NEWS/ANNOUNCEMENTS

ADMINISTRATIVE TEAM

Fr. Rathan
Almeida, OCD
Director and Programme 
Coordinator

Fr. Augustine Robert, OCD
Dean of Studies

Fr. Dolphy D'Souza, OCD
Administrator

 

Syllabus Details

A. Formation to Integral Human Maturity

  1. The Joy of Being Woman: A Medical Perspective

    • Biologically a woman’s mind and body are closely connected

    • The Feminine physiology. It is more intricate than a masculine physique

    • The feminine physique - a marvel of nature and evolution for the spousal, maternal and child nursing roles

    • The imbalanced and erroneous attitudes to body

    • The feminine hormone system and endocrinology

    • Various stages of feminine growth process

    • The frequent health hazards and illnesses of a woman

    • The precautions and care required for a celibate woman

  2. Counseling Skills and Human Wholeness

    • Life-skills counseling with a scientist-practitioner framework

    • The elements and assumptions underlying the framework

    • Assessment of life skill strengths and deficits

    • Factors involved in acquiring and maintaining life-skill strengths and deficits

    • Exploring one’s inner world of feelings, thinking, and actions; with a focus on the range

    • Of skills/competencies required for one’s survival, maintenance and enhancement

    • Interventions for thinking, feeling and action skills – with focus on skills pertaining to

    • Listening, problem solving, decision-making

    • Specific focus on life-skills needed for effective functioning in areas such as education, and work

  3. Spiritual Integration and Personal Life Crisis

    • This course studies the phenomenon of Religious Vocation and the Human Personality Dynamics. It emphasizes the need for integration of Grace and Human Nature. The content of the course is intended to create self-awareness and the need to integrate the various movements within the persons so as to be more effective in living one’s own commitment leading to greater acceptance and efficacy in one’s life’s relationships and apostolate. Some of the type of persons who could benefit from this course would be Superiors of communities, Formators, animators of youth groups and families; vocation promoters, young religious preparing for final commitment or Ordination.

  4. Emotional Healing and Community Building

    • Emotions, emotional intelligence, healing of the inner child, handling fear, anger, stress and burnouts. Self-esteem defuse mechanisms, games that we play, assertiveness, communication, criticism, group animation skills, vision, vision statement, vision killers, conflict management, care-fronting.

  5. Psycho Spiritual Maturity and Psycho Feminism
    Psychological Maturity – The Nature of Maturity as the Product of Spirituality

    • Communication and Assertiveness

    • Conflict and its resolution

    • Emotional intelligence (EQ) and emotional maturity

    • Feminine spirituality and spiritual quotient

    • Stress and well being

    • Self in the context of the community

    • Self-awareness and self-esteem.

  6. Methodology of Study and Scientific Research Work

    • Basics of effective Study skills, Attending lectures, notes taking and facing exams

    • The Components of a long formal paper

    • The mechanics of systematic research in Library

    • Preparing Bibliography, Basic reading in Encyclopedias, making simple outline of the topic

    • The mechanics of writing style, from the abbreviations to quotations

    • How to prepare and refer to tables and illustration

    • The most commonly used systems of citation, including how to cite electronic documents

    • Manuscript preparation and hints on word processing software

    • Formatting some of the complex features found in many research papers, including over two dozen sample pages

B. Comprehensive Biblical Spirituality

  1. Introduction to the Old Testament

    • Books of the Old Testament: Division and Authorship

    • The Hebrew Canon and the Christian Canon

    • The Theory of Inspiration and Inerrancy of Biblical truth

    • The Hermeneutics and Exegesis

  2. Pentateuch and Covenant Spirituality

    • Etiology: Creation narratives

    • History of Salvation

    • Abraham the Father of Faith and the Patriarchs

    • The Election and creation of Israel as a nation

    • Israel a People of the Covenant

    • The Decalogue & Sinai Covenant

    • Glimpse of Deuternomic History

  3. Prophetic Spirituality of Social Action

    • Prophecy is the shock therapy of a dynamic God to a lethargic people

    • Origin of prophesy in Israel in the context of the institution of monarchy

    • The division of prophetic books: older and latter, the major and the minor

    • The figure of Elijah in the context of polytheism and syncretism

    • The Call of Amos and his message of the social dimension of the Covenant

    • Hosea, the OT parable of the prodigal son in the context of idolatry

    • Appearance of Prophet Isaiah on the socio political scene in Israel and his message

    • The Deutero and Trituo Isaiah & Messianic hope in Isaiah

    • Prophet Jeremiah and the New Covenant

    • Prophet Ezekiel – The Babylonian Exile and the end of prophecy

    • The Apocalyptic in the book of Daniel

  4. Secular Spirituality of Wisdom Books Of O.T.

    • Background and Introduction to the OT wisdom literature

    • Wisdom Books of OT and the difference of perspective in Torah and Nebiim

    • The Book of Proverbs – The human collective, fold wisdom as a valid context for Dialogue with God

    • The book of Ben Sirach – The themes of human friendship and discipleship of wisdom as theological contexts

    • The Book of Job – The problem of human unjust suffering & the false religiosity

    • The Book of Ecclesiastes (Koheleth) and the existential agnosticism as the starting point in God-Man encounter

    • The Wisdom of Solomon and the late elements of transcendental eschatology

    • The Book of Song of Songs and the human love also as basis and model for divine–human intimacy

  5. Spiritual Wealth of Psalms

    • The 150 Psalms in the Old Testament constitute the prayer book of Israel. Today they occupy ample place in the Prayer of the Church and in Liturgical Prayer. The use of Psalms in our prayer-life becomes efficacious to the extent we understand, celebrate and live them. The aim of this course is to facilitate the students to achieve this goal. We shall briefly cover the following topics:

    • LITERARY DIMENSION (Nature - Origin – Difficulties - Division - Numbering - Authorship - Superscriptions - Types/ Classification)

    • GOD-DIMENSION (Psalms as Word of God - Psalms as Witness to God - Psalms as Prayer Runways to God – Problem-psalms)

    • CHRIST-DIMENSION (Jesus the “Marvelous Singer of the Psalms” - Christological Re-reading);

    • CHURCH-DIMENSION (Title - NT/ Fathers of the Church Quotation - Antiphon - Psalmic Prayer - Praying the Psalms in the Name of the Church)

    • PERSONAL DIMENSION (Personalizing the Psalms - Psalter a School of Prayer - Practical Guidelines for a Fruitful and Active Praying of the Psalms)

  6. General Introduction to the New Testament and Acts of Apostles

    • The Gospel and the Gospels: meaning of the word, origin, message

    • Formation of the Gospels. Jesus of history and Christ of faith

    • The synoptic problem and the solutions proposed

    • The Form Criticism, the Redaction Criticism and Historical Criticism

  7. Spirituality of Synoptic (Mathew, Mark & Luke) Gospels

    • The Synoptic Gospels: the structure and characteristics of each Gospels. - The major
      Theological themes

    • The Sermon on the Mount: the Magna Carta of Christian living

    • The Encounter with God: the Our Father

    • The nature and the teaching of the parables of Jesus

  8. Spirituality of Johannine Literature in N.T.

    • The origin and acceptance of the Johannine books in the early church

    • The particular literary nuances of John’s Gospel

    • The Structure of the gospel

    • Main spiral currents of themes

    • 1st Part of the Gospel of John – Chs. 1-12

    • Johannine Christology through the signs in the first part

    • The Second part of the Gospel of John: Chs 13-21

    • The origin and structure of the Johannine letters

    • The community of John

    • The study of the theology of the letters

    • Summary introduction to the Johannine apocalypse

  9. St. Paul: Early Church Leader and Missionary

    • Paul of Tarsus – the man, the life, conversion and mission

    • Letters in captivity and early Christianity

    • Pauline writings – canonical, chronological and systematic order

    • The authenticity of the letters

    • Formation of Pauline Corpus

    • Introduction to individual letters

    • The major Pauline themes

  10. Discipleship and Prayer in the New Testament

    • The phenomena of Discipleship and its significance for our times

    • The meaning of the term (Mathêtês) in the Greek world

    • The term (Talmud) in the time of Jesus

    • Discipleship in Mark’s Gospel

    • Discipleship as a theme in the narrative framework of the Gospel

    • A Character sketch of the Disciples in Mark

    • Mission and demands of Disciples: A study of selected texts

    • Discipleship in Matthew’s Gospel

    • Matthew’s presentation of discipleship in the narrative framework and context of the Gospel

    • Commission and leadership of disciples: A consideration of Chapters: 28/16-20; 10 & 18

    • The Demands of the greater righteousness (5/20)

C. Spiritual Life in Theology

  1. Spirituality, Faith Formation and Catechetics

    • Human experience and catechesis

    • The interpretation of human experience

    • The word of God in faith formation

    • The interpretation of Biblical texts

    • The correlation between human experiences and Biblical texts

    • Teaching in parables

    • The animation of Bible study/sharing in groups

    • Methods of communication in catechesis

    • Spirituality and catechesis

  2. Christology

    • The Man Jesus A Real Teacher And Master: The Unique Person of Jesus As Teacher; A Teacher Of Extraordinary Creative Imagination; Jesus Christ The Guru, The Teacher Of The Kingdom

    • The Teacher Who Taught Through Parables; The Teacher Who Worked Miracles

    • Is Jesus Only A Teacher? Jesus The Unique Teacher; What Kind of a Teacher Jesus Was

    • Different Forms Of The Teaching Of Jesus; A Teacher With Powerful Communication Skills

    • The Christ of Faith: Different Christological responses to the Easter event; The Old Testament foundation for New Testament Christology; A sketch of New Testament Christology; The Christology of the Infancy narratives; Christ’s Resurrection as the as eschatological event

    • Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the World: Redemptive Incarnation; Setereological value of Christ’s Passion and Death; Spirit of the Cross; Mediatory of role of the Risen Christ

    • The Cosmic Christ: Christo-Centrisim; The purpose of Incarnation; The Inclusive uniqueness and

    • Universality of the Christ event; The Essence of Christianity; Jesus Christ in India Today

    • Today’s questions in Christology: Da Vinci Code; Jesus and apocryphal gospels; Pre-Chalcedon Ebyonite Christology, etc

  3. Church: Body of Christ and Bride of Holy Spirit

    • This course is woven into the Church’s dynamic life. The Church was made manifest to the world on the day of Pentecost by the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Spirit ushers in a new era in the dispensation of the mystery- the age of the Church, during which Christ manifests, makes present and communicates his work of salvation through the liturgy of the Church until he comes. In this age of the Church, Christ now lives and acts in and with his Church, in a new way appropriate to this new age. He acts through his sacraments in what the common Tradition of the East and the West calls “the Sacramental economy”. This is the dispensation of the fruits of Christ’s Paschal Mystery

    • History of the Church and the origin of main Christian denominations. The ecumenical movement

    • To answer some of the pastoral problems

  4. Baptism and Eucharist - Foundations of Consecrated Life

    • Jesus the Sacrament of God to the world. Meaning of the terms

    • Encounter with Jesus: the paschal mystery

    • The theology of the sacraments in general

    • The Baptism: immersion in Christ, new life in Christ, incorporation in the people of God

    • Baptism and the religious consecration; kingdom values, sonship

    • Eucharist: The memorial of the Paschal Mystery, Sacrament of supreme love, core of Christian life; anticipation of eschatological banquet, Body of Christ, Living Manna

    • Religious consecration and the Eucharist

  5. Modern Moral Questions and Spiritual Implications

    • The course consists of three parts: ethics, moral theology and spirituality. The aim of the course is to make clear the profound relationship between ethics and spirituality. A spirituality that does not embrace both the vertical and horizontal dimensions of human existence is not credible

    • The aim of the course necessitates the study of: What is ethics? The notion of importance
      Categories of importance: the subjectively satisfying and the objectively important. The fundamental nature of moral values. An analysis of the various forms of the moral evil of pride

    • Every Christian Spirituality has a moral theological foundation. Therefore the course on ethics and spirituality has to study: What is moral theology? What is its relation to ethics? The dogmatic, Christological foundation of moral theology: objective and subjective justification. The necessary and essential component of justification: sanctification, i.e., to live as justified people or to be the image and likeness of Jesus Christ

    • Finally, a tentative definition of spirituality. Its salient features. Ethics finds its completion in moral theology. No spirituality can be more profound than being the image and likeness of our Lord and master. No spirituality is possible without ethics. Two present day examples of the embodiment of spirituality

    • The questions of modern society: The origin of human person, Sacrality of human life, conscience, natural law, human rights; cloning, IVF genetic code engineering, stem cell culture and transplant. Euthanasia

  6. Theology of Prayer Life

    • Nature of prayer, Definition, significance

    • Prayer in the Salvation history

    • The mystery of Christian Prayer

    • The Prayer of Jesus: Abba Father

    • Holy Spirit the Teacher of Prayer

    • The Prayer according to Fathers of the Church

    • The monastic prayer

    • The teachers of prayer par excellence: St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross

    • The difficulties in prayer

    • Methods of Prayer: Eastern and Western

    • The importance of prayer in Christian Life

    • Prayer and Religious Life

  7. Liturgical Worship and Spirituality

    • The Nature of Liturgy and Spirituality and the relationship between the two in the wider perspective of Christian Life

    • Liturgy, Spirituality and the Divine Economy of Salvation - The Christocentric character of Liturgical Spirituality

    • The centrality of the Paschal Mystery in Liturgy and Spirituality and in daily Christian life

    • God-experience and its importance for authentic Liturgical Spirituality and Christian Life

    • The role of the liturgy in the formation of the Christian Assembly

    • The Word of God in Liturgical and Spiritual Life

    • Constitutive Elements of the Liturgical Action

    • The sanctification of human beings and the glorification of God signified in and through signs and symbols

    • Pastoral aspects of the Liturgical and Spiritual life

    • The importance of Inculturation for meaningful Liturgy and Spirituality

    • Liturgy, Spirituality and Popular Devotions

    • Liturgy and liturgies

    • Origin and development of liturgies

    • The evangelical church communions & ecumenism

    • Practical questions of inter denomination collaboration and communion

  8. Theology of Consecrated Life

    • The consecrated life according to the Holy Scripture, Tradition of the Church

    • Magisterium of the Church and the Exhortations of Popes

    • Religious Life: the general Sense, the specific Sense, the Biblical Foundation

    • Charismatic Character

    •  Religious Life in and after Second Vatican Council

    • The Consecrated life in the Structure of the Church; a) The Eremitic Life; b) Consecrated  Virgins; c) Religious Life; d) Secular Institutes e) Societies of Apostolic Life

    • Apostolic exhortation of Pope Paul VI on the renewal of the religious life according to the teaching of the second Vatican council, Vita Consecrata

    • The Inspiration of Consecrated Life

    • The Expression of the Consecrated Life: Fraternity

    • The Fruit of the Consecrated Life: Service of Charity

    • The Future of Consecrated Life

    • The three evangelical counsels: poverty, chastity, and obedience of the religious community

    • Religious are called to be the Body of Christ

    • Secular institutes and new forms of consecrated life

    • Religious charismas in Indian Church today

    • Special questions on Consecrated living today

  9. Vita Consecrata: Orientation to Vowed Life Today

    • This course is especially geared towards those who are preparing themselves for final commitment

    • It will carry forward the dialogue on consecrated life from the Vita Consecrata and other Church documents and applies them to concrete life experiences

    • This will be done in groups and workshops for greater benefit of the participants where they can come out with any questions and challenges they may have come across in the course of their life as consecrated persons

    • This course will be done outside the regular schedule

D. Christian Spiritual Heritage

  1. Mysticism and Grades of Prayer

    • Etymology of Prayer, Contemplation and Mysticism

    • Religion and Mystical experiences

    • Philosophy of Mystical Contemplation

    • Theology of Mystical Contemplation

    • Disposition for mystical contemplation

    • Mysticism and St. John of the Cross: Mystical Contemplation of Quiet; Mystical

    • Contemplation of Union; The nature of perfect contemplative love

    • Mystical phenomena: Visions, locutions, revelations, spiritual feelings, ecstasies, etc

    • Mystical Contemplation and Paschal Mystery

    • Mystical Contemplation in World Religions

  2. Spiritual Masters: Classical and Modern

    • Natural and Supernatural spiritualities

    • Patristic Spirituality

    • The Augustinian School

    • The Benedictine School

    • The rise of Benedictinism – Cluny – St. Romuald – St. Norbert and Premonstrenes – St. Bruno and the Chartreuse – St. Bernard – the Cistercians – the Carthusians

    • The Franciscan School: St. Francis of Assisi and others

    • The Dominican School: St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Catherine of Siena and the Rhineland mystics

    • The Carmelite School: St. Elias and the early hermits, the reformers: St. Teresa of  Jesus and St. John of the Cross, St. Therese

    • The French School: Cardinal de Berulle

    • St. Ignatius and the Spiritual exercises

    • St. Francis de Sales and the Salesians

  3. The Spiritual Wealth of Oriental Churches

    • Historical: The sketch of the origin of the eastern churches and the eastern ancient Patriarchates esp. the Antiochean and Alexaandrian schools of theology. (The Eastern councils will be touched in Christology)

    • The great spiritual thinkers an monks of the east; esp. Ireneus, Basil, Ephrem, Cyril, Gregory, Chrysostom etc. (They will also be touched by another professor dealing with the history of spirituality). You can hint also at recent saints, contributors thinkers in oriental spirituality esp. the Greek and the Russian as well as Indian oriental saints (Alphonsa, Chavara, etc)

    • Systematic presentation of the salient elements of oriental spirituality of various eastern churches catholic and non-catholic, especially those in India. Explain the eastern mentality and approaches to spiritual life in contrast to western analytic ways. Please bring in all the eastern churches and more universal spiritual practices and traditions

  4. Religious Life and Canon Law

    • Vat. II perspectives; Theological; Spiritual and Juridical nature of the Code

    • Religious life in the overall structure of the code. Canons on Consecrated life. Book II. Cc 573 – 746; Institutes of Consecrated life; Religious Institutes; Secular Institutes; Societies of Apostolic Life; Basic principles of consecrated life; Theologico-spiritual life

    • Protecting the charism of each institute; Principle of each subsidiarity; Principle of co-responsibility; Equality of masculine and feminine institutes

    • Only obligations and duties and no “privileges”

  5. Consecrated Life and Administration

    • The administration in secular society

    • The concept of authority and its evolution in the civil law and the ecclesiastical law

    • The role of the organization at various levels in the Church and in the Consecrated life

    • The rights and duties of the consecrated individual in the religious institution and the canonical sanctions

    • The Indian legal system and the Christianity

    • The civil administration of the registered society and trust

    • Other financial and administrative matters

  6. Mary: Mother and Model of the Consecrated Souls

    • Mariology today: Mary in the Mystery of Christ and of the Church from the New Testament to Vatican II. Mary, the divine, immaculate and original Mother of Jesus

    • Mary, disciple of the Redeemer, is associated with Him in all His mysteries from incarnation to Glorification

    • Mary, in the Mystery of the Church is an icon and mother

    • Mary in Christianity and humanity: in ecumenism, in world religions, in feminist movement

    • Marian spirituality: Mary the model of consecrated life

    • Mary was chaste, obedient and poor

    • Mary and the community. Mary and the Mission

  7. Orientation to Methods of Personal Prayer

    • Prayer is not a function but a relationship with God

    • Since every relationship is unique there cannot be strictly any method of prayer

    • Yet the church down the times has received from the spiritual masters various helps that aid a person on his spiritual journey, especially to control and train the body, senses, imagination, reasoning and will to be prayer-friendly rather than causes of distraction

    • The experience of others always can help us eventually to evolve our own unique way of relating to God in the world and world in God

    NB. This course is initiated theoretically but carried forward every week by directing the hour of prayer on Tuesdays

E. Comparative Spirituality

  1. Spiritual Insights from Vedas, Upanishads, and B.Gita Hindu Spirituality based on shruti and smriti

    • Hinduism in General; Introduction - Meaning and Development of Religion-World Religions; Christianity and Hinduism: Outlines or Characteristics of Hinduism: Hindu Shastras

    • Hindu Spirituality: Basic notions of Vedas, Upanishads, Ramayana, Mahabharata & Bagvad Gita

    • The traits of Puranic Hinduism in the modern cultic Hinduism

    • Reform movements in Hinduism: Advaita – Gnanamarga; Vishishtaavadvaita – Bhaktimarga: Dvaita – Karma marga

    • Methods and Spiritualities: The Quintessence of Indian Spirituality -

    • Modern Spiritual Thinkers: Mahatma Gandhi; Ramakrishna Paramahamsa - Mystic; Vivekananda - Ramakrishna Mission

    • The questions posed by Hindutva and saffronization for a true dialogue with Hinduism today

    • Hata Yoga and Pranayama

    • Main Features: Necessity of Yoga Spirituality: Anubhava – God-realization. Basics of Yoga – Background Concepts

    • Different kinds of Yoga; Raja Yoga (Astanga yoga); Karma yoga – Yoga of Disinterested Action; Bhakti Yoga – yoga of Loving Devotion; Jnana yoga – Yoga of Knowledge; Japa/ Mantra Yoga; Hatha Yoga (Asana/ Pranayamas); Kundalini Yoga; Nada Yoga; Sannyasa Yoga

  2. Buddhist, Jaina and Sikh Spiritualities

    • Nastikas

    • Main Doctrines of Buddhism: Four Noble Truths (arya satya); Theories of Dependent Origination, Momentariness, non-soul; Concept of Nirvana

    • Astanga Marga - Noble Eightfold Path

    • Vipasana Meditation

    • Zen Meditation

    • Jainism

    • Relativity of knowledge (Syadvaa)

    • Jaina Ethics and Religion; Ratnas, Sects; Pancha Mahavrtas (vows) / Anuvrtas; Ahimsa (Abstinence from all injury to life); Satya (Abstinence from falsehood); Asteya (Abstinence from stealing); Brahmacharya (Abstinence from self-indulgence); Aparigraha (Abstinence from all attachment)

    • Origin and salient doctrine of Sikhism

  3. Spirituality of Islam

    • Term and Background of Islam; Prophet Muhammad. Articles of Islamic Faith. Belief in the one God (Tauhid); Belief in the Prophets; Belief in Angels; Belief in the revealed books; Belief in Resurrection and Judgment; Belief in Divine Degrees (Qadar)

    • Religious duties of a Muslim; Confession of faith (Shahadat); Prayer (Salat); Fasting in the month of Ramdan (Sawn); Alms-giving (Zakat); Pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj)

    • Certain important aspects of Islam; Holy War (Djihad); The four foundations of

    • Islam – Quran, Hadith, Ijma, Qiyas; Social Life and Customs of Indian Muslims

F. New Trends in Spirituality

  1. Christian Ashram Life and Inter Faith Dialogue

    • The seekers are initiated into an Integral Indian Spirituality through an experiential sharing and living, situating the person over against the background of one’s life, to discover the true self with a firm determination, based in the universal sadhana (means) of yoga (a comprehensive spiritual discipline) with a specific focus on dhyana (contemplation) in freedom and wholeness, silence and stillness

    • This process helps the seeker to discover her or his true identity as a child of God to witness to the world through the official teachings of the Church along the lines of gnana (experiential knowledge) and bhakti (loving devotion) marga (path) for a fruitful service in the world with a synthetic vision of life and mission after our Sadguru (True Master) Jesus Christ, is the context of a simple life-style in an ashram, journeying towards the ultimate goal the Blessed Trinity

  2. Eco Spirituality and Globalization

    • There is a growing awareness among people all over the world today, regarding the ecological crisis – “the earth’s standing, meaning and history as the Home of Life are under threat of death”. Signs of this crisis and devastation of the earth are many: air, water, land, soil, noise, food, moral and other forms of pollution. There are other signs as well: precious resources are diverted to destruction purposes like the arms race, stockpiling of nuclear weapons, storage of toxic nuclear wastes, depletion of limited resources, de-forestation, mining, building of dams etc. There is also the application of mega-technology, which appears to be almost beyond all human control

    • There is a call today, for re-orienting our ministries; we need to involve ourselves in eco-ministries that would address new modes of existence, creation of a new society that is at peace with itself and its environment. Above all, ministries that would usher in a new humanity based on the ‘Jesus Paradigm’ - on the vision of Jesus which calls for new liberating relationships with God and with humanity and with the whole of creation. We need liberating structures in society that would end all forms of greed, economic, social, and other forms of exploitation and domination, so that the quality of life based on human values is enhanced, and we re-discover the whole of creation once again, as the expression of God

  3. Indian Womanhood and Social Leadership (Feminism)

    • Feminist Hermeneutics

    • The situation of women today

    • Female; Feminine; Feminist Experiences

    • Women and structural Discrimination

    • Church and Women

    • Feminism and the crisis in church leadership today

    • Women’s role in the Vatican Council

    • Matriarchy cults and return to the Goddess Spirituality

    • Women in the Bible

    • Spirituality of the women Saints

    • Theological Feminism

    • Feminist Theology and the Quest for spirituality

    • Feminism & Plight of Indian womanhood

  4. Secular Institutes and New Forms of Consecrated Life

    • Recent phenomenon, with roots in Apostolic Church

    • The main features of the secular institutes

    • The juridical aspects and difficulties in paradigm identification: Chastity & Family life

    • The post-Vatican II and radical Gospel movements

    • Radical Gospel Movements among the laity in India

G. Social Concerns and Apostolic Orientation

  1. Theology of Evangelization and Mission

    • Introduction – ‘Mission’ and ‘missions’ – their meaning and different uses in the course of mission-history-Biblical foundation for mission – OT, Israel’s election and world mission – NT, Jesus’ and Church’s Mission – Mission theology of St. Paul and the other Apostles – Pattern of evangelization in Mission – history – Phenomenology of religions. Teaching of the Church on Mission and Evangelization – Teaching of the Church up to Vatican II – Teaching of the Church in Vatican II documents, Lumen Gentium, Ad Gentes and Nostra Aetate – Encyclicals, Evangelii Nuntiandi and Redemptoris Missio – Missiological Anthropology – Inculturation and Inter-acculturation – Mission Spirituality

  2. Homiletics and Public Speaking

    • The social scenario is changing all over. The so-called masculine roles are no more their monopoly

    • One such was the Gospel proclamation and Public speaking on spiritual matters

    • The empowerment of women is served best when they are able to be resource persons for their formation needs and be actively involved in leadership roles in basic Christian communities or in pre-evangelization contexts

    • This course hence intends to give practical orientation at two levels

    • Stages of preparation of material that is audience specific

    • Learn some communication skills theoretically and practically

    • It will involve writing sermons, homilies, talks, classes, and retreat schemes to various groups as well as guide the prayer on some days of the week

  3. Human Resource Development, Management and Communication

    • Conceptual Clarification - Meaning of Human Resource

    • Definition of Human Resource Management - History of Management

    • Function of Management - Bible and Management

    • Jesus the Human Resource Manager / CEO

    • Personal Resource Management - Managing Interpersonal Relationships

  4. Environment: Concerns and Conservation

    • There is a growing awareness among people all over the world today, regarding the ecological crisis – “the earth’s standing, meaning and history as the Home of life are under threat of death”. Signs of this crisis and devastation of the earth are many: air, water, land, soil, noise, food, moral and other forms of pollution. There are other signs as well: precious resources are diverted to destruction purposes like the arms race, stockpiling of nuclear weapons, storage of toxic nuclear wastes, depletion of limited resources, de-forestation, mining, building of dams etc. There is also the application of mega-technology, which appears to be almost beyond all human control

H. Co-Curricular Formative Programme

  1. NB. This programme is academic as well as experiential and focuses on special sections of students
    Special questions

    • Communication media & Apostolate

    • Religious Charisms in the Indian Church today

    • Special questions on Consecrated living today

    • Consecration by vows and new way of being consecrated

    • Apostolic effectiveness of women religious today

    • Social change by violence or persuasion?

    • The Challenge of being a woman in India

    • How effective is our Christian ministry by education?

    • The consecrated life tomorrow and the tomorrow of the consecrated life

    • Liturgical animation & Creativity

    • Pastoral collaboration and cordiality among church personnel: priest & religious

    • Cultural exposure and artistic expression

    • Talent promotion and community building

    • Health & Practice of yogic Asanas
       

DHYANAVANA, INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF SPIRITUALITY
(AFFILIATED TO THE PONTIFICAL INSTITUTE OF SPIRITUALITY ‘TERESIANUM’, ROME; AND ST. PHILOMENA’S COLLEGE (AUTONOMOUS) MYSORE)

Address: Rev. Dr. Rathan Almeida OCD, Director DHYANAVANA, R.S. Naidu Nagar, Mysore - 570 007, Karnataka State, India
Telephone: + 91 – 821 – 2492623; Mobile Numbers: 6361666598 / 9113241882
E-mail: dhyanavanainstitute2023@gmail.com / dhyanavana@gmail.com Website: www.dhyanavana.com


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