Saturday, June 29, 2019

Festal Mass of Sts. Peter and Paul, Deobhag, Malvan

The Parish is dedicated to St. Peter, the patron of fisherfolk....the parishioners are deeply deeply devoted to San Pedru....who intercedes for them....they all depend on the good catch of the fish....before they launch out in the Sea...San Pedru is invoked...and their faith, belief rewards them...
 Nine priests con-celebrated the solemn mass in honor of St. Peter....a beautiful choir led all of us to pray and participate well in a well prepared Mass....we processed to the Altar...with Brass Band playing a hymn dedicated to San Pedru....we could not process from outside the church as heavy rains were in full attendance...all through the day...
 I was honored to be the Main celebrant for the Mass in Konkani....after sis years I was celebrating but a before hand practice made me comfortable with Konkani Mass...
 I preached in Marathi.....in order not to confuse with people with two languages...here people speak and understand both Marathi and Konkani....
 The parishioners bring their offering especially the fish...being monsoon and heavy rains the people do not get fish but they try and catch some in order to present to the Lord....
 I preached on three characteristics of San Pedru like....Knowing Jesus, becoming like Jesus...giving birth to another Jesus through life in the early Church and the call to make sacrifices in order to be an evangelist .....
 Beautiful Altar....
 Praising and glorying the Lord....

 procession in the Church itself with the statue of St. Peter

 Heavy rains.....showers of blessings....parishioners sad because could take out the procession in the village....

Friday, June 28, 2019

Vespers on the Eve of the Feast of St. Peter and Paul, Devbhag, Sindhudurg, Maharashtra

Heavy rains here reminded me of my childhood monsoon in Mumbai....heavy rains, flooded and clogged roads....schools closed....fun at home with cousins.....a lot of time eat riped fallen mangoes from the tree....many other things like catching fish mostly cat fish...what fun we would have....today they are all memories.....here in Devbhag....the Sea....is all adoring our Church of St. Peter...the sound of the huge waves puts you to sleep automatically.....the breeze that is blowing gently makes you to sing the glories of the Lord.....
 The Capuchins are here for more than 17 years....we have constructed the Church and a priests residence....many of our young friars have worked hard for the spiritual upliftment of the parishioners...the people are simple fisherfolk .....very religious and devout Catholics...
Devbhag today is a tourist place....a lot of People from interior Maharashtra come here to enjoy the lovely seashore.....silver sand....good fish....natural beauty and the simple hospitality from simple people.....

 Every year the parishioners celebrate the feast with religious fervor and piety....Vespers are sung by a senior priest from the Diocese who goes around to help the parish priests for the feasts.....the Vespers follow the Eucharist ...preparation for the feast day.....
 Here in this parish the choir is something I love to hear....sing in melodious voices....the hymns are all in Goan Konkani....people speak Konkani too....not exactly Goan Konkani but mixed with Marathi...
 For the vespers the parish priest of Malvan is invited....as this parish is not a full-fledged parish...it is under the Malvan Parish.....it is his honor to celebrate the vespers....
 We were six priests for the Vespers....Fr. Sanjay our friar is the Priest in charge and Fr Thomas is assisting him....

Make my Heart Like Yours!!!!!!!!

Human heart is centre of every emotion, which builds and destroys relationships. It pours out all the emotions and feeling on the other human beings as well as on animals. At the same time the heart also keeps negative feelings and emotions….it also contemplates of doing some harm to the enemies….but that is not the real nature of the heart….basically it is pure, chaste and holy…it can only think good and only good. The heart keeps contemplating every single moment to give more and more till it bleeds. It searches and longs those whom it loves…it is ready to go any distance and miles to bring back those who have broken relations and gone away …..The human heart is ready to undergo any amount of sacrifices and pain….it only knows to do good and serve the others


 The Lord Jesus is like a shepherd who makes sacrifices for us….he thinks of us….ready to sacrifice….takes our place in order to save us and give us good life…he looks at our hearts and not at our sinful conditions…he provides graces to come out of our sinful situations. He wants us to be safe, thrive, grow and be strong amidst the negative culture…..but Jesus is willing to give life in order that we be saved…
He has loved us with an everlasting love and wants us to come back to Him to experience, taste and live this love….he came down with divine heart and still he is close to our human heart with his ever presence in the world….His divine love made human dwells among us…..
Jesus puts us all on his shoulders to be carried to the eternal Father….He prepares us and slowly makes us totally to surrender to His person, our love for him should be pure and steadfast….our heart be always clean and perfect dwelling place for him. Sometimes we are cold to his love which has got warmth and forgiveness and mercy….He calls us to make our heart a dwelling place for Him.







Thursday, June 27, 2019

Visit to Our Novitiate House Katta, Malvan, Sindhudurg

I am visiting our Novitiate house after 6 years ....last I visited the Novitiate was before the general chapter 2012.....this time on my way to Devbhag to preach for the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. We have a parish here and we are working since 18 years...the fruits of our presence is 3 vocations to the Order....one is already ordained....two are doing Theology.....
 This is the Chapter of the Novitiate.....the Novice Master Br. Sebastian along with the two more friars are taking good care of the Novitiate and 6 Novices.....
 The province of Goa has only one novice and our province has 5 Novices,,,,
 I celebrated Mass for them and preached a homily on building their life as Capuchin on the Solid rock of Franciscan Capuchin Charism and Spirituality .....

 The Novices and Master...along with me.....



 I then two classes on Capuchin Charism and Franciscan spirituality....Pray for the perseverance of these six novices...


Monday, June 24, 2019

Are we on the Narrow Road?


Jesus said: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matthew 7:13-14). The narrow road leads to life of fullness, happiness and Joy.
 The Narrow road of pain and sufferings, difficulties and challenges lead us to success and glory. It looks like we are heading towards disaster or even death but at the end there are smiles on our faces as we see what is waiting for us is unimaginable
 Not many would prefer this narrow road of challenges, we will be a small confident group, there were be criticism and negation from the part of those who prefer open and big wide gates…yet we got to keep going…no looking back….we are not choosing destruction…we are choosing life and the Lord of Life….it looks hard….it does not look inviting….exciting yet we keep our eyes fixed and focused on it….we know the goal deep d
 The choices we make to preserve the preciousness of life….life to be more giving and wonderful…the Lord invites us to choose life by choosing the narrow road…..He is our benefactor and he knows that if we would choose broad road we will be finished and done….life is exciting on the narrow road…we will meet many on the way who will make it more exciting and happy the journey…




Sunday, June 23, 2019

Fr. Anil Gonsalves obtains Doctorate at Loyola University Maryland, USA

Our Province of St. Bonaventure is getting another Doctoral student who defended his doctoral thesis in Maryland, USA. Our province is now intellectually rich and the wisdom these doctors will spread around in the province will help us to walk in the footsteps of St. Francis of Assisi and be vibrant Capuchins in Maharashtra. Fr. Anil since five years has been studying in the USA with the sponsorship by the Capuchins of Pittsburg, USA. The theme that he explored and researched is " An examination of the Impact of a Non-violent communication training program for married Individuals and its influence on Marital Satisfaction".  Below i have provided a summary of his doctoral thesis. 
The primary goal of this study was to examine the impact of a Nonviolent Communication (NVC) training program on married individuals and its influence on spirituality/religiosity, communication patterns, and marital satisfaction. To accomplish this goal two important steps were taken: first, the Nonviolent Communication Inventory (NVCI) was developed which measures the empathic involvement of individuals through behavioral, emotional, and psychological engagement. Exploratory Factor Analyses were conducted to analyze a pool of 50 items that resulted in 30 items and three factors for the NVCI: Empathic Expressing/Listening, Empathic Connecting, and Empathic Receiving. This study provided evidence for strong internal consistency and relatively strong construct validity for the NVCI. The NVCI, after controlling for demographic variables, demonstrated incremental validity when explaining a unique variation in marital satisfaction over the subscales of the Nonviolent Communication Scale, as well as over personality, spirituality, and process variables. The results suggested combining both the NVCI and the NVCS to meaningfully capture the aspects of NVC.
 
 Second, a four-week NVC training program was developed for married individuals. Participants (N= 104) were randomly assigned to one of two groups and the impact of the NVC training on marital satisfaction was assessed three different times during the study. Although the results failed to demonstrate the expected interaction effect for group by time, the results revealed a statistically significant improvement in all the outcome variables during the course of training. Moderate effect sizes were evidenced over time for Empathic Expressing/Listening, Empathic Connecting, Empathic Receiving, Spiritual Transcendence, and Religious Involvement and small effect sizes for Marital Satisfaction and Religious Crisis. The results indicated a strong relationship between the three process variables (practice, with or without partner, and attendance) and changes on outcome variables. Multiple regression analyses revealed that engagement in NVC skill practice between sessions was the most important process variable that facilitated a significant change in three of the outcome variables (Marital Satisfaction, Empathic Expressing/Listening, and Empathic Connecting).

 Moreover, the post-test scores on spirituality also demonstrated a unique predictive power over covariates and personality when explaining an additional significant variation in marital satisfaction. The results of this exploratory study provided initial evidence for the reliability and validity of the NVCI, and the suitability of the NVC training program for enhancing marital satisfaction. Clinical and pastoral implications, the limitations of the study, and directions for future research are discussed.  


Tuesday, June 18, 2019

Time to cultivate Vegetables!!!!!!In La Verna

Monsoon should have been already active but it is delayed....everyone waiting for it anxiously for many reasons....among them the most important reason is cultivation ...farmers are waiting to sow the seeds.....vegetable growers waiting to plant and grow them....the prices of the vegetables have gone high....summer has very severe and strong.....every year summer is changing its color and Monsoon too delaying....bringing in a lot of woes and worries for all....in many parts of India there have been deaths due to heat....let us pray that we receive rains early and in abundance....
 La Verna has a small piece of Land where we grow vegetables for our purpose....we have already got ready the field and now just waiting for showers of blessings.....the brothers are now preparing the soil so that once the rains come down.....will sow seeds and plant some vegetables ....
 The soil is rocky but over the period of 8 years since our presence the soil has been now good enough to produce yield...year by year due to hard work of the brothers...it is getting better....
 we hired a tractor to plough the field and then spread the cow dung which is natural manure for the vegetables.....

 This winter we had a good crop of white onions which was a bumper crop...we shared with many....we have saved for monsoon for ourselves.
 With smiles beginning to work....they will have million dollar smiles when the field is green and full of flowers and fruits.....

Sunday, June 16, 2019

New Presence in the Diocese of Aurangabad, Maharashtra

 This is our fifth presence in the Diocese of Aurangabad....the Bishop has been very generous and happy with the work and ministry of the friars. He has invited us to work in Parbhani in Marathwada, which is known for draught every year. The mission has a small parish community and also a school. The friars will look after both. It is a challenge to work there as it is a difficult place but the Lord will yield fruits if hard work and prayer and Capuchin charism and spirituality is lived out. Our fraternal life will be a big example and witness to the non-christians around. Let us wish the new fraternity all the best and may our work and ministry be fruitful. 



 The Bishop of Aurangabad Most Rev. Ambrose inaugurating and blessing the newly constructed priests residence in the presence of the Provincial Minister Br. Philip.