Your Excellency, Dear Rev. Fathers and Brothers,

“Be glad, rejoice, radiate Joy,” for God has become man revealing the mystery of Love. May I wish you all a Very Happy Christmas and a New Year filled with Joy!

Recently (October 2014) the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life in connection with the declaration of “the Year of Consecrated Life” published a letter addressed to consecrated men and women based on the teachings of Pope Francis with the title, “Rejoice!”… After the introduction the first chapter begins with the title, “Be glad, rejoice, radiate Joy”.

The letter begins with a quotation from the talk of Pope Francis: “I want to say one word to you and this word is joy. Wherever consecrated people are, there is always joy!” Pope Francis is the quintessence of consecrated life always radiating freedom, peace and joy. He gives witness to the radicalism of the consecrated life emanating newness, freshness with a challenge to the world with a simplicity that destroys the barriers of selfishness, materialism and hedonism. His presence and witnessing inspire all consecrated men and women of good will to move forward with the hope proclaiming the infinite love of God through a life of joyful witnessing. We, the members of a Society of Apostolic Life, are committed to the mission of Jesus Christ. We are called to sanctify ourselves through living Christ’s mission, radiating peace and joy of Christmas.

Christmas is the feast that celebrates the opening of the new bridge built between God and man. In the person of the Child Jesus, born in a manger in the company of animals, we have the new bridge that has removed forever the chasm between God and humanity. Clement of Alexandria once remarked: “The Word of God became man that you also may learn from a man how a man becomes God…”

Christmas is a feast of peace, joy and hope. The first Christmas that was celebrated in Bethlehem (house of bread) should inspire us missionaries to become “houses of bread” to the hungry in our vicinity. Just as Jesus offered himself as bread to humanity we are radically invited to satisfy the hunger of those in our neighbourhood in all of its forms such as hunger for food, knowledge, human dignity, approbation and appreciation, leading our fellow beings to real peace, joy and hope. There cannot be real peace, as long as there is poverty; there cannot be real joy as long as there is illiteracy and discrimination. There cannot be real hope as long as the human society is corrupt, unjust and uncaring. There cannot be real love as long as there exist hatred, violence and mistrust, resulting from the accumulation of oppressive powers subjecting humans to mere objects of lust in extreme form.

Only the redemptive of love of Christ, which fills human hearts with a sense of dignity, and spirit of love, can bring peace and radiate the divine joy. Let us become fully committed to live our missionary and consecrated life.

May the celebration of Christmas help us to radiate the joy of Christ in all realms of our life!

Fr Kurian Ammanathukunnel
Director General, MST

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New parish of MST in Arunachal was started on 8th November at Pakekasang. It is in a rented house. Frs Joshy Areeplackan and Lijo Manikombel are staying in the parish. Blessing of the house was done by fr benny kulirany

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SEMINAR ON FAITH COMMUNICATED TO COMMUNICATE

At Ruhalaya Major Seminary Ujjain

The meaningful celebration of faith year prompted Ruhalaya Community to take up another seminar on faith. Beside the seminar titled faith in relation to philosophy held at the beginning of faith year and a series of lectures on challenges for the transmission of Christian faith in the context of North India, in the month of January this year and a symposium on the latest encyclical of the church Lumen Fidei in the month of august.

The two days seminar titled with the theme faith communicated to communicate began at 9:30 am on 4th November 2013. In the inauguration ceremony very. Rev. Fr. Peter Vattapara, the rector of the seminary welcomed all the dignitaries of the day. Along with that, he also gave a proper introduction to the topic of the seminar, quoting from the documents of the church like Lumen Fidei and Lumen Gentium. His Excellency Mar Joseph Kollamparambil, the bishop of Jagadalpur was kind enough to be the chief guest of the seminar. His Excellency Mar Sebasitan Vadakkel, bishop of Ujjain was the president of the programme.

The whole seminar included five scholarly paper presentations by different eminent personalities. Similarly each presentation was moderated and responded by different erudite and scholarly personnel. The first session of the seminar was based on the theme, Introduction of Christianity in North India in the first Century AD by Rev. Fr. James Kurikilamkattu, in which Fr. James was focusing on how St. Thomas the apostle came to north Indian soil and established Christian communities in several places. The second paper on the topic Early St. Thomas Christian communities in Madhya Pradesh was presented by Rev. Dr. Abraham Kunnatholy CMI. Fr. Abraham aimed in his paper to bring out the factors favoring St. Thomas’ mission in the North West India. The topic of the third sessions was Decline of Early St. Thomas Christian Communities in Central and North India. The paper was presented by Rev. Fr. James Kurikilamkattu. Rev. Fr. James presented mainly five reasons for the declension of St. Thomas Christin communities in the Northern parts of India. The main causes were Invasion, Migration, Conversion to Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam, Absence of political support, Absence of local hierarchy.

Rev. Fr. Jose Palakkel presented the fourth paper of the seminar on the Evangelization and Media: Theological Perspectives. Fr. Jose began with saying now the church has entered into a new digital era where she has to engage herself in using the internet wholly namely facebook, blog, twitter, email etc. Towards the end of the paper he put forward three prolific suggestions for the better evangelization namely knowing the media, making use of the media and finally to be the media by life witnessing which is very important. The fifth and the last presentation was by Rev. Dr. Jose Vallikattu. The theme of the presentation was founding and fostering communities through new media. In his presentation he focused on the nature of church, Ecclesia and communion in detail. He said communion or koinonia is what the church is. According to him the audience of new media is new in perceptions, concepts and in characteristics. Finally he exhorted the audience not use media but rather to be in the media because new media is a space. With a general session of the seminar and followed by the anthem of Ruhalaya seminary the two days prolonged seminar came to the end.