The Corona Pandemic most certainly is the worst widespread attack on humanity in this century. It did force us indoors, away from all the external ministries that helped many people spiritually and emotionally, simultaneously supporting our communities with a stable financial foundation. Now, this is a crisis that did keep a majority of the world on a standstill. It’s no wonder that our confreres as true Redemptorists have always been flexible and available to the needs of the time, using their innate skills and talents for the common good and the glory of God’s kingdom. Their readiness as communities to venture into new areas with much zeal is applauding.
The community at Chowara have more half of its members out of the community. The Students are presently at the CST Seminary, leaving us with 8 fathers (2 of whom are in parishes) and the 3rd Year Philosophers to run the daily chores in the community. The unforeseen prolonged pandemic has brought us together to see to the needs of the house and the farm and come up with creative and lasting means of building and supporting our infrastructure for the near future. Maintenance and beautification of the land, cultivation of food generating plants, sustenance of animals and pets have been some of the priorities. The community has given special attention to the promotion of special skills of confreres like designing and crafting, painting & sketching, writing & composing music, gardening and so forth. The brothers too have played a very supportive role to these new endeavours. A quiz, ‘Cognitio’, based on the Redemptorist traditions and history was organised to motivate the students, under the guidance of Fr. Bijo M.
