Full name: JOHN MARIUS MANICKANAMPARAMBIL
Baptismal name: JOHN
House name: MANAYATH, MANICKANAPARABIL
Date of birth: August 22, 1936
Place of birth: Udayamperoor, Ernakulum,
Kerala
Date of baptism: August 29, 1936, in ST.
SEBASTAIN’S CHURUCH, UDAYAMPEROOR
Name of father: VARDHESE
Name of mother: ANNMMA
Eldest brother: MR.M.V. ANTONY
Youngest brother: MR.M.V. THOMAS
My parents had seven children, they are;
M.V.ANTONY, M.V. JOSEPH, M.V. GEOGE, M.V. JOHN (Fr.john Marius), M.V.
SEBASTIAN, and M.V. THOMAS. They live in Ernakulum area. M.V Antony, M.V.
GEOGE, M.V. THOMAS PASSED AWAY.
Parish: ST. SEBASTAIN’S CHURUCH,
UDAYAMPEROOR
Diocese: ERNAKULAM
Primary education: Little Flower School
South Paroor
High School: Government School
Mulamthurthy and Sacred Heart School Thevara in 1 June 1953.
From 1959 to 1962 Philosophical
Theological studies in Dharmaram Pontifical Institute in Bangalore.
Ordination: 17th 1966 by
George Alapattu Bishop of Trichur.
1967 to 1970: Bachelor’s and Master
degree in Psychology from Karnataka University, Dharwar.
Med in DePaul University, Chicago
Doctorate in Education at SARASOTA
University, Florida.
I DID MY PRIMARY EDUCATION IN Little
Flower School, South paroor, High School studies in government Sacred Heart School Thevara in 1st
June 1953.
After completing my high School studies,
I Joined in the CMI Congregation in June 1956 and did two years of Aspirance in
St. Antony’s Alwaye, and St.Joseph Monastery in Koonammvu. My Novitiate was in
Christ the king Monastery Krukutty and first profession in May 16, 1959 and my
final profession was in Dharmaram College, Bangalore in May th ,
1962. Courses of Philosophy and Theology for priestly formation were
successfully done in Dharmaram Pontifical Institute in Bangluru. I was ordained
in May 17th 1966 by His Excellency George Alapattu, Bishop of
Trichur.
After my Or16dination I spent four years
in Karnataka University, Degree in psychology, since June 1968, I was teaching
Psychology both in Christ College and Dharmaram Pontifical Institute Bangaluru,
and have been carrying out pastoral ministry in different Churches in
Bangalore.
My
experience of Contemplation and Compassion
As I am enjoying the 50th
year of my priestly ordination in my C.M.I. Community, I am happy to recall to
my mind few thoughts that have touched my life. During the past fifty years of
my priestly life, I had the privilege of staying at several places and
institutions and had got innumerable opportunities to meet with the people of
various walk of life and share with them my life experience directly or
indirectly.
All these fifty years of my priestly
life, I was trying to understand, follow and put into practice the idea of two
powerful words from the Gospel i.e. Contemplation and Compassion. The signs of
Contemplation are loving trust in God and dedicating oneself to God with
cheerfulness. We realize that in him and with him all hood is present to us and
to mankind. So we are not worried about our daily needs that we trust God to
take of our problems, even though we do not ask him.
The contemplative life needs to
surrender to the process, especially our commitment to daily discipline i.e. in
silence, in awareness and in response to the here and now situations. If we
lack the strength to carry out the burden of our lives, we can’t accept the
burden of our neighbour’s lives. When we overcome the power of our impatient
impulses to flee, we discover a limitless space in which we can welcome all the
people of the world in our lives.
Focusing on two objects, the poles are
to be integrated into one stream that encompasses God, humanity and the world.
Compassion Challenges us to cry out with those who are lonely, to weep with
those in tears. Compassion that Jesus offers challenges us give up our fearful
clinging and to enter within to the fearless life of God himself.
The personality of a religious person is
to be marked by the profound spirit of compassion and sensitivity of Jesus.
Other people should experience a religious person as a compassionate shepherd,
who stays within their physical mental and spiritual agonies. The Eucharist we
celebrate daily should give voice to all their groaning and aspirations. If we
can no longer be a compassionate religious. The involvement with the community
and exposure to its problems and struggles should be medium for our growth in
our spiritual life.
In the confronting silence of prayer and
contemplation on Jesus, we receive the Spirit of Compassion that we see in the
life of Blessed Chavara, our Founder, is a part of our integrated personality which
makes us to be in another man’s shoes to feel and experience a particular
situation as the other one feels and experience it; it is a conscious awareness
within us that we could be potentially in the same state, condition or
situation as the other one. Once we are permitted within awareness, it takes
expression whether in words or in deeds. I have got lot of opportunities in my
past fifty years of life to experience and express it.
The capacity for compassion is
proportionate to one’s capacity to love. The forgiving compassionate love makes
our life happy and fruitful. Kindness and happiness always go together. The
reward for kind words immediate and double, for they cause visible happiness in
others and an abiding happiness in us. It
is said that in the midst of our sadness, there is possibility of compassion;
in the midst of our loneliness there is a possibility of solitude and silence.
Pope John Paul II wrote in the letter
titled “Rich in Mercy” that the greatest weakness of our world today is its lack
of mercy. The Pope reminds that the pursuit of justice in the strict sense is
not enough for a human society. He calls
on the world to go beyond strict distributive justice who means giving each
person what he or she deserves, to embrace love, which includes forgiveness,
mercy and compassion. The Pope observes that a world without forgiveness will
be a cold world of permanent tension and violence. The same idea is reflected
in declaring the year of mercy i.e. from 8th December 2015 to 20th
November 2016 by Pope Francis.
Today’s world, torn apart by conflicts,
hatred and war, needs compassionate love to build together again the human
family, recognizing that we are all brothers and sisters in the universal
Fatherhood of God. It is our mission and ministry to the modern world.
Even after fifty long years of my
priestly life in the C.M.I. Community I do not claim that I have experienced
fully or even partially the meaning of contemplation and compassion; yet I am
trying to realize it with the help of my Master, Jesus Christ.
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