A Day with the Youth

The long awaited day, 8^th November 2015, dawned to mark the Inter–parish football and throw ball tournament organized by the Nashik diocese. This day will always remain as a red letter day in the lives of us Novices (2015-2016), for we bagged the first place in the throw ball league. We were looking forward to participate in this  tournament, for it was an opportunity for us to meet and interact with many young people  of other parishes – St. Anne’s Parish, Holy Cross, Don Bosco)  At around  9.00 a.m. Fr. Robert Pen sdb declared the throw ball and football tournament open. With mixed feelings we began the first match with St. Anne’s team, followed by Don Bosco and Holy Cross. The success in these matches led us to finals with the Don Bosco parish.  The final match took place in the afternoon at 2.30 p.m. It was in this match that we won the tournament by bagging the first place. It was an unimaginable moment for each one of us. So also was the moment of receiving the trophy.

This tournament was not only a game but a learning experience for us where we learnt to work as a team. It helped us to develop our self – confidence, sportsman spirit and above all, we learnt to respect each player of the team. It also helped us to understand one another and encourage and boost them when we were discouraged. We enjoyed the tournament and we look forward to many such opportunities to be with the youth, liking what they like, thus fulfilling the true spirit of our Founders. Our hearts are filled with gratitude to our dearest formators Sr. Anelfreda Miranda, Sr. Jyothi Pinto and Sr. Reshma Nune for giving us this opportunity and coaching us to give our best. May the good Lord bless them and always hold them close to His heart.

FMA novices play match with St. Anne's parish youth

Sr. Jyothi Pinto fma refreeing the match

FMA novices play match with Holy Cross parish youth

FMA Novices with Don Bosco parish team

FMA Novices with Don Bosco parish team

FMA novices, Nashik (INB) bag the trophy 2015

Missionaries of Hope and Joy

“As the father has sent me so I am sending you into the world” Jn. 17:18

Paying heed to Pope Francis, urging the Consecrated people to broaden their horizons and move out to the peripheries, we celebrated the mission month in a meaningful way, carrying out activities keeping to the theme, “Being missionaries of Hope and Joy”. Being aware of the missionary intention of the Holy Father we embarked our journey through the missionary month.

The special spiritual initiatives undertaken were the Study and Reflection on the message of the Holy Father for the World Mission Day, good nights on the life of Missionary Sisters who worked in our Province such as Sr. Virginia Marchetti, Sr. Walentyna Czernick, Sr. Camilla Tagliabue, Sr. Berta Sperrfechter and Sr. Gina Azzolini, Sr. Catherine Mania.

Besides this, we prepared various eatables for the mission fete organized by Don Bosco and Satpur Parishes. We offered daily animated Rosary for various intensions like peace, conversion of sinners, intensions of our Holy Father, and for our missionaries in various parts of the World. We spent time in studying the Second Vatican Council’s Decree on Missionary Activity ‘Ad Gentes Divinitus’ and viewed DVDs by Missioni Don Bosco.

We gave a thought to personal spiritual bouquet by praying entire chain Rosary, skipping mid-morning break, fruits at supper, personal mortifications and offering continuous prayers for the intentions of the Holy Father and for the missions. 

We sent E-mails to the missionary sisters of our Province working in the foreign missions. We displayed a thought on the Notice Board as a reminder to pray for the missions and also a call to be a missionary. We had a mission exposure day to Walvanda wherein we got a glimpse of what the periphery is all about and what are the needs of the poor and the needy. The Salesians, who carryout a technical school and various village welfare programmes here, opened our eyes to the reality of our poor today. Besides these activities there was something amusing as well, the creative missionary recreations organized by novices and the sisters which kept our spirits high.

This month played an important role in our lives. The missionaries who were zealous in spreading the Kingdom of God show us how we can be missionaries in our little ways, be it in our community or in our area of work. As we pray for ourselves we also pray to God to send many more missionary vocations to carry forward His mission among the people of our times.

Missionaries in the Making

Mission Expo Visit - Walvanda

The journey of our missionary month, started on the 1^st of October, found its culmination on the 30^th of October when we landed in a remote mission land unknown to most of us.  The vehicle rolled on for hours together to reach this area. The tiny board welcomed us to Walvanda a unique Mission Centre embarked by the Salesians of Mumbai Province. Fr. Anaclete D’Mello the rector warmly welcomed us to the place and introduced to us the other community members Fr. Ashley Miranda and Brother Alex Gonsalves.

Mission Expo Visit - Walvanda

This was a mission expo for the Novices and Sisters which was a part of the missionary activities of the month. The village we visited was an adivasi area which had a number of tribal people spread across the entire Palgar district. Fr. Anaclete the manager and rector took us around their Mission Centre named, ‘Bosco Samajik Vikas Sanstha’, showing us the various welfare programmes conducted in that Centre and through that Centre.  Here they run a technical institute for the tribal boys providing three months’ technical training with boarding and job placement facilities. 

BSVS caters to forty villages having more than 300 SHG groups providing them income generating programs such as goatary, poultry, tailoring etc.  There are two check dams built through water shed programmes so as to provide water facility to the village folk.  This Centre has fifty qualified social workers who work in clusters so that through resource mobilization they can reach out to many in need. 

Mission Expo Visit - Walvanda

This exposure broadened our vision and the desire to come out of our comfort zones to reach out to the poor and the lowly.  The novices felt that if there is enthusiasm and good will we can face any difficulties and do much to the people of the society. Some felt that adopting simple life style and involving people in our mission work can help in big way to do much good.

It was indeed a wonderful mission experience for all of us.  The beautiful view points and the visit to the tribal palace were the package tour offer along with mission expo. The fire that is enkindled today may grow day by day and help us to reach out to the last and the least with the heart of Jesus.

Mission Expo Visit - Walvanda

Mission Expo Visit - Walvanda

Mary Queen of the Rosary

The month of October holds a great significance in our Catholic Church as we celebrate the Feast of our Lady of the Rosary and thus consider this as a month of Rosary.  Rosary is not an empty formula which we recite without understanding or knowing its value. It is in fact a devotion and a valuable and lovely form of prayer which unites us with Jesus’ life in a more profound manner.

When we pray the rosary we are like little children on Mary’s lap mumbling her praises, delighting in her nearness as she too delights in our presence. Rosary is not something new to our blessed Mother for it is a weapon given by her to St. Dominic assuring him, that whatever is asked through the rosary, it will be given.  Even though we do not fully understand, we absorb the redemptive truth of our faith.  Mary does not mind our distractions, but appreciates our efforts in spending those precious moments of love with her while praying the rosary.

Every catholic feels privileged to pray this prayer which binds him or her with Jesus and Mary. We too, the Sisters and novices in Sacred Heart Training Centre feel the same as we express our love  to our blessed Mother by keeping up the month of the Rosary. In fact, we believe that Mary is our most holy mother and sole inspirer of our Institute. It is because of her intervention that our Congregation came into existence and our presence in this Institute is also her most desired plan and so living our lives as, “A living monument of gratitude to our blessed Mother” gives justice to our founder St. John Bosco’s saying.

The feast of our Lady of the Rosary was celebrated in a special manner by the beautifully animated prayer moments and Eucharistic celebration. The candle light rosary with the Maria Vihar Boarders was also an act of love to our blessed Mother. During the whole month the daily rosary was beautifully animated, keeping in mind the missionary month as well. This gave us opportunities to be creative and in our own way prove our love and devotion to our heavenly Mother. At the end of this month we, as her dear daughters, would wish to say only this, “Dear mother, bless us your loving daughters with peace, joy and enable us to spread the fragrance of your love to all around us.”

MY LIFE A UNIQUE GIFT FROM GOD

There is a God in my life

The God who gave me life.

He gives me strength to accomplish my task

He fulfills my every wish when I ask.

My life for him is very precious,

With him at my side I am courageous.

He is the one with whom I begin my day,

With him I can negotiate the hurdles on my way.

Life teaches me to do good and not bad,

To move on with my God without becoming sad.

Like a shadow He stands besides me

To put beauty in everything I see.

Nothing in this world can complete unique me.

I am valuable than diamond you see.

My life a unique gift from God

Which I live at the service of my Lord.

OUT ON A MISSION

“Go out to the margins, joyful bearers of Good News; bring God’s love to the poor and the needy.”

Following our Lord’s teaching, we the second year Novices of the Mumbai Province had a 45 days long APOSTOLIC EXPERIENCE in three different communities of the province. Sr. Kavita Dias and Sr. Savina Naik had their month long experience in the community of Mazzarello Kendra, Kasarkod and Sr. Maxina Luji and Sr. Ira Viegas had theirs in the community of Ranbambuli Oros. For the next fifteen days the four of us got together for an intensive experience of the mission in the community ANMOL Niwas - Koparkhairane, among the slums and the abandoned.

Ranging from assistance, catechism classes, good morning and good night talks, visiting families, NCPs, Marian Sodalities, SHG Groups, tuition classes, classes in schools, animating recreations, to animating special events, like, Teacher’s day, Mother Mary’s birthday, Marian night, etc., our experience was a full dose of almost everything we needed to know before saying our total and committed ‘Yes’ to the Lord.

The mission among the young especially the poor and the abandoned posed before each of us the challenge of being able to put our mission before ourselves and to reach out generously with a large heart to those society neglects and considers good-for-nothing. We are now sure that we too will be doing all we can to follow the Pope’s advice to wake up and reach out to the peripheries. We really had an Emmaus experience of meeting Jesus in the slum dwellers and the homeless. Their smile was homely and warm.

We are grateful to our dear Mother Provincial for giving us the opportunity to experience community and apostolic life in these exemplary communities of the Province. We are also grateful to our dear Sr. Anelfreda Miranda who accompanied us during these days and gave us her timely and wise guidance and advice.  Most of all we are thankful to the communities of Kasarkod, Oros and Koparkhairane for accepting us into their community and helping us to have a fruitful experience and enjoy the spirit of togetherness in their community. Thanking each Sister of the Province for supporting us during these days with your prayer. We surely had a wonderful experience and are sure to put ourselves totally in the mission which lies ahead of us.

CALLED TO BE SERVANTS OF THE YOUNG

“Youth are an important face of the church and without them she would be disfigured” says Benedict XVI. We the novices of sacred Heart Training Center and Novices of Salesian Training Institute were indeed privileged to attend the three days course on Salesian Youth Ministry which was animated by Fr. Ajoy Fernandes SDB and Fr. Glenford Lowe SDB. This course really made us realize that youth work is different from youth ministry. Youth work includes only activities but youth ministry includes activities and holistic development. It aims at making youth good Christians and honest citizen. It follows the method of Preventive System and encourages devotion to Jesus and Mary. 

The Rector Major addressed the youth by telling them “ask us to accompany you, to pray with you always, to be among you especially when you need us most. Do not be afraid to bother us. This must never be a nuisance for a Salesian heart because “the boys of Valdocoo and girls of Mornese made Don Bosco’s heart and Mary Mazzarello’s heart greater”. Don Bosco wanted his every institute to be a home, a school, a church and a playground, a home that builds the heart, a school that builds the mind, a church that builds the soul and a playground that builds the body. These four dimensions of Salesian youth ministry will help us to make our youth good Christians and honest citizens. We should always appreciate the strength of the youth and their weaknesses will disappear. Someone has rightly said “If you want to pluck less weeds plant more flowers”. Don Bosco was ready to work, suffer, to humble himself when it was a question of saving a soul. We are called to be travelling companions with the young. As educators we are called to touch their lives. Youth ministry is not just working for the youth but a ministry of relationship, mutuality, self-generative presence. Affirmation of the special gifts of the young, it is more important than rules regulations, programs and structures. Youth are the most precious portion of humanity. May we as educators be the hands and feet of Christ serving the young specially those rejected by the society.