Can I Start My Christmas Today?

I do not think I can easily make mistake remembering one Christmas time more than 30 years back that’s when I got a new shirt with an extended enlarged pocket - of course only on my insistence so that I can drop in all my little possessions in it.  This was days much before the Christmas Day and I remember exactly that early chilly morning with the new dress on asking my dad if I could start off my Christmas day. I don’t think I ever waited for what he has to say; anyway I was already off to somewhere to show off.

It doesn’t matter which part of the world you come from, whose generation you referred to, children always have the first taste of Christmas celebrations. May be they are too impatient to see the new Christmas KID or they are too excited about their new look – the new dress, the toys, the gifts, the snow or Santa Claus or the carol and the like of the season. I have seen children with the same excitement and anticipation even in a more sophisticated society. I wish we have little more of this enthusiasm and excitement even though that means looking little childlike.

At San Romano (my parish here in Rome) you can have some of these privileges. All these days a day passes by with something to remind you that we are at the threshold of the great event and the anticipation keeps you wild awake for the day we await. Think of the musical concerts we have had in the parish in preparation, some special meals with special groups or movements, a day of celebration for little school kids, and lots of spiritual initiatives to prepare us well worthy of the day.

I guess everyone out there too is busy working out something special for this Christmas and that is great. I wish friends, acquaintances, and all lovers of Christmas celebrations God’s manifold blessings on this Christmas too and get something to take forward to a Happy New to begin with.

A small video clip to have a glance of San Romano Martire Parish, Rome. 

  

Finding a Home at San Romano Martire

I guess I have taken too long to settle down. In fact it is more than a month since my last update. I haven’t said a word about my new place, people and parish here in Rome. I don’t know why I waited so long. May be I did not know where to begin and what to begin but waited rightly for a New Day of the New Liturgical Year (27^th Nov. 2011). Look at the lovely 1^st Sunday Advent candle lit at our parish church. With such sentiment I would wish everyone out there, busy in one’s own right, a season of great hope, a time to reclaim our faith and reaffirm our commitment to the Gospel.
As for the parish, named San Romano Martire (St. Romanus Martyr) that’s where I find myself, I must say I am much impressed and edified in the practice of faith by the people in this parish. This is one parish in Rome where I found the Church is rightly used. We have four masses (plus the vigil mass on Saturday) celebrated on Sundays and every mass the Church is filled to its capacity. On week days too many people frequent both the masses – morning and evening. I found what is even more edifying to see people visiting the Blessed Sacrament all the day through. You hardly find the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament empty even though we do not have perpetual adoration (we have it every Thursday).  You can drop in any day of the week at 6.00 pm to join in praying the rosary. Besides, the parish is engaged in numerous other activities and movements to take the parish forward both in faith and in the day to day life of the parish and parishioners. 
A young and dynamic Parish Priest Don Marco Fibbi is definitely the man pulling the string, keeping the parish going strong and alive. He is assisted by his Assistant Don Julio and two other student priests Don Ayad and me of course who lend him a helping hand. I am more than happy to find myself here to offer my priestly ministry.You definitely would like to know more about this parish. You can visit the site at www.sanromano.org and find out more about the parish. This picture is the interior of the church – the sanctuary beautifully done in mosaic art.

Running Away to Home

Home after three years must be something. I wasn’t expecting something I wasn’t waiting for. In fact, I really needed to be home. I needed to get back and get the feel of the familiar surroundings. I needed to get the sense of the reality out there and not be frustrated by the outlet news. I disparately needed to get the smell of the kitchen smoke which I generously got it spending time with my Dad & Mum around the oven. I wish I could endlessly describe from day one to the finishing hour of my home stay - cut off from the basic necessities of modern gadgets. First of all, no electricity, no road connectivity to the village, I actually walked home 8 kms as the village is cut off from the public transport, no water supply, no possibility of internet connectivity, no televisions around – it all sounds like you lacked everything. But in fact, I had everything. I had all the time. I got no time to waste while I did nothing. I Spent much of my home stay, going around to say hello to as many as I could some of whom I definitely know I will not see them again when I get home the next time (that’s the sad part of it).

I was able to divide my short time (from 17 September to 09 October) between home & diocese. I stayed at bishop’s house where I could say hello to a good number of priests. I spent a day in Mumbai with my brothers and cousins around there. I reached San Romano Martire parish, Rome on 10th October where I will be doing my pastoral ministry as a student priest and continue my studies. The coming days are going to be very busy trying to get myself registered in the university, get settled in the parish and get used to parish life here. I hope friends will say a prayer for me so that I cope up with this new situation. Probably I will be able to share more of my home stay experiences even at later pace when I am allowed to. I only want you to know that I am back and that my escape to home was worth the making.

The Woods

I had some real quiet time as I could not excess to the internet for over a week as both the parishes that I stayed did not have it in their rectories. I had much better time without having to worry if I have to browse for some news or messages. I had some good time doing the things I loved. I was so excited when Fr. Scott Nobbe invited me to join him for fishing and had great time enjoying every single fish I pull up – I tried out with the big mowing machine at St. Joseph’s and ended up cutting the entire open ground of the parish. At Fr. Aaron Jenkins (Bright) I would go around looking for deer, turkeys or geese which I always found them and it was more than exciting. I must be grateful to him also for taking me out to a place I love – the woods. It was in fact a day out – picnic with his parents, sister and family. We really had fun, going around the woods with the four wheel little car and a grand picnic lunch. You will love to spend in such a natural world.

Ordinary Days

Passing off an ordinary day of the week days can be an extraordinary day if you have nothing to cry over. Imagine you have the best house with everything you need: a room, a TV, a laptop, a cell phone, food and drink – just lack nothing in a sense. But what do you do the whole day – get up -  say your lousy prayers,  sit before the television set for a while, browse in for some news and updates from around the world, sip a coffee, move out of the house for a walk around and come back to the same empty house? I mean, you may have the best of everything, but there can be a sense of emptiness, restlessness, or whatever in such a situation. This can be frustrating when you apparently have everything and lack everything - when you have no one to relate to except creating a virtual world around you with modern technologies.

I have tried not to fall into such a monotonous situation. In fact over the past weeks, I have occupied myself doing several things. Going to places has been my weakness for the moment. I stayed a couple of days at Nashua NH with Fr. Daniel, spent a weeklong at Tampa FL with Fr. Augustine Mailadiyil sharing some old and new stories of Manipur and the diocese, a day with Joyce & Annemarie NJ and occasional cookout or dinner out with Fr. Jim & Fr. Josekutty. To me each of these days had been always an extraordinary day. So if guys are wondering how I pass off my ordinary days, it has been always extraordinary, it’s as simple as that.  See also the video clip.

Falling for Niagara Falls

Making a visit to Niagara Falls one of the natural wonders of the world has been my secret desire ever since I landed the United States. But I know not all desires need to be fulfilled and I made no extra effort to realize it. I am only wondering when it comes to good things happening to you, you begin to appreciate and thank God for making it happened. Well, this time around it was Fr. Josekutty who organized a trip for me to Niagara Falls. It was more than a surprise to me when he announced that he has arranged a two day visit to Niagara Falls along with Fr. Sanjay. I was really excited about it and we took off for Niagara on July 26, 2011. It was rather long 8 hours drive from Mt. Carmel Church, NJ but timely coffee stopovers and plenty of music kept us through.

Niagara Falls as we well know is situated at the Canadian-United States International Border – in the Province of Ontario and the State of New York. It is the second largest falls on the planet next to Victoria Falls in southern Africa. And one of the most exciting moments on visiting the Falls was the night visit to the site where coloured floodlights illuminating both sides (United States & Canada) of the Falls for several hours of the night. It almost looked like an artificial colour display over the natural water falls. Looking down from Goat Island or the Bridal Veil Falls, the Cave of the winds looked unbelievable with a rainbow surrounding it. And the most exciting of all is the long expected Maid of the Mist boat ride. It’s just unbelievable and as you near right up to the bottom of the Horseshoe Falls you can feel the weight of the sea of water falling on you. It is an incredible feeling to be right there.

It’s worth spending hours watching the wonder of creation, the beauty of nature all around. It’s a trip worth the making. No one regrets when you have spent every moment enjoying it.

 This is Niagara Falls. Enjoy it.

Surprise and Surprises

From here to there and there to here has been my constant surprieses. Now it is to Washington DC. I do not think if I even had a remote plan to go to Washington DC unless by some surprise. And here you go again, from day one Fr. Bill wanted something special for me and it could not have been better than to take me to the Country’s capital, Washington DC. This means six plus hours of driving. Besides, finding people to cover him in the parish (he is the pastor) isn’t always a pleasant thing to do. But he did not seemed to mind with all these inconvinces. I will never know why he did all these for me.

Up we left at 2.00pm July 5 from Our Lady of Mercy, Winston-Salem NC for Washington DC. We put up at the Friary in Washington who treated us as special guests. The following day we took a double deck hop on - hop off tour that took us around the Washington DC. The tour covering all the important sites of the capital city. You admire the grandeur of the city and all its important sites especially when you visit places like U.S. Capitol Builiding, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, JDR Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, or the Arlington Cemetery and the site of the JF Kennedy family tombs, etc.
The following day we visited the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception at the Catholic University. I must say it was quite an experience, expecially the lower level – the crypt which is so well designed giving an aura of spiritual depth.  Then we came back home-home, Our Lady of Mercy. You are up the next morning and it’s Friday and you must soon be moving to the next weekend.  The time here passed by so fast. I hope to mark a special sketch in here as I move on to the next.
Below is a short clip.

Tour, Detour & Re-Tour

I have posted right away on FB the ordeal I went through as far as my journey to the United States is concerned. As it stands my tour should have began on 29^th June. I promptly started off at about 8.30am from Collegio San Paolo, Roma for the Airport which normally would have taken me 45 minutes-maximum. I earned much patients this day and learned what it means to be caught in the traffic. And promptly reached the airport after 3 hours on the road and 15 minutes left for the flight to take off. By the time I hop on to the shuttle bus and reach the counter I was left with 5 minutes and as much as I hated to hear, I was politely told in negative. They managed to assure me on standby for the next day’s flight. I think the real agony began there. You are never sure if you are going to find a seat the next day and sure enough after hours of anxious waiting the next day until the boarding started and to be told that there isn't a seat to spare. They did find a seat in the flight that goes to Charlotte NC and I boarded on it and got connected to Philadelphia in time only to find that the checked in baggage did not arrived. I got it the next day anyway. This really was an ordeal. It was something like a tour, detour and re-tour if there is such a thing.

And now I must get into action for which I am here for. My first mission station is at Our Lady of Mercy Parish, Winston-Salem in the diocese of Charlotte NC. I reached Greensboro on the Saturday July 3 and Fr. Bill Robinson OFM the pastor was there to pick me up. He is such a kind man and very caring. He made sure that I was really feeling at home and at ease especially after all travel adventures. The mission appeal experience was very positive and the people were actually eager to hear more about our mission, more so Fr. Bill. I am going to be with him through the week until the next weekend when I will move out to another parish in the same diocese of Charlotte NC. I am so happy to have met Fr. Bill, who is well informed, learned and deeply spiritual. We are having great time.

Hi Friends

Shamelessly I’ve turned my back and burried my sketches for more than 100 days. Many things have happened in these long grace filled days. It’s true that the workload has been rather heavy and demanding over the past couple of months finding myself hushing up and patching up my final works especially with the thesis. Otherwise I have no other reason to justify my negligence.

Among many other things, I know I should have sketch it atleast the visit of my companion priest Fr. Stanis from Luven, Belgium - 26^th to 29^th March.  We had such a wonderful break from our studies. We manage to even make a trip to Loreto. And then the visit of Fr. Samuel Kapani from Innsbrugh, Austria -, 26^th April to 1^st May.  We had a wonderful time. We even manage to make a dashing visit to Florence with Srs. Kainee Rose and Irene Mizo on 29^th April. We witness the great moment of the beatification of John Paul II on 1^st May which we participated among the flowing sea of people with great emotion and awe.  

A wonderful get together with the 14 bishops of the region of Northeast India at Collegio San Pietro on 8^th May was a homely experience. And finally, I could be guilty of negligence if I don’t make a special reference to the meeting with the Holy Father Benedict XVI on 12^th May during the Ad limina visit of the bishops. This, I must admit was a unique experience and blessing to be able to see him and talk to him personally and receive his blessings.

Now the last days in the school are fast approaching which means I have to be preparing for the term exams and more importantly being the last year of the license I have to also defend it. I’m sure I am in your prayers and I am immensely grateful for this great faith I have in you.

A Day at San Giovanni Rotondo

It will be a great omission not to visit the Shrine of Padre Pio especially if you are in Italy. In fact, the statistics showed that it is the second most visited shrine in the world. It is located at San Giovanni Rotondo in south Italy. I took an opportunity to be there on 4^th February 2011. This was a wonderful pilgrimage especially in the company of my friend Anna Menghi and three others (Piera, Roberta & Alessandro). We had rather a long drive of nearly 4 hours from Macerata and spent the entire day which included participation at the mass, visit to the tomb of Padre Pio, his living cell, the crucifix of the stigmata, etc. and came back in the evening.

Santa Maria delle Grazie is the Church built during Padre Pio’s own life time. The way of the cross with the statue of Padre Pio at the base and the figure of the resurrected Christ at the top end reflects the serenity of the place. The new Padre Pio Pilgrimage Church is magnificent in its modern architectural grandeur. The interior decorum is a wonder by itself. It’s a wonderful place to spend a day of recollection.