Faculty of Theology

The liturgical life of the Catholic Church revolves around the Eucharistic sacrifice and the sacraments. The purpose of the sacraments is to make people holy, to build up the body of Christ, and finally, to give worship to God; but being signs, they also have a teaching function. They not only presuppose faith, but by words and object, they also nourish, strengthen, and express it; that is why they are called " Sacraments of Faith ". Penance – A New Beginning Jesus proclaimed that God is the source of forgiveness. He forgave the sins of the people and wished that his disciples too should forgive one another. Therefore He instituted the Sacrament of Penance for the forgiveness of sins through which He commissioned us to be the ambassadors of forgiveness.1 Therefore, having been forgiven by God we cannot but forgive others. The Church continues the mission of Christ and reconciles sinners to God. In the celebration of the Sacrament of Penance confession of sins is one of the important aspects. This is why the Sacrament of penance is popularly known as 'Confession'. The purpose of the sacraments is to sanctify man, to build the body of Christ and finally to give worship to God.2 By sin we constantly suffer in our interpersonal relationship. We are alienated from god and our neighbor and there is a certain disharmony within ourselves. The sacrament of confession heals this alienation and hence it can be called the sacrament of spiritual healing. Confession In the Catholic Church the element of penance is very important. And confession is also an external expression of one's own repentance and remorse over the sin which proclaims God's wonderful deeds of redemption.3The Sacrament of reconciliation has been given to us by Christ for the healing of the whole person. But without confession, without the grateful acknowledgement in the presence of God of our need for forgiveness, there can be no healing.

A religious community is expected to be a group of persons who live together knowing one another and loving one another. A heap of bricks does not make a house, a collection of words does not make a sentence, and a multitude of sounds does not make music, so also a crowd of people staying together does not make a community. Religious community life is the earthly version of the Kingdom of God. Everyone wants to be in communion, to love and to be loved. A religious community seeks to fulfill this need which is basic and ultimate. Community would be certainly a breeding ground for understanding the 'Love of the neighbour'. We should love and support one another without selfishness and destructive competition. If we have good qualities like mutual understanding, prayerful support, unity, love and generosity then we can build a good community. The members of the community should always be open to the voice of the Spirit. This will help them to love God and neighbours. A community is not merely a group of people living together. It is a living reality that has its own personality. It grows by the support of persons who respect one another. Community is a place of belonging, a place where people are gathered and find their identity. People do not belong only to communities. Some belong to gangs, to sects, to clubs and other organizations which are not communities, many also belong to churches and to parishes. It is essential for a community that the members know one another, love one another, and care for one another. Charity is the secret of community life. Charity in the community heals the hurts of its members. A religious community is not merely a group of persons who pursue certain ends and coordinate certain actions. The religious gather together to make a unity of life and sentiments. Though we all have shortcomings and weaknesses, we should live as people who love one another in fraternity or fraternal communion. Community life is more than a means to carry out our mission. Religious community is not just a gathering of people who love Christ, but it is

Self-emptying of Jesus and self-immolation of Prajapati have striking similarities. The only but a contrasting difference we see between these two concepts in two different religions is redemption and creation. While Jesus empties himself for the redemption of the human race from sin, Prajapati empties himself for the creation of the world. Both the immortal beings sacrifice themselves for the sake of the respective creations mentioned in their respective scriptures...

The New Testament has several running themes of mission and bearing witness that dominate the Gospels especially. One among the missionaries who held these two aspects of mission and witness, in her ministerial and personal life was Mother Theresa. Hence, aptly, she has been called the icon of love, apostle of charity, prime witness of service etc. She believed in the good of Humanity. That’s why she said “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” It is this message that turned out to be the very basis of her service.

There are 3 common and striking virtues of Mary that we find both in Quran and Bible: Mary’s Purity, her virginity and Mary as true believer. Mary is both a powerful and popular woman in history and devotion to Mary is
central to both Catholics and Muslim traditions. Mary’s place in Salvation History and her presence in the history of the Church have become the subject matter of theology for Christianity. The same can be also said of Islamic religious scholasticism

K.C. Sen was born in Colutolah, Calcutta, on the 19th of November 1838, as the second son of Piari Mohun Sen and Sarada Devi who belonged to the Vaidya Caste and Vaishanavite tradition respectively. K C Sen was largely influenced by his mother’s tradition which made him, at his teen-age, to become critique of Hinduism. The principal reason for his critique was a strong urge to pray and at this juncture he came in contact with Bible, Missionaries and different Philosophies.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Atherosclerosis of the major intracranial arteries is an important cause of ischemic stroke. We established measurement criteria to assess percent stenosis of a major intracranial artery (carotid, middle cerebral, vertebral, basilar) and determined the interobserver/intraobserver agreements and interclass/intraclass correlations of these measurements.

At all times we are exposed to a vast variety of sounds consciously or unconsciously, affecting our moods and emotional states. Music has been found to be an effective state management strategy through self-selection and will to alter our mood. The present study explores the effect of unconscious auditory introjections on mood and its management through self-selection. 30 participants were instructed to imagine a past event in their lives expressing specific emotions. The three instructed emotions were anxious, sad and angry. Different expressive music were used including calming, soothing as well as high tempo amped up soundtracks. Immediate verbal responses from the participants during the experiment regarding the study were taken into account. A self-report questionnaire (mDES) was used to assess the impact of music on mood on the basis of positive and negative emotions experienced. The results showed self-reported positive emotions were significantly higher as compared to negati...

The process of writing this paper has been a rewarding experience. Somehow, I myself was able to engage in conversational encounters with many persons who helped me in preparing this work. I am grateful to them all. While heading towards the end of this academic journey, primarily, I thank our Gracious and abundantly Merciful God for the grace bestowed on me. I am indebted to my guide, Rev. Dr. Thomas Varghese Tharakanveedu OIC (Fr. Vijayanand OIC), for his enlightening guidance and corrections since the inception of the writing of the paper till its completion. Especially I thank him for the patience he showed at the time when I was not writing up to the standard and within the time-frame he had expected from me. His positive guidance is the only reason why this paper was possible. What he wanted of the paper can be summarized in the words of Joseph Pulitzer:-Put it before them briefly so they will read it; clearly so they will appreciate it; picturesquely so they will remember it; and above all accurately so they will be guided by its light.‖ Thanks are also due to the Director of BVP, Rev. Dr. Philip Vysanethu OIC, for his magnanimity and help and also to Rev. Dr. Cyril Anand OIC, my Rector, who reminded me that the work should not only be informative and formative but also transformative. I am very grateful to the whole Bethanian community herethe Fathers, Brothers, Ms Joanne and the other stafffor their constant encouragement and support. Special mention and thanks go to my batch mates for their genuine care and inspiration while I did my work. Many thanks go to all those who diligently prayed for meespecially my parents and other loved onesand helped me in my encounter with Christ.

The process of writing this paper has been a rewarding experience. Somehow, I myself was able to engage in conversational encounters with many persons who helped me in preparing this work. I am grateful to them all. While heading towards the end of this academic journey, primarily, I thank our Gracious and abundantly Merciful God for the grace bestowed on me. I am indebted to my guide, Rev. Dr. Thomas Varghese Tharakanveedu OIC (Fr. Vijayanand OIC), for his enlightening guidance and corrections since the inception of the writing of the paper till its completion. Especially I thank him for the patience he showed at the time when I was not writing up to the standard and within the time-frame he had expected from me. His positive guidance is the only reason why this paper was possible. What he wanted of the paper can be summarized in the words of Joseph Pulitzer:-Put it before them briefly so they will read it; clearly so they will appreciate it; picturesquely so they will remember it; and above all accurately so they will be guided by its light.‖ Thanks are also due to the Director of BVP, Rev. Dr. Philip Vysanethu OIC, for his magnanimity and help and also to Rev. Dr. Cyril Anand OIC, my Rector, who reminded me that the work should not only be informative and formative but also transformative. I am very grateful to the whole Bethanian community herethe Fathers, Brothers, Ms Joanne and the other stafffor their constant encouragement and support. Special mention and thanks go to my batch mates for their genuine care and inspiration while I did my work. Many thanks go to all those who diligently prayed for meespecially my parents and other loved onesand helped me in my encounter with Christ.

The process of writing this paper has been a rewarding experience. Somehow, I myself was able to engage in conversational encounters with many persons who helped me in preparing this work. I am grateful to them all. While heading towards the end of this academic journey, primarily, I thank our Gracious and abundantly Merciful God for the grace bestowed on me. I am indebted to my guide, Rev. Dr. Thomas Varghese Tharakanveedu OIC (Fr. Vijayanand OIC), for his enlightening guidance and corrections since the inception of the writing of the paper till its completion. Especially I thank him for the patience he showed at the time when I was not writing up to the standard and within the time-frame he had expected from me. His positive guidance is the only reason why this paper was possible. What he wanted of the paper can be summarized in the words of Joseph Pulitzer:-Put it before them briefly so they will read it; clearly so they will appreciate it; picturesquely so they will remember it; and above all accurately so they will be guided by its light.‖ Thanks are also due to the Director of BVP, Rev. Dr. Philip Vysanethu OIC, for his magnanimity and help and also to Rev. Dr. Cyril Anand OIC, my Rector, who reminded me that the work should not only be informative and formative but also transformative. I am very grateful to the whole Bethanian community herethe Fathers, Brothers, Ms Joanne and the other stafffor their constant encouragement and support. Special mention and thanks go to my batch mates for their genuine care and inspiration while I did my work. Many thanks go to all those who diligently prayed for meespecially my parents and other loved onesand helped me in my encounter with Christ.

The world today is witnessing a huge number of relational dysfunctions and breakups. The stability of relationships is degrading owing to the impact of consumerism, globalisation and relativism. In such a situation, one can be saved by getting a method to restore relationships and revive one‘s commitment to the relationship. This is where the role of the sacraments comes, especially the sacrament of the Holy Qurbono. This has propelled the author to attempt a research into the conversational encountering of God especially in the Holy Qurbono which could serve as a paradigm for restoring relationships in today‘s world.

On October 3, 2020, Pope Francis issued the encyclical named Fratelli Tutti (We Are All Brothers) to urge humanity to promote a universal aspiration toward fraternity and social friendship. In the final chapter of the encyclical, Pope Francis repeatedly appeals to us to bear witness to God (Cf. FT § 274 § 276 § 280) and thereby contribute to the formation of universal friendship and solidarity. After one year, from 25 to 28 April 2021, the Indian Theological Association (ITA) discussed the theme "Credibility and Witness" in their 43 rd annual conference. Earlier in the mission documents, we oft found the repeated presence of the term 'witness'. Therefore, the present article "Witness in Fratelli Tutti" tries to explore the role of witness in the encyclical FT while initiating a universal home of peace and love. Does witnessing life (of Christian) play a significant role to initiate a common home?

After the publication of Synodality in the life and Mission of the Church by International Theological Commission (ITC), the notion of 'synodality' is being discussed widely in the Church circles. This discussion on synodality could be viewed as the result of the Church's desire to give a new face to the functioning of the pastoral and administrative activities. How can the People of God "walk or journey together"?-this is the basic concern of the 'synodality' discussions. The article, "Witness and Synodality", specifically analyses the role of 'witness' in forming a synodal church. Witness is the first means of evangelization (EN, 41). On this basis, the earlier missiological discussions of the theologians spent majority of their discussions on the topic of witness. But, gradually the importance of witness was ignored by the people of God and even it was sidelined in the theological discussions. The present issues in the Indian Church remind us to reconsider the method of 'witness' seriously. Recently at the beginning of this year, Indian Theological Association (ITA) took this theme of witness for their 43 rd annual conference (from 25 to 28 April 2021). In this article, we also try to find out answers for these questions: Does witness help us to overcome the hindrances to synodality? Should we give priority to witness?

The Catholic Church in India confronts various controversies in recent years. Analysing these controversies, the Indian Theological Association (ITA) found out that these were mainly due to the counter witness of her members and consequently in the 43 Annual Conference (from 25 to 28 April 2021) ITA discussed on the theme, “The Church in India Today: Credibility and Witness”. I consider that the first means of evangelization, i. e. witness, has central role in overcoming the controversies within the Church. For promoting witness in the life of the People of God, this article suggests an inspiring witnessing model from our Indian context, namely the witnessing model of St. Teresa of Calcutta.