Fr.Maurice D’souza
Fr.Maurice D’souza belongs to the diocese of Varanasi and at present working in the Book Centre. When he recalls the seminary days, he says that he was very happy at St. Charles Seminary during his stay. And this happiness was due to his obedience in the seminary. He insisted that obeying was his principle and that led him to commit less mistakes in the Seminary. At the same time, he realized that he was less equipped with Holy Scripture during his studies, therefore, he suggested that the seminarians to be equipped with the word of God for the future ministry. He also pointed out that our horizon is limited, due to our working within the catholic people, so we need to extend our meetings with the faithful of other religion too.
Fr. Sebastian Nelson
Fr. Sebastian Nelson has shared his unique experiences of life. He has been rendering his service to the Arch-Diocese of Nagpur since 40 years of priestly life. He is one among the ten children of his loving Parents, and learnt how to share everything in common. Therefore, he says that “His House” is the first Seminary and the 2nd Seminary is Lucknow Minor Seminary which taught him to pray. His life was changed by reading the Holy Scripture, “For the Son of man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”(Mk 10:45). He learnt team work by working with the poor and he always had some alphabets used for three times like 3 Ds that are Devotion, Dedication and Discipline etc. His 3rd Seminary was St. Charles which has become the foundation of his life. He has been practicing more of vocal prayer than the Mental Prayer. He says four times Rosary and Devine Mercy Prayer too during the day. For him Eucharist is the source of strength in priestly life. He advised the seminarians by saying, “Choose what is best in your life.” Fr. Jacob Mendonca
Fr. Jacob Mendonca is the priest for the diocese of Varanasi. His first statement was that his Seminary life was very good in St. Charles. He followed all the rules and regulations of the Seminary except silence. Once Rector said to him, “Form your character well, other things will go on well.” He did the same and became a good priest for Christ and His people. He says that he has been a happy priest ever since the ordination day. He said “We get what we need but we do not get what we desire for.” Of course he got everything except V.G. or Bishopric. he mentioned his motto of life in sharing that is, “Enjoy life while you live.”
Fr. Charles Menezes
I want to thank Fr. Rector and the staff for inviting me for this sharing. I was here for eight full years for studies. These many years were rewarding for me and got lot of input for life. Indeed, I too did some mischief like smoking while staying in the Seminary, but got headache due to smoke and then I left smoking. Once I also took liquor but I got headache and left drinking forever. We were 17 brothers in our batch who were ordained, but in course of time six of them died. In fact, my motivation was to be priest, so keeping this in my mind I went ahead. My contribution was there in making new basket ball court, because Nuncio was happy with our Hindi Play and donated some amount for the new basket ball court. I also have seen the dark side of my life in the Seminary. I was a brilliant student here as well as in SFS College too. In SFS College, my name came up as a best student of the year, but later on I was dropped out due to seminarian. Well, I was the one who proposed to the Rector Fr.Glen Moras to have re-union ex-Carolian gathering of Priests who have completed 40th year of Priesthood. My motto in life is “Give your best and leave the rest to God.”
