down deeper roots to an underground  water source. Inbetween some nasty person beheaded one and we nursed the stump back to life. Now they have raised their heads and give us a lot of joy to see they are managing well and growing taller by the day. Time to stop watering, except for the occasional bottle I put on a Saturday.

 A baby Indian Almond

Then around a dozen Indian Almond, champas and Jamuns were planted near the St Josephs school. I tried asking the priests to water them but no response. So here were two old people, carrying a dozen  5 litre Bisleri bottles of water and watering the trees after Mass every week. People stared, but we didn't care. We kept watering and  had the most weird questions -- are you buying Bisleri and watering them? Give me a bottle rather than waste!  Today they have doubled their height and manage their own water. We have stopped  watering them completely.

Residency Rd medicinal Honges and spider lillies.

Then suddenly over night dozens of lovely young 2 feet tall Honges and spider lillies were planted on Residency rd. Ofcourse they were just planted, no watering after that. Many began to dry up and die and that bothered me on my morning jog past them. I asked Kiran the road sweeper and he smiled broadly and said "Definitely Amma!"and the trees kept dying. That's when we decided again to be the Good Samaritans and water the babies till they are able to find their own water source. 

Its so strange but people will feed dogs and asthma causing pigeons, but trees which will help clean the pollution in our cities, they don't see the positives. How do we educate us humans that our health and clean air is freely given by mature trees?? 

Trees clean the air by acting as natural filters, absorbing harmful gases like carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide through their leaves. They also trap particulate matter like dust and smoke on their bark and leaves, while producing oxygen through photosynthesis. A single mature tree can absorb over 48 pounds of CO2 annually.

$48$

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