Farewell to our Dear Sr. Miriam Therese
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith From now on there is reserved for me, the Crown of righteousness Which the Lord the righteous judge, will give me on that day “. 2 Tim. 4:7-8
Sr. Miriam Therese was born as the third child to Mr. Antonisamy and Mrs. Arpudamary on 27th February 1938 into the family of deep faith in God and love for humanity at Varaganeri, Tiruchirappalli. Sr. Miriam was loved, petted and cared by her family and was very precious to her brothers and sisters. She was a loving, affectionate daughter and sister. She was good at studies and her father, who was a teacher used to invite the less privileged children of the locality to his home in order to assist them in their studies. This made her more responsible in her behaviour towards others in society and helped the students in their studies. She also helped her mother to make some edibles for those children, who would have starved at home.
Her parents were pious and faithful Catholics who brought up their children with strict discipline and with strong religious consciousness. Sr. Miriam used to go for daily mass and loved reading the lives of saints specially the life history of St. Teresa of the Child Jesus, Blessed Alphonse and St. Francis Xavier. She was inspired by their heroic Spirit, dedication and sacrifices they made in their lives. Her longing to join the Great Carmel order was bluntly refused by her Father but with much struggle she got permission to join Sisters of the Cross in June 1958 where she studied, with five other companions. She had a feeling that she was loved much at home as well as by her Novice Mistress Mother Theophine. She took life very seriously and made her First commitment on 21st December 1960. Her first community was Fort, started to work in the office, co-coordinating, unifying and even rectifying things with the help of senior sisters. There she learnt to keep up confidence and help the senior sisters, specially the sick and ailing members. She had the gift of relating with different people amicably and had learnt the art of silence.
In the year 1969, she was enrolled as a student of Commerce in a Hindu college at Nagercoil. She had secured a Gold Medal in Commerce. Then she worked as an Assistant Superior and Bursar at Mater Dei, Goa for three years. She was spiritually enriched by the courses attended to serve the Lord joyfully and fruitfully. After this she was appointed as Province Bursar and in charge of the Technical Institute at Mambalasalai. Later she took charge of the community at Fort from 1979 to 1982. Simultaneously she completed her Master of Commerce in Venkateswara University, Tirupathi in the distant mode of education.
Deeper study of our Origin and charism made her serve the poor in a village set up at Vadugarpet in 1982 to 1992. While working in the school she completed her B.Ed. in Annamalai University in the distant mode of education. She worked in Vadugarpet School for 5 years later she joined the Community at Kallakudi visiting the villages in the neighborhood and giving non-formal education in tuition centers, after her class. From 1989 to 1990 she lived in the village called Pudur – near Kulithalai and was engaged in evangelization and social work.
After her retirement from 1997 to 2000 she was in Novitiate as Sister- in- Charge to re-live and share her youthful spirit with others. From 2000 to 2002, she was Sister -in- Charge of the community at Golden Rock and 2002 to 2004 she was the Sister-in-Charge of Oliyamangam community. From 2004 to 2007, she was in charge of Diocesan Nursery School – Christ the King Matriculation School, at Namakkal and from 2007 onwards she took care of the neglected and deserted women in Shanthi Villa, Destitute Home at Amaithi Nilayam community.
For 14 years till her death, she had been the Director of the Destitute Home – caring and sharing her entire self with the neglected women of our society. Due to vomiting blood, breathlessness and distended abdomen, she was taken to Child Jesus Hospital and got admitted on 18th July 2021. As she was having some internal bleeding and low HB, she was administered one unit of blood but still they could not stop the bleeding therefore she was shifted to GVN Hospital at Mambalasalai, Trichy on 21st July 2021. From then onwards she was administered three units of blood, diagnosis was going on, after doing the endoscopy treatment she was diagnosed to have cirrhosis of the Liver (grade 3 ) subsequently leading to Ascities, portal hypertension and esophageal varices causing Haematemesis and Malena and stomach was getting distended.
After her persistent request, she was discharged from the hospital, on 1st August 2021. She was brought back to Shanthi Villa, Amathi Nilayam. She was with the sisters and the inmates for two days and three nights. After coming to Shanthivilla, she visited all the inmates individually, prayed and blessed them. She handed over all her responsibilities diligently to Sr. Lourdu Adaikalasamy, the newly elected Provincial. On 3rd August 2021, during the evening prayer, all the sisters were gathered around her and she expressed her gratitude to the members of the community and blessed them.
On 4th August 2021, from 2.00 pm onwards her health was deteriorating, she had severe breathlessness, her pulse was slowing down and community members were present to attend to her needs. The end came swiftly and painfully but she could no longer voice her feelings, the Lord alone, whom she faithfully served, could understand her as she breathed her last at 3.00 pm. Till the end of her life, she was very grateful to the Congregation, Province and all the sisters who had guided her towards reaching her goal to follow the crucified Lord.
Always her wish and prayers were authentic and true to her belief. Her love for the poor and the destitute, the less privileged were praise worthy. She never complained about struggles of life but lovingly accepted all the challenges and used it as an opportunity to glorify God. The routine task she performed never led her to boredom or frustration; she was always attuned to the signs of the time and was prompt in responding to it creatively.
Dear Sr. Miriam you have touched our hearts and left a legacy of your hard work, determination and loyalty to the Congregation. Farewell to you dear Sister Miriam, enjoy the eternal bliss with the entire Celestial Court. The great and mighty souls will definitely inherit the kingdom of God and we firmly believe that you are counted one among them.
Good bye to you dear Sister Miriam till we meet again in heaven.
Sisters of Amaithi Nilayam
Province of Tiruchirappalli,
05.08.2021
It is a privilege to have been asked by Sister Immaculata to give her eulogy. A year ago, when she asked us to do this, we said we would but please not so soon, for which
Sr. Immaculata simply smiled. Her smile was her greatest gift to us and to those of her beloved. For the past 5 years, sister was with us in our community. We all lived together as little birds in this beautiful nest called Ashirvad. Soon the call came from God and she flew away from the presence of the other birds.
Sr. Jyothi Selvaraj was born in Kandy – Sri Lanka on 15th March 1959 to Mr. Selvaraj and Mrs. Jayamary who were pious, simple and humble. She was the third of five siblings of four sisters and one brother. As her beloved family members are with us participating in this virtual meeting, we offer our heartfelt condolences to them and thank them for gifting the Congregation with Sr. Jyothi Selvaraj. She did her schooling in a well esteemed Good Shepherd Convent School, Kandy, Sri Lanka. In 1974 her family came to India and completed her Std. Xth and XIth in Zamindar’s Hr. Sec. School, Thuraiyur. After her schooling in 1976 she did her typing and shorthand in Mambalasalai. It is here that the Lord called her through the instrumentality of Sr. Genevieve Mani who often used to tell her, “You have a vocation, think and pray over it”. After one year of study, she joined the Aspirancy at Mambalasalai in 1977. After her Aspirancy she was sent to do her Teacher’s training at Palani and joined the Novitiate in the year 1981. She made her first and final commitment in1983 and 1989 respectively.
Although from the beginning Sister had many hurdles to join the Religious life, she was blessed with the strong desire and inner strength steering through, every stage of her life with unflinching faith. From all eternity, God had a plan for her to be a Sister of the Cross, so she joined the band of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Cross.
The province of Trichy celebrated the Golden Jubilee of our dear sisters Juliet Soosainathan, Ruby raj, and Borgia Michael with a lot of gravity on 3rd January 2021. The august assembly gathered for the solemn Eucharistic celebration to thank the Almighty for the inestimable gift of their life and precious religious vocation which was indeed a journey of fidelity. Rev. Fr. Michael Raj from St. Paul Seminary was the main celebrant along with four more priests who were the special invitees.
The celebration started with the welcoming of the Province Animator Sr. Jyothi Selvaraj followed by garlanding and the procession accompanied by the little flower girls. They were felicitated by Srs. Julie Kulandaisami, Arockia Mary Soosaimanickam and Dhanamary Manickam. The theme of the celebration was “His goodness shall follow me to the end of my days”. Sr. Juliet thanked the group.
30th December 2020 marked an awesome day in the history of ‘POWER’ the Social Centre at Viralimalai as it celebrated the 25th year of it’s birth. Jubilee year is a year of thanksgiving to the Almighty God who blessed immensely with showers of light and encouragement to delve into the untrodden paths in creating the space for the last and least in the society.
The great and awaited events of the Jubilee celebration began by invoking the presence of God with the multi-religious symbols and the lighting of the lamp. The chief guest of the day Sr. Jyothi Selvaraj, the provincial of the Province of Trichy, the speaker Mrs. S. Sundaravalli the Social activist, the guest of honor Rev. Sr. I. Josephine Chinna Rani, the director of SOC SEAD and the founder of ‘POWER’, Rev.Fr. Paul Mike, the director of IDEAS, Madurai, Rev. Fr. Eugene, the Vicar General of the Diocese of Trichy and Mr.M Palaniyappan, the businessman, Viralimalai were warmly welcomed by Rev. Sr. Jeyarani the Director of POWER. All the invitees were honoured with a shawl and a Momento.
The highlights of the day’s programme were the release of the Silver Jubilee souvenir, screening of a fabulous documentary to the audience, release of the flag for POWER Social Centre and the cash of Rs.1,50,000/- for the education of the poor children handed over to Sr.Jeyarani, the director by the women federation of POWER.
Sr. Jyothi Selvaraj, Provincial Superior, set the tone for the day with a cordial welcome with a thought provoking inaugural address. It was delightful to see the newly professed sisters becoming the stars of the day during the opening ceremony with the colourful welcome as they take part in the province assembly for the first time.
To cap it all, Sr. Jyothi Selvaraj addressed the gathering again. In her address she appreciated the sisters for their tireless commitment and hard work in living the patrimony of the Congregation and for carrying out the ministries entrusted to them with utmost care. The areas we need to look into also were highlighted and brought into notice. Sr. Jyothi thanked the sisters for the arrangements made to make the day meaningful.
The first session began with a meaningful prayer in which the significance of milestones and the activities of the yester years (2008-2018) were brought out by the Butterworth Unit. Followed by an hour of reflection shared by Rev.Sr.Mary Johnsi Amaldas on the topic “Joyful Witnesses of Christ’s Mission” and 19 God’s abundant graces from the book of Hosea”.
There was a group sharing on the obstacles in reading the Word of God followed by adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Thanksgiving Eucharistic celebration was celebrated by Reverend Father Marianus Isaac for the milestones as God had travelled with our lay associates during ten long years. During the Eucharistic celebration 14 Lay Associates renewed their promises.
We had the presentation of Annual Reports followed by felicitation. Our provincial Rev.Sr.Jyothi Selvaraj and the golden Jubilarians – the President Mr & Mrs.Joseph Raj Rosebel were honoured. The day came to an end with the Unit wise photo session.
