Shital, first Indian cloistered Redemptoristine
“I wanted to consecrate myself” to “an active congregation,” she said, but “I realised that the Lord had other plans”. She made her profession in Dublin, where two other Indian nuns are following in her footsteps. Fr Ivel Mendanha, provincial superior, is praying to see soon “the first ever Redemptoristine Monastery in Mumbai”.
Mumbai (AsiaNews) – In Dublin, a young nun from Mumbai made her first profession among Redemptoristines, a cloistered female order. The ceremony took place on 11 December and was presided by Archbishop Dermot Farrell.
Shital Gonsalves is the first Indian to take solemn vows among the Redemptoristines, a contemplative religious family founded in 1731 by Maria Celesta Crostarosa together with St Alphonsus Maria de Liguori.
Two other young Indian women are completing their training in the Redemptoristine convent in Dublin.
“We hope and pray that these three young Redemptoristines will come to open the first ever Redemptoristine Monastery in Mumbai, India,” said Fr Ivel Mendanha, provincial superior of the Redemptorists, the Redemptoristines’ male counterpart, already present in the Indian metropolis.
Shital Gonsalves comes from Pali. Together with two brothers and three sisters, she grew up at Our Lady of Lourdes parish. She got a Bachelor of Arts and decided to embrace the religious life.
“I never thought of becoming a Redemptoristine,” she told AsiaNews. “I wanted to consecrate myself to God in religious life, but in an active congregation.”
However, ‘while reflecting on this, I heard an inner voice telling me: ‘I call you to be an instrument through prayer’. During my discernment I realised that the Lord had other plans for me and I answered him with a yes.”
Her training in Dublin lasted three years. “Unfortunately, my parents were unable to participate in my first profession, but they were in spirit with me,” she said.
“I feel that I have undertaken an incredibly brave choice. As a Redemptoristine, together with my sisters, I want to be a living memory of Christ the Redeemer for everyone. And this is an experience that is changing me day after day.”
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23/03/2021 19:38
