Oh, you know that little proverb popularized by Benjamin Frankin and Poor Richard, do you? Yes, well I don't know about wealth or wisdom, but I severely doubt that getting up so early helps ones health. Here we are at the eastern edge of the Indian time zone and so the sun rises at 4.10 am. We were up before then. Anthony Valluran decided last night that we should celebrate mass at 5.00 am and get an early start. I could barely believe it, but everyone got up. The young people from the girls boarding and the boys boarding joined the Salesians for prayers and Eucharist, as they did yesterday. But it was all an hour earlier. Yesterday I merely concelebrated; today I was main celebrant. How do you preach at 5.00 in the morning? What is astounding to me is that all the young people prayed with us and knew all the responses for the mass, even though more than half are Hindus and Moslems.
"There is no hesitation to join in prayer here", Anthony pointed out to me. "India's tribal people are all very religious. The conflict between Hindus and Catholics, or between Moslems and Christians -- or even among the different Christian churches is something dreamed up by the politicians. The people overwhelmingly accept one another".
By 7:00 we had said goodbye to all the young people and to the Salesian staff of Don Bosco Conference Centre. We were on the road north to Shillong.
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