GRACE...!

On the Fourth Advent Sunday, Fr Tony (the Confessor) celebrated the mass in the Parish. During the Homily he told us about the celebrations of Christmas from a different perspective. I personally liked the way the homily was put across to us, and so I feel like sharing it. Christmas celebration has been changing from time to time and from generation to generation. Christmas is the feast for the entire humanity. It is the feast where God himself chose to be born as human to redeem the humanity. So it has been our great joy to celebrate the feast in great pomp and sound. Unfortunately this celebration has become today as merely a commercial event and a date to get together and to make merry. As a result the baby Jesus is given less priority and much less about our personal reflection on life.   Gradually we have lost the mystery of Christmas where God becoming man and we only preoccupied with the myth of the Christmas. Well, what is this myth of Christmas? A good question to

We all know that prayer is an essential aspect in Life. Prayer is in a way very much part of our life. This is the same case in the life of Mother Mary, who in spite of the danger yet she completely trusted God and kept all her faith in God. She will teach us that Humility is the condition of Prayer. In all her humility she accepted the will of God not just blindly but trusting the grace and mercy of God. Can we think of the condition of Prayer? I would say 'Yes' like MARY to God. Prayer without feeling is mere impression and pleasing Prayer without humility is pretense Prayer without forgiveness is a show Humbly acceptance of correction is a prayer. When you are sensitive to the needs of the other is a prayer To be humane (thank you, please and sorry) is an attitude of prayer. Prayer need not always be of ceremonies and loud utterance of prayer But, Prayer is about meaning and feeling for the other.

The world today is in deep turmoil due to the communal violence and many other social and ethical ills. Today the human being in the world is preoccupied with the rat race of power, prestige and possession. As a result societies and states are losing the sense of values, morality and God. Thus, God has become a rare phenomenon in life, reduced to a concept in the modern and technological world. God is a concept, thought of only in times of need, danger, ill health, favors, jobs and rituals. Otherwise God is kept in the back seat as if he is a stranger to life.  And to add fuel to the fire and to make things worse, the technology, scientism, new age thinkers, materialism, consumerism, individualism have crept into societies crumpling down the edifices of human values, social relations and the dignity of the families. This is seen very much when the youth and the students isolate themselves while using the latest technologies and social networks. It is no wonder that relationships

Today (07/10/2012) I am thinking about life and death in the world. Both of these words are very abstract in description but very real in the world. Well, why am I telling all these  things. Yesterday in my neighboring community there is an old missionary nun Sr Maria Marketi passed away. Basically she hails from Italy and lived most of her life in India and served many youngsters and inspired many sisters in her congregation (F.M.A) So, beings a Christian I believe that life is very real as much as the death in the world. Now  the question is what is life and what is death? Many of us usually say life is full of energy and action where as death is absence of life. Meaning to say death is nothing but non-experience, non-function of all the senses. I think this is indeed true. But for me life is a grace and blessing. Life is service and life is attending our brothers and sisters and not attending to others. To simplify it Life is to live and let live. On the other hand Death is not

Today seeking meaning in life is a common phenomenon that we all come across. Now it is sought in things, gadgets, celebrities, movies, sports, drinks, music, business and what not. Thus we have reached a state where meaning is to be found very instantly and immediately. The picture aptly depicts the attitude of today’s new generation where meaning is to be found totally out side the self and end up terribly disappointed, discouraged and disgusted. Some prominent examples can be that of Michael Jackson, Whiney Houston, Marilyn Monroe and Tiger Woods etc. What was missing in their life? What could be the reason why they failed to strike the balance between life/career and meaning? In this multimedia era finding meaning is very crucial and challenging. In this context Victor Frankel is one person who inspires me with his life; in spite of struggles he lived his life with a purpose. In this regard there are so many others like, Hellen Keller, Mother Teresa, John Paul II, Steve Jobbs

Music Within...is the Voice of God..... Music that is soundless is a translation of a line from a poem of the mystic John of the Cross by the author Philip McShane. The title is taken purely from the poem “The music without sound/The solitude that clamours.” Very interestingly at one pint the book unfolds the truth that all of us, the entire creation (each member, each group, all are a wave in the eternal truth. He considers life as a crystal tear-drop on which snow falling in the tear-drop and little figures trudging around in slow motion. If we only look into those tear drops for the next million years, we will never figure out who the people are, and what they are doing. Sometimes we sit lonesome for a storm. A full blown storm where everything changes. The sky goes through four days in an hour, the trees wail, little animals skitter in the mud and everything gets dark and completely wild. This he says, God playing music in his favourite cathedral in heaven-thundering on

Our Creed (Faith) Entails our Deed Our Christian faith is a gift of God that strengthens us in Christ individually and collectively. The same faith leads one to cherish personally and share this gratuitous gift with the others in the community. For this common cause the Catholic Church disposes the Liturgy in which the faith is celebrated and shared individually and collectively. As a result, faith becomes a profound belief in the Risen Christ whom we encounter in the event of the Eucharist, as person of Christ himself who humbled down to the simple form of Bread and Wine that we share in communion. Thus, faith is both a personal act that needs to be lived and communicated to the world at large. This is very tangible in the words of St Paul (2 Tim 1: 12) “I know Him in whom I have believed.” There was a story of a peasant which heard in my early childhood, which I feel wroth sharing with you now. He was a poor peasant lived in a small village. But it was interesting that h

Well, the title is taken from the the words of St Thomas Aquinas the doctor of the catholic Church. He is a great theologian and a philosopher who gave the philosophical reasons to prove how the life/existence is precious on the face of the earth. Indeed it is very true and in agree to his valuable words. The very fact that we are existing is the fact that we have defeated the nonexistence by which there is the victory of life over non-life. Besides this Thomas Aquinas tells us that human mind or the intellect is ever great on this face of the earth if compared to any existing being. 

"no man can live as an island" goes an old adage. it indeed true to hundred percentage. for, we all try to live on our own yet we depend upon the others for we cannot but do. 

On 23rd March as I was working in our lotus pond (lawn) something captured my mind. I was assigned there to keep the place clean. Since the summer is setting in the trees began to shed the leaves and as we know the place under the trees filled with dry leaves, dry branches and flowers. As I was sweeping the lawn there were many thoughts that were going on in the mind. Something that creped in my mind was a saying that I heard in my school days, “god gives and so the nature gives, God forgives but nature will never forgive.” I hope the message is clear especially as we are the witnesses of the global warming. Besides this, as I was cleaning or sweeping and collecting the Asoka leaves, I suddenly remembered the saying “every dog has it’s day” of course it is in the wrong context but all the same if it cab be applied here each leaf has been the part of the tree but now such leaves are down dried having no sap. I noticed as the wind is strong the leaves rhythmically following down. Such

Today the youth think that they know everything. But they realize later that they knew so little and to be known is vast. Why am I saying this? It is because, very often the youth seemingly speak rash and harsh. They speak like that just because the other is taking their precious time and energy by asking for a favor or begging for little help. They have no time to render their help to the the other but they spend hours and hours spending time at their P.C, Video games or watching television. As Heraclitus rightly said that the world is in a state of flux. Yes the world is in a state of flux not exactly as he meant physically but today it is very true if we notice our behavior, attitude, culture, habits, food and what not.  Dear friends I myself am not clear about the change and the state of life that we are living today. When God created the the earth and heaven he said that it was all good to his sight. But are we sure that the same God, to say the same thing today while looking at