Day 23, Sept. 2

Having made the acquaintance of Fr. Cyril (Cyl) I was looking forward to seeing his ministry. I had never been to a leper colony before and I thought it was worth the change in plans to take this opportunity. The day began with Mass at St. Anthony’s. There having a novena to Our Lady of Good Health. Each day thee is a sermon given on an aspect of Mary that is highlighted. All nine days had the same preacher and novena prayers after Communion. The people loved it. At the end they were blessed by a statue of Our Lady. [In a related conversation later, one priest told me that, in bringing the Faith to Hindus, it is good to relate to their practices. They’re used to statues and divine representatives granting favors. So, the missionaries heavily used devotions to Mary and the saints as a way of relating Christian concepts to those they know.]
After Mass, I had a time to pack and have some free time. We had lunch before taking the trolley (vintage 1905 and probably repatched every 20 years until it looks like a war wagon) to the Motherhouse to keep our appointment with Fr. Steve.
Steve is a Missionary of Charity priest (one of the few). I wanted to pick his brain on the subjects of poverty, discernment and the Corpus Christi Movement of priests. Steve is from Australia. He responded, however, in the manner of an Eastern guru. He always turned the question back around to me. I got some good information from him but my interrogation techniques weren’t good enough to get a direct answer. One of the MC Sisters came with refreshments. (They are exceedingly gracious to priests.) Then Cyl and I tried to get to the 4:00 bus to Asensol.
We decided to go by taxi; but n one would take us. The four drivers we stopped all told us there was a political rally in the square and they couldn’t get to the bus. We took a trolley to see how close we could get and walk the rest of the way. The trolley gt us all the depot even faster than a cab could have. Strange! Cyl thought it was too short fare for the taxi.
Cyl booked us on a Volvo modern bus. It was comfortable except for the loud music and the super-cold ai conditioning. At first, the A/C felt great, until I started freezing. That inconvenience was compensated for by the spectacular sunset and the views of West Bengal vistas.
We got to our destination about 8:30. We had to walk a ways to the compound. At the gate, Cyl got motorbike and rode me to the Bishop’s House where we were very late for supper. We apologized, they understood. After the meal, we were showed to our quarters another ride away. They were little concrete apartments. Mine had n mirrors. But the bathroom did he a special luxury – my first room with hot water.