PROVINCIAL CHAPTER III

FOURTH DAY (26.10.07)

The theme “A God whose love is great” was highlighted by the community of Kunnamagalam through an experiential prayer service. It helped us to reflect on the attitudes of Christ the Good Shepherd. It was followed by the Holy Rosary animated by the sisters of Puthupally. Rev. Fr. Joe Thannikkal sdb celebrated the Holy Mass and in his homily he described the qualities of the Good Shepherd. The community of Kottiyam animated the Holy Eucharist highlighting the penitential rite.

The hymn on God’s love put us in a prayerful mood before starting the session. Rev. Fr. Joe Thannickal sdb began his talk by differentiating between Formation and Education. Through the statistics he proved that the social changes in the 21st centaury are rapid in comparison with that of old. Hence our mission with the youth should be relevant to the present signs of the times wherein we need to integrate the values in our education system, especially the values of respect for others and the culture of giving.

The commissions were very much active and alive in reporting and discussing the various questions. Many suggestions and proposals were put forward by the assembly with regard to different areas specially Youth Pastoral, collaboration with SDB-FMA and the Salesian family.

The community of Warangal helped us to reflect little more on the love of God during the evening prayer service, depicting some of the various manifestations of the love of God through the power point presentation.

We concluded the day by discussing on the new frontiers suggested by the Salesians and the lay collaborators on various issues like family apostolate, introducing community colleges in some of our centres, strengthening the cooperators and past-pupils units etc. This was followed by the good night on creative thinking for an effective mission.

FIFTH DAY (27.10.07)

The day began with Morning Prayer guided by the community of Vaduvanchal. The theme for the day was “the community- a prophesy of love”. The Holy Eucharist was presided over by Rev. Fr.Joe Fernandez. He focused his homily on the various forms of spirituality through which we experience God.
At 8.30 am the assembly gathered in the hall for the day’s session. The invocation before the session by the community of Khammam invited us to have a deeper experience of the foreseeing love of God.
The session by Fr. Joe Fernandez on ‘Involvement of laity in our mission’ was a moment to realize the richness that we can draw by closely collaborating with the laity. He gave us many practical tips to improve the quality of our collaboration with the laity. We realized that many of our lay friends live a much more committed life.
The presentation of the fifth question was done by all the seven secretaries, with lively interactions from the assembly. This was followed by the discussion on the last question by each commission. In the afternoon too the groups gathered together once again to put forward and pen down the various proposals to GCXXII and the deliberations for PCIII.
The day was concluded with the prayer service animated by Kattappana house, during which we had the joy of recalling and sharing the happy moments in our community and to thank God for it. The short but lively recreation vivified us and made our spirits high.
Mother Provincial during the Good Night, reminded us to refocus our attention on Jesus to live a hopeful life. Each day after the sessions of the fathers, our three reporters did a wonderful job of presenting the previous day’s happening in a nut shell, in an effective and appealing manner.

FINAL DAY ( 28 Oct. 2007)

THANKSGIVING DAY

This day was dedicated to the theme “The dynamism of love in our mission” “The community of Mittappally with their prayerful animation with PowerPoint presentation led us to enter into this theme more deeply.
Fr. Thomas Anchukandam SDB presided over the Holy Eucharist and gave us an inspiring homily on the day’s Gospel, to meditate on the importance of humility that we need to cultivate within us. During the responsorial the youth of AWC, with their rhythmic steps helped us to surrender our minds and hearts to God in thanksgiving.
The community of Thiruthiparambu gave a good start for the session through a song to say that we can love our youth only when they know that there is someone who is there to love them.
Fr.Anchukandam during his talk on the theme, “How to live today the Preventive education of Don Bosco?” stressed on three C’s to be adapted in order that we live the preventive education of Don Bosco in an effective manner – Convictions, Competence and Commitment.

After this, the consolidated final draft of the answers to all the questions of all the groups were presented, which were discussed and passed by the assembly with the necessary modifications. It was followed by drawing up of the proposals for GC XXII and deliberations of PC III.

Election of the delegate to the General Chapter

Sr. Celine Jacob was elected as the delegate to the GCXXII and Sr. Alice Chacko was elected as the substitute.