Tuesday, October 18, 2005

New Postulants

This is a report was written by Showe Reddy, SCJ about the ceremony of entrance to the postulancy that took place at Dehon Vidya Sadhan, in Aluva, on the 17th of October:

The ceremony started at 6 pm. Father Thomas Stanley opened the ceremony by welcoming all ten of the 3rd year philosophy students who were going to be accepted into postulancy program. After a short introduction, Fr. Martin delivered a homily. In his homily Fr. Martin stressed two main points: 1) that “you can not give what you don’t have”; this being true at all times and with everybody, and that we can change our life by changing what’s inside if we are willing to go that extra mile. 2) that Inner Silence is very much needed in our spiritual life. Without this we can't pray or reflect. This Inner Silence helps a person grow in the spiritual life.

Besides these two points, Fr. Martin also insisted on the importance of Mother Mary’s presence in our daily life. As we are in the Month of the Rosary, Mother Mary is in a special way present in our life.

Then Fr. Martin conveyed the message of our Superior General, who encouraged the new postulants to be courageous in seeking their own vocation.

Fr. Martin reminded them to be Prophets of Love and Servants of Reconciliation and to continue their journey of faith with the congregation. He told them not to imitate any one, but to be genuine in their own call.

After the homily, there was the presenting of the symbols: the Bible and the Juba (a special shirt.) Then the ceremony was followed by Eucharistic Adoration. In his prayer, Fr. Martin gave thanks for all the things that God has been doing for our congregation and he said that still we are in the beginning, even after 11 years of our presence in India.

At the end of Adoration the new postulants had a group picture taken with their formator, Fr. Thomas, and Fr. Martin, the District Superior.

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