SPECIAL 150th ANNIVERSARY
OF THE
FOUNDATION OF THE CONGREGATION

The Blessed Sacrament Congregation celebrates its 150th year of foundation (2006-2007). It was started by St. Peter Julian Eymard onMay 13, 1856 in Parish. In view of this celebration, various SSS communities all over the world are organizing different programmes to make their charism and special contribution to the Church come alive. We mention below a few such initiatives undertaken by our SSS communities in different parts of the world.

Some initiatives

CANADA
In its endeavour to emphasise the 150th anniversary of the foundation of the Congregation, the Province of St John the Baptist (Canada) will publish a booklet prepared by Father Maurice Brouard entitled La Congréga-tion du Saint-Sacrement 1856-2006 (“The Congre-gation of the Blessed Sacrament 1856-2006”).

SENEGAL
To mark the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the foundation of the Congregation, the SSS religious of the Region of Our Lady of Africa (Senegal) wish to associate in a gesture of gratitude to the Lord all the Senegalese Christian communities with those communities entrusted to them in the dioceses of Dakar, the two parishes, namely of Thies with its parish and novitiate, and that of Kolda.

ITALY
The Province of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament is organising a National Convention that will be open to all SSS religious, lay people, priests and religious of other Congregations. It will be from June 2 to 3 2006 at Assisi. The theme of this convention is: “But what is this for so many people?” (John 6,9) Eucharist and the history of mankind.

USA
The Province of St Ann is launching its year-long celebration of this special blessing from God with the publication of “The Spiritual Journey of St Peter Julian Eymard: an imaginary dialogue”, by Michael Perez. This short review of the founder’s spiritual journey should inspire all to renew their own commitment to St. Eymard’s eucharistic charism.

On the website www.blessedsacrament.com (what’s new) Fr John Thomas Lane proposes a novena of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament with St Peter Julian Eymard: St Peter Julian Eymard promoted prayer before the Blessed Sacrament exposed and showed that this prayer changes one’s life. In his memory and honour, we are proposing this novena of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, recalling key moments and words in St Peter Julian’s life centred on Christ and the Eucharist.

KRISTU JYOTI, INDIA
The newly formed Province of Kristu Jyoti, India has planned to engage in a special way of celebrating the key dates in this year of the 150th anniversary. In an effort to spread knowledge and love for the Eucharist, our communities will go out of their way to recruit members to “The Lay Associates of the Eucharist” – a kind of third order in which lay persons share in our Eucharistic charism. The initial launching of this project will take place on May 13th, the day our Congregation was born. Those who opt to join as Associates will make a probationary period of commitment till August 2, the feast of our Founder, on which day they will make the real commitment.

On March 23rd, Rev. Anthony McSweeney, sss, our former Superior General will give a talk at St. Pius College, Goregaon East, from 10 a.m to 12 noon. All priests, Seminarians, religious sisters and brothers and also lay faithful interested in the theme are welcome. The talk will be on “The Role of the Spirit in the Eucharist as seen in Luke-Paul”

All the communities will meet together at the novitiate at Agashi for a common retreat from May 8-13, 2006 in which we seek to deepen our grasp of our SSS charism, as brought out in our Rule of Life.

Also, all through this jubilee year, the SSS priests of Province will seek to convey the deeper meaning of the Eucharist through a sustained catechesis both in word and action. They will stress particularly the joyful aspect of the ‘celebration’ of Eucharist as the triumph of Christ over sin and death.

In keeping with the theme adopted in the Mumbai Archdiocese for the year 2006, “The Eucharist and Family”, three little booklets for Prayer before the Sacrament (Holy Hours) have been prepared and will be available at St. Francis Xavier’s Chapel, Middle Colaba. Those interested in having copies, may contact Rev. Fr. Joaquim Rodrigues, sss on 2215 0133. The cost of each booklet is Rs. 10/- and each contains three different sets of prayer on Scriptural themes related to the family.

Our SSS fathers are also available for preaching and animating these Holy Hours in parishes in and around Mumbai city. Our religious of the Chennai region are also available for various programmes.