Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions

Mariam Nilaya Novitiate – News Letter 2020

Chiguru

Dear Sisters,

Here comes Chiguru once again with the blessings of wellbeing and hope during this

time of lockdown. Our life is no more the same as this pandemic has created lot of

uncertainties and chaos in the lives of all the people throughout the world. We believe

that whatever happens has a purpose. We see around us the increase of faith of all walks

of life irrespective of religion or status. As St. Paul says in Rom 8:18- “I consider that

the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be

revealed to us”. So let us continue to place our trust in the only true God who knows

the best. Our Mother Foundress too always encouraged us by saying “Whatever may

have been our trials in life, we are happy if we remain faithful to God’s grace in every

circumstances”. Though we were disturbed a bit due to this Corona Pandemic, the

loving presence of God is constantly keeping us alive and active. So we would like to

share with you some of our cherished experiences of the past months and inspirations.

“Everything Happens for a Reason”

Sometimes people come into our life and we know right away that they are meant to be

there, to serve some sort of purposes, teach a lesson or help to figure out who we are or

who we should become. Take time and interest in listening to them so that our life will

never be wasted. Sometimes things happen to us that seem horrible, painful and unfair

at first, but later we find that without those obstacles we would have never realized our

potential, strength and will-power. Illness, injuries, loss of someone; all occur to test the

limits of our soul. Without these small tests, life would be like a smooth straight path

leading to nowhere. The people we meet, who affect our life, the success and downfall

we experience, help us to create who we are and who we should become. Even from the

bad experience, we can learn. In fact, they are sometimes the most important ones. If

someone hurt us, forgive them for they have helped us to learn about

‘trust’ and the importance of being ‘cautious’; if someone

loves us, love them back not only because they love us; but

because they are teaching us to love. Make sure every day

to appreciate every moment and take from it everything

we possibly can, for we may never experience it again.

Talk to people you have never talked before and in fact

listen more. Let yourself be an independent person and set

your goals high. Tell yourself you are a great individual and

believe in yourself, no one else will believe in you; neither can

you make your life anything you wish. Have a fighting spirit and never hesitate to go

back into a struggle. Most importantly, if you want to do what is good, do it, for you

never know what tomorrow may have in store, and learn a lesson in life each day you

live. Someday everything will make a perfect sense. So, for now laugh at the confusion,

smile through tears and keep reminding yourself that “Everything happens for a

reason”.

“We can’t complain because rose bushes have thorns or rejoice because thorn bushes

have roses.” (Abraham Lincoln)

Banrilang M. shadap

“Celebrate Life”

Life is worthwhile; if you don’t know how to handle it, it will defeat you. You have to

learn to exist but alone succeed.

Life is worthwhile if you learn from your own experiences, both negative and positive.

We learn from what we see and pay attention to what we hear, be a good listener.

We learn from what we experience, accept it.

We learn from what we read, and learn from songs, sermons, and from conversations.

So, let us keep on learning from every source as there is a saying, “Every experience is

an opportunity to learn and grow.”

I am happy to share my experiences during the

lockdown. In the beginning of this pandemic, the world

around us became silence: a silence of fear, grief, shock

and mourning; I too felt and experienced the same like

all the rest, but having stayed within the four walls for

almost five months, I have realised that “the Lord is

trustworthy in all His ways and kind in all His doings”

(Ps. 145:17). I also realized how blessed we are and we

still have much more to be grateful to God. At this

moment of fear and anxiety, as I got the opportunities to

spend more time before the Blessed Sacrament daily

with the feeling of concern for the suffering world, I have received the gift of hope

which can be found only in God, in his love and in his promises; because He assures us

that whatever befalls on us, He will be with us always. So, we need to keep our total

trust and faith in Him. The light that Jesus brought into this world after his passion,

death and resurrection, may be seen by all and be healed from this present pandemic and

rejoice in the Lord forever.

Binita Soreng

Life is Beautiful

The greatest gift from God to us is the gift of our life. As we live our life, we discover

that “life is a mystery”. We make our life worth-living, when we realise to respect its

value, and cherish the thought that God is the owner of our life. Life is not in our hands

that we can hold, keep and use according to our will and wish, but it is in God’s hands

to give and to take. We are just pilgrims on this earth, while journeying towards our

destination, we may walk on straight, wide-ranging or on narrow paths; sometimes we

may have to climb the hills and come down and cross

through the desert or water areas. But our journey still

continues through all these paths. And in all seasons, storms

and clouds are unavoidable experiences. Continue to

journey forward in life with new adventures and hopes,

cherishing the sweet memories and appreciating the

challenging moments that have made us strong. So, let us

constantly thank God for our life and always strive to find

its meaning and beauty as we journey.

Sunita Munda

Dewdrops of Hope

Each morning in every flower there’s a

touch,

A dewdrop of hope

A miracle of love to cope

A gift which is very unique

At this time of Pandemic.

Dewdrops of hope on the migrants’ roof

A message that God’s love is proof

Hope is never a mistake

Even though many lives are at stake.

At any stage, Hope is cultivatable

Remember each one is vulnerable

Those settled at home for quarantine

Hope for those living in a marginal line.

A Hopeful heart

Always have something to put as an art

Though for some, life is very hard

Hope will give

them a new start.

Remember

those, no safe

place to go

Remember

those, when

wind can easily

blow

Remember those, left with no choice

Remember those, who cannot rejoice.

Never give up to Hope

Never give up to cope

When fear comes just in the blink of an eye,

There is someone out there saying “Be

Hopeful it is “I”.

Fancy M Pdang.

Courage

In the blinking fearful eyes hide courage

Open up your eyes

and you will see nothing, but courage!

And fear is gone.

In the darkness of cloud

A flying bird has something to say:

Do you dare to heal?

Cloud is sure to bring rain

and sun is sure to rise,

courage! And you’ll see rising Hope.

In the restlessness of anxiety,

Be still, calm and see

The ripples of courage

In the deep sea of fear.

Make courage your friend

When you stop your journey

You will hear her whisper “Let’s go on…….”

Curve your way with courage

When it seems reaching stoppage

Then go on…………. Cause life is a journey.

Radhika Lakra

Realizing the importance of the Lord’s Banquet during Lockdown:

“In the Eucharist, Christ is always renewing His gift of self which He made on the cross. His

whole life is an act of total sharing of self out of love.” Pope Francis

The invisible deadly virus has passed rapidly in silence to every corner of the world, kept all human

beings in the lockdown. During this lockdown period of nearly four months, I was away from the

sacrament of Love which is the Eucharistic celebration. Although I had the opportunity to attend the

Holy Mass online, yet I missed the real and authentic living presence of Jesus in my life. This

situation has put in me the great awareness that the Lord

renews my life and fills my emptiness with His Divine

presence. It reminds me of the words of Jesus as He

says, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will

never hunger and whoever believes in me will

never thirst.” (John 6:35). So, during the lockdown,

I have discovered the deep sense of longing for God

and have experienced God in a unique way.

Dear sisters, let us make the best use of this time by

creating a profound relationship with God and

experiencing His immense love day by day. Let us see everything in the eyes of faith in Jesus whom

we follow as our mother foundress said, “May each one seek only God in everything and know how

to live by faith and holy surrender. Love God, dear children! Let us go forward in all humility and

charity. (Euphrasie Barbier 1870).

Karishma Ekka

Love is the Measure of Faith

“Let us promote friendship and respect between the men and women of other religious

traditions in order to build the world of peace” (Pope Francis)

As part of our novitiate program we did research on 7 different

religions, which are mostly practiced in India, such as Islam, Hinduism,

Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jorastranism and Bahai.

I am enriched with new knowledge and have developed the sense of love,

respect and changed my attitude towards the people of other faiths. It is

very true that ignorance can lead one far from

knowing the truth and that can create problems

and misunderstandings among the people. I

realized that all faith teaches about goodness, beauty and love. Religions

are like a path way that leads us to God, the creator, and the source of

every living being. All religion directs its believers to “Love God” and

this “love of God is realized in the love of one’s own neighbor”. Yet,

why so much of intolerance, persecutions and killings in the name of religion in the world? This

question disturbed me and as I reflected, I found solution for myself that lack of love for one

another and egoism which leads one to feel that, “I am better than the other” this creates disunity

and hatred among the people. It is true, if we have to build the world of peace we need to love and

respect all as children of God. The failure in loving ones neighbor is failure in living our faith, for

faith without love is in vain.

Neeraj C Gill

Prayer for Healing

Loving God, Creator of our being, Redeemer of the human race, Sanctifier of our soul,Look down

upon us gently and listen to our cry.

When confusion and hopelessness fill our hearts,

And darkness covers the face of the earth,

God of mercy and compassion, be the hope in our hopelessness,

Be the strength in our weakness, be the light in our darkness,

And be the comforter to the broken hearted.

May your Divine breath bring healing to our cosmos,

May your Divine touch heal the afflicted, and

May your Divine presence purify our world, Amen.

Prsdhansia Kullu

Called to be All to ALL

Mothers are a precious gift of God to each one of us, so also God

has created the Mother Earth to be our Mother who carries

everything and everyone in her loving bosom. Mothering is the

most important act in every sphere of life, be it physical,

emotional, psychological, spiritual or social. This happens when

we become mother to all, as well as to our Mother-Earth. During

the lockdown, I have realised the importance of being in the belly

of God-Trinity (“in Him, we live, move and have our being”. Acts

17:28) as the revival of our common home is taking place. As she

is having a time of relaxation with the silence of the economic

market, fresh green surroundings and its uncontaminated

resources. God provides us everything we need through nature.

But human greed has destroyed the Mother Earth by misusing her resources and forgetting the

purpose of God’s creation - that is: to praise and love God as St. Paul said, “From Him and through

Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen” (Rom 11:36). God is in all and

He is all to all.

Dear sisters, let us cherish the call of our Mother Earth to become all to all by sharing our life with

others selflessly just like her. Never forget that our Mother Earth is always a Mother - before our

birth and even after our death. Our life here on earth is “in between Birth and Death”. Let us live by

valuing and respecting each little thing that lies on earth. Let’s become all to all by being

interconnected to all. We could say more, but could never say enough, let our final word be,

“He is the all”. (Sirach 43:27)

PreetiTirkey.

“Take Life Positively”

Once upon a time a girl used to complain to her father for every

single pain and struggle in her life. Her life became so miserable

and left her confused about how to go on with her life. So, her

father taught her a lesson taking potatoes, eggs and ground

coffee-beans and boiled them separately in high flame. When it

was cooked, he explained to her that each faced the same

adversity. The potato went in strong, hard and relentless, but it

became soft and weak, whereas the egg was fragile, its cell protecting its liquid and became hard,

the ground coffee-beans were unique, it changed the water and formed something new. She sipped

the coffee; its rich aroma brought a smile to her face.

So, when adversity knocks at our door, let us stay positive and think in a different way. Things

happen to us, but the only thing that truly matters is how we react to it and what we make out of it.

Life is all about learning, adopting and connecting. Let all the struggles that we experience, be it big

or small, may be turned into incredibly constructive. Let’s prepare our hearts to accept the

challenges of this present time so that we may be like the above mentioned - things may be able to

change our reality into something new and meaningful. Let us pray and aspire to do God’s will, stay

positive, stay safe.

Terisale Newme

Gratitude for God’s Blessing

Each event that takes place in our life has something to communicate

to us. We know that God works wonders and reveals Himself beyond

our imagination. “God is able to provide you with every blessing in

abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may

share abundantly in every good work.” (2Corinthians 9:8). During this

time of pandemic, we have realized the blessings in disguise. Though it

has taken away many lives and caused so much of suffering all around,

yet, many good things are happening. Many people have realized their

need for God, a time to immerse ourselves with God, self and others. Staying at home, we are able

to realise and accept ourselves as the temple of the Holy Spirit. That’s

how we have become the church for ourselves. In spite of this

pandemic, we are so blessed to accomplish many activities during

this period of lockdown and enjoy good health, fresh air and fresh

food. Our gardens are flourishing with flowers and vegetables. As

we are aware that the whole humanity is fighting between life and

death, we send the vibrations of peace, inner-joy and hope to our

suffering world. We continue to thank and praise God for His

unconditional love for us.

Cherime M. Mara

“Go to the People to Whom I Send You” (Jer 1:7)

On 30th of May 2020, we rejoiced along with our three sisters Baniewkor, Irose and Usha

who courageously said “Yes” to God to belong to Him forever. The ceremony was very

simple, unique but very solemn and graceful. We experienced the enormous love of God

everyday especially during the time of our preparations till the day

our three sisters consecrated themselves to God. Our main

celebrant was Fr. Stanislaus D’Souza SJ, the provincial of

Karnataka Province, and the concelebrants were Fr. Manohar SAC,

our parish priest, Fr Sahaya Edison SAC and Fr. Maria Coin SAC .

Fr. Stany broke the Word of God with a stimulating homily which

was very profitable for us religious, where he invited all of us to

have the following 5 things in order to be effective disciples of

Jesus and to live our religious life meaningfully. He said, we must

always remember to have:

Rubber band to be flexible in times of challenges, but not too much stretching.

Tooth pick, to pick up only what is good and helpful for us.

Pencil, to write down our good experiences, not in our diary but in our hearts.

Eraser to be able to forgive and forget the wrong being done to us, and to forgive the

offender.

Chocolate always to cherish and relish the good moments of our life.

After the Eucharistic celebration, we had a short felicitation programme followed by very

delicious lunch. The celebration was very unique and memorable. We thank all the sisters for

your prayerful support.

Mebalarihun Nadon

“Media is a means of communication, quick information in times of needs

to build the connection from near and far”

Media plays an important role in our life especially at this time of crisis of covid-19

pandemic. It gives us the awareness of what is happening in the world. It

awakens and inspires us to know the situation in the world by

watching news, reading newspapers, magazines and so on.

Imagine, if there is no media at all, what would be the condition of

our world! Communication would be another great crisis. Covid-

19 pandemic swiftly sweeping over all the nations which we

cannot hear or even see. It is through the media that people are

becoming more aware of the dangerous time that we are facing today.

This pandemic closes the mind and heart like a dark cloud that

covers the humanity with sadness and despair. It is amazing to see

how the media works, through which we come to know many things

and live productive life, in spite of the lockdown. We also come to

know the pain and sufferings that are still going on in our cosmos, which invite us to be in

solidarity with our suffering brothers and sisters by praying and asking the grace from God,

who is our healer, to show mercy and compassion to our world and to the whole of creation.

Evanish Susngi

“God Goes Before Us”

One day, God was with angel Gabriel admiring from heaven the beautiful earth which he

created. He saw that the wind was blowing gently, the rivers flowing peacefully, the

mountains standing confidently, the trees dancing quietly, the flowers smiling cheerfully, the

birds and animals flying and running freely. God felt contented to see that all His creation

was happy and perfect. But He felt unhappy when He turned to see his noble and unique

creation which He made in His own image and likeness: the human

beings. They are greedy and whatever they possessed are not

enough, and they don’t bother to share with the needy. God said

to Gabriel, “I know that there will be many crises that are

waiting for my people such as floods, drought, diseases,

pandemics etc.” Gabriel asked, “Lord, you are the creator of

them all, how could you allow this crisis to happen in their life?”

God replied, “It is not I who will give them this crisis, but they

will suffer because of their own deeds.

On my part, I am always ready to help, love, care, console, and forgive them. So, I have

decided that before all these things occur, I will send my helpers to assist my people from

suffering and dying.” Gabriel asked, “Who are going to be their helpers, Lord?” God replied,

“As I have sent Joseph, the son of Jacob before his brothers to Egypt to save them from

famine and as I have sent my only beloved Son Jesus, to give salvation and redemption to my

people from sin, so also, I will send the missionaries like RNDMs, MC Sisters, priests both

diocesans, and other religious men and women, and even lay people

like doctors, nurses, volunteers and police personnel to provide

for the needs of my children in any situation. They will act as

my hands, feet, and heart to love and care.” Gabriel bowed

down to worship God and said, “Lord, you are wonderful

indeed and there is no one on earth or in heaven who is wise,

loving, caring, merciful, and compassionate like you. Praise be

to you and to your holy name forever, Amen.” God smiled and

stretched out his hands to bless all His helpers, who are on earth.

Steffica Khongtim

Pope Francis said, “The Virgin Mary is a symbol of how God often works through the

poor and unknown to carry out His plan for redemption”. Like Mary our Mother, we are

called to share fully in the service of our brothers and sisters. Let us live and work as sign of

hope and redemption, which will find its fulfillment in that eternal Kingdom where to Reign is

to serve”.

Wish you all Happy Feast of Assumption

May Mary our Mother

Protect and keep us safe.

With prayers and well wishes

Novices

Mariam Nilaya Novitiate

Bangalore – India.