Remembering St Alphonsa - India's First Woman Saint

Today the Church of India celebrates her first woman saint, St Alphonsa of Immaculate Conception who was born in Kudamalur, Diocese of Changanacherry, Kerala on 19 August, 1910.

She was known as Annakutty, a diminutive of Anne. Her mother passed away when she was 3 months old and she was adopted by her aunt. She joined the Congregation of the Franciscan Clarists on 2nd August, 1928, taking the name of Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception in honour of St Alphonsus Liguori, whose feast was celebrated on that day. She professed her vows on 12 August, 1936 on the feast of St Clare.

From 1930 to 1935 she suffered from poor health due to typhoid, pneumonia, nervous shock, tumour, gastroenteritis and liver problems. She brought her earthly life to a close on 28 July 1946. She is also known as a child Jesus of India. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1986 and canonised on 12th October 2008 in Rome by Pope Benedict XVI.

Fr Jimmy Joseph, the celebrant of the day today, preached about her life and 3 aspects of her life for our reflection during the Mass:
i) Love Towards Christ as her Master and Lord.
Since young, she devoted her life for the sake of her Divine Spouse, Jesus Christ. In all her sufferings and pain she experienced them not apart from Christ but in Christ and with Christ. Even in the midst of the sense of loss, helpless, illness she appeared to be a person who filled with Christ. According to Archbishop Thomas Pothacamury of Bangalore said, “Her life was death to self and life to Christ and in Christ. Christ was centre of her life and she was dethroned herself to enthroned Christ, and made Him with unerring vision, the focus of her life.”

ii) Her Life was Her Attitude Towards Suffering.
The love for her Divine Spouse helped her to embrace and accept the sufferings. She had overcome her suffering to the transcendental level of meaning to her suffering and endured it joyously. She wrote in her letter: “Since only grief and suffering have fallen to my Divine Spouse, I too lovingly embrace them and my soul is at peace even my body continues to be tormented.”

During her beatification at Kottayam, India, Blessed Pope John Paul II said, “From early in her life, Sr Alphonsa experienced great suffering. With the passing of the years, the Heavenly Father gave her an ever fuller share in the passion of His beloved Son, Jesus Christ. We recall how she experienced not only physical pain of great intensity but also to love suffering because she loved the suffering Christ and to love the cross through her love of the crucified Christ.”

iii) Her Perseverance in the Vocation of the Sisterhood.
When she was called to be committed into marriage life, she reached a stage where she voluntarily causing herself a grave burn by putting her foot into a heap of burning embers. In her letter she wrote: “O, the vocation which I have received, a gift of my good God! He distanced my difficulties and established me in this religious state.” When many illnesses tortured she remained faithful to her Master.

Fr Jimmy also stressed that even though there are a lot of crisis in our vocation, we need to be faithful and take the example of St Alphonsa in order to find meaning in all our crisis, challenges and sufferings in life.

As I reflect on the life of the first saint of India during the Mass, I asked myself when we will have our own Saint in Malaysia. What came to mind was our late Archbishop Tan Sri Dominic Vendargon who passed away in the year 2005 and who tirelessly worked hard and established the Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur.

Football Tournament against Corruption

The Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth (JDV) Culture Wing organised an “Interplay Football” tournament among the students. The annual tournament started on Monday, 18 July. Eight teams participated in the tournament (1st & 2nd Year Philosophy, 1st, 2nd & 3rd year Theology, Deacons and Post-Graduate students).

The theme for this year’s tournament was “2G – Golden Goal”. The 2G was a symbol of anti-corruption which is the issue going on in the country. So the 2G was chosen to show our fight against the anti-corruption.

The final match was held on 25th July at 4 pm in between the 2nd year Philosophy and 2nd year theology students and it was a real tough match.

The 2nd year Theology students emerged as the champions with a 3 – 0 win.
In his speech, the chairman of the organising committee, Bro. Jason Pulickel thanked everyone for their cooperation, building rapport among the students and the spirit of sportsmanship. Prizes were also given for the man of the match, best goalkeeper, the best team and not forgetting the best person for cheering at the tournament!

The Champions

During my seminary life at College General, Penang, we used invite a few hotels and clubs from the Penang Island for the annual league soccer tournaments every year until 1998. After that due to the dropping of number of students in the seminary and finally the sports life, the committee decided to end the tradition of having the annual soccer tournament at the college grounds. In 1995, the year I joined the seminary, our team became the champions of the tournament.

Children's Camp

On Sunday 24th July, 20 English speaking catechism students and their 2 teachers from a nearby Church in Pune gathered at our college classroom for a half-day camp.

Five of the seminarians who are doing their weekend pastoral organised this simple camp in line with the Marian Devotion. The sessions were basically to help the children understand the role of Mother Mary in the Church and in their personal lives. They also explained of the dogma on the Immaculate Conception, Mother Mary as a Mediatrix and the importance of reciting the Rosary.

Bro Richerd, Bro. Ashok and Fr Hentry Bright were the main speakers for the camp. I concluded it with the Eucharistic celebration in our Chapel at 12.30 pm. The children were very enthusiastic and participated fully in the camp.

I felt such joy meeting the children as I missed such interactions. When I was at Visitation parish I used to visit all the Catechism classes on most of the Sundays.

For me faith and moral education are very important for our children and parents have to encourage them to attend. Catechism is the heart beat of every parish. Mother Mary is always praying and caring for our children to grow in wisdom and knowledge of God.

A Little Visit

The lovely little Church of Holy Family


It was drizzling on Sunday morning (17th July). I didn’t join my community for the Mass at the Post-Graduate block chapel, instead my classmate, Rajini Reddy and I went for Mass at the Church of Holy Family, near Gurudwara Colony, Lohegaon, Pune. It is situated in the Air Forces Camp of Pune which is about 10 kms from my college.

The parish priest in-charge, Fr Jayaseelan (msfs), who stays nearby our college drove us for Mass accompanied by 6 brothers. Fr Jayaseelan gave me the opportunity to celebrate Mass for his community. There were about 150 people who participated in the Mass concelebrated by 2 priests and a Deacon.

When I saw this little Church, it brought back fond memories of those chapels I used to go to for the outstation Masses when I was at the Church of Visitation, Seremban.

After Mass, my classmate and I went to Mount St. Patrick Academy (an institute of the Brothers of St. Patrick). Two of the Patrician Brothers – Bro. Dennis Joseph FSP, the institute’s principal since 2007 and Bro. Solomon who is doing his master’s programme with me took us to their place. After so many days in Pune and having a steady diet of Indian cuisine, I had a continental breakfast and really enjoyed it.

Bro Solomon (left) and Bro Dennis Joseph, Principal of Mount St Patrick Academy


Bro Dennis explained about the establishment of the Mount St. Patrick Academy in Pune and gave a brief history of St Patrick Academy in India. The congregation of the Brothers of St Patrick or the Patrician Brothers began in Tullow, Ireland on 2nd February, 1808. The congregation was founded by Rt. Rev. Dr Daniel Delaney, under the patronage of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. In 1846, the Brothers laid foundation for mission abroad to USA, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Africa, etc. In 1875, the first foundation of the Patrician Brothers was laid in Cennai, India.
Today, the Patrician Brothers run schools, colleges, boarding houses, technical institutions and non-formal education centres.

In the year 2002, the then Provincial Rev. Bro Berchmans initiated the project in Pune because it is a rapidly growing industrial city, which was known also as the “Oxford of the East”. This high school is located at the foot of the hills of about 15 acres of land. It is about 15 km away from Pune town and is 20 minutes drive from the Pune Airport. The foundation was laid officially on 17th July 2003 by His Excellency Dr. Valerian D’Souza, the Bishop of Pune.

After visiting the institute, I was reflecting about what happened to our Missionary Schools in Peninsular Malaysia. The missionary schools and boarding schools in our country have closed down and many of them were acquired by the government. It’s really sad that in Malaysia, we have lost that great gift started by the Religious Brothers and Sisters and that our future generation will never have that experience of a Missionary school.

The Joy of Celebrating the Eucharist

After 40 days of having been in India, I finally had the opportunity to celebrate Mass for the people of God. Since coming here, I’ve been participating in the Mass from the pews, which is a totally different experience altogether. There is nothing like celebrating the Mass for people because there is a special joy and this is our gift of the priesthood.

On Friday, I celebrated Mass in Tamil for 31 Tamil speaking seminarians of Papal Seminary, Pune. The Mass was held at 6.45 am at their classroom and concelebrated by Professor Rev Fr Dr S. Stephen Jayard.
Once a month the Tamil society will gather together to have Mass in Tamil as a sign of unity. The Society which is 110 years old was formed since the seminary was founded in Kandy, Sri Lanka.

I was happy to see how well prepared they were for the liturgy. In my homily I advised them to be disciplined and faithful to the Word of God as they journey together to be priests.

Birthday Prayer

Thank you, God, for giving me another year of life.
Thank you for all the people who remembered me today
for all their prayers and good wishes.

Thank you for all the experience of this past year;
for times of success which will always be happy memories,
for times of failure which reminded me of my own weakness and of my need for you,
for times of joy when the sun was shining,
for times of sadness which drove me to you.

Forgive me
for the hours I wasted,
for the chances I failed to take,
for the opportunities I missed this past year.
Help me in the days ahead to make this the best year yet,
and through it to bring good credit to myself,
happiness and pride to my loved ones,
and joy to you. Amen.

A World at Prayer for Priests

I totally forgot about this feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and A World day for priests today. One sms came from Malaysia wishing me about the feast at about 5.45 am (Indian time and 8.15 am Malaysian time) and then only I remembered about the feast. I woke up and went for Mass at 7 am. I remembered that this is one of the great feasts that I used to celebrate in Majorie Estate chapel at Rantau (30 kms from Seremban town).

Today is their 1st day of Novena. Every year we expect around 700 people to come for the celebration. At one time that estate was 100% Catholic residents and now many have shifted. For this year I have made arrangement with Fr Cyril Manayaggam from Melaka to celebrate the 3 days novena feast there. I already prepared the programme and theme for this feast before I left for my studies.

Reciting the Novena as a community


On this day and at this moment I ask for the grace to say “Yes” to the Lord at each moment of my priestly life. Each morning during my morning Mass and each night before I go to bed, I continue to say “Yes – To Live A Life Love” to my priesthood. I pray that I keep my promises alive always.

When I encounter my daily struggle and trials especially with my studies at during this present time, I sometimes feel that I am always surrounded by problems that tend to drag on in my life. It always happens in our spiritual life too. We try to juggle around with a lot of words and thoughts till we find a lack of clarity and direction. What we really need is just one idea, one word, one sentiment - “yes” to the will of God. Of course, it is the word which is easy to say but is tough to fulfil in everyone’s life especially for us priest.

I pray hard to fulfil it daily to say yes to the Lord as Jesus says in today’s gospel “Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light,” (MT 11: 30). In Jesus we learn to say yes who is present always and giving Himself again and again through His Body and Blood. A heart that always says “yes” is a heart that loves.

I pray for our priests in Peninsular Malaysia particularly in our Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur that we always say “yes” to His will at each moment of our lives.