What a special day that we start with our Founder’s birthday as well
as the All Saints’ Day. We all had to move that day to Ranchi to meet the
Jesuit Priest for the matter of Land Registration Documents; as we reached his
house he was out, but there by chance we met the religious Sisters whom we
thought of meeting later. In their house we had our lunch and gave a parcel to
send to Valladolid (for the Chapter) because it was not possible in the post-offices
of Kurdeg and Simdega where computers were under reparation. The purpose of the
day had ended successfully.
As it was Sunday,
there had been two Masses, All Souls’ Day was in the same day and we joined in the
first Mass. It took nearly 30 minutes to read all the names of the people
(deceased); soon after the Mass all the faithful went to pray in the Cemetery
of the village. Here every village had their own burial ground and the priest
goes to villages and blesses them. Our Community in the evening prayed Rosary
in the Cemetery of the village. These days we were reading from the Book of “Selection
of Texts” of Br. Gabriel.
On 4th
of this month some of our Brothers went to their home, Br Raja for his younger
brother’s marriage, Br Anand for preparing his Aadhar Card. We went in
community together, we dropped Br Anand at his house and then Br Raja at the
Railway Station.
After some day
Br Subash also had gone to his house for the purpose of making an Aadhar Card.
During these days Parish Priest also had gone for Retreat. On 10, it was the
marriage of Br Raja’s younger brother. Brothers prayed for the new couple.
On 12th
Brothers from Tamil Nadu were going to various places for mission experiences.
Two
Brothers were heading to Eluru community and three Brothers to the Community of
Kurdeg; with them, Br Raja was also returning to his Community.
On 15th Brothers
arrived in Rourkela in the early morning, then they had break in the house of
Br Ardo, for he needed to reduce his luggage, so we refreshed ourselves there
and around 11am we again started our journey to Simdega, where Br Efra was
waiting for us. Br Sagar had cell phone, which did not work in Odisha as well
in Jharkhand; this was for him new place and new culture also. In the evening we had Holy Mass, night supper
was in Community outside of our house, near fire, because here winter is very
cold.
Sunday we
celebrated the Holy Mass with the Faithful people. Later Br Ardo had to move to
his mission place called Samsera, a parish church where our previous Parish
Priest was transferred.
The following two
days Br Dinesh and Br Sagar started to teach in the Middle School; for them it
was a new experience because the first day itself all the boys were thoroughly
inspected and those who were with long nails, long hair… were cut down by our
Brothers. Brothers were also in charge of discipline.
During these
weeks Brothers were teaching songs to the hostel fellows, with the permission
of the Parish priest; we wanted to animate liturgy on the feast day of our Founder.
Another two days
they went for vocation promotion in Gumla and Simdega dioceses. As it is cold,
every day morning getting up was little bit hard for them. They made effort in
helping many things here. They had also enough experience in vocational
visiting School. Though they were absent for the prayer, the Brothers at home
remembered them in their prayers. Every day at night before the Compline, we
had the Novena to Our Founder.
As there was a rally
of ‘Crusveer’ (Crusades which is group for the young students) in Simdega
diocese for all the students of Mission schools, some of our Brothers were also
taking around 50 students from the Middle School. Around 2,500 students gathered
in Samtoli Parish. This was the first time a gathering organized for 3 days.
The last two days
of this week, Brothers came to teach in High School, there was send-off test of
10th standard students, they were just supervising as well as checking
the students of mal-practicing.
Someday our cook
was not coming, so we ourselves adjusted in our timetables and cooked.
On Sunday 23 was
the feat of Christ the King, in which the ordinary time has come to an end.
Advent is at hand. Here this feast is celebrated in a grand manner, bearing the
Blessed Sacrament in a long procession. The Priest will be treated as a king
carried under the shadows of colorful umbrellas and walking on petals of flowers.
For this feast
many used to gather to celebrate Holy Mass, so the neighbour Parish was in need
of some Religious to distribute Holy Communion. In the morning, two Brothers
went for distributing Holy Communion to the neighbor Parish (Dumardih) early in
the cool morning.
Soon after the
Mass, some Brothers left for Samsera to bring Br Ardo back. In the evening, all
Brothers were gathered: those of Simdega rally, those of Dumardih and those of
Samsera. After a week of experience, the Brothers were united again.
Happy feast
because this day was the Founder feast on 24th, in the early morning,
one Brother got up to cook, and we celebrated Mass together in the Parish
Church; in the beginning of the Mass, Brothers were giving Introduction: in
English by Br Efra, in Hindi by Br Abhay.
Soon after the
Mass, some Brothers went to kitchen to cook and others to pray; after we all
together in the kitchen because our cook is sick and he could not come. As it
was Monday we went to School and in the evening only we started the work of
cooking for the grand celebration.
We needed to prepare for Parish community as
well as for the Sisters community. Hard thing is the evening celebration that
we 8 Brothers had to prepare food for 170 people, thanks the parish priest that
he sent Nani (parish cook) and two girls to help us in cooking food.
All the Brothers
were engaged in one or another work helping and cooking, it took some hours to
cook for all, around 8.00pm all the Hostel kids (boys and girls) had meals,
later we Religious and Priests had a moment of prayer to the Founder, then we
proceeded with the agape. All the Brothers were tired as we worked well and hard;
we were satisfied of what we had prepared with our hands. It was prepared with
our own hands, though some had a little more salt, chilly or masala. With the
same liquor of “The Founder’s Spirit” taken in Community and the prayer of the
last day of the Novena, we concluded the day.
On 26th
all the Brothers appeared in High School, they also thought in taking some
class. As it was a market day, then, some Brothers that afternoon were
accompanying them until the railway junction. While going we were stuck among
the vehicles in the middle of the road. There was strike in Odisha, which
stopped us for around 3 hours. Thanks God! That we reached the Station in time.
On 27th
at noon, we started our Pilgrimage tour to Kolkata; at night, we started, in
the morning we reached. And what a coincidence that that day, when we reached
Howrah Station, there were Taxis only for few hours, later there was also strike. We
took, then, a bus to go to our residence. Everywhere Bengali was the only
language. The name of ‘Mother Teresa’ or ‘Mother’ is known everywhere in the
city. First day itself, we had a chance to visit Mother Teresa’s places of mission;
above all, we have been in the place where she was living in and where she died.
We prayed in front of her tomb for our Community, for our Mission in India and
for the Beatification of our Founder. The rest of the day, we managed ourselves
to go around the city.
Next day a
priest, Fr Salamon OMI, guided us to some other places of Kolkata (like Science
City, Victoria Memorial, St Paul’s Cathedral, the Planetarium…); that evening
we stayed at his parish, which is away from the city, near Bangladesh border.
Next day, early in the morning we headed to meet Br Subash’s niece, who is a
Sister of St Anne of Kolkata. There we had a breakfast and a delicious lunch.
From there we visited some other places (especially Chaitanya’s birthplace).
Finally, we went to visit Our Lady of Bandel Shrine, and with the Blessing of
Our Lady, we took the train towards the big Howrah Station. There, we visited
the famous Howrah Bridge, we did some shopping, took supper and we headed to
Rourkela. That night (29-30) we travelled in a cold weather.
Next day, 30th
November, in the morning, our driver and friend was waiting for us in Rourkela
station; as it was the First Sunday of Advent, we all went to Bishop’s House
and participated in the Mass of the Cathedral (very long Mass). Br Efra, then,
stayed in the Bishop’s House, since he had to travel the following day to Eluru
for meetings of the Advisory Council of India. The rest of the Community
Brothers moved to Kurdeg, where we arrived safe and sound.
The Community of Kurdeg
