WORD 2day

31^st August, 2013

‘To aspire to live quietly, to mind your affairs and to work with your own hands’, is the practical tip for peaceful living that St. Paul gives his spiritual children at Thessalonica. It seems that gossip and judgments about others has been a problem for centuries on. Uncharitable curiosity about others’ lives, passing judgments and spreading prejudices about others, looking out for an opportunity to blame my negligences and failures on someone else, villainising someone merely because I do not agree with him or her – these are fast becoming “normal” in a society that is influenced by a maddening media craze! Holiness does not consist of my private life alone, it involves my social relations, my willingness towards contributing my mite to the social order and my commitment towards making this world a better place to live! However little, let us do our part, so that the Lord may rejoice in us, and address us, “Good and faithful servants!”

WORD 2day

30^th August, 2013

This is God’s will: your sanctification! St. Paul has the gift of speaking of the greatest of the things in simplest of terms. Today, he puts across in straightforward terms the life task that we have – our personal sanctification. Our personal sanctification comes as a result of our self understanding. ‘Don’t you know that you are the temple of God?’ (1Cor 3:16), St. Paul would ask elsewhere. That self-understanding as the dwelling of the Spirit of God, is the starting point for a whole journey of personal sanctification. It is not a victory gained once for all but it is a constant vigilance and continuous labour, explains the parable that Jesus narrates in the Gospel. The lamp of our life needs to keep burning; the oil is given by God – ‘God who gives the Holy Spirit’. The Spirit is the oil that we need to keep our lamps burning, burning always with the desire to remain sanctified dwellings of the Spirit!

WORD 2day

29^th August, 2013 – Remembering the Martyrdom of John the Baptist

The call to be prophets, like Jeremiah and John that we see in the readings today, is a call that is addressed to every baptized child of God. The world seems to be at home with a culture of sin today! Be it social or economic or political or cultural arena – there is a cloud of sinfulness that pervades and waits to consume everyone present. More treacherous is the lack of sense of sin, that justifies sinfulness, sometimes without even the conscious assent of the persons involved. The question today is, which part we would rather play: the seducing forces that draw people to sin; the wicked plotters who play the protagonists in spreading sinfulness; the passive infected who continue to perpetrate sinfulness by their mere inaction; the silent spectators who aid the spread more than do anything to stop it – all these groups are represented in the Gospel event today. There is also the role of John the Baptist, who dares to stand for truth and righteousness, even at the cost of his own life! What would be my choice?

WORD 2day

28^th August, 2013 – Remembering St. Augustine

Yesterday was the mother, and today the son! St. Augustine is known for his passionate search for truth! And in the process he came across the Truth beyond all truth, the One Truth that accounts for all other truth and he declared, “Late have I known thee!” The Word of God both encourages and challenges us, explains St.Paul in the first reading and it depends on each of us, what we make of these encouragements and demands! Being worthy of God is the project that St. Paul proposes to us and it is a matter of the inner self. No amount of exterior adornment or  rationalisations or self-justifications can give the internal peace, which comes only from a life of communion with oneself, with others and with God. This in one word could be called, “Integrity” – and that is what Jesus calls us to: a life of integrity.

FOTO CONTEST - YOUCAT INDIA

Here is a letter from the Coordinator for the Indian Version of the YOU CAT (Youth Catechism of the Catholic Church)...
They are announcing a Photo Contest...
Why not you try your luck and skill?

Dear Catholic Youth of India,

            Presently, Youcat is the  best seller in the Catholic World after the Holy Bible. It is an ideal catechism for the youth. However, we are yet to have an Indian edition of this Youcat with Indian photos. The publishers of Youcat have permitted to incorporate Indian photos in the presentYoucat. So, you can now be part of the Youcat. If you wish to be part of the Indian Youcat, you can send us the photos needed for this new edition. The creators of selected photos will be acknowledged in the new edition and will be amply rewarded. The conditions are given below. May your contribution help the youth grow in their faith.

Youthfully Yours,

Fr. Gilbert Choondal, sdb

Coordinator for the Indian Youcat Faith Photo-Contest

Dated: 16 August 2013

Conditions for the Indian Youcat Faith Photo-Contest

1. Eligible participants of the contest:  Catholic Youth (laity aged 16- 35) from India

2. Resolution & Format:  Minimum Resolution - 800x600 Pixels, (print size 5x7); Maximum 3MP, Format: JPEG

3. The last date for sending the photos: 30 September 2013. Email id: gilbertsdb@gmail.com, faithministry.in@gmail.com

4. A contestant can send any number of photos. The photos should be original. The internet/already published photos are not accepted.

5. The photos will be judged from its composition, layout, artistic nature, creativity and theme

6. The photos should contain Indian face especially youth face unless they are meant for a specific theme.

7. Please consult the Youcat for specific themes, page numbers and detailed nature of photos.

8. Contestants need to send their full mailing address, contact number, and brief description of each photo (with a reference to the Youcat page)

9. Specific natures of photos needed are given below.

10. Winners will be invited for a public function in Bangalore on 27 October 2013. They will be awarded with the new Indian Youcat and a Youcat T-Shirt.

Prologue
1. A Photo of a youngster with the Youcat/ a youth with the Youcat with the pope, a cardinal, the nuncio, or a bishop. A youth reading theYoucat.

Part 1 What we believe

General Themes: Creed, faith, Creation, Jesus, Mary, Catholic Church

Specific Themes for the Photos

1. Image of Faith, believing, creed

2. Image of the Church

3. Image of youngsters reflecting, meditating

4. Scriptures

5. Happy person

6. Creation

7. Beauties of creation

8. Man the crown of creation

9. Sunrise, sunset

10. Boy and girl in conversation

11. Mother and child

12. Washing the feet

13. Passion play

14. Praying at the crucifix

15. Church, community of people

16. Church as people of God

17. Hinduism

18. Religions with their religious expressions

19. Church building

20. Religious life

21. Last Judgement

Part II How we celebrate the Christian Mysteries

(major themes: sacraments, liturgy, rites)

1. Mystery of sacraments

2. Liturgical procession

3. Eucharist Latin

4. Eucharist Syro Malabar

5. Eucharist Syro Malankara

6. Different parts of the mass

7. Liturgical calendar (Syro malankara)

8. Liturgical Calendar (Syro Malabar)

9. Image of Sanctuary

10. Baptism

11. Confirmation

12. Youngsters in reconciliation

13. Ordination (latin )

14. Ordination (Syro Malabar)

15. Marriage ceremony (3 photos)

16. Love and relationship

17. Relics

18. Indian icons of Jesus and Mary

Part III How we are to have life in Christ

(major themes: respect for life. Nature, disabilities, sickness, pollution, society)

1. Cheerful youngster

2. Helping a disabled person

3. Life as fun and frolic

4. Happy youth group

5. Youth games and activities

6. Happiness in relationships

7. Images of unity in diversity. mixture of colours and races and languages

8. Holiness

9. Belief in God

10. Superstition, atheism occultism

11. Happy family

12. Child and parents

13. Family and God

14. Birth

15. Drugs, alcoholism

16. Peace

17. War and peace

18. Anger

19. Emotional maturity

20. Love and chastity

21. Love and sex

22. Environmental pollution

23. Global warming

24. Climate change

25. Globalisation

26. Poverty

27. Unemployment

23. Communication media

24. Greed

25. Justice

Part IV How we should pray

(Major themes, Prayer, different types of prayer)

1. Praying in a church

2. Candle lit prayer

3. Prayer of adoration

4. Thanksgiving prayer

5. Prayer (Old Testament, New Testament)

6. Prayer at home

7. Praying the rosary

8. Prayer in a lonely place

9. Prayer to the creator

10. Prayer of child to the Father

11. Happy family meal

12. Images of prayer Our Father

13. Prayer of prise

14. Joy in Prayer

WORD 2day

27^th August, 2013 – Remembering St. Monica

Not to please humans but God, invites St. Paul today in the first reading. Our spirituality can reach its dreary bottom if we are constantly moved by our intention to please those around and live up to their praises and affirmation. An externally illustrious life, with a painful emptiness within, cannot endure in its glitter for long. On the contrary, a life that might look apparently uninteresting could inspire and change people and history for ever, if it is build on a spiritual depth. St. Monica, a simple mother with her perseverance in prayer and firmness in her hope, believed that her son will one day turn to the inner richness that God alone could give and she saw her belief come true! Maybe, the saint of today inspires us to thank God for our mothers who are our first catechists!

WORD 2day

26^th August, 2013

Evangelisation is one topic that the Church can never tire itself speaking of, because it is the primary reason for its being. As soon as the Church speaks of evangelisation, the anti-church civil society would interpret it as ‘Conversion’ and in turn those factions never tire themselves of accusing the Church of conversions. Conversion - while it would mean mere numbers for them, the readings today present to us what a true conversion should be for us. The right priorities and right values are crucial within this discourse. St. Paul underlines it in such clear terms writing to the Thessalonians, that our faith should be active; our love committed and our hope firm. Faith in action, love as concrete compassion and hope as unceasing optimism – these are the reasons why Pope Francis is fond of repeating – A ‘Christian’ can never be sad! 

Entering through the NARROW DOOR

25th August 2013, XXI Sunday in the Ordinary Time

The experience of standing in a queue, the tedium of entering the metal detector at places with extra vigilance or waiting for the token number at the bank… these are no rarities in our ordinary life. Jesus draws a simple example, one similar to these, our experiences.

The door to the Reign of God is narrow, not many take that door, though everyone is invited to enter the Reign. There are many other doors, which seem more comfortable, more spacious and more adorned and people prefer them, knowing least that they do not lead to the Reign of God, the greatest treasure in store for us!

Entering the narrow door is a task quite demanding – the readings today point to three traits that are needed to be able to enter the Reign through the narrow door. As Jesus tells us in the Gospel, many try to enter but they cannot.

To able to enter the door, one should be strong! Strive – says the Lord – Strive to enter – To strive means to struggle, to make all the efforts possible, to try real hard. One needs to be strong in mind, heart and soul to strive to enter the narrow door into the Reign. It is Spiritual strength we are dealing with here. Be Strong, but avoid Spiritual Obesity, warns the Lord. If you are obese, you cannot enter the narrow door – it’s obvious! Spiritual Obesity – Pride and Elitist mentality – which gives into self righteousness and judgmental attitude can never get us into the Reign of God. I am baptized, I am a born-again, I am a consecrated religious, I am a Sacred minister – nothing can get you in! From the east and the west, the north and the south everyone will enter and sit at the table in the Reign says the Lord. Mind you, there are no reservations here in. A bit of disciplining, as the second reading suggests, can get us in shape.

To be able to enter the door, one should be in communion! The way is long, we reflected on that last week. Communion with each other and Communion with those who have managed to enter the door before us, can really make the task easy and enjoyable. Our forerunners are our example, our model and can even be our helpers – but finally, the one who has to enter is me! It is you! That is why we are warned today – Be in Communion but avoid Spiritual Infantilism. At times we make our faith so infantile that we think everything depends on the candles we light, the formulae we repeat, the food we give up and the coins we drop. These are means to strengthen our relationship with God – but they are not everything. What matters most is our personal life of commitment and integrity. You cannot enter the narrow door in groups… one by one you have to do it. That means you cannot ride on the goodness of the other, either the living or those gone before you!

To be able to enter the door, one should be patient! The wait is long, for the door is narrow! Waiting on the Lord is a spiritual talent. To wait patiently, amidst failures and pressures, amidst temptations and struggles, amidst dark nights and heavy burdens, it is the only way one can be prepared and prompt when one’s time comes! There is a warning here too: Be Patient but avoid Spiritual Lethargy. In the name of patience I cannot procrastinate my commitment and postpone my conversion to a later moment. ‘Repent and Believe, for the Reign of God is near’ says the Lord. Being patient is not being busy with something else till my turn comes… but persevering, enduring and constantly working on myself that when my turn comes, I am in shape, prepared enough and fit to enter the narrow door that leads me to the behold the eternal glory of the Lord Almighty!

I am the door, if anyone enters through me, he or she will be saved (Jn 10:9) declared the Lord elsewhere! Jesus is the door, the narrow door, the demanding door – He is compassionate, yes; but at the same time uncompromising. The choice is ours to choose the narrow door, make ourselves strong, united and patient, to endure our everyday life and make straight the path for our feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed (heb 12:13). The door is narrow but there is enough space to enter, if we are in ready and willing.

All, but not all…

One by one is the call…

Let us enter the Narrow Door, one and all.

WORD 2day

24th August, 2013: Remembering St. Bartholomew, the Apostle.

Known in the Gospel of St.John with the name Nathanael, Bartholomew received from the Lord a great compliment - a man in whom there is no guile, says the Lord. Though he did not believe what Phillip said and originally did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah, Jesus recognises the goodness in him. The readings today have three lessons to teach: One, the readiness of Jesus to appreciate the goodness in a person even when the person did not believe in him. How many times friends turn the worst enemies when they begin to disagree with each other! Second lesson is from Bartholomew, who accepts the call to 'come and see' and goes, sees, believes and remains with the Lord. The third lesson is from the feast itself - a remembrance of the Apostles is a special invitation to each of us to recognise the call we have received to to go into the world and proclaim God's Reign. Bartholomew took the Gospel right upto Armenia and Arabia. There exists a legend that Bartholomew reached even India's western borders! Each of us is reminded today of our call to bear the goodnews to the ends of the world, to establish the Reign of God - beginning with the closest of our contexts - that is, right wherever we are!

WORD 2day

23rd August, 2013

Approaching today's readings with the question, 'how does one become a son or daughter of God' - there is an example and a theory! The example is that of Ruth and the theory is presented to us by Jesus himself in the Gospel. Ruth, a moabite, who lost her hebrew husband but still becomes a part of God's salvation plan and becomes one of the few women referred to in the long history of the Israelites. How does it happen? The answer is, true and selfless LOVE. Love is the only way one can become a child of God, as John puts it so simply in his letter - 'Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God' (1 Jn 4:7). John learnt it from his master and beloved friend, Jesus who dared to synthesise the whole of the law and the prophets (that is, the whole of Hebrew Scripture) into two directives, which actually amounted to just one command: LOVE. Let us love one another and be God's children.

WORD 2day

22nd August, 2013: Celebrating the Queenship of Mary

On this day, which is exactly a week after Assumption of Mary into the presence of God, a tradition in the Church celebrates the Coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth. Though it is just a memoria, it is worth celebrating and reflecting on! In what does Mary's Queenship consist? We are not dealing here with a contestable fact that would irk the Non-Catholic friends, as if we are claiming an undeserved and an over-exaggerated place for Mary within our religious convictions. The choice of the readings today beautifully expresses the Church's stand on this: The glory of the Lord that is revealed in incarnation is the point of focus of the first reading from Isaiah, while the Gospel presents the role of Mary in that glorious event - a humble role of a servant who tells God, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto me according to your word!" No wonder she is crowned the Queen, because Jesus said: One who humbles oneself, will be exalted!

WORD 2day

21st August, 2013

Just yesterday we reflected on God's choices; today we get to reflect on the human choices. If God's choices were strange for noble reasons; the human choices are strange too, but for all wrong reasons - lack of judgement, result of manipulation, jealousy and maliciousness! The first reading is a picturesque presentation of this situation, by way of a parable narrated by Jotham - how we end up at times happily choosing the bramble as our shelter and hope! Discernment - it is a very important grace that we need in our daily living - to make the right choices! Haste and Imbalanced judgements make up for the mistakes we land in. But the moment we realise that, we are called to return to the Lord, and be God's people. We need not think of what hour and what stage it is; it's never too late with God's love, as long as the will to return is nothing but genuine. All that God wants is that we choose to say 'yes', when he calls! The choice is truly ours.

WORD 2day

20th August, 2013

The Lord's choices are curious, infact, strange! There is a series of them we can cite from both Old Testament and the New. Today's first reading presents to us one such personality - Gideon, a fear-stricken young man who defines himself as the least of all in Israel - is chosen by God and called, "Mighty Warrior". The numerous others like Jacob the less-stronger, David the puniest of the sons, Solomon the son of the coveted wife and over to the New Testament the uneducated  fishermen and  despised sinners as disciples and apostles -  the list is endless. But the whole of Salvation History is accomplished in and through these so-called odd choices - it is very clear: "it is impossible for humans; but for God everything is possible." While the world and we ourselves look for something, God looks at something totally different and expects something totally different from us! Infact, that which God sees and expects is the most appropriate and when that coincides with what I see and expect from myself - the miracle happens: the first becomes the last and the last becomes the first!

WORD 2day

19th August, 2013

While we were in the period of initial formation as aspirants to priesthood, there used to be periodic assessment of behaviour and it used to be communicated to us in person by a one in charge of our formation. I remember a phrase that was often used - 'you have a lot of good will; but good will alone is not good enough!' It seems funny to look back and take note of that remark, but looking at our life and the way we live, very often that statement applies well to most of us. Like the young man in the Gospel today, who had so much of good will to inherit the Reign of God, found out from Jesus that, that alone was not going to be good enough! The Lord has great hopes on us, but we fail repeatedly to live up to that. The first reading presents to us a pattern of failures of Israel, not just an act of sin but a habit of sin, a regular falling short of their call. But the Lord never gave up on them, God offers them opportunities after opportunities to return to their glorious calling - to be God's chosen people! God never gives up on us, God has great hopes on us and invites us to "Go... give up all that tends to replace God... and return and follow the Lord!" 

RACE: An analogy for Christian Living!

18th August, 2013: 20th Sunday in the Ordinary Time

"Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us"(Heb 12:1), invites the Liturgy today! Race - is a common analogy that is used to refer to something that requires relentless effort and enormous endurance. Today, the Liturgy of the Word invites us to look at our Christian living in the light of this analogy. Christian life is a Race; Living the Christian faith is like running a race...which has its starting point and the finish line in the person of Jesus Christ - "the pioneer and the perfecter of our faith"(Heb 12:2) Given the situation of the Greek Culture that was just spreading its wings, as Christianity was emerging out of Judaism, it was easy for the people to understand the analogy of Race applied to the life of faith. The analogy seems quite prevalent that we see apart from the letter to the Hebrews that we read today, also St. Paul uses it with facility, in his letters to the Philippians (Phil 3:14) and to Timothy(2 Tim 4:7,8). Extending a little more, the analogy, we shall try to understand our Christian life today. 

Christian Life is a Race, a race of Hurdles! Obstructions all along the way, does not in anyway hinder the progress of the athlete, the athlete has to jump over those and run towards the goal that is set before one's eyes. If at every hurdle the person contemplates a back off, the race is lost and ruined. Jesus today warns us of such hurdles and Jeremiah is presented to us in the midst of such overpowering obstructions. But Christian life has to go on! Jeremiah, when he was finally lifted up from the dungeon, he went back to proclaim the Word of the Lord! Up and across each hurdle, our life of faith, moves on!

Christian Life is a Race, a Relay Race! We are not running alone, we are in a team. Some one has run the race before us and they have passed the baton to us. It is our responsibility today to run and we will not be running it forever. We will have to finish our course and pass the baton to the next! Faith has to be lived, and passed on. In the encyclical, Lumen Fidei, chapter three we reflect that those who believe are never alone, faith is always shared and it tends to be spread; it has to be handed on! The second reading presents this beautifully recalling to our attention that we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses(Heb 12:1).

Christian Life is a Race, a Marathon! It is not just a sprint, that I strive for a short time and I clinch a victory; it is a marathon, it is long and it is taxing. Speed is not enough, it demands also stamina! Endurance and Perseverance are inevitable subjects of attention when it comes to our Christian life. In Jesus' footsteps, St. Paul too instructs us, in his letter to the Thessalonians - never to be tired of doing what is right(2 Thes 3:13) and in the letter to Timothy - to endure every suffering and carry on our life (2 Tim 4:5). At times it can be boring, tedious or exasperating, but our character rests in staying on the track!

Be it what it may, the analogy of the Race requires of us three important mindsets!

The first is a sense of URGENCY. The Gospel presents this with the image of FIRE. Just as an athlete needs the fire within to run, a Christian needs the fire within to glow in his or her life. The fire that Jesus came to set, and badly wants ablaze. Jeremiah had it ablaze within his heart (Jer 20:9), the apostles, the martyrs, the first Christian community - all of them had it so ablaze within them, that it consumed them and spread wild to the world. Do we have it in us?

The second is the strength of PERSEVERANCE. The Second reading presents it with the image of the BLOOD. In every race, there are those who are ready to beat us, to over power us - in our Christian life too there are elements that are on the prowl to beat us, to over power us - the element of sin, the element of godlessness, the element of materiality! A Christian needs to fight these elements constantly, struggle against them relentlessly, right up even to the point of bloodshed. 

The third is the sense of FOCUS. The first reading presents it with the image of the MIRE. With those around want us to fail, with the tiredness that catches on, with the target that lies quite away in a distance... there are chances for the athlete to lose heart. The training is to focus on the finish line! The darkness of the dungeon or the Mire that was all around, did not in anyway take away the focus of Jeremiah! He had his eyes focused from where came his help! The second reading has those phrases - "looking to Jesus"(12:2) and "Consider Him(Jesus)"(12:3), underlining the need for us to Focus on Him, who is our beginning and our end, our alpha and the omega, our pioneer and perfecter. 

With a sense of Urgency in our will to live our faith to the full, with the strength to persevere all trials and with our focus always on Christ - let us run this race set before us. We are not alone, we have the example and the help of those who have gone before us - the saints and martyrs. We have our brothers and sisters around us, united in the One Lord, to support us and sustain us. With the example and the help of the Crucified Lord who sits at the right of the throne of God, as the Risen Lord, let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.

WORD 2day

17^th August, 2013

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, declares Joshua before the people. He leads them by example! Just like Jesus who made it clear to the people that following him was not always a pleasure trip – ‘the foxes have their holes and the birds have their nest, but the son of man has no place to lay down’ – Joshua too makes it clear that choosing to serve God and giving a word on that, is a challenging task! But for children to depend on someone, without too much of thought to their own ego or pride, is a natural capacity. That is what prompted Jesus to say, ‘Unless you become like children you will not enter the Reign.’ And today in the gospel too, Jesus presents the children as the paradigm of the Reign of God. Innocence of the children is from the absence of pride and their docility is from the absence of ego. If we have to remain with the Lord and forever be God’s, the prime enemies we have to do away from within us are – our pride and ego!

DB turns 198

WORD 2day

16^th August, 2013

The gratuitous love of God and the conditional love of humans – that is the contrast the Word brings to the fore today. Taking the reins from Moses, the young Joshua consolidates his people reminding them of the great history of faith and wonders that they have behind them, the great things that God had accomplished for them though they deserved none of them! The love that God lavishes on us, and the measure in which God does it, we do not deserve it at all. It is a gratuitous gift from God and God has never counted the cost, even to the extent of sending the only Son of God as a ransom on our behalf (cf. John 3:16). That love is the model set before us, by Jesus. When Jesus changed the commandment of Leviticus (19:18) from ‘love your neighbour as yourself’ to ‘love one another as I have loved you’ (Jn 13:34), Jesus made a deliberate choice to propose God’s love as the model. Accepting one another, forgiving one another, being good to one another, wishing the good of the other with all one's heart – in all these we are called to measure up to none less than God, who is Love itself!

Participating in the Fruits of the Risen Lord

15th August, 2013: 

Solemnity of the Assumption of Blessed Virgin Mary

"...The revered Mother of God, from all eternity joined in a hidden way with Jesus Christ in one and the same decree of predestination, immaculate in her conception, a most perfect virgin in her divine motherhood, the noble associate of the divine Redeemer who has won a complete triumph over sin and its consequences, finally obtained, as the supreme culmination of her privileges, that she should be preserved free from the corruption of the tomb and that, like her own Son, having overcome death, she might be taken up body and soul to the glory of heaven where, as Queen, she sits in splendor at the right hand of her Son, the immortal King of the Ages" 

These were the words with which Pope Pius XII in the year 1950 defined the dogma of the Assumption of our Blessed Mother, in the document Munificentissimus Deus (art.40). Today's is a beautiful occasion when Holy Mother the Church invites us to celebrate as a solemnity on three major counts.

First of all, we are invited to Celebrate the Faith, the Faith of Mary, the young girl who cooperated with the Divine Plan and totally abandoned herself into the hands of God with her words - Be it done unto me according to your Word. The first concern for her was the Word - the Word of God which became flesh in her womb - and she became the Temple of God, the Ark of the Lord as we read in the first reading today. God acknowledged her faith, her response of faith, her obedience of faith with wondrous gifts! If the Immaculate conception is understood as the grace that God gave in preparation for her role in the Salvation history, Assumption can very well be understood as the reward that God blessed her with for her Absolute Cooperation! We are called to celebrate this faith, which Elisabeth acclaims in the Gospel today - Blessed is she who believed in the fulfillment of what God has spoken!

Secondly, we are invited to Celebrate the Hope, the hope of Resurrection, the core of our faith. "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in sin" says the part of the epistle that just precedes the second reading of today! Christ is the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ, we hear in the reading. God anticipates that for Mary as a sign of hope for us who belong to Christ, to show us that we are destined to be fruits in the line of Christ. Everyone who thinks and laments of death and the darkness of death, is today invited to open his or her eyes in hope and look at the fact that Christ has overcome death and each of us is called to overcome death, as Mary, a human being just like you and me, has overcome that death. Nothing, not even death has any claim over us... God alone, God's only Son and our Saviour Jesus Christ alone can claim us to Himself. We are called to celebrate this hope, which St. Paul affirms that death will be the ultimate enemy to be destroyed!

Thirdly, we are invited to Celebrate the Love, the love that God Almighty had lavished on his predilected daughter, the love that Jesus showered on his sweetest mother, and the love that the Holy Spirit covered the most beautiful handmaid of God with.  Pope Pius XII in Munificentissimus Deus (art.25), makes a splendid reflection saying, the primary reason for belief in the Assumption is "the filial love" of Christ for His mother. Mary herself knew how much God loved her - she proclaimed "My soul magnifies the Lord, for the Lord has looked with favour on me and done great things for me!" Just like Elisabeth who felt the blessings of the Lord by the mere presence of Mary, we too will feel that love, that favour, that blessings from the Lord, if we stay close to Mary, our sweet loving mother. 

Today, Celebrating the faith we are called to become like Mary, persons who listen to the Word and thus become bearers of that Word, like she became the Ark of the Lord! Celebrating the hope we are called to fix our eyes on the Saviour and ever yearn to belong to Him, so that we can taste the fruits of his Resurrection, as Mary participates in the fruits of the Risen Lord. Celebrating the love of the Lord, we are called to become personification of this love in our contexts, and inspire people as Mary did, to praise the Lord in the words that our Blessed mother gives us today - My soul Magnifies the Lord!

                               

WORD 2day

14th August, 2013: Remembering Maxmilian Kolbe

Maxmilian Kolbe, a saint of our times whom I look up to with awe! He lived the words that we hear in the Liturgy today. He took seriously 1 John 3:16 - "... we ought to lay down our lives for our brethren." That is the sign given to us to testify for true love - as Jesus himself states in the Gospel, Jn 15:13 - "there can be no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends." It is a choice that Kolbe made, knowing well what is going to be the fallout of that choice. Right enough, Pope John Paul II declared him as 'the Patron Saint of our Difficult Century'. A saint from the greatest of all tragedies of the just gone century in the concentration camp of Auschwitz, where Kolbe chose to die in place of another(Franciszek Gajowniczek, who was present at the canonisation of the saint). Let our love be genuine (Rom 12:9); but if it were really so, sure we will have to be prepared for hard times and painful experiences!

WORD 2day

13th August, 2013

God goes before you, says the first reading! God comes after you, says the Gospel! A great piece of assurance today, as the readings together affirm the tremendous presence of God that accompanies us every moment of our life. God goes before us in our difficulties and comes after us in our failures! In short, the Lord is someone who lives with us everyday of our life and every moment of our days. Living in the presence of God, was the principal concern for Moses. It was the prime example that Jesus wanted to leave us too. Faith, Prayer, Communion, Service to others, Celebration of the faith, everything will be totally redefined if only we undauntedly believed in the concrete presence of God with us every moment of our daily life.

WORD 2day

12th August, 2013

I run every risk of being misunderstood if I write, Christians have to be people with a dual citizenship! With the pseudo-religio-political claims that prevail in our land, that 'all Christians are westerners', the risk is real and concrete. But let me stay clear of it, by immediately explaining myself further that we are undeniably legitimate citizens of the country we belong to, but at the same time, we look forward to the one that God has prepared for us (Heb 11:12 & 16). The first reading today underlines the primacy of God and God's place in our lives! In the Gospel, Jesus shows us an example of looking at everything in life, absolutely everything in life, from the perspective of God. Even a question of paying tax leads Jesus to reflect on the fact that we are sons and daughters of God, that we are free by virtue of our participation in the Divine Nature of God! The capacity of Jesus to move from the ordinary things of the daily life to a reflection on our relationship with God, is something amazing and something that we need to practice ourselves too. Let us at the end of this day, look back and see how many God-talks we were inspired to, all along this day.