By Purushottam Nayak

Sambalpur, June 17, 2020: Father Ajaya Sabhasundar says God’s blessings have helped him serve the Church and people in Odisha as a priest for the past 25 years.

“Our people need to grow in Catholic faith and tradition. My aim has been to show them the richness and beauty of Catholic Church,” the 51-year-old priest of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar archdiocese told Matters India June 15.

Besides training future priests in several major seminaries in India, Father Sabhasundar uses his pen and oratorical skills to foster faith among Catholics.

He has conducted some 60 charismatic retreats since becoming a priest in 1995. Several Catholics claim they have benefited from his preaching.

“I am enriched by his charismatic preaching. He is an inspiring preacher,” says Biprocharan Naya, a touring catechist of the Archdiocese of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, the mother diocese of Catholics in Odisha.

Naresh Pradhan, a 35-year-old member of the Padangi parish in Kandhamal district, thanks Father Sabhasundar for his child. “We had no children even after eight years of marriage. We were blessed with a child in 2012 after Father Sabhasundar prayed over my wife and me,” he told Matters India on June 15 over phone.

Father Sabhasundar is also famous as the author of several books that focus on various aspects of Catholic faith.

“His books promote devotion to Mary and saints of the Church. They increase people’s faith in Sacraments,” says Bishop Niranjan Swalsingh of Sambalpur, who has taught theology in Khristo Jyoti Mohavidayloyo, a major seminary in Sambalpur along with Father Sabhasundar.

According to the prelate, the priest’s books promote family values. “He has taken up writing as a way of promoting and strengthening faith among people,” he told Matters India over phone.

Gabriel Ekka, a lay leader, endorses the bishop’s words. “Father Sabhasundar’s books have strengthened the faith in Christ,” says the 55-year-old bank officer and an active member of the charismatic retreat center in Rourkela.

Father Sabhasundar, 52, has written six books in Odia, the state’s official language.

They are “Life of St. John Mary Vianney” (2003), “The Apparition of Mother Mary (2004), “Our Faith, Our Tradition” (2010), “Stars of our Hope: The life of 25 Saints” (2013), “Family: The place of growing in Holiness” (2016) and “Behold here is your Mother” (2019).

His doctoral thesis was “Hindu Marriage Ritual: In the context of the theology of religion” that he published as an English book in 2009.

Father Sabhasundar has been teaching in seminaries since 1997. Currently, he is a resident professor in the Sambalpur seminary and visiting professor St. Albert’s College in Ranchi, capital of neighboring Jharkhand state, and St. John Paul II Pontifical Institute, Changanacherry in Kerala, southern India.

“I teach the subjects such as pastoral counseling, theology of marriage and family, the liturgy of hours and popular religions,” he said.

Referring to recent criticism about priestly formation, Father Sabhasundar says those responsible for training future priests should ensure the student gain confidence to face future worries and anxieties. “There should not be formed with fear. Seminaries should have a friendly atmosphere so that the students can become mature human beings.”

Although he not spent time as a parish priest, he was involved other pastoral activities such as visiting families in several parishes in Odisha and Kerala and listening to people’s joys and sorrows.

Sabhasundar was born on September 2, 1968, at Kutruka village under the Sacred Heart Church, Kattinga, Kandhamal. He is the second in four children of Albert and Cecily.

He did his schooling in different schools in Kandhamal, the minor seminary in St. Paul’s Regional Seminary, Jatni, philosophy in Moring Star College, Kolkata, and theology in Khristo Jyoti Mohavidyaloyo, Sambalpur.

He was ordained a priest on May 5, 1995.

He has a doctorate in sacred theology from the Pontifical Lateran University, Rome.

Father Sabhasundar’s other hobbies are drama, music and dance.

He is the first person in the archdiocese to study in classical music and to play violin in All India Radio station, Sambalpur.