Chronicle 5 of the General Team’s visit to the Province of India

Between October 2024 and January 2025, Sisters Maria Irizar and Maggie D’Costa will travel on behalf of the General Team to the Province of India.

Below we share the fifth chronicle of his visit, between December 23, 2024 and January 15, 2025.


Summary

During the last week of the year 2024, we visited the communities of the Saurashtra region (Gujarat): Merubaug, Gogha and Bhavnagar. On December 29 we celebrated the Regional Assembly in Bhavnagar, with the attendance of 24 sisters, some of them coming from other communities, as they were unable to participate in their respective regions.

On the 31st we traveled back to Mumbai, where we spent the last night of the year, with the celebration of the Midnight Mass at the Holy Family parish, celebrated in the parish compound, in the open air, with the participation of about 1500 people.

As of the beginning of 2025, we left again for the last visits to the communities of Vijayapura (Karnataka) and Adkur (Maharastra), as well as the celebration of the last Regional Assembly in Mumbai on January 5.

After returning to Mumbai on the evening of the 10th, the following days were spent in meeting with the Provincial Team, finalizing the last things pending from the visit and preparing our luggage full of souvenirs and gifts from our visit. These days were also marked by the sudden passing away of Sr. Karen NoronhaIt was a painful blow for all of them and their family, but we had the opportunity to accompany them from there with all our affection and closeness to the family and the sisters.

Early on the 15th, the entire community of the Shradhaseri House in Mumbai bid us farewell with love and affection, while at the same time we felt the sorrow of having to leave after having shared and lived so much during these two and a half months. The HH. Rita and Resmi We were escorted to the airport and returned to Rome, together with the Sr. Ila Khristiwho will carry out her mission at the General House for the next few years. It was a joy to have the opportunity for the three of us to travel together and share our feelings of joy, gratitude and love for this visit that has left a deep impression in our hearts.

These days allowed us to fulfill the main objective of our trip: to visit and get to know closely the reality of the life in mission of the sisters and communities of the Saurashtra region in Gujarat and the communities of Vijayapura and Adkur. We were able to share with the communities their challenges, joys and to deepen together the call to Be Born Again, concretized in the Chapter Document.

The second objective was to celebrate the last two Regional Assemblies planned during our visit to this extensive province, deepening our understanding of the motto that summarizes their content: “Synodality and shared leadership”. This deepening has been complementary to what we have been able to experience in the community meetings, which have also had these two dimensions as their main focus.

The last objective was to share with the Provincial Team, formed by Sisters Daisy, Rita, Dolly and Rubina, the experience and evaluate with them our two and a half month visit to the province.

Saurashtra Region (Gujarat): Merubaug, Gogha and Bhavnagar

The communities present in Saurashtra (Gujarat) have as their main mission education through the school, but they are also present and involved in youth ministry through the parish and the scout movement. In addition, one of the sisters’ tasks is to be in contact with the surrounding families, to visit them and accompany them in their various life situations, since the family style is something very much our own.

Merubaug

The trip to this region of Gujarat was on the 24th from Ahmedabad, by bus. The Merubaug community received us with great affection, creativity and enthusiasm, in an atmosphere marked by Christmas. After lunch, even Maggie participated in the preparation of lime lime, a typical Christmas sweet, which the sisters prepared to offer to all those who would come to the community to wish Christmas greetings.

In the parish of St. Francis Xavier of Bhavnagar, we participated in the celebration of the Christmas Mass on Midnight of the 24th, which was attended by the sisters of the three communities, which are part of the same parish. It was very special because it was the moment when the Jubilee of 2025: “Pilgrims of Hope” began .

Christmas Day was a day of gatherings. The house was full of people during the whole day, from morning to evening: hundreds of students, teachers and staff of the school, former students and their families, friends of the community… a Christmas of meeting and exchange of blessings, joy, small details, of simply sharing life. We were fully involved in greeting, welcoming, sharing… an unforgettable and impressive experience.

Gogha

After the visit to the community of Merubaug, we went to Gogha, where we have a Vedruna school, in the middle of a Muslim majority locality where there is no Catholic presence except for the four sisters who form the community. There we shared a lot of time and conversation. Although the visit was brief, it was profound and left its mark on us with the desire to remain with the simple people of that place, who accept and love us.

The next day, on the way to Bhavnagar, we were able to visit the departure port of the ferry that connects the Saurashtra peninsula with Surat, grateful that they let us get to the pier.

Bhavnagar

From there we went to Bhavnagar, to the Fatima Convent Primary School community where we stayed for several days during the Regional Assembly. We had the opportunity to greet the parish priest, Father Abraham, CMI.

Bhavnagar is a significant presence for the province of India and for the whole Congregation because it is the Mother House, since Fatima Convent School was the first Vedruna presence in India, where in 1953 the first five sisters from Spain arrived and began the first Vedruna educational work that began the inculturation of our charism in this land.

In Bhavnagar, the community is also a formative one, as the young women of Mutual Knowledge are initiated into religious life here; at the moment there are eight of them. We were able to meet them for a while and see how quickly they have been able to learn to communicate in English, as they come from four different states of this diverse country in terms of language and culture.

After the Regional Assembly in Bhavnagar, we met with the community for the whole day. It was an intense day and very well appreciated by all, quite a challenge since the school was in operation due to the absence of Christmas vacations.

We were also fortunate to participate, on the eve of our return to Mumbai, in a beautiful concert of traditional music, thanks to some former students of Fatima Convent School, who are part of the organizing committee and who arranged seats for us. It was held at the Bhavnagar City Hall, which has a seating capacity of over a thousand people.

Regional Assembly in Bhavnagar

On December 29 we celebrated the Regional Assembly in Bhavnagar, with the attendance of 24 sisters, some of them coming from other communities, as they were unable to participate in their respective regions.

Mumbai

On the 31st we traveled back to Mumbai, where we spent the last night of the year, with the celebration of the Midnight Mass at the Holy Family parish, celebrated in the parish compound, in the open air, with the participation of about 1500 people.

Vijayapura (Karnataka) and Adkur (Maharastra)

Vijayapura

After the New Year, Maggie, Maria and Rita, from the E. Provincial, traveled from Mumbai on the night train to Vijayapura (Karnataka), arriving mid-morning in the city. Vijayapura is the only Vedruna presence in the state of Karnataka. The community here develops especially the social and pastoral dimension, through work in the poorest neighborhoods of the city and with programs for the promotion of women and other initiatives from the Social Center. The educational dimension is through the presence in the Loyola College and the boarding school for girls.

After the welcome when we arrived, we went to see the Social Center and the female boarding school where we work in collaboration with the Jesuits and where our sisters Jaya, Shakuntala and Shibi work. The excellent organization of the center and the good collaboration between all the religious congregations working in the region is impressive. Sr. Vimala works as a teacher at Loyola College, where the Vedruna community lives in a very simple house. Anjali, who is studying in the Faculty of Nursing, is also a member of the community. All the sisters are also involved in social and parish ministry.

Regional Assembly in Mumbai

Again we returned to Mumbai to celebrate the Assembly, on the 5th, with the participation of 52 sisters. We highlight the sharing together, the dialogues and the awareness of the current challenges we have to continue to respond to the Vedruna mission in India.

Adkur

We traveled to Adkur, which is located in the south of Maharashtra, far away from other communities, on January 6. First we took a flight, which was significantly delayed, and then a jeep, arriving at this last community to be visited, late in the evening. The welcome was joyful and greatly celebrated, as we were all waiting for the day of the visit to finally arrive.

In Adkur, the educational work is primarily through our Carmel Ashish primary and secondary school, youth and parish ministryin the small local Catholic parish.

We stayed there for a little more than a day and a half, which was very intense. We were able to visit our school, Carmel Ashish Convent High School, in whose building the community also resides and where the students gave us a beautiful welcome on the morning of the first day. On the second day, we visited the Primary School, which is located in the center of town and where we were also given a beautiful welcome and a varied program of dances performed by each grade.

Goa

After the visit to the community of Adkur, we had the opportunity to spend a couple of days in Goa, thanks to the welcome and affection of Cynthia Pinto, coordinator of the Vedruna Laity in India. She and her brother Edu picked us up in Adkur and we traveled by car to this state of India, the smallest in the country, staying at Cynthia’s house, to whom we thank her from the bottom of our hearts for her generosity, care and affection. Add:

The day after our arrival, we visited the Basilica of St. Francis Xavier, where his remains are located. Thousands of people come with great devotion to venerate this missionary saint who is so close to us. We enjoyed the landscapes, streets and gastronomy of Goa, we were able to approach its beaches and enjoy the bustle of its streets, even if it was only for a short time.

From there, we returned back to Mumbai, where we stayed until the end of our stay.


Some aspects and details that have caught our attention during these days have been:

  • Eucharistic celebrations, such as Christmas or the first day of the year, are not only attended by Catholics. Many other devout people join in the celebration with great respect, as a way of sharing with their neighbors or friends or acquaintances what is important to them. Spirituality is an essential dimension of the person, fully integrated into daily life, beyond the religious tradition of adherence.
  • The trip on the local train in Mumbai, from Andheri station to Dadar station, where we had to take the night train to Vijayapura. The carriage did not look like it could fit more people, but it did! and it took special expertise to get in and, above all, to get out of the train at the right time, because it hardly stops at the platform. Millions of people travel every day on these trains. Also extraordinary was the experience of traveling two nights on the night train, in bunk beds, which allowed us to interact with diverse people and to travel part of the country on the quintessential means of transportation that traverses this vast Indian homeland.
  • The Christmas sweets (mostly homemade) are very varied in shapes, colors, ingredients… and they are delicious! But we were able to bring some nougat or chocolate to the communities, as well as peladillas like the ones that Teodoro offered to Joaquina when they got engaged.
  • Children are always surprising, everywhere: their innocence, joy, simplicity, creativity. The shy curiosity with which they welcomed us and interacted with us became an unforgettable joy in every place.

We ended our visit by expressing our deepest gratitude for what we had experienced during all this time, for which there are not enough words to express it.


The other chronicles of this visit are already available: