My dear DeSales Oblate confrere!
I owe you this letter since long. At least I feel like this. I hope this letter finds you well in all your undertakings.
We celebrated on April 30th the perpetual profession of Brs. Maichael, Vincent and Xavier. I am delighted about their commitment and happy that they were able to make this final step into our community. Each one of them is an addition to the diversity of Oblates all over the world. I hope and pray, that they may have the spirit of “ignited minds” and find and discover creative ways of bringing our spirituality to the Indian people and beyond as well as to our own community.
Brs. Shinto P. Jose, Bijesh, Majeesh, Jose Paul, Christhu Raj, Mandoz Anthony, Joby and Prasad began their novitiate on May 29th under the guidance of a new Novice Master, Fr. Fred Smuda.
Brs. Reji, Bosco, Bruzily, Bala Swamy D., Benny, Chandra Shekar, John George, Albert, Alex Martin, Alex Simon, Jayaraj, Jinesh, Thomas, Bala Swamy P., Bhasker and Mathias renewed their vows on May 30th. They were well prepared by Fr. George Dinauer who had come for the occasion.
Brs. Shinto PD, Siju, Shijo, Bineesh and Rayappa made their first vows on May 31st and are now already studying Philosophy at Suvidya.
I thank all the brothers for the continuous search for God in themselves and in others. I encourage them to continue their discovery of our Founders’ charisma under the guidance of their new superior Fr. Josef Koeltringer, who was installed on May 31st.
Fr. Shaju is about to defend his thesis and should accomplish his studies by the end of the month. He will then assume fully his responsibilities as assistant of Fr. Josef and Fr. Fred and do some counseling as well.
Fr. Allie has left India on June 9th 2003 for South Africa. On behalf of Oblate Asia I thank him for having contributed what he had to contribute to both of our communities in India for almost five months. His presence was enriching and helped to deepen our bonds between regions. I thank Fr. Jan Mostert for enabling him to come despite the fact that the personnel situation of the Keimoes Region is quite tight. May the Good Lord reward you and your Region!
From our Fathers outside of India I can report that Fr. Anthony Ceresko has resumed enthusiastically his teaching and enjoys it. He is of course eagerly waiting for more Oblates to come to the Philippines. The coming year may, if all things fall into place (Personnel, General Council, Courage, Faith) become decisive for our move. I kindly request you to pray for this purpose.
Fr. John Dolan has well recuperated and is actually quite eager to return to India at the earliest. At the request of Fr. General he will stay in the States until September, doing some Mission Appeals, ensuring stability in his health. Here also, if all goes well, we expect Fr. John Dolan to return to India in September. A final word in this matter will be known after the meeting of the General Council in Overbach at the end of July.
Fr. John Sankarathil has been transferred to Fribourg for his doctoral studies. Close to our Swiss community of Duedingen he will live in the diocesan seminary of Fribourg. For his new start there we wish him all the best and God’s blessing. For all who want to write to him, find here his address: Seminaire Diocesain St Charles, Ch. Cardinal Journet 3, CH 1752 Villars sur Glane, Fribourg, Switzerland.
I have reached Salespuram on June 18th and enjoy my life here together with our candidates and postulants. Fr. Baiju, my new superior, Fr. Mathew and Br. Benny take good care of the brothers and me, we just wait for sunny days in October to formally inaugurate the ice cream parlor. You will hear about it. It’s wonderful. The 24 brothers in orientation, 13 brothers in +1 and 16 brothers in +2 have started their busy life as candidates and are growing daily. I should not forget to mention that 3 more brothers are studying for our congregation in other minor seminaries, one in SOLA, and two in Puddukottai. They are in our prayers as well.
Finally you should know that Br. Chandra Shekar has started his regency in Chennai. Here his email-address, if you want to stay in touch with him: chandraosfs@rediffmail.com.
As I write these few lines Fr. Josef has left Bangalore for some holidays, but mainly for working in his work as General Mission Coordinator. He will meet with some Fathers in the States and later also attend parts of the meeting with the General Council in Overbach. He will return to India by August 15th. I will leave India on the 26th of July, attend the meeting of the General Council in Germany, then go on retreat and convocation in my Province of origin, visit Fr. Sankarathil and take some holidays. I will be back in India on September 6th, the day on which Fred is leaving India for some holidays. Please pray for us as we need God’s protection in all our undertakings.
On the weekend of September 13th and 14th, there will be a meeting of the perpetually professed members of the Asian Region living in India as well as on the weekend of October 17th to October 19th. The agenda for these meetings will be sent separately.
It is good to see that things keep growing. As I sit every day in my office in Brisson Bhavan and see the garden of Salespuram gaining substance, I compare it with our Region. Many things are in their baby shoes, just starting to grow, and I sometimes don’t know myself if that or the other plant will make it. But, if proper attention is given, each plant will play its role in the new garden of Salespuram. In the middle of all these plants a small hut was constructed, the famous ice cream parlor as it is called jokingly. It gives protection from rain and sun, is a sort of “safe place” in the middle of our compound. I am also looking for some safe places in our Region. I don’t mean so much physical places as I rather think of spiritual places. One I have lately discovered myself is silence. I have read through a book of a Benedictine monk “Anselm Gruen” who offers us different angels for the days. One of the angels he is talking about is the angel of silence. I realize with him, that the lack of noise does not make a silence already a good silence. Silence, which we are called to keep here and there, is meant to enable a deepening of our relationship with God. The abstention of speaking is not yet the intention of silence. I share with you his article, which I translated from German into English. I hope you find some treasure in it for your religious life. I pray for your spiritual growth as Oblate of St. Francis de Sales and may the angel of silence help you to discover yourself and God more and more.
“The angel of silence
Angels are soft creatures. You cannot hold them. They come unexpectedly. You must be open to be able to meet them. Angels come slowly. You need a lot of silence, to be able to hear the angels. And there is one angel that would like to introduce you to the art of being silent, in the art to submerge in an atmosphere of silence that heals. In our loud world we need a lot of silence, in order to be able to heal interiorly. Soren Kierkegaard, a famous philosopher would, if he would be a doctor, recommend to many people: “Create silence!” And Rabindranath Tagore invites us: “Let your soul take bath in silence!” Silence is a remedy for our souls, which often are congested, which cannot breathe anymore, because thoughts and pictures have come from everywhere into it.
Everything great needs silence, that is being born in man. “Only in silence will you recognize truly!”, Romano Guardini says. And a monk of the early church says: “Silence is a fruit of wisdom and knows everything!” The silence prepares us to be able to listen properly, to listen carefully, to hear in between the words, when someone is speaking to us. And silence is precondition that we can hear the voice of God within us. Many complain in our days that they do not experience God in their lives that God is afar from them. But they are full of noise, so that they overhear the slow impulses that God speaks into their hearts. We are always busy. As soon as we hear such a small impulse, we push it aside and face towards what we can grasp. If we are like this we will never be able to hear Gods voice.
Silence comes from to silence, to calm down, to quiet down. The mother silences her child by giving her breast. So it stops crying. The angel of silence wants to quiet down our loud desires, our loud thoughts, our needs, so that we can discover in us the room of silence. The mystics are convinced, that in each of us there is a room of silence, to which the thoughts and feelings, the desires and needs have no access. It is also the room which people cannot enter with their expectations and requests, with their judgments and condemnations. It is the room within me, in which I can be who I really am. And it is in this room that God lives in me. There I am really free. There nobody has power over me. In this room nobody can hurt me. There I am whole and healthy. For me it is a daily desire to sit down and meditate. In my meditation I imagine how my breath and the word, which I combine with my breath, lead me into this inner room of silence. In this room nobody else can enter, even though they come and seem to be in my room. There nobody can reach me with his desires and with his judgments and his condemnations. There I can freely breathe. There I am alone with my God. This gives dignity to my life. In this inner room of silence I come into touch with my real self. The silence transforms me, like it transformed the nagging wife of Rabbi Sussja. Of her it is said: “From that moment on she became silent. And as she had become silent, she became happy. And as she had become happy, she became good.”
Especially when you have to deal a lot with other people, when many want something from you, when you have intensive discussions with them, you need an angel of silence, who quiets down the many words that you hear every day. In silence you can breathe again. You can get rid of all what others have told you. The angel of silence would like to lead you into your interior room, in which also other people, for whom you are there, have no access. You don’t have to be afraid then, that others’ problems take control over you or overwhelm you, that the dirt you sometimes hear everyday, dirties also you inner being.
There is an area, in which you have to remain untouched of all trash that others want to pour on you. In this inner room you remain sane and whole. The angel of silence may accompany you and remind you again and again, that this room is already there in you. You don’t have to create it. You just have to get in touch with the silence that is within you and can heal you. There, in this room of silence, you can take rest. There you are whole and sane. There is something pure there, something unalloyed in you that cannot be disturbed through the noise of the world”.
I would like to take the opportunity to thank all of you, who go along my way, to be for me sometimes a ‘safe place’, a place of comfort, of caring, of challenging and of friendship.
Finally I want to ask you to pray in a special cause. The Vatican files on the Good Mother Mary de Sales Chappuis are now available to scholars. Therefore the Superior General will soon formally reanimate the Causa of the Good Mother. Let us pray for her beatification, but let us especially pray to keep her spirit alive in our Congregation, in us. Her faith and trust in the Lord shall be an example for us as we often cannot await developments. I recommend these prayers in a special way in light of our probable next step to the Philippines. We can wait, as she did, with the trust and certainty that the good Lord will enable us to make the move at the appropriate time.
God bless you!
Fr. Sebastian Leitner osfs
PS: If you read this letter as hard copy, but would like to receive it as email, please let me know your email address at the earliest. Thank you.
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