“The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor” (Lk 4:18) with these thoughts 40 sisters of Mangalore Province gathered at Bethany Provincialate, Vamanjoor on 10th and 11th of November 2015 for two days seminar on Family Apostolate. Sr Dr Johncy CHF (Congregation of the Holy Family) Ph.D in Counselling Psychology and Vice Principal of FATRI (Family Apostolate Training & Research Institute) and Sr Dr Elsy Xavier CHF Ph.D in Theology of Marriage & Family from Kerala were the resource persons. They spoke on how to be effective in our Family Apostolate and different types of counselling skills through which families are saved and united together.
As a religious today we are being called to wake up the world in three ways
• Look at the world around us
• Listen to their cries
• Encounter them with greater depth, encounter door to door, person to person
Sayings of different personalities were quoted. Pope Francis says ‘family should be the main mission of every religion. How precious is the family as the privileged place for transmitting the faith and for passing on the human and religious heritage which is so essential for each and every society’.
St John Paul II – ‘as the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live’.
St Kuriokose Chavara- ‘A true Christian family resembles the heavenly abode’.
Through enactments, group discussions and some guidelines for the effectiveness of Home Mission warmed the sisters to be relevant to the signs of the times and get into the family field.
Gratitude overwhelms towards Rev Sr Mariette BS Provincial Superior of Mangalore Province who organised the seminar, Provincial Councillors for their encouragement for the mission and specially Sr Cicilia Mendonca BS Provincial Councilor and Coordinator for Pastoral Apostolate of Mangalore Province who guided the sisters to be generous towards this cause. Sisters benefited much from this seminar and returned with zeal and enthusiasm to proclaim the good news of Jesus.
Desiring to fulfil the XVI General Chapter theme “Transformation Unto Christ Through Fiat to be a Prophetic Witness.”
Reported by,
Sr M. Preethi BS
Bethany Convent