Jamshedpur Jesuits

Fr. Martin and Br. Ignatius at Fr. Deeney's birthday party.

dear tom,
after a long time indeed!! i go through your mails ...but replies were always a tougher work!!!! hope you are in your best health...wish you the same..... greg is fine, but not yet back to his best.....now he will be getting a new man in the place of somy...somy is going to rome for ignatian spirituality course.... bene is doing his level best to defeat the age...never say die...of late, he is not in his best active self....now he is making his retreat at xlri... i am almost settled now at trtc....waiting for the auditing to be over.... the rest is fine...

love...in christ..
martin, sj

Thought I'd share this e-mail with you. Of course multiple explanations are necessary.

-- Martin , SJ is a buddy of mine from the Jamshedpur Province in India that I visited last summer. You've got to love the internet when you can stay in touch with people 9,000 miles away.

-- I only thought I had a tough name. I call him Fr. Martin but his real name is Peter Martin Thattakath, SJ. He tried to explain to me about how the second 'T' is pronounced differently but it went way over my head. That's OK because I don't think there are too many Indians who can pronounce my name. In fact Fr. Deeney has abbreviated me to be Tom Brz, reminiscent of Bill Mlkvy, the Temple Owl without a vowel.

-- Greg is Fr. Greg D'Silva, SJ, who contracted malaria after we visited. Greg is the pastor at St. Paul Miki in Pandabir, the school we raised money for. Many Indian Catholics have Portuguese surnames as way back when it was the custom upon conversion. Good to hear he's doing better. Still on our prayer list though. Keep those e-mails coming Greg (joke).

-- Bene is Br. Benedict Kuhur, SJ. Martin refers to his age -- which is up there -- but he is a tireless worker for our Lord, rides a motorcycle barefoot, and builds shrines at tribal churches. His recitation of the Animi Christi after Mass at St. Paul Miki in Pandabir, in the Ho language, was one of the most beautiful prayers I ever heard.

-- Good for Somy! I tried to get Fr. Raj, your provincial, to get you, Jerry and Greg to come to Philly but I was obviously not persuasive enough. Speaking of Fr. Raj -- he made the front page of the Maryland Province website!

JAMSHEDPUR PROVINCIAL VISITS MARYLAND PROVINCE

Michael Thanaraj, SJ, provincial of the Jamshedpur (center) poses with George Bur, SJ (right) and Bruce Maivelett, SJ, during a visit to St. Joseph's Preparatory School, Philadelphia. Fr. Raj, as he is called, visited parishes and schools throughout the province before visiting New York and then going to Rome. It was his first visit to the Maryland Province

-- TRTC is located near St. Xavier's School in Lupungutu and is, in American parlance, a community college for the tribals (Hos, Mundas) in the area. The people are trained in areas such as computers and agriculture, and there are Jesuit lawyers on staff to take care of their legal affairs. XLRI is the Xavier Labor Relations Institute (XLRI School of Business and Human Resources, Jamshedpur) and is one of the top business schools on the subcontinent.

in·tinc·tion

Pronunciation: \in-ˈtiŋ(k)-shən\
Function: noun
Etymology: Late Latin intinction-, intinctio baptism, from Latin intingere to dip in, from in- + tingere to dip, moisten: the administration of the sacrament of Communion by dipping bread in wine and giving both together to the communicant.

Many pre-Vatican II Catholics in America would be familiar with this term, although its practice has faded since. One benefit to intinction, besides a greater respect for the body and blood of Christ, is that it decreases the risk of spreading disease, particularly for the priest who normally drinks last from the chalice. No purificator is necessary and it limits the excessive amount of extraordinary ministers (ya know, just before communion, when it looks like D-Day on Normandy Beach so many people are traipsing upon the altar, some looking like they just got done cutting the lawn, others clutching their pocketbooks because Lord knows that the sacristy wouldn't be safe). This is how communion is given all over India, and so all churches use an intinctorium, which is a small chalice inside a ceborium.

If you want to impress someone at the St. Jude Shops -- ask for the price on an intintorium. "The what?" I think you call it the "chalice communion cup." Now ole 44 didn't get many gifts from above, but he can talk. In fact Mr. Cummings of Southside Scranton, a champ in his own rite, once told me I could "talk a dog off the back of a meat wagon." So the nice lady asks me why I'm buying it, and ten minutes later after hearing all about my trip to Lupungutu, Jamshedpur, Basahatu and Chaibassa (amazingly she was still awake) -- she gave me a $50 discount!

So Fr. Martin... I hope is well with you and my Jeb buddies so far away. If I ever get to the post office you have another intinctorium on the way, along with some other goodies.

Br. Bene (just call me Bene), Fr. Martin, and Fr. Deeney (sporting his St. Joe's AMDG t-shirt) with Kelly Carr and Greg McCarthy from the Loyola Foundation, at St. Paul Miki.

As always... if you'd like to make a donation:

The Jesuit Missions
Maryland Province Jesuits
Advancement Office
P.O. Box 64848
Baltimore, MD 21264

443.921.1332

The Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus