MARY, The apple of God’s eye

May is the month dedicated to Mary our Heavenly Mother. It is the month during which the Church witnesses great devotion and love for our Blessed Mother. For the Salesian Family, this month is much dearer to the heart as we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary Help of Christians, Don Bosco’s Madonna. Mary the help of Christians is the Help and intercessor of all God’s people and the closest link between us and Jesus.

During the novena, great stress was laid everyday on the role of Mary as Daughter of God. We, her Daughters are called each day to entrust ourselves to Mary to help us grow in our relationship with one another and to deepen our daughterly relationship with the Father. Our devotion to Mary is not to be only one of routine prayers, but a true imitation of Mary in her virtues. Through our love for Mary we must be able to draw to her loving embrace the youth of today who are in need of someone who is ever ready to listen to them and with whom they can associate their daily life situations, not as someone far away, but as someone who has lived through the challenges of her times with complete trust in God.

Our identity of Daughters of Mary Help of Christians contains our mission- to be true mirror images of Mary to the world. We have to proudly live up to our daughterhood to Mary Most Holy through which we gain equal status with Jesus who is her Son.

The month of May ends with the beautiful feast of the Visitation of Mary to St. Elizabeth. As the visit of the Mother of God brought joy to the prophet in the womb and an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on St. Elizabeth, may Mother Mary visit our lives and bring with her the joy of bearing witness to Christ in our daily lives and to be Spirit filled persons, zealously proclaiming the Good News to the world. May we in turn live up to our identity and bear fruitful witness to God’s love to all, as Mary did, throughout our life.

For me to live is Christ

To be the spouse of Jesus is to live for Him alone, because Christ is the beginning, constant and the goal of our life.

Following the example of Jesus, I, Sr. Monika Macwan made my first commitment to the Lord on 24^th May 2015, along with ten Salesian novices, making the words of St. Paul as my motto: For me to live is Christ (Phil.1:21). It was also a day marking the feast of the Pentecost, which highlights the vital role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church and of every individual. Rev. Fr. Godfrey D’Souza sdb, Provincial of Bombay Province, presided over the Eucharistic celebration along with the other eighteen priests. In the homily, the main celebrant highlighted the life style of Christ - chaste, poor and obedient - and exhorted us to relive the life of Christ becoming like Him, the hands and feet of Jesus Christ to all the people.

The presence of many priests, religious, parents, relations and friends brought great joy and encouragement to me. I pledged to God to be faithful to Him and to always live only for Him.

I raise my heart in gratitude to our dear Mother Provincial, Sr. Wilma de Souza, all my formators who accompanied me and the Sisters who have guided and supported me with their prayer and encouragement. As I have just stepped into the religious Salesian life, I seek your prayerful support to be a good and happy FMA all my life.

CALLED TO REFLECT GOD’S LOVE

At last the long awaited day, 23^rd May 2015, dawned with the spark of excitement and happiness within our hearts as we, the postulants, were initiated into religious life. It was not easy for us to leave the Aspirantate - Lonavla for it was the first house or cradle where we learned to share our joy and sorrow with one another. But it is also true that from the time we began our religious journey we were being prepared for this beautiful stage of being a No-Vice.

Sr. Anelfreda Miranda and community here at Nashik joyfully welcomed us eight postulants to the novitiate. The next day, 16^th evening, we began preparing ourselves spiritually, through six days of intimacy with God, to experience His love for each of us which would give us strength to accept the challenges of our new stage of life.

And then came the memorable day of our life, the 23rd of May, 2015 when we were officially initiated into the Novitiate. We began the initiation ceremony with a beautiful prayer service. After professing our wish or the answer to God’s call in the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, we received medals from Mother Provincial Sr. Wilma de Souza. She explained to us article 90 of our Constitutions which says that Novitiate is a period of real initiation into the religious life through reflection, study and assimilation, self-discipline and integration of work and prayer. She made us aware that religious life is not a bed of roses, there will be problems and difficulties but with the help of God and our Blessed Mother we will overcome them. The prayer service concluded with the official entrusting of novices in the hands of our Novice Mistress Sr. Anelfreda Miranda, by the provincial. We are grateful to our Sisters of Maria Vihar community who were present to offer us their prayerful support. There followed song and music, celebration and felicitation that brought much joy and made us feel great.

As we commence our novitiate we ask our loving Lord to help us to be open to the workings of His Spirit in order to let Him pray in us, work through us in fulfilling the mission that is entrusted to us. We also ask each of you dear Sisters to continue to support us with your prayer as we make our Novitiate journey.

Blessing of novices' medals, crucifix and religious dress

Congrats to the first year novices

 

Days with the Lord

Retreat days are days of grace and blessings. We the novices express our sentiments of deep joy after spending six full days with the Lord. May 16-22, 2015 will always remain in our hearts and minds because we have experienced the tangible presence of the Lord and His love for each one of us. Sr. Joanna Lobo FMA has been an instrument of such unique experience of the Lord. The lively and inspiring talks, adoration, moments of silence, Gospel passages and devout participation in the daily Eucharistic celebration and reconciliation made us come closer to God. The presence of our dear provincial Sr. Wilma de Souza, her inspiring as well as challenging talks, and the personal encounter with her enriched us. She lovingly helped us discern well the choice we make before we could take the next step of our religious life. The batch of Sisters making perpetual profession were animated and guided by Fr. Felix Fernandes sdb.

The retreat was based on making Jesus the centre of our lives. Each day we were given Gospel passages to reflect and mediate. Prayer which is a powerful weapon to fight against our spiritual warfare was the focus of the retreat. The retreat preacher spoke on different themes such as surrendering to God, God’s call which demands a life of sacrifice and service. Call of God is not a gift but a reward; we can experience God’s presence only if we remain attached to. The Vine was the most important theme which was stressed by our retreat preacher.

The retreat concluded on Saturday morning with the thanksgiving Eucharistic Celebration. Our sincere gratitude goes to Sr. Anelfreda Miranda, our novice mistress and sisters of the community who helped us in many ways to make this retreat a fruitful one. We also like to extend our special thanks to Sr. Wilma de Souza our provincial, all the Sisters in the province who supported us by their prayers. Thanks to one and all.

Retreat good nights by Sr. Wilma Provincial

St. Mary Mazzarello

We the novitiate community kept up the NOVENA for the feast of St. Mary Mazzarello with the following theme and the practices. Each one tried her best to grow a little bit each day in faith, of course with the help of Mary Mazzarello.

Maria Domenica Mazzarello’s FAITH and our own

Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you

hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to

you and eat with you and you with me (Rev.3:20).

The journey of faith, for Maria Domenica, as for us, entails opening many doors and crossing many thresholds.

1.     The Door of Gift

2.     The Door of Searching

3.     The Door of Relationship

4.     The Door of Enthusiasm

5.     The Door of Meaning

6.     The Door of Resurrection

7.     The Door of Awe and Gratitude

8.     The Door of Joy

9.     The Door of Optimism

What doors do I need to open to allow my Faith to grow and deepen?

Text: Maire O’Byrne fma, Journeys to the Heart in the company of Maria

Domenica Mazzarello (pgs.239 – 254)