ABOUT

Rev. Fr. J. E. Arul Raj was a missionary Priest of “Oblates of Mary Immaculate” (OMI). He was offered to go as a missionary to a place “Pandravedu” a remote village in Tamil Nadu, which is considered to be a hostile environment for the Gospel, further no one is willing to go there. In the year 1981, there was not enough training, to equip a missionary with proper resources and tools which are essential to work in a mission field.

Eventually he was struggling in all areas. At this juncture a group of religious sisters who volunteered to serve the mission, and be a helping hand to him as well, also left the mission field within a couple of weeks, due to the nature of the mission field.

The problems people faced in this area were diverse and, these people belonged to lower caste “as Indian society is classified and people were identified in the caste system. Most of the women wore only one ‘saree’ (a traditional dress for women). Men wore a dress called ‘lungies’ on their waist and have to carry their sandals in their hands when they walked through the streets of the upper castes.

Moreover, these people were, so vulnerable of being their women been raped, and abused, by the evil sections of the upper class. Another constant issue was their labour and wealth getting exploited by the upper class, Almost every family lived on a single meal a day. In addition to these, illiteracy, child abuse, and child marriage were all part of their life. They have the mindset of accepting all these factors as ‘fate’. This prevailing situation then made Rev. Fr. J. E. Arul Raj to realize the plan and purpose of God, of not only to preach the gospel, but also to bring a social reformation, and to shed light in areas of, education, health, and social welfare. This ultimately paved the way to bring “The Society of Daughters of Mary Immaculate and collaborators (DMI)” into existence!!!

On 29th January 1984, just after 10 hours of the declaration of the Society, he was shown a piece of property. And in the middle of it was a huge mango tree. Even though it was not the season for mangoes, he prayed like Gideon, as in the Book of Judges of the Old Testament, that God should give him a sign to confirm, whether it is His Will by showing him a mango on the tree. Standing under the mango tree he found a huge mango and he. brought it down with a stone in a single throw. In the early days of his ministry, a couple of girls who had completed their higher secondary education joined the Society to serve the Lord and simultaneously pursued their higher education.

The Lord blessed the ministry, by adding members one by one nearly and twenty-one girls committed their lives to the Lord to serve under the capacity of a religious sister. In the first three years, we were filled with struggles, pain and misery. Some people who encouraged and supported him in the beginning, became envious and tried to destroy the ministry, by false accusation to the higher level personalities to wipe him out completely, But the Lord gave him the needed strength to continue his mission as Apostle Paul declares “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service.” (I Timothy 1:12).

He took everything in prayer to Lord’s Feet, who gave him the favor in the eyes of the Archbishop, who found that neither him nor his Ministry is of any guilt. The Religious Sisters had to work hard to generate revenue by working hard in the sugarcane fields and spent day and night in tending cattle and sheep, for a few litres of milk. He will never forget the moments when he had to pawn the golden jewelry of his mother and sister in a bank to provide food to his members.

There were also days without food, which they considered as fasting days. These situations made them to meditate on the words of St. Paul the Apostle: “I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers”. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches” – (II Corinthians: 26 – 28).

DMI had no proper shelter or any facility in those days and they were literally living and operating the ministry under the Big Mango tree. One of the partners, Ms. BRIGITTE MEUER, Aachen, Germany helped them in building a house. The foundation for this house was laid on 11th March 1984 at Keechalam, a village in Thiruvallur district in Tamil Nadu and named as Brigitta, which was named after her. After acknowledging the missionary spirit and the growth of the Society, on 25th December 1985, the Most REV. DR. ARULAPPA, the late Archbishop of Madras Mylapore, gave his first approval to the Society of DMI, before his bypass surgery in his bed from one of the prominent HealthCare Centres in Chennai.

The Moto of the society is to “Love God is to serve the poor to become fully human and fully alive” which was later modified as “Loving God in serving the poor to be fully human and fully alive”

On 12th May 1987, a group of twelve members made their first commitment after going through various levels and stages during their formation period. Their training includes not only spiritual and religious life but also community integrated, partaking with the people of the area in their daily events of planting, weeding, harvesting, and cooking. While working along with the people, the sisters motivated the people to come out of their bondage which they called “fate”. The contribution of the first group of sisters in building up of the spirit of the community is to be thankfully acknowledged. They are the backbone and the models of DMIs. Even though the second group sisters were small in number, their contribution in giving leadership training to the Society cannot be forgotten.

The third batch of sisters followed the first two groups. The Founder called them the FOUNDING GROUP, later called as the FOUNDER'S GROUP. The hard labour of these sisters cannot be forgotten in the history of DMI: the bricks they made, the buildings they built, the land they cultivated, the blocks and granite stones they carried. When they were building the compound wall of Pune house, which has a length of nearly 600 feet, by solid cement blocks, each weighing nearly 24 kilos. One of the Jesuit priests said to him that “for the first time the religious communities in Pune have seen sisters doing hard manual labour”. The stamina and the spirit of service they showed in serving God and the poor are the foundation of the Society of DMI and MMI.

Looking back into the humble beginnings of the Missionaries of Mary Immaculate, a Priestly Society founded by him, DMI acted as the Co-founding society of MMI. It means specifically that the founding group members stood strongly behind him in founding the Society. Today the MMIs have grown as a strong Society of 400 members and more.

His method of working for the upliftment of the poor, is classified into two parts, “Give fish” when they are hungry and Provide net and train them to catch their own fish. “The sustainable development of the poor who are trained to sustain themselves” is the key. So, we not only taught them to catch fish and sustain themselves, but also “to train them to trade it”. Today we are in the mode of making them the models. We train them “to teach others to catch, to sustain, and to trade.

Our ministry in North India was never meant to be big but effective. The mission in North India was a training ground for our missionaries to integrate with other cultures. Many of our beneficiaries have become entrepreneurs and co-workers. The stories from rag to riches are many. This has helped us to put the Word of God into action.

Our service to the poor, low castes, tribals and others were openly recognized by the late Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Dr.M.Karunanidhi and other various Central and State ministers, who gathered on 8th March 2007 in the Nehru Stadium at Chennai along with 15,000 strong women leaders from all over India. Child Development Programs of DMI yet another key contribution to the society. The work among children was started 1980 at Kancheepuram, continues to be the venue by the DMIs as a fully fledged program of child development, through various supports from Germany and Japanese organization ESNAC.

Nearly 3000 children are directly benefited through their primary education and DMI has helped them pursue their master's degree and placement. DMIs believe that “Children are our Future” and the best place for the child is to live in his or her own home.

The future of DMI also depends on our ability to involve Mass Media and Communication with latest and upcoming technologies. Having this in mind, we have entered into a partnership with the Cardinal of Dar Es Salaam in the Tumaini Media TV programmes. This TV Channel in a way is the brain child of the DMIs and their collaborators. DMIs also plan to involve in other such programmes so that the message of socio-pastoral efforts of the DMI and MMI may reach out to large number of the poor and the needy.

Through our various ministries, the founder wants the DMIs and MMIs to be meaningfully present in the spiritual, social, educational and every other aspect of human development. They should find the world and beyond; the Kingdom of God, where Peace and Joy will always prevail for one and all.

The Founder always believed that the involvement of the lay people in the active ministry of the missionary church is more important than or equally important like recruiting celibate priests or sisters. That is one of the reasons when he registered the official Society of DMI with the government of Tamil Nadu in 1984, he added the name “Collaborators, with Daughters of Mary Immaculate”. So, it is our duty to collaborate with our Redeemer Christ in bringing in more collaborators to His Mission. In a way he recognizes Tanzania as our collaborators mission as they went and prepared the way for the sisters and priests.