Wedding bells

Today was the wedding celebrations of two of our staff members: N. Edulamma who worked in the kitchen for 8 long years was married to Mr Raju.  In another marriage ceremony, Paidamma, another of our kitchen staff, was happy to marry off her daughter (in the pic beneath) in the nearby Gollalapalem village.  

Br Castilino, Fr T.V. Jose and Br Anil represented the community for the marriage functions of daughter of the Paidamma and the marriage of Edurlamma. They were very happy to see us and were delighted with our presence. 

Earlier in the month, Edurlamma was given a small farewell in the commuity, with Brothers expressing their gratitude for her yeomen services for the community over the last 8 years.  The Brothers also offered her a gift as a parting token of remembrance. After the marriage, the newly married couple was invited for a meal with the community and especially to introduce Edurlamma's better half, Raju (seen below, cutting the cake together). 

Recollection before Lent

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Lent. The community gathered yet once again before the lent for a spiritual renewal through monthly recollection on the day prior to Ash Wednesday. It was beautifully animated by Fr T.V. Thomas sdb. 

In his talk, he invited everybody to become mystics in the spirit, prophets of fraternity and servants of people of God. Fr P.C Thomas and Br Arullappa, from Navajeevan, Sabbavaram joined the community for the recollection. Before supper, we had an informal gathering to celebrate 25 years (Silver Jubilee) of priesthood of Fr T.V. Thomas.  A shawl and a book were given him as a gift. 

On Wednesday, the Holy Eucharist was beautifully animated by Fr Wilson. In his sermon, he summarized the message of the Holy Father for the Lent. The day was observed as a day of fasting and abstinence by all the members of the community.

Youth Retreat

The annual Youth Retreat for the year was animated by Fr Ch. Rajkumar, the principal of the D.Ed. course in Vizag on February 10, 2013, Sunday. There were about 50 catholic youngsters. It began with a talk by Fr Rajkumar in which he stressed the need and importance of God and prayer in the life of a human being. He defined prayer as Mutual communication with God and Mutual Listening to God. 

In the afternoon, there was a well animated adoration cum reconciliation service in which youngsters approached the sacrament of confession with utmost sincerity and love. The wonderful spiritual day came to an end with a beautiful Eucharistic celebration. All the youngsters left the house affirming, “What a Spiritual Experience!”

Jubilee Seminar on the Vatican II

On 30th January, a one day workshop on the Topic  ‘Revisiting the Pastoral in Vatican II: Trajectories for the Future’ was organized at St. John’s Regional Seminary, Kondadaba, Kothavalasa, Vizianagaram Dt. Andhra Pradesh, as part of its Silver Jubilee Celebrations. The Resource Persons were Fr. Thomas Pallithanam, Director, People’s Action for Rural Awakening (PARA) and Fr. Dr. Thumma Anthoniraj, Deputy Secretary, APBC, Social Activist and Contextual Theologian.

The inaugural address was delivered by the chief guest Prof. Dr A.V. Prasad Rao, Rector, Andhra University, Waltair. He had enriched the participants with profound, reflective and weighty insights on the Vatican II through the prism of The Holy Scripture.  The First session titled, “The World as Teacher and the Church as Learner: Towards Praxis – Audit of the Pastoral Visions of Vatican 11” was handled by Dr. Thumma Anthoniraj.  It was ably moderated by Dr. N.R Jeevan Babu, Head, Department of French, St. Joseph’s College, Waltair. He mapped his talk from pre-Vatican to Vatican II. He exposed in gist all the 16 documents of the Vatican II from the perspective of their relevance today through a systematic audit. Therefore, Church as a Learner must be always humble enough to learn from the world.

The second session: “Another World is Possible: Thirst for Human Rights as the Beatitude of Pastoral Praxis” was taken by Fr. Thomas Pallithanam and was moderated by Sr Dr Tresa Cherian SAP, former Principal, St Theresa’s College, Eluru.  Fr Thomas gave a Clarion call to all the participants in as much as he stressed to move from need based education to right-based education, from convenience to convictions.

The Valedictory address was delivered by Dr. Pothini Krishna Prasad, Prof. of Political Science and Public Administration, Andhra University. He truly challenged every participant to become a sign of the time relevant to the present day contemporary society through his thoughtful yet challenging concluding address. Rev. Fr Dr Jose Maliekal SDB, the Rector welcomed the gathering and Rev. Fr Dr Jose Wilson sdb, proposed the vote of thanks.

Feast of Don Bosco 2013

The feast of Don Bosco, the founder of the Salesian Congregation was celebrated with solemnity on January 31, 2013. There was an enriching prayer service in the morning animated by brothers and after that brothers wished the staff members in their own spontaneous style, leading all in procession to the dining hall. 

The solemn Eucharistic celebration was at 11.30 a.m.celebrated by Fr Jose Maliekal, the Rector. There was a special lunch served and the guests from neighboring communities were invited to share the joy and the meal. 

At 2.30 p.m. the community gathered for a House assembly. It was called for to see the feasibility of implementing and clarifying some of the recommendations of Fr Provincial during his recently concluded Canonical Visitation. In the evening, all the staff members were invited for supper by the parish priest.

Republic Day and Provincial Visitation

The annual Provincial visitation of the Salesian Province of Hyderabad commenced on January 26, 2013. Fr Raminedi Balaraju, the Provincial, arrived early in the morning and was also the chief guest for the hoisting of the national flag on the occasion of the Republic Day.  The Republic day festivities were well organised by the Chaitanya Deepika group members with Br K. Sunil presenting a challenging message befitting the occasion. 

The Salesians had a Holy Eucharist celebrated by Fr Provincial in which he stressed on the importance of year of Faith and on being a Holy Salesian.

At 9.00 a.m. he started meeting confreres personally. At noon the Salesians had a house assembly. In the assembly, each confrere presented his own field of responsibility in the community. Post-lunch Fr Provincial met the students separately as per each course. He listened to them patiently and assured them his prayers.  

Again around 2.00 p.m. the Salesian staff gathered for the final report of Fr Provincial. Fr Provincial officially concluded the visitation at 4.30 p.m. and left the house at 5.00 p.m. to meet the OCD fathers and brothers.

Annual Debate

As part of the academic curriculum, the annual debate was held on January 23, 2013 and the theme, “Nuclear Energy is the Best Energy Resource for India: Yes or No?” The moderator of the debate was Professor Mohan Rao from Vizag. 

There were three brothers for the motion and three brothers against the motion. All of the speakers did their level best in affirming their standpoints. After the individual talks, all the brothers were charged to release missiles in the form of questions against each other. It showed that brothers were really involved in the topic. The question and replies enriched the whole community. The rebuttal speeches of both the groups convinced each one in the hall that Nuclear energy is good and bad and only we should go for it as per the need. 

Fr Rector, Fr Balaswamy and Br Anil were the judges for the debate. Big kudos to Fr Wilson, the principal, for making the debate a big success.

The value of Friendship

There are many star in the sky

There are many fishes in the river

There are many people in the world

There are many trees in the forest

But no where could I find out something more meaningful than friendship. 

Friendship is an invaluable gift given to everybody by God. Devoid of friendship a person can only live as an island. We must make friends in our lives, because through friendship we cherish our feelings and fathom our emotions.  We must foster friendship in our lives for it fetches blissfulness to our hearts and fills our soul with tremendous joy.

Friendship is like a tree, which is not measured in terms of how tall it could be, but on how deep the roots have grown.  When the roots have webbed themselves fully in the womb of the earth, automatically the tree also grows very robust and strong. In a similar way, an intimate friendship finds itself rooted in love and understanding buried in the soils of trials, and watered by the fountains of sharing.  This sort of bond makes a friendship what it ought to be.


There may come a question to our minds, whether there is the need of good friendships at all. Can life go on without it?  We must foster good friendships in our lives, because a genuine friendship always brings happiness to others. When we strike a genuine friendship,  it will make us sedulous and authentic persons.  Besides, it brings us happy moments.  A good friendship always multiplies our ineffable joys, divides grief and adds pleasure to our lives.  When we make good friends, we feel very happy and satisfied.

Friendship is like a book, it takes a few seconds to burn, but it takes years to write.  Similarly when friendship is very intimate to our lives, it grows very profound and becomes an immensely cherishable experience.

Dear friends, friendship is the wonderful and tremendous experience that a human being can ever have.  Friends are indispensable to our lives.  They assist us to grow in our works and in every step we take.  Friends are the ones who will always be with us and guide us. Without friendship human beings cannot survive on the earth and cannot feel happy.  A good friendship cannot expunge bitterness from our lives but it can surely add some sweetness.  While bad friendship must be shunned, we must try our level best to cultivate good relationships in our lives.

Br Allam Manoj (First course)

Seminar in Philosophy

Fr Johnson Puthenpurackal OFM was in the community to commence and conduct a two day workshop on the theme, “Raimundo Panikkar: Harmony in Plurality”. As per the experience of the brothers, they were very happy with the seminar and it opened their eyes to embrace different cultures, religions, customs, castes and more especially to different people in the society.  

New Phone

The community was gifted with a common phone this afternoon, especially for the Brothers to use to make calls home and to their dear ones.  The portable, Tata Docomo walky was initially planned as a Christmas gift but some activation issues held up the presentation.  Having finally activated the phone, the announcement was made to the Brothers in the afternoon after lunch.  The number of the new phone line, exclusively for the Brothers is 8916564589.

Happy calling!

Monthly Recollection

We had our first  monthly recollection of the calendar year 2013 this evening and it was preached by Fr Joseph Kondala, the assistant director of the Ross Hill, Vizag. In his typical, charismatic style he animated the community with a brief talk in the Seminary Chapel. Time for confessions, facilitated by our regular  and generous confessors and adoration followed. The recollection concluded with the benediction just before supper.  

Back home!

By 5 pm this evening, all the Brothers returned from their Christmas vacations and we had the feastday Mass of the Epiphany together as a community at 6.30 pm.  The only person yet to return is Fr Balaswamy, the Confessor as he is away to attend a meeting in Hyderabad.

Fr Maliekal, the Rector, welcomed the Brothers back to the Seminary and exhorted them to get into the rhythm of the community, especially its academic activities, with ease and pace.  Given the typical hectic schedule of the remaining three months, one hardly needs a reminder about this.  We now look forward to the last lap of the academic year.  In a little more than another month, the final year students will complete their Philosophy classes while simultaneously polishing their final dissertation.  

Parents' Day

The Brothers return from their Christmas holidays tomorrow evening.  We broke up for the Christmas vacations on December 16, 2012 and will be back in full swing tomorrow evening onwards.

The two days prior to the departure for holidays were busy with us celebrating also the Parents' day.  The Seminary hosted 54 parents and relatives of 15 (of the 23) third year students.  The annual feature by now of the Seminary to invite and celebrate a day or two with the parents was rescheduled from September to December this time. The combined celebrations of the community Christmas and Parents' presence made a good impression on all of us here.

Cutting the Christmas cake:
Fr Maliekal (the Rector), and the youngest
of the guests (nephews and nieces of the Brothers)

The specific highlight of this years' Parents' day was informal interaction we had with the Parents on December 15, in the afternoon prior to Mass and lunch.  After an initial talk by Fr Vatti Marreddy CSSR, he facilitated a sharing by the Parents.  During this sharing the parents expressed their hopes, desires and assured not just their sons but the staff and every member of the community their sincere prayers for all the good being done here.  On the part of the students, the Brothers asked the parents to continue supporting us all with their prayers and an exemplary Catholic family life. 

Non-teaching Staff Picnic

The non-teaching staff took a day off after the Brothers left for their Christmas vacations for a trip to Vizag.  They visited Kailasgiri temple, watched a movie, had lunch outside and a relaxed stroll on the city beach in the evening. They were accompanied by the administrator, Br Castilino.

Youth Day

Youth from all the parishes and from the vicinity attended the annual youth day on November 11, 2012. There were about 150 youngsters. The theme of the youth day was: Faith in God, Friends and in Oneself. 

The brothers of Youth Alive group under the guidance of Br Anil made the day memorable and an enriching experience for the youngsters. The programme started at 10.00 a.m. with the lighting of the lamp and words of welcome delivered by Fr Rector. 

The first session was taken by Fr Balaswamy on how to believe in God and go ahead in life. The second session was taken by Brothers Jagan and Sudheer on how to buildup one’s own self. 

The third session was taken by Br Anil who stressed on the need for believing in parents, friends and all the others. The day concluded with the Holy Eucharistic celebration at 4 p.m. The youngsters left the campus affirming, “What a wonderful day it was!”

Personality Development

A two day Seminar on personality development was conducted by Sr Lovely from October 29, 2012. She, with her knowledge, communication skills and grip over subject, gave us a clear picture of the desired characteristics of a fully human person and showed us how we can attain it by denting our personality and our relationships.

Spiritual Retreat 2012

Fr Nagothu Papaiah  sdb animated the annual retreat for this academic year. He led the brothers with his vivid thoughts and practical instructions. The community triggered at eight hour prayer everyday of the retreat, which really proved to be a great benefit for us. These were really the days of spiritual renewal and awakening of the soul to the groaning of the spirit. The retreat commenced on October 15 and concluded on October 20, 2012, during the semester vacations. 

B'day of Fr Wilson

The community celebrated the birthday of Fr. Wilson with lots of joy and happiness. There was solemn and special Eucharist in his honour to celebrate the reason of Fr. Wilson. It was well animated by the Rainbow group.

 It was followed by the get-together with religious and Priests of the neighbouring communities. The day concluded with solemn meal. Fr Wilson, the man of the day thanked the whole community for their love and promised to give his best for the good of the community.  
  

New Rector at Kondadaba

Fr Jose D. Maliekal was officially installed as the Rector of the Seminary during the simple Eucharistic celebration today. Fr Raminedi Balaraju, the Provincial was the main celebrant of the Mass during which Fr Maliekal took the oath and signed the official papers to the effect of his taking the chief role of the animator of the community.  A similar function was held in St John's, Ramanthapur too a few days ago.

New scholastic year 2012-2013

The Scholastic year 2012-2013 was officially inaugurated by invoking the spirit through the Holy Eucharist today, June 15, 2012 though the Brothers returned a couple of days earlier itself. The main celebrant of the Eucharist was Fr. Maliekal Jose, the new rector of the seminary, who though new, is returning back to the campus for the third time after a gap of nine years. He emphasized on the need of the intellectual growth for a priest.

After the Eucharist Fr. Wilson coordinated the official inaugural ceremony with the reading of the annual report. He also introduced the new professors for the year: Fr Jose D. Maliekal, Professor of Philosophy and Rector, Fr Therampil Jose, professor of English, Fr Dara Balaswamy, the spiritual director, Br Mallavarapu Anil, the Regent. The key note address was delivered by Fr Rector on the theme of importance of philosophy. Fr Wilson also presented the agenda for the academic year.

On the previous day Fr Anthony Pudussery, the Parish Priest of Gnanapuram animated the community for the first monthly recollection of the academic year.  He stressed on how knowledge serves as an auxiliary to our spirituality.  

The community of 2012-2013 consists of 23 third years, 29 second years (including 8 OCD’s as day scholars) and 24 first years (including 4 OCD’s) and six staff members, 70 in all (resident).