One of the forty-nine programmes planned by National CRI for the period January 2018 to May 2019 was a seminar on mid-life. Aimed at the 35-55 year age group, it strove to provide participants with current practical input on the physical, mental, emotional, medical and spiritual aspects of mid-life. This year’s mid-life seminar was held at Vidyadeep College, Bangalore, from September 9th to 15th. Thirty-eight women religious from five religious congregations took part. The resource persons were: Fr Jose Parappully SDB (who covered the psychological, psycho-sexual and spiritual aspects of the mid-life transition), Fr Joe Mannath SDB (who dealt with self-care in five areas, friendships, celibacy, negative emotions and learning from every decade), Dr Annamma Thomas from St. John’s Medical College, Bangalore (who spoke about the medical and emotional issues of mid-life, especially those connected to menopause). There were also two enthusiastic personal sharings on growth by a religious sister and brother—Sr Inacinha Fernandes SAC and Brother Jesudas Amirthan SSP. Another honest personal witness was done by a couple— George Timothy and his wife Shibani. The anonymous written evaluation covered all the aspects of the seminar— accommodation, food, time-table, common prayer, sessions, movies. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive. The participants gave glowing tributes to the resource persons—for the relevant and practical contents, the touching personal accounts of the journey through life which moved several participants to tears and the good atmosphere in the group. One suggestion made by several was that the seminar should have been longer. The CRI Brochure containing details about the National programmes of 201819 were sent months ago to all the major superiors—in both soft copy and print. We appeal to you to make these programmes known to your members. We hear that a good number of religious have not even heard of these opportunities!
