CHRISTMAS

 



 CHRISTMAS IS A STATE OF MIND WHEN YOU CHERISH PEACE AND GOODWILL. 



  

 THE REAL SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS IS TO HAVE MERCY, LOVE  AND FAITH.

COMPLIMENTS OF THE SEASON TO THE PEOPLE OF GOOD WILL

THE SILVER YEAR OF SR.ISABEL

HAPPY B'DAY DEAR SR.SANTAN

THANK YOU LORD FOR THE GIFT OF LIFE

"NOTHING IN NATURE IS FOR ITSELF, 

RIVER DON'T DRINK ITS WATER

TREES DON'T EAT ITS FRUIT

SUN DOES NOT GIVE HEAT FOR ITSELF

LIVING FOR OTHERS IS THE WAY OF LIFE"

HAPPY B'DAY TO YOU.....................HAPPY B'DAY TO YOU..........

DEAR SISTER SANTAN, AS YOU CELEBRATE YOUR GIFT OF LIFE , WE TOO JOIN WITH YOU
 IN THANKING GOD
 FOR THE GIFT OF LIFE TO YOU
 AND PLACING YOU AMIDST US.

SISTERS FROM MALWANI COMMUNITY

ACCEPT THE  HUMBLE EXPRESSION OF OUR LOVE

SISTERS FROM DONGRI COMMUNITY

        

ONCE AGAIN MANY MANY HAPPY RETURNS OF THE DAY

HAPPY FEAST OF HOLY MOTHER TERESA OF AVILA

 TODAY WAS A MEMORABLE DAY FOR OUR JUNIORS AS WE CELEBRATED THE FEAST OF THEIR PATRONESS, OUR HOLY MOTHER TERESA OF AVILA.

WE PRAY FOR  THEIR HOLY  PERSEVERANCE  

AND THAT THEY MAY MAKE THE EXPERIENCE OF OUR HOLY MOTHER TERESA AS THEIR EXPERIENCE

 "GOD ALONE SUFFICES"

PRITHI KUNJ CHAPEL

 WE WISH ALL OUR JUNIOR SISTERS IN THE PROVINCE AND IN OUR CONGREGATION A VERY HAPPY FEAST OF OUR HOLY MOTHER TERESA

Sr. Jacquline's final profession

It was a great joy for us Carmelite Missionaries in India as our Sr. Jacquline made her final commitment in St. Anthony Parish Kodathy, Bangalore. There were 11 priests who concelebrated the solemn Eucharist. There were also religious sisters from Neighboring communities and the parishnors. There 35 Carmelite missionaries who accompanied her to the altar.  During homily the main celebrant encouraged her with the words of Jesus “Do not be afraid, I am with you until the end of time”, with Christ we can over throw the evil and build the kingdom of God. He made reference to our founder and from our constitution, no.12, which calls to have allegiance to Christ with ecclesial consciousness. The celebration ended with simple fellowship meal. We thanked for the gift life and vocation of Sr. Jacquline. We pray that Good Lord continue to fill her heart with joy, peace and love as she takes care of HIV affected Patients and others who come in her life.

15 Days Amidst Himalayan Tsunami

The students of Nirmala Niketan college of Social work (sr. Sunita and companions) took the initiative to march towards the state of Uttrakhand in India for relief work on 4^th July 2013. Uttrakhand State is erected in 2001. It is a high attitude area of which 93% is mountains and 47.04% is covered by trees and forests. Most of the northern areas of the state are part of Greater Himalaya ranges and covered by high peaks and glaciers while the lower foothills were densely forested but have suffered years of deforestation. The primary sources of livelihood in the state are agriculture and tourism and the state sells hydroelectric power to other states 70% of 10.01 million population of Uttrakhand lives in rural areas and 20% in urban locations. The State is divided in to 13 districts. Its capital Dehradun is third highest population density district in the state. The entire State is vulnerable to high rain fall, cloudburst and landslides. People did experience these calamities often in fragments but destruction up to this extent was unexpected.

There are four pilgrimages on this part of Himalaya namely Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri that is why it is also called ‘Devbhumi’. The Holy River Ganga is also divided in to four areas and has named Alaknanda, Mandakini, Bhagirathi and Saraswati. There are around 200 huge lakes created by cloudburst and glacier. The peak time for visiting these places is June to September. Months of June and July are the school holidays for the children. So the boys above 10 years go to these holy places to work in the hotels or help the parents who are engaged in taking the pilgrims up to temple on the mule ride.

Another side L&T (Larsen & Tourbro) and GVK (Gunapati Venkata Krishnareddy). These two industries have implanted two major HYDEL PROJECTS. They have hollowed many mountains and built the tunnels. This indicates decreasing strength of the mountains. Apart from this the echo system in the environment is very strong due to which with little sound the land slide occur.

This background may help us to understand the real reasons of disaster.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISASTER

The ‘Man Made disaster’ now known as “Himalayan Tsunami” hit the state of Uttrakhand on Sunday June 16, 2013. The disaster was triggered by excessively heavy rainfall of more than 220mm in the region that is home to head waters of the river Ganga and sudden fall of glacier in one of the huge lake of Himalaya did not allow the people a second thought but run to save life whoever can. These rains arrived nearly a month early in the midst of an annual pilgrim rush for the four holy sites of Kedarnath,Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri. Mountains which were hollowed by the hydro power project which caused much additional destruction of landslides. Flash floods, cloudburst and landslides have claimed lives, livestock and infrastructure and displaced thousands. The death toll in Uttrakhand has reached about 10,000 and more missing. A total of 71,440 pilgrims bound for the Himalayan shrines of Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri were stranded in Rudraprayag. In Uttrakhand, 8 out of 10 districts are affected.

OUR RESPONSE

We the students of College of Social Work (MSW II) jumped into the action and thereby planning and fund raising began in full force in response to this disaster, the students wanted to carry out some funds form of relief work in the affected areas. After successful dialogue with Fr.Pius from Bijnor Diocese, our plan was finally put to action and a batch of young students accompanying their faculty reached Kothdwar where the teams were further divided across Uttarkashi, Ghat, Rudraprayag, Ghansali, Mandavar and Pauri.

We were further instructed by the Caritas and Catholic Relief Service (two catholic organisations). We got the guidelines for the need assessment. We were divided into different groups keeping in mind the severity of the destruction district wise.

Our team (Sr. Sunita and other eleven students) was assigned to go to Rudraprayag, the worst affected area of all the other regions. We stayed in a small hotel and went back and forth to different villages fulfil our mission. The team could visit 18 villages. The modes of travel were paralysed so all that we could do is walk and climb the mountains taking high risk of landslides and aggressive flow of Mandakini River. Our intervention was to do the need assessment. So we went house to house to find out the worst affected people and collected the data about the human loss, livestock and agriculture and took the measure of epidemics. Grief counselling was also part of work. We also helped the medical team for the distribution of the medicine.

We eye witnessed many landslides, broken roads, paralysed education, transport and medical systems. We could see only water where the villages existed, silt up to higher than 10 feet, aimless children, frustrated and depressed people with full of fear. Cry of the people made us to think as social workers how the systems could be made efficient to cope up with this type of situations.

We returned to Kotdwar on 13^th July 2013. After a day of rest we put our effort together to compile the reports from different districts. The whole team of 40 students visited 50 villages where government could not reach. The report was placed at the table of chief minister of Uttarakhand on 16^th July.

 

Sr.Sunita Parmar CM

 

JESUS THE BEST TEACHER

JESUS IS THE BEST TEACHER,  BECAUSE HE USED ALL THE POSSIBLE TEACHING AIDS AND MEANS AND METHODS UNDER THE SUN AND ABOVE THE HEAVEN. IS THIS ALL?

THEN WHAT MAKES THE TEACHER, THE BEST?

JESUS NOT ONLY TAUGHT BUT HE DID SET AN EXAMPLE. THAT'S WHAT MAKES HIM THE BEST OF ALL. THERE IS NO BETTER TEACHING AID THAN ONES OWN LIFE.






A TEACHER HAS THE POWER TO CREATE A WORLD OF JUST SOCIETY OR A WORLD OF TERROR. ALL THOSE WHO SHARE THE PRIVILEGE OF BEING A TEACHER, LET US LEARN FROM OUR MASTER AND BE AN INSTRUMENT OF CREATING A JUST AND A PEACEFUL SOCIETY.

HAPPY TEACHERS' DAY