Bringing Christ to the Old

In a tiny stable in Bethlehem, among the lowly beasts of the manger, in the cold of winter, the Virgin Mary and her Spouse, Joseph gave a great gift to the whole of humanity, for through them God blessed the world with our Saviour, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Right from His birth, Jesus gave a clear indication that it is to the lost and least of humanity that He came with the Good News of Salvation. But he did not neglect the others, for the Three Kings bore witness to His birth by following the Star of Bethlehem. 

Christmas is therefore a celebration for all, the rich and poor, the young and old, without excluding anyone. And it calls us, the followers of Jesus to bring Him to others through our witnessing lives. This Christmas, we the SHTC Community wished to bring the joy and cheer of the Infant Jesus to the Nirmala old age home run by the Ursuline Sisters. We prepared a short program for them which included a skit, a dance and carols in different languages. 

After the program we spoke to all of them, inquired of their health and offered them our home made cake. It was a joy to see the liveliness in them, when many of them came forward and sang carols and played the keyboard to different tunes. We then went around visiting and wishing those who were restricted to their rooms. 

All of them were overjoyed to see us. This experience was truly an enriching one for all of us and we saw in them our grandparents, still young at heart and trying to live each moment to the full. We wish and pray that The Christ of Christmas may come to them this Christmas with all His choicest blessings and keep them always smiling in this their evening tide of life.

Christmas Tree at SHTC

“Christmas isn’t Christmas till it happens in your heart…”.

Rejoice! The Saviour is Born.

Christmas is a time of sharing love, joy and peace. This was witnessed especially on the 21^st December as novices Sr. Pricilla Bhanga and Sr. Savina Naik organized a Christmas Tree for the house oratory (boarders of Maria Vihar) who were seventy in all. The children were very excited and happy. The programme commenced with prayer song and Christmas tableau. Dances and carols then followed. The community sisters and the novices cheered them with thunderous applause. The arrival of Santa Claus brought more joy as well as surprise. Sr. Pricilla, through a short story, brought home the Christmas message on sharing. Christmas gifts and sweets were distributed to the children. It was indeed a special day for every single child.

Christmas Blessings to you!

1 day to go……….

Mary said ‘yes’ at the annunciation, and Joseph humbly obeyed and accepted Mary as his wife at the message of the angel. Both, Joseph and Mary, are great in their faith in God. They were always docile to God’s will in their lives. Let us place ourselves in the place of Joseph and Mary. Is our faith as strong as theirs? Do we readily bring Jesus to the people we meet? Is our response always a ‘yes’ to the will of God? Let us pray today that like Mary and Joseph we too may strive to bring Jesus to others through our lives lived in hope and love.

!!!IT’S CHRISTMAS!!!

2 days to go……

“I am the Good Shepherd….. I lay down my life for my sheep…” Jesus took for Himself the model of a shepherd who cares and protects His sheep even to the point of risking His life for them. The first to be given the great privilege of knowing of the Lord’s birth were the shepherds. Jesus, our Lord, at His birth itself begins to highlight to us that we are called to proclaim the Good News to those whom society regards as last and the least. These humble men attentively listened and obeyed to the angels and thus were able to witness the birth of Jesus. Let us also try to imitate these men of simple faith and ask Jesus to increase our faith as we prepare our hearts for His coming. 

3 days to go………

As the star lead the three Kings, so the ANGELS came to proclaim the Lord’s birth to the shepherds of Israel. They were sent on a special mission from heaven, not to the kings and princes of the land but to the lowly shepherds who were tending their sheep. All of us are children of God, sent by Him on a special mission to spread the love of the new born Babe in the world. Being the children of such a loving God who did not hesitate in sending His only Son for our salvation, let us strive today to be His visible angles to the people of every nation, to the rich and poor alike and spread God’s love to all whom we meet through our exemplary lives.

4 days to go…….

The coming of our Lord, our Superstar, is at hand. What better sign could God use to tell of His coming than a unique and wonderful STAR that kept shining brightly till it guided the Three Kings to the manger? Jesus is the light of the world and He enlightens the darkness of our souls, to bring us joy and peace this Christmas. And we will find true joy when we share this light with others. In this our broken world, there are many who need a gentle touch, a warm embrace, a generous smile and a kind word of encouragement and hope. Let us ask God, that we may be the reflection of His great light to all His people, bringing joy and peace to all the broken hearted and leading them to Jesus, always.

5 days to go……

Make your home in me, as I make mine in you….

The soil is fertile, the seed is good and has received the life-giving water, died to itself and given rise to a little plant… now it needs love, warmth and protection. It needs nourishment and care to grow well and give much fruit in the long run. The Word of God, our Lord Jesus, has found a fertile place in our hearts and has germinated there with the help of the life-giving Spirit.  Now it needs the warmth of our hearts and the nourishment of our love and care to grow and bear fruit in our life. Let us today strive to make a warm home as the stable of Bethlehem in our hearts for the Lord to stay in comfort. Let us empty ourselves of all the unnecessary dirt piled up there like self-love, comforts and worldly desires and kindle the fire of love to make the home of our hearts warm and welcoming.

6 days to go……

“Come to the water, you who are thirsty, though you have nothing, come”. Water is one of the most used and most available, life-giving resource, given by God to all creation. We use water in many ways, and we cannot do without it even for a day. So also our souls would dry up without the life-giving and eternal water of the Lord Jesus which He offers us unceasingly. We in turn are called to be life givers to the others, through our lives. Let us pray today that we may be quenched by the living water given to us by Jesus and go out to be life bearers to the whole of humanity.

7 days to go….

A good amount of choicest soil is ready in our hearts, ready to accept the life-giving Word made Flesh this Christmas. Every seed has a mission - to bring to birth a new creation, which in due course will bear much fruit. If it decides to survive, there will be no germination and no new plant, instead, as most seeds do, if it dies to itself, it will be able to germinate and give rise to a new plant and thus accomplish its mission. Each of us is a seed that God has planted, to bring to all the people the Good News. He wants us to sow seeds of faith, hope, joy, love and much more into the soil of the human hearts. He wants us to die to our selfish struggles and reach out to the others. Let us on this third day of the novena, take a firm decision to be fruitful seeds, seeds that will sow in the hearts of each of God’s people the Good News that our Lord Jesus is coming soon, to bring peace and joy to all humanity.

8 days to go…………..

The soil is ready for sowing… it is ready to receive whatever the farmer intends to grow in it. But the question is what type of soil is it? Is it the roadside soil? Coarse and hard and exposed to the scorching sun? It will accept but the seedlings will die away in the heat of the sun… Is it rocky ground? Where birds sit and rest, waiting for morsels of food to grab at first sight? It will not be able to hold on to the seed even if it intends to do so…. Is it the soil in the thorns? The seedlings will be choked…….let us prepare our hearts with the Good soil of the field where the seed of the Word of God can be planted by God and there it will produce fruit in abundance.

The Countdown Begins - 9 days to go...

The season of Advent is drawing to a close with only 9 days to go…. That means in no time at all it will be Christmas. With all the hustle and bustle of preparing ourselves materially, let us not miss out on our spiritual preparation to receive Jesus worthily in our Hearts this Christmas.

9 days to go…………

Every valley shall be filled and every mountain shall be brought low…..

A farmer takes the utmost care to prepare his field for planting the crops. He weeds it out, ploughs the soil, breaks down the lumps and makes the soil loose enough to accept the seed. The soil in its turn accepts the seed and makes a comfortable atmosphere for it by providing it with all the necessary nourishment. Let us on this first day of the novena take up the virtue of acceptance from soil. Let us prepare ourselves by tilling the soil of our hearts, making it soft and rich so that our Lord Jesus may find it very good for Him to be born there this Christmas.

Jesus Humara Hero #1

Jesus Evening at SHTC

The routine of daily life can often lead us off-track from our main goal in life and we might do well in keeping a day aside to get back on track. On 15^th December, 2014, the STI Community (Salesian Training Institute) celebrated the Jesus Evening where the Salesian and FMA Novices, Salesian cooperators and Sunday School teachers took part in a fun-filled evening which included different activities surrounding Jesus…………Jesus’ circles, Biblical housie, coloring the face of Jesus, filling the numbers, etc. It gave us all the idea of how to make Jesus loved by the young in an attractive and fun-filled way. The organization of the whole event brought to light the hard work and great planning put in to make this evening a success. The whole idea of making the young love Jesus in an interesting, competitive atmosphere and much creativity was highlighted throughout. We also got the opportunity to interact with the other people and thus get to know the others and their love for Jesus. We hope that all those who participated in this meaningful evening with Jesus may benefit greatly from it and be more effective messengers and proclaimers of Jesus’ love to the entire world.

It’s me, Jesus, I’m coming….

3rd Sunday of Advent - Wreath Service

Advent is a season of joyful and spiritual expectation, a time to prepare for the birth of our Saviour, a time when God Himself took human flesh, that many may know that He understands the human heart. During this season we often spend time sending greetings, preparing sweets, cleaning our houses and doing many other material preparations, but in the midst of all this we must not forget that this is truly the season to get ourselves spiritually prepared to receive Baby Jesus into our hearts. On this third Sunday of Advent, which is known as Gaudete, a Latin word for ‘Rejoice’, we must be eager to proclaim joy and hope in the coming of the Lord by taking the example of John the Baptist also known as the Morning Star. Venus, the brightest star, is the only star seen in the eastern horizon before sunrise, shining brighter than ever; hence it is also called the morning star. But when the sun rises, it slowly vanishes. So also, John the Baptist, stood out strongly before the coming of Our Lord Jesus as a great prophet, but as soon as Jesus came into the picture, he slowly vanished into the background. As we light the pink candle symbolizing the joy of our waiting for the Lord who is very near, let us listen to Jesus knocking at our door this Christmas, saying, “It’s me Jesus, I’m coming”.

We Celebrate Don Bosco

Let us celebrate together, thanking God for Don Bosco our Father,

For the gift he is to each of us, with grateful hearts our praises we sing.

The Bicentenary of our Father and Founder’s birth, is not just a passing event, it is something that should leave a deep and lasting impression on us. WE CELEBRATE DON BOSCO is the theme as well as logo that stands out in the chapel of the Novitiate at Nasik, to mark this great year. The year began with an inaugural prayer service which both the Maria Vihar and Novitiate communities celebrated together on the 16^th of August 2014. As a community, we at SHTC have taken up different initiatives to keep up the whole year. Every 30^th / 31^st is Don Bosco’s commemoration, and we celebrate it with animated meditations, rosaries and prayers. We have taken up the deep study of Don Bosco’s Dream of the Ten Diamonds. The flex marking this solemn year is displayed at the entrance of the Novitiate for all to see. Every day for the visit to the Blessed Sacrament, we have the ‘Prayer to St. John Bosco’  prayed together. 

For the community gratitude day on the 16^th October the novices staged a musical Don Bosco and the young, fruit of their effort. The novices attend classes on Salesian spirituality and have also attended many other seminars till now in keeping with the celebration of the bicentenary. In other words, this year will not just be remembered but fondly cherished by the Novitiate community as a year of great learning of the spirituality of our dear St. John Bosco.

Clicking our Way to Evangelization

At the click of a button India and America are neighbours, if we have the proper ‘range’, people far apart by distances can be heard close by; though we sit in one corner of the world, we view what is happening in other countries, we can see the Holy Father and hear him without having to stand in the crowds of St. Peter’s Square, and yet, though all these marvels are happening every day, we take them as ordinary things. The world would not have been the same if not for the means of communication. As Pope Francis said in his message for World Communications Day, “It is truly good, a gift from God”. Following our Holy Father, all of us at SHTC - Nashik, kept up the Communications Day on 29 November, 2014. We planned out a day full of everything possible to deal with the topic of communication. We visited the Province and Institute blogs and websites, reflected upon Pope Francis’ message, learnt action songs, prepared PowerPoint presentations, learnt to handle the television, LCD projector and digital camera, and wrote articles for the newsletter and e-mails to the General Councillors. Fr. Robert Pen sdb gave us an hour’s talk on cyber bullying and face book. To add a cherry on the top, we were invited to the Kilbil School’s Annual Sports Day, and their theme for the day was how communication and media is influencing the world today.

We as educators are challenged by the advancing media of this generation to respond with fresh energy and imagination as we seek to share with the young the beauty of God’s love. We need to create a network, not of wires, but of people. Let us not just remain ‘Connected’ but make these connections turn into ‘true encounters’, where all can feel loved.

 

Eight Days of Healing

We, the novices were privileged to journey through an eight-day group therapy from 14^th to 21^st November 2014 here at the novitiate. Sr. Mercy Thennattil, from the Congregation of the Holy Cross, guided us through these days. It was a time of grace for each one of us to know one’s ‘self’, to go deep into one’s past, heal one’s wounds and thus begin anew with new energy and vision in life. The therapy helped to patch up one’s life which was wounded by our past negative experiences. Just like a plant which has to go through different stages like cleaning, digging, weeding, watering before it bears good fruit, in the same way from the first day till the last day we were guided by Sr. Mercy to dig deep into ourselves and discover many things about ourselves. We identified ourselves with different symbols which helped us to know our present self as to what process we are presently undergoing in our life.

Group Therapy

Sr. Mercy also tried to make us understand how precious our life is, by giving different examples like, the kite which symbolizes our life. We have to fly our own kite high up in the sky and never allow the string to be controlled by others. Most of the times we allow the external environment to take control over us, and as a result we forget about our own feelings and desires and tend to be people whose lives are totally controlled by others. Sometimes we can be like the sponge, just as it absorbs every liquid and dirt in which it is placed, we too, in life try to pick up everything around us, and mostly the negative part and fail to see the good that lies deep within us. We create a boundary wall around us with all types of fears that never allow us to move forward in life and never allow others to come close to us. To get rid of all this we have to be people who are open, assertive and balanced in everything, ready to accept and see the positive and the negative of everything. This will help us to be people who make a difference in this world.

We owe a deep sense of gratitude to the Mumbai Province, in particular our dear Mother Provincial and Sr. Anelfreda Miranda our novice directress for offering us this unique opportunity.

It’s a Great Day to Thank the Lord

This 22^nd November was no ordinary passing day. It marked the 92^nd anniversary of the arrival of the first six FMA missionary Sisters to India. To keep up this great day, we the novices at SHTC - Nashik, put up a short skit depicting the six missionaries, Sr. Teresa Balestra, Sr. Catherine Marnetto, Sr. Maria Angeleri, Sr. Luigina Appiano, Sr. Consiglia Tarricone and Sr. Teresa Merlo, who arrived at the Gateway of SHTC - Nashik and were welcomed in the traditional Indian style. We look back with gratitude and admire our pioneers because of whose lives lived in simplicity, poverty and obedience to God’s will, we have the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians here in India, spread out in six provinces, and who have brought it to what it is today. We pray that we may be able to give of our best in every way with joyous simplicity of one who knows that God is in command and above all, knowing that Our Lady will never leave us.

Just a little step…

There is a time and season for every new beginning, so was with us as we ventured out in creating the SHTC blog to connect ourselves with you. There is a great feeling of excitement and pride as we took this small step. We hope to continue making our journey with little steps along with our Novitiate journey.