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.