2nd may

PRAYING WITH PERSONS OF OTHER FAITHS...

Here is a 'speak up' that i posted
quite some time back on donboscoindia.com...
why did i think of it suddenly..don't know.
thinking much of interreligious dialogue
and interreligious interactions these days...
i thought of this..read it...
and it made sense..
just wanted to share it on my blog...

Praying with people of other faiths in a multi religious context like that of India, is a current issue with the National Seminar just over at Bangalore. There are a few problematics that strike me as I wrestle with its possibilities.

Back from the National Seminar on Praying with Children in a multicultural context, I would like to speak up on a few problematics it poses! In any praying together, the basic problems are whether we share the symbols, the symbolics, the icons and the rites. A real praying together is ``worshiping in Spirit and Truth`` (Jn 4:23 )as Jesus would have it. That is the key. In this, as it was in Jesus` times, the first and greatest block (i refrain from using the word `enemy`)is THE INSTITUTION! Jesus would have said it boldly, if we think he had not. As long as there are fixed symbols, rules and rubrics, sharing symbols or accepting symbols from other traditions is many a times considered a compromise! As long as there is an institutional form of religion in perfect control, praying can not be an Inter Religious Practice, lest praying becomes a mere extraneous activity. Praying together infact is a SPIRITUALITY and not a Religious Practice. Can a institutionally bound religious person meaningfully participate in a inter religious prayer moment, keeping aside his or her clear cut definitions and demarcations? Doesnt it present a problematic to reckon with?

feast of don bosco 2013

feast of don bosco 2013

BAPTISM... the moment when God made me recognize for the first time, the great covenant God had made with me in eternity, the choice God made to love me without any conditions...and every day thereupon i am called to live faithful to that covenant, which will never be broken on God's part, come what may...what remains is that i be faithful...

posted on my fb on the 36th anniversary of my baptism...6.6.2012... was suddenly reminded of the blog by one of the good friends... so thot of posting it here too... as i told you right in the beginning...dont blame me for my inconsistency....

I am always touched by the words of Jeremiah....  
Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity." (Jer 29:12-14) 
It is so sad
many times i forget that my wonderful God is all the time there with me...
walking with me, living and staying with me...
its such a simple yet a subtle experience!
i dont even need words, written or spoken to stay in touch with God
for it is that word..or that Word, who lives with me in flesh!
words and liturgy are simple instruments to get together with my brothers and sisters
to unite the varied personal experiences into one, wonderful, awesome experience
of the One who lives with me, with us!

another fact i used to be alarmed by is...
how some of the ''spiritual'' people can afford to love others less!
yes... if God is there all the time with me,
love is there all the time with me!
how can i, if i am aware of this presence, afford to be less loving
how can i afford to judge how can i afford to differentiate, put down, marginalize, oppress or hurt?

isn't it because of that Isaiah pictures Reign of God as a place where there is no hurt?  
They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. (Isa 11:9)

these days i am reflecting a lot on Inter Religious Respect and Commitment to Christic Experience... there are a lot of things that are disturbing my mind and confusing it..
Christ, i believe, fills me with love for everyone
but in our background in India and today not just India, even else where
when i live with people with so many different convictions
i feel Christ will fill me more with love, sensitivity, compassion, respect and regard...  

Lord, fill me with your light to understand you, you the Truth...

YOUTH MINISTRY - REFLEXIONS #5

youth ministry is enjoining a mutual journey towards paradise - for the youth and the youth minister...salve, salvando salvatti!!!

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