29 participants, the animators, provincial council and two sisters from shilling province were gathered in the hallowed space of Bandel under the maternal mantle of Our Lady of Voyage to start their spiritual vacation with the Lord.   The  preacher Fr. Cletus D’Souza aptly dubbed it as ‘a picnic with the Lord’.

The exhorting words of Sr. Rose Ezarath our provincial, ‘Retreat is a time to experience the personal love for God for you’ , God waits for you to come away to a lonely place to dialogue with him” was the starter that enkindled   to set each one   on the  trail of   inner journey.

At the start of his talk he presented the triple strategy for happy living 888- 8 hours of sleep, 8 hours of work, 8 hours of prayer family, friends. He said that 1/10 of the day that is 2 hours 40 minutes is to be given to the Lord as a tithe in our daily schedule. Everyone was elated with ESP the triple programme sleep well, eats well and pray well.

But the next triple paralyzing disease plaguing the modern religious was shocking: lame, tame and same. Lame mediocrity – no zest, no fire, Tame – lost of the prophetic punch, same – sticking to past without novelty.  The solution suggested was to be fresh bread and sparkling wine.

His series of talk gave the ABCDEF of a committed religious life:

1. Awareness – The bedrock of religious life is waking up _ wake up to every person, wake up to every situation. So be awake alert and be alive.
2. Balancing- the head, heart and hand to be integrated that you become a harmonious and equanimous person who is human and holy.
3. Centering – Sequela Christi – Making Jesus the focus and centre of our lives.
4. Discipleship – listen, accompaniment, table fellowship and evangelized and evangelize
5. Eucharist- become bread broken for others
6. Faith- follow Mary in her paradigm of faith. YES – Yearning for God, Enthusiasm, small yes’s repeated to the daily routine and mission.

The retreatants were elevated and ignited by some of the special strategies used by Fr. Cletus .

1. The desert sojourn. Retreatants were asked to leave the hallowed places in the chapel and to go out in search of a desert outside equipped with a bottle of water, Bible, a book to write your spiritual journal and the rosary to recite the entire rosary.  The duration of the desert experience was 9a.m.-5p.m.  The retreats were asked to write personal formula for the profession, poem and individual Magnificat.  Some of the  sisters found their desert spaces in the Auxilium Bandel garden, others in Bandel Basilica ground and near the river site.  In the evening during the Eucharist each one shared their unforgettable and rich encounter with the Lord and oneself.
2. Eight hours encounter with the Lord in the Eucharist. Each one had a privileged moment right in front of the Lord touching on the altar on the kneeler peering right on the host.  This too was a beautiful moment.
3. The product of the Eucharist was service was enacted by the washing of feet. Four groups were asked to assemble outside the church where two benches were placed, with two basins, jugs of water and towels.  Each group washed the feet of the members of another group and it was reversed giving chance for everyone to experience both the roles of being washed and to wash the feet.  Everyone was reminded of Pope Francis and felt happy to be in his shoes.  This experience will remain ingrained in our memory and will prompt us to do the same in our day to day life situations.

Armed with the triple adieu memo: Believe in yourself, believe in others and believe in God the participants set off to : rebirth, recreate, re-found, re-invent, re-visit, re-form and re-vision their Life with prophetic punch, enthusiasm and joy.

                                                                                                                                            Sr. Stella P.

A day of  togetherness celebrated  at Aqua Marina, Chinsura.

The Annual Spiritual Retreat was held from 27 December 2018 – 3 January 2019 at Auxilium Convent School, Bandel.  The retreat preacher was the Rector of Salesian College, Sonada Rev. Fr. Vargehese Kalluvachal.  The introductory talk of Provincial Sr. Rose Ezarath was based on having a deep experience with God and she highlighted the Art 49 of our Constitutions which speaks about the attitude of conversion and penance.  During her good night talks she stressed on the community and apostolic life as she read the reflection given by Pope Francis.

The theme of the retreat was “Renewal of the Religious”.  It was developed gradually with the following sub topics: Emotional Wounds, Forgiveness, Beatitudes, Religiosity, Evangelical Vows, Community life, Prophetic Apostolate, Prayer life, Sense of humour, Role of Mary and Eucharist.  After every talk Fr. Varghese put some relevant questions to reflect on.  Before concluding the retreat participants were asked to make a synthesis of the talk.  The preacher led the group from Good Friday to the Easter Sunday of our life.  It was time of introspection of ourselves and to know the mask we wear to cover emotional wounds.  Some of the insights we received were: we are called to be learners of Christ and change ourselves not others, to be like Christ we need to have the attitude of Jesus to make beatitudes as Be-attitudes, live religious vows with new dimensions in the communities, to be available at all times and to be Prophetic Religious to Announce, Renounce and Denounce. Fr. Varghese kept us active and joyful through his humorous jokes which meant that we should become a person of humour and keep our community a happy one.

After the retreat we had our moment together at Banabithi Park, Baidhabati. The vibrant community game was animated first by the provincial followed by the six groups brought joy in everyone.  The time of being together was brought to finale with a delicious meal.

The following day after the retreat was spent listening to the provincial Sr. Rose Ezarath. She offered some reminders to the group on how to form a joyful community and to carry out a fruitful apostolate also shared some information about the visit of Visiting Councilor Rev. Sr. Lucy Rose Ozhukayil.

Finally, all the retreats congratulated Sr. Teresa Theruvamkunnel with their melodious singing for having completed 60 years of her Religious Profession and Sr. Provincial felicitated her.

On 24^th November 2018, Holy Child Auxilium Vasant Vihar organized a Retreat for the Catholic/Christian parents of Classes Nursery to XII. It was held from 8.00 am to 1.30 pm. Fr. Francis Karthanam V.C. and his team from Divine Ashram, Faridabad animated the day’s programme. The participants numbering about 200 appreciated the initiative under taken by the school management for their spiritual wellbeing. The retreat was concluded with lunch.