Newly built St. Mary’s Hostel at Baluchar Upadharmapalli in Sylhet Dharmapradesh. The hostel is the dream of His Excellency Archbishop Vijay N, D’Cruz, OMI and Mr. Montu Palmer. The St. Mary’s Hostel is mainly for indigenous girls in Sylhet. Indigenous girls should be able to study in colleges in Sylhet city and grow up in a Christian moral structure.
Happy entry: The day was 26/2/2018 AD. This means that from this day onwards, the journey of the sisters started anew in the newly constructed building. Sister Mary Gloria and Sister Mary Jacqueline began their first ministry with 13 daughters. 26/2/2018 AD: Reverend Father Pius dedicated his first Christmas service in a hostel in a two-storey building.
Downstairs church houses and upstairs sister and hostel girls accommodation. Although the sisters mainly look after the hostel, they also visit the parlors and homes in the city once or twice a week to meet Christian brothers and sisters. The Sisters also visited the surrounding colonies and settlements and through them converted the people to churches.
Sylhet, Baluchar Saint Peter’s Church was inaugurated on 5/5/2018 AD by Reverend Archbishop Vijay N. D. Krush, OMI. On that auspicious day, about 500 people, including all the Fathers, Brothers, Sisters and the people of Sylhet Province, were in the church.
Notable in this church is the white marble altar in the light of Reva Father from far away Germany, OMI he Archbishop VijayN, He generously donated to De Cruz, as well as some other items in the church that could be used to decorate the church.
With all those materials help to enhance the decoration of the church. In this way, by getting to this church, the indigenous people in the urban areas, especially: The expectations of the Garo tribesmen are fulfilled. Archbishop Vijay N. D’Cruz’s dream is fulfilled.
Only 1 year later, Sister Jacqueline was transferred to Dhaka. He later took on the task of searching for Sister Gloria. He came to the hostel on 23/01/2019 with new enthusiasm. Sister continued to serve as an assistant from 2019 AD to 2020 AD. After Sister Anbesha was transferred, Sister Mary Santani joined the hostel on 10/2/2021 AD with new responsibilities. She became one with Sister Gloria and focused on running the hostel, and both of them were associated with Jesus, taking care of the girls and taking care of their spiritual well-being. In unison with the devotees, he continued to do all the work of worship with all these pleasures.
Aims and Objectives of Hostels and Churches:
The sisters are engaged in two activities in Baluchar, Sylhet and Arambagh. Mainly the responsibility of the hostel and secondly the responsibility of St. Peter’s Church. In the absence of the father, the pastoral service responsibilities and the two sisters have been taking turns. The purpose of the hostel is to achieve a specific goal, such as-
– Indigenous girls of Sylhet region (Khasia, Mandi, Bagani) should get the opportunity to study in city colleges.
-By studying in a hostel, they can lead their society later.
-The goal of the church is to get as much spiritual and pastoral care as possible for the working devotees.
-Sisters should be more aware of religious and moral values through contact.
-Adivasi family is matriarchal. So the emphasis is on how their family will be thrifty.
– The family is the home church. Indigenous people usually live and work in groups in different parlors of the capital, gardens and cities.
So the Sisters make them aware of how to further awaken human values.
Sisters activities:
-Donate the management of hostel girls.
-Help to behave in a polite manner and to awaken to different religious values.
-Sometimes provide them with moral education.
-Teaching girls prayers and religious songs.
-Organization of recreational activities from time to time to develop latent talents.
-Visiting parlors in the city and praying with them.
– Praying rosary with the people at home in special months i.e. in May and October.
-Give religious education to boys and girls every Friday.
-Prepare children for confession and surrender.
-Prepares the people through all the sacramental teachings.
-Shishu Mangal YCS and being associated with various organizations.
-Education of people and hostel girls with emphasis on Upasana.
– Participate in all diocese activities.
– Communicating and programming with Christian nurses in various hospitals.
After all, the arrival of SMRA Sisters in St. Mary’s aims to enable the indigenous backward girls of Sylhet region (Khasia, Garh, Bengali) to study in different colleges from the beautiful environment of the city and to lead them in the society, family and church. Hostel, Shelf, Sylhet Dharmapradesh. Reverend Bishop Vijay N. Responding to D’Cruz’s call, the Sisters are very sincerely serving the devotees. Those who are serving among them are really happy and benefited from getting sisters. We hope that the Sisters will continue to expand the Kingdom by providing selfless service to the church.