We are in the second year of our novitiate. Three Brothers, including our Novice Master, are accompanying us. We have completed 16 months of formation in the novitiate. As we look back at our novitiate life, we thank God for what God has done in our lives and how we have grown. We would like to share with you some news about our novitiate life.
1. Our Formation and Life: Our regular prayer life and spiritual activities are going on as usual. Every day, guided meditation by our Novice Master sets the tone for the day. Twice a week, we do yoga. We take turns to lead and conduct it among ourselves. All the important Marian feasts and Montfortian feasts are celebrated. Regular monthly recollections are held on different, relevant and meaningful themes. We take turns in organising them and offer input for reflections. All the academic input and the classes are integrated with our prayers. The first Monday of every month is dedicated to the Montfortian day of Prayer. Every Saturday is marked by special Marian prayers during which texts from St. Montfort’s writings are read and reflected. We regularly pray the Little Crown, the Consecration, the Litanies and other Montfortian prayers. Thus, our spiritual life is enriched by many aspects.
2. Diamond and Silver Jubilee Celebrations at Yercaud: We, the novices, were fortunate to witness and participate in the Diamond and Silver Jubilee celebrations of four Brothers of Yercaud Province held on 2nd October 2024. The novices gave a scintillating performance through a dance. Everyone appreciated our dancing skills, and we were edified by the lives of our four Brothers when we heard about their religious lives and missions.
3. A Palanquin for Blessed Virgin Mary: We are happy to share with you the gift given to us from St. Joseph’s Industrial School, Tindivanam, our first foundation in India. For our Marian processions and novenas, we used to prepare a simple wooden carrier to carry Mother Mary’s statue around our campus. Now we have a very beautiful wooden palanquin made for our novitiate, which is made of ancient teak wood. A big thanks to Bro. Maria Joseph, the Principal of St. Joseph’s ITI, Tindivanam for making it and donating it to our novitiate.
4. Birthday celebration of Bro. Johnson, Provincial: On 29th October, the Provincial of Yercaud, Bro. Johnson made a brief visit to our Novitiate to supervise the new chapel, which is under construction. We made use of this opportunity to felicitate him on his birthday. Special Rosary service was conducted for his intentions. We thanked him for his continuous support, frequent visits and encouragement.
5. SSGY Cultural Fest 2024: As is the tradition, after a gap of four years, the Social Service Guild of Yercaud (SSGY) organised its annual cultural events (from 25th to 27th October) this year. All the institutions of Yercaud prepared and presented various entertainment items on the theme: “The Positive Impact of Social Media”. It was a well-organised three-day event. The Eachinkadu program on the theme: “Global Connectivity” was well appreciated; so we were asked to stage our Skit-Dance on all the three days of the Fest. Everyone appreciated our program. The beauty of our program was that the entire show was conceived, written, directed and acted by the novices. Bro. Anthonysamy, Socius was accompanying us in our preparation. Our Novice Master appreciated us for this creative, collective, united venture and for our entertaining performance.
6. New Learnings and Input:
Bro. John Xavier’s Music sessions- II: Soon after his annual retreat Bro. John Xavier spent four days with us to revise our musical skills and teach us music. We thank him for his ever availability and for his generosity.
Bro. Anthonysamy and TN Formators Meeting: Our Socius Bro. Antonysamy attended the two-day Tamil Nadu formators meeting held at Dindigul. On his return he shared with all of us the schedule and the concerns expressed in the meeting.
Sr. Paulcy’s classes on Pauline Spirituality: Professor Dr. Sr. Paulcy, PDDM, from Chennai took one-week classes on Pauline Spirituality. It was really a very effective and meaningful class. She explained all the writings of St. Paul, the person of St. Paul and his spirituality. We appreciated her classes and found them extremely good and meaningful.
Other Classes by our Brothers: We are studying four other subjects simultaneously which are handled by our three Brothers. Bro. Yesudass is taking classes on “The Secret of Rosary”; Bro. Anthonysamy is handling “The History of our Congregation” and our Novice Master is handling the subjects “The Constitutions” and “The Vow of Poverty” .
Animation Sessions for the Province of Thailand: Our Novice Master was invited by the Province of Thailand to give a three-day animation program for all the Brothers of the Province of Thailand on the theme “Implementation of 33rd General Chapter Orientations and Decisions”. This program was combined with the annual spiritual pilgrimage for all the Brothers of the Province. The Thai Brothers took an active part in the sessions and appreciated the relevant and meaningful presentation of the 33rd General Chapter orientations by Bro. Paul Raj.
7. Preparation for Apostolic Experience: These days, all of us are busy preparing ourselves for the Apostolic Experience for two weeks, from 2nd to 17th November 2024. We have had two rounds of orientation sessions and motivation classes by our Brothers to prepare ourselves for this important program. We will be going to a Centre for the Destitute Persons, a Centre for the mentally challenged persons, a Centre for the street children and a Centre for the children affected by HIV. We will be accompanied by our formators, and we have spiritually prepared ourselves for it for the past many days. Kindly remember us in your prayers. We are sure that this experience and life with the poor, the abandoned and the maladjusted will certainly benefit us and stand by us in our future mission.
Novice Ravi Horo SG and Novice Roshan Kerketta SG
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