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Showing posts from January, 2018

Meeting the Superior General of the MC's

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The last part of our mission trip across the world was a very special meeting. Our group had the honor of having a private encounter with Sr. Mary Prema, who is the current superior general of the Missionaries of Charity, which means that she is in charge of all Missionaries of Charity (over 5,000!) in the entire world. I can’t imagine that it is easy being a successor of a saint! She surely has very big (or should I say very little?) shoes to fill. We had the meeting in the mother house of the order in a humble room next to the tomb of Mother Teresa. Even though she recently arrived from a very long trip, she had a very humble, yet motherly patience, gentleness, and subtle joy – true marks of a Missionary of Charity. She was very happy to learn that we were well on our way to the priesthood, and we had the opportunity to absorb some of her words of wisdom and encouragement. She started off by reminding us that none of our experiences in Kolkata are supposed to end. Rather, w

Joy

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One of our evenings in Kolkata, we had the opportunity to visit an orphanage.  First we went upstairs with the youngest children, and we got to hold them and play with them a little bit, and they were adorable!  Thankfully, we were allowed to take pictures, and we got plenty... Then we went down to their patio where they put out a simple reception for us.  After we ate, the older kids came outside.  At first, we played a few songs for them, from Journey to Frozen and everything in between, but we quickly realized that they wanted to sing for us. They sang many nursery rhymes with great joy and enthusiasm, and we did our best to keep up.  It was beautiful to see so many smiling faces in a place that I had not considered to be overly joyful, yet here was evidence of their joy brimming over! It was a lesson that I think our whole group had to learn many times over: that joy can be found in any and every circumstance if you will let it.

Bhālōbāsi

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              A very profound experience I had at the House of the Dying was with a patient named Frank, who I got to know fairly well over the course of a couple mornings. He was a 74 year old man without family, without much money, and with a blown-out knee requiring a surgery he could not afford. He was not terminally ill, but he was brought there by the sisters because he still needed a great deal of assistance to live that no one else could provide for him.              One of the first things that really struck me to the heart in Kolkata was when I first introduced myself to Frank.  After asking him for his name, I received no invitation to share my own. I thought that was a little odd and decided to just tell him my name, but he made no response (most people will repeat it or give some confirmation). I said it a second time in case he had not heard it, but his response to my repetition was to the effect that there was no point in trying to memorize a name with a face who’d

A Few Links

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Hello All, Thanks for following our blog thus far, there are a few more posts to come, so stay tuned! In the mean time, here are a few links that we wanted to share: This is the organization that helped fund our trip: http://pathwaystochildren.org/pathways-to-children-kolkata-2018/ The Saint John Vianney Seminary Facebook Page (Stay uptodate for future events and mission trips): https://www.facebook.com/SJVSeminary/notifications/ Finally, here is a large collection of photos we took while in Kolkata: https://www.flickr.com/gp/sjvcollegeseminary/8jRW4X

Seminary in India

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We arrived at Morning Star College Seminary this morning and we were met with a magnificent sight. All of the seminarians had come out to greet us. Coming off the bus we went down the line of men, shaking their hands as if we were the president. It was such a warm welcome. After being greeted by the seminarians we were all presented with leis, made out of lilies and roses. You could tell that they truly enjoyed us being there. Afterward we went to their assembly hall. We were officially greeted and some of their seminarians that put on a show for us and sang a couple of songs. I really enjoyed seeing the dynamics of the seminary. At Morning Star College Seminary they have roughly 200 seminarians that are from 30 different diocese. They have men from all over. There are some from north India and others from the south. There are also others that are from China and Nepal. For this reason there are a number of different languages that are spoken throughout the seminary. Between

"More!"

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While in Kolkata, I had the opportunity to work with children at the Daya Dan house during our time. From the moment I entered the house, I could feel a deep sense of joy. Each person I encountered was happy to be working in Daya Dan with these children who had been left on the street because of disabilities they had. Meeting Sister Sophia, the sister who is in charge, was great, and you could feel the joy just radiate from her being. She was the mastermind behind everything in this place, and everyone knew it. The amount of love that poured out of this woman to this house was immense, and without it, the house wouldn’t be the same.  She assigned each one of us to an individual child when we first arrived and that is where I met Bernard. Bernard is a young man who is sixteen years old with severe physical disabilities, he couldn’t hold his head up on his own, was unable to walk, and wasn’t able to hold anything in his hands. The most challenging disability Bernard has is t

Breakfast with the Archbishop

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              On Tuesday I had the opportunity to have Mass and breakfast with the Archbishop of Kolkata, His Excellency Thomas D’Sousza. After having mass with the Archbishop, our group drove over to the Archbishop’s residence. The residence is a magnificent old house that speaks to the former days of prosperity in Kolkata. Archbishop D’Sousza had an American style breakfast prepared with a Bengali twist. We had fried eggs, sandwiches, stir fry, tea and  coffee. He ate with us and answered questions about his life and ministry. All of this he did with great intentionality and care. After this we had an opportunity to pray in his private chapel and take some time to rest in silence with the Lord. Later on we gathered together to talk with the Archbishop one last time. Many of us asked questions about his early life and his call to the priesthood. It was inspiring to hear his great willingness to follow the Lord with such amazing trust. In early high school, a bishop from another

Go Out to the Streets

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Nirmal Hirday, (Khalighat), was one of the most difficult places I have ever worked. The people are filled with a sense of sadness but at the same time Joy was still present in the residents. This was evident in one of the newest residents of Khalighat that I worked with, his name is Laloo. It seemed like a typical afternoon volunteering, when, suddenly, one of the sisters came up to me and asked me to come with her.  As we hurried across the building I asked her what we were doing, she replied, “We are going out on the streets to bring in a new patient, come.”  I didn’t even think twice about what I was doing, but I knew this experience was something that would impact me greatly.               Sister, myself and another Volunteer went out and quickly walked down the street and found the man sister was informed about. He was a small, old, and frail man who was helpless and needed hope brought back into his life. Sister paused for a moment and then, with compassion and care,

A Volunteer's Day at the House for the Dying

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              This mission trip I have had the opportunity to serve at Khalighat (the House for the Dying) Chalk Board on the Stairs leading to the Chapel in the Mother House . Here I have had the privilege to serve the poorest of the poor and those most forgotten. Here I have been challenged to give more and more each day.               Each day begins hopping on an overcrowded bus at roughly 8 am. Its about a 20 minute ride to a nameless street, packed with life and color, sights and smells. It’s a 10 minute walk dodging children, men women, cats, dogs, and rats. After arriving we join the novice sisters for prayer, offering our work to the Lord, asking Him to work through us. I have been touched how everything with the Missionaries of Charity begins with prayer. They do nothing, no works and no service without praying first. After prayer I go to my post. Armed with nothing but an apron I begin to do laundry. I wash sheets and clothes for the poor for over an hour at the b

Mass with God's Children

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Attending Mass each day is one of the graces that we, as seminarians, get to receive.  Mass allows us to encounter Christ in his passion repeatedly, and each mass provides an opportunity to experience the beauties of our Catholic faith.  On the Epiphany, many of us attended mass at Daya Dan.  Daya Dan is a home for mentally and physically handicapped children from the ages of about 4-17 years of age, and it is run by the Missionaries of Charity.  I was able to encounter Christ in a special way during this mass since children, especially those who have disabilities, are able to worship so purely.  From a worldly view this mass was chaos, and yet from a spiritual viewpoint this mass was… still chaos.  However, the chaos was beautiful and innocent.  Pure worship, no duplicity of heart.  Each child responded to all the mass parts, yet each at different times and different variations of tone and volume (much of the volume was at or below audibility).  They couldn’t help themselves, th

First Day of Service

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My first day volunteering started with waking up for a rosary, The Divine Office/Holy Hour, and going to Mass with the Missionaries of Charity at 6am.  I was then assigned to a place called Daya Dan, a home for mentally and physically handicapped children.  To get there, a group of us had to take a public bus 20 minutes to another part of the city, and hop onto a three-wheeled vehicle called a “tuk-tuk,” big enough for three people (four people uncomfortably), and ride another 5 minutes to our destination.  Mind you, lane-changes that occur while driving almost always result in going into oncoming traffic, so these vehicle rides were intense! After weaving in and out of traffic to reach Daya Dan, we walked into a side alley and into our building to begin our volunteer work.  For the first hour, we did laundry the old-fashioned way – hand washing.  We would take each article of clothing and run it through a series of water tubs until it was sufficiently clean, then wring it out and

The Poorest of the Poor

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This experience has been extremely blessed and I have had my eyes opened in so many ways. Simply being in India, I find so many things to be very shocking.  The culture is extremely different from America.  One of the differences is in the way that people drive.  From an outside perspective, there seems to be an extreme lack of rules and it almost seems like a “free for all.” The cars get extremely close to each other, yet I have never seen them make contact.  There are many other things that are totally different from America such as how the people use their horns, the amount of trash everywhere, the jam-packed buses, and many other things. The point I want to focus on is the shocking experience of the vast number of poor.               I have not looked down any street and not been able to see someone who is homeless. There is a seemingly endless amount of people who have nearly nothing.  When I go in the morning to the Mother House, which is about 2 blocks, I find at le

Jan Seva ("Serving the People") School Visit

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               Thursday we went to a school for under privileged children.  Most of the children live in shack homes in the slums of the city.  The kids' school day began with an assembly where all the kids sing the their national anthem.  It was an appropriate introduction to the kids to hear them all sing-screaming at the top of their lungs.               After the assembly we got to play with the kids at recess and the two best words to describe what recess is like with these kids are adorable and chaotic.  Just picture about 60 little Indian kids running around, screaming, in a playground that is only about 50 square feet, add a few teeter-totters and slides and sprinkle in a couple of giant yoga balls and you’ve got a pretty good idea of what we were getting into.  Needless to say it was a blast.               After recess the visit changed gears a bit when we split up into groups and got to visit a couple of the homes that the kids came from.  When we arrived at

The Leper Colony

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Some Patients at the Colony               These first few days in Kolkata have been going well. I don’t think that I have waved so much in my entire life! Here it’s as if we are celebrities. People will come up to us and want to take pictures with us. There will be many times where we are in the bus and it will come to a stop. The people in the bus across from us will make eye contact and you can tell that they are intrigued to see you. Some of them will wave and if they don’t then when you wave to them you are met with a prompt wave and smile. There was one instance, we were coming back from our boat trip on the Ganges River. While we were waiting for the bus there was a truck with probably fifty people in the back. They were all very excited to see us and they were waving and smiling. Then as the bus drove away they continued to wave and I wanted to see how far they would go until they stopped waving. As long as I kept waving they waved back and they continued waving until they

First Impressions

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              Five hours after landing in Kolkata I found myself waking up for my first full day in this new place.  Even at 7AM the city was already shockingly loud. Between the birds, the people and most especially the car horns I couldn’t help but think that sleeping-in might just be an impossibility here.   After brushing my teeth with bottled water and eating some breakfast, a few people from my group and I set off on our first adventure, going to the grocery store.  Since my first time being on the streets was at 3AM while being half asleep from our day of flying, I was both excited and nervous for my first real taste of the city.  To say walking along the sidewalk for the first time was overwhelming would be the understatement of a life time.  It was instant sensory overload.  I think for myself, I was struck most by the smells of that first walk.  In my 21 years, my nose has never been through such a rollercoaster ride. One second I was smelling the delicious street food tha

Longest Flight EVER!!!

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After arriving from our short flight to Chicago, our group prepared to embark on the largest leg of our 24-hour trip around the world. After some of us quickly stuffed ourselves with Chicago-style pizza, we had Mass in a quiet corner of the airport in front of a massive window overlooking the runway. It was a great moment of peaceful prayer in the midst of the noise and busyness of such a massive and industrialized airport. We then joined the boarding party, which was the first time our group encountered Indian culture. We saw new clothes, heard different languages, and even smelled unfamiliar smells all around. Then our legendary 13-hour flight began.  As we advanced to a new world, we also quickly advanced into a new year. It was unclear exactly when 2017 ended and 2018 began because we were constantly zooming through time zones in the air, but we turned over another year all the same, celebrating the New Year as a bunch of couch potatoes. While Fr. Becker sat still the whole

Pre-Depature Problems

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Once upon a time, there was conceived in the mind of Fr. Steven Borello a mission trip to Kolkata, India with a group of seminarians.   The first year was a success, so he began planning year two.   As the twelve seminarians began to sign up, visas, passports, and prescriptions were on everyone’s mind.   Most guys had a fairly straightforward process in acquiring theirs, but there were a few cases in which extra measures were needed. Ryan applied for his passport over the summer (approximately 6 months before our trip).   After waiting two months, he still had not received his passport, so he called to find out about the delay; they informed him that there was no record of his passport application and that he needed to submit a new one.   Thankfully, there was still time, and the seminary was kind enough to cover the cost of the second passport, and to be safe they expedited the next application.   He finally received his passport around November (two months before the trip) when