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What a Friend We Have in Jesus!

2011-11-01T09:02:00.004+05:30

A little something from my life this week that I felt inspired to share in this blog:

Roshan is now on an official trip to Amsterdam, and two days after he left, my son Daniel came down with fever and a few episodes of vomiting. The vomiting subsided soon, and I continued paracetamol for the fever. My prayer during the fever was that Jesus will be with him, comfort him and enlighten me to take care of him the right way. I didn’t pray that the fever would go away altogether – because, as we know, these sicknesses are all part of our life. He is there to comfort us, and that’s all we need; and I knew He will bring healing at the right time.

But at night, Daniel’s temperature didn’t come down much with the paracetamol – so I stayed up in bed all night, constantly feeling his hot forehead and giving him wet sponges to cool him down till it was time for the next dose. When it was time for a dose of Calpol around 4am, I was feeling very sleepy and tired – so I told Jesus:
‘OK - with this dose, you HAVE TO bring the temperature down. I am too tired to sit up now. I am going to give him the medicine, and go right to sleep – won’t even feel his temperature till I wake up next – so you BETTER do this.’ :)

And I gave Daniel the Calpol, making the sign of the cross on the forehead, and went to sleep - just like I had told Jesus. I could fall asleep easily because I really trusted He would do what I asked for. I woke up after 2 hours, and felt his forehead – it was completely cool, and I smiled to myself and said ‘thank you!’.

The next day, after Daniel was all better, I told Rachel (11 yrs) and Daniel (7 yrs) exactly what I had told Jesus, and they were surprised and amused. They giggled and laughed, and said ‘Can’t believe you talked to Jesus like that!’

We had a beautiful conversation on this then – and that’s what I wanted to share, to show how the Holy Spirit guided my words, so that the children were able to relate to the situation, and understand how Jesus can truly be our friend:

They said,
‘You must be joking – did you really say that? - In that tone, ‘BETTER do it…’ and ‘HAVE TO’..?’
‘Isn’t that quite rude, to talk to Jesus like that..?’
‘Why didn’t you speak politely?’ :)

I told them : I do have a DEEP love and respect and reverence for Jesus, but at the same time, I have a wonderful friendship with Him also – so I feel free to talk like that to Him. And I’m sure He enjoys that too, - see how readily he answered my request? Rather than just seeing Him as a God seated up in the heaven, Jesus really longs to be part of our lives, and He is waiting for us to share our everyday things with Him . And when we start doing that, we will thoroughly enjoy it and our friendship becomes even stronger…. We can go to Him and talk to Him just as we are – happy, sad, angry, sleepy – whatever.

And I told them that they could also train themselves to talk to Jesus everyday, so they would also come to enjoy this wonderful relationship.

Just a few hours before that Rachel had come to me all upset and almost in tears, saying how difficult she was finding it to learn a Hindi story that she had to… So connecting it with this, I told her: instead of just asking Jesus to help you learn it, talk to Him about it – just like you talked to me; and He will give you His words of comfort, and enlighten your mind as to how to handle it.

I could see that the children were really able to understand what I said, and were able to get an idea about the friendship I was talking about.

At the end of it, Daniel giggled again, saying, ‘Amme, but next time you talk to Jesus, speak just a bit more nicely’ !! :)

I am reminded of the song,
‘What a friend we have in Jesus,
all our sins and griefs to bear
What a privilege to carry
everything to God in prayer!’

And I realized how important it is to keep talking to our children about Jesus and help them befriend Him, so they can enjoy His presence to the fullest in their little lives - let's help them discover their True Friend!

Thank you, Jesus!
Lucy

saint

2011-10-10T19:38:00.002+05:30

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. - 1 Peter 2:9

Here is a question - What are the first thoughts that come to your mind when you hear the word Saint ? Here are the thoughts that come to my mind - an exemplary model of Christian virtue, a wonder worker , a person who possesses selflessness and ascetic qualities in his/her character.I am also reminded of all the martyrs,mystics and all those super crazy followers of Christ who have changed the face of the Church and the world in general.

With all these thoughts also comes a realization - I can probably never become like them.When I compare there lives with mine,I realize the difference is just huge...extraordinarily huge.I believe all of you too share my feelings...but yet we know God has called all of us to be saints.One of the biggest roadblocks to sainthood is the desire to do big things for the Lord.Don't get me wrong,its an awesome desire but the fact in this very mundane life of ours with its cares and worries most of us may not achieve great things for the Lord.So,what shall we do ? Why don't we do this - just do small things for the Lord or as St.Therese said "do small things with great love". Dearly beloved today,lets find God in the mundane.Rather than aiming for really huge things,lets find satisfaction and fulfillment in the things we do daily.Those boring meetings,the tough commute to work,the nosey colleagues - lets find Christ in all these and more.Lets aim to be a saint rather than a Saint.Maybe a saint with a small 's' is not a bad idea after-all.

Review of a movie poster - ‘Lifeu Ishtene’

2011-10-10T14:32:00.000+05:30

This is not a critical review of a movie but rather of a movie poster which in itself gave me so much to write about!

A new Kannada movie released this week called ‘Lifeu Ishtene’ ….. Walking through the streets of Koramanagala (in Bangalore) I could see many posters of this movie stuck at various vantage points and anonymous walls. Kannada movies may have lost their past glory but the current makers are not willing to concede the same and with all pomp and glory promote it as if this is the next Oscar winning movie nevertheless two catch phrases on this movie poster caught my attention. One goes this way ‘Food, Clothes & Girlfriends’ and other says ‘Move on Sucker’. And the synopsis of this movie on one of the review site is this – “Lifu Ishtene is a romantic comedy about how young boys express their love to so many girls. True love happens again and again to them.”

I pity on the movie watchers who are fed with such total crap in the name of entertainment. Having one or two good songs doesn’t make it worth a watch and what really hurts the society is the message that is hardwired into the hearts and minds of people through such movies. A message of desperation, which says that it is perfectly fine to be disloyal to people whom you love in your life for the sake of the other – and as they say that’s how you will experience ‘true love again and again’.

What is true love? And if it’s really true how we can have more truer one in some one else? So what do we do if we really find the true one; turn to the truer one then the truthest one? Just like those words don’t exist so too this rubbish concept. True love is true and that’s it. It works very well in movies since the hero supposedly locks down finally to the girl who is supposedly his real true love (while other guinea pigs are lost in various intervals of the movie) and they lived happily ever after. Oh did they? We don’t know? They don’t make many movies for that phase which involves sacrifices and adjustments… which involves the trueness of love in which self denial is a must… which involves the trueness of sacrifice for your true love ( if you could relate to what Jack did in movie Titanic…he layed down his life for his only beloved one).
Now coming back to the phrase itself – ‘Food, Clothes & Girlfriends’, what an apathy that we have reached this level of cheap thinking. If you don’t find it cheap or close to it then I guess you have been already silently brainwashed. Food and Clothes are commodities which can be bought from our nearby super market at our own will with our own money. So when did they start selling girlfriends as commodities and when did it become a necessity for boys that which we cant live without? Now to make this more insane will any forward looking political party put it in their electoral manifesto – Roti, kapdaa or ladkiya? Gosh – where are we heading? Not only such brainwashings attract people but also entice people to look for the same on the streets and may be in every women they see….Don’t blame the eve teasers – we live in an hypocritical society where eve teasing done by an hero is perfectly acceptable since she is supposedly going to fall in love with him anyway – wah! The end just justified the means ….

Now we need to ask ‘is this all to life? Lifeu Ishtena? (in Kannada – and yes that’s the movie title!!!) ….Absolutely No! Life is much more than these.....may be as I see life is in finding one’s true love even at the cost of losing one’s own life. And some find it totally in God and some in their spouse or in a good friend and in poor & so on…but certainly if we can’t find it in one I doubt we will ever find it in many…. .

Throwing Stones

2011-09-26T18:45:00.002+05:30

The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. - Numbers 14:18

First a little bit about me - I follow rules,I mean I don't jump lanes while driving, I don't overtake from the left etc. etc.So,when other people do not follow the rules and I have to suffer because of that, I get majorly pissed-off.

So,here I was last Saturday for my confession.I was the third person in the queue of penitents.The first person had just finished his confession and second person was about to take his place.I was busy recalling my transgressions and asking Lord for mercy and then suddenly it happened. A guy just barged into the queue just in front of me and as expected I went hysterical (but silently ).As it was a house of prayer I could not shout or push the guy out of the line.I got really angry and for some reason all I wanted to do was throw a stone at him.As a true engineer, I began to mentally calculate the correct force,the correct trajectory,the correct spin so that my projectile found its intended target - his head .As I was soaking up to the rage inside me,suddenly this thought hit me - What if Christ was like me ? I mean what if every time we did something wrong(which is most of the times) He throws a stone at us ? Can u imagine such a situation ? Boy,it would be raining stones left,right and center.We would be surrounded by stones and funny looking people with bumps on their head.

Dearly beloved,isn't it awesome that Christ is not like me ? Isn't it great that He is merciful and slow to anger.Week after week I commit the same sins and crucify Him again & again....but still every week when I show up for my confessions I know that in His goodness and mercy He shall wipe my slate clean.I do not know what kinda personal sins you are struggling with today,but know this - He is still in the business of forgiving and restoring. After-all,He was pierced for our transgressions and wounded for our iniquities.

Fall in love with JC today !!!

Musings

2011-09-20T09:02:00.001+05:30

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ living in me - Galatians 2:20

The verse mentioned above is one of my favorites from the Good Book.Since coming to Catholic revival I have always believed that this verse should be the motto of my life, that I should die and Christ should live in me.But even though I would like to say that it is happening in my life,the truth of the matter is that many a times(make it almost all the times ) it is Christ who dies in my life and not me.Here are a few examples from my daily life :

Christ says Rely on Me..............I prefer relying on myself.

Christ says hand me your burdens...............I prefer carrying them myself until my back breaks

Christ says be holy................I prefer being happy.

Christ says endure all temptations.............I say well if it makes me happy I will do it.

Christ says humble yourself..............but all I seek is honor.

Christ wants me to invest in people and relationships............but before investing I want to know about the ROI.

Well,I can go on and on with the list but I think you get the drift.Dearly beloved,the fact is that every minute of our lives we have a choice to make - either to listen to Christ or to the flesh.If you are on the same boat as me, just take a minute now to reflect on the choices that you make in your day to day lives and ask God for the grace to help you(and me) make the right choices most of the times (make it all the times ).

Janta hai mera baap kuan hai – Lokpal!

2011-09-15T12:54:00.001+05:30

Everybody in India now-a-days wants to be ‘Anna’ and as they say ‘I am Anna’. Almost everyone who appears in the television or in the print media to be more precise. So my first question is this – is the entire nation behind Anna Hazare? I can’t say for sure if the entire nation is behind him since even my visibility is as far as the television is or the newspapers are or my own friend’s circles or office colleagues and not more than that. Well lets take my visibility aside and for a while assume that the televisions and newspaper are echoing the voice of the people – and the entire nation as they say are with ‘Anna’ in his fight against corruption. So what’s the big deal about this we can ask – can’t an ex-army man exercise his freedom to fight corruption which our country is struggling against from time immemorial. Before answering this question we should ask ourselves are we struggling with corruption; a stupid question to even ask in the heat of all this I suppose but honestly are we suffering and groaning about it or have we accepted corruption as part and parcel of the fabric of the nation. If we have accepted it like the standard ‘Chaltha Hai’ kind of attitude then that’s more the root of the problem and that’s were our campaign must be directed towards. A strong lokpal is good but then it still doesn’t solve the root problem many ways since these very people will make this lokpal’s ‘Chaltha Hai’ very soon or may be like in a typical bollywood dialogue they will say– “Janta hai mera baap kuan hai (Do you know who my dad is?)– Lokpal! ‘

Law of the land can keep only a certain check on the proceedings. We have already certain laws in place to curb corruption yet the many who are expected to minimum follow it are accused of overlooking it and we have the ex chief justice of the nation, chief minister of a state, many bureaucrats as living witnesses to this reality. Certainly a stronger law on paper (Ethics) is needed but what we really need this hour is a clearer law written in the heart of the people (Ethos). This Ethos is needed at every walk of life and at every level.

As you read this – if you are employed , ask yourselves if you have shown fake rent receipts to save some tax – then you are corrupt on the first place! If you have got a land or a certificate or anything from any government office by bribing 100 or 200 INR or higher to any official or third party then you are corrupt! If you have violated the traffic rules and have paid 100 INR to be let off by the police since you had to rush in to go to the Temple or Church or Mosque to pray - then you are also corrupt and even God cant deny it ! So as per Jan Lokpal what shall we do with the corrupt – minimum 5 years or life imprisonment? I think these must be first applied to all those who are sitting and calling the politicians corrupt no doubt most are but how can you point to the dirt in some one ‘s eye when you have a big log in yours? And as a nation we need to ask these questions ourselves how corrupt are we and are we ready to take on ourselves this big dictorial and almost larger than life Jan Lokpal law.

I don’t know if which Lokpal will come – Lokpal of the people’s representatives or the Jan Lokpal of the so called people’s representatives but Lokpal or Jan Lokpal – we need to build a generation which writes this law of integrity on to their hearts. How will the coming generation learn it until the present generation teaches it? How can we teach it if we don’t practice it? How can we practice it if we don’t believe that we can do it? Believe yourselves; don’t be in hurry to get things done for yourselves, don’t encourage the corrupt, and resist them with your patience. A patient man’s curry is far better than the fury of the impatient!

Source : http://www.togglefree.blogspot.com/

This is truly what I need

2011-07-21T12:41:00.000+05:30

Lord, much more than profound wisdom and great understanding, I desire a heart that is pure, lowly and contrite. This is truly what I need.

F.R.I.E.N.D.S

2011-07-21T00:13:00.001+05:30

They couldn't bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, so they dug a hole through the roof above his head. Then they lowered the man on his mat, right down in front of Jesus - Mark 2:4

I have some great friends......no make that awesome friends.Friends who have stuck on with me for years.Friends that I can bank upon to stand by me anytime of the day or night.Friends who would bend over backwards to save my skin(this happens a lot).Friends who stimulate me intellectually and with whom I share common interests.Over the years God has given me the grace to befriend some really smart n fun people and I thank God for that.I am sure it is the same for all of you too. Isn't friendship really a great gift from God ?

In the Bible there is this story about remarkable friendship,its the story about the crippled man and his four friends.We probably have heard this story a zillion times,but still its a good reminder as to how we can have a radical effect on our friends' life.Yes, 'R-A-D-I-C-A-L' is the correct word to describe this kind of friendship.What other word can describe their intrepidity in breaking open a roof so that Jesus could heal their friend.And Jesus heals the crippled,not because of his(the cripple's) faith but because of his friends' faith.So,today take a moment to think about all your friends and family-members who need Jesus in their lives.I am sure there are many people in your lives who need the healing(not just physical) touch of the Savior.What are you doing radically different to bring Jesus into their lives ? Are you even doing something ? Pray,ponder and do something....something radical.

Break open some roofs today.

Irish Wristwatch

2011-05-25T21:19:00.001+05:30

This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham - Mathew 1:1

Irish Wristwatch - Try saying this phrase ten times as fast as you can !!

Tough,eh ? You see this is a tongue-twister,one of the many words in the English language that you can not say without sounding like an idiot. Tongue-twisters usually rely on rapid alternation between similar but distinct phonemes , unfamiliar constructs in loanwords, or other features of a spoken language in order to be difficult to articulate.So,why am I writing about tongue-twisters today ? It so happened that the other day I was reading the genealogy of Jesus in the Gospel of Mathew (I rarely read this part of the Gospel,I think its the same for you guys too) and was confounded by the tongue twisting names of the people mentioned in it.Sample this - Zerubbabel or try saying this name - Jehoshaphat or this - Shealtiel.......better still try saying all the three names together one after the other.Tough,isn't it ? As I was struggling through these unpronounceable names I came upon another familiar and a rather easy to pronounce name - Rahab (Mathew 1:5)

If you haven't heard about Rahab,then read the Book of Joshua.According to it, Rahab was a woman who lived in Jericho in the Promised Land and assisted the Israelites in capturing the city. Nearly all English translations of Joshua describe her as a harlot or prostitute.Yeah you read it right - a prostitute.A prostitute who decided to do the will of God in faith.And how did God reward her ? Well,she is the great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great..........................great grandmother of Jesus.In other words,Jesus came through her.Dearly beloved,many times we have to make a choice - between God and the world.My advice - Be smart,make the right choice.I know it is tough but it is the right thing to do.And once you have made the right choice ,one-day you'll see Jesus coming through you to the people around you.Try it.

Be a man/woman after God's heart today !!!

The Bookshop

2011-05-19T10:40:00.003+05:30

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. - Genesis 1:27

A few week back I was at Crosswords near Brigade Road.It is one of my favorite places in Bangalore.Why ? Two reasons - books and air-conditioning PERFECT.I can take my own sweet time to go through the various titles,read them,review them and finally decide not to buy them .All this in the midst of perfect air-conditioning.So,I simply love that place.As I said - PERFECT.I have been a regular at this shop since the day I have landed in B'lore,and have been lately noticing the popularity of their self-help books section.That part of the shop always seems to be crowded with people.In this section you'll find books that claim to give you that perfect body,perfect mind,perfect family and all.There are books to help you become a better husband,a better father,to help you become better at your job,better in sex,better at managing finances etc.I even found a book which claimed that the reader can become rich only by thinking and acting like he/she is already rich.

Here is the thing,I find self-help books to be extremely pedestrian and stupid.Now,don't get me wrong,its a good thing to try and improve oneself.But dude, becoming rich by thinking and acting like you are already one,will lead to only one thing - BANKRUPTCY .All of the self-help books work on this simple principal - 'You are not good enough,and that's why you should improve yourself". Contrast this with what God our Father says in the Bible,"you were made in My image" In this world we are constantly bombarded by sights and sounds that reiterate the notion that we are not good enough.Dearly beloved,whenever you catch yourself believing in this very big lie,do take a moment to remind yourself about what God thinks of you.And if you really do need a self -help book - read the Bible.Those self-help books only claim to help you succeed in this world but the Bible will teach you how to succeed in this world and the next.

Seize your inheritance in the Lord today !

Jo dar gaya woh mar gaya

2011-04-27T21:55:00.003+05:30

Those of us who have grown up on Indian television,would be very familiar with the consumer electronics brand - Onida and their popular ad-theme from the 80s and 90s featuring the devil complete with horns and tail.Here is the thing,when I was a little kid I found this Onida devil really scary.I always thought that this devil resided inside my TV,and whenever this particular advertisement came on the TV I would quickly close my eyes and ears and hide behind the couch.No matter how much my parents tried to pacify me or try to explain the science behind the television,I wouldn't budge from my hideout until the advertisement was over.According to my puny little brain the devil lived inside that TV.Isn't fear a funny thing ?

We all have our fears and on our own we seldom succeed in making them go.I'll be really surprised to find a man/woman who has been fear-free throughout his/her lives.And fear seems a natural human response when threatened.But what is God's view of fear ? Again and again the Bible tells us - do not be afraid,fear not,be courageous etc. In-spite of knowing all these verses when faced with a difficulty our first response is to get scared and take flight.But, yet God expects us not to loose our cool and stand our ground.

If you are afflicted with this disease called fear,here is a good opportunity to come clean.We have just celebrated Easter.Christ is risen.Indeed,He is risen.Through Easter,He has conquered death - the final frontier.This same Risen Christ promises us,that He shall never leave us nor forsake us.He is on our side,protecting us,caring for us and relieving our fears.So,call upon the living God today and ask him to absorb all your fears.Being the good Father,He'll definitely do it.Dearly beloved know this - when we are living in Christ's love and power nothing from this world can hurt us.So be of good cheer and do not fear.

Take a chill-pill today !!

(for the sake of re-living the nostalgia u can watch the old Onida commercial here)

The Worst Easter Ever

2011-04-25T21:14:00.001+05:30

And as they were afraid, and bowed down [their] faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? - Luke 24:5

Consider the scenario ,you decide to spend the Easter Triduum in Bangalore,alone away from your family.On Easter eve you decide to go to one of the more famous Churches in the city where you have never been before,so instead of taking your own vehicle you hire a rickshaw.Traversing through the roads of B'lore your rickshaw gets a flat tire in the middle of nowhere.Finding no other means of transport you decide to walk to the church and then it starts to rain...heavy rains and you don't have an umbrella.As you are unsuccessfully trying to keep yourself dry you realize it is just 20 minutes to the start of the Easter vigil, there are only few rickshaws in sight all of them occupied by the way and the rain does not show any sign of letting up.Finally one rickshaw-walla decides to stop for you,you enter the rickshaw and realize its totally flooded and wet on the inside,anyways you decide to carry on reach the church,rush in only to find the whole place full of people,not even a single free seat . Welcome to my world.

As I was standing there in the church angry and wet,the proceedings of the night started.I was too irritated to even listen to what was happening in the Church and suddenly the choir started singing "Oh give thanks to the Lord for He is good" .I thought to myself 'what an irony, am I expected to thank God in the middle of all this ? ' . But as they were singing I realized this is not irony...this is a pretty natural and expected behavior from us Christians - To praise and thank the Lord under all circumstances.Through Christ's death and resurrection we are a new creation.Because of His resurrection we have hope in the middle of hopelessness,light in the middle of darkness and life in the middle of death.The Resurrection is proof that God,our father,adores us and is for us.And when He is for us there is only room for thanks and praise not fear and complain.This was my Easter Revelation for 2011.

Dearly beloved,Christ has risen from the dead.....let us also find the strength in Him to rise up from our graves

TGIF

2011-04-21T07:42:00.001+05:30

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was on him; and with his stripes we are healed - Isaiah 53:5

Yesterday one of my colleague was asking me as to where I was planning to celebrate Good Friday.Whether I was going up-North to be with my parents or down-South to be with my extended family.As I was about to answer him,I noticed something..he used the phrase celebrate Good Friday.I thought as to who on earth celebrates Good Friday ? Yes,we may observe Good Friday,we may contemplate Good Friday.....but we never really celebrate Good Friday...Do we ? Realizing his apparent mistake,I was about to correct him,I was about to give him some gyaan in theology,as to how Good Friday is a solemn reminder of the crucifixion of Christ,how on this day we Christians contemplate the passion of Christ etc.But before I could utter a word of correction to him another thought came to my mind.....after-all why is this day called 'Good Friday' ? Why not Lousy Friday,Awful Friday or maybe just 'The Friday' or something like that....why add the adjective 'Good' ? Its then that this personalized verse from Isaiah came to me,"But He was wounded for MY transgressions, He was bruised for MY iniquities: MY chastisement was on Him; and with His stripes I am healed".I realized that He died to save me from the wrath of God.I was like a lost sheep....a stupid lost sheep who didn't even realize that it was lost.Happily unaware of my own lassitude I was going my own way,not caring about Him or the world.Yet He chose to endure humiliation,scourging and the Cross for me.Why ? Because He has loved me....He has loved me with a love which is beyond explanation and understanding.This 'Love' is what makes this Friday 'Good'.In-fact it is not just a 'Good Friday' it is the 'Best Friday' as far as schmucks like me are concerned .And that's why I realized that my colleague was not all that wrong to use the phrase "celebrate Good Friday" and therefore chose not to correct him.After-all,if it is good then shouldn't we celebrate it ?

Dearly beloved this Friday is worth a celebration.God's passionate love for us is what makes it worth celebrating.This Friday as you are contemplating the Passion of Christ...also do contemplate the awesome love of God which made this passion possible in the first place.Realize this,we should have been on that cross,not Him.Yet , He chose to endure every pain for just one thing...LOVE .

He died for us......shall we now start living for Him ?

The Thief

2011-04-19T08:11:00.002+05:30

And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be
with me in paradise - Luke 23:43

Chances are that you have never heard of Václav Klaus.No worries,not
many knew him outside his country the Czech Republic until last
week.Václav Klaus is the the president of the Czech Republic, and he
was caught stealing a pen during a large news conference in Chile with
the Chilean President Sebastian Pinera. Here is what happened - the
two leaders were celebrating the signing of a new transportation
agreement.At the ceremony, Mr Klaus nimbly took out the pen embedded
with Chilean lapis lazuli stones from a pen box kept in front of him
and slipped it into his pocket. To cover his tracks, he then shut the
antique pen box before smiling for the camera.Needless to say this
gaffe of his was caught on camera and promptly made an appearance on
youtube,where the video went viral and now Mr.Klaus finds himself at
the receiving end of ridicule and mockery at the hands of his
countrymen and the world at large.You can watch the video here

Mr Klaus got it all wrong and in all probability the tag of thief will
stick to him for the rest of His life.But,in this post I want to
highlight the life of another thief who according to the Bible got it
right at the fag end .Tradition tells us that his name was Dismas.We
also know him as the good thief crucified along with Christ.Boy,did He
get it right ? Many of us might have started this Lent with high
hopes,with a desire to change ourselves for good, hoping that this
Lent will be different from the previous Lents.But as time progressed
we might have realized that nothing much is changing and eventually
might have fallen victims to our own nonspiritual inertia.And now we
find ourselves in the final week of Lent.If like me , you too are
wondering what should be done in this Holy week...then like Dismas
looking at the crucified Christ and saying ,"Remember me when You come
into Your kingdom" will be a good starting point.Here was a thief who
at the fag end of his life comes face to face with the Son of
God,realizes his own frailty and gets it right with God.And how did
Christ respond ? Dearly beloved,Christ didn't even utter a word about
forgiveness of his sins or anything,but just said,"Thou shalt be with
me in paradise" and that's the beauty of God's love.So,this holy week
just turn to Him with humility and penitence,leave aside your past
transgressions and get it right with God,our father.And His promise
for an honest penitent is still the same - "Thou shalt be with me in
paradise"

Become Holy this Holy Week

Mountain Climbing

2011-04-12T16:32:00.002+05:30

I can do all things through HIM who strengthens me - Philippians 4:13
Last month our professionals prayer group went for an outing in lieu of our 5th anniversary to a place called Savandurga.It is a famous hill on the outskirts of B'lore and one of the largest monolith hills in the world. The hill rises to 1226 m above mean sea level and forms a part of the Deccan plateau.The plan was to reach the base of the mountain by 10 AM and have a time of bonding while climbing up and come down by 12:30 PM.We hired a mini-bus and reached the base of the mountain by 10 AM.The 1st reaction of most of us on seeing the mountain was 'Oh my God...how on earth are we supposed to climb a mountain this high ? '..to those of us who are quantitatively challenged - 1226 mts is a huge distance its 1.26 kms - and that too - UP,against gravity.With an average inclination of 45 degrees and in some places 60 degrees the task becomes even more tough for a bunch of out-of-shape techies like us.But anyways we started. ..huffing, puffing,with a prayer on our lips and with lots of mutual encouragement most of us were more than half the way up by 11:30 AM.We had come down after that because of the time constraints.But hey,we made more than half of it,not bad for a bunch of professionals whose only source of physical activity is the finger tapping while using a computer-keyboard.(anyways,I have decided to join a gym ASAP )

This brings me to an important point,most of us when faced with a big problem in life have a similar reaction i.e. 'Oh my God,How on earth am I supposed to solve this problem ? ' We get tensed,sometimes bitter.The answer to this question ironically lies in the question itself => 'my God'. Dearly beloved,we serve a God who takes a personal interest in our lives.Our successes,our failures and indeed our problems nothing escapes His attention,He is interested...very interested in every little detail of our lives.Before you ever reach the mountain(problem) in your life He already has a plan for you...a plan to help your overcome your mountain(problem).As humans the first reaction of most of us is to find a way around(by-pass) our problems, but God our father expects us to face the problem head on with courage.And this courage to take on our problems does not come from a confidence in our own abilities but from a confidence in an all-powerful almighty God.Over the years,God has taught me this one thing - 'I'll only face two kinds of problems in my life ever, the first kind is the one which by my God's grace I can solve and the second which I just can't solve.The first kind of problem I go ahead with a prayer and try to solve,the second I let GO and let GOD(both ways I win )".And that's my prayer for us today,that we find the grace of God to solve the pressing problems in our lives and if not,let's find the courage and the faith to let go and let GOD deal with those.Let our hearts never be troubled again.

Be a brave-heart in the Lord today

Miracles

2011-04-12T12:25:00.001+05:30

When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out! " - John 11:43

mir·a·cle - A highly improbable or extraordinary event, development, or accomplishment

When I was a kid believing in miracles was easy.I believed from the bottom of my heart that miracles happened and that God is a God of miracles.My prayers and petitions,no matter how fantastic they were,had a kind of cocky self-assurance that God can and God will.And God did.Then something happened.I grew up.I became more rational.I became more cerebral.I became more analytical.I never lost my faith.I just started putting an asterisk '*' to my more extravagant prayer requests.So,whenever I was asked to pray for something or some cause which seemed to be highly improbable and requiring of a miracle,my prayer would be something like this - Lord please do this for me *
* now I know Lord this thing I ask for is really far fetched and You could be busy with other important things too,so if possible do it,if not then no hard feelings

I don't know how many of you suffer from the above mentioned emotion in prayer.I believe most of you.C'mon now be honest with yourselves,how many times when supposed to pray for what seemed to be an impossible cause in your mind have you used the word 'May Your will be done' not because you really believe in these words but because you want to give a leeway to God.Some elbow room for God,so that He doesn't look bad.Dearly beloved there is news for you and me - "God is still in the business of doing miracles".That was one of the messages from this Sunday's gospel reading.Lazarus raised from the dead.Our puny little brains can't comprehend the capabilities of God our father.He is the one who parted the Red Sea,He is the one who produced manna in the desert,He is the one who fed the multitudes,He is the one who rose from the dead.So,don't limit God in your prayers.From now on when you pray,pray with a renewed assurance and understanding that He is infinitely able.No petition or request is too big for Him.And yeah,He is never too busy for you

Be audacious in the Lord today.

There is something about Mary

2011-04-12T12:23:00.003+05:30

"And the angel came in to her, and said, Hail, thou favored one! the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou amongst women" - Luke 1:28

Last week's long weekend afforded me and my roomies a much needed vacation in the beach town of Pondicherry. One of the days I woke up a little early and went to the beach,which was just across the resort we were staying in.It was around 5:45 AM,there was a cold morning breeze,the surf was up and the sun was rising.It was a sight to behold and I felt like praying & thanking the Lord.I was struggling to find words for my prayer and ended up saying the 'Hail Mary'.Slowly,intently and with all the concentration I could muster I said the words of this wonderful prayer.The surroundings made it all the more surreal.It was Bliss with a capital 'B'.

But,why pray to Mary ? All of you must be aware of the big theological debate happening between us Catholic and our Protestant brothers(and sisters) about Mary,Her role in salvation,Her veneration etc. But this post is not about the theology,(If u want some cool Marian theology in plain English click here and alsohere ) its about the relationship.So,why do we end up calling up Mary all the time ? I believe,its that 'mother thing'.I mean generally Mom's are easier to get to,they are more compassionate and tend to have a lot of patience.(Note : Dad's too possess these ,but Mom's tend to possess these virtues in much larger quantities ) They don't waste time while responding to requests and prepare awesome chicken curry (OK,the chicken curry part was about my biological Mum Lent-effect ) But most importantly Mother Mary is 'the' perfect example of surrendering oneself to the will of God.Her 'YES' in Luke 1:38 is the perfect example of how our own response to God,our Father,should be.Turn to Her and she'll turn you towards Her Son.One of the coolest advices,for our walk in Christ,given in the Scriptures is from our Mom herself i.e. "Do whatever He tells you"(John 2:5) and He tells us - 'Behold Your Mother'(John 19:27)

So,call upon Mommy today(and while you are at it,say one 'Hail Mary' for me too )

Aladdin

2011-04-12T12:21:00.001+05:30

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. - Mathew 6:33

All of you must have read/heard/seen the story of Aladdin and the magic lamp from the Arabian Nights.You guys know the drag poor lad + magic lamp + Genie + 3 wishes + beautiful princess + love + evil magician + final confrontation between good and evil ,finally good wins and everyone goes home happy and satisfied.I remember reading about Aladdin in my 1st or 2nd grade,and the one thing that immediately stuck me was this - Aladdin was a total idiot.I mean think about it,here is a Genie who promises you three wishes and the schmuck Aladin goes on and asks for stuff like a palace,money etc. and before you know his 3 wishes are over.If I were in his place my first wish would have been - "10,000 more wishes" . Why would anyone in his/her right mind want to dry out his number of wishes ? This question confounded me then and it still does.So,for me Aladdin is a low-IQ imbecile.Period.

Fortunately for us,JC*** promises that,"And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do" and He does not put a constraint on the number of things you can ask of Him.It can be anything,you want to get hitched-Ask Him,if you want a new job-Ask Him,if you want more money-Ask Him,if you want a new house,a car anything-Ask Him.He will respond in all probability.But,there is a problem here,these things that I mentioned are just stuff and they can't satisfy you.Yes,they will make you happy for some time but they can't keep you happy.Understand this - prosperity after a point of time is boring.As a case in point - The suicide rate in Switzerland(one of the most prosperous country) is much-much higher than that of Haiti(one of the poorest country).Stuff just can't keep you happy....so what can ?? Only God ! Seek Him and His kingdom.He will satisfy.Dearly beloved,today and the days to follow don't just run after stuff but run after Him.Yes we all need stuff in this life but God our Father knows our needs(Note : Its NEED not GREED) even before we come to Him with our petitions.So,seek Him and Him alone ! He will never fail to satisfy !

Seek the Lord with all your heart today !!!

***JC a.k.a Jesus Christ.We are best friends,so He has allowed me to use His initials 'JC' instead of His full name,how nice of Him

Bangalore JY Program Calendar 2011 ( click on the image)

2011-03-23T11:29:00.000+05:30

Add caption

A questionnaire

2011-03-17T18:54:00.002+05:30

“Even now,” declares the LORD, return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning - Joel 2:12

Dear Saints in the making,

Here's a questionnaire for you,quickly choose one option for each of the questions

1) Its a hot afternoon,you are traveling on a Volvo bus,all the while thanking God for the person who invented air-conditioning, you see an old man approaching your seat.Knowing that there are no free seats available,you:
   A) Immediately get up and make way for the old gentleman.
   B) Look around expecting someone else to do the sacrifice,upon seeing that none of the jerks are getting up you reluctantly make way for the old man.
   C) Pretend to be deaf,dumb,blind,mentally-retarded and in deep meditation all at the same time.

2)You are back from work in the night and sit down for your daily prayer:
   A)You immediately start praying with full vigor forgetting the cares of the world.
   B)You vacillate between your prayer and your cares every 2 minutes,but somehow manage to finish it off.
   C)You immediately start thinking about Muammar Gaddafi and the revolution sweeping across Libya and try to figure out the the effect of these events on the global crude oil prices going forward.Next,you wake up in the morning and rush to work.

3)You miss the deadline of a work assigned to you,you:

   A)Immediately owe up to your mistake resolving never to mess-up again.
   B)Decide to share responsibility between yourself and the rest of your team.
   C)Decide to blame the rest of your team,your computer and Muammar Gaddafi for the mess-up.

4)Upon arriving at the airport you are told that your flight has been delayed by an hour,you:
   A)Thank God for the extra time He has given you for prayer and start praying.
   B)Give an angry look to the ground staff,and begin complaining to God about the aviation industry.
   C)Become a combination of Thor and the Incredible Hulk and make life miserable for yourself and the people around you.

If most of your answers are 'A' ,good for you,you are true blue Jesus Youth ! Congratulations ! Keep it up !

If most of your answers are 'B',you are a wannabe Jesus Youth.Work hard.Keep trying.Don't give up.

If all your answers are 'C',well,then you are piyush Philip.Welcome to my world.God help you(and me).

Dearly beloved,this Lent lets strive to convert all our 'B's & 'C's to 'A's.That's what God our father desires from us.That's what Lent is all about.A radical transformation towards Christ and His church.Let the Lent of 2011 be worth remembering for the rest of our lives,and for good reasons.That's my prayer for us today.

Lenten Reflection
To repent is to adopt God’s viewpoint in place of your own…In itself, far from being sorrowful, it is the most joyful thing in the world, because when you have done it you have adopted the viewpoint of truth itself and you are in fellowship with God

Prayer Requests
1. Pray for the people of Japan,who are affected by one of the worst natural calamity of our times.
2. Pray for the Christians in West Asia.

-- luv n pryrs,
pi.P.

My problem with Ash Wednesday

2011-03-17T18:53:00.000+05:30

Remember that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return - Genesis 3:19

Dear Saints in the making,

So we began our Lenten journey for 2011 last week with Ash Wednesday.Hope you guys are getting holier day by day through His grace.This is a time of exceptional grace.Talking about Ash-Wednesday,I have this strange trepidation towards Ash-Wednesday services since childhood,the reason I never seem to get anything resembling a cross on my forehead.I don't know what the priests have against me,over the years having attended Ash-Wednesday services in different parts of the country I never seem to get a cross on my forehead.It is usually something resembling an amoeba or the map of South America made from ash,but never a cross.And the tragedy is that all my friends and extended family attending the mass with me marked by the same priest get a perfect or a near-perfect cross,but I never seem to get one.(Hope this is not a sign from God ) This Ash-Wednesday was no different,but for a change I got a map of India,still not a cross.On a positive note,a map of India on the forehead is quite patriotic,don't u think

But I still look forward with anticipation to the Ash-Wednesday services,the reason being the words the priest says while marking the foreheads - "Remember that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return". Many times when faced with exceptional hurdles in life we have this natural tendency of asking,"Why God,why are you allowing this to happen ?" Don't we ? Like,why would a loving and kind God allow last weeks earthquake and tsunami in Japan ? It is precisely this question that this verse from Genesis 3:19 answers.It reminds us about our own mortality.It reminds us that,nothing from this life of ours is permanent.Our successes,our failures and indeed our problems all have an expiry date.In short - ALL OF US WILL DIE.Quite profound and true,right ? Dearly beloved,lets be aware that our eternity is not on this earth.This life and all its troubles are merely a preparation for the eternity of peace that Christ promises to all His believers in His church.And it is this belief in eternity that gives us,the followers of Christ,the courage to face this life and all its seemingly never-ending troubles with a cheerful heart.Because,this is not our home.Heaven awaits us.

Be cheerfully optimistic in the Lord today.

Lenten Reflection

How can we complain when He Himself was considered 'as one struck by God and afflicted' ? - St. Therese of Lisieux

Prayer Requests

1. Pray for the people of Japan,who are affected by one of the worst natural calamity of our times.
2. Pray that every Catholic makes a radical turn towards Christ and His church this Lent.

Regards,

pi.P

For Japan we pray!

2011-03-14T11:25:00.000+05:30

Japan needs our prayers. Eathquakes,Tsunami,Volcanic activities, Nuclear fall outs all have shocked this nation at once, big time. A nation so progressive in its technological advancements is on its knees now when it comes to nature's natural responses. It may have built buildings to withstand strong quakes but nothing is full proof and we the human race are always at the mercy of the nature which sustains us and God who created the nature.

These catastrophic incidents remind me how small we are in spite of our so called intelligence, how vulnerable we are in spite of our precautions, how fragile we are in spite of our wisdom and strength, how inhuman we are without God in our life.

God's foolishness ( if that even exists) is far wiser than all the wisdom of the human race. Lets get back to basics lets get back to God.

Prayers for all in Japan. May all the departed soul's rest in peace.

Hail Mary pray for Japan & its people......

Lenten Fasting - from what comes out of our mouth!

2011-03-08T18:18:00.000+05:30

Dear Friends,

At the very outset of this holy season of Lent I thought to share with you about 'Lenten Fasting' that might help us all to benefit from this wonderful and holy season.

Lenten Fasting

On Ash Wednesday, the Christian faithful across the world lift up their faces to be signed with ashes. This sign is meant to remind us both of our mortality and of the promise of new life through repentance. The ashes signal entry into the holy season of Lent, a time of fasting, an opportunity to deprive the body and consequently make room for the spirit.

While fasting from food can be good practice as an act of discipline – and nothing can be achieved without discipline – I challenge each Jesus Youth to consider another view as we journey this Lenten season. It is as important to control what goes into our mouth as it is to control what comes out of our mouth (Mt 15:11). During this lent we would consider fasting from what comes out of our mouth.

There are four areas we might consider in this kind of fasting. The first is fasting from foul language. The air around us is full of it: in movies, in TV shows, in commercials, in song lyrics, in novels and magazine articles, and in everyday conversation. Almost everyone uses it regardless of their age, education, status, etc. Often such foul language from children, youth and adults is meant to signal sophistication and freedom in this modern world. Using foul, dirty language or telling a smutty joke may make you feel like a big shot. But remember what comes out of your mouth tells what is inside your heart. To my mind, all it signals is poverty of vocabulary and small mind and heart. Certainly, foul language has no place in the life of a disciple of Jesus.

The second Lenten practice is to fast from judgments spilling out from our mouth. If not every day, make a sincere effort at least on every Friday of the season, in honour of Jesus’ crucifixion. And so for each Friday of Lent, make no judgments about people: about their motives, their goodness or badness, their social standing, their defects, their clothes, their colour, their jobs, their mistakes, … Just see everyone as God’s children, people for whom Christ died, fellow pilgrims.

Thirdly, fast from verbal negatives that so readily come from our mouths: the put-downs, the jabs that hurt, the insults, the criticism, the condemnations, the sarcasm, the harmful gossip, the rumour that smears, … Again, if it is too much to practice every day of Lent, make it just one day of the week. Preferably Wednesday, as tradition holds that this was the day Judas let the words which betrayed Jesus fall from his mouth.

The fourth Lenten practice is to let the word “no” fall more often from your mouth. After all, our “nos” define our every bit as much as our “yesses”. Let Jesus be our model. When Pilate questioned Jesus, he shook his head no and refused to answer, for he knew Pilate wasn’t really after the truth. He said no to the pain-dulling hyssop offered to him on the cross. He would go all the way for us. Jesus said no to turn stones into bread for he did not come to serve himself. On the other hand, when it came to giving bread to other, to the five thousand, he said yes.

So, let us be like Jesus during this journey of Lent. Say no to lies, cheating, over-consumption, drugs, premarital sex, pornography, … But say yes to truth, words that heal and encourage, to charitable deeds and sharing, to prayer time, to families need for your presence and time, … Say yes to all the six JY pillars. Say yes to Jesus.

May God bless us with a grace filled holy season of Lent.

Fr. Bitaju Puthenpurackal, O.SS.T.

Pastor, JYIT

Superbia

2011-03-07T19:30:00.001+05:30

Dear One's in Christ,

One of the truisms of the Christian journey is that the holier we get, the more sinful we discover we are. This apparent paradox is because the closer we come to God, the more spotlights God shines into our lives revealing the sin hidden in the shadows, much like a ray of sunlight in a room reveals particles of dust and debris that one would never notice otherwise.

The Catholic Church divides sin into two categories: "venial sins", which are relatively minor and can be forgiven through any sacramental or sacraments of the Church (as well as through prayer and acts of charity), and the more severe "grave" or mortal sins. The Seven Deadly Sins, also known as the Capital Vices or Cardinal Sins, is a classification of objectionable vices, that were originally used in early Christian teachings to educate and instruct followers concerning fallen man’s tendency to sin.

They are called capital because all the sins of commission and omission that we commit are said to flow from these seven capital sins.However, each of these may be venial or mortal depending on the specific case. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent” (CCC 1857)

In the Book of Proverbs, it is stated that the Lord specifically regards "six things the Lord hated and the seventh His soul detested." namely:

• A proud look.

• A lying tongue.

• Hands that shed innocent blood.

• A heart that devises wicked plots.

• Feet that is swift to run into mischief.

• A deceitful witness that uttered lies.

• Him that sowed discord among brethren

In the order used by both Pope Gregory and by Dante Alighieri in his epic poem “The Divine Comedy”, the seven deadly sins are as follows:

• luxuria (lechery/lust)

• gula (gluttony)

• avaritia (avarice/greed)

• acedia (acedia/discouragement)

• ira (wrath)

• invidia (envy)

• superbia (pride)

In Colossians 3:9-10 the apostle Paul mentions the "old self" and the "new self" as he writes "Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him." He says that the old self has been put aside. Why would one want to put aside the old self, or old man? We are taught to put aside our old self because it is being corrupted.

That old man who lives only for himself, arrogantly cutting himself loose from his Creator and selfishly closing his eyes to the needs of his neighbor. It is not merely a theological description: every one can readily understand this “old man” because we experience the direct effects of this nature within us, summed up in the seven capital sins: wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy and gluttony.

1.Pride (thought for this week)

He was the most beautiful of all angels. He was referred to as the Day Star, and the son of Dawn. His name itself spoke of his brightness—Lucifer, angel of light. He dreamt of ascending the heavens and raising his throne above that of God's. But he was sent crashing down to the dark recesses of the pit for committing the greatest sin of all: Pride.

That is what pride, described by theologians as the father of all sins, does to us. We end up going down even as we try to go up. It is also the most common of all sins, though strangely enough, most of us don't even realize that we are proud.

Prayer

Oh my God, at this moment I offer all the sins especially in the areas of capital sin PRIDE that I’ve addicted to. I am heartily sorry for having offended You, and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of Heaven and the pains of Hell, but most of all because they offend You, my Lord, Who are all-good and deserving of all my love. I pray that even though temptation comes, help me to stand firm, to avoid the sins. Amen.

Saint Francis of Assisi help us to overcome this sin 'Pride'.

Talking Donkey

2011-02-17T11:14:00.001+05:30

...but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm - Proverbs 1:33

Dear Saints in the making,

Here's a question for you,what would you do if you found yourself in the company of a talking donkey ? I understand that even finding a normal non-talking donkey in B'lore is tough,let alone a talking donkey.In-fact I don't even remember seeing a donkey in B'lore ever (except for people sometimes behaving like donkeys that is,me included).But for a moment lets contemplate this impossible scenario,while you are thinking,here are my thoughts on this,I'll first try to understand what the donkey is saying,then if it has something interesting to say I'll indulge in a conversation with it and when it starts getting boring I'll try to sell the donkey thru eBay, if it is an uninteresting donkey I'll immediately try to sell it thru eBay (I believe there are enough schmucks in this world who would like to buy a talking donkey,interesting or un-interesting) both ways - I'll be rich ha ha ha very rich.... ha ha ha ha ha ha

Jokes apart,in the Bible there was this guy who found himself in the company of a talking donkey,his name was Balaam ( Numbers 22-24 ).He was a very influential diviner who, although aware of the true God YAHWEH, made his services available on a freelance basis.He was commissioned by King Balak of Moab to put a curse on the incoming Israelites (BAD IDEA - U don't mess with JEHOVAH's people.Period.) God warns him but he ignores it and chooses to follow his own plans,finally God makes his pet donkey speak to him and thereby gets his attention.Like Balaam many a times we have this inclination of not listening to God's voice and going our own ways.We do have this little voice inside telling us not to go a particular way,but we choose to ignore it.Dearly beloved,as disciples of God,we really only have one job... to follow God and only God.To do what God wants and only what God wants.To say what God would say and only what God would say. As disciples of God and followers of Christ we ought to listen to that small voice of the Holy Spirit guiding us and warning us when on a wrong path.The question is, - "Are we listening to this small voice,or would God our father have to make a donkey speak in our lives to get our attention ? " People,are we listening ?

Open your hearts to the Holy Spirits promptings today.

THINK THIS OUT 2DAY

God does not command us to live in hair shirts and chains, or to chastise our flesh with scourges, but to love Him above all things and our neighbor as ourselves. - --Saint Charles of Sezze

SAY THIS OUT LOUD 2DAY
My hope is in Christ, who strengthens the weakest by His Divine help. I can do all in Him who strengthens me. His Power is infinite, and if I lean on him, it will be mine. His Wisdom is infinite, and if I look to Him for counsel, I shall not be deceived. His Goodness is infinite, and if my trust is stayed in Him, I shall not be abandoned.

luv n prayers,
Piyush

Steve Jobs and Evangelization

2011-02-03T15:07:00.002+05:30

"He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.." - Mark 16:15

Dear Saints in the making,
"The post below has borrowed heavily from the writings of Eric Sammons "

About a month back the Consumer Electronics Show was held in Las Vegas and the big buzz was for tablet computers. It seems every tech company is jumping on the craze created by Apple’s iPad. What I found fascinating was comparing the sales pitch for these new tablets with the one given by Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs last year when he announced the iPad.
When Jobs was talking about the iPad, he spoke about it being “magical” and how it is a great way to experience the Internet. He gave practical examples of using the iPad and emphasized its ease of use and how fun it is to use.
When the others introduced their tablets, they talked about how they had dual-processors, included so many gigs of memory, and ran the latest Android OS. They reiterated the great tech specs their tablet had compared to the iPad and other tablet devices.
Which do you think is the more effective sales technique? The non-Apple CEOs were selling toothpaste; Steve Jobs was selling white teeth. Instead of focusing on the details of his product, Jobs instead focuses on how his product will change people’s lives.

I think this topic tells us something about how to effectively evangelize.

If you look at the early Church, especially in New Testament times, you see that the first apostles took the “white teeth” approach to evangelizing. They proclaimed that they had seen the risen Lord and that he had transformed their lives. Again and again St. Paul speaks of the transformation his experience with Christ had on his life – and that others can have the same transformation. He did not get into the details of exactly how Christ is God or things of that nature; he spoke of the power of Christ to change lives.
When evangelizing, eventually one will need to discuss the details of the Faith: exactly what the Church teaches and why. But that is not the main thing ; instead as Jesus Youth we must proclaim that Christ has changed our lives and that He can change yours as well. Those who are in most need of Christ will be drawn to our experience and it will lead them to want to know more about this Jesus Christ and His Church that have so radically changed our lives.So today in our workplaces,our homes,our schools and our colleges,let us take the 'white teeth' approach.As Jesus Youth we have been called to demonstrate the life changing power of Christ to the people around us.There are only 4 Gospels in the New Testament,we are the 5th and sadly we could be the only Gospel that some people will ever read.So Saints,rise up to the occasion.Onward Christian Soldiers...........................

Have a spirit-filled day !

Point2Ponder:
Many, many people hereabouts are not becoming Christians for one reason only: there is nobody to make them Christians. -- St. Francis de Xavier

Prayer Intentions:
Pray for Vocations
Pray for all the prayer groups active in and around Bangalore.

Courtesy - Mr.Eric Sammons - http://ericsammons.com/
Composed by - Piyush Philip

Patron Saint of Software Engineers ???

2011-02-02T17:01:00.000+05:30

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled" - Mat 5:6

Dear Saints in the making,

A few months back I was having trouble with the delivery of a piece of software.I was assigned the development of a particular set of code and the way things were going I didn't see the delivery happening on the specified date.I mean 1 woman + 9 months - 1 child possible but 9 women + 1 month - no child,common-sense,eh ? But,its all part of my job...and after many days and nights of slogging I tried to take in some extra help...special help.I thought I'll find the patron saint of software engineers,and ask for his/her intercession.So here I was,googling 'Patron Saint of Software Engineers'....I searched,I searched and then I searched some more...but to no avail.I mean there is St. Isidore of Seville,but he is the 'Patron Saint of the Internet',its too generic,I wanted someone specific and I wanted someone quick.But no such luck,apparently we don't have a 'Patron Saint of Software Engineers' as of now.So I called on my old and trusted friend 'St.Jude Thaddaeus' the 'Patron of Hopeless Cases' and hopeless I was.As expected,I got my inspiration through his intercession and I am happy to say that things went smooth and everything happened with clockwork precision. All God's grace.

This brings me to an important point - aren't all of us supposed to strive for sainthood ? BTW who is a saint ? The dictionary definition - 'person of exceptional holiness' . The goal of all Christians should be to become as holy and perfect as Jesus,our Lord and Saviour.The Masses we attend,the prayer groups we go to,the Confessions we do,the Rosaries we say,all of them have a common purpose - to help us on our road to sainthood.Dearly beloved,this is my challenge for you today - that all of us strive for sainthood.So humble yourself before the Lord and ask for this very special grace.I consider myself to be a work in progress and to tell you the truth I intend to become 'The Patron Saint of Software Engineers'. { NOTE - This position already has a contender - ME,my advice - FIND YOUR OWN NICHE } What's so funny ? The position as you know is vacant I may as well try for it,right ? And yes on our walk we may fall,but always remember this adage,'every saint had a past and every sinner has a future'. So,keep walking ! Hope and pray that you enjoy your road to sainthood.

Have a righteous day in the Lord !

Point2Ponder :

"Ultimately life holds only one tragedy - not to have been a saint." - Charles Péguy

Prayer Intentions:

Holy Father's Prayer Intention(General) - That the family may be respected by all in its identity and that its irreplaceable contribution to all of society be recognized.
Holy Father's Prayer Intention(Mission) - That in the mission territories where the struggle against disease is most urgent, Christian communities may witness to the presence of Christ to those who suffer.
Pray that every Jesus Youth strives for holiness and righteousness.

Written by - Piyush Philip , Bangalore Jesus Youth

Shopping Malls

2011-01-27T14:19:00.000+05:30

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me - 2 Corinthians 12:9

Dear Saints in the making,

Yesterday afternoon I went to Total Mall on the Old-Airport Road.As it was 26th-Jan a public holiday , the place was flooded with shoppers and lots of children.It reminded me of a sermon I had heard long ago in a church (don't really remember whether in a prayer meeting or during mass),which I am internalizing/sharing below. Anyways next time when u r in a mall,just sit down somewhere and watch the children . You will observer parent-children bonding @ three different levels.First,there are the kids who are running ahead of their parents,until they suddenly realize that they are lost among the great multitude of shoppers. Secondly,children who are walking along holding their parents' hand and finally the little ones who are totally exhausted and are resting in their parents’ arms.They are dead tired and their parents are carrying them.In fact many a times the kid is fast asleep on his/her parents' arms.

Those children in the mall are a picture of how we experience God in a deeper and deeper way.First,we’re ambling about not really thinking or caring about God until we royally mess-up and realize that we’re lost and God our Father finds us. Then its level-2 ,we decide to walk along with Him holding His hands allowing Him to help us.We have realized that we can't do it alone,but we assume and presume that we are walking on our own strength.Everything is fine till now,then something goes wrong,something that levels us.A profound feeling of powerlessness . That’s when we realize that we have a strong God.Not just one who redeems or heals ,but a Father who carries us.Now its all about Him !And do you realize this - we can go farther and faster
in His arms than we could ever go on our legs !! So now you ain't powerless anymore.You see this is the point where you are about to taste God’s grace and strength as only week people can,and your TEST will become a TESTimony about a God who's grace is sufficient to carry you through .Maybe you are trying to fulfill your destiny on your own and finding yourself short of your goals .Dearly beloved,this is the time to look up and say,” Dad,carry me”. Because you’re never stronger than when your Dad is carrying you.

Have a boast-worthy day in the Lord !

Point2Ponder

It's never too late to be what you might have been. - George Eliot

Prayer Intentions:

Pray for vocations
Pray for all the priests n nuns in Bangalore

Written by - Piyush Philip , JYBangalore , Professional Ministry

How about an Haircut?

2011-01-25T10:53:00.001+05:30

Yet those who WAIT FOR THE LORD will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary. - Isaiah 40:31

Dear Saints in the making,

OK first things first,I hate going to the barber shop.I know 'hate' is a strong word but there are primarily 4 reasons for this 'hate' -

I like long hair.
With the big sheet of cloth tied around my neck during the haircut,I feel stifled and have a perennial fear of asphyxiation.
While the barber (errrr the hairstylist,that's the preferred name these days)goes about his business,I have to do nothing and wait for him to finish his job.
As my barber(hairstylist[sic]) only speaks Kannada&Tamil and I speak none,we can't have a conversation and I have to keep my mouth shut(for a motormouth like me this scenario is like hell on earth)

But I still diligently go for my hair-cuts and trimmings because -

I look like a schmuck with long hair.
My desire to stay employed is much stronger than my desire for long hair.
Parental disapproval and in severe cases parental lynching for uncontrolled hair growth on head or face is always a risk.(the grunge look doesn't work with Mom )

Of all the reasons I mentioned for my 'hate' - doing nothing and waiting for the haircut to be over is the scariest.Think about it waiting for anything is difficult,right ? We have a normal tendency to dislike 'waiting', especially in our I_WANT_IT_NOW society. Ours is a society that has grown accustomed to immediate gratification. But God our father puts a special emphasis on 'waiting'.Repeatedly the Bible exhorts us to 'wait on the Lord'. Why is it so hard? Because, as humans we are tuned to take matters into our own hands, to follow our own plans. Yet, over and over again the Scripture tells us to “wait on the Lord.” And God promises special blessings for the virtue of patient 'waiting'.Now,I don't know what are you waiting for today,maybe its a new job,maybe its a spouse,maybe its your exam results,whatever it is be patient and know that He is Lord.His timing and planning are perfect.

Have a patience-filled day ! (And go get a haircut if required )

Point2Ponder

Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections, but instantly set about remedying them - every day begin the task anew. - Saint Francis de Sales

Prayer Intentions:

Pray for our country and its citizens
Pray for the people looking out for jobs
Pray for the people looking out for spouses
Holy Father's Prayer Intention - That Christians may achieve full unity, bearing witness of the universal fatherhood of God to the entire human race.

Written by - Piyush Philip , JYBangalore , Professional Ministry

Superman

2011-01-20T11:20:00.000+05:30

"Yet those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary." - Isaiah 40:31

Dear Saints in the making,

I was about 5 or 6 when I first saw a Superman cartoon and needless to say I got hooked from the word go.Those days all I wanted to be was Superman.I mean Batman with his Batmobile and awesome gadgets was cool too,but SUPERMAN......boy he could fly.So,in came the cape,made from my mother’s old red sari,then there was this red under-pant which had to be diligently worn over my PJs. (don't judge me,that's how little boys are supposed to behave ) Many jumps from the edge of my bed,a few bruised elbows and scratched knees later I realized - alas I can't fly.So I outgrew my fantasy.The cape was thrown off and,thankfully for my Mom,I started wearing underpants the way they were meant to be.And everything was normal again.

Enough of the flashback !

Almost all of us at some point in our lives have wanted to trade our lives with someone else,haven't we ? Maybe if I could talk like him,maybe if I could look like her,maybe if I could walk like him/her......maybe.......maybe.......life would be better.We wrongly assume that if we were someone else we could fly.But God our father says that we have been fearfully and wonderfully made.He says that He has a plan for us which is perfect.Yes my beloved,God has created you as an original so do not ever become a cheap imitation of anybody.None of us is an accident nor are our gifts and apparent deficits mistakes. We exist as we are, the way we are for a purpose, a purpose for us and for others. We all have an irreplaceable role in God’s kingdom and show forth aspect of His glory uniquely.Trust Him,wait upon Him,be at peace with yourself and be thankful because HE DOESN'T MAKE MISTAKES.And soon you will realize that by His grace you can truly fly and achieve all that HE has planned for you.That's my prayer for you today.Carpe diem.Seize the day.Make your lives extraordinary.

Have a SUPER-DUPER day !

Point2Ponder

Angels can fly because they can take themselves lightly -- G.K.Chesterton

Composed By - Piyush Philip

Cruise Missiles

2011-01-18T10:59:00.000+05:30

He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and buckler. Psalm 91:4

Dear Saints in the making,

The BrahMos is a supersonic cruise missile.It has been developed jointly by India's Defense Research and Development Organisation (DRDO-Bangalore) and Russia's NPO Mashinostroeyenia.The name BrahMos is a blend formed from the names of two rivers, the Brahmaputra of India and the Moskva of Russia. The missile travels at speeds of Mach 2.8 to 3.0.(that's really fast).It has a maximum range of 290 km and has been designed to carry warheads in the range of 200-300kgs.

So why am I discussing cruise missiles here ? Well,I was just wondering in case of a war,if the enemy decides to hit us with a BrahMos (this scenario is highly unlikely,as BrahMos is very much a Desi Indian product) we would be, well...dead.The reason ironically is that we don't have suitable technology to intercept a cruise missile traveling at that speed So,in case this unlikely scenario actually plays out, we can be absolutely sure about one thing - we'll be as dead as a dodo.Period.

Though,eventually we are sure to get our hands on such a technology . But sadly there is no human technology that can intercept the missiles of Satan.

You see,the evil1 is continuously busy launching missiles at us.These missiles carry warheads of fear,anger, desperation,doubt,depression and all the negative ungodly emotions you can think of .The only intent of these missiles is seek-and-destroy.All too often,sadly these missiles find their intended targets and the result is spiritual lukewarmness and ultimately spiritual death.

But today,lets teach the evil1 a lesson Today and the days to follow,whenever you feel these missiles coming at you counter it with the greatest Anti-Ballistic Missile System in the universe - JESUS .Jesus can seek out and destroy any missile that has been targeted against you.Call out His name.Seek Him because He has promised that He'll never leave you nor forsake you.Soak up His love.Be @ Peace.

Have an awesome day !!

Point2Ponder

I do not seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand. For this I believe--that unless I believe, I should not understand. -- St. Anselm of Canterbury

Written by - Piyush Philip , JYBangalore , Professional Ministry

My Daily Bread

2010-11-19T09:00:00.001+05:30

It's not about Roti and Daal. Jesus categorically said, do not worry about what to eat. We can be as inattentive to this as we are to our growing nails. This is because there are some real things we should be mindful of.

Consider an Artist, his Brush and the Painting. As time goes by, what remains and matters is the Artist and the Painting, not the Brush. No body says this painting was done by the nylon, fan round, flat, size 8, French made, brown Brush. The Artist is God, I'm the Brush, The Painting is my life, a master piece in the making. In another words, Jesus is saying, be mindful of the Artist and the Painting and don't worry about the brush too much.

"Give us today our daily bread" alludes to our need for a daily doze of nourishment to translate, a day in our life into a fine stroke of the Artist on the canvas of life. In simple terms, the need for a personal time with God on a daily basis.

Since this is all about a relationship, Let us refer to God as the "Father" here on.

In an earlier post, we saw, how we need to raise ourselves above the physical, emotional, intellectual and social realms to meet with the Father in "Spirit", for we are to worship Him in Spirit and Truth. Some times we think we are so immovable and unshakable that we will need couple of tower cranes to lift us up and plug us into that spiritual spot. But the good news is that we can put away the immobility and the cranes because the lifting is not our job but His.

It all starts with a realization that we need this bread for the day. When this happens, often we find ourselves led to a quieter place. Here we present the real "us" in absolute honesty, totally unmasked, as an open book before the Father. A few words find it's way out from the depths of our being as a response to this admission of our utmost frailty and the magnanimity of the Father. Our spirit acknowledges the love that is lavished on us through Jesus Christ. As this reality slowly crystallizes into a conviction, we begin to see our iniquities, shortfalls and how it impedes this building relationship between us and the Father. So we allow ourselves to be purged little by little. And as this happens, we are enveloped in an ever increasing tranquility and inner peace. Our bodies groan and tears roll down. These tears are unmistakably that of repentance, forgiveness, unconditional acceptance and freedom, a foretaste of the reality of heaven.

Our hearts now delightfully resonate with verses such as "One day in your court is greater than a thousand elsewhere. Taste and see how good the Lord is. He is like the honey in the rock. It is no longer I but You who live in me. If you drink of the water I give you, you shall never be thirsty again. Let me dwell in your presence forever more...".

As this experience recede and gently re-leave us into the reality of the world, our hearts want to tell Him, Lord use me. This daily doze of love is what sustains us for the day. This intimacy lingers through the day, as our eyes, hands and feet becomes that of Christ for He has none but ours.

Father, Give us today our daily bread.

The life and beyond

2010-11-11T16:22:00.002+05:30

If our life on earth is a dot we make with a pen on a paper, our life after death is as much as going around the globe a million times. But this small dot decides how we will spend our life in eternity, that is in heaven with God or in hell in total despair.

A saint once had a mystical experience of God. It was so profound that in ecstasy he exclaimed, if paradise was like this, I wouldn't need another paradise. To this Jesus in a vision told him, If the experience you had is like a painting of sky, the paradise you await is the real sky.

All goodness we enjoy today is a foretaste of our ultimate union with God. Death we fear becomes a gateway to this reality. Maranatha, Come Lord come.

I'm Who I'm

2010-11-04T08:55:00.002+05:30

Mighty God, you defined yourself as "I'm who I'm". I wonder why you did not speak anymore.

God is bigger, greater and super exceedingly beyond us. We are only his creation. if He were to define himself, our small brains could not have handled it.

Imagine, you created a creature like an ant using all your intelligence and this creature asks you to define yourself. What would you tell him?. I would think, You tell him, I'm your father, care taker, creator or friend. Would you tell him that you are a hominid, bipedal primate with a brain volume of 1400 cc, characterized by superior intelligence, articulate speech, and erect carriage, contains 23 pairs of chromosomes. He will never understand you. He will feel so little and will not be able to identify you as father anymore.

This is precisely why our father who is far superior to us just said I'm who i'm. In another words, He is what He has revealed to us. Rest we will know when we meet Him in person in the life yet to come.

Jubilee & 10 Lepers!

2010-10-21T11:34:00.002+05:30

Sharing by Shibu Devasia a Singapore JY

Dear Family,

I am not the odd one out, if I try to relate all the inspirations & insights with Jubilee, during this year. This thought has been in the pipeline for about couple of week's. Unlike me those who closely hear the gospel, can recall last to last Sunday's gospel reading, it was an ever inspiring gospel of 10 leper's. The reason, the gospel still rings a bell in my head was that I had to frame this mail.
              The scene of me sitting & hearing the priest, do still persist in my mind, more so the gospel theme & how closely we can relate to it. Not because we all were 'lepers', but frankly speaking we were not better than 'one' either, before Jesus & the movement came in my life - the pain of being not 'accepted' & not being one of the 'normal' is quite comparable to a feeling a 'leper' may have. Though the physical pain in no way comparable, but the emotional pain is somewhat similar and when our LORD heals us we do owe him a lot.
            Today when most of us look back, we may agree that the life we live has been a blessing & what we are today might just be a dream if we had not come close to Jesus through the movement. Today if we have a stable job, its simply because of HIM, never in my life I could have imagined a job that I have now, more interesting is the 'least' of the effort that I have put to get one, its all pre-planned by the one above.
              Today if our talent is show casted through the way we think, or the way we write or the way we speak/sing or the way we deal with people is simply because we learnt from the movement through its various initiatives.
              Today, if we can voice our say pretty articulately, with precision & added flavor of creativity then no denying fact that we have learnt that from our various stages of involvement in the movement.
I would even say, to correctly discern our vocation & to lead a healthy family life was in a way taught by the movement & still it continues...
              End of the day, if I look back all the mess that was in my life or the wounds as a 'leper' that persisted has been healed by Jesus & mostly these blessing have come through the movement. The gift of a liberal thinking, gift of loving others, gift of good job, gift of a good family, gift of good friends & many more has been freely given to us by the real 'gifter' but in most of the case it didn't fall 'directly' from heaven but I guess through the movement.
               So, sometime I wonder, can any of these 'gifts' has the real 'gravity' or the reasoning to hold back any of the Jesus youth around the globe from not attending Jubilee? Attending it is our simple way of giving thanks to the Lord for what we are today! and the least one can do as a gratitude & acknowledgment for the unlimited grace & blessings that we reap each day & will continue to reap till our death.

May we as the lone wise 'leper' rejoice & come to the Lord this Jubilee.

Love,
Shibbs & fly

An young historian's take on Jesus Youth

2010-10-14T11:48:00.001+05:30

Recently Manoj Sunny began his letter with the question, "What is the difference between JY and other movements?" Interestingly, this is the exact theme I planned to write on. Hopefully I will take it an interesting new direction. It's important for us to realize that Jesus Youth is not simply "another charismatic movement" but, as are all true Church movements, it is a movement with a very specific spirituality, given to us by the Holy Spirit at the time of its founding. As the Jubilee Conference draws near, an excellent way to prepare is to get in touch with this very spirituality.

The core of the Jesus Youth spirituality, is, of course, the six pillars. Prayer, Word of God, Sacramental Life. These three deal with the personal spirituality of Jesus Youth, the interior life, the action in contemplation. One of the defining traits of Jesus Youth is their personal responsibility for their spirituality. Prayer, Bible reading, Mass, Confession, are not something utilized if conveniently available, but rather are actively pursued.

Fellowship, Evangelization, Option for the Poor. These are how we express that personal spirituality; they are the exterior life, the contemplation in action. These external actions will only be as effective as our own personal spirituality. It can be argued that these pillars all build on each other: Prayer fuels Word of God, which helps us appreciate the Sacraments; these three are necessary for Fellowship, which helps in our Evangelization, which draws a variety of people to us so we can create a better Option for the Poor.

Besides these six pillars, there are several other very specific charisms of the movement. Within the movement, our spirituality is expressed through community life, with guidance from elders, pastors, and other youth. This community life often takes place in and around JY families. This life always has the focus of a pathway to holiness, answering the universal call to holiness proclaimed by Vatican II, genuinely seeking to form saints. But perhaps more than anything else, Jesus Youth has been blessed with absolute fidelity to the teachings and Majesterium of the Catholic Church. This is our anchor; this is what keeps us from going astray, as others before us unfortunately have.

Perhaps this fidelity to the Church is what the movement was blessed with first, as Jesus Youth is a remarkable reflection of the entire universal Church. The six pillars are literally a perfect balance of interior and external spirituality. We could dare to say that the six pillars sum up all Jesus recommended to us and commanded us to do, yet without necessarily emphasizing any one aspect over the other. We also find in our expression of this spirituality similarities to the apostolic church recorded in Acts: reliance on the Holy Spirit, missionary trips, following up these trips through various means of communication, and of course, a lay community life filled with prayer, trust, and teaching. Finally, there is a constant link to the Majesterium and especially Vatican II; indeed, I have already quoted from VII documents twice in this letter.

It is this very universality of Jesus Youth that draws people in across all cultures, states of life, and rites of the church. Jesus Youth has spread as far and wide as it has, reaching the hearts of so many people, laity, priests, and religious alike, because perfectly responds to the call of the Church, doing so with our own distinctive charisms: joy; a focus on fellowship/communion and relationships; and total willingness to sacrifice for the cause.

Even right now, we can see the intimate link between Jesus Youth and the heart of the Church. Seeming to almost prefigure our Jubilee Conference, a special meeting of the Synod of Bishops on the Church in the Middle East is being held right now from October 10-24. The theme of the Synod? "Now the company of those who believed were of one heart and soul" (Acts 4:32), a verse which has always reminded me immediately of Jesus Youth. In his inaugural homily for the Synod, Pope Benedict XVI said:

"Without communion there can be no witness: the life of communion is truly the great witness. Jesus said it clearly: “It is by your love for one another, that everyone will recognize you as my disciples” (Jn 13:35). This communion is the same life of God which is communicated in the Holy Spirit, through Jesus Christ. It is thus a gift, not something which we ourselves must build through our own efforts. And it is precisely because of this that it calls upon our freedom and waits for our response: communion always requires conversion, just as a gift is better if it is welcomed and utilized."

Do we not see a clear reflection of the Jesus Youth lifestyle in the Pope's words? And this is something being addressed to the entire Synod of Bishops!

So please allow yourself to experience the Jubilee grace this year; please do not allow any worldly anxieties, difficulties, or sorrows get in your way. This is the best opportunity you'll have for 25 years to truly experience the universality of Jesus Youth: as if the prospects of meeting Jesus Youth from 25 countries and counting wasn't exciting enough, Cardinal Ryklo (attending the Synod of Bishops as we speak!) and many other archibishops, bishops, priests, and religious are also attending. Please come to the Jubilee and truly experience the universal grace of Jesus Youth.

See you at Rajagiri!

God Bless!
From Bangalore,
Richie Dow, JYA (NJ)

About Richie - He is an young dynamic Jesus Youth from New Jersey(USA). Currently in India to help Jubilee mobilization and volunteer for Jubilee Conference. He is currently pursuing his bachelors in Chinese History.

Rhea Shares

2010-10-14T11:45:00.002+05:30

Rhea an young thirteen year old sharing her 'Chalo Jharkhand' mission experience in her own words.

These few days of Chalo are very remarkable days of my life. In Bangalore when we had the retreat, I learnt a lot of things. During the classes taken about purification the best thing I liked was that ''If you sin, God will not punish you because God loves you so much, but when you sin, it is you who try to hide your sin and that punishes yourself '', so in other words it is you who punish yourself when you sin.

Then I had a very good experience during Adoration and not only that it was for the first time that I could be a part of the Holy Mass when it was celebrated in the train. And also, I learnt a lot of things in these 20 days, I understood how difficult it is to live in the villages and so I feel that I am so lucky to have so many good facilities and I feel that I am living in paradise, I also feel that I saw the world now.

I understood that Prayer is so powerful and that our God is so merciful. But still there were some sufferings during this mission but I had actually expected more sufferings. Speaking about the people of Jharkhand I feel that they are so great, especially the people of the villages, when we went to stay in the villages they gave us everything they had, they treated us like their own family members, they were so caring and loving and the best thing I liked was that- when we went to their homes they greeted us saying ''Jai yeshu''. Then I also liked the Jharkhand style of welcoming people, it shows that they are so humble.

Then speaking about the program most of the classes were so different and inspiring. And the games, the team work, and the home visiting were all very enriching. I will never forget all these things in my life. Then speaking about the participants, all of them were so friendly and nice, on the first day when I saw all of them together I never thought that I could be friends with all of them because all of them were older than me but later on I saw that they came and spoke to me and i felt so happy because of their friendliness.

Then when all of us went to the ''Missionaries of Charity'', I really felt that I am so lucky. Then speaking about the Leaders they were so caring, loving and helping. And overall speaking about the whole program it was very, very good and I got to know more about Jesus and about the world in which I am living. I understood that I am so lucky and I got to know about the lifestyle of others and now I am so happy to be a part of this program and I also feel that in these 20 days I have learnt more things than these 14 years of mine.

Thank you & God Bless

Rhea Mathew
Bangalore.

Time for beginning another Exodus

2010-10-12T11:18:00.002+05:30

Time for beginning another Exodus

we should not allow any of our brothers and sisters to miss this time of Grace

Manoj Sunny (General Convener Jubilee Conference)

What is the difference between JY and other movements? This is one of the questions I used to ask myself whenever I came in contact with other movements. There are many differences, but one that has always inspired me is the purpose and motivation of every Jesus Youth. In many other groups, I find that people go in order to receive something in their life – especially in the form of blessings. But in our groups, people come in order to give themselves to do His will. People are willing to set apart many things; to lose many things in their life in order to follow Him. Some may start this journey for blessings; but soon they understand that JY is all about losing and giving. However, all of us know that our Lord will never stand at the receiving end – He will give it back to us a thousand fold – in His time.

I am quoting from one of the recent mails from Shelton sent to the Rexband:

“Joji Babu, earlier KYCT coordinator, was sharing something important in a recent Jubilee meeting from a scriptural perspective. It made me rethink my approach to the Jubilee. He was talking about Moses and how he approached Pharaoh to let the Israelites go to Israel to celebrate jubilee. At first, the Pharaoh said that all the men could go. But Moses was not satisfied. Then the Pharaoh allowed the families to go. But Moses was not satisfied until the families, with all their children, cattle and possessions left the bondage of Egypt to celebrate Jubilee. Then Joji Babu was talking about his difficulties of how he is arranging to travel with his entire family in spite of the classes of children etc. He was speaking about bondage of our own ambitions and physical and financial limitations that keep us locked in our world - safely far away from the Jubilee, from the congregation, the blessings and the call for the next level of ministries in our lives.

In a sense, it shook me a bit, because in spite of all the buzz about Jubilee, I have also in the back of the mind, thought about it as an important 'JY programme' for which I will need to take leave. Now I am slowly beginning to realize that the Jubilee is for each one of us, like the Israelites, an opportunity to let go of what we are constantly clinging on and direct our journey into the land and mission that God is leading us.

Besides, for each one of us, Jesus Youth has been our Exodus out of the 'Egypts' that we could have gone in our earlier days. We chose to seek God's will not because of our good sense, but because God spoke through our friends in the movement, because of our prayer experiences in the movement and the mission of the Church that we discovered here. So for us the Jubilee is our way of saying 'Jesus, above everything, I value what you have done in my life'. And taking great trouble to come together with our families children, our possessions and our joy is such a beautiful gesture of gratitude.

So, let us encourage and support each other to take the trouble to make this journey. In the Jubilee meeting, I was hearing stories of how pregnant women who deliver in November are planning to travel from abroad with their one month old babies so that the new generation will begin their life with the joy of the Jubilee. So wherever you go and wherever you meet Jesus Youth, please remember to share the Jubilee Story and ask them to leave things behind and start the journey - not individually, but with the entire family. It is not easy. Like the Israelites, someone like Moses will have to intercede for us so that our chains are taken away. And like Moses, it is perhaps the call of each one of us to choose families in the JY and start praying for them so that they might make the journey together”

The Jubilee conference is all about giving oneself and losing many things in our lives; money, time etc. At one point of time in our lives, we all set out on an ‘Exodus’, blindly trusting Him. He has blessed us with more than we want, more than we deserve. I have a fear that many of us are busy taking care of these blessings. Jubilee is the time for beginning another Exodus; to take up a new mission according to the promptings of the Spirit. The entire JY family is going to listen to Him. We strongly believe this is going to be much more than a programme. If we are going to take this as another conference, there is no need for all these struggles. But if we are coming here to share, listen and recommit ourselves to begin a new journey, we should not allow any of our brothers and sisters to miss this time of Grace.

Happy Jubilee.

The beginning of Prolife outreaches in Bangalore

2010-06-11T20:34:00.003+05:30

You read about how our lord brought Josephine Maria into the lives of Bangalore pro-lifers and how she became the intercessor in heaven for Bangalore pro-life ministry. Now it is time to look at how the outreaches of Bangalore pro-life ministry started. So here is the first pro-life out reach of the ministry and how it happened when a few people stepped out in faith. Even when they stepped out with out any prior experience in spreading pro-life message and into the heart of the battlefield, an abortion clinic, keeping God at the forefront of the battle, what miraculous conversions happened. Hear it in the words of a pro-life member.

The Pro-life team consisted at that time of about 15 working people who used to gather together regularly on Fridays to intercede for the cause of Pro-life. One among us who used to gather there was a nurse. Towards the end of 2007, she got a job in a small hospital in the center of Bangalore City. It was only weeks later, to her shock, that she discovered that there are frequent abortions happening at the hospital, as many as 300 a month. She refused to work there any more and resigned her job. She shared this with us when she came in for the pro-life team meeting. Everyone in the team was deeply concerned. We knew this was a frequent happening in the hospitals in and around Bangalore, but hearing it for the first time in a first hand account like this had an impact on all of us. We were not at all sure of what to do. In prayer we decided that we should visit the hospital. None of us at that time had the slightest inkling of what it is going to turn out to be.

So on February 17, 2008, Saturday, the pro-life team gathered together in a chapel in a seminary nearby. No one had any idea how to start off. We decided that what ever we do, we should do it in prayer. So we spent around one and a half hours in front of the Blessed Sacrament. It was decided that one team should go for the outreach and the other team should be interceding for the people who are going through out the time they are gone. Then we picked lots to see who should go for the outreach and who should be interceding for them. The selected team of 4 got ready to go to the Hospital and the rest of the people remained in front of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.

When the team got to the hospital, none of us had any idea how it should all start. So two minutes were spent in prayer and it was decided that we should go and meet the doctor directly. So we walked up to the nurse at the reception and asked to meet the doctor. We told the nurse about Jesus Youth and pro-life ministry in brief and that we had come to see the doctor. All this time we were expecting to be thrown out by the hospital security guards any time. But the nurse asked us to wait for some time till the doctor got free. That gave all of us some courage. We shared with the nurses and some of the people who were waiting to see the doctor about pro-life and gave some of the pamphlets that we had brought with us. That removed the initial inhibitions that we had and we now had the courage to face the doctor. The nurse came over to tell us that the doctor will see us now.

We went in and introduced ourselves as pro-lifers, we spoke to the doctor about the preciousness of life, abortion and pro-life. We spent about 15 minutes with the doctor. She received our message very well. There was a dentist among us, he gave his phone number to the doctor and we came out. We were all thrilled that we were able to talk about pro-life with so much courage and conviction. Then it was a whirlwind, we went to every room in the hospital and met every nurse in that hospital and talked about the preciousness of life. And we all came back praising the lord for going before us to prepare the hearts to receive his message.

The results were miraculous. The doctor stopped abortion on that day. The next week we had a follow-up outreach to the same place and the staff said that no abortion happened there in the last week. The doctor now counsels anyone coming to her for abortion and if they are not willing to relent, she would refer them else where. We can confidently say that she became a pro-life doctor and a big support for us.

She also became our coworker in saving innocent lives of babies who were going to be aborted. Our second pro-life baby came into our hands through her. That is for another time.

Theology of the Body - Decoded

2010-06-11T18:50:00.001+05:30

According to the Holy Father, "Those who seek the accomplishment of their own human and Christian vocation in marriage are called, first of all, to make this 'theology of the body' . . . the content of their life and behavior" (April 2, 1980).
Here we are giving you a small picture as what the Theology of the Body is all about.
This article has 11 pictures that are linked to each other. So go down nice and slow, read through and understand what each picture is trying to tell.

So here we go. .
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1. Who is GOD?

2 . . Why adam and eve? and what's the mystery all about?

3 . . How do we share that love with God ?

4 . . But . .

5 . . This is where Our Pope Brings our Beloved Jesus to the Picture!
He says Jesus is the Groom and The Church is the bride! Didn't get it right?

6 . . So the relationship between Jesus and the Church is ??

7 . . What about Mother Mary ?

8 . . So that means ?

9 . . So SEX is ?

10 . .But again the enemy !

11. . But the Choice is ours!

We hope you got a rough idea what the Former Pope was trying to tell. The theology of the Body has such depth, it would take ages to understand the complete chapter. We live in a world where love has no meaning. But if we think and hold our hands together, we can mold the coming generation as God wants the world to be. So lets pray to the Lord asking to purify our minds, our bodies and our souls. And also to safeguard us from any kind of evil.

As John Paul II says " Marriage is an act of will that signifies and involves a mutual gift, which unites the spouses and binds them to their eventual souls, with whom they make up a sole family - a domestic church". Lets stand together as one and represent the church and bind together with one and only God, Our Lord, Jesus Christ.

God Bless you all. :)

Prepared By -- Jino Jose a 20 year old JY from Bangalore

What it means to be a Jesus Youth

2010-05-26T19:21:00.000+05:30

"They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers. Awe came upon everyone, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each one's need. Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple area and to breaking bread in their homes. They ate their meals with
exultation and sincerity of heart, praising God and enjoying favor with all the people. And every day the Lord added to their number those who werebeing saved. (Acts 2 :42-47) "

If someone ask me the reasons, for which I was first attracted to Jesus Youth Movement, above is the answer.In this Jubilee time some questions came to my mind; and I felt it is good to give a thought.

Whenever I was asked What is Jesus Youth? I always liked to answer it like this; Jesus Youth is a person , who leads a Christ centered life, who nriches his relation with Jesus, day by day through Personal Prayer,
Sacraments, Mediation of Word of God and Joyful fellowships, who reflects Jesus in their thoughts, words and actions, to make other people experience love of God, who spreads the Kingdom of God, wherever they are - Who is ajoyful contradiction to the world (As Pope John Paul II challenges). Again,
Jesus Youth is a movement , where people with above said characteristics come together to grow and help others grow .

*My Questions:*

As a Person; how am I responding to my call, how is my relation with my Lord do I still have the first love, how much am I rooted in JY spirituality,do I still have the missionary zeal in me, am I spreading Love, Joy and Kingdom of God in my surroundings ..

As a Movement, how far we reached, how is our going, as we reach/spread tonew places/countries/continents, do we grow deeper in small prayer groups,which is the base of our movement, are we/our style still able to attract new generation to the Lord, are we equipped ourselves to cater their
spiritual needs - Our leaders around the globe are engaged now, evaluating the second part. I think I must do the first part for myself (It s I, who makes community).

- Anto, a Jesus Youth(I, still doubt to say it loudly!!!!!)

I was literally misled to my first retreat, as I was told like some youth camp . As I have already attended some camps, conducted by different organizations, I took it as a time to do have some fun and mean to spend one week of my vacation. I never knew it was a Jesus Youth retreat and it came to me like a shock when they gave the instruction on first day, we will keep complete silence during the retreat . And there were no other options;I had to attend it completely.

The first letter I received on my name, I remember was a 25 paise post card by Jesus Youth Subzone team, inviting me for a prayer meeting. I attended the same with some of my friends and was very much touched with warm welcome we received and the family bonding we felt over there. It became our habit
and an unavoidable event for us to participate in those monthly meetings. I still remember the love and care of all those leaders (we never called them leaders, but *Chettans* - big brother), and the relation they built and
maintained with our parents and families, which tied us with the movement.As we realized the love and care of God and as we grow in the JY spirituality, slowly we started attending prayer groups, initiated prayer groups, took responsibilities, became part of various training programs and projects,.

There I started my journey as a Jesus Youth. There were many ups and downs in that, but my Lords love remained constant. He continued working miracles in my life and gave me many opportunities to be a tool in his hands, with no consideration of my worth. I had never been constant in maintaining constants, but always I kept on track with the help of one or the other.

In my initial days, prayer groups and other gatherings helped me to realize and come closer to HIS love. They helped me to build the habit of Personal Prayer and Meditation of the Word of God. Many senior JY s gave personal attention and care to my spiritual and material life. (It s been a long time by now, that I stay away from my home for livelihood, but some of these leaders are still in touch with my parents, they constantly visit my home and had been playing my role in my absence).

As time went on, I lost the first love I had (Rev 2 : 4). I lagged in personal prayer and meditation of word of God. Many at times I was less serious, even about sacraments (a basic thing that every Christian would
do). As a result, I many times gave up to the enemy, who is lurking at the door (Gen 4 : 6). Still my God didnt let me go, but hold me closer to him. Because of his love and grace, I somehow managed till now, with one constant or the other. As a Jubilee resolution, I have decided and started to follow these three constants strictly. And I need all of you to pray for me to stay constant.

Prayer group/fellowship was something I always been strict to it, (I thinkmany of us are!). Initial days were beautiful, as they made a shell for me.I was with one or the other JY in almost all the time. I recall my college
JY prayer groups and zonal/subzone gatherings. Such a nurturing were thosefellowships, each moments were filled with new thoughts, experiences, andvigor. I already mentioned about the senior leaders who inducted me to JYfamily. It was this family bonding and fellowship helped me to rise again each time I fall, to come back each time I go astray.

Now at my place, people do consider me as a senior JY. Here I do compare the affection and care I received in my initial time and that I give to the new young people, whom my Lord has given to me. I, many at times skipped away from building and maintaining a personal relation with many of them
(and with their families, as my leaders did), that would have helped them to grow in the ministry. I do doubt, whether they experience the same family bonding and affection, like the early Christian communities (Acts 2 :42-47), in our gatherings! Many of them don t feel the warm welcome in my prayer groups. I did not value everyone as the same, regardless of their race, tongue, or tribe. I found it easy many at times to remain in my
comfort zones. I do written off some people, marking them like they are never going to be a JY. I forgot that I was once like them, ever worse than them (Eph 2). And the result, I was unable to communicate/convince many. I was alien to them, when I speak. The ministry did suffer much from it. My second Jubilee resolution is to open the doors of my heart to all, regardless of their race, color, tongue and tribe. I will try to be like
St. Paul, who was everything to everyone. I will make sure that my prayer groups do give the affection, bonding and care to all who comes there. I will be a friend to everyone, as my leaders were to me.

Most of my senior leaders were great role models. Many like me were pulled to the ministry, by just seeing them. Many those who skipped their meals and sleeps continuously for the ministry, those who left their jobs for the ministry, those who walked miles and miles for spreading this love and those simple initiatives that made big changes. Remember the sacrifices of the pioneers of our ministry. They never knew this was going to be such a big platform, still shed their sweat for the ministry. Their commitments, sacrifices, vision etc have made way for me to this ministry. But when I think, how many are dragged to the ministry, seeing my lifestyle,commitment, zeal - they are not even a handful. I wish this Jubilee year will help me to be more committed and zealous person and I too, would be able to bring more people in to his Love.

I wish the Jubilee year may be a wonderful time of revival to all of us in the ministry.
*Refined in thy Fire, Renewed in thy Spirit, Radiant in thy Holiness, Amen.*

With Love and Prayers,

Anto Simon K.

Jassowal, Ludhiana, Punjab

"Spirit of Unity" (Romans 15:5)

2010-05-04T11:28:00.000+05:30

"Spirit of Unity" (Romans 15:5)

Faten Mukarker, a Palestinian Christian, the author of “Leben zwischen Grenzen” shares in her book, her life and struggle between the National border and the religious border and the pain of disunity in her land and Israel. We have been hearing for years the story of the battle and struggle between Israel and Palestine. The Wall in between Israel and Palestine goes through her family garden. She shares her story with us in tears.After reading and hearing her sad and pathetic narration I asked myself, why can’t they just live together? Why must there be such hostility and division?

Similar thoughts came to my mind when I visited Jerusalem, and felt ashamed, especially when I visited the “Tomb Church”. The division and conflicts among the different Church denominations are conspicuous there. Often it is the place where the demonstration of these conflicts takes place. Why can’t they work together in serving the Lord? Why is there such disunity among the Churches in the name of our Lord, who came to reconcile everyone with God and with each other and who prayed for unity and harmony among His disciples? And why do people quarrel in the name of the Lord, who taught that God is the Father of all and all are His children belonging to the same family?

St. Paul in his letter to the Romans advice “May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus” (Rom15:5).
- Unity is a gift of God or unity is given by God: Paul says it is God who is the source of patience and encouragement and who gives us the Spirit of Unity. Perhaps we can reach unanimity or uniformity with our own means but God alone can give us the Spirit of Unity.

- In the letters of Paul, especially in Romans, we see how much Paul desires and thirsts for unity and harmony. It is God who desires unity and harmony. In John’s gospel, Jesus prays for His disciples, “Keep them safe by the power of your name, the name you gave me... so that they may be one just as you and I are one” (Jn.17:11b).

- We are the body of Christ: This is what St. Paul tries to put across by using the image of the body, “Just as in one body there are many parts, and all the parts do not have the same function, in the same way we are many and one body in Christ… with different gifts according to the grace that has been given to us” (Romans 12:4-6).

… like the vine… a branch alone cannot bear fruit… it can only bear fruit if it remains in the vine (Jn. 15:4). For the vine, every branch is important. The number of branches which are healthy, which stay in union with the stem of the plant and which stay in union with other branches, increases the yield of the vine. We cannot think of a vine, the branches of which quarrel with each other. The same way, every person is important for the movement (human society). The more all live in harmony and co-operation, greater will be the fruits of peace, love and joy.

- Oneness or harmony even in the midst of diversity demands openness to see the wonderful works of God. God cares and loves everyone and everything. He has made every person unique. Differences are not threats, but they add to the beauty of the world and of the human society, when they are accepted with openness – just like how flowers of different colours, shapes and fragrance add to the beauty of a garden.

- For this we need Christ’s attitude of forgiveness: “in accord with Christ...” (Rom15:5b). Forgiveness is essential to achieve the Spirit of Unity. For a victim, forgiveness means ´letting go´ of the bitterness caused by the evil done to him/her. It involves finding relief in Christ who bears our pain. Jesus prayed on the cross and said, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Lk.23:34). That Jesus forgave them does not mean that He accepted as good what they did. He was suffering unjustly because of their wrongdoing. He had the power to take revenge on them, to destroy them. But He decided to go beyond His pain and anger and see everything as a part of the loving plan of the Father.

- Openness to the diversity... Unity in diversity rather than uniformity helps us to attain harmony. Unity is not uniformity. Everyone is unique. God has created everyone like that. That is, the differences are willed by God. Often, we have a tendency to make others like us, because we consider the differences as threats to our existence and well-being. But in reality, the differences do not threaten us. They become threats only when we consider them as threats and thus try to destroy the differences. Co-operation, not competition, is the way to peace. Recognition of the uniqueness of others, not feelings of superiority, is the way to success and harmony.

- It is to wear the attitude of Beatitude: It is God’s approach to love... One who receives the unconditional love and mercy of God extends it to others which results in harmony. The basis for accepting others with their uniqueness is our faith that God is the Father of all. Every human being is a child of God, hence a brother or sister of mine. All belong to the same family. God loves everyone, even those who reject Him. Even when people do evil, God continues to love them as His children and tries to guide them in His path. And when someone is away from Him, He comes in search of him/her. He is Love, He is Mercy, He is Compassion, He is Generousity. Jesus asks us to have the same attitude and approach of the Father – that is to be generous in love, compassion and mercy. Even when others do evil, we should continue to love them and try and reconcile with them. Even when they are different, we should try and accept them as they are. Even when they keep away from us, we should continue to be good to them. Thus, we will follow the words and actions of Jesus.

- Our Holy Father, Benedict XVI says “Christians need to make the first move in offering Reconciliation and establishing Peace”. Our model for reconciliation is reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ. In Israel many people greet each other by saying “Shalom” which in English translates as “Peace”. In modern times, this “Peace” is often misunderstood as ceasefire or absence of tension or war. But “Shalom” means much more, it is completeness or wholeness with God, with one another and with creation. It is nothing other than the presence of God. Pope Benedict says, “That God came to be among humanity shows that God is always near and always among His people. This is the source of hope and an inspiration to reconcile oneself with God and with one’s neighbours”. St. Paul writes the same in his letter to the Colossians, “...forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Col.3:13). Put off your old self… learn to recognize the characteristics of the old life, a self–centred life... and put on the new one and lead a life of harmony and reconciliation.

- “Clothing the movement in white linen” was often understood by me as a sign of blessing, a sign of the providence, mercy and protection of God. But after reflecting on Colossians 3:12-14, I was thinking that it is more than just a protection and blessing of God. It is not one-sided or one way, rather it is a call and a response. It is a gift and a responsibility. It is grace and duty. St. Paul says, “Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience, forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other”(Col.3:12). God in His mercy called and appointed us in this movement to be holy and beloved to Him, to wear this attitude of Beatitude and accomplish everything in union with him. Put off the old man and clothe your life and thinking deliberately with these seven qualities that reflect the life and temperament of Jesus. As God’s chosen people we ought to put on at every moment of our lives these qualities of Jesus, these qualities of grace. And this is none other than the Jesus Youth lifestyle. Having given us this beautiful lifestyle, St. Paul tells us to wrap it all around with the bond of love. “And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” Love binds everything together. Put on the cloak of love.

Since we are the body of Christ… let the Love and Peace of Christ reign in our hearts and let us live in His Spirit of Unity.

Rev. Fr. Ajy Mooleparambil CMI
Schermbeck, Germany
http://www.jesusyouth.org/articles/jubilee/reflection-week12-10

Burning for others

2010-03-22T14:18:00.000+05:30

Burning for others - Thirst for Souls

This year the weather has been unusually hot and dry, at least in Kerala. It seems to stay so for long periods of time. In the heat of the day we all feel extremely thirsty and long for a drink. And thirst is always related to water.

Lent is a period often associated with desert, heat, dryness, barrenness, etc. This is typically the situation of a soul that is away from the ‘living waters’. It feels the aridity. But sometimes it can be otherwise also. Even if a soul is actively and positively open to the Spirit, it may lack the lively experience. Then too the soul is thirsty. This is the thirst expressed by the psalmist when he says, “my soul thirsts for the Lord”. Many of the saints like St. Theresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross have also experienced the same thirst.

Our theme for reflection this week is Jn.19:28 – Jesus’ thirst. Obviously this thirst was severely misunderstood by those standing around Him. Taking it for the ordinary human thirst, they brought Him sour wine or vinegar which He did not accept, because His thirst was not for water but for souls – human souls!! This is substantiated by another passage from John’s gospel itself: Jn.4:1-38 (Jesus and the Samaritan woman). This is also a passage that has been misunderstood. Jesus came to the city of Sychar near the well of Jacob. V.4b says that Jesus was tired from His journey and sat down by the well, and it was about noon. Subsequently Jesus asks the Samaritan women for a drink, proving that He was thirsty. Meanwhile His disciples went to get food and drink.

But as the conversation advances we realise that Jesus was not thirsty for water from the well. Then when His disciples return and asks Him to eat and drink He tells them the same thing, He has food that they do not know about. That, definitely, is the soul of people. So Jesus’ thirst was always for the souls of people.

In a way this thirst is shared from the Father, who first thirsted for sinful people. After the fall of humanity, it was the intense thirst of the Father that caused His only son to become a man. In that way, we can also understand incarnation as an expression of the thirst of God. Jesus shared this thirst of the Father without loosing its intensity and carried it on till His passion.

Down the road, the apostles too shared this thirst of the Master. There is no other justification for them to travel to unknown lands, to unknown people, for them shedding their blood, letting their lives be sacrificed; than for this same passion and thirst for souls. Across the centuries till today, we encounter scores of holy men and women who steadily share the same thirst and are willing to readily lay down their lives to quench this thirst. St. Francis Xavier used to say, “give me souls and take away all the rest”. St. John Mary Vianney spent 18-20 hours a day in the confessional to quench this thirst of the Master by bringing souls back to Him. Mother Teresa of Calcutta used to write these words, near the crucifix in the chapels of all her convents, “I Thirst” to remind her and her nuns the same thirst of the Master. She thirsted with her Master throughout her life for the last, the lost and the least. Countless martyrs, innumerable missionaries, myriads of ordinary disciples have shared this thirst of the Master.

Now it is for us as Jesus Youth to share in depth this thirst of our Lord and Master. Being at the service of the Church is nothing other than sharing this thirst of Christ whose body is the Church. But how? Recently we learned about the atrocities committed against our missionary brothers and sisters in many parts of the North of India. Asked about if they wanted to go back to their mission regions again, every single one of them responded with an emphatic ‘yes’. Is this not the thirst for souls?

All of us may not have opportunities to go for mission or to do a heroic act. But every one of us can have a burning desire for the salvation of souls. This can primarily lead us to pray intensely for souls; souls of our own dear and near ones. If we know someone, for some reason, is far from the Lord, is our heart burning to bring him/her back to the Lord? If we know that one of our friends is walking through a dangerous path, how burningly do we want to save him/her? In this season of Lent, how much positively have we encouraged our peers to ‘turn away from evil and do good’? The list of questions can go on and on. But as we have come to know what it means to burn for others, let us now act. May God give us the courage to keep on burning and not burn out!! Amen

Let us Pray: O Jesus, who thirsted for my soul, help me to thirst for the souls of others. Lord, give me the courage to do the right thing to quench Your thirst. Keep the thirst growing in me. Help me to share this thirst with others and to one day see that all Your thirst is quenched. Amen

To do:

•Talk to at least two people about the need of the sacrament of reconciliation.
•Meditate before the Blessed Sacrament for a few minutes about the times you have missed to share the thirst of the Lord.
•Try to talk to a missionary/a fulltimer about the experience of mission.
•Read more about the option for the poor.

Rev. Fr. Thomas Tharayil
Kottayam, India

The story of Josephine Maria Rose, the start of a prolife journey

2010-03-16T20:33:00.005+05:30

As told to me by the Prolifers of Bangalore Jesus Youth -

This is the story of Josephine Maria Rose and Angel that touched the lives of prolifers of Bangalore and the story of how a journey of miracles, miracles of life started in the Prolife Ministry of Bangalore.

It all started on 23 November 2007, Friday evening, with a call from a Nursing Student studying at a Nursing home in a village about 60 km from Bangalore. In this nursing home there was a premature female child, born at 22.5 weeks and weighing 560g. The mother of the child did not want the child and the hospital didn’t know what to do with the child.

The little baby needed extra care for survival and the parents were not willing to bear any more burden. The prolife team called up the doctors at the Nursing Home and they were happy to give the permission to take the child, provided we were ready to give an undertaking, assuming full responsibility of the child. They also wanted a consent letter from the parents that they do not want to take any further responsibility, we agreed.

Four of us prolifers, including a husband and wife, left Bangalore by taxi and reached the nursing home at 12 midnight. The child was placed on the bed near the mother, and she was not even looking at her. The child was alive and occasionally crying out. The parents of the child already had two children and they did not want a third girl child. It was probably a failed abortion. The parents were only too willing to give a letter in writing given the baby’s responsibility to us.

After completing the formalities, we took the little child. The lady among us received the precious child, covered her with the only warm cloth that we had and set off for Bangalore in the taxi itself. Early morning on Saturday at 4 A.M we reached St. Johns Hospital, Bangalore.

Everyone whom we had met while going to collect the baby was of the opinion that there is very little chance of her survival. The doctors at St. Johns also were of the same opinion. The only chance was for her to be put on the ventilator. We agreed to bear the expenses and they immediately moved the child to Neonatal ICU. The chances of her survival were slim, but we felt that her life was too precious to let go so easily. She was on ventilator for two days and we prolifers kept vigil outside the NICU. All we could do was to pray. On Sunday (25th November 2007) night 11.40 pm, she had a cardiac arrest and our little angel went back into the arms of her loving heavenly Father.

She was taken to the cemetery and provided a Christian burial. There were 6 of us by her grave side to say our final byes. Some of us had called her Maria, some others among us named her Josephine. The Sisters who gave her baptism named her Rose. She was the first life that the Lord had placed into our care. She is like our firstborn. We were all deeply sad in our hearts, but we know that we have given our best for this little one of our God whom no one else wanted. And we know that she is in the lap of Jesus and that she knows each one of us by name. We also know that we can raise to her our needs and she will speak on our behalf to Jesus and today she is a powerful intercessor for our ministry. We consider her as our patron saint. We call her Josephine Maria Rose. And that is the point from where the Prolife Ministry of Bangalore blossomed. Certainly our little angel was hard at work in heaven.

The life support systems etc in the hospital were expensive and if someone were to ask us what would you do if there were many other children who asked our support, we do not know the answer. We just did what we felt was right in the eyes of God and we know that what we have done for this little baby, we have done for Christ. We pray that as you read this, you will make a resolution to stand up in defense of every life that is in danger of being snuffed out, in all circumstances.

Website of Bangalore JY Prolife Ministry : http://www.prolifearmy.org/

Tracing the footsteps of Christ in Bangalore JY Prolife Misnistry

2010-03-09T20:15:00.003+05:30

Dear all,
I have been a mute witness to the amazing ways in which our Lord Jesus has worked through the JY Bangalore Prolife ministry. Only thing I have known about the JY Prolife ministry is that they are a faithful and committed group. They were never a group of extra ordinary, visible, magnetic group of people. But on the other hand a group of prayerful, consistent, people with zeal for the call Lord had given them and who did their bit faithfully. And I have heard from them the wonderful miracles that our lord worked through them. Till now our lord has given the group 16/17 adopted children. Little lives that Christ the savior protected from the hands that were poised to snuff them out. Also the numerous lives that Christ touched through them, changed for ever from being destroyers of lives to protectors of lives.

Here we start a new series, where we chronicle the miraculous ways of our Lord. Be a bit patient with us as we string them together slowly. God bless you.

Reach Out With Outreach!

2010-03-09T14:01:00.002+05:30

Young people are known for their energy and zeal to reach out and change lives around them. Outreach, a secular non-political network of committed young people offers the right opportunity for young people to do that. Here on this network youth and youth workers from a variety of backgrounds have joined together to reach out to the under privileged in the society. Together, they present a challenge for young people around the globe to reach out to the needy and build a better world. To join the revolution, check out " http://www.outreachchildsupport.com "and reach out!

A few thoughts at the start of Lent

2010-02-27T16:12:00.009+05:30

Another Lent has come by. As the usual practice on every lent, I prepared for the ritual of abstaining from non vegetarian food. It has been a ritual that has been part of my life from early adulthood that it is not so difficult a ritual and almost devoid of significance. This set me thinking on what this Lent should be for me.

The reading on Ash Wednesday started me off. I had read it many times, usually the scenes of temptations are the ones that catch my attention, but this time it was Jesus's retreat into to the desert. For Jesus, it was a time to start his public ministry and the spirit led him to the desert. In the silence and loneliness of the desert he communed with his father. He was strengthened by this time of 40 days in the desert for the ministry that he was about to start. So for me also the 40 days of lent became Gods invitation to be with him, so that I too may be strengthened for the year ahead for me. It became an invitation to be with Him and alone in his presence.

So at the start of this lent I accept his loving invitation to be in communion with him in the silence of my heart and the loneliness of my soul. As I enter this time of communion, like Jesus left companionship, the comforts of his home, the comforts of food and drink, so that he could be in complete communion with his father, I too, as I enter this beautiful time of retreating to Gods presence, leave behind all that would keep me away from this communion with God. My sins that would keep me away from him, my little habits that are not sinful in themselves, but would take away my time with God. I leave my little enjoyments as a humble sacrifice to my loving god and go in search of his love. I don't know how I will fare in the loneliness of the desert. I don't know how I will stay away from the allure of the my little "comforts". I don't know if I will be faithful to the search for his love. I don't even know how and where to search for him.

But I have decided to embark on the journey that this call entails. I know this is a journey that my God asks of me. I know he is looking forward to this time of communion, much more than my heart desires. So I leave all my "baggage" at the edge of the desert and go forth into the desert where I hope I will find my God and come back strengthened. Pray for me friends, my prayers and wishes are with you .. God bless ...

falling cyclestand or the wall(lent special)

2010-02-19T00:24:00.002+05:30

"Temptations are for everyone but to fall for it, its one's own choice".This statement for me almost summarizes my own struggle with temptations. Does anyone of us want to do things which we dont like, definetly not but the thing with sin preceeded by its temptation is kind of interesting. I find game of cricket as a great illustration of temptation and sin especially after today's India's win against SouthAfrica at eden gardens, Kolkatta.Wondering how? Well I would see temptation like harbhajan's singh's tossed up ball appearing to the run hungry batsmen like a nice gift which deserves to be behind the boundary lines.So here comes temptation like a nice juicy tossed up delivery and our eyes light up although back of our mind after our intense bowling analysis previous night we may well know that it could be the wrong one (doosra) which could deceive you after pitching on the 22 yard track yet for the moments glory we go for it and all that we see after that is a happy harbhajan dancing with his team members and a person in white stading in the background lifting his ring finger.This illustration readily strikes my mind. We all dont want to sin or like any batsmen get out. One may like it or not , one may or may not be religious , one may or may not be God fearing but somehow our inherent nature feels bad when we do something wrong especially in our own sights and least to say in the sight of God definitely.So we know the consequence,we know the lure, and God has beautifully given us the power to make the choice.Only true love can give us the choice to choose not choose from the choice.Now I know why disciple John after all his experience with God just defined - God is Love.So the choice to be away from Sin is with us , temptations are almost constant but challenge is to put forward our resistance in the same measure.As I read somewhere today - "Temptations Correspond to Our Vulnerabilities........Good habits result from resisting these temptations".... So I feel lent is great blessing to convert our vulnerabilities to good habits through persistant resistance to temptations.Life is a long test match with such lure's and vulnerabilities either be a falling cyclestand or the wall. Choice is with us, with me.

My Valentine

2010-02-13T22:58:00.002+05:30

"there isn't any valentine's day without a valentine

but this is i am my own valentinebecause u can't love anyone more than urse'f"
This is a copy paste of a chat with my friend. This is what she said (The grammar maybe a bit unconventional, as all chat usually is :) )
I thought of this, she said so because she didn't have a valentine, what would you and me have said, if we didn't have one? She is a non believer, its understandable when she says this.
I guess My Lord would be very sad, because HE is the only one who who has written a true love letter to us, John 15. This whole chapter is His expression of love to us. His ultimate expression being the Cross. Lets remember Him this Feb 14th with an even deeper love. Not the one that we express with cards or gifts but with our Life.

Is there anything too hard for me?"

2010-02-04T23:06:00.003+05:30

Hi all!

Its been long since I posted on to "Discover". Well, I have been going through a little tough period for sometime now, without a job. Two days back I called up a dear Nun friend, "Sr. Mary" who used to be someone with whom I used to share a lot when I was confused or "down" during my college days. She was the animator of the JY in my place during that period. I called her to tell her to step up her prayers for me :)

She was talking to me when she suddenly said "Son, please read Jer 32:27" and claim it when praying. She told me this in Malayalam, I'm someone who is slightly weak in my vocabulary in Malayalam and I tried to translate the verse in English as soon as she kept the phone and found that I was not satisfied with my version of the translation. I was outside at the time, so didn't have the Bible with me to check out the English translation and then lo! I see a message pop in my mobile. Guess what? one of my JY frinds Denny has just sent me a message and it is Jer 32:27 and yeah in English :)

"I AM the Lord, the god of all mankind, is there anything too hard for me?" - Well! I don't doubt you my Lord, My God.

Friends, I don't think you should doubt either. There is nothing too hard for Him.

Jesus's prayer for us

2010-01-07T09:54:00.002+05:30

Personal reflection based on John 17 (Jesus prays for himself and his disciples):

Whenever I have read this passage I have got a little bored, feeling that Jesus just was saying the same things over and over again as He prays for His disciples. I knew it was definitely much more than that, and so this day I prayed that the Holy Spirit may shed His light to enable me understand the passage and the depth of what Jesus wanted to convey. These are the train of thoughts that came to my mind:

When we speak to someone about something that we feel so strongly about, don’t we do this too – say the same things over and over again? As we pour our hearts out to someone, don’t we find ourselves desperately trying to phrase and rephrase the exact same statements, just wanting to make sure they really understood us? The depth of Jesus’s prayer slowly started to dawn on me. Here is the gist of what He says – ‘I was here with them till now, but now I am going. But they are here (in the world). Father, protect them and keep them from the evil one.’ Jesus knows what it is like to be in this world; He knows what His people will have to go through. So He tells His heavenly Father to keep them, to protect them - over and over again.

I thought about how worried we parents are, as we send our children to school for the very first time. We are concerned about how well they will eat; whether they will know when it’s time to go to the bathroom; whether they will miss us; whether they will cry; whether the teachers will know how to handle them, so on and so forth. The children, on the other hand, may not worry as much, because it’s their first time and they really don’t know what to expect. This thought helped me relate to Jesus’s concern about us as He prays this prayer. He knows what it’s like, and so He prays with all sincerity…He has been through every single emotion/situation that we have or will have to go through in this world. To start with, He didn’t even have a proper place to be born! He has experienced temptations, was scoffed, neglected and falsely accused; He has experienced great stress and tension – so great that his sweat became drops of blood!; He has carried the heavy cross and endured great physical pain and suffering all the way up to the cross on Calvary. He knows what awaits us, and He prays to the Father for our protection.

In His prayer, Jesus says ‘When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me, and I guarded them...’ (v 12) Yes, Jesus walked with His disciples and protected them while He was here…By His daily life, He taught the disciples and let them learn from Him….... A few examples from His life came to my mind – examples through which he conveyed valuables lessons on forgiveness, and on listening to the Spirit’s promptings in the various situations we face:

- The story of Zacchaeus (Luke 19), the tax collector. He climbed up the sycamore tree to see Jesus. He had not repented, not turned away from his wrong ways – not yet. He was up in the tree just as he was. He just wanted to see Jesus. Jesus did not wait for him to come ask for forgiveness; Jesus did not wait for him to repair his wrongs. Jesus sensed his repenting heart, and went out to him rightaway – accepted him just as he was. Jesus, our master, set an example for the kind of forgiveness that He asks of us – as soon as we sense a repenting heart, we are called to go forth and forgive, accept and embrace. Isn’t that much higher than the forgiveness that the world teaches us?

A few instances where Jesus speaks out against wrong practices and outlooks:
- When the scribes and Pharisees accuse the disciples of not washing hands, Jesus explains to them that ‘It is not what enters one's mouth that defiles that person; but what comes out of the mouth is what defiles one.’ (Mathew 15:11)
- When the scribes and Pharisees accuse Jesus of healing a man’s withered hand on Sabbath, he explains to them that ‘it is lawful to do good on Sabbath’ (Luke 6)
- On yet another occasion that he’s accused of healing on Sabbath, He says ‘Hypocrites! Does not each one of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his ass from the manger and lead it out for watering? This daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now, ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath day from this bondage?" (Luke 13:16)
In these situations, we see Jesus offering explanations to the scribes and Pharisees, helping them understand the truth. When we come across situations that we can use to offer counsel and advice and thus bear witness to Jesus, we are called to stand up and do it, trusting the Holy spirit to guide and enlighten us.

And then, the picture of Jesus in the Sanhedrin came to my mind. As Jesus is questioned by Pilate, we see him keeping quiet (Mat 27:13, 14) – not speaking out against the injustice, not even defending himself! Here, Jesus teaches us that there are times when we need to speak out, and times when we need to keep quiet...(...how desperately we need the grace to discern this!) When we stay close to Jesus, we will learn to recognize and listen to His voice in all that we say and do. We will be able to discern His will, and think, speak and do according to the prompting that the Holy Spirit puts in our hearts.

- ‘I gave them your word,…’ (v14) : This verse got me thinking again about our children at school…: we feel comforted when we think about the instructions/advice that we have given them. We know we have told them to go ahead and use the bathroom when they need to, and not wait too long; We know we have told them that we will be there to pick them up right after school – ie; we find comfort/solace in the fact that we have ‘given them our words’. And we hope they will remember those words. Just the same way, Jesus says to the Father ‘I gave them your Word’. He hopes that we will remember them, and use them. He hopes that we will read and keep the Word of God close to our hearts, and will be able to use it as we live this life in the world. He knows that this Word that is sharper than a two-edged sword is all we need to fight the evil one. ‘Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth.’ (v 17) Jesus prays to the Father to keep us holy , keep us sacred (consecrate) in the truth, which is the word of God.

Think about how happy we feel when someone says that they will pray for us. If so, how great should our joy be, knowing that Jesus our Lord and Savior prays for us to God the Father!

Praise God for his unending love for us!
Lucy

Courage to answer a call

2009-12-20T10:14:00.002+05:30

Christmas seems to be an apt time to think about our call and what it takes to say Yes to God. I wonder what Mother Mary would have gone through when she said yes. Did she realize what she was saying yes to?

All of us at some point in our life stand at that juncture where we have to make a choice, say no to our own plans and say yes to a greater call. Its good to reflect using our dear Mother as an example. I think she had absolutely no clue about the magnanimity of the task at hand when she said that Yes. (Luke 1:38) She probably only knew what angel Gabriel told her - that God had chosen her to bear a son who would save the world. She was also told by Simeon that a sword would pierce her heart (Luke 2:35)... That's it. Then there was a life long silence from God's side. I am quite sure she never had the blueprint of her life with her when she began her journey. Step by step she realized God's plan and the purpose of her call.. treasuring all these things in her heart(Luke 2:51).

I believe that's what happens to us as well, as we prepare ourselves to say Yes to God. We may never know how huge the task is and we might often question God - Why me? But like Mother Mary, let's learn to silently let God work. And step by step, little by little the blueprint becomes clearer and life begins to make more sense.

This Christmas let's pray for the grace to accept God's plan and purpose and the willingness to say Yes to a greater call.

Thank you God

2009-12-16T12:51:00.004+05:30

Many times I wonder, how my life would've been if I hadn't known Christ, if I wasn't a Catholic! And those are moments when I can't help thanking God for Him in my life. My days are spent in prayer and a constant struggle to do what my Lord wills. I'm sure thats the case with most of us as well. Just to think, if it wasn't so...! If it weren't for the struggles we face, just because we love the Lord, or at least try to. If it wasn't for the pain of detachment and the joy of knowing that Christ alone suffices... our lives would have been so incomplete. So rightly did Christ himself say, "... but apart from me, you can do nothing" Jn 15:5. I can't thank God enough for making my life ever so meaningful through all the struggles... :-)

A simple lesson in faith…

2009-12-08T19:02:00.001+05:30

Here’s a small incident which helped open my eyes a little bit more to understanding what Jesus meant by wanting us to be like children…...

Last Friday I had to take an auto from home to take our 3½ year old son Daniel to his playschool. I had to walk a small stretch of road with him to get to the main road, and then we stood there for a while waiting for an auto to pass by. The road to the school was pretty bad and bumpy and it was also dug up to lay some pipes. So no autos were passing that way, and those that did refused to go where we wanted to - and it was getting late for school.

After a while I spotted one auto coming our way and I told Daniel 'Let's ask Jesus to help us' and added a small prayer aloud for him to hear ,'Jesus, please let that auto stop'. When the auto came nearer, I realized that it already had a passenger. So I put my foot back and told Daniel, 'This won't stop, it already has someone in it'. But Daniel pulled me forward again holding my hand, and said,'But....but….Jesus…...'. He didn't complete the sentence because he didn't know how exactly to phrase it, but I knew that what he meant to say was, 'But didn't we tell Jesus?'. Feeling sorry that he was disappointed, I explained to him 'I know, we prayed to Jesus, but this auto can't stop because someone else is already in it....'

To my surprise, the auto stopped on the side and the driver told us to get in. The passenger, who was an elderly person, scooted to one side to make room. It was a 15-20 minutes ride to school, and that kind man had lost 10 minutes of his time in the process of taking the deviation to drop us. I was so grateful to both him and the auto driver, and when I thanked him, the man said 'not a problem. I only did what I would have done for my daughter'. Knowing auto drivers in Bangalore, it is truly a miracle that the auto driver and the man showed the kindness to stop for us.

Even though it's been awhile, the way Daniel said 'But….but… Jesus….' and the expression that went with it still stays fresh in my mind. With the amount of faith I had, I believed that Jesus could make the auto stop, provided it was unoccupied - whereas the child believed firmly that Jesus could stop the auto no matter what. Isn't that a HUGE difference?

Though a small incident, I believe it came with the big lesson for me that this is the kind of 'blind faith/trust' that Jesus asks of us. Praise God!

Lucy (Feb 2008)

Two men of faith whom I have been blessed to know contd ..

2009-12-06T21:05:00.000+05:30

I continue my writing about Shaju brother from the earlier posting. (Link to earlier post)

As I told you Shaju brother's small family serves Jesus through their service of the destitute they pick up from the streets. At Akashaparavakal you can call them at any time of the day about a destitute that you find on the roadside needing help. Shaju brother and his companions will come with an ambulance which one of their well wishers have donated and take him in. They never say no when a brother of theirs is in need of their service. So their house is always over flowing with people they care for. Shaju brother’s family consists of him, his wife Shiji and their 4 year old son Michael. Their lives are dedicated in service of these "Makkal" that they have adopted into their lives. I have seen Michael freely playing around with these people from his infant years, loving them and treating them as members of their own family. Shaju brother, his family and his companions take care of the people God has put in their care with lots of love and care. They believe that their house belong to the "Makkal" and they are the servants, God has put in that house in service of the destitute.

When I went first to Akashaparavakal, they were in a small house of which one room was set apart as a chapel and the whole house overflowing with people. It would have been big enough for a small family to live comfortably and it had Shaju brother’s small family, two other brothers from Akashaparavakal whose lives have been dedicated to the service of the destitute and then 10 - 13 of Gods people they were taking care of. That small house was never enough. After some time, they were offered a piece of land and a small building on the outskirts of the city with another small house and soon they had two houses which were full. Seeing their plight, a person who was into construction business offered his services free to build a better house on the first plot of land, with the condition that Akashaparavakal would find the money for the building materials. The building contractor himself drew up the plan and God inspired them to build a house which could house 20 people. The estimate came up to 7 lakhs (700000) with Shaju brother having a few thousand rupees with him. Shaju brother started off the construction in faith and still he never went out soliciting money for the construction. God provided, all through different people and the house got constructed with never more than a few 1000 rupees in hand at any time. Jesus provided the right amount of money at the right times through different people, often people whom Shaju brother had never even met before. That house is now full with Gods beloved.

Then again God inspired the contractor who built this house to offer to build a bigger house on the other plot of land also on the same conditions that Akashaparavakal would provide the materials and he would provide the labor at a much reduced cost. This time God inspired them to have a house which could house 100 people with enough facilities for taking care of them. The estimate came out to be 50 lakhs (5,000,000). During this time, the Collector of the area in the suburb of Bangalore where Shaju brother was doing his service came to know about the work he was doing among the destitute and offered to do every thing in his capacity to get him all clearances for foreign funding and help him to get the funds also. Shaju brother and his companions prayed together and decided that the people whom they take care belong to this land and God would provide from his abundance through the people of this land itself. So they rejected the idea of going for foreign funds. They came to the conclusion that they would not be able to experience the faith in Gods providence that meets their every day needs and nothing more if they had the plentiful access to foreign funds. So now the construction of the new building is going on. The final cost has gone up from 50 lakhs. The construction is in crisis lots of times because of paucity of funds. But as Shaju brother says, Jesus has never allowed the construction to come to a stand still and it continues. Shaju brother still continues to depend on the abundant graces of his loving God while he on most days just has enough to feed the people through the next few days. But Gods abundance never runs out and Shaju brother’s faith also never runs out.

Recently I was there at Akashaparavakal to spend a day there. I joined with them for the prayer service that they have before lunch. It was nothing great like the beautiful praise and worship services that I go to. It didn't have any beautiful prayers. It mostly consisted of a lot of Hallelujahs’ said by the makkal thanking god while one of the brothers

thanked God for the simple things God provided for in their lives, like the food on their plates, the clothes on their back, the roof over their heads, the strength in their limbs etc. And the inmates would say hallelujah. There were a few familiar songs sung with the people joining in very off key. But I could feel the presence of Christ walking among his beloved people. I could feel the love of Christ flowing through which brought tears to my eyes. What a treasure they had, the infinite love and graces of a God who had their names engraved in his palms and provided every thing that they needed from his abundance. Jesus asked nothing back from them other than their child like love for Him. I enjoyed true praise and worship. I enjoyed the love of God flowing through. And I still learn the basics of faith from Shaju brother and the other brothers at Akashaparavakal.

The Wedding at Cana

2009-11-30T16:04:00.002+05:30

Personal reflection based on John 2:1-11

Context: - Mother Mary finds out that the hosts at the wedding feast are out of wine, and secretly tells her son about it. Jesus asks, ‘What is that to us?’ (in another translation, ‘How does that concern us?’) :

I have always felt uncomfortable reading this part, because it sounded rather arrogant and disrespectful, and I didn’t want to think that Jesus was in fact disrespectful with His mother. So whenever I read this narration of the wedding at Cana, I just flipped by this verse fast and never stopped a moment to ponder about it.

Today as I felt inspired to read this account again, and I asked the Holy Spirit to take away the uneasiness from me, and help me understand the conversation between Jesus and His mother Mary in its truest sense.

The picture that rightaway came to my mind was of Jesus and Mary talking to each other with a mischievous smile on their faces. And instantly, the uneasiness drifted away from my mind, and I started seeing the special relationship between the mother and the Son. Let me try to explain this as best as I can.….:

When we go to a movie theatre with our children, they say, ‘Mummy/Daddy, there’s popcorn over there!’, without really saying that they want the popcorn. Fully realizing that they are asking for the popcorn, yet unwilling to admit it to them, we say, ‘So what?’, with a naughty smile. We want to wait and see if they ask the explicit question, ‘Can you buy the popcorn for us?’ Much the same way, when Mary tells Jesus ‘they are out of wine’, Jesus asks, ‘So what?’ (‘What is that to us?’). In the picture that I have in my mind, Mary looks back at Jesus with the same smile and raised eyebrows, conveying something like ‘You must be kidding!’ The people who heard this may not have understood, but this was their special conversation, and they understood each other, which was all that mattered. I loved this picture so much that I closed my eyes and savored this scene and their faces for just a little bit more.

Anyways mother Mary, fully aware of what her son is capable of, does not answer Jesus’s question of ‘so what?’. She just turns around and tells the workers, ‘Do whatever He tells you to do’. Mary doesn’t explicitly tell Jesus what she wants Him to do (may be she understood how different His ways are…), but in telling the workers ‘do whatever He tells you’, she hints to Jesus that whatever He does, he has to involve the workers/servers. Not the manager; not the headwaiter – the servers. Mary picked the lowly. Through mother Mary’s mediation/intercession, the servers were chosen to become part of this first miracle of Jesus. The very fact that Jesus takes this little hint from His mother and obeys it shows the utter respect and regard that He has for her – and now when I think back, there is not the slightest room at all for the thought about being disrespectful!

Also, just imagine the respect that mother Mary’s words must have had there at the wedding feast! The workers pay attention to her and obey what her son asks them to do – which, in the eyes of the world, would be utter foolishness. To fill the huge water jars with water and then pour some out and take to their boss? There would be no better reason for those workers to lose their jobs! But still, they obeyed it. It may be foolishness in the eyes of the world, but they didn’t care. They didn’t reason; they didn’t try to apply human logic to what was asked of them – they just obeyed. With them was present mother Mary - the prime example of humility and obedience to the will of God. The very presence of this blessed mother humbled their hearts – and made them capable of obeying Jesus. And God’s glory was revealed to them – they beheld the miracle of water turning to wine right before their eyes. ‘Nobody knew where the wine came from; but the workers knew.’

Let this be a lesson in humility for us. Let us submit our will to the will of God, and be ready to follow mother Mary’s example in saying ‘Here’s the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done to me according to Thy will’. Let us have the mindset of John the Baptist – He must increase, and I must decrease.

Here are a few more thoughts I had on this:
- When they ran out of wine, Jesus doesn’t provide them just enough to get through; He gives in abundance - 6 stone jars, each holding 20-30 gallons, filled upto the brim! How generous!

- The jars were filled with water upto the brim. But as long as it stayed in the jars, it was water. When poured out, it turned into wine. Water was good, but when poured out, it became wine - the good wine – better than what they had before. Just the same way, God has filled us with gifts and talents – and they are good. But when poured out for others, they get transformed into something on a much higher level.

- Mother Mary finds out by herself that the hosts were out of wine. The scripture doesn’t say that they entrusted her to take care of everything. All they did was invite Jesus and Mary to their homes. Like them, let us also invite Jesus and Mary into our homes. We don’t even need to tell her what we need. Just make sure we invite them – every single day, into our hearts, our homes, our lives. If our blessed mother is there, she will find out, tell her Son, and fill us up with what we lack.

From being a scripture passage that I tried to avoid contemplating on, this has now turned out to be one of my favorites. Especially the verse ‘what is that to us?’! Isn’t it amazing how the Holy Spirit sheds His light into our minds and takes the darkness away? I praise and thank God for this enlightenment.

Lucy (March 2005)

A testimony to God's saving grace...

2009-11-24T11:49:00.004+05:30

(Written down more than 4 years back, but posting now…)

Thursday, March 17, 2005, 6:45AM
This happened a few weeks back:

Went to bed on the Thursday night, after having decided to go for the 8am mass the next morning, which was 1st Friday.
I didn’t have a restful night, because Daniel was up many times due to a cold. So I felt lazy and tired as I woke up in the morning.

These are the series of thoughts that raced through my mind as I was lying in bed:
• Should I go to church now? I didn’t sleep well and I feel tired. Need I?
• It’s not a day of obligation ……
• What’s so special about Fridays anyways?
• And first Fridays – what’s so special about that?
• First Friday mass, adorations, etc – it’s all just a hype.

The very instant that the word ‘hype’ entered my mind, I knew it had come from satan. There is no other way that such an infrequently used word in my normal vocabulary (especially in regard to religious matters) should enter my mind – no doubt, I realized – satan had put it in there. Still feeling shocked at the thought that satan had almost got me, I jumped out of bed, headed straight for the bathroom, and in no time, I was ready for church.

For many days from then, this incident has been coming to me as a flashback – like the kind of flashback that plays in your mind when you have a narrow escape from an accident…

Today, I woke up at about 6, and came with Daniel to the living room to pray. The above incident again flashed back in my mind…

To think that Satan almost got me makes me shudder… What if I did not recognize satan’s voice and had given in? He would have really got me. I know that not going to church on a first Friday is not a sin – I myself am not able to go on all First Fridays – But having made the decision to go, and then changing my mind after giving in to satan’s excuses/justifications/lies – that very thought scares me still.. I feel that God really pulled me out of bed and got me ready – if I had just lay there, pondering over the thoughts and those justifications, I would have fallen. I really felt God’s saving hands literally pulling me out of bed and saving me from the clutches of the devil. This was a real encounter with ‘the evil one’, and I am very aware of satan’s presence now – and ever more aware of God’s saving grace…

I felt a strong inspiration to pray the ‘Our Father’…

When I came to the part ‘Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil’ , I found myself praying with all earnestness, like I’ve never ever prayed before – fully aware of my helplessness – fully aware of my need for God’s mercy…Fully aware that my God is a merciful, loving and saving God.

Here are the thoughts to which the Spirit led me….:

Satan acts in subtle ways which might seem very logical to us - and not in obvious ways that are easy for us to make out… So we need to pray earnestly – Lord, lead us not to temptation, but deliver us from evil.

I meditated on Jesus praying at Gethsamene. Jesus told his disciples ‘Keep watch and pray that you may not fall into temptation’. Another translation says ‘Get up and pray that you may not fall into temptation’.

Jesus wants us to keep watch/get up in both spiritual as well as physical sense. Spiritually, he tells us ‘keep watch - be constantly aware of the tempter’. In the physical sense, he tells us to watch out when our bodies are sleepy and idle and weak. There are times in the morning when we are really awake, but feel like lying down some more – those are the times that idle thoughts crowd into our minds. That is a dangerous time. That’s a time which satan can easily use to get us – to tempt us to do things against God’s will; to tempt us to refrain from doing the good things that we planned to do…

The story of the Gingerbread boy (an old folk tale) came to my mind…:

There was once an old man and woman who did not have any children. One day the woman said ‘I will make myself a gingerbread boy’. She makes gingerbread shaped like a boy and puts it in the oven. When she opens the oven door to see if it was baked, the gingerbread boy runs out the oven door and out of the house. The man and the woman run after him but the boy runs faster, saying ‘Run, run, run, as fast as you can! You can’t catch me, I’m the gingerbread boy’. The boy meets a cow, a horse, a pig, and some farmers along the way, and each of them shouts at him ‘Stop! I want to eat you!’. The boy manages to run away from each of them, saying ‘Run, run, run, as fast as you can! You can’t catch me, I’m the gingerbread boy’. The boy reaches a river which he has to cross to get away from them all, but he has to stop because he can’t get himself in the water. Then a fox comes by, and says ‘I’ll help you’. The fox asks the gingerbread boy to hop onto his back, and says he will take him across the river. The boy hops on. The fox starts walking with the boy on his back. As the water gets deeper, the fox asks the boy to hop onto his shoulder so he wouldn’t get wet, and then after a while, onto his head, and then finally his nose. Then, with a toss of his head, the fox gulps down the gingerbread boy.

Isn’t this really how the devil takes us for a ride? We may do a good job running away from the things that are obviously wrong. But the real wicked one awaits us with his most cunning, seemingly innocent plots. Much like the gingerbread boy, don’t we also, at times, run away from the loving God who made us? And when we are confronted with troubles and feel helpless, satan appears from nowhere and offers help. He puts forth action plans for us that are against the will of God and fills our minds with logical reasonings that justify his plans. He entices us to hop on for a cool and comfy piggyback ride – how scary!

It’s only our God’s grace that will enable us to break away from his bondage. It’s only God’s grace that will give us the wisdom to choose what is right. Let’s ask our merciful God to be our stronghold in times of trouble, and to set us free from the wickedness and snares of the devil…

When we lie down idle, our minds sometimes get crowded with negative thoughts and reasonings. These may lead us not just to do things that are bad or wrong, but may also pull us back from the good that we plan to do.

Some of the thoughts that satan frequently uses to get us:
- it is ok to talk ill of a person if the person doesn’t hear it…
- it is ok to not say the truth if it doesn’t hurt anyone…
- if everybody does it, it should be ok to do…

We need to force ourselves out of such thoughts. Cut it off. ‘Run run run as fast as you can’. But instead of saying ‘you cant catch me, I’m the gingerbread boy’, let’s not trust in ourselves, but in Divine Providence, in Divine mercy. Let’s say ’Run run run as fast as you can. You can’t catch me, for I belong to God’

I thought again about how, by God’s mercy, I was saved from the devil’s clutches. How God kept me from the evil one. In John 17, Jesus prays for his disciples - He prays to the Father ‘Keep them from the evil one’. I realized that Jesus prayed this prayer for me – He asked the Father to keep me from the evil one, and behold! I was kept from the evil one!

Praise God!
Lucy

Two men of faith whom I have been blessed to know

2009-11-17T17:21:00.003+05:30

Dear Friends I wanted to write about two men of faith I have been privileged to know. I will write about them in a few posts so that this will not become one looooong post.

The first one, I came into touch with him when he was started his ministry a little while back. I met him when a very good friend of mine Fr.Varghese took me to visit Akashaparavakal (means Birds of the sky), a home for looking after the destitute picked up from streets. Fr Varghese had a mass there and I tagged along. There I met the person who started the house in Bangalore, Shaju brother. A simple man with an unkempt beard and wearing a simple kavi (saffron) attire and no sandals on his feet. Since then I have known him for almost 5 years and I have never seen him with out a pleasant heart warming smile on his face.

I was touched by his work, he had a small house and it was overflowing with people. All of them were destitute people picked from roadsides, some were sick and dying, 90% were people who were mentally ill. They had either wandered out of their homes or were left on the roads to survive for themselves. They didn't know who they were or where they had come from. Some of them had festering wounds on their bodies collected through their wanderings. He told me there were maggots in those wounds when he found some of his children (makkal), as he calls them. He and the two other brothers he had with him to help, along with his family nursed them back to good health.

I asked him how he manged the food and medicines for them all, as most of them needed psychiatric as well as other medicines. He told me "God's providence" keeps him with out lack all through. I was touched and I told him any time you are in need of money you can call me. I gave my number to him. Two or three months passed by before I again accompanied Fr. Varghese to mass at the Akashaparavakal. The first thing I asked Shaju brother was, why he had never called me, didn't have any lack of money during this time at all ? He told me that they had even come to stages where there was not even a morsel in the house but they all prayed together, including the "children", at the chapel and the food came through. He described an incident a week ago, where they had nothing to cook and in the evening they were all praying together at the chapel asking the good Lord provide them with their supper. A man they had never met walked in with 10 KG of rice and he had heard of the house from a friend of his. He thought it would be nice to take a bag of rice when he went to visit them first. I was touched but was skeptical. I asked him, why he didn't call me at all with such need. He told God does not let His beloved to beg, he will provide from his abundance. He also added if you are provided for more than your daily bread, one will not be able to exercise your faith. I took the money I had in my pocket and gave it to him. He counted it gave me a receipt for that and said, I needed this for settling the account at the provision shop and if we didn't we would not have got our provisions at all. I was a little bit amused. I still was not convinced. I kept visiting house and helped out in any way I can. There used to be brothers from near by seminaries who came to stay there and help out during their holidays and semester breaks. I happened to be there when a few of them completed and were going off. They shared their experiences while they were staying at the house. And they told me about several incidents like these where God provided at the right moment what was needed, nothing more nothing less. They all went strengthened in their faith from there. I heard numerous such incidents all though my association and have come to expect that these every day miracle will happen in their lives. I would be surprised if those little miracles did not take place.

As our friendship grew, Shaju brother told me the secret of how he prayed. Every morning he wrote down the needs of the house on a piece of paper in the chapel, gave it to God and went on with his daily chores keeping the paper in his pocket. When ever he put his hand in his pocket for taking out some thing, the piece of paper came out with it and he prayed for the needs. And unfailingly His God provided.

I will continue writing about Shaju brother in my next post. Let me stop here and thank the God who is his and mine for His generosity in our lives. I have been blessed abundantly with material riches in my life, but Shaju brother has been blessed with more, with an abundant faith which can provide for every thing else.

Chosen to bless, not curse.

2009-11-16T22:21:00.002+05:30

It was the diwali weekend, and there were crackers bursting all around us. By Friday evening it started getting really loud and we were wondering how our one month old Joel would react – he didn’t mind the ‘maala padakkams’ so much, but those singled-out extra-loud ones bothered and startled him, especially by night time. The moment I put him down on the bed, there would be a loud one and he would wake up. This went on for quite some time - startling him and making him wake up crying. The previous few nights had been quite tiring, as Joel couldn’t sleep because of a stuffy nose, and I was quite drained by Friday evening, just wanting to crash on the bed. Anyway I decided to wait patiently till 10 pm, because a notice in our apartment complex had said that loud crackers were not allowed beyond 10pm. So I looked forward to 10 O’clock, hoping that both of us would finally be able to get some sleep.

But it only got worse, with more and more of those extra-loud ones. I tried telling the security to request the offenders to comply with the notice that was put up, but the security guys didn’t have the guts to do that. After about 10:30, I could take it no longer. I just put the baby down on the bed, stepped out to the balcony and called out to one of our neighbours who was in action right in front, asking him to please stop the loud ones, not forgetting to remind him about the notice as well. He and his family obliged, and there was peace and calm for about 10 minutes.

Then again it started, and when I looked from our bedroom window, I could see a family down there, making all this noise and having a fun time. Again poor Joel was waking up crying and poor me was walking around with him, trying to pacify him – and the time was well past 11! Anger and irritation were welling up inside me, along with tiredness and sleepiness.

The very sight of them bursting the crackers made me so full of hatred, that I said this loud enough so I could hear myself : ‘One of those crackers should burst right on their faces and kill them’. Immediately the thought came to me, that what I just uttered was a curse. The next thought followed : ‘O, good – let me do it again.’ And this time I repeated what I had said earlier – consciously, deliberately and spitefully, fully knowing that it was a curse. It was something I had never done before in my life - and honestly, I felt proud of myself! – for a few moments.

And then came the next thought, like a slap on my face – ‘What did I just do? Can someone who knows Jesus say things like that?’ I myself was surprised that the word ‘Jesus’ could find its way to my mind, even amidst so much hatred and turbulence. I came to my senses. I closed my eyes and said St.Michael’s prayer three to four times in a row. Then I said the divine mercy chaplet, asking for God’s pardon and mercy on me. I even prayed sincerely for blessings on that family down there. I desperately wanted to reverse everything I had thought and said earlier. I could feel a flooding in of God’s peace. The crackers went on for some more time, but they didn’t bother me anymore. Joel also fell asleep.

The story doesn’t end here… The following evening was diwali celebration at the apartment complex, and Roshan had bought some no-noise stuff - sparklers and flower pots (‘kambithiri’, ‘poothiri’) – to light with the children. They went down and were enjoying lighting these with a friend’s family. One of the flowerpots suddenly caught fire and burst upon lighting - (must have been a faulty one – bcoz they are not supposed to burst), and a flame brushed close to Roshan’s face. They got a fright at first, but nothing had happened. Roshan came back and told me that it was divine protection that kept him safe - there were some parts of the burnt stuff stuck on his eyeglasses! Immediately I remembered (with shame and shock) what I had wished for the other family the previous night – the exact same thing could have happened to one of us now, if it had not been for God’s protection. It was a reminder and an example of God’s unconditional love and mercy and forgiveness….

All along the previous night, there was some part of the Bible coming to my mind, which said that we should never curse, only bless - but I had been shutting it off. I looked it up the next morning, and found it in Psalm 109:28 - ‘They may curse, but you will bless.’

It’s been more than a week now, but I have been thinking and reflecting on this a lot these days, and the verse ‘they may curse, but you will bless’ keeps coming to my mind – it says, ‘it doesn’t matter what others do, but you will do what I tell you to do’…….. ‘They may cheat, but you will not’; ‘They may gossip, but you will not’; ‘They may tell lies, but you will speak the truth’; …….. Yes, by being the chosen ones, isn’t it a privilege to be ordered around by the one who chose us? I love its commanding tone.

It is true, we have accepted the Lordship of Jesus in our lives - but now I also see how important it is to re-affirm this Lordship every single day - just to tell him over and over again that he does have the permission and right to hurry and rush to our rescue with his saving grace, when we get caught up in our weaknesses, like I was. When we entrust ourselves into his hands, he will somehow find his way through - however stubborn and turbulent our hearts may be at that time, like mine was…..

Praise God! Thank you, Jesus!

To "Seek" the "Kingdom of God"

2009-11-06T10:58:00.003+05:30

"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well", (Mt 6:33), has been the one source of motivation for me during my difficult times. Of late I have been reflecting on what it really means to "Seek" the "Kingdom of God". I feel to "seek" would mean to tirelessly pursue, to preoccupy oneself with the works of the Kingdom. So much so that everything else becomes secondary. Jesus' preoccupation about His father's Kingdom was evident in his ministry. For him his family and friends were always "outside waiting for him". I believe we must constantly strive to let the Kingdom of God be established in us. That would mean to be always and at every moment desiring His Will to be done in our lives and thereby enjoying the fruits of salvation in us - enjoying His love, joy and peace in us. As we continue with this pursuit, we will find ourselves, "compelled by the love of Christ" (2 Cor 5:14) to go out and actively engage ourselves in sharing this love with others. Then making ourselves available for the activities of the Kingdom will cease to be a burden, rather it will become acts of love to God and to his people.

Being Prolife - Where do I start?

2009-11-06T09:49:00.001+05:30

An unborn baby crying for an opportunity to live in his/her own mother’s womb, a small child craving for love from his/her separated parents, a teen deciding to commit suicide due to exam failures, an young adult sad & frustrated due to love failure, an husband seeking for love from his wife, a wife expecting her husband’s loyalty, an overburdened employee, a grandpa/grandma desiring his/her child’s care in old age…..yes from birth to death the opportunities to be pro-life are plenty and countless in nature.
We all know that God created us in His own image and likeness (Gen 1:26) and this is a privilege we still enjoy today. Every human being created in the image and likeness of God deserves respect that which honor’s God’s decision to create us. The very moment we disrespect human life we disrespect God’s choice. So I feel being pro-life is not only about respecting life but also about acknowledging the fact that God’s creations are good and His decision the best.
As a young software professional I many times have felt that being pro-life is not my cup of tea and it is meant only for people in the healthcare industry our doctor , nurses , religious fraternity etc…It took many years of learning but being pro-life definitely is every one’s cup of tea I feel today. Generally in professional world I/We meet all kinds of people from different walks of life, speaking different languages, having different attitude, of different faith and so on but sometimes we fail to see the mask worn by many, a mask of deceived Joy and unassuming ‘I am fine ‘ with life attitude.
Wherever one is whatever one does he/she must not miss the opportunity to be pro-life. As the world becomes more and more sophisticated with chips that can’t be seen and communication that is endless more and more people are looking out for ways to kill loneliness. The more seamlessly integrated our technology becomes so much greater is the amount of loneliness one experiences. This loneliness in life can many times lead an human being to unhealthy life situations developing a negative attitude towards life; But as a disciple of Christ we all are called to a life of positive living and like in the life of the good Samaritan this positive attitude In our life must not be limited to our own mental boundaries but must overflow and influence our brethren sitting next to our workstation in office or in the bench next to us in our class, or a floor above our house.
Just like an unborn deserves all right to live on earth so does every human creation of God living on earth. In the words of St.Dominic “I am not capable of doing big things, but I want to do everything, even the smallest things, for the greater glory of God “, even if we can bring a smile on the sad face of our brethren around us I feel we have added more than few drops of love in the might ocean of His/His life. Every small act of love as above takes us in the steps of a pro-lifer and it’s a good beginning indeed.
Well what are you waiting for…Go on be a pro-lifer!

My Career with God!

2009-11-03T21:20:00.004+05:30

I am writing this article in an age, when to reach higher, we are demanded to prove ourselves and use others as ladders to climb up. We live in an age, where people believe that the difference between a job and a career is the difference between forty and sixty hours of work a week. We live in an age where setting up a career is higher in priority than setting up our lives with integrity, honesty & faith.
In this multi cultural competitive world, we all are fighting our daily battles, a battle to remain strong in the faith that has been given to us as a gift by our Abba father and reclaimed by the sacrifice of Christ, the Son of God Himself and re-activated by the power of the Holy Spirit.
We, many a times ask ourselves, what are the top priorities in our life? Is it our work or studies? Is it our family? Is it our friends? Our career? Our MBA? And what next not?
Many of our priorities might have gone through a rotation policy over a period of time. But a question we can ask ourselves at this moment is - have they brought the joy and happiness we wished for? Can a successful career guarantee us always a happy contented life?
Or as Will Smith said in a popular movie– are we still in the pursuit of happiness? Where are we heading to?
As a young professional, the eternity prospective has always challenged me to ‘think hatke’ when it comes to life, faith & career. As our master rightly reminds us “For where your treasure is, there also your heart will be “.This eternity prospective will help us start storing treasures for ourselves with God. As a child of God, we know that our citizenship is in heaven and in no way should we want to miss our right to vote up there. It’s our eternal fundamental right and for us to vote we have to prepare our self to be enrolled on God’s voter list. The attractions of the world, the money, the pleasure, the career, the fame all are more than tempting enough to pull us from the voter’s registration queue. But who ever stands till the end will be benefited by the sweet result of knowing that he/she did their best and is now eligible to enjoy His/her right and finally pursue, once for all, the true happiness that is only found in Christ.
Our Master said - “Seek first the Kingdom of God and the rest shall be added unto you”. I am convinced that Christ can take control of our career, family and life if we take control over His business. If Christ remains the top priority for us then it becomes easier to share Him through our work & career, studies, daily activities and the smallest of smallest thing in our lives.
The challenges of the world we live in are tough. The struggles we face today are new and something that has not been seen before and bad acts today have become the ‘In-Thing’ for this generation. It is in these tough times that we, the young, are called to be the voice to the nation, to be the change we all want to see in others, to be the glory, hope & springtime of the Church!
We are the Gen Next for Christ. The hope of Glory is in us – so then why wait? Wake up..!!! It’s Son Rise..!!

Deeper & Higher - Focusing on migrants

2009-09-21T07:24:00.011+05:30

Where are we hosting D&H?

Blast from the Past:
Sep11 2009 - JY as a ‘A growing sense of hope’ –http://jydiscovery.blogspot.com/2009/09/deeper-higher-jy-growing-sense-of-hope.html

Sep14 2009 – ‘The response of the movement to the world around’ - http://jydiscovery.blogspot.com/2009/09/deeper-higher-response-of-movement-to.html

Sep15 2009 - JY ‘a critique of contemporary values’
http://jydiscovery.blogspot.com/2009/09/deeper-higher-jy-critique-of.html

Sep16 2009 – ‘Challenging ourselves to a deeper, personal relationship with Jesus’
http://jydiscovery.blogspot.com/2009/09/deeper-higher-personal-relationship.html

Sep17 2009 – ‘Formation in steadfastness’
http://jydiscovery.blogspot.com/2009/09/deeper-higher-formation-in.html

Sep18 2009 - ‘A lifestyle of openness and dialogue’
http://jydiscovery.blogspot.com/2009/09/deeper-higher-lifestyle-of-openness-and.html gher-lifestyle-of-openness-and.html

Reflection:
Today let’s reflect on ‘Focusing on migrants’
Along with bases in campuses and universities, parishes and work places, Jesus Youth has also spread into the world in the context of modern facilities for travel and migration. The new generation is moving across the world for studies and career prospects. At the same time many others are forced to flee from their homestead for a variety of other reasons. People of God have a special regard for migrants (Gen 12:1-3, Heb 13:14) as it is a special responsibility and a great opportunity. The movement has already made some provision for attending to sections of migrants and it should renew its efforts to be a presence of joy and welcome to people on the move, such as students, job seekers, new city dwellers and those seeking refuge.- From Letter to Jesus Youth

Personal Thoughts:
Courtesy: Siju Mathew

Thanking almighty God for His wonderful deeds amongst us through the years. From the early years of Christianity and human history lots of marvelous things happened and are happening through migrants. These days we can see that only as beautiful leading of the Holy Spirit people keep migrating irrespective of culture, language or any other reason.
For us Jesus Youths it’s created a perfect platform to live the faith and mold the movement as a missionary in its whole nature. And I'm not intimidated to call migration as a lifeline that carved us as we are today and lot more will follow in years to come. Though there are many struggles every migrant go through time to time, the very personal call each one of us received compels us to be united with the church and continue mission for us in the new place.
In my personal view there are two factors that contribute to our new mission land:

1. The effectiveness of the local leadership if any
2. Our own effectiveness that I can call as the personal commitment as a missionary.
The second one leaves us no room for cocooning ourselves with our reasons whatsoever, but get in to a fellowship with the believers around with out disturbing the harmony that exist there. Or it could be a call to start some thing afresh if the promptings of the Holy Spirit does so. No doubt, inviting a spiritual guide in our new battle field will be a shield. Being in constant interaction with the faithful and the protection of their intercession will definitely keep us strong apart from our constants that are dear to us all along.

Prayer (to be repeated throughout the day):
My Lord Jesus help me grow deeper in your love today, each day

Regards,
Thomson
God’s Online.24x7.

Deeper & Higher - A lifestyle of openness and dialogue

2009-09-21T07:07:00.003+05:30

14 Days to Go
How the bamooo Grows!
Did u know? - It takes five years for the seed of a bamboo tree to show any growth above ground, and then it grows to a height of 90 feet in six weeks! Five years of preparation, of putting down roots, of spreading underground, so as to have access to plenty of food. And then, only then, does it take off.

This is an extraordinary fact that requires reflection. The time spent with John the Baptist was preparing the people to meet and follow Jesus. It was like a novitiate. We all need such preparation and formation. The journey moves from information, to formation, to transformation. Surely any failure to grow spiritually in our lives is the result of a lack of genuine preparation, of spiritual formation. To live in the warmth of God's love is a sure and certain way to grow.
Blast from the Past:
Sep11 2009 - JY as a ‘A growing sense of hope’ –http://jydiscovery.blogspot.com/2009/09/deeper-higher-jy-growing-sense-of-hope.html

Sep14 2009 – ‘The response of the movement to the world around’ - http://jydiscovery.blogspot.com/2009/09/deeper-higher-response-of-movement-to.html

Sep15 2009 - JY ‘a critique of contemporary values’
http://jydiscovery.blogspot.com/2009/09/deeper-higher-jy-critique-of.html

Sep16 2009 – ‘Challenging ourselves to a deeper, personal relationship with Jesus’
http://jydiscovery.blogspot.com/2009/09/deeper-higher-personal-relationship.html

Sep16 2009 – ‘Formation in steadfastness’
http://jydiscovery.blogspot.com/2009/09/deeper-higher-formation-in.html

Reflection:
Today let’s reflect on ‘A lifestyle of openness and dialogue’
Jesus Youth movement has always given emphasis to the divine commission to share the Good News of the Kingdom. The growing tendency to withdraw from the world around7 is definitely a great enemy of an active lifestyle of sharing the Gospel. Jesus Youth have an inherent eagerness to welcome and dialogue with everyone they meet. In the midst of the pervading tendency of alienation and suspicion, Jesus Youth should take a special responsibility to seek all opportunities to collaborate with individuals and groups and not be inward looking or sectarian in their living situations – whether it is the Church or the wider society. We must follow the example of our Master who made friends with all kinds of people, even sinners and outcasts. While many express their concern over the ominous growth of violence and corruption, we should be more and more prepared and be open to join hands with other individuals and groups of goodwill and earnest dedication, to build a culture of tolerance and justice, where the seed of the Kingdom can be sown.- From Letter to Jesus Youth

Personal Thoughts:
Courtesy: Mathew Joseph
Sometimes God's ways are bit funny…
The powerful God who created heaven and earth...
The One who made everything perfect...
Why He need our help to share the Gospel to the world?
Why can't He make everyone followers of Jesus?

May be God wants us to take part in His creation work…
He is expecting us to join Him so that we together create the kingdom of God.
Isn't it a great expression of God's love for us?
He is reaching out and collaborating with sinners like you and me!!
That's God's love....

Jesus went about doing good (Acts 10:38).
He was sensitive to the needs of the people around...
He made friends with all kinds of people, even sinners and outcasts.
Sharing the good news and healing them.

We are called to be the light of this world giving Jesus to the people around us.
Every opportunity to share Jesus requires us to reach out to people.
Understanding their needs and problems.
Sharing the Gospel as a solution to their problems is a challenge.
That is the challenge God wants us to take today…

Prayer (to be repeated throughout the day):
My Lord My God, make me your humble instrument of love.

Regards,
Thomson
God’s Online.24x7.

Deeper & Higher - Formation in steadfastness

2009-09-18T11:26:00.006+05:30

Introduction:
Why Deeper & Higher?

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. (Matthew 7:24-26)

Do you know how a Bamboo Grows?
It takes five years for the seed of a bamboo tree to show any growth above ground, and then it grows to a height of 90 feet in six weeks! Five years of preparation, of putting down roots, of spreading underground, so as to have access to plenty of food. And then, only then, does it take off.
Only when we grow deeper in Lord can we reach higher in our growth and evangelization else stronger winds will bring us down easily in no time. These stronger winds could be manifested in many forms such as hurt feelings, inferiority complex, discouragement, guilty feeling etc and above all our personal Sins …
Going deeper makes us stronger like the bamboo which bends to extreme levels but never breaks. Learning from a bamboo lets grow deeper first in Lord then higher!

Archives (Please don’t miss the earlier reflections):
Sep11 2009 - JY as a ‘A growing sense of hope’ –
http://jydiscovery.blogspot.com/2009/09/deeper-higher-jy-growing-sense-of-hope.html
Sep14 2009 – ‘The response of the movement to the world around’ –
http://jydiscovery.blogspot.com/2009/09/deeper-higher-response-of-movement-to.html
Sep15 2009 - JY ‘a critique of contemporary values’
http://jydiscovery.blogspot.com/2009/09/deeper-higher-jy-critique-of.html
Sep16 2009 – ‘Challenging ourselves to a deeper, personal relationship with Jesus’
http://jydiscovery.blogspot.com/2009/09/deeper-higher-personal-relationship.html

Reflection:

Today let’s reflect on ‘Formation in steadfastness’

The contemporary culture of instant satisfaction, short attention span and the lack of an eternity perspective are definitely not conducive to ensuring continuity and developing rooted ness in life. Yet the movement believes that a lifestyle of steadiness and commitment is quite significant for fruitfulness (Jn 15:5). As the movement has found active participation in cells to be a very effective means of providing support in one’s spiritual journey, the building up of cells becomes a very important responsibility of the leaders as well as the coordinating teams of Jesus Youth. - From Letter to Jesus Youth

Personal Thoughts:

Where are we heading? Where are we building our home? Where are we buying our land? Where are we investing? Where will you vote... tough questions?

Well as word of God says we all are ‘Citizens of Heaven’ (Phil 3:20), so we are going to vote over there, our say is there, our fuller life is there and so is our government and King!

We are not only called to make this voyage to Heaven but also to take along companions on this journey … Our cells ,companionship & prayer groups are called for such a joyful holy journey together.

I now can imagine saints singing to us:

Come with me to heaven a place of truth and joy…
Are u a prodigal son?
If yes so come with me …
There is a father who is waiting for you … from time eternity……………

Or are you the elder one?
If yes so come with me …
There is a father who is still waiting for you… from time eternity……………

Prayer (Is a communication - to be repeated throughout the day):

If you love someone how long do you want speak on phone or face-2-face? 1 hr, 2 hr…..or 24 hrs? God’s online 24x7 giving you missed calls and trying to reach you…Pick up the call or call him back!

O lord Jesus I am prodigal son/daughter, my soul thirsts for you.

Regards,
Thomson
God’s Online.24x7.

Deeper & Higher - personal relationship with Jesus

2009-09-17T09:11:00.002+05:30

Reflection:
Today let’s reflect on ‘Challenging ourselves to a deeper, personal relationship with Jesus’
We often say that the most important aspect of our movement is ‘Jesus’ as our name ‘Jesus Youth’ suggests. Yet we must recognize that if we are not vigilant, there is always the danger of our spirituality getting reduced to certain programmes, groups or gestures, which is why we propose an ‘itinerary of holiness’ to help youth walk with Jesus in their everyday lives. The practice of the ‘six pillars’, participation in cells and a steady recourse to spiritual guidance
should support the nurturing of a fresh and dynamic relationship with the Lord. The core concern of the Jesus Youth movement is this ever renewing and ever widening personal walk with Jesus. There is an urgent need to challenge youth to renew and sustain their fidelity to this key element of Jesus Youth spirituality. - From Letter to Jesus Youth

Personal Thoughts:

Courtesy: Jose Thomas(Joji)

For each one of us who call ourselves Jesus Youth, the journey that we are on, started with a personal encounter with Christ. But that was only the beginning, what happened after that is what is most important. The paths that we trod after that, the lives that we touched, the love we shared, all these forms our journey with Christ. There is a very important aspect which determines how far we can go on this journey in this life.
That aspect is, "How much do you know the one who called you?"
Each call of our Lord is a call to step out in faith. Never at the moment of call is it made clear to us what exactly our call is or where it will lead. In our personal encounter with Christ, we were asked to step out in faith and we all did. If we look at people of immense faith like Abraham, Moses or Mother Mary, it’s their knowledge of who is calling them that makes them step out in faith. And its their deep and intimate knowledge of Him, that makes them continue faithfully even in most hopeless circumstances, never doubting a bit about their call or the promises given to them.
For us also to be faithful to our calls, we need to know the one who called us. And just knowing Him would not help to sustain our journey when the storms rage around us and we are not able to see the loving face of our savior. The intimate and true knowledge of our Lord who called us is the only thing that can sustain us through those storms until the morning breaks and brings with it the light of our saviors’ comforting grace. So from this day until the moment we breathe our last breath, and complete the beautiful journey that we started, let us be continuously on a journey of discovery too. A journey of discovery, of the beauty and depth, of the love of our wonderful Lord. Building an everlasting relationship with him. This is what will keep us true to our call until the last breath and beyond, until we come face to face with His majesty.
~ Joji

Prayer (To be repeated throughout the day):
O lord Jesus I desire to know you, to meet you, to be with you… more and more today.

Regards,
Thomson
God’s Online.24x7.

Deeper & Higher - JY a critique of contemporary values

2009-09-16T09:44:00.003+05:30

Why Deeper & Higher?
"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. (Matthew 7:24-26)
Do you know how a Bamboo Grows?
It takes five years for the seed of a bamboo tree to show any growth above ground, and then it grows to a height of 90 feet in six weeks! Five years of preparation, of putting down roots, of spreading underground, so as to have access to plenty of food. And then, only then, does it take off.
Only when we grow deeper in Lord can we reach higher in our growth and evangelization else stronger winds will bring us down easily in no time. These stronger winds could be manifested in many forms such as hurt feelings, inferiority complex, discouragement, guilty feeling etc and above all our personal Sins …
Going deeper makes us stronger like the bamboo which bends to extreme levels but never breaks.

Reflection:
Today let’s reflect on JY as ‘a critique of contemporary values’
The complex and powerful winds of progress and change that are sweeping across our communities are deeply affecting our attitudes and lifestyles.Enduring relationships and sustained commitments are being swept aside in the rapid pace of life. While the increase of wealth and material conveniences has made the youth financially more generous, independent and leisurely, the uncontrolled pursuit of money and material comfort has seriously affected the spiritual life of this generation(Lk 12:13-21; Mk 8: 36, 37). Amassing wealth is gradually becoming the key purpose in life for many, and even prayer and spirituality become a means to this end. In fact, this tendency to create, package and market an over-simplified, instantly-gratifying and painless spirituality is growing all around us. We need more young people who not only do not conform but can also challenge the values, motives and aspirations of the people around us. The Jesus Youth movement has a very significant role to play in exposing this mindset and in living a deeper Catholic spirituality - From Letter to Jesus Youth

Personal Thoughts:
Courtesy : Mathew Joseph
During the last 15 years Bangalore has changed a lot. It has grown from a pensioners' paradise to the IT capital of India. Lot of migrants coming to the city every day in search of a good job and good life. Wealth creation is becoming the sole motto for many. Success in life is measured only by the millions you make. The pub culture and the BPO culture is fast catching up.
Why is the creation of wealth not making our life simpler? Everyone is stressed and under lot of problems. Money is not solving their problems. Corruption is fast catching up in the society. Values are fast disappearing from people's mind. Everything seems to be fine as long as you make profits... Family values are fast disappearing. Drugs, alcohol, fashion and casual sex are no more a sin to this generation.
As JYs, are we open to the realities around? How many times did we pray for the social problems of Bangalore? Did we ever try to take an initiative to change this society? Many times, our prayers and prayer groups become totally isolated from the realities of the society we live in.The mall culture is fast influencing even the JYs.Our prayer groups also becomes disconnected from the main stream society and even from our parish youths... How many times we cared to share the gospel to the youth in our parish or in our community around?
Are we sensitive to the needs of the people around us? Do we have any responsibility towards the society we live in? What are we doing to make their lives better? How much do we get involved in resolving the social issues? Are we too busy, we even forget to pray for them? Selfish spirituality is a danger we need to watch out for... Remember, if you want to reach heaven, it is your responsibility to take the whole of Bangaloreans along with you to heaven. When you reach heaven, Jesus is going to ask you - where is your brother? Every Bangalorean irrespective of his caste or creed is your brother and you are responsible for their salvation.

Prayer (To be repeated throughout the day):
O lord Jesus make me amass your love as my wealth.

Regards,
Thomson

Deeper & Higher - Response of the movement to the world around

2009-09-14T10:58:00.004+05:30

As we prepare ourselves for the JY regional conference named "Deeper and Higher" happening in Christ University on Oct 2,3 & 4 lets reflect on the spiritual theme for the conference for the coming few weeks. The scriptural theme for the conference is “Put out into the deep”, Luke 5:4.
Continuing on our objective to ‘deepen our spiritual life’ on the back drop of this regional conference lets reflect on our next element which will help us’ Put out into the deep’.

Reflection:
Today let’s reflect on ‘the response of the movement to the world around’
Every Christian has a serious responsibility to reflect about and act upon the world around in the light of the Gospel (Lk 12: 55, 56). The mystery of the Incarnation, and Passover, through which God has lovingly united the world and its history to himself, bequeath on every Christian the duty to work together for progress and peace in the world. As Jesus Youth is a missionary movement, we ought to be creative designers of peace by getting involved in the affairs of the world. Our movement, with its focus on youth, has a special duty to challenge young people not to make use of the groups and activities to withdraw into their comfort zones and escape from their duties and responsibilities, but to inspire and guide them to be responsible and loving neighbours(Lk 10:29). This challenge is especially relevant in a fast changing, success-oriented culture where ‘personal achievement’ and ‘personal satisfaction’, both spiritual and material, often form the entire focus of one’s busy schedule. For many, even prayer life and personal spirituality are very much coloured by this holy self-centeredness, often turning spirituality into a set of external exercises and pious activities that do not influence their lives or relationships in a deeper way - From Letter to Jesus Youth

Personal Thoughts:
A question we need to answer now – Am I a Levite who passed by the wounded person, or the priest who was busy with His pious activities which supposedly pleased God or the good Samaritan who truly showed love beyond borders. Yes we all are called to be good Samaritans where ever we are. May be I am walking through the crowded streets of S G Palaya, or working in ITPL, or stuck in the electronic city traffic jam or studying in MCC or any nursing college or teaching or marketing where ever I am, am I called as a JY to be a living 5th Gospel for my fellow brethren.
Why are our faces saddened after lot of prayers? Where is the joy of praying? Aren’t we still a joyful contradiction. I think the time has come for prayerful actions. The time is right for us to come out of our own 4 cornered comfort rooms and step out into the world as living message of love of Christ.

There is a great famine for love in Bangalore. May our prayers result in love and our love in fruitful actions. I believe we all are called to be a pro-lifer, an intercessor, a lover wherever we are and this is not limited to just our prayer warriors from intercession team or pro-life ministry members. Every JY is called by Lord to this kind of joyful life which contradicts the saddened cynical masked life of the world. Ask any one outside – How are you and the answer is audio taped – I am fine? Are they really? Or are we robots who are taught to say that all is fine with us (a mask).
Are we ready to unmask, unlearn the wrong and wear the mask of Jesus Love & Joy and show the same to others? When God closes one door he opens many so let’s find the many open doors in our life to go out to the world with Christ’s good news.

Prayer (To be repeated throughout the day):
O lord Jesus make me pro-life.
O Mother Mary pray that I become an intercessor just like you.

Regards,
Thomson

Deeper & Higher - JY a growing sense of hope

2009-09-12T08:09:00.006+05:30

The scriptural theme for the conference is “Put out into the deep”, Luke 5:4. I would like to go back to the Letter to Jesus Youth dated 23rd March 2008 prepared by the JY international team which highlights the various aspects of putting out into the deep.
At the heart of the Jesus Youth movement is its special call to offer a relevant spiritual response to the fast paced, constantly changing, multi-ethnic world of today. Such a response can proceed only from deep reflection and a clear discernment of the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Thus the focus of ‘Deeper and higher’ remains mainly on two aspects - “Deepening of our spiritual lives” and “Strengthening of our Mission”.

Reflection:
Today lets reflect on JY as a ‘A growing sense of hope’.

The youth that are involved in the Jesus Youth movement and those who come into contact with them tell the story of a fresh discovery of hope. Through the movement ordinary youth from diverse backgrounds receive a life changing experience of Jesus and are transformed into active Christians with a sense of mission in life. It is heartening to note that Church hierarchy and leaders of society often express a growing sense of hope and expectation about what the movement can offer to the Church and society. This expression of support and encouragement, especially from the Church hierarchy, while a source of much consolation, is also an awesome responsibility, calling us to be faithful to the guidance of the Church and to fulfil our duties as active players in the growth of the society around(Lk 12:48) – From Letter to Jesus Youth .

Personal Thoughts:

Many times in my life I have felt that things I do is just because someone expects me to do this or a great responsibility lies on me to complete the action.Jesus and His Church have laid a great responsibility on us and not only has He given us this responsibility but also has equipped us with power of the Holy Spirit from above to carry it out.
The greatest challenge you and me face on a personal front day in day out is the responsibility of being holy & faithful to our master in this seductive world. The world is calling from newspaper, internet, peers, and media to a life of pleasure and fun compromising without any hesitation the good handed over to us by Jesus our Lord. The battles are more personal I feel than social. For me personal spiritual battles are fiercer than community one’s. Let’s pray for personal holiness.
Today let’s reflect on these thoughts and make a prayer of Holiness.

Prayer (To be repeated throughout the day):
O lord Jesus through the power of your precious blood make me Holy and pure like you!

Regards,
Thomson

Musings of a missionary doctor in the land of Nagas - Part II

2009-08-15T14:45:00.001+05:30

Part-2
psalm 119:117
May Jesus hold us up that we may be safe and have regard for His statutes continually.

Little snippets from the mission diary :) just to keep my promise in the first mail,that i'd continue..

ONE MORNING SIX OF US WALKED TO WAPHR VILLAGE...
We wanted to get an early start ,so we packed 6 boiled eggs and few bananas for breakfast... the previous night we had called our man at the village to give information of our arrival, but the ever-failing mobile phone range ,failed us yet again!;)The walk to Waphr was 16 km one way. Our Sr. Sismy was with us, she too had walked... this kind of humility , really impressed the baptist pastor,he said that their clergy always travel by vehicle.He offered to transport us back when we were finished with our program,but of course-we chose to walk :) Due to lack of forewarning, the women had mostly all left for their fields. We still gave health education to the 8 or 9 women folk who had stayed behind in the village due to breastfeeding babies and other little ones. We had our packed breakfast with the tea they provided. After the class, the house which had hosted us , provided us with lunch. Our cook that day was a 19 year old girl with a 5 month old baby... I remember them clearly , because while i playfully used my steth on the baby, to my utter amazement , i heard a heart sound that indicated a hole in the heart!!! In college , our profs used to try and teach us this... so taking this lead i asked this girl if her baby used to get distressed while breast feeding, and frequent chest infections.. she confirmed the text book symptoms... so there, in that village, i made my first diagnosis of a probable VSD in a baby. :) I advised her of the baby's need for good medical care.3 days later , I met that girl in the PHC in town.( Of course this PHC is quite primitive in its facilities, but its a start! This mommy must travel 3 more hours before they can reach higher centers , that are not fantastic, but may have a pediatrician. ...)
THE WALK BACK...
Going downhill ,we just need to be alert not to slip, but climbing up is quite 'the' endurance test! We stop to catch our breath only when the chest threatens to burst :) After climbing a steep hill, exhausted ,we girls stretched out on the grass while the boys ran into a house on that hilltop to fill our bottle with water.Though our throats were dry, humor never dried out, laughing and singing ,our spirits were always enjoying a high :)Praise God!

These long walks to villages through picturesque hillsides, fields and valleys, invariably welded us together.We discovered the unique beauties hidden in each of our friends, as we shared a song here, a carrybag there, and short stops to eat bananas and rest.We found out how the sister with us loved to collect ferns and pine cones for dry flower decorations for the chapel... we reached home from Waphr that evening ,with practically a 'bag-ful' of the forest!
JESUS , THE ETERNAL BOY :)
Jesus is very clever at preparing soul-stirring surprises... I felt this facet of His love through little children. An eight year old boy and later a 4 year old girl, on different occasions.. . they would unexceptionably take a fancy to me [as if on a cue from Him ;) ]come to me and make me play with them ,gift me a plum or a flower... they barely knew me, yet they trusted themselves to me, completely! Only God knows how much they comforted me unknowingly with their innocence and freely gifted love!

One evening ,on a day when i had experienced some sadness, Father took us for a babas' (father's) meeting in PWD colony. He had asked uncle Philip (our older JY member) to give the gathering a talk.As we reached the house , the above mentioned 4 year old girl, Limreila, met me for the first time.She examined my rosary, my stethoscope, and opened my umbrella, then replaced everything in my bag ,before climbing into my lap and playing with me. She let me carry her to the neighbors' house, and later nestled next to me and pretended to read a hymnal throughout the talk.By the end of the talk, she took the stick of the agarbathi that had burnt out and pretended to pierce my hand with it.I had been quietly enjoying her childish antics and friendship, it really made me forget my sadness. By then I had given her many little kisses... so as she played her game of 'nailing' my hand , i thought to myself... 'Man, this is just like us. Jesus loves us and pets us so much and after enjoying His love so long, we just playfully, hammer nails into His hands! stupid us!'.As we were leaving , Limreila made me pick her up.She had decided to come back with us to Father's house.But of course we couldn't take her along ...

"ah, she is quite a philosopher isn't she? lets pat her on the back..." from you guys is not quite the aim of this narration!;) ... what followed is what amazed me... devout catholic though i am , due to my aversion to calenders and remembrances (which, unfortunately, is so vital to social living), it totally came as a surprise when Father told us that the day's mass would be in honor of the Sacred Heart ,whose feast it was on that day. The first reading was Hosea 11:1 onwards... "when Israel was a child , I loved him....Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them...I was to them like those who LIFT INFANTS TO THEIR CHEEKS.I bent down to them and fed them." I remembered Limreila :) The gospel was about the crucifixion. .. John 19:34" instead, one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear and at once blood and water came out."

So like that the Holy Spirit had preached the word to me before the mass itself! It was mission experience par excellence ,to me :)"O taste and see, that the Lord is good!For He tastes like honey in the rock...He is my everything,He is my all...la la la"

HEART WARMERS IN THE COOL OF NAGALAND...
The clergy and religious of the diocese of Nagaland are a living witness to the fire of love that Christians everywhere are called to share. 12-hour journeys through bumpy , hair-pin-curve roads would be interspersed every 3 hours with the hospitality of priests and nuns of the parishes along the way.Their love for Fr. Francis (our priest) would make them open their hearts,houses and convents to us generously. Father only had to give them a heads-up , and there would be ready for us breakfast, lunch,tea or dinner!:) In Kohima, we were given a guided tour of the cathedral (which is the largest in Asia) by Fr.Benny, the Bishop's secretary. It was something memorable, to hold in my hand, the big toe of the 18 feet tall Jesus on the central crucifix, carved out of a single piece of wood (except for the arms) hanging on the wall,behind the altar.

Thank you Jesus , and all of you who as Jesus Youth made this mission possible.
God bless you all.
Please remember me in your sms's to heaven ;) my md entrance exam preparations and the exams themselves.. cos God hears the prayers of His saints :)
In Jesus and Mama Mary
Anna

Musings of a missionary doctor in the land of Nagas - Part I

2009-08-15T14:28:00.002+05:30

One day in your courts O Lord, is better than thousands elsewhere... . one day as Your missionary where You send us,O Lord ,is better than thousand days in the comfort of familiar home ground.

I'm not a nun, a theologian nor a counselor, just a 24 year old , fresh out of medical college... yet young and old wanted to hear what this young lady , a doctor from so far away had to say to them...going to a mission area along with "professionals to mission" has given me the opportunity very few young doctors perhaps saviour! the opportunity to touch a lot of hurting poor people.

At the end of 10th std , i had told Jesus that the best chance for me to be a missionary of His was to be a doctor. He made me a doctor. But 7 years is a long time and i had long forgotten that teenage promise... though of course to serve Jesus wherever He might place me was my motive, a radical missionary life seemed too outlandish!

But praise the Lord! He had taken my promise quite seriously... A doctor friend of mine , spoke to me the words Jesus wanted me to hear... inspiring me to dare to give to Jesus the first fruits of my service as a doctor by serving the really poor in the mission lands.

The ostrich hides her head in the sand and thinks no one can see her. Christian Mbbs doctors hide themselves behind their books and think the Lord cant ask any mission work of them. If i became a doctor just to make money or to be a social worker then joining the rat race for a post graduate seat would be appreciable. But since He chose me to be His witness, a doctor for Him, my decision 2 bury my gold coins in the mud with the laudable excuse of preparing for pg just like my friends would be saying no to Him... so I thank Jesus for this opportunity

One month in nagaland taught me many things... one incident flashing like neon lights in my memories of nagaland that will both humble and exalt me throughout my life is what took place in a lil room filled with many daughters and sons of an old couple. The woman bed ridden with excruciating back pain following a fall. the first visit there i wrote a prescription for iv fortwin phenergan.the son promised to get it even if he had to travel 3 hours.next evening we went there so i could give the injection.however, the army medical assistant had already supplied the medicine and administered it.So after encouraging them to visit a higher centre for treatment of a possible fracture, my 3 friends n i were politely saying gbye when the old lady held my hand and motioned for me to pray over her. i had been always shying away from that, especially since a priest or nun with me would do it. this time we were only lay people and it was a baptist family. But i prayed that night.and then on whenever possible ended every consultation with prayer.

Really , Jesus is our loving elder brother.He uses us to do through us the good that He wishes to do for others .Because He loves to see our souls aglow with joy after each good deed He enables us to do.He is bowled over by even a tiny smile on our lips!He is captivated by us despite our weaknesses!!

Throughout my mission experience. He was there creating venues for me to be of service.
He put a zealous missionary priest in charge of me and the nun with me.Thanks to this happy blessing , we were welcomed in almost every house as Father escorted us around.When Father was out of station for a week, the catechists who love him and share his vision and passion took us to 3 villages,(viz Waphr, Liangkonger and Shamatoor village) arranging health education seminars wherever possible.

My days were filled with chances to proclaim to the people :"your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit." and to preach prolife sentiments . medical check ups after the seminar , dispensing the medicines Father had stockpiled for me , and medical check up in the school,patients coming to consult at home, ..

Telling stories to the catechism kids, teaching them action songs and explaining to them the blessings of the rosary , smudged the faint line differentiating the doctor from the missionary :) One day i was given an awesome invitation by the Father to lead the adoration for a few of us.For this blessing i give full credit to Mama Mary with whom i had prayed 3 rosaries that day... which is usually an impossibility for me!

In jakama ,st. Joseph's college, we explained Jesus Youth to the 150 hostellites. .. by a one n half hour program.i was unanimously made mc, by my loving english-shy brothers! later they rejoiced when i went to the pulpit to deliver a half an hour extempore on JY and its 6 pillars in the parish of Vishvema.

through it all, we experienced the hospitality of the catholic church in nagaland.there is more to share.. i 'll continue tomorrow dear brothers and sisters. Gnight!
your loving sister
in Jesus and Mama Mary
anna

Reflection on Child like love for my Lord.

2009-08-14T23:51:00.003+05:30

I was enjoying a morning of rough and tumble with my two younger ones on the bed in the morning. It was a holiday and the luxury of lazing around and wrestling around with my younger two was all mine. I was enjoying the innocent love of the two little hearts which loved and trusted me with out conditions. These moments made me reflect on my love for our Lord.

During the initial days of the love for my Lord, my love was as innocent and beautiful as kunjunnis and kunju babychans love for me. It didn’t have a format, it didn't have words, it didn't have any frills and thrills. It was simple love. When I felt like loving my Lord, I would tell him Lord I don’t know how to pray properly, I don’t know how to meditate upon your love. I don’t have enough of my own love stored up to give you, so let me enjoy your ,love and show my love for you in me own childish ways. Then I could snuggle up into his loving arms as kunjunni did, and enjoy His love enfolded in his loving arms. I could snuggle up into the crook of his arm and stay there enjoying his presence and His love. I could enjoy the silkiness of his beard, hold his loving face in my arms and look deeply into those loving eyes. I could put my head on is chest and hear the murmur of his heart telling me of his infinite love. But I could not understand a word of it as I still did not know enough about his love. But those heart beats still told me how much he loved me. It could fill peace and joy with in my heart. Those murmurs could be the love song that could give me happy and contented sleep. I could feel the loving wound just below his pierced heart. Although it was a hard scar rough to touch, they spoke of his love for me. When his hand passed through my hair, I again could feel the scars on his hands, but they didn't feel rough to me. The scars told me about a love that sacrificed a godly existence for me. They told me about a resolute march through his life towards the cross for His love of me. They told the story of a God who loved his people to sacrifice His only son for them. They still talked to me of a God who waits me on the altar in the form of humble bread and wine so that he could be one with me on this earth They told me of an impatient God who would rather be sacrificed on the altar here on earth every day and be consumed by an unworthy me so that he could be with me now rather than waiting for me in heaven.

Now I know the formulas of prayers. I can say very pious prayers. I can sing and praise him and may be lead worship times. I can give discourses on his infinite love. But how I wish I had that innocence of my first love. How I wish I could have the intensity of that first love. I could give all my piousness, the beauty of my prayer and every thing to have the preciousness of that first love. I am in search of that wonderful love deep within me. And I am sure there is a lord impatiently waiting for me to reciprocate that love. My only consolation is that he is the Lord of love and he is an impatient Lord in matters of love. So my heart is searching for him knowing that he alone can give me back that love …

Bring Him to ME! Bible Reflection from Fr.Tom

2009-08-13T17:20:00.002+05:30

Mt 17.17: “Bring him [the boy] to me”. This was Jesus. The disciples of Jesus had tried their best to get the boy healed before Jesus came after his tryst with God, His Father at Jesus’ transfiguration event. But nothing came of it. So Jesus somewhat disappointed asked them to bring the boy to him.

I hear him say this to me and to all who are working with young people. When we are powerless to do for a boy or girl to heal them of any weakness, Jesus tells me: Bring him/her to ME! How often we like to do things on our own but some cases need lots more of faith.

This story is much more elaborate in Mark 9.14-29 with many more interesting details. For instance, when the apostles ask Jesus why they could not cast out the demon in the boy, Jesus replies “This kind [of devil] can only come out through prayer.” Mk 17,29. So to handle the possession of some of our young people can be healed only through faith and prayer. In this context recall what Jesus said in the Gospel of John 15.5: without me you can do nothing! Faith and prayer imply that we rely more on Jesus than on our own expertise or skills alone. Sure we need expertise and skills but they avail nothing unless we have faith and prayer.

As I reflect on this simple statement of Jesus, I see this invitation to parents, teachers in schools and colleges, formation centers, parishes, hostels, youth centres with teenage boys and girls, who are not easy to handle. Bring him/ her to ME. Bring her to me in prayer. Sit with him/her to listen to them to help them discern their problem area and after having done all we can for them we bring them to the Master for his touch.

I also feel that often when we fail to help our young people, we tend to blame them and their environment and companions and all sorts of imagined causes for their behavior seldom thinking that we might be part of the problem rather than the solution. This is when we take them to Jesus. This means also that we go along with them for we might need fixing more than the one we take to Jesus. It is very unflattering to realize that we need fixing too. In the Marcan narrative, the father of the boy realized that his faith was weak, so he prayed: “I do believe, help my unbelief” Mk 9.24. In our everyday language, we could paraphrase: I have some faith but it is so weak, so small, so ineffective. Please help me to grow in faith. Jesus says: come to me and I will help you increase your faith at least to the size of the mustard seed. Bring him/her to me. Come yourself to me. Bring me yourself, your weak faith and I can help to increase it.

It is so painful...

2009-06-22T10:15:00.007+05:30

Pain is a "pain". It offers only suffering. it is so painful...

Just the other day, the doctor brother of mine told me about a child who does not feel pain. It is a medical condition that is extremely dangerous to the child. This child has his lips almost eaten up by himself and hands and legs bruised and scars all over, some still horribly unhealed. Since he does not feel pain he ends up de-fleshing himself. A horrendous plight this boy must go though.

Pain is one of the greatest defense mechanism of the body. We take care of the body because there is pain. Pain is a gift.

If the pain, as a result of an injury or an ailment is a gift, the pain as a result of a mental condition should also therefor be a gift. It alerts us of the certain injustice done to us, that we need care and attention. Above all it alerts us that we need to connect back to God who gives us the right perspective to deal the pain and over come it.

Saints often thanked God for suffering and asked for more. They saw pain in the light of "the Light" They suffered pain for the sake of fellow beings. They thankful welcomed it for it's sheer redemptive power, sharing in the suffering of the Lamb that was sacrificed before us.

I thank God for pain...

Lent Special - Seven Deadly sins - No.3

2009-04-03T23:46:00.001+05:30

Gluttony

Evagrius of Pontus, a Christian monk and ascetic whose ideas may have inspired St John Cassian's list of eight sins, gives us a very poetic, but comprehensive definition of the sin of gluttony: "Gluttony is the mother of lust, the nourishment of evil thoughts, laziness in fasting, obstacle to asceticism, terror to moral purpose, the imagining of food, sketcher of seasonings, unrestrained colt, unbridled frenzy, receptacle of disease, envy of health, obstruction of the (bodily) passages, groaning of the bowels, the extreme of outrages, pollution of the intellect, weakness of the body, difficult sleep, and gloomy death."

Proverbs 23:20-21 warns us not to "join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags." Proverbs 28:7 declares that "he who keeps the law is a discerning son, but a companion of gluttons disgraces his father." Proverbs 23:2 advises us to "put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony" and though that might seem a little too extreme, it is definitely indicative of how severely God views the sin of gluttony.

Why is gluttony a sin, though? Because gluttony is more than simply overeating. It is abusing God's gifts. Food, which is one gift, is necessary for good health, but when we overeat we abuse it and harm our bodies, which is another gift. Secondarily, gluttony leads to other sins like sloth. Daniel (of the den of lions fame) understood that.

King Nebuchadnezzar had once sent his army into Jerusalem. After securing a tremendous victory, they returned to Babylon with a bunch of prisoners in tow, among whom was Daniel. Soon after, Nebuchadnezzar instructed his ministers to select handsome, healthy and intelligent young men from among the captives and bring them to the palace in order to teach them Babylonian culture and traditions, so that they could be of use in his service. Daniel was one of those who were chosen.

Right off, Daniel faced a problem. Nebuchadnezzar had dictated that the new trainees were to be served the same food and wine that was served on the royal table. While this would have flattered most young men, Daniel was aghast. He was a vegetarian who drank only water and he resolved to consume nothing the king was offering. Why? Not merely because the food would probably have been offered to idols (a good enough reason for him to refuse), but because the richness of the food would have led to laziness, which in turn would have ended his powerful prayer life. Ever try praying on a full stomach? (Or anything else for that matter?)

A God Sized Hole

All of us are born with a big gaping hope within us. It's a hole that God himself placed so that we would search for Him and find Him. Some of us don't realize this, however, and try to fill the emptiness with food, alcohol, sex, tobacco, anti-depressants, and other things of the world. This hole, however, is a God-sized hole, and the only thing that can fill a God-sized hole is God Himself, which means that anything else that we do simply won't compensate. The belly may be stuffed, but the heart is hollow.

What's Eating You?

How empty are your hearts? Your eating habits may reveal a lot. What do you do when you are seated at the dining table? Do you pile your plate with food, then without a glance to see if everybody else has served themselves, begin attacking your food and don't say a word until you have finished eating? Do you take second and third servings?

Do you eat at the wrong time or when you aren't hungry? Are you fussy about the food that is laid on the table? Does everything have to be made just the way you like it? Does rice, for instance, have to be the best of Basmati with each grain unbroken and separate from the next? Do you insist on having the best of everything?

Do you snack constantly? When you are at a friend's house and the snack tray goes around, do you pick something from it each and every time it passes you by? Do you try to ensure it ends up close to you?

Do you tell yourself that it is okay to overindulge sometimes? For instance at a wedding party where a huge buffet is laid out with an array of mouth watering delicacies, each one more tempting than the next, do you let yourself go? Or when you are at restaurant that has a special "All you can eat" offer: do you believe it is okay—nay, necessary—to eat three times what you normally would simply because you want to make the most of a good deal? Do you ever give thought that there may be consequences to your health because of what you do?

We probably don't read too much into some of these things, but they are all indicative of gluttony, which in turn may reveal the emptiness within you. There is a saying that the way through a man's heart is through his stomach, which may very well be true, but not only for a woman to exploit; Satan takes advantage of this too. He used food to tempt Adam and Eve! "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate" (Genesis 3:6).

He tried to use food to tempt Jesus too. After His baptism in the River Jordan, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert where He fasted. After fasting for forty days He was obviously hungry and Satan, who is ever ready to exploit a situation to his advantage, was right there next to Him: "If you are the Son of God," he tempted Jesus, "tell these stones to become bread." Jesus knew better than to fall for his tricks. He answered, "Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God" (cf Matthew 4:34). He was saying that it isn't only food that fills us, but God's word too. Do we fill ourselves with it?

It is not only reading it and memorizing what God says that fills us, however, but doing what God tells us to do as well. After speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well, His apostles returned with food and offered Him some, but He said He had already eaten. Confused, they wondered who might have brought him food. Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work" (John 4:34).

The Virtue: Temperance

The virtue of temperance disposes us to avoid every kind of excess, helping us to control and moderate our appetites, be it for food, drink or anything else. Intemperance brings about an arrest of emotional development. Have you ever taken a little child into a toy shop? S/he will drive you crazy by his/her demands believing s/he needs everything s/he sees! Jesus tells us to be like children, but not like spoiled little children. There is nothing appealing about a spoiled child. That's what we become like when we are intemperate, demanding our desires be fulfilled. When we are slaves of our desires, we cannot exercise our free will, which leads to an inability to cultivate other virtues. Temperance, however, allows us to become the people God created us to be, spiritually and morally beautiful.

How do we control gluttony? Fasting and mortification usually helps, and both these can be done without damaging one's health. On the contrary, going on a diet that comprises only fruit juice for a week (or longer) can actually be beneficial to health, as also giving up meats, sweets and other things that we might be very fond of and think we can't live without.

What really helps, however, is addressing the basic root of the problem which is the emptiness of the heart that only God can fill. He has something beautiful to fill it with - the Holy Spirit. We have already met the Samaritan woman in the well (see Lust). She was emotionally empty, and tried to fill herself with the love of men, but she went through five husbands without getting what she craved for. She was hoping number six would do the trick, but as Jesus told her: "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (John 4:13-14).

In other words, we can do whatever we want to fill the emptiness in our lives, but the only thing that truly can is God.

The Gift: Fortitude

There is a very powerful passage in Paul's letter to the Corinthians where he speaks about "beating" his body, a euphemism for getting his body under his control. "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize" (1 Corinthians 9:24 NIV).

Many of us are slaves to our body. The instant we feel hungry, we look for something to put into our bellies. The moment we feel a little warm under the collar, we turn the air conditioner on. The minute we feel thirsty, we're reaching for the soda can. We need to make our body our slaves, bringing it into subjugation to us. The gift of fortitude helps us in this task.

To quote Pope John Paul II again, he writes that "when, like Jesus in Gethsemane, we experience "the weakness of the flesh", or rather, of human nature subject to physical and psychological infirmities, we should ask the Holy Spirit for the gift of Fortitude to remain firm and decisive on the path of goodness. Then we will be able to repeat with St Paul: "For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong" (1 Corinthians 12:10).

May the Spirit be with you.

Courtesy:
http://www.holyspiritinteractive.net/columns/aneelaranha/sevendeadlysins/03.asp

Lent Special - Seven Deadly sins - No.2

2009-03-24T22:20:00.003+05:30

Pride

Do you think you are smarter than others?

Some of us take a lot of pride in our own opinions, judgments and thoughts. I used to have a friend like that. He used to think he knew it all, and would expound his theories about every single topic under the sun. Most bemusing were his "expert" commentaries during cricket matches, especially given the fact that he had never held a cricket bat in his hand in his entire life! My friend was generally considered a harmless buffoon, but such pride can have serious—even tragic—consequences.

Dave McPherson tells the story of a U.S. Air Force transport plane flying over Alaska in the mid-50s with its captain and five crew members when they entered an unusually fierce snowstorm. The navigator contacted an air base only to be told that he had veered several hundred miles off course. Correct coordinates were given to the navigator, who continued to insist that his own calculations could not be that far off. Soon the plane ran low on fuel. The six men decided to abandon the plane and parachute to safety, but because of the sub zero temperature and winds that gusted to 50 mph, they were all frozen within minutes of hitting the ground. As a result of the navigator's pride, five other people went to their deaths.

Proverbs 12:15 tells us that "fools think their own way is right, but the wise listen to advice." This advice is best taken when it comes from God, as Proverbs 3:5 says: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight."

The key word here is "heart". Faith is a gift of the heart and not of the mind. Many of us know a lot about God, but unless that knowledge—a mind thing—goes down to the heart, we will never really know God. We see this exemplified in the arrogance of Saul before he turned Paul. He was a brilliant man, very highly educated, who knew the Scriptures. And because he knew the Scriptures, he thought he knew God. Only when he was thrown off his high horse and met Jesus on the way to Damascus did he realize that he didn't really know anything.

Do you think you are superior to others?

This is a pride which basically makes us think we are better than everybody else, and is often expressed by bragging. One of the greatest braggarts of all times was the boxer Mohammed Ali who immortalized the phrase, "I am the greatest."

There's a story reported about a conversation that took place between a flight attendant and Mohammed Ali, then at the start of his career. Ali was on a plane and as he didn't have his seat belt fastened, the stewardess came up to him and asked him buckle up. "Superman don't need no seat belt," he told her. She gave him a withering look and said, "Superman don't need no plane."

We might laugh at that but many of us are guilty of this type of pride. Have you ever said—or felt like saying—these words to somebody: "Don't you know who I am?" Or how about this: "Who do you think you are telling me what to do?"

I remember a highly educated professional came to me one day for counsel. His marriage was on the rocks and he seemed to want to save it, but as he spoke I realized that he didn't want any suggestions on how he could repair it, but wanted me to affirm the things that he was doing, which mainly consisted of a list of conditions he had laid down for his wife, if she wanted to get back to him. I told him that if he wanted to reconcile with her he needed to forgive her for all the wounds that she had caused him—real or imagined—but even as I spoke to him, I knew it was useless. I could almost hear him thinking, "Who do you think you are, preacher man?" He felt superior to me; possibly superior to everybody.

This kind of pride can make us think we are superior to God too. We saw this happen with Satan. We also know it happened with Adam and Eve. Why did they eat of the fruit? Because they wanted to be like God.

Pride builds very slowly and often so subtly that we don't even realize that somewhere along the line we have become proud. I remember when I started Holy Spirit Interactive, people started referring to me as "Brother Aneel" and it irritated me because I thought it was pompous. As the weeks went by, however, I discovered I started liking the title and getting annoyed when people didn't call me "Brother". God, fortunately, doesn't let me get away with any such nonsense, and told me to level the playing field by calling everybody else brother (and sister) as well.

Do you have a spotty prayer life?

Not having a regular, disciplined prayer life usually suggests a high degree of pride because you believe that you can do things on your own steam. I saw this in my own life recently. For most of 2008 I shuttled across the world, traveling to ten countries across five continents and preaching to people by the thousands. Although I was encouraging them to build a good, solid relationship with God, my own relationship was at its worst ever since I got to know Him. I was spending more time talking about Him than with Him.

There were two direct consequences as a result of this negligence: One, I felt extremely tired most of the time, which was the result of working on my own steam rather than empowered by His Spirit. Two, I felt angry that God wasn't chipping in more in what was His work, which was the result of operating according to my own will rather than His. As I said earlier, God doesn't let me get away with any nonsense for too long, and He sat me down for a week in Omaha and showed me the error of my ways. I ceased all travel for three months after that, just restoring my relationship with Him again.

Maybe He is using my mistake to show you yours.

Are you vain?
Vanity is inflated pride in oneself or one's appearance. In his book A Love Worth Giving: Living in the Overflow of God's Love Max Lucado illustrates this aspect of pride with a delightful set of questions almost guaranteed to make us squirm. "Suppose you are in a group photo. The first time you see the picture where do you look? And if you look good, do you like the picture? If you are the ONLY one who looks good, do you still like the picture? If some are cross-eyed and others have spinach in their teeth-but you still look good-do you like the picture? If that's what makes you like it even more, you've got a bad case of pride."

Continued - http://www.holyspiritinteractive.net/columns/aneelaranha/sevendeadlysins/01.asp

Lent Special - Seven Deadly sins - No.1

2009-03-21T23:23:00.004+05:30

1.Lust

Before we begin talking about lust, we need to talk a little about sex. Hugh Hefner didn't invent it. Neither did Hollywood. Nor the authors of the Kama Sutra. God created sex, and like everything He made it was beautiful.

He didn't waste any time getting to it either. Merely two chapters into the Bible and we find Adam and Eve walking around naked, feeling no shame, at total ease with their own bodies and each other's. There was no reason for shame. They were the handiwork of God, created in His image and likeness.

Then the devil got into the act and messed it all up. That's his special talent: messing things up. Our special talent is that we let him mess them up so easily. He got Eve to lust after the fruit without too much effort, and then he got the rest of us who followed to lust after everything—and everyone—else, again with hardly any effort at all. All we need to do is take a look at our lives and see how easily we open the door of our hearts to temptation, especially sexual temptation.

And it is insatiable. Dangerously so.

How an Eskimo kills a wolf

I am reminded of a story I read about how an Eskimo kills a wolf. The account is grisly, but it offers an insight into the all consuming, self-destructive nature of lust. "First, the Eskimo coats his knife blade with animal blood and allows it to freeze. Then he adds another layer of blood, and another, until the blade is completely concealed by frozen blood.

Next, the hunter fixes his knife in the ground with the blade up. When a wolf follows his sensitive nose to the source of the scent and discovers the bait, he licks it, tasting the fresh frozen blood. He begins to lick faster, more and more vigorously, lapping the blade until the keen edge is bare. Feverishly now, harder and harder the wolf licks the blade in the arctic night.

So great becomes his craving for blood that the wolf does not notice the razor-sharp sting of the naked blade on his own tongue, nor does he recognize the instant at which his insatiable thirst is being satisfied by his OWN warm blood. His carnivorous appetite just craves more—until the dawn finds him dead in the snow!"

This is what happens to us when we give in to lust. A man I met during one of my travels told me the story of his rapid progression into degeneracy. "It began with stuff I read in books," he confessed. "The descriptions of sexual encounters would arouse me and I would masturbate. Then I began spinning my own fantasies, each one wilder than the one before. Soon, this wasn't enough and I wanted the real thing. I got into one relationship, then another, and another. None meant anything beyond the sexual acts, which grew increasingly perverted and warped. I began despising myself and my partner and the sex began to reflect that, getting cruel and degrading. It makes me feel sick, but I can't stop. I feel like I am dying inside ...." He was dying, like the wolf, a victim of his own lustful appetite.

The story is common to many of us. Strangely, though, the devil has managed to convince us that these depravities are as natural as eating or drinking or sleeping. It isn't. Author and preacher Richard Exley writes: "Lust is not the result of an overactive sex drive; it is not a biological phenomenon or the by-product of our glands. If it were, then it could be satisfied with a sexual experience, like a glass of water quenches thirst or a good meal satisfies appetite. But the more we attempt to appease our lust, the more demanding it becomes. There is simply not enough erotica in the world to satisfy lust's insatiable appetite."

What Scripture Says

Scripture is very clear about what God thinks of sexual immorality and the consequences thereof. Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians, warns them to flee from sexual immorality. "All other sins a man commits," he writes, "are outside his own body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple to the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God. You are not your own" (1 Corinthians 6:18-19).

In his letter to the Galatians, he warns of the consequences of such immorality: "Those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God" (cf Galatians 5:19-21). Most of us pay little heed, accelerating on our path towards self-destruction. How do we stop?

Lessons from King David

We can learn a few lessons from people in the Bible who gave in to their lust. One was King David. The second book of Samuel tells us the sordid story of how David gave in to his lust when he saw a beautiful woman named Bathsheba bathing. It was an act that eventually led to the murder of Bathsheba's husband and other even more horrific consequences, but what is educational are the circumstances that led to the act.

The story begins in classic style: "In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king's men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem" (2 Samuel 11:1).

Leave aside the suggestion that there were apparently seasons when kings were supposed to wage war, the question that comes to mind here is what King David was doing at home when his army was out fighting? In the old days David would have led his men into battle, but the king had obviously become a little indolent, preferring to take leisurely strolls on the roof of his palace and spy on women bathing rather than dorn armor and do noble deeds that were really kingly. His had become an idle mind.

An idle mind is the devil's workshop, and whenever we are unoccupied, our minds become a veritable playground for the enemy. I don't need to validate this statement; I am sure we can all attest to this truth from personal experience.

What's the solution? To keep ourselves busy. And if we can't, to fill our minds with good thoughts. "Whatever is true," Paul wrote to the Philippians: "Whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things" (Philippians 4:8).

Sin always begins in the mind, and while we can't always control the initial wave of thoughts that sweep over it, we can control how we deal with them. When it comes to lust we have to be ruthless in cutting off the thoughts the moment we recognize them as bad because, as we saw earlier, if we allow ourselves the slightest leeway, we're on a slippery slide straight into the arms of the devil.

Most of us have trigger points and we need to be aware of them. Does the sight of the skimpily clad men and women in Baywatch make you drool? Don't watch it. Or the Page 3 girls in the tabloid section of the newspaper? Skip past that section. Or chatting on the Internet? Kill your MSN. It can be anything. I know a man who used to get aroused reading comic books: Betty and Veronica used to stir him up!

Jesus told us in no uncertain terms what needs to be done. "If your hand or foot causes you to sin," He said, "cut it off and throw it away." He recommended we do the same thing with our eyes (cf Matthew 8:18-19). Translated, this means: Do not watch/listen/read/browse anything on television/radio/books/magazines/internet that could nourish impure thoughts, feelings or fantasies. And that includes Archie comics if they mess up your mind.

Lessons from the Woman at the Well

We can learn an even more important lesson from the Samaritan woman Jesus met by a well.

One day Jesus was on his way to Galilee from Judea when he stopped by a well for a rest. While he was there a Samaritan woman came to draw water from the well, and after a brief exchange of words involving "living water", Jesus told her to call her husband and come back. The woman said she had no husband. Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband" (John 4:18).

The woman was suitably impressed—as, I am sure, are we—but the point I am trying to make is not Jesus's word of knowledge, but the lust on display here. And the cause for it. The woman's heart was empty and she was trying to fill the emptiness with men—six at most recent count—and not quite succeeding.

Most of us have empty hearts similar to this woman's and we too try filling it with whatever we can. Sex seems the number one choice and we can blame it on the world. Everything around us, from television and the internet to billboards and drugstore magazines, all blare one constant message: lust, not love, will fill your heart!

It doesn't. It can't. Sex outside the God-given context of marriage just leaves us emptier than ever. So does any other thing that comes from the world. The only thing that can truly fill us is the living water that Jesus promises will become in us "a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (cf John 4:14). This living water is the Holy Spirit (cf John 7:37-39) given willingly to anybody who asks (cf Luke 11:.9-13). Drink of it.

No Greater Commandment

A teacher of the law once asked Jesus: "Which is the greatest commandment?" Jesus answered: "‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind' and ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.' There are no greater commandments than these" (Luke 10:27).

For a period during her years in the cloister, Mother Nadine took the place of the superior of the cloister when she had fallen ill. During this time she had the opportunity to see the sisters one-on-one and while she noticed that they all struggled with trials and temptations, the sin of lust never came up. The reason, she eventually realized, was because they spent all their time following Jesus's commandment. Loving Him and loving each other.

For someone who tries to live a holy life, there is the temptation to close themselves up as a defence against lust. I knew a young man who used to do this. He used to struggle desperately to lead a chaste life, and when he failed, he would closet himself in his prayer room for days on end. The solution worked extremely well—as long as he was in his prayer room. When he came out, he would succumb again.

Many of us make the same mistake. The trick is not to cut oneself away from loving, but to love more, ensuring that it is a pure love, a godly love! You can gauge if your love is godly or not by simply examining the selfishness/selflessness quality of what you feel. True love always puts other people above oneself, while false love looks primarily at the fulfilment of one's own needs. Taken in the context of this subject, if you really love someone of the opposite sex, you will do your best to make sure that s/he remains the pure temple of God that s/he was created to be. However, if your love isn't real, you will only think of her as an object of desire created to satiate your own appetite.

Don't Turn Tempter

Even as we try to arm ourselves against temptation, we need to make sure that we don't become tempters ourselves. Jesus warns: "Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come!" (Matthew 18:7). Here are a few things we can do to protect others. Dress modestly. Avoid foul language and coarse humor. Don't be too touchy-feely in your contacts with members of the opposite sex. Avoid the subject of sex in conversation and in correspondence. Be cautious about the type of eye contact you make. Pray.

The Virtue: Chastity

Newspapers recently reported a thirteen year old East Sussex schoolboy as Britain's youngest father. Alfie Patten made his girlfriend Chantelle Steadman pregnant when she was 14 and he was just 12. It shocked everybody in England (and hopefully everybody everywhere else) but should it really have come as a surprise?

We live in a culture where virtues are universally resented, and chastity is perhaps the one resented the most. It is not seen as something that is good, noble or life-giving, but is portrayed, rather, as something that is harmful! The reasoning is that since sexual desire is natural, it is bad to restrict it in any way. Another argument is that chastity is the enemy of love. If two people love each other they should be able to express that love. It all sounds reasonable enough on the surface, until we examine what love itself is, and how it relates to sexual desire.

Karol Wojtyla, in the book Love and Responsibility that he wrote before he became Pope John Paul II, says that one of the main reasons we view chastity with such suspicion is because we associate love primarily with the emotions or the sexual pleasure that we receive from a member of the opposite sex. "Such emotions," he writes, "give love a ‘relish', but do not always contain its objective essence, which is inseparable from reciprocal affirmation of the value of the person. It is impossible to judge the value of a relationship between persons merely from the intensity of their emotions. The very exuberance of the emotions born of sensuality may conceal and absence of true love, or indeed outright egoism. Love is one thing, and erotic sensations are another.

"Love develops on the basis of the totally committed and fully responsible attitude of a person to a person; erotic experiences are born spontaneously from sensual and emotional reactions."

While sensual desires and love are not mutually exclusive, these responses do not represent love itself. What does represent love is a desire to do what is best for another person and the desire to help the other person pursue what is best for them. When we give in to sensual desire, we are often so thrilled by the pleasure that we obtain, that we are tempted not to follow through and grow in real love. Many people get stuck here and never experience the deeper meaning of real love. As the intensity of such emotions can't be sustained over a period of time, the feelings of "love" that one professes to feel begin to diminish, with the result that one begins to seek someone else to provide the thrill of the sensual and emotional experience.

Through chastity, however, our love can grow properly and meaningfully, because we can look at a person as something more than an object for our self gratification, be it of heart or body. We can see them in their full value. Wojtyla writes: "The essence of chastity consists in quickness to affirm the value of the person in every situation and in raising to the personal level all reactions to the value of ‘the body and sex'."

Chastity will also help us to deepen our relationship with God as it makes our hearts pure. And blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matthew 5:8).

The Gift: Fear of the Lord

I recently watched a wonderful program on the cosmos and couldn't help but be awed at the realization that if the universe was so great, how much greater our God. And, despite our own insignificance—if we look at ourselves in relation to the canvas of the universe, we're just a minute speck—we seem to think ourselves as masters of this universe. We're not. God is. And it helps to have a healthy fear of Him, because as Scripture says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Psalm 111:10).

There are many Christian leaders these days who tell us that we don't have to be afraid of God because his mercy is great. This is true, but it isn't the complete truth. Yes, God's mercy is great indeed. It is vast. It is ongoing. It is limitless. Yet, it isn't "infinite" as we commonly understand the word to be. God's mercy, when not applied for reasons of sovereign grace, is dependent on the nature and sincerity of our repentance. True repentance involves turning our backs totally and completely on sin, which isn't possible unless we understand the holiness of God who finds sin repugnant in all its ways and the horrific consequences that await those who continue to dwell in it shamelessly and mindlessly. What are the consequences?

Hell.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that "the chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs" (CCC 1035). Without God we lose out on life and happiness, and not to have this for all eternity is something to really be afraid of. Is it worth sacrificing this for the momentary pleasures of the flesh that we obtain by sinning sexually? It's something to really think about.

May the Spirit be with you.

He must have gazed deeply into my eyes

2009-02-21T11:20:00.003+05:30

It was one of those tough days, when at the end of the day all you want to do and all you wish is to hit the bed and slip into that beauty sleep. As soon as I was back from office, all the four of my little ones were waiting with their little tasks that they wanted Appa to do. So the day went on, finally we had finished the prayers, put the three elder angels to sleep finished dinner and was ready to go to sleep. But there was only a slight hitch, the youngest member of our family Kunju Babychan had decided that it was play time and there was no way he was going to sleep till he had enough of his fun. After a little while of his romping on the bed, we switched off the light and put the feeding bottle in his mouth praying he would go to sleep with that. We lay quietly with bated breath to see if he had gone to sleep. But as soon as his bottle of milk was over, there he was up and running playing obstacle race over both me and Rani. After a little while Rani was fast asleep with all the commotion around her, but I was not able to catch even a wink with him trundling around. So i caught hold of him as he was doing his vault over me, pinned him down, took him in my arms and started rocking him and signing all the lullaby s and nice old Malayalam Jesus songs, and finally he was asleep. I laid back thank fully and was out in a moment. Then through the night there was the two customary bottle feeding sessions and I was thoroughly out in the morning. Rani got up early to get the two kids ready for school and I was hoping to just extend my beauty sleep a bit more. I could not even get my head up from the pillow. Then as on cue I felt the two little hands of kunju babychan on me and his happy laughing gurgling sound. He was ready to play again. I felt all the tiredness welling up into a wave of anger. I definitely could not take it any more, I needed that hour of rest desperately. But bebychan is not one of those people who can take no for an answer, he started crawling over me and headed for the edge of the bed. With all the anger I felt I dragged him back and picked him up. I looked at him with all the frustration I felt. As I looked into his eyes, he gave me his customary smile, happy gurgle and drooled all over my face. At that moment all my anger, tiredness, frustration, every thing melted away. I looked deep into his eyes and saw only unconditional love, joy, hope and trust in there.

For a moment I was stuck dumb. I may have found an answer I was searching for. At the moments of my pain and suffering I had asked Jesus several times, how could you bear those sufferings on that cross for us ? And how can you ask us to endure the sufferings in our lives in a similar way ? I think at those moments on the cross when it was unbearable, he would have looked deeply into my eyes and all the loved ones, with that infinite gaze of love of his own. He must have seen only his own love reflected in them and that would have strengthened him. "His love reflected in the eyes of all the generations down". I hope he looked deeply into my eyes too, and he saw a little bit of that wondrous love reflected in them. And that he still does look deeply into these eyes of mine when I still crucify him through my unloving ways and he continues to see a little ray of that love which he lovingly kept in my heart before I was born, peeping through ....