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Besides being the canonical heads, religious superiors are also the administrative heads of the religious communities and of their apostolic works. Therefore, the superior is appointed the Vice-President/Secretary of the Governing Board of legal institutions and as an authorized signatory to all the bank accounts of both the community as well as the works. By virtue of their appointment to various offices, supeiorrs have the faculty within their limits to exercise their authority for ordinary administration. However, for acts of extraordinary administration, they need the required canonical permission of the Provincial.

1. Superiors’ Role in Temporal Administration

At the local level, superiors have the responsibility to administer the goods. They administer the goods they are responsible for diligently and faithfully, in accordance with the laws of the Church and of the Religious Congregations they belong to. They exercise their administrative role in the following manner:

• They administer the goods of the works through the Heads of the institution and the Treasurer. Once a responsibility is delegated to a subordinate, superiors need to respect the principle of subsidiarity and allow them to function with the necessary freedom and support them in the decisions made. However, they coordinate and animate all the ministries of their communities.
• Through regular meetings with the heads of the institution, the superiors keep themselves informed and take a personal interest in what is happening.

Fr Alex G. SJ

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As I am always fascinated, energized, enlightened and motivated by the word love, I wish to share my encounter with love.

In 2002, I came across these beautiful lines from Khalil Gibran’s most celebrated book, The Prophet.”  I was moved to tears to know the way of love. Here is what Gibran says:

“When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you, yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you, believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.

For even as love crowns you, so shall he crucify you.

Even as he is for your growth, so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.
Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself
He threshes you to make your naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire,

that you may become sacred bread for God’s sacred feast.”

Sr Nambikkai Kithari SAP

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When the editor of MAGNET suggested that one of us write about our vocation so that others may come to appreciate better our enclosed form of life, I was reluctant, thinking: We came here for a hidden life; then why to expose ourselves? Then a sentence from the Scripture came forcefully into my mind: “It is good to conceal the secret of a king, but acknowledge the work of God, and with fitting honour to acknowledge him….” (Tobit 12:6-7).

So here I am: Whenever I think of my personal vocation, I say with St. Paul, by the grace of God I am what I am. I always add, Yes, and because of the saintly parents the Lord has given me. I am the eighth child of my parents with seven brothers and four sisters. My parents were so devoted and religious minded that the very atmosphere we breathed at home was one of love and respect, charity and sharing, faith, prayer and pious practices. Each day began with the Angelus and a devotional Hymn and the day ended with the family gathered in the prayer room invoking the Holy Spirit, reciting the Rosary, Bible reading and the Devotion of the month. The first prayer we were taught was: “My Jesus, I love You, bless me and bring me to heaven.” I remember teaching this and other prayers to my younger siblings in the evenings. The truth that we are made for heaven was instilled into our mind and heart in our childhood.

Sr Mary Tancy of Jesus Crucified PCPA

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Annette (name changed) was sobbing, pools of tears forming on the Bible she held. I was absolutely disconcerted. For myself more than for her. Was it a mistake that I was there? She needed an expert’s help.

It was a youth retreat. I had been asked to help with the counseling. That was a first for me, although I had been organising youth ministry for a couple of years. I agreed to counsel a few of the “front benchers”; they were the enthusiastic and attentive section. I reasoned that they should be having most of the answers. All I would need to do is say a prayer for them and offer some affirmation or prayer guidance.

Annette was the first in the queue. When I saw her approaching me, I thought: This should be an easy session. She looked very traditional and seemed a bit “hyper charismatic,” as she greeted me with a bright smile and a rather happy “Praise the Lord!”

As I began the session praying in simple words of praise, I saw the person before me crumble in grief and hopelessness. She began to share her story. She had been abused from the age of six by her own brothers. In her teens, when they left the country, she got into a series of very abusive relationships. She had stopped going to Church. She told me she hated her family, hated everyone, hated herself and didn’t believe in God. She was forced to come for this retreat by her cousins.

Maria Sangeetha Sanjeevi

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I was born in a Christian family. My dad was Anglican and my mum Catholic. Both were equally staunch in their beliefs. My mother was insistent on having us baptised and was very diligent in raising us in the faith, ensuring we go for daily Mass and sending us for retreats during summer vacations. It planted a seed of knowing God in a deep way.

When I came to college, many things changed. I lost my closeness to Jesus. The earlier sincerity in the small and simple things of life seemed unimportant. I began questioning the practice of traditional prayers. I stopped going to church.

During my second year I fell in love with a girl. It seemed most appropriate since it seemed that everyone else had a girlfriend. Over time I was quite sure she would be the one I would marry. I changed the course of my career, opting for a post graduation that would help me to be with her. A year later, my world crashed when I discovered that she had become friendly with another classmate. I was shattered and unable to see a future. My grief turned into anger. I was determined to prove to this girl that I could outshine her during the rest of the course. I was filled with unforgiveness and hatred. I was so disturbed I realised I must go for the retreat and try to find some peace. At the retreat centre I developed high fever. During the Eucharistic adoration where special prayers were offered for the healing of inner wounds, the priest who leading the service, Fr Augustine Vallooran, mentioned my name and gave a message to forgive and see how God works. It was hard. I nevertheless prayed for the unforgiveness and hate to be removed. As soon as I did this, I could feel a cool sensation over my body. I realised I had received the grace to completely forgive the girl and the boy whom she was in love with.

Marcus Silus Sam

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For seventeen years, I suffered much pain and several health problems. A decade ago, I was just a fashion designer with my own office in Mumbai, with little or no relationship with the Lord. I lived a powerless life, even though the world thought I had everything.

It was in the year 1997 when I was going into a paralytic stroke that I met our Lord. I had a locked jaw. When I called my doctor, all he could tell me was, “Mrs Rebello, your nervous system is damaged; so, things like this will happen.” I had been sick with spondylitis and an irregular blood circulation for many years. Many doctors told me I had to live with these problems.

So, when all doors close, we say let’s try God. I was told of a prayer meeting in the Holy Spirit hospital. When I reached the service, I felt a little unusual as I had never attended a Charismatic service before. All the singing and clapping made me very uncomfortable. I thought these were a bunch of hysterical people singing to the Lord. When the Word of God was preached, I did not bat an eyelid for forty-five minutes, which was very unusual for me. Tears began to flow. The Word of God touched my heart deeply. From then the Holy Spirit started waking me up to pray at 3 am. It was a really strange hour for a person like me to pray.

Anastasia Rebello

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Alister Hardy was a marine biologist. When he decided to study religion, he thought: instead of dealing with dogmas and ritual, why don’t we do what we do in the sciences, namely, collect data first and study it? So, he advertised in the secular press, inviting people to send in reports of their religious experiences.

The response was far greater than he expected. Thousands of people wrote, describing their religious experiences—so much so that these were published in several volumes. The centre Hardy set up at Manchester College, Oxford, the Religious Experience Research Unit, continued his work. In an apparently secular country like Britain, there were more people with special experiences which they considered religious.

The first volume, The Spiritual Nature of Man: Study of Contemporary Religious Experience, carried short descriptions sent in by people who had had such experiences. The second volume, The Original Vision, was devoted to the spiritual experience of children. The accounts were written by adults of course, describing the mystical experiences they had had as children.

The world may not be as secular or as “godless” as it may sometimes look!

Fr Joe Mannath SDB

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Continuing from the December issue on the Synod (which is about becoming a mutually listening and caring family of God) we listen to three more church members as they share their experience and views of the church, and their suggestions for becoming what we should be. We start with an educated layman.

1. “Church” for me means:

• The magisterium
• The hierarchy – Cardinals, Bishops, Priests
• The religious orders, including nuns
• Churches (Buildings), Catholic institutions – schools, hospitals, orphanages, homes for the old and infirm, etc.
• Catholic faithful

Desirable: The Kingdom of God as described in Revelations – Triune God, Mother Mary, saints, angels and the faithful in heaven and on earth.

2. My Experiences of Church:

A loving family of faith led by Christ-like leaders?

Yes, in the context of the Pope and teaching of the Church.

No, when it is dominated by pomp and majesty, huge edifices, outdated honorifics used for Cardinals (His Eminence), Archbishops (His Grace) and Bishops (Lordship). Even secular society has done away with most of these. The honorific for the Pope is just a plain ‘Holy Father’!

The hierarchy gives one the impression of pomp and ceremony. The emphasis appears to be on the upkeep of the monuments and church edifices; the spectacular rather than the mundane.

That explains why Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity were much appreciated as true examples of Christ’s teaching and vision of His church. But it was an exception, rather than the norm.

LARRY D’sOUZA

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“Game Changer” means an event, idea, or procedure that effects a significant shift in the current way of doing or thinking about something or a newly introduced element or factor that changes an existing situation or activity in a significant way. Game Changers can be persons or events. Pope Francis was called game changer in the Church soon after he became pope through his teaching and reformation at various sectors in the Church. This synodal process that was initiated from October 17 is already setting new trends in the church.

But what is “synodality” and how is it different from our current understanding of the Synod of Bishops, which has met in Rome every few years since the close of the Second Vatican Council? What is it not? This article looks at this synodal process to understand the faces of change that is initiated.

1. Walking Together

Since Francis was elected pope, a number of words have entered the Church’s lexicon that–while not new by any means–represent the priorities and focus of his vision for renewal in the Church. Terms such as accompaniment, encounter, clericalism, throwaway culture, field hospital, nearest hospital, smell of the sheep, poor church for the poor, dirty church, wounded church and periphery have become common–not only in the papal vocabulary, but in the everyday discourse of the Church. The Greek terms kerygma (proclamation of the Gospel) and parrhesia (speaking boldly and candidly) have also worked their way into many recent papal statements and Church documents. Synodality is one of these terms, and perhaps one of the most important, because it is essential to comprehending the way Francis sees the Church.

Fr Gilbert Choondal SDB

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1. “Church” for me means:

When I was small, the word ‘Church” meant for me the parish structure, the parish priest and the bishop; as I grew older, the word ‘Church’ and what I saw before my eyes was the hierarchy and the religious. But today for me the word ‘Church’ means all the People of God, especially the laity. The first image I get as soon as I hear the word ‘Church’ is a large group of mixed people standing together with raised hands with joy and smile on their faces.

2. My main experiences of the Church: I choose the ones I have indicated in italics:

• As a loving family of faith led by Christ-like servant leaders who seek the good of the least, and not power;
• As a worldly organization in which the quest for power and money dominates;
• As an impractical and somewhat irrelevant organization from which people do not expect much;

Bro Paul Raj SG

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