Timeline

Spurred by the Holy Spirit of God, a handful of young men, thirsting after the truth and longing to worship and fellowship with likeminded people, met in a small room near the sacristy in the old church. It was around 8 pm, the middle part of the year 1981. This is not a description of the first meeting of the MIPC but just a historical record of one of those meetings. The first meeting took place at Bro Christopher Ratnam’s residence. Prior to that these young men were attending an inter-denominational-prayer-meeting.

The meetings were good, however, when it came to complex issues concerning Catholic doctrine, Bro Ratnam and a couple of others felt the need to meet separately under the auspices of the Catholic Church, so that they could learn more and grow within the teachings / traditions of the Catholic Church and also retain their Catholic heritage and identity. This is the genesis of the first Prayer Group in the Parish of the Sts Peter and Paul Catholic Church, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman, well-known as the Mother Prayer Group in Oman.

From the house of Bro Ratnam the group shifted to one of the small rooms in the church – courtesy of the Parish Priest the Late Fr Barnabas Maddi. When this room could not accommodate any more people the group moved the parish hall (old). It was in this small hall that the Life in the Spirit Seminar (LSS) was held during 1984, the very first LSS preached by a well known charismatic preacher from India - Bro Fritz Mascarenhas. After listening to Br. Fritz’s preaching on Mother Mary, the parish priest Fr. Barnabas was not only all praise for him but also changed his own opinion about the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. He told Br Fritz, “well done my son, you spoke very well”. After this LSS the group grew in number from about 20 to about 75 committed members.

After a year or so the community was christened “The Mary Immaculate Praise Community – MIPC”. Since then this anniversary is celebrated every year.

Br Joseph Jacques, who took over the leadership, was a man of foresight. He and the Core Team sought the Lord for a “Theme” for the group for the present Year.

The prayer group became vibrant with many cells and ministries, such as intercession, library, letter-writing, music, service, outreach, newsletter and transport. The leaders started conducting the LSS every year to help those who were desiring to know God better.

It was during Feb 1988, that Rev Fathers Rufus and Fr James, were invited to conduct a parish mission. This was one of the best missions ever conducted in Oman. The mission was attended in large numbers, many lives were transformed and the missions was accompanied with signs and wonders. The fruit of this mission was also evident as there were vocations to the priesthood and some young men left their jobs to become full time missionaries. The hall could not contain the members for the prayer meetings, hence, the group moved to the church.

Truly, it soon became the main parish prayer group having people from different parts of the world. It also became the mother prayer group with other language prayer groups as off-shoots like – Malayalam, Konkani, Sinhala and Filipino. Fr Barnabas had a special liking for the prayer group. To show his pastoral care, often he would come and stand at the end of the hall/Church and listen. During the Bishop’s pastoral visit he would make it a point to bring Bishop Bernard Gremoli to the prayer meeting so that the group could be edified and blessed by the Bishop. One day Fr Barnabas came to the prayer meeting and said “I love this movement of the Holy Spirit so much that I have decided to name the new church in Ghala as the Holy Spirit Church”. This he shared first with the prayer group even before making it public. Once the new church at Ghala was built, Fr. Barnabas was posted there to strengthen the new church, handing over the responsibility of Ruwi Church to Fr. Edward Sarachini.

Fr Augustine Antao, who took over from Fr. Edward used to admire the group by saying “MIPC is the power house of the parish”, for the simple reason that he saw the members of this prayer group actively involved in various ministries of the parish like – Catechists, ushers, lectors, choir, Eucharistic ministers, legionnaires of Mary and so on. Though he would not show his appreciation frequently, he would show his pastoral concern over the group by allotting the parish hall to the MIPC for the days of the meetings. He was very keen to see that no inconvenience was caused by shifting the venue of the prayer meeting.

God has blessed MIPC through the hands of various parish priests and assistants. God sent many of his chosen instruments to strengthen this group like- Bishop Valerian D’Souza, Frs James, Rufus, Francis Rebello, Fio Mascarenhas, A J Thamburaj and lay preachers like – Brs Fritz, Trevor Lewis, Anthony Samuel, Romeo Fernando, Ralph Martin, Victor Pereira and Bob Horton. Some of the unique features of our MIPC in addition to the weekly prayer and cell meetings are: regular shared meals, plays/skits, vibrant youth and children ministry, weekly and monthly intercessory meetings, monthly Half Night Vigils, need-based chain fasts, periodic "Day-with–The–Lord", annual picnics, etc. Above all, God has blessed MIPC with a special blessing of fellowship – those who have attended the meetings will vouch for it.

Many have contributed for the growth of this community. One such person worth remembering is Br George Rodrigues who along with Bros Christopher and Jacques worked for this group. In one of his sharings on Mother Mary he said – “We honour Mary because she was God’s choice to become the mother of His Son”.

There have been many adult baptisms, as many as 17 and 3 vocations to the priesthood. Some from this community have gone to distant parts of the globe and are being used by the Our Lord, some even as full time preachers.

It is a joyful thing to note that the MIPC now is 30 years old. Besides the regular prayer, cell & intercessory meetings features like the Novena to the Holy Spirit, healing services, work- shops on various topics, newsletter, annual day celebrations, picnic and the like, truly make MIPC a vibrant community in the parish. It bears testimony to what the Lord is doing in and through this community in Muscat.

One of the two landmark achievements of MIPC has organised the First Oman Catholic Charismatic Convention where about 1,500 delegates from all over Oman congregated at the parish church on 21-22, Sept 2009 for 2 full days of spiritual enrichment. Here the MIPC took the lead role to organize this mega event with 4 internationally renowned preachers to share the Word. The other major undertaking was organizing the Pilgrimage to the Holy Land from 10th to 17th September 2010 where 48 MIPCites visited the land where our Lord Jesus lived and died. God has been also guiding this community through the spiritual directors – the priests of the parish who have been giving lot of support and encouragement.

We are grateful to God for the hard work and the dedication of not only the leaders but also for the fasting and prayers of so many of simple people who were/are significantly contributing towards the growth of the community by way of their energy, time and money though many of them were/are domestic workers.

On this glorious occasion, we, the Core team thank God for leading those few people to come together many years ago and form a small group which is fully regarded as our beloved prayer group – The Mary Immaculate Praise Community. We pray for God’s blessings on all those who were instrumental in starting the group and those who keep contributing towards the growth of MIPC in some way or the other.

May the Peace of the Lord be with all of us.