Mrs. Shelina Christian, wife of Suresh Christian, mother of Sachin Christian (Avani), Shilpa Kolekar (Ajit), and Samir Christian have been promoted to glory on October 28, 2019. Please pray for the family as the family faces sudden bereavement.
The funeral service will be held on Saturday, November 2, 2019.
Shelina Christian, age 69, a resident of Bolingbrook, Illinois, passed away unexpectedly on October 28th, 2019. She was born on March 2nd, 1950 in Anand, Gujarat India, to proud parents, Lt. Tara and Lt. Kantilal Contractor. Shelina began her life in Anand and attended local schools there. She graduated from DN High School. Following graduation, Shelina attended Anand Arts College, where she studied Economics. She married to Suresh Christian on May 8th, 1973. They began their new life together and welcomed home three children, Sachin, Shilpa, and Samir.
In 1996, she immigrated to the USA and settled in Bolingbrook, IL. She worked as Sterile Processing Technician in Hinsdale hospital. She transitioned her career to Daycare teacher, when her oldest grandchild started attending daycare.
She is survived by her loving husband of 46 years, Suresh Christian; children: Sachin Christian (Avani), Shilpa Kolekar (Ajit), and Samir Christian; grandchildren: Milan, Shaan, Nikita and Nimita; nephews, nieces, cousins, and friends. Her parents and two brothers, Nelson Contractor and Samson Contractor preceded her. Shelina was a member of Friendship united Methodist Church.
A celebration of Shelina’s life will be held on Saturday, November 2nd, 2019, at 10:00 am at Hope United Methodist Church (Wheatland Salem), 1852 W 95th Street, Naperville, IL 60564. Reverend Kyunghae (Anna) Shin from Friendship United Methodist church will be officiating.
Visitation with family will be held from 9:30 am – 10:00 am, celebration of life will be at 10:00 am, immediately followed by a committal service at Naperville Cemetery705 S. Washington St. Naperville, IL 60540. In lieu of flowers, a memorial has been established in Shelina’s name to benefit her favorite charity, St. Jude Children’s Research hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105.
Silver Jubilee celebration of Priestly Ordination of Fr. Mari Joseph celebrated by Gujarati Catholic Samaj of USA on October 12, 2019.
Ten diocesan priests celebrated together the Silver Jubilee of their Priestly Ordination (1994–2019): Frs. Arulanandam Alankaram, Alex Clement and Savariraj Savrimuthu, from the archdiocese of Gandhinagar and Frs. Francis Kulandai, Lawrence Aruldoss, Lukas S., Maria Joseph, Peter Lopes, Xavier Amalanathan and Varuvel Gnanadhas from the diocese of Ahmedabad. As the ordination batch of 1994, they decided to have a common celebration of their Silver Jubilee on 27th January 2019 at Our Lady of Forsaken Shrine (Anathoni Mata Thirthadham), Khambholaj.
Fr. Mari Joseph has been visiting USA since 2009 and he has always spend few days with us and celebrated a mass for us. He was planning a visit to Lourdes to provide his services and then he included Canada and USA to his Itinerary. Fr. Salvador D’Britto also accompanied him to Canada and USA. He informed us that he will be with us for 3/5 days in New Jersey. So we decided to celebrate first ever 25th anniversary of a priest of our mother diocese Ahmedabad.
Mr. Ketan Christian arranged a church and a cafeteria hall for our celebration. On October 12, 2019 at 6:30 around 75 members of the Gujarati Catholic Samaj of USA gathered at The Church of the Sacred Heart, South Plainfield for a celebration of Eucharist. Fr. Mari Joseph was the main celebrant and Fr. Salvador D’Britto and Fr. Pervaiz Indrias, the parochial Vicar of The Church of The Sacred Heart, South Plainfield. On this auspicious occasion, Fr. Salvador D’Britto preached a meaningful and enriching homily. He explained that this type of celebration are not to glorify the priest or nun but God and only God.
At the end of the Eucharistic celebration all were asked to go to nearby school cafeteria for a dinner and felicitation program. The hall was nicely decorated with the a banner of Gujarati Catholic Samaj of USA and a special banner made for the 25th anniversary of priesthood ordination of Fr. Mari Joseph. People enjoyed the food and settled down. The program was started with welcome of Fr. Mari Joseph, Fr. Salvador D’Britto, Fr. Pervaiz Indrias, Mr. Shantilal Parmar, President of GCSofUSA, Mr. Joseph Parmar the founder and first president of GCSofUSA and a well-known preacher and bible study organizer Mr. Vinubhai Macwan from Vadodara. They all were greeted with a flower bouquet.
Fr. Mari Joseph was presented with a plaque of appreciation – “Fr. Mari Joseph Arogyapaa, Rejoice in your accomplishments! God is surely smiling on you today as you celebrate 25 years in service to our Lord! May God Bless you to continue His work in serving His people. Thank you for being part of our Community.” He was also gifted a wrist watch with his name and ordination date imprinted on it.
A nice decorative cake was cut by Fr. Mari Joseph with huge round of applause and cheers. He was very much pleased and appreciated the effort by GCSofUSA. He thanked everyone and assure all that he will cherish this moment throughout his life and will pray for all of the members of GCSofUSA. Fr. Salvador also thanked everyone and gave his blessings.
The program ended with a small 3 minutes of play played by four children Saloni, Alayana, Aaryan and Braxton called “ THREE DOLLARS WOTH OF GOD” .
I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please. Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don’t want enough of God to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation. I want warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.
— Wilbur Rees
Please find below pictures of the above event taken by Robinson Jones, Johnson MClin, Raj Macwan & Hensu Macwan. Thank you for your service.
