Annual Visitation of the Future Salesians.

Rev. Fr. Provincial welcomed by the savio’s.

Azimganj: In the happy and joyful mood of Christmas and new year, the provincial of Kolkata came to visit Savio Bhavan[ the formation house of Kolkata province] on 13^th of January 2013. The staff members of Savio Bhavan along with aspirants and pre-novices were really glad to have him in their midst. He was like living Don Bosco, who had come to visit the future Salesians of the congregation.

He was welcomed warmly by the community members of  Savio Bhavan and then they sang a welcome song for him. Meanwhile each members’ joy and happiness was doubled by the short visit of Fr. Jose[ the vice-provincial of Kolkata]. Community was really lucky to have both provincial and vice-provincial. This was the first time that both of them were present together in Savio Bhavan. His main purpose for visiting the community is to see how the Salesian conferrers of Kolkata are working in this formation house. He stayed in our community for four days. During his stay he presided over the Eucharistic celebration every day for the community, as well as for the two different courses, PNC and 1^st years. His homily and goodnight talks were really inspiring ones. “I was truly fortunate enough to meet him and talked with him personally about my vocational journey on religious life”, expressed by one of the community members.

His presence was felt and touched by every member of the community and even by the non-teaching staff, cooks and farm workers.

HOME SWEET H0ME

Azimganj (James Ekka): We the PNC and first year brothers went for our Christmas holidays on 11^th December. This year both the courses went for holidays together. Usually first years go for holidays during the month of February, but this year they too went for holidays with PNC brothers.

During our holidays Fr. Rector and Br. Arvind visited our houses. Our holiday got over on 4^th of January and we came back to our community and resumed our daily activities from 5^th of January onwards.

Great Day in Bethlehem

Baby Jesus in the Chapel.

Savioites in pose before a crip.

Fr. K.U Mathew & Fr. Diamond in Savio Bhavan.

Fr. Prabhu Recieving his Christmas gift.

Azimganj: We the community of Savio Bhavan celebrated our Christmas gathering on 10^th of December 2012 the day before we went for Christmas vacation. We had a small cultural programme where various items were staged by the Aspirants and Pre-Novices. We sang carols according to      various culture and custom. We had Fr. Diamond and Fr. K.U Mathew from Delhi province as our guest. At the end we had the distribution of funny gifts as well as the Christmas gifts by Fr. Dean. The programme concluded with the message of Fr. Rector and a community Photo before the Crip.

Azimganj on Marian Procession

homage to Mother Mary

Azimganj, (Johny soren): On 8^th December the community of Savio Bhavan celebrated the Feast of Immaculate conception in a grand way. The day began with the solemn Eucharistic celebration. A volleyball tournament was organized by Bosco Group of the community. Afternoon we had a Historic Marian procession to Chandabagh (a cultivating and harvesting field for don Bosco, Azimganj) a few kilometers away from Savio Bhavan where Fr. Samuel Mondol, the Rector Of Savio Bhavan gave a Marian Talk. The grotto at the place was decorated with flowers and colorful lights. Around 600 people mostly from Shanti Niloy and Don Bosco Boarding Girls and boys and the seminarians and few parishners also joined to receive the blessings of our lady. In the evening around 6 Pm the Savio Bhavan had their cultural Programme with homage to Mary, an instrumental- love story, a skit and a Nepali dance. This was followed by a fellowship meal.

the People in Procession to Chandabagh.

The statue of Mary in procession

Fr. Samuel giving a talk on Mother Mary

Savioites head towards Behrampore to express their faith.

Rt. Rev.Joseph Gomes Celebrant of the day

Holy communion children & Confirmation Youth

Savioites praying and singing

Blessed Sacrament

savioites in procession

concluding ceremony

The Pre-Novices and the Aspirants of the Savio Bhavan along with Fr. Rector and Br. Assistant moved out of Savio Bhavan for the church of Mary help of Christians in Behrampore for the Annual Eucharistic procession on 2^nd of December.The Savioites reached quite early so that they could have some time for seeing a new parish and its surroundings. The Holy Eucharist began at 2 O’clock which was presided over by His Holiness Rt. Rev. Joseph Gomes, the Bishop of Krishnagar. It was also a day kept for the reception of the sacraments of Holy Communion and Confirmation. There were 20 young people receiving Holy Communion and 14 received Confirmation. His holiness spoke about the need of deeper faith and devotion to the sacraments and our fidelity to it. The church was packed with the faithful of near and far villages of the parish. There were many priests from nearby parishes.

After the Holy Mass the procession began from the parish and took its route along the YMCA ground going to the Rabindra Sadan and returning back along the SP Bungalow. There was variety in ways of our expression of our faith to our lord Jesus by means of religious dances, Bhajans, music, rosary prayers and hymns in various languages. It was a perfect expression of our faith. The Savioites were behind the Blessed Sacrament saying their prayers and singing hymns.

Finally the procession concluded in the parish compound with a small talk by the Parish Priest of Chapra, who very nicely presented the theme of faith and the problem of Christians in expressing their true faith in Jesus Christ. His Holiness gave us the final Blessing and a vote of thanks was read which was concluded with light refreshment.

Young people from Joypur feel pulled to Savio Bhavan

Joypur youth with Fr. Rector in the Chapel

Azimganj - Today 35 young people from Don Bosco Mission at Joypur made their inaugurational trip of their two day visit to Azimganj, by walking into Savio Bhavan along with their Animator Fr. Sanjay Manohar.

These young people from the boarding at Joypur are the students from classes IX & X. They had come for their three day orientation at Don Bosco School, Azimganj. On 29^th as their orientation got over they came to Savio Bhavan to interact with the aspirants and have a look at this special house of the province.  As they put their steps inside Savio Bhavan they were warmly welcomed by the Rector Fr. Samuel Mondal, who took them straight to the chapel where they had a moment of prayer after that Fr. Rector introduced them to the house they were in. He also invited them to think over their life after they finish their high schooling. They were taken to the refectory where they were served tea after that they were entertained by the aspirants and the Pre-Novices with their welcome and action packed songs. With this they were left with the young people of Joypur to interact with them for five of our seminarians were from this mission itself.

“We feel so nice over here that we don’t want to go from here.” was the expression one of youth. This was very true for they were not willing to go and they spent a long time talking and chatting with the seminarians.

 The Rector of the house speaking about this highlighted the need of exposure of the seminarians with the youth with whom they would be working tomorrow.  A group photo was taken for the remembrance.

All of us holding together

welcoming fr. Rector

seminarians at their theme song

open air dinner with fr. Rector

community day mass

Fr. Rector presented the Spiritual Bouquet

Azimganj, 16^th October: The community of 2012-13 had its conception on 1^st of June with the arrival of the Pre-Novices and it was made complete with the coming of the aspirants on 26^th June. Since then three months have passed and the community has grown both in relation and information. The superiors decided to have the community month on the month of October because of other activities and the absence of other members after that, therefore the community month was decided to be held between 30^th of September till 17^th October.

The two weeks celebration came to its end with the beginning of three days of celebration on 15^th of October with the felicitation and the thanksgiving ceremony for the Non-Teaching staff at 4.15pm. This was followed by the reception of Fr. Rector from the MHC garden where Fr. Rector was carried on a carriage as the boys danced the traditional steps of Adivasi culture and led him to the nearest airport and then he landed at Savio Bhavan by a flight for the opening ceremony of the community day. The capos of various groups led Fr. Rector for the washing of the feet in Santhali tradition followed by surprise welcome of Rev. Fr. Punchakunnel Joseph, former Novice Master, Rector of Salesian College, Sonada and a Missionary in Bolivia for 25 years. Then the organizing group began the evening with the opening prayer service where the members got an opportunity to express their gratitude to others. This led to the solemn dinner in an open air surrounding in the basketball ground named HOTEL ALPONSA where the members had to sit according to their lot and as they were having their dinner Br. Arvind was conducting an interview of all. Many said it was their first experience, for few it was something new and for some it was very delighting. The day one ended with dance.

The main day saw its beginning with the solemn Eucharistic celebration in the chapel lead by the breakfast and community games like thousand goals and Rugby during which the boys expressed their joy by putting colors on each other. In the afternoon the boys had an experience of ‘Happy hour’ where they were asked questions on the community the Delhi group stood first. In the evening after an hour of Eucharistic adoration we had a family gathering where the Savio group presented the spiritual bouquet to father Rector. This was followed by grand dinner. The day was ended by kissing of the relic of Don Bosco.

The third day had its speciality of its own. The boys had cooking picnic in their respective apostolic group succeeded by an open lunch in the football ground. This was accompanied by a game of bingo. In the evening the boys had a trip to Chandabagh, a farm land under the Salesians about 20 mins from Savio Bhavan where they had rosary and tea. As they returned back they were shown the movie ‘Chak de India’ emphasizing on the community and team spirit.  The long awaited community day of Savio Bhavan ended on 17^th October.