St. Kuriakose Elias Chavara , founder of CMI congregation, a great missionary and visionary was born in 1805 and died in 1871 in Kerala. The account of St. Kuriakose Elias Chavara’s life that we have today in literature and tradition is a persuasive display of his personality marked with ideal human values and genius of a great soul. The greatness and dimension of his personality is expressed in his words and deeds. The quality and quantity of St. Kuriakose Elias Chavara’s activities portray the dynamic prophet in St. Chavara. An assessment of some of his laudable concerns and deeds would exhibit the outreach of an ideal human life are as follows- option for the poor, educational and social activities, social welfare activities,just wages, empowerment of women, moral code of conduct, family renovation, religious fellowship and religious tolerance.

Greatness is measured by what a person has contributed to society and not by what he/she has made him/herself out by what one is capable of doing. Human greatness consists in concern for the poor and the weak and not in exploiting or profiting from the weak. The life of St.Chavara is a challenge to our times marred with consumerism and exploitation. This life challenges us to be ideal human striving for genuine greatness. Let us be aware that our life is measured by the life of those by whom we stand and with whom we share our life. St.Chavara was a genuine disciple of Jesus, the perfect master and the champion of the poor and the weak. St. Kuriakose Elias Chavara’s life is an immense source of inspiration for all who wish to strive for greatness in our moderate humanness. We, salute this great missionary and visionary and beseech his blessing and graces.

From the Principal’s Desk

“Children are living beings- more living than people who have built shells of habit around themselves. Therefore it is absolutely necessary for their mental health and development that they should not have ‘mere school’ for their lessons, but a world whose guiding spirit is personal.”

Rabindranath Tagore

I want to draw your attention to the life of Mohandas K. Gandhi, our National Father. He stands out as one of the most powerful human beings to walk on terra firma. By whatever name he may be called today, he was surely not born as a Mahatma. Neither did his power that brought the British Empire to its knees by the sheer strength of his convictions nor was a case of some extraterrestrial intervention. Gandhi was born as ordinary human, lived as ordinary human and died as ordinary human, like rest of us do. What made his life so different from the majority of men and women, who inhabit this planet, was his internal beliefs and its strength.

Our beliefs make us good, bad, great, small etc. nothing else matter, not even our physical strength. Helen Keller was blind and deaf and she changed the world of millions. Mother Theresa was frail and fragile, yet shone like the sun in a sea of selfishness. Mahatma Gandhi was powerful enough to achieve what a great army and guns could not achieve.

Convictions are principals that one believes in and central to one’s life, and not subject to anyone’s influence or external factors. They are evident in all areas of one’s life, and all that one does take it as a point of reference. If you think that telling lies is bad, you do not tell lies even to get out of most trying situations. It is an internal power that others can neither see nor understand; they either admire it or fear it.

Convictions are created in the silence of the heart, often at prayer or in a personal encounter with someone, when you decide to build your convictions. They grow from strength, by the sheer repetition of actions that come out of that conviction. A child can do it, an adolescent can do it, an adult can do it and even an old man does not have to think that his time has come. No age is too early to start building your convictions and if you do not, there is always the crowd to join!

May God bless us in all our endeavours.