IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY CHURCH
Kalena Agrahara
Mount St Joseph Campus
Bannerghatta Road
Bengaluru - 560076
Jesuit Volunteers - JV's
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Who we are?
Jesuit Volunteers, who love to be called as JVs are a group of a few energetic and charismatic people from different walks of life who have come together with a shared goal of reaching out to people through their selfless service towards humanity, especially the marginalised and the needy and thereby increase their personal spiritual life.
How we started?
One day a person with goodwill came to meet the Parish Priest Fr John D’Souza and asked how he can help and contribute his services. Father John needed some help in teaching working English for the ITI students. This gentleman inspired Fr John to come up with this idea of Jesuit Volunteers. There are people in and around who want to contribute their services for someone's development but there was no proper structure to go about. So, Fr John invited all people of goodwill for a small meeting and discuss about it. A good number of people signed up. The first few months meetings went into learning about the life of St Ignatius, prayer life, Examination of Conscience and then the retreat.
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Then Fr. John wanted the JVs to take up parish activities and different people signed up. Four pillars were formed. The four pillars are Catechism, Youth and Counselling, Liturgy, Social Work or Outreach Program.
When do we meet?
Initially, JV meetings used to happen twice a month (the 2nd and the 4th Saturday of the month) at 4.00 PM in Prerana. But from 2019, we started our meetings in the Parish Hall on every 3rd Saturday at 4.00 PM. It starts by invoking God through the Ignatian Prayer Methods. Once a month it is dedicated for the rekindling of the spiritual lives of the JVs and the other meeting is to discuss the future pans and evaluate the progress from the last meeting.
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What is our Vision and Mission?
JV’s Vision: "To be deeply rooted in Christ through service and payer for the greater glory of God".
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JV Mission
Our journey towards our vision is by sharing and reflecting the Word of God, practising Ignatian Spirituality, helping children to grow in Catholic faith, working for the upliftment of the marginalized and being agents of change to promote the spirit of well-being.
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REVAMPING
In between, the JVs had a lull period for sometime and Fr Arun revived the group in 2019. Meanwhile, some of the members left, some rejoined and few new members joined. The four pillars were revamped and restructured with people taking up as in-charge of the pillars. Amy was given the responsibility of Catechism and she had Gilbert, Anand and Charles to support her. Roushnee was asked to take care of the Youth pillar along with Irene and Mario. Sneha spearheaded the Liturgy team along with Roopa and Margaret. Jagan took in charge of outreach program with the support of Victor Francis, David and Helen. Each pillar is responsible in carrying out their activities and so far everything is running well. The Liturgy team created the Liturgical Calendar for the year for animation and allocation of readers. So every 07.00AM English Mass is animated by various groups. The animation is done by the 6 religious houses of the parish, 5 Wards and Children. The 10:30AM English Mass animation is taken care of by the IHMC parish choir. Easter and Christmas liturgy is planned out by the Liturgy group in consultation with the Parish Priest.
More concrete plans are scheduled for the New Year 2020. We are inviting dynamic, creative and passionate people to join us and add value to our work.
- Roushnee Sur