Day 6: 01.01.2022

work on Local statutes, Issues and Suggestions  

Voting : Local Statutes,  Issues and Suggestions 

Recreation time: Meaningful and lively recreation by the Aspirants of Bolarum

 Day 5: 31.12.2021

Today is the last day of the year -2021 and all of us had much to be grateful to God for.  We sat in the presence of the Eucharistic Lord, adoring and  thanking  God for His abundant mercies and blessings throughout the year 2021. We prayed the Lauds at 6.30a.m followed by Holy Mass celebrated by Fr. M. Arogayam, Parish Priest,  St. Anthony's Church,Venkatapuram. Father, in his  homily spoke on Mission and the ways we need to carry out. He spoke about Evangelization, and  inventing new methods to proclaim God's word, searching new ways of carrying out our educative apostolate with great dedication and glorifying God and serving the little ones and the poor. Whenever we reach higher positions and status we need to remind ourselves, the virtue of humility practiced by Mother Enrichetta. we must never compromise our prayer life however busy we are. we should desire to dwell in the presence of God. We must become  co-partners with Christ in carrying out the mission entrusted to us as Jesus carried out the mission of the Father as Priest, Prophet and King he said by quoting St. Paul (1 Peter 2:9-10)  and we need to do the same. we should not fear when obstacles we face in this world but go with the strength and power of the Spirit. Our services may be a drop in the ocean. if these drops are not there then the ocean will miss these drops. The Artist's final stroke makes His painting famous so also our little services will helps us to achieve mission of Christ and elevate us to greatness.

The first session  started at 9.00a.m with a short prayer and the General assembly took the work to discuss and finalize the work on  6th Priority. After tea break all assembled for voting all Six Priorities and whole Chapter Document. The assembly then  took up the work on Local Statues, corrections and modifications.

Thanksgiving for the year 2021

The capitulars gathered for an hour of thanksgiving adoration at Bolarum Chapel

Holy Eucharistic celebration was held in the chapel at 10.30 p.m to celebrate the feast of Mary, Mother of God. Fr. Praveen in his homily spoke about taking the Lord with us on our journey and he also exhorted us to use our five senses to proclaim the good news and to serve the poor and needy as we step into the New year-2022

 

Day 4: 30.12.2021

God’s mercy and providence drew us to His presence and we adored and thanked the Lord for keeping us alive and active to accomplish the task of the fourth day of our Provincial Chapter. We began our day in the eucharistic presence at 6 a.m followed by Lauds and Holy Mass. Fr. Antony Sagayaraj, Parish Priest, Trimulghery, in his homily drew our attention to two families, Holy family and family of our Founders Carlo& Giulia. He said, while he reflected, found few similarities in these families: First, both families had great reverence to the Word of God. Mary and Joseph and Carlo and Giulia revered the Word of God (Jesus Christ) in their lives. Words of Christ must richly dwell in us so that we remain united to Him as branches to its wine. Second, the Faith aspect. Being attuned to the Word of God, leads us to faith. Faith comes from hearing the Word of God. Third aspect, our Faith affects one another. Faith of Mary affected Joseph. Faith of Carlo and Giulia affects us. Fourth, No playing blame game. Referring to the book of Genesis, He said, when Adam and Eve sinned, Adam blamed God and Eve, Eve blamed Adam and serpent but when Joseph came to know Mary was pregnant, he never blamed God or Mary. So also, Carlo and Giulia were childless, they never blamed each other.  Spirit of prayer and unity helps to build a healthy family.

The capitulars gathered for first session at 9 a.m. The minutes of the previous day meeting were read and approved. Then the members were given the draft of the 6^th Priority which was considered as specific to our Province and worked out by the pre-capitular commission. The members dispersed to their respective groups to discuss till 11 a.m as directed by the Moderator, Sr, Cicily Mathew. At 11.30 a.m the members gathered for the General assembly to discuss on this priority.

At 2p.m. all the LASA members assembled in the Hall. A warm welcome was accorded to them by Sr. Jesintha Mariappa and all the Chapter members. They were overjoyed to be part of SAP family. They shared their dreams and aspirations to be involved in the mission of the Church and our Founders.

At 5 p.m. the members once again gathered in the Hall for the General assembly to discuss and finalize the 6^th Priority. At 7p.m the Capitulars gathered for the Vespers which was followed by Supper and creative & lively recreation by Sr. Olivia and team.

 

Day 3: 29.12.2021

The love of God enabled us to begin our day in His awesome presence. We thanked and praised God for His mercies and blessings as we assembled at 6 a.m for the Eucharistic adoration and Moring prayer.

The Holy Mass, was celebrated by Fr. Aloysious, Scripture Scholar and also serves as Parish Priest, Damaiguda. In his homily, he focused on the theme ‘Unity in the family’. Model families in today’s world, is a big challenge.  The families are appearing to be living in unity but they live in compromised unity. Can the families raise up their children? children’s lives are surrounded by mobiles… which is more attractive and the families face lot of pressure and conflicts takes place between couples. This inflicts negative influence and injury on child’s growth. Can we step in to build ideal and healthy families based on the model family, Holy Family? Are we equipped to serve the present generation? Jesus was born to the family of Mary and Joseph and by His presence he made His family Holy. The families cannot be holy, unless Christ takes His birth in these families and for this prayer and dialogue are necessary. Jesus chose to do the will of His Father and was born and died and resurrected…so to raise a good family, life of Jesus needs to replicated in homes…when crosses are there, death and resurrection sure to take place.

 

The capitulars gathered for first session at 9 a.m. The minutes of the previous day meeting was read and approved. Then the general assembly went through the remaining work on 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th Priorities. After which, the members dispersed for group discussion for finalizing the priorities already worked out. 

At 3 p.m the members gathered for the personal prayer.  Having refreshed in the presence of the Eucharistic Lord, the General Assembly resumed the work at 3.30 p.m to finalize the Five priorities. By 7 p.m the work on five priorities was completed successfully. After which the Capitulars prayed the vespers and dispersed for dinner.

 

Day 2: 28.12.2021

The Capitulars assembled in the Hall for the Eucharistic adoration at 6 a.m followed by Lauds and The Holy Mass which was celebrated by Fr. Valentine D’Mello, Parish Priest, St. Joseph’s Church, Bolarum. In His homily he drew our attention on the theme “Drawing Light from a Family”. He made a reference to light and darkness. God is light! Adam and Eve were born in light and then why were they in darkness? the reason is because of the freedom God gave them…we too often wonder why there is darkness in our lives, if God is light? it is because of freedom…we choose darkness instead of light when our ego and negative events overpowers us. In moments of darkness we should go close to God and draw light from the Holy Trinity, a family and a true community, So, also from the Holy family, this too is a community. Jesus, the light took birth in this family. St. Joseph, a silent worker enlightened by the light Jesus gave him.

The capitulars gathered for first session at 9 a.m. The Moderator Sr. Cicily Mathew briefed the assembly about the commission work. The members dispersed to their respective groups and started working on Priorities from 9.30 a.m to 12.30 p.m

At 3 p.m the members gathered for the personal prayer and Having refreshed in the presence of Eucharistic Lord, assembled together for the General Assembly at 3.30 p.m in the Hall to discuss on Five Priorities.

 

The discussions on three Priorities were done and the day’s sessions came to a close. At recreation, the Novices entertained us with  their very beautiful, creative and  touching performance.  

 The Second Phase of the 9th Provincial Chapter

27.12.2021 to  02.01.2022

Day 1- 27.12.2021

The second phase of the 9th Provincial Chapter began at 9 a.m with a recollection talk by Fr. Pakiairaj (S.J). He led us to reflect on certain images such as Holy Trinity, Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth, Holy family, Early Christian Community, Last Supper so on and helped us to focus on virtues which we could  practice for the fruitful living in our communities. Then he emphasized that our communities should be modelled based on these images to serve the families of the world today. Further, he challenged us with a question what kind of families we meet today? can we touch their lives differently? can these families be helped based on gospel values?.

The Capitulars spent quality time in silent adoration and reflection from 10.30 a.m to 12 Noon for the success of the chapter.  

The Inaugural Mass held at 12.30 p.m. The Main celebrant Fr. Victor Immanuel highlighted in his homily the theme of the Chapter. He reminded that we came from a biological family and inserted into a spiritual family of SSA, rejuvenated by the spirit of the spiritual family and enriched by the realistic experience of our biological family, we should move out to serve the world families.

At 3.30 p.m the solemn inauguration of the second phase of the 9th Provincial Chapter took place with a symbolic lighting of the lamp by Provincial superior, Sr. Jesintha Mariappa and the declaration of the Chapter being opened.

At 5.30 p.m. the Capitulars of the General Chapter - Sr. Jesintha Mariappa, Sr. Sussy Rajakumari, Sr. Emmy Gracy, Sr. Cicily Mathew and Sr. Anthoniammal Pallikal shared their experiences  and the various aspects of the Chapter to the assembly .