St Thomas Province, India
Claretian Universal Mission Day Celebration

Fr. George Pettayil writes from Kuravilangar, India:

The various communities and mission centers of St. Thomas Province celebrated Claretian Universal Mission Day in the months of December and January. It was a unique experience for our communities and mission centers. The communities had their own way of celebrating this day.

The parish communities celebrated the day with a parish collection preceded by a general awareness program about Claretian missionary activities around the world. This gave a general awareness about our missionary activities, the Congregation and the Founder.

In the formation communities students were given special classes on Claretian Mission and charism. The students took initiatives to organise an auction to raise some funds for the support of our missionary activities.

In the school communities special programs were arranged to give general awareness about Claretian Mission with special emphasis on our educational and social apostolate. Different competitions were organised for the students and staff to raise funds for the support of our mission.

In the remote mission centers, especially in the missions of Adilabad diocese in Andhra Pradesh, our students of philosophy organised various street plays and songs to display our missionary activities.

At the Province level, we have printed a calendar and distributed to our various houses and missions. It was aimed at popularising our Founder and the activities of the Province.

The celebration of the Claretian Universal Mission Day was an occasion for the whole province to reiterate her commitment to the mission of the Congregation and to think together in the communities about the need to support each other and to feel one with the activities of the Congregation.

As regards the funds raised for the Claretian Universal Missions, I am yet to receive the final amount. Some of the communities are yet to send the amount. So I shall let you know about the amount without much delay.

Fr. George Pettayil, cmf