Gulf Pine Catholic

Gulf Pine Catholic • March 22, 2019 4 Indian congregation joyfully awaits its founderʼs canonization BY ANTO AKKARA Catholic News Service THRISSUR, India (CNS) -- For the nearly 2,000 sisters and 200 women in formation who make up the Congregation of the Holy Family, the long wait is over. Since 2012, members of the order based in Kerala state in southern India have observed strict fasts and engaged in earnest prayer awaiting rec- ognition from the Vatican of a second miracle attributed to the order’s founder, Blessed Mariam Thresia Chiramel Mankidiyan. Pope Francis recognized the miracle Feb. 12, clearing the way for the canonization of the reli- gious leader popularly known as the “patroness of families.” “We are thrilled now. Our joy has no bounds as the pope has approved the canonization of our found- ress,” Sister Udaya Punneliparambil, the congrega- tion’s superior general, told Catholic News Service . “Mother’s life has been a life of prayer and fasting. So, we have been following her model,” Sister Punneliparambil said. “We are happy our prayers have been heard. Now we are awaiting the announcement of the date of the canonization,” she added. Blessed Thresia was born April 26, 1876, the third of five children to Thanda and Thoma Chiramel Mankidiyan in Puthenchira, 21 miles south of Thrissur. She founded the Congregation of the Holy Family in 1914 and died June 8, 1926. Devout and prayerful, young Thresia resisted her parents’ plan to have her married at age 10, as per tradi- tion. Instead, she chose to lead a life of simplicity and austerity, despite belonging to a wealthy farming fam- ily. For instance, she slept on the gravel floor of her family’s home rather than in her bed. “I cannot sleep comfortably on a bed when Jesus is hanging on the cross on three nails,” Thresia is seen telling her mother in an hourlong documentary, “Blessed Mariam Thresia -- the Patroness of Families,” produced by the congregation. The film depicts her interest in family ministry and desire to share Jesus’ love by caring for poor, sick and dying people. It re-enacts some of her practices as recorded by her spiritual director and congregation co- founder, Father Joseph Vithayathil, whose cause for sainthood is underway, and her contemporaries. In 1909, while under the spiritual care of Father Vithayathil, Blessed Thresia experienced stigmata. The bishop ordered that an exorcism be performed as her situation became public. Undaunted by the setbacks, Blessed Thresia contin- ued with her austere prayer life and dedicated herself to serving families in the community. Father Vithayathil, under direction of the bishop in 1913, erected a “house of solitude” where Blessed Thresia could go to pray. Three friends joined her in the house. In May 1914, she received canonical permis- sion to launch the Congregation of the Holy Family in Puthenchira, which today is in the Diocese of Irinjalakuda. In 1922, she moved to Kuzhikkattussery, a short distance from her native village, where she had been given eight acres by a Catholic family to launch a convent. Struggling for funds and material to build the convent, Blessed Thresia took a 31-mile journey with another sister on foot and by boat to a Hindu king’s palace near Cochin. She planned to ask the king for funds to complete construction. Told the king was bedridden with a serious illness, Blessed Thresia made a potion from plants and instructed his assistants to apply it. The king was healed and sent word to bring the two women religious to him. He offered them high-quality teak from for- ests more than 90 miles away to complete the convent. “All this wood is given by the king,” Sister Pushpa, vicar general of the congregation, told CNS while pointing to the roof of the sprawling 24-room convent, completed in 1922. True to the charism of the order’s foundress, the convent includes a Family Retreat Center, where cou- ples can attend a four-day retreat, offered twice a month. “Even couples living separately for years and on the verge of divorces have gone back happily from here,” Sister Pushpa said. Since 1987, the congregation has operated the Family Apostolate Training and Research Institute, where nearly 200 women religious, laypeople and priests are trained annually. Blessed Thresia was declared venerable in 1999 and was beatified in 2000. Father Vithayathil, who is buried in the same chapel with Blessed Thresia, was named venerable by Pope Francis in December 2015. Worshippers pray at the Shrine of Blessed Mariam Thresia Chiramel Mankidiyan in Kuzhikkattussery, India, Feb 18, 2019. Blessed Thresia has been approved for canonization. CNS photo/Anto Akkara For Lent, Irish Catholics urged to abandon ‛weapons of mass distractionʼ BY NICK BRAMHILL Catholic News Service DUBLIN (CNS) -- Alcohol, smoking and choco- lates are some of the most well-known vices that people traditionally give up during Lent. But now Massgoers in Ireland are being urged to make what might be an even harder sacrifice throughout the penitential six- week period -- switching off their mobile phones. Parishioners in Navan, County Meath, are being urged to “reconnect with their families” in the weeks leading up to Easter by talking to one another rather than texting and browsing online. The “Invitation for Lent 2019” urges churchgoers to “reduce screen time in order to increase family time.” Father Robert McCabe of St. Mary’s Church, Navan, said he hopes parishioners will make a perma- nent lifestyle change, rather than just putting down their devices during Lent. “Everybody can benefit from spending less time on their phones and laptops and using that time to com- municate instead with their families,” he said. “Even members of the clergy are guilty of being on their phones too much, and Pope Francis himself has highlighted this point when he chastised priests and bishops who take pictures with their mobiles during Masses, saying they should lift up their hearts rather than their mobiles.” Father McCabe, a former military chaplain, said mobile phone etiquette has even been introduced in the pre-baptism courses he runs in his parish. “One of the things we stress in the course is that just one person should be taking photos of the baptism, while everyone else relaxes and enjoys the occasion,” he said. “If people are holding up their phones to take photos of the event, then they are not properly engaging with it. “The same can be said of weddings. The last thing a bride wants to see as she walks down the aisle is loads of people taking photos with their phones. The only person that should be taking pictures is the wedding photographer.” While Father McCabe acknowledges that some people -- including those on call for their work -- are not in a position to turn off their smartphones, he insists everyone could all benefit from spending less time star- ing into devices. “A good description of phones that I’ve heard is that they are ‘weapons of mass distraction.’ If you’re in a position to switch them off, then do so and use that time positively,” he said. “I hope people will heed this message during Lent, and that people will make changes for life, and not just for this period. People are spending too much time in the virtual world, and need to come back to the real world.”