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The only language she could communicate in was Tamil. When I met her—I had just reached India—I could neither understand nor speak any Indian language.

After I started moving around India, I lost touch with her and, sadly, forgot her name. In this article, I shall refer to her as Anbu Aasiriyai (loving teacher).

I had started learning Tamil with a small book, Learn Tamil in 30 Days, but had soon realized that I wouldn’t make it even in thirty months! I seriously needed extra help. Though I could more or less read and write, it still was a series of sounds/words that were meaningless to me. I was then introduced to Anbu Aasiriyai through someone who knew someone.  Though, looking back, it sounds bit crazy, since we could hardly communicate, we both embarked on this language adventure. That was some twenty-six years ago.

She had remained unmarried and lived with her widowed brother and his adopted son. She had been teaching Tamil in a Christian High School for many years.

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Sr Marie Gabrielle SCSM

Both women and men are actively involved in education.

When it comes to medical work, Sister Doctors and Sister Nurses manage and work in most Catholic hospitals and smaller medical centres. This is largely their world. Men religious and diocesan priests play a very minor role here.

India has 1,000 Sister Doctors. They form an association called the Sister Doctors Forum of India (SDFI). This forum conducted a survey among its members in 2018. They did it in collaboration with the Catholic Health Association of India (CHAI), which covers over 3500 centres, includes five medical colleges and has over 76,000 medical professionals in their institutions.  The results give us interesting and inspiring details about their life, work, location, concerns and struggles—and what sustains them in their demanding ministry.

As their report says, “eighteen per cent of the world’s population lives in India, and many states of India have populations similar to those of large countries. [See the map.] There is inequality of burden across states and across diseases status… India also faces a triple burden of disease communicable, non-communicable and nutritional. This is compounded in women with the addition of reproductive health associated disorders. Out of pocket expenditure is the norm and the brunt is worse in rural areas. The current healthcare systems fails to reach out to the underprivileged poor, a gap that the Sister Doctors are in a unique position to fill.”

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Fr Joe Mannath SDB

I belong to Franciscan Sisters of Our Lady of Graces (FSLG). It was my childhood dream to become a missionary for Jesus and to go to the villages to tell them about the love of God. And I wanted to be far from my home. So, I joined a congregation based in UP. Our superiors had a dream of having a doctor in the congregation, and asked me to go for MBBS. I didn’t want to, because of the fear of losing my vocation and my laziness to study.

 But God’s plan was that I should become a doctor. That is why I am a sister doctor today. I joined the 1983 batch of MBBS in St John’s Medical College, Bangalore. I have fond memories of my batch mates and of our undergraduate life.

After I took charge in the Our Lady of Graces Hospital, Sardhana, UP, I felt lost. It was a completely different scenario from St. John’s: Twenty beds, no other doctors, no facilities. Staff: Three sister nurses and me.

I then asked the Lord Jesus, “What do you want me to do?”  He told me to convert this building to a hospital, to improve the health of women and children. “Fear not, for I am with you.” And I said yes.

Sardhana is twenty kilometres from Meerut city and about ninety kilometres from New Delhi. It was a small township, more like a remote village. According to the 2011 census, its population is 58,252, of which 64% are Muslims, 29% Hindus and others 7%. Christians number around five hundred in all.

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Sr Liza FSLG

Merciful Thief

Late one evening, I received a call in my mobile from a friend of mine.  I was shocked to know that he had met with an accident and was taken to a nearby hospital.  I rushed to the hospital. I found that my friend had a number of minor injuries and that his clothes were torn. As soon as he could move, I took him to a ready-made store and got him new clothes.  We realized, too, that his mobile phone was missing.  I asked him about the call I received; and then we tried calling his number, which was switched off.  We understood that the mobile phone was stolen; and we were also surprised to know that the thief had done a noble task of informing me by calling the Emergency Contact saved in my friend’s mobile.

ICE – Emergency Contacts

Most of us—including those using a mobile for years—do not seem to be aware of the Emergency Contacts, or ICE-Emergency Contacts (In Case of Emergency – Emergency Contacts).  This Emergency Contact is for use by someone other than the owner, when the owner meets with some emergency.  First of all, we should check whether we have provided the Emergency Contact in our mobile; secondly, we should know how to use this Emergency Contact during any emergency situation we may come across.

Storing Emergency Contacts:

How do we store these Emergency contacts? That depends on the type of phone we are using. There are basically these three types of mobiles available today. I shall explain how to store the Emergency Contact numbers in each of these models.

How to use ICE – Emergency Contacts:

When we come across someone in an emergency situation, where the person is unable to use the mobile or tell us whom to contact, we can help the person by contacting someone whose number is stored in the mobile phone:

Rocky

CRYSTAL

For the last five years, I have been a member of the “Women at the Well Prison Ministry” team, helping to lead Christian retreats for women prisoners. Over two days, we witness to the women prisoners with stories of how we encountered the person of Jesus in our lives and how that made a difference in our understanding of God’s love and mercy. The team leaders have always recognized that two of the most crucial talks are entitled “Healing of Memories” and “Forgiveness.”

Most are victims; some have committed terrible crimes

Most of the imprisoned women are victims themselves of either physical or sexual abuse, extremely dysfunctional families and/or mental illness.  Before God’s love and mercy are able to be real for them, before they can be truly healed and made free, they must recognize the impact of the hurt that has been imposed on them, and be willing to forgive those that were responsible.

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Crystal and Kevin Sullivan

Here are the statutory compliances required of a registered charitable society.

Registered charitable societies play a very vital role in the social development sector of the country.  Hence, recognizing their role in public life, the government has given them many privileges.  However, there are certain rules and regulations to be followed. These rules may be from the points of view of the income tax, GST, FCRA, social security schemes (like the PF and Gratuity, etc.).  This article limits its scope to the income tax.

From Income Tax Point-of-view:

The taxation of charitable societies is governed by  Chapter III of the Income Tax Act, which contains sections 11, 12, 12A, 12AA and 13.  Section 12A/12AA contains the provisions concerning the registration and the registration procedure under the Income Tax Act.  Sections 11 and 12 contain the provisions concerning the conditions to be fulfilled by the charitable societies in order to claim exemption from income tax.  Section 13 stipulates the provisions concerning the trusts which are not eligible for exemption u/s 11 and 12.

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Fr Alex Gnanapragasam SJ

Basing himself on what he has observed and heard, and on seminars for parents, the author looks at what parenting means today, and the things parents should do and avoid.

A Heart of Tenderness
Basil was a middle-aged businessman. Physically strong and used to being successful, he was struggling with a situation he could not manage. He came to meet me during a retreat. His eyes were filling up with tears. Struggling not to burst out crying—since most men feel ashamed of weeping in front of others—he told me his story in between sobs. His teenaged son had been diagnosed with a type of cancer that had killed one of their uncles. His son did not know the seriousness of his illness. “My prayer, Father, is this: ‘O God, send me the cancer, but heal my boy.’ This is all I want.”
This is tenderness—the kind of love that makes a human being place the well-being of another above one’s own, and willing to pay any price for the loved one’s good.
Parents know such love. We have seen it in our parents. Those of us who are parents know it ourselves. In fact, a number of married people have told me that they started understanding their own parents only after they themselves became parents.
A religious sister once shared this experience: “My two brothers and I asked our Mom one day, ‘Mom, do you remember the time when a speeding car was about to hit me, and you dashed in front of that car and pulled me to safety?’ She replied that she did not remember this particular incident, but added that she would be ready to risk her life for any of her children.”
That is what motherly love makes a woman capable of.

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Fr Joe Mannath SDB

This month, our regular columnists, Crystal and Kevin, ask their daughter Christina to speak about her experience of being a mother—especially its spiritual dimension.

Crystal
As a lay couple whose contributions to this magazine reflect thoughts which come from living out our sacramental vocation of Matrimony, we pondered what to write about parenting that would contribute to an understanding from our unique perspective.  Our days of ‘active’ parenting are over. Of course, as a mother and father, there is never a time when you can say you are “done”.  But the difficult years of day-to-day formation and discipline and loving attention are now behind us. For this reason, we asked our daughter Christina, herself a mother of three young children (7, 5, 2 ½) if she might be willing to share anything from her own experience as a young Catholic mother who is doing her best to raise her children in the faith.

Christina
You’d be hard-pressed to find a person who doesn’t express some fear, apprehension, or even downright terror about the prospect of taking part in the Sacrament of Reconciliation these days. The idea of baring our souls, showing our weak spots, putting it all before God… this leaves even the holiest souls feeling tremulous at times.  But as I was trying to explain the Sacrament to my four-year-old the other day, I began wondering why it is that so many of us are still apprehensive about receiving this beautiful sacrament, and how I can prepare my children to participate joyfully and without fear when it’s time.

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Crystal & Kevin Sullivan

It is quite likely that assessment of life, particularly of our dreams, can lead to de-illusioning – a shattering of our unrealistic and idealistic notion of life, our illusions. As we come to midlife, we recognize that long-held assumptions about self, others and the world are not really true. We recognise that many things that were taught to us as truth were actually lies.

At midlife we recognize that life does not move the way we would want it to, that there are things over which we do not have control, that people are not who we thought they would be.

We realise that we are not able to do what we want to, change what we would like to change. We recognise our limitations.

As psychologist C. S. Pearson observes, “We are called to give up the illusion that we can force life to fit our scripts, that we can shape other people to match our expectations, or that we can make ourselves fit our own image of who we want to be (The Hero Within, p. 118)

Reality smashing our dreams
In the first half of life we are driven to pursue idealised dreams, the impossibly high goals and standards we set for ourselves, often as compensation for the powerlessness we experienced in childhood. We are lured by an immature mind to believe in fantasies of limitlessness, that we can achieve anything if only we try hard enough. This is a lie that is told to us often, and by many people around us. By midlife we may have tried very hard indeed, and we only experienced failure, may be again and again.

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Fr Jose Parappully SDB

A religious superior needs to remember that we come together, not mainly to do some work, but to build loving and happy communities, where people feel cared for, and witness to God’s love. Spreading God’s love (through a joyful life of love) IS OUR MAIN WORK.

Work completed; people unhappy
Father Martin considers himself an efficient and capable superior. He makes sure that the work is distributed well, explained properly and followed up. He will check whether each community member has done his assigned duties correctly and on time. If not, he will ask them why. He will remind the young Brother who is a beginner, “Be on time. Never be late. You must correct the homework carefully and on time. Make sure to prepare your classes well.”

Fr Martin is also known to pull up people who are behind schedule, and anyone who does not do what the superior had asked him to do: “I asked you to do this three days ago. You have not yet started working on it. I want it completed, and on my table by 9 am tomorrow.”

People do put in work when Martin is around. Hardly anyone is late for community practices. The “machine” is running smoothly. Jobs get completed on time. The rector looks pleased, and considers himself a successful rector.

Is he?

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Fr Joe Mannath SDB