Edification Letter

Jesus be ever with us Reverend and dear Mother,

With profound sentiments of sorrow may I convey to your Reverence and your community, how on the 16th of November 1971, the "DIVINE THIEF" has come very unexpectedly and taken off from our midst our beloved Sr. Catherine of Christ, at the 42nd year of her age, when she had lived in Carmel just half of her lifetime. Our dear sister was the first chantress, linen-keeper and assistant Mistress of the novices, and it seemed to us so much needed in these and other capacities; However. His thoughts are not our thoughts, so we count on her continued help from Heaven, where we confidently hope, by the mercy of God she is enjoying the Blessed Vision
On the 9th of June 1929, little Sira Maria Theresa was born as the fifth of the eight children of very Christian parents, Dr Jose Claudio Coutinho and Mrs Maria Felinda Furtado, at Navelim, Goa. Her father was a doctor of medicine, and the mother a teacher in the Government school. The good mother, despite her household duties and those of pedagogy, made time to give them a most Christian education, infusing into them very solid piety. There was a catechism class every day after supper followed by the revision of their academic lessons and the recitation of the Holy Rosary from which none was exempted.
When our sister was only seven, shortly after her first Communion, for which the good mother prepared her, Our Lord called her mother for her eternal rewards. Imelda, the eldest sister was only twelve and a half, but took upon herself the management of the house, and was a good mother to them, that they scarcely realised the great loss of their beloved mother, until later, when they had to face the difficulties of life. Our sister, they say, had a very restless character; nevertheless, she gave no trouble to anybody and even as a very little girl was very diligent to help her sister in her household chore, was very obedient and devout.
The family faced a greater shock when their little-mother took leave of them to join our Carmel at Kottayam; it was then they experienced that they were really motherless. Henceforth, papa was to be their father and mother. He became a Carmelite tertiary and was found kneeling daily with his children during Holy Mass before the Altar of the adjoining chapel Little Sira had already intimated to her little mother her desire to follow her to Carmel, and Sr. Imelda on her part kept fanning this spark of her vocation by her letters.
At first, Sita attended the School in the locality She was an intelligent student, affable and charitable towards her class­ mates, especially towards the less gifted ones, whom she helped in their studies. This, she kept up to the very end, always ready to help her sisters in Carmel too, with their work reading and singing. As she grew up, she showed greater inclination to join some congregation dedicated to charitable activities; and her father ever ready to follow the Will of God, sent her to study under the guidance of the Sisters of Charity at Mangalore When leaving the Secondary school, she felt that she had no religious vocation, and told her papa that she would like to be a teacher. So, she was sent for higher studies to college at Darwar.
Meantime, Sr. Imelda was surprised at her silence about her vocation and sent her most encouraging letters, quoting the words of St. Bernard about the advantages of religious life; that our dear sister used to tell us was a continuous meditation and turning point of her life. Fortunately, at that time, our Carme­ lite fathers had founded a monastery at Margao, not far from her house and she approached them for direction. With the help of our saintly Fr. Lucas OCD. she decided and arranged her entrance into our newly founded Carmel. Once again, the good father had to make a big sacrifice of a daughter on whom he counted some help in the management of the house; but laying no objection on the way of her vocation, he readily accompanied her to this far-off country.
On the 15th of August 1950, Sira entered our temporal residence, for this convent was under construction at that time. Sr. Catherine of Christ, as she was called from thence, soon found herself at home, and quickly appreciated and adapted herself to her new environment. Quickly too, did the com­munity appraise the worth of the newcomer, who was intelligent, dependable, eager to help the community and very quick with her work and gave her every opportunity to develop her talents, especially in music. From the very first she was very frank and open in her intercourse and very grateful for her vocation to Carmel which she enjoyed throughout. A phrase very often repeated in her letters to her sister was “thanks to you Imelda, I am enjoying Carmel." Very devoted to all that concerns our order and of Holy Observance, she was allowed in due time to receive the holy habit, which took place on the 19th of February 1951, in this new house and pronounced her Simple Vows on the 23rd of February, the following year She was the most lively and jovial of all our novices and made her companions too so, at recreations.
The first office entrusted to her care was that of infirmarian, and it was there her charity and self-abnegation was most resplendent; especially in the prolonged illness of our Rev. Mother Foundress, Mother Rosario of Jesus, who needed almost continuous attention. She was very solicitous and kind towards the sick and infirm, sacrificing her rest and sleep and every other convenience to attend on them. She was appointed more than once as assistant portress, as also to wash and ment the linen of the Mission churches.
She was healthy and I don't remember her taken to bed except twice, when there was epidemic of influenza which was enough benignant towards her. Frank ae she as she was wont to reveal any uneasiness that she has had, and take the proper remedies telling "our mother, I like to say at the beginning, morder not to make things worse and give more trouble " Optimistic and enthusiastic about anything and everything, when she determined to do anything, would ut all her might and main to the achievement of it, whatever the difficulty entailed in it. When there arose a problem of having a second organist, she offered herself to learn it Seeing herself some­ what handicapped in the fulfilment of some offices, and the following of the Liturgy, by the ignorence of the language of the place, she began to learn Malayalam, this made our recreations very amusing at times, when she repeated wha t she l 3arned like a little child . She took great pains to master Gregorian chant as well as other Hymns and songs and made every feast grand, with some selected and well prepared ones.
Our sister loved so much the thought that God is our Father, that very often she used to begin her music lessons with the song "God is my Father, how happy I am." She had a great devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to our Holy Pare­ nts, Little Flower, to her patron saints St. Sira, the virgin martyr of Portugal and St. Catherine of Sienna, and to the Goan Servant of God, Fr. Agnello.

Our Mother's death has made a deep impression on her mind that then she jotted in her note book " I must meditate everyday on death " From thence death has become an oft repea ted conversation of our recreations. Once we began asking one another what each one Y1ould like to hear sung at the moment of her death and each one told the song of her predilection, then she told. "Ishall not ask you to sing much. just sing Misericordias Domini in sternum cantabo 11 She did'n t seem to have the least presentiment of an imminent death as she told us very often " Ihad always thought that Iwould die young like mama; but now it seems that Iam going to live to a good old age." However in her last letter to her sister written just two days before her death she wrote. " Tomorrow. feast of all saints of our order we shall join them very soon; and who knows how soon it will be. "She had the happiness of being visited by her brothers in these last yea rs. Just a fortnight before her death, her youngest brother who came all the way from Goa for the first time with his wife and childern was greatly impressed to see her 'overflowing wi•h joy' as they remarked it to Sr. Imelda, "we know that Sira is in her center "

She began with all enthusiasm to prepare of the feast of our holy father St. John of the cross. being the first to do the customary mortifications. On the 15th she had sung as usual for the Mass, procession, Libera etc. being the day of all souls of our Holy Order; and in the evening we practised all the songs we have of our Holy Father to be sung for the Novena. She was quite normal till we retired to bed at about 1 1 o' clock. On awakening next morning, nobody paid attention to the fact th3.t Sr . Catherine had not sung the customary sentence But when we assembled in the choir noticing her absence, I sent the infirmarian to see what had happened. The infirmarian knocked at her door and hearing no answer, entered her cell. What was not her surprise to see her in her eternal sleep! She hurried back to the choir to inform me. and dear mother, you can imagine my anxiety and consternation of th'3 movement! Our good chaplain Rev Fr. Ambrose 0 C.D. WJ.s su:n:n:rned immediately to anoint and absolve her; but seeing her state he gave Absolution and recited 'Libera me', and awaited our doctor's attestation to say the 'Requiem Mass' for the repose of our beloved sister's soul. As soon as he could doctor came, surprised and saddened at the event. In his openion , death had overtaken her suddenly by a hear t attack. Most probably, she didn't suffer any severe pain as her tranquil sleeping postu re indicated . On examining fur her, he found that some stiffness has already set in her join s; so he surmised that she gave up her soul to God at about
ns soon as we could we carried her mor tal remains to he c ir :n procession and recited the office of the dead. Many re ·g:ous, priests, and laymen came to the grille to pray for her and er coffin was adorned with wreaths and bouquets of flo ers brought by our friends and benefactors Deep is our gra··· de owards all of them, especially to his Excellency Mar. A hanasius, always so fatherly toward us, came to pra y for her and console us and also sent the sisters of Bethany, despite ther s:::nool works to pray continuously in our chapel through­ out e .•.ght for the eternal repose of our sister's soul Truly we have not any other words to express our sentiments, but a hear · God reward all our benefactors and may He Himself be the.r exceeding great reward even in this life.
Next day, we sang a Vigil and Solemn Requiem Mass was concelebrated by Rev. Fr. Felicissimus 0 C. D., one of our former superiors, Fr. Ambrose O. C. D. our chaplain, and Rev. Fr. Peter , the parish priest of the place. Our dear Bishop was not able to preside the funeral ceremonies, being away from the place but consoled us as soon as he could with a very paternal letter and visit. His Execllency Mar Athanasius gave the absolution and preached a very touching panegyric. Rev. Fr Felicissimus presided at the burial.
Thus has she realised in herself the words of that song which she loved so much to sing at our recreations "My Going Home Day'' , leaving the rest of us in a constant meditation. May I ask you dear mother, to add as early as possible the suffrages according to our constitutions and whatever your generosity will inspire. She who was always so grateful will find a way to repay you, as also He, who promised "Whatever you do to the least of My little ones, you do to me.'' Pray also for this community and especially for your unworthy daughter and servant in our Lord.

Theresa of Jesus
Prioress

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