United in prayer

 THE WORD AND THE FEAST

October 7, 2020: Celebrating our Blessed Mother of the Holy Rosary 

Galatians 2:1-2, 7-14; Luke 11:1-4

There is a simple and wonderful definition for prayer (most probably from Martin Luther), which says: prayer is, not saying lies to God! It is a spot-on definition, because it gives us the crux of it all. One who prays should not only feel very good and consoled about it, but above all, be challenged by it. 

In the letter to the Galatians today, St. Paul narrates that incident when he had to challenge Peter on his integrity: "If you, though a Jew, are living like a gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the gentiles to live like Jews?" What does it matter what name you bear or to which denomination you belong or which saint is your patron, when your life does not reflect what you believe in?

If I believe in Jesus Christ, the only Son of God and my Saviour - then every person around me is my brother or my sister! That is why Jesus teaches us to call God, OUR father (or mother), because our relationship with God, defines our relationship with all others around us. If these two do not go in agreement, then we are liars, all our so-called prayers are merely, saying lies to God, and to the world. 

What has to be there between us is merely love and love alone! How can I ever think of hating, fighting, judging, competing, ruining, maligning, envying, calumniating, belittling, trampling, exploiting the other... how can I do these if I truly believe what I believe! It is the reminder today from Jesus in the Gospel: accept God your Father and Mother from on High and live in love, like Children of one family, God's one, great, big family!

And our blessed mother teaches us another prayer, always to unite us as one family, as one children of God, along with her to praise the One who had done great things in her - the Rosary. It is a powerful tool for us everyday to praise the Lord and give glory to God for the great things that God does for us everyday, just as Mary did in her life and continues to do, in and through us when we pray the Rosary. The Rosary is a string of those beads that unite the world in endless praise to God our Father and Mother.

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

LEPANTO, LORETTO AND OUR LIFE                                                                                      

7th October 2015: The feast of Our Blessed Mother of the Holy Rosary

Acts 1: 12-14; Lk 1: 26-38

The feast of our Blessed Mother of the Holy Rosary reminds us of the battle of Lepanto 1571! The Christians were at war defending themselves against the Ottoman Empire. They were at sea, as we know, it was a naval battle and the Rosary brought them the desired victory. At the recommendation of the Pope, the Church began to celebrate Our Blessed Mother as Our Lady of Victories. It was then that Pope Pius V added that invocation, "Mary Help of Christians", to the litany of Loretto (that which we pray normally). Truly Mary was a great help for them at sea! Every Christian and every one of us, is at sea on a daily basis, with our concerns and temptations battling against us. Today this naval battle can be won not with bullets but with beads, the beads of the Most Holy Rosary. 

As Mary was there in the upper room with the disciples praying, she is there every time we invoke her through the Holy Rosary. And every time we pray this powerful prayer, she strengthens us to say, just as she did, a whole hearted 'yes' to the will of God. As Pope St. John Paul II would often remind us, the Rosary is infact a compendium of the Gospels, a summary of the Paschal Mystery! The Rosary is a weapon that guards us from our foe malign. It is a vehicle that commutes us closer to God the Father. It is a fragrant garland that unites us with our Blessed Mother, thus sanctifying us into children more and more worthy of her divine Son, our Lord and Master. 

The Pharmacist Pope : MISERICORDINA

This is what we call catechesis!
The holy Father today, as a gift for the Year of Faith... 
presented to the faithful, what he called a medicine:
very creatively christened "Misericordina"...
it is a simple way of inviting the people 
to remain united with the Lord in prayer..
in praying the rosary, 
in praying the rosary of Divine Mercy..
or just contemplating on the mercy and love 
that God fills us with, everyday!

With just one week to the end of the Year of Faith...the Holy Father is already feeling nostalgic about this wonderful opportunity we had to thank the Lord for the gift of our faith...and what better way than to unite ourselves with the Lord, in prayer!

Here is the video of that moment when he released that new medicine, commenting - "some might say, now the Pope is playing the pharmacist." Ofcourse, dear father, you are a God given pharmacist, for the well being of our spiritual selves. God bless you.

click the link for the VIDEO

WORD 2day

7th October, 2013: Remembering Our Blessed Mother of the Holy Rosary

Today is a historical day. The feast of Our Blesssed Mother of the Holy Rosary, was initially known as the feast of Our Lady of Victory, in thanksgiving for the victory in a battle at Muret (in England) in the year 1213. That marks the 800th year! After a winding history of changes and developments, it was in the year 1913 that Pope Pius X fixed the feast on October 7th! And that marks the 100th commemoration! Every time we pray the Rosary, we repeat the words from the Word of God...the Gospel today reminds us this fact! "Full of Grace", the Angel addressed Mary, and that is what she was! And that is what she is, to each of us today - a channel of grace! As the apostles found in her a source of strength and direction to remain united, until the Spirit anointed them, let us seek her company and guidance to walk the way traced by her Son and our Lord, Jesus Christ.