Khliehriat, Jowai Diocese, 30 August 2026 — The Salesian Family gathered at Byndihati Centre, Khliehriat Parish, on 30 August 2026, for the joyful celebration of the Promise of seven new Salesian Cooperators, a moment of grace that drew together the local Cooperators’ community, the Provincial team from Shillong, the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, and the wider religious community of the locality.
The Holy Eucharist was presided over by Fr. Dabitlang Daniel Cajee, SDB, the local Delegate for the Salesian Cooperators of Byndihati, who welcomed the assembly with evident pastoral care for the community he accompanies. In his introduction to the Mass, Fr. Cajee welcomed Fr. Joseph Anikuzhikattil Luka, SDB, and warmly congratulated him for the extraordinary effort he continues to make, as Provincial Delegate for the Salesian Family, on behalf of the Association of Salesian Cooperators across the Province. The assembly responded with a spontaneous and mighty round of applause, a gesture of gratitude that set a warm tone for the celebration that followed. Fr. Joseph then joined Fr. Cajee at the altar as concelebrant and broke open the Word of God for the gathering.
In his homily, Fr. Joseph reflected on the day’s readings with particular attention to the mystery of suffering, telling the assembly plainly that suffering remains, for every Christian, a lesson hard to understand — one that takes an entire lifetime to learn, since we go on learning it precisely as we go on suffering. He reminded the community that a Christian is one who daily denies himself, daily takes up his cross, and daily follows Christ, and that this, precisely, is the life of the Salesian Cooperator: a daily and often hidden following of Christ carried out in the ordinary circumstances of family, work, and service to the young. Joy, he said, is never far from suffering, because Christ himself is never far from those who suffer; even as we go on confessing our faith and carrying our share of suffering, Christ is already rewarding us with a share of his own joy. He encouraged the seven candidates to receive this day not as a conclusion but as a beginning — an ongoing formation in the spirit of the Preventive System, sustained by prayer, fraternity, and practical service to the young of their own communities.
At the heart of the celebration, the seven candidates pronounced their Promise as Salesian Cooperators before the assembled community, a moment received with quiet joy and warm applause. Their Promise adds seven new members to the Association of Salesian Cooperators in the Khliehriat area and is a sign of the steady growth of the Salesian charism in this part of the Jowai Diocese.
The Mass was attended by the Cooperators of Byndihati together with the Provincial team that had travelled from Shillong for the occasion, whose presence underlined the importance the province attaches to the growth of the Cooperators’ Association at the grassroots level. The celebration was further enriched by the presence of a delegate of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (FMA), whose participation was warmly appreciated as an expression of the shared charism that unites every branch of the Salesian Family, and by representatives of the various religious communities of the locality, who joined the celebration in a fine spirit of fraternal communion.
Following the Holy Eucharist, the gathering continued with a fraternal meal shared among the Cooperators, the Provincial team, the FMA delegate, and the religious of the locality — a simple but meaningful extension of the Eucharistic communion just celebrated into a communion of table and friendship. The atmosphere of the day, from the Mass to the meal that followed, bore witness to the vitality of the Salesian Family in Khliehriat and to the warmth of welcome extended by the Byndihati community to its guests.
The Salesian Family of the INS Province rejoices with the seven new Cooperators of Byndihati and looks forward, with gratitude, to their continued witness and service in the Church and in the local community of Khliehriat.
Reported by Fr AL Jose
