Indian Catholic Matters requested Maria Sangeetha, a Catholic lay minister serving at the Divine Retreat Centre (DRC) since 2002, to share the experience when DRC was under siege during the recent Kerala floods. DRC is now racing against time to get back to what is does best — serving the spiritual needs of the faithful. September 15 is a stiff opening date for DRC. However, there’s a lot more work to be done, brick by brick.
“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” (Luke 10:2). DRC needs our fervent prayers, support and help in whatever way we can. The blessing will be in abundance.
We thank her for her generosity for taking time off to write for us despite the hectic rebuilding activities at DRC .
We appeal to our readers to reach out and help DRC finds its feet again. Details given below.
Editor – ICM
Over to Maria Sangeetha…
“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you.” -Is 43:2
Scripture reminds us that God works in ways “beyond our asking and imagination.” He chooses to reveal His glory in the most unlikely situations. The first time Jesus manifested His glory was at Cana. As is often pointed out in the preaching here, it was when calculations failed and disaster stood at the threshold of a wedding party, threatening to overwhelm joy and hope, that the glory of God was revealed! Has the glory God been revealed in the ‘Cana’ (or Canas) of your life?
Divine Retreat Centre, for 28 years now, has been the venue where the glory of God was marvellously manifested, drawing people from across the continents to seek and experience the real tangible mercy of God. When the lame walked and the blind received sight, when families were reconciled and youth gave up their addictions and committed their lives to the Lord, when tears were wiped away and hope was restored in desperate lives – we saw the glory of God. And in mid-August when storms lashed down and rivers gushed in flooding the Centre, I can tell you for sure, we are seeing the glory of God. Here are just a few glimpses of the marvellous way in which God was moving amongst us, powerfully declaring His faithful love, even through the storms.
Story continues after the message below.
How can you support:
For those within India, if you are inspired to contribute to the restoration after the calamity of the floods at the Divine Retreat Centre and its ministries, you may send your donations to the following bank account that belongs to the Divine Charitable Trust.
Beneficiary Name: Divine Charitable Trust
Account No: 04022310000014
Bank Name: HDFC Bank
Branch Name: Chalakudy, Trichur, Kerala, India
RTGS/ IFSC Code: HDFC0000402
Once you make the transfer, please email augustinedivine @gmail.com and we will send you the receipt for 80G exemptions.
For those from the USA wishing to contribute to the flood relief at Divine Retreat Centre, there are two options:
1) The Credit Card transfer option
Details are available in www.potta.com
Or www.dvnonline.org
2. A cheque in favour of Vincentian Congregation and this has tax exemption
This cheque has to be sent to
Fr Francis Cheruparambil, VC
PO Box 56
Keyport
New Jersey 07735
USA
Fr Francis will mail the tax exemption receipt.
For all others outside India and not in USA
The best option is the Credit Card with details in www.potta.com or www.dvnonline.org
The other option is to make a bank transfer to
Beneficiary Account No.021701000708
SWIFT Code (Remittance from Abroad)
ICICINBBXXX
Branch Address ICICI Bank Ltd, Irinjalakuda, Thrissur, Kerala
Beneficiary Name: Divine Charitable Trust-FCRA
Divine Retreat Centre,
Muringoor P.O., Chalakudy, Kerala,
India-680316
The Downpour
Calamities are what happens in the newspapers, in the TV headlines and to ‘others’ whom we sympathise with. When Kerala was flooded in August 2018, and until the waters rose in our very compounds, it never did really strike us that a calamity could come upon our own lives! We have always witnessed as to how Divine is one place where the word of God is preached day in and day out, that too in seven languages and for 28 years. We have faced many a storm, yet nothing could stop our mission of proclamation to the poor and grieving. But when the floods came, all this was changed.
For the first time the retreats are suspended. The retreat centre is closed exactly for a month. Divine began in very humble situations. It restarts the retreats on 16 September. The settings would be very humble but our proclamation is going to be far more enriched. We always held on to the Catholic and scriptural message of proclaiming Christ and Christ crucified, as against the popular prescriptions of the prosperity gospel. Now we continue, day in and day out, to proclaim Christ ever more powerfully through our sufferings. The greatest agony of the human mind in suffering is the sense of God’s abandonment (punishment) in times of losses. Today Divine specifically answers this grief with our life witness that God chooses us “Not only to believe in Him but to suffer for Him” (Phil 1:29). And truly we feel so privileged to “share in the sufferings of Christ” (1 Pet 4:13).
Rising Waters
There was something very different about the Independence Day this year. The rains were pouring down incessantly. We had a rather muted celebration. The flag hung limply. The news of the floods in Kerala had moreover created a sombre atmosphere. 50 families of volunteers from the neighbouring locality of Shantipuram had moved in. I remember vividly how after the flag hoisting that morning, little Nutrine toffees were distributed to all.
As I took mine and headed back, one of the volunteers who helps in cleaning came up and commented to me, “What is this celebration for me? My house and all I own has gone under water.” I offered a sympathetic smile and enquired if it was at Shantipuram. She tearfully nodded her head and walked off. This was the first time we had ever spoken to each other. I felt sad for her like I would for any tragic story flashed in the news.
Given the heavy monsoons this year, we suspected nothing. The prayer sessions continued through the day, as did the showers. The night passed. The morning light came to reveal the River Chalakudy had launched a brutal invasion of the campus. The water levels rose rather rapidly from waist level to neck level to even higher. All the structures in Divine had at least the ground floor immersed in waters that were now bringing in snakes and silt and other undesirable matter. Trees fell, the pillars of one of our residential blocks is cracked at its foundation. The television and audio recording studios were flooded. Most of the retreat halls were unapproachable. The damage done extensive.
The Eye of the Storm
For those three days, we all were held under siege in our respective buildings. There were young families with babies, children, elderly persons, priests, volunteers. And all gathered silently watching the waters rise. There was no electricity, no running water, no food and no clue as to when there would be a respite. Yet a powerful peace prevailed in every heart. No one panicked. People patiently filed in for a meal of two biscuits and black coffee.
We have heard of the eye of the storm. It is the still calm place at the centre of the hurricane or storm. When stormy waters overran the Divine, we never realised that God could hold every one of us in a perfect peace comparable to the eye of the storm.
God accomplishes this peace, firstly by holding us in one accord. The human was never meant to be on alone. It is especially true when we are suffering. No matter what the tragedy may be, when it ceases to be a personal tragedy and there is a community present together to face the storm, the suffering loses its sting. It becomes a precious moment of edification.
On the 3rd day the sound of choppers filled the air. What they sent down were ten packets of food and two cartons of water to feed the 1000 persons on campus! The Vincentian Fathers hired another chopper. Again all of us gathered at the terrace. When it did come in the evening, what came dropping were loaves of ‘Modern’ bread! It was the ‘manna’ for a people in need.
This was the beginning of a new perception of the world around us.
Honestly, it was a stunning moment, loaves of bread being thrown down at us. This is something that happens to others – to those in severely less privileged circumstances. I never imagined there would be a day when I would have no food… or that I would be holed up in a building unable to move out anywhere… or that I would lose my independence to procure what I want… or that I must wait and hope on someone else to have mercy on me even for the basic need of bread and water! I realised what we were going through was just a sample of the real life of thousands around the world.
Courage Under Siege
The flood waters had drawn me (and thousand others) from being observers living life from the fringes to plunge into the experience of living deeply. Being a sympathetic observer at a safe distance from the problems of life isn’t being real. Being real requires much more. It requires us to step into the shoes of the suffering brother and walk the extra mile. The Bible tells us that being sympathetic wasn’t enough – we must suffer with the suffering. Bear one another’s burdens. “Be mindful of prisoners as if sharing their imprisonment, and of the ill-treated as of yourselves” (Heb 13). In a most gentle way, God has opened our hearts out to accommodate (and not just observe) the large proportion of the suffering brethren of the world.
Real Christianity goes beyond being nice – it’s about sacrifice! It is tough! The Good Samaritan had to suspend his plans, blemish his hands and empty his pocket to help the unknown wounded neighbour. The flood has opened my eye to how much Divine has touched lives in real and sincere ways. It preaches. It also practices. That’s rare. The ministry of Divine is known for its spiritual support. It also has like a parent, nurtured individuals who were lost, supported them financially and launched them on to life.
The Divine Faith
Mary Babu, a teacher shared how Divine built a home for her family. This is one of the 100 homes that Divine has built for marginalised families. When the waters entered the house, all these families rushed (her words) to Divine as one would rush to the parents house. The Fathers received them. Then when the waters rose here, they were just praying all the time for God to save Divine. God did. Now they remain here to first clear up Divine. ‘Divine is my pride. Divine is my ‘tharavaadu’ (ancestral home)’. After this is done will they go to set up their own homes.
Many of the volunteers have been here for 20 years and longer! Divine is for them home. Healthy Spirituality is not mere high inspirations and well wishing. It isn’t the arrogance of judgmental preaching down. It is relationships, it is sincere concern, it is participation in the trials of the other in a real manner. “If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,” but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” (James 2). St James perhaps is referring to that ever present breed of people who are so ‘spiritual’ they cease to be ‘human’. May our righteousness exceed that of the Pharisee.
In Divine we live full lives but we live with little. During this crisis we have learnt that we can live with less than little. For the days that followed, we continued to live on rationed water and an hour of electricity. But all our deprivations pales completely into insignificance when we look at the larger picture of what the others around us have suffered.
Bread of Life
A week after the floods hit Divine, when I went for breakfast I enquired if there was an option of bread. The volunteer laughed and said we haven’t had any bread since the day the helicopters dropped bread! I found out why that very evening when we went visiting Divine Care Centre for the mentally challenged.
Here water had risen to a level of two floors and here is where the Divine Bakery is also situated. From this Bakery (with machinery worth 75 lakhs) daily bread and bun was produced for the breakfast and tea of the thousands at the Centre. It is here at the Care Centre that two people died out of starvation. Those who baked bread for us daily, went through three days without a morsel of food. One of the male nurses working here explained that those who are mentally challenged eat much more than others. It was unbearable agony for them those days. They could not understand why the floods should prevent hem from having food!
We were looking to meet Fr. Janson, the Director. After quite awhile we found him cleaning the rooms of the patients. A volunteer taking us aside told us that Fr. hadn’t had a meal – not because there was no food but because he had no time with many patients to care of. When Fr Janson spoke, we discovered the key to such selflessness is the absolute rootedness in God. Through every moment those days, even when it seemed to him that they were suspended between life and death, he felt great peace.
At the Rehab Centre block, he stayed with the 70 children from the St Vincent’s Boys’ Home, 30 from the Rehab Centre (The newly built two storey Boys Home was submerged in water). Those who were going through the Deaddiction Program were having withdrawals. They were furious. Each time Fr Jansen kept telling them “God will bring something for us.” At one moment when the addicts were growing violent, fighting among themselves, the Father went to the terrace, collected rain water, made black tea and calmed the ‘storm’… for awhile.
After three days some neighbours brought some plain rice. Fr Janson recalls, “we put a handful of plain cooked rice in our mouths and it was so tasty. Never has food tasted that good. We were so happy. We could experience the immense love of God in the people who cared to risk their lives and bring us food.” Ever since I’ve returned those words keep echoing in my heart! How much have I failed to be thankful for the ‘daily bread’!
Spreading the Good News
Divine Centre has been carefully built up over 28 years, brick by brick, very conscious of the fact that it was the contribution of ordinary people who made retreats here and who were concerned with spreading the good news of Jesus.
The Divine Printing Press has been so built up over these two decades. Now it has lost machinery worth Rs. 10 crores. There were 50,000 English bibles alone kept ready for delivery. There were over 30,000 bibles in other languages and plenty of other printed material – all amounting to a very significant amount. All these are lost irretrievably in the waters. The Divine Press has been doing incredible work in providing subsidised Bibles and spreading the word of God.
For many this might seem a horrifying account. For me it is an incredible extraordinary testimony of the power of faith. It is like Daniel and his friends who were in the furnace and came out unscathed. We visited the Maria Shanthi Bhavan that houses 43 elderly women left there by their families. They are now part of the Divine family! When the waters first entered their home, the Sisters and ladies carried those who were bedridden to the first floor. The waters rose rapidly entering the first floor and there were plenty of snakes floating in. The petrified ladies moved to the terrace. They remained there for an entire day and night braving the incessant heavy rain, the strong winds and the fear of snakes moving in to the terrace.
Moreover food had not reached them. They continually prayed. And today when we spoke to them, everyone was so thankful and so much in awe of God’s faithfulness. I was amazed – none of these seemingly fragile ladies succumbed to the harshest circumstances or even took ill! The grandmothers teach us: Have faith in FAITH! Harsh circumstances need not kill us… nor leave us harsh!
God chose to be born in a humble manger. Today as I was visiting the humble manger of the Dairy Farm, God opened my eyes to a Divine mystery!
The Divine Experience
Divine is a place where heaven and earth converge! Ask those who come here – the prayer, the peace, the experience of the Holy Spirit. It’s a place where people from across the nations ‘converge’ – a mirror of the universal Church.
I’ve lived in Divine for over 16 years now. I saw it primarily as a retreat centre. People come in, we preach and pray and God blesses them and they return. Today visiting the Divine Dairy Farm, it struck me Divine is not a mere preaching centre but a mirror of the glorious creation that through all its hues glorifies the Maker. Every segment of Divine worked together to make the retreat the experience that it is.
There in this Dairy Farm there were 220 cows. Each cow was giving 20 litres of milk a day. That was how we were giving milk to the children at the charitable homes, providing tea for the 3000 residents of Divine’s charitable homes and the 1000s of retreatants. Now only 50 cows, a few pigs & birds survived. All the goats and fish are dead. The cost of 1 grown cow is a lakh! How do we start again? Big questions loom large. Yet now we train our eyes to the far Bigger God towering above all these with outstretched arms and an assuring gaze that clearly invites us, ‘Trust in me’.
Picking Up the Pieces
As I write this, we have finished one phase of the clearing. We have sent the machinery to the manufacturers. Quite a few of them have got back to inform us that much of the high-end equipment we use cannot be repaired. The more advanced technology that is available today is also very fragile. As I was for a moment discussing the challenging days ahead with a friend, he shared with me a precious insight. “What Divine has built up over the last 2.5 decades is not the physical structures but the millions of hearts won for the kingdom .. they now form a healthy part of the body of Christ.” This speaks so much for our identity, our mission and the strength that leaves us unafraid and charging to move ahead.
Cleaning has begun – young and old, TV staff, volunteers – all are at it. Many of them had their own homes submerged in water – their love for Divine and the spirit of fellowship reigns. “When you pass through waters, I will be with you; through rivers, you shall not be swept away.” (Is 43:2). This speaks for the spirit here. No matter what crisis you go through, what God does through this is so much more precious. Every tear, every struggle, every loss is worth it… because He is Emmanuel – the God with us. You can believe this.
For these 10 days since the floods hit us, we, all of us on campus, have been together all the time. We stay in the same building. We eat in the same hall. We pray in the same chapel. We work together. We also did something we’ve never done before. When we gathered for the 6:15 am Mass, we all wept together – priests and people. It was truly our tears that was mingled with the wine in the chalice.
A New Journey
The first reading that day had Joshua assemble all the tribes of Israel together for a rededication. Today was ours. He challenged them, “Choose today whom you will serve… As for me and my family we will serve the Lord” The people affirm their dedication, recalling all the Lord’s works “It was the Lord our God who brought us out of the land of slavery… He performed great signs before our eyes… He protected us all along our journey… Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for He is our God.” (Josh 24).
Today with tears we declared our dedication to God, “Come what may, we will serve the Lord. He drew us from slavery, performed marvellous signs before our eyes, protected us. We are His servants.”
Fr Augustine reminded us that in four days of water, all we built up were washed away and we must therefore build our lives on the real love of God. Our faith and our joy is not on the passing treasures but in our saving God. Habakkuk 3 says, “For though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit appears on the vine, Though the yield of the olive fails and the terraces produce no nourishment, Though the flocks disappear from the fold and there is no herd in the stalls, Yet I will rejoice in the Lord and exult in my saving God.” This is exactly where we stand, he concluded, we rejoice for we have the assurance that “The Lord built this House of Prayer up. He will rebuild it beautifully. For that’s how He does everything – beautifully.”
This was a most precious Eucharist experience for me. Felt so one with “The LORD (who) is close to the broken-hearted, saves those whose spirit is crushed. Many are the troubles of the just, but the LORD delivers him from them all” (Ps 34). Today’s psalm!
I’m reminded of “Footprints in the sand”. While Divine has always been the place where we experienced God walking with us, these are the days when we know He is carrying us.”
On 15 September, the gates of Divine Retreat Centre would be opened, blessed and dedicated with the Cardinal, members of the Church, friends and well-wishers in a two-day prayer service. The retreats begin on Sunday, 16 September. That week we would also be holding a retreat for priests. The witness of the word is blessed by the witness of our sufferings. We thank God for this. We would welcome you to join us in our celebration of thanksgiving and rededication on 15, 16 September. For more details you can mail us at [email protected].
Maria Sangeetha Sanjeevi is a Catholic lay minister serving at the Divine Retreat Centre since 2002. She is the Program Director for English programs of the Divine-Goodness TV. She coordinates the Divine Youth ministry. She is part of the retreat services in the preaching and counselling ministries. She hails from Chennai from where she did her post-graduation. After doing her Media Studies at Lyons, France, she joined the Divine Retreat Centre.