My Dear Friends, As we have come to the end of year 2013 and also end of my term as the President of India Catholic Association SE Michigan, I want to thank all of you for the honor and privilege given to me to lead this association for the year 2013. This year has reminded me how wonderful our association is. I am very proud of this Association and the people that has made it strong. I would like to specially thank my Executive Committee Urban DeSouza, Bernie D’Souza & Maryna Miranda for their support; for tirelessly working along with me, in building new ideas and sustaining this association. I couldn't have asked for a better team. I would feel very confident marching into the toughest of situations with this team. From the bottom of my heart, I thank all the chair persons of our 2013 events and all the sub-committee volunteers for making this a wonderful year for us all. It was challenging at times, but I think we all came out of our experiences a little more enlightened, though possibly a little weary at times. I encourage all of you to continue volunteer some time to ICA. You’ll meet interesting people, learn things about yourself and others. GOALS WE MET THIS YEAR... …Increased numerical strength of the association. ICA saw 13 new families this year. Our numeric membership is now hovering around 200 registered families. …Hosted a diverse array of social events with a specific theme; Carnival, Amazing Women, Camp ThumbUp, Picnic in the Park, Sangam - celebrating ICA’s 35th anniversary and Rockin’ around the Christmas Tree. ... Information technology and social media is what rules our world today and this organization’s ability to connect and communicate with the rest of the world has been made possible with the re-writing of our web site www.icamichigan.org. The website has been regularly updating its readers of the events and activities within the ICA. ….Event Promotions were done to increase the awareness of ICA to a larger audience by online updates through social media, press releases and promotional videos. ...Initiated and maintained significant partnerships with charity organizations to strengthen our community in which we live in

Annual Report

Special points of

interest:

2013 Annual Report

Tapestry of our Lives

My Reiki Journey

New Additions

Recipe of the month

Community Service with Missionaries of

Charity

In this issue:

Annual Report 1 , 2

Tapestry of our Lives

3, 4

2013 Charity Collections

4

Recipe: Xmas Cake 5

My Reiki Journey 6

New Additions 5

Community Service with Missionaries

of Charity

7

India Catholic Association of South East Michigan

December ‘2013

Year 2013 . Issue 3

2

ICA Patrika December 2013

...Maintained an affordable cost at all our events, so all members could attend and yet maintain a break even state. ...Supported and encouraged activities for high school student with Christopher Columbus poster contest and Mary Knoll Essay THANK YOU……. ...to our Sub-Committee chairs Denver & Brenda Pinto, Mia & Michael Mathias, Rosita & Rohit Lobo, Jayshree & Linley Mascarenhas, Franz & Sunil D’Souza, Liane & Prisco Carsto, Meera & Vijay D’Souza, Bea & Stan Nunes and Nisha & Mario Meireles for their wonderful leadership in bringing to us amazing events. …to all volunteers, without whose help our events and activities would not have been possible. …to our chaplain Fr. Socorro Fernandes for his support. …to our past chaplains Rev. Fr. Ozzie Mascarenhas, Rev. Fr. Ralph Besterwitch and Rev. Fr. Paul Coutinho who willingly supported our ideas and shared articles for our newsletter and video bites for our events. …to the Executive Board for their support …to St. Alexander, St. Valentine and St. Priscilla Church for graciously allowing us to host our events at these beautiful parishes. …to all our Mass celebrants this year The Most Rev. Bishop Francis Reiss, Rev. Fr. Socorro Fernandes, Rev. Fr. Henry Rebello, Rev. Fr. Theo D’Cunha, Rev. Fr. Suresh, Rev. Fr. Kishore, Rev. Fr. John Peter and Deacon Lawrence. …to Aditya Ayyagari for doing the video promotions and video coverage for all our events. …to all our event caterers for their generosity in quoting nominal price for our association this year. …to all our Members who volunteer their time to keep this Association going. …to the 2014 Executive committee Donald Tauro, Vijay D’Souza, Michael Mathias & Gayathri Selven who will take us into a great future. I thank each of you for your encouragement, prayers and support! May God bless the people of ICA, and those that work to make it a better place to meet. Sincerely, Teena Ayyagari

Annual Report

L-R: Maryna Miranda (T) Bernie D’Souza (S) Teena Ayyagari (P) Urban DeSouza (VP)

3

ICA Patrika December 2013

carried around by our favorite ICA uncles- Peter,

Carl and Neville. I think they’ve given many of our parents an evening of enjoyment by taking turns

with the babies. We have celebrated weddings,

baptisms, first communions and graduations and

comforted each other during illness and death.

And in good Indian Catholic tradition, we always pray before we party. We have been blessed by

our priests, Fr. Ozzie, Fr. Paul, Fr. Ralph, Fr.

Socorro and many other priests from India and

based in Detroit. We don’t have a separate parish

of our own. But so many of our memories are

woven around St. Alexander’s Church and now St. Valentine’s.

The ICA always evokes special memories for each

of us. I enjoy the weekend outing and it feels

great to know that this tradition started back in

1982. The first Christmas party was also that year. Nathan and I love the thrill of an ICA

Christmas party especially the arrival of Santa!

And thanks to Aunty Janet, Aunty Liz, Aunty

Marina, Aunty Rosita and Aunty Mia, our dads

can dance! They’ve learned so many dances over

the years, New York, New York, Hawaiian dances, Koli dances, Goan dances, the Ketchup dance,

the Macarena and most recently the Gangnam

style! I cannot forget all the voices that have made

up the ICA choir

for so many years. They have learned

songs in many

languages

including Swahili!

Best of all, they

sing from the heart and bring a

special touch to

From Kristen D’Souza’s perspective...

The poet Robin Dear writes “Our life is like a tapestry, an

interweaving of experiences, which

creates a unique picture of each of

us. The face we show to the world

is like the front of the tapestry, but the underside of the tapestry is

quite different. Sometimes this is a

mass of tattered ends and knots”.

The beauty and richness of a

tapestry require both sides to bring

it to life.

And so too the India Catholic

Association of South-East Michigan, or as we all

know it, the ICA. The idea for the ICA came to

being in 1978 when a few Indian Catholic families got together for a picnic at Stoney Creek Metro Park

in Macomb township. Until then their social

interactions were mostly with their new American

friends and neighbors and other Indian families of

different faiths. But this small group yearned to

create their own sub-identity centered around faith and our unique traditions around food,

celebrations, music and dance. After all, who else

could relate to the music of Anne Murray and

Engelbert Humperdink, or the jive and twist music

that was mandatory for all Catholic parties, Marathi and Konkani songs like haav sahiba poltodi vehta,

the aroma and taste of Sorpotel and vindaloo and

the traditions of kulkuls, neoreos and marzipans at

Christmas time. I was looking through old pictures

and recognize Uncle Neville and Aunty Doreen,

Uncle Lavo and Aunty Blen, Uncle Alex and Aunty Lisa and Uncle Cyril and Aunty Maryna. When I

read the history of the ICA I also got to know about

the Rumao, Pullukat and Pereira families. To all of

them, we say thank you for starting the ICA 35

years ago. They must have been super human, because they started the ICA and continued to add

members by word of mouth. Word of Mouth? Did

that involve making phone calls and writing letters?

How did they manage without Facebook and email

and texting?

My brother and I are growing

up in the ICA. I am sure if

you came to the ICA as a

baby, like us, you had your

fair share of “chubby cheek” admiration. But most of all

we have enjoyed being

(by Vijay & Meera D’Souza)

1993 ICA Christmas event at St. Alexander’s Church

4

ICA Patrika December 2013

all our gatherings. I have also learned that you can always turn trash into treasure, oops centerpieces that

we have enjoyed at every ICA event. You know you belong to the ICA when you collect used toilet rolls because you never know if Aunty Linda, Aunty

Antoinette, Aunty Blen, Aunty Mia and my mom may need them to create

centerpieces of little priest figurines or vases or even flowers!

Its hard to capture everything about the ICA in 10 minutes. You have to be part of it to experience the fun and friendship.

As the next generation we take

with us:

Hearts filled with thanks for the people and the organization

that gives us a connection to

our roots.

The values of family and support for each other.

A strong work ethic with which our parents have built this good life for us.

I am proud to be part of a community that has

contributed so much through our work as educators,

professionals, doctors and nurses, engineers, scientists,

entrepreneurs, business leaders, and pastors. And through our social outreach by working with the

Missionaries of Charity, Habitat for Humanity, soup kitchens and ministering to the homeless.

We left the largest democracy, India, to expand our horizons and pursue our individual dreams in the

oldest democracy, the USA and have established our lives and livelihoods in this great country.

Congratulations on 35 years together here in Detroit. God Bless the ICA, God Bless India and God Bless America.

If you wish to contact the authors

Vijay & Meera D’Souza: dsouzaavi@yahoo.com

(by Vijay & Meera D’Souza)

Would you like share any piece of news or an article to our community? Please write to Editor Teena Ayyagari at teena@cois4u.com

Patrika 2014 will next be handed by Gayatri Selven gayathri_dj@yahoo.com.

A Huge Thank You to al those who donated for our charity partners Habitat for Humanity and Missionaries of Charity,

Detroit

Our 2013 collection was

Habitat for Humanity: $242

Missionaries of Charity: $794

1993 ICA event at University of Detroit

mailto:dsouza6@flash.netmailto:teena@cois4u.commailto:teena@cois4u.commailto:teena@cois4u.commailto:gayathri_dj@yahoo.com

5

ICA Patrika December 2013

2014 Executive team

Rec ipe Corner

Christmas Cake

One of the signature items for Christmas is the fruit cake or the Indian plum cake. Here is a wonderful recipe of the Indian plum cake by our very own master chef

Ingredients:

Directions:

Add Cream butter and sugar until white and fluffy.

Add beaten eggs little at a time. Then add flour little at a time. then add the vanilla essence, almond es-sence and nutmeg. Last of all add the fruit. Spray the cake pan with non stick oil. Line the bottom of pan with double parchment paper. Put the mixture in the pan and let stand for 3-4 hours. Then bake at 325 degrees (gas oven) for 1/2 hour to1 hour depending on the stove. As soon as you take the cake out of the oven drizzle the cake with brandy. No need to pierce holes in the cake. The cake with absorb the alcohol like a sponge if done as soon you take the cake out of the stove.

Antonetta Demello

anncaj@yahoo.com

4 sticks of unsalted butter (room tempera-ture) 1 pound

2 cups of sugar

6 eggs at room temperature

2 cups of white flour

2 Tbsp. vanilla essence

2 Tbsp. Almond essence

2 ground nutmegs

3 cups of nuts, raisins and cherries

approx. 3/4 cup caramelized sugar

1 cup of brandy

It is with great pleasure we welcome our 14 newest fam-

ilies into our ICA community. We need your participa-

tion and hope to see you all volunteering at event com-mittees in setting our future direction!

† Vijay, Cony, Russel & Rachel Pinto, Rochester Hills

† Prisca, Justin & Johnson Kerketta. Rochester Hills

† Bobby, Arti, Milind & Sahana Macedo, Rochester Hills

† Chris , Bina & Nitya Bose, Novi

† Sameera George, Ann Arbor

† Preetham & Ramona Fernandes, Canton

† Donald, Cony & Elaena Demello, Pontiac

† William, Seema, Andrew & Natalie Lopes, Troy

† Santhosh, Vanessa, Brian, Jeffery & Eva Sequeira, Grand Blanc

† Selma Nunes, Auburn Hills

† Alan & Vicki Rodrigues, Bloomfield Hills

† Shailesh & Rovita Lopes, Troy

† Yuri, Clarina & Charlize Menezes, Rochester Hills

† Stephen & Sarita Dantas, Troy

mailto:anncaj@yahoo.com

6

ICA Patrika December 2013

My Reiki Journey

I lay down on the massage table fully clothed, eyes closed and began to relax. Soft music filled the room and

I could feel my body start to sink into the table. As the practitioner placed her hands on different places on my body, I tried to feel something but didn't feel any different. "One of those woo-woo hokey new age

treatments that don't work" I thought to myself! I finished the session and got up from the table, and on my

way home had a profound awakening. I did feel different- in fact, I felt amazingly relaxed. Not just that, I felt

peaceful and energized and very centered. That wonderful feeling lasted for two whole days and I knew there

was something tremendous that had shifted something in me.

That was my first introduction to Reiki and I couldn't wait to be able to make people I loved feel the same

way. I took classes, read up everything I could about it and proceeded to practice Reiki on myself and my

family. What a gift to be able to lay my hands on someone and without any pressure or manipulation, have

them sigh deeply and even fall asleep by the time I reach my third position!

From The International Center for Reiki:

“Reiki, pronounced 'Ray-key' is a Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing. It is based on the idea that an unseen "life force energy" flows through us and is what causes us to be alive. If one's "life force energy" is low, then we are more likely to get sick or feel stress, and if it is high, we are more capable of being happy and healthy. A treatment feels like a wonderful glowing radiance that flows through and around you. Reiki treats the whole person including body, emotions, mind and spirit creating many beneficial effects that include relaxation and feelings of peace, security and wellbeing. While Reiki is spiritual in nature, it is not a religion. It has no dogma, and there is nothing you must believe in order to learn and use Reiki. In fact, Reiki is not dependent on belief at all and will work whether you believe in it or not. Because Reiki comes from God, many people find that using Reiki puts them more in touch with the experience of their religion rather than having only an intellectual concept of it.”

Reiki is not a quick-fix therapy, though there are times it has

surprised me with just that. I have learned to have no

expectations and just 'go with the flow'...pun intended. I allow

the Reiki energy to relax, balance and release any chronic or

acute condition someone may be facing. Some people need just a couple of sessions, others multiple sessions to find the

level of healing their bodies desire. Reiki is an intelligent

energy and 'knows' what one needs- some people have a

physical issue addressed first, others have an emotional

release which over time translates into a deep physical healing. Reiki encourages balance in body, mind and spirit. In

today's hectic, stressful world, Reiki is my magic wand.

My Reiki practice now has expanded to offering Reiki to

whoever needs it and asks for it. A friend who had migraines for 8 years had them vanish after a few

sessions. Other friends have had profound emotional healing and are able to face life's challenges with grace. John's chronic knee pain- 'magically' disappeared. Rebecca sleeps better and asks for Reiki on

Sunday nights so she can greet the week with a great attitude! I continue to do daily self-treatments and

have found a deep sense of contentment with life and I can ride the wave of flu season more easily with no

medication!

Vivienne Lucksom

Reiki Master

If you wish to contact the author, write to lucksoms@yahoo.com

mailto:lucksoms@yahoo.com

7

ICA Patrika December 2013

India Catholic Association of South East Michigan We are on the Web! www.icamichigan.org

ICA President: Teena Ayyagari Secretary: Bernie D’Souza Vice President: Urban De Souza Treasurer: Maryna Miranda

Any feedback or comments? Write to ICA Executive committee at icamichigan@gmail.com Write to our Editor at teena@cois4u.com

ICA with Missionaries of Charity, Detroit

For the past 4 months our members have committed to helping the Missionaries of Charity, located at 1917 Cabot Street, Detroit. The initial contact with Sister Jesselin was made by Teena Fernandes.

The Sisters receive donations of nonperishable food (rice, pasta, sugar & other canned food) which is stored in the basement. On the last Saturday of every month, they need 4 volunteers for 2-3 hours, to help bag this food. On the following Monday these bags are distributed to the homeless & low income families who are registered with the Sisters. This is really a very simple activity and we welcome our members & children (if accompanied by an adult) to get involved. The Sisters have a few committed volun-teers who manage this project all through the year – currently they only need our help on the last Saturday of each month. Since September, several ICA members have helped

the Sisters who have been very grateful. By the way, the Sisters will also attest the volunteer hours for our high school students requiring to fulfill community service. Willing to offer a ride on Sundays to for our Mis-

sionaries of Charity?

The Sisters would love help with transport on Sundays. They teach Catechism to the less fortunate families in the area. They need a ride from their home @ 7.40am to Holy Redeemer Church, 1721 Junction Street, De-troit to hear Mass. After Mass a ride to St. Thomas Syro Malabar Catholic Church, 17235 Mt. Vernon, Southfield. Whoever volunteers can fulfil their Sunday

mass obligation at the same time. After Catechism volun-teers of St. Thomas will drop the Sisters home. Please consider volunteering on any Sunday convenient to you. The Sisters will bless you abundantly with their pray-ers.

We hope the Missionaries of Charity projects will continue to

become a part of ICA’s commitment to volunteer work.

Bernie D’Souza

berniehygi@gmail.com

ICA’s Community Service with Missionaries of Charity

2014 Executive Team, L-R: Gayatri Selven (S), Donald Tauro (P), Vijay D’Souza( VP) & Michael Mathias (T)

L-R: Urban DeSouza, Maryna Miranda & Bernie D’Souza

http://www.icamichigan.orghttps://www.facebook.com/ica.se.michiganmailto:teena@cois4u.commailto:berniehygi@gmail.commailto:urbandesouza@yahoo.commailto:maryna_miranda@hotmail.commailto:icamichigan@gmail.commailto:teena@cois4u.commailto:berniehygi@gmail.com