IN SOLIDARITY …

Mar20

Prayer

The students, Teachers and Sisters of Auxilium Convent School, Dum Dum expressed solidarity with Sr. Superior, Sisters and the School Community of Jesus and Mary Convent School at Ranaghat by a solemn prayer service on the 19th March 2015. It began with the lighting of candles and the offering of flowers at the statue of Mother Mary outside the chapel. The students put up a banner which said, “We condemn such acts of brutality”.  The prayers in the chapel were not only for Sr. Superior, the 74 – year old Sister, but also for all the other women who have been victimized in different parts of our County. There was a Scripture reading from the second letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians which strengthen the faith of God’s people in him, in times of distress. The prayer service which was concluded by silent meditation in which the students and teachers asked for God’s mercy testified the strength of prayer in adverse situations like these. It also established the fact that one has to rely on divine justice.

Prayer

Mission Experience

Mar12

Mission Experience

We the three postulants Jenifer Selvaraj, Binita Bara and Alka Tigga had our  Mission Experience from 15th February to 9th March 2015 in three communities, Bandel, Monsada and Kalyani respectively. During these days we experienced the warm welcome, love and care of the sisters. We were inspired especially by their witnessing life, togetherness and loving kindness.  We learnt to assist the children and  teach them some lessons . Visiting families and villages helped us to grow in God’s love and come to know the sufferings of the people. Our presence gave joy to their families and they were free to share with us their problems. Community and personal prayer brought us closer to God and strengthened our faith.

We thank our dear Sr. Maria Pettayil, the Provincial and Sr. Lily Perumpettikunnel, our animator for having given us this great opportunity to experience the mission life and to make ourselves strong in our vocation.

Juniors’ Meet

Mar12

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AUXILIUM, DUM DUM: The Juniors’ Meet of INC was held on 6th – 9th March 2015 at Provincial House Dum Dum coordinated by Sr. Teresa Adampakallel, the formation in charge. 33 of us participated in this meeting. Rev. Fr. Franklin Manezes explained the three types of Psalms i.e. asking, thanking and praising and the three phases of the life of the psalmists: (1) Orientation (2) Dis- orientation (3) Re- orientation, and also the various literary forms of Psalms.

Sr. Lily Perumpettikunnel dealt on Eco- Spirituality.  A full day was spent reflecting on the meaning of eco-spirituality, ecology crisis, climate change etc. She invited us to take care of creation by seeing God in everything and everything in God. Ecological spirituality begins in the acknowledgment grateful and joyful, that all creatures owe their existence to God. Humans are not somehow separate from the rest of creation. We share it intimately with other creatures. We acknowledge God as creator of us all, she said. She also gave us some 20 simple tips as how to save nature like, follow the Principle of reduce, reuse and re-cycle; saving water; buy local and organic produce; replace bulbs with compact flouorescent lamps (CFL) etc.  We then drew out some plan of action at personal and community level.

The session on Consecrated life by Sr. Teresa Adampakallel reminded us that we are called to live the Gospel values, to follow Jesus, crucified and risen, to imitate Him and to give Jesus to others. Sr. Teresa exhorted us to be strong and zealous missionaries.

Another session was on Cooking Skill by Mr. Jude Paskar. He spoke on Hygiene.  Through his theoretical and practical lessons we came to know about the internal temperature for different types of food items and also to make different kinds of dishes like Indian and Italian dishes.

Sr. Mini Chettayil, took lessons on Church History. She gave us in a nutshell different historical events that took place during the 1st – 8th and 21st centuries.

The concluding sessions were taken by Sr. Maria Pettayil, the Provincial. She explained to us the letter of Pope Francis ‘Rejoice’. She helped us to understand deeply the meaning of consecrated life, and urged us to live our charism to the full. She concluded with the 2nd letter of St. Paul to the Timothy chapter 2.

       Juniors' Meet

The entire programme has been an enriching and enlightening one. We thank our Sisters especially Sr. Provincial and Sr. Teresa Adampakallel for organizing the programme.

Sr. Alitrice W.

Women’s Day Celebration

Mar12

Women's Day celebration

ST.MARY’S GEYZING: On 8th March, for the first time in the history of St. Mary’s Parish Geyzing, , the International Women’s Day was celebrated. Though it is a small parish community, consisting of 50 families, around 45 women took part in the celebration.

The day began with the solemn Holy Eucharist. Each woman carried with her a flower, a symbol of beauty of womanhood, and went in procession towards the Altar. The parish priest highlighted the importance of the day during Holy Mass and a special intention was put for all the women especially for those who were present.

Rev. Sr. Leelamma  Palliparambil FMA, the SDC of the Province was the resource person for the day. The themes dealt were “The empowerment of the women’, ‘Income Generating’, and ‘Human Trafficking”. The women of St. Mary’s Geyzing were very happy and grateful to have had this awareness programme and invited Sister to conduct again this type of programme.

The next day, Sr. Leelamma conducted the programme for the school boys and girls Through on “Child development” and “Child Abuse”. The students too profited much for their life. Thank you Sr. Leelamma !

Sr. Nirmala

Leadership Seminar

Mar5

Geyzing

A Leadership Seminar for the ARCIES students (Association of the Roman Catholic Educational Institutions of Sikkim) was held at St Mary’s School Geyzing West Sikkim from 20 – 21 February 2015. Hundred and eleven students from eight schools participated in it from North, South, East and West Sikkim. The resource person for the programme was Rev. Fr.Patrick Lepcha SDB from Salesian, College Sonada.

At 4.30 pm the programme started with a warm welcome to Rev. Fr.Patrick as well as all the participants by the Principal. Then Fr.Patrick conducted a thrilling ice breaking session to know each other.

 The first session was well displayed through PowerPoint to drive home the meaning of being a leader. “Leader” means ‘trustworthy’, ‘remains cheerful’ and ‘aims higher’. After a short break, second session continued based on the ‘fake’ and ‘good’ leader. In order to make them understand more, short stories were narrated vividly. After dinner the leaders gathered again at 9.00 pm for viewing the picture ‘Chillar Party’, which had a special message to every young leader, who can bring about change in the society through team work.

The next day began with a peaceful gesture of prayer and meditation animated by Fr.Patrck himself, which made the leaders reflect on the importance of giving priority to the matters of the soul and not to one’s body, friends and wealth. The session which followed after the breakfast, made the leaders understand clearly the difference between character and reputation. Character is what we are and reputation is what other people think of us. Some qualities that a leader should cultivate were highlighted like ‘Never give up’ Look ahead’, ‘Stay positive’ and ‘do all you can’ etc. To make the session more interesting games, action songs and different exercises were part of the programme.

The last but not the least leaders were taught the ten Hall Mark of an educated person and were asked to keep in mind the values they want to live by. Father encouraged us to have great dreams for our schools.

In his parting message Fr. Patrick quoted “some people are born great, some people have greatness trusted upon them and some people become great”, and wished them to become 100% good leaders for this year and in future. On behalf of all the leaders present one of the students thanked animator for the wonderful, inspiring and thought provoking leadership programme and the students appreciated with a thunderous applause. The students also expressed their gratitude to the ARCIES and the Host school for making the leadership programmes a reality for them. They set out to their respective schools carrying happy memories of the days, determined to be good leaders.

Renuka Chettri, student

St. Mary’s Convent School

Geyzing

Banipur Mela

Mar5

Banipur mela

Annual Mela of Lok Utsav was held from 1 – 8 February 2015 at Banipur, Habra. The stalls were organized by the NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development). The mela began at 4.00 p.m. with a cultural programme, exhibitions from different schools, clubs and locality. The ground was filled with different stalls and items. A huge crowd of people came from far and near to view the mela. It was a great opportunity for the SHG (Self Help Group) women of Auxilium promotional centre to learn many new things and to have a good experience. The women were grateful to NABARD for having given a stall to display and sell their products such as cushions, fancy bags, various types of candles, pencil bags, room fresheners, phenyl, garlands and flowers. Mrs. Regina took care of the stall all through the mela.

Sr. Anima Xalxo

 

Formees Meet

Mar5

Formees meet

The Formees meet was conducted on February 21, 2015 at Auxilium Convent School, Barasat. The theme chosen for the day was: Called to be Joyful Witnesses.

The day began at 8.30 a.m with a concelebrated Mass, the main celebrant being Rev. Fr. Antony Rodrick, the dean of Barasat. The celebrant in his homily stressed on the importance of being joyful witnesses of Christ. All we do should be an expression of our joyous encounter with Christ, he said. It was followed by the ice-breaking session and the formation of groups conducted by Fr. Leo Jeyaraj. The groups were then named after the Prophets of the Old Testament.

Fr. Sajeev Painunkal  S.J. was the resource person of the day and he enlightened them on the theme “Called to be joyful witnesses”. He kept them vigilant throughout the session by his lively and interesting presentation.  Among the other things he told them that a person filled with the joy of the Gospel will be able to radiate God’s love, compassion and reach out to a neighbour in need. All that we need is to live the present with passion.

In the second half of the day the formees were given the opportunity to bring out their hidden talents by enacting  in groups the call of the Prophets. Sr. Stella Potteparambil FMA gave the guidelines for the enactment. The best three groups were given prizes.

Anju Antony, one of the formees said that it was a remarkable experience, while for Vikash, a seminarian it was a golden opportunity to listen to the vocation stories of others and Pushpa, a novice felt that the meeting has enriched her view of religious life.

Thanks to Sr. Stella and community of Barasat for their generosity in making the arrangements for the day as well as to all the formators for organizing this programme headed by Fr.Mourlin Fernando S.J. The 164 formees belonging to ten different congregations had the great joy of coming together and being enriched by the day’s programme.

Solidarity with the persecuted and suffering humanity

Mar5

prayer for peace

On 26th February 2015, the staff and students of Janta Higher Secondary School, Jumaikela had an hour of prayer, for the suffering and persecuted people of Iraq.  The photos of the persecuted Christians and others were viewed during the moments of prayer. All those who were present for the prayer moment were touched by the faith of the young people who were ready to suffer for the sake of their faith.

Jaigaon Basin afire

Feb16

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Jaigaon a growing city surrounded by the Bhutan mountains was the hallowed place chosen for the animators of the communities and Provincial council to Retreat, reflect and introspect on their spiritual itinerary.  The newly built chapel and the residence was so very conducive and ignited the 25 retreatants commence this divine encounter from 2-9 Feb 2015.  The preacher Rev. Fr. Jose Varickasseril SDB , a scripture Scholar  was apt to lead all  into the deserts  of the Holy Bible  scanning  the pages from Genesis to Apocalypse  instilling  in each one an ardent desire for the Word of God. In the eight days he enabled the participants to decipher the Divine and human face of Jesus, the teacher par excellence through the exploration of the Word and to live with enthusiasm the multifarious aspects   of true discipleship.  He expounded how without working astonishing miracles we could calm the storms in the mind of the people, settle the aftermath of human tsunami through compassion, break down the barriers of division and conflict with the balm of gentleness,   and heal the psychological wounds with understanding and prayer.   He in his typical humorous style accompanied us to fathom the three elements of Jesus messianic ministry teaching, preaching and healing.  He drew our attention also to interesting topics like the role of women disciples in the New Testament, Mary the perfect woman,   repentance and forgiveness.   In these days of interior journey we pledged to say no to minimalism and generous yes to 100% commitment in our Religious life following the footsteps of our Master.

On this joyful expedition, Sr. Maria Pettayil, the Provincial turned our travel guide with her tips and directions. In her inspiring and motivating goodnights she  drove  home  messages;  how to be pliable in the hands of the divine potter, leadership  trend of Mother Mazzarello,  deriving  graces at the feet of the master, Good health tips from Archbishop Emeritus  Thomas Menamparambil  during GC XXIII.  We are deeply grateful to all those who   contributed to make this holy interior pilgrimage  so wonderful and  memorable  especially the hospitality section of Jaigaon community who turned better than   ITC Maurya   with Sr. Annie Thevarkunnel  at the helm.

Sr. Stella P.