Food

Ingredients

Mutton 1 kg
Onion paste 2 cups
Tomato puree 1 cup (just add 2-3 tomatoes in a blender and make a puree)
Ginger garlic paste 3 tbsp
Cumin seeds 1 tsp
Black pepper corns 1 tsp
Black Cardamom 3-4
Cloves 3-4
Cinnamon sticks 2-3
Bay leaves 2-3
Turmeric powder 1 tsp
Kashmiri chilli powder 1 tbsp
Coriander powder 1 tsp
Garam masala powder 1 tsp
Mace/Javithri powder 1/2 tsp
Fresh Cream 1 cup
Green Capsicum 5-6 cubes
Oil
Salt
Coriander leaves
Fresh Cream 1 cup

Method
1. Clean and wash the mutton and keep aside.Take a Kadai and add some oil, add cumin seeds and all the whole garam masala’s as mentioned above. Add the onion paste and saute for 5 minutes. Add the green chillies and ginger garlic paste and sauté Keep covered for sometime. Now add all the spice powders as mentioned and sauté. Then add the tomato puree. Again keep covered for 5 minutes. Add salt. Add the washed mutton and sauté for 5 minutes. Then add boiling water 3-4 cups.  Keep covered for 45 minutes until the mutton is well cooked. Alternatively transfer to a pressure cooker and cook for 5-6 whistles. Once mutton is cooked add the fresh cream and simmer for 10 minutes. Keep covered.  The curry will thicken by this time. Adjust the consistency of the gravy as per requirement. Add capsicum cubes and finally garnish with chopped coriander leaves.
 

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Art/ Heritage

In 1940, hardly four years after the inauguration of the Parel Seminary, a new vision for a grand seminary building set-up was proposed on paper. A site hunt was undertaken and the one at Kol Dongri, Andheri was approved. However, not a sod of earth was turned in on the new-land. Was it unpromising? Read on to discover the fateful events of the 1940s.

1940 – 41 – The Andheri plot in question was close to the Railway Station to the east and belonged to the Mangalorean Garden Homes Society.

July 1943 – The Diocesan Council announced that an agreement had been signed to buy the plot at Andheri where the whole Seminary could be comfortably located.

August 1945 – Archbishop Roberts, before his departure to Europe, appointed a Seminary Building Committee. The Committee comprised of both Diocesan and Seminary representatives. Their primary task was to study the architectural plans submitted for approval.

August 1946 – The Committee’s discussions prolonged and their opinions differed not only in terms of layout but more importantly in the vision of the future seminary. There was a tussle between the ‘Block System’ (University City) and the ‘House or Home System’.

February 1947 – With some modifications the ‘Block System’ prevailed and Auxiliary Bishop Gracias sanctioned the building plans. Further Bishop Gracias wrote in his first Lenten Pastoral letter dated February 14, 1947: ‘A visit to the Institution (the Seminary)… would reveal the trying conditions faced by the Staff and students…Plans to transfer the Seminary to the new site at Andheri are well underway…The path may be rugged, the journey calling for much patience…’ (The Examiner 1947)

March 1948 – All permissions needed for construction were taken. Andheri seemed to be the Promised Land for the Bombay Seminary.

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Faith

This pericope forms part of a larger text that begins at verse 4 and ends at verse 21. It plays on the motif of hearing the word of God. Hearing or listening becomes the leitmotif and the challenge to every disciple. Hearing the Word of God is the hallmark of Lucan discipleship. The disciples are not only hearers of the parables of God’s kingdom as in verses 4-8 but are also recipients of the singular grace of knowing what God’s kingdom means for everyday Christian living (JBC)

In verse 18 Jesus cautions the disciples to ‘pay attention how they listen’. Hearing without understanding the word, leads to a total loss of hearing. It produces no fruit in the disciple. To reiterate this point Luke uses the word hearing or listening five times between verse 8-19.

It is in this context of hearing and listening that the mother and the brothers of Jesus are introduced to the narrative. We are told they are unable to reach him because of the crowd and to the person who informs Jesus that his own relatives are waiting to meet him he links true fraternal and maternal relationship with those who hear the word of God.

It is not difficult to see that, at least during his lifetime, Jesus’ family were not in sympathy with him. Mark 3:21 tells us how his kinsmen came and tried to restrain him because they believed him to be mad. In Matthew 10:36 Jesus warns his followers that a man’s foes may well be those of his own household–and he was speaking out of hard and bitter experience.

However, in contrast to Mark’s Gospel (3:31-35), Luke does not depreciate Jesus’ mother and relatives with the words ‘who is my mother and who are my brothers’. Here, Luke presents Mary as the model disciple who ponders God’s word and acts on it. Jesus is not disowning his mother, but rather pointing to her greatest glory: that she could say to God’s messenger: Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word. Luke wants to present the family of Jesus as models of discipleship who listen to the Word of God and act on it.

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Art/ Heritage

‘Mary, full of grace; first conceived Jesus in her heart before she conceived Him in her womb’ – St. Augustine

We are in the Uffizi Gallery of Art History collections. Having traversed through the medieval depictions of the Madonna and the Child, we now stop to gaze at the 15th-century masterpieces. Undoubtedly the finest among these is the ‘Madonna and Child’ by the Italian Renaissance artist Filippo Lippi. Considered one of the most lyrical expressions of Lippi’s art, the painting is commonly called ‘The Uffizi Madonna’.

The artist, Filippo Lippi, was born in 1406 in Florence in a poor family. At a tender age, he was sent to the Carmelite friary. However temperamentally he was not suited to be a friar. He is said to have led a colorful life full of lawsuits and scandals. Chaffing against his presumed vocation, in 1456 Lippi abducted a nun, Lucrezia Buti, and married her later. Despite his antics, he won the favor of the Medici’s who patronized his brilliance at work. His terrible vices were often overshadowed by the virtues of his paintings.

The painting into consideration, titled ‘The Madonna and Child’ spells love at every sight. The Blessed Virgin is seated on a throne, of which only the soft embroidered cushion and the carved arm is visible. She gently gazes downwards, her hands clasped in prayer. Her humble appearance emphasizes her humanity as the young girl of Nazareth chosen to be the Mother of God.

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Art/ Heritage

 The Seminary at Parel was the Village in the Valley, the new Seminary at Goregaon is surely the Castle on the Hill. The way up-hill is never easy. It involves unchartered territories, strenuous strides, fearless faith, and quiet perseverance. The journey to Goregaon was similar but what set the Bombay Seminary on the road again? Here are a few factors to consider:

The Space Crunch  

This is vividly vouched for by the statistics. Nine seminarians in 1936; thirty-four in 1940; seventy-one in 1945; eighty in 1950; ninety-eight in 1955 and over one hundred and ten in 1960. As the number kept increasing there is no denying that the Lima Seminary faced a huge space crunch. In 1940, a hastily constructed wing was added to the old one-storeyed building at its south side but to no relief. The question remained ‘What about the years to come?’ It was Parel and yet, not Parel!

The Seminary cum Parish set-up

On April 22, 1877, the Parel Convent Chapel was opened. As the Catholic population in the environs grew, several Portuguese Church parishioners preferred to attend services at the Parel St Joseph’s Chapel. Thus when the Seminary was inaugurated in 1936, the Chapel continued to serve the faithful especially with regards to Sunday worship. Soon the Seminary Fathers organized catechism classes and attended to the pressing needs of the people. This paved the way for the creation of a full-fledged parish at Upper Parel dedicated to St. Paul on March 12, 1941.

The Rectors of the Seminary Fr. Valls S.J. and Fr. Lamolla S.J. were also appointed Parish Priest from March 1941 to April 1944. A Parish school was soon opened in the shed alongside the main seminary building. The Parel Seminary found itself amidst several activities of the Parish. It is not surprising then that the ecclesiastical authorities, anticipating future developments of the two institutions, recognized the need to move the Bombay Seminary again.

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