St. Mary’s Mission completing its 125 years

St. Mary’s Mission Sangamner will be completing One Hundred and Twenty-five Years of committed service through dedicated pastoral, spiritual, educational and social ministry. The 125-year history of St. Mary’s Mission expresses the steadfast divine assistance of God in every aspect of human formation for building up human society, inclusive of everyone. It is God who inspired and led our stalwart Missionaries to begin St. Mary’s Mission and sow the seeds of His love and mercy.  The zealous labours of our Missionaries are a unique expression of God’s love and mercy for the people in and around Sangamner. We today cannot imagine what the then Sangamner and its surroundings would have been, but, recalling the 125-year old Mission history, we  realize that the Lord was with us all along, facing the storms, droughts, famine, plague, and starvation leading to the deaths of thousands and thousands of people.

Our German, Swiss and Austrian Missionaries took the challenges they faced in their stride, and responded to the odds against them with divine assistance and with the graces, gifts and generosity that they were blessed with. The challenges and predicaments of the 125-year old Mission history bear witness to God’s promise in the scriptures that everything is possible with Him – challenging us in turn to the audacity of the improbable and the impossible. It is understandable that the Missionaries through their prayers remained close to God and kept Christ, His Will, Mission and People at the center of their missionary works and activities, distinguishing, differentiating and depriving none from the love and mercy of God. In the most critical moments and seemingly hopeless situations, our Missionaries displayed deep loyalty to the Church and to the spirit of the Society.

In sharing their same calling and charism, a legacy they have passed on to us, we are sharers and partners of the same St. Mary’s Mission. We, as Missionaries, according to our times and situations have our own challenges, difficulties and dilemmas to face. The challenges demand commitment and courage from us, while the difficulties and dilemmas call us to deep deliberation and communal discernment. We discover God’s Will in His Word, as He speaks to us in the Holy Scriptures, through prayerful reflection, meditation and contemplation. As we celebrate the 125-year history of St. Mary’s Mission, we are reminded of the most important dimension of our vocation that God has chosen us, unworthy though we are, and has entrusted to us St. Mary’s Mission. God’s Mission remains the same, only the Missionaries are changed, and the circumstances are different. Thus St. Mary’s Mission invites and urges us to take forward the Mission in creative and innovative ways to the men and women in every walk of life.

Let us as a Province take this celebration of 125-year history of God’s love and mercy as an occasion to appraise and evaluate our commitment, our courage and our concern for building and spreading the Kingdom of God and its values. One of the challenges, which the new Provincial will have to take up is our spiritual renewal. Spiritual renewal begins in one’s personal life, which flows out into the community and apostolic life. As Jesuits, we are called to be pioneers and visionaries in our entrusted Mission. Spiritually renewed and attuned to the Will of God, may our Mission bear abundant fruit through our works and apostolates.