5. Message
On the occasion of the Silver
Jubilee of Navsarni the Diocesan
Magazine of first the Sindhudurg Dis-trict
and now the Diocese of
Sindhudurg, it gives me great joy to
send this short message. I congratu-late
the present Editorial team and all
those who started the Magazine and
those who kept it up.
Communication and transparency are essential
in any organization, especially in a Diocese Navsarni
plays an important role in keeping everyone informed
about what is happening and also deepens the faith of
people by good articles. May Navsarni Magazine con-tinue
and grow as an important part of the Sindhudurg
Diocese.
With best wishes,
Yours in Christ,
Bishop Emeritus Valerian D’Souza
Diocese of Poona
I am glad to know that the
Sindhudurg Diocesan monthly
magazine ‘Navsarni’ is complet-ing
25 years of its publication. In
the modern times, the media is
playing a major role in impacting
the lives of people. The Church
needs to use the means of so-cial
media to proclaim the Good news of Jesus
Christ and reach out to our faithful.
The monthly magazine ‘Navsarni’ has been
actively involved in spreading the good news. I ex-tend
my congratulations to Bishop Alywn Barreto
and Fr. Godwin Pereira for the marvellous work of
connecting people and enhancing their faith through
the publication of ‘Navsarni Magazine’.
Yours in Christ,
Rev.Fr. Malcolm Sequeira
Vicar General
Diocese of Poona
I remain
Yours sincerely in Jesus Christ
Thomas Dabre
Diocese of Poona
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9. “NAVSARNI MONTHLY” BINDS US
TOGETHER IN A UNIQUE WAY
In the previous five to ten years reading
magazines like ‘Navsarni’ or for that matter any
reading has dropped considerably primarily be-cause
we get almost all the information in the elec-tronic
media. And so reading to a great extent,
except may be text books in educational institu-tions,
has become something of the past.
I would not apply the same to the “Navsarni
monthly” the Diocesan magazine because first and
foremost it is something unique in the sense that
even if it is uploaded on the website majority of the
readers will want to have a hard copy in their hand
to go through it in a more relaxed manner. Fur-thermore,
sorry to say that most of our Catholic
people residing in the Diocese have either no ac-cess
to the internet or have not progressed in this
field so much, especially the elders. And so we
have quite a number of people, especially after a
days labour relax in the ‘nS>r’ sitting on the armchair
if available, with the legs raised on the stool being
pressed by the small grandson and the grand
daughter massaging the head, with a cup of tea in
one hand and the “Navsarni” in the other, browsing
and reading the “Navsarni”. Ah what a relaxation
after a hard days work.
What does one read? Very important be-cause
we read about our Diocese. May be the
Bishop or the Editor gives the initial religious mes-sage
for the month followed by articles from differ-ent
parishes, what has been happening in differ-ent
parishes at different levels. This is shared and
thus we come to know each other. One gets in-spiration
and ideas from the experiences of other
parishes’ and thus try to make his own parish ac-tive.
The language being simple and the script
being Devnagri helps, be it small children or the
elders who know to read a bit because of lack of
education. Of course the monthly should be at-
* Fr. Francis D’Souza
Immaculate Conception Church, Vengurla
tractive and should not be stereo type or the inter-est
will decrease. It is a challenge to keep the
magazine interesting remembering the T.V. and
mobile and other distractions are its main challeng-ers.
It is a magazine wherein I get information,
news happenings of the ones who are closely knit
together with me firstly because we belong to the
same culture, having the same language and in-volved
in similar occupations which gives each
other a sense of closeness. This reading helps
one to feel one and close to the people of the
neighbouring parishes in the Diocese and so all
those reading the Navsarni could be called
“Navsarians”.
But saying we are Navsarians is not
enough. It becomes the responsibility of each one
of us to support the Navsarni monthly by contribut-ing
in cash and kind. Can I contribute by writing
articles on regular basis, may be parish snippets,
articles, happenings, quiz, riddles, jokes etc. Or
maybe I could help in systematically distributing
the Navsarni and see that especially those
interested in reading get a copy without fail. In case
our house members have read it let us pass on to
the next house if they have not received it.
Another important aspect is contributing to
meet the cost of printing. Presently it is being dis-tributed
freely. As an individual can I contribute by
paying for it, or on the wado level can our chapel/
wado contribute some “w$b Zm w$bmMr nmH$ir”. Still
better the parish can contribute on a monthly /
yearly / basis and thus help the Diocese in bearing
the cost.
Yes lets be a Navsarian and feel one with
each other whenever we see the ‘Navsarni’ in our
homes and feel the bond of one family of Jesus
Christ.
ooo
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24. HANDMAIDS OF CHRIST
* Handmaids of Christ
Shanti Niwas Convent, Mangaon
Handmaids of Christ the first Goan indig-enous
congregation was founded by a Goan, Mis-sionary
Priest Msgr, Herculano Gonsalves in 1935
with a sole aim to live the Gospel in its fullness. He
could clearly read the signs of time and concret-ized
his vision to form a religious congregation to
share God’s saving love with the poor and the needy
to build the kingdom of God.
We express our charism thrust through
four main ministries. Right from the origins of the
Congregation it has developed its Focus on the
social ministry, reaching out to orphans, poor girls,
destitute, women and aged. Education ministry with
schools. Pastoral ministry with catechism, family
visit and care of the church and health ministry with
dispensaries and taking care of the sick. Our
founder felt that he had a special call for the or-phans,
destitute women and the aged. This pref-erential
option today demands that we as
Handmaids of Christ reach out to the socially and
economically marginalized girls and women in In-dia
through education, health, pastoral and social
ministries.
We have our houses in different States and
in many dioceses in India, we have two houses in
our Sindhudurg Diocese, in Harnai and Mangaon.
God’s call is unique and each one of us
has a different way to relate to God’s call.
Christ needs, ‘You’.
Do you hear Jesus calling you ?
To live in intimate union with Him through a
Eucharistic centered life ?
To do His will each day ?
To live in communion with the sisters and
the whole of creation ?
Then come ..... Be a Handmaid of Christ to
reach out in compassionate justice to the poor and
marginalized especially children and Women in
distress.
May Mother Mary, The first Handmaid help
you to say “Yes” to the Lord.
ooo
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25. Welcome to the World of Fatima Sisters
The Fatima Sisters or Sisters of Our Lady of
Fatima is a Congregation of women religious who come
together from different parts of the country.
They come together to fulfil a common vision of
bettering the lives of human beings, especially the poor,
the neglected, those living on the margins of society. To
do this they get involved in various works.
Through education, the young are taught to be-come
responsible citizens of the world. The whole edu-cation
is geared to instilling moral and social values.
Attention is given to the all-round development -
Intellect. Physical, Moral and Social. We run schools in
semiurban and village areas both in English medium and
in the language of the place. The students are helped to
bring out their full human potential to the maximum
through various activities, indoor and outdoor.
Majority of our people live in villages who have
no access to health care and basic treatment. The hos-pitals
are far away. Through our village dispensaries and
mobile clinics we try to reach out to the sick and suffer-ing.
Emphasis is given to mother and child care, com-munity
health programmes, awareness programmes on
health and hygiene in the villages.
Women illiteracy is maximum in rural areas.
Most of them have missed the opportunities of even the
primary level education due to poverty and other social
taboos. We organize these women to realize their God-given
potential and value their human dignity, teaching
them life skills to become confident in earning their live-lihood
and running their homes effectively. Motivating them
to take leadership roles. Our sisters are involved in hun-dreds
of such women programmes all over India.
In some families the mothers are the sole bread
- winners. When they are out at work, their children need
to be cared for. We have opened Creches in view of meet-ing
this need. The mothers feel confident to leave their
infants in the loving hands of the Sisters throughout the
day.
India’s teaming population needs individual care
especially, the very poor, parentless, single parent and
children from very remote corners. In our boardings we
try to create an ambience of a home and provide facili-ties
for human growth. Children are taught values of life,
with opportunities to develop their intellects and social
skills. They grow up in a free and conducive atmosphere.
* Fatima Sisters
Sawantwadi
They find a new home, learn to live in love and experi-ence
a sense of belonging.
In these modern times the elderly people are
left to themselves. In our ‘Home for the Aged’ these
people find a home away from home. We try to fill their
lives with hope and brighten their faces with joy. To Carry
out all these ministries we need young women who are
looking for a challenging life. Those who express their
desire are welcomed in our Congregation.They are given
training for four to six years in our Religious training
Houses. They are taught to pray, to meditate, and are
given personal guidance to discern for themselves and
the mission they are called to.
Later they are given academic professional
trainings in various streams as per their aptitudes. Right
now we are over 400 Religious Sisters, living in 80 com-munities
spread over 34 dioceses in 13 States of India.
Most of our communities are in the remote vil-lages
close to the lives of people. Nine Sisters are
rendering their services in Germany. This Religious fam-ily
was started in the year 1893 in Bellary, Karnataka, by
Msgr. Francis Xavier Kroot, a Mill Hill Missionary, who
had far sighted vision, where women could reach out to
other women and children. It is this vision that we are
trying to continue as Fatima Sisters.
It is the constant communion with God through
personal, community prayer and sacraments that keep
us going. We feel the grace of God working in and through
us in our living and in our activities. The good will, coop-eration
and assistance of people encourage us to real-ize
the vision of our Founder and pioneers.
To continue this good work we need people’s
co-operation and support. We need generous people who
can help us make this world a little more educated, en-lightened,
empowered. We need you !
Thank You !
In Sindhudurg different apostolate is carried out
in Chiplun, Ratnagiri, Sawantwadi and Malvan. Thus we
The Fatima Sisters began our journey to reach out to the
poor and needy through education, social and other ac-tivities.
We pray to God that many young girls hear
the call of God to work in His Vinyard to spread the good
news of Jesus Christ. May God Bless each and every
person that he has created.
ooo
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