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Encounters have the power to turn a new beginning into lasting relationship. Thus our initial encounters seemed so special that it created a new enthusiasm to Know. It is this knowing that paved a way for our fraternal communion. The group building sessions conducted by Sr.C.T blended with creative methods, meditations and personal exercises helped us journey from mere knowing to building the community. Through the interplay between myself and the other, we could trace out that we all have within us a whole world of wonder and values, quirks and inconsistencies, novelty and contradictions, depository of truth and error. The techniques helped us for a constructive handling of the above. Gradually in the warmth of our encounters emerged a new hope to set our goals to journey into the desert with a prayer in our hearts for our every day to be

                                                                                and understood by love.

A   PILGRIM OF THE PROMISED LAND: BL. Mary of the Passion

             The three weeks of ‘walking together’ with Mary of the Passion was a remarkable experience for each of us. It broadened our vision, challenged our choices, and above all has unearthed a new enthusiasm to make our life a “true offering to God and in turn to our fellow beings. Sr.C.T.Theresa helped us rediscover the personality, values and visions of Mary of the passion. Her personal sharing stirred in us a new enthusiasm to imbibe the spirit of Mama.

 

 

                                                             ‘We are pilgrims
                                                      we shall go always a little further’
     
     Through this call, we realize that her ability to ‘walk beyond’ in all situations and moments of life is the secret that led her to the Promised Land.

A ‘walking beyond’ in faith: The entire world seemed against her and darkness of life enveloped her. Yet she never compromised the values, rather faced humiliations, hatred and disgrace with the true faith emerging from a heart deeply rooted in God.

            Is my faith strong or shallow? Am I committed or compromise my commitment?

A ‘walking beyond’ in spite of suffering: Unimaginable hatred and revenge was directed towards her. Facing the sufferings of life with a spirit of surrender she experienced a new awakening.

             Do I stay equanimous at the face of suffering?

A ‘waking beyond’ the barriers of relationship: Love is fire that communicates itself. Driven by love she walked those extra miles to forgive those who caused her pain. She exercised heroic charity to create life in those relationships.

            Do I construct right relationship? Do I practice heroic charity?

A ‘walking beyond’ human difference:  “The whole world is my home” saying she embraced the world with its light and shadow. She lived compassion and understanding which armored to go beyond human differences to speak of the reign of God.

 Is my self too narrow confined to my own country, culture and clan?

A ‘walking beyond’ in sharing:  ‘The life that is given in order that the world may have life” – Jn 6:15 Making this Gospel truth a reality she had lead a life that nurtured very many lives. Her writings in volumes, correspondence with sisterly care, frequent travels, and enormous encounters speak of her life promoting nature in abundance.

            Do I stretch myself to the demands of mission, especially in nurturing life?

A ‘walking beyond’ time and trend: She was a woman pioneer to give form to a religious life which included both contemplation and action. Her vision for the world connected the remotest places centering on Jesus.

Am I exploring new possibilities to respond to the needs of the time creatively?

     We kept questioning ourselves and the pilgrim of the Promised Land answered in our moments of silent seeking! She invited us to walk beyond in spite of sufferings,

barriers, our human differences, time and trends in faith, sharing, forgiveness and love.

     Her dream for a world filled with truth and charity yet waits it’s fulfillment through us her daughters. Our pilgrimage to the Promised Land has just begun with a chanting.

                       

       We can choose to stay at anchor for fear

                        Mary of the Passion as well as the Co-foundresses did not compromise the Gospel values for the sake of life security. Rather they preferred to go through the big trial of separation from Marie Reparatrice. They casted their nets in to the depths of love, and drew to the shore the wealth of ‘truth and charity’. They often met with struggles, privations and even life threatening situations, but their commitment forged them to go ahead with faith, sacrifice and hope. They drew their strength from the Eucharistic Lord and lived exemplary spirituality.

Pioneers who dared to lay down their lives for mission in distant as well as                dangerous lands. They inspire us to give ourselves unreservedly for the  mission and its risks.

Companions, who surrounded Bl.Mary of the Passion with devotedness which         never failed. They inspire us to uphold the collective identity in a spirit of      belongingness.

Models of perfect humility, sacrificial love, disponibility and motivate us to thirst for quality life.

                                                  

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            The lives of our co-foundresses which were not familiar to many of us set our hearts ablaze. Their lives invite us not only to glow in the past glory, but to sail towards the horizon where God’s plan will be revealed individually as well as collectively as FMMs. Sr. Philomina Raj invited us to keep up our FMM heritage alive and active.

We realize that there is no limit to what we can achieve if we do not count who gets the credit!

                                           ROOTEDNESS IN DIVINE; RELATEDNESS WITHALL

                    still my heart,

                     these trees are prayer.

                     Mother earth is praying

                     through the angelic hands of the tree.

                                                             Tagore

St. Francis, the seraph of love heard this silent prayer in wonder and reverence. He turned to God who revealed Himself in the testimony of creation. In that stillness of the soul he discovered the same ‘unconcealing’ divine life and love poured out upon every creature. His realization brought forth the beautiful encounter the world had ever heard, which was sealed by love and respect. St. Clare, the little plant of St. Francis followed his footsteps with all her sacred feminine originality.

            As we were basking in the Franciscan spirituality, we came in touch with the happenings in the states of Orissa, Kerala, and Tamilnadu, where atrocities were pointed against Christians. We heard the cry of the oppressed, and we are determined to face the reality of the time not by running away from it, but by being in it.

    

            In the light of these great saints, we are also awakened to the shared sacred origin of entire creation. In this ‘connectedness’, we want to look into life as Franciscans,

Placing God as the center of life

Living as persons of Spirit, diffusing peace and joy

Experiencing oneness with the poor and giving them a sense of belonging

Sharing love and reverence

Enhancing true image through the spirit of humility

Embracing the entire creation with sisterhood and see God’s grandeur in them

            We are grateful to Sr. Cecily Paul who with her great zeal accompanied us to nurture great reverence and aspiration to live totally and radically as Franciscans.

THE JOY OF INNER FREEDOM

            Our inward journey to explore the deepest self in order to experience healing was accompanied by Fr.Godfrey SDB, and Sr. Daisy RA. They helped us to unfold the sacredness of life with its sore spots to the Divine grace, which deepened our trust in one another.

                                                                                 The therapy sessions gave us opportunity to   

                                                           observe our participation in life. With light of    clarity and the           

                                       Divine  grace shown within, we    embraced our past with greater

                             acceptance and    reverence.

                                                                  

       Awareness opened the door to our deeper spirit,   

where we experienced the joy of inner freedom   to uphold the true self

and to meet the other in  love and respect.

Concrete steps to sustain the growth:

Be in touch with the feelings and sensations

Integrate thoughts, feelings and behavior

Non judgmental awareness and grow in the art of communication

Channelize the core energies

            We become aware of our need to be in touch with our inner lives. We realize our call to become more human by creating a responsive environment, where we can complement one another in living towards wholeness.

             Enlightenment is the most important awakening. It leads one to greater consciousness. Every one of us has the potential to become enlightened. Saints and sages of the past have realized the divine within through their austere living. Vipassana is one of the ancient techniques that Buddha has gifted to the humanity and one of the paths that leads to an awakened living. We were privileged to learn this technique at the International Vipassana Center at Igatpuri.

You are your own master and you make your own future

The basic law: Along with every thought in the mind a sensation arises in the body

From right thought proceeds right speech, right action and right livelihood

If the habit of craving and aversion is not uprooted, suffering arises anew over and over again

A highly pure mind generates love, compassion and harmony

The law of nature is the law of impermanence. Every experience pleasant or unpleasant passes away.

            The 10 days spent in noble silence and meditation helped us to experience the reality within that every thought counter produces sensations. A disciplined and vigorous practice taught us not to react to the sensations but to observe them objectively with perfect equanimity of the mind. Thus the habit pattern of the mind gets transformed. By being present to the now with an equanimous mind we have gained healing, inner peace and calmness.

            Each of us is a mystery both for ourselves and for the others. So we are all in a constant SEARCH to know the inner core of our being. Deep down there is an underground stream so quiet….. so still. In its stillness one can encounter the source of all ‘the divine within’.

            Intensive journal is all about listening attentively to inner self and to its whisperings. The true silence invaded our whole being and spoke to the soul with wonderful new strength. We were created and recreated in that genuine inner silence. We were privileged to have Fr.Philip Therrasa whose silent and serene presence did evoke the divine within us.

In the silence there is an intense listening        

Gathering its fruits and embracing its shadows

Alas! We saw the creator at work in every event and in every experience.

Deeper the journey within deeper was the revelation

A profound revealing of the Divine within.

And …. In the home within there was a celebration

Drinking deep from the inner abundance

We witnessed tranquility and bliss

            “Dawn follows the darkest hour of the night. Those who have lived through, leave us a lantern behind. It guides the steps to see the dawn”.

            Bl. Mary of the Passion journeyed right amidst the darkness and discovered the gift of God in love and perfect faith. She in all her yearning handed over the merits of her discovery as a lantern to guide us today in our journey towards God.

            Sr. Dulcine Alvares reiterated the vital unity of our Charism and challenged us to grow in integrity as FMMs. We realize the personal responsibility to sustain the dynamism of our Charism in and through life. Realizing the demands and consequences of living the same Charism, which God confided to Bl.Mary of the Passion, we dare to set out to proclaim God’s aspiration for human kind.

We experienced that our foundress did not leave us to a lonely walk. She knew that the journey is human life and life needs sustenance. She exhorted us through the Constitutions to sustain the self through prayer and fraternal life.

            Sr. C.T. with her ingrained originality guided us to encounter God and one another in the light of the Constitutions. It rejuvenated our unfolding in God’s love and to channelize the power of love in building up our communities and society at large. We are awakened to the truth that prayer and community life are not mere obligations of our commitment, but sustenance.

Drawing strength from the sacraments and the Word of God

Taking quality time for prayer, meditation and spiritual reading

Actualizing the grace of prayer in daily life by heart.

                                                Time             : to recognize the other and to listen with heart

                                                 Dignity         : this includes another in love and respect

VOWS : The dawn of freedom

The discovery of our FMM way started with Charism, sustained by the constitution, and arrived at the vows. It is there in that dawn of freedom we aspire to love God with undivided heart, and to live out for the welfare of the humanity. The understanding of the vows freed us from the standard of the world and oriented towards the value of the Gospel.

Vow of Poverty: The exterior and interior poverty are like two wings of a bird. Both have to work for a ‘moving forward’ flight.

Dictatorship         God alone                        -     Stewardship

Consumerism                    suffices               -     Ethic of enough

Vow of Obedience:            It is a call to choose limitless listening

Individualism        Behold the           -     Openness

Vested interests               hand maid           -     Common good

Resistance            of the Lord           -     Surrender

            Frees us from                                         Commits us to

            We realized that the ultimate goal of religious life is to become free, faithful, responsible, life giving, loving and joyful persons. We want to correspond with God’s dream for a world just and more human, where we, as brothers and sisters can live as one human family in peace, harmony and good will.

Psycho Sexual integration: Sexuality ( being man or woman ) is the central aspect of being human, which affects us in the way we think, feel, relate to people, take decisions and relate to God. The sessions on sexuality not only helped us to accept our identity as women, but also to enter into life’s events and people with a message of genuine love. It is God’s gift intended to bring about wholeness and fulfillment in every human person. We understand the need for intimacy as call for integration and wholeness.

            Sr.CT emphasized the importance of openness for guidance and shared some of the practical ways which would enable us to live our commitment authentically. Being awakened to the many facets of sexuality, we realize our call as consecrated women and as Missionaries are to touch and promote the preciousness of life.

             The personal sharing of Sr.Mary Joe inspired us to venture in to mission daringly. She emphasized that self emptying is the only way to go beyond our personal boundaries to answer the needs of the time. The poet Girard challenged us through the following words.

                             ‘’God seeks in you a passage way to the world