24th October, 2015 (Saturday)

This day has been yet another epic days of my life. It is a perfect day for me – a day when everything went well – right from the morning till the night. It is the day which will have a lot of fond memories for me for a long time to come.

In the morning of 24th October, for the lunch I had cooked two special Bengali dishes – aloo poshto and pyaaz poshto – something I always thought my mother could only cook. But my daughters and even my hubby told me that I had cooked better than her. So that made my afternoon.

Then around 4o’clock came two parcels and they contained two beautiful sarees – surprise gift from my hubby – I was dancing with joy when I saw the sarees; they are just awesome. So that took care of the evening.

Night came and I had to go for the community meeting. I was unwilling to go but I went only because our parish priest had asked me to attend it – if it was someone else, I wouldn’t have gone at all. So I went unwilling for this community meeting as our existing community has been in the process of getting divided for some time now – and the meeting was for the formation of a new community.

One thing I was sure of – that I wouldn’t be just the animator – I will take up something more responsible. And as I expressed my desire to my parish priest, he made me the Parish Pastoral Council (PPC) member of our newly formed community – St. Bonaventure.

So I am the PPC member as well as the animator of St. Bonaventure community. Now I believe that though I went unwilling for this meeting, God had a wonderful plan for me and forced me to attend this meeting. Thus, 24th October became yet another memorable day of my life as everything went well on this day.

As a PPC member, my motto will be to discuss and plan the pastoral activities of the parish. I will be reaching out to the parishioners by meeting once a month regularly to discuss and evaluate the pastoral plan. I will be discussing the Small Christian Community (SCC) activities in the parish and giving feedback. Also, I will be discussing the activities of various other cells and associations in the parish and giving the feedback.

My research on St. Bonaventure says that St. Bonaventure was of the Franciscan Order who was an Italian medieval scholastic theologian and philosopher. The seventh Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor, he was also a Cardinal Bishop of Albano. He was canonized on 14 April 1482 by Pope Sixtus IV and declared a Doctor of the Church in the year 1588 by Pope Sixtus V. He is known as the "Seraphic Doctor".

St. Bonaventure feast day was included in the General Roman Calendar immediately upon his canonization in 1482. He was born at Bagnorea in Tuscany, in 1221 and is known for his leadership of the Franciscans and his great intellectual contributions to theology and philosophy. He was very influential in the development of scholasticism in medieval thought.

Little is known about Bonaventure’s early life. During his childhood, he fell severely ill and according to Bonaventure, he recovered due to the intercession of St. Francis of Assisi. At the age of 14, he went to Paris to study at the University of Paris. In 1243, he was awarded Master of Arts degree and in the same year, he joined the Franciscan Order and took the name Bonaventure.