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You did not choose me; it was I who chose you and sent you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last” (John15:16).

God has his marvelous plan for each one of us. When I was a child, our parish priest was a missionary from Turin, Italy. I was fascinated by the dedication and courage of the missionary priests and of the Missionaries of Christ Jesus (MCJ) Sisters, who worked in our Parish. When I went to the Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco as an aspirant in 1984, I saw our missionary sisters and I was always fascinated by their courage and joy in their service. I joined them. During my novitiate experience in Bellefonte, Shillong, living with our missionary sisters as a novice and later as an “assistant” (a junior staff member) of novices, my desire for mission grew stronger. After my profession in 1988, I asked several times to be sent to the missions, but I was not sent. I kept on praying. The missionary flame in me never died out.

It came, however, as a surprise in 2010 when my provincial called me and asked me if I would like to go to the mission, since our Mother General asked for one missionary from our province. It was a tough decision, as I was animator of the community, and had also made plans for many projects and activities in that mission. I spent time in prayer and discernment. Then I felt God speaking to my heart, saying: “You are useful, but not indispensable.” Oh! That was the answer. So, I said my ‘Yes’ to be a missionary Ad Gentes.

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Sr Magadalene Synnah FMA

Childhood and Marriage

I had a childhood without want or worry. I grew up in a luxurious, cosy environment, with no awareness of the stark realities of life.

This came to an abrupt end, however, when I got married—very young, without knowing the responsibilities of running a family. However, I felt supported. I often used to ask myself, “Is this the real life? If so, then life is really wonderful!” As I matured in age, I asked the same question. Then came a moment when I realised that LIFE was really a gift of God. He wanted me to face everything and decide.

After few years, my husband left his previous job, and we shifted to a new setting with many challenges and hardships. The transition was difficult. The path was no longer smooth and comfortable like that of my childhood. I thought to myself: There must be others in the same situation. I decided to come out of my shell and voluntarily help those who are in worse conditions than me. My prayers were answered, and a new journey started.

As a human being, I strongly believe in making a difference in people’s lives in whatever possible, even in the most insignificant ways. Since early childhood, I was always eager to help others. As I grew older, I try not to judge people and always remember that “we are human beings first.”

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SONIA GOTHORP

The writer, a young Salesian, presents the two big supports that have helped him to overcome hurdles and be a joyful religious.  

I joined the Salesians at the recommendation of my parish priest.  In the beginning, I did not know the difference between becoming a diocesan priest and joining a religious congregation. Nonetheless, I enjoyed my early years of formation in the Salesian setting. I came to know my strengths and weaknesses.

Being with the Salesians, I had ample opportunities to grow in all aspects of life. There was lot of love, joy, and food! As I entered the Novitiate, the love increased. The formators were very kind and gentle. Years passed. I moved on to study philosophy for three years, did one year of regency in the novitiate and two years of postgraduation as Master of Philosophy. Right now, I am what we Salesians call the “assistant” (regent in charge of a group) in our Philosophy study house at Karunapuram (Warangal, Telangana). My short journey, from being a student to a teacher of philosophy, has been a wonderful experience.

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Kadiyam Prasanna Kumar SDB

Certain principles and guidelines to the State set forth by the Constitution of India (CoI) while governing and framing laws and policies are known as Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP).  These provisions are contained in the CoI, Part IV, articles 36 to 51.  They embody the concept of a ‘welfare state,’ which was absent during the colonial era. Being the soul of a welfare-state, they provide guidance to the interpretation of fundamental rights and statutory rights.  In short, they lay down fundamental principles for governance of the country.  DPSP, deriving from Ireland, substantiate concepts of social justice, economic welfare and foreign policy in legal and administrative matters.  While outlining the intention of the Constituent Assembly, Dr Ambedkar said, “They should be made the basis of all executive and legislative actions that may be taken hereafter in the matter of the governance of the country.”

A Constitutional Mandate

Unlike Fundamental Rights, the DPSP are non-binding in nature. This means they are not enforceable by the courts for their violation.  Yet they impose a duty on the state to apply these principles in making laws to establish a just humane society.  They are fundamental in the governance of the country and it shall be the duty of the state to apply these principles in making laws. Hence, they impose a moral obligation on the state authorities for their implementation.

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Fr Ravi Sagar SJ

Properties are bought for a particular purpose of the Registered Society.  Broadly speaking, they may be for educational, social, religious or agricultural purposes, depending on the objectives of the society.   Whatever category they belong to, properties, as well as the income from them, are basically used for the society’s objectives.  Depending on the available resources, some societies may have just enough land for their own use, some a little extra and some others more than what they need.  Here we are concerned about those societies who have just enough land for their own use and those who have excess land and have left the excess unused.  Whatever the case may be, there is a possibility in many cases to use the land for some additional purpose for the benefit of the society at large or to earn some extra income for the Society. This article explores such possibilities.

In the urban areas, many have given up agriculture for various reasons, such as, non-availability of labour, financial unviability, lack of knowledge of farming, etc.  Even in rural areas, many farmers have given up farming due to one of the above reasons or simply due to lack of water for irrigation.

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Fr Alex Gnanapragasam SJ

Anisha is a smart and hardworking novice.  She was in our community for her community experience.  She was very enthusiastic to go to the villages with the Sisters and teach catechism.  She was good with kids and engaged them with various activities.  I liked her behaviour and I gave a good report about her to the provincial.  To my surprise, she was not accepted to make her profession and was asked to continue the novitiate for another six months.  On enquiry, I learnt that she had failed twice in the examination on our Constitutions.  But she fared well on other subjects.  Could they not give an exception to her, as she did well for all the other subjects?

They could not.

Let us discuss Anisha’s case in detail. A thorough knowledge of the Constitutions is of paramount importance to every religious, and novitiate is the period set apart for its study.  The Eastern Code (c. 459 §2) presents this requirement in detail. “During the novitiate, the novices are to strive continuously so that, under the guidance of the director, their hearts are formed by the study of the typicon [Constitutions], by pious meditations and assiduous payer, by thoroughly learning what pertains to the vows and the virtues, and by suitable exercises to root out vices, to curb passions and to acquire virtues.” CIC (c. 646) deals with the purpose of the novitiate.  It “is to give the novices a greater understanding of their divine vocation, and of their vocation to that institute.  During the novitiate the novices are to experience the manner of life of the institute and form their minds and hearts in its spirit.  At the same time, their resolution and suitability are to be checked.”  While CCEO assigns more responsibility to the novices, CIC gives it to the formator.

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Sr Licia SMI

She would never miss a single day’s work. Rain or shine she would arrive punctually at 11.00 a.m., driven in a taxi, which would leave her at her place of work—in front of the Avianca building going down the steps to the shopping mall called Colsubsidio in downtown Bogotá (Colombia). She would alight from the vehicle, fix her clothes and there
she goes, “Gracias a la vida, que me ha dado tanto . . .” (“Thanks to life, which has given me so much!”) singing at the topof her voice. I tell you, she was definitely not the Colombian version of Ranu Mondal, who was discovered singing on atrain platform at Ranaghat station. Olga Lucía literally screamed!

At that point, the people on the intersection of 7th Avenue and 16th street would stop, look at each other and smile. OlgaLucía “opened shop.” Everybody knew her, especially the office workers around the area who would come out for theirlunch break.

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BROTHER CARMEL DUCA MC

Integrity that we explored and reflected upon in the previous issue of Magnet calls for atonement, understood as at-one-ment, becoming one, becoming whole.

An essential challenge here is to work through and heal from the painful feelings and experiences we have carried with us into midlife.

“At-one-ment” involves reconciliation—making peace with self, with others and God, something that most of us find a real challenge.

Reconciliation

To experience atonement, we must come to terms first of all with guilt over our own wrong doings. We need to forgive ourselves for our foolish choices and decisions, for messing up our lives, and turning a deaf ear to the deepest longings of our soul.

We need to let go our grievances against others for the real or imagined damage they have done to us. We need to forgive and reconcile with people who we feel put us on the wrong track or stood in the way of fulfilment of our dreams.

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FR JOSE PARAPPULLY SDB

You will be surprised to know that a modern teenager is well on his way to being declared a saint. Like all teenagers, he was tech-savvy; in fact, some of his friends thought he was a computer genius. But what sets this youth apart is that he linked his technological expertise to the greatest spiritual treasure we can think of – the Eucharist.

Carlo Acutis was an Italian Catholic, born on 3 May 1991 in London, as his parents were working there at that time. A few months after his birth they moved back to Italy and lived in Milan. That is where Carlo grew up. He did his high school studies in the Jesuit-run Istituto Leone XIII. A cheerful student, he was a daily communicant. When asked why, he is reported to have said, “The more Eucharist we receive, the more we will become like Jesus, so that on this earth we will have a foretaste of Heaven.”

Carlo had a great devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and so loved praying the rosary. He regularly spent time in prayer before the tabernacle either before or after Mass. “To always be close to Jesus, that’s my life plan,” he remarked. Once every week he made his confession.

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Fr M A Joe Antony SJ

My friend’s uncle, an accountant in a major seminary, was very worried about handling the Local Sponsorships—a scheme that was initiated to avoid seeking financial help from abroad.  I joined my friend in trying to help his uncle to handle it easily.  After about three weeks of discussions and clarifications, he was happy to find a solution—to use Cloud Computing technology and maintain the data of the sponsors, which can be accessed through the Internet (or later by Mobile App) to get notifications and reminders regularly.  This solution helps the organization to have all the records, such as, demographic details, sponsorship scheme (tenure and amount), mode of payment, including online transfer, etc. It also helps the users (the sponsors) to track their sponsorship, receive automatic reminders, regular notifications, do online payment, track their beneficiary, and so on.

In other words, Cloud Computing helps the organization directly in a big way to maintain the information, which can be accessed through the I  nternet, by them and the end-users (customer, stakeholder, or users of the services).  Users are only at the receiving end of the services rendered by the company which uses Cloud Computing technology.

Cloud Computing is NOT merely a storing and retrieving option. If that is all we need, we can:

• Use storage services like Google Drive, Dropbox, Sync, OneDrive, pCloud, Canto DAM, SkyDrive, SugarSync, etc. All these are operated with Cloud Computing technology.
• Store the files in the space available in our own website.
• Send the file to an email, where the sender and the receiver will have a copy of it.

What is Cloud Computing?

Ninety-five percent of people who are already using Cloud Computing, like online banking and social networks, do not know that they are using Cloud Computing.

Cloud Computing is the use of hardware and software to deliver a service over a network (typically the Internet). Well-known providers of Cloud Computing are Internet giants like Amazon, Facebook, Google’s Gmail, and so on.  With Cloud Computing, users can access files and use applications hosted by providers from any device that can be accessed through Internet.

Traditional computing stores data on your PC’s local hard drive, whereas the data in the cloud is stored on many physical and/or virtual servers hosted by a third-party service provider.

Types

A PUBLIC CLOUD is based on the standard Cloud Computing framework which consists of files, applications, storage and services available to the public via the internet. Gmail is an example of a Public Cloud.

A PRIVATE CLOUD is comprised of files, applications, storage and services that are implemented and protected within a corporate firewall, under the control of a corporate IT department, only for their own use.  A Private Cloud is only for a particular group like a company, family circle, friends’ group, etc., and not for the use of all the public.

Pros and Cons

Some of the merits of Cloud Computing technology are cost-saving, high speed, back-up and restoring of data, automatic software integration, reliability, mobility, unlimited storage capacity, location and device independence, web-based control and interface, low-cost software, and so on.

In spite of the fast-growing technological development, every technology has its own demerits.  Cloud Computing too has some demerits, such as, lack of internet connectivity, variation in performance, security threat, and lack of connection.

Tips

For Educational Institutions: Some of the educational institutions are already on to Cloud Computing technology, where the management, staff and parents, as well as the students, are using various methodologies by way of getting status updates and monitoring information through SMS, Email, WhatsApp, Mobile Apps and Internet. It covers areas like admission, fees, time-table, attendance, exams, marks, library, announcements, payroll, accounts, communication, and other information.

For Major Superiors of Religious Congregation: As almost all the management or administrative departments of the corporate world use Cloud Computing technology, Religious Congregation too can use it for handling their resources.  It is also good to move on to modern technologies for digital archives, documentation, communication, websites, etc.  All these can be done on a Private Cloud and not necessarily on a Public Cloud.  It is also possible to make only some of it available to the public, while reserving other areas to members only.

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Rocky

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