SSS Sri Lanka

The initial sessions on introducing the Aggregates to our Province took place at St. Anne’s Shrine, Thalawila on October 30th and 31st, 2023. Fr. Priyantha, SSS, the Councillor in charge of Aggregates coordinated the whole program. We were privileged to have Fr. Darren Malsen, SSS, the Provincial Vicar and Provincial Treasurer from the UK-Ireland Province to lead us with the input sessions. We are grateful to him for his clear and practical sessions, presenting the concept of Aggregates and its important to our Sri Lankan context. The group discussions on the second day gave ample opportunity for everyone to express themselves in their own vernacular language, which was later summarized and presented by the coordinator of each group.

There were 50 lay faithful from our parishes and shrine along with eleven SSS priests, namely Frs. Darren, Herald, Marian, Sajeewa, Marcus, Justin, Samantha, Priyantha, Mangala, Rohitha, Lakshan, and two scholastics namely, Bros. Asiri and Nelson. The days were filled with joy and happiness as the gathering provided an opportunity for the laity to get to know each other and interact with them. We also made use of this unique opportunity to pay tribute to St. Anne as this national shrine is known for and frequented by thousands of people because of her powerful mediation.

The cultural evening on the 30th after the supper was a great occasion for each parish to showcase its talents and abilities.

We are also thankful to Fr. Priyantha who headed the project, assisted by Frs. Rohitha and Lakshan. Our profound gratitude to Frs. Priyantha and Manuel who translated the “Project of Life” into Sinhala and Tamil respectively. Let’s pray and work together hand in hand, in order to have a ‘follow up’ of this great initiative and bring it to fruition.