Monday, August 31, 2015

San Damiano Friary , Kannur

 In the diocese of Kannur, the province has two friaries....this is in the Northern part of Kerala. It is not very developed and the Catholics are migrants from the southern part of Kerala. Most of them are farmers. The Church both syrian and latin has done wonderful work in the field of education and social work. The Jesuits have been missionaries in the early 90's and today we can see a very vibrant church here. The Catholics are getting good and quality education and are able to upgrade themselves. But poverty is still there and it will take some years to eradicate.....
 Our friars are rendering good service to the Diocese.....they are available for various pastoral ministry..Fr. Robin Daniel, the ex-provincial is the episcopal vicar in the diocese and doing a lot of work for the diocese.

 Friars Robin and Hansen......Robin is the superior and Hansen is the director of Anti alcohol campaign run by the diocese....he was in Ghana as missionary....he does a lot for the poor and a good singer too....Br. Robin Daniel is well known preacher. He goes all over India to guide the chapters of Sisters .....he is a great demand....he is hale and hearty even at this advanced age....Bravo
 Friary is surrounded by Catholics who once worked for a company which got closed down....today they do all odd works....most of them are poor....


Friday, August 28, 2015

Sacred Heart Ashram, Calicut

This is a new friary bought as a ready made house for the province. It is in the city and very convenient for the traveling friars. This friary is situated in a campus of CMI fathers where they have schools and colleges....we poor capuchins have nothing but our presence as simple and poor capuchin is well appreciated and accepted. There are people who frequent our friary for their spiritual need and the friars are very happy to serve them. There are two friars one is doing his diploma in Education. They also go around for the ministry to the sisters.

 It was Onam Celebration....around 100 people turned out .....all of them had brought along with them a dish prepared at home.....it was a community sharing of the food.....all smiles and joy around.....i spoke to them about responsible parenthood.....
Br. Thirsty celebrated his birthday and he was happy to have so many people to wish and pray for him....Chirsty has worked in Delhi for number of years and has been a custodian there for two terms....

 Friar is sweeting his mouth with a piece of cake.....

 The friary has just four rooms and no other space....they use their living room as the chapel for daily Mass....around 30 people attend the Mass,,,,,they are all government employees.....
 a young friar who is doing his diploma in education

Both of them live here....the place is good but the road leading to the friary is narrow....if you have a car.....you got to park far away and then walk out the distance.......the friars are only happy to walk or use their two wheeler......
 The friary is surrounded by all greenery.....there is a plot of land which is available for sale but the cost is very high.....the friars if they need and plan to do something for future.....will have to purchase....just a friary and no other ministry cannot be productive,.....


Thursday, August 27, 2015

Prepare them to Face the Challenges of the world

In CCMSI we have the biggest number of Candidates preparing to be Capuchin Franciscan Priests. These days of my visitation I had the opportunity to interact and dialogue with these young friars. The friars are full of promises and hopes for the Order and the Church. They are intelligent and ready for any kind of life in the Capuchin Order. They have dreams for the Order and Province. 

They are all well prepared with intellectual formation by the formators. In my dealing and interactions with them I realized that all of them are not prepared well to face the challenges and reality of the world of today. Many expressed that we are not told what we would do after the Ordination. Most of them have already some Idea but a little bit scared to share with the authority for fear of rejection and denial.

I also met many young Priests who are recently Ordained. Generally they are happy with the pastoral ministry but there is something that they are lacking. Most of these young priests find difficult to face the challenges and new situations in the society and in the parishes. They find themselves inadequate and not well prepared to handle some of the human problems and difficulties. They expressed that parishioners and others come with loads of problems but we have not been trained in this area to guide and counsel them rightly. We feel helpless to guide and support them as we don’t have any training in this field. 
They feel incompetent when issues and problems crop up in the parishes and groups. It is high time that our formation houses give them these essential and urgent training to deal with the problems of the people. It is a fact that many of our priests who come out of the seminaries after long years of formation find themselves helpless in dealing with even ordinary conflict situations. Some shared that many times we get upset and angry with people because we know that it arises from incompetence. Most of the aggressive behavior is a defense mechanism to counter the inability and incompetence. People listen and accept our advice because of our religious capuchin habit.

Some shared that they have a low self-esteem and low level of self-confidence compared to their friends outside who are doing well. They compared themselves with their friends who after 5 years of studies in secular subjects are well prepared to handle and to produce whereas a newly Ordained priest is not able to do so. The question we need to ask why?  If that is the fruit of long years of formation, it is a real paradox.
 How will, then, they function effectively as prophets of the Kingdom, builders of communities and leaders of worshipping communities? We need to find out some good effective methods in the area of human resource management. It is time we give up the false idea philosophy and theology, with some skill in homiletics will equip our men to be effective priest at the service of God’s kingdom.


The vision of Dr. A.K.J Abdul Kalam, who died recently and former president, for an India of 2020 has succeeded to stir the imagination of thousands of people, especially school students. Unless we anticipate the future and develop a vision for it in a fast changing world, we will find ourselves irrelevant and sidetracked. The failure to give shape to such a vision may be the greatest challenge the Indian Church faces today. The notion of ‘tradition’ is venerable indeed, but unless tradition is perceived as a dynamic reality, it will inevitably lead to stagnation. 

Today as we think afresh on priestly formation, let us remember this: yesterdays answers and models may be good, but not necessarily for today and tomorrow; new wine requires new wineskins. Can we visualize a Capuchin Order and friars at the service of the Kingdom in a world context twenty-five years ahead? Can we ask what kind of a priest friar do we require in such a context? Then it will be easy for us to visualize our formation that would prepare men appropriate for that context. The coming generations will not, then, blame us for keeping the new wine in old wine skins.

Sion Novitiate, Manalikkad,

Dear Brothers thank you so much for reading my blog and also commenting on it. I am happy to update practically everyday but sometimes I am not able to due to travel or lack of internet availability. I would appreciate your most valuable suggestions to improve the presentation of my blog....
 The novices of st. Francis and Prem Jyoti Custody....they are 16 of them .....equal number of novices both the jurisdiction has.....Prem Jyoti is really working hard to promote good vocations....congratulations to the custos and the vocation promoters....God bless your efforts in bringing good candidates for the Order

 The Novice Novice Master Joy Joseph....a late vocation...he joined at the age of almost 35 years old...he is an artist and painter....now he is spiritually painting the lives of the novices...simple and down to earth man....

 The campus is very beautiful....it is all nature around....they have about 11 acres of land....a river flowing by.....all green throughout the year....

 The various moments from the life of Jesus and Francis are depicted all around in the campus.....

 Novitiate house....not very big but small and conducive for the novices....

 Vice Novice Master Jose Dileep and Novice Master

 Simple chapel for the novices,,...every day about 50 people come for the eucharist.....all catholics around....
 Refectory for the friars....congested ....but you eat well here.....

 The Novices come out with beautiful songs and dances ....a cultural program.....what a talent!!!God bless these holy novices who are in tune with the spirituality and also with the world.....

 Dancing to the tune of a country spiritual song...

 A small musical dance.....driving the evil through prayer and fidelity to Jesus....

 Oriya Dance....there are four candidates from Orissa for Prem Jyoti.....

The Eucharistic celebration this morning...


 Time for some memorable photo session....

 Friars Bobby, a famous preacher is the member of the fraternity......his presence is a blessing...he appears on TV and goes around preaching retreat to priests, religious and laity....I have asked him to preach in English....his sermons in Malayam are very well appreciated....