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Muniguda 11 November: It was an experience of a night and a day, energizing and enthralling. The confreres who arrived at Don Bosco Navanirman, Muniguda, for the Provincial Community Day, already in the evening of Monday, 10 November. They were moments, as some of them remarked, of sublime thoughts, fond reminiscences and elevating humour – moments of togetherness, communion and hope. The Provincial Community Day 2014 had already commenced, informally and touchingly, in family spirit.
Next day, on Tuesday, November 11, the official inauguration of the Provincial Community Day began at 9.30 a.m., with a well-prepared Cultural Programme. The Provincial and the members of the Provincial Council were felicitated during this programme.
During his Welcome Address, Fr. Sony Cyriac, the Rector, highlighted the missionary overtones of the Day, being the 139th Anniversary of the First Missionary Expedition of the Congregation. He also brought into relief, the trajectory of the South Orissa Mission of Muniguda, as the expression of the original missionary and rural thurst of the Province. During the Programme, Fr. Thomas Aquinas, through a video-show, recaptured for the group, the painful moments, the Muniguda Mission, went through, during the second Khandmahal persecution of the local Christians.
Several of the confreres also reminisced with the group, their moments of inspiration and the persons behind their inspiration. Interspersing these moments of the celebration of the memory and mission, the aspirants, teachers and the school-children, through well-prepared dances, brought home to the audience, the cultural diversity and riches of Odisha.
All the moments of meals together, especially the sumptuous lunch, prepared by the confreres, were felt moments of togetherness and homeliness. The confreres also gave expression to their gratitude for the hospitality and homeliness, extended by the community, consisting of Fr. Sony Cyriac, Fr. Thattil Chacko, Fr. Thomas Aquinas, Bro. Ranjit and Bro. Naveen (Disciples of Christ) and the aspirants. The confreres were also grateful to the local community, for the thoughtful gesture of gifting each of them with a Coffee-Cup Table Organizer, as a Memento of the memorable occasion, with the imprint of the church cum emblem of the bicentenary of Don Bosco’s birth, on it.
During the Eucharistic Concelebration, presided over by the Provincial, he thanked the Province, the members of the Provincial Council, for their support and collaboration, and especially the pioneering missionaries of the local community and the Community of the CMC Sisters, collaborating with it. Fr. Thomas Pallithanam, during his heartwarming and impact-filled homily, against the background of his personal experience of the Khandmahal Persecutions, and the forthcoming year of Consecrated Life, exhorted the confreres to re-member the past, and hope for the future, so as to live in the present, with passionate commitment.
All in all, the Provincial Community Day 2014, was a micro-level experience of concern, care, love and communion, a celebration of synergy, urging the confreres for greater owning of the Province and its mission, in and through all its lights and shadows.
