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My dear Sisters,
It gives me immense joy to greet you on the occasion of our Province Day. Year after year, we celebrate the first Sunday of December as our Province Day, as a mark of our gratitude to Our Blessed Mother, Mary of the Immaculate Conception - the Patron of our Province. Under her Patronage, our Province has been continually experiencing her maternal care and receiving blessings from her caring hands. As you know, our Province has the privilege of being called ‘The Mother Province’ of the Congregation as it holds many of the oldest and largest communities of the Institute. It is right and fitting then that we gather each year to celebrate our togetherness, count the blessings of the Lord and remind each other that we belong to one family, the family of Bethany.
Today is a day of gratitude: gratitude to God, to Our Blessed Mother, to our Holy Founder and the Founding members, to our Superior General and her Team, to my Team, to all the local Superiors, Correspondents, Principals, Headmistresses, Directors of Hospitals, Social Work Centres, Hostels, to our sisters of yester years who toiled silently and are gone for their eternal rewards, to our elderly sisters who are confined to their rooms now slowly fading away, to our retired sisters who have opted for prayer ministry as their second career, to our perpetually professed sisters active in educational, social, medical, pastoral, hostel, formation, vocation promotion, temporal administration, kitchen ministries, gratitude to our Junior sisters who give hope to Bethany through their vibrant presence and creativity, to our formess - Novices, Pre Novices, Student Candidates and Come and See Candidates who add vitality and youthfulness and look forward for new avenues, to our girls in the kitchen who serve us at the table, to our helpers who labour in the compound helping us to enjoy the fruits of the earth, to our BLA members, our collaborators, well-wishers, benefactors…an unending list of gratitude!
Yes, our Province has a glorious history; it has walked miles but we cannot rest! There is an urgency to enter into the troubled waters but prior to that, we need to be at the feet of our Master Jesus, we need to spend time in the chamber of Nazareth (contemplating Mary in the mystery of Annunciation), in the chamber of Lisieux (learning to imitate St Therese in her little ways) and in the chamber of Bethany (meeting Martha and Mary for a merge of contemplation in action). Being charged by the Lord, by the spirit of Nazareth, Lisieux and Bethany we need to go where we dare not go – sign of bearing fruit!
On this beautiful day as I greet each one of you dear sisters, I pray for each one of you. May Jesus make us joyful and committed band of consecrated women to proclaim Him through our life witness. May our Blessed Mother make us like her, humble handmaids at the service of the poor and the marginalized. Have a great day today dear sisters!
On this happy and memorable occasion, I am happy to launch our Province website (www.bethanymangaloreprovince.org) through the hands of Mgr Denis Moras Prabhu, Vicar General of Mangalore Diocese. May this website be a medium of communication – an exchange of news and views, sharing of faith and hope. May it also serve as an agent of evangelization, a carrier of the Gospel of Jesus!
With God’s blessings,
Sr Mariette BS
Provincial Superior