Families in the Latin Archdiocese of Trivandrum in Kerala credit the home visits by nuns from multiple congregations with unknotting their problems and refreshing their Christian life.
Nuns who have been part of the Home Mission program say it has revitalized their vocation as well.
“I received lots of positive energy when people told me that our visits were a big blessing for them as they were waiting for someone trustworthy to pour out their heart,” says Missionary Sisters of the Queen of Apostles nun Felcy Mangalath, a member of the Home Mission.
Sister Mangalath was among 25 nuns from 25 congregations working in the archdiocese who started visiting families in 2016.
“People also told us that our visits have brought a new light to their homes and their neighborhood,” Sister Mangalath told Global Sisters Report.
The Home Mission is an attempt by the Latin rite bishops of Kerala to implement Pope Francis’ 2016 call to strengthen and fortify families, says Father Suresh Pius, the director of the Basic Christian Community, a guide that helps diocesan ministries function, in Trivandrum Archdiocese.
The mission continued until the end of 2019. The coronavirus pandemic and nationwide lockdowns forced its suspension. However, the nuns kept in touch with the families over the phone and through video calls for the past two years, said Holy Spirit Sister Sheeba Thottittekizakkathil, one of the coordinators of the mission. (The Holy Spirit Sisters are the Apostolic Life Community of Sisters in the Opus Spiritus Sancti, founded in Tiruvalla, Kerala.)
They now wait for the situation to improve so they may resume the family visits, Thottittekizakkathil told GSR….
Sister Thottittekizakkathil says the Holy Spirit sometimes moved the sisters to tell childless couples that God would bless them with a child that year. To the homeless, they assured a house soon would be available. Some families later notified the sisters they had received the blessing of a child or a house within the year, she said.
For Sister Chittattukara, the mission gave her time to personalize the Bible and renew her spiritual life before helping others. “I felt the Holy Spirit inspiring me with the right words, strength, courage and memory. I became a channel of blessing and healing to the families through counseling and therapy,” she told GSR.
Sister Nigi Cletus of the Congregation of Servants of Hope, a newer community founded in 2008 in the archdiocese, also says spending time in personal prayer helped her “reach out to the families, to listen to their sorrows and console them in their pains, to rejoice in their happiness.”
The 23-year-old nun says the mission provided her the opportunity to serve people as Jesus did, “to see the families through his eyes, welcome and listen to them as he did, to love all with and through his heart.”
The home visits brought every participant in contact with “the stark reality of” people’s situations, Sister Cletus told GSR.
Biju Prabhakaran, a 30-year-old Catholic, said his family could “share our concerns freely with” the nuns, who listened to them for hours. “There is a limit to what we can share with friends and family members, but with the sisters we could feel totally free,” he told GSR.
Arun Anthony, who coordinated the sister visits in St. Jude’s Church, Vazhayila, in Peroorkada parish, said the sisters visited all 270 families in the parish. “I am happy that families in our parish now have regular family prayers,” he told GSR.
He said an elderly parishioner holding his hand said that the visiting nuns reminded him of his own daughter, who serves overseas as a missionary. “It showed how the people accepted the sisters and opened their hearts to them,” Anthony said.
Sister Chittattukara says the members of the intercongregational team benefited from the mission. “Living and working in close collaboration with sisters from other congregations, of various age groups, enhanced our spiritual life,” she said.
The single-room accommodations in private homes challenged the visiting sisters. They had to sleep and pray in one room. Some had to pin their washed clothes to a curtain to dry. “They would be dry by morning because of the fan,” Sister Chittattukara said.
Maria Bambina Sister Joycie, whose last name was not given, says the strength of the Home Mission program is the ability of the participants to collaborate with members from varied congregations, ages and experience. “We were ready to adapt to different situations, sacrifice our conveniences for a particular cause, learn mature ways of expressing our opinions,” she explained.
Father James Culas, who has led the parish renewal programs since 2005, says, the sisters in the Home Mission program have helped the people rediscover their faith. “The sisters might take about five years to complete visiting all parishes in the archdiocese,” he told GSR.
Father Culas says parishes have Basic Christian Community units. “However, there was no forum for deep sharing. We realized our renewal program had to be family based, hence the Home Mission. We started the renewal program in 2005 with sisters and laypeople. We soon found out that people were more confident to share with sisters.”
Father Culas says the Home Mission program’s success will depend on how the parishes follow up the suggestions given by the teams of sisters.

Sr Lissy Maruthanakuzh
Matters India