Youth Ministry - REFLXIONS #4

with a passion and priority for the young and our presence with them has to be one of proposing a challenge of wholeness, holiness to the young!

YOUTH MINISTRY - REFLEXIONS #3

The passion and the priority, if it has to be translated into action, will be in simple terms... Our presence with them.

Youth Ministry - Reflexions #2

Youth Ministry... happens..when my passion is the young automatically my priority is the young too! then the youth ministry flows

Youth Ministry - Reflexions

Happy to share starting from today... a series of Reflections on Youth Ministry via the posters!

VOCATION GUIDANCE: A MISSION RELAUNCH

Mumbai, 26th January, 2011

The South Asia Vocation Guidance Meet ends with a unanimous commitment to relaunch the mission of creating a culture of vocations in the individual provinces. There were 30 participants from the provinces of India and the Vice province of Srilanka. The Rector Major and the General Councillor were present in spirit, the former through the call to create a culture of vocations through the strenna for this year and the latter with the video conference he gave to the participants.

Organised by the DBYASA, the Meet was convened by the Delegate for Vocation Guidance for DBYASA Rev. Fr. Brian Moras sdb and present all through were Rev. Fr. Joe Almeida, the Provincial incharge of Vocation Guidance in the SPCSA and Rev. Fr. Maria Charles the Director of DBYASA. Thanks to the hosting Province of Mumbai and its Provincial house, the meeting was a pleasant experience. Now that the annual exercise is over, what do we expect out of this?

A boom in the number of vocations? No. That is not what the theme concerns itself about. Rev. Fr. Fabio Attard, the General Councillor put it succinctly during his video conference saying, ‘the culture of vocations has not got to do with numbers but to do with the whole picture of Don Bosco’s Charismatic experience.’ A youngster to feel at home with your proposal of a vocation has first to feel at home with you, said the Councillor, drawing attention to why the Rector Major calls Don Bosco an ingenious Voction Animator – because he created an atmosphere where the young felt at home to search for meaning to their life.

Keeping with the theme, Creating a Culture of Vocations the presentations of the three resource persons, Fr. Ajoy Fernandes the Vice Provincial of Mumbai, Fr. Maria Charles the Director of DBYASA and Fr. Joe Almeida the Provincial of Guwahati, were well prepared and designed to prod the participants to concrete action. The outcome: there was a concerted ‘yes’ to the call to create a culture of vocations in the provinces. Searching for ways and means to do it the participants came up with the following possibilities – to create an awareness among every confrere about the mind of the congregation regarding the project and process of Vocation Guidance being part of the larger picture of Youth Ministry; to create systems – like networked teams, networked departments – within the provinces to ensure a holistic vocation ministry; to initiate activities that require holistic plans and participation of all the Salesians passionate about their life and its meaning and witness; to nurture good catholic families and to convince oneself and the provinces that vocations are primarily fruits of our personal and collective witness of life.

The departing feeling of the participants was one of joy and optimism that we are passionate about the Spirit that Don Bosco has left as our legacy and that it is enough for us to rekindle the energy as individuals and provinces to relaunch this specific mission in South Asia – to create a culture of vocations!

meet you soon...shd be back in chennai in two days!

UNIVERSAL COSMIC HARMONY

We are well versed with the oft repeated saying of George Pope Morris, “United we stand, divided we fall!” Even the weak become strong when they are united. When we talk of Unity we do not imagine uniformity.

Take the imagery that Paulo Frere offers us – one of the platform with tiled interlocks versus a mosaic. Both are pieces of art, but the former stands for uniformity and the latter stands for a harmonious blending of differences.

The Universal Cosmic Harmony, we reflect on here, is such a blending of differences. Human beings are made for transcendence. One has a need to find this essential harmony within oneself, leading to the same with those around him or her and then to the whole of the reality that surrounds and ultimately finding that harmony at the Cosmic level under the One who is the source and summit of our existence – God!

All of us have something unique to us, our family, our clan, our region, our country and our race! The questions we are inspired to raise are –
Why should this uniqueness divide us?
When it divides us, does it not infact deprive us of a richness which is the
outcome of the variety amidst us?
What do we do to be agents of this unity or harmony?

Step 1: Promote Harmony within
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony” says Mahatma Gandhi. In promoting harmony, the right starting point is from within. The greatest and the most difficult of all conquest is self-conquest” says Swami Vivekananda. Once a person can feel the unity within, he or she can perceive it around.

Step 2: Promote Harmony in your immediate surrounding
The second step is to look at those around you – your family, your siblings, your neighbours, your classmates, your colleagues, your friends! Being united in mind and spirit with people around you makes you experience and offer peace within and to those around you! “Mutual dialogue and Understanding” the tagline of the International Year of Youth announced by the UN (2010-2011) is the key not merely at the international level, but right here at the local level. For it all begins at home! Differences of opinions, clash of desires, personal idiosyncrasies can be factors which put hearts in conflict. The same when approached with a reasonable maturity can lead to a rich atmosphere.

Step 3: Promote Harmony with the reality around
Taking the reality around into consideration – the nature, the country, the society, the people, the infrastructure, the developmental scope – is an essential process of human transcendence. One cannot remain with I, Me and Mine if he or she is progressing holistically. The harmony one achieves with those around gradually takes the individual and the group to the next level of harmony with the reality around. The person and the society become conscious of the nature, the people living around far and wide, the consequences of one’s behavior on each other and on the world at large. “The unlike is joined together, and from differences results the most beautiful harmony”, says Heraclitus.

Step 4: Promote Harmony with the Divine
Once a person reaches a level of feeling one with, harmoniously united with the whole of the reality, he or she has reached a point of transcendence where one can encounter the Divine. All Scriptures speak of this final stage of Harmony in very many terms. Vasudeva Kutumbaka, the Kingdom of God, Ekam Sat – are just few of the expressions we have in the religious traditions.

Prayer:

Make us O Creator,
Persons who appreciate differences,
Friends who go beyond little misgivings,
Brothers and sisters who feel the warmth of each other,
Children of one God, who accept this whole world as our lovely dwelling place,
May we join hands despite all differences to make this world a paradise on earth!

The Devotees of Religion?

Dear!
here below i am placing on blog a report by one good friend of mine...
he is a non-catholic christian minister...
i share his sorrow on the predicament of Christians today!

The Devotees of Religion?
Rev. P. Joseph Ramanathan
“Stop! You cannot give baptism to them in our church. If you want to baptise them, take them into your house.” A church elder thundered the priest. The church members supported the elder’s command to withdraw the idea of baptism.
This real incident happened in a church that believes in evangelism. The church priest led ten non-Christians to receive Jesus Christ as their God. These new believers wanted to join the fellowship of believers by taking the baptism. Past six months the priest prepared them and arranged the baptism on the Easter Sunday of 2010. However, the baptism service was stopped and new believers were sent out.
The reason is, regrettably, the new believers come from the caste that is not similar to the church members. The church elder is a disciplined person who follows all the church rules faithfully. His family and relatives support the church activities, north India missions, youth, children and revival ministries. His sacrificial giving is well appreciated by the powerful evangelists as well. Quite a number of magazines are pumped into his home address. The church members elect the particular elder for the church leadership every time unanimously. Therefore, it is not easy to condemn him for this unscriptural behaviour.
Who is to be blamed? Sadly, most of the Christians did not know that caste discrimination nullifies the power of the gospel. So they did not consider that the caste bigotry is sin. There are many reasons for this perspective. First, most of the priests, including powerful evangelists and anointed pastors, are staunch believers in the caste system. Some of them lived and died more faithful to their caste rather than to the body of Christ. As a result, they preached that all are equal in the eyes of God, not among human beings that assert inequality. Second, the missionary movements initiated a slight process of change. However, their fund raising actions have to comply with the caste lines. Third, the priests and pastors are appointed on the basis of the caste lines. As a result, the church becomes another social club in the society. Thus, it is easy for the Christian institutions and individuals to follow the cultural patterns blissfully. There is no place for an alternative culture by the Gospel.
Regrettably, this type of Christians’ mind is not ruled by the word of God. Hence, there is no transformation in their thoughts, memories and reasons. As a result, their emotions are not touched by the Spirit of God. So, it is impossible to expect the fruit of Spirit in their lives. Consequently, it is normal to obey the patterns of the world instead of obeying the will of God. (Romans 12:1-2)
Apparently, they are devotees of Christian religion, not the disciples of Christ. The Scripture teaches that God created everyone in His image. Discrimination and exclusion are sin against God. (Eph.2:14). Repentance is required to enter into the Kingdom of God.
Rev. P. Joseph Ramanathan serves with Equipping People for Excellence in Leadership that involves in training the Christians for effective missions.

The SPIRIT of a Missionary – from being to becoming!

Fr. Klement Vaclav’s visit has once again cleared the dust over the discussion on missionary spirit in our province. Being a missionary, needless to repeat, is a Vocation by itself. I recall the visit of Fr. Vaclav a couple of years back – when a few of us asked if we can opt to work in a foreign land for a few years on agreement, he drew a clear cut distinction between being a missionary and working in a foreign province! Yes, the crux is the movement from being a missionary to becoming a missionary! Unless I am a missionary, I cannot become a missionary. It was in this regard that Teresa of Child Jesus was made the patroness of the missions. Though she might not have become a missionary, she was a missionary at heart, a missionary in Spirit. What spirit of a person is indicative of his or her missionary vocation, is the question I begin this reflection with.

1. The Spirit of Abraham – To leave behind!

When God asked him to leave behind his people and walk into the wilderness he did it! He was a missionary, going towards that land and life that God promised him. (Gen 12)

2. The Spirit of Moses – To own God’s people!

When God called the suffering lot “my people” and sent Moses to liberate them, he had to consider them all not just “His people” but his own people. (Exo 5) Though they were all from various tribes and clans, they were all ‘his people.’

3. The Spirit of Joshua – To dare in the steps of the Leader!

When Moses died, Joshua the youngster felt a big burden on his shoulder. But the promise that the Lord gave, “I will be with you as I was with Moses” enlivened him (Jos 1) and in that strength he dared in the footsteps of his Master!

4. The Spirit of Esther – To risk for the sake of one’s people!

The meteoric rise of Esther was destined. She knew little what it meant. But when it was made clear to her by her uncle Mordecai(Est 4:14), she risked her life and stood by her people. She liberated them from a treacherous plot, risking her own life.

5. The Spirit of Jeremiah – To feel the fire of God’s Word burn within!

Jeremiah suffered the worst among the prophets. No wonder he is taken to be the matchless OT parallel of the suffering Messiah. Even when he realized his sufferings were unwarranted (Jer 20:7ff), he took them upon himself, because otherwise he felt he could not… His word was in his heart like a fire, and he was weary holding it in.

6. The Spirit of Paul – To live to proclaim!

“Woe to me if I do not proclaim the Gospel!” proclaimed St. Paul. (1Cor 9:16) When it came to knowing Christ and proclaiming him, for Paul nothing really mattered – his life, his dignity, his intelligence, his wisdom everything amounted to nothing.

7. The Spirit of Mary – To realize one’s blessedness!

The Blessed Virgin Mary, when she was called to be part of God’s salvific mission, understood little of what it entailed. But she was certain of two things – one, of her lowliness and second, of her blessedness. When she exclaimed ‘from now on all ages will call me blessed!’ (Lk 1:48) she in no unclear terms realized her identity and that empowered her never to lose that identity as ‘the blessed one of God.’

It is high time I realize, I need not go somewhere to be a missionary. But if I am a missionary at heart, in spirit, I will find an urge to go somewhere to proclaim, to witness to live my life, for the sake of the Kingdom!

August is rushing past!

I turn around and take note! its already past two months since I blogged!

June,
then July
and now August is rushing past.

What challenging virtues perseverance and consistency are! not just is what we do,but even in what we are.

In spite of all the various things that crop up - like my hectic July and the August which began with a mishap leading to a fracture in the hand - perseverance demands and pays!

If I am serious about my personality, i think I got to go well past the mere level of knowledge. Knowing myself renders itself irrelevant if it does not help me transcend myself.

Let me resolve to be consistent, constant and persevering!

Meet you soon!

ME a Mystery

Reflecting on the Question that Jesus posed to the disciples, "who do you say that I am?"...

I wonder how much of me i know! There are so many moments i respond to a situation in a completely strange manner, a manner that puzzles me at a later reflection. There are certain convictions i hold, but when it comes to concrete moments, i seem to operate on a different plane altogether. There are certain things which mattered nothing to me all this while, but suddenly they begin to matter so much, and i wonder where it began!

Know Thyself - a challenge ages old, but ever relevant for it is never accomplished fully. The degree counts. To what extent i know myself would define my personality. To know and to accept what i am, is the prime requisite towards change and growth. Lord let me know, let me understand, let me accept myself, that i may come closer to you!