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In this cover story, we delve into Mary’s life and the profound lessons from her Assumption. We explore how Mary’s journey from the Annunciation to the Assumption exemplifies the transformation of the ordinary into the extraordinary.

Mary: An Ordinary Woman Blessed to be Extraordinary

In the bustling town of Nazareth, nestled within the quiet corners of Galilee, lived a young woman named Mary—a figure both revered and misunderstood across cultures and centuries. Her story, recounted in the annals of Christian faith, begins not with pomp and grandeur but with the simple humility of an ordinary life.

Mary: The Outsider

In ancient Judea’s strict society, Mary faced challenges. She was from Nazareth, a town often looked down upon. When she became pregnant without being married, people judged her harshly. This brought her great pain and made her an outcast. But despite this, Mary found strength in her faith. She bravely accepted the extraordinary role given to her by God. Authors like Joan Chittister and Elizabeth Johnson talk about Mary’s bravery. They say her story challenges how power and authority are usually seen. Mary’s courage, even though she was not powerful in society’s eyes, shows us the importance of faith and standing up for what we believe in.

Think about someone who stands up for what’s right in school or at work, even if others disagree. That person might not have the most influence or popularity, but their courage to do what’s right echoes Mary’s bravery in ancient times.

Sr Lini Sheeja MSC

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India’s Independence Day on August 15th reflects a journey of ordinary acts of courage, perseverance, and unity leading to extraordinary change. Throughout India’s struggle for freedom, countless unnamed heroes—from farmers and teachers to students and workers—made significant contributions, illustrating the power of unity and perseverance in achieving monumental outcomes. In 2024, India’s elections underscored the importance of democratic values in recovering and strengthening freedom. Grassroots stories from this election highlight the “aroma” of democracy in action, with ordinary citizens advocating for their communities and driving meaningful change. These narratives not only celebrate India’s enduring spirit but also impart valuable lessons on unity, courage, and collective action in shaping a better future.

1. The Legacy of Courageous Acts: From the Sepoy Mutiny to the Quit India Movement

The celebration of Indian Independence is inseparable from the procession of memories, resonating with inspiring stories of men and women who pushed the frontiers of human endurance to the edge of possibility. India’s journey to independence was a remarkable transformation, akin to a caterpillar’s metamorphosis into a butterfly. Spanning over two centuries, the freedom struggle was a saga of relentless determination, marked by rare and irrepressible resilience. The stories of forgotten freedom fighters who contributed to India’s independence create a moving narrative, bridging the gap between well-known and unknown heroes. This sea of stories swells with rising waves and high tides each August, leaving every Indian with a patriotic euphoria.

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The unexpected result of the recent elections in India is the fruit of the hard work of numerous persons in the field and the relentless power of prayer of many.  One sister told me: “From the day the election dates were announced I have been keeping vigil regularly till midnight.”  In order that our country may remain a vibrant democracy it is important that we continue both to be active in the field and to pray.

Need for Constant Prayer for the Country

            St. Paul invites us to pray for our country and its leaders: “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way” (1 Tim 2:1-2).  The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that praying for the country is an obligation that derives from the fourth commandment (CCC 2238-2240).

            In her apparition at Fatima on 13 July 1917 to Francis, Jacinta and Lucy Our Lady asked that Russia be consecrated to her Immaculate Heart so that people would enjoy peace.  Through Blessed Alexandrina da Costa, in July 1935 Jesus asked that the entire world be consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary so that the world would be spared of calamities and wars and enjoy peace and prosperity.  These requests of Our Lady and Jesus show that we need to continue to pray entrusting the countries and the world to the Immaculate Heart so that peace and justice may reign everywhere.  Mary Assumed into Heaven is the patroness of India and India was entrusted to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on 25 March 2020.

Fr Jose Kuttianimattathil, sdb

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“You may call God love; you may call God goodness. But the best name for God is compassion.”

— Meister Eckhart.

We ended the previous article saying, “the one quality that can offset the deficiencies that empathy sometimes falls prey to is undoubtedly, COMPASSION.” Yes, indeed! Compassion is that outstanding quality which has an immense impact, both on every individual and the society as a whole. It is a pity that people consider compassion as a weakness rather than a strength. In a world that favours cut-throat competition and power-mongering, compassionate people are seen as ‘weak individuals’, lacking strong qualities such as determination, firmness and steadfastness. The milieu of priestly and religious life is not an exception to this rule. In this final article on the emotional dimension of my wholeness paradigm, it behoves well to discuss, what I would term as, ‘the pinnacle of all human qualities’, and as I had mentioned in an earlier issue, “compassion is a Godly quality.”

There is one person in the Catholic tradition, who stands as a symbol of compassion. He has been proclaimed as the patron saint of compassion. He has stood the test of times to truly embody and symbolize a quality that was becoming obsolete and redundant. In a cultural and religious context wherein, even the Catholic Church was waging wars and crusades against its enemies, this person stood apart and lived a life of compassion. And that person is, Saint Francis of Assisi, who is one of my all-time favourite saints. In his ‘Canticle of the Creatures’ or ‘Laudato Sì’, Saint Francis demonstrated his deep appreciation and love for all creatures. He understood that all living things were interconnected and that every creature was related to the other as if they were all ‘one family’. No wonder then, he could address the sun as “brother” and moon as “sister”. We will talk more about him in the course of this article.

Fr. Dr. Joseph Jeyaraj, sdb

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SEARCHING FOR A RELEVANT UNDERSTANDING OF THE VOW OF POVERTY IN OUR TIME

A MATURE UNDERSTANDING NEEDED

As we begin our exploration into a contemporary understanding of the three vows of consecrated life, we are pressed to ask: Are the vows crucial to the spiritual life of contemporary religious? In her influential book, Fire In These Ashes, Joan Chittister offers a direct answer saying: “The answer may be a clear and firm, ‘Yes and no.’ No, if we use them as restrictions on life. Yes, if we see them as attitudes toward life.”

Many religious individuals have wrestled with the traditional vow of poverty, finding it challenging since they themselves are not materially poor and often live insulated from the harsh uncertainties of economic deprivation. The poor saying to us, “You take the vow of poverty and the rest of us live it,” poignantly reflects this reality.

Poverty is not merely an unfortunate condition to be managed but an evil to be eradicated. It’s time we reframe our language in our articulation of religious vows to align with the Biblical position: poverty is an evil to be got rid of at every level, not embraced or romanticized.

Br. Sunil Britto CFC

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Mother Eliswa Vakayil, the foundress of the Congregation of the Teresian Carmelites (CTC), was honoured as Venerable by Pope Francis in November 2023. Born in 1846 in Kerala, Eliswa’s life was marked by deep spirituality and compassion for the poor. After her husband passed away two years after their daughter Anna was born, Eliswa dedicated her life to prayer and service. With support from Rev. Fr. Leopold Beccaro OCD and Archbishop Bernardine Baccinelli OCD, she, her daughter Anna, and her sister Thresia joined the Carmelite Order, establishing Kerala’s first order for consecrated women. Her recognition as Venerable highlights her faith, resilience, and pioneering role in advancing women’s causes.

Venerable Mother Eliswa: My Inspiration

As the foundress of my own congregation, I have always felt a deep connection to Venerable Mother Eliswa. Her very life, deep communion with Jesus, love for the poor, and ability to forgive without counting the cost have inspired me greatly. In today’s world, where the true spirit of religious life can sometimes get lost, her life reminds me of what is truly important. Mother Eliswa’s dedication and love for God and others continue to touch my heart and strengthen my own faith. Mother Eliswa faced many painful experiences as the foundress of the Congregation. On the evening of Tuesday, September 16, 1890, a significant leadership change occurred due to the division of Rites in the Archdiocese of Verapoly.  All the sisters who were in leadership, including Mother Eliswa, the foundress, were unexpectedly removed from their positions and replaced by others.  Despite the deeply humiliating circumstances, Mother Eliswa chose to transcend human sentiments and responded with spiritual maturity. With quiet dignity and unwavering faith, she and her companions shifted to a small house on the convent campus the next morning, placing their future entirely in God’s hands.

SR ASHITA CTC

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St. Ignatius of Loyola was the youngest son in a noble family of thirteen children in Navarre, Spain (1491-1556). He began his “worldly” career as a courtier, gentleman, and soldier. In 1521, he suffered a severe leg wound while defending a fortress against French forces at Pamplona, Spain. During his recuperation, the thirty-year-old soldier experienced a profound religious conversion through extraordinary experiences of the Trinity, Christ, and Our Lady, manifested in visions and other mystical phenomena. God purified, illuminated, and transformed Ignatius from a knight in the service of a temporal lord to a knight under Christ’s banner in the service of the Trinity.

Conversion and Spiritual Exercises

During his recovery, Ignatius asked for some books to read. The only books that could be found were the life of Christ and the lives of the saints. Reading and reflecting on these lives deeply disturbed him at first, but gradually, he was transformed into a new person. He began to think deeply about his own life. Later, he spent several days in prayer at a Benedictine monastery, where he hung his sword before a portrait of Mary. From there, he journeyed to Manresa, near the shrine of Montserrat, where he led a rugged life for about a year. During this time, he began taking notes on his experiences, which formed the earliest stages of what would eventually become the famous handbook known as the “Spiritual Exercises.”

Fr Richard Mascarenhas, SJ

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Having cleared all the payments for my new apartment, I entered my room for the first time, and what made me leap with joy was a huge mirror on the wall. It immediately caught my attention. As life gained momentum with a busier schedule due to my taxing responsibilities, the mirror went unnoticed. However, one fine morning, I suddenly realized that the mirror on the wall had collected a lot of dirt. While cleaning my room, I thought of cleaning the mirror too. As I wiped down this life-sized mirror, my tangled mind started to unravel, leading to an unbiased analysis of my own life. I share these reflections with candidness, hoping you too may connect them to your own life.

“Behold the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them.” (Isaiah: 42: 9)

The world is rapidly changing everything in and around us. From the time of our birth until now, the world has been in constant flux. We have witnessed a paradigm shift in technology: from small transistors that attracted crowds to paan shops during India vs. Pakistan cricket matches, to black and white TV sets in our locality, and now to colourful TV sets. We’ve moved from landlines to mobile phones, and from typewriters to computers and laptops in every house. Today, the information of the entire world is at our fingertips—we just need to google it, and we have it. The advancements in technology have made it possible for us to communicate with everyone, regardless of distance.

SR POONAM CJ

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The Pursuit of Happiness

All of us in this world have a dream or wish to be happy. We spend much of our lives in search of happiness. Yet, aren’t we afraid of the desolations that come into our lives? Have we prayed for the grace of desolation or darkness in our lives? How many of us would prefer to suffer willingly as Jesus suffered?  We are called to witness happiness in desolation and sadness in consolation. As we see in Ecclesiastes 3, for everything, there is a time. In our lives, we witness people go through desolation and darkness, as though they were born to die in depression. It may be in physical, emotional, spiritual, or intellectual aspects. Some even suffer in all these areas at once. On the other hand, some people enjoy their lives with friends, families, and life partners as though they never have sadness in life. By looking at all these things, we generally feel that God is partial. Is He?

Lessons from Nature

Why does God allow so-called bad things to happen in our lives? Doesn’t He love us? Doesn’t He consider us His own children? Will a mother or father think evil of their children?

I’d like to give you a small image to help you understand brokenness. A crow lays an egg, and after the egg hatches, the crow takes care of its nestlings. The crow nurtures its little ones, feeding and pampering them. But as the nestlings grow, the mother crow throws them out of the nest, pushing them to fly. Does this action mean the crow does not love its chicks? Only when they fall down do they learn to fly. They look out, get up, and go further to lead their lives. Sometimes, love can be bitter.

Sch Jeevan Santhosh SJ

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Sound of Freedom (2023): 121 mts

Director – Alejandro Monteverde

Cast: Jim Caviezel, Mira Sorvino, Bill Camp, Eduardo Verástegui, Javier Godino, José Zúñiga, Kurt Fuller, Gary Basaraba.

This movie is loosely based on the experiences of Tim Ballard, the founder and CEO of Operation Underground Railroad, an organization combating human trafficking. In 2013, Rocío and Miguel Aguilar, two poor children from Honduras, are kidnapped by Giselle, a beauty queen who deceives their father, Roberto, with false promises of a modeling career. During the first photo shoot, the children are abducted. Tim Ballard, working with Homeland Security Investigations in Calexico, California, is appalled by the increasing child pornography and trafficking cases that cross US borders. Determined to fight, Ballard befriends suspect Ernst Oshinsky by posing as a pedophile. This leads to the arrest of Earl Buchanan and the rescue of Miguel, who gifts Ballard with his sister’s Saint Timothy necklace before reuniting him with his father. Ballard’s search for Rocío takes him to Cartagena, Colombia, where he learns about Giselle’s sex trade connections in Thailand. With the help of a Colombian police officer and a wealthy man named Delgado, Ballard plans a sting operation but is ordered to return home as it cannot be executed in a foreign country. Ballard resigns and continues his search for Rocío. His sympathetic superior secretly supports his mission through the US Embassy in Colombia. Ballard traps Giselle in a sting operation, rescuing 54 children and arresting her. However, Rocío has been sold to FARC, a rebel militia in the Amazon jungle, beyond Colombian government reach. Using fake documents to pose as doctors, Ballard and his companion, Vampiro, infiltrate the rebel camp, but only Ballard is allowed entry. Rocío is held as a sex slave by El Alacrán and is forced to make cocaine. Ballard shoots El Alacrán to rescue Rocío and successfully returns her to her family, giving her the necklace gifted by Miguel. Ballard’s testimony leads to new international laws against sex trafficking. The epilogue starkly reminds viewers that more people are enslaved today than when slavery was legal.

The Chess Players (Shathrunj Ke Khiladi ) 1977: 130 mts

Director: Satyajit Ray.

Cast: Sanjeev Kumar, Saeed Jaffrey, Amjad Khan, Shabana Azmi, Farida Jalal, Richard Attenborough, Tom Alter, David Abraham, Victor Banerjee, Farooq Shaikh

This classic Hindi movie by the Indian maestro, Satyajit Ray, draws its story from a famous historical fiction by Munshi Premchand that depicts the story of British colonialism in India and shows how the debauchery, escapism and apathy of the ruling monarchs of India paved way for British colonization. The story centers on Wajid Ali Shah, the Nawab of Avadh, a pleasure-seeking patron of the arts, who surrenders his kingdom to the British East India Company in 1856. General James Outram of the Company exploits the Nawab’s failure to honour their agreement to justify the takeover. Parallel to this is the story of two nobles, Mirza Sajjad Ali and Mir Roshan Ali, obsessed with chess and indifferent to the political turmoil. They neglect their duties and their households, escaping to a remote village to continue playing. Their obsession leads to quarrels, even as they witness the British army marching towards their capital without concern. Ultimately, Wajid Ali Shah abdicates without resistance, highlighting the indolence of the nobility. The chess players’ argument culminates in a shooting, but they quickly reconcile and return to their game. Ray’s film poignantly illustrates how indulgence, hedonism, and irresponsibility contribute to the decline of civilizations, with the game’s continuation symbolizing the inevitable loss of power and privilege under foreign rule.

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