MARIAMPUR, India, Mar 13 -- Three days in remote tribal villages was an eye-opening trip for seminarian Shoji Abraham and 260 others preparing to work as missioners in northeastern India.
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| Sisters visiting a family in a village under Mariampur Parish, on Feb. 26. |
The 18-year old seminarian said he lived and did his priestly studies "safely within the four walls" of his St. Paul congregation until the cross-cultural experience, beginning on Feb. 26, opened a new world to him.
"Earlier, I did not understand much about the life of the people outside," he said after returning from the exposure program Guwahati archdiocese ran for young people in training to become priests and nuns.
Ranging in age from 17 to 25, and coming from the archdiocesan seminary and 11 Religious congregations, they went in groups to seven villages covered by Mariampur parish, which belongs to the archdiocese based in Guwahati, commercial capital of Assam state.
Abraham said the villagers, both Hindus and Baptists, welcomed the young Church workers to their homes. The visitors listened to parents and elders, organized games for children and visited the sick. Each village stay concluded with a social gathering.
The villagers' simplicity and hospitality touched Abraham, who said the program helped him "understand life" as well as improve his knowledge about village dwellers.
Most of the visitors did not understand the local Garo tribal language, but communicated "with smiles." Salesian Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil of Guwahati and Vicar General Father Varghese Kizhakevely joined some groups.
Father Kizhakevely said normal formation programs train the candidates to be "experts" in computer usage, music, teaching and other skills, but the clergy and Religious they produce often "fail to communicate Christ" to people. The recent village exposure program was the second the archdiocese has conducted.
"They [young people] seemed to be unaware of the reality of the people who they are called to serve," the vicar said.
Abraham recalled the archbishop's advice to go to people with "great love" and said the Church leader's presence had encouraged them. The archbishop has worked more than four decades in the region.
"Consider the village as precious. Go to a village with the desire of doing something good, like Jesus did," Abraham cited him as saying.
"This is a time to experience the life of an ordinary person in a village, to be convinced of what we are called to be in our missionary life," the seminarian continued to quote.
Blinda Marwein, in formation to join the Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Christians congregation, said the program was an "eye-opener." She "benefited a lot" from the daily sharing of personal missionary experiences of resource persons.
The experience "lifted up my spirit to be a zealous missionary," she said, adding that the support and guidance of the archbishop and others showed "they are indeed great missioners in heart, in words and in deeds."
The Catholic Church reached the northeastern region, where tribal people form a large part of the population, only in the 19th century. The early missioners, based in Guwahati, spread the faith in the region, which now has 15 dioceses.
The seven states that form the region have about 38 million people. Christians among them number nearly 6.3 million and form more than 80 percent of the population in the three states of Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland. The other four states are Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Mizoram and Tripura.
The exposure program was an opportunity for the participants "to express their missionary zeal for the people," said Salesian Father Joseph Parippil, one of the trainers.
Capuchin Father Joseph Zacharias, another priest involved in the program, said one fruit was the interaction among members of various congregations.
The program helped them "come out of the shell of one's own way of learning, thinking and action," the priest said. Instead, they entered "an open space of cooperation, sharing and exposure to vulnerabilities and opportunities."
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