Catholic Congregation of the Blind

Mission

To fulfil our charism, we are striving to undertake a variety of apostolic works and services. Many of these are directly spiritual in nature. Numerous groups and individuals visit our houses each week to pray, or to seek spiritual guidance and counselling. Several times a day our members gather to offer intercessory prayer both for the intentions of both visitors and friends, and for the needs of the Church and the world. We also preach the Word of God to the increasing number of people who seek us out, and at various local and regional seminars and retreats. Through the witness of our lives, and through our prayer, counselling, and preaching we strive to advance the dawning of God’s Kingdom on earth.

In addition to our service to the Church and wider society, we feel we have a special and urgent call to offer spiritual renewal and physical support to the blind and partially sighted. In India, the blind often lack basic services, and have little or no opportunity to develop their gifts and talents. As blind men ourselves, we have personal experience of the challenges faced by the blind in daily life. By sharing the word of God and our own experience we hope to communicate the healing message that on the one hand, we must receive our disabilities from God’s loving hands and consecrate it as part of God’s salvific plan for us individually, while on the other hand we must go beyond our physical limitations, and seek to live and contribute to society as fully as possible.

Education forms a major aspect of our mission to uplift the blind. To provide the necessary resources to the blind for both secular and spiritual studies, the CCB acquired basic equipment from benefactors for the recording of books on audiotape, and their transcription into Braille script. To date, members of our community have been able to transfer much of the bible and various other spiritual books onto audiotape and Braille texts. We hope to soon acquire additional equipment that will allow us to both develop a central library for the blind, and distribute books in Braille and on tape to those in need.

For several years we have operated a study home in Kerala where blind and disabled young men in danger of not completing secondary school or having difficulty passing their 10th class exams are provided with lodging, tutoring, and a supportive community. In the near future we plan to expand this program to support both the formal academic and vocational training of blind youths.

We recognize that for a certain number of the blind and handicapped, physical limitations make further studies and independent living difficult or impossible. As much as possible, we seek to open our community to such individuals, so that they may participate in our life of prayer, and experience deeper faith and a sense of meaning and purpose in life through this holy service. To date we have been able to accommodate a number of such friends in our existing houses. In future, however, also plan to provide more specialized accommodations in a care and prayer home for the multi-disabled.