Friday, July 17, 2015

SANJOE ASHRAM, THALAPPARA

Br.Vincent along with the cook....preparing some chapatis for me....Vincent is the youngest friar in Charge of OFS and youth.....he studied in Africa in order to be missionary in Malawi but unfortunately had to return due to Malaria which he suffered....
 A Friary with three friars.....they have a lot of pastoral work here. There is a chapel where more thank 100 people daily come for the Mass. The friars also go to the close by Parish for daily Mass. There is a chapel which is the part of the parish and it is given to the care of the capuchins. The friars also go round for the spiritual ministry for the Nuns and others....
 Br. George Kunnel is the guardian....he has spent some four years in the gulf.....
 The friars have about two acres of Land on which rubber is planted....here in kerala the rubber prices are very much down and as a result people have stopped tapping the rubber....the charges for tapping is higher....i heard that many people have cut down the trees as the income is very little from it or expensive to maintain.....

 A small friary built with the intention of having some stage of formation but the idea later got changed....

 The friary is surrounded by rubber plants.....its now all green due to rains.....

 There are a lot of wild flowers which grown only in rainy season...these are one of those which attract your attention...

 Br. Thomas, an ex Malawi Missionary for 10 years......is here as the member of the community...he has bee hives and gets good honey....as a hobby he has started....variety of bees....the honey is so good....even for the diabetic patients too....
 In the garden there are about 25 boxes of bee hives....he explained to me the process and all about the bees....the queen and working bees....their mode of working and the spirit of team and community sense...all amazing....applied to humans it will work very well.....

 He is very comfortable with the bees.....he explained me how he makes the boxes.....and how many bee hives and combs....as he was explaining my mouth was watering....he is already sweet with the honey that he tastes....
 Its expensive ......the smaller bees are expensive and their honey too......he is able to get some money for the fraternity....i have encouraged him to get involved some more friars so that they can produce more more and more money for the malawi mission

 Guardian plays with the parishioners.....good exercise .....


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