Yesterday I had the fortune of meeting 43 young Montfort Brothers of St Gabriel at Hyderabad in their new Provincial house. These young religious hailed from the two Provinces of Hyderabad and Pune. My session was more for easing them into the 4-day animation programme they had in mind. I was supposed to enthuse and 'entertain' them prior to the heavy dough that would befall them. It was good interacting with them all, even though for a short time.
I also had the opportunity to meet some of their stalwarts: Br Lambert, a pioneer and senior Brother, for long in the formation line; Br Showry, whom I was meeting after 6 years and who is a very well known Brother among the education/school circles in AP and TS; Br Rocky, the principal of the school here in Kazipet; Br Ronald, the Provincial bursar and another Brother (I forget his name now) who is presently staying put for rest in the Provincial house after years of teaching Theology in Bangalore and other parts of India.
In spite of my best efforts at understanding their formation procedure, I sincerely did not get any clue of what their formation pattern is. But one thing was clearly stated by one of the senior most Brothers who happened to be present for the occasion: Quality of commitment and joy is drastically reducing in the congregation. During the inaugural session wherein he was called upon to address the young religious he stated a few of his concerns about their own provinces and confreres... and I was amused because he seemed to be listing issues plauging us Salesians! Motivation, commitment, joy in religious life, appropriate choices, desire for serious intellectual work, passion for doing some good consistently, hard work... seem to be the areas of concern for the Brothers too!
I also had the opportunity to meet some of their stalwarts: Br Lambert, a pioneer and senior Brother, for long in the formation line; Br Showry, whom I was meeting after 6 years and who is a very well known Brother among the education/school circles in AP and TS; Br Rocky, the principal of the school here in Kazipet; Br Ronald, the Provincial bursar and another Brother (I forget his name now) who is presently staying put for rest in the Provincial house after years of teaching Theology in Bangalore and other parts of India.
In spite of my best efforts at understanding their formation procedure, I sincerely did not get any clue of what their formation pattern is. But one thing was clearly stated by one of the senior most Brothers who happened to be present for the occasion: Quality of commitment and joy is drastically reducing in the congregation. During the inaugural session wherein he was called upon to address the young religious he stated a few of his concerns about their own provinces and confreres... and I was amused because he seemed to be listing issues plauging us Salesians! Motivation, commitment, joy in religious life, appropriate choices, desire for serious intellectual work, passion for doing some good consistently, hard work... seem to be the areas of concern for the Brothers too!
No comments:
Post a Comment