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GUWAHATI, May 13

Journey of the Heart: Fr. Vattathara Reflects on Faith, Leadership and Graceful Ageing

14 May 2026

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News reported by: Fr C M Paul SDB

Journey of the Heart: A River of Grace, Faith and Life, the latest book by noted Salesian priest and educator Fr. V. M. Thomas Vattathara, was released on 13 May by Archbishop John Moolachira. Published by Don Bosco Communications, the 230-page volume presents a contemplative exploration of faith, leadership, ageing, and spiritual renewal.

Structured into 36 chapters, the book offers reflective meditations rather than a conventional autobiography. Drawing from personal experiences, Scripture, and spiritual insight, Fr. Vattathara portrays life as a river “sometimes calm, sometimes turbulent,” yet always moving toward “the Infinite Ocean of God.”

Widely recognised as the founder of the Don Bosco Institute and Chancellor of Assam Don Bosco University, Fr. Vattathara has played a significant role in education and youth empowerment in Northeast India. Over the years, he has served as Provincial of the Salesian Province of Guwahati and President of the Conference of Religious India, representing thousands of religious men and women across the country.

For nearly two decades, he also served as a trainer at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, mentoring generations of Indian civil servants in leadership, ethics, and public service.

In the Preface, Fr. Vattathara reflects on ageing not as decline but as “a sacred ripening,” where vocation matures into wisdom and ministry evolves into a ministry of presence. He calls priests and religious to become “signs of transcendence in a culture of distraction, bearers of hope in times of fear, and witnesses to the eternal amidst the fleeting.”

The Foreword, written by Salesian priest Fr. Joe Mannath, highlights the author’s humility and deep spirituality. Mannath notes that the book focuses less on accomplishments and more on the “Invisible Presence” guiding them. While acknowledging Fr. Vattathara’s pioneering work for youth empowerment in Assam, he emphasises that the central protagonist of the narrative is God’s providence.

Themes of surrender, trust, and compassionate leadership recur throughout the work. “Authentic leadership does not begin with strategy, but with surrender,” Fr. Vattathara writes, urging leaders to see people not merely as responsibilities, but as persons to be loved. In one of the book’s striking images, the Amazon River pouring freshness into the Atlantic becomes a metaphor for how a single life lived with integrity can renew society.

The book also offers poignant reflections on ageing and spirituality. “The fire remains, but it now seeks to warm more than to blaze,” the author observes, presenting later life as a period of refinement in which memory deepens into wisdom, suffering becomes compassion, and life itself turns into prayer.