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They are brought in helpless, penniless and in pain—and often unwanted by family members. Here they find more love than had expected, better care than many families give, and a peaceful end in a godly setting.

“Sister, come quickly! He is violent!”

The two nurses were evidently terrified. They rushed to Sr Tabitha’s office, and blurted out, “Sister, please come. He is violent. We do not know what to do.”
Sr Tabitha rushed to the bedside of Anand (name changed), a middle-aged man suffering from mouth cancer, who had been admitted two weeks earlier.

She looked at him, and held his hand.

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Sr Celine Vas BS

Basing herself on her own experience of running a hospice for the terminally ill, Dr Lavina explains, with touching true stories and evident expertise, palliative care and what it can do for a person when a cure is no longer possible.

One week after his admission to the hospice facility, Mr. D’ Souza exclaimed: “From being a cancer patient, I became a human being, a person. The hospital used code words to label me.  For the longest time I was ‘Ca Lung’ and the doctors and nurses called me just that. I had forgotten what my real name was.” Mr D’ Souza was breathless and in severe pain. Every breath was laborious as a large tumour was constricting his lung.  He was hooked on to an Oxygen Concentrator which eased his breathing. He was prescribed Morphine, which relieved his pain and, with that, his spirits lifted too. He was able to speak to his family and even laugh reminiscing old memories. “Why couldn’t you bring me here earlier?” he asked his family.

This is what palliative care does. It does not expedite the dying process, as some think, nor does it prolong life. It focuses on the quality of life and makes the last days as comfortable as possible. In palliative care, the emphasis is on the person and not on the disease. This requires a paradigm shift from the traditional pathology-focussed model of health care delivery. It looks as if, somewhere in the diagnosis-treatment spectrum, the person is often lost sight of, and is reduced to a mere bed number or a diagnostic label.

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Dr Lavina M Noronha

The moment we hear the word “budget,” we may experience an unpleasant feeling! Reason: We tend to see it as an external control, a force limiting our freedom to spend on the things we want . If this is our understanding of the budget, then certainly it will give rise to a negative feeling.  But, in reality, a budget is totally something else.  This article is an attempt not only to clear our misunderstandings on the budget, but also make us see the importance and the need for it in our life and in the life of our institutions.

What is a Budget?

To say it in simple words, a budget is nothing but making a plan to spend our money.  When we say, “making a plan,” we always use it in the context of making a plan to achieve a particular goal.  Likewise, in finance too, when we talk of making a plan, we mean making a plan to achieve a particular financial goal.  Thus, a budget is made not in the air; it is made in the context of achieving certain financial goals, i.e., our needs. In other words, a budget is nothing but creating a spending plan for our needs. And we cannot create a spending plan unless we have money to spend.  Hence, “budget” is understood as drawing up a spending plan for the resources we have. It allows us to determine in advance our future goal and the way to get there.  It helps us to manage our money wisely, so that we can have enough money to do the things we need to do or would like to do.  Depending on the circumstances, it may also mean cutting down on other things so that we can save enough money to do the things we need to do. It helps us to focus on the things that we need and prioritize our spending accordingly. It is to enable us to save money for our greater goals and in the light of it to spend only on our actual needs and not on all our wants.

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Fr Alex Gnanapragasam SJ

Crystal and Kevin share their memories of how palliative care made a huge difference to two persons they loved dearly: Crystal’s aged mother after her stroke and a close friend struck by advanced breast cancer.

CRYSTAL

I’ll never forget the evening Kevin and I received a phone call from my father, announcing that my mother had experienced a stroke and had been taken to the closest hospital. Up until that day, I was unaware of the significant decline in physical and mental functions that occur with a stroke. However, it didn’t take long for me to discover that the effects can be devastating. Over the next few weeks, as my beloved mother struggled to walk on her own, speak with clarity and heal, I came face to face with the difficulties of medical conditions that didn’t have a quick fix.  There was no cast for a broken limb, no antibiotic for bacterial disease, but rather a program of recovery that might or might not bring improved health.

Despair and Hope

As the weeks became months and the months became years, there were moments of despair and moments of hope. Whether a result of incompetent medical intervention, or simply the ravages of the stroke on an elderly woman, there never was a substantial recovery to her former self.  A partial healing left her wheelchair bound, with the ability to speak but with the inability to communicate effectively because of her damaged brain. As a family, we were simply happy to still have her with us and able to show her love and attention.

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Crystal and Kevin Sullivan

Nowadays we find “Mission Statements” everywhere—on the walls of schools and universities, in hotel rooms, in hospital brochures.

The reason is rather simple: A group works with greater enthusiasm and unity if all are clear about, and committed to, a worthwhile mission.

What is your mission?

What is the mission of the group you are leading?

Are you helping the group to fulfil its mission?

Activities and Mission

If I am a Salesian, for instance, my mission is not running schools, or funding projects for street children or providing technical education to youth. These are activities, and can be expressions of a mission—of degraded to a business.

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Fr Joe Mannath SDB

Fr Rappai invites us to move from just “reciting prayers” to a deeper link between work done with love and prayers coming from a grateful heart.

Besides the morning prayers and Eucharist, most Religious communities have a formal community prayer, normally towards the end of the day, expected to be joined by all. In male religious communities the practice is on the decline or abandoned. It may be worth reflecting why the community prayers in religious communities are declining.

Increasing workload, mobility, individual and institutional work schedules in communities with multi-apostolate responsibilities could explain why community prayers are half-hazardly attended. Another major cause could be the endless mass communication floating around us – printed, audio, audio-visual, social media etc…. that all of us (male religious more than female) use most of the day. Calamities, accidents, violence and negative news seem to be the staple of the print, electronic and social media. They linger in the mind, disturb our peace, sleep and tranquillity, for long. Reading, or listening attentively to lengthy prayers written by someone else, often routinized, becomes a drudgery.

Why Less Interest in Community Prayer

Is that the only, or even the main, reason?

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Fr Rappai Poothokaren SJ

What is our attitude towards the millions of children, women and men who have to flee their homeland because of violence, war and grinding poverty? Do we see them as our sisters and brothers, or as a threat or a burden—or do we simply ignore their desperate need?

On 7 January 2019, in his annual but defining address to the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Vatican, Pope Francis said, “Among the vulnerable of our time that the international community is called to defend are not only refugees but also migrants.  Once again, I appeal to governments to provide assistance to all those forced to emigrate on account of the scourge of poverty and various forms of violence and persecution, as well as natural catastrophes and climatic disturbances, and to facilitate measures aimed at permitting their social integration in the receiving countries.  Efforts also need to be made to prevent individuals from being constrained to abandon their families and countries, and to allow them to return safely and with full respect for their dignity and human rights.  All human beings long for a better and more prosperous life, and the challenge of migration cannot be met with a mindset of violence and indifference, nor by offering merely partial solutions.”

A day earlier, on 6 January, in a “heartfelt appeal” to European Leaders, Pope Francis in his Angelus message on the Feast of the Epiphany, urged them to show “concrete solidarity” and respond with compassion urgently to the plight of 49 migrants aboard two ships in the Mediterranean Sea. The Pope was speaking to over 60,000 people assembled in St Peter’s Square.

The Dutch-registered vessel ‘Sea-Watch 3,’ operated by a German humanitarian group, picked up thirty-two of the migrants off Libya on 22 December while ‘Sea-Eye’—a second ship run by a different German charity—rescued another seventeen people on 29 December. Most of them are literally stranded at sea for more than a fortnight.  Both Italy and Malta (countries with apparently Christian roots) have refused permission for the ships to land.

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The three most profitable “businesses” in the world are deeply damaging to human beings—sale of arms, sale of drugs and sale of human beings. From being the third most profitable, trafficking in humans has become the second most profitable industry, since (unlike drugs) a human being can be sold again and again. Think of girls promised jobs in our cities, then gang-raped and sold to brothels where they meet violence and degradation every day. Often they were led there by people they knew and trusted, including some family members.
A recent Vatican document addresses this issue.

The Goods and Services Tax (GST), as we know, is an indirect tax levied both by the Central and State Governments. It is applicable for any activity of “sale” or “transfer” of a “taxable” supply of goods or services for a “consideration” in the course of “furthering one’s business.” It may sound that GST is applicable only to the business entities and not to the Charitable Trusts, but in reality it is not so. To understand this, we need to understand what each of the above terms means. By “sale” or “transfer” we mean not only the actual selling of any concrete object (goods) or service for a price (e.g., selling religious articles, books, milk from the farm, computer maintenance service, security service, etc.,) but also giving a building or ground or land or space on rent (e.g., giving a hall or playground or hoarding space on rent, giving a plot of land for lease rent, etc.).  By “taxable” we mean all those goods and services which are brought under the category of taxable items.

Note that there are quite many items that are not brought under GST.  They are tax-free.  At the same time, there are quite many items which are taxable under GST at the rate fixed by the Government as 6%, 12%, 18% or 28%.  By “consideration” we mean any benefit given against any payment (e.g., an advertised sponsorship for an event).  Here, the donor or sponsor gets the benefit of his name being advertised.

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Fr Alex Gnanapragasam SJ

CRYSTAL
Ever since I was a young girl, I have enjoyed reading stories about the saints. Each saint has such a unique story to tell of how their lives were shaped by their love for Christ. Recently, I read a biography of St. Catherine of Siena, and was captivated by the struggles she faced in being faithful to the Church amidst the wars, plagues and schisms which threatened the people of her land. It occurred to me that, although she lived more than six hundred years earlier, many of the difficulties she faced are just as prevalent today. I experienced a great desire to learn more about her life, so that I could benefit from her experiences. It has been recorded that St. Catherine received supernatural assistance in her spiritual life, and was even given the gift of hearing the voice of Jesus speaking to her of His immense love for all of His creatures and of His desire for her to act lovingly on His behalf.
One story struck me in particular. It occurred at a time relatively early in her life, yet Catherine had already had a number of experiences of ecstasy and therefore had a deep understanding of Jesus’ love for all persons. By this time, she was already well known for her generosity in giving the best of her family’s food and clothing to the poor, often needing to smuggle it away because of the resistance she received. One cold winter’s day, she was praying in church when she was approached by a scantily clothed man, who asked her for relief from the cold. Not wanting to force him to come home with her, she took off some of the clothes she was wearing and gave them to him. But they were not enough to keep him warm, so he followed her home where she was able to find a few more items for his comfort. Finally the man realized that she had nothing left to give and he thanked her for her charity.

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Crystal and Kevin Sullivan