2020- SUMEDHA OUTREACH AT BANGALORE

Dr. Jose Parappully, Director of Sumedha Centre was invited to facilitate a three day workshop on “Midlife Dynamics and the Spiritual Journey” at the Sainte Andre Study Home, Sakalavara, on the outskirts of Bangalore.

The workshop was organizes by the National Secretariat of the Conference of Religious of India (CRI). It was held from January 6 to 9, 2020.

There were 46 participants – five religious men and priests and 41 religious women.

The content of the workshop included: Awakening to Midlife, Midlife Dynamics, Midlife Transformational Processes, and A Spirituality for the Post-Midlife Years.

The participants were highly appreciative of the workshop. All of them found the workshop content and process very useful. It provided them much understanding of what they were experiencing at midlife and to make sense of them. They felt they were now much better prepared to go through the post-midlife years.

One aspect of the workshop that was particularly appreciated was the integration of psychology and spirituality into the content and process of the workshop right through, something that is quite rare in similar workshops.

SUMEDHA OUTREACH IN DECEMBER 2014

SEMINAR AT DON BOSCO PHILOSOPHATE, KARUNAPURAM

The Director of Sumedha Centre, Jose Parappully, was the lead speaker at a seminar on “Psychosexual Integration and Celibate Maturity” at the Don Bosco Philosophate, Karunapuram, Telengana State on 8-10 December.

About 150 students of Philosophy attended the seminar.

There were two other presenters – Jose Kuttianimattathil (Co-Editor of the book on the subject of the Seminar) and John Tharakan who has contributed three chapters to the book.

Parappully introduced the topic and made presentations on Sexual Orientation, Sexual Behaviours, Sexual Harassment and Abuse.

Kuttianimattathil presented on Human Maturity and Celibate Friendship.

Tharakan presented on Boundaries and Boundary Violations.

TRAINING OF FORMATORS, MANGALORE

Jose Parappully was invited to be part of the “Formation of Formators” training programme organized by the Conference of Religious of India at Ryshivana Retreat Centre in Mangalore.

There were about 50 participants in the training programme.

Parappully took seven 90 minute sessions, spread over two days on 12^th and 13^th December, on Mental Health and Religious Formation.

SALESIAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

Parappully participated in the annual meeting of the Salesian Psychological Association at Ramanthapur near Hyderabd on 15-16 December.

At the meeting he made a presentation on the recently published DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 95^th Edition). He highlighted the changes from DSM-IV and made detailed presentation on the DSM – 5 Alternate Model of Personality Disorders.

SUMEDHA OUTREACH TO THE BRAHMAPUTRA

Jose Parappully, Director of Sumedha Centre, was invited to facilitate a workshop for the Major Superiors of religious congregations – Provincials and Generals – of the North Eastern region.

The theme of the two-day workshop was “A Mature Spirituality of Today.” The workshop was held at Don Bosco Institute on the banks of the Brahmaputra river in Guwahati on 14-15 May. Thirty four Major Superiors participated.

The keynote address at the workshop was delivered by Most Rev. Thomas Menamparambil, Archbishop Emeritus of Guwhati. He spoke of a Missionary Spirituality of Involvement and Encounter.

Parappully took three sessions of 90 minutes each on the two days. He traced the development and shifts in paradigms, from Dualistic-Mechanistic to the Holistic-Ecological and their impact on spirituality.

The Dualistic-Mechanistic paradigm dominated during the Modern Period, roughly from 1600 to 1950. This is the period in which most currently surviving Catholic religious orders and congregations were founded. He showed how the spirituality of these orders and congregations were influenced by the Dualistic-Mechanistic paradigm prevalent during that period.

Parappully went on the describe the developments in the sciences, especially in Quantum Physics, that undermined the Dualistic-Mechanistic paradigm and which led to the emergence of a new paradigm, namely, the Holistic-Ecological, which is influencing every sphere of life today.

He described 17 characteristics of a spirituality that the changed paradigm calls for. He presented solidarity and communion as the heart of this holistic-ecological-cosmic spirituality.

Participants observed that the workshop had helped to clarify, deepen and expand their understanding of spirituality. It provided them, they said, practical tools to incorporate this new spirituality into their daily lives. They also commented on the excellent quality of the inputs as well as the tools and techniques used in the workshop which made it a very meaningful and exciting experience for them.

The workshop was organised by VM Thomas, the National President of the Conference of Religious of India with the help of the Executive members of the Regional Conference of Religious of the North East.

Parappully will be facilitating another workshop – on Revitalization of Religious Life – for the Major Superiors of the region in September this year.