The community of St Thérèse of Liseux Church in Valencia was blessed with a double celebration during Mass on Sunday, April 13.

First communicants and the Sampsons with Msgr Pereira.

The first celebration was the First Holy Communion of eight girls and one boy. The children had journeyed for close to a year under the guidance of their teacher Marion Thomas.

The second celebration was the 50th wedding anniversary of parishioners Aldwyn and Petronilla ‘Molly’ Sampson.

In front of a packed congregation, the Sampsons renewed their marriage vows and proudly received a papal blessing presented to them by parish priest, Msgr Christian Pereira.

In his homily, Msgr Pereira likened our mission as Church to the performance of West Indies batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul who, with two balls and ten runs to get in the first One-Day international against Sr Lanka, took the risk and resisted all opposing forces to emerge victorious.

Msgr Pereira continued that so too must we as people of God withstand temptation and focus our efforts to live our lives in Christ.

The Sampsons later cut an anniversary cake during a parish sharing after the Mass.