Provincial Circular 01 January 2019
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PROVINCIAL CIRCULAR 01 JANUARY 2019 DEAR CONFRERES, Greetings and Prayerful Wishes at the dawn of this New Year 2019. “The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn his face to you and give you peace (Num 6: 24 – 26).” At the outset I wish you all a prosperous and peaceful new year 2019. I extend my prayers and blessings that the Good Lord may continue to bless all of us, lead us and make us ready to surrender to His will throughout this year. Stepping into another year, should call us to introspect our past, take stock of our present and march ahead with a new hope of growing closer to HIM, the source of our true joy and peace. On the first day of the year we celebrate our Blessed Mother as the ‘Mother of God.’ She becomes our Mother who is tender and lowly, poor in material goods and rich in love, free of sin and united to Jesus, surrendered her entire self to God and pondered everything in Silence. As her children, we look at her on the first day of the year to begin anew and to march ahead with her motherly protection. On 24 January we keep the feast of St. Francis De Sales who inspired St. John Bosco with his meekness and from whom we derive the name ‘Salesians.’ Let us pray to the patron of our congregation that we may imitate him in his extraordinary meekness and in winning the souls of the young. We will celebrate the feast of our father and founder St. John Bosco on 31 January. We are privileged to be called as the ‘sons of Don Bosco,’ who responded creatively to the call of God, trusting in Divine Providence and becoming a true shepherd to the young. All our communities will be definitely planning to celebrate this feast in a fitting manner. I recommend that we follow all our traditional practices of praying the novena, conducting triduum service, organizing Bosco Month, tournaments and celebrating the feast with the priests and religious of our neighborhood, members of the Salesian Family and the young people in our institutions and in the neighborhood. To be faithful to Don Bosco and his mission is to cultivate in ourselves a strong and abiding love for young people, especially the poorest. May our founder continue to intercede for all of us and increase our passion in saving the souls of the young. Provincial Circular 1 Salesian Province of Tiruchy – INT (pd27/2019) The United Nations General Assembly has declared 2019 as the International Year of Indigenous Languages with the intention of raising awareness about languages of indigenous peoples all over the world. UNESCO states that around 7000 languages are spoken in the world today. Approximately 600 have already disappeared in the last century and it continues to disappear at a rate of one language every two weeks. There is a need to preserve, promote and revitalize the indigenous and endangered languages. It is a reminder and a call for all of us to uphold our mother tongue and emphasize its importance. We must not be averse towards learning other languages. At the same time learningother languages for proficiency and for profession must not take away our love and proficiency in our mother tongue.We are proud to be called ‘Tamilians’ and we should be able to read and write fluently in Tamil, a classical and an ancient language, taking all the possible ways of becoming skilled in it. But at the same time we must take pride in respecting people speaking other languages and avoid discrimination on the basis of language and culture. We must impart the same, during this year, to all our children and young people to build up our Nation, appreciate the richness of our country with many languages and cultures and find unity in diversity. We are now living in an era where the farmers are fighting for their rights and livelihood. Majority of our people are farmers. If they don’t cultivate good and organic agricultural produce, it will not only affect the health of the Nation’s economy but also the health of the citizens’ immunity, opening the doors to all sorts of diseases. Therefore as we celebrate the feast of PONGAL in this month let us all join hands with our farmers in fighting for their rights and livelihood. It will be the best way to celebrate Pongal, the feast of the harvest. Let us extend our gratitude and prayers for our farmers as they express their gratitude to Sun-God, people who collaborate and the animals that toil. We wish them happiness and God’s Blessings. Let us encourage our children and young people to cultivate love for organic farming and help them to venture into this field of agriculture. Our Tamilnadu Government has decided and passed on the Act, to eradicate usage of plastics to preserve the environment and to create a better and healthy world for the present and future generation. Many of our communities in the Province have already made tremendous efforts in keeping the campus ‘Plastic free zone.’ Through the ‘ten- point Eco-concern programme,’ the Province has already ventured into many initiatives to protect the mother earth and to stress the importance of organic cultivation. I recommend, once again, all our communities to avoid, at any cost, single use throwaway plastic in our communities and promote a green and clean environment. Provincial Circular 2 (pd27/2019) Salesian Province of Tiruchy – INT MISSIONARY APPEAL FROM THE RECTOR MAJOR To mark the centenary remembrance of the apostolic letter Maximum Illud of Pope Benedict XV (30 November 1919), written after the end of the First World War, Pope Francis has declared the month of October 2019, as the ‘extraordinary missionary month.’ Our Beloved Rector Major states that the answer to the Missionary call is the best gift that the society of St. Francis De Sales, the Salesians could offer to the Lord, to Pope Francis and to the Church and above all to our beloved young people of all our presences in the world. He thus invites all the provinces, all the Salesians through 150th Missionary Expedition which will be held on 29 September 2019 in the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians at Valdocco, to celebrate and remember the missionary zeal of Don Bosco and the generosity of the missionary Salesians. Rector Major says, ‘I dream that each Province in this year can make available to the Rector Major at least one confrere for the missio ad gentes, ad exteros, ad vitam.’ I wish to encourage confreres who feel that God is calling them to serve as a missionary, to come forward and respond to this invitation of the Rector Major. SALESIAN CENTRAL OFFICE - SACRED HEART BASILICA (Sacre Coeur) ROME After series of discussions and having decided with the General Council, the Rector Major announces the definitive decision to place the ‘Salesian Central Office’ at the “Sacred Heart” Hospice of Via Marsala 42 in Rome.The General Council, considering the high and unsustainable expenses for the purchase of a new house or buying houses abandoned by other religious institutes and its renovation, arrived at this definite decision of ‘Scare Coeur’ in Rome to be the seat of the Rector Major. On behalf of the Province let us extend our prayerful support to our Rector Major and the General Council as they permanently get settled in Rome. The Address: Salesian Central Office, Via Marsala, 42, 00185 ROMA, ITALY. SEVENTH PROVINCIAL CHAPTER – PC 2019 The preparatory commission has completed its task and has come out with a summary document putting together various suggestions and contributions from our communities and confreres. At this juncture I wish to thank the preparatory commission for their hard work and commitment. The Pre-Capitular meeting will be held on 05 January 2019, Saturday and the Provincial Chapter will be held from 14 to 18 January 2019 at Don Bosco, Manikandam, Trichy. Most. Rev. Antony Devotta DD, the Bishop Emeritus of Tiruchy will preside over the Inaugural Eucharistic Celebration on 14 January 2019 and the inaugural address by Sr. Jacqueline Mary, SSAM, Superior General of St. Anne’s, Madras. This is the time to intensify our prayers that all our efforts and contributions may refine our mission for the young people entrusted to our care. I request everyone to keep this important event of the Province, PC 2019, as the intention-uppermost in your prayer moments during these days. All the participants are expected to be at DB Manikandam before 09.30 am on 05 January 2019 for the pre-capitualr meet and by supper time on 13 January 2019 for the Provincial Chapter 2019. Provincial Circular 3 Salesian Province of Tiruchy – INT (pd27/2019) PROVINCIAL COMMUNITY DAY The Provincial Community Day will be held in Don Bosco Manikandam on 19 January 2019. The programme will begin with the Holy Eucharist at 9.30 am. It is an occasion to thank the Lord for the very many gifts we have received as a province and to pray for His continuous assistance and blessings. On this day the two Silver Jubilarians of Ordination Fr. George Arockiaraj, Fr. Sahayaraj Arulkannu, the five Silver Jubilarians of Religious Profession Fr. Augustine Joe, Fr. Sengol Justin, Fr. Gnanadickam Arockiasamy, Fr. Chinnappan George, Fr. David Ryan and the five New PriestsFr. Adaikalam Daniel, Fr. Arockiasamy Thomas, Fr. Francis Britto, Fr. Jebamalai Paulsamy and Fr. Raj Arul will be felicitated. I invite you dear confreres to join this celebration to cherish our togetherness, express our deep sense of belonging to the Province, our appreciation for our confreres, members of the Salesian Family, Lay mission partners and renew our fidelity to the young.