India News

By Fr. Felix Anthony
(With inputs from Fr. Renold Paschal, SSP, Mumbai)

Bandra, Feb 3 : The Society of St. Paul blessed and inaugurated the first Studio Chapel in India at their Provincial House in Bandra, Mumbai on Friday, 28th January 2022.

The Studio Chapel was blessed by Bishop John Rodrigues, Auxiliary Bishop of Bombay, in the presence of the Pauline Family members and well-wishers in Mumbai.

Speaking at the inaugural Holy Mass, Bishop Rodrigues thanked the Society of St. Paul for this novel effort to attend to the spiritual needs of the people, especially during this lockdown caused by the pandemic. “God speaks to his people in so many ways. He is speaking to us even through this pandemic. This chapel is also the medium of God’s message for his people. From this chapel people will experience God’s blessings and his grace as he will speak to them through Eucharistic Adoration and other spiritual animations. Their faith will be strengthened”, he said.

What makes this Studio Chapel unique is that it is specially designed for online spiritual programmes.

Speaking about the idea behind the Studio Chapel, Father Johny Panamthanam, the Director of St. Paul's Multimedia Bandra, said, “When the churches got closed during the lockdown, we wanted to accompany the people in their spiritual journey. To provide spiritual support to people during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, we began a small online initiative called ‘30-Holy Minutes’ with thirty minutes of online Eucharistic Adoration. We began this at our community chapel on 1 December 2020”.

Within this short period of two years, St. Paul's Multimedia, the YouTube channel of the Society, has grown from a few hundred to over 34,000 subscribers.

“When the people could not go to their churches for their worship, this thirty-minute of Eucharistic Adoration offered the people with hope and peace and trust in the ever-abiding presence of the Eucharistic Lord in their homes. This Studio Chapel is to reach out to the people more effectively”, said Father Panamthanam, who also designed the Studio Chapel.

The daily online Eucharistic Adoration from 8.30 to 9pm had a humble viewership of ten people. It has now grown to an average of 4000 viewers which include men, women, youth, Sisters and Priests from across the world. Many people have written to us to share their faith testimony and healings received by attending this online Eucharistic Adoration, said Father Renold Pascal, who leads this daily online spiritual animation.

Father Varghese Gnalian, the Provincial Superior of the Society of St. Paul thanked all those who contributed to build this project of God and said, “We dedicate this unique chapel to the benefit of each one of you to receive your daily grace”.

Apart from this thirty-minute of online Eucharistic Adoration, the Studio Chapel will be used for daily Holy Mass, inner healing retreats, catechetical instruction and animation led by Priests, youth and lay leaders and recorded video will be uploaded to their YouTube channel.

“St. Paul's Studio Chapel is a response to Holy Father’s call to bring people to God in prayer, to unload the viruses to Jesus our eternal anti-virus who will protect them from every harm, bringing peace, joy and healing”, said Father Johnson, the General Editor of St Paul's Publications.