Frozen Yoga

June 24th-25th

Sorry about the lack of pictures/videos in the last post. I’ll will try my best to add more visual content in this post.

But first, I must tell you all of a recent death at the seminary. This member was the seminary’s most recent member, joining only a few hours after I came. Everyone loved this new member, spending countless hours together with the seminarians on the basketball court.

But one fine rainy day, one of the seminarians comes up to me and tells me that this member has just fallen onto a really sharp bed of rocks and that the chances of survival are slim to none.

R.I.P. Chicago Ball

The seminarians felt bad that they broke the new “Chicago ball”.  I felt embarrassed that the brand new –American –basketball broke within a week of using it.

Probably should have gotten them a “Chicago hockey puck” instead; it might have lasted longer.

I’ve realized that I never wrote about the beautiful time table here at the seminary.

5:15am- Wake Up

5:45am – Meditation and Sapra, Liturgy of the Hours of the SyroMalabar Church

6:30am-SyroMalabar Holy Qurbana

7:30am- Breakfast

8:20am- Bible Reading

8:40am- Classes

12:55pm – Examination of Conscience

1:00pm – Lunch

2:25pm - Class

4:00pm – Tiffin (tea and snacks)

4:15pm – Play time

Play time at the seminary is intense. They have a whole variety of sports like basketball, volleyball, badminton, and football (soccer). What’s great about play time is that every person in seminary must be participating in some type of sport, even the priests! But don’t let their piety and godliness on the altar fool you; some of these priests get REALLY INTENSE on the court, some even play dirty…

Every few weeks, the different classes go against each other in different sports. Here’s a video of the first-year theology students playing the third-year theology students in a volleyball game.

The first-year seminarians all have to take one full month of yoga. A few of the older seminarians were well educated in yoga before joining the seminary, so they lead the yoga sessions for the younger seminarians. I was privileged to be able to participate in yoga for the first time! It’s a very relaxing and soothing activity, until you begin doing the crazy postures that require the flexibility of an Olympic gymnast.

They begin and end each yoga class with a set of chants that sound very similar to the Hindu style of chanting, but what they chant has a Christian meaning. I’m not exactly sure what the words mean in the first and second song, but the third song commemorates the Holy Trinity –Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (watch the entire video!)

5:45pm – Rosary, Study time

7:45pm – Ramsa (SyroMalabar Evening Prayer)

8:15pm – Supper

9:00pm – Lelya (SyroMalabar Night Prayer)

10:30pm – Lights off, sleep

Their schedule is pretty packed. Time-management is a must and I don’t think anyone would be able to survive here without it.

The weekends are kind of different though. During the week, it may seem like they’re “locked up” in the seminary, but on Saturdays, there are three hours in the afternoon where the seminarians can leave the seminary campus and go out into the town, hang out with each other, or go see a movie (only one movie allowed per month though).

With these three hours out of the week allotted for leaving the seminary campus, you’d imagine that the seminarians to take advantage of this freedom and “have fun”. But I was surprised to see a number of seminarians who use these three hours out of the week to visit people in jail, AIDS patients at a local hospital, and the Missionaries of Charity house in Kottayam.

Brother Jigin, a seminarian for the Kottayam (Knanaya) Archdiocese visits the nearby slums on Saturdays whenever he gets the chance. I was so moved by his love and concern for these people. He’s not required by the seminary to make a certain number of visits to the slums; he does it out of genuine love for his neighbor.

The conditions of the slums were awful. There are about four to five people jam packed in a small shed-like house that’s about the size of my room at the seminary. I have no idea how they all manage to live in that tiny area, but what makes the area unbearable is that there is a garbage dump that is right in the center of the “slum colony” and the local government hasn't done anything to remove this giant pile of garbage that’s been rotting in the same location for decades. I could barely breathe while I was there, I can’t imagine having to live next to all that garbage, having to smell that terrible odor for your entire life.

But when the people living in the slums saw me and Br. Jigin, their faces immediately lit up with a smile and they called all the neighbors living in the colony to come and see the “achans” (literally means father; title given to priests).

Though we aren't priests yet (God-willing), they see us as priests and feel so happy that we came to visit them. They brought us inside their small homes and offered to us whatever food items and drinks they had around the house.

It was a really beautiful experience. We visited three families that day and they were all from three different religious backgrounds –Catholic, Pentecostal, and Hindu. We didn't have any money to offer them, no clothes, no toys for the kids; just a simple visit to spend time with them and see how each member in the family is doing.

But simply visiting the families of the slums isn't all the seminarians do. They take it a step further and get involved in helping these families overcome the injustice they face. When the seminarians get a chance and with the permission of the rector, they partake in peaceful strikes and make their presence known to the members of the government that they stand in solidarity with the people of the slums.  

It’s nice to know that these seminarians don’t simply live in seminaries separated from the world, but that they respond to the Church’s call to participate in the social affairs of society. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that, “‘Participation’ is the voluntary and generous engagement of a person in social interchange, It is necessary that all participate, each according to his position and role, in promoting the common good. This obligation is inherent in the dignity of the human person” (CCC 1913)

After reflecting on this experience afterwards, I realized that what we were doing –visiting families on the margins of society –was not something new to Kerala. In fact, Fr. Augustine Thevarparampil, also known as Blessed Kunjachan, was visiting members of the Dalit community almost ninety years ago; a time when to think of a priest who not only visited, but also ate with the untouchables, was something unheard of.

But unlike the people of the slums in Kottayam who know that they are being mistreated, the untouchables did not think there was any wrong being done against them whatsoever because it was instilled into their minds that they were born into this type of life, that their lives are to be lived without receiving any education whatsoever, and that their lives are to be lived for as slaves for the upper class. They believed this was their fate and the possibility of that changing was inconceivable. So when Kunjachan initially came to their homes to tell them that they were experiencing injustice and that their dignity as a human person was not being upheld, the members of the Dalit community just pushed him away, saying that he was crazy for trying to get them educated, getting them up the social ladder, and telling them that they have a special "human dignity” that he speaks about. It took much time, and the process was difficult, but Blessed Kunjachan eventually helped the untouchables receive the equality in society that they deserved and they in turn gave him a special title --"achan (father)".

But how did Blessed Kunjachan tell the untouchables that they have an inherent human dignity that puts them on equal footing with all members of society, and therefore, deserve just as much care, respect, and educational opportunities as any other person, regardless of social class?

And how do we in the twenty-first century tell a man thinking about suicide that his life is worth living? How do we tell a woman victimized by rape that her body is pure and holy, and not “forever filthy”? How do we tell a couple who deeply regrets their abortion that they are still loved by God?

Simple.

Love them as Christ loved.

Simple...but not easy.

“Lord our God, console the afflicted, heal the sick and protect the poor. Grant repentance to the sinners, eternal happiness to the faithful departed, and happiness to the righteous. Bless us as we are privledged to see dawn of another day, now, always and forever. Amen”

-Final Prayer, Sapra, SyroMalabar Liturgy of the Hours